"Perfect for spanking fans"

"Guarding Her Body" by Andrea Dale
now available from Soul's Road Press!

Catriona’s plans to leave her cheating fiancé are thwarted by Jake, the smoldering bodyguard hired to keep her safe. When Jake learns of her plans, he agrees to help her…for a price. The cost? A blistering spanking…and the promise of more. A steamy hot short story from a legendary erotica heavy-hitter.

“Perfect for spanking fans and features a delicious twist.” (Scarlet magazine)

“Guarding Her Body” (as “Fanning the Flames”) originally appeared in Playing With Fire: Taboo Erotica (Cleis Press, 2009)

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

Free story! "From Bitter to Sweet"

Free story!

"From Bitter to Sweet" by Andrea Dale

An erotic lesbian short-short story about breakups, new love, and chocolate. Go ahead—savor it. Let it melt on your tongue….
“From Bitter to Sweet” originally appeared in Got a Minute? 60 Second Erotica (Cleis Press, 2007)

Read it free in a variety of electronic formats at Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


And yet another sexy story!

"A Sensitive Sole" by Andrea Dale

I pulled out the feathers and went to work on her vulnerable soles. Her entire body went rigid, but she didn’t try to escape, didn’t try to squirm away, oh no. She was in heaven. I turned the vibrator on high and watched the fireworks begin….

“A Sensitive Sole” originally appeared in The Sexiest Soles: Erotic Stories About Feet and Shoes anthology (Alyson Books, 2006)

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

Indoors and out - new stories available

Soul's Road Press some new Andrea Dale stories available: One that takes place in the big city and two set in the great outdoors. Enjoy!

"Come to My Window"

Small-town girl Katy craves the big city, the bright lights, the energy and passion…and the woman who would introduce it all to her. She finds all that and more in sophisticated Emilie, who presses her naked against a window and forces her to face her deepest, darkest desires. A lesbian short story “packed full of hot steamy sex.”

"'Come to my Window' by Andrea Dale is another story that I found refreshing and well written. It's short, about 9 pages, but it's packed full of hot steamy sex in a unique and fun setting - pressed against a window overlooking the city of New York. Who wouldn't have an orgasm with that kind of view, not to mention the excitement of possibly of being seen in the act."
— outinprint.net

"Further spankings and a dose of Gallic humiliation is administered in Andrea Dale's 'Come to my Window,' a sort of coming of age story filled with revelations and humiliations while having one’s bottom pleasantly blistered."
— eroticarevealed.com

“Come to My Window” originally appeared in Where the Girls Are: Urban Lesbian Erotica (Cleis Press, 2009)
Available in a variety of electronic formats

Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"In Flight"

When you’ve been screwed by an ex, it’s hard to trust again. It takes a red-tailed hawk named Rudy and a sexy falconer named Pam to teach a broken woman how to respect herself and love again. A spicy-sweet lesbian love story.

“In Flight” originally appeared in Best Lesbian Love Stories: Summer Flings (Alyson Publications, 2007) and was republished in Best Lesbian Romance 2009 (Cleis Press, 2009)

“Andrea Dale's ‘In Flight’ has metaphorical power.”
— Seattle Gay News

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"After the Rain"

Can a homebody Adirondack hotel clerk find happiness with a gregarious world-traveling Australian? Or will their erotic encounter in the rain-dappled forest be the extent of their relationship? A sexy and touching lesbian short story.

“After the Rain” originally appeared in Travelrotica for Lesbians: Erotic Travel Adventures(Alyson Books, 2006)

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

Two more stories up at Soul's Road Press

"How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back"

Ella believed her kinky desires were perverted and sick. It takes a special man like Philip to teach her that she isn’t wrong, or different, or broken. Through bondage and exhibitionism, he gives his little mermaid her tail back. A deliciously sexy short story by a legendary erotica heavy-hitter.

“How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back” (in a sushi restaurant!) is as beguiling as a siren.
—Erin O’Riordan, Urban Fantasy Writers

I really loved the tale “How The Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back” by Andrea Dale. It is a lovely recounting of how a broken woman regains her power and womanhood through the love of a special man. Truly a special tale.
—Airen Wolf, Eden Fantasys

Of all the stories, I would say the most intriguing was “How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back.”
—Monica Solomon, The Romance Readers Connection

“How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back” first appeared in Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women (Cleis Press, 2010), which received 4.5 stars from Romantic Times, and was republished in Best Bondage Erotica 2011 (Cleis Press, 2010).

