Playing with Fire

P is for...

2010-06-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

Playing with Fire on Fleshbot!

2010-02-06T07:30:00.001-08:00

Playing with Fire has been Fleshbotted! How totally fucking cool is that? Thanks to Lux Alptraum for selecting the book for part of the Fleshbot Book Club! (I love her bio: "Lux Alptraum...has been obsessed with the Internet since 1994, obsessed with computers since 1987, and obsessed with sex since 1982." A girl after my own ♥.)

The portion featured on Fleshbot is from the story "On a Hot Tin Roof" by I.K.Velasco.

XXX,
Alison

P.S. Exciting features like these are why I'm always harrassing you all for reader reviews. If someone clicks through from Fleshbot, they'll have 10 reviews on Amazon to read to help them decide whether or not they'd like to purchase the collection!

"Literary erotica- extraordinary."

2009-12-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Jeremy Edwards for sending me the link to this unbelievably fabulous review of Playing with Fire by Roxanne Rhoads:

My favorite line: Playing with Fire has to be one of the best collections of erotica that I have read.

Damn!

And I like this, too: Alison Tyler knows how to choose the best, most erotic and stimulating stories for her collections. Not only are these stories hotter than hot they are brilliant works of art crafted skillfully; the words are sensual, seductive, artful and erotic.

She highlighted her favorite stories (kudos to Sommer Marsden, Shanna Germain, Nikki Magennis, Teresa Noelle Roberts, and Jeremy Edwards—and nicely summed up the book as a whole. Ta very much, RR!

XXX,
Alison

P.S. Gorgeous photograph is by the bunny cage.

I ❤ Violet Blue

2009-12-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

Playing with Fire not only made the Hottest Sex Books of 2009 list, it made number 1:

Topping the list (heh) is the mistress of literary erotica, the bestselling and award-winning Alison Tyler, who not only knows how to write one hell of a dirty story, but puts together collections that become overnight classics packed with mesmerizing, arousing and inspiring stories. "Playing With Fire" is Tyler at her finest, and the stories feature (heterosexual) couples who play with their most daring sexual fantasies, explicitly penned by today's hottest erotic authors. It's not to be missed.

XXX,
Alison

I ❤ Ashley Lister

2009-08-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

I can’t honestly recall the last time I enjoyed a collection so much. The stories in this collection are so hot the pages will leave scorch marks on the readers’ fingers.

The weather forecast in the UK is promising a hot summer. Clearly the forecasters knew that Playing With Fire was being released because the summer doesn’t come much hotter than this.

Read the whole review, and then raise a glass of champagne and toast those fabulously clever writers who helped me pull this off!

XXX,
Alison

"Group, Public, and Fetishistic Sex"

2009-07-21T06:23:00.001-07:00

Here's a review from Scarlet Magazine! Okay, so they got my name wrong. No worries. At least, they liked the book!

The perfect short-story anthology to sate your dark side, this taboo-breaking book's themes include group, public, and fetishistic sex. 'Fanning the Flames' by Andrea Dale is perfect for spanking fans and features a delicious twist, while 'Hot off the Press' by Thomas S. Roche is utterly salacious. Kinky, inspirational but not so extreme it'll turn you off, you're sure to find something that will light your fire.

XXX,
Alison

I Need More!

2009-05-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

5.0 out of 5 stars

By J. Kelley

I like reading short stories. I love reading novels. I really would love for some of the short stories in this collection to be coaxed into novels. So, Sophia Valenti, if you're reading this review, please please please tease out more from the delicious triangle in your story 'Carrying a Torch.'

Andrea Dale, if you're reading this, I am dying to know more about Catriona and the devilish Jake. I know you must have more to tell.

And even though I was provoked by 'Trial by Fire,' I couldn't stop reading it. And I have to admit, it would unfold as a compelling novel, if Bella Dean were so inclined.

