Thinking Outside Your Box - On KD Grace's Blog!

This is very, very cool: check out a brand new article/essay fun-thing I wrote for the wonderful KD Grace's blog!

Here's a tease, for the rest just click here.

 

 Thinking Outside Your Box...

Or Writing Isn't Always About Writing

Sure, we may all want to just cuddle in our little garrets, a purring pile of fur in our laps, leather patches on our sleeves, a pipe at the ready, and do nothing but write masterpieces all day and night – with periodic breaks for binge-drinking and soon-to-be legendary sexual escapades – but the fact of the matter is that being a writer has totally, completely, changed.

I’m not just talking about the need to be a marketing genius and a publicity guru – spending, it feels too often, more time tweeting about Facebook, or Facebooking about tweeting, than actually writing – but that authors really need to be creative when it comes to not just getting the word out about their work but actually making money.

A lot of people who claim to be marketing geniuses and publicity gurus will say that talking about you and your work as loud as possible, as often as possible, is the trick … but have you heard the joke about how to make money with marketing and PR? Punchline: get people to pay you to be a marketing genius and/or a publicity guru. In short: just screaming at the top of the tweety lungs or burying everyone under Facebook posts just won’t do it.

Not that having some form of presence online isn’t essential – far from it: if people can’t find you, after all, then they can’t buy your books. But there’s a big difference between being known and making everyone run for the hills – or at least stop up their ears – anytime you say or do anything online.

Balance is the key: don’t just talk about your books or your writing because, honestly, very few people care about that … even your readers. Instead find a subject that interests you, and write about that as well. Give yourself some dimension, some personality, some vulnerability, something … interesting, and not that you are not just an arrogant scream-engine of me-me-me-me. Food, travel, art, history, politics … you pick it, but most of all have fun with it. Forced sincerity is just about as bad as incessant narcissism.

Okay, that’s all been said before, but one thing a lot of writers never think about is actually getting out from behind their computers  or out of their garret to take in the opening to this. Sure, writing may far too often be a solitary thing, but putting yourself out there in the (gasp) real world  can open all kinds of doors. I’m not just talking publicity-that-can-sometimes-equal-book-sales, eithe. There’s money to be made in all kinds of far-too-often overlooked corners.

[MORE]

The Wet Spots - Do You Take It?

(From Frequently Felt)

Sexy Briefs!

Ho-ho-ho! I'm thrilled to be part of a brand new anthology of holiday-themed erotica, edited by the excellent Tessie L'Amour: Sexy Briefs: Stocking Stuffers

Six erotica authors on Google+ have teamed up to provide a sizzling set of short erotic stories for the Christmas season. Including such well known authors as M.Christian and Tessie L'Amour, Sexy Briefs: Stocking Stuffers ranges across the range of erotica, including a wild twist on an O'Henry classic to a tawdry over-the-top fairytale re-imagined with sex on the brain. 

Sexy Briefs: Stocking Stuffers is a holiday follow-up to the wildly popular Sexy Briefs: Tasty Little Tails and Sexy Briefs: Knickers in a Twist, both also available on Amazon.

Me, Jan Graham And Truth Or Dare

Jan Graham is not just a great writer but a really fantastic person - just check out the very cool Truth or Dare feature she just did with yers truly for her fun blog:

I'm so excited about today's Truth or Dare because one of my favorite authors of erotica is here to play. It's just like an early Christmas gift for me really. 

M.Christian is here today, answering some tricky questions and opening up with a few personal details that I'm sure you'll be fascinated by, I know I was. For those of you who haven't heard of him before, below is a quick bio about his amazing career. After that he'll tell us why he chose truth over dare today.

M.Christian: I picked truth over dare as I always try to live honestly ... well, as honestly as I can ... that and I have this odd 'thing' about being embarrassed. Sure, I can write, or say, pretty much anything but doingsomething makes me shiver (burrrrrr). 

Hmm, doesn't like being embarrassed, *evil grin*...very tempting but I better behave. Now, lets see what the truth is according to M.Christian. 

[MORE]

Seven Weeks Of M.Christian: Week 1 - Intelligence Is Imagination With An Erection

The thought of that makes your blood run cold, doesn't it?  Well, rest assured, there's no reason to be scared ... well, maybe not that much of a reason to be scared...

The thing is I haven't really talked a lot about myself for a while so I thought it would be a fun little experiment to post - once a week, for seven weeks - a series of essays about little ol' me: where I came from, my professional journey, being an editor, being a publisher ... and even my hopes and dreams for the future.

Hope you like!

WEEK 1 – Intelligence Is Imagination With An Erection

I didn't always want to be a writer.  Sure, I was one of those kids: the ones who are too bright, too creative, too curious – and, yes, in case you're interested, I was bullied ... a lot – but actually doing anything with that brightness, creativity, curiosity didn't pop into mind until high school.