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Always a Bridesmaid"

Even though Veronica was a shrewish harpy, I’d always lusted after her. Now I had the opportunity to make this bridezilla pay…in a deliciously kinky way. A hot-and-heavy lesbian short story by a legendary erotica heavy-hitter.

“Always a Bridesmaid” originally appeared in Coming Together: Against the Odds (Phaze Books, 2009)

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

What I’m Working On, April 2011 edition

Not quite a Me!Me!, but various authors* have been listing, or list on a regular basis, the projects they’re working on, and since I find it fascinating, I thought I’d do the same. (You might not find it fascinating. Let me know.) Perhaps not regularly (I can’t quite seem to shoehorn concepts like regular and schedule into my life), but occasionally. Or, at least, now.

Out of the Frying Pan, aka the manuscript that will not die. Status: effing tweaking. An editor asked for tweaks. Teresa and I discuss, get some tweaks done, then get sucked into other projects with deadlines and payments and whatnot; lather, rinse, repeat. We’re so close, too. One scene she needs to write, and I need to knit it all together, and then it’s outta here.

Blackwood House. Status: manuscript cleanup/upload prep. Time to get this sweet paranormal romance off my hard drive and out into the world. Yes, I wrote a sweet romance. Nearly killed me, but I did it. Since it was rejected by the only market it fit into (since it’s only 50K), there it languished, occasionally surfacing to meekly inquire whether I was going to add those half-thought-out subplots so it could become A Real Book. Well, the answer is clearly “no,” because I have way too many new books to write to spend time going backwards—and because it works as it is. It’s been through copyediting; next step is dealing with those edits and getting the manuscript ready to upload as an ebook. Oh, and get possible cover photos to Phae for the cover design. Then, after it’s up for sale, I’ll work on the POD version. (That may not get far until July when I take a publishing workshop that will cover the process.)

Untitled story for mystery contest. Status: idea obtained. (Actually, the idea was obtained last year before the contest, but I never got around to writing it.) Mystery story set in New England, due May 1.

Untitled Custom Erotica Source stories. Status: accepted assignment. Two related 3K stories due end of May. I wrote a novella for this customer previously, and these stories will be in the same vein, so they should be easy enough.

Work-for-Hire fantasy story proposals. Status: percolating. I turned in the first story and want to get a couple more proposals off to the editor, plus there’s another universe I’d love to write in, so I want to write some proposals up for that, too. I’d like to have those out by early May.

Epubbed stories. Status: ongoing. I’ve got something like 25 up now, and I’m selling an average of 3 stories a day via Amazon (I haven’t tallied Barnes & Noble or Smashwords closely). I think I have about 80 total that I have the erights for, so I’m gonna keep putting ‘em up until I run out and have to write new ones (although I do have some unpublished stories that have run their course of pro markets and will thus be next in the queue). I also want to start bundling them into e-collections and POD collections. But right now, I have five stories in progress to get up in the next 1–2 weeks.

There’s more—there’s always more—but this is what’s on my plate for the next few weeks.

Are we having fun yet?!

----

*My favorite is Seanan McGuire, who makes me head hurt in a groovy and awestruck way. Scary and inspiring in equal measure. CE Murphy has posted some doozies, too, and Laura Anne Gilman is pretty amazing.

Sneezes, ponders habits

I came down with a cold a week ago—started feeling a little off last Thursday night, and was flattened on Friday, as was Ken. So I ended up taking a couple of unexpected days off, which resulted in me feeling alternately panicky about how behind I was getting, or maudlin because I felt like Lamey McLamerson for not getting things done. (Hey, I never said it was logical inside this brain!)

It reminded me of something Bob Mayer said in the workshop a few weekends ago—that we have to list our successes and achievements. Not the sales and awards, but the day-to-day accomplishments. I have questionable success with that because if there’s a gap, I feel—as I said above—lame and useless. So I also have to retrain my brain to not look at the gaps, but at the days of productivity and things crossed off lists, and feel the warmth of what I got done.

So I’m feeling pretty chuffed right now that I got about 800 words done on the CES story and got the next chunk off to the editor (this client likes to read things in 5K chunks), and scribbled some notes for OOTFP because I finally figured out how to make the transition to the next scene.

