Talon and I never say "Sal & Tal" outloud, except when we're describing this website. Talon goes by Talon outside the erotic writing biz, with all but her closest family. And I went by Salome (pronounced Sal-o-may, not Sa-loam or Salami) with a local BDSM community once upon a time, but mostly I go by my given name. Now, I do like Sal. It has always reminded me of an Old West babe. "Hop-along Sal" or "Calamity Sal." But nobody calls Talon "Tal." We just like it for our site cuz it's rhymingly cute.

Beyond our names, Talon and I are dear friends, playmates, and co-authors. We live far apart, but we do our best to get together as often as we can. The in-person time is rarely spent actually writing, but it often spurs on new stories or stubborn unfinished work. And it renews connectedness that we both cherish.

For the writing itself, Talon writes solo, but mostly in fandom. I write more solo erotica, whenever I have time and motivation. We say a bit more about co-writing here, for those interested.

The purpose of this post is to acknowledge and celebrate the joys, struggles, and compromises of co-authorship:

JOY: Talon and I are thrilled to share that "Charity Case," a story we co-wrote a year or so back, will be published in Burning Book Press's forthcoming Blasphemy anthology. There couldn't be a better fit for our tale of pretty, streetwise boywhore Case and do-gooder Pastor Mike, who meet while Case is smoking a post-client cigarette in the alley beside his apartment one early New York morning. Case puts the pastor through some very necessary x-rated self-examination. We're so glad Harper Eliot enjoyed our blasphemous tale and will be including it in her anthology. As heathens ourselves, we can't wait to read the whole book!

STRUGGLE: Our beloved novel Turning Trick is on stand-by at the moment. About 2/3 written and a labor of love, we haven't had the necessary mojo to get through the difficult bits--including the action scenes and in-between chapters that flesh out characters and keep the reader anxiously waiting and wondering about the fate of our boywhore anti-heroes.
   The same is true of the second and third books of our Nick/Angelo trilogy. As Storm Moon Press has put the first volume out of print, we'll likely be aiming in future for a single long novel with a new publisher in future. We have so much more to say about these guys, but we need time when we are both free to write and feeling good about self and world.

COMPROMISE: We're hard at work on a contemporary Master/servant story among male canine anthromorphs Alain and Kane that owes some of its intensity to our Inuyasha yaoi. And I'm working to tempt Talon into a new, gay SF tale of a lonely space pilot and the young man he buys through the company store.

Through it all, we hope readers enjoy what we write as much as we enjoy writing it, despite and because of the compromises and struggles that bring us to the joys.

The bad news: It's been far too long since I've blogged!
The good news: That's mostly been because I've been writing stories!

 This month has seen the release of several collections in which my stories appear, including Rachel Kramer Bussel's The Big Book of Submission: 69 Kinky Tales (Cleis), for which I penned (or rather typed) a story of African American lesbian lovers--a pretty baby and her big Daddy. While they love their butch-femme dynamic, something of a switch happens in bed and takes their sex life to new heights. I'm also thrilled to finally see my gay hard-boiled/noir tale of a cop's first day as a plain-clothes dick in Shane Allison's 
Rookies: Gay Erotic Cop Stories (Cleis).  In "New Dick," all goes to hell the minute our hero meets a deliciously dangerous male femme fatale.

The autumn will bring out another anthology I'm published in and dying to read, cover to cover: Rob Rosen's  Men of the Manor: Erotic Encounters Between Upstairs Lords and Downstairs Lads (Cleis). This collection of gay homage tales to Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs will include my story "Booting," about two mischievous male servants engaged in blackmail and all the rough-and-tumble they can get their cocks into. September will also see the release of The Sexy Librarian's Book of Erotica (Cleis), in which the amazing Rose Caraway encouraged my fetish for writing the sex lives of inanimate objects. This time, I offer the perspective of a jar of moonshine, telling a tale of faithless drunken debauchery vs. true, soul-deep love in "Moonshine Ballad."

As this list shows--for those of you who have indulged me in reading this far--I cherish the opportunity to try something new, as often as possible. Whether it's racial, ethnic, and gender diversity or generic homage, I love the freedom that erotic short fiction gives me to play with words, ideas, and perspectives. At present, I have four new stories (and one reprint) out to six different editors (mostly at Cleis), from gay warlords and lusty spaghetti western gunslingers to a dildo-sucking straight man and a female narrator who gets ass-fucked by the one and only Philip Marlowe.

