FREE READ! $150 for the Half

Did you know that author M Christian has a great blog called Frequently Felt featuring tons of free reads from some of your favourite authors...like me?

Right now you can read a flash I really love. It's one of my all-time favourites. $150 for the Half originally appeared at Ruthie's Club, but now you can read it for free at Frequently Felt.

Enjoy!
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

Celebrate Bisexuality Day!

Damn it Jim, we missed it again!

Apparently every September 23rd is hailed as Celebrate Bisexuality Day, so I'm late with the well-wishes here. Sorry. Better late than never...? If I can make my excuses, I didn't actually know it existed.

But it's true that bisexuality ought to be celebrated. It tends to get skimmed over, largely. In many context, bi folks are even castigated or mocked--and I'm talking by both the breeders and by the so-called LGBT community. I've (honestly) heard some lesbian and gay folks say things to bi friends like, "Oh, soon you'll realized you're actually a lesbian. You're not really bi."

Let's think about the kind of labels we stick to bi folks. We all have stereotypes implanted in our minds. Have you ever said anything about a bi person or bisexuals as a group that wasn't so savoury?

"He's so wishy-washy. Is he straight or is he gay?"

"When is she going to come out for real?"

"He must just be oversexed. He'll jump anything with a heartbeat."

"It's just a phase. When she's finished experimenting, she'll settle down with a nice guy."

Bi folks might even be up against more obstacles than gays and lesbians. Is that a really contentious statement to make? I suppose so, but bisexuals get a hell of a lot of flack from just about everyone. That, or they're just ignored as a group.

So, even if we're going it a day late, let's celebrate bisexuality! Better yet, let's do it with a new anthology I've contributed to called Like Twin Stars. New from Circlet Press, this baby brings you bisexual erotic stories from the science fiction realm.

Like Twin Stars: Bisexual Erotic Stories
edited by Cecilia Tan and Kelly Clark

ISBN: 978-1-885865-86-1
Word Count: 20,800

List Price: $2.99

Available from:

• Circlet.com (PDF)
• Amazon Kindle Store
• Fictionwise (all formats)
• All Romance eBooks (epub, prc, pdf, HTML)
• Smashwords (mobi, LRF, epub, pdf, HTML)
• Scribd (PDF, epaper, read online)

For the next two weeks the title is on sale at up to 20% off from most partner sites, and right here at Circlet.com, so don’t dawdle, download a copy today!

From the publisher of Best Bisexual Erotica and the leader in erotic sf/fantasy, Circlet Press, comes LIKE TWIN STARS, collecting three hot stories exploring bisexuality through a fantastical lens. According to Scientific American, bisexual behavior is common in over 1500 species of animals on Earth, including humans, for whom it has greater social and personal consequences than it does for penguins, baboons, or garter snakes. Through worlds of fantasy, we can explore the erotic and social possibilities for a bisexual identity only available in flights of the imagination. Visit a tribal society where the men “dance” with each other in order to attract wives, a fantasy world where sexuality is only awakened by the visit of a succubus or incubus, and a future where the intersex characteristics in fish and other species caused by environmental changes in our day and age finally begin to present in human beings.

Includes:
The Dancer’s War by N.K. Jemisin
Incubus, Succubus by Neil Hudson
The Travesties by Giselle Renarde

My story is called The Travesties, and I'd like to tell you a bit about it:

After hormonal pollution of major waterways goes unchecked for decades, a genome variance generates a new breed of humans. The Travesties, as sensationalist media and medical professionals dub them, experience gender as fluid, not only mentally and emotionally but also physically. Their bodies are capable of changing form at will, from masculine to feminine and back again. In a world that accepts only the black and white states of male and female, the Travesties are feared as a dangerous new race.

Compassionate clinician Sebastian Savant is distressed by the unapologetic denigration the Travesties face. When he meets Cam/ille, a Travesty patient at his hospital, he soon discovers her attending physician isn’t as sympathetic as she appears. Can Sebastian help Cam/ille escape a scientific community that sees her unique body as a hazard to society?

If I'm honest, I'll admit The Travesties is the first story I've ever written that my Sweet actually jumped out of her seat over. She's a S/F nut, so I'm glad my initial venture into the sci fi realm pleased her so.

So, get yourself a copy of Like Twin Stars new from Circlet Press and have yourself a happy belated Bisexuality Day!

Big Hugs!
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

Quick Six Interview with Barrie Abalard

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Did I Forget to Mention AUTUMN 2009 is here?

