It’s the week of Thanksgiving here in the States—a time of celebration, good food, and hopefully, a moment to reflect on all the things we’re grateful for in our lives. I’ve always loved hearing about the gatherings where each person shares something he or she is grateful for, so I hope each of you has an abundance of things to list this Thursday.

In the spirit of giving thanks, I’d like to take a minute to share my gratitude for a lot of different people I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with over the last few months. I have so much to be grateful for right now, and all of it is due to some extremely wonderful people.

First, I’m grateful that Rachel Kramer Bussel was willing to take a chance on “The Flogger” and add it to her beautiful collection, The Big Book of Orgasms: 69 Sexy Stories. I cannot be more thrilled that my first published piece is part of this anthology! I have more gratitude for a few other editors, such as Violet Blue for the honor of including me in Best Women’s Erotica 2014, and Pam van Hylckama Vlieg at Foreword for including me in Holiday Spice. And of course, there’s Alison Tyler, too, who keeps making me do happy dances. 🙂

I’d like to extend this gratitude to Cleis Press for publishing TBBOO, as well as for their ongoing efforts to provide quality erotica in some of the most lovely bound books I’ve seen in the genre. TBBOO and BWE 2014 are just two of many great books this house has released into the world, and I’m delighted to be part of their anthologies.

I’m also thankful for being able to connect with some fabulous writer pals. Some of you are pen pals, some of you are mentor friends, and all of you are inspiring me in one way or another. I’m incredibly glad we are connected!

I am grateful for family and friends too, many of whom have been encouraging me for years (especially you, S.M., who reminded me whenever I flitted off to something else over the years that writing was my true love and I should get back to it). A special thanks to M.N. and K.S. for nudging me (okay, tenderly shoving me when I kept dipping my toes) into erotica, since you both recognized it was what I really loved to write.

I’m also grateful for all the people who are starting to find my work, and who are so kindly sharing their thoughts on it with me. I am truly honored to get to share my writing publicly now, and hope that people continue to enjoy reading it (or at least read it!). 🙂

I wouldn’t be so passionate about erotica if I hadn’t read stories by some tremendous authors, so I’m grateful for finding the work of Shanna Germain, Alison Tyler, Isabelle Gray, Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Anaïs Nin, among others, some of whom you can find on my Blogroll. There are so many talented writers out there inspiring me right now, and I hope to continue learning a little something from all of them as I continue to write.

I could probably keep going on forever about how grateful I am, but I won’t. I do, however, hope that you have something that makes you feel as warm and fuzzy as all these special people have made me.

Finally, I wanted to share a completely unrelated little ditty with you—Alison Tyler, otherwise known as the Trollop with a Laptop, has been collecting pictures of bookshelf porn. She’s a complete voyeur and has a fetish for checking out everyone’s bookshelves, so she’s been running an ongoing series if you’d like to check it out (and you should). You can see my book preferences right here, and if you click on through her site, you’ll be able to see the sexy book arrangements of some other erotica authors and erotic-related folk, such as A.M. Hartnett, Emerald, Graydancer, and Charlie Powell. There are more to come, so be sure to take a peek!

In the meantime, I hope everyone has a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving. Be sure to curl up with your favorite spicy read, something I’m eternally grateful to get to do!

XX,
Jade