Yet More Philosophy

 

Welcome to Weirdsville: The Benevolent Sea-Devil

Here's an rollicking sample article from my new collection of what Avi Abrams of Dark Roasted Blend called "A wonderful compendium of interesting subjects and fascinating topics:"  Welcome to Weirdsville

Peek under the rugs, open more than a few drawers, peek in the back shelves and you'll find that ... well, Lord Byron himself said it best: "Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction." Lakes that explode, parasites that can literally change your mind, The New Motor, a noble Word War 1 German pirate, the odd nature of ducks, the War Magician, the City of Fire, men and their too big guns, a few misplaced nuclear weapons, an iceberg aircraft carrier, the sad death of Big Mary, the all-consuming hunger of the Bucklands, the giggling genius of Brian G. Hughes, the Kashasha laughter epidemic.... Ponder that in a world that holds things like kudzu, ophiocordyceps unilateralis, The Antikythera Device, The Yellow Kid, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Alfred Jarry, Joseph Pujol, and suicide-bombing ants ... who knows what other kinds of wonders as well as horrors may be out there?

The Benevolent Sea-Devil

The year: 1917, the height of the War To End All Wars, sadly now referred to as World War 1.  The Place: The Atlantic Ocean.  You: the captain of an allied merchant ship carrying coal from Cardiff to Buenos Aires. 

Then, like a ghost from the distant past, a ship appears: a beautiful three mastered windjammer flying a Norwegian flag.  Staggered by this hauntingly lovely anachronism you think nothing of it coming alongside – it was common, after all, for friendly ships to want to synchronize their chronometers – until, that is, the ship's Norwegian flag is quickly replaced by the German eagle and the captain, in amazingly polite terms, backed up by guns that have mysteriously appeared in the windjammer's gunwales, explains that your ship is now his.

And so you have been captured by the Seeadler ("Sea Eagle" in German), captained by Felix von Luckner, or, as he was known by both enemies as all as allies, the Benevolent Sea-Devil.

Some people's lives are so broad, so wild, so amazing that they simply don't seem real.  The stuff of Saturday Matinees?  Sure.  But real, authentic, true?  Never!  But if even half of Felix von Luckner's life is true – and there's no reason to really doubt any of it – then he was truly a broad, wild, and utterly amazing fellow.

Born in 1881, in Dresden, Felix ran away from home at 13.  Stowing away on a Russian trawler, he fell overboard – rescued, so the story goes, by grabbing hold of an albatross, the bird's flapping wings acting as a signal to a rescue party. 

Making his way to Australia, Felix tried a number of – to put it politely – odd jobs: boxer, circus acrobat, bartender, fisherman, lighthouse keeper (until discovered with the daughter of a hotel owner), railway worker, kangaroo hunter, and even had a stint in the Mexican army.  During all this Felix also became a notable magician and a favorite entertainer to no less than Kaiser Wilhelm himself.

Making his way back to Germany he passed his navigation exams and served aboard a steamer before getting called to serve in the Navy on the SMS Panther. 

Which brings us to that War That Was Supposedly The End To All Wars.  Even though it was fought with steel and oil, the German's outfitted a number of older ships as raiders – hidden guns, more powerful engines and the like – and sent them out to harass allied shipping.  Most of them were, to put it politely, a failure.  But then there was the Seeadler, under the command of Felix von Luckner.

During the course of the war Felix sank or captured no less that 16 ships – a staggering amount.  What's even more staggering is how Felix did it, and that he did it with grace, honor, and even a certain kindness.  You see, while the Seeadler took out those ships it, during its entire campaign, did it at the cost of only single human life.  Most of the time the scenario went just as it did with your merchant ship carrying coal from Cardiff to Buenos Aries: the Seeadler would approach a target, raise its German eagle and that would be that: the crew and cargo would be captured and the ship scuttled.  Sometimes she'd fire a shot to two to get her pint across that she was serious, but it wasn't until the British ship, Horngarth, that anyone had actually been killed.  Tricked into thinking they were investigating a stricken ship – Felix had actually used a smoke generator – the captured Horngarth had refused to stop broadcasting a distress signal.  A single shot took out the radio but unfortunately killed the operator.  Felix von Luckner, though, gave the man a full military funeral at sea and even went as far as to write the poor man's family telling them that he had died with honor.

