I’ve been so lucky lately to have had people saying lovely things about my works.  It’s been very encouraging and inspiring and I can’t begin to say how appreciative I am of it all. The latest nice things come from Devlin O’Neill, who reviewed my F/F spanking romance, Trinity in Trouble.

Here’s a little snippet from his review, which is very insightful I feel:

 “Trinity” certainly has brats, several of them, but one in particular is an über brat if ever such existed. The title character is an out of control serial trouble maker who would make any Top’s hands itch to grab hold of her and sort her out, briskly, firmly, on her bare bottom, and for a very long time  which of course is what happens, although she never quite makes it all the way to contrition. Renard’s heroines seldom if ever get to that point, or at most briefly.

I very much like the point he makes about my heroines never really being truly contrite. It’s a valid point and I don’t personally consider it a weakness. Contrition isn’t what I’m going for with my brats, instead their spanking relationships tend to stabilize their chaotic tendencies and focus their energies on the useful and the good. They remain complete and unrepentant brats however, which is how I think it should be. (And often is, in real life.) Show me a brat who ever got spanked into being truly contrite for an extended period of time, and I’ll show you this flying piggywig I just added to my menagerie.

Click here to read Devlin’s review!

As I’ve been doing a bunch of cleaning and sorting and fantasy writing lately (not necessarily in that order) I’ve gone back and dusted off one of my earliest F/F novellas, Rogue the Serpent and given it a bit of a going over and a shiny new cover. If you haven’t read Rogue before and you like the idea of bratty little aristocrats being shown their place by strong noble ladies with a dose of fantasy thrown in for good measure, you’re in for a treat. (Note, this ebook does contain two separate instances of M/F spanking too.)

Read the first chapter of Rogue!

Get it on Smashwords!

Buy it on Amazon Kindle!

You’ve been naughty and you know it.

I warned you over and over again. I’m not the person you want to push. I’m not the one you want to brat. But you didn’t believe me and now here we are, you’re stammering apologies as usual and I’m coming to a decision that I should have come to a long time ago.

I hold you on my lap and let you squirm. I can feel the moisture seeping through your panties. You’re wet. You’re wet because you’re a naughty little brat with a pussy that needs to be taught a lesson like the rest of you. I take hold of the front of your panties and tug them up, making them sit snugly over your clit and lips. The additional pressure is pleasant and you wriggle all the more for it.

“Are you going to spank me?” You ask the question playfully, coquettishly. You’re not taking this seriously, not yet. The tingle in your little clit is distracting you from what’s really happening here.
(more…)

Want to know more about Eventide? Here’s some burbling rambling that might enlighten somewhat…

Three weeks after its release, Call Me Boy still retains a spot in the top 100 bestselling Gay and Lesbian books on Amazon.com. This is pretty awesome *cue self patting on back*. But not all my experiences on Amazon.com of late have been similarly awesome. Some of them were decidedly un-awesome. Let me relate them for a moment.

I got two fairly terrible reviews, one from a reader who was foaming at the mouth because of a spanking relationship portrayed in Little Miss and the Law, which she found to be ‘disgusting’. She was even driven to ask ‘do people really live like this?’ The irony of someone who is presumably lesbian (or at least, a reader of lesbian fiction) pointing the finger at D/s and calling it disgusting whilst being a member / fan of a lifestyle that is often discriminated against for similarly senseless and bigoted reasons is quite amusing. But there you go.

The second was from a reviewer who was kind enough to say that I’m a good storyteller, but the book (Miscreant and the Master) didn’t grip her. I have a feeling that’s because the rather gentle, somewhat paternal D/s relationship between the Master and the Miscreant wasn’t to her more mainstream tastes, or at least, wasn’t quite her kink.

This is the fun (and I use the word ‘fun’ here in the same sense that being put through a meat grinder is fun) thing about Amazon.com. People can accidentally find themselves buying books that don’t fit their particular kink set. This is unfortunate. What’s super unfortunate is that these are the people who are motivated to leave reviews. People who are happy often don’t feel the same urge. This is something I myself have been guilty of.

At the end of the day, the books page of my author bio looks rather dismal indeed, in spite of the fact that so many lovely readers have gotten in touch with encouraging words, which I super appreciate, more than I can say. You people rock with an intensity that cannot be measured by modern science.

