You may or may not have heard of Röyskopp before, they are a Norwegian "two headed monster" that works with electronica.  I love a lot of their works, this one, Eple, Poor Leno, and Flashlights and Explosions are personal favorites.  

Its amazing when a person hits a "moment."  

That moment where everything melts away and there is a complete connection between you and _____.  I've had it when I first saw my husband, in several of my books, when I first held my daughter, but it doesn't always have to be something huge.  The other night my husband and I had a big argument.  We were both in a very negative place, and it ruined all sorts of positive energy that we had been having.  But then it shifted.  We said a few things, apologies mostly, and suddenly there was this huge connection again.  The moment was filled with each other.  Everything else melted away.  

A really good book will have these moments, links that draw your memories back to it again and again.  Perhaps its a first kiss, perhaps its a shotgun, perhaps its a tear pull.  Sometimes life changing sometimes just mood changing, sometimes remembered forever and sometimes fleeting, sometimes expected (like a wedding date or delivery date) sometimes unexpected and a truly random explosion of divinity.

How do we fill our books with these moments?  Feel our books.  Feel them, we have to separate ourselves as writers from our personal lives and become our characters, we have to love with them, lose with them, hate with them, cry with them.  If we fill our hearts with the emotions we want to portray they come out on the page, they soak it and some of that power will rub off on our reader.  

I hope you have a marvelous three day weekend.  :) See you in September!

                                 Kisses,
                                     Lesa

I have posted up three prizes this month and not given any away because no one's competed.  So I thought I would give away one final prize (If someone leaves me their email to get in contact with them.)  Comments will close Thursday the 30th, and the prize (a $5 Amazon gift certificate emailed to you!) will be sent Friday the 31st.  

So my dear friend, I'll call her Jill, sent me a link the other day of a gorgeous male model in practically nothing (in some cases nothing but a cleverly placed blanket, cup, etc.).  

"OH MY GOD!" She squealed, "I knew him when he was a kid, he was the typical boy next door go to church every Sunday, never do anything wrong kid!" 

I laughed and said, "Well there's certainly nothing wrong with this!" (Come on gorgeous! Rawr!)  

Its always strange to me the people we know that we don't know, would the people who knew me in high school sitting behind them in bible study really think I was going to be an erotic author? Probably not.  Your boss and his wife who just had you over last Tuesday. . . Would you guess they're also members of the local swinger's club?

My husband is fond of telling the story of coming home from work one day and seeing this drop dead gorgeous woman on the arm of some Joe-Shmoe, and saying he's 100% positive that she was a very well paid "lady of the night."  But some people are just not so obvious.

I once sat a party listening to my girl friends rambling on and on about how disgusting anal was.  Finally I laughed in exasperation and said, "Have you ever tried it?"  

They both gaped and said "No!"  We talked about it for some time, and I have been told since that at least one of my "anal virgin/haters" now enjoys it very much.  

The point is - life takes us all in crazy directions, some times we're not going to know who we're sitting beside.  Be wary of casting judgement, and enjoy the "boy you could be a ______" game. :D

In honor of Prince Harry's nude Vegas scandal (haha) I thought we'd listen to some Prince.

As erotic authors, especially if we have a pen name (which most of us do) I'm sure we've all thought about what would happen if our "real name" came out.  Perhaps we're not afraid of the implications of the public as much as the fear of a scandal with family and friends.

We live in a much liberated society now, saying that I'm an erotic author to new friends hasn't even caused a flinch, in fact in most cases I end up giving them a card and they're pleased to hear about the wildly different career I'm involved with.  The idea of seeing a nude celebrity doesn't even cause us to flinch any more, some of us go and hunt out the "scandalous photo" and roll our eyes and some of us simply ignore it.  And that's much the same with the erotica scandal when our friends find out.

I've only had one friend who asked me if it was strange working in the sex industry, to which I laughed and said, "not to me."  

The truth is scandals are only what we make of them, the society we choose to associate with ourselves is the one we desire to please.  

So for the past bit I have been working hard on a piece titled "My New Husband."  It is more an historical erotic romance than a romantic erotica, in truth it is almost 25 pages and has only one serious sex scene.  

The biggest thing for me has been trying to decide how to advertise and publish it.  As an indie author advertising is my responsibility, as is choosing what to publish under which pen-name.  The idea of crossing into more romance and less erotic is a exciting, but daunting, do I put a new pen-name on it like J.D. Robb (mystery) and Nora Roberts (romance), or do I risk the discouragement of my readers loving it and not finding any more pieces like that in my inventory?  Or my readers who have been faithful and with me throughout buying it and getting frustrated that its not as raunchy and sex driven as the others?

As this is my business, I am looking at it as any owner would placed with a new and slightly different product.  Cost vs. Reward, the idea of expansion vs. stretching myself too thin.  In the end I'll need numbers, and setting out with an experiment that costs some in editor fees and covers is a relatively small price to pay to       

Yesterday as I gave a hug to my lover he traced the top curve of my breast and he said, "This is the most beautiful part of a woman."  

