Sunday Story - a new way to promo and stuff

I have to confess to loathing promo - of me, of my books, of anything really. I can sometimes tolerate doing a plug for others but compared to some people, I make a little bleat to their screaming cacophony. I don't do cacophonies anytime - oh, except cicadas! So I've struggled with promo.

www.naughtyninjas.net

But no more!

A revolution is coming!

On Valentine's Day (of course! It's the day for all things romance), I will be a part of a new way to promo - by having a laugh, by being funny or silly, by sharing humour or snark.

A shared blog, with social media links (like a Facebook page, and Twitter contests and things).

My biggest hope is that we'll generate some interest in ourselves, which may trickle down to a few people reading my stories.

But aside from the hope for readers, I want to enjoy social media. I want to be able to hang out with friends, laugh together, and pretend we live close enough to be cakking ourselves over lunch or coffee. I want to create a pseudo-world inside my computer screen :)

And the best thing is that you know most of the people - or you are most of the people! LOL

Two of my most frequent commenters will be with me in the craziness - Lily Malone and Rhyll Biest. So you know it's going to be fun.

Be ready for the big launch on Feb 14th!

Phallic Friday - merkins

Today's topic is the merkin - the pubic hair wig, originally used by prostitutes who had shaved their gentalia, or for prostitutes who wanted a point of difference and used a different colour pubic hair.

And for interest, my Wordsworth Dictionary of Sex tells me that from the 16th to 18th century the word was used to describe a woman's natural pubic hair, and to describe the female genitals themselves. Hmm... wonder how that changed.

I forget exactly how I came to know of the merkin, but it was definitely discussed in our office at work one day in the mid 1990s. Maybe it was through the TV show Sex, which was on at the time. It seemed to stimulate a lot of topics of conversation in our office. Our office sat at the bottom of stairs, as the last office before the doors outside, so you can imagine it was a hive of activity - and not all of it was work! Everyone stopped by to have a chat. I shared the office with two guys, one who was very chatty and one who could be when you got him warmed up. So it was a fun workplace - probably the best office I've ever had.

We had all manner of odd discussions. And I can't remember most of them, I just remember the hilarity of it. And the merkin was the brunt of many many many jokes.

Anyway, the merkin has resurfaced in my life. Not because I need one, but because I've joined with a bunch of Naughty writers who think they're Ninjas, and they've been talking about merkins. It's one of the jokes. And the other day one of them mentioned gold plated merkins as a prize for getting in our articles.

It stuck in my head - gold plated merkins - classic!

So, I went to the movies the other day with Mr E, and we had some time before the show (because we actually managed a sit down proper lunch in a cafe, not my favoured long lunch, but still an improve on the hastily scoffed pies he last treated me to). Spotlight is just across the road. I was thinking of gold plated merkins.

I was browsing the wool - which is often more synthetic than wool these days, which makes my skin crawl, but that's another rant. In the "wool" I found this gold stuff, and the gold and black. I got the giggles.

What do you reckon? Merkin material?

If you need some inspiration for merkins, just do a Google search for merkin images and be astounded by the variety!

Wildlife Wednesday - bugs in Qld

We went to Qld for Christmas and each time I've been to Queensland I'm impressed by the bugs that they have up there. They're bigger and brighter than we have here in NSW. I don't think it's my imagination...I'm pretty sure it's true. It's something I don't consciously think about and then when I'm there, I'm blown away all over again.

I think they further north you go in Australia, the more interesting the bugs. I remember being in the Daintree and they had cockroaches that wouldn't leave much space when you sat them in the palm of your hand. Truly a large cockroach!

I think colour also is more intense the further north you go. Colours here for beetles and bugs are brown or black. Once you go north, they become more iridescent and intense. Look at the colour of butterflies in North Queensland...they're stunning.

This Longicorn Beetle (I think) in the photo is not the greatest example of colour...but he was a descent size (close to an inch). We don't have many beetles that size. And this is just taken with my digital pocket camera, nothing fancy. I'm sure NSW bugs don't photograph with this much detail!

I did a bit of a google search to see if there's been research looking at gradients of insect size or colour...and you know, I couldn't find anything. Now that would be a fun project, wouldn't it? Travelling Australia catching bugs to see if you could detect size and colour gradients between north and south and/or east and west. Imagine the fun! Oh, but the stats should be a nightmare.

Better get back to writing :)

Sunday Story - a little kink

Some good news today, well for me - I have a new story!

Rachel Kramer Bussel puts out a heap of fantastic anthologies of erotic writing. I've been lucky enough to have been chosen for her latest release (I think July it will be out).

My kinky tale is called "Control" and it's a scene from a submissive's point of view.

These stories are all short, really short, and I like the concentrated focus of short short stories (less than 1200 words). And with 69 in a book, surely there's a little taste of something for everyone?!?

I was a part of another 69 stories, Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex, which Rachel Kramer Bussel also edited. It's now been made into an audio book with the sexy narration by Rose Caraway. You can hear five examples here and find out more about that book here.

The Big Book of Submission is available for pre-order on Amazon, and it's up on Goodreads. I'll let you know when it's out.

But if you're after another Big Book, try The Big Book of Orgasm (69 sexy stories), which is on Amazon here, but available elsewhere too. I don't have a sexy story - I'm only Sudden and Kinky! :)