I don't know if I'll be making any more book trailers; I'm in business-minded, money-saving mode, but the part of me that's not that, that's just someone who enjoys creating things, loves making them. So here's one of my favorites...one of my editorial life goals is to make a book whose book trailer I can get onto Amazon. Might have to be non-erotica, but that's on the agenda!
Anyway, I really love the Gotta Have It trailer, and the book itself. I'm proud of myself for trying something new with both. I'm waiting to see if sales pick up (they're good, just not my bestseller). I'd love to do more short shorts, though, having been working on one for a while myself, they are often harder than they look. And as part of my positive thinking agenda, I can say that I'm very proud of this book (all of them, really), regardless of sales. I love working with such a range of international authors and getting to hear the stories read, via video and in person. I'm trying to remind myself every day, especially when an individual story or whatever it is gets challenging that I've met lots of challenges before.
I read about The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice by Todd Berry in a guest post of his, "The Fallacy of Compartmentalization," which I found via Justine Musk and was totally intrigued. Lately, after a long period of dormancy, I'm finding myself filled with creative ideas again, and my ongoing challenge is seeing them through. I revert to seeing the flaws, the failures, or the overwhelmingness of the tasks ahead, and get sidetrack from the high of just using that creative burst to move forward.
From the post (bolding his):
The principle that I’d blown right past in my pursuit of creative invincibility was that each commitment I made, and each project I decided to take on, required something more of me than just my time. Each required my energy. And because I was not being strategic and purposeful about the number and nature of simultaneous commitments I was making, I soon found myself in energy debt. I was creatively inverted and no longer had enough energy to generate the ideas I needed just to keep my head above water.
When you are planning your life, you need to account for every commitment you make in every area.
Official description:
Have better ideas, faster, without the stress and burnout.
It isn't enough to just do your job anymore. In order to thrive in today's marketplace, all of us, regardless of our role, have to be ready to generate brilliant ideas on demand.
Business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to establish effective practices that unleash your creative potential. Born out of his consultancy and his popular podcast, Henry has created a practical method for discovering your personal creative rhythm. He focuses on five key elements:
* Focus: Begin with your end goal in mind. * Relationships: Build stimulating relationships and ideas will follow. * Energy: Manage it as your most valuable resource. * Stimuli: Structure the right "inputs" to maximize creative output. * Hours: Focus on effectiveness, not efficiency. This is a guide for staying inspired and experiencing greater creative productivity than you ever imagined possible.
I found this book while looking up Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge, which I'll be blogging about soon. I bought that yesterday at Comics Dungeon in Seattle (Wallingford). I'd met the author and was interested in the book and am super impressed with it; it's definitely going to be a gift for my cousin who is getting bat mitzvahed this summer. I'm the type who can be sucked in by a book cover, and this one did it for me:
Official description:
Anya could really use a friend. But her new BFF isn’t kidding about the “Forever” part . . .
Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who’s been dead for a century.
Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya’s normal life might actually be worse. She’s embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she’s pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend—even a ghost—is just what she needs.
Or so she thinks.
Spooky, sardonic, and secretly sincere, Anya’s Ghost is a wonderfully entertaining debut from author/artist Vera Brosgol.
Book trailer:
So anyway, I know very little about it but Anya's Ghost looks great (thank you, Amazon, for your customer recommendation pages). Click here to check out a 17-page preview. Here's a little bit from author Vera Brosgol's blog, but do check out that blog post for a more in-depth look at her artistic process:
Anya’s Ghost is my first book. Consequently everything I did was a bit trial and error. Maybe wasn’t the most efficient way to get the job done, but it worked for me.
I didn’t work from a script. When I write the art and the dialogue come at the same time and one suggests the other; it’s really hard for me just to come up with dialogue onto a blank computer page. I try to show more than tell with my comics and that seems to work best starting with thumbnails rather than attempting to get it across in a script. I did work up an outline for the entire story and plotted it out very carefully, but I let each scene form itself in thumbnails with the dialogue being written as I drew. I’ll run you through a process of some sample pages from writing to drawing to final color.
The written word can be an easy and powerful way to transition into more sexual adventure — sort of like storytime for adults. Herbenick says to read erotic stories in bed or text your significant other with a few lines from your favorite story. (Herbenick recommends checking out Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories by Rachel Kramer Bussell for inspiration.) “It may give you ideas to try the next time you have a weekend alone, and at the very least, it can help you explore fantasies and use texting as foreplay.”
I just wanted to alert anyone who's looking for places to send their book trailer to this post on Author Culture. Personally, I highly recommend Blazing Trailers, and you can also post your trailers or other videos on Red Room and SheWrites. I'm working on getting all 8 of my trailers up in one spot on my site, and also making sure they all get viewed as much as they deserve, commensurate with the cost - otherwise there's no point in my continuing to make them. Same could be said for books - I keep thinking about that "if a tree falls in the forest..." saying. Why put out books if I'm not doing everything in my power to make sure they sell?
