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Release Blitz: Swingers Light Up Vegas, by Adriana Kraft

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Join me in welcoming Adriana Kraft!

At 90? Really?

In case you missed it, Movie Star Rita Moreno, 91, recently owned up on TV to becoming aroused while filming her latestmovie. The scene? A men’s football locker room featuring, you guessed it, virile hunks changing clothes.

Meanwhile, I was recently chatting with a librarian friend about the erotic romance my husband and I co-author under our pen name, Adriana Kraft—at our age. My friend laughed and told me about an elderly woman who came to her library each week to request specific books. When she warned the woman how explicit one of the books was, the woman drew herself up and proclaimed, “I’m not dead yet!”

Both these women – Rita Moreno and our librarian’s patron – are three to four decades older than the happily married pair who star in our brand-new release, Swingers Light Up Vegas. Dan and Ginger have been swingers since their children grew up and left home a few years back, and they’re in Las Vegas to celebrate Ginger’s fiftieth birthday.

Swinging at 50? Feeling sexy (and desirable) at 50? Hardly a stretch of the imagination. There are lots of swingers age 50 and older. In some larger cities, there are clubs specifically by and for the older swing set, who’ve often aged out of more general lifestyle gatherings.

I think our fictional couple could easily have found such a club on their Las Vegas trip – in fact, they were referred to it by somewhat older friends back home in the Midwest.

We’ve created this short story to feed reader fantasies with a taste of the swing lifestyle. If you like this teaser, we hope you’ll come back for more!

What happens in Vegas…

Swingers Dan and Ginger head to Las Vegas to celebrate Ginger’s fiftieth birthday. Through their friends back home, they’ve scored a free week at a posh Vegas resort condominium. They fill their days with every iconic Las Vegas experience they can dream up. But by night? They’re determined not to leave Vegas without sampling what it has to offer in the erotically charged swing lifestyle. A Vegas swing club beckons – will it live up to their fantasies?

Excerpt

Déjà vu, all over again.

Ginger wasn’t sure if the thought was part of her dream or part of her waking up, but it made her smile. Her full-body stretch confirmed she had some aching muscles—not really sore, but a soft ache that brought back steamy memories. What a night!

She finally opened her eyes to the sight of Dan holding out a hot mug of coffee. If the scent had awakened her, she had no memory trace.

Dan settled in next to her on the bed, a broad smile on his face that she knew mirrored her own. “What a treat,” she said, “to watch you with Lai last night. She sure is a cracker jack. High energy—wonder if she’s insatiable.”

“Pretty close, I’d say. I’m so glad they want another round before we leave. If we do decide to buy a condo here, it looks like the swinging scene is pretty promising. And you’ve gotta know how much I loved watching you and Lai together. You two were so in sync.”

“I do know.” Ginger snuggled a bit closer and clasped Dan’s free hand with her own. “When we started this adventure, it was mostly so I could act on the bi identity I’d finally become aware of. I had no clue how much watching me with another woman would be a turn-on for you, too.”

Book Information:

  • Swingers Light Up Vegas

  • By Adriana Kraft

  • Release Date: January 30, 2023

  • Length: 5,500 words

  • Tags: Short Story, Erotic Romance, Swing Lifestyle, Later in Life, LGBTQ

Buy Links:

FREE with subscription to Adriana Kraft’s Newsletter:

https://storyoriginapp.com/giveaways/d1c82f5e-9b43-11ed-8c5e-b712215e57d9

PURCHASE FOR 99 CENTS

Universal Book Link: https://books2read.com/u/bQN2lZ

Available at Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ScribD, Smashwords

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Adriana Kraft is the pen name for a married pair of retired professors writing erotic romance and erotic romantic suspensetogether. We like to think we’ve broken the mold for staid, fusty academics, and we hope lots of former profs are enjoying life as much as we are. We believe that love is love is love, and weoften feature bisexual women and ménage in our erotic romance stories. Together we have published more than fifty erotic romance novels and novellas to outstanding reviews.

