Kaysee Renee Robichaud

Interesting Reading!

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:45:28 GMT

My writing bro, the big bad dark_towhead, has unleashed a new installment in his Considering Stories column. Today's object for consideration? Yellow Peril Stories: Then and Now. Hmmm. Some serious food for thought and well worth reading...

Drop Dead Sexy: Succubi Live in Seductress!

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:01:38 GMT

Today, I am participating in Cleis Press' blog tour to help promote a wonderful anthology called Seductress: Erotic Tales of Immortal Desire. Why am I doing this? Well, my eager questioner, that answer is pretty simple: I'm one of the contributing authors. (Squeee!)

I thought about the various ways I could approach this blog entry, and I decided to take a more global view to the topic. Instead of talking about how I came to write my contribution (because really who cares about little ol' me?), I thought I would instead take a look at the subject matter from an outside perspective and work my way in.

This anthology contains 21 stories about succubi. Nothing hotter than that in the worlds of paranormality and supernaturalness, right? However, the succubus comes with a lotta lotta baggage, and maybe we should consider that for a mo.

I probably don't need to mention that the succubus always takes a female aspect (the male version is the incubus). It should also come as no surprise that a succubus stems from an interpretation of women's sexuality. In the earliest tradition, the succubus is a demon who instills lust in otherwise pious folks. Should those pious folks succumb to the temptation, they end up dead or damned forever (or both). That part lives with us to this day, even the title of this anthology is Seductress, after all.

Break it down to the simplest elements and you get: a woman who is comfortable with her sexuality and convinces you to be comfortable with yours is evil incarnate. How insulting is that?

In the wrong hands, it can be incredibly nasty: misogynistic, fill-in-the-blank-phobic and destructive.

In the right hands, though? In hands interested in molding thoughtful stories and intriguing characters? The succubus can become something truly fascinating. The baggage is there, as with any supernatural beasty—vampires were merciless, amoral, bloodsucking fiends until Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire and John Shirley's Dracula in Love came along to breathe some freshness into the two dimensional shell.

What about the succubus? There's a creature dying for a makeover! Well, I can think of at least two paranormal series that try.
One would be Jackie Kessler's Hell on Earth, which tells the story of Jezebel, who flees hell and hides out as an exotic dancer on earth, while trying to be human. Dark yet funny.
The other would be Richelle Mead's Georgina Kincaid series. Starting with Succubus Blues, Richelle Mead offered us a look at another side to the demon. The books combine Bridget Jones sass, Devil Wears Prada zing and supernatural sexiness in a delish cocktail.

These both bring freshness to our poor belabored succubus, helping her claw out of the negative stereotype and into something far more interesting.

I believe Seductress: Erotic Tales of Immortal Desire takes this a step further. The width and breadth used by these storytellers are quite surprising. Just about any one of these tales could be expanded into a full on novel or series, and if the authors were to try, I would certainly give it a read. However, the joy of an anthology is not being immersed into one imagination, it's a chance to savor dozens of imaginations. Sometimes, the stories will share themes or motifs, sometimes they will be wildly different. Some make us grin, others touch us deeply, and (at least with these) all of them are trying to make us a little happy-squirmy. Really, what could be better than that?

Do succubi deserve a chance to live and play outside the "ooooh, eeeeevil" ghetto? I'd say so. Why not give Seductress a read. I'd love to hear what you think.

Wildfires: A Twice Told Tales Release

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:41:53 GMT

Do you love dragons? I sure do. I wrote a sexy, sexy story about them, and Twice Told Tales has published it!

Wildfires tells the story of a paranormal research team looking into the Texas droughts. Meteorologists say it's due to natural factors, but they don't know the whole story. What's really going down has something to do with ancient Aztec gods, dragons and a little bit of magic. Sex, romance, humor, thrills.

Wildfires is the first time my name has appeared alone on a book. It's a short story, but it's one I'm rather proud of. I'm happy beyond words that Twice Told Tales has released it for my readers!

