Reading Romances is celebrating their birthday with a blog hop/giveaway, and one of those stops is right here.  A copy of my MMF paranormal time travel romance Bannockburn Binding is up for grabs.  All you have to do is email me and tell me the full names of the heroes and heroines.

Contest closes at Midnight EST on March 28th, and the winner will be announced on March 29th, the birthday of Reading Romances.

Don’t forget to also check out all the other blog hop giveaway sites, and their contests, too.

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As an author, I’ve found the phenomenal success of the “vanilla BDSM” novella, Fifty Shades of Grey, at times either bewildering, astonishing, or encouraging.  At all times I have been curious to know why that book, rather than the staggering number of erotic romances — including some very good BDSM novels written by actual members of the BDSM community — that have graced the e-shelves for nearly ten years.

But if the publishing industry had ever figured out why one book breaks through to the top of a best seller list and not others, then it would have been able to ensure every authors’ income for the five hundred years since moveable type was invented.

The great thing about the success of Fifty Shades of Grey is that like Twilight and Harry Potter before it, it will open the general reading population’s minds and tastebuds to erotic romance, like Twilight and Harry taught everyone to gobble up anything to do with the paranormal.  Not everyone will find the BDSM in Fifty to their taste:  You are either hardwired for pain/pleasure or you aren’t.  But readers may turn to the other erotic elements in the novel as more appealing if the BDSM doesn’t do it for them.

And erotic romance will find a massive, new audience.  A mainstream one.

There’s plenty of titles for them to explore.  Thanks to ebooks, where erotic romance first found traction, there’s nearly fifteen years of titles still “in print,” and available, that have never left the virtual shelves.

But…some of those really early titles are likely to be disappointing, if these new readers are looking for hot, like hot hot, because the earlier titles aren’t as hot as what’s being produced today.

Romances in general are getting spicier by the year, to the point where what was once considered erotic, even ten years ago, is today’s average romance novel.

Consider this sliding scale.  If this is what was “hot” back in 2000:

I published my first erotic romance in 2003, and it was considered an averagely hot romance novel.  The hottest novels were really pushing the envelope, dealing with (gasp!) anal sex — Lora Leigh’s infamous hot August Brothers series were flying off the shelves at this time, for example.

Around 2003/4 erotic romance exploded all over the romance industry and really broke through in mainstream romance readers’ consciousness — but only within the romance industry for now — thanks to TV series like Sex and the City.  And suddenly everyone was writing erotic romance, or publishing it.  And everyone was clamouring for hot, hotter, hottest.

Spin through the years to 2012 as the envelope for “hot” got pushed harder and harder.  And here we sit:

What the romance industry considers “erotic romance” has shifted far to the right.  Just graphic sex won’t do it anymore.  Two years ago, Ellora’s Cave set the standard with its authors that all sex scenes had to include some sort of anal penetration of the heroine in order to be considered acceptably hot enough for Ellora’s Cave, which meant that standard MF sex had fallen off the radar as “erotic romance” as far as Ellora’s Cave were concerned, and tumbled into the merely “sensual romance” domain, regardless of how graphically it was described.

On the other hand, publishers of what used to be considered non-erotic romances have been steadily pushing their standards to meet reader demands, and now what they are releasing looks a lot like what was first being produced as erotic romance ten or twelve years ago, but is now labelled merely as “spicy romances”…and is, according to today’s standards.  Yet there are erotic romance publishers out there releasing exactly the same sort of novels, but under the “erotic romance” label.

This year, The Romance Studio did away with their “Erotic” category altogether in their CAPAs (Cupid and Psyche Awards), and combined the categories together.  There is no longer, for example, a CAPA for Best Erotic Paranormal and a separate one for Best Paranormal.  There is just a single CAPA for Best Paranormal.  This is a telling statement from one of the most influential review houses in the romance industry.  They clearly consider the erotic distinction to be no longer useful when romances in general have shifted ground so much to include elements of erotic romance.

