by Madeline Moore




Yikes! Is that picture scary or what? Well, Halloween is coming, dear Lust Bites readers, which means two things.

1) Time to get your freak on!

2) Time for the Lust Bites Halloween Giveaway!

This year, we are giving away another massive batch of erotica books, penned by some of the best writers of erotica working today. That's right, penned by Lusties! First Prize is all of the following: Amanda's Young Men, by Madeline Moore, Enchantment by Olivia Knight, Wildwood by Janine Ashbless, Phantasmagoria by Madelynne Ellis, Roping the Wind, by Kate Pearce,Speak Its Name by Erastes,something spooky by Portia da Costa, and the so hot off the press it hasn't been released yet anthology, which features a number of us, Lust At First Bite.

Second and third prizes are copies of Lust At First Bite.



Now, to win this particular contest you must do a little more than comment.
We're looking for spooky submissions of no more than 200 words. It can be anything you like, a wee self-contained short story, a snippet from a longer work, or even a snippet for a book that doesn't exist. Get the picture?



Howl you should! Isn't he handsome? Don't get any fancy ideas about him, because, as you can see, he does not have a human head.

Here are a few examples. The first two come to us courtesy of Olivia Knight. They are excerpts from her novel, The Ten Visions.

Hallow's Eve in the graveyard of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin


They sat in silence as the other members gathered on the lawn
again, each with a glass in hand which one of them refilled.
'Excuse me a moment,' murmured the old man, his hand brushing
her shoulder gently as he stood. She felt a rush of her earlier arousal,
chasing away the sour feeling. Watching him walk towards the circle, she
thought, And why not? Older – but clearly not too old – if his eyes are
anything to go by… The image of him making love to her, slowly and
tenderly, flashed through her head. It was appealing…
'Sarah!' hissed a voice. She sprang around in fright: Jo was
crouched behind the bench. 'Please, you have to believe me, run! While
no-one's looking – trust me, your soul depends on this, keep quiet but run!'




A winter afternoon in Duke Humphrey's Library, in the Bodleian

The rich smell of books, shuffling steps of the librarian, and hissing
scratch of her pencil on paper, mingled with her thoughts. The silvery-grey
pencil lead shone under the glow of the table lamp; the tiny hairs at the
back of her neck teased her nape in the irregular, warm breeze.
'Sarah…'
She spun her head at the soft whisper. No-one was behind her. At
the end of the corridor, she could see the librarian quietly talking to
someone; no doubt a brief sibilance had caught her attention. She resumed
her reading and scratching.
'Sarah…'
She heard it again, hardly a breath but distinctly her name. Her
spine stiffened. The librarian and the other student had left her section;
no-one was in sight. Leaning over her books again, she couldn't move her
eyes from one word to the next. The hairs on her arm stood upright. She
waited.
'Sarah…'

Want more? Here's a snippet from Erastes:



He slid down my body, kissing my shoulder, arm, hip. He drove me wild with his lips, tongue. Teeth.

He murmured words I didn't recognise. "Subclavian, brachiocephalic, palmar, iliac, femoral."

"What's that?" I gasped. I could hardly concentrate on what he was saying because my cock was too interested in what he was doing.

"Arteries," he whispered, his tongue teasing the line of hair from my navel.

I wanted to scream with pleasure. "Are you some kind of medical student?" I gasped. I didn't care. His mouth was doing wonderful things with my balls, sucking them in and out. I couldn't have got any harder.. He could have said he was Lon Chaney at that point and I was sure I wouldn't care.

"No," he purred, "it's just an interest. A hobby." I felt his breath on the super-heated head of my cock and I nearly came from that alone.

"The sweetest of all," he said, "is the dorsal artery…and that's found…here."

Oh I screamed all right. When his teeth went in, I screamed. And screamed.



Over to you now, folks. Write us a scene, no more than 200 words, and maybe you will be treated to a bounty of sexy books, guaranteed to make your blood run....hot.
The contest starts now and will run until November 4. Winners will be announced on November 5.

Picture credits: Our werewolf comes to us courtesy of Chuff.
If you want to see more of his work, contact him at: tiger at wulistudio dot com.

The ghost and man embracing is the cover of Sleeping with Ghosts, the fourth album released by European alternative rock band Placebo in 2003.

Madelynne Ellis photographed the First Prize bounty. Thank you!

Boy Toys

I hope you're all primed and ready for today's post. If you've been following along at Lust Bites, you should be champing at the bit by today.




