THE SIREN Takes Over Boyfriend of the Week

Today I have a special treat for you. Tiffany Reisz is back, giving us ALL the boyfriends from her debut novel THE SIREN . If you haven't read this book yet, what are you waiting for? It's gorgeous and dark and beautifully written. Plus hello, it has all these delicious men in it. Really, this isn't because she's a friend, her book is amazing. This story convinced me I could enjoy erotica and not just erotic romance. (Yes, there's a difference.) 

THE SIREN has been early-released in ebook, so you can get it now. The paperback will be out in July.

Now over ot Tiffany and her men--oh, and fair warning if you're at work, Tiffany's excerpts are 18+.

Boyfriends of the Week - The Siren

Hi Friends and Fellow Man-Lovers! 

Once again Roni’s bad judgment has gotten the better of her and she’s allowing me to run roughshod all over her blog. I’m not here for the Boyfriend of the Week post. I’m here for the BoyfriendS of the Week.

That’s right. BoyfriendS. Plural. It’s the week of THE SIREN (my full-length erotic women’s fiction debut), and I brought all my men with me. 

At a recent writers’ conference, my agent described THE SIREN as a book with a hero, a heroine, another hero, another hero, another hero, and another heroine. Pretty accurate assessment. After all, THE SIREN is merely book one in an eight-book series called THE ORIGINAL SINNERS. I need a whole lot of sinners if I’m going to fill up eight books. 

THE SIREN is the story of Nora Sutherlin, a quirky and beautiful Dominatrix and her rich and powerful lovers and clients. She’s also an erotica writer on killer deadlines and the world’s sexiest editor is cracking the whip. On top of that, she’s got a nymphomaniac Frenchman for a boss, an all-American, virginal teenage boy for an intern, and you don’t even want to know who she’s sleeping with. 

Oh wait. Yes, you do.

Let’s meet our boys, shall we?

Hero #1

Zachary “Zach” Easton

Occupation: Uptight editor of literary fiction

Hobbies: Being British and mean to his writers

“You do realize that working with you could be bad for my career,” Zach said. “I do literary fiction, not-”

“Literary friction?” 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Zach shook his head.

Nora leaned in close to him. He was suddenly and uncomfortably aware of the long, bare curve of her neck. She smelled of hothouse flowers in bloom.

“I can.” She breathed the words into his ear.

Hero #2

Wesley “Wes” Railey

Occupation: Full-time College Student, Part-time Babysitter to a Writer

Hobbies: Horseback riding and trying to get Nora to behave for five whole minutes 

“It's okay,” he said a little breathlessly. He curled up around the pillow and pulled his legs into his chest. “It's just, you're, I’m…”

“Turned on? I know you are. You’re accent gets thicker when you get-”

“Nora, please.”

“You can tell me, Wes.”

“Yes,” he confessed. “Very. I'm sorry. Just give me a few minutes to think about my dead grandmother and I'll be okay.”

“Can I help you?”

“I don't think so. You never met my dead grandmother.”

Hero #3

Griffin Randolfe Fiske

Occupation: Trust Fund Baby

Hobbies: Causing trouble, getting tattoos, lifting weights, going to rehab, flirting with everyone.

“Blowjob on a British guy?” Griffin asked with some concern. “You're a braver bitch than I. No offense,” Griffin said turning to Zach. “I have a foreskin phobia.”

“Zach's Jewish,” Nora said.

Griffin nodded his approval. “Mazel tov.”

Hero? #4

Kingsley Edge (not his real last name)

Occupation: Clubowner and King of New York’s Underground BDSM Scene

Hobbies: Seducing women, seducing men, being French and attractive, shopping 

“Miss me?” Nora asked.

“I miss you. My bank account misses you.”

“Your bank account is bigger than the G.D.P. of Luxembourg, King.”

“Oui, Maîtresse.” He took a bigger swig of his drink. “But Luxembourg is such a small kingdom.”

Hero #5

Søren

Occupation: You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Hobbies: Playing piano and mindfucking anyone who tries to get in-between him and Nora

“You know her that well, do you?” Søren asked, turning to face him full on. “Before tonight she scared you, didn’t she? Her fearlessness, her brazenness, I’m sure it’s terrifying at first. Foreign to those who lead the proverbial life of quiet desperation as I imagine you do. She scared you with the sheer force of her life and being. But now you look around and think her courage is merely a byproduct of her damage. You imagine I abused her, changed her. And you would save her, as Wesley imagines he can? You would be her knight in shining armor? Yes, before you feared her and now you pity her. I assure you, Zachary, you were right the first time.”