In the next few years, as erotic romance boundaries keep sliding, I believe that erotic romances will shift completely to the right and become a highly specialized, tiny (but not as tiny as it used to be thanks to books like Fifty Shades of Grey) niche market catering to select readers with exotic tastes: BDSM, extreme sexual situations, and more.  The rest of us will enjoy our romances with frank open-door sex, menage, MMF and more, but it will all be one market again:  Romances.

Then we’ll be left with the pleasureable problem of sorting out which romances we want to read, out of the thousands now hitting the market each month, instead of the merely hundreds it used to be.

It’s a tough ol’ world…

___________________________

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Stop #5 of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.

I’m visiting Fang-Tastic Books, and yes, I’m talking about the undead again.  Given the blog’s raison d’être *is* the fanged ones, it seemed only appropriate to use them as my subject again.  The topic this time?  “Don’t Like Apple?  Switch to DOS and Become a Vampire.”  Obscure, huh? :)   Trust me, it all makes sense once you read the post.

There’s also another never-before seen excerpt (unless you’ve bought the book, but that doesn’t count), so do stop in and say hello.  And yes, I’m giving away books, still.

____________

Bannockburn Binding - Tracy

Blood Knot by Tracy Cooper-Posey

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Stop #4 of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.   Today I’m at Vampire Romance Books where I’m spilling my guts about what terrible pilots vampires make, in “Vampires…Natural Space Travellers?”

Swing by for an excerpt that hasn’t been seen anywhere else, and drop a line saying hello. I’m giving away a copy of Blood Knot today, too!

____________

Also, Bannockburn Binding is out in print on Amazon, now, too!

Bannockburn Binding - Tracy

Blood Knot by Tracy Cooper-Posey

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Stop #3 of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.  Romancing the Darkside are hosting me today.

Swing by for an excerpt that hasn’t been seen anywhere else, and drop a line saying hello. I’m giving away a copy of Blood Knot today, too!

____________

Also, a brief housekeeping note, because I’m so squeezed for posts over the next few weeks, this is the only place I can get it in.  Recently, I did a big Spring clean up of the categorized links in the sidebar, updating them according to the criteria — they were getting a bit out of date.  There’s quite a few new entries, too.

Have a browse.

Bannockburn Binding - Tracy

Blood Knot by Tracy Cooper-Posey

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I’m at The Bookish Snob today for the next stop of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.

Stop by to say hello and another chance to win a copy of Blood Knot.  I’m talking about why time travel romances wouldn’t work out in real life.

See you there!

Tracy

Bannockburn Binding - Tracy

Blood Knot by Tracy Cooper-Posey

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Swing by for an excerpt that hasn’t been seen anywhere else, and drop a line saying hello.  I’m giving away a copy of Blood Knot today, too!

See you there!

Tracy

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My best wishes to everyone who celebrated Christmas Day yesterday, and for everyone who got the day off from work, I hope you made the best of it.

Of course, I’m writing this somewhere in the past, so I’m not sure yet if I made a very good day of it or not, but I intend to!  My 2010 Christmas was a personal low, so I have every intention of making up for it with a bang this year.  If I manage to pull it off with a superlative highlight or two I may pop back into this post with pictorial evidence.

Working notes…

In one sense, I’m not working at all.  Not at the day job.  For the first time in – wow, three years! – I actually get to have a break at Christmas, instead of just (maybe) getting Christmas day off, then heading right back into the trenches.  This year I get a whole precious five days off.  Even Mark’s two whole weeks off doesn’t bother me.  Five days…

That means, of course, I’ll be writing my ass off.  So I’ll be working at the real job just as hard as my family will let me get away with it.  (Or as hard as any really good Christmas present don’t distract me from the latest book.)

The latest book, of course, is Byzantine Heartbreak.  You haven’t been introduced to this one yet.  It’s the second in the Beloved Bloody Time series (Bannockburn Binding, which has just been released, was the first).