Finally, Talon and I have a new, co-authored piece out for consideration, a tale of pretty boywhore Case and the youth pastor he seduces in an alley in the wee hours of a New York morning. Can't you just feel the delicious blasphemy warming you all through?

Next on the agenda? Another change of pace, I think: something sweet for Dreamspinner's "Random Acts of Kindness" antho. 

We are pleased to participate in the Smut for Good: Curves Rule Blog Hop, helping to raising funds for Parkinson’s UK.

This post offers multiple delights:

First, we share below an edited excerpt from one of our favorite co-written romps, “Recognition,” where strong and curvy lesbian strangers Moll and Rhiamon share a glorious airport bathroom tryst. (The complete story is published in Curvy Girls: Erotica for Women, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel and published by Seal Press, 2012.)

Second, everyone who comments on this post by April 13 @ 11:59pm US CST will be eligible to win a PDF copy of one of the three eBooks listed below.  All are published by Storm Moon Press and include our solo or co-authored work:

• Shakespearotica: Queering the Bard [10 LGBTQ stories]
• After the First Taste of Love [gay hurt/comfort erotic romance novella]
• Coffee Break Quickies  [5 het stories of workplace sex]

* * *

Excerpt from "Recognition" by Talon Rihai and Salome Wilde

The lightness of Rhiamon’s laugh was a siren’s call. Moll found herself allowing the stranger to take hold of her belongings without complaint. She tagged after the voluptuous ass in its camo cargos, wondering if she too looked that good from behind. Though they were likely only headed to the little bar to fill the minutes before their separate planes took them in separate directions, Moll was thrilled to be led somewhere new.

Rhiamon saw the bar, but passed it by. That was not her destination, not the indulgence she sought. Instead, she led the way to the restrooms, striding confidently past the echoing, U-shaped women’s entranceway to the smaller room labeled “Family.” She opened the door and pulled Moll in behind her, then turned the lock with a satisfying click. Pushing the other woman up against the door, she closed the space with a kiss. Her large hands grasped ample hips and her mouth sought reward in reciprocation.

Moll had no time even to gasp as she returned the kiss and reached around to tighten the embrace. How surprising to have to extend her arms, to realize she could not get all of that abundant ass in her grip. The lips that pressed against hers were full and soft, and she deepened the kiss with heart-pounding abandon. A soft grunt of pleasure escaped her as tongues wrapped and hands clung and eyes squeezed deliciously shut.

Moll’s hands were strong on Rhiamon’s ass, making her pussy tingle and moisten. Moll’s skin was soft and her flesh was soft, even as muscles moved beneath the dips and curves her hands found as they moved up beneath Moll’s shirt, over her waist and belly to her chest. Her breasts were handfuls, just like Rhiamon’s own, though Moll’s resided in cups and Rhiamon’s were held close by a sports bra. She felt hard nipples and pushed the fabric up and away so she could roll them between her fingers and taste the gasp that brought, then grind her hips against Moll’s even as Moll’s hands tugged her closer. Pulling her mouth away, she kissed down that creamy neck, nibbling and sucking as she kneaded Moll’s familiar-feeling breasts.

The urgency in Rhiamon’s searching fingers and tongue made Moll’s wet slit clench. She let her head drop back and felt the bathroom wall cool behind her. When was the last time someone else took control of her like this? Hands in a mass of cloud-soft, natural hair, she guided Rhiamon’s mouth to her exposed breast and groaned as she began to suck. Her voice echoed in the small room.

So soft, Rhiamon thought, as the hands in her hair insisted she move her head down and suck a crinkled nipple into her mouth. Those hands knew what they wanted and weren’t afraid to get it. Rhiamon grinned around her mouthful of tit, her hands sliding down to Moll’s waistband and back up again as she treated the other breast to the same. So different from the gentle touches and breathy moans she was used to, but so recognizable.

Moll’s fingers tightened in Rhiamon’s hair before releasing and moving down over hefty shoulders and arms. She couldn’t resist squeezing and fondling as she went. Amazing how the muscled biceps were sexy, the fleshy forearm delectable. She arched into Rhiamon’s mouth as she reached around to shove her hands into the back of the tight waistband. The sweet mound of her ass was warm and dense and yielded deliciously to her grasp.

