Tagged...I'm it, I guess!

The lovely Alison Tyler tagged me for the "8 Random Facts" write-up, and I can't possibly say no to Alison Tyler, who is not only lovely and literate and a lot of fun, but one of my favorite editors to work with.

First we post the rules:

We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

So without further ado...eight random facts:

1) One of my closest and dearest people is most often known as Random. How's that for a Random fact? (He has another name on his birth certificate, but the nickname's more commonly used.)

2) I met my co-author Dayle at a writers' conference in Vermont...longer ago than I care to admit. By the end of the conference we were finishing each other's sentences.

3) Despite what you might imagine based on my erotica-writing career, I was a late bloomer, sexually speaking. I was quite sure, back in high school, that I'd end up a virginal spinster living contentedly in a tiny apartment with far too many books and ten cats. Only the far too many books part has come to pass.

3b) The total weight of my three cats is probably equal to that of ten normal cats.

4) I was a fairly serious figure skater from 4th through 10th grade. At that point, I realized that to progress further, I'd need expensive private coaching...and I knew my family couldn't afford it. Since I couldn't be a star, I gave up.

5) Probably as a result of #4, I have a damaged vertebrae in my lower back (L4). It's called spondylolothesis, it's quite common in adults who were athletic youngsters, and sometimes it hurts like hell.

6) I've been belly dancing for twelve years and hope to continue doing so until I shimmy myself to death in my 90s.

7) I used to work for a farm winery in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, doing everything from picking grapes to writing ad copy. The pay was terrible, but it was a great job in other ways, including the wine perks.

8) My favorite place to be is on the beach--but not necessarily on a hot summer day. I'm particularly fond of Ogunquit Beach in Maine. My user picture was taken there, on a blustery day in late April.

I'm not very big on tagging people I don't know, and it looks like most of the Lustbiters have already been tagged. So...

Kate Duffy
Stan
and anyone else who feels like playing, please jump in.

New story available

Not safe for work--but come on, I haven't published something work-safe, other than poetry, since 1990. It has belly dancers!

Find it at Fishnet, a truly wonderful web site.

IRIDESCENCE BLOG TOUR - June 18, 2007

Five Questions from Jolie du Pre, editor of Iridescence: Sensuous Shades of Lesbian Erotica, for Teresa Noelle Roberts, author of “Special Delivery.”

1. Why do you write erotica?
My pat answer to this question is because it’s the most fun I can have with my clothes on. Writing about sex for a living is a hoot, except on the bad days when the words seem to be stuck on a loading dock in Topeka awaiting shipment to my brain. (I think every writer has those days.)
To answer more seriously, sexuality is a huge part of human nature and how individuals handle sexuality and relationships, whether it’s a marriage or a one-night fling, reveals character in interesting ways. Sexy stories are fun, but they can also explore facets of character it's hard to reveal in a less explicit story.


2. What do you like best about lesbian erotica?
I’m a bisexual woman who’s very happily married to a man and spends a lot of time in male company. Lesbian erotica gives me a chance to dwell on women’s bodies, women’s minds, women’s energy, and all the delicious, sensual things women can do together. It’s a nice balance.


3. What is the theme of your story “Special Delivery” in Iridescence: Sensuous Shades of
Lesbian Erotica?
Seeing beyond your fantasies and preconceptions to a person. My narrator—like many of us—is attracted to a certain look, a certain type of woman who seems exotic and mysterious. At the same time, she’s nervous to pursue the object of her desire because she’s white and suspects there’s something a little racist about her fantasies. In the end, she finds her way from fantasy to reality and finds that the real woman is far more interesting and sexy than the mystery figure of her erotic fantasies.

4. Name some other books where we can find your work.
It’s a long list that includes Best Women’s Erotica 2004, 2005 and 2007; Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2007; Secret Slaves: Erotic Stories of Bondage; Sexiest Soles: Erotic Stories about Feet and Shoes; Ultimate Undies: Erotic Stories about Underwear and Lingerie; The Mammoth Book of New Lesbian Erotica 2008; The Good Parts: Pure Lesbian Erotica—and that’s just a small selection of just the lesbian erotica. I also write a lot of heterosexual stories and a few m/m ones just for variety. And if that’s not enough, I also write with a co-author (Andrea Dale/Dayle A. Dermatis—she’s also featured in Iridescence) under the name Sophie Mouette. We’ve had a great deal of short erotic published, and our first novel-length erotica, Cat Scratch Fever, came out from Black Lace Books in 2008.
I'm also a published poet and speculative fiction writer.

5. Just for fun! Gym Shoes or Stilettos?

In my dreams, it’s stilettos. It breaks my femme heart that due to an old back injury I’m pretty much stuck with flats, so I get the cutest, shiniest ones I can find.

My first promotional video!

Okay, it's not "mine," per se. It's the book trailer for an anthology in which I have a story, Beyond Desire: Paranormal Erotica. The book's due out in September, but the promo is starting! Check out the video on UTube.

I don't know if it'll sell the book, but it's certainly got some pretty photography. My story in here is a particularly non-pretty one in which a person of nasty habits meets an ancient nature spirit who does't exactly play by the safe, sane, and consensual rule.

Speaking of paranormal, here's the cover for the forthcoming Black Lace paranormal collection, featuring both me and Sophie Mouette. The book's coming out just on time for Halloween, but it's up on Amazon already.

Interview with my co-author Dayle

Dayle was recently interviewed by the newspaper in the town where she grew up. She talks about our Cat Scratch Fever and her new novel A Little Night Music, written with another wonderful co-author, Sarah Husch. (I'd link you to Sarah, but I don't know that she has a blog.)

Read it here.

Dayle is far more beautiful in Real Life than in that picture, and Sarah doesn't actually live in Vermont, but other than that...it's pretty cool.

Acceptable and Unacceptable

Got no love from Best Women's Erotica this year. I sent two solo stories and we sent a Sophie; none made the cut. (My two stories are already off to new markets, where with luck they'll catch the editor's fancy.)

On the other hand, it looks like one of our Sophie Mouette stories will be reprinted in the Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 2008. Go us! More details to come.

This weekend was not a writing-full one. We went to Maine with a large crew of friends and had a glorious, relaxing time. I grabbed my laptop on the way out the door...then got real and set it back down, knowing it would end up being used for nothing except to play music and make me feel guilty. (That's what happened last time. I've written in the cabin in Maine when it was just Himself and I; we'd take some quiet time, he'd nap or read and I'd dash off 1000 words and feel like I'd done something. But with half our friends there? Ain't happening!)

Yesterday, on the other hand, was supposed to be work, work, work, but there was a little incident involving an indoor cat who decided on Sunday night, in the midst of torrential rains, to slip out and explore the great, car- and coyote-ridden outdoors. I ended up spending a good chunk of the day slogging through the neighborhood in the rain, hanging signs and asking neighbors "Have you seen this kitty?" Got some stories out and some correspondence done, but that was it for work.

The cat came back--hurray!--so today I get to go take the signs down and let the neighbors who'd been truly concerned know that the Rumble-beast has returned. And then it's back to were-beasties and the woman who loves them.