---

 Tiffany Reisz lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her boyfriend (a reformed book reviewer) and two cats (one good, one evil). She graduated with a B.A. in English from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky and is making both her parents and her professors proud by writing BDSM erotica under her real name. She has five piercings, one tattoo, and has been arrested twice. 

When not under arrest, Tiffany enjoys Latin Dance, Latin Men, and Latin Verbs. She dropped out of a conservative southern seminary in order to pursue her dream of becoming a smut peddler. Johnny Depp’s aunt was her fourth grade teacher. Her first full-length novel THE SIREN was inspired by a desire to tie up actor Jason Isaacs (on paper). She hopes someday life will imitate art (in bed). 

If she couldn’t write, she would die.

Thanks, Tiffany! Whew, alright, so which hero are you going for? I have a bit of a thing for Wesley, but Tiffany makes all her heroes interestiing so it's definitely a hard choice. :)

Spice It Up Thursday: The Real Girl's Guide to Lingerie

Okay, so as many of you know might already know, I have a novella coming out June 5th (and it's only 2.99!). This novella, STILL INTO YOU, is part of my series (I'm calling it #1.5) and is the first story I've ever written about a married couple. 

Here's the blurb:

Seth and Leila used to have trouble keeping their hands off each other. Passion, desire, love—it was all there. Yet, eight years after their whirlwind marriage and kids, they’ve settled into a life where choosing Letterman over Leno is considered a wild night.

Seth knows things need to change. But when he hears his wife call into a relationship radio show and admit she’s been tempted to cheat, he realizes how far off course they’ve gotten. He comes up with a dramatic plan. Three days. No rings. He’ll take Leila to The Ranch, a resort where any sexual fantasy can be had, and give her the freedom to have whatever or whomever she wants.

However, Seth doesn’t intend to simply stand by and watch other men fulfill Leila’s dark desires. He has a lot more bad boy in him than his wife suspects and he knows there’s only one man who can give her what she needs. Now he has to show her why that man is him.

I had a great time writing about a couple that could be any of us--two people who love each other, but have been together a long time and life has started to get in the way of their romance. Now, I don't necessarily suggest taking the extreme measure my couple does in the book, but I thought it'd be fun for the next few weeks to have a Thursday feature focused on simple ways to spice up a relationship and have some fun.

Fair warning: These posts are for 18 and over.

On today's agenda...lingerie.

Okay, so we all know what's out there. We've seen those skimpy things on the Victoria's Secret models. You can't eat a crouton and still fit into half that stuff. (For those of you who can wear those outfits and look flawless...well, move right along before we spot you and start to hate you.) Most of us can't pull off things designed for models. 

And I know there are some guys out there who will say that it's not about looking perfect. They like the idea of it and see us as sexy no matter what. Or they're good with plain old naked. Okay, we love you for that. But half the appeal of lingerie is that the woman can feel sexy in it. It changes things up a bit and can make everything feel a little different, a bit more exciting. But if she feels uncomfortable or un-cute in what she's wearing, it's going to ruin the mood.

So what's a girl to do? Well, here are some ideas that will probably make both your and your guy happy.

Lingerie Alternatives for Every Day Women

1. A man's dress shirt and a pair of heels.

Classic, sexy, and very forgiving on body shape.

2. The sports jersey (striped athletic socks optional)

Just, uh, make sure it's not a team he hates. :)

3. A trench coat with heels or knee high boots.

The only time it's okay to be a flasher.

4. The cowgirl look

This could be jeans or jean skirt, boots, hat, and either a wife beater or plaid shirt tied in the front.

 5. The buttoned up business woman or librarian look

Slim black skirt, sheer blouse, heels, sexy lacy stuff underneath (or nothing at all). Glasses for bonus points.

There are also outfits that could be fun for role plays, but I think I shall save that for another post. ;)

So what do you think? Think your guy would go for this? Any other lingerie alternatives you can think of? And men, if you're reading this, would you be happy to see your women in any of these?

Kink & BDSM 101 - What It Is & Why It's So Popular In Books #atozchallenge

This is a post I did a while back as a guest post on my blog tour, but with all the talk about BDSM since Fifty Shades of Grey has hit, I figured this was a good time to re-run this primer. 

BDSM 101: What It Is and Why It’s So Popular in Books

Photo by Latente (click pic for link)

When I tell people I’m a writer, I inevitably get the same basic questions—“Are you published?” and then when they find out I’m going to be…“So what’s your book about?”