During our academic careers, we lived in many states across the Midwest. We love to travel, so when we retired, we sold our house and took off in our motor home across the country. We now make our home in southern Arizona, where we enjoy hiking, golf, and travel, especially to the many Arizona Native American historical sites.

We’ve featured the swing lifestyle in a number of our erotic romance stories. We penned this short story to give readers a quick taste of swinging – erotically charged, always, and a safe place for bisexual women to express the full range of their sexuality. We’ve written an entire series of novellas set in the lifestyle, entitled Swinging Games. We hope you’ll check them out! And as always, reviews are the lifeblood of romance authors, so we hope you’ll leave one for us.

Website: https://adrianakraft.com

Blog: https://www.adrianakraft.com/blog

Newsletter: free download of our erotic romance novella Cherry Tune-Up for signing up.

Twitter https://twitter.com/AdrianaKraft

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriana.kraft.5

Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/AdrianaKraftAuthor

Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/author/adrianakraft

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1578571.Adriana_Kraft

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kraftadriana/

BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/adriana-kraft

Extasy Books Page https://www.extasybooks.com/adriana-kraft

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Universal Letter Writing Week: January 8-14

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flowers and someone writing with an ink pen.

Communicating is an interesting endeavor. There are a number of different media you can use: written, personally addressed; written to a general audience; face-to-face in person; video technology; audio technology; email; texts/instant message. I often teach about communication, explaining that each one of these mediums has benefits and challenges. Face to face communication is objectively the richest. Think of all the information that is conveyed through not only words, but tone of voice, cadence, inflection, facial expression, gestures, etc. Text is the worse, and maybe I’ll talk about that sometime. But for now, I want to talk about what I consider to be the next best medium—the handwritten letter.

I love writing letters. As an adult, I had a whole host of penpals around the world that I met through a fanclub. We wrote for many years. Some of them grew to be very close friends that I'm still in touch with. I have even met a handful. That was a cool experience, hanging with someone you haven’t met before, but knowing them intimately. One of them became my partner. 

I hardly get letters anymore. I miss it. Every letter feels like a gift. Think about it. Someone took the time to pick the right stationery or cards, the right pen. and then give you a little piece of themselves through their handwriting. Here’s a fun fact about me: If I never buy another piece of stationery and notecards, I am sure I have enough to last the rest of my lift—and share some, too. I think the end of letter writing caught me by surprise.

You might not want to acknowledge this, but email killed the handwritten letter--or at least critically injured it. Even my long-term penpals have opted for the immediate gratification of texts, the convenience of email, or worse-->social media. Consequently, letter writing is a lost art. And now they aren't teaching cursive? I could type a whole email about that. 

I hope we can one day return to the age of the letter. I think people will get tired of emails and texts. They don’t replace the personal connection that you’d get with a handwritten note. Here’s a challenge: If it’s been a while for you—or if you’ve never done it, write someone a letter. It can be brief or long, funny or serious. It doesn’t matter. Whoever you gift a letter to will appreciate it tremendously, and it will make them feel treasured.

You might be thinking that my vision of a return to letter writing is just a pipedream. Ah, well. At least we haven't stopped writing stories.

Take the challenge and let me know what happens!

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Cover Reveal: Swingers Light Up Vegas by Adriana Kraft @AdrianaKraft #EroticRomance #SwingLifestyle

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Please join me in welcoming Adriana Kraft to LAM. We’re excited to be a part of your cover reveal!

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I am so excited about this cover from Veridian Rose Graphics for our upcoming release! My husband and I, who write together under this pen name, created a (very) short story to give our readers a sample of the highly charged erotic world enjoyed by a fictional mid-life couple in the swing lifestyle. Swingers Light Up Vegas will be released on January 30, and pre-order will be available later this week.

On our last trip to Las Vegas, we scoured the city for photos and adventures we could gift to those characters, hoping one of the pics could be used on our cover.

Did our cover artist use them?