Started On Something Beeeeg

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:02:41 GMT

By now, five of my stories have been accepted at Ravenous Romance. I first showed up on RR's radar in 2005. When I moved to Texas, I submitted and was accepted into the anthologies Beach Boys: Tales of the Gay Boys of Summer and Women of the Bite (the latter of which went on to nab a finalist slot for the Lambda Literary Awards). Now, I'm appearing in My First Threesome (2012), Geek Love (2012) and the upcoming Snowed In For The Holidays (due out in 2013). Another three of my sexy romantic stories are in RR slushpiles, as well, hoping for a space in anthologies about bad boys, vampire virgins and erotica's dark side. Those stories were fun, fun, fun to write, and I love them all. But they have successfully gotten me something new: an editor at RR who really seems to like my stuff.

I've been professionally friendly with quite a few editors, since I started publishing in 2008. But this time, I've got one ASKING ME FOR A FULL LENGTH PROJECT. Squeee!

When I am alone in front of a mirror, I often stop and say my name, followed by "novelist." It's been a wonderful dream, and I hope that it turns out well!

So, I've been working on a novel proposal. I have a rough, rough outline and I'm two chapters/7500 words into the manuscript, chugging along at a pretty good clip. The working title is Confessions of a Masked Maiden, and it's got everything I love about romantic erotica.

Everything I love period, actually . . .

At its heart, Confessions is the story of Mayim Hawthorne, a webcomic designer who is down on her luck, getting a chance at getting out from under debt, fear and self-doubt. Of course, there're some sexy goings on, a hot romance, and plenty of eye candy . . . err brain candy. It's got characters I'm enjoying getting to know, situations that make me cringe or giggle maniacally or get all squirmy at. Luckily, I cringe/giggle/get squirmy at the right times, and I hope my editor and readers will, too.

I'm aiming to make Mondays my "Catching Up with Confessions" day here, so I hope you will all join me. This blog has been underused, but that's going to change!

Gods, Save The Mark!

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:06:01 GMT

Oh me, oh my!

There's been a bonanza of updates from the KRR fiction factory (lol), which I am pleased and proud to report. I'll do this over several posts, though so as not to bombard people with mememememe news (as well as give me a bunch of post ideas to get back into the swing of this journal-thing). :)

First off, my story "Tricksters are Made, Not Born" has been unchained (like Django, yum!) and unleashed upon the world. This fast paced, funny, paranormal erotica story about divinity, sex and con artists appears in the recently released Like a Cunning Plan anthology from Circlet Press!

Check out this yummeh cover:

It's available from amazon and All Romance, right now, and other eBook retailers soon!

Nightmare City: My Flirtation with the Dark Side

Wed, 18 May 2011 18:26:18 GMT

So, I've been having nightmares, and it likely has something to do with the latest story I've been working on. Though my regular readers might not suspect it, I have a secret lurve for the scary stuff--though certainly not all of it.

In fact, the first story I wrote that was accepted for publication was a vampire-ish piece about a destructive fling that starts with (consenting!) rough sex and ends with a little murder. It was hot yet challenging reading. My writing group was divided over it--the ladies loved it but the guys loathed it. Success, I thought! An anthology's editor (who was actually looking for disturbing, erotic vampire stories) also loved it, but trouble came to paradise when the publishers thought it was too much. Apparently, my idea of disturbing was too disturbing for them. They asked the editor to yank it (one of the nicest, most apologetic emails I've ever received). I was sad but happy, at the time. That story has yet to find a home (alas!), though I admit I'm hesitant to send it elsewhere.

Well, after a mess of whimsical stories (which have found homes) and some sad crime-type yarns (which have also found homes), I have delved once more into the dark place. Trying not to disturb, however.

I wanted to see if I could write a sex positive, erotic, scary story. I thought it would be simple. The story turned out to be a lioness, and this poor writer was an blissfully unaware antelope.

