It's pronounced 'Mmm'

Let's talk about two guys kissing – and more (more guys, more than kissing, add a girl to the mix, oh yeah).

Whether it's a guy/guy scene or an m/f/m ménage - I'm happy if I get to see/read about two guys touching each other. And the best news for me is the more I look around me the more I see that it isn’t just me. This lovely stuff is starting to pop up everywhere.

Great books for lovers of this sort of smut are Peep Show by Mathilde Madden (ahem) my first BL book which I wrote about a women who spies on gay men because that was my own hobby at the time a hot idea, A Gentleman's Wager and Dark Designs both by Madelynne Ellis and, of course, the grandmummy of m/f/m Menage by Emma Holly.

And finally, because it seems wrong to talk and talk and talk about guy/guy fun without giving you some – here is a little snip from Peep Show. From the scene where our voyeuristic heroine stumbles on something to watch in the men's changing rooms at a fashionable gentleman's outfitters. This is probably the scene most people seem to mention to me from that book.

Two blond men: entwined in blissful pursuit and blissfully unaware of me. One is half standing/half leaning, propped against the warm, honey-beige painted wall with open mouth and open fly. The other is pressed up hard against him, with a hand snaking into his partner’s trousers, as he crushes their mouths together – fast and hot and slow and cool. Their long denim covered thighs are pressed together, the more dominant man bearing down on his submitting counterpart, forcing him harder and harder against the wall behind them, and parting his compliant legs with one hard limb. It’s a very, very pretty kiss, and I watch it for a long while, as their mouths melt and slide around on each other like strawberry ice cream on a blistering hot day.

So hands up who likes m/m and m/f/m. That's it both hands where I can see 'em. Recc me some books (not just BL and Cheek), tell me what you really want to read - hey, maybe someone will get inspired and slip that dream-scene into an upcoming book!

Tilly aka Mathilde Madden

Emergency lustbites alert! A near-naked man needs our help! My brand new crush Romain Duris, from the beat that my heart skipped seems to be having a style crisis.
Look, he's lying there all clueless. Poor boy. First of all, let's remove those horrendous underpants, shall we? The less said about the bed linen the better...

F is for Fetish….

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COMPETITION: And the winners are ...

Wheee! A lusty round of applause for our two lucky winners: Debora Finkenbinder and Liz. Congratulations! You each win this handsome stack of smut featuring 8 of the hottest titles from Black Lace. Debora, Liz, email us with your postal address (details below) and the goodies will soon be yours!

Thanks to everyone who entered. It was a lot of fun, and it makes us feel good to have you drooling over our books. If you weren't lucky this time, don't despair. Our next competition is just around the corner. February 8th sees the UK release of Sex in Public, the latest Wicked Words short story collection from Black Lace. We'll be celebrating with another stupendous giveaway and, who knows, this time it could be YOU!

Until then, keep stopping by for the usual Lust Bites mix of chat, news, nonsense, heated debate and semi-naked men. Tomorrow, Alison Tyler starts the week in high kinky style with a few words on fetishes. On Wednesday 10th, we've got Mathilde Madden introducing a much-loved subject: guy on guy action, plus the best sandwich of all, male/female/male threesomes. And on Friday 12th, Alana Noel shares her experience of being a mother who writes erotica.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on how we're doing at Lust Bites. Is there anything you'd like to see more of? Less of? Stuff you've loved? Stuff you've loathed? Questions you want to ask? Books or authors you want to learn more about? Topics you want to see tackled? Men you want to see tackled? (Listen, we've got a lot of influence. Rufus Sewell naked? Hey, consider it done.)

Let us know, please. We're having a ball up here. We'd like to think that you are too!

Kristina Lloyd

X

Prizewinners, our email is: lustbitesblogatyahoo. com - substituting @ for at and no gaps.

Burning Bright: UK publication this week

Who are you, when everything that defines you is taken away?

How do you know how to act when you can’t even remember your own name?

How do you learn to be human, when you used to be a goddess and now you’re a piece of property?