No, but it wasn’t her fault.

We’d told her we wanted two things on the cover: something sexy, and something that anchored the cover explicitly in Las Vegas.

So even though all the photos say “Vegas” to me, none of them really scream it for anyone else. The fabulous High Roller LINQ? Lots of cities have those by now, and a nighttime shot says nothing about which city it is. Ditto a Lazy River. Pick a tropical setting anywhere (or even just a relatively warm one), and lots of resorts sport them. The view from the Stratosphere? We actually didn’t even send her that one; it does picture the famous strip, but from such a distance that it’s not distinctive. And the same with the view out our 8th floor window. It gave us lots of pleasure, every night, to watch the sun set over the south end of the strip, but the photo isn’t identifiably Vegas. You can catch all those photos at https://wp.me/p9O7pv-336

Valerie June Bondarenko of Veridian Rose Graphics is the artist we approached to create our cover. She began by offering us several “sexy” photo options to consider, and both Hubs and I were immediately drawn to the shot with a window, roses in a vase, and a partially clad female torso wearing black lace. Perfect. The swing lifestyle is focused on women and what women want; men may love to ogle, but women call the shots. We think our cover gives her the power to beckon, and the power to say no.

Next question: what to put in the window? That’s where we’d thought the High Roller LINQ could go, but it didn’t really work, and it would still have left us with the question of how to convey Vegas. Valerie came up with the idea of the iconic Las Vegas welcome sign in the window, and when we got the draft, we both said “wow.” It’s perfect.

Next dilemma: the window-roses-black lace pic wasn’t the right dimensions for a cover, and anyway we still needed placement for the title and author. We were clueless, but Valerie came up with the dark red lace on black borders top and bottom. This is why she's the artist.

Last issue: font for title and author. We thought about neon lights – we think she’s captured that spirit in the title font and colors. Plus it’s a fun touch that “light up” actually lights up the title. And who doesn’t love seeing their name in big bold letters?

So yes, we signed off on her first complete cover draft immediately and are thrilled we did. We highly recommend her:

Veridian Rose Graphics

BLURB

Swingers Light Up Vegas

What happens in Vegas…

Swingers Brett and Jen head to Las Vegas to celebrate Jen’s fiftieth birthday. Through their friends back home, they’ve scored a free week at a posh Vegas resort condominium. They fill their days with every iconic Las Vegas experience they can dream up. But by night? They’re determined not to leave Vegas without sampling what it has to offer in the erotically charged swing lifestyle. A Vegas swing club beckons – will it live up to their fantasies?

BOOK INFO

Genre: Erotic Romance, Bisexual, Later in Life

Release Date: January 30, 2023

Length: 5K words

Price: 99 cents

 BUY LINK

Pre-order coming soon at https://books2read.com/

 TAGS

Bisexual erotic romance, LGBTQ+, Swing Lifestyle, Ménage, Later in Life, Las Vegas

ABOUT ADRIANA KRAFT

Adriana Kraft is the pen name for a married pair of retired professors writing erotic romance and erotic romantic suspense together. We like to think we’ve broken the mold for staid, fusty academics, and we hope lots of former profs are enjoying life as much as we are. We believe that love is love is love, and we often feature bisexual women and ménage in our erotic romance stories. Together we have published more than fifty erotic romance novels and novellas to outstanding reviews.

During our academic careers, we lived in many states across the Midwest. We love to travel, so when we retired, we sold our house and took off in our motor home across the country. We now make our home in southern Arizona, where we enjoy hiking, golf, and travel, especially to the many Arizona Native American historical sites.

AUTHOR LINKS

https://linktr.ee/AdrianaKraft

Tagged: #swinglifestyle, #Menage, #laterinlife, #LasVegas

Intentions

We did it.

We completed another 365 day orbit around the sun. Was the journey everything you wanted it to be?

the solar system

Our orbit around the sun.

