Welcome to February!
In addition to Groundhog's Day, Valentine's Day, Love Spanks and Presidents' Day, there's yet another reason to be excited about this shortest of months---we're talking about Desire In Any Language
by Anastasia Vitsky.
On her own for the first time, Mira is studying abroad for her translator's certificate. Unfortunately, the heady excitement of dance clubs, late-night parties, and endless shopping quickly distracts her from her educational goals. Mira's advisor offers her private tutoring with a womanly touch, but the combined pressures of culture and language difference threaten Mira's progress at school. She is unable to get her act together until she makes a discovery that horrifies and tantalizes her: in her new country, corporal punishment is a way of life. The secret to her academic success just might also fulfill her wildest, unspoken dreams.Sexy. Seductive. Dangerous. A compelling and poignant read.
Desire in Any Language is the newest F/F title offered by Blushing.
Let's get started with our discussion by talking about some general topics related to this book and then we'll get into the nitty gritty of the story over the next couple of weeks.
So...Desire in Any Language is F/F. For how many of you is this your first F/F book? If it weren't for the fact that you want to participate in the Spanking Stories Book Club or you are a fan of Anastasia Vitsky, would you have considered buying/reading this book?
If you're a regular reader of F/F, what are some of the things you look for in a F/F book?
Any other thoughts/questions as we begin this book?
Oh, nice questions! I am surprised at how many people tell me (including you) that they hadn't really read F/F until I came along. It's funny because of course I have always looked for it, so I have found it where I can.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that's been pointed out to me, though, is that a story can be F/F but still absolutely lose my interest if it relies too much on stereotypes or is solely written for the purpose of titillation.
One thing I especially look for in F/F is that the story is not simply "girl on girl for men's viewing pleasure", if that makes sense. I want the F/F story to exist in its own right.
Ana opened my eyes to FF with Kat and Natalie. I so thoroughly enjoyed her intelligent writing. A love story is compelling regardless of whether it is MF, FF or MM. I think that part of the eroticism of "Desire" and her stories is how much can be said with such subtleties of action and thought. I would definitely be open to more stories such as Ana writes. Yes, I would have read "Desire" after reading the synopsis. However, I read Desire for two reasons:
ReplyDeleteShe is Ana! lol and because of the caliber of writing that engages thought while weaving a story.
i
Oh dear, Cara had fun with you typing my name with an exclamation point, I am sure. Kudos to Cara for self-restraint in not pointing it out. :)
DeleteI find it *so* interesting when I see/hear people refer to Desire as erotic, sexy, etc. I absolutely did not set out to write a story that was erotic. I'm happy if people find it that way and enjoy it as erotic, but I do shake my head and wonder where it came from. Maybe, as you say, it *is* the leaving open to imagination? I'm not sure. Maybe leaving those gaps for readers to fill in...allows them to fill in those gaps in ways that they find erotic. I wonder what others think!
I do think that is what happens. Sometimes when we use our imaginations, we have more possibilities for interpretation!
DeleteAna! Ana! Ana!
Hm...so you are saying that is where your mind goes? I am a bit scared!
DeleteMinelle! Minelle! Minelle! :P
Doesn't visually mean the same thing!!! LOL
DeleteThe Vengeance of Mrs. Claus was my first F/F book. Desire in Any Language, my second. What I enjoyed was the friendship aspect and the relationship between Mire and her tutor. It truly was a love story and that's a universal theme. Had it been strictly erotica (and somebody else's book), I would not have read it, because I don't personally find F/F sex titillating.
ReplyDeleteCara, I had no idea that I was your first F/F! When you said that you didn't really read F/F I thought you had perhaps read some but not much. I'm surprised every time someone tells me, "I never read F/F before and honestly didn't really want to, but your book changed my mind."
DeleteI wish we had more stories of love between women that wasn't strictly limited to genitalia. I guess that is my answer to Celeste's last question...I look for F/F that is about love between two women, not just sex. Love comes in many forms.
I am so glad that you gave Vennie and Mira a try. :)
weren't...weren't...weren't...ARGH!
DeleteI have enjoyed F/F spanking fiction before Ana, but she, as she has stated above does indeed bring the characters into focus for the all readers and not just for the Male eros. I like that aspect to the writing and character development which enhances the experience.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a place for certain kinds of F/F...I just wish that it weren't the only/dominant (pun not intended) story that we get. I don't find it troubling that some men enjoy the thought of watching...I wish that were one piece of an array of F/F narratives. Just as we may have some narratives of women enjoying watching two men, but there are many other types of M/M and M/F stories.
