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Summer Loving is now available in e-book form and paperback

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Delilah Night

When Sommer’s husband was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago, writers from around the world came together to send support. Bronwyn Green was the pioneer in charge of a fundraising event. Tamsin Flowers came up with the plan to do a charity book. —Alison Tyler, here.

Summer Loving is now available!

I enjoyed reading the full collection, but several stories really stood out for me.

Fireworks Display by Emerald—She had decided to watch some fireworks from the comfort of her car. Then the truck with six gorgeous men pulls up.

Next week is National Day here in Singapore. There is a huge display of fireworks as part of the festivities, and when I see them, I know this story will be on my mind. The build up and tension are great. The juxtaposition against and description of the fireworks really did it for me. Emerald is a new author to me, and I’ll be checking out more of her work.

Tell me by May Deva–A pin-up photography session is the cost of losing a poker bet.

Any story that starts with “Oh, hell no!” is going to grab my attention. This story hit all my sweet spots. I love pin-up photography, I love banter, and I really really love twists at the end of a story.

Arizona, Ireland, New England by Cheyenne Blue—You never quite know where home is until you find it.

Two friends come up with the idea of switching homes for the summer. But it doesn’t quite turn out how they expected. As an expat who thought I knew what I was getting into when I moved to the other side of the planet, only to find out that fantasy and reality are two different things, I related to both the women in the story. The way that Cheyenne uses sensory descriptions–the way one of them “will fearlessly sweep a scorpion from the kitchen bench with a swift flick of a tea towel” makes for a story I’ll revisit.

And of course, you can read my story, “Baby it’s Hot Outside.”

I’ve given you an excerpt before. Here’s another one….

“I never liked Josh,” Erik remarked.

“Why?” My high school boyfriend had always been a sweetie.

“Why do you think? I was crazy about you. You only noticed I was alive when you kicked Jake and me out of the living room.”

“That’s not true. I noticed you were alive whenever you ate the last slice of pizza, too.” Sarcasm was my crumbling wall of defense against desire.

Down girl. CANNOT.

“Three days with you, and I feel like a lovesick idiot all over again.” Erik gave a bitter laugh. “I sound like a fucking idiot, too.”

Our eyes locked. As one, we turned and began the walk back toward my apartment.

Fingers traced the thin line of skin between the top of my shorts and the bottom of my tank top as we walked. Erik’s arms wrapped around me, pulling me against his chest at each red light. Arousal grew with each passing intersection. Did the colorful illumination highlight or hide that my nipples were erect?

One more second was too long to wait. I grabbed Erik’s hand and pulled him into the Botanical Gardens; my apartment was still five minutes away. Silently, I led him away from the well-lit path. Once hidden in shadows, we stopped. The moisture between my thighs couldn’t be blamed on humidity.

It was one thing to burn my way through every battery in my house trying to cool my libido. It was entirely another to deliberately jump into the fire.

Anyone who chooses to live in a land of eternal summer shouldn’t be scared of heat.

“Caroline,” he murmured.

I twined my arms around his neck and pressed my lips to Erik’s.

Can. CAN.

Remember, all proceeds go to help Sommer Marsden’s family.

NOW AVAILABLE AT

Filed under: book reviews, Published, Writing | Tagged: Alison Tyler, baby it's hot outside, charity erotica anthology, delilah night, erotica, published books, sommer marsden, summer loving | 2 Comments »

Linga

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Delilah Night

Ever since I first heard about Angkor Wat, I’ve wanted to visit it. This past Mother’s Day my husband and kids gave me a weekend solo trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

During the period when the temples around Angkor Wat were built, Cambodia was still a Hindu country, although it shifted to Buddhism over time. There’s a lot of sexual and sensual imagery in Hinduism, and I found myself contemplating the following…

I had ambitions to go visit the River of a Thousand Lingas, but due to a knee injury the hike was beyond my ability at the time. However, just because I couldn’t go visit the lingas didn’t mean I couldn’t buy one. So when I stopped in at Artisans of Angkor, I was very happy to see this among other sculptures

Symbolizing the role of Shiva in creation, the Linga is the phallus of the god and it expresses the idea of fertility and prosperity. This shape is the emblem which mostly represent god Shiva in the temples which are dedicated to him. It is here completed by the Yoni, representing a stylized female sex, and thus evokes the mystery of the Two becoming One.

In Cambodia’s culture, the Linga is made of three completely different branches which symbolize the Brahmanic trinity: the cubic base represents Brahma, the creator and ancestor; the octagonal middle branch represents Vishnu, the curator, and the top part epitomizes Shiva, who is the ultimate power that can create and destroy.

This piece, which displays contemporary straight lines, is still widely used in the decoration of some places in Cambodia.

