Fingering Publicity

One more time: I have some really, truly, wonderfully great friends - and one of my best pals is Ralph Greco: just check out this great post he just did on the (equally great) Von Gutenberg site about an upcoming ... shall we say unique publicity push I've been doing for my queer erotic thrilled Fingers Breadth:

You know me, I like to champion the Von Gutenberg extended family when I get the chance…and we have lots of people in the family (if you’re not part of this marquis club, join us at the Von Gutenberg Facebook Fan Page here. One of the folks/friends/fans/professionals featured in our latest issue is none other then writer M. Christian. Chris (to his friends, and who isn’t Chris’s friend, the guy is just so damn likeable!) is having fun prompting his latest book, Fingers Breadth.

I’ll let Chris tell you what’s he’s up to in his own imitable style. According to the latest PRESS RELEASE: 

In what is clearly an act of pure desperation, author M. Christian has threatened to amputate part of one finger to publicize his new novel, Fingers Breadth (Zumaya Books). 

“The fact is, it’s getting harder and harder to get the word out about anything new, especially novels,” says M. Christian, whose biography includes over 400 short story sales, nine author collections, the editing of 25 anthologies, and six previous novels.  ”Is it no surprise that writers are having to resort to obvious stunts to try and get their work noticed?” 

When asked if the planned amputation is simply a publicity stunt, Christian responded with faux outrage: “A stunt?  A STUNT?!  Of course it’s a publicity stunt … these days writers have to be creative and, let’s be honest here, more than a bit outrageous if they are going to get noticed.  The book’s about a mysterious figure cutting off the tips of little fingers in a near-future noir San Francisco so a pretend self-amputation is just too damned perfect!” 

No I know Chris, he’s one of those guys you would as much see at any of the industries fantasy events (listed on ourFantasy Even List at Twitter) as you would sit down and have over-priced eggs with. When it comes to what he is capable of you better believe as sure-as-shootin’ that those damn Zanti Misfits we’re gonna crawl up ol’ Bruce Dern’s leg, Chris has got enough other appendages (and the story is quite a few are very impressive…if you know what I mean) to not miss a digit or two in the selling of his art. 

If you’re up for a good read check out Fingers Breadth here:
Paperback: $15.99
ebook: $6.99 

You can reach  M. Christian at his website: http://www.mchristian.com
and check-out the piece he did for us at  http://www.vongutenberg.com/shop

Treasure Island

Determined not to spend every waking moment in front of my computer, I've recently gotten back into some hobbies ... such as photography.  And here's some recent play with just that: some shots from a very cool afternoon my brother, s.a.[here's his blog and here's his own Flickr account], and I spent wandering around Treasure Island.  If you want to see the rest of the shots just click here for my Flickr feed.

Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker: The Four ... Well, Five Deadly Sins. #5: Oh, Shit

Check this out: I just wrote a brand new "Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker" piece for the always-great Erotica Readers & Writers site - all my previous columns, of course, have been collected in How To Write And Sell Erotica by Renaissance Books.  Here's a tease:

Back in the 'good old days' of smut – when pornographers had to haul their steaming piles of sexually explicit materials up four and five flights of stairs – a certain writer with a gleam of sexy potential in his mesmerizing green eyes ... okay, I mean me ... wrote a column for the fantastic Adrienne here at Erotica Readers & Writers called "Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker."

Now one of the things I did was part of being a Streetwalker that really took off was a little series I did called "The Four Deadly Sins:" a playful examination of the things that smut writers could do but that could – to put it mildly – make their work a tough sell.

Fast forward a ... decade?!  Sigh.  Anyway, I had to put aside my Streetwalker days for other things but that little verboten list has always been by my side, especially since I'm now an Associate Publisher for the wonderful Renaissance Books (which includes Sizzler Editions, our erotica line).  By the way [COMMERCIAL WARNING] my old columns are now in a dead-tree and ebook collection called How To Write And Sell Erotica [COMMERCIAL ENDS].

The reason why those "sins" stay with me is because one of my Associate Publisher things is to consider books for publication – and still, today, erotica writers don't seem to understand that while, sure, you can pretty much write whatever you want there are still some things that will more-than-likely keep your work from seeing the light of day.  Just for the record, the four are underage (self-explanatory), beastiality (same), incest (ditto) and excessive violence (torture porn or nonconsensual sex).  But I'm here to talk about a new one that's popped up ... or 'pooped out' to blow the joke.


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- Isaac Asimov

BDSM Reviews Like Fingers Breadth

This is ... well, wow: a nice review of Fingers Breadth by the great folks at BDSM Reviews!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 paddles 

This book is not usually the sort thing I’d read. The description is gay/horror; the cover is a hand with part of a digit missing, so normally I’d probably give it a miss. I’m so glad I didn’t. The book blurb from Amazon says you have never read a book like fingers breadth, which is the most accurate description of this book I’ve seen. I started reading with trepidation. I’m not into horror and I have a knack for turning the written word into a vibrant image in my mind. My hesitation came from what I might end up visualizing, as I read about the attacks on gay men, who are drugged, and have their finger (or part of it) cut off. I didn’t need to worry, as it turned out having a finger cut off isn’t the most horrifying part of the storyline. 

There were many things I loved about this book. The author spares us gruesome details in relation to the attacks, and in some instances the act itself is done in a caring manner. He doesn’t limit his storytelling to a few main characters who tell the story and its impact on those around them. This is a book about a community that’s being terrorized, so there is a community of characters depicted throughout the book. Like many of us who are avid readers, I can usually get to a point in a story where I can predict the ending. Not so with Fingers Breadth. The book turned into something I never expected, a psychological mind twist, an immersion into the human condition and how people react to trauma, whether they are the victim of it or merely a spectator from a community perspective. The truly horrifying aspect of the book was the community response to what was taking place. Totally believable reactions of hatred, fear, violence, and the need to be part of what was going on by copying actions, or self inflicting injuries. The heinous act of mutilation becomes secondary, almost an afterthought, to the popular perceptions missing part of a digit evokes. 

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