Tag: Fifty Shades of Grey

50 Shades of Language: What do readers like Lady-Bits to be called?

Published on by Madeline Iva2 Comments

So I have a good friend, Liz Everly, with whom I’m actually starting a new blog called   LADY SMUT.  We were talking about the Fifty Shades of Grey success the other day and she said she thought part of what women liked was not just the erotic but also romantic aspect of the book.  True, I agree I like erotic romance best.  When it’s just sex I get bored at the drop of a hat.  Liz said she also thought that not using the P-word or (for a guy) the C-word was important to a lot of readers.

What do you think? When you read erotic romance does the ‘dirty’ language send you to heaven or make you wince?

I myself realllllllly used to dislike the P-word.  Yet by the time I was through with writing my first erotic romance, I was over it.  The P-word was soft, wasn’t violent sounding…

However, right now, I’m reading LOVER ENSHRINED by J.R. WARD.

(It rocks btw.  I so recommend the The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, starting with DARK LOVER) In this novel, J.R. Ward uses the C-word (again for a guy) but sticks with “her sex” when it comes to women.  Or, should I say, female vampires?  ;>  Yet, man, Ward can go pretty far despite this.  Here’s a quote from page 326 of Lover Enshrined:

“With a growl, he lunged down and put his mouth to her, going right for the heart of her body.

They both cried out.  As her hands speared his hair, he gripped her thighs hard and moved in even further.  She was so warm against his lips, warm and wet, and he made her warmer and wetter as he French-kissed her sex.  While she moaned, instinct overtook them both, paving the way for him to….”

Whew!

What do you think? Should erotic romance authors be dropping P-bombs or not? What about swearing? I saw a quote the other day that just about killed me.  “He’d better stay away, or I’m going to punch him right in his Christmas sweater.”  Loved it! This quote inspired me to think hard about how to use language more creatively and stop being such a potty mouth.

Give a shout out please, — I’m so curious to hear your thoughts.

Meanwhile, if paranormal is not your thing, and if Fifty Shades of Grey is, Liz over on her own blog site is recommending Sylvia Day’s book BARED TO YOU.  Check out what Liz has to say about it here.    And I hope you check both of us out at Lady Smut starting in just a few weeks!

You Know Where To Get the Good Stuff, Right?

Published on by Madeline Iva2 Comments

ImageI have seen so much traffic on my blog from posting about Fifty Shades of Grey and Cosmo’s erotica short story.  It tells me that you wonderful women out there are searching for more erotic romance and erotica reads that will make you tingle and pulse with…imagination.

So, feeling like the older teenage sister whispering to the younger girls — here’s where you can find the good stuff: Ellora’s Cave  & Samhain.  These publishers have gobs of online erotic romance reads, in all kinds of categories.  Let’s zoom around their websites briefly, and see what we can find.

First Ellora’s Cave: you can find many classic erotic romance author’s through the E.C. author’s pages here.

Author’s like Lora Leigh, Joey Hill, Shiloh Walker, etc. Then there are new big authors such as Laurann Dohner.

(I have to confess, I stare at the covers of her books a lot.)

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Ellora’s Cave is the Harlequin of Erotic Romance.  They have well established categories in the same way Harlequin does–only the categories are a bit…naughtier.  For instance, they have historical erotic romances, like those by Samantha Kane who writes for their Legend category. Legend is erotic romances that take place back in history.  Other categories include: Aeon (futuristic), Xanadu (fantasy), Moderne (contemporary),Taboo (BDSM).

They have categories that cover westerns, horror, gay/lesbian, interracial, and of COURSE Twilight which is paranormal vampires, etc.

There’s something for just about everyone at Ellora’s Cave–even their Blush Category for folks who perhaps just aren’t ready to wade into the more explicit sex just yet.

Samhain is much the same, only they can be a bit more lady like in terms of titles and covers.  With Ellora’s Cave (the BAD girls of romance) what you see is what you get.  Titles can be descriptive of the sex in them, which is helpful if you know what I mean. (And I think you do.)  Covers are hot, or cheesy, often both.  I revel in the kind of over-the-top smexy stuff because somehow it makes me feel very comfortable and safe and seems woman friendly.

I also find Samhain’s website is a little more tricky to navigate for me.  Here’s what I’d advice with searching around on Samhain’s website:  Go to their NEW RELEASES page and skim down the left hand side of the menu bar to the very bottom where it says BROWSE BY THEME.  Pay dirt!  You can skim through the various themes: Vampires, Voluptuous, Comedy (I write funny stuff, so I’m into reading this category) OR you can skip straight to Kink/BDSM and RED HOTS!!!  Samhain has great covers and even if it’s not always quite so clear what you’re getting, you can click on a link to get a blurb and an excerpt–same as Ellora’s Cave.

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So get out there and explore! These publishers are the leaders in erotic romance but there are also other great titles published by Loose Id, as well as more primarily print publishers like Berkley Heat, Brava, Aphrodisia, and Spice. Look them up, try them out, pass them around, and create your own summer time sizzle!