(Description from the Artisans of Angkor page)

I was debating between two sizes when my guide came over to me. He was maybe ten to fifteen years older than me, and I could tell that he was embarrassed. The poor guy had no idea that I’m an erotica author and knew exactly what I was looking at.

“Do you know what that is?” he asked me. I could tell how much he didn’t want to explain sexual imagery to the naive stay at home mommy tourist.

“Yes,” I said and turned back to the display, allowing him to make his escape.

I could almost feel him exhale when I finally picked a Linga and moved on to less scandalous merchandise.

Filed under: Random | Tagged: cambodia, delilah night, linga | Leave a comment »

Those (sexy) Boys

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Delilah Night

It’s no secret that I’ve always had a special place in my heart for fictional men and women. Jareth from Labyrinth was practically responsible for my sexual awakening–“Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave.” Alanna from the Lioness Quartet. Wesley Crusher from Trek Next Gen. Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Daemon from the Jewels series.

And Sandy….

I loved the novella “Those Girls” by Alison Tyler, and I fell especially hard for Sandy–bisexual, dominant, and sexy as hell. When Alison said that there was a sequel coming out, I volunteered to be an advanced reader for “Those Boys.”

Why does Sandy do it for me so well?

There’s something about that word. Hurt. I could have said, “punish.” I could have said, “spank.” Nice, light-hearted BDSM terms. But I didn’t want those, and neither did Rem.

Rem is such a pretty little peacock. Sandy needs to muss him, to hurt him. And for one night, he does. Then Rem doesn’t come back…

You don’t walk away from that type of honest. Not when it’s everything you’ve ever wanted.

…..

There had not been a word. Not a phone call. Was I losing my touch?

Seeing Sandy question himself is almost as erotic as when he exudes enough confidence to drown you.

I won’t spoil the ending–for that you need to read the book.

You guys know that Alison’s writing is some of my favorite erotica. But even among her many books and characters, Sandy demands I sit up and pay attention. Or bend over and beg for it.

What I really loved about “Those Boys” was getting a peek behind the Dom’s Dom exterior. We learn that Sandy has submitted–to learn what it’s like to be the submissive…and that peek is so tantalizing. I really hope that the next book in the series will give us even more of a peek under the skin. And that it will be longer—Alison, can we please get a full length novel with Sandy?

“Those Boys” by Alison Tyler is published by Go Deeper Press.

Filed under: BDSM, book reviews, LGBT | Tagged: Alison Tyler, BDSM, bisexual men, delilah night, dominant, erotica, Go Deeper Press, Those Boys, Those Girls | 2 Comments »

On the subject of banning books

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Delilah Night

I would not normally share a post from my expat blog. But the issue of banning and destroying books in the name of “family values” affects me as an expat, a parent, a reader and a writer. But Singapore–where I currently live–has decided to not just ban books from its libraries but to also destroy them, and I could not keep silent.

Libraries should be neutral repositories of information that trust their patrons to decide what is appropriate reading material for themselves and their families. They should not take a side, and begin the slippery descent that ends in Fahrenheit 451.

Go here to read my blog post “And Tango makes a Banned Book.”

Filed under: books (non-review posts), LGBT, Parenting, Writing | Tagged: book banning, delilah night, kids books, LGBT books | Leave a comment »

#OutWriters Why I write LGBT characters

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Delilah Night

As a publisher of queer books for over two decades, Cleis Press is committed to encouraging LGBTQ people to be visible, free, and well-pleasured. The presence of LGBTQ voices in literature is dear to our hearts.

In celebration of Pride month, we’re kicking off a brand new project we’re calling Out Writers. Join us—and a tide of queer voices—in celebrating the importance of LGBTQ writing. Want to get involved? Please take a moment to share a sentence or two about why queer writers are important, and/or what it means to you to write as LGBTQ author, and use the hashtag #OutWriters.

I suppose that I write LGBT characters for the most obvious reason possible–I’m also a member of the LGBT community. More to the point, I write bisexual women because I am a bisexual woman.

Too frequently I see bisexual women portrayed as bisexual as part of a threesome for the benefit of their male lover, or that a scene with another woman is painted as a “lesbian” scene. I write bisexual women because I’m writing a story right now which has a bisexual female protagonist, and had it referred to as a lesbian story.

Bi invisibility is an issue in the real world and in the literary world, and anything I can do to help mitigate that is a worthy thing.

Filed under: In Progress, process, Writing | Tagged: #outwriters, delilah night, LGBT characters | Leave a comment »

Baby it’s Hot Outside

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Delilah Night

When Alison Tyler put out the call for a charity anthology to benefit Sommer Marsden (whose husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2013) with the theme of summer, I really wanted to submit a story.