As long as there've been movies, there've been stories of older women and younger men. Who knows? Maybe even before movies!














'Say, Madeline Moore,' I can almost hear you remarking, 'I know about the cult classic Harold and Maude and everyone knows about Mrs. Robinson, but what's with The Rebound? Coming soon, oh impatient ones, to a theatre near you.

It is worthwhile to note that while all three of the movies pictured here feature the younger man/older woman scenario, not one is truly a cougar tale. By my reckoning, Maude is a free spirit and Mrs. Robinson and whatever the name of CZJ's character is, are a couple of MILFs. Definitions to follow but first a disclaimer: This post was originally intended to highlight my new Black Lace novel, Amanda's Young Men which is a true cougar tale, available in the UK now but not actually buyable in the US/CA until March 31, 2009. So...buy the book if you can, dear readers, and if you're aching for a taste of my story about a cougar and her boys, head over to my blog, http://moremadelinemoore.blogspot.com where I've posted a yummy tidbit featuring Amanda and her first conquest, the adorable Rupert.

I'm in love with my beautiful pictures of boys and I'm gonna use my space today to share them with you. Happy Independence Day to our American friends!

Naked Young Men Playing With Their Balls



My personal experience with boys is not extensive. I was afraid of them when I was younger than them and the same age as them and I remain afraid of them to this day. If you think I'm crazy, consider this - I briefly augmented my income with a stint as a school crossing guard. I dealt with packs of 'em and I feared for my life.



At fifteen, while living in Thailand, my first boyfriends were at least 21. Back in Canada, my first stateside paramour was nineteen to my sixteen, also Asian. As I recall, the four of them looked like this:

:


At the age of 27 I spent my first year in Toronto a free spirit. At that time I enjoyed a beautiful,eager, compliant boy, the perfect boy toy, but as he was 24 to my 27 I hardly think that counts.











Then I got married and after my divorce, hooked up with Felix Baron, the older man, which is a worthy subject for another day.

So, my definitions: Cougars have money as well as opportunity, and are stick thin. They run in packs. Their territory is upscale. They are tanned and wear a lot of jangly bracelets.

Consider the cautionary tale of a male friend of mine: He lost his heart to an older woman, accompanying her everywhere and sharing her bed. When she dumped he was devastated.




Happily, he had the good fortune to fall for one of her friends, which miraculously healed his pain.

And so on. It was only after the fact that he put the pieces together and realized he'd been used by a pack of cougars. His advice? 'Never trust a woman over forty in Doc Martens.' So, at least in Canada, a cougar will often be found wearing Doc Martins.

Now let us consider the MILF. She doesn't have to have a lot of money and doesn't travel in packs. What she does have lots of is time and opportunity and, probably, a rack. Because her territory is wider than that of the cougar she must be extra careful to stay on the right side of the law. I don't care how big his package is, Ma'am, he's got to be 'of age.' You know, like these guys:











When my children were both in school I returned to work. Curiosity got the best of me, so I asked one young man I'd come to know quite well, point blank, 'Am I a MILF?' The answer was 'Yes.' When I asked how so the reply was, 'All that messy eye makeup.' Score one for the working mom.

These days all I can brag about is having the ability to unnerve loutish young men (one at a time, please.) Recently one such animal hit the hood of my car as he passed and shot me a sneer. I granted him my very best, 'Come here baby and I'll make you a man,' bedroom eyes. His jaw dropped to his waistband. Score one for practice makes perfect.



Come to think of it, one day the leader of that horrible pack of roving fourteen year olds yelled (directly into my ear), as he rode his bicycle in the crosswalk, which you are not supposed to do, 'I'm in love with you, Crossing Guard Lady.'




How about you? Have any of my photo babes set your mind to musing? Or have you one of your own? Do tell.

As for me, though the pleasure of deflowering one Jonas 'I'm saving myself for marriage' Brother at a time would tickle my fancy, I admit, the one I'd want most,if I could jump into a time machine, would be Brad Pitt, although I'd make do with Clooney.

'What's the matter with this, Mad?' you ask:



To which I reply, 'Not a lot, to be sure. But what say you to this?'

---

Competition winner!
Madeline Moore's new book (when her author copies arrive) goes to random thinkables- please email telltale [at] primus [dot] ca with your details. To see if you won any previous competitions, check the Competition winners list on the right-hand bar.