To give you even more evidence that Felix von Luckner more than deserved the "benevolent" in his "Benevolent Sea-Devil" nickname he treated everyone he captured with dignity and respect: captured sailors were paid for their time while on his ship and officers ate with him at his captain's table.  When the Seeadler got too packed with prisoners, by this time more than 300, Felix captured the Cambronne, a little French ship, cut down her masts and let all his prisoners go with the understanding that if they happened to get picked up before making land they wouldn't tell where the Seeadler was going.  Respecting Felix's honor they didn't.

Alas, the Seeadler's rule of the Atlantic had to end sometime – but even that just adds to the broad, wild, and utterly amazing life of Felix von Luckner.  With the British – and now the Americans – hot on her tail, Felix decided to take a quick barnacle-scraping break from piracy by putting the Seeadler into a bay on Mopelia, a tiny coral atoll.  Now stories here conflict a bit – Felix always claimed that a rogue tsunami was to blame – but I think the more-standard explanation that the crew and prisoners of the Sealer were simply having a picnic on the island when their windjammer drifted aground.

Taking a few of his men in some long boats, Felix sailed off towards Fiji intending to steal a ship and come back for the Seeadler.  Through a series of incredible adventures – including claiming to be Dutch-Americans crossing the Atlantic on a bet – the Sea-Devil was himself tricked into surrendering by the Fijian police who threatened, after becoming suspicious of one of Felix's stories, to sink his boat with an actually-unarmed ferry.  By the way, the remaining crew and prisoners of the Seeadler had their own adventures, leading eventually to the escape of the prisoners and the capturing of the Seeadler's crew.

But even a Chilean prison camp wasn't the end for Felix, or not quite the end.  Using the cover of putting on a Christmas play, he and several other prisoners managed to steal the warden's motorboat and then seize a merchant ship.  Alas, Felix's luck ran out when they were captured again and spent the rest of the war being moved from one camp to another.

But rest assured the story doesn't end there.  Far from it: after writing a book about his various adventures, Felix von Luckner toured the world entertaining audiences about the Seeadler – as well as demonstrating his strength by tearing phone books in half and bending coins between thumb and forefinger. 

While, with the rise of Hitler, some people thought of Felix as an apologist, the captain had no love for the Nazi's – especially since the German government had frozen his assets when he refused to renounce the honorary citizenships and honors he'd received during his travels.

But the story of Felix von Luckner still isn't over.  Retiring to the German town of Halle, he was asked by the mayor to negotiate the town's surrender to the Americans.  While he did this, earning not only the respect of the Americans and the gratitude of the citizens, his reward from the Nazi's was to be sentenced to death.  Luckily, Felix managed to flee to Sweden where he lived until passing away at the age of 84.

War is horror, war is pointless death, and war is needless suffering.  But because of men like Felix von Luckner, war can also show the good, noble side of man – and that some men can remarkably earn the respect of friend and enemy alike.

Paper Or Digital -

Different pages; Same Story

Different pages; Same Story by DaedaLusT 

Ralph Steiner: Mechanical Principles (1930)

Lovely

That's Us

 

YNOT: A Skin-Tight Interview with the Queen of Latex

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

All The Devils -

A Lovely Panoramic View Of The Catacombs of Paris

Catacombs of Paris in Paris

YNOT: Senate Credit Union Commits Breast Gaffe

As some of you might know - in addition to being the debonair, man-about-town, that I am - I'm also an Associate Editor for the adult entertainment site YNOT (who are wonderful folks, btw) - and here's a brand new one: a brief about a big boo-boo by the Senate Credit Union:

Senate Credit Union Commits Breast Gaffe

There are times when even the adult industry has to shake its collective head and wonder “What the hell were they thinking?” 

This week was one of those times: a credit union decided to test the boundaries of the old adage “sex sells” by employing suggestive imagery in an advertisement. 

And not just any credit union — the U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union.
History abounds with examples of how bad an idea using human body parts to shill certain products can be. Witness a 15-year-old Brooke Shields cooing “Want to know what gets between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Or pick from a lengthy list of brouhahas that erupted over Abercrombie & Fitch’s ... well, everything. 