I laughed and said, "What?"  

"Well at least today it is," he amended.

It got me thinking, every day I'm drawn to a different part of him, some days is beautiful shoulders. . . Swimmers shoulders, broad and toned, strong and powerful.  Some days its his eyes, gorgeously blue, like a blue ocean.  Some days its his ass, so perfectly firm and round, peach like really.  Some days its his thighs, powerful and forceful, driving his pelvis hard into me.  His smile. . . the list could go on far too long. 

Comment at the end of this blog for your chance to win a free copy of "The Swingers' Games: Ethan!" (Include an email so I can respond to you!) part of this month's Thank You! 

Ethan is one of eight people invited to his best friends' house for a weekend on the wild side.

I'm in a sentimental mood today.  Sometimes you need to just enjoy the Journey.  

This morning I woke early and slid into my lover's arms.  Almost a full half hour of cuddling put us both in a good mood, easing us into the day.  

After that I've spent a good portion of this morning chatting with a childhood friend.  This nostalgia reminds me of playing in canals, running through the fields behind my home, and playing with my brothers and sister.  I'm sure you're asking, "Where are you going with this Lesa?" And the truth is, I'm not certain.  

There is an innocence that one remembers from a childhood like mine, a "Little House on the Prairie" childhood. Sometimes after writing some particularly "Kinky Fuckery" (awesome term E.L. James!) a person likes embracing the innocence, the undying love from your partner, the adoration from an innocent child.

Variety is the spice of life and I wouldn't give up my kinky fuckery for anything, but that doesn't mean I want it all the time, and I'm assuming it is the same for most everyone out there, so today take a breath and Journey into something a little different.  

Todays to-do-list:

~8 loads of laundry (including a packed suitcase of dirty clothes I just found in the back of the car >.<)
~2 loads of dirty dishes from the party we had. 
~General pick up after a 2 year old
~Vacuum the whole house
~Finish my 2 pieces of my daughter's Christmas present.  (A dollhouse with all the pieces!)
~Finish my little brother's T-Tunic for an SCA function at the end of this month. (Medieval reenactment)
~Finish my husband's collar for the aforementioned SCA function.
~Finish Writing Swinger's Games
~Reread Swinger's Games
~Send Swinger's Games to Editor
~Create cover for Swinger's Games
~Write Description for Swinger's Games
~Write my Lesa Blog. 
~Write my Dollhouse Blog. . . 

Some days there are so many things to do its difficult to turn it off to write, especially if having things dirty irritates you and makes it difficult to focus.  Today I was so overwhelmed waking up I had to take five minutes to drink a cup of coffee and write out my to do list.  I was even more overwhelmed so I enlisted my Facebook friends. 

I said, "I am having a 'NO DECISIONS' Day, please help me prioritize what I should get done today so I can just do it." Then I finished drinking my coffee and by the time I was done I had my items listed out for me.  Its taken me almost 6 hours but I've made a significant dent in my list and that feeling of anxiety has greatly diminished, all because I gave up my decisions.

You may be going "What in the world are you getting at Lesa?"  There's really two things, one if you're having difficulties with a to-do-list as long as your 25,000 word story then the easiest thing to do is to take it one simple step at a time.  My second is that sometimes removing the decision and giving control over to someone else can be an exhilarating and invigorating exercise.

Its like you suddenly have a cheering section, and every time you cross something off your list and obey their simple instruction it gives you a sense of pride and helps you once again find your own power.  Today in giving up my decisions I have found myself again.  My peace has been restored, and things are getting accomplished.  

                         Kisses, 
                               Lesa

PS.  Swinger's Games is scheduled for release for this weekend unless major issues are found by my editor. :) 

So yesterday I had a door-to-door salesman come and show me vacuums.  I was more than happy to let him come in and clean my carpet while I watched haha.  But in addition to the clean carpet and the inspiration for a silly irreverent erotica, I also made a few "sales" and handed out a few business cards.

On Sunday I got my hair cut and my hairdresser took a card as well.  

The fun thing is that all I'm doing is talking.  Pretty much everyone asks within the first 5 minutes of meeting someone "what do you do" and when I say "erotic author" usually it inspires some sort of further conversation, usually akin to "wow that sounds like so much fun!" and it being treated like I said "stunt double" or "movie star".  Some want the facts on how I got published, some want to know about inspiration, and some want to "talk shop."  Pretty much everyone that goes into a positive conversation at some point asks my pen name, when I offer them a card they're thrilled.  

So I guess long story short I'm saying talk to strangers, treat that kid at the door begging to sell you a vacuum (or at least demonstrate it!) with courtesy and answer truthfully when they ask you what you do.  And get business cards to back you up!