Showing posts with label Jump or Fall?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jump or Fall?. Show all posts

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Catching up

The new Hungarian cover of the Thrones of Desire anthology :-)




Release Dates:

Cover Him With Darkness has been put back slightly - the official launch date is now 1st November but there will be what they call a soft launch (i.e. the book will actually be for sale) earlier: Amazon listings suggest 14th October.

Fierce Enchantments is set for an e-book release mid-October, with paperbacks to follow late November/ early December.



Fifty Shades of Green:


Fifty Shades of Green is in paperback - Look at my loverly box o' books! I've been sending these review copies out to previously smut-free zones like BBC Gardeners' World and the Royal Horticultural Society. There will be quaking amongst the petunias.



New Anthology:

As Kinky as You Wanna Be is a forthcoming BDSM guide book that addresses practical issues of safety and good etiquette and how not to make your partner run for the hills. It's edited by Shanna Germain and is going to be goddamn brilliant. It also contain some inspirational pieces of fiction, including an excerpt from my story Jump or Fall? which originally appeared in Sweet Love (ed Violet Blue) - the most badly misnamed and mis-marketed erotica/kink anthology ever.

Jump or Fall? is a story I'm particularly proud of - it addresses the issue of responsible sadism in a  kink relationship, and made me nervous to write ... which is usually a good sign. I'm really glad it's getting a second chance.

As Kinky as You Wanna Be will be out in November.

Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Wassup?


Okay, a round-up of what's going on in World of Ashbless:

  • I have seen the final cover art (give or take) for Cover Him With Darkness. And it's okay! (If you knew how hard I fought for "okay" and how goddamn picky and awkward I am, you'd be able to tell how pleased I sound typing this). I will reveal it ... next week!
  • Regarding publication dates for that novel, I haven't been given anything official, but I have to get my marketing questionaire filled in and back to Cleis by March 1st, so I'm guessing April or May 2014.
  • I have been asked to write a horror story (under my other name) for an anthology to be launched at FantasyCon UK next year. Yay! Time to flex the old Grim & Grisly muscles again...
  •  Today I signed a contract for a short story to be written for a Sweetmeats anthology on the theme of "Drenched" - out next year. My story will be called Melusine.
  • An extract from Jump or Fall, one of my fave kinky stories, is to be used (subject to publisher approval) in a non-fiction BDSM project of Shanna Germain's. I think it's still a bit sekrit so I will say no more for the moment...
  • Assuming a break before another angel novel, my next project will be writing a contemporary shortish D/s which will go to Ellora's Cave. I've had this story outline for years and I want to do it... plus I have contractual obligations to fulfil ...

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

Prick up your ears


Protect your ears, people ... there's smut out there!  

Last week I was asked to provide a couple of snippets from Red Grow the Roses for recording by a voice actor. I'll let you know if they ever go up on Youtube as intended ... although to be frank there is nothing more embarrassing for me, as an author, than listening to someone else read my work out loud. I don't know why that is, but I just grit my teeth and cringe!

In the meantime, I recently discovered that there are several audio recordings already available from Audible that include my wicked words:

Cruel Enchantment  - my first short story collection
(sample listener review: "I was distubed by the images this author painted. Therapy might help.")

Alison's Wonderland (ed. Alison Tyler) - includes Gold, On Snow

Frenzy (ed. Alison Tyler) - includes Pirate Treasure 

Sweet Love (ed. Violet Blue) - includes Jump or Fall?

Best Women's Erotica 2011 (ed. Violet Blue) - includes Abigail's Ice Cream

The Handsome Prince (ed. Neil Plakcy) - includes Reckless

Happy listening!

Monday, 22 November 2010

Eyecandy Monday - and Cleis Press special offer!


Have you noticed how many books Cleis Press have been announcing lately? They've upped their production to 48 titles for 2011. More books! More lovely dirty stories!

To celebrate this they've announced a 20% discount on all books bought through their Cleis website and Viva Editions (non-smut). Click here for details - you need to enter a code when ordering. This offer is good through 31st December, which means you can buy pressies for friends - or spend your Xmas money from Auntie Edna in a way she would not approve of, heh heh.