I’ve been working on Heartbreak in between buying Christmas presents, making Christmas presents, wrapping Christmas presents and working.  One day, I must tell you a few of my adventures, writing on the bus to and from work.  Very interesting.  In fact I’m writing this on the bus right now, and the guy next to me is trying very hard to pretend he’s not reading my screen…ooops, he just got off!  That taught him… [wicked grin]

For now, here’s the blurb and a short excerpt from Byzantine Heartbreak.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday break, if you’re lucky enough to get one.  If you’re working, may your tips be stupendous.

__________

Nyarra Ybarra is one of the most powerful vampires alive in the 23rd century.  Ryan Deasmhumhain is the other.  Ryan and Nyarra, former lovers, head the Chronometric Conservation Agency, welded together yet held apart by grief that won’t heal, their lives on hold. 

Cáel Stelios is intrigued by the pair, but despite being politically powerful, rich, smart and sexually potent, Stelios has a overwhelming disadvantage:  He’s human.  “No” is not a word he accepts without a fight, however. 

The psi-filers and Gabriel have plans, though, that will make fighting very real and bloody indeed…

__

Stelios opened the drawer of his desk and pulled out his reading board and threw it at Christos, who caught it one-handed.  “The top document…book, I suppose.  I had it commissioned several weeks ago and it was delivered last week.  I’ve read it.  It took me all week.”

Christos turned the board on and thumbed his way through the book.  “There’s…fuck, there’s thousands of pages here!”  He looked up at Stelios.  “Did you sleep at all?”

“Not much.  What I was reading gave me nightmares anyway.”  Stelios grimaced and sat on the edge of his desk.

Christos frowned as he flipped through more of the book.  “Why’n hell would you want to read something like this?” he asked.

“I have to work with them,” Stelios said simply.  “I wanted to know them better and they weren’t about to tell me themselves.”

Christos snorted.  “You don’t have a few years to spare for the telling, human.”

Stelios turned and poured himself an ouzo on ice from the supplies in the refrigerated cupboard.  He held up the bottle.  “I’d offer you one, Spartan, but…”

Christos tilted his head.  “I’m not sure I’d take one from you, anyway.  Not yet.”

Stelios tossed back the shot and poured again.  “You know them.  Better than perhaps anyone else in the world.”

“No one knows that pair well.”  Christos placed the board back on the desk gently.  “This research is just dates, facts.  Timelines.”

“Exactly,” Stelios said.  “It’s probably the first time those dates have ever been pulled together, but it’s still just resumes.”  He sat on his desk again.  “Ryan Deasmhumhain and Nayara Ybarra are both over two thousand years old.  Together they run the most powerful vampire organization in the world.  And nobody knows anything about them.  You’re the closest to an expert on them.”

“I’m not an expert.”  Christos crossed his arms over his great chest.  “I’m a friend.  And this friend is wondering why you’re so damned curious about them.”

Stelios put his hand on the reading board.  “I’ve been working with them for weeks, Brendan.  I can’t figure them out.  And I can’t get anywhere with them if I can’t figure them.  We’re going to be working together more in the future.  I need to know what makes them tick.”

“You do, huh?”  Christos grinned.  “You’re a lying sack of Greek shit, Stelios.”

Stelios drained his glass.  “Am I?”

Christos jerked his thumb over his shoulder.  “I’m not one of your voters, Assemblyman.  I don’t get a vote, remember?  I’m not allowed to vote, because I’ve been around long enough to know you’re laying it on thick enough to choke a lamb to death.”  He pointed to the board.  “You’ve read that and you’ve been locked up in the station with Ryan and Nayara for days on end.  You’re a smart man.  You’ve already got more than half a picture about them by now.  I know that because Ryan hasn’t gelded you, they haven’t drawn your blood and Nayara hasn’t tossed you out of the nearest airlocked.  So you’ve figured them out enough to get along with them in all that time.  So what do you really want?”

Stelios felt the sudden urge for another drink.  He cleared his throat and moved around the desk, back to the chilled cabinet.

