Even with the numerous writing projects on my plate, I always have time to dabble in a short story here and there.

This past fall, I entered a piece to a call for submission and it was accepted…my first published erotic short in the Bold Strokes Books anthology, Escape to Pleasure: Lesbian Travel Erotica. I’m not sure why I chose to write about a hiker on the Appalachian Trail, but that’s what happened, so I went with it.  “On Her Trail” is a solid story and the sex is hot. Two integral components to any erotic short. It was a fun piece to write and it whet my appetite to attempt more. So I did.

I banged out several stories. Some will sit and never see print, but others are worthy…their day in the light will come. And then there was the day I was procrastinating when to get on with actually working on a project with a looming deadline, but instead, what did I do? I wrote an erotic short. Of course.

Hard Body was a cathartic piece. In the current social culture that is attempting to bury all the progress (though still not nearly enough) we’ve made as a community and confirming we are an integral part of society, I was feeling a bit down-trodden, and my self-image was battered by the words of hate and loathing being perpetrated by someone who is supposed to lead our nation into the direction our country has always stood for—diversity—and with it, the ability to embrace each individual as they are.

I’ve battled with body image all my life. I’m too short, too large, too opinionated, too out spoken. Those labels often led to feeling unworthy, undesirable, unwanted…un everything. Creatively, I wanted to fix that. To change not only how I saw myself, but to attempt to change how others saw me and thousands of individuals who battle with the scars of childhood, that turn into festering sores in adulthood.

First thought, we…as women…are way too hard on ourselves. Being a Virgo, that triples for me. I am my toughest critic. Second, there are those who desire every shape and size, every characteristic we possess. We aren’t meant to please everyone and neither should we want to. We only need to please ourselves. The rest will follow in its own time.

Hard Body is a self-pleasing, soul-bearing, sexually intense and steaming hot erotic short. It provided an avenue to my questioning self that, no matter what I might have felt throughout the course of my so-far life, I am vital. I am sensual. I am desired. And that’s all I need to be…is me.

To women everywhere, celebrate who you are. You were put on this earth for a reason. You are destined for greatness. Allow your beauty to shine through. And maybe, just maybe, that ultimate fantasy you’ve denied existed your entire life will come to fruition. But only if you let it. It’s up to you to push away self-doubt. Be confident. Be sexy. Be who you were always meant to be.

Stay tuned. Hard Body my just serve as the impetus to let you see how perception of ourselves can flip on a dime. Being turned on in the process is just a little bonus.