None of that stopped the Senate FCU from employing a female model’s notable assets as a come-on for loans. 

Kimberley Johnson at Addicting Info described the gaffe well: “The credit union recently sent out a mailer with a photo [PDF] of a woman’s torso with a special sparkle graphic directing your eyes to her buxom chest in case you were focusing on her white tank top or long, flowing blonde hair. On one side of the photo, it reads GOT BIG PLANS? Let us worry about the money … you’ve got a lot of living to do.” 

The flipside of the flyer urges members to “please borrow responsibly.”
Now don’t get us wrong: The flyer is attractive in a disembodied-boobs, impersonal sort of way. If it had been marketing Mel's Used Cars, a few eyebrows might have risen, but most folks would have given the mailer the attention it deserved (or didn’t). If the flyer had been distributed by a major national brand, millions of robotically created letters and phone calls of outrage no doubt would have followed. 

[MORE]

YNOT: Shaking Up Video Consumers

As some of you might know - in addition to being the debonair, man-about-town, that I am - I'm also an Associate Editor for the adult entertainment site YNOT (who are wonderful folks, btw) - and here's a brand new one: a great interview with Bernhard G of Clipshaker and Shakecash:

Shaking Up Video Consumers

People in the adult entertainment business have a tendency to dismiss so-called new technology as something they’ve seen before. Because the industry traditionally has been a proving ground for new ideas, much of what is touted as “new” has been seen before in one form or another. Sometimes products are just a little too far ahead of their time to gain traction, and at other times there’s no good reason to abandon an older product that continues to do its job admirably.

Bernhard G. hopes to avoid those pitfalls with Clipshaker. He calls the video player “a whole new way for adult entertainment consumers not just to access their favorite content, but also to organize it to their liking.” The product comes complete withan affiliate program: Shakecash.

We’ll let him tell you about it himself.

YNOT: Give us a quick history of your introduction to the crazy adult entertainment business.

Bernhard G.: Coming from the software business, I realized that watching adult movies could be improved. After research, I started this project, and that brought me to the industry.

YNOT: Give us a quick explanation of Clipshaker.

Clipshaker is a software application for Windows or Mac that helps users to organize their favorite scenes in their porn collection. The product was made to let users separate the best from the rest and let them manage the clips they own.

A user can take his video files, trim — or “clip” — them with three mouse clicks, and then associate tags or keywords with the clips he has created. He then can search for his clips and create playlists that contain clips. Think iTunes: All the clips in one playlist can be played one after another. Also, a user can play his clips or playlists in up to 16 players in parallel, like on a surveillance monitor.

It is our ultimate goal that our users only watch the stuff they like, in a very new way, in order to get the maximum level of satisfaction.

[MORE]

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

YNOT: Rising to Condoms’ Defense

As some of you might know - in addition to being the debonair, man-about-town, that I am - I'm also an Associate Editor for the adult entertainment site YNOT (who are wonderful folks, btw).  So I'm going to start sharing some of the stuff I'm doing for them...

Starting with this very fun interview with Phil Harvey and Chris Purdy who run a wonderful organization called DKT International that's "a social marketing nonprofit working in Latin America, Africa and Asia to improve access to reproductive health products and services."

Rising to Condoms’ Defense

Quick: What do you think of when you hear the word condom? For some in the adult industry, the first response may be a grimace as a few California municipalities recently passed laws mandating condom use in all sexually explicit productions. 

But far too few people think of condoms — and all the other kinds of safer-sex products available today — as affirmations and indications of respect for life. For each safer-sex product made, sold and used, two people may have been spared disease or death. 

While the content-production portion of the adult entertainment industry, at least in California, chafes under new condoms-required legislation, people in developing countries are learning how condoms, sex education, family planning, oral contraceptives and a host of other sexual wellbeing considerations can improve the quality of their lives. In parts of Africa, for example, traditionally poor communication about safer-sex practices has led to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases that can be life-threatening. 

At the forefront of the mission to get condoms into developing countries and educate everyday people about their correct use is DKT International. 