I think mine was. I accomplished a few things and was pleasantly surprised by some of them. I also took on too much and created an unnecessary level of stress. But 2022 has ended and it’s time to focus on my intentions for the future.

My priority for 2023 is self-care. I know to some of you that may sound pretty self-centered. It is, but it is not selfish. If I don’t take care of myself. I won’t have enough energy, brain power, to do what I need for my family, my writing, and teaching. I cannot continue with the level of stress I’ve had in prior years. So there will be relaxation, time to rejuvenate, a lazy weekend now and then and healthy, delicious food.

Of course, to manage all of this I have to step up my efficiency and organization. I have a few ideas about how to do this.

  • Buy and commit to using a planner. I know, duh. But using it consistently is the hard part.

  • Schedule DIY spa days. Write them prominently on the calendar so I can’t plan over them.

  • Plan meals. I find when I take it day by day I eat worse than when I have and follow a plan.

  • Find an exercise I enjoy. I’ve tried Tai Chi a few times and I really like it. It adds more movement to my day while simultaneously giving my mind moments of peace. To start, I’m going to practice 3 times week. When I’m successful, I’ll increase it.

  • Drink water. It’s so simple, but despite the fact that I feel better when I do, I don’t drink enough.

  • Limit exposure to the news. I am not saying I’ll be ignorant to what’s happening in the world. I’ll stick to the NY Times and other legitimate sources, and I won’t digest every sad or scary prediction.

What are your intentions for the year?



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Festive Food!

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crostini

When I was young, my family had the same meal for Christmas that we had for Thanksgiving: Turkey, dressing, potato salad, macaroni salad, cranberry sauce, green beans, collard greens, candied sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese. If we were having a ton of people over, my mom might also cook a glazed ham. For New Years, she’d make a lasagna and black-eyed peas and rice with greens and cornbread, a traditional southern meal that is supposed to usher in good luck.

Today, Christmas celebrations are much simpler. We make a small charcuterie board and appetizers: pigs in a blanket, brie en croute, tiny quiches. We munch on them from Christmas eve through Christmas night. We get a little fancier for New Years because it’s my partner’s birthday. This year—Crab legs! I can’t wait.

What do you eat for the holidays? Do you have any food traditions?

Holiday Transformation

Our Christmas Tree. Every ornament has special meaning. For instance, we bought a house. We LOVE Rhode Island Comiccon, and chips are our favorite snack.

Like so many other things, how we celebrate holidays changes overtime. Elaborate celebrations become incrementally simpler yet more precious. Large gatherings shrink into cozy, intimate groups. It’s a bittersweet process.

We also change in terms of the gifts we give. Gone is the need to demonstrate how we feel by the caliber and expense of the gifts. Instead, we look for gifts with meaning. In both cases, getting a surprised and delighted reaction was the goal. But gradually this becomes more difficult. What do you get for that person who needs nothing and wants little?

The pandemic and years of gift giving set the stage for dramatic changes in how my partner and I exchange gifts. Instead of each one buying for the other, together we buy gifts we both want. Often these were experiences instead of things—a weekend in Rhode Island, a few days at a casino resort. When we went to stores more frequently, we strolled the malls and specialty stores looking for nothing in particular but buying things that made us both smile.

Part of our christmas visit. We may need a special table for this next year.

This year, we declared every package that comes to our door to be a present. At this point, the floor around our tree is covered with boxes, and bags and poster tubes. The funny thing is, by the time the holiday gets here, we both will probably forget what we bought. We’ll be surprised after all.

How do you “holiday”?

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The Songs of My Life.

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Anyone who knows me knows that music moves me. At my writing group the other night, we asked the question, “What is your theme song, the song that plays everytime you walk into a room?” Although we came up with the question, no one had an answer. We decided to table it for future discussion. Just for fun.

Typical of me, I’ve been obsessed with this. What is my theme song? Not the one that I wish would play. But the one that is played. In other words, the song that I think represents me in some way. It is a tough, tough question. If you don’t believe me, try to answer it for yourself.