---

A Bluffer's Guide to ... Contemporaries

by Madeline Moore

With the beautiful new Black Lace covers came three new lines: paranormals, contemporaries, and historicals. Last Wednesday, Olivia Knight offered a bluffer's guide to paranormals, and today Madeline Moore, (that's me!) will do the same for contemporaries. Next Wednesday, historicals will have their moment in the Lust Bites spotlight.



Top facts:
Black Lace line: contemporaries
Colour: various
Committed Lusties, past and present: Madeline Moore, Lauren Dane, Megan Hart, Portia Da Costa, Madelynne Ellis, Mathilde Madden, Kristina Lloyd, Alison Tyler, Nikki Magennis

In a nutshell:
"Contemporary" means in the here and now. No magic, no fantasy worlds, no Gothic or historical settings, no Oracles no minotaurs no highwaymen no giant scorpions no werewolves no...you get the idea. But! The novels can now take place in any part of the world, not just the UK, as in days gone by. The good news about writing a contemporary novel is, you don't have to create an entire fantasy world from scratch, or conduct anywhere near the kind of research necessary to writing a period piece. The bad news? You're still required to turn in the same word count so if you run out of plot - no extra battle scenes or lessons on the decorum of the times. Whatcha gonna write?




Behind the scenes:
The decree "It has to have a human head" is a no-brainer for this line. Realism is key, except whereas in real life you might lock eyes with a cutie on the elevator and daydream about him later, in the lives of our contemporary erotica heroes and heroines, linked eyes on the elevator leads to quick and dirty sex. But the sex has to matter to the plot, so the guy on the elevator would likely turn out to be a) Her new boss! b) The mysterious stranger who's been tailing her. c) Her lover, with whom she likes to play "stranger in the elevator", etc.




The heroes:
Black Lace is looking for more romance these days, primarily of the heterosexual variety, so yes, you need at least one hero, mixed in with the other men our heroine might sample. This doesn't necessarily dictate that he must be a tall, dark, handsome stranger,but he should probably be a decent bloke underneath it all. Since fate has not decreed that he will end up with our heroine this leaves the writer of contemporaries more wiggle room, but since it's a romance...somehow the ending should be HFN (Happy For Now) if not HEA (Happy Ever After.) Rule to remember: He must be horny; he must not be horn-ed.

The heroines:
She's a modern gal, 100% human, so she likely has some faults as well as a healthy libido. Often she's a looker, but not always, and she's usually under the age of forty. If she's fairly untouched at the beginning there must be a reason why. That one can be a brain twister. If she hasn't just left the convent or a bad marriage, and she's an adult, what's she been doing,sex-wise, all those years? Alternately she could be experienced at sex but jaded by the game. Somehow, whether she knows it or not, she's looking for love. Won't say: "No." Will say: "Yes!"




The best bit about writing contemporaries
• Right now, Black Lace wants erotic contemporary romance novels written by women. So if you're a woman who writes contemporaries you're in luck.
• You really can write what you know. Love fashion? Describe the clothes! Fine dining turn your crank? Use it to turn your reader's crank, too. Harbor a secret yearning to be a card shark, concert pianist or athlete? You may never get there, but she can. Love giving head but scared of anal? She's just like you!
• Fucking is reclassified as research: If what you're writing isn't turning you on, how's it gonna turn on the reader? Your sig oth will love it.
• All the world is your stage, baby. Your friends might not enjoy seeing their sexual peccadilloes published (though mine love it) but hey, it's not like they didn't know you were a writer when they spilled the beans.




The best bit about reading contemporaries
• Possibility! The story takes place on planet earth, in the present day. If it happened to her, it's at least possible it could happen to you.
• Chops! These days, Black Lace is looking for literary erotic romance. When you pick up a BL contemporary novel, you can be sure it's well-written, with a plausible plot and interesting characters. In fact, with the new covers, you could read these books in public without shame. Who knows? Your reading material could spark the initial conversation that just might lead to...
• Sex! Yeah! Lots of it, and not the "rocket into space" or "train hurtling into the tunnel" kind, either. Whether it's kinky, romantic, experimental, vengeful, wild or even wrong, there's gonna be lots of it, it's gonna be well done, and it's gonna be hot.

Top tip: internal logic
Of utmost importance when writing a contemporary novel is the very same rule Olivia Knight offered last week, only doubly so. Within your story, the logic has to be absolute and consistent. In regards to contemporaries I add this: the logic must also be believable. So - yes the plane needs fuel to fly, but no, in a contemporary, the pilot may not be a chicken.