Christos made a breathy sound behind him.  Then:  “No…!  Tell me you don’t really hold some sort of…”  Then he heard Christos laugh, low and long.

Stelios busied himself pouring the drink.  By the time the drink was ready, his face was under control and Christos was silent once more.  Stelios returned to the desk, staying on this side of it.  He looked Christos in the eye.

Christos had the grace to not laugh again.  But he was smiling.  “Man, you aim high,” he said simply.  “Which one?”

“Does it matter?” Stelios asked, glad to hear his voice emerge evenly.

Christos considered and shook his head.  “In the end, no.  You’ll never get either of them.  They’re welded together, those two.”

“They’re not together romantically.  Not any more,” Stelios pointed out.

“Not since Salathiel died,” Christos agreed.  He stepped up to the other side of the desk.  “Got another one of those in that bottle?” he asked, indicating Stelios’ drink.

Surprised, Stelios nodded.  He turned and poured another drink into a fresh glass, added ice and pushed it over the desk toward the Spartan.  Christos lifted it and sniffed appreciatively.  The glass looked dimunitive in his big hand.  “Aahh.  Brings back memories,” he growled.  He looked Stelios in the eye.  “Now we have the measure of each other, human.  I know what you want.”

“What do I want?” Stelios asked curiously.

“You want the key to unlocking them.”

____

So…like it?  All feedback and opinions are useful and helpful!

Related posts:

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My guest today is Berengaria Brown, who is offering herself up for torture for a second time, here at my place.  :)

Berengaria not only writes MMF romances with the most delicious covers on them (look to the left) and the hardest to resist blurbs, she writes a lot of them.  She has had TWO books released inside two weeks.  Ugh.  Makes me feel like a complete slacker.

So, get cozy and comfortable with Berengaria and reap the rewards.  A lucky commentor gets to pick an ebook from Berengaria’s backlist.  I’ll keep the contest open until midnight MST Friday, December 23rd, and will announce a winner on Christmas eve.  Have fun!

Meet Berengaria:

______________________

Who are your favourite authors?

Georgette Heyer introduced me to historical romance and gave me an enduring love of the Regency era. Anny Cook’s “Mystic Valley” series. I do love your Teal Ceagh ménages.

What is your favourite novel cover?

The Christina Dodd cover with the woman with three hands. It’s so bad it must have sold a million books, because everyone wants to see how bad it is!

What’s the best Hero Moment you’ve ever seen in film?

The Sherlock Holmes movie, the fight on the bridge.

What’s the best Hero Moment you’ve ever read in a book?

In Heyer’s “Cotillion” when Freddy’s father says Kitty will make him an excellent wife and he’s too shocked to answer. Or possibly in “Bath Tangle” when Serena shoots Rotherham, so her betrothed can’t kill him.

What reading device do you use for reading ebooks on? 

Laptop mostly. Of course I would never, ever read, when I’m supposed to be working. (cough).

 What is your take on the indie author phenomenon?  What do you think the book industry will look like in five years time?

I think Indy publishing is the next big thing, and readers will soon get to know whose books have been well-written, have engaging characters, have been edited properly, and are worth buying. In five years time, a lot of tiny publishers and self-publishing authors will have dropped out, and once again the field will have a group of front runners making a good profit, and then a group of others who are making enough money to continue writing and publishing.

Do you ever skip the “I love you!” scene in your novels?  Do you feel you’ve been cheated if they’re missing in other authors’ books? 

I don’t need those three words, but I do need a demonstration that the hero and heroine are committed to each other.

What’s your take on eBook piracy?  What would you do about it if you were given carte blanche?

Ebook piracy is theft. Someone is taking my royalties (my wages) away from me by “sharing” my book with their closest one thousand friends. I’d like to see the large “file sharing” sites closed down, and major participants punished fully under the law: “5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000”.

If someone offered you immortality, but you could never write again…would you take the offer?

