Romanticon 2011

Romanticon may be a fledgling in the world of conventions, but Ellora’s Cave has mastered the art. Their third Romanticon event reoccurred in Ohio, the home state of erotic romance’s premier publisher.

The four-day event kicked off on Thursday with the Meet and Greet. It was wonderful to see authors, editors and readers come together as old friends. EC provided elegant bottles of local wine and root beer, both complete with EC Logo labels. The Cavemen mingled making the night a sexy success.

Friday was a great day filled with informative workshops and a couple

workshops just for fun. Classes in Burlesque and Pole dancing were available for those with an adventurous streak.

Caveman Angelo gave it his best shot.Caveman Alex mastered the pole.

Friday Night's Party: The Stone Age

Saturday started off full steam ahead with another day filled with phenomenal workshops for both reader and writer alike. EC editors had a full calendar of appointments for those with the desire to become published. As an added feature to enhance the convention, several venders attended selling a range of items from glamorous jewelry to exotic body glitter or painted portraits from a photograph. Once again, classes were available for those who dared challenge the pole or learn the beautiful art of burlesque.

The cover models spent the day vying for votes in this year’s premier contest for Alpha Caveman. On occasion one could peer out a window and catch them practicing the Fire Dance in-between rain showers. The weather in Ohio was not cooperating with this portion of the agenda. It was postponed until there

was finally a break in the rain Saturday night. Sexy Cavemen twirling fire sticks.

Hot, Hot, Hot.

Saturday Night's Party: Futuristic

Sunday morning gave us the final dash of workshops followed by the Sexporium BookFair. The Cavemen provided several dance performances throughout the event. The ladies of Burlesque did a fine job displaying a whole new perspective on the art of stripping. The very athletic pole dancing crew showed off their skills, which were astonishing to say the least. And the vendors provided their wares at this event in case you didn’t get the chance to shop during the convention. A wide variety of EC authors were in attendance to sell and autograph their latest additions. The turn out was fairly decent for such a large venue.

Sunday night’s Bingo Pajama Party brought Romanticon to a close. Rodney was the perfect master of ceremonies. We laughed until we cried making bingo more fun than ever.

If you’ve never attended Romanticon, you’ve missed out on a fun-filled adventure for authors, readers and editors. It’s a place where one can pitch their stories in a more relaxed environment, meet with old friends and make new acquaintances. If this article has piqued your interest, keep an eye on the site http://ecromanticon.com/for further information as to date, location and registration.

I know I will.
Tara Nina

Hot Romance~Sexy Attitude

www.taranina.com

What goes around comes around

I was in the library the other day looking for a new author to read because I had read pretty much everything from my favorites. I texted a friend of mine to ask her for recommendations for a new mystery author. She didn't get back to me before I had to leave, so I just grabbed some books from an author I had never heard of, but her back cover blurb looked good.

Several hours later, my friend got back to me and I told her who I picked. Apparently, she had met that author and "she was a bitch to me." Now I try to divorce the author's personality from the author's talent. There are authors I don't think I'd necessarily like to hang out with, but I enjoy their books. Other authors, I'd love to go out for drinks with because their characters are so damn cool I think they have to be too.

*Disclaimer* There are several authors who I have gone out for drinks with. . .gotten drunk with. . .slept on their bathroom floor, etc. but that's another story. I'm posting as a reader not a writer today.

Anyway, after my friend said this author I was going to try out was nasty to her, I thought about just putting the books back, but in the end I really needed something to read and I had the books right there with me, so I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I mean, maybe the author was just having a bad day or something. I could enjoy the book even if the person wasn't particularly nice, right?

Apparently, no. First, let me say the writing wasn't fantastic anyway. The heroine was annoying and they mystery just didn't grab me AT ALL. I usually will finish a book no matter what because I want to know what happens. I couldn't get past the tenth chapter. It was very frustrating!

After I returned the books, I wondered, if I hadn't heard anything about this author, would I have given her more of a chance to hook me? Was I influenced by the author's behavior more than her writing?

And almost more importantly, have I been a bitch to others and now they'll never read one of my books and they'll be sure to tell all their friends what a bitch Arianna Hart is? I have to admit, it's possible. I'm not always the nicest person, and if I'm tired or my blood sugar drops (which tends to happen at conferences) I could be nasty too.

I hope this experience has taught me a lesson about what goes around comes around. If you put out nastiness, it's bound to come back to you. I think this is good to remember in all aspects of life, so just for today, resist the temptation to flip off the driver who cut you off, don't jump down the throat of the cashier who is taking forever to get you a cup of coffee, and resist the urge to slice someone with sarcasm even if it would be really funny to you.

You never know when the good you do will come back around.

New release!

I'm very happy to annouce that I have a new release after a long hiatus. The third book in my Shifting Magic series is finally available. To celebrate I've decided to share a new excerpt of the book here. Please check out Trusting the Magic, now available as an ebook from Ellora's Cave Publishing. I hope you enjoy it.

An excerpt from Trusting the Magic by Cait Miller

Abby felt his arousal and it heightened her own, driving away the fear so that there was only him. She moved restlessly against the sheets, skin feeling hot and cold at the same time, the soft cotton bedclothes feeling coarse against her body. Her pulse beat strongly in her throat and between her legs. She squeezed her thighs together and the pleasure intensified. Internal muscles clenched and her pussy felt achingly empty. Nick’s response was immediate.