DeleteAna, you were my first F/F book too (Vengeance of Mrs. Clause)! I'm halfway through Desire in any Language right now...so you're also my second F/F book! Anyway, it's sucked me in and I wish I didn't have real life stuff to do today so I could finish. I love the friendship between Mira and her teacher, and the scene where the teacher tells Mira she can call her oni (or was it omi?) now, was so sweet and actually a little exciting...ahem.
ReplyDeleteLOL, Sue! Yes, "Oni" is right. You are too funny.
DeleteI'm honored that I was the baptismal F/F experience for people...and that they ended up liking it after all. Though who knows how many people read it and didn't like it. :)
Ana's books are my first F/F books too. The Kat and Nat stories are the first non sexual spanking stories I got to read and I didn't explore further into spanking literature for the reasons others have mentioned above. Seems I've been looking in the wrong places. I like that the stories Ana writes are about people...with a certain method of dealing with things. The characters are relatable. Having stalked the Kat and Nat blog, I'd definitely read Mira. Of course I read/bought it also because it's Ana's book :)
ReplyDeleteLOL, Pao! I count myself very fortunate that you found me. That's hardly stalking. :) I also didn't know that my books were your first. That makes me a bit sad, actually. Why aren't there more F/F books available for people like you and me who specifically want them?
DeleteThey were my first for many reasons. I couldn't access such literature and also I've never read romance until I found all these blogs and writers. All because the powers that be thought such stories (including fiction) were a waste of time. Now the powers that be can eat yot :P
DeleteThe universe conspires against us! I'm grateful I found Ana :D Truly. Grateful.
lol, naughty Pao! Such language!
DeleteFiction teaches us how to live. Anyone who thinks differently is missing a great deal about life.
I forgot about eat yot! I read this book while Ana was working on it and I'm just beginning my re-read for this book club.
DeleteI think that eat yot will become my new mantra.
I must admit, though it's pretty un-classy to say it about myself, that the "Eat yot!" is one of my favorite lines of the book.
DeleteFYI: "yot" rhymes with "moat". Long "O" sound, not "o" as in "hot".
See, Celeste supports that too. And we learnt it from Ana anyway :D Consume rice taffy, there, so much more polite.
DeleteOf course Ana will give us the correct pronunciation!
DeleteI'm not being bossy when I'm right! :D
DeleteWow. Good morning everyone! I slept in a bit and woke up to an entire party happening at my blog in my absence.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree w/several of the comments above. My first f/f was reading Ana's The Way Home (ha! I got a sneak peek) and I was so engrossed in the story that it might not have mattered if Kat and Nat were women, men or unicorns. The same is true of Desire in Any Language.
Also---I think that women have such complex relationships with each other, regardless of any sexual component, that I think these themes of friendship and love speak to something we can all relate to.
I think Mira's tutor might need to show you some love for sleeping in late. :D Thank you so much for hosting me this month. I love this discussion! I never thought to ask these kinds of questions, and it's great to read the answers.
DeleteYour last comment is exactly why I write F/F. What a great insight. It's that complexity of relationship that draws me to F/F, more than anything else. Men have deep and satisfying friendships, but it doesn't always translate the same way to the written word. Women's friendship have a special nuance that I love to explore.
Plus, I think a wooden spoon looks cuter when it's a woman wielding it. :P
I have not read this one yet, because I am about halfway through my first F/F story, "Vengeance of Mrs. Clause". I had been nervous about reading it because, (well, I hate to admit this.) I have severe "mommy" issues. An emotionally abusive and bipolar mother led me to be afraid of female intimacy, in any form. And being uninformed (and judgmental. sorry), I feared that F/F writing would take me back to those traumatizing days. (or that is would be a big orgy for men to get off on while reading. sorry. please forgive me, Ana)
ReplyDeleteI am happy to announce that what I have read so far has actually pleased me. There was no lack of control, or screaming,or belittling of the younger woman, Claire. And it helped to relax into the reading, and enjoy her writing style (which is so much fun! It is almost better than a bottle of wine and a box of chocolate. ALMOST. :) ). I am looking forward to finishing my first. My second will be "Desire.." As far as the "nonsexual" love between two females: I think I could actually read and enjoy that. Maybe it will save me some money in shrink bills. :)
Thank you so much for reading, Katie! I am more and more amazed that about 90% of my readers are reading F/F for the first time with my books. That floors me. It also makes me nervous that, as you point out, my stories may trip certain wires for people. Vennie is a great deal of fun with some seriousness, Mira is both sweet and serious, and Kat and Natalie (The Way Home) is quite serious indeed. I worry how people, exactly as you say, will respond to certain images of discipline from an F/F standpoint.
