Masquerade: Page 12 (The End)

Here's the final page of Masquerade - illustrated by my great pal, and a fantastic artist, Wynn Ryder, from a story by ... well, me ... for an upcoming graphic novel anthology called Legendary.

I'll be creating a special linked page for the entire thing very soon -- or you can read it on Wynn's Deviantart pages.

Speaking of Ralph -

- but my great pal has just joined the illustrious (ahem) line-up at the wonderful WriteSex site. So check it out to hear what Ralph, and I, and these other fine smut-writers, have to say about writing, the biz, and much more.

Me On The ISFDB

Thanks to my cherished friend, Jean Marie Stine, I just found out that I'm in the science fiction database (ISFDB). Sure, it might be a tad out of date - like some of my novels (Painted Doll, Running Dry, and The Very Bloody Marys) aren't there - but it's still cool to be in such distinguished company.

Awwww ...

This is very sweet: my great pal, Ralph Greco, Jr., who I had a fantastic time hanging out with at the recent Cybernet Expo, just posted a reminiscence about it on the Another Radio Dentata site. Check it out here.

I gladly left the heat of NJ for the 57 degrees of a San Francisco ‘summer’. Touching down at S.F.O. and whisked right to the hotel on Van Ness I wasn’t in my room more than an hour before jumping down to meet my buds, peers and possible business acquaintances at this year’s Cybernet Expo, 2010.

My second year attending this conference for those of us who write, market, monetize or generally work in the adult industry, literally the first person I ran into was the always smiling, oh-great-scribe M. Christian and we exchanged two hugs (I haven’t seen the guy in a year). I grabbed my badge (though I didn’t really need “no stinking badges”, since I was working the convention this year) and I glad-handed Connor Young, President of Ynot.

This morning of our first day there was a training session on Effective Adult Website Design, another on Worpress then Jay Kopita (Ynot V.P.), put me to work making sure everyone had a badge for our first day’s lunch buffet, paid for by eMerchantPay. The ever wonderful Oceania from Radiodentata.com even made me a plate that I ate at my post!

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Out Now - Best S/M Erotica Vol. 3

Logical-Lust Publications Releases "Best S & M Erotica Vol. 3" edited by M. Christian

Logical-Lust Publications, UK publisher of erotica and erotic romance fiction, announces the release of its latest anthology "Best S & M Erotica Vol. 3: Still More Extreme Stories of Still More Extreme Sex" edited by M. Christian. In these pages you'll find light stories, dark stories, powerful stories, subtle stories, fierce stories, and even romantic stories—but all of them dealing with the basic idea of consensually giving up, or taking, sexual power and control. Featured contributors are PM White, Sharon Wachsler, Kane, Jean Roberta, Jason Rubis, Shanna Germain, Cecilia Tan, Xan West, Craig J. Sorensen, Ralph Greco, Jr., Theda Hudson, Jerry Rosen, Jan Vander Laenen, Mykola Dementiuk, Jude Mason, Billierosie, and Oatmeal Girl

Logical-Lust publisher Jim Brown said, “After the great success of volumes 1 & 2 of the Best S & M series, we were proud, and excited, to be the publisher of the latest volume. Best S & M Erotica Vol. 3 continues our tradition in publishing erotic anthologies that bring together some of the most talented authors and editors of erotic fiction. M. Christian has compiled a sharp collection blending many aspects of the lifestyle sure to impress both the curious and the connoisseur.”

"Best S & M Erotica Vol. 3: Still More Extreme Stories of Still More Extreme Sex" is available in both print and ebook formats at Logical-Lust.com, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and other fine online retailers.

What Lies Within -

- Kink.com's San Francisco armory headquarters? I recently had a special chance to find out during a party there as part of the wonderful Cybernet Expo. Here are some of the kinky wonders I discovered ....

