Stunning, no?

I’d like to say that I was reading saucy books and writing more but I, um, spent most of my time exploring the gorgeous North Devon coastline and getting myself wet in the mighty Atlantic. Oh, and eating fish ‘n’ chips and scones slathered in jam and clotted cream. (Lush. Totally, totally, lush.)

This week, I’m back in the land of gadgetry and mobile phone coverage but I just wanted to let you all know that I’m going to be quiet for the next few days, too, while I try and catch up with all the writing I should have been doing on that cliff top. Michael and I have some more joint-reviewing to do, too. And the next My Life in Books post and vibrator write-up I promised a few weeks back are still stuck in the queue …

Hmm, maybe I should run back to my camping idyll?

The post Running off to Devon … appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Since I attended Eroticon last weekend, I’ve been thinking. About lots of things. But, in particular, making more time to write. Not reviews, not articles, but erotica. More Five-minute stories. More serials.

Chintz went live approximately eight months ago and since then I’ve blogged nearly every week day. That’s a fair few posts! But while I’m tapping away furiously on my keyboard for a good few hours Monday to Friday, I’ve found that I’m devoting more and more time to reviews and less and less to writing stories.

Eroticon’s given me the impetus to examine my objectives and more clearly prioritise my goals for 2013:

• I want to finish Garden, my ‘long form’ fiction project within the next two months.
• I want to write more Five-minute erotica pieces.
• I want to look at compiling an erotica anthology.

So what does this mean? Well, from Monday, that I’ll be posting a little less frequently. I’ve come to the conclusion that two – maybe three – times a week is plenty, and giving myself a bit more breathing room will be really beneficial to achieving my writing objectives. There’ll still be reviews, there’ll still be Alert Me posts – there just won’t be as many of them.

Fingers crossed the slower pace doesn’t stop you all from visiting me!

The post Some changes … appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Image: Lupa – Julo (own work)

Since July of last year:

• Thirty-five book reviews.
• Fourteen Garden of Earthly Delights episodes [*please note these are no longer available on the blog].
• Three five-minute erotica stories.
• Twenty-eight sex toy reviews and countless other sex toy references.

As I’ve added more and more reviews and articles to Chintz, I’ve become increasingly aware that it’s more difficult for visitors to find what they want quickly. Chances are, if you’re diving into the Toy Box or Words sections, you want to know what’s in them without having to scroll through all the pages.

Behold.

Two hyperlinked lists to make your Chintz navigation life easier: the Toy Box Index and the Words Index.

You can find the relevant links to them at the very tops of the Words and Toy Box pages, or simply scroll down to access them via the Behind the Chintz Curtain footer. (The plan is to update the indexes every time a relevant post is added, but you’ll have to forgive me if there’s a short delay.)

For now, I’m leaving out Alert Me posts and Toy with me Tuesday entries, but I may add these in over the coming weeks, too. We’ll see how things go.

Here’s hoping that these indexes make finding your way around Behind the Chintz Curtain quicker and simpler.

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I’ve read some fabulous books over the past few days – including Cherri Lynn’s Leave me Breathless and Riley Murphy’s Reclaimed Surrender (reviews ahoy-hoy) – and also managed to pen another episode of The Garden of Earthly Delights [*no longer available on the blog], so expect to see a bit of a focus on books and writing in the next few Chintz posts.

More toy reviews in the pipeline, too – and perhaps some new reviewers …

The post Onwards! More books, more writing, more toys appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

We’re taking a bit of a break this week, so there won’t be any new posts until Monday 12 November. If you’re new to Behind the Chintz Curtain and want to know what we’re all about (or you haven’t stopped by in a while), here’s a selection of last month’s most popular posts:

TOYS

• C is for clitoris, C is for clip
• Christian Grey’s playthings, part three: pleasure beads
• Squeeze. Tease. The agony and ecstasy of nipple clamps
• The Wartenberg pinwheel: the sharp edge of sensation play
• Toy with me Tuesday: Autumn berries
• This story is about a little vibrator. Her name is Gigi
• Toy with me Tuesday: Surprise!
• A touch of glass: the Spartacus Smooth G-Spot Dildo

EROTIC BOOKS & STORIES

• Yes, Sir (Erotic Stories of Female Submission) - Rachel Kramer Bussel
• Uncle Charles’ Girls – Anne Randolph
• Seduced in the Dark - C.J. Roberts

I hope you find something you like!