You might ask why these kind sentiments don’t translate into reviews. I have a fair idea why. It’s difficult for people who didn’t buy my books through Amazon to leave reviews, because Amazon demands that a person have bought something on Amazon.com at least once in order to leave a review. So with my non kindle reader base pretty much hobbled, it is left to those who are kindle purchasers. But here’s the thing. Many people have their Amazon.com accounts under their real names and aren’t exactly keen to have spanking book reviews connected to their real life personas, which I totally understand.

This would all be enough to dismay even the roughest and toughest of authors, but here’s the interesting thing. Call Me Boy has sold through the roof. It’s sold more in three weeks than any other ebook I’ve ever written. And it too, has 0 reviews. It’s the only book in the Top 100 Gay and Lesbian Bestsellers not to have a review. And that, I feel, is interesting. I’m starting to think that although some reviews on Amazon.com are natural, organic reviews left by people who wanted to share their experiences with a particular book, many of them are as a direct result of ‘review swaps’ ‘reviews for hire’ and other little tricks that exist because authors are feeling that they have to go out and solicit positive reviews. I understand that urge, though I’ve not (rather obviously, because this problem would not be a problem if I did) engaged in any of those techniques myself. Nobody wants to see their book dragged down in the eyes of potential readers by people who were never going to enjoy it in the first place.

So what’s the moral of the story? Well, there are several really.

Moral One

Don’t put too much trust in Amazon.com reviews. They are often inflated or sometimes underrated as a result of malice (there was a scandal at one point where some authors were caught going around leaving negative reviews on other people’s books) or thoughtlessness. Every single kindle book has a free sample for download, so if you’re interested in a book, download that and make your own decision as to the quality of the writing.

Moral Two

If you’re in the position to do so, it’s nice to leave a review. This is a lesson I myself will be acting on in the coming days. There are several books I have rather enjoyed in recent times and not reviewed. That will be changing.

Moral Three

Haters really are going to hate. It often has very little to do with the quality of one’s work – or the number of people who love what you do. This final lesson is applicable to almost everything in life.

Long time readers will remember ‘The Bucket’ a collaborative non-sexual F/F spanking story I wrote with Alyx of AlyxFic (best lesbian domestic discipline stories that side of the Rockies, I reckon’). There’s a new chapter out, out now on Alyx’s site. But you should really start from the first story if you haven’t read this before because the new chapter is the eleventh in the series and starting from chapter eleven in anything makes about as much sense as not raising the debt ceiling until the day before your entire country defaults on its debt. Oh yeah. I went there.

The First Bucket Story

Make A Wish *NEW CHAPTER*

(It should be noted that the Loki in the tale is not in any way representative of myself. I’m way more bad-ass ;))

She has been spanked to tears. Her eyes glisten as they break the banks of her eyelashes and course down her cheeks, her face contorted as her lips part wide, her will temporarily broken by the stern forces applied directly to her bright red bottom.

She cries because she can no longer contain herself. She can no longer control her response to the disciplinary pain. But her tears are not her own. Her tears are mine too. I have coaxed them forth and to me they are precious. They call on an ancient predatory instinct that demands total domination and just for a little while, we let that old shadow stalk around us, we dance with the darkness that lies within us both, a shadow thrown by the flickering flame of trust.

I can make her cry. I can make her shriek. I can slap those bouncing cheeks until her wailing echoes off the walls. Her tears are a sign of physical submission that runs below the skin. She has given herself up and her flesh is willing and pliant. It reddens for me. It weeps for me. Even her breath catches between each stroke as her body forgets itself and follows my bidding.

The barrier between us grows ever thinner, with each and every tear drop we draw closer, I in her, she in me.

I’m going to preface this with the disclaimer that I’m in love with my Kindle. In the month or so since I got it I’ve read more than I have in the past couple of years. This is as a result of several factors, the first among them being that with the Kindle I can buy books in bed. Any activity becomes exponentially more attractive to me if it is possible to do it in bed, and unlike my penchant for rampant toast consumption, the Kindle doesn’t leave crumbs.

Some people are going to sit stubbornly in the ‘I prefer paper books’ camp, and that’s fine. Fine if they want to only read that which is pre-selected for them by a major publishing house. For a long time publishing houses have acted as gate-keepers, deciding what will and will not be released en-masse to the public. That’s changed now. It’s now a reader’s prerogative to find material that they’ll enjoy and for the moment, Amazon.com is leading that particular charge. (I know this because books placed on Amazon.com out-sell books placed on other outlets 2:1.)