DeleteI'm excited and honored that you were willing to overlook these fears and reservations to give my books a try. I hope that nothing about what I have written will trigger negative responses.
And yes, the bit about orgy for men to get off on...that is exactly what I don't like about popular ideas of F/F.
I am sad that I am trumped by wine and chocolate, but oh well. Even I have to admit that there are limits. :D
Phew, Thanks, Ana. I was afraid I had tmi'd again. And I am sorry, but the only way you could trump my chocolate and wine, is if you put them all together. (maybe a f/f scene where they eat and drink, and the reader is supposed to be included interactively. kinda like 3-D. or smell-o-vision? God, I am so ahead of my time.
DeleteThe thing is, all spanking fiction has the power to trigger certain responses because taking control/responsibility for another person's discipline is an enormous task. To give or receive that kind of discipline is intimate, powerful, and even sacred. As someone said a while ago, sex has become such a part of everyday conversations that it has lost its shock value. Spanking has in some ways fulfilled this need. It makes sense that if it strikes this kind of chord, it will also trigger strong emotional responses.
DeleteSo you just buy yourself wine and chocolate to enjoy Desire? Works for me. :D
FYI---I once had wine that had chocolate in it. Yuck! You've been warned.
DeleteI had chocolate with a liquor something filling. I didn't know it (and I don't drink), so I thought the chocolate had gotten rotten. I spit it out and threw it away. Nice, expensive, Belgian chocolate, too.
DeleteIt was my first F/F and I read it because of Ana(exclamation mark, exclamation mark exclamation mark). I loved it, but probably wouldn't have bought it unless I knew the author, because if I'm buying spanking fiction for ME (vs to read my friend's work) the truth is, I'm not looking for literary fiction, I'm looking to get off and while I do go both ways, M/F is a surer thing for me for the D/s turn on.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Renee, you are so naughty!
DeleteI promise that someday I will write that story about the naughty caterpillar walking across the desk and getting spanked. Just for you, to turn you on. :D
Ana, I think that's only fair. If I accept your challenge to write F/F, I think you should accept the challenge to write some really HOT smexy spanking just to get me hot. Or is that in Vengeance and I just need to hurry up and read it?
DeleteGiggle. I don't know because I'm not the greatest judge of what's hot. People tell me that the Matthew/Minelle stuff is hot in Vengeance, but honestly I picture them as a spanky Family Ties. So...I guess it depends on what you need. :)
DeleteAnd what do you mean, IF? I have your word, and there's no reneging.
That's right, I won't renege. spanky family ties doesn't sound hot, but it's true that you might not know. I will get to it. BEFORE next Christmas! :)
DeleteI know! Doesn't sound at all hot to me, but when I put up the snippets people were saying hot hot hot! Maybe they were just teasing me. :D
DeleteMy first FF was a short story in Alison Tyler's Blushers. I loved it. I'm not sure if I would have picked up Ana's book had I not known her or known about the subtle nuances of the story. What a loss that would have been for me. I absolutely loved this book. It was unexpected and truly unique in this genre we all know and love. Ana, you should be very proud.
ReplyDeleteSubtle and unique are excellent terms for this book. It is so different from anything else I've read in the genre.
DeleteJade, you are so generous in your response to this book that I honestly don't know what to say. I have to admit it makes me a bit nervous whether upcoming releases will measure up...but I know from talking to you that you can understand that.
DeleteI always gotta be me. My way, no matter what the cost. I just wish it would lead to a bit more success and acclaim and money. lol!
If only I could figure out how to get Desire into the hands of more readers who *think* they don't like F/F...
I am running behind this week, whew! But, my new grandbaby, and my first, absolutely took priority over everything else! So, now I am settled down, I think, and ready to read. My first, and only, F/F book was "Vengeance of Mrs. Claus" and is not the type of book I normally would go for but I did enjoy it. Because Ana wrote this one I am excited to read it as well.
ReplyDelete~Sammie
Congrats! Will they call you Grammy Sammie? :)
DeleteI'm excited to hear what you think of the book. We'll be here every Friday all month long to talk about it.
