For those of you who mutter about the fact that all my stories have sex in them, I’m delighted to report that you can now order Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy and Nostalgia, which contains my fantasy (not erotica, fantasy) story “The Devil Went Down to the Sunset Strip.”

It’s funny. It’s about hair metal bands. What’s not to love?

There are times in your writing career when you feel unworthy. You’ve been plodding along, things are slowly moving forward, and then someone includes in you in a list of “legendary erotica heavy-hitters” and you look around wondering who behind you they’re pointing at.

I’m having another one of those moments.

I’ve been invited to be an instructor on a writing cruise!

(That sentence really needs about a bazillion exclamation points!)

It took me about zero point two seconds to say yes. After I picked my jaw up off the ground.

So, in October 2011, I’ll be hopping on a cruise ship to Mexico and teaching writing (I’m doing a two-hour session on romance and erotica and whatever else folks want to hear me ramble about) along with Kris and Dean (the Kris & Dean Show is worth the price of admission!) and Chris and Steve York (not sure what they’ll be teaching yet) and Michael Bellomo (nonfiction).

The details I already have are below, in case you might be interested. Seriously, the cost is less than RWA (yes, it’s shorter than RWA and has fewer classes, but you’ll be on a cruise ship!)—if I weren’t teaching, I might be tempted to go just because it’s such an amazing deal!

Hmm…time to start working out so I can look hot in a bikini!

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Scribes at Sea

Cruise: Long Beach, CA, to Ensenada, Mexico

Dates: October 28–31*, 2011

Cost–Cruise: starts at $327 per person (includes port fees, tax, food, lodging, shows), based on double occupancy. At least one person per cabin must be signed up for the workshops. (So bring your spouse! Or not your spouse! Heehee.)

Cost–Workshops: $400 for four workshops

Ship: The Carnival Paradise (That’s right, Styx fans: I’m cruising on the Paradise—because that isn’t deliciously ironic, is it?!)

Cruise Booking: Contact Loreene Orgoralini, Can I Go Too? Travel, loreene@canigotoo.com. Reference “Scribes at Sea.” $100 per person deposit is due at booking; the rest isn’t due until June 2011.

Workshop Booking: Contact Dottie Papin, dpapin9421@gmail.com. $50 due at registration. Payment plans available with final payment due June 2011.

More info as I get it!

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*It is also not lost on me that the last day is Halloween. I may have to bring my pirate costume.

Alison’s Wonderland, containing my story “The Broken Fiddle,” received 4 stars from Romantic Times!

I hope this is the first of many of my stories to appear in Harlequin Spice anthologies!

I just got word that Romantic Times has given Fairy Tale Lust a stellar 4.5 stars!

Also, my story “How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back” (as Andrea Dale) is one of the stories name-checked in the review!

Congratulations to stupendous editor Kristina Wright (and thank you again for buying my story, Kristina)!

Exclamation points for everyone!

Fast Girls: Erotica for Women, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, Cleis Press, July 2010

Temptation Kayla Perrin
Waxing Eloquent Donna George Storey
Five-minute Porn Star Jacqueline Applebee
Winter, Summer Tristan Taormino
Playing the Market Angela Caperton
Panther Suzanne V. Slate
Communal Saskia Walker
Fireworks Lolita Lopez
Flash! Andrea Dale
Waiting for Beethoven Susie Hara
Confessions of a Kinky Shopaholic Jen Peters
Let’s Dance D.L. King
That Girl by Cherry Bomb
Oz Isabelle Gray
Married Life Charlotte Stein
Princess by Elizabeth Coldwell
Chasing Danger by Kristina Wright
Whore Complex Rachel Kramer Bussel
Lessons, Slow and Painful Tess Danesi
Speed Bumps Tenille Brown

Wooh! TOC for Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy and Nostalgia! (Click on the link for more info about the stories.) It’s scheduled for an October 2010 release!

Jude-Marie Green, “Hula Hoop”
Robert Borski, “Invasion, 1955”
Neil Coghlan, “Storm on Fifth Avenue”
K.M. Praschak, “Rain Goddess: The Dust Bowl, 1930s”
Lyn C. A. Gardner, “The Mustache”
Bruce Boston, “beat people”
Leonard Richardson, “The Day Alan Turing Came Out”
Brian Rosenberger, “These United States of Frankenstein: Meltdown”
Jennifer Rachel Baumer, “New and Improved”
Amanda C. Davis, “Sparks between Our Teeth”
Cliff Winnig, “R101 Is Burning”
Todd Wheeler, “Dreams like Snowflakes”
Karen A. Romanko, “Zeb”
Cat Rambo, “Ticktock Girl”
Lon Prater, “All That Remains Is the Middle”
Don D’Ammassa, “Slipstream Fiction”
G. O. Clark, “Putting off the Past”
Marge Simon, “The Fix”
Nancy Ellis Taylor, “The Last Time I Was in Vienna”
C.D. Covington, “U8: Alexanderplatz (1989)”
Dayle A. Dermatis, “The Devil Went down to the Sunset Strip”
Paul Abbamondi, “Art Deco and the Infestation of New America”
Ann K. Schwader, “The Darkness Whispers”
Brenta Blevins, “Mercury 13–And Beyond”
David D. Levine, “Nucleon”

Wowsa! The inestimable Violet Blue just released her “Best Sex Books 2009” list, and I have stories in three of the anthologies!

