Friday, October 31, 2014

New Story Calls, Part Two!

Oh, my brothers! Happy Halloween, Samhain, and whatever else you celebrate on the night the veil is the closest to our world. I hope you enjoyed the last installment of "Here, write something for us." We've got part two today. Out of ten (my god, we're masochists) new story calls, here's something we're very proud of: the Kink Line.

We loved Dominant Tendencies. It's now on sale, and if you haven't picked up a copy, I really recommend it.

The reviews so far have been really positive. We realized when we were editing this that these weren't just stories of kinky people. They were stories that kinky people would want to read. Most of us are awesome geeks when it comes to our tastes in literature and other entertainment, and it's why so many of us are fanfiction authors and fansite moderators and etc. In a lot of ways, it's helped us bring clarity to what we wanted out of the press, because not only did we like to read it, we liked to write it. The good response we received has given rise to the next great adventure: a line of kinky books for kinky people.


So introducing the Kink Line!

Submissive Pleasures
Deadline: January 1st, 2015
There is a heady sensation to giving up power, to being completely cared for and taken care of. Whether learning to find subspace for the first time, an experienced service submissive or a long-term couple in a TPE relationship, a single scene or a forever-couple, let us see the beautiful boys who adore serving their men, and the men who have proven themselves worthy of this devotion. Companion volume to Dominant Tendencies. SF/F/Paranormal required. 

Pairing: M/M erotic.
Happy For Now required.
Expected Release: April 15th, 2015 

We thought, because we had such a reaction to Dominant Tendencies, that we'd make a bit of a bookend anthology. We've already chosen the cover image for this one (another beautiful photograph by Andrei Vishnyakov) and I'm terribly excited about it. I may write a continuation of Sacrifice for this one. Beautiful boys and men who run the gamut, all caught in chains. It gives me the shivers. I just love it.

Master Mine
Deadline: May 15th, 2015
Few things are more beautiful than a willing girl in a collar. This anthology focuses on the realtionship between male Dominants and their female submissives. She can be exploring long-held fantasies for the first time, a strong woman who needs to let everything go on the weekend, or in a permanant D/s relationship with her top. All stories are welcome, but it must be F/SF/Paranormal. 

Pairing: M/f erotic.
Happily Ever After or Happy For Now required.
Expected Release: August 15th, 2015 

So, the boys shouldn't get to have all the fun. We like to run hetero anthologies sometimes. Master Mine is a title that's been ringing around my brain for some time (due to the fact that it's what I call my Master) and I can't wait to see it come to fruition. Maledom and femmesub has been a staple of kink for some time, but adding the speculative fiction twist should be nice. I should warn you all that any Gorean fic (or something indistinguishable from Gorean fic) isn't where we're going with this. So if it's a huge, far-reaching Maledom society where all women are slaves, it best have a different twist.

Mistress Mine
Deadline: September 1st, 2015
She may be a barbarian swordswoman, hauling her captive civilized scribe along to record her adventures, a powerful sorceress with a dedicated body servant, or a starship captain whose exec is a little more devoted to her than usual, but she is always the one in control. He lives to obey her and make her happy. A new couple or long-time partners, give us the sweet, the sexy and the Lady in charge. F/SF/Paranormal required. 

Pairing: F/m erotic.
Happily Ever After or Happy For Now required.
Expected Release: Janruary 1st, 2016 

Not to be outdone, Inkstained Succubus is always equal opportunity. This is a flipside of Master Mine, still in the hetero area but with Femmedom and malesub. The Boss is going to enjoy these stories, I think. She has always enjoyed stories like these. Once again, women in charge is nothing new, and Dominatrixes are commonplace enough for CSI, but the speculative fiction angle should be interesting.

Kagema's Sons
Deadline: January 15th, 2016
Hustlers, rent boys, role-players or other, let us see love - or at least sex - for hire. The world's oldest profession is an endless source of inspiration, and even more so when it's not limited to this world. What could prostitution become among the stars, or in a world with telepaths or paranormal creatures, or even in a fantasy milieu? Show us the boys of the night, who are looking for money from those looking for love. 

Pairing: M/M Erotic
Happily Ever After or Happy For Now required.
Expected Release: May 1st, 2016  

So, the term 'kagema' is an ancient Japanese term for a male prostitute. It's come back into popular colloquialism. So saying 'Kagema's Sons' is a bit like saying 'Jezebel's Daughters'. (Which, coincidentally, is going to be the name of the companion volume if this one goes over well. We'll do it F/F, too, just for flavor.) Oh, who hasn't wanted to play with this old convention? Even just in play, having your characters toy at being 'for rent to highest bidder' is absolutely titillating. I know I want to write for this one.

