Bisexual BDSM romance Booked interview and what else I've been up to

Lately, I've been trying to get more into routines. Just as I make coffee for myself each morning, set out my vitamins, get lunch ready, etc., I want to treat my prime writing time that way as well. Yet that's easy in theory, harder in practice when I often get distracted, or wake up to a to do list from the night before. I actually get more done on the mornings of the three days I work in an office, because I know at a certain point I'll have to stop and get dressed and head off, than I do the days I work for myself on my own projects at home. It's a conundrum I'm trying to change. Today at noon EST (9 a.m. PST) I'll be doing my best to register for the Palm Springs 2018 conference Altitude Summit (generally called "Alt Summit") because I want to start learning from successful creative business entrepreneurs about how they manage their time and their best practices.

One thing I've been doing is getting more involved with Lady Smut, the group romance blog where I post monthly. I'm still posting once a month, but also working on our Lady Smut Romance Blog Facebook page.



My latest for Lady Smut was, for Pride month, an interview with Leandra Vane, author of the new BDSM romance Booked, whose action largely takes place in and around a small-town library. It has a kinky, bisexual male protagonist (who also deals with nerve damage), who has a male love interest and a female domme (Mistress). There's a lot more going on, but that should give you a good taste! Leandra took the time to answer my many questions about kink, disability, ownvoices, her characters' relationship with books, self-publishing and more.

Here's a snippet of what she had to say:

I used to think I shouldn’t write about disability in my fiction because people would call me a self-absorbed “Mary Sue.” But I learned that most of us carry around shame and never grow because we guard our secrets and experiences from each other. I believe by sharing our stories we can all learn and grow together. So I started mining the experiences living with a disability has given me and putting them into some of my stories. All my life I’ve turned to books to have the conversations with me that people in the real world were unwilling or unable to have.

Leonard also have a story in my anthology Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3, which pubs in exactly five months, on November 21, in ebook form (the print version will be out December 12). Hint: Right now the print price on Amazon is only $10.47 (subject to change at any moment), lower than the $11.49 Kindle price (neither of which I have any control over, by the way). I'm in the midst of planning what I hope will be a BWE of the Year 3 book tour, though perhaps one spread out over a few months depending on my schedule and availability, so stay tuned.



I enjoy working for Lady Smut because I miss having a group blog; Cupcakes Take the Cake was my life for so long. I lived and breathed cupcakes, always on the hunt for the latest news, planning any trip, work or pleasure, around where to get cupcakes. Eventually, I had to step down because we weren't generating enough income for that project to be worthwhile. It's always hard to step away from a project you love, especially one you've built from scratch. I felt the same way shutting down my In The Flesh Reading Series, and this year, putting an end to my Between the Sheets LitReactor class. I miss the creative aspects of those projects, but they simply weren't feasible for my life or career by the time they ended.

Of course it's also hard when projects I've been hired to do end, like my Village Voice column or other ongoing columns I've written, but what I've learned over my career is that when one door closes, another may not automatically or instantly open, but those new doors are there, waiting for me to unlock them. For the record, I don't get paid to write for Lady Smut, so that and this blog are the only writing I do for free, but both are valuable to me in their own ways. I used to write for free (if anyone remembers all those Gothamist interviews), and while I don't regret it exactly because I got to do some amazing pieces, I think it set me back in terms of how I approach writing and money. These days I'm still doing as much freelancing as I can, but the majority of my income comes from my copywriting job and book sales. That may change, since last year I made most of my income from book sales, entertainment blogging and writing for sites like Salon. The one constant is that things will change, and I'm doing my best to pay attention and plot my own course. Speaking of which, this summer I hope to launch some new online classes related to writing erotica and having an erotica career. I don't have an exact date because there's a lot I have to learn on the technical side, but that too is something I'm working on, if not every day, most days, as I plot and plan and get ready for a new adventure that I hope will reach people who need some encouragement and guidance. When I've taught erotica writing classes in the past, I've been so thrilled with how many students have gone on to publish short stories and novels and truly make a name for themselves.

For now, I'm offering one-on-one consultations via my site Erotica Writing 101; you can learn more about working with me here. I've also written a blog post there on why erotica anthologies take so long to help writers understand that process, because I know it's frustrating to have to wait over a year to hear back from an editor such as myself. I'm working on more posts relevant to erotic writers and will be sharing them as they go up.