Rhiamon’s mouth came off Moll’s chest with a gasp as fingers met her ass. It was a tight fit, so she reached down and unbuttoned her cargos with a flick and a zip. With a little more difficulty, she leaned to repeat the same maneuver with Moll’s jeans. Discovering that Moll wore boyshorts was a delight second only to slipping her hands around to grab Moll’s ass in return and pull them together. She was breathing heavily and nearly blind with desire. Rhiamon groaned as her fingers flexed and stroked, moving down to caress big, defined thighs and moving back to the front, feeling Moll’s jeans slip a little as she did so. …

* * *

Smut for Good: Curves Rule is a blog hop with prizes galore to raise funds for Parkinson’s UK as this is Parkinson’s Awareness week. To find more curves, and seek out further prizes please visit http://smutters.co.uk/smut-for-good and if you can take a minute to please visit the Smut for Good: Curves Rule Just Giving Page at http://www.justgiving.com/curvesrule and donate whatever you can to help us reach our target of £100 to raise awareness of Parkinson’s and to support the charity Parkinson’s UK http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/ who help those with the disease learn to cope with the challenges, give out information and search for a cure.

This week, the fabulous Lisabet Sarai is hosting my Shakespearotic personality quiz and a chance to win the Shakespearotica: Queering the Bard eBook! Take a look!

Yesterday, a young feminist asked my opinion of the music video for Lily Allen's "Hard Out Here."

In her email, she said  she "chooses" to interpret the video as feminist, based on the song lyrics and reference to "sarcasm." Others she knows disagree.  She asked for my two cents.

First, I had to confess that I hadn't seen the video and didn't know the song or the artist, feeling quite unhip and old. (Let me interject that we had previously discussed her love of Tarantino, particularly her favorite of his films, "Death Proof." I haven't seen the film, I confessed, then declared my general dislike of Tarantino's smug violence porn. I'd rather just watch porn porn, I told her. She laughed.) 

But back to Lily Allen. Here is most of the email I sent:

The song/video is clearly intended as a liberal feminist declaration, reclamation of "bitch," and attack on the double-standard put on women pop singers: damned if you're sexy, damned if you're not.  The video is intended to show what is wrong with the business.

The problem with ambiguity/dramatic irony in music videos (what she names "sarcasm" in the song) is that it can be interpreted both ways: critique and exemplification of sexism.

There's also the hypersexualization/exploitation of black women via this double-edged ambiguity, where a white woman can get away with (and/or parody) hypersexualization more easily than a black woman as white women aren't linked with "natural" hypersexualization as a racist trope.

I'm also convinced by this point in Prachi Gupta's review of the video in Salon on 11/13/13, where she argues that "the parody gets messy pretty quickly — pop music and hip-hop videos are already so over-the-top that it’s hard, if not impossible, for Allen to heighten the absurdity of the sexism at play in music."

Ultimately, to me, "Hard Out Here" is best described as an example of hegemonic negotiation, attracting the biggest audience possible and popular approval (23.5 million hits on YouTube as I type this) by being accessible as both/either feminist statement and/or fetishistic objectification, based on a viewer's perspective.

What do you think of this interpretation?

To the cherished few who read this post, I'd now love to know what you think.

In case you haven't heard, Fred Phelps, Sr. of the Westboro Hateful Church is on his deathbed. And I, for one, think the world will be just a little bit better once he's dead.

I wholeheartedly support free speech, and I don't believe in hell, but I can't feel anything but exasperated fear for the human race when I think about Westboro and its viciously misguided leader.

So what do we do with our anger and desire to see this man exit this mortal coil asap, especially if we, unlike my co-writer in erotics Talon Rihai, have guilt about wishing people dead or dancing on their graves, literally or metaphorically?

Why, we give the man a Rainbow Sendoff, of course!  Coming Together Press has organized a charity donation to honor LGBT rights and social equality and justice at the death of Phelps via indiegogo. This project donates all profits (immediately) to the Human Rights Campaign. Please click the link above (or Live and Let Love image) and donate, share, and celebrate.  (And if you don't like the Human Rights Campaign for whatever reason, donate to the queer charity of your choice!

Good bye and good riddance, Fred.

I'm proud to be part of KT Grant's Lesbian Fiction Appreciation Event at kbgbabbles.com!  My post, Literary Lesbianism: Heart, Mind, and Body, just went live, and I hope readers enjoy it. It was a pleasure to take the opportunity to wax poetic about the importance of lesbian fiction in my life as a pansexual cis woman, a writer, and a reader. And it's awesome that KT Grant even uses the chibi art I made for the event to address the need to show racial diversity in lesbian representation!

Wander on over to the site and enjoy the lovely posts, commentary, and fiction offerings for this year's event.