Here's what the outside looks like (photo not by me)

I Had A Blast At Cybernet -

Just wanted to toss out a well-deserved bravo to Jay and Connor, the masterful masters of ceremony behind the Cybernet Expo I had the pleasure of attending over the weekend. Thanks guys!

And here's extra thanks out to the other fun folks I met there. Alas, there are far too many to name here but it really was a kick and a half ... can't wait for next year.

Best S/M Erotica 3 - The Tweet Feed and Launch Party

I tell ya, it means a LOT to me when people are excited about being in the pages of the anthologies I edit, and it's an extra-special treat when they go out of their way to help out the book and the other writers in it. My pal, and a great writer, Xan West, has gone above and beyond and has started a tweet feed for the contribs. Now I just have to get on twitter (sigh)

- and here's something equally special: this Thursday, July 15th, the the great folks at Cyber Launch Party will be featuring the release of Best S/M Erotica 3. So swing by and take a look - and be sure to check out the comments as I've asked all the fantastic authors in the anthology to come in and chat about the book, their experiences, and everything betwixt and between.

How To Wonderfully WriteSex (5)

Check it out: my new post at the fantastic WriteSex site just went up. Here's a tease (for the rest you'll have to go to the site):

Characters are the heart and soul of any fiction, erotic or otherwise. You can have a great plot, vivid descriptions, and nuances up the wazzo, but if your characters act like sock puppets – spouting endless clichés, doing stupid things for stupid reasons, and in general acting nothing like real people – the reader’s disbelief is not suspended and the story doesn’t work.

So how do you breathe life into a character? In my experience as an editor, I can tell you that stiffness instantly shows in a poorly written character. What is stiffness? Well, some of the best examples I can think of aren’t in writing, but in movies or television. You’ve seen it: an actor or actress gives a bad performance, being stilled or monotone with no inflection. On the page, that shows up when a character thinks, does, or says something wooden, lifeless, or obviously forced to get the author’s point across.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Do you know how to make a character live on the page? It’s kind of scary, which is why I suppose a lot of writers don’t do it, and it shows in their work. Are you ready? Are you REALLY ready? Honestly? Okay, here goes: look inward, my child.

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Weirdsville On The Cud

Here is something very special: the great folks at the Aussie site The Cud asked me to write them something unique, just for them - always a great way to get me to do anything - and the piece, on Friedrich Wilhelm I and his very, very, very big Potsdam Grenadiers, just went up.


If you're going to dream, the old saying goes, then you might as well dream big. But Friedrich Wilhelm I did more than dream because, as another expression says all too well: It's good to be the King.

Friedrich, born in 1688, was just one in a series of notable Prussian leaders. Friedrich, though, unlike his father, Frederick I -- who achieved much during his reign, including wearing the crown for the first time, or Friedrich's son -- Frederick II, who was a reformer and fervent supporter of reason and the arts – Friedrich, to put it mildly, loved a man in uniform … in a secularly big way.

Friedrich, you see, had this thing about the military. Oh, sure, he did, during his reign, improve his then-tiny country's defenses, and carefully – almost pathologically – controlled Prussia's economy to the point when he finally passed away he left behind an awesome surplus. But Friedrich's military obsession wasn't really about keeping his people safe, or even about acquiring new territories: Friedrich liked – really liked -- a grand spit and polish display.

How big? How grand? Well, Friedrich's all-consuming passion was for his grenadiers, a Regiment hand-picked not for their skill in battle, their heroic abilities, but for being tall.

In a time when the average height was probably around five foot something, the grenadiers – which quickly became known by the Prussians as the "Lange Kerls" (Big Guys) – began at six feet and went up up from there.

The Big Guys – and some of them were very big, coming in around seven feet – were the king's all-consuming passion, to the point where it became common for foreign dignitaries to use 'gifts' of very tall men to curry favor with Friedrich. But even these presents, many of them with little say in the matter, weren't enough to satisfy Friedrich's obsession: his agents, promised huge rewards, were dispatched to the far corners of Europe to get, by any means necessary, the tallest people they could find.

