So much temptation....

I have been remiss in announcing the arrival of Sudden Sex: 69 Sultry Short Stories, a new anthology from the prolific Alison Tyler. This one’s all about flash fiction, and I’m proud to say I managed to tempt her with three stories!

 

The fun of a collection of super-short stories is that so many can be included – just look at this stunning list of authors!

Booked by Alison Tyler
Frank by Donna George Storey
Riding the 5:15 by Sophia Valenti
Peach-Colored Panties by Thomas S. Roche
Reserved by Jax Baynard
Night Visitor by Cheyenne Blue
Tripartite by Georgia E. Jones
Lift a Finger by Jeremy Edwards
Stopover by ADR Forte
The Point of Least Resistance by Saskia Walker
Misdirection by Victoria Janssen
Sweet and Spicy by Kat Watson 
Working Up a Sweat by Heidi Champa
Come As You Are by Andrea Dale
Possessive Tense by Raziel Moore
Necessities for a Perfect Marriage by Ashley Lister
One Sleep by Maria See
Crawling Through Temptation by Elise Hepner
Tick-Tock by Rita Winchester
Throwing Sugar by Jeremy Edwards
Bound to Serve by Mina Murray 
Naugahyde by Sommer Marsden
The Perfect Pair by Sophia Valenti
Taming His Wild Cat by Andrea Dale
At the Car Wash by Lucy Felthouse
The Exorcism by Veronica Wilde 
My Army Buddy’s Girlfriend by N.T. Morley 
Two Man Job by A. M. Hartnett
Sex in the Shower by Thomas S. Roche 
Deep Throat, Deep Love by Kristina Lloyd
Hoarder by Bella Dean
TV Repairs by Sophia Valenti
Triptych by Kat Watson
Seasonal Affected Disorder by Gina Marie
The Scribe by Tabitha Rayne
Come to the Light by Maria See
Night Heat by Vida Bailey
For the Moment by Kiki DeLovely
Obey All Signs by Andrea Dale
Girls Sleep with Girls by Giselle Renarde
The Dealmakers by A.M. Hartnett
Among the Trees by Heidi Champa
Last Call by Sophia Valenti 
I’d Rather Go Blind by Tenille Brown
Rubber Chicken by Thomas S. Roche
Sugar Upsets My Vagina by Kristina Lloyd
Clement by Sommer Marsden
Heart on the Dance Floor by Stella Harris
The Not-So-Blushing Bride by Lucy Felthouse
Homecoming by Sophia Valenti
Dress Me Up Pretty by K. Lynn
Committee Work by Jeremy Edwards
Queen of Parking Lot Blowjobs by Giselle Renarde
Helluva Thing by A.M. Hartnett
Mad Ghosts of Lust by Kristina Lloyd
Bookmarked by Alison Tyler
Cuckhold’s Nest by D. L. King 
Cookie by Sharon Wachsler
Eye of the Beholder by Stella Harris
Stress Relief by K. Lynn
If You Know Where To Look by Giselle Renarde
Thrill the Competition by Allison Wonderland
Cosmic Fate by Angell Brooks
Let Me Tie You Up? By Devin Phillips
Nice Dream by J.Sinclaire
Eva by Donna George Storey
Dress Code by N.T. Morley
Consequences by Cheyenne Blue
Bookended by Alison Tyler

Road trip! Writing retreat! and more!

I’m in Oregon again, this time for two nearly back-to-back workshops. But we came up early because Ken has work to do in Portland, so I get a couple of writing retreat days.

It’s raining, and I’m sitting in my little cabin listening to the cars swish by on the highway and plotting this afternoon and evening and the next few days. Sometimes I like the planning rather than the actual doing; the excitement and potential and possibilities. I’m working on keeping that excitement high during projects.