A new season is upon us, and that means there's a new eXcessica anthology on the market! That's right, my friends...Four Seasons: Autumn 2009 is here!

The autumn weather might be cooling things off, but you won’t need that sweater – we promise our erotica will warm you up! This time of year involves metamorphosis, from the changing of the fall colors to the places between, where the world wears thin and the strange and unusual happens. Join your favorite eXcessica authors in this sexy, sometimes spooky, seasonal anthology, bringing you the best of all things autumn!

Includes stories by Marshall Ian Key, Vivian Vincent, J.M. Snyder, Amicus, Varian Krylov, Giselle Renarde, Kenn Dahll, Sandra Fowke, Molly Wens, and Reno MacLeod and Jaye Valentine.

As you can see, my name's up there. My contribution to this baby is an Audrey & Lawrence story called "Nuit Blanche." My story will appeal especially to my fellow Torontonians, as it takes place at Nuit Blanche, our all-night contemporary art thing. Perhaps you'll recall some of the exhibitions mentioned. Remember lying on your back on Trinity College's Rugby fields to stare up at the String of Diamonds? Remember the stuffed beaver at the AGO's End of Party Party? I've never gotten so sweaty to Abba! Did you reveal all at the Secular Confessional? Did Audrey and Lawrence? Find out what they got up to while you were waiting in that huge lineup for The Ghost Station.

There's a little something for everyone in this antho, and you can get yours from eXcessica!

Big Hugs,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

Support LGBT Youth in 2009

How can erotica support LGBT youth?

With your help, of course!

For the second year running, between September 15th and December 15th, all proceeds from each and every purchase of GISELLE RENARDE EROTICA through the eXcessica website will be donated to the Lesbian Gay Bi Trans YOUTHLINE!


LGBT YOUTHLINE provides queer-positive, non-judgmental peer support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, 2-spirit, queer and questioning youth. LGBT YOUTHLINE offers free services through its toll-free phone number, by email and instant messenger. To find out more about this organization, visit their website.

Please join me in raising funds to help LGBT YOUTHLINE expand its services and continue providing an open ear and an open mind to queer youth. All you have to do is visit eXcessica.com and purchase a copy of THE BIRTHDAY GIFT, TANGLED ROOTS, KANDINSKY'S SHIRT BUTTON, or CUNNING LITTLE VIXENS by Giselle Renarde before midnight on December 15th 2009. After Paypal takes its thirty-nine cents or so, every penny from the sale will go to support this righteous cause.

Last year, so many of you offered your support. Let's raise even more money in 2009. Together, we can ensure LGBT youth are supported through times of trial and triumph.

Bright Blessings,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!
www.freewebs.com/gisellerenarde/

My Grandma Knows All the Guys

The other day I was sitting in the car with my mother and my grandmother—three generations of women all in one Ford Taurus—when I pulled out a book to read. It’s not that I’m anti-social, only that they were talking about people I didn’t know and…I don’t know…sometimes when we’re with family we regress and behave like children all over again.

Anyway, I took out my book and grandma asked, “What’s that you’re reading?” An expression of curiosity and the fact that she can hardly see anymore.

I said, “It’s a book written by a trans man—a female-to-male transsexual—about his transition from living as a woman to living as a man.”

My grandmother hit at my fingers and said, “Yes, I know what a transsexual is, thank you! What’s his name? Maybe I know him. I know a few.”

As my grandmother spoke, I thought to myself, I wish Sweet were here right now to hear this! My girlfriend Sweet, herself a trans woman, is scared of…everything? Well, maybe not everything, but she’s very cautious about who gets to know what about her gender expression. That’s because she’s convinced everybody outside the trans community will judge her harshly, or simply not understand where she’s coming from.

Sweet would never have conceived that an 80-year-old grandmother chosen at random from my genetic pool might have a first-hand association with (and acceptance of) the trans community.

That’ll show you, babygirl!

It showed me too, I must admit. I always knew how accepting my grandmother was of ethnic diversity and the gay and lesbian population, but it wouldn’t have occurred to me that she would know people who are transgender. What I very often hear from people who are advocates of women’s rights and gay and lesbian rights is, “I have nothing against transgender people, I just don’t know anything about them.” That’s the most I thought I could expect of my grandmother.

I guess I’ve still got a lot to learn about grandma.

Cheers,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

FREE READ! Weekly Specials. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

OoOooh...Giselle gots a treat fer y'alls!