For Sale By Owner
Deadline: July 1st, 2016
There comes a time when a slave is no longer right for the owner, whether it's just time, the owner's status changes, or other circumstances lead to the block. That means it's time for a sale, which brings its own fears. Will the new owner be a better fit?   Will the sale lead to happiness, or straight into nightmare? Give us the stories of this liminal time in a slave's life, the transfer of ownership. SF/F/Paranormal required.

Pairing: M/M Erotic
Happy For Now required.
Expected Release: October 15th, 2016 

This one's fairly narrow, which is why it's listed the farthest out. There are few scenes more intriguing than that of the auction. We're accepting auction and private sale, or personal gift, or what have you for this one, but the insecurity of the new owner relationship is what we're looking for. It may not be immediate love at first sight, either. Or there may need to be more than one change of hands. This should be a good one for worldbuilding, creating societies in speculative fiction that include the slave market. Entire slave-based economies, perhaps. We'll see.

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Well, my lovely ducklings, that's all of them! Get to your keyboards, batten down the hatches, hoist the main sails! NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and I've just given you all some lovely inspiration.
(I'll throw you an awesome graphic to enjoy for the duration of November.

I'll be in tow!

Gabriel Belthir
First Mate and Mad Scientist

Saturday, October 25, 2014

My Sexy Saturday: A Sexy Halloween

So this week scare us in the best ways. Show us your sexy characters and their sexy romance on or near Halloween. Tell us the whole story on how they fell in love, what they do to stay in love and all the little details in between. 

It's not Halloween themed, but erotic horror is always in style this time of year.

This week is from Hungry Hearts. A bitter taste of Darkness from "Persephone is Bleeding."





Excerpt:

See me.

As incomprehensible as it was, his hands dropped from his lids, and it took him several moments to peer past the neon swirls and sparkling spatter that remained stuck to his irises. He blinked, trying to focus on the glowing shape, the shadows long shed. The figure leaned nearer, peering down through Clay’s eyes and into the depths where his soul lay hiding, curled up and cringing in a corner. 

What might have been its hand reached out toward him, and Clay’s eyes widened in wonder at the thought. Touch was not given here without layers of meaning and misery behind it; even Father’s loving touches came at a cost, and Clay always did his best to avoid those whenever possible. If it were not to punish or to ply his trade, Clay deemed touch unnecessary, an inevitable consequence of learning at Lucifer’s hand.

Instead, Clay listed into the stranger’s grip, its every sinew and finger and bone burning brightly against his skin. Clay felt his flesh blister beneath its palms, but even when the top layer of his skin dissolved beneath the crevices and crags of its hands, it still did not feel like one of Father’s touches. Lucifer had laid his fiery brands upon him and Clay’s soul had shrunk and shriveled at the weight of them. But at this creature’s touch, his soul swelled, pressing back against its palm on his chest until it felt as if it held Clay’s heart in its hand. 

And before Father’s fingers came to blind him once more, no more delicate than they had been in that time Before, Clay finally saw proof that the sky he remembered had not been like the stories Lucifer shared with him. He saw proof that he had not made up that spectacular shade that had haunted both his dreams and his nightmares for as long as Clay could recall. This strange creature had brought Clay the greatest gift he could possibly receive, more so than his freedom, even more than his role as Father’s right hand.

As his vision cleared, this light-bright, soul searing shadow brought him the one thing that no one else down here possibly could.

Blue….


Friday, October 24, 2014

New Story Calls, Part One!

Greetings, pets and only droogs! The Lab has been hopping busy after a brief disjointedness due to lack of a sail on the great interweb.

So!What I have for you today is our newest anthology calls (part 1). Since we've announced ten, count them, ten, new anthologies, this will be a two part post, one this week, and one next. I'll throw out the call, and then we'll talk a little about why we chose this particular option and what we expect to see from it.

Drumroll please!

Have Quest, Will Travel
Deadline: June 15, 2015
With a strong arm, keen eye and fierce determination, the warrior heads into battle against impossible odds and terrifying magic. Heroic fantasy is the order of the day with this anthology, whether your protagonist is a battle-hardened mercenary, a barbarian, or a highly trained member of the city guard. Send them out to face the worst spell-slinger to ever blight the skin of the world, for whatever goal they seek, whether fame, fortune, power, or just their one true love. 

