Adriana Kraft

When it's time to heat things up...

sex

Stay Sexy!

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Announcing our launch of a new weekly column, Stay Sexy, where we’ll bring you everything we’ve learned about staying sexy and healthy.

Stay Sexy!

What comes to your mind when you see those words? For me, it’s about staying vibrant, healthy, excited about my partner, open to new experiences, creating variety…and, oh yeah, writing the erotic romance for two, three, or more that hubs and I so enjoy.

It’s hard for me to separate what we do from who we are. We invest a great amount of time and energy in staying active and healthy. Our activities feed our writing, and our writing definitely feeds our activities!

By now you readers know he and I are both baby boomers, that special group of folks born between 1946 and 1964. I’m not saying exactly when, but we’re not the youngest members of the cohort. If you’re younger than us boomers, you may not have run into many of the health challenges we face as we age – but, the more you stay fit and sexy in your youth, the fewer preventable problems you will face. It goes without saying, the better your sex life will be in your fifties and sixties!

For all the above reasons, tomorrow we’re launching a weekly feature on our blog aimed at sharing tips we’ve learned along the way for keeping vibrant, healthy, excited and sexy across the life cycle. We’re calling it Stay Sexy, and we’ll be running it every Sunday.

We’ll continue to scour the web for new information, tips and resources and bring you the best ones that catch our eye. Sometimes we’ll simply share something that happened to us and what we’ve learned from it. And we’ll be reaching into the romance writers’ community, featuring interviews with some of your favorite authors who are also on the road to fitness and health.

It’s all about one of our tag lines, Hot Sex at Any (Legal) Age. We love to write it, we love to read it, and we hope to embody it. We’re excited to be sharing that journey in this new way with you, our readers.

Be sure to check us out tomorrow, February 3, when we get behind the so-called myth: does sex burn a lot of calories or not?

Stay sexy!

Hot Sex After Fifty…And Beyond

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Yup, you got it – both halves of Adriana are over fifty, and you’d better believe we’re still after hot sex – for ourselves, and for our readers. Our quest has taken us to some fascinating places and I thought we’d share some of our finds with you in today’s blog post.

 

Of course you already know we’ve been dipping into the swing lifestyle. We’ve met and talked with a host of swingers and checked out some lifestyle clubs. If you think swinging is just for the young and lithe, think again – it seems no age is too old, if the interest is there and the body is willing. We’ve met swingers in their seventies and heard tales of folks into their eighties. For more information and tips on the swing lifestyle, check out our interview of Swinger and Life Coach Chantelle Austin, HERE. And of course if your interest leans more toward erotic swinging fantasies, we now have six books released in our Swinging Games series over at Extasy Books. Here’s a link to a short sample from our newest one, Who’s the Coach? Our hero/heroine couple in this series are empty nesters who are baby boomers, btw.

 

Two more themes pop out at us from the sexy over-fifty crowd. One is health and fitness. You don’t have to stay fit to keep having hot sex, but it sure makes a difference – in stamina, energy level, arousal, responsiveness, and mood, not to mention attractiveness. That’s a LOT of benefits, worth the effort. Some baby boomers have been following healthy eating and workout routines all their lives. For those who haven’t, it’s never too late to start, and there are lots of websites with tips for keeping older joints and muscle groups happy and healthy. Here’s a sampler:

          http://movingfree.blogspot.com/

          http://www.lifescript.com

stillvital.com

 

The other theme is, for want of a better term, keeping up appearances. It’s a combination of self confidence, pride, presence, and attractiveness – looking one’s best, flaunting it and enjoying the heck out of it. Cougars are pretty famous for exuding these qualities, and here’s one I like, filled with tips for looking as young as you feel: Linda Franklin’s The Real Cougar Woman. She’s based in New York City. Her counterpart across the pond is Fab After Fifty.

 

And of course we’re writing new heroes and heroines who’ve crossed the magic fifty line. Coming in July to Whiskey Creek Torrid, Ripening Passion continues our series on a (fictional) sex institute, begun with Smoldering Passion. We’ll tease you with the blurb here and keep you posted on its progress as we approach release day!