I also took Eostre to the vet, did the dishes, made lunch, paid a bill, filed a few things, and answered a bunch of Kingdom Chronicler e-mail. (Ken and I both went to the vet, actually, and he brought dinner home from Versailles because he had an errand in the Valley, and I’m now stinking out my cold with garlic, hah!)

I am not thinking about the swaths of e-mail still in my In Box, or the fact that I haven’t really had time to read Facebook for days (are you all still out there?), or the freelance jobs I still need to apply for, or the other parts of the house that need cleaning, or the Styx concert write-ups for Sarah, or the journal entries yet unwritten, or my website update, or…

::sticks fingers in ears::  Lalalalaladinosaur!

Tonight I shall sleep another Nyquil-drugged sleep of the damned, and then tomorrow I will write more. And get other stuff done. But definitely the writing. Ya’ll hold me to that, okay?

Another weekend

Saturday

Blessed Beltane!

We’re hosting a party tonight for a friend celebrating her divorce being final. Not the smartest move on my part, since I’ve been feeling under the weather and have a mass of deadlines starting to crash around me. But I love my friends, and that means I just can’t help myself when it comes to doing nice things for them!

It’s potluck, but I always believe in making sure there’s a good variety of food already available, so here’s what we’ve got:

• sloppy joes in the slow cooker
• coleslaw (I’ve developed a great non-mayo recipe with white balsamic vinegar and a hint of wasabi)
• French bread with spiced oil for dipping
• wasabi almonds, regular almonds, and pistachios
• chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies (dough made, I’ll start popping them in soon)

Unfortunately, between that and cleaning the lower half of the house, I’m knackered and have a vague headache forming. Sigh. I just hope enough people show up!

Sunday

Aftermath…

Party was a success. A bit small, but everyone seemed to have fun, and that’s what’s important. I’m really glad we made the sloppy joe’s, because they were the only main dish, and the slow cooker was scraped clean (but we have a pile of buns left). The coleslaw also mostly got eaten, which was nice; the last time I brought it to something, it didn’t get as much attention. For my part, I discovered that it tasted fantastic on my sloppy joe!

The wasabi almonds were startling to people who popped them in their mouths without realizing what they were. Morgana’s expression was priceless…

I was pretty much dead all day today, though. Dammit. I dealt with some e-mail, didn’t quite finish The Oak Leaf (realized I had to go to the copy shop to have something scanned, but didn’t have the energy to actually go…), read for a bit, called my sister to wish her a happy birthday. Then, after dinner (burgers, made out of cow rather than turkey, because red meat is what I need in my current physical condition), I finally started to perk up, and ended up in the living room where I wrote 1K on the CES story and worked on an editing proposal while Ken napped.

We roused ourselves long enough to give the cats subcu fluids, and Ken crashed and I’m still working…which is probably not the best idea, given the hour. Someday I’ll learn to just stop scheduling anything before noon, and accept the fact that I work best between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.

Today is not that day, so I’m off… G’night!

When it rains, it pours…

…and you know how much I love dancing in the rain!

So after I turned off the alarm this morning, I dozed off again (I hadn’t slept well), and as I came out of that doze, I started thinking about the various projects I’m working on.

I have a mystery short story due at the end of the month, and I think I finally have an actual idea for it, so I do want to get that off my plate. Then I’ve got requested revisions from editors for OOTFP and WtW, and I’m waiting to hear from Teresa on the former… And I thought about how I did a push to get a bunch of short stories done a while back, and now maybe I should do a novel push, and get both of those edits done, and then get proposal packages written and submitted (with the accompanying editor research) for What Beck’ning Ghost (an older novel I want to send out into the world again; it does need some minor tweaks, but nobody’s going to ask to see more unless I start submitting it) and Seasoned With Danger (a new novel, two chapters and proposal already written).

That seemed like a good plan. And you know what they say about plans, don’t you?

“And then [Robbie Burns] must have turned his attention to the other animal mentioned in that line of poetry. If you think back to it, ‘The best laid plans of mice and men…’ Exactly which mice plans was he really honing in here on? The best laid ones go aglae, some of the worse laid ones are okay? Some of them get through? He was fucking off his trolley.” (Eddie Izzard)

Because this is what was in my In Box this morning:

• an e-mail from Teresa answering the questions about OOTFP, which means that bumped up to the top of the queue (next to the short story)
• a Custom Erotica Source assignment for a novella (wooh!)
• a short story request (“Thank you for sending story A to anthology X. Submissions for anthology Z are thin, by the way, if you’re interested…”)
• an e-mail asking if I would read from my nominated titles at the Lammy (Lambda Literary Awards) Finalists reading at Skylight Books in Hollywood on May 10. I have stories in Lesbian Cowboys and Where the Girls Are, both nominated in the Lesbian Erotica category. How cool is that?! Of course I said yes.  :-)  I hope I get to read “Queens Up” from Lesbian Cowboys, because it’s so much fun to read aloud. I’ll send an official announcement about that (time, address, etc.) once I know more.

