Blog Tour for Order Up

Order Up, an anthology of lesbian romance and erotica, is on a blog tour involving editors and authors of the book, including myself.  My story, Daddy’s Hot Appetizer, is included in the ‘Dessert’ section of the menu, where the hottest stories await readers who clean their plates.

The editors, R.G Emanuelle and Andi Marquette, have asked us to tell the story behind the stories we wrote for the collection.  I started writing about a couple distractedly preparing for a dinner party while taking Rachel Kramer Bussel‘s class on erotic writing called Between the Sheets through Litreactor.  Though I’ve been writing erotica for almost 8 years now, I know there’s plenty I can learn from successful writers and editors, so I jumped at the chance to take a class from RKB – editor of many erotic fiction anthologies, a writer, speaker, educator and event organizer.  We worked through several homework assignments, one of which was to have food and food prep be a main theme in the piece.  That was my story’s birthplace, as a homework assignment.  In the final week, when we were to get one of our stories ready for submission, I chose the story I called ‘Sexing the Cook’, in part because Rachel had posted a link to the Order Up call for submissions in her feedback.

So how’d I come up with this story?  I was thinking about food, of course, and Red, also of course.  I was thinking about a dinner party we’d had with NeighborFemme and her boy.  And one thing led to another and I envisioned a themed dinner party and the prep time before and how there might be sexy times along with dinner prep.

My narrator is a lot like me and I modeled the character of Maureen after Red.  This is not an uncommon starting point for me in writing erotica – using known characters as a starting point.  From there I embellish and have fun with the story.  And I definitely had a lot of fun writing Daddy’s Little Appetizer. I knew it was pretty good because it turned me on to write it, and read it and reread it and edit it.  Each successive edit honed and refined the characters and the action.  I probably could have gone on and on, but eventually I had to let go of my baby and send her off to the editors.  When I did, I was pleasantly surprised that they accepted the story and found only a few additional edits to make – in large part because of the feedback I received in class and the editing tips received. Thanks again to Rachel and fellow classmates.

Here’s a juicy tidbit from the story to wet your appetite:

“Can you do the potatoes at the table?” she asked. “I don’t have much room in here.” She’d begun working on the dessert, pineapple upside-down cake. I took the cutting board, peeler and knife to the table and returned for the bag of potatoes, making sure to brush against her nipple with my elbow. A sharp intake of breath told me I’d gotten to her.

I pulled the garbage can over and began peeling. I barely avoided peeling my fingers a couple of times, since I was watching her more than I was watching what I was doing. Her boxers were large on her and had drooped down in the back, revealing a tantalizing bit of ass cleavage. My mouth watered as I remembered bending her over the night before and licking that very spot.

“Babe, I’m thirsty, do I still have some beers in the fridge?”

“Mm-hmm.” She remained focused on measuring the dry ingredients.

I got up and stepped past her to the fridge, reaching around the plate of deviled eggs to get a bottle from the back. As luck would have it, she was standing in front of the drawer with the bottle opener. I leaned lightly against her back and slid my arm around her waist, reaching for the drawer pull. She reacted by stiffening her spine and giving me a sharp glance.

“Just need something from the drawer, babe.” I responded with a grin.

She pulled away from the drawer, pressing into me with a sigh. I angled my hips up and she pushed her ass back. I momentarily forgot there was another reason to be there and enjoyed the feeling of her warmth against me, as I nuzzled her neck.

She reached into the drawer and handed me the opener over her shoulder. Brows drawn together in concentration, she cracked eggs into her bowl. I flipped the bottle cap off and took a sip, then put the bottle, lid, and opener on the counter behind me. I leaned lightly against her back and watched over her shoulder as she folded more ingredients into the batter. She turned and threatened me with a spatula covered in goo. I kissed her neck, picked up my beer and returned to my task.

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

The rules for submission were pretty straight forward – the story needed to have food as a central theme, not just a backdrop and the story had to be about romance and/or erotica involving lesbian characters.  No sweat, right?  Well, actually, I was a bit challenged by the first rule.  It was easy to envision a sexy scene involving food prep, I’ve been in sexy scenes in the kitchen before.  However, I didn’t just want the food to be somewhere vaguely in the area of the two characters.  I wanted the menu to be real, the steps and timing in preparation to be accurate.  I wanted the reader to be able to imagine the dinner on the table, the setting and music and characters to come alive.  Speaking of which, I could have spent a little more time on the table setting perhaps… noting for next time.

I love eating and I love preparing food with friends and loved-ones.  Some of my favorite memories are set in kitchens and around tables laden with food and surrounded by the smiling faces of people I love.  ‘Food is love’ as we say in my family and sharing food is an excellent way to show you care and to nurture relationships.  Preparing food with a partner or lover can be an interesting experience.  I’ve heard that going on a rode trip can be a great indicator of how well a relationship will prosper.  I think preparing food with someone can also reveal a lot about communication styles, ability to collaborate and views on food.  For me preparing, sharing and consuming food are central themes in my relationships and funneling that into an erotic story felt natural.

Though I’ve had a couple of stories published before, this anthology is the first large market book I’ve landed in, which is pretty exciting. Also exciting is getting paid by a publisher for my work – also a first.  Order Up is a very tasty, multi-course meal of sexiness and I hope you’ll add it to your erotic library.

To get your copy of Order Up, go to one of these sites:

Ylva (the publisher’s site)
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Australia
Amazon Germany
Nook
Smashwords

Collect them all… 

Here’s the full blog tour schedule (go back and check the previous ones if you missed them). Yesterday the tour stopped for a post from Cheri Crystal, blogging at Andi Marquette’s site. Next up is Liz McMullen, blogging at her site tomorrow (6/15).  Read the whole series for the inside scoop on each story.

June 6: Andi Marquette, blogging at her site (The Situation Room).
June 7: Jove Belle, blogging at her site.
June 8: Cheyenne Blue, blogging at her site.
June 9: Brey Willows, blogging at her site.
June 10: Lea Daley, blogging at R.G. Emanuelle’s site.

June 13: Cheri Crystal, blogging at Andi Marquette’s site.
June 14: ME!, blogging at Butchtastic.net.
June 15: Liz McMullen, blogging at her site.
June 16: Marie Sterling, blogging at R.G. Emanuelle‘s site.
June 17: Rebekah Weatherspoon, blogging at her site.

June 20: Jaye Markham, blogging at Andi Marquette‘s site.
June 21: Emma Weimann, at Andi Marquette‘s site
June 22: N.R. Dunham, blogging at her site.
June 23: Pascal Scott, at R.G. Emanuelle‘s site.
June 24: R.G. Emanuelle, blogging at her site.

This content is published under the Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.