 

BLURB

 

Claire Johnson’s dedication to sex—the cornerstone of her career—led her to found the Center for Sexuality and Sex Practices. Now in her fifties, she knows the Center must keep pace with the rapidly growing Baby Boomer market, so she agrees to go back on camera for a series on sex and aging. But work with her nemesis?

 

Former English Professor Max Wilson has championed the cause of the Center ever since his deceased wife sought the Center’s help to rekindle the nearly extinguished sexual flames of their relationship. He loves working on camera and welcomes the challenge to perform with the svelte but feisty temptress.

 

Sparks fly immediately on and off camera. Can either Claire or Max transform those sparks into a fire of sexual desire for their viewers? And if they succeed, what will happen when the movie’s over?

Sex – and Everything Else

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Did I get your attention?

I’m an author of erotic romance, so naturally I like sex: reading about it, writing about it, watching it (there was some great discussion this past week on adult films for women at The Examiner) and of course having some for myself.

But November was a strange month and it’s made me sit back and re-focus on what I stand for.

Sexual Freedom, for starters: the freedom to read, write, watch and engage in hot sexy activity – with the partner of my choice, without any government intrusion into my bedroom or wherever else I choose to be sexy.

Equal Rights and equal protection under the law for all of us. That means I support marriage equality, the repeal of DADT, strong anti-bullying legislation for all our schools, and the Trevor Project and It Gets Better. And NOH8. Most of our books focus on LGBT characters, especially bisexual heroines. I want both the real world and the fictional world to be safe for them.

Great Sex – goes without saying. Tips, toys, information, resources, anything out there that increases sexual enjoyment, especially in romantic relationships, of whatever genders and combinations.

Health. The man I’m married to – half of the pen name Adriana Kraft – is a cardiac patient. Probably that’s a major reason we write erotic romance together. We live our lives by the “if not now, when” mantra because there’s no telling what’s promised. We also devote countless hours each week to staying healthy – by how we eat, how much we exercise, how we practice stress reduction and how we enjoy our time off. 

Some of these things are political and some are more individual, but for me they’re all intensely personal and hard to separate. I went off line for the last ten days leading up to November’s elections to work for local candidates who share my values. On November 2nd, my causes took a huge hit both here in Iowa and across the nation, even though both my candidates won.

So the last item on today’s “what I stand for” list is Happy Endings. Our characters deserve them and so do we. We’ll keep writing them in our fiction and working for them in our real life – to #MakeItBetter for all of us.

Best places to have sex!

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Do you follow @danandjennifer on Twitter? Definitely worth your time if you have any interest in sex! They’re a young couple with a fabulous sex advice blog and website at http://www.askdanandjennifer.com/  packed with short Q&A videos on hundreds of sex topics plus links and resources for anything you can think of.

One of my favorites is their “1001 best places to have sex.” Each time they tweet a new one it sparks discussion at our house – have we ever thought of that one? Can we top it? Have we written it into a book? Best, of course, is “ooh, been there, did that!”

So here are a few of theirs, and some you can find in our books.

From Dan and Jennifer:

At an Open Bus Stop Already tried the enclosed bus stop? Well, having sex at any open bus stop is guaranteed to attract attention – wanted or unwanted. The challenge here is to have sex without anyone knowing you’re having sex. Wearing a loosefitting skirt is always a good option to avoid getting caught.

 

In the Sleeper of a Semi Truck Sleepers in these big trucks can be quite plush, albeit small. Cuddle up for some kinky sex at the truck stop!

 

In the Family Room Behind the Sofa Remember what we did under the bed? Pull the sofa out just enough for you both to fit behind it. It should be very tight – that’s the whole idea.

 

You can find their whole list at http://www.askdanandjennifer.com/best-sex-places/ – or you can buy Jennifer’s book by the same title at http://www.amazon.com/001-Best-Places-Have-America/dp/1605500534

 

Favorites we’ve written:

 

 

On a crisp fall day in the north woods in a solidly built secluded deer stand – from Return to Purgatory Point ~ excerpt:

Natalie stood and brushed her lips across his. “Don’t look so dumbfounded. Haven’t you ever done it outdoors?”

“Of course I have. But a deer stand, in the middle of the day?”