The fact of the matter is, it makes almost as much sense to whack down a tree every time someone wants to have a bit of a read as it does to finger paint the entire works of Shakespeare on a cave wall. Times are changing, as times are wont to do. It’s not just a matter of arguably superior technology (I am aware that the batteries on a paper book pretty much never run out.) It’s a matter of superior availability. And buying books in bed. In bed!

You can buy my books in your bed from my Amazon.com Author Page.

Alternatively, there’s always this:

I’ve just released my newest erotic lesbian spanking novella called Lady Shark. This was a fun one to write because it has a thriller sort of feel to it in which you never really know if the dominant antagonist, Scarlett Black, is a good gal or a bad gal. She takes our charming heroine, Ricky Wells, through a journey that is harrowing at times, yet always seems to end in a sore bottom and a warm embrace.

Lady Shark is available on Lulu.com and in Amazon Kindle format. You can read the first chapter for free at Sappho’s Brats, or go straight to the Amazon Kindle store to download a sample to your Kindle.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been going through some of my previously published lesbian romances, giving them a bit of a face lift and putting them on the Amazon Kindle store. There’s a few reasons for this, one I like shinies, and the new covers are much shinier than the old ones. Two, ever since I got my kindle I’ve realized that this newfangled Amazon technology might just have something to it. Little Miss and the Law will be available on Kindle from tomorrow onwards, but in the meantime it’s still available on Lulu.com, complete with shiny pretty cover art :D

Read a free chapter of Little Miss and the Law

A modern lesbian romance with a magical twist, Witch’s Cat follows the fortunes of Anita and Georgia. They’re a normal couple if you don’t count the cane in the corner and the potions in the basement. Anita is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and fancies herself quite the powerful witch. She’d rule the world, if only her strict (and completely non magical) girlfriend Georgia would let her.

$3.99!

I announced that The Witch’s Broomstick was going to be out soon, and it is, except now it’s called ‘Witch’s Cat’. The title makes more sense this way, I promise.

I should warn you that most people are going to consider this to be erotica. That’s because it’s erotic. Rawr. But there’s also romance and because I still harbor hopes of being allowed into the Romance Writer’s conventions where the ladies have hair that doesn’t move when they do, and because I want you to feel comfortable with this ebook on your desktop, let’s say it’s wholesome lesbian romance. With a bow tie. Adorable.

Now available on Lulu.com and Amazon Kindle!

If you want to hold off on the commitment of purchasing, an attitude I understand entirely, here’s the first chapter, entirely free for you to read. It has spanking in it, so don’t tell me I don’t love you.

Read the first chapter FREE!

… and it fit me like a glove. Well, sort of anyway. It’s the first spanking dream I’ve had in ages and ages in which I was the top. Here’s how it went down.

So I’m walking through the dream world one dream morning in a city I don’t recognize. It’s a blend of somewhere I’ve probably been in Europe, and Christchurch. I know this because I pass by a car full of young fools whose main mode of self expression is shouting things at passers by. Christchurch is the spiritual home of this activity, and every year thousands upon thousands of young people come here in order to indulge in vehicular ass-hattery.

As I pass by, they yell something inane. I give them the universal one fingered sign of peace. This is not a particularly top-ly thing to do, but oh well.

Next thing I know, an angry young woman in her late teens is storming over, spoiling for a fight. She’s probably been drinking, because that’s usually when young women decide that they want to fight.

I decline the proffered fisticuffs, but she takes a swing, and that’s where things get interesting. A moment later (I’m not sure how, because dreams are weird) I’m smacking her bare ass. It quickly turns a pleasant pinky red shade as she kicks and squirms. There are people all around, but I barely notice them, I’m too busy tanning her backside, which is rather pleasant to look at, especially as it grows a deeper shade of cherry red.

When I let her up her eyes are shining with grateful tears. She’s no longer angry. Whatever internal rage drove her to me, it has dissipated in the heat of a sore bottom.

There is a spark of intimacy between us. A connection that can only exist between spanker and spankee. She opens her mouth to say something, but she turns into a bowling pin and I fly away on the back of a telephone book.