In an age of constant criticism and unprecedented public exposure, sex seems to be an increasingly taboo subject. It's not true everywhere of course. Many might counter that in pop culture, sex is more open and explicit than ever before. If a film like The Wolf Of Wall Street (which almost received an NC-17 rating and has been called by many "essentially a three-hour porno") can garner serious awards consideration, it's not exactly as if we're living in a culture of prudes.

On the other hand, our lives are now so open to social media. Not only that, but new films, articles, and television series are telling us what to look for and appreciate in sex on a daily basis. As a result, many of us are increasingly hesitant to embrace our true desires and be more open about what sparks lust. One perfect example is the way in which many of us view sex toys—forbidden, weird, kinky, etc.—when in fact they're designed purely for pleasure.

The goal of this post is not to encourage you to use sex toys if it's something you're personally uncomfortable with or averse to. That's your choice. However, if you like the idea of toys, or enjoy using them (either solo or with your partner), this brief discussion on their various benefits and uses will help you feel more confident. It's perfectly natural to use them to your heart's content.

Toys Help You Learn What You Like/Need

Buying a vibrator, dildo, male masturbator, or similar device isn't just about getting yourself off. Well, it can be... but it can also be about figuring out just what gets you going most! It's always good to know yourself sexually, something that will also help your relationships.

Toys Can Help Sexual Stamina

Stimulating yourself manually just doesn't give you the sensations of actual interaction. For that reason it's difficult to work on stamina or potency while going solo. But with certain sex toys, the sensations are so mind-blowingly real that you can actually work on things like lasting longer and reaching more satisfying orgasms.

They Make Them For Couples

Probably the most popularly misconceived notion about sex toys is that they're only for solo play. False! To begin with, "solo" toys can be used between partners any way you like. Additionally, sex toys and kits exist that are specifically designed for partners to use. According to Adam and Eve, there are a bevy of couples' toys out there. And on that site, they are posted with reviews and testimonials on how to use them and what impact they will have. So, if you'd like to use toys with a partner just remember: that's half the point!

It's What You Like

This is the bottom line: If you like using toys, you like using toys. Sexual desires are natural, and no one has any right to judge you for your own. If toys get you going, then by all means go out and find some that drive you up the wall—in a good way!

Recently, I was roaming the archives of The Thinking Atheist Podcast, and I chanced upon an April 2013 podcast featuring Greta Christina, who, among other things, is a former writer for On Our Backs—the lesbian erotica mag begun in the 80s by folks like Susie Bright and Patrick (then Pat) Califia, among many others.

I’m always looking for women’s voices in atheist discourse, and too rarely finding them (or people of color, whatever their gender).  But Christina didn’t just add a cis female voice to the podcast, she also linked her atheism to erotica, feminism, and LGBT issues.  Because you can listen to the podcast yourself—and I recommend that you do, I don’t want to rehash, but I do want to talk about what she said that I connected with, as a bi feminist writer of pansexual erotica and Yiddish-flavored atheist.

Some Background

(If you don’t much want to read about my personal background, feel free to skip to the Queer Atheist Feminist Author of Erotica section below.)

Before listening to Christina speak, I never thought directly about the connection between my erotic writing and my personal path to atheism.  Certainly, my mostly Reform Jewish upbringing didn’t get in the way of my precocious sexuality.  I studied Hebrew and went to religious school without worrying that non-marital sex or masturbation were wrong or evil, especially not in the liberal Chicago locale and era in which I was raised.  Kissing girls or blowing guys might not always have been done with what I would now call a happy and healthy teen psyche (too much done for attention or to find “love” as my folks divorced), but religion was neither inspiration for rebellion nor prohibitive as I got on the pill at 17 and lucked out on never needing an abortion as many of my HS friends did.  And while I didn’t fully bloom into a feminist self until my late teens, I was a strong, outgoing woman who didn’t suffer patriarchal perspectives lightly, in religion, the workplace, or beyond.