Buying direct from the publisher, btw, means a lot more money going to them than if you buy through, say, Amazon instead. And more money for Cleis means more erotica anthologies in future for me to sub to!
:-)

And just in case you are some sort of wealthy Ashbless completist, my stories appear in the following Cleis collections:

"I" is for Indecent
Playing With Fire: taboo erotica
Frenzy: 60 stories of sudden sex
Best Women's Erotica 2009
Sweet Love: erotic fantasies for couples
Fairy Tale Lust
Best Women's Erotica 2011
Best Bondage Erotica 2011
Carnal Machines: steampunk erotica  (pre-order only)

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Sweet Love: great news


Whoop! - the Sweet Love anthology has won GOLD PRIZE at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, for BEST EROTICA COLLECTION 2010! Champagne and spankings all round, guys!

And just to ice the celebration cake, it is now on sale in the UK.  In fact it's not officially out until tomorrow, but Amazon is shipping it already and there's only a single copy left in stock at time of writing ... though more on the way so, like, don't panic, Brits.

Sweet Love: an anthology of couples trying some very kinky, scary, sexy things, edited by Violet Blue. My story Jump or Fall?: ideal for people who like sexy gymnnasts, first-time nerves, and dangerous secrets.

There's a review of the anthology over on Erotica Revealed, and it singles out Jump or Fall? for special mention:

"In another exceptional story, "Jump or Fall?" by Janine Ashbless, the female narrator is far from bored with her fellow-performer in an acrobatics act. On the contrary, she finds him intriguingly hard to read:       

Blayne is a locked box and I don't have the key.
Izzy the narrator pushes Blayne for a closer relationship until he tries to warn her away from him:

He grins without any amusement.  "There's this thing I do. It's. . . a part of my life. It doesn't come as an optional extra. And it's not something you'd be at all happy with."
Izzy is still intrigued. She can't be sure she would enjoy the same kinks that Blayne can't live without, but she also knows she is interested enough to "jump" into a new act which enables her to discover a side of herself she has been afraid to acknowledge. These two characters seem made for each other, and their performances together are integral to their relationship."

Wohoo! I'm in an award-winning collection! And Violet included me in her list of "legendary erotica heavy-hitters," - lol!
(Don't worry, I'm not taking that seriously.)

Buy at Amazon US : Buy at Amazon UK

Friday, 9 April 2010

Sweet Love - more details



Wheee! ... my contributor copies of the Sweet Love anthology have arrived, so I can tell you the complete lineup (I spent a lot of yesterday reading it, btw, when I should have been doing other things, like making my dinner, and sleeping):

  • Clearing the Air - Thomas Roche
  • Jump or Fall? - Janine Ashbless
  • Five Senses - N.T. Morley
  • Her Turn - D.L. King
  • Storming the Castle - Andrea Dale
  • (S)pan(k)cakes - Kristina Wright
  • Clothes Make the Man - Emilie Paris
  • Playing Rough - Kat Black
  • Searching for Her - Kay Jaybee
  • A Week and a Whip - Alison Wonderland
  • A Little Push - Felix D'Angelo
  • Dishpan Hands - Jan Darby
  • My Turn - Jude Mason
  • Do You See What I feel? - Theresa Noelle Roberts
  • Better Bent than Broken - Amanda Fox
  • Safe - Vanessa Vaughn
  • Bachelor's Dessert - Alison Tyler
  • Extreme Dogging - Dylan Reed
  • A Guy She's Never Met - Zach Addams

Nineteen tales of loving couples breaking out of the rut and trying out their kinkiest fantasies.  Kristina Wright's fantastic little spanking story even includes a recipe for the pancakes, lol!

In her foreword Violet Blue introduces all the stories. Her teaser for mine is: "Renowned and compelling author Janine Ashbless takes us backstage in a daredevil act where the layered characters draw us in and make us hold out breaths, as we anticipate what will happen if they "Jump or Fall" into their greatest sexual fantasies, and possibly love."

Sweet words! I posted a short excerpt from this story a few weeks ago. If you're interested, there is now a new page of notes on this story up on my website (scroll down the huge main page to the short stories section at the bottom to find the link) where I reveal and discuss Blayne's secret. And you can watch Violet Blue's own trailer for Sweet Love at the top of this post. Book Trailers are a cool idea!

It's out on sale now from Amazon US - UK readers still have to wait until May, I'm afraid.

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Sweet Love is on sale


Waah - that took me by surprise. Sweet Love, the new short story anthology edited by Violet Blue, was originally scheduled to come out in April. But it's up there on Amazon US as of this week!

(Sorry - not due out in the UK until May, still ... though you can order it direct from Cleis Press, and they ship worldwide.)