To say these agents were zealous would be an understatement: there are tales of them kidnapping farmers from their fields, innkeepers from their taverns, an Irish priest in the middle of a sermon, and they even had the audacity to try to grab a Austrian diplomat. There's even the story of one poor soul who was snatched off the streets of some foreign city and shipped back to Prussia, but who arrived stiff and cold because the agents forgot to punch air-holes in the crate.

Friedrich was so determined to fill the ranks of his grenadiers he even began his own program of selective breeding, offering tall women and men rewards to produce even taller children – and heaven help you if you knew someone nice and tall and didn't tell the king about it.

Oh, how the king loved his grenadiers: he would lovingly paint their portraits from memory, or order them to march for hours and hours around his palace courtyard just so he relish in their military tallness, and, if the king was feeling under the weather, he would even have them thunderously circle his bed until he got better. As he told the French ambassador: "The most beautiful girl or woman in the world would be a matter of indifference to me, but tall soldiers -- they are my weakness."

Yes, it was very good to be the king – but, alas, it was not so grand to be one of his grenadiers. Even though Friedrich doted over them, many of his giants were in agony from diseases related to their gigantism, were painfully depressed after finding themselves in a unfamiliar land and unable to speak a word of German, or who -- again as a tragic effect of their great height – were mentally the age of a young child. Desertions were common, but since the giants were, well, 'gigantic' they were quickly caught and subsequently, and brutally, punished. Some, sadly, made the ultimate escape – but even suicides didn't dissuade the king from begging, borrowing, or out-and-out stealing tall men for his grenadiers. At its (excuse me) 'height' the flamboyant regiment numbered over 3,000 men.

Not surprising, considering how incredibly infatuated Friedrich was with them, the grenadiers were never sent into battle.

Eventually, though, the king died, and with his death the kingdom, and Friedrich's beloved Potsdam Grenadiers, were passed down to his son, Frederick II. But while his father adored brass fittings, a good uniform, and everything else stern and military, the son – having been raised by a stern and military father -- absolutely did not. Ironically, though, Frederick II did attack neighboring Austria, putting into practice some of his father's teachings. He also, after a time, put into actual combat what few of Friedrich's grenadiers remained.

There was one problem, though. Because they were considerably taller – very considerably taller – than their fellow soldiers, these surviving grenadiers didn't survive very long: they were too much of a perfect targets.

Absolutely, if you’re going to dream you should dream big. But if you're lucky -- and you're a king -- you don't have to settle for only dreams: you too, like Friedrich, can have your own marching, thundering fantasy brought to remarkably, and legendarily, tall life.

Best S/M Erotica 3 - The Participants

... and here's the folks who are in the very special, and rather hot, Best S/M 3 book, as well as a draft of the back cover copy.

Welcome to Best S/M Erotica Vol 3: Still More Extreme Stories of Still More Extreme Sex!

In these pages you'll find light stories, dark stories, powerful stories, subtle stories, fierce stories, and even romantic stories – but all of them dealing with the basic idea of consensually giving up, or taking, sexual power and control.

If you've only been interested in what S/M is and can be, or if you’re an old hand to the scene, these stories will open doors to unexplored sexual and sensual worlds, expand your erotic horizons to new and maybe even challenging new ways of looking at, and experiencing, sex play.

Featuring Stories By:

PM White
Sharon Wachsler
Kane
Jean Roberta
Jason Rubis
Shanna Germain
Cecilia Tan
Xan West
Craig J. Sorensen
Ralph Greco, Jr.
Theda Hudson
Jerry Rosen
Jan Vander Laenen
Mykola Dementiuk
Jude Mason
Billierosie
Oatmeal Girl

Best S/M Erotica 3 - The Cover!

Here it is, folks: the cover for the coming-very-soon anthology I edited for the great folks at Logical Lust: Best S/M Erotica Vol. 3. Keep your eyes on this space for release dates and such.