What to say
• "Is this so well written it'll blow the socks off Adam Nevill?"
• "How does this make her feel? What does she think about this?" and, "How can I describe it without starting the sentence with "She felt..." or "She thought..."

What not to say
• "It happened to my friend." Doesn't matter. If it doesn't ring true, the fact that it is true means nothing.
• "My goal in life is to be published and if I have to write about yucky sex to accomplish that goal, then dammit I will!"

Over to you:
• What’s your favourite "contemporary" fantasy?
• Who would you like to see used as the basis for the hero in a contemporary erotic romance?

A note about the covers: I haven't included all the new covers in the body of the post, or even all the new Portia da Costa covers(!), due to space constraints. I chose to use at least one of the new covers of our members, past and present, and all the gala Black Lace 15th anniversary covers I could get my hands on.

I'd like to thank Madelynne Ellis for her technical assistance in the creation of the post. Without her, you wouldn't have this final image to consider as you formulate your comments:

On The 6th Day of Christmas...

...My True Love sent to me:












Six Purring Pussies

Five silver rings

Four bloody men

Three hundred Spartans,

Two detectives dancing,

And a werewolf tied to a tree!

Merry Christmas Everyone! May your pussies always have plenty of cream.
Love from Madeline Moore

Are You A Winner?

Casey
You are the winner of our May Madness competition. You've won a copy of Sex with Strangers!
tetewa
You are the winner of our book giveaway during the Sage Vivant Interview. You've won a copy of Your Erotic Personality!

We need your details to mail out your prizes. Please send your names and addresses to me, Madeline Moore, at mymadmoore@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get these hot-off-the- press books into your hot little hands ASAP.

Lust Bites Interviews Sizzling Sage Vivant

LB: Your name is synonymous with sophisticated, sexy fiction, so it's thrilling to welcome you to Lust Bites, Sage Vivant. We met when you were reading submissions for the anthologies you and M. Christian edited for Thunder's Mouth Press in 2006, but you've been active in erotica for some time. I put it like that because, along with your fiction and your editing, you run Custom Erotica Source, an online writing service. At CES, people order tailor-made erotic tales.
Before we get to that, there's a question I’m dying to ask. When my work was accepted, you communicated with me. When it was rejected, it was by M. Christian. Is he the heavy in the partnership?

SV: Now that’s the most original question I’ve ever been asked in an interview! Chris (M. Christian) isn’t a fan of administrative work or correspondence, so that’s mostly why I dealt with both for those anthologies. Plus, his name is so much better known than mine, I felt it was only right that I do the dirty work to carry my weight! But it’s hysterically funny that anyone would think he would be the heavy. He’s a pussycat.

LB: Isn’t he best known for m/m work? We Lusties are wondering: How did you and he… become partners?

SV: In 2001, a mutual friend – Jamie Joy Gatto – came to San Francisco and tried to cram in as many visits with her cyber-pals as she could. She wanted to see me and M. Christian but didn’t have time for two dinners (Chris and I didn’t know each other), so she invited us to join her for one dinner. But here’s the funny part: I had seen and heard M. Christian’s name but I hadn’t ever read anything by him, so I did some Internet sleuthing and discovered that he wrote a lot of m/m material. “He must be gay,” I assumed, opting not to waste my time on much makeup or particularly sexy clothes for the dinner! Well, lo and behold, he is as straight as they come and we hit it off like gangbusters. We were an item almost instantly and have been together as a romantic couple and a professional team ever since.

LB: Many of us at Lust Bites started writing erotica for our friends and lovers, but who'd have imagined it could become a successful enterprise. How did CES start?

SV: Well, I must clarify that Custom Erotica Source is completely and totally my baby – M. Christian has almost nothing to do with it other than to talk me down from the occasional ledge.
I started the business in 1998 when I wanted to leave my banking career and start writing. I had a fairly high-paying job, so I didn’t relish the prospect of being a penniless scribe. Becoming a novelist, then, was out. I’d always wanted to run a business that provided a real service to people and I had strong feelings about sex-positive approaches to life. Plus, I’d found that when I read erotica I was disappointed. I wanted to provide stories that would be exactly what a given individual wanted to read.
It wasn’t that I thought the erotica on the shelves was bad, it’s just that what turns some people on isn’t what turns other people on.

LB: Do you write a lot of the CES stories yourself? What's the secret to styling the story for readers who also star in the piece?