I really like this one.

I wrote a poem--something I do every so often--using nothing but terms from the escort ads in the back section of a free weekly newspaper. It's called Weekly Specials. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

It's up today at Oysters & Chocolate , free to read, so I invite all you darlings to take a look. It already has a 5-star rating, but the more 5's the better (nudge nudge).

Big Hugs!!!
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

Quick Six Interview with J L Dillard

Quick Six Interview with J L Dillard

1. Happy Monday! Would you be so kind as to tell us what type of stories you write?

JLD: I am a GBLT fiction writer. Focusing on the dramatic world of passionate romance, love, sex, power and money, and drama.

2. What are you reading right now?

JLD: I'm currently reading Honeymoon by James Patterson

3. I hear music in the background…what’s playing?

JLD: Aretha Franklin

4. Do you have a favourite naughty word?

JLD: Not really

5. Is there a word or phrase that absolutely makes you cringe?

JLD: Absolutely - the four letter word beginning with C and ending with T with UN in the middle. That is such a vial word, although one of my characters used it in my latest novel I'm editing.

6. Be honest: What are you snacking on?

JLD: At the moment, nothing but I would love a Swiss Cake Roll.

Promo time! Flog your wares. Any exciting new releases? How can readers find out more about you and your work?

JLD: Yes, there are two new exciting releases coming out, which will be available December 2009 and January 2010. My readers can find out more about J L Dillard at http://jldillard1.webs.com and you can follow me on social networking sites at www.twitter.com/jldillard, and www.myspace.com/jldillard1. I'm also on Facebook under Jl Dillard.

Thanks for the interview!

Giselle

Let's Talk About Rejection, Baby!

Remember Salt n Pepa’s 1991 hit song Let’s Talk About Sex? It’s a blast from the past, I know. I was in the kitchen stirring up some grape jell-o just a minute ago, when I had a memory surrounding that song:

I was sitting in the car with my cousin and my parents. I guess I would have been in my early teens at the time. Let’s Talk About Sex came on the radio and I just froze. I felt so uncomfortable hearing not just the word SEX in the car with my parents, but a whole SONG about sex, that I didn’t even want to breathe. I didn’t want them acknowledging the content or talking to me about sex or asking me what I knew on the topic. I just wanted the music to STOP!

My much bolder cousin spoke up right away. “Did you know this song is about having safe sex?” she asked my parents. They mumbled some response and she went on, “Yeah, it’s really good because it tells girls to talk about sex instead of just doing whatever guys want. It says people are going to have sex whether we talk about it or not, so it’s better to talk about it.”

Great advice out of the mouths of babes.

It occurred to me, as I stirred my jell-o, that I still get that same lung-freezing reaction to—no, not sex—rejection. As a writer, I see a lot of it. Don’t we all? And yet, do we talk about it? Those of us like my bold cousin and her paraphrasing of Salt n Pepa lyrics can handle discussing it in an open forum, but me? Even as I write this, I feel a little short of breath.

Writers, like actors and other artists, face a hell of a lot of rejection. More so than people in many other professions because we are constantly putting our art and our souls on the lines and because the arts is very subjective territory. An actor can easily go into an audition only to be told by the director, “Yes, you read well, you look the part, you have talent and experience, but…hmm…I don’t know what it is. You’re just not quite right.”

It’s like that for writers too. There are so many intangibles at play. How many times have I read the word, “I really like this piece, but it’s not quite right for this collection.” Much of the time, we never quite know why our work is rejected. It just is. You deal with it and move on.

Ideally.

But the human psyche isn’t that easy to contend with, is it? We get a rejection email or two and think, “Oh. Okay. That’s too bad, but I’ll just place it elsewhere.” We get the next couple and think, “Oh. Damn it. I had high hopes for that one.” We get another few and we think, “What is going on here? I guess my work just sucks. I thought it was good, but it obviously sucks.”

Rejection is a huge part of a writer’s career, but it gets us into a cycle of negative self-talk. Yes, I know that’s a pop psychology term, but it’s useful here. Even if we don’t notice it there, a little voice at the pack of our psyches starts asking, “Why even bother?” We try to write and this destructive force says, “This story sucks,” so we get up, grab a bag of chips and plop ourselves in front of the TV instead.

I would fathom to guess most writers see more rejections or non-responses than acceptances, and yet what do we blog about? Our successes. What do we send out emails regarding? Our new releases.

