[UPDATE: The Our Choice:Romance for Roe anthology is no longer available. We raised thousands of dollars to help keep abortion safe and legal in the United States.]
Announcing Our Choice: Romance For Roe is now available! I am proud to be a part of this boxed set! Get all these romance stories pictured — AND MORE!!
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Tag Archives: women
Romancing the Throne, or, The History of a Parthian Love Story
Naughty Getaways: Eleven Sultry Stories is out! And it includes my ancient world romance, “An Unexpected Discovery” set in Parthia, the kingdom to the east of the Roman Empire. My heroine, Roedogune, is based on an actual historic figure, a Parthian princess who, along with the Parthian imperial throne, was captured by the Romans during their invasion of Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian Empire. Continue reading
Victorians: Hysteria and the Vibrator, Part Two: The Vibrator
In Part One of this blog miniseries, we learned how Victorian doctors defined “hysteria” and how they treated it. Spoiler alert: doctors used various methods of stimulation to bring women to achieve the “hysterical paroxysm”, i.e., an orgasm.
Around 1879, the electric or electro-mechanical vibrator was introduced into doctors’ tools of the trade for treating hysteria. Vibrators were first used in France, then this method spread to the rest of the European continent, England, and America.
But what did this Victorian stimulation device look like? One perhaps imagines corseted women cowering as a mustachioed doctor approaches with some bizarre Steampunkish contraption… Continue reading
Victorians: Hysteria and the Vibrator, Part One: Hysteria
I recently saw a revival of the play In The Next Room, Or The Vibrator Play by Sarah Ruhl. In case you haven’t heard about this play it takes place in upstate New York in the 1880s. A doctor provides treatments for hysteria – to both women and men – using the latest technology, the electric vibrator. In the course of the play there is emotional and sexual discovery amongst all the characters, along with several orgasms.
I originally saw the play in February 2009 at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California. The play had been written for the Berkeley Rep and made its debut there before being launched on Broadway. I’m not a theater regular – I do see shows from time to time – but when I heard about this play, I absolutely had to see it.
“Had to” because I had already started my notes for Dr. Christopher’s Device (later The Pleasure Device). Perhaps I should have subtitled that book, Or, The Vibrator Erotic Romance. Continue reading
The Card Never Arrived
I got a card today. I had wondered about that card because I had sent it out myself. I had sent it the moment I heard a colleague was very sick and dying. I had sent it to the hospital.
Today I got the card back stamped “Return to sender. Patient discharged”. Continue reading
Rewriting the Persephone Myth
An excerpt from “Hot as Hades,” my story in Naughty Flings: Twelve Naughty Little Romps, is up today on our Naughty Literati blog.
When I was thinking about what to write for Naughty Flings, an anthology with the theme of springtime, the quintessential springtime myth came to mind, i.e., the story of Persephone. I decided to revisit this myth, but to put a new spin on it, which proved pretty easy.
Because I’d put a new spin on the story once before. Continue reading
Personal Reflection: In memoriam, Carl Degler
I thought I’d end the year by starting at the beginning, and by doing so, I have to start with the end of a life. Carl Degler, professor emeritus of American history at Stanford University, died on Saturday, December 27, 2014, at the age of 93. It was an article by Degler that was influential on my embarking upon a career writing Victorian erotic romance. Continue reading
Snippet Sunday: The Pleasure Device: Helena
Another snippet from my most recent release, The Pleasure Device, book 1 in my Harwell Heirs series. Last week our heroine Helena had her first glimpse of the hero Nicholas (who looks a lot like Ioan Gruffudd. Lucky girl.) at her first ball during the London Season of 1879. This week our hero has his first glimpse of Helena across the room at the very same ball. Continue reading
New Releases: Victorian Pleasures
I’ve mentioned my 2011 National Novel Writing Month novel, Dr. Christopher’s Device, a few times. I’m totally excited that it will be released on November 27, 2013, by Ellora’s Cave as The Pleasure Device. In October, one of my short stories (actually a short, short work of flash fiction), “The Demonstration”, was released as part of Go Deeper Press’s Dirty Little Numbers anthology.
What I’ve not told anyone yet is how the two stories are related. Continue reading
Personal Reflection: On Beauty, Reading, and Writing
This week’s blog post begins with an exhortation from the delightful Mandy B., The Well-Read Wife:
Hi Writers: Hot Guys and girls don’t have to fall for other hot guys and girls. Give me some non traditional beauty please. #books
— Mandy Boles (@WellReadWife) August 7, 2013
I see this advice to writers a lot. I see it coming from readers, bloggers, and other writers. It does seem to be fairly common in the romance genre, both textual and visual, to have beautiful heroes and heroines and I am terribly guilty of it, but for my own personal reasons. Continue reading