And 'Where There's Smoke,' by Kristina Wright. This story has plenty of emotion, vulnerability, lust, deceit and confession, and adrenaline. It has romantic love, forbidden love, and still, innocence.

I know it's the whole point of a short story: leave the reader wanting more, dramatic endings, etc. But it doesn't mean I can't dream of how these stories would continue, or beg for just a little more.

She's a firestarter...

2009-05-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

5.0 out of 5 stars

By T. Elle Harrison

Alison Tyler has an amazing ability to seek out those stories that not only arouse but also bring a literary excellence to the genre. This latest anthology is no different. These stories, from Sommer Marsden's Fire woman to Christopher Tolian's Fireboy, pack a literal and figurative heat that will leave you with singed fingertips.

Let the Flames Devour You!

2009-05-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Marina St. Clare

Alison Tyler is a firebrand! Her latest anthology, Playing with Fire, is sure to ignite a few burning desires. The 22 stories of "Taboo Erotica" are scorching -- more like a big blazing bonfire than a nice cozy fireplace. As always, Tyler has featured the hottest erotica writers, all hellbent on inflaming the reader's passions.

Here are just a few little sparks about a few of my favorites:

Sommer Marsden's "Fire Woman" - There's a fireman involved, too, who is good at following instructions.

P.S. Haven's "Out of the Frying Pan" - Getting even takes exactly seventeen minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

Jeremy Edwards' "Three on a Match" - He falls for another guy's girl, and she gets licked.

Kristina Wright's "Where There's Smoke" - He finds out about her, and then they find out some things about each other.

Andrea Dale's "Fanning the Flames" - The bodyguard is "silent and menacing and undeniably sexy."

Alison Tyler's own "Some Like It Hot" - She likes a good boy and a bad boy. Someone's gonna get burned.

M. Murphy's "Just Add Water" - It's good, clean fun -- but it's awfully steamy in that shower!

Perhaps my favorite in this collection is Teresa Noelle Roberts' "One Hundred Degress in the Shade." A violent thunderstorm finally breaks the heat. One of my favorite lines is, "Rain whipped sideways onto the porch, slicking our skin, cooling us enough so we could heat from lust." You can just feel the electricity!

All of the stories are hot, hot, hot! Keep an icy beverage or a fire extinguisher nearby as you read. You might just spontaniously combust!

Tyler's erotic collection pushes incendiary boundaries

2009-05-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Jvstin "Paul Weimer"

Alison Tyler, well known for her "Erotic Alphabet" anthologies of erotica, as well as other anthologies and collections, returns to erotic anthologies here with Playing with Fire

The subtitle of the anthology "Taboo erotica", brings one to mind the "I is for Indecent" anthology from the Erotic Alphabet, but the truth is, the erotica here isn't taboo in that sense.

I think the title might have been called "Incendiary Erotica." Fire and smoke are strong themes in this collection. Stories revolve around fire and the ignition that fire can bring to a sexual encounter. From a female firefighter being turned on by watching practice fires, to the heat of a hot summer day sparking passions in several of the stories, this is a collection wreathed in fire and heat.

Even in stories where fire is not an explicit participant, its a metaphor and a symbol for the passion of the story's characters.As Ms. Tyler puts it in the introduction: "emotional kerosene"

The collection succeeds on all of these fronts. Aside from the matter of the title of the collection, I find little fault in the collection. Tyler has come up with a very good collection of writers working at the top of their game.

In Minnesota in a more than chilly March, this collection was *very* welcome to read to take ones mind off of the weather outside.

Flaming

2009-05-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

4.0 out of 5 stars

By Jo

'Playing With Fire' opens with an explosive couple of pieces that prove the book true to its title: hot.

Nikki Magennis' humbling and beautifully poetic flash opening leads into 'Fire Woman' by Sommer Marsden, a story that is sublime in its energy, power and gorgeous dirtiness. It leaves you panting, scorched. To be honest, you could buy the book for these two stories alone. I was wowed before I'd hardly started.