SV: Up until about six months ago, I wrote 90 percent of the stories myself. I felt (and still feel) that writing to spec expands my repertoire like nothing else. Now, however, I don’t have time to write all the stories (and I was starting to get burned out), so I’m giving more and more of the work to staff writers.

People get an enormous kick out of reading stories that are written about them and/or for them, so my job is made somewhat easier. However, clients can also be tremendously exacting where their sexual fantasies are concerned, so I (and my writers) have to pay incredible attention to every detail the client provides. I often liken the task to being a wedding planner or a psychiatrist – you have to read people very well and you have to put aside your own preferences for those of the client. That’s not easy. It comes down to respecting the clients. If we can manage that, we pretty much always end up pleasing them.

I concentrate on what the requester feels are the positive aspects. A common one, for instance, is larger women. I refer to them as voluptuous and luscious rather than big or oversized – that kind of thing. However, if the client calls such women big or oversized, that’s how I’d characterize them in the story. It’s a matter of how the client sees the characters. How I write them is completely dependent on that.

LB: One of your celebrity writers, Lust Bite’s very own Alison Tyler, said her CES experience was a very pleasant one. She's curious to know if CES has taboos? And what fantasies do people request most?

SV: Alison is so kind – and a pleasure to work with. She and staff writer Bryn Colvin turn stories around faster than any other human beings I know. Same day service! I like having a little roster of “known” names because I think it lends credibility to CES.

CES absolutely has taboos. They’re outlined in the site’s FAQs: Bestiality, incest, under-age characters, and nonconsensual sex. I’ve had to decline some requests, but it seems that most folks understand these taboos and tread carefully around them. I am surprised by how many potential clients write me before placing an order to make sure what they want is something CES will write.

By far the most frequently requested storyline is threesomes and foursomes. Usually in a tropical setting. Men order this fantasy quite often, and women who order stories for their men usually request this fantasy, knowing it will have great appeal!

LB: Erotica seems to be moving rapidly into the supernatural - vampires,
werewolves, fairies, etc.. Are you seeing more requests for those? I wonder if this is reflected in the tastes of your clients.

SV: I get a fair amount of requests for supernatural erotica, but it’s not nearly as popular at CES as it appears to be in bookstores. I’ve had requests for these types of stories since CES began in 1998 and can’t say that the percentage has gone up. About 15 percent of client requests fall into this category.

LB: We're all fascinated with the 'Your Erotic Personality' book. How did you research it?
Which personality are you?

SV: Thank you! My research entailed looking at CES requests and finding trends among the erotic psyches of the requestors. I first categorized the stories then, based on the themes that emerged, I came up with the personality. The book quickly became a kind of self-help book that explains why people gravitate toward certain sexual fantasies, but my primary purpose in writing it was to underscore that differences in erotic triggers are normal, good, and above all, common. In the United States, I feel we are adolescent in our sexual views. Right now, we seem to have downright sophomoric definitions of what’s sexy: you’re either kinky or you’re vanilla. The uber-hip enjoy certain sexual practices, we’re told, and if you don’t like them, then you’re sexually stunted. When I see publishers start erotica lines and all they publish are tales of bondage and discipline, I get angry. Scores of people don’t find s/m remotely sexy, but here are publishing imprints so limited in their sexual views that they can’t think of anything else that might turn people on. The word “fetish” is, in fact, now virtually synonymous with bdsm, and I find that exceptionally narrow-minded. I might take a lot of heat for my views, but I’m getting too old to care, really!
I am a Wanderer and a Show-Off. Come to my website, http://www.sagevivant.com to take the erotic personality mini-quiz or watch the movie. That is, if you don’t want to buy the book!

LB: I know you're excited about your latest venture, Sage's Advice. Lust Bites is all about fiction and so are you, so what the heck is Sage's Advice?

SV: Sage’s Advice will be for Web sites what Custom Erotica Source is for individuals. I’ve had several sites comes to me for content – blog posts, stories, even sexy marketing copy. The time has come to start a separate business targeted to Web sites. M. Christian and I will operate Sage’s Advice together. We plan to launch it sometime in June. We’ve got some writers but are happy to consider more – especially experienced, published writers.

LB: Thanks for zooming into Lust Bites today, Sage. And best of luck to you, and M. Christian, with all your sexy endeavors!

SV: Thanks so much! I’m looking forward to answering questions today. I know they’ll be especially interesting from this group of savvy writers!

LB: We’re giving away one copy of Your Erotic Personality by Sage Vivant. To enter, all you have to do is post a comment. Let the fun begin!