writing projects – Jade Aurora Waters

Hi everyone! It’s been awhile, but I have lots of news I wanted to share today, both about the Lessons In Control series and a new mini-project I’m embarking on! Woo hoo!

I’ll start with Lessons In Control, specifically book one—I am delighted to share that The Assignment is a finalist for the Pauline Reage Novel award from the National Leather Association – International (NLA-I). Holy cow! The NLA-I is a leading organization for activists in the pansexual SM/leather/fetish community. Their annual awards are named after activists and writers to recognize excellence in writing and publishing about Leather, SM, bondage and fetishes. Whoa! This was some majorly happy news, and I’m thrilled to be a finalist. In the past, the award has been given in various categories to some seriously awesome authors. Here are this year’s finalists for the Pauline Reage category:

Risk Aware by Amelia C Gromley (Riptide Publishing)
Heart’s Master by Elizabeth Schechter (Circlet Press)
The Viscountess Interrogates: A Dominion Erotic Mystery by Cameron Quintain (Circlet Press)
Skyscraper by Scott Alexander Hess (Unzipped Books, an imprint of Lethe Press)
The Gambler’s Lady by Angela Hamm (Blushing Books)
The Assignment by Jade A. Waters (Carina Press)

I cannot express how honored I am to be on this list! The winners will be announced at the National Leather Association – International’s Annual General Meeting on April 23^rd. Fingers crossed!

Okay, next up: book two, The Discipline. Wow, do I have a lot to say about The Discipline! First, there have been a few excerpts from the book if you haven’t checked them out. One happened right here, another over visited Lady Smut a couple weeks ago, and finally, one appeared just yesterday over at F. Leonora Solomon’s place. I was so happy to get to tour the book around at these stops!

Now for some extra fun—if you’re in the mood for a LIVE excerpt from The Discipline and happen to be the in LA area, then I hope you’ll join me next Sunday, April 9^th, at Lady Jane’s Salon OC. The event takes place at The Ripped Bodice, 3806 Main Street in Culver City, from 4 to 6 pm. I’ll be reading along with Pamela DuMond, Sabrina Sol, and Allison Morse. The entry fee is one gently used romance novel or $5, and in exchange you’ll hear some sweet and sexy excerpts. Please come out and say hi! I’ll have all sorts of series swag to giveaway there, too.

If you want to find out more about The Discipline, or even the overall series and my writing process, I wanted to point out an interview over at Lady Smut that happened a little bit ago—the fabulous Rachel Kramer Bussel interviewed me about my writing over there, and I had a good time answering her questions. Check it out if you missed it! Also, on a related note—I will forever celebrate my connection to Rachel since she is the very reason I ever got published in the first place. That said, I encourage you to check out her newest calls for submission. She is always on the lookout for new work!

All right, I can’t very well talk about Lessons In Control without mentioning book three, The Reward. I’ve got to say, I thought at first that book one was my favorite. Then book two was such a bear to write, I thought I liked it most. But…after all the editing of book three, I can officially say it is my favorite. I’m happy to report that it’s not only available for pre-order (out June 12^th!), but that we have official back cover copy! Check it out:

What if the fantasy never had to stop?

It’s been a year since Dean Sova turned Maya Clery’s world inside out. There isn’t a secret fantasy that Maya and Dean haven’t explored—each one more tantalizing and mind-blowing than the last. But while their relationship may be stronger than ever, taking the next step pushes boundaries neither one of them is prepared to face.

Dean couldn’t care less about Maya’s background—all her choices made her the woman he wants to tie to his bed and never let go. But not even a Dom as strong as Dean can keep the past at bay. When a threat from Maya’s old life surfaces, she’ll have to choose once and for all: fight for freedom under Dean’s command, or lose the reward she’s worked so hard for—the chance to be happy with the man she loves.

Book three of Lessons in Control

This book is approximately 89,000 words

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise! Find out more at CarinaPress.com/RomancePromise.