I’m deeply grateful that Alison has the kind of twisted sense of humor that let her see how a story like “Baby it’s Hot Outside”–set at Christmastime in Singapore–could fit into that theme, and I’m proud to be part of “Summer Loving.”

Here’s an excerpt.

Several days passed, during which I played tour guide. In daylight hours I wore the familiar sensible shoes of Jake’s pedantic big sister. Exploring Little India inspired a lecture on the multi-ethnic culture of Singapore. I bullied Erik into posing for a photo by the Merlion fountain while holding forth on how it became a symbol of the city.

As daylight shifted into night, though, things changed. My undernourished sex drive was surely why I’d thought Erik was flirting with me at dinner. Accepting a bite of food from his fork didn’t mean anything.

The sight of Erik asleep on my couch had me reaching for the aircon remote. Had he always had those abs under his stupid Nirvana t-shirts? A love trail disappeared into frayed cotton pajama bottoms. The urge to step into stripper heels and mount him was almost overwhelming.

There is a Singlish word—cannot—which means “‘No, not in a million years. Don’t even think about it.’”

My little brother’s best friend stirring my libido? Cannot, Caroline. Cannot.

NOW AVAILABLE AT

Filed under: acceptance, Published, Writing | Tagged: Alison Tyler, baby it's hot outside, delilah night, sommer marsden, summer loving | 2 Comments »

Nine-to-Five Fantasies

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Delilah Night

I’m so excited to share the cover of “Nine-to-Five Fantasies” with you guys. My story “O for Effort” (read an excerpt here) is one of the stories included.

Alison Tyler really knows how to mix business with pleasure, and she proves it in her adventurous Nine-to-Five Fantasies.

We’ve all heard the saying “all work and no play” makes life pretty darn dull. Alison Tyler is to the rescue with a high performance collection that offers steamy stories on the art of getting it on at work. Even the most mundane 9-to-5 job can lead to a rowdy romp that leaves people talking by the water cooler. From special offices where naughty secretaries are firmly spanked to customer service callers who hook up with pros and temps finding the boss man of their dreams, the restrictions on employee dating are wantonly and willfully broken here. Editrix Tyler and her top notch contributors are a highly creative bunch — who knew that office supplies are so sexy? Rulers are made for a good spanking, shipping tape is handy for bondage, and corner offices are custom-made for a good snog! Let’s get kinky in the cubicles!

You can pre-order it at Amazon (release date Nov 11, 2014).

Filed under: Published, Writing | Tagged: Alison Tyler, anal sex, delilah night, erotica, o for effort, published stories, sex with a professor | Leave a comment »

I also write a book blog

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Delilah Night

One of the reasons I post so rarely here is that I have a lot of other hats I wear. I try to keep this blog specific to those things that might interest people interested in the erotica author side of my personality.

I write Expat Bostonians, which is about my day to day life as an expat and larger discussions around identity, assimilation into a culture not my own, and raising third culture kids. This has been my biggest writing project of the past four years–had I not focused on this, I’d probably be on my third or fourth novel by now. But I love it, and it also serves my friends back home (and others) as a window into my life here.

A month or so ago I began Be Quiet! Mommy’s Reading… because I have spent so much effort on reviewing books on goodreads that it felt like a valuable use of my time. It’s since turned into a really good stress reliever, especially my snarking nostalgia feature (every Monday) where I rip apart books I read as a kid, like The Baby-Sitters Club. I’m also talking about other book related stuff (Divergent book v movie, When is a spoiler is a spoiler), doing book reviews, and my kids and I are teaming up for children’s book reviews.

If either of these sound interesting to you, please go and follow them. Expat Bostonians also has a facebook page where I post not only links to the blog, but articles of interest and random posts about what have you. (Worth noting, so does Delilah Night--which sees far more action than this blog).

Filed under: Writing | Tagged: be quiet mommy's reading, delilah night, expat bostonians | Leave a comment »

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Delilah Night

*****Edited to add–I ended changing Gemma’s name to Lucy as a story already under contract at that time had a character named Jenna and I didn’t want confusion. This story was accepted for publication in Coming Together: For the Holidays, edited by Alessia Brio, expected publication date Dec 2014. Read an updated excerpt here****

I wrote an erotic story about one of Santa’s elves back in 2012. It’s still looking for a home. However, I am writing other stories set in the same world (I really love these characters) so I may eventually self-publish.

Here’s a snippet.

‘Are you Matthew?’ Gemma asked.

‘Yeah. You are…’

‘Gemma. I think the mailman was dyslexic. I live in 3C at 32 Fairfax, and he left this at my apartment.’ She smiled and held up the Amazon box.

Matthew relaxed. “Thanks. Not many people would bother to bring it over in person.” He stepped back, gesturing her inside.

‘”It’s Christmas. I thought I’d play Santa’s elf,” she winked at him as she entered. “What’s the book?”

