Eye Candy

Posted on May 28, 2014September 9, 2014 by Jade A. Waters

A couple months ago, I shared a pretty picture under the title Any Excuse (for Ass) just because. It was a good picture, and I’m thinking that every once in a while, we need a similar visual treat here. I mean, why not? I admit, this could be on my mind because I’ve been ~~stalking hot men on Pinterest~~ playing on Pinterest lately, or maybe because sometimes I think we can all use a little eye candy, but today the fates have collided to provide you with two pretty images!

Rough life, huh?

The first is an image I found while researching <cough>, and it was simply too hot not to share:

Sexy black and white image of man crawling on beach in only his black briefs.

Admit it—you like it, too.

I don’t know what’s going on with this guy. Maybe he’s lost a ring in the sand. Maybe he’s crying over his woman running away off camera (what?) or getting stung by a jellyfish. Or, he needs to show off how good his ass looks in his trunks, and wants people to wish they were the sand beneath him (I do). No matter what the reason, this photo needed to be seen.

Naturally, in the name of research and to find a picture that would work for everyone (since that one might not have done it for some of you), I decided to do a little more snooping. I can’t entirely explain the channels I navigated, but let’s say I randomly stumbled upon the model who stars on the cover of Holiday Spice (which includes my story, “Office Santa“). Some of you may remember how much I oohed and ahhed over the cover model, and it turns out this site had a whole bunch of photos of him. I found the following just for you:

Couple getting cozy with Paris in the background

I’m sorry, is that Paris in the background? I’m too distracted.

Anyway, I think I had a point to today’s post, but I lost it.

FYI, the stock title for the above picture is “Young sexy couple making passionate love in bed against window overlooking Paris skyline with retro vintage sepia tones.”

But let’s not get too specific about it, okay?

XX,
Jade

P.S. Seriously fantastic thing happening here next week! Yes, June 4th…stay close! 🙂

Because I’m a Tease

Posted on May 21, 2014September 9, 2014 by Jade A. Waters

Today I have all sorts of sexy news!

Well…kind of. Honestly, some of it is a lot of tease. Why?

You’ll see. 😉

So, hmmm, where to start…First off, I have thrilling information I’ve been sitting on—I have a story in Rachel Kramer Bussel’s upcoming anthology Hungry for More! The book is all about female fantasies, and it’s sure to be hot, hot, hot!

While the cover reveal is yet to come and the release date is late this year, I do have a super sexy table of contents for you to preview. Look:

Introduction: Getting Explicit
Submissive Jacqueline Applebee
Happy Endings Giselle Renarde
Craig’s List Greta Christina
Bringing the Heat Tiffany Reisz
Madam Secretary Jaye Markham
Kitchen Slut Olivia Archer
Just Once Jocelyn Dex
Boat Rocking D.L. King
The Sleeper’s Beauty Jade A. Waters
Upstairs at the Ava DelovelyOlive
Organically Grown Brandy Fox
The Room Of Guarantees Jessica Lennox
Redrawing the Lines Bren Emile
Tickle Day Jeremy Edwards
Relief Katya Harris
Jailbait Torch Song Valerie Alexander
Red Lipstick Erzabet Bishop
Something Sleazy Elizabeth Coldwell
The Instructor Rose de Fer
My Pillarbox Red Cock Tilly Hunter
A First Time for Everything Rachel Kramer Bussel

What a hot lineup! I’m pretty excited about the story I have in this one, so I will pass on more news as soon as I have it…

This is actually the case with most of the news I have today: it’s all up my sleeve for just the right time, and all of it is so, so good. So for now, I’m going to have to play the tease. What I can tell you is that some of my news is almost-official, and more of it is official-official (aka, closer to reveal time). Like, for example, I mailed off contracts last week for three smoking hot anthologies, two of which will be my first time with an editor I adore—but I can’t tell you what the anthologies are yet. But soon. Soon!