“Works for me,” she said with a grin. She reached for the snap on her jeans and laughed at his wideninging eyes.

“What if someone comes by?”

She yanked on her zipper. “You expecting company out here?”

“Could happen. Maybe some one is exploring sign for the upcoming hunt.”

“They better not do it on my property unless they have permission.” She kicked aside her jeans. “You have permission to explore any and all my property. If you care too.”

 

On an oak kitchen table at a secluded guest cottage in Stratford-Upon-Avon – from The Diary.

 

“I’m glad you liked it.”  Kate lifted her glass to her lips, but it never quite got there.  Wine poured down between her breasts in rivulets. 

“Oh, goodness!” she exclaimed, leaping to her feet and unsnapping her skirt.  “How clumsy I am.”

Spellbound, Grayson watched the tiny river of wine make its way down to her belly button and over her belly.  It became lost in her pussy curls.

“Now I’m sticky again,” she complained.  “I can clean my breasts, but I may need your help.  Do you think this table will hold me?”

“The table is solid oak. It’ll hold you.  Hell, I’ll buy them a new one if it doesn’t.”

 

Up against the wall in the foyer of her house – from The Merry Widow

 

On top of the pool table – from Swinging Games: Who’s the Coach?

 

In front of a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking Central Park – from Smoldering Passion

 

Leaning out the stone window of a restored cloister overlooking the gardens below – from Colors of the Night

 

In a gazebo – from Writing Skin

 

On a wooded hillside overlooking Walden Pond – from Through the Mirror

 

We’d love to hear some of your favorites!

The Cougar Image – Positive or Negative?

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When author/editor Jolie DuPre conceptualized The Cougar Book and put out her call for submissions over a year ago, both halves of Adriana were thrilled. We knew immediately we wanted to be in that book and we had no problem coming up with our fantasy of a perfect evening for an older woman’s first time out with a stunning younger man. We’re proud to have made the cut – our story, “A Taste of Ginger,” is one of the twenty-two stories finally selected for the anthology, released on Valentine’s Day 2010 at Logical Lust and available in both print and e-book.

We’ve never hesitated celebrating the powerful and enticing imagery we associate with the image of the cougar. In the words of The Cougar Book’s introduction by Valerie Gibson, Canadian TV personality and author, cougars are

“skilled—and creative—in the sexual arts . . .They love to make love and enjoy it for what it is—a joyful, satisfying, energizing, and life-enhancing activity that keeps you youthful and vital. What’s more, it’s fun! It’s a rare and precious attribute for any woman, but when it comes with enthusiasm and few strings attached? Priceless!”

 

Both of us are also longtime fans of TV and film star Kim Cattrall. In her role as “Samantha” in Sex and the City and in her personal life, she epitomizes the positive qualities we associate with “cougar.” Through her books and many personal appearances she continues to encourage women to embrace their lives, their bodies and their sexuality. Some quotes:

Asked by Amazon.com to explain what she means by sexual intelligence: “A person who knows what they like! And has some idea why … I used the word intelligence in the title of the book and the documentary because it reflects my desire to gather whatever insights, inspirations, and information that could nourish the part of us that is sexual and sensual, so that it might be strong and function well.”

 

In a recent interview for TheaterMania.com promoting Sex and the City II: “We have encouraged a lot of women to change the way they feel about being single, about having cancer, being lonely, and I think that’s a powerful thing in this era of post-feminism. I think we have helped to find what it is to be successful, smart, and feminine.”

 

But it turns out she – and many others – think the term is derogatory and the cougar trend is on its way out. PopEater.com puts it this way in Saying goodbye to the Cougar Trend:

“And so now it looks like we’re going to have to look at Pfeiffer, Cox, Cattrall and other aging actress for what they really are: confident, successful women whose talent has kept them in the spotlight beyond an arbitrary media-determined sell-by date. Rather than agree to hide behind some sort of cartoon send-up of what an attractive older woman is, these ladies are redefining how we see life after you spot that first wrinkle.”