Founded in 1989, DKT International’s core mission is “to provide safe and affordable options for family planning and HIV prevention through social marketing.” The organization spearheads 19 programs in 18 countries, and in 2011 provided 650 million condoms, more than 72 million cycles of oral contraceptives, more than 14 million injectable contraceptives, one million IUDs and 12 million misoprostol pills. DKT’s statistics indicate that last year its efforts prevented seven million pregnancies, 11,000 maternal deaths and 1.4 million abortions.

[MORE] 

GLBT Live Chats with the Pros At The Erotica Readers & Writers Association!

GLBT erotica is a genre to be reckoned with, and The Erotica Readers and Writers Association will help interested authors with two GLBT Live Chats with the Pros: Delilah Devlin and M. Christian will be on hand to answer questions, offer advice, and exchange ideas with authors of GLBT erotica. Whether you're penning your first gay fiction, or are a spicy-seasoned pro, don't miss this opportunity.

M. Christian will host a live chat Saturday, June16th, at 3:00pm EST (12 noon PST; 8:00pm GMT).

M. Christian, associate publisher for Renaissance E Books (which includes Sizzler Editions), is an acknowledged master of erotica with more than 400 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, and Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica. If you want to know what GLBT editors want (and don't want) and how to make your submissions stand out, M. Christian will be happy to answer your questions.

Read more about M. Christian at www.mchristian.com

ERWA chats are held on the ShadowWorld chat server, channel#erachat.

(Follow the link above. On screen you'll see 'Connect to ShadowWorld IRC'. In the Nickname box, key in your name. Leave the channels box at #ERAChat, and click 'Connect'. A chat text box will appear at the bottom of your screen)

Amen!

 

Amen!

 

Out Now: Painted Doll - The New Edition!

The good news just keeps on coming!  I'm extremely pleased to be able to announce the release of a brand new edition of my erotic cyberpunk novel, Painted Doll, by the great folks at Renaissance/Sizzler Editions ... and check out the wonderful new cover by the one-and-only Wynn Ryder.

M. Christian's claimed BDSM science fiction cyberpunk novel is back in print - a tale of futuristic sexual submission and domination! 

One of the pleasures of a dystopic future is the erotists, professionals who paint their clients' bared skin with neurochemicals that induce all forms of sensation - even pain.  Erotists offer landscapes of ecstasy, sexual extremes, joy, and delight. Few citizens can afford the skills of the talented Domino. Fewer still know her identity is but a mask.  Beneath the facade, Claire hides from a vicious crime lord who would not only kill her but her childhood lover. But the mask of Domino is beginning to crack ... strange sexual pairings and strange sexual practices highlight this futuristic noir tale, set in a wildly imaginative erotic future, exploring who we are and the sexual awakenings that occur when we become someone else. 

MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK: 

"M. Christian is one hell of a writer. He paints his universes and characters in full, living color, thrills the reader with non-stop action. A no-holds-barred storyteller, he embraces his reader at the start and doesn't let go until long after the end." - Mari Adkins, Apex Publications contributing editor 

"M. Christian is the chameleon of modern erotica. One day punk, another romantic; one day straight, another totally perverse and polyamorous. But always sexy and and gripping." - Maxim Jakubowksi is the editor of the Mammoth Book of Erotica series 

"A non-stop ride of precise prose and unexpected imagery. Painted Doll is another M. Christian gem; a seamless blend of the erotic with the darkly fantastic. Unpredictable, engaging, and an often startling read." - Marilyn Jaye Lewis, author of Freak Parade 

"No matter how long I've been at the erotica game, M. Christian continues to surprise me. With Painted Doll, he again proves that his imagination knows no bounds. The first pages sucked me into the story, and I couldn't stop reading. Who was this woman? Who was she...really? Provocative and unique, Painted Doll is M. Christian at his finest." - Gwen Masters, author of One Breath at a Time

Chadzilla Likes Finger's Breadth

Even more cool news - I just got this fantastic review of Finger's Breadth in from my pal Chad of Chadzilla!

A mysterious figure, known only as The Cutter, is hunting the gay men of near-future San Francisco.  This strange, shadowy figure drugs his victims, then amputates the tip of their little finger.  As The Cutter attacks continue and spread throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, they have strange and disturbing effects on a variety of men. 

Before you read any further into this review, I would most appreciate it if you would look to the right hand side of the screen and study the first two books listed in the Read My Published Writing section of this blog.  You will note that the editor of both books just so happens to be the author of Finger's Breadth.  Small world, isn't it? 