Really effective scary stories seem to rely heavily upon consequences. Sure, there are otherworldly intrusions into reality or crimes so horrible they cease to be "normal" and assume an almost otherworldly quality, but left to their own devices, these two descriptors could just as easily suggest fantasy stories. What sets scary stories (what some call horror) and fantasy apart for me, is not violence or nastiness (both of which appear in every other storytelling mode) but this notion of consequence or impact.

Now, a pair of examples--can you name the school of scary? Example 1: Long dormant supernatural eeevil has awakened, and the effect it has is a breaking down of the civilized mores/code of conduct (often in small towns). Example 2: Humanity builds a happy illusion about the way the universe runs, but when the Truth is revealed, humanity realizes its own insignificance and goes mad.

Now the relationship between sex and scares is pretty Puritanical. Slasher flicks and similar scare films make that abundantly clear, which is why so many of them are short sighted and kinda well boring. Even an otherwise enjoyable movie like Stir of Echoes cannot escape viewing sex as a pejorative term. However, that branch of horror fiction dubbed erotic horror also takes a page from this assumption. How many Hot Blood stories or hardcore horror novels can essentially be dropped into the "You had sex? Then die, Horny McHornykins!" chum bucket? A disproportionately large number. There are some writers who push past these limitations, but the sex-is-wrong/sinful/depraved trope is difficult to elude. If it's not up front in the cheap seats, it glares from the subtext. Ugh, I say. Ugh.

I wanted to make sex an integral part of my scary story, but I didn't want to fall into any sex-is-wrongwrongWRONG traps. I wanted to stay sex positive. Did I succeed? Hard to say. We'll see what the editor and publisher (and hopefully readers!) say.

However, I've been having nightmares about enclosed spaces and thunderstorms and running away from things no one was meant to know/see...as well as erotic dreams about mysterious lovers. Maybe that's a good sign?

So, how about it readers: what are your thoughts on dark fiction and sexy, scary stories? Any recommendations for sex positive spooky stories?

To get the ball rolling: Poppy Brite's Drawing Blood comes to mind--a sometimes sweet, sometimes terrifying m/m horror-romance. Joyce Carol Oates' modern gothic Beasts reveals a weird relationship between "sex as destroyer of innocence" and "sex as instrument of empowerment"....

I'm sure the list goes on. Help me out?

Some Saucy Jane Austen Fantasies!

Tue, 10 May 2011 19:49:27 GMT

Coming Soon from Clasp (Circlet Press's new erotic romance imprint)!

Want a little Jane Austen-style erotic fantasy fiction? You should check this one out! It includes my own story "The Lamia's Proposal", wherein a certain prideful bastard from one of Austen's most popular novels finds his supernatural equal.

To get an inside scoop on the other contributors, check out editor J. Blackmore's blog!

Release date is currently set to be July 26th!

Fiction Excerpt: "Adrift" from Women on the Edge of Space!

Wed, 04 May 2011 21:42:53 GMT

I've posted an excerpt from my story "Adrift" over at the Circlet Press Livejournal community. Each of the other authors in the book have done likewise. It's a great time!

New Publication and Author Chat

Tue, 03 May 2011 20:42:15 GMT

There's a fun author chat over at the Circlet Press community! Stop on by and share some book recommendations for a chance to win the new anthology, Women on the Edge of Space!

The book is a celebration of lesbian space exploration stories!

Table of Contents

Introduction by Danielle Bodnar
The Many Little Deaths of Cicilia Long by Shanna Germain
Fair as the Moon, Clear as the Sun by Laurel Waterford
Adrift by Kaysee Renee Robichaud
Unfolding Her Wings by Elizabeth Black

New Release!

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:36:45 GMT

It's been a while, and some new fiction has arrived... Time to play catch up!

The most recent can be found Only In the City: Erotic Tales of City Life.

