Sweet Thing

Sweet Thing is (ever so loosely) based on my years working on a weekly alternative paper in Los Angeles. That experience replaced my high school misery as the time when I really grew up. I was the youngest on staff, often the only girl in the room, and ultimately I was appreciated and respected not only for my speed as a typist, but for my skills as a writer.

Yeah, I’ve said this before—but you know, this sort of thing lingers: even as I was being ridiculed in class at University and told by an English T.A. not to consider writing as a profession, I was simultaneously being published at the paper. While my compositions were read aloud as how not to get an A, I was being hired to do freelance work for books and magazines, ghost writing before I even knew what that term meant.

I was moldable. Malleable. A bendy-straw, sucking up every bit of knowledge I could. (I'd say a vacuum, but I just learned recently that there is no "cum" in "vacuum.") My editor was my mentor. Fellow writers were my peers. And were they ever cool. From dyed hair, wear all-leather, pierced, hardcore music fiends to three-piece suit, slick as a serpent ad men. They taught me just about everything I know about writing, love, sex, and life. (At least, what I hadn’t already gleaned from the chicklets at the beauty supply store.)

Sweet Thing is a novel that absolutely hits or misses with people. I don’t think I received a single lukewarm review, from “Tyler delivers a very sexy L.A. story” to “Who knew erotica could put you to sleep?”

You get to decide. How do you win a copy? (And, just so you know, this is for the racy Black Lace edition, not the watered down—I mean, edited down—Cheek version.)

Let's see... The title Sweet Thing is from my all-time favorite Van Morrison song. But there are many songs with sweet in the lyrics. (I put most of them in the book, I think.) From Stevie Ray Vaughn's “sweet little thing” to Tom Waits’ “Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun,” to Rolling Stones’ "Sweethearts Together," to Sade’s "Sweetest Gift" to Guns n’ Roses "Sweet Child of Mine"… I could go on.

What do I want from you?

Give me a song. A song that could be on your soundtrack. A song that played during a particularly lusty moment—and if you are feeling particularly lusty, describe the moment as well as the music.

XXX,
Alison

P.S. Winners, be sure to drop me a note with mailing address. Send to msalisontyler at yahoo dot com. I haven’t heard yet from the four people who won Sticky Fingers: KM, Tessa, Angell, and Suzanne.