So now the top priorities are (not necessarily in order)…

• the mystery story
• OOTFP
• researching/sketching out the CES assignment
• writing the CES assignment
• WtW (once OOTFP is back to Teresa)

You know what, though? I’m totally jazzed. Bring it on!

On Writing Customized Erotica Stories

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

When it rains, it pours...of course!

Right now, I have only one official deadline. By “official” I mean a deadline imposed by an editor. Everything else I’m working on has deadlines I’m imposing on myself. Not everyone thrives in that kind of atmosphere, but I do.

So (gulp) here’s what I’ve got on my plate right now:

By July 1, I have 4 (four!) anthologies I want to submit stories to. Two are erotica, and those are pretty short. I’m tempted to say “easy” as well, but no story is ever truly easy. With one, at least, I want to push a little bit, delve into the emotions a little deeper than I normally do.

The other two anthologies are science fiction. I write more fantasy than SF, and with one of the stories (which I’ve already started), I’m dealing with a difficult subject matter. Right now I haven’t a clue what I’m writing for the other story.

So, for the record, that’s four stories due in 12 days. Which is pretty darn easy when you look at it like that, given that I’ve written any number of overnight stories at workshops. I have ideas for three of the four stories, and one is already started.

Then there’s the new Custom Erotica Source assignment that landed in my In Box yesterday. It’s another fun one, and at 3K shouldn’t take me too long. It’s due July 6, but I’d certainly like to get it in sooner than that.

On top of that, however, the client wants a 500-word synopsis of what I’m going to write. I don’t really plot ahead of time (although I’m certainly capable of writing novel proposals before I’ve written a word of the novel), so it’s a bit of a challenge, and I’m nearly finished with it. (Goal: Send it to the editor tonight.) [Edited to add: I wrote this entry Friday night, and got the synopsis out then as well.]

But what about Possessed, Undressed, and in a Mess, you ask? Teresa and I are about halfway through the book right now, and the deadline in my head for that is July 9, the day I leave for Oregon.

My reasoning is this: I’m going to Lincoln City for two workshops, each over a weekend, and the five or so days between them are a writing retreat for me. During that time, I want to work on a single project, and PUM wouldn’t be a good candidate for that, because Teresa and I are tossing chapters back and forth, plotting as we go, and we frequently have to wait for one or the other to write something in order to know how the next scene should flow. If she were coming with me (and how fabby would that be? but alas, no) then we could easily finish the manuscript and maybe even hammer out a couple of stories… But she can’t be there, so whatever project I work on needs to be something I can focus on myself. And I’d rather have the draft of PUM out of my brain before then.

(I haven’t yet decided what my project there will be. In the running are two novels-in-progress—I’d shoot to finish one of them—or writing 5+ short stories—I have lots of ideas that get pushed aside in favor of an anthology theme, not to mention there are any number of upcoming anthologies I could work ahead for.)

So, to recap: Five short stories and one novel ms in about three weeks. To which I say, Whee! Let the roller coaster begin!

[Edited again: CES client liked my synopsis so much that he’s asked for the story to be doubled in size! Is it possible to say “Yay!” and “Eek!” in the same noise? ::gg:: ]

Want me to write you a story...?

I mentioned a while back that I’d signed a contract for a freelance gig, and I just got my first assignment as well as confirmation that I can advertise the site and my involvement.

I’m writing for Custom Erotica Source, which supplies customized erotica stories for clients. In other words, you send in the type of story you want, the characters (you’re the star, generally), and any specifics you want mentioned, and one of the writers writes you a story It can be romantic or steamy, short or long, etc. CES binds the stories into pretty handmade booklets.

I’ll be writing under the name Kendra Wayne, to keep these stories separate from my other erotica/erotic romance work. Yes, another pen name! (One can never have too many, you know.) So if you ever want to order a story, ask for me!