To that end, I'll post the Gotta Have It trailer again, featuring 17 international authors. And send a little public hope out to the powers that be at Amazon.com that they post the Passion trailer by, I don't know, Valentine's Day. Pretty please? I'm pretty sure it will help your sales too. xoxo, book editor and frequent customer (and for those who don't care, sorry, but it's very frustrating to feel utterly powerless, because you are utterly powerless in a situation like this - a blog isn't exactly power, but it's a voice, and a way to make me feel like I am doing at least a teeny something - we made a separate video specifically for Amazon according to their guidelines and everything)
I'm SO happy with the way this book trailer, my 8th (I'm working on getting them all up on my site in one spot, but the previous trailers have been for Spanked, Do Not Disturb, Peep Show, Fast Girls, Orgasmic, Please, Sir and Passion). Below the trailer I've posted the authors who contributed to it!
Trailer contributors (in order of appearance):
Christen Clifford "After Ten Years"
Giselle Renarde "Meet Me In The Kitchen"
Andrea Dale "Wasn't It Good"
Shanna Germain "Genesis"
Elizabeth Daniels "Dining In The Dark"
Emerald "Suggestion"
Marina Saint "Eat Me"
Jeremy Edwards "No Blame, No Shame"
Heather Lin "Seven-Letter Word"
Kay Jaybee "The Advantage of Working From Home"
Vampirique Dezire "A Forced Witness"
Monocle "Plotter"
Rachel Kramer Bussel "Manners"
Kirsty Logan "Pierced"
Anya Levin "Continuing Education"
Helia Brookes "Over The Line"
Donna George Storey "Anal-yzed"
Trailer by What That Noise Productions.
Here's a screen capture from my iPhone from the Blip version (we used TubeMogul to put it up in as many places as we could):
I like working with publishers, such as Harlequin, Cleis Press and Seal Press, to name three, that publish books I like to read. They all do, and while I don't have time to read everything they publish, I try to keep up and have discovered some amazing authors that way. While Seal always has lots of titles I'm interested in (I'm basically the target audience for Pretty Neat, you know?), what I love about discovering books the most is just that: the discovery. The act of hearing about a book in some fashion, usually through a friend, review, via social media or, in this case, via the publisher, and thinking, Wow, that sounds amazing. Also in this case, thinking, And that is the perfect gift for my marathon-running stepfather.
Second Wind is the story of an unlikely athlete and an unlikely heroine: Cami Ostman, a woman edging toward midlife who decides to take on a challenge that stretches her way outside of her comfort zone. That challenge presents itself when an old friend suggests she go for a run to distract her from the grief of her recent divorce. Excited by the clarity of mind and breathing space running offers her, she keeps it up—albeit slowly. Soon the old friend, Bill, now a romantic interest, invites her to Prague to run a marathon. Little does either of them know that this race will be the first of many international marathons, and that it will ignite a quest to run seven marathons on seven continents.
Up hills and through flash floods, more often alone than with company, Cami forges a path through some of the most exotic places in the world—and into some of the most enlightened, and darkest, places in the psyche. Insightful and uplifting, Second Wind carries the reader along for the ride as Cami runs her way out of compliance with the patriarchal rules about “being a woman” that long held her captive and into authenticity and self-love. Her adventures—and the personal revelations that accompany them—will inspire readers to take chances, find truth in their lives, and learn to listen to the voice inside them that’s been there all along.
I liked the book trailer because she said some things like "You need to find your own authentic pace in life" that transcend running, even though her book is about running. Of course it's about more than that (okay, maybe not "of course," but as an avid memoir reader, there is almost always something more going on that the surface topic).
Check this out...shot in Brooklyn! And Passion: Erotic Romance for Women is out now! I'll have copies for sale and free buttons on Thursday at In The Flesh and at the official Passion reading at Word on November 11th!
Thanks to everyone who participated and helped with the trailer, especially my friend Twanna A. Hines, who blogs at Funky Brown Chick and is in the trailer (and another trailer of mine for those who've seen them all).
Talk about a collection of stories to make you squirm in your seat! Chilly fall night or a quick pick-me-up to get in the mood—this is the one...
First is Third Time’s The Charm by Charlene Teglia. This was my first foray into the world of Ms. Teglia, but it won’t be my last. The heat sizzles in this short little story of confusion and redemption. I loved Nick. He’s not perfect, but he’s honest and from the vision I got from reading the description, he’s yummy. Lynn came across as a bit cranky, but I understood and liked how she grew through the experience. Plus, who said elevator sex isn’t hot?
I also loved No Risk, No Reward by Saskia Walker. What if you had to say goodbye to the one person who made you tick, the one who got you out of yourself? Would you do something crazy? I loved how the narrator pined over the man she loved. It was sweet to read her reminiscing. I felt like I was there in the Land Rover with her, struggling to decide what to do about Cameron. He’s forthright, but it’s good because he takes charge. The ending left me sighing and panting. Yeah, it’s that hot.
And this is the blurb USA Today and Essence bestselling author Kayla Perrin gave me:
"Passion delivers just what you would expect - super hot stories with sex that burns up the pages. Don't miss it!"