“Uh, well…’”he faltered.

His awkwardness was cute. If only he wasn’t on the Naughty list. She’d always had a thing for men in wire-frame glasses. ‘75 ways to murder a stranger who delivers Amazon packages to your door?’ she teased. ‘Unless it’s that, what’s there to be embarrassed about?’

He turned bright red and cleared his throat. ‘Um, it’s a book of Christmas erotica.’

A delicious idea invaded the elf’s mind: what better way to find out if he was a sexual deviant than to find out first hand?

Filed under: In Progress, Writing | Tagged: Alison Tyler, baby it's hot outside, delilah night, summer loving | 1 Comment »

An Interview with Alison Tyler

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Delilah Night

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.

As part of her blog tour for Dark Secret Love (review below), I have author and editor extraordinare Alison Tyler visiting here today.

Readers know that I’ve been struggling with balance and writing process of late. So when I had the chance to metaphorically sit down with Alison I needed to know how she does it.

You are ridiculously prolific. Are you a robot? How do you do it? Do you ever blow off writing to binge watch a tv series on Netflix?

Ha! How did you know that I am a robot? I try to keep my wires all tucked in nice and neat. And I wear this fine dusting of pale powder over my chrome-colored skin.

Truth is, I write all the time. Even when I’m not writing, I’m writing. (Yes, that made oodles of sense.) Basically, I can’t turn off the part in my brain that tells stories. I entertain myself 24/7 (or 23/6) with scenarios about strangers I see only for a sliver of time. Not sure what life would be like without the constant whirring of words, but that’s my world.

That said, yes, yes, yes, I am addicted to a few different series. Late to the game, I found West Wing and became instantly obsessed. I lost a few weeks to House of Cards. If I love a series, I will start re-watching from the beginning as soon as I hit the end.

The strangest place I’ve found myself writing erotica was on my laptop in the parent cafe of an indoor kid’s playground. I was huddled off in a corner, trying to finish a story while my (then) 4 year old ran around with the other kids. What’s the oddest place or situation you’ve found yourself writing?

The bathtub. The shower. The car. Anywhere I can’t easily get to a piece of paper and pen. That’s often when I come up with my best ideas. Then I simply have to repeat the words to myself, like a mantra, until I can get dry or pull over. (Or both.) You don’t know how many times I’ve been wrapped in a towel at the computer, typing as fast as I can to make sure the words don’t escape. That wet spot on my seat is proof.

Obviously Dark Secret Love is a bit different than other books of yours with regards to how long you’ve been working on it/the highly autobiographical aspects. Can you talk about how the process of putting it on (metaphorical) paper was different from the way you’ve written other stories?

Dark Secret Love began as a solitary blog post. An answer to a reader’s query: How did you get your start? Many writers would be able to respond in a neat, orderly fashion. My answer has taken 500,000 words—so far. My guess (or hope?) is that I’ll never reach the end. For a year and a half, give or take, I wrote approximately 1,000 words a day on the story. Gathered all together, the “book” would be over 2,000 pages long.

This is the most unique project I’ve ever worked on. There are scenes (coming up in future installments) written from the point of view of different characters. I’ve switched tenses. I’ve played with time. I’ve broken every rule taught by English comp instructors. If you can’t entertain yourself, why bother? I wanted this series to be different.

About Alison

Alison Tyler is nothing if not busy. She’s the editor of 50 anthologies (for Cleis Press), as well as collections for Harlequin, Plume, and Pretty Things Press. Her novellas include Giving In (Harlequin), Those Girls (Go Deeper), and Banging Rebecca (Pretty Things Press). Visit alisontyler.blogspot.com for impromptu makeup reviews, lingering musical longings, and the occasional 80s flashback.

Review of Dark Secret Love

Dark Secret Love is a fictionalized semi-autobiographical story of a woman’s entrance into and acceptance of her own submissive nature.

While I enjoy erotica, I don’t often connect with characters the way I did with Samantha. Perhaps it’s because Sam’s experiences are based on some of Alison Tyler’s experiences, and thus ring more true? Or perhaps because I understand all too well the experience of being offered what you want and running away in fear.

While there is plenty of hot sex, Dark Secret Love is more than that. It is a deeply personal exploration of submission. If you’re not a member of the scene and want to understand how we got this way, this book may be enlightening for you. If you are a member of the scene, the book will ring more true than most.

My only complaint? That the second book isn’t out yet.

I can’t recommend it enough-run, don’t walk to get your copy today.

Disclosure-I did not receive compensation for this review or the opportunity to interview Alison. I am, however, included in an upcoming anthology of hers.

Filed under: BDSM, books (non-review posts), Interviews, process, Writing | Tagged: Alison Tyler, delilah night | 1 Comment »

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