I’ve brought a stash of wine to share with our guest today. She imbibes the darkest reds and writes our darkest fantasies. Here to talk about one of her newest erotic releases…Welcome back Jeffe Kennedy!
Lexi: Wow. This is a serious list of erotic authors on the cover of THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL. Seriously, readers have you seen the lineup?
Anne Calhoun
Christine d'Abo
Delphine Dryden
Megan Hart
Jeffe Kennedy
Megan Mulry
Molly O'Keefe (writing as M. O’Keefe)
How did you hear about this project or when did you learn you would be part of THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL?
The project was my idea! I saw a tweet go by: Nnedi Okorafor, PhD @Nnedi
"The clitoris is the devil's doorbell." Wow, there are some really messed up people in this world thinking messed up things. Sheesh!
And I started riffing on Twitter (as one does) about how this would make an excellent title for an erotic collection that mused on women’s sexual pleasure and empowerment. Quite a few people egged me on, including good friend Megan Hart. She and I had worked together in another anthology, Dark Secrets, so we formulated a plan to make this happen, made a list of writer friends whose voices and themes we thought would fit the concept, and sent out invites!
Lexi: That’s quite the brief blurb. There are a few key words that could hint at the stories inside: appetite, secrets, magic, and of course the bell. Can you tell us about your addition? Which element did you center on?
Here’s the blurb for my story: Exact Warm Unholy
Tonight my name is Mary...
Or is it? Sometimes she’s Tiffany or Syd or Bobbi. But whatever face she wears, she returns to the same bar, to find a new man and seduce him, safe in the knowledge that no one will recognize her. Until one man does.
So, from this you can tell that mine is about secrets and appetite. It’s also about rebelling against religion. My heroine talks about people who think the clitoris is the devil’s doorbell, too.
Lexi: I can picture you all giddy and sitting down at your computer to start hashing out ideas. Did you talk with the other authors, any common themes?
We never all talked as a group, though many people hashed out ideas with each other, mostly in pairs. Megan Hart and I read each other’s drafts early on. Others sent me their stories to me for my reaction. In one case, the other author and I decided a different story would work better. A couple of the stories I didn’t see until they were through developmental editing! What was remarkable is how solid the array of stories is. Each story is very different – some lighthearted, others quite dark – and yet we all harmonized as if we’d planned them together. I think it’s a sign of a really terrific and synchronous group of authors that we pulled this off so well.
Lexi: An anthology is a great way to get introduced to new readers. We have been reading and admiring your work for so long it’s hard to imagine there are those who don’t know your name. How often are you contacted by new readers telling you they have discovered your books and are in love?
Pretty much daily, if you count instances where wonderfully passionate readers like you tag me when you recommend my books to others. I see those a lot, where my books are recommended and someone says either, “oh, she’s new to me,” or “I’ve been hearing about her/that book – I will try!” For deliberate contacts, I’d say weekly. We have such a wonderfully supportive community of readers sending love to authors and many make the effort to communicate their excitement directly.
Lexi: #AuthorLove When I pick up a book and am completely swept away I do fall in love. Life can be exhausting and at the end of a long day there’s nothing better than slipping into a well written book. Even though your part in THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL will be short compared to your usual works I know we will be right there every sweaty second with your characters. Have you had enough wine? Will you share one line with us?
This Apothic Dark you got me is excellent, so sure!!
“Here are the rules. You can do whatever you like to me. Do the romance thing. I don’t care. But this is only fucking and only for tonight. After this you’ll never see me again.”
Lexi: I should have known. You are a tease. But congrats on being in THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL and congrats on the release! I am incredibly excited to check it out and can’t wait for everything else I know you have coming down the line. Thank you, Jeffe!
Thanks Lexi! I always love doing interviews here!
The Devil's Doorbell
by Anne Calhoun, Megan Hart, Christine d'Abo, Jeffe Kennedy, Megan Mulry, Delphine Dryden, M. O'Keefe
ebook
Published April 26th 2016
ISBN139781940078175
A woman's pleasure is a dangerous thing. A primal appetite that, once awakened, can never be sated.
A secret that gives power to those who know it. A magic that, once unleashed, can never be contained.
Some say the clitoris is the devil's doorbell, set to summon him forth at the merest touch...
It's time to ring the bell.
Here are seven tales of sexual empowerment and erotic defiance, featuring the hottest storytellers of erotic fiction.
About the Author:
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and novels. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook.
Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion, and an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera. A fourth series, the fantasy trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms, hit the shelves starting in May 2014 and book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014 and the third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books will follow in this world, beginning with The Pages of the Mind May 2016. A fifth series, the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, started with Going Under, and was followed by Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Connor Goldsmith of Fuse Literary.
Mmmmm... Apothic Dark!
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