Dress by Yumi Kim, lots of the extra goodies like the Pussy Lover teacup by Coco de Mer (no product placement, I bought all those things, because I love both those shops).
Click here to read the introduction and learn more about Orgasmic.
Introduction: Fast Is a (Sexy) State of Mind (see below)
Temptation Kayla Perrin Waxing Eloquent Donna George Storey Five-Minute Porn Star Jacqueline Applebee (listen to this story read by Mia on the I Want Your Sex podcast) Winter, Summer Tristan Taormino Playing the Market Angela Caperton Panther Suzanne V. Slate Communal Saskia Walker Fireworks Lolita Lopez Flash! Andrea Dale Waiting for Beethoven Susie Hara Confessions of a Kinky Shopaholic Jennifer Peters Let’s Dance D. L. King That Girl Cherry Bomb Oz Isabelle Gray Married Life Charlotte Stein Princess Elizabeth Coldwell Chasing Danger Kristina Wright Whore Complex Rachel Kramer Bussel Lessons, Slow and Painful Tess Danesi Speed Bumps Tenille Brown
Introduction: Fast Is a (Sexy) State of Mind
I like the fast girls best/they do whatever they wanna do. —Sarge, “Fast Girls”
I named this book after a song called “Fast Girls” by an indie pop/rock band called Sarge*. That song is a feisty, punk-rock ode to a hot girl who is captivating in all kinds of ways.
I’m sure you know a girl like that. Or a woman. Or a lady. Or a butch. Or a femme. Or…you get the idea. She’s the kind of babe who takes no prisoners, who owns her life and her sexuality and not only doesn’t apologize for them, makes sure you notice her and what she’s all about.
Two definitions of “fast,” according to Merriam-Webster are “wild” or “sexually promiscuous,” and while that is the seed of what I was angling for here, I didn’t just want to read about slut after slut after slut. I wanted to read about women who in some way defy the conventional norms-whatever those are in this day and age. That doesn’t mean being shocking for shock’s sake, but following their passion, seeking out what it is that they need to be truly pleasured.
What I love about these fast girls is that even as they are bold, daring and dynamic, they have a thing or two to learn about sex and themselves.
Consider Susie Hara’s fifty-one-year-old protagonist in “Waiting for Beethoven” as she gets it on with a younger man. In current pop culture terms, she’s the cougar, the aggressive older woman seeking her sexy prey. But she is actually nervous and uncertain, as well as aroused. “And now there was no point in telling him she wasn’t going to come when she could already feel a wave of pleasure rolling inside her, kind of a pre-coming feeling, but different than usual; she couldn’t really tell what was her clit and what were the walls inside her and what was contracting and what was releasing and then she realized she must be coming because her body had taken over and been taken over in this luscious finger symphony so she just gave in,” writes Hara, in a description of female orgasm that I think will be familiar to many.
In this book, fast is as much a state of mind as a state of motion. It’s not about trying to slut it up to impress anyone, but about finding what works for you. I was intrigued to find that playing with prostitution, or whoring, came up as a theme in many submissions, as did threesomes with one woman and two men. It makes sense that fast would be associated with women who mix cash and sex, as happens in Angela Caperton’s “Playing the Market,” where the new economy mixes with the world’s oldest profession. In my “Whore Complex,” whoredom is more a state of mind, a go-to fantasy that leaps from the bounds of dirty talk to real life with some unusual consequences. There’s also exhibitionism, such as in Jacqueline Applebee’s “Five-Minute Porn Star,” and submission--there’s a lot of very hot female submission and BDSM play in this book.
These girls are fast when they want to be…and slow at other times. They want to crack their lovers’ secret codes, find out what makes them tick, as happens in Charlotte Stein’s “Married Life.” I like this story because the wife is not just passively accepting her humdrum sex life, but she doesn’t want to have an affair or get a divorce. She wants her husband, the man she loves, but she wants him openly, honestly, freely and when they both give a little of themselves and bravely bare their souls, they find true happiness.
These girls don’t give it up for just anyone. Even the ones who get around have a reason for choosing their lovers, and it’s those reasons, those images, that resonate with me. Here’s Tristan Taormino in “Winter, Summer,” rhapsodizing about the woman she’s about to seduce (or perhaps, who’s about to seduce her is more accurate):
She’s the boy I have dreamed about and jerked off to too many times to count. The one who won’t leave my fantasies, who cruises me in my bedroom, who seduced me months ago in another lifetime with her voice, who plays pool and drinks beer, who grabs my ass in crowded bars just to fuck with my boundaries and catch me off guard, who makes my brain get wet and my pussy explode.
Exactly. Though there are women on the prowl here, women who go after younger men, women who pounce, women who pursue, there are others who are excited about being the object of another’s affection, lust and desire. For them, being fast means courting the man or woman (or more than one person) they are searching for.
These fast girls speak to me on many levels. I admire them, respect them, marvel at them, raise my eyebrows at them, want them. But most of all, I’m excited that they’ve broken free of whatever messages we all receive about how a woman is “supposed” to act and instead they are bent on acting however they damn well please. And that’s my personal definition of a fast, not to mention foxy, girl.
