Truth, Dare and... Hildred Billings!

Since I've just released The Bad Girls' Club, a story all about fun and exciting dares, I wanted to find out the truth about dares.  Over the next few weeks, find out about some awesome women and their dares - the funny, the sexy, the downright embarassing.

First up is Hildred with a story I can well imagine, knowing Japan and the way Japanese people can be. 

Don't know if this really counts since I wasn't technically the person dared to do something, but here goes!

About a year ago I was spending the evening in Japanese lesbian bar with a good (Japanese) friend of mine. It was the second bar of the night for us, and at that point we were pretty damn tired since we were waiting for 4am to come so the trains would start running again.

Well, we were in this bar, not having the best time ever since it was loud and we didn't know anyone (aside for the super friendly drunk girl who kept telling us what a good lay she was - not with curry breath you aren't, sorry.) Friend started nodding off at the bar and I was about to suggest we go somewhere else when three young women come stumbling in already drunk off their asses. They were rowdy as hell but at least presented some form of entertainment in their shenanigans. Their favorite thing to do was tequila shots and dare each other to do things. (It seemed that whoever was last putting their glass down after a shot was the "loser.")

Well, since I was the only foreigner in the whole bar, they decided "LOSER HAS TO MAKE OUT WITH THE FOREIGNER." (No, they didn't ask me. Not that they had to. I was pretty damn lonely.) My friend was beside herself in scandal and the drunk woman who was The Best At Sex You Guys Seriously was jealous as hell, but I was too tired to care and just said "SURE. WHATEVER."

So these women do their shots and the one nearest me loses. She's half mortified, half intrigued, and I tell her in my best sleepy/half tipsy Japanese that she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to. But she says "NO. I WILL. I WILL DO IT. I WILL MAKE OUT WITH YOU IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY." So while my friend whips out her phone to take a picture (thanks, Marina, wherever you are) I'm about two seconds way from finally getting to lock in lips in Japan.

And then she changes her mind and goes to make out with her friend instead. Needless to say, I was a tad crestfallen.

Okay, I was really sad.

Two days later I flew home to America and that is still one of the first memories I get of Japan. Right up there with having three heat strokes and buying like 500 CDs from Bookoff. Good times in Ni-chome A+ would recommend to lesbians everywhere.

Hildred Billings is a Japanese and Religious Studies scholar who has spent her entire life knowing she would write for a living someday. She has lived in Japan a total of three times in three different locations, from the heights of the Japanese alps to the hectic Tokyo suburbs, with a life in Shikoku somewhere in there too. When she's not writing, however, she spends most of her time talking about Asian pop music, cats, and bad 80's fantasy movies with anyone who will listen...or not.

Her writing centers around themes of redemption, sexuality, and death, sometimes all at once. Although she enjoys writing in the genre of fantasy the most, she strives to show as much reality as possible through her characters and situations, since she's a furious realist herself.

Currently, Hildred lives in Oregon with her cat, with dreams of maybe having another human around someday. 

Want to get Hildred's writing on your kindle, here's a good place to start:


"Daisuki." (Lesbian Erotic Romance) (Ren'Ai Rensai #1)

Aiko and Reina have been together for almost 20 years, yet one thing remains unsaid between them: "Daisuki," or, "I love you." As they approach their anniversary, their relationship comes to an impasse as Aiko the Japanese housewife begins demanding "I love you" with a side of marriage and romance.

But Reina doesn't understand complex concepts like "love" or other heavy emotions. She's spent years supporting her girlfriend via a soul-sucking salary job and tending to their mutual needs in the bedroom. Isn't that sufficient? In a culture demanding Reina choose between the "feminine" and the "masculine" worlds, it's bad enough she's trying to find her role without Aiko adding extra pressure.

Some words need not saying, but "I love you" is about to destroy a relationship already surviving strange side-lovers and even stranger exploits.