Heat levels vs. erotic romance (and erotica)

In one of my writers’ groups the subject of heat levels in romance came up, and how to describe romance novel sexy times (or lack thereof) on some sort of scale.

You probably think this is an easy discussion, right? Ha!

There is literally no industry standard for heat levels, and yet romance readers constantly want to know what to expect sexiness-wise between the covers.

Having no industry standard means everyone has their own opinion including one particular retailer which randomly puts romance books into their “Erotica Dungeon” even if said romance book is not erotica (plus erotica is not a heat level — more on that below). Continue reading

Definitions: Erotica, Erotic Romance, Steamy Romance (Reprise)

In a couple of discussion forums I’m on, the question of what is erotic romance vs. what is steamy romance has come up yet again.

As a writer of both, and of erotica, I know the answer. I wrote a blog post about it way back in 2015. Since some parts of that post are no longer relevant (especially the bits about a now-defunct publisher), I decided it was time to reprise my definitions post, with some updates.

I’ve been writing erotica, erotic romance, and steamy romance for well over a decade, and am mystified (and annoyed) that our industry has not yet solidified the definitions of these genres. Does definition diminish creativity? Not at all. What it does is help industry professionals better understand what is being written, marketed, and sold. With definitions, the industry as a whole would be on the same page. Continue reading

Republishing Madness: Two steps forward, one step back, but still moving

For the last three years of my author life I’ve felt like Sisyphus pushing a stone up a hill, only to have it roll back down, thus negating any progress. It has been very frustrating, to say the least. Instead of writing, I’ve spent time and energy (and money) republishing novels and stories. Too often, I think I have given a story a good home, only to find it orphaned.

Republishing involves: re-editing (sometimes editing out a publisher’s style and reasserting my own); new covers; possibly new blurbs; ebook formatting; paperback formatting; new ISBNs (stupidly expensive in the US); uploading to retailer sites; plus promotion, promotion, promotion.

Basically everything an author has to do when self-publishing, except all of that stuff had already been done and now you have to do it all over again. Sigh. Continue reading

The Westerman Affair: New Victorian erotic romance!

[UPDATE: THE WESTERMAN AFFAIR was republished by Viridium Press. See my new blog post about the re-release!]

Happy Release Day To Me!! The Westerman Affair is out!!

The Westerman Affair cover

An acclaimed painter. His provocative muse. Her obliging husband.
The Westerman Affair.
A tale of spanking and polyamory in the Victorian art world

Continue reading

Ex-EC Titles Re-Released: Part Three #notchilled

For an explanation of what I’m doing here, please see Part One and Part Two of this blog series. More authors and their re-released reverted titles are listed below (with another “thank you” shout out to reader Cayenne!). Let’s do something positive to support your favorite author and their ex-EC titles! Buy their books! Review their books! Spread the word about their books on social media! Continue reading

Ex-EC Titles Re-Released: Part Two #notchilled

For an explanation of what I’m doing here, please see Part One of this blog series. More authors and their reverted ex-EC titles are listed below. This time around I received help from a reader who had an extensive library of books purchased from the Ellora’s Cave website — a library that vanished during EC’s website “upgrade” (many readers had this happen). This reader, Cayenne, started keeping track of reversions and re-releases for herself, and shared the list with me. Readers are awesome. Authors would be nothing without them, and publishers should do more to recognize readers’ importance.

Now for the list. Let’s do something positive to support your favorite author and their ex-EC titles! Buy their books! Review their books! Spread the word about their books on social media! Continue reading

Ex-EC Titles Re-Released: Part One #notchilled

The publisher Ellora’s Cave has been having problems for the last couple of years. They’ve had massive layoffs, late and missed payments to authors and contractors, then, when they sued a blogger for defamation, all hell broke loose. There was mudslinging and accusations and a boycott of Ellora’s Cave books led by some pretty powerful people in the field of romance. EC authors themselves begged their fans not to buy their EC books so they could request reversion of rights based on low sales.

I want to go beyond the negativity, the “don’t”-ness of a boycott, and instead explore positive actions to support authors still trapped in the EC quagmire. Let’s get some love for your favorite EC author!
— Buy non-EC books by your favorite EC author!
— Write a review for a non-EC book by your favorite EC author!
— Blog or post on social media about non-EC books by your favorite EC author!
— Recommend non-EC books by your favorite EC author to all your reader friends! Continue reading

Amazon Adds Samhain to Its List of Victims

The digital-first, romance publisher Samhain has announced it is closing. Despite never having been published by Samhain, this news makes me very sad. Samhain was my target publisher, the one I aspired to be published by. The publisher from whom I got the absolute best rejection letter ever. Continue reading

The Harwell Heirs, Reverted

Rights reverted, that is…

A special announcement to fans of historical erotic romance! My Victorian series Harwell Heirs is currently in limbo. Rights for two of the three books are in the process of reverting to me. I’m preparing to re-launch the series in February 2016.

So, if you are looking for The Pleasure Device (Harwell Heirs Book 1) and Disobedience By Design (Harwell Heirs Book 2) they are not available at the moment! But hang on tight, because I’m editing the text (minor edits really, no changes to the story) and getting new covers made (I cannot wait to show you the new covers!!) in preparation for the relaunch.
Continue reading

Keeping Sex Between the Covers

It’s June 14th and in the United States we’re celebrating Flag Day! I have a special promotion for June (Flag Day month) and July (Independence Day month). See the end of this post!

I generally write historical erotic romance, although I have also written contemporary, mythological, and Steampunk. But my comfort zone is historicals because I’m a historian and, I suppose, I’ve internally fetishized history to a certain extent.

I’ve written stories that take place in ancient Roman and Victorian England. But my favorite book I’ve written takes place in New York state and is set in 1777 during the American Revolution. Continue reading