Absolutely. With all that time left to me I’d figure out a way to get around the rules.

(I like her thinking!)

What do you want your epitaph to read, at the end of your life?

New York Times best-selling author, Berengaria Brown.

What are you currently reading?  How’s that going for you?

I just finished “Yule Be Ours” by Anny Cook. It’s quite different for her, but I enjoyed it.

What will you be reading next?

“Ghost Writer – Prelude” by Amarinda Jones. It’s a return to her “Janet Davies” days, a mainstream romance with no sex at all. I’m really looking forward to it.

The Desiree Staccato

In honour of Desiree Holt who started this Saturday Night Live style tradition:

• Favourite colour? Green
• Favourite drink? Water
• Favourite writing outfit? PJs
• Favourite food(s)? Chocolate
• Favourite music? Rainforest sounds
• Favourite body part? Eyes
• Favourite spot in the world? Hawaii
• Favourite movie? Any James Bond
• Favourite TV show? “Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?”
• Favourite flower? Rose
• Favourite thing to do at knock-off time? Go home and read.

Tell us about your book.

Jaid hates the annual family Christmas party, a huge event with people she doesn’t recognize or like. She’s hot and horny and looking for action on the holidays.

But this year things look brighter. Her second cousin, Greg, and his partner, Steve, invite her to spend time with them. Two sexy Santas for Jaid? Oh Santa

Excerpt.

Jaid ran a finger along her lips, checking she wasn’t drooling. Cousin Greg was a fraction over six feet tall, with thick, collar-length blond hair that had her aching to run her fingers through it. She just bet it was as soft and silky as it looked. His eyes were deep blue, and any time she looked into them, her panties creamed, and she almost drowned with desire to get up close and personal with him. She wanted to lick her way across his muscular chest, feel him wrap those strong arms around her, and drive his cock up hard and high inside her.

Steve’s slightly rough image was the perfect foil for Greg’s fair good looks. Steve had black hair and eyes so dark they might be black too. He was wearing a tight black t-shirt that showed off the heavy muscles in his tanned arms. He made her think about doing dirty, naughty things with a bad, bad, biker boy. His features were not quite symmetrical but in a very sexy way, enhancing the bad-boy aura, and she was almost certain it was the edge of a tattoo she could see just at the sleeve of his t-shirt.
Greg and Steve in her bed would be the perfect Christmas gift. Hell, even up against a wall would do!

To buy Santa Baby click here.

Berengaria’s blog…Facebook…Twitter.

______________

My thanks to Berengaria for guesting here today.

A reminder to you, the reader, to leave a comment before you go!

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5. New Cover for My Erotic MMF Urban Fantasy Time Travel Romance, BANNOCKBURN BINDING Time is theirs to keep. But it comes with a price. Out any day now. (Just as soon as I get the book formatted, basically.)...

Do women like MMF?  You may be wondering what sort of dumb-ass question that is.  Believe it or not, it pops up in the search-terms of my Google stats every single day.

Which got me wondering who would be asking that question, and why.  Obviously, there are lots of people searching for the answer because the search term keeps turning up, over and over again.

So I thought I’d take a stab at answering the question, as a woman, a romance reader, and a writer of erotic MMF menage romances.  And I welcome you, my readers, who are all women and romance readers, to add in your comments (you’re welcome to remain anonymous if you want), for future searchers of this question to find.

Do women like MMF?

It depends.  Sorry.  There’s no straight answer to such a straight question, just like there’s no straight answer to any question to do with sex and women.  But let me lay out what I think are some basic qualifications and those answers.

MMF in romance novels

There are women who love and adore MMF romance (menage + romance) novels — the kind I write.  There are many more women who don’t.  They’re repelled by what they think are “gay” sexual activities between the two men.  But this is slowly changing as women become increasingly more educated about sexuality, the thin-to-invisible difference between gay/bi/hetero sex and how unimportant those definitions are, and as new generations of women with more open attitudes and upbringings become sexually active.  MMF Romance novels are one of the most popular erotic romance genres on the market today.

