Bad dreams & nightmares

by Becca Simone

(Note: this posting first appeared on Eternally Books. )

In my erotic novella, DEEP BLUE, my heroine is kidnapped by the hero and taken to his undersea lair. When he tells her this, she thinks she’s in the middle of a bad dream or a major mind-fuck. It takes her a while before she realizes she’s not having a nightmare but living one.

I thought it might be fun to check the dream dictionary at Dream Moods (http://dreammoods.com) to see what the images she is seeing could mean.

According to Dreammoods.com, dreaming about the ocean “...is indicative of spiritual refreshment, tranquility and renewal.” That makes sense. Kate’s life is about to change and renew, for the better.

She is under the sea: “To dream that you are lost at sea suggests that you are drifting around in life without any direction. You are feeling overwhelmed by emotions.” She feels her life has no direction other than her career. And now that she’s met the hero, she is confused and overwhelmed with her emotions and feelings toward him.

To read the rest of the post, please go here.

The beauty and the beast mythology

(This post originally appeared in Carly Fall's blog. See link below.) 

DEEP BLUE, my recently released erotica novella, is an erotic and paranormal twist to the classic Beauty and the Beast story. In my story, the hero is cursed to live under the sea as a half man, half sea monster, unless he can find his true love. He has 100 years to find her, or he’ll live the rest of his life in the deep blue. Alone. When the story opens, he has just three days left, so he’s a bit desperate.

When you think Beauty and the Beast, you think of the Disney movie, don’t you? No, it’s not a trick question. That’s what I think of, too. But the beauty and the beast story dates back to mythology in the second century.

You can read the rest of the post here.

Hot Summer Nights Blog Hop!

Welcome to my stop of the Hot Summer Nights Blog Hop!

Over 100 erotica authors and kinky bloggers are participating in this blog hop, chatting about hot summer nights and giving away lots of great prizes. This hop is specifically for erotica books, so you like a lotta sex, you’ve come to the right place! Thank you Skye Warren for putting this together.

Grand Prize #1: $100 Gift Card to Fun Online Sex Shop EdenFantasys

Grand Prize #2: Grand Prize #2: Digital Gift Basket with 50 Erotica Books

Visit each stop on the blog hop for chances to win a different individual prize as well as be entered to win one of the grand prizes. Click HERE to visit the other bloggers.

A winner from THIS blog will win a copy of my newest release, MIDNIGHT TREAT. Leave your comment on this blog for a chance to win here and be automatically entered for the Grand Prizes.

ADDING SOME CHILL TO YOUR SEXY THRILLS

There’s nothing much sexier than getting sweaty with your sweetie under the sheets on a hot summer night. But what if it’s too hot? I don’t know about you, but nothing cools my libido more than being too hot (in a temperature sort of way).

Some fun ways to add some chill to your thrills:

1. Prop a fan at the end of the bed, directed toward the mattress. There’s nothing quite like a cool breeze on your naughty bits to fan the fires.

2. Take turns running an ice cube across each other’s body, blowing hot air onto the skin in the ice cube’s wake.

3. Hold crushed ice in your mouth as you go down on your honey. He’ll never be the same. Trust me.

4. Take a cool shower or bath. Together. Then take turns drying each other off, or whatever else you feel like doing as you're naked.

So TMI here, what are your favorite ways to stay cool on hot, sexy nights?

Don’t forget to leave a comment on this blog, then click HERE for a link to the other blogs.

When they're good, they're very very good...

But when they're bad...

Bad boyfriends. We’ve all had them. You know the ones. They come in many variations, from slightly bad to really bad. Maybe he never complimented you, or he belittled you in front of his friends. Or maybe he was nice to you in private, but a dick to you in public—or vice versa. Or maybe he made snide comments about your weight or appearance. Maybe he belittled your sexual skills, even if he was a lame-o in bed himself. Maybe he wasn’t faithful to you. Maybe he hit you.

This blog first appeared on Erotica For All. You can read the rest of it here.

Great review for DEEP BLUE

"This was a beautifully written and mysterious new story that will leave you wanting more."-- Katie from Curse of the Bibliophile blog. You can read the rest of her review here.


For the other stops on my blog tour, please check out CBLS Promotions.

My indie journey, part 5

Midnight Treat has been for sale for 3 weeks now. I made the decision last week to increase the price from .99 to $2.99. I'm still doing little to no promo--I purposefully haven't done much just because I wanted to see the results of doing, um, nothing. :)

Week 3:

Smashwords: 5 copies

Amazon: 18

Barnes & Noble: 21

Total: 44 sales

Week 2:

Total: 37 sales

Week 1:

Total: 24 sales

My sales are low, but I'm averaging about 2 books a day if you look at the total three-week period. That's not bad for a relatively (okay, almost completely) unknown author.

But now it's time to kick it up a notch. I plan to pick one area of promo/social marketing to focus on at a time. I'm currently on Triberr and Facebook and some indie boards, but I am not too active on them. So this week, I will focus on Facebook. I will post a status every day (right now, I'm lucky to post once a week) and will comment and like others' statuses on the Home page each day. I'm also going to start blogging more. How? Not sure yet. What will I blog about? Not sure yet. But this is my week to figure that out.

Will these two things generate sales? Check back next week to find out. I'd love it if you followed me on Facebook, too.

Happy writing. Happy reading.

:)Becca

My indie journey continues, part 4

I considered not writing an update this week, because my sales haven't really sped up, but I started writing this series so anyone thinking about self-pubbing could go through the process, good/bad/ugly, with me.

I'm still not really doing any promo for this story, so the slow sales reflect that. But my goal this week is to come up with a promo plan and actually follow it. :)

My sales after 2 weeks:

Smashwords: 5

Amazon: 14

Barnes & Noble: 18

________________

Total: 37 sales

I learned yesterday that Midnight Treat was approved for Smashwords' premium catalog, which means it'll now be available at Apple, Kobo, Sony. Hopefully, that'll translate into more sales.

WEEK 1

Smashwords: 3 copies
Amazon: 8 copies
Barnes & Noble: 13 copies

______________________

Total: 24 sales

PRICE CHANGE:
After reading some interesting blogs about how Amazon is reconfiguring their algorithms (don't ask what that means, cuz I really have no idea), and how lower-priced ebooks might be affected, I decided to try an experiment. I upped the price of Midnight Treat from .99 to $2.99. Which means I'll get 70% royalties rather than 35%. Which means I'll make more money selling fewer books. But it could also mean I'll sell fewer books period.  I'll keep it this higher price for 3-4 weeks and see what happens, if anything.

As always, I'll keep you posted.