We drove up the coast in the car, towing the motorcycle, because Ken’s going to work on it at his friend’s shop to get it ready for the Iron Butt Rally in July. The first night, we stayed in Pebble Beach with my sister and her husband; they’re not that far away and yet we see them far too infrequently. We had time for a walk with my sister the next morning before we hit the road again. We had fantastic pizza (chicken, pesto, garlic, onion, green peppers, olives) in Eureka and spent the night in Gold Beach at a former Best Western that’s now under private ownership by people who are into the Arts & Crafts Movement and William Morris, etc., so the décor is Craftsman. Very nice.  :-)

On the last day, we stopped in Newport at one of the places considered to have the best chowder on the coast (largely because last year we stopped somewhere else for the same thing, and the chowder was fantastic, but we couldn’t remember where that was!). The chowder was good, but not out of this word, and their idea of chips (as in fish-and-chips) were round, crispy slices of potato, not great thick fries, and they served us Lipton tea even though afterwards I saw they had a Tazo tea display around the corner! Oh well. We then wandered through a pagan/New Age shop, where I rummaged through a bowl of polished rocks with words on them and to my delight found JOY! (My words for this year are Focus and Joy, and I’m pretty sure I have a FOCUS rock in the set that my friend Christine gave me a few years ago.)

And then we went to the Sea Lion Caves, because I’d never been and always wanted to go. Now, I’ve seen sea lions and elephant seals on beaches and piers before, but this was different. You go down in an elevator to almost sea level, go into the cave, and then look down into the part of the cave that’s open to the ocean, where masses of female and baby sea lions are humping around on rocks. It’s…otherworldly. Their cries (which sounded more like cows than lions to me) echo over the crashing water, and they’re far enough away that (for me and my bad eyesight, at least) it can be hard to tell what they are, especially in the shadowed areas. I can’t imagine what it would be like to come across a place like that at night…it would be pretty damn creepy.

After that, we made it to Lincoln City and my beloved Anchor Inn, settled in to my usual cabin (I’m rooming with one friend for the first workshop and a different friend for the second workshop, and this cabin has two bedrooms), and I worked on a short story until we went out for Chinese with Kris & Dean and Chris & Steve. Shrimp and veggies, yum. Then it was back to the cabin to finish the story, because it was due at midnight, and I got it done before that, which meant Ken and I had time to watch the penultimate episode of series 3 of Downton Abbey and spend some time together before bed.

We slept in, made it to breakfast (Kip’s breakfasts are to die for) where we hung out with fellow writer Annie Bellet, who also came early for a writing retreat of her own. (The first workshop doesn’t start ‘til Saturday evening.) Then we watched the final episode of series 3 of Downton Abbey (yay! I can finally talk about it with other people!) before he hit the road for Portland. Sigh. I miss him always, but it’s especially hard after a road trip where we’ve been in close quarters and having so much fun together.

But, now I have to hunker down and work, and also spend time with friends! Lev and Gayle are coming to visit tomorrow, and spending the night. I’m hoping to have lunch with some folks tomorrow as well (although I have a noon business call, so we’ll see). Still, I have a story I’d like to finish today, and editing (my own and others’), and fun stuff like that. And then hopefully I’ll have time to curl up and watch something, or just read.

And probably update my blog more often than normal, you lucky devils, you.

A blog about why I haven't blogged

There are generally three reasons I stop blogging regularly:

• I’m not feeling well
• I’m too busy writing/working
• I’m too busy with other things

All three of these things have hit me this month alone, in a different order:

• I went to five Styx concerts in six days, including hosting a friend from Minnesota for three of them, and she won the VIP Experience with Tommy Shaw so I got to show my inner 17-year-old what the back of the stage looks like.
• I then came down with a cold, which knocked me on my butt for about five days.
• I’m about to head off to two workshops in Oregon, both of which had/have stories due ahead of time (story #1 was due at midnight tonight, and has been finished and mailed [and it’s probably the suckiest story I’ve ever written, but it’s finished and mailed, so, onwards]; story #2 is due Wednesday at midnight and has been started, but we leave tomorrow morning, spend tomorrow night with my sister, and then are taking two more days to get up the coast, arriving Wednesday afternoon and then going out to dinner with friends, so OMFG this story needs to get written somewhere in all of that), and I’m working on two copyediting jobs, one of which is on a tight-ish deadline (I’m actually serving as editor and publisher of the book, even though it won’t be published by Soul’s Road Press), and I need to prep materials for the book sale at the California Dreamin’ conference (order comp copies, order some SRP promo cards) that’s less than two weeks after we return from OR, and I have to catch up on business correspondence.

All of which is to say, I’ll actually have a couple of "free" days in OR before the first workshop starts, so maybe I’ll write a blog post then. Except that I have another story to finish, and several languishing novels, and don’t get me started about the design for What Beck’ning Ghost, and….