Here's what publisher Circlet Press has to say about the book:

Also available at the Kindle Store, Fictionwise, Barnes&Noble.com, Smashwords, Scribd, Rainbow Ebooks, All Romance Ebooks, Trapezium, the iBookstore, Diesel, and elsewhere.

Six erotic short stories from Eric Del Carlo, Elizabeth Coldwell, Shanna Germain, Renatto Garcia, Elizabeth Hyder, and Kaysee Renee Robichaud.

City life is cluttered and high-density but anonymous. The characters in Only in the City are surrounded by strangers, anxious about making a connection with another person, physically crowded but emotionally isolated, even from themselves.

And so, when they find that connection–emotional, romantic, sexual–it’s explosive. Add a dose of the fantastic–sometimes even the supernatural–and you get the stories in this anthology: powerful and electric in the way of desperate connections, but also unique to their settings. Some of these cities are ancient and magical, others are gritty and futuristic, while still others are familiar to us in the here and now. Each city pulses with life, but it is that constant beat that wears down our protagonists. These characters have been hardened, cracked, and sometimes broken, and it’s often not until they’re presented with something they’ve never dreamed of that they realize what they’ve been missing.

In “As Far as I Can See,” a New Orleans man has discovered exactly how easy it is to slide into anonymity and loneliness in the city. He passes through his surroundings solitary and unseen, but what happens when he meets someone who is, literally, unseen?
In “Camille/Leon,” a prostitute has a unique talent: she can shift genders at will. This has allowed her to make a terrific living, but it’s forced her to split herself in two. Can she ever realize the whole of herself in a society that tears people apart?

Drug cartels, sentient forests, dueling mages, and earthbound angels: each of these stories reaches for the fantastic, even as it stays grounded in the familiar feel of urban life.

All the protagonists of these stories have lost something of themselves in the erosion of city life, but each of them will find something unexpected or precious through the erotic connections they make, whether fleeting or forever, that could only happen in the city.

Just in time for the cooler days of summer season . . .

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:52:25 GMT

Here in southern Texas, I've discovered that summers can be a little oppressive. A little high on the temperature scale, a little low on the "wow, I wanna go to the beach" scale. Thank you Ravenous Romance for giving us a little taste of vacation boy love right in my lap! Well, on my ebook reader anyway, which I sort of hold on my lap.

Ahem.

Is it getting a little hot in here?

Beach Boys: An Anthology of Erotic Encounters with the Gay Boys of Summer offers 14 sexy stories, including my own tale of a Kinky Cruise!

How's this for a cover?

It's an e-book! It's affordable! And it is jam packed stuffed with some lovely boy-on-boy joy! Yum!

Double Dose of Sexy Thrills! And More In the Near Future!

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:53:21 GMT

Two brand spanking (ooooooh, it hurts so good!) erotica pieces available!

First up, my story "Gretel's Dilemma," a sexy take on the Hansel and Gretel faerie tale is one of five stories to be found in Like a Queen: Lesbian Erotic Faerie Tales from Circlet Press! How's this for a cover?

What's the story about? Weeeeell, what if an eighteen year old Gretel (from "Hansel and Gretel") fell in love with the Witch. And what if Gretel's family just did? not? understand? Well, that's quite the dilemma. At its heart, this story is about how we tend to build mountains from ant mounds, about the challenges around coming out, and about the pursuit if true happiness. With a little hot sexuns, of course. ;-P

Like a Queen is available for Kindle, as well as several other e-book formats through sites like All Romance, Smashword, and Scribd.

Second fiction appearance!
Cecilia Tan (at Circlet Press) tells me my story "Plug In" (no lesbians, alas, but sexy nevertheless) is today's free smut offering at Circlet Press! At only 1000 words, think of this as a little love nibble... Inspirations here take a page from both the "Old Skool" cyberpunks (eg. Pat Cadigan, William Gibson, and Wilhelmina Baird) and some erotic interplay that's totally Lauren Bacall/Humphrey Bogart. It'll be up and free, so give it a try!