Am I saying we shouldn’t be proud of our successes? Not at all. It’s wonderful to feel elated about a new release. All I’m saying is the elations doesn’t kill that dark little voice that likes to tell us it’s all pointless. The voice might go into hiding for a while, but the next rejection letter will bring it back out and it’ll be stronger than ever.

That’s why I’ve chosen rejection as a blog topic today. I see a lot of rejection. We all do. Why do we hide it? Why are we so ashamed? Well, we can blame Western Culture, even if that does seem like a bit of a cop-out. Our culture rewards successes and punishes failures…so why the hell would we admit to rejection? Why? Because rejection is something we share. If we sweep it under the rug, the rug will come alive and slaughter us like an evil robot. Really, it will. So let’s stop the public pretence. It might be good for marketing, but it’s bad for our psyches.

Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

Quick Six Interview with Willsin Rowe

Quick Six

Interview with Willsin Rowe

1. Hi Willsin! Would you be so kind as to tell us what type of stories you write?

Mainly urban contemporary erotica. While I often have romantic elements in my stories, they’re rarely classifiable as erotic romance. I like the idea of a pained yet poignant ending. Which isn’t to say there’s never gonna be a Happily Ever After.

2. What are you reading right now?

Oh dear, how clichéd! “Delta of Venus” by Anais Nin. Next up is a book called “Affection”, which is a novel-length sexual memoir by a local author called Krissy Kneen, whom I’ve actually met! Oh, ‘local’ to me is Brisbane, Australia.

3. I hear music in the background…what’s playing?

Usually it’s Tom Waits, Big Country or The Pixies, but occasionally it’s my own band too. I’ve been known to wig out to really cheesy stuff on occasion. I often sing “Agadoo” to people and replace the titular word with their name. If my band reads this I’m dead.

4. Do you have a favourite naughty word?

I love using the word “buttocks” as an expletive. And “boobies” is such a wonderful word (“tits” is far too sharp a word to describe something so round). And “knob” is great, too. Having said all that, though, it would be very rare to see any of those words in any of my stories. I find the really dirty ones are far more useful in erotica.

5. Is there a word or phrase that absolutely makes you cringe?

90% of every one of my first drafts. Also, in children’s books, the overuse of “Just then”, as in “Timmy stumbled slowly down to the liquor store. Just then a steamroller whooshed past and severed his toes...”. And there’s one other, one which I particularly hate: finishing a chapter with “And then it happened!”

6. Be honest: What are you snacking on?

Choc-chip biscuits (oh, all right: cookies) and orange cake. Ooh, and chocolate peanut slab! All home-made! Not necessarily by me!

Promo time! Flog your wares. Any exciting new releases? How can readers find out more about you and your work?

November 9th will see the publication by eXcessica of my first e-book in over 2 years (since my original publisher closed down). http://excessica.com/index.php/search-by-author/willsin-rowe/ “The Three-Day Hump” is a story of lust, obsession and sexual addiction. I’ve been warned that readers (especially women) may be turned off by the inclusion of the word ‘Hump” in the title, and I get that. Guilty as charged, your honour. I’m quietly hopeful that some will realise I’m referring more to the urban myth about beating addiction, that you need to get over the three-day hump to have any hope of a cure. I also have a Christmas story coming out, and that’s with eXcessica as well. That little piece is called “Hunger” and it’s still in the editing process. More juicy bits can be found at www.myspace.com/willsinrowe . I’m also on Facebook, under one of my other personalities, Log Dawkins...that’s Burnin’ Log to you, ma’am.

Where to begin, where to begin? With tits, I think. Tits can be sharp. I like them round, but sharp works for me too. In fact, I'm really not picky on the shape. I don't even mind if they're imaginary. My girlfriend's are just two water balloons and that's good enough for me.

I absolutely agree about first drafts. I encourage myself to believe I was drunk when I wrote each and every one of them, despite the fact that I very rarely drink. I must be extremely prolific when I do...yes, that's it...I'm sure of it.

Pained but poignant? I agree there too. Read my article on Unrequited Love at Oysters & Chocolate. That's not my typo on the site, by the way. Unrequited love is anything but quiet. There's usually a lot of sobbing that goes along with it.

I feel like I'm writing too much, but it's only because I love Tom Waits. See below.

Also, see above for a hump photo I downloaded a year ago for a reason that's only become clear to me today: to use it in this post.

Thanks for the interview!

Giselle