Pairing: Any (M/M, F/F, M/F, Trans* inclusive)
Happy Ending or Happy for Now Required.
Expected Release: September 1st, 2015

So. we got into a discussion of what constituted 'Heroic Fantasy' as opposed to other types of fantasy. The Boss explained that it was usually considered a pretty narrow definition: The hero relies only on his body and mind, goes up against magical big bad for king, country, and true love. A thousand images sped through my head. With slight variations, it was some of my favorite fantasy. So I made the suggestion - why don't we run an anthology? Imagine the worlds people will come up with, and I'm the one of us who believes in human greatness and the underdog. I'm really excited about this one.

Winter Shivers
Deadline: September 15, 2015
Traditionally, winter is a time for weird and creepy tales, stories to pass the long, dark nights. So, give us creepy and chilling, sending a shiver down our spines as we huddle near the fire and turn the yellow lamplight up a little brighter against the darkness. Ghosts, spectres, unearthly creatures and things that go bump in the night lurk just outside that lit window, and sometimes...they look inside. 

Pairing: None (Non-Erotic)
Happy ending not required.
Expected Release: December 1st, 2015

This one's not really mine. The Boss loves horror stories. She mentioned that telling horror stories used to be a Christmas thing, long ago. People would try to scare each other on the longest night of the year because they did not yet have internet...or Netflix. Frankenstein and Dracula are examples of stories told on long, lonely nights, and they've been haunting us for a century. Winter Shivers is her baby, and we're hoping to get some really chilling tales.

Badass
Deadline: December 15, 2015
Cowboys, Space Marines, Soldiers, Swashbucklers of all types! Badass gives us heroes and adventure of a slightly different bent. Explosions! Excitement! Brawls and badassery abound in this action-adventure anthology with a twist. Whether your hero is a master of mayhem or a thinking cowboy, a pirate, a treasure hunter or a spell-binder, show him doing what he does the best for the reward he wants the most. 

Pairing: M/M erotic
Happy ending required (Happy For Now perfectly fine).
Expected Release: March 1st, 2016

This one is absolutely mine. I went on a rant. "Why," I asked, "is it that you always see M/M romance swirling around boring people who can't save themselves? Where are the real manly men? The gay community isn't just librarians and models and occasionally stock brokers. They're soldiers, and policemen, and badasses too. Why can't we have those?" This gave birth to the idea of an anthology. We want the rough n' ready guys, the hardcore men. Gladiators and Bucklers of Swash, if you catch my drift. It's time to show what your men can do. This is my pet baby, and I'm dying to see what everyone comes up with.

Xenophile
Deadline: March 15, 2016
They come from outer space and they want our bodies! Give us your sexiest story of alien lovers, in any combination with humans or all by themselves. Whether a close encounter on Earth or a first contact of a very personal sort, show us how the aliens of your imagination live and love, whether a dual or triple sexed spiecies, or something even more unusual. 

Pairing: At least one alien lover, all genders welcome.
Happy ending required (Happy For Now perfectly fine).
Expected Release: June 1st, 2016 

Oh, let's be honest. This one's mostly fan service. It's a bit of a throwback to some of the racier stories that used to be in pulp fiction, because it's apparently a rule that porn tends to go places before fiction does and that was the first thing we asked ourselves. The greats like Asimov and Bradbury and Lewis asked, "Who's out there beyond the stars?" and we replied with, "How good would they be in bed?" This is an anthology made of sexy dreams and fantasy, coming up with new forms of pleasure and strange love. This one should have some wild variety.

Mythos for the Modern Age
Deadline: June 15, 2016
Myths exist to expain the world to people. But the world has changed since the old myths were created. We know where rainbows come from now, and science has replaced mythology on many fronts. So now, we need new myths to explain new ideas. Examples would include Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Ananzi Boys or Harlan Ellison's Deathbird stories. Whether new stories with old gods or entirely new ones, give us your interpretation of deity in the modern age. 

Pairing: None required (Non-erotic, though romance is fine).
Happy For Now required.
Expected Release: September 1st, 2016 

In all honesty, I'm hoping for a better title sometime in the next two years. It's a decent one (I wrote it), but it's just not catchy enough. Still, it gets the point across. I grew up telling myself stories of mythology, figuring someone told them first, so telling new ones was an awesome idea. As a druid, it's my job to remember the old stories and invent the new ones. So for me, this call was eventually inevitable. Telling new stories, with old gods or ones we invent, explains things in new and interesting ways. I know I want to write for this one, even with one of the stories I used to tell myself when I was small.

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Well, ducklings, that's all for this week. Tune in next week while I announce the Kink Line, a sequence of five anthologies for Kink, BDSM, and other sexy things. Get to your keyboards - the lab's waiting.

I'll be in tow!

Gabriel Belthir
First Mate and Mad Scientist