I finally stumbled on it. My theme song is ON by BTS. It’s a rousing anthem about taking the pain that life can bring and fighting, only to rise again.

Check it out.

This led me to think, what song leads the soundtrack of my life at this moment in my life? That question wasn’t nearly as challenging. I recognize that time is passing so it’s important to focus on the things that bring you joy and nourish you. The song, For Youth, laments a little about the passage of time, but also acknowledges that the most precious thing is enduring love.

What are the songs on the soundtrack of YOUR life?








How do you define bold?

Today is national Cook Something Bold Day. The charge is clear from the title. We need to take a leap and cook something bold!

But what exactly is bold? Well, it all depends on your style.

Some think bold food is food made of wacky, unusual, or expensive ingredients. I’m not a fan of this idea. First, food is expensive enough. Did you know saffron—real saffron—can cost upward of $5,000 a pound? Or that white truffles are around $4,000 per pound? I daresay a meal with both ingredients would be bold. I might even say extreme. The most expensive thing I buy (not including the chicken salad at Whole Foods—don’t ask) are crab legs. And I buy those MAYBE once a year.

I have a friend who thinks Kebabs are bold food because they are a Middle Eastern food and that is a part of the world she is unfamiliar with.

I think bold food is spicy. Not burn out your taste buds spicy, but I do like a nice kick with good flavor. Tonight, I’m making Korean BBQ lettuce wraps. I’ve never made it before, but you can find find the recipe I’m using here. The gochujang (red chili paste) guarantees its going to be hot!

If you try it, let me know and we can compare notes. I’m going to leave out the bourbon, but you don’t have to. I may also substitute ground beef for the flank steak. We’ll see.

How do YOU define bold food?

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A Nacho Conundrum. What to do?

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a plate of delicious nachos

I just found out that THIS SUNDAY is National Nachos Day. And I do not know how to process this information.

I’ve been craving Nachos for months now. I’ve resisted because I’ve been trying to eat cleaner, healthier and well, you can’t make good nachos healthy. You just can’t. It’s one of the laws of the universe, like gravity.

So I’m going to have them this weekend. The question on the table is, do I make or buy them? If I buy them, they’d have to make it from the restaurant to my house because I’m not yet eating in restaurants. They could get very soggy. I’m also not guaranteed to get exactly what I want in the ratio that I want. What if they add too much refried beans and not enough sour cream? I’d be devastated.

If I make them, it will cost me more to get all the ingredients than it would to buy them. It would also take a good amount of time from NaNoWriMo writing time. BUT-I would be assured to get what I’m craving and in the right proportions. Ground beef. Jalapenos. Sour cream. Cheese. Avocado. Salsa. Chopped onions. Chopped tomatoes.

What will I do? Damn. I have three days to decide.

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It’s the Most Anxiety-producing Time of the Year

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I’m When I was a kid, Fall was tough only because it was the start of school. After the first day, it got better. But now, it seems the entire season is a challenge. Is it for you, too?

To make things worse, I've decided to once again take on the masochistic journey called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This is a bad idea on so many levels!

  • First and foremost, I can't let it get in the way of the release of Waiting on the Son, my newest, completed novel. This is not as simple as it sounds. Worth it, of course, but by no means easy. I'm also working on a new holiday short-story for you.

  • November inches me closer to the end of the semester when I'm the most busy with grading and advising students.

  • NaNoWriMo is during November, which of course makes Thanksgiving prep and celebrations quite challenging. It's not easy to write 1667 words a day, every day, when I'm also trying to bake bread, decorate cakes, and roast a turkey.

And yet, I love NaNoWriMo. I can commune and commiserate with my colleagues who are doing the same thing while simultaneously giving myself over to my creative energies. In fact, it's required.

I'm going to take the plunge. I have an idea burning in my head and heart which will be the first book in a new series. Now that I say it aloud, I'm getting excited to start. Yay, Nano!

Catch ya later. I need to make a plan.

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