I also have two crazy fantastic things coming down in about the next two months (hint: neither is an anthology, but both involve seriously awesome collaborations). I’m not sure on the date for one of them, but I can tell you that the other will happen right here on June 4^th. Yes, June 4^th! So go ahead, mark your calendars. I’ll wait. *Whistles.*

You’re back now? Good. I’m telling you, folks, this is going to be so fun! I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I am. 🙂

Okay, so the essence of a good tease is to at least give a little something, which is why I have two pieces of news that are actually in effect now.

Here’s the first piece:

I signed up for Pinterest.

Oh my god. Oh my god. How does anyone have any self-control with this program? I can already tell you that there will be hours spent drooling over men I consider part of my mental harem (one day, it will be my real life harem, don’t you worry), as well as hours on inspiring quotes, nail polish, glam looks, sexy photos, and, and, and… But I suppose it was bound to happen. So if you’re able and interested, please find me on there. You can check out my pretties and I’ll check out yours. (Heh.) I’m still light on boards but I see all sorts of potential, including one I might just whip up with images that make me think of the two lovely characters from my work in progress. Keep your eyes open!

Speaking of my WIP, I’ve been quiet for a bit on that, but a status update is the second piece of news I wanted to share. The book is called The Assignment, and the great news is that my wonderful betas finished and passed along some exciting feedback. Yay! So, now I’m about to launch one last edit before I send it out into the world to find a home. Then what’s next? Well, I have a novella dying to be written (okay, more like three), and I have a couple ideas to jot down for a possible sequel to the WIP. But that’s later—brewing, but later. And then of course there are a bunch of other things to work on, but I guess that’s what we do here in the writing world: project after project. I love it! 🙂

All right, so that’s the news for today. Stay close for more reveals very soon!

XX,
Jade

Me Against the Music

Posted on April 30, 2014September 9, 2014 by Jade A. Waters

Chances are, you already saw Round Three of Alison Tyler’s Smut Marathon. (If you didn’t, get on over there right now and VOTE!) This one was quite interesting for me—Alison Tyler asked us to write a short piece inspired by whatever song we wanted. Sounds so easy, right?

Um…nope.

See, I love music—but apparently I’m very particular about when I listen to it. The problem is that I’m a singer and a dancer, so I am virtually incapable of listening to music without joining in or bopping around in one way or another. To be clear, I sing all the time in my house, and my neighbors can probably tell you how annoying this is since I love practicing for Karaoke Night in the shower—even when it’s not Karaoke Night. Hell, even if it’s five in the morning. Whatever. I’m singing and dancing in the shower, the living room, the kitchen…

This limits most of my music consumption to two occasions: while I’m driving in my car, and while I’m working out (no, I don’t sing there). Sometimes, I listen when I clean, but often I forget to turn it on and am done before I think of it.

So here Alison Tyler rolls around and asks us to use a song for inspiration. For some reason, I translated this into attempting to listen to music while writing. FAIL. Every time I played the song and broke to write, I kept singing the lyrics—and did you know, it’s quite hard to write what’s in your head when you’re singing along to what someone else wrote from inside her head? Yeah. Impossible. Or at least, it was for me.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but my impression is that many writers are inspired by music and use it to motivate them to write. I think that’s amazing, because it distracts the hell out of me. I can listen to it well in advance and maybe get a feeling or two, but the tune that works best when I’m writing is the sound of my fingers flying over the keyboard and the story blaring itself through my head.

Fine, fine. Other authors don’t use music. Phew. I’m not alone…

But wait.

It occurs to me this problem of mine extends beyond writing—I prefer not to have sex to music, either. No, really. It’s that bad. I won’t stop mid-encounter and say, “Wait! Stop! We must turn off the music!” or anything, but I prefer these things on their own. When it comes to sex, I love every little sound—the catch of a breath, the roll of a budding moan, the smack of skin on skin, and even the gentle brush of a caress. All of that is incredibly sexy to me. And when it comes to music, I’m so overjoyed to hear said clever artist syncing this lyric with that bridge or wickedly intriguing tone that I can’t fully acclimate. In truth, there is some poor bloke out there who can tell you about an 18-year-old me more interested in cooing over Fiona Apple’s Tidal album than our make out session (all right, this might have had more to do with my mediocre enthusiasm about the encounter, but still, I feel for the guy).