(Note: The above link is to SF Gate, the online version of The San Francisco Chronicle, so it’s safe for work in terms of no nudity, etc.. But this is still a list of fiction and nonfiction about sex.)

1. Playing With Fire: Taboo Erotica

“‘Devouring Heart’ is the only lesbian tale in the book and Andrea Dale presents a heartbreaking tale of love and how far a lover will go to keep a partner. There is a good use of metaphor between the title and the relationship and this is one of the few tales that ends sadly, yet I have a tender place for this as one of my favorites for evoking that aching sense of love and love lost.”

And this about “If the Shoe Fits…” in The Trouble With Heroes:

“And Dayle A. Dermatis’s ‘If the Shoe Fits’ is a funny (and rather ingenious) semi-modern twist on Cinderella, in which we find out why that shoe was really so important to everyone.”

Thank you, kind reviewers. You’ve made my week!

I’m delighted to be a part of Circlet Press‘s Erotic Advent again this year. Each day in December, they’ll run a new story on their blog—the catch is, you have to read it that day, because the next day it’ll be replaced with a new one.

My story “Santa Claus is Comin’” will be the Christmas Eve story!

I’m delighted to have my story “How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back” included in the forthcoming Fairy Tale Lust anthology, edited by the delightful Kristina Wright and published by Cleis Press. When I have a publication date, I’ll announce it here!

Sale! I opened up my e-mail this morning to find a contract from Best Lesbian Romance 2010 for “Queen’s Up”! The story will first appear in Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures from Cleis Press in August.

Plus there was an e-mail from another editor saying she should have final approval on the table of contents for another anthology by mid-July. What often happens is that an editor will select the stories, and sometimes even send the contract, but the publisher has the final say on the selections. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, because this is a very exciting potential publication!

(The same caveat applies to Best Lesbian Romance 2010, but I’m being positive because it’s also being published by Cleis, and they’ve never nixed one of my stories as far as I can remember.)

Today is starting out quite nicely!

My vampire story “Devouring Heart” will be published in The Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica on October 1, 2009, also by Cleis Press and edited by D.L. King (also edited Where the Girls Are… It’s all one big pyjama party, really!).

Midnight at Sheremetyevo by Remittance Girl
Wait Until Dark, Montresor by Thomas S. Roche
The Temptation of Mlle. Marielle Doucette by Anna Black
Kiss and Make Up by Lisette Ashton
The Student by Sommer Marsden
Red By Any Other Name by Kathleen Bradean
Enlightenment by Amber Hipple
Blood and Bootleg by Teresa Noelle Roberts
Fair Play by G. B. Kensington
Advantage by Ciara Finn
The Communion of Blood and Semen by Maxim Jakubowski
Nightlife by Madeleine Oh
Takeout or Delivery? by Evan Mora
Devouring Heart by Andrea Dale
Wicked Kisses by Michelle Belanger
Fourth World by Lisabet Sarai
Turn by Nikki Magennis
Cutter by Kristina Wright
Once An Addict… by A.D.R. Forte

A new sale! My story “Now You See Her” will appear in Peep Show: Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists, coming in November 2009 from Cleis Press, edited by the yummy Rachel Kramer Bussel!

“Now You See Her” is a companion story to “Come to My Window” in Where the Girls Are, due out July 1, 2009, also from Cleis Press. I hadn’t planned on writing a related story when I wrote “Come to My Window,” but the theme of Peep Show spoke to a related, very cool idea…

Anyway. Peep Show is available on amazon for pre-order already, and here’s the full table of contents!

Introduction: Hungry Eyes and Sensual Show-Offs
Showtime by Susan St. Aubin
Clean and Pretty by Donna George Storey
Superior by Monica Shores
People in Glass Hotels by Jennifer Peters
Indecent by Lolita Lopez
Ownership by Craig J. Sorensen
Audience Participation by Elizabeth Coldwell
Now You See Her by Andrea Dale
Watcher in the Shadows by Cheyenne Blue
Glass by Nobilis Reed
Sleeping Beauty by Malcolm Ross
The Theory of Orchids by L. A. Mistral
Missing Michael by M. March
Busted by Kissa Starling
Satisfaction Guaranteed by Sommer Marsden
Rosse Buurt by Geneva King
I’ve Only Got Eyes for You by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Calendar Girl by Angela Caperton