I won't pretend all the stories are to my taste. Some are darker, like 'One Hot Slut' by NT Morley, or 'Burned' by Michael Hemmingson. But that means there is something for everyone, and the premise of the collection is an edgy one.

'Scorched' by Janine Ashbless balances on that edge perfectly, dealing with adultery, threesomes, jealousy. Shanna Germain's 'White Heat White Light' is another poetic, raw piece, honest and emotional as it is erotic.

These pieces are, in the main, serious fiction. Ones to go back to.

Blistering!

2009-05-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Erobintica

Make sure you have some ice water handy while reading this new anthology, "Playing With Fire," from "literary siren" Alison Tyler. The twenty-two stories contained within the hopefully fire-proof cover are all crackling hot. Subtitled, "Taboo Erotica," this collection aims to sear the edges of our imaginations. And does. The titles of the stories alone could blister your tongue.

There's "Fire Boy" (Christopher Tolian's poetic wildfire) and "Fire Woman" (Sommer Marsden's story about incendiary, invisible ink notes). Thomas S. Roche's "Hot Off The Press" is about a journalist with a burning desire.

In "Out of the Frying Pan" (P.S. Haven) a score gets evened. Jolene Hui takes us along to "The Salsa Bar" for a snapshot of a vacation never to be forgotten. "Just Add Water" by M. Murphy lets us peek in on a little home improvement.

There's matches. Jeremy Edward's "Three on a Match" and "Lucifer and Venus" (Nikki Magennis). There's smoke. Heidi Champa's "The Last Cigarette" and Shanna Germain's "White Heat, White Light." And of course, "Where There's Smoke"(Kristina Wright), there's "Trial By Fire" (Bella Dean).

I could go on, but really, you might as well just get the book. All the stories are great bedtime reading. Be sure to wear your asbestos jammies.

Hot off the Press

2009-03-10T03:43:00.001-07:00

I've just learned that contributor copies for Playing with Fire have arrived at Cleis Press. Here's a teaser from my intro:

I don’t have to tell you that I’m the type of girl to hold my hand over a flame. I don’t have to confess that the glow in a man’s eyes over a lit match makes me wet. And I don’t have to whisper to you that I have an undeniable urge to move closer to incendiary situations, when I ought to flee in the other direction.
But I am telling you.
I’m telling you that danger doesn’t just turn me on.
It lights my fire.

The killer line-up sizzles as follows:

Lucifer and Venus by Nikki Magennis
Fire Woman by Sommer Marsden
White Heat, White Light by Shanna Germain
Carrying a Torch by Sophia Valenti
Out of the Frying Pan by P.S. Haven
Three on a Match by Jeremy Edwards
One Hundred Degrees in the Shade by Teresa Noelle Roberts
Burned by Michael Hemmingson
One Hot Slut by N.T. Morley
Trial By Fire by Bella Dean
Where There’s Smoke by Kristina Wright
Texas Hot by ADR Forte
Flick that BiC by J.D. Waters
The Salsa Bar by Jolene Hui
Fanning the Flames by Andrea Dale
On a Hot Tin Roof by I. K. Velasco
Hot Off the Press by Thomas S. Roche
Scorched by Janine Ashbless
The Last Cigarette by Heidi Champa
Some Like it Hot by Alison Tyler
Fire Boy by Christopher Tolian
Just Add Water by M. Murphy

I've done my 3 a.m. best here to link to all of the writers. If you want me to link to a different blog or site, please let me know. I'll be getting out payment this week, and Cleis will be sending contrib copies out separately.

Why am I up at 3 a.m.? That's something you'll have to take up with my various neuroses. Pick a number. We'll get back to you.

XXX,
Alison

P.S. If you'd like to review this book for me on Amazon, please drop a note to msalisontyler at yahoo dot com. Pretty please with cherries on top? I'll be your best friend.