Now, I have a friend who is obsessed with music, and he informs me this problem only happens because my “partner isn’t doing it right,” otherwise I’d “connect with the music and the man.” Huh. An interesting theory. Ironically, this friend and I briefly dated years ago, and while we never had sex, he did effectively seduce me in a slow dance to some seriously sexy songs…so okay, maybe he’s right.

Or, maybe I’m just a weirdo. I don’t know. Music and me: it’s a strange relationship. I’m not saying these things never happen simultaneously, but on the whole, I guess I like to savor my activities separately.

Now I’m curious—does anyone else have a problem pairing music with [fill in your chosen activity]? I’d love to know. Please share…or just tell me I’m crazy.

Either way, please don’t forget to vote. I worked hard on this round! 😉

XX,
Jade

Finished Edits, Good Friends, and Delicious News!

Posted on April 23, 2014September 9, 2014 by Jade A. Waters

Well, the craziest thing happened on Friday: I finished editing my book.

I wish I could tell you it was that simple, but it wasn’t. It was more like this:

Image from The Gif Garden on Tumblr

Weird, right?

To be completely honest, I didn’t feel finished. I’ve refined this editing process that some might call garden-variety OCD, but it works for me with short stories. Naturally, I thought I’d apply the method to a whole damn book. I mean, I outlined and wrote the thing in less than six weeks, so eight weeks of hardcore editing sounded completely reasonable.

The problem was that along the way, a few other life things had me at my stress max. Like, for example, a breakup. Oh and then the breakup, part two. There was also a tremendous amount of insomnia, and then for bonus kicks, my day job imploded. Fine, fine, no big deal. Next, I had pre-tendonitis in a thumb (what?), followed by pre-tendonitis in a finger on my opposite hand (spiffy). Then, my cat got sick and needed to be coned, which resulted in my two cats having to be separated for two weeks. (Note: cats body slamming and clawing at doors to get at one another may sound cute, but it’s not helpful for any sort of sleep factor. Or editing factor, for that matter.)

So cut to Friday, when I’m about to launch the “final” edit—and there it was: the final meltdown. I threw myself on the floor and kicked my feet in overwhelmed agony. There were even a few tears.

Luckily for me, Malin James came to my rescue. If you don’t know her, here’s a summary: she’s fucking fabulous. We had a seriously lovely phone call in which she talked me down for a good twenty minutes and reminded me that I was too close and probably too thorough, and I’d be editing again after my beta babes read it, so why not just send the manuscript on now?

SO I DID. I mean, when brilliance speaks, you listen.

After I let the book go, I felt like a mama bird pushing her baby chick out of the nest—maybe a little too early, but okay. I’m sure I looked something like this:

Oh my word. Is it done? Can we really call it done? Wahhhh...<br /> (Image from Gifs for the Masses on Tumblr)

Oh my word. Is it done? Can we really call it done? Wahhhh…
(Image from Gifs for the Masses on Tumblr)

Still, the proverbial weight was off my shoulders and I proceeded to enjoy my weekend. I finished a few things. I relaxed. I slept for two nights in a row. Oh my god. I SLEPT, guys. It was great.

Less than a week later, I’m slightly less insane more calm. I’ve dived into a couple new projects while my novel is in my beta babes’ hands. Hurray! After that, I might even ponder a sequel… 🙂

In the meantime, I have exciting news about a couple other people!

First, Alison Tyler is writing a sequel to Those Girls. Did you read Those Girls? If not, you’d better. Stat!

Also, next week, something awesome is happening. Look:

How cool is that? I can’t wait!