Religion was just something I didn’t bother much about, well into adulthood. I knew I liked being a Jew, primarily in terms of ethnicity/culture, and I found no impetus to ponder the concept of God in depth as I made my way through college, singing in rock bands, writing fiction, acting in amateur theatrical productions, and graduate school.  I was certain of what I did not believe in—i.e. Jesus-as-Savior and son of God—but that was from having been raised a Jew and always rebelling against social norms.  The multiculturalism debates and the poststructuralist theory I read as a grad student definitely pushed me further, turning me into a feminist who loathed organized religion, especially proselytizing beasts such as American Christianity.  I grew certain there was no God, but I didn’t shed theism absolutely.  Maybe the problem was about naming and ascribing power to him, especially through literalist interpretations of the Bible, which I’d never been encouraged to read as anything but moralistic tales to guide behavior.  Courses including critical religious studies helped me understand the history of the Bible as well as opening me to what one class called “Eastern Spiritual Paths.”  I adored the idea of reincarnation, where—in my conceptualization at least—each of us has as many lifetimes as necessary to reach a higher state of being.  For example, Dick Cheney would be reborn as a blade of grass, stepped upon over and over again; then he would be an aborted fetus; and so on.  This helped me make sense of the suffering of children, among other thorny issues.  But I never deeply believed it was actual.

True atheism—freedom from invisible friends, magic monsters in the sky, vengeful heavenly fathers, fairies, demons, etc.—came to me slowly, through agnosticism, science, and releasing of guilt.  I heard the Dalai Lama speak, telling his audience we don’t need to be Buddhist; this is not his primary concern.  We need to be compassionate.  I read Darwin and Dawkins and Hitchens—oh my!  And, despite the white privilege and sexism, I acknowledged that I am, indeed, an atheist.  Following this acknowledgement to myself and support from my spouse (who followed a path from Lutheran Christianity to agnostic to atheist, a bit slower than but similar to mine) and our son (who came to his atheism naturally, as a child unindoctrinated in religion), I have most recently trod the path of being increasingly “out” about my atheism.  And that is where Greta Christina comes in.

Queer Atheist Feminist Author of Erotica

Because my religious upbringing was in a liberal Judaism in the suburbs of Chicago, I’ve mostly thought of my atheism as separate from other facets of my identity.  The internalized patriarchal notions I lived with and through did not seem connected to religion to me; advertising and the glass ceiling did not seem at all connected to Abraham, Moses, or Jesus.  But, of course, they are.  Where else but the Judeo-Christian tradition and the teachings of the Hebrew Bible (a.k.a. Old Testament) do we find the treatment of women as possessions, as chattel?  From Adam’s dominion over Eve and her susceptibility to talking snakes and forcing men to marry the women they rape to producing children via handmaidens and the (hyper-)masculinization of God—whose alleged omnipotence should make God far beyond gender: the Bible is a text of its era and its sexist, war-mongering shepherds.  

But Christina didn’t just point out the obvious here, she also talked about the links between gay and lesbian issues and atheism.  Fears of ostracization for coming out remain for gay and lesbian people the world over.  In the US, it may be “easier,” but not for all and not always.  Nonetheless, the public presence of gay and lesbian individuals, activist groups, and support groups helps those struggling to know they are not alone.  Far less so for atheists, though things are improving.  (I’d link atheists with bisexuals and trans folk, where rejection may come from all sides, but again, activism, awareness, and support is out there—even if only online—and slowly growing.)  This was a powerful insight for me.  It not only spoke to me personally, but it helped me think about what I write and why I write.

I pride myself on writing as diversely as I can within the sphere of erotica, from style and genre to orientation, race, class, and gender.  And I realize that, for many, reading or writing erotica is also about resisting norms and proscriptions that come from religion.  While I wrote erotica before I truly labeled myself an atheist, my writing did not truly blossom into the wild mess it is (from Godzilla sex to hard-boiled trans cops) until I shed the last vestiges of theism and the anxiety and superstition that comes with it.

As I like thinking of my erotica as feminist-driven—not just sex-positive but freeing ourselves from the burden of normative social roles and behaviors, I am now beginning to enjoy thinking of it as atheist-driven as well.  My characters may not all be atheist (most do not discuss their religion within the context of the tale, but several are Jewish and the protagonist of my gay romance novella series is Catholic), but their creator most certainly and happily is.

And you?

Do you know Rose Caraway and her amazing erotica podcast?  Don't answer that question with anything but YES because now you do.

Click the image or visit http://www.thekissmequicks.com/ to get started on this addictive and professionally produced podcast, in which you'll hear the sexy Rose Caraway and the amazing Lucy Malone read from today's hottest erotic fiction.  Episodes are devoted to themes, such as the recent "Halo Sex," which features songs by Nine Inch Nails and fiction by Allen Dusk, Raziel Moore, and an excerpt from the exotica quickie "Dear Doctor," by yours truly.

I can't say enough about Rose's gracious, generous commentary, her delightful sexy librarian persona, and her love of all things erotic.  Make it your New Year's Resolution to add The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast to your regular listening.  It'll be the easiest and hottest resolution you make!