Jane
x

The post Hiatus appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

I can’t quite believe it but Behind the Chintz Curtain has been live for three months as of today.

Nearly 3,000 of you have visited since the first post went up and every day, more and more of you stop by. So a massive ‘thank you’ to all my regulars, and a warm ‘hello’ to those who are here for the first time.

Sixty posts in (this is number sixty one) and guess what the most popular entry has been so far? No real surprise – it’s Lizzie’s Fifty Shades of Grey-inspired review of jiggle balls, which is sitting at the top of the pile with over 500 pageviews. But I think E.L. James’s ben was may be in for a bit of competition; also making appearances in the top ten, C is for clitoris, c is for clip and the wonderfully erotic Victorian birching story, Uncle Charles’ Girls by Anne Randolph. (Clearly, there’s call for more toys in the Toy Box and some red-bottomed literature!)

Finally, I’d like to take the opportunity to say ‘thanks’ to the members of the BDSM group on Goodreads who have been so wonderful and generous with their time, providing feedback and advice as I write The Garden of Earthly Delights. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

Jane
x

The post A floral milestone appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

More Garden of Earthly Delights posts – 33.33%

An equal mix of all three – 33.33%

More book reviews – 22.22%

More Toy Box reviews – 11.11%

So, given your feedback it seems the current balance of posts is about right for now – albeit there’s a bit of a bias towards book and Garden [*no longer available on the blog] entries. We’ll try and include a few more of these going forwards but we may also start introducing some new topics during August, too.

There’s more Garden on the way this week (unfortunately, I’m a bit behind on writing this as the 40 degree heat in Italy played havoc with my ability to do much beyond recline on a sun lounger like lady muck) and you’ll be pleased to know that Nick and Grace have actually made it to the dinner table …

Finally, I have something I’d like your help with. I’m curious to know how many of us actually have ‘toy boxes’. Have we finally moved past hiding things in our knicker drawers and, if so, what are we now keeping our playthings in? This may seem like a bit of a random question but I’m currently researching sex toy storage options and I’ll be publishing the results of my findings here on Chintz for you. (Don’t worry – the poll is completely anonymous, so if you click on one of the voting buttons we’re not going to know that it’s you who’s hiding your vibrator in the freezer or linen cupboard!)

The post ‘I’d like more … ‘ survey results appeared first on Behind the Chintz Curtain.

Although I did quite a bit of lazing about, I managed to get a fair amount of holiday reading in amidst all the olive and wine consumption and had the joy of discovering three stand-out erotica books: Slave and Need (both from Sherri Hayes’s Finding Anna series) and Uncle Charles’ Girls by Anne Randolph – all of which I’ll be writing reviews for over the next few days. There are some new toy reviews on the way, too, and The Garden of Earthly Delights [*no longer available on the blog] is also due some further instalments. (Unfortunately, the latter suffered a bit in the forty degree Umbrian heat and I didn’t get as many new episodes written as I planned!)

Finally, a word on the image heading up this post (if you follow the Chintz Facebook page you may have spotted this picture already) … As I wandered though the picturesque hilltop town of Urbino (birthplace of the famous Renaissance painter Raphael, home of Piero della Francesca’s iconic ‘Flagellation of Christ’ and site of Federico da Montefeltro’s breathtaking Ducal Palace) what did I see for sale?

Cinquanta sfumature di Grigio.

I wonder if it’s better in Italian?

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