Mine. In her mind’s eye she saw him stroking his hand down his body to his hard shaft. Rubbing his thumb over the fluid oozing from the slit. Abby moaned, caressing her nipples through her nightgown. They tightened against her palms, crinkling the areolas with sensitive ripples. Her breasts felt heavy as she cupped them, imagining it was Nick’s hands touching her. His large palms holding her as he pinched her nipples between calloused thumb and forefinger. Rolling them until her pulse throbbed there, as well. His moist breath against her neck moments before his tongue followed the curve to her collarbone. He nipped at the skin and then pressed his lips to the sting.

Tell me what to do, Nick. She imagined running her hands over his body, tasting the pearlescent fluid that trickled from his shaft to run down over his fingers. Imagined that it was her hand becoming slick with it as she stroked the thick erection. Fingers tracing the veins where desire pulsed hot and desperate, drawing a hiss of painful pleasure from him as she skimmed her nail over the slit. In her mind, she ran her fingers over the baby-soft skin of his perineum and held his scrotum in her hand. His testicles were heavy within the soft sac and she massaged them gently. Moisture trickled from her as her arousal built. Nick’s low moan resonated through her. He ached to touch her.

Using the images in his mind for guidance, Abby released him and skimmed her hand down the soft mound of her stomach to dip between her thighs. She slid her fingers into the wet heat, shivering as she caressed the sensitive labia and spread the slick liquid up to her clitoris. It was throbbing for her attention and she gasped as she began to circle it.

She drew up her knees and dug her heels into the bed as the world spiraled away. Spreading her legs wide, she could pushed two fingers inside herself. Her back arched off the bed and she bit her lip against the cry that wanted to escape, her whole body straining for the peak. As she added a third finger, it was Nick’s face she saw above her, the warm, heavy weight of his body pressing her down. The broad head of his cock entering her.

It was no longer clear whether the images came from his mind, hers, or both. She could feel the sparse hair on his chest abrading her nipples and the heat of his breath against her neck as if it were real. Pressure built inside her and her breath came in pants. Nick thrust faster and her hips snapped to meet him. The inner walls of her pussy clutched at his cock, trying to draw him deeper.

Abby’s fingers pressed harder, moved quicker around her clit. The pleasure was almost painful. Her climax burst over her, drawing all her muscles tight. She gasped and threw her head back as her release spread over her like warm honey. Nick’s groan of completion followed hers but instead of the weight of his body falling against hers there was only the cool breeze of the air-conditioning against her damp flesh. It drew bitter tears to her eyes as she drew the covers over herself against the chill.

(c) Cait Miller 2011

No resting!

 “Rest on your laurels and you’ll only end up with dead branches.”

I wrote those words to myself shortly after Ellora’s Cave published my first book. Getting that first royalty check and realizing someone, several someones had bought my book and were reading it in the privacy of their homes and that I didn’t even know them was a heady experience and I reveled in the wonder and glory of it.

But I fully understood the transitory nature of success and knew I’d have to keep writing stories readers wanted. I wrote everywhere—in the car waiting for my daughter to get out of ballet class, in the doctor’s waiting room, in fact, anywhere I had to wait became an opportunity to grab some time and write another page. Two of my books won awards and life was good. But I was determined not to rest on my laurels.

And then we had several deaths in the family and I had a hard time. Some readers thought I’d given up writing. I hadn’t. My motto kept me writing but the stories were darker and I published them under the name MysticShade with a different company. The three novellas I wrote for BDSMBooks cross the line into porn and while sex sells, I think most of the readers who like Diana’s erotica didn’t follow me for Mystic’s books. As far as they were concerned, Mystic had no right to wear Diana’s laurels even if Diana did write Stress Relief during this period (most reviewers thought this book went too far into the darker sides of BDSM).

But time heals, the dark period ended and I realized many probably thought I was resting comfortably on my bed of greens since I hadn’t published much with EC during that time (except for the aforementioned Stress Relief. I still like the interplay between Rand and Meg, even if the general populace thought he went too deep). 

In fact, I was writing, but not wanting to end up with dead branches, I moved in a different direction. Perhaps as a reaction to my dark period, my characters now wanted sweet romances with no BDSM at all. Grrr. Darn characters. I self-published two works of short stories in the lighter genre (Tales from the Ramayana and Timeless Love) but was thrilled to discover John and Lauren liked kinky sex in Services Rendered. You can imagine my relief!

But not resting on one’s laurels means more than just penning story after story. It means offering new ideas, new features, new stuff to the world at large. So I added some games to my website (which were just plain old fun to do!) and finally got off my duff and finished Hardship and Hardtack, a historical novel that’s been a part of my life for over a decade. I decided to use a different name for that book so readers wouldn’t get confused and think they were buying erotic romance with a BDSM twist when in reality the book is closer to a young adult telling of one soldier’s life during the Civil War.

And of course, there’s my latest venture. Yes, I’m still writing erotic romance (have a new short story coming out in Jaid Black’s anthology sometime soon) but I’m also branching out. Over the course of the next seven months I’m offering a series of writing workshops on my blog. One workshop a week (Tuesdays!) to help both newbies and professionals hone their skills and get some ideas.

I’ve been teaching writing for a number of years now and have been toying with this idea for a while. Each week I’ll post a new workshop for free (although I am accepting donations). At the end, when all the discussions have been held and the “course” is finished, I’ll gather it all together in a book, take down the posts, and publish it in a more traditional format. This is your opportunity to help mold the book as we go. Each workshop will eventually be a chapter in the book. Just look for the “writing workshop” tag and come on along on this new venture.

“Rest on your laurels and you’ll only end up with dead branches.”

Here’s to no rest…and with any luck…more laurels!