There’s some strange link between writers and cats. Oh, some writers have dogs, but many more of us have cats. Are they our muses? Or is there job to nudge us when we’ve been sitting in front of the computer so long, cobwebs are growing on us?

Check out Circlet Press’s blog for some pictures and stories about some writerly cats, including my own!

…especially when I didn’t even know about the contest!

My short story “Some Old Lover’s Ghost,” which appeared in the anthology Haunted Hearts and Sapphic Shades, is up for the Romance Erotica Connection Awards in the F/F Romance short story category!

If anyone’s a member of REC and liked my story, please vote for it! (Or if you’re not a member and you liked my story, you can join their Yahoo group and vote in the Polls section.)

I’m in amazing company, and even if I don’t win, I’m incredibly chuffed to just be on the list!

I’ve got several sales to announce, so I’ll just squee about them all in one post!

I sold “Come to My Window” to the anthology Where the Girls Are: Urban Lesbian Erotica, and Teresa and I (as Sophie, natch) also sold “On Display” to the same anthology! We wrote “On Display” back in 2004, and there’s always an added sweetness to a sale for a story we’ve stubbornly kept in the mail, sure it’ll find the perfect market.

Also, I just got word that my story “Mirror Mirror” will appear in the Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories anthology, which will be out in March 2009.

Sale! “Breakfast in Bed” will appear in Afternoon Delight: Erotica for Lovers, another gorgeous anthology edited by the ever-amazing Alison Tyler.

I’m delighted to announce my very first podcast publication!

Not only that, but it’s a resale (can’t call it a reprint, can I?) of my first professionally published story. “What Dragons Prefer” is a short fantasy tale with a wicked twist at the end. It first appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine in 1996.

You can listen to “What Dragons Prefer” here or download it for future audio pleasure on your computer or iPod.

Because, that’s right, it’s free! So go forth and enjoy!

It’s a reprint sale*, but still one to be delighted about! “Just Be” will appear in the Phaze Books charity anthology Coming Together: At Last. All proceeds of the Coming Together anthologies go to a charity or relief fund, including breast cancer research, the 2007 Southern California wildfires, HIV/AIDS, and more. Coming Together: At Last is a collection of interracial erotic fiction and will benefit Amnesty International. I’m proud to be a part of it!

The anthology will be out in 2009; I’ll post ordering information when I have it.

* “Sale” is something of a misnomer, as I will only receive some comp copies. Normally I don’t write for no pay, but this was for a really good cause!

Great news! The anthology Fabulous Whitby, which contains my story “Proof of Devotion” (which I wrote all the way back in 2002 at the Oregon Coast Writers Master Class!), is finally available! ::squee bouncity::

Right now, amazon doesn’t seem to be supporting it well: amazon.com doesn’t list it at all, and amazon.co.uk and amazon.ca are listing it as out of stock or whatnot.

The good news is, you can order it from a place called York Publishing Services out of the UK.

The better news is, they charge only $3.99 to deliver to the US, which is the same as what they charge to deliver in the UK (using the current exchange rate). That’s right—international shipping is the same as UK shipping!

Click on the link above to go to the Fabulous Whitby order page. I’m soooo excited about this one. I’m in an anthology with Liz Williams and Esther Friesner and Cherith Baldry and Jay Lake andandand…!

Haunted Hearts and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories just got a fantastic review from Rainbow Reviews! Mine was one of the four stories specifically mentioned; the reviewer called it “the unexpectedly romantic heart-wrenching ‘Some Old Lover’s Ghost.’”

::beam::

Teresa and I have sold “Food for Thought,” a delectable romance involving girls and food, to Best Lesbian Love Stories 2009!

We wrote this story about four years ago and we’re thrilled it’s found such an illustrious home.

And another sale! The Sophie story “Behind the Masque” will be in The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica Vol. 8! It first appeared in the Wicked Words anthology Sex With Strangers.

Oh, it was such a fun story to write. How can you go wrong with jewel thieves?

The Lucchese Star. Sixty carats of sapphire, as big as your fist. Makes your mouth water just looking at it. Makes you think of Caribbean seas, the summer you were ten, the eyes of the lover that got away.

Inside my turquoise doeskin gloves, my palms itched. They didn’t sweat, not a drop; I wasn’t nervous. It was all about the anticipation, baby. The lead-up. The foreplay.