BDSM is the hot thing nowadays, in romance and in the lives of people being inspired by the romances they read. Believe me I think that's a good thing. I've been a BDSM activist and educator for over 20 years.
I've also been writing erotica, love stories, and romance for just as long and have always seen my erotic fiction as a way to spread the word about BDSM. 50 Shades of Grey got a lot of criticism because Christian Grey's kinky nature is explained away as him being "damaged," and the BDSM is something that he and Anastasia grow away from as he is "healed" by her love. While I think healing love is a perfectly good topic for a romance, and while there are some people who are drawn to BDSM as a way to wrestle with their own past traumas, this is far from most couple's experiences with kink.
Exploring power exchange fantasies is exciting. It's arousing to many. Even role-play scenarios we don't think of as particularly "BDSM," like say the naughty nurse or "doctor's office" scene, have elements of power exchange in them: the doctor is in control when he or she is telling us to get undressed or open wide. Then there are the physical, sensual thrills, like bondage and spanking. For some folks, they're the perfect thing to spice up already great sex. For others, the whole BDSM spectrum is a way to connect with a partner by exploring the most intimate territories possible.
That's what makes it such a great topic for a romance novel. In Slow Surrender, the first book in my Struck by Lightning trilogy, I made my heroine new to BDSM. It's her first time trying anything like it. But instead of being shy and "perils of Pauline" about it, Karina likes the taste she gets and goes back for second and third helpings at the sensual buffet. Seems to me that's more what I see in real life. Karina discovers a world where consent is not only a buzzword, it means everything. And it means her partner will actually listen to her needs and then use that knowledge to the fullest.
BDSM is a bit like Mexican food. To some it seems strange and exotic. Why would you put hot peppers into food? Don't they hurt? To others, it's something that's everywhere these days, take it or leave it. In Karina's case it's like she finally tries a taco and decides there's no going back to bland sandwiches again. In book 2, Slow Seduction, she discovers that what makes the taco special, though, isn't the taco itself, but the man who makes it. Karina finds it's not BDSM alone that lights up her life, but the chef who has trained her palate, James.
Unlike Christian and Ana, my Karina and James explore kink and bondage more and more as they grow closer together. My hope is that readers, even if they don't ever go out and try BDSM in real life, will feel like that makes sense. BDSM is about trust. The next step for Karina and James, when book 3 comes out in August 2014, will be to trust each other completely and utterly. To me, that's what's romantic.
BOOK BLURB:
SLOW SEDUCTION: Now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook!
Unforgettable passion . . .
Two months have passed since Karina's painful departure from James, the mysterious lover who awakened her darkest desires, and she'll do anything-anything-to locate him and win him back. Her search takes her to London, where she finds herself immersed in the world of fine art and forbidden pleasures. And soon, Karina meets another enigmatic man who promises to help her find James . . . for a price.
Unexpected pleasure . . .
Damon George is rich, gorgeous, and a member of a secret society that caters to the sensual thrills of the wealthy and powerful. Though Karina insists her heart will always belong to James, Damon is determined to have her, body and soul. By the time she finds James, Karina has been "trained" to please another. Will James reject her again ... or find her more irresistible than ever?
Cecilia Tan is "simply one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature," according to Susie Bright. Tan is the author of many books, including the ground-breaking erotic short story collections Black Feathers(HarperCollins), White Flames (Running Press), and Edge Plays (Circlet Press), and the erotic romances Slow Surrender (Hachette/Forever), Mind Games (Ravenous Romance), The Prince's Boy (Circlet Press), The Hot Streak, and the Magic Universityseries (Red Silk/Ravenous). Her short stories have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Nerve, Best American Erotica, Asimov's Science Fiction, and tons of other places. She was nominated for the Lifetime Achievement award by RT Magazine in Erotica in November 2013 (and will find out in May 2014 whether she wins or not). She was inducted into the Saints & Sinners Hall of Fame for GLBT writers in 2010, was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Leather Association in 2001, and won the inaugural Rose & Bay Awards for crowdfunded fiction in 2010 for Daron's Guitar Chronicles. She lives in the Boston area with her lifelong partner corwin and three cats.
LINKS:
Read an Excerpt: http://blog.ceciliatan.com/?page_id=1173#slowseduc
Purchase from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CO7FO4Y/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/slow-seduction-cecilia-tan/1115250967?ean=9781455529247
Independent Booksellers: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781455529254
Cecilia Tan Writer & Editor
Mobile: 617-290-9043 (text friendly)
blog.ceciliatan.com
Twitter, Livejournal, Facebook, G+: ceciliatan
Mobile: 617-290-9043 (text friendly)
blog.ceciliatan.com
Twitter, Livejournal, Facebook, G+: ceciliatan
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