What's more, it look like my story "Firsts: On the Kink Cruise" (a little story of boy love) will be appearing in Sephera Giron's anthology Beach Boys due out soon from Ravenous Romance! No cover yet (that I know of), but when I get one I'll pass it on!

Ravenous Romance has some pretty sizzling stories (and some truly luscious covers).

New Fiction Available!

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:06:37 GMT

Readers of e-books will find Women of the Bite from Ravenous Romance to be a sexy vampire romp. Specifically, it's an anthology of eleven lesbian, erotic-romance vampire stories (isn't that a mouthful?). This one includes my short story "Keeping Score," 4100 words of lesbians, vampirism, bank robberies, and sexy romance gone wrong (but oh so right!) . . .

The cover makes me squee with joy:

And the book is also slated for a real live print edition, later this year (October, naturally! What better time for v-v-va-a-a-ampi-i-ires-s-s-s) from Alyson Books. This cover makes me squee with a different sort of delight:

I totally want her hair. And her arms.

And presumably her abs.

K. Mental note: Lots of exercise (yuck). And no more sugar-sweets. Ever.

Is it just me or is Jason Stathem a totally underappreciated Comedic Actor?

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:43:55 GMT

Case in point: Crank: High Voltage. Oh my. Definitely one of the year's best comedies. Come on, I mean with a tagline like: "He was dead . . . but he got better" how can this be anything BUT a comedy????

It begins with an 8-bit animation recreation of the final scene from Crank part 1 (well, I presume so, since I never actually saw that one). A computer generated Chelios then crashes onto a car, and a live action one bounces onto the street, where he is then scraped off the asphalt with a snow shovel (handy how a passing van of organ leggers are around for just such an occasion). The plot then becomes the search for his stolen heart (Not as in "Awwww, isn't that sweet?" I mean LITERALLY missing. Remember those organ leggers I was talking about?). Add in gratuitious self-inflicted electro-stimulation, some sexy stranger rubbing, an unrepentantly goofy-outRAGEous plotline, a wizened David Carradine yucking it up as a bbw-loving mob boss guy, an out of nowhere Godzilla scene (with giant rubber mask Statham fighting another rubber masked guy) and you have a . . . well, a movie.

And then there is the somewhat incomprehensible Ling Bai(her dialogue is even subtitled!), delivering oddball insults with verve and panache. Jason Statham is his typically growly and chiseled-sexy self, but as the final outtakes reveal: even he could not keep a straight face through this one! So over the top it's amazing.

A perfect wine and popcorn movie! Now if only the DVD will come out . . .

Pardon me while I shake head and blush.

And now for something completely serious . . . (or not)

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:48:25 GMT

Well, after whipping out a rather frivolous entry about my scatterbrainedness (not a real word, but a very real concept), now I will post a little something about me.

Me!

Actually, let me talk about an e-book called Like a Wisp of Steam . . .

What's this, you might be wondering? Well, it's a collection of novellas. Erotic Steampunk novellas. :) And it includes my first fiction sale. If you like either erotica OR steampunk (or mad scientists with a Victorian fashion sense) (or fiction, I'm not choosy), let me recommend you give this one a shot. It's gotten some great reviews, and features stories by writers like Jason Rubis, Thomas S. Roche, Vanessa Vaughn, Peter Tupper, and

Me!

Curious? Give it a read at:

Fictionwise (available in a variety of formats)
oooor
amazon.com (for Kindle users)

First Post: Why so few Interests, LJ????

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:18:51 GMT

So, I sat down and rattled off a whole metric ton of interests, and was then told "meh, meh, meh" you can only have 150 . . . Then, I had to pare them down. It was like cutting out pieces of my soul! Okay, maybe not that bad. I dunno about anyone else, but I have like a gazillion interests (a hojillion, maybe), and cutting them down was kinda, kinda . . . rude.

*shaking judgmental finger at LJ*

*feeling the judgmental finger reflected back at me, since I continue to use LJ*