But, boy, did it POP.  In retrospect it's more than a bit ... odd (to be polite) how enthusiastic and disciplined I became about writing.  In hindsight a lot of it probably had to do with trying to find an escape from a less-than-perfect family dynamic – but another big motivator was that I'd always been the kid who didn't just talk about doing things: I did them.  Perfect example: I remember, in early elementary school, discovering that the science classroom had a darkroom ... so I went home and over the weekend read every book I could on photography so when I came back on Monday I developed my first roll of film and did my first few test prints. 

Alas, discipline and enthusiasm are fine and good – actually they are absolutely essential in a writer – but my discipline and enthusiasm was focused on Mount Everest: selling a story to the likes of Fantasy & Science Fiction.   Early rejections didn't stop me – in fact nothing stopped me – and I kept trying, kept writing, kept submitting: my goal was a short story a week and/or three pages of writing or three pages of just story ideas.

And, you know, it worked -- sort of.  I've never sold a story to Fantasy & Science Fiction but all that work, all that passion, paid off ... abet in a very unusual and totally unexpected way.

Eventually I made my way to the Bay Area, got married, and – on a total whim – took a class from Lisa Palac who, at the time, was editing a magazine called FutureSex.  When I discovered ... well, sex, my stories got a little more (ahem) mature.  It was one of those stories I was brave enough to hand to Lisa.

What happened next is, to resort to cliché – and hyperbole – is the stuff of legends: Lisa not just liked the story but bought it.  A year later Susie Bright also liked the story and bought it for Best American Erotica 1994.

Sure, it took me ten years of trying (and, yes, you may whistle at that) but that wasn't important.  People often ask me why I write what I write -- lesbian erotica, gay erotica, bisexual erotica, kink after fetish after stroke after stroke – and the answer couldn't be simpler.

I am a writer ... and for someone who lives to tell stories, who worked so hard to hang onto that brightness, creativity, curiosity, discipline, and enthusiasm, finding a way to do what I love to do and be recognized for it, in demand for it, and even paid for it there is simply nothing better.

My name is Chris, my main pseudonym is M.Christian, and I am a pornographer ... and I couldn't be happier.

(by the way, the quote that starts this is by Victor Hugo ... and is a kind of personal philosophy)

Fifty Impressions of Grey

Here's a fun little thing I stumbled across - which is way too apt considering that I just got my own copy of 50 Writers On 50 Shades Of Grey - which has some great essays in it - including one of mine - about the 'phenom' that is 50 Shades....

Got ... to ... wake ... up ...

(via martin klasch)

SOLOMON'S SECRET by billierosie FREE READ!

If you want to read a great story - by an even greater person - then head over to by fantastic friend billierosie's blog to read her free story, "SOLOMON'S SECRET"

Here's a tease:

Only mid-afternoon and already it was dusk outside. And it was snowing again. Solomon watched the flakes falling faintly against the window pane. Faintly falling and falling faintly. A few flickering flakes were blown onto the glass in the freezing, gusting wind and stuck to the leaded criss crosses.

They were snowed in. Solomon’s heart sank. His stomach churned. He was trapped. There would be no getting away from it this time.

Amber was naked and moving gracefully around his large bedroom. She had disrobed playfully, like a burlesque dancer performing a naughty striptease. She was comfortable in her nudity, throwing him mischievous glances, tossing her hair. She was lighting candles, their flickering light casting shadows across the soft swell of her belly, her heavy, swaying breasts. Her skin glowed golden in the candlelight. Her long curly auburn hair glimmered with golden highlights, one hand gracefully behind her neck holding her hair back. She was a Pre-Raphaelite dream. Rossetti would have killed to have painted her.

The falling snow outside was mesmerising and Solomon stilled his fear and allowed his mind to drift.
He barely noticed Amber as she moved seductively around his bedroom. Any other guy would be turned on by the view. Solomon was not.

In a short while she would come to him and expect to have wonderful sex.

The snowy window, Amber; his gaze meandered around his bedroom settling on a large blue china bowl on a small wooden table. He used it as a place to keep keys, credit cards, replacement batteries, a cigarette lighter from his days as a smoker, a cork screw; all the random stuff that had no home, but you might need to put your hands on quickly. He watched as she scattered the contents of the bowl out onto the polished table and sprinkled in what looked like a heap of pot pourri. She struck a match and set fire to it, wafting out the flames with a fanning hand. She looked like a witch casting a spell.

[MORE]

Tweet Tweet Tweet

Even though I have sincere doubts as to its effectiveness but, honestly, can't really say anything, really until I've tried it...

Which is a kind of convoluted way of saying that - ta da - I am now on Twitter.

I (Heart) New York

Whew! 

I just got back from my wonderful, wonderful, wonderful trip to the Big Apple and - lemmie tell you - it was a true, honest, blast and a half!

