Smut by the Sea Spotlight on Janine Ashbless, Liv Honeywell, Domitri Xavier & Gemma Parkes

Janine Ashbless writes dark fantasy-, fairytale- and horror-erotica for the sort of reader who likes Angela Carter or A Game of Thrones. Her work has been described as ‘hardcore and literate.’ But just to keep everyone on their toes, she occasionally springs a bit of romance too. She lives in Yorkshire with her husband and two rescued greyhounds. Having had 9 novels and collections of short stories published by Black Lace and others, she is currently writing the first of a trilogy about fallen angels for American publisher Cleis Press.

When not writing about delicious, hot male dominants and the female subswho love them, I’m usually doing something craft-like, reading, baking,eating the results of said baking, and attempting to satisfy the demandsof His High and Mighty Dominance (the cat!). My first story, Imagine, waspublished with Silver Moon Books last year and Coming, Ready or Not is myfirst solo book. The Journal, co-written with Domitri Xavier, is out soon.

Domitri Xavier comes from a rich heritage, including Russia, France andYorkshire. He is the quintessential English gentleman and lives alone inhis cavernous mansion, Upton Abbey.

Domitri is not only a writer, composer, pianist, raconteur, wit and poet,he also enjoys a number of hobbies; he breeds Basset Hounds, plays chess(although he has yet to record a victory) and he is a renowned collector of used tea bags – Earl Grey, naturally.

He fills his remaining time writing erotic fiction, much of it based on his own lifestyle at the Abbey.

Gemma Parkes is a freelance writer from the North West of England who specializes mainly in Erotic fiction. Her writing covers a variety of sexual genres as she likes to write as the mood takes her. Gemma prefers to write short stories and has many anthology inclusions including some with Cleis Press, Ravenous Romance, Yellow Silk Dreams and Naughty Nights Press. She also has a variety of self published work including ‘Pleasing Mia’ and ‘A Wicked Game’. Gemma enjoys the company of funny, intelligent people who love life as much as she does.

We began FREAK with the idea of bringing high quality, fun and unique products to our customers. To enable us to do this we design and craft many of our items ourselves in the UK. Our name was chosen in an attempt to reclaim a defamed word. We believe in celebrating individuality, not hiding behind conformity.

From our own experiences of the scene we try to bring a diverse range of unusual products from sensual toys and accessories through to clothing and bdsm equipment. Our frustration attempting to find fetish clothing designed for real people led to the creation of our clothing ranges and our made to measure service has proved widely popular. Likewise our boredom at the limited range of fetish equipment available years ago inspired us to begin making equipment we wanted to use, and we have never looked back.

We aim to support UK businesses wherever possible, thereby reducing our carbon footprint. We re-use and re-cycle as much as we can, which has also lead to great product ideas, such as our leather boas – a unique product which also reduces our leather wastage.

Customer service is very important to us, and being a small business enables us to deal on a one-to-one basis with customers and solve problems quickly if any arise. We run Freak Clubwear because we get real satisfaction from crafting end products and we love going to fetish and adult events and selling to a wide range of people. We believe educating people about the fun they can have with fetish is the best way to break down prejudices, which has led to us producing the free beginners resource, Curious magazine, a series of freeview educational videos, Kinky For Reel, and doing many performances and demonstrations throughout the UK.

Sex Toys, Lingerie and Naughty Fun Since 1999

The story of Nice ‘n’ Naughty began with the opening of our first sex shop in Chester in 1999. From then on we set out to create a new era in the retailing of adult products such as vibrators, dildos, anal sex toys, bondage gear, lubricants, condoms and much, much more in our stores and online.

On the one hand, as we are a chain of licensed sex shops our range is much more extensive and raunchier than a non-licensed “high street” outlet is allowed to be. On the other hand, we wanted to get away from the male orientated, seedy image of licensed sex shops. With that in mind, Nice ‘n’ Naughty’s stores are famously bright and clean and they are all female, male and couple friendly and managed by well trained and helpful staff. We welcome people of all sexual orientations: straight, gay, bi-sexual, lesbian or transsexual and aim to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible while they shop with us whatever their budget. Check out our new crossdressing and transvestism section!

The Nice ‘n’ Naughty formula has been so successful that we have now grown into a chain of 13 adult stores found in Aberystwyth, Bangor, Bolton, Brighton, Bristol, Chester, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Southport, Warrington and Wigan. Nice ‘n’ Naughty has also been voted the “Best Adult Retail Chain in the UK” for six years and in 2008 and 2009 was garlanded with the title of “Best Retail Chain” at the prestigious European E-line awards. Our commitment to developing a professional and motivated team is also reflected by our award of the Investors in People certification, the only company in the adult products industry to achieve it.

Enjoy better sex and free your imagination with Nice ‘n’ Naughty.

Astroglide is the next generation of personal lubricants. Water-based and water-soluble, Astroglide is designed to mimic the body’s natural fluids. Astroglide enhances sexual pleasure, relieves vaginal dryness and makes condom use more enjoyable.

Astroglide’s name reflects its aerospace origins: it was developed by a rocket scientist (we swear!), a chemist who discovered a hyper-slippery polymeric compound while working to create oils for the space shuttle’s moving parts.