Oh, wow. I’m so pumped for you to read this one, guys! Be sure to pre-order your copy at any of the following places:

Amazon US Amazon UK Carina Press Barnes & Noble Google Play iBooks Kobo

So…that’s all on the series. Now, I have just a little ditty to share about a new mini-project I’ve taken on. To be honest, life has decided to throw some pretty big tragedies my way at the moment…and writing has become tricky with all of it going on. But, I caught a very light wind the other day, and I wanted to run with it. You see, April is the official month for the Blogging A to Z Challenge, and I’ve long wanted to take advantage of this on my poetry site. It sort of clicked the other night that I could spin some of the rockiness I’m feeling and poetry together, and still take part in this challenge through a poem every day (excluding Sunday)—except with a twist: each poem will be part of one continuous, month-long poem. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure, which is titled “A Love Affair, From A to Z.” It’s a bittersweet thing that I’m hoping to be able to continue (without tearing my eyeballs out), so if you’d like to read along, be sure to start with today’s “A – Always.”

News, news, news—and I think that’s all of it! Happy weekend and reading to all!

XX,
Jade

PS Have you signed up for my newsletter? Subscribers will be getting a free preview of book three, The Reward, before it’s released. Don’t miss out!

Hello everyone, and welcome back for the newest edition of Pillow Talk Secrets! Today, Tamsin, Malin, and I—Jade, your host for the day—have merged our thoughts together to talk about…merging writing genres together! 🙂 We had a lot to say in regards to genre crossovers and stories that blend vastly contrasting elements together, both in our own writing experiences, and in our reading, too. As usual, I’ve posted a portion of the conversation here with a link to continue on our Pillow Talk site. Or, click right here to read the conversation in its entirety.

We hope you enjoy it!

XX,
Jade

Pillow Talk Secrets

Jade: Hello ladies! So nice to be back again. How are you both doing today?

Malin: Doing well! How about you, Jade? Tamsin?

Tamsin: Very well, thanks—and better for being here with you two! 🙂

J: Aw! I agree. And I’m well too, thank you. So…today we have a very interesting topic on hand—erotica crossovers and genre blending. Shall we get right to it?

T: Absolutely!

M: Sounds great. I suspect we’ll have a lot to say.

J: I agree. Initially, I’d thrown this topic out as an option during our first year recap. Then, by random happenstance, we all ended up getting asked to join in on a special anthology that I know we’re all excited about! We’ll get to that in a bit, but for now—let’s start with the idea of erotica crossovers. What styles have you both blended so far? And how did you find it went for you?

T: I think by now, nearly everyone knows that I’ve written zombie erotica—and it’s probably one the most fun projects I’ve worked on. The obvious challenge being how to make something so totally squicky even remotely sexy!

M: The fact that you did make a zombie apocalypse a believably sexy scenario is a testament to your talent. It’s a high bar and you hit it!

Erotic and surreal…

J: I agree—and I think what was most interesting is that you really humanized a really inhuman being. Even though we wanted to squirm over the grotesqueness of the zombies, we ended up rooting for them in a few of those stories.

T: Wow! Thank you both. I think the challenge with any crossover is staying faithful to the essence of the two original genres but somehow making the sum even more than the two parts.

M: I agree. Most genres have a set of recognizable conventions. They’re sort of like markers for the reader. When you blend genres or write crossovers, you almost have to choose which conventions from each best serve the story you want to tell.

J: Right. And you also have to decide which convention needs to rule the tale. Is it more horror than erotica, or more erotica than horror, etc. For example, when we did the Coming Together: Among the Stars anthology, Malin, we did a merging of sci-fi and erotica in our stories. Did you feel you were writing more of a sci-fi story with erotic elements, or an erotic story with sci-fi elements? Or was the blend pretty equally split in your mind as you wrote it?

M: That’s an interesting question! To be honest, I’m not sure. I don’t tend to think in that way—I tend to have a story in mind and then I write it and see what it is. That story came out a pretty even mix of sci-fi and erotica. Weirdly, the elements that I consciously played with more than anything were the comedic ones. The sci-fi / erotic elements took care of themselves.

J: I would agree with that—there was some comedy that somehow needed to be added. I wonder if that’s sci-fi or just a coincidence that we both had the experience?

T: I’ve definitely found comedy to be useful in all the genre blending I’ve done. Maybe it acts like lube (snigger) in getting the two genres into bed with one another!

M: I like that idea of comedy acting as a kind of lube! For me, it depends on the genres being blended. When I blend literary and erotic, comedy doesn’t come out as much (unless it’s very black humor), but with sci-fi it was very natural. It may just depend on the story. Jeez. What an abstract answer!

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