The theme of Sweet Love is happy horny couples who explore their darker wilder fantasies together - threesomes, spankings, exhibitionism etc. So if you like a your hot fictional sex to be sweetened with a little love then this is the anthology for you. My own contribution, Jump or Fall? is about Izzy, performance artist and gymnast, who is crazy-in-love with Blayne and thinks he might ... might ... be just as interested in her. They're really close. They work together. They flirt. But he's holding back: he has a secret. Izzy is determined to find out what - and when she finally does, it is so frightening that she hardly knows how to react.

Let me tell you, this was a scary story for me to write too. I was dealing with a theme I was not at ease with, and exploring my own fears and doubts as well as arousal. I also thought I might be overstepping my right to comment on the subject. But when Violet Blue said she "really, really loved it," I could breathe again.

Here's an excerpt:




‘It won’t work.’
  
‘I know something that thinks it will.’ I’ve already burned my bridges. ‘This big hard cock of yours thinks we’ll do just fine together, doesn’t it?’ I press against him to make my point, and he certainly makes his, right in the wall of my belly. My cunt flutters greedily. He shifts his hips, his eyes darkening. He’s holding my hand really tight.
  
‘Believe me,’ he says hoarsely, ‘it’ll not work out right between us.’
    
‘Based on what?’
    
‘Experience.’
    
‘Then just fuck me,’ I whisper. ‘I’m a big girl, you know: I can handle a one-night-stand without going off the rails.’ I’m not playing fair either, pulling his hand from my bare shoulder down to cup the orb of my breast. He thumbs my nipple instinctively, sending electric flashes through my skin, and I moan.
    
‘Izzy...’ He sounds desperate, but he doesn’t break. There’s something weird going on here.
      
‘Are you scared you’ll hurt me?’
    
Something flickers in his eyes. ‘Far from it.’
    
‘Then what’s the problem?’
    
He drags his hand from my tit and secures both of mine against his chest where I can’t do anything naughty with them. I lean into him instead, my thighs burning against his. ‘Izzy, I have this thing...’
    
‘I know. I can feel it.’
   
 He grins without any amusement. ‘There’s this thing I do. It’s ... a part of my life. It doesn’t come as an optional extra. And it’s not something you’d be at all happy with.’
    
‘What?’ For the first time doubt seeps into me. ‘This is a sex thing, is it?’
    
‘Yeah.’
    
‘Oh god. Is it something illegal?’
    
He shakes his head. ‘No – Consenting human adults only. I promise.’
    
‘But you think I’ll freak out?’
    
‘It’s ... difficult to understand.’
    
‘So you’re kinky.’ I swallow, trying to be blase. ‘I can handle that. I’m not a prude.’
    
He pulls a face: disbelief.
    
‘What is it? You like to wear women’s underwear? Lick feet? Ah – it’s not nappies is it?’
    
He laughs, and then shakes his head.
    
‘Then what? What’s so bad I won’t even be able to work with you?’
    
‘Can’t we just leave it?’
    
‘Too late for that.’
    
He shuts his eyes for a moment. He doesn’t take a deep breath, but I feel something in the twitch of his muscles. I recognise it: the moment you decide to jump.




Buy at Amazon US : Buy at Cleis Press : Pre-order from Amazon UK

Friday, 30 October 2009

Jump or Fall?



This is sweet. Very very sweet. I am absolutely delighted to announce that my short story Jump or Fall?  has been chosen for inclusion in the mega-awesome Violet Blue's forthcoming erotica collection Sweet Love, due out in April 2010 from Cleis Press. A follow-up to her Sweet Life collections, this again is themed around loving couples exploring their wilder fantasies. D'you think that sounds soppy and vanilla? - Uh uh: this is Violet Blue, man! And one of my stories. There's nothing vanilla about Jump or Fall? I promise, though yes the couple are in love. Wildly in love. It's just there's this hair-raising issue standing between them and fulfilment...

Here's the official blurb for the book:
Looking to keep the heat? In Sweet Love, sex educator and bestselling author Violet Blue creates a world of lusty and in-love couples who live out their fantasies with fantastic results. She has an eye for talent and only allows the very best erotica in her anthologies: well written, truly sensual, and always with a sexy surprise. These powerful scenarios are recipes for romance that real couples can read and use as inspiration for memorable and no-holds-barred explorations of their own. The addictive, hot little shorts of this collection will have readers begging for spankings, breathtaking role-playing, exhibitionism, unexpected threesomes, and much, much more. Sweet Love's expertly crafted, explicit stories will really take you there. 

And Violet Blue is going to be guesting on the Oprah show sometime before publication. She may well give it a mention on air. How about that for my brush with fame? I feel giddy!

More details forthcoming as we approach publication...