Don't Forget The 50 Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey Contest

Just a reminder, folks, about the very cool Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey contest that's winding up very, very soon:

Just click here to enter

Reminder: I'm Reading At The The Godless Perverts Story Hour

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Bitten By Books Likes The Very Bloody Marys

(From M.Christian's Queer Imaginings)

Here's a very nice review of The Very Bloody Marys (out now in a new edition as part of the M.Christian ManLove Collection)

Bitten By Books:

Valentino, a daylight hemosapien, is training to become a vampire cop for the Le Counceil Carmin. He has been training for over a century and his boss/trainer, believes that he is worthless. Valentino readily agrees with him. 

Valentino is running late for work as usual and is worried that his boss, Pogue, will get angry with him, again. He jumps in a cab with a driving corpse and heads to Pogues home. Ombre who is a liaison for the Counseil tells him that Pogue is missing and Valentino has been chosen to look for him. Ombre believes that the Very Bloody Marys have something to do with it. 

During the night Valentino must not only find his boss and the Very Bloody Marys but he needs to figure out how. As the night goes on his To Do list becomes bigger and bigger. 

I had a lot of fun reading this book. It was a nice change to have a bumbling vampire and watch him fight Vespa riding vampires. He tries so hard to make it look like he knows what he is doing but in the end it is all for not. The cast of extras were wonderful additions to the story. Saul a wizard who owns a cat that talks and is addicted to cat nip, a chef who is a coroner who works at a morgue/restaurant was hysterical. A worthy under dog story.

Yet More Philosophy

Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker: What Makes a Good Publisher?

Check this out: I just wrote a brand new "Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker" piece for the always-great Erotica Readers and 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:

Before I begin (again), a bit of disclosure: While the following has been written in an attempt to be professionally and personally non-biased I am an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books. 

Now, with that out of the way (again)...

#

The last time I wrote an intro like the above it was for my Streetwalker column Self Or Not? – about why I feel that, even though it can be very alluring, I still recommend writers work with a publisher rather than go the self-publishing route.

After writing that column I've been thinking, a lot, about what makes a good publisher ... especially these days.  Not to (ahem) brag but I've been in the biz for quite a few years and have worked with a lot of publishers – both when books were printed on (gasp) actual paper, as well as in the new digital age, so I think I can say a bit about what makes a good publisher.

As always, keep in mind that this is somewhat subjective: what I like in a publisher may not be what you like in a publisher ... but the somewhat is there because, tastes aside, it's a publisher's job to get your book out so, hopefully, people will buy bunches of copies.

The world – as I mentioned – as totally changed, and so has what publishers not just can do but should be doing.  It may sound a bit ... emotional, but I like a publisher I can talk to – and who talks to me.  Sure, many publishers are simply too busy to answer every email immediately but that they get back to me eventually is more than enough to keep me happy.  I've dealt with far too many publishers who I have to write, write, write and write again to get an answer to even the simplest question.

[MORE]

Reminder: I'm Performing At Bawdy Storytelling's Gender Blender

(from M.Christian's Classes And Appearances)

Just a reminder, folks, that I'm going to be performing - on stage (gasp) - at the very fun Bawdy Storytelling event tomorrow night in Oakland.

Here's the info on the whens and hows and what-else's:

Gender Blender

The Uptown Nightclub
1928 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, California 94612

Buy your tix here: Bawdy Storytelling’s ‘Gender Blender’

$12 in Advance/$15 at the Door

Storytellers include:

• Sex Educator & Role Model Reid Mihalko
• GenderFork founder Sarah Dopp
• Erotica Author M.Christian
• More storytellers to come! 

Gender blending, gender hacking, gender mash-up… it all comes down to how you identify – and if not forever, at least for that scene, that night, that cab ride. Because freedom is all about CHOICE, now isn’t it?

This week, Bawdy Storytelling – the Mr. Right in your tighty whities – brings six sexy sagas of genderfucks, drag queens, drag kings, and one-eyed jacks to the stage of the Uptown NightClub in Oakland. These are real stories told by real people and guaranteed to incite, excite, and if you’re so inspired, invite someone home with you to create your very own bawdy story – and then tell us about it. We love the dirty details!

Wisdom

 

I Could Use A Few Of These Right Now

 

Still More Philosophy

Yippie!

A-Touring I Will Go!

(from M.Christian's Queer Imaginings)

This is very, very cool: as part of the release of my best-of-my-best queer erotica, Stroke The Fire, the great Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions have signed me up for a fun blog tour - running from November 25th to December 17th.

Stay tuned for info on what blogs I will be on but for now here's the cool logo the tour-organizer created for me:

Season Of The Witch By Jean Marie Stine

(From M.Christian's Technorotica)


Do not - and I repeat DO NOT - hesitate: rush out and get the brand new edition of Jean Marie Stine's fantastic, and legendary, Season Of The Witch ... in a brand new edition.

I cannot rave enough about this book - and Jean Marie herself: a rare case where the author is not just supremely talented but also a wonderful person!



sizzler-editions:

Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions is beyond proud to be able to bring you - in a brand new edition, the legendary Jean Marie Stine’s celebrated science fiction transgender masterpiece: Season Of The Witch - The Transgender Futuristic Classic! 

She was the first woman he had ever been! An SF transgender classic! Chosen “One of the “Thirty Most Important Science Fiction Novels of the 1960s,” Season of the Witch tells the story of Andre, a man who rapes and murders a woman in a post-apocalyptic future. A dangerously low population has resulted in an end to capital punishment. Instead of execution, Andre has his brain transplanted into his victim’s body, while his own body is given to an aging, brilliant scientist. Andre’s search for his original male body takes him through a series of physically and spiritually disorienting sexual encounters to an unexpected denouement during an Agape ceremony in the temple of a strange, hedonistic cult. No wonder Foundation called the book, “A powerful tale of biological transformation and sexual identity.” Or, that 20th Century Science Fiction Writers hailed itbook as, “A special combination of science fiction and pornographic detail and rhetoric. The quality of the novel artistically justifies this radical strategy.” In 1995 the book was filmed as Synapse (U.K. as Memory Run), introducing its unique mix of transgender and science fiction to a whole new audience. Plus New Afterword.  

Jean Marie Stine has been editor of Galaxy SF and Starblaze Books, and is currently editor of Futures-Past Editions. Her short stories have appeared in numerous publications including Amazing Stories, Galaxy, Pegasus, and SF Sagas, and are collected in Herstory & Other Science Fictions. During the late 1960s she served as personal assistant to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, working on special projects; and in the 1970s she wrote the now classic, The Prisoner: A Day in the Life, based on the cult television series starring Patrick McGoohan.  

MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK:  

• “Razorblade fiction!” -The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction  

• “Where science fiction is often male chauvinist this might raise male consciousness.” Worlds Beyond: A Critical History of Science Fiction  

• “A good SF book and a rather better novel qua novel. Stine never offers an explicit sexual scene in standard cliché pornographical terms — each one of his descriptions brings a personal and original observation into play. Many of these observations are not erotic — they may even strike some readers as anti-erotic — but they ring with truth. A genuine work of erotic realism, written far above the standards of pornography. The body of the novel lies in the male protagonist’s response to biological and physical constraints and the transformation of his personality forced upon him by his female body. Effective…rich…rewarding…engrossing and unusual… littered with genuine insights.” Ted White, editor, Heavy