Newsletter ~ December 2008 - January 2009

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Welcome to 2009! I hope your holidays were filled with peace & passion. As holidays go, I really can't complain about this year. While they were far more chaotic than usual, there weren't any major hiccups. The kids all got along well, especially given the potential for some serious weirdness as new "step" siblings got acquainted, and everyone was pleased (if not thrilled) with their gifts. I'm not sure, then, why I'm left with a lingering sense of dissatisfaction. Perhaps it's unrelated to the holidays. Time will tell.

The year-end awards are in full swing, with Romance Erotica Connection leading the pack. I'm happy to report that my cover for Jude Mason's book, Jesse's Homecoming, won the cover of the year in the lesbian romance & erotica category. I also won "Editor of the Year" (by one vote over the wonderful Mychael Black) for Coming Together, and my art department at Phaze Books won "Best Cover Artist Service" in a landslide!

That takes a wee bit of the sting out of the fact that none of the Coming Together anthologies made the finals for the EPPIEs this year. *sniff* I have lost faith in the integrity of the judging for those awards. Nothing grossly unethical, mind you, just the proverbial 6.5-from-the-Russian-judge type of stuff. I don't think I'll be throwing more entry fees in that direction. Until the ARIANA winners were announced, I was having a tough time summoning enthusiasm to attend EPICon. However, winning 3 ARIANAs and one Dirk A. Wolf (honorable mention) rekindled that desire. Let's hope one of those three takes home the QUASAR. My cover art is far more lucrative than my writing at this point, so any & all accolades are welcome.

Another of the major year-end polls opened on January 1st: the Preditors & Editors Readers Polls. I shamelessly nominated myself in several categories, and I'd appreciate your votes. The direct links can be found on my blog. Thanks, in advance, for your support!

On January 5th, the voting will begin in Love Romance Cafe's year-end polls. Coming Together is nominated as 2008's Best Series and Coming Together: With Pride as Best Anthology. I'll be posting the links on my blog as soon as they're available. (I assume the polls will be run on the LRC Yahoo!Group.) Please, vote!

Until next time...

peace & passion,

~ Alessia

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New Releases & Coming Soon [TOP]

RELEASED in DECEMBER from RAVENOUS ROMANCE:
The Lust Chronicles
ISBN 978-1-60777-065-7 (ebook & audiobook)
The Lust Chronicles takes readers inside the minds of men and women who know how to get their kink on. Fantasies are fulfilled as they go to orgies, join the Mile High Club, seduce sexy strangers and do all the naughty things they’ve always wanted to try. In “Luke Lushious,” Lolita Wolf attends a summer sex camp and finds the man of her dirtiest dreams, while Alex M. Quinlan learns “The Consequences of Complaint.”

Here you’ll find an ode to older women, lust for a girl in a fedora, one woman’s love affair with public sex, and several passionate paeans to the lovers you just can’t forget. Readers will identify with their cravings for over-the-top sex, and get off along with the narrators as they recount every last intimate detail. Proving that truth is far hotter than fiction, the Lust Chronicles authors bare all, letting you live vicariously through their steamy, 100% true stories.

RELEASED in DECEMBER from PHAZE:
At First
ISBN 978-1-60659-096-6 (ebook)

By popular demand, the story behind the story of ArtiFactual. On a historic day in DC, meet Erotique's eccentric curator--Senor Eduardo "Eddie" Rojas Aguilar--as a young archeology student and his dear departed Vivian Long long before she left this realm.

This HeatSheet-length short story in the Urban Phaze line also appears in Coming Together: At Last.

SELF-PUBLISHED in DECEMBER:
The Seven & The Seven Revisted

In celebration of the season, I released a compilation of my two Amazon Shorts, The Seven and The Seven Revisited, as a free ebook download. I hope y'all enjoy these inspirational tales! They're not my typical (i.e., erotic) fare.

COMING in JANUARY from PHAZE:
Coming Together: At Last
Volume 1 ISBN 978-1-59426-670-6 (ebook) & 978-1-60659-044-7 (print)
Volume 2 ISBN 978-1-60659-093-5 (ebook) & 978-1-60659-094-2 (print)

Two jumbo volumes full of luscious interracial erotic romance with an Introduction by the vampire huntress herself, L.A. Banks! Proceeds benefit Amnesty International.

Celebrate the diversity of desire!

COMING in FEBRUARY from PHAZE:
Sapphistocated: Tales of Mirror Geography
ISBN pending (print)

In The PowerBook, Jeannette Winterson writes:

"Sex between women is mirror geography. The subtlety of its secret--utterly the same, utterly different. You are a looking-glass world. You are the hidden place that opens to me on the other side of the glass. I touch your smooth surface and then my fingers sink through to the other side. You are what the mirror reflects and invents. I see myself, I see you, two, one, none. I don't know. Maybe I don't need to know."

Sapphistocated features four tales of mirror geography by four renowned authors of lesbian erotic fiction: Beth Wylde, Yeva Wiest, Jolie du Pré, and yours truly.

COMING in FEBRUARY from eXcessica:
Focus: Highlighting the Power of the Short Story
ISBN pending (print & ebook)

From this exciting new epublisher comes a diverse collection of erotic short stories edited by Kev Henley.  My Amazon Short, Knead, is included.

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Interviews & Appearances [TOP]

On December 17th, I appeared on Gracie Passette's popular Blog Talk Radio show, The Cult of Gracie. The hour just flew by. If you missed it, it's archived on the XXBN site. I must've done okay, 'cause Gracie's invited me back to herald the release of Coming Together: At Last in mid January. I can't wait!

Surrender: Tales of Erotic Submission
ISBN  978-1-60659-036-2 (print) & 978-1-60659-087-4 (ebook)

Eden Bradley, Eliza Gayle, Reese Gabriel, and yours truly combine to bring you three best-selling novellas & an award-winning short. With a "recommended read" from Dark Angel Reviews and a "reviewer top pick" from Night Owl Romance, this is a collection you don't want to miss!