(click the photo to see the book on Amazon)
A month or so ago, I got an email from Rachel Kramer Bussel ( here's her blog ), inviting me to be a part of an online book tour.
At the time, it seemed like a manageable thing to do. I knew I'd be away from home for part of August, but I figured I'd have time to read the book, write a thoughtful post about it, and then set the post to show up on my appointed date. Why I believed this would happen, I now have no idea. But I had made a commitment, and here I am.
The first complication ensued when the book didn't arrive until a few days before we were heading out of town. Now, some people are organized. Some people don't go away to a folk festival and have the ongoing leak in their bedroom turn into a gaping hole, and spend the next week arguing with their landlord about how "I have to think about what to do" is not the appropriate response to large, wet holes in their tenants' ceilings....
So, there I am. I have a brand new, gorgeous book of erotica, and instead, I'm spending my time fuming about what an idiot my landlord is. Oh, right, and also making sure the car is as ready as possible for a 1500 mile road trip. Oh, and packing for said road trip. Not to mention all of the various other things I was doing. So in the two or three days I had the book before leaving home, I only had a chance to glance at a few of the stories.
What does this mean for what I thought of the book?
Well, being the responsible person I was, I decided to take the book along with me on vacation. But also being who I am, there was *no* way I was going to read a book of erotica in my usual fashion (you know, the kind that involves a vibrator or a hand down my pants) while sleeping in a friend's living room.
So I read the stories more for content than for getting off. And I'm pleased to say that the stories were worth reading, even when I had both hands on the book.
One of the things that caught my attention was how many of the stories focused on the dynamics of relationships. Maybe it's because I so often skim until I get to the "good parts," but I don't remember noticing the characters in erotica as people who happen to engage in spanking (or sex) so much in other books.
I also really appreciated the stories that demonstrated an intersection between spankings and "real life." The three stories I'm thinking most of are "Daddy's Girl" by Teresa Noelle Roberts (an interesting take on Daddy/daughter role plays), "Pink Cheeks" by Fiona Locke (exploring the question of where life on newsgroups meets with reality), and "Page by Page" by Laura Bacchi (looking at what happens when a professional masochist begins to fall for her client). Sure, the spankings and sex in these stories were quite hot (also true of the other stories in the anthology, naturally!), but the characters shone through as people as well. (Okay, that is also true of the other stories in the book.)
I'm not saying I'm going to confine my reading of this book to times when I will have to keep both hands on the book, because, as I've mentioned, the stories are hot. And if something can get me warmed up and squirmy, even when I'm sleeping on the fold-out couch in someone else's living room, with them only an unlocked door away....
Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, over at Essin-Em. And check out the other great blogs that have participated in this book tour here!
Oh, right, and the contest!
Now, your prize will either be a nice postcard promoting the book (presuming I can find it again--I will send it in a friendly envelope so you don't have to explain to your mailman what kind of friends you have) or, if you're really lucky, a copy of the book itself. Plus, you get the invaluable knowledge that you were the first one with the correct answer. And you get to show off how good your memory is for erotica.
So, here's the contest:
Go to this page on Amazon, and search for "Betty Crocker Gone Bad." Choose page 17 (or browse the whole story--I'm not sure how much you can see without buying it). Read that page, or as much of the story as you are able, and then figure out where else it has appeared.
The first person to tell me where they saw the other version of this story, and to list three differences between the version in Spanked and the other source, wins the prize, whatever it may be. ;)
1 comment:
Okay, I give up. I tried. I don't know. But I did look this book up on Amazon, and I want it! Or if the prize is the postcard, I like postcards! So can the prize be mine if no one else responds? :-)
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