Questions of identity form the core of my novel Burning Bright, the first release in Black Lace’s new Paranormal Erotic Romance line.

Or, to put it another way: Burning Bright is a swords ‘n’ sandals fantasy adventure crammed with malevolent were-tigers, rotting jungle palaces, snake-demons, insane ghosts, brutal fight scenes and lots of sweaty, sticky, scary sex. Its a bit dark. It’s a bit Bollywood. Its a bit Gladiator. If there was a Scarlet Award for ‘most deaths in an erotic novel’ Id win hands-down...

I took two characters from an earlier novel – two people deeply in love, who live only for one another – wrenched them apart, enslaved one to a group of psychopathic demi-humans and battered the other round the head until he lost all his memories and now treads a razor-narrow line between reality and the world of the supernatural. And I said to them: "Go on – how are you going to deal with that lot, then?"

Writers are mean like that.

The two of them deal with it magnificently, of course. Love conquers all …

Read an excerpt

Burning Bright is published on the 11th January in the UK, and in March in the USA.

I adore the cover they’ve given me, by the way (And believe me, that’s a first). Isn't he cute?

Burning Bright is just one of the books offered as a prize in our magnificent easy-to-enter Midwinter COMPETITION – see below. Even if you’re not a fantasy geek like me there’ll be something to your taste. You’ve only got today left to enter! Go on - do it now… What’s the worst that could happen?

All the best for 2007

Janine Ashbless

http://www.janineashbless.com/

Men in white T-shirts

...are currently working hard to fix the blog. We seem to have a little trouble posting, but don't worry, we'll be back soon. (Unless we decide we like watching the boys work too much to let them go...)

Who, Who Are You?

Today, I thought we’d chat about that old bugaboo—pen names. Pseudonyms. The nom de plume. Why do writers use them? Why are they so prevalent in erotic writing? Is it a necessity to cloak yourself in a new identity if you’re writing about sex? Or can you just be plain old you?

Of course, writers use pen names for at least a million reasons, and maybe more: to protect themselves and their loved ones, to save their career (see the recent rash of politicians writing erotica under a nom de plume), to keep their anonymity, to write more freely…

In some cases, it’s used as a marketing tool. (Apparently, publishers believe that a writer with a name like Howard Dumpleberry is probably going to sell a lot less erotic books than a writer named Arizona Gorgeousbody).

Over the years, many writers have used pen names to great success (and often found even greater success after their real name was disclosed to the public). Right off the top of my head, I think of two:

Anne Desclos, the intellectual French Journalist and translator who penned “Story of O” under the pseudonym Pauline Reage. The story is that she wrote the sado-masochistic book after her lover told her than women couldn’t write erotic novels.

Under the pen names A.N. Roquelaure and Anne Rampling, Anne Rice wrote her “Sleeping Beauty” series as well as a number of other erotic works. (By the way, while we’re talking about names, did you know that her given name was Howard Allen O'Brien?)

On the other hand, there are erotic writers out there who have chosen to disclose their identity, to be proud of what they write no matter the costs. Susie Bright is a perfect example. Cecilia Tan, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Bill Noble…the list goes on.

Personally, I’ve chosen not to use a pen name. For lots of reasons. The first is probably because I’m too damn proud. If I’m going to go through all the time and energy to write something good, I want the world to know it’s mine.

The second reason is because I made a choice early on that if I was going to write erotica and make money at it, I had to give back. And for me, that giving back means being proud to write about sex. It means showing respect to my readers—if they’re going to be brave enough to buy and read my writing, then I’m going to be brave enough to claim it as mine. And it means making a dent in a system (at least here in the States) that says sex is bad and is something that must be hidden. When people ask me what I write, I want to be able to say, “I write erotica, and here is my book that I’m so very proud of."

Okay, ladies (and gents), I’ve spouted off long enough. Do you use a pen name? Why or why not?

And, readers chime in: do you like it when an author uses their own name? Do you prefer not to know who's writing the books you read? Do you not care as long as the writing’s good?

Inquiring and erotic minds want to know!

Best,
Shanna

Shanna Germain
www.shannagermain.com