You have to keep in mind, however, that MMF romance novels are romances at their core.  Women who read these novels expect romance and committed relationships at the end of the novel.  They’re not reading the novels purely for the sexual content.

MMF in erotica and/or porn

It is in erotica and pornography that MMF activities have become a major stimulation for women’s fantasy life, I believe.  Thanks to movies like Brokeback Mountain, and the huge popularity of MM romances (gay romances written for female readers — which also became popular thanks to movies like Brokeback Mountain), and MMF romances in general, women have become accustomed to the idea of male-on-male sexual activity and enjoy it very much.  Therefore, MMF sexual play has become a “regular” in erotica for women.  Pornography for women is a very small market (most pornography is produced for men), but the little that is generated for women does include MMF sexual play.  Sites like Kink.com find their MM sub-sites just as heavily trafficked by female viewers.

MMF in real life

It is here where brakes come on and everything slows down and pauses…sometimes indefinitely.

A woman who adores MMF sexual play in her romances and/or her fantasies doesn’t necessarily transfer that preference over to her actual sex life.  Of the women that like MMF sex in their imaginations, I suspect the ratio that actually try MMF sex would be rather small.  There are a huge number of factors that make the average thinking woman reluctant to try MMF sex for real, no matter how much the idea of trying it appeals to her:

1. If she’s already in a relationship with one man, how does she broach the subject in a way that doesn’t make him feel inadequate?  Or horrified at the idea of sex with another guy?  Or appalled that she is aroused at the idea of him having sex with another guy?  Depending on how insecure the man is, this could be a relationship-breaker.
2. How does one go about finding the second male (or both males)?  You can’t exactly run an ad in the local classifieds.  And people don’t go around with signs saying they’re into MMF menages.  A man who does like MMF menages may not be sexually attracted to the other two.  Or she may not like him….  See the difficulties?
3. For most women, sex needs to involve a degree of trust and some sort of relationship.  A second male in the bed would feel artificial and uncomfortable, if that relationship is not there.
4. If the three do take time to establish trust and even the most superficial relationship before proceeding with the menage, there’s the possibility of petty jealousy and relationship issues cropping up.  Did one partner spend too much time playing with someone else, and not enough time with the other?  Does he seem to be more affectionate with the other?  It sounds silly, but the mind can play ridiculous games like this, especially when in vulnerable situations like a menage.
5. How does she look at her partner’s face in the morning when she’s watched him fucking another man the night before?  There’s a first time for anything, and no matter how many times she runs it through her head, the reality is going to have an impact.
6. How is her partner going to feel about watching her fuck another man?  No matter how cool he thinks he feels about it, the reality could be very different.
7. The three people in the bed are not characters in a novel, being manipulated by an author.  They’re humans, who have feelings, emotions and the ability to think and reason.  The aftermath of the menage may not run the way anyone would like.  There could be consequences no one anticipated.  What if the second male has strong feelings for the woman?  Or the other male?  What if he wants to make the menage a permanent thing?  What if he simply doesn’t want to go away?  What if one of the committed couple doesn’t want him to go away and the other does?
8. Then there’s STD’s, including that biological imperative:  pregnancy.  No condom is 100% guaranteed.

Women who have never tried an MMF menage will think of all these drawbacks and perhaps more.  Depending on her personal circumstances, any and all of these objections may stop her…or not.  She may decide to experiment despite the risks, if they can be offset or minimized enough, or if she has a high threshold for risk-taking.  Every woman is different, but the drawbacks are the same for everyone.

It would be fabulous if every MMF menage played out like they did in MMF romance novels.  If that could be guaranteed, then I suspect every woman in the world who was curious about MMF menages would bust a gut to try them and the world would see a great many more permanent menages.  But reality is not fiction, not by a long shot.

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What do you think?  What is your response to the question:  Do women like MMF?  Do you agree with me?  Disagree?  Want to add, subtract, amend?

Fire away.

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