Aw! Grammy Sammie is adorable. How great to have your first little grandbaby! Congratulations. :)
DeleteAmazed that Vengeance was your first F/F, too. Quite a few converts. I hope that you like Desire in Any Language. :)
I do read and write f/f . I'm about halfway through this one and thoroughly enjoying the story. What I look for is solid emotional buildup in the genre,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that you like it! I hope you like the second half just as much. :)
Delete
ReplyDeleteAna's Vennie was my first FF book. I have since read a few others. But with this book which I have read and loved; I didnt ally think about that it was ff or not it seemed to have deeper feelings it was to me about friendship and a sort if coming of age story.
Yes, coming of age and friendship for sure. It's not that F/F by itself is so important to separate, but that this particular pairing gets such little literary attention.
DeleteI haven't ready very many f/f spanking stories yet- much more of the f/f I've read has even been mainstream GLBTQI or BDSM. However I loved Ana's "Vennie" and Alice Lidell's "Childebride Island."
ReplyDeleteI'm about half way into "Desire" and so far, I'm really enjoying Mira's struggle to come to terms with her feelings. I was also interested to see spanking done without sex.
While I like Childebride Island, the scenes are done for the pleasure of men who literally own and buy the women...so that detracts from the story for me. For me, I want a story in which two women can have a relationship that isn't based on satisfying the titillation needs of observing men.
DeleteI found Ana through her blog and the Kat and Natalie stories, and I’m so glad I did. Desire in any Language is such a beautiful story. It's a "spanking story" but it manages to be about wanting, needing and finally getting spanked with spankings subtly described so that as readers we're allowed to imagine what's happening. That’s so much more powerful than reading a paint-by-numbers account. Mira's feelings towards her tutor are a schoolgirl crush at its best, and her journey of self-awareness, with it's false steps and self-doubt, is a journey I think most of us have taken.
ReplyDeleteI don’t read a lot of spanking fiction but when I do I only read and enjoy F/F. The relationships in M/F fiction almost always leave me feeling uncomfortable, as if there is a gender-based non-consensual or power/control element involved.
What do I like in a spanking story? Wonderful writing, with great characters and a real story that could stand alone even if the spankings were removed. "Desire" - like the Kat stories - has those qualities in abundance. And while I don't mind sex in spanking stories - but hate spanking as foreplay - Ana keeps showing that great spanking stories don't require sex. They just require love.
Julie
A lovely comment, Julie.
Delete"The relationships in M/F fiction almost always leave me feeling uncomfortable, as if there is a gender-based non-consensual or power/control element involved." This is a wonderful point and one that does give writing f/f a certain appeal.
The wanting and needing aspects of this story are lovely, aren't they?
Thanks for stopping by. Please stop by again.
Julie, thank you so much for joining in the discussion. I know it's not usually your thing.
DeleteThe gender-based nonconsensual thing makes me uncomfortable, too. The idea that a man spanks simply because he is a man...I can't get behind that.
I am going to convert everyone to F/F. Just wait and see. :)
Thank you also for the point that spanking stories don't always have to be about sex. It's something I was ridiculed for many years ago, and every time it comes up now it is lovely. Spankings can be about sex, but they don't always have to be.
good point, Ana. It is difficult to find things that are purely f/f. Really, I haven't seen a lot of that, certainly not that I can think of beyond your writing or my own. It's something I hope to improve on
ReplyDeleteOh man, I'm always late to these and I actually had the book done.
ReplyDeleteOK, ff. Vengeance was my first f/f mostly because I don't normally look for it. Oh wait, that's not true. When I was younger (just a year or so ago…) I used to read some anonymous erotica I'd find at the bookstore. I only know they were from Blue Moon Publishers and don't remember the titles anymore but there were 2 books in particular with f/f spanking scenes and only f/f spanking scenes, but done totally differently than Desire. Desire had the element of tenderness between the parties involved. For me, that's critical.
OK, next week Friday, I'm marking my calendar. Thanks for asking the questions Celeste and Ana (in the case of this book) for sharing another side of you.
Natasha---Glad to have you join us regardless of when.
DeleteGood point about the tenderness between the women. I think that's part of what makes the story unique.
See you next Friday!
I will send you a gilt-edged invitation by royal courier. :D
DeleteI do love the tenderness. A relationship that includes one person regularly inflicting physical pain on another must be rooted in love. At least that's what I think.
I Only just started reading so I’ll join in next week if that’s ok :)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! We'll see you next week.
DeleteOh, how great! So glad to have you join. :)
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