Hearty thanks have to go out to the fantastic folks at TES (where I taught my Polyamory: How To Love Many And Well class), Shag (where I taught my Magic Words: Using Erotic Writing To Explore Your Hidden Sexuality And Spirituality class) and the The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual &Transgender Community Center (where I taught my Sex Sells: How To Write And Sell Erotica class) - as well, naturally, to all the folks who came out to hear me speak.

Special thanks, though, have to go out to an incredible bunch of people who turned a working holiday into a true adventure:

• Michele Serchuk for a fantastic lunch - one of these days I do want you to take some shots of me, Michele!
• The extra-talented Debra Hyde and the extra-special Lori Perkins for a magnificent dinner - here's to many more in the future!
• My sweet, sweet, sweet friend Ralph Greco - who not only showed me the Big Apple's sights but also took me to see Adam Rapp's powerful, touching play, Through The Yellow Hour

- and extra thanks to Karen Taylor and Laura Antoniou who not just gave me lovely place to stay but who shared with me the wonders of their neighborhood ... as well as some very special time as very, very good friends!

As promised, I took some shots of the trip.  Here are some choice morsels - and to see the rest just click on my Flickr feed.

Twice Upon A Time

- one of my favorite films.



Wikipedia:

Twice Upon a Time is a 1983 animated movie directed by John Korty and Charles Swenson. This film had an unusual history in terms of release and editing, but it has been named one of the most important films in the history of stop-motion animation.

[MORE] 

What Lives On My Desk

All The Devils -

My Office (in a few years)

BDSM Book Reviews Interviews Me

Very nice!  The great folks at BDSM Book Reviews - who wrote very nicely about my gay erotic thriller Finger's Breadth recently - just posted an interview with little ol' me.  Here's a taste - for the rest just click here.

1. When you first started writing, did you have any idea you’d be writing BDSM/kinky books? Do you write in any other genre?Well, let’s see … my first published story was in the late-lamented magazine FutureSex, back in 1994. The story – “InterCore,” by the way, was then picked up for Best American Erotica (same year) and it all just kind of snowballed from there. While I’ve pretty much always wanted to be a writer it wasn’t until I stepped into the slippery, steamy, world of smut that I had any real success so – surprise – I’ve done most of my work there. But I also write non-fiction (including a book of my weird history pieces, Welcome to Weirdsville, which is coming out soon, and How To Write And Sell Erotica — my book on smut writing, and Pornotopia – which is non-fiction sex pieces); science fiction, fantasy, and horror (such as my collection, Love Without Gun Control); romance (see my novel Brushes), and lots of other stuff. 

Here’s a quickie bio: 

M. Christian is – among many things – an acknowledged master of erotica with more than 400 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and many, many other anthologies, magazines, and sites. 

He is the editor of 25 anthologies including the Best S/M Erotica series, Pirate Booty, My Love For All That Is Bizarre: Sherlock Holmes Erotica, The Burning Pen, Guilty Pleasures, The Mammoth Book of Future Cops and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi) and Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant) as well as many others. 

He is the author of the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, Licks & Promises, Filthy, Love Without Gun Control, Rude Mechanicals, Coming Together Presents M. Christian, Pornotopia, How To Write And Sell Erotica; and the novels Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, Fingers Breadth, and Painted Doll. His site is www.mchristian.com. 

In addition he is an Associate Editor for the adult industry web site YNOT, and is an Associate Publisher for Renaissance Books (which publishers groundbreaking BDSM as part of its Sizzler Imprint). 

2. Are you actively involved in BDSM? If so how do you identify yourself? Dom(me)/sub? Top/bottom? Switch? 

I’ve been in the scene since ’88 (1988, smartass) or so and while I seriously love the folks I’ve met there I’m actually more a sensualist than a hardcore player. One reason I love the scene is that the people I’ve met have all pretty much been in touch with their sexuality – a very refreshing thing compared to the ‘real’ world. If you want to look me up, by the way, I’m “MChristian” on Fetlife … and pretty much everywhere else. 

[MORE]

Thanks, bro!

I really do have a very, very wonderful brother. Just check out this fantastic prezzie he gave me for my recent birthday: an amazing new Gakken model of a Theo Jansen strandbeest ... thanks, bro!

Here's a video of it stately strolling across a table

Amen!

 

Amen!

 

Wanna See Something Neat?

Take a look at the book cover below for The Forest Reaper by William Tillinghast Eldridge that's right now on the front page of Fictionwise.

Nope, I didn't write it - though it has been published by the very great folks at Renaissance (who I have the great honor of being an Associate Editor for) - but there is something from me on it.

Give up? The cover image was taken my little-ole me ... from a fun expedition I took to the Ripley's Museum with my great, great friends Jean Marie Stine (the spirit of Renaissance) and Frankie Hill (the cover wizard for Renaissance).  Cool, eh?

Buy my books -

- or Barney Fife gets it!