Karrine Steffans, author of the bestselling memoirs, 'Confessions of a Video Vixen' and 'The Vixen Diaries,' returns with a highly charged relationship manual for women.

In her latest, 'The Vixen Manual: How To Find, Seduce and Keep the Man You Want,' Steffans provides "Vixen Tips,'' and advises women how to avoid mistakes she's made in the past. She also goes into graphic details when it comes to sex and how to please your man. But as she writes, "once you truly love and trust one another, there is no room for prudence and barriers in sex.' She provides illustrations, in case you need them.

Here are just a few Vixen Tips:
• Come home, prepare or buy dinner, straighten up your place, and slip into the shower, then into something sexy. Invite the man you are dating over or love the one you have at home! Engage in an intimate encounter, then either allow him to go home, or curl up next to him and end your day with a smile.

• Keep a stash of lingerie and add to it often. He'll be wowed by your devotion to pleasing him, as well as your imagination and gusto. I have found that thigh-high boots with five-inch heels and fishnet thigh-high stockings work well.

Steffan's first book 'Confessions of a Video Vixen' upended the music world with her firsthand account of life inside the industry. She described a business where dancers made fast money, but were treated like chattel and tossed aside for the next pretty face. In 'The Vixen Diaries,' Steffans retreats a bit from the cautionary tale to dish about her various exploits in the music industry. She has come under criticism by some, especially commenters on various African American gossip Web sites, for her revelations and lifestyle.

She answers three questions for BV Bookshelf via email about her new project:

Interesting book. How did you come up with the idea?
'The Vixen Manual' is, actually, my first book. I began writing it in 2004 and it was the book I originally wanted to publish, however, it wasn't the book my publisher was looking for. Male/female relations is a topic as old as time. 'The Vixen Manual' is part of my natural progression as a woman, a mother, wife and, of course, an author.

It's fairly graphic. It seems like you've done a 180-degree turn from your first book, which you wrote as a cautionary tale about the vixen life. What happened between the first book and the last two? Both seem to celebrate the vixen lifestyle.
My first two books were part of the machine, whereas, 'The Vixen Manual' is organically mine and anything that is organically mine will reflect my growth and learning. There is no "vixen lifestyle" but there are women out there that live by their own rules and find their happiness on their own terms. All of my "Vixen" titles illuminate and celebrate that.

You seem to have a lot of haters out there based on comments on some of the popular African-American "gossip sites.'' Notice I put gossip in quotes. How do you handle it?
I don't subscribe to gossip sites of any kind. I associate myself with the literati and retrieve my news from more formidable, proven sources. I am an avid reader of classic literature and collect first editions and rare titles for my home library. In my life and in the life of my friends, those sub-sites do not exist.

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