 

Cattrall recently turned down a cover spot on a major women’s magazine because they wanted her to pose with a cougar – and to her, that term and that imagery are derogatory. She told Extra “I really take umbrage to the code ‘cougar’ …I think cougar has a negative connotation, and I don’t see anything negative about Samantha and her sexuality, sensuality and choice.” Over at The Today Show in an interview with Meredith Viera she clarified, “I feel there is nothing predatory about a woman of a certain age. The stereotype is that the woman is searching for young men like they’re prey, and I just don’t think that’s good enough.”

We’ve received lots of positive comments from readers who are inspired by the cougar concept and love the fantasies, so we’re curious – what does the cougar image mean to YOU? Positive or negative, celebratory or derogatory, powerful or demeaning? Eager to hear from you!

Hot Swinging Stories for the Sexually Fluid!

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Here’s a fascinating quote from a blog about a Scientific American research article on bisexuality: “Interestingly, [the author] also found that as women age, they become more aware of their sexual fluidity, and thus tend to turn more toward bisexuality than away from it.”

That would definitely be true at our house, where we discovered a few years back that both of us love to read f/f erotic scenes as well as sizzling m/f scenes. It wasn’t much of a leap from reading them to writing them – and once we’d opened up that possibility, new ones beckoned: three-way, four-way and more, in all sorts of combinations, crafted for heightened erotic excitement. Writing them is a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it!

For sure it’s true in the home of Jennifer Andrews, heroine of our Swinging Games series at Extasy Books. Discovering her bisexuality is the main reason Jen and her husband ventured into the swinging world at mid life. Reviewers at Whipped Cream, San Diego Erotica Books Examiner and Fallen Angels Reviews all agree the series is a smashing success!

SWINGINGGAMES

San Diego Erotica Books Examiner  – Four Stars!

This is a sexual tale of a woman named Jennifer, who discovers after many years of marriage that she is bisexual. Her husband Brett, is more than happy to indulge her by getting into the swing of things. This story is hot … imagination takes on a life of its own. Don’t let this one pass you by. Excerpt

 

hookupsFallen Angel Reviews  – Five Angels!

Hookups is a fun quick read full of sexual fantasies, lust and passion. If Adriana Kraft writes to entertain, she has succeeded with Hookups… While the sex scenes are explicit, Ms. Kraft handles the content well. She has managed to write a unique love story with a twist. The characters are well rounded, each with their own idiosyncrasies that endear them to the reader. I’m interested to see if we are going to find out more about Jen and Brett and their band of merry swingers; I hope so. Excerpt

 

ATEMPTINGTASTE

 Whipped Cream Reviews  – Four Cherries!   
 
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading A Tempting Taste Swinging Games 2. The title pretty much summarized the premise, but my oh my, did I underestimate just how scorching hot those next seventy or so pages were going to be!…Brett and Jen are not your typical gorgeous twenty or thirty-year olds. They are in their fifties, and some of their “partners” are older than that. It was also refreshing to read, and is something that is rarely found…This is something you read when you want straight up hotness, because there is plenty to go around! Excerpt
 

The next installment in the series will be out in just two weeks, on November 15:

What happens when the neighbors find out? Jen and Brett Andrews’ swinging world turns upside down when it comes too close to home – will their friends keep their secret? Will they have to stop swinging, or worse yet, move? What if the friends want to join in? Delectable complexities unfold as Jen and Brett continue their swinging adventures!

Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite:

“Most every time I try to fall asleep I think of you with another woman.” Donna slanted a finger across Jen’s lips. “Please, I have to tell you. I admit I’m so jealous. I’ve dreamed about us together before. I hadn’t had that dream for years until recently. Then I’d wake up feeling so guilty I didn’t know if I could face you. Now I wake up soaking wet, certain we’ve been making love for hours and that you left before I could awaken fully.”

“But…”

Donna’s finger slipped into Jen’s open mouth.

Was it reflex, instinct or lust? With her eyelids closed, Jen didn’t spend much time trying to explain why she was suddenly sucking Donna’s finger deeper into her mouth.

“That feels so good,” Donna cooed.

Jen heard Donna scooting closer. She kept her eyes closed hoping not to frighten or encourage her friend. She felt Donna’s warm breath on her cheek. And then her best friend’s lips brushed against the corner of Jen’s mouth.