Depending on who’s asking, I can answer that a few different ways. But if it’s someone who maybe isn’t overly familiar with my genre, the answer is usually something like, “It’s a sexy romance about a social worker who has to find her missing sister with the help of her ex.”  

And for a while, I was able to leave it at that. But as the book got closer and closer to publication and started showing up on Amazon and such, I started getting that other question. “What is BDSM? Is that like handcuffs and whips and stuff?” *insert judgmental, slightly wary expression crossing their face (or a saucy eyebrow raise depending on who was asking)*

To answer: well, yes, it can be about those things. But that’s a very small part under a very large umbrella. Throwing a pair of handcuffs into a story does not a BDSM book make.

So if you’re new to this subgenre, here are some basics:

BDSM stands for Bondage & Discipline, Dominance & Submission, Sadism & Masochism (some of the letters do double duty in the acronym).

• Bondage – Physically restraining a partner in some way (tying someone down, handcuffs, etc.)
• Discipline – Giving physical or psychological punishment to control behavior. 
• Sadomasochism -- Sexual sadism is deriving pleasure from inflicting physical or psychological pain on someone else. But it’s not the same as pure sadism. A sexual sadist (especially the ones we write about in romance novels) only enjoy inflicting the pain because the partner is a masochist and derives pleasure from receiving it. It’s an exchange of mutually pleasurable activities. (As opposed to a sadist who would get pleasure from torturing an unwilling victim. That’s a different thing altogether.)
• Dominance/Submission (or D/s): This is the power exchange between partners, whereby one partner (the submissive) gives over all the control to the other (the dominant). This may be only in their sexual relationship or it may be in all aspects of the relationship. Also, don’t assume that the submissive partner is always the woman. Though that’s the more popular theme in romance, men can be submissive too. (Read Joey W. Hill’s Nature of Desire series if you’re interested in reading some great female dominant BDSM romances.)

A few other terms you may run across:

SSC (Safe, Sane, Consensual) or RACK (Risk-Aware Consensual Kink) – These are the cornerstone philosophies in BDSM play.  All activities must be consensual and safe (or risk-aware if both parties are engaging in the edgier stuff). 

Safe words – A word is given to the submissive to signal “stop everything right now”. The words “no” or “stop” aren’t typically used as safe words because sometimes in BDSM play, someone may say “no” as part of the scene. So a word that easily sticks out like “Waffles” or something is chosen. When the sub says that word, everything stops immediately, no questions asked. 

Subspace – This is the trancelike or euphoric state for submissives. I won’t attempt my own explanation of the science since Wikipedia does a better job: 

“the intense experiences of both pain and pleasure trigger a sympathetic nervous system response, which causes a release of epinephrine…as well as a dump of endorphins... These natural chemicals…produce the same effect as a morphine-like drug, increasing the pain tolerance of the submissive as the scene becomes more intense. Since the increase of hormones and chemicals produces a sort of trance-like state, the submissive starts to feel out-of-body, detached from reality, and as the high comes down, and the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in, a deep exhaustion, as well as incoherence.”

So when people looking from the outside in wonder why the heck someone would want to be tied up, flogged, and bossed around---well, there you go, subspace is one enticing reason why. 

But why are so many romance readers and writers getting into BDSM stories? What need or desire are books like 50 Shades tapping into?

I can’t answer for everyone, but for me, the D/s aspect is really what drives me to write and read these stories. Romance readers have always enjoyed the very alpha hero. Think of all those historical romances where the duke/rake/etc. takes all the control. Or look at the paranormals that have all those alpha wolves going after the heroines. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely an I-am-woman-hear-me-roar kind of chick. But in a world where we are often weighed down with so much responsibility, it can be a nice escape to imagine having a break from that. Of imagining putting ourselves completely in the hands of a guy we love and trust—one that will keep us safe and also rock our world. ;)  

And that’s how I wrote Brynn in CRASH INTO YOU. She’s very in control of her life, very strong, and has overcome a lot in her past. She doesn’t *need* a man. But because she’s always had to be responsible and in charge, submitting to Reid gives her an escape, a place where she can just let go and feel. And I think on some level, we can all relate to that.

All right, hope this wasn’t too much like some whacked-out school report, lol, but I wanted to give anyone who hasn’t read BDSM an idea of what it’s about. If you have any questions for me or any of this is unclear, let me know in the comments! : )

And if you want some suggestions on great BDSM romances to try, check out my favorites here.

*This post was originally posted as my guest post on Riverina Romantics.