Okay. I think I’m finally calm now. Phew! And on top of that, I finished a book.

Which means…time for me to celebrate and write more!

XX,
Jade

P.S. Special thanks to my beta babes, who not only eagerly took the manuscript off my hands, but gave me further cheerful pep talks. Yeah, you know who you are. 😉

So, the Novel’s Done

Posted on January 29, 2014September 14, 2014 by Jade A. Waters

I bet you’re all still a little dizzy from my post last week with Alison Tyler. Me too!

However, despite the party I’ve been throwing over here, I ended up buckling down and finishing my first erotica book in the last week, too. In truth, I typed “The End” over a week ago, but I didn’t want to call it done, like stick a fork in it D-U-N done, until I handled all those pesky bracketed notes I’d left for myself.

There were 147 of them, after all. And while some of them were amusing, perhaps for only me—[where the hell did her shoes go?] and [what is that one type of jacket with the things and the stuff?]—there were 147 of them. But, as of Sunday, they’re all handled! The book ended up being 87,000 words rather than 90,000, but I was clearly at the end of this darling couple’s journey…at least for this segment.

So what now? Well, I strongly believe in the simmer theory. I gave the file a great big kiss and closed it up with red tape. It is not to be opened for editing until March 1st. This works out surprisingly well, since there are a gazillion short story submission deadlines in March. They’re calling me and a couple other erotica author pals like a siren song, to the point where one of these lovely ladies dubbed them The Calls. (Yes, with capitals. It’s that serious.) Basically, I will be churning out short stories for a month. And when I say “churn,” it’s looking to be about seven stories. Or ten. Depends on how ambitious I’m feeling. I suspect switching from the pace of 87k to 1-5k will require a sharp downshift, but I’m ready. I love shorts!

Speaking of, after tackling all those bracketed notes Sunday, I reopened a short story I’d written over the summer. I have a lot to say about this piece that I’m going to save for a later date, but what I can say is that it was probably one of the most emotional things I’ve ever written. Editing it was almost as difficult as writing it—tears everywhere—and I’m still trying to figure out where it came from. I think sometimes, as writers, we get into the grind of creation, and every once in a while we surprise ourselves. That’s what this piece was for me. For now, I’m filing it away until I can figure out what to do with it. 🙂

So, in summary, yes, the novel is done—but there are plenty of things ahead to keep me occupied until it’s time to crack it open and edit. And that’s the nature of this thing, I suppose. Go, go, go….

Till next time.

XX,
Jade

Progress!

Posted on January 15, 2014September 14, 2014 by Jade A. Waters

Nothing like a little progress, right? So today, I thought I’d post a short update on my WIP.

In my last post, I mentioned I was too far along in my first erotica novel to get one of those delightful little counters.

Yeah, so I caved.

Jade’s Book Progress:

They’re just so cute!

I planned for this book to run about 80k, but since I’m a big fan of the editing process (translation: I’m a ninja word assassin), I opted to aim high in order to make nice, strong cuts as necessary when I go back in for editing. I have a few strategies I’ve used on my previous, non-erotica works, but I wanted to share Remittance Girl’s recent post about the editing process. It’s great guidance if you haven’t seen it yet (and if you aren’t following her, you should!).

I also have a tendency to write things in brackets, like [need better word] when I’d rather cruise on through my draft than get hung up on diction. That said, there’s still some “find and replace” work to do for my bounty of brackets once I hit that beautiful 90k mark …but even that experience is strangely fun. This whole process, honestly, is fun. I love writing short stories, but the act of working through an entire full-length is challenging and exhilarating in a totally different way.

Consider me hooked!

Meanwhile, back in the short story realm, I have some exciting news ahead…but you’ll have to wait for it a bit longer.

Know what else you have to wait for? My fabulous and delightful surprise guest next week! But, the good news is that you only have 7 days to wait. That’s right. Seven. Think you can hang?

Maybe I need to make a counter for that, too! 😉

XX,
Jade