It also explains why I am reading a book in a genre, Gay Erotica, that is somewhat far removed (to put it mildly) from my usual reading comfort zone.  But it is always good to challenge oneself on occasion, and Finger's Breadth, I am happy to write, happens to be both a good and challenging read. 

Finger's Breadth, while ostensibly a work of Gay Erotica, one with a very strong and distinct undercurrent of BDSM to it, is also a disturbing psychological thriller that is cloaked in the dark noir style shadows of futurist cyberpunk.  It was the strength of the latter that kept my interest through all of the pages of graphically described gay sex.  I'm certain that certain readers will find that kind of thing hot, but I am not one of those readers.  So it goes. 

While the narrative pacing is crisp and brisk, the book is a short and to the point 265 pages, the cast of characters is rather sizable.  There is Fanning, a Freelance Cop (a near-future version of the Bounty Hunter mixed with the Private Investigator) trying to hunt down and catch the Cutter, for profit.  There is the terrified Taylor, who believes that he has narrowly escaped the Cutter.  There is Dibney, who is also hunting for the Cutter, but for personal reasons.  And there is Varney, the first victim.  The man who made everyone else aware of the Cutter and who is now burdened with the guilt of creating a media monster with a life of its very own. 

Those are just the primary characters, though.  Swirling around the above listed men are snapshots of other men cruising a San Francisco nightlife that is undergoing a strange shift in fetishistic desire.  These men wander the bars, have sexual liaisons, all the while alternating between looking for the Cutter's victims and longing to be the Cutter's next victim.  These snapshots chart the growth and mutation of the sexual meme.  These snapshots also cast light and add shadows to the stories of the various primary characters listed above.  As the number of the Cutter's victims grows, and each of the primary characters makes a disturbing discovery, the nature of the Cutter's attacks and what it truly means to be a victim of the Cutter is called into question.  The answers to those questions manage to be both unsettling and empowering.
Finger's Breadth is a chilling and thought provoking read.

Amos Lassen Likes Technorotica: Stories Shattering the Ultimate Taboo

Here's a very nice treat: a fantastic review of M.Christian's Technorotica: Stories Shattering the Ultimate Taboo by the always awesome Amos Lassen!

I  think of M. Christian like I think of hummus—both are acquired tastes. However, once you get to liking either, you just can’t get enough. As prolific a writer as Christian is, I never get quite enough. He is erotic and futuristic and has a sardonic sense of humor, However, above everything else, he goes where few dasn’t. In this anthology, Christian takes a step into the future and writes about bondage, fetishes, science fiction, and sex with robots and so on. In fact, we are taught by robots how to be great lovers. I suppose you could label this man/machine erotica as Christians unites sex and technology and there is a lot of Christian trademark kink. This is most definitely not your “everyday” read. 

Eleven stories are sandwiched between the introduction, “Welcome to the World of Tomorrow” and the afterword, “Do You Know Where Your Children Will Be”? All of the stories are excellent but the one that stands out for me in “Blow Up” and that is all I am going to say. If you want to know why it is so special, you will have to get a copy of the book. Christian writes what I call literary erotica. He manages to infuse good writing with lots of sex and the result is almost a new genre. He is, however, the most difficult author to review because it is so easy to give away plots when discussing his writing. Therefore all I can say is for you to get a copy, clear an afternoon sit in the recliner with your feet up and the book open and enjoy every word. 

“M. Christian is one hell of a writer. A no-holds-barred storyteller, he embraces his reader at the start and doesn’t let go until long after the end.” -Mari Adkins. “M. Christian’s stories squat at the intersection of Primal Urges Avenue and Hi-Tech Parkway … feral-eyed, half-naked … Truly an author for our post-everything 21st century.” – Paul Di Filippo, author The Steampunk Trilogy.

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!

"No, you can’t deny women their basic rights -

“No, you can’t deny women their basic rights and pretend it’s about your ‘religious freedom.’ If you don’t like birth control, don’t use it. Religious freedom doesn’t mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.”
- President Barack Obama

Welcome to Weirdsville: The Book!

As some of you may know, I've written a whole bunch of short weird history, weird art, weird science and just plain ... well, weird pieces over the years for sites like the late-lamented Bonetree, The Cud, and - especially - Dark Roasted Blend.  

Well, I am very excited to be able to announce the publication of a whole collection of these pieces - and more! - in Welcome to Weirdsville by the fabulous Renaissance E Books/Pageturner Books!


As part of publicity for this fun project I'm also going to be posting some of the articles here and on Meine Kleine Fabrik (both the Blogger and the Tumblr version).

Avi, by the way, just posted a delightful announcement about the book on Dark Roasted Blend.  Thanks so much, Avi!

"A wonderful compendium of interesting subjects and fascinating topics. Will keep you reading just to found out what's going to be covered next. Highly recommended for all lovers of weird & wonderful this side of the Universe." -Avi Abrams, Dark Roasted Blend.  

Sure, you may know M. Christian as an erotica master - or even as a respected author of science fiction (see his Love Without Gun Control for example) but did you know that he is also the author of this brand-new book of historical - and humorous - essays and tidbits?  Read Welcome to Weirdsville and we'll promise you'll never look at the world the same way again! 

Peek under the rugs, open more than a few drawers, peek in the back shelves and you'll find that ... well, Lord Byron himself said it best: "Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction." Lakes that explode, parasites that can literally change your mind, The New Motor, a noble Word War 1 German pirate, the odd nature of ducks, the War Magician, the City of Fire, men and their too big guns, a few misplaced nuclear weapons, an iceberg aircraft carrier, the sad death of Big Mary, the all-consuming hunger of the Bucklands, the giggling genius of Brian G. Hughes, the Kashasha laughter epidemic.... Ponder that in a world that holds things like kudzu, ophiocordyceps unilateralis, The Antikythera Device, The Yellow Kid, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Alfred Jarry, Joseph Pujol, and suicide-bombing ants ... who knows what other kinds of wonders as well as horrors may be out there?

By Allan Kausch

 

Just A Reminder -

- to check out my Flickr feed for a few of my experiments in getting back into photography.

Technorotica: Stories Shattering the Ultimate Taboo - In Dead Trees!

Here's a bit of extra-extra-extra-special news! Remember those two ebooks that the great folks at Renaissance/Sizzler recently published? The ones with techno/science fiction focuses - Better Than The Real Thing: Technorotica and Rude Mechanicals: Technorotica?

Well, Renaissance/Eros Editions have just published a very special - print edition only - edition of both ... plus extra-added content: Technorotica: Stories Shattering the Ultimate Taboo

“Love with robots will be as normal as love with other humans, while the number of sexual acts and lovemaking positions commonly practiced between humans will be extended, as robots teach more than is in all of the world’s published sex manuals combined.” -computer pioneer David Levy, in Love and Sex With Robots. 

Bondage, science fiction, fetishism, real realities and virtual realities collide in this unique collection by one of the most popular authors of erotica … ever!  

In the enigmatic M. Christian’s kinky new collection, two great things – technology and sex – go even better together! 

Welcome to Technorotica: a giant-sized collection of human-machine erotica. You’ll find everything from sexy robots to virtual reality lovers, from shameless science fiction to contemporary explorations of technology’s impact on our sex lives and our sexuality. Headlining this stellar collection are two unforgettable novellas: In “Hot Definition,” the story of a future just around our corner, Neko experiences the ultimate domination in a way she never expected; in “Speaking Parts,” two lovers, one with a camera-shutter eye, come together in a scorching, obsessive relationship that takes them both to the limits of sexuality – and beyond. Plus ten more provocative stories of sex and technosex. 

“Blow Up” alone makes it “worth buying I highly recommend this book.” -Fire Pages. 

“M. Christian is one hell of a writer. A no-holds-barred storyteller, he embraces his reader at the start and doesn’t let go until long after the end.” -Mari Adkins. 

“M. Christian’s stories squat at the intersection of Primal Urges Avenue and Hi-Tech Parkway … feral-eyed, half-naked … Truly an author for our post-everything 21st century.” -Paul Di Filippo, author The Steampunk Trilogy 

Cover art: Jade
Book design: Frankie Hill
ISBN-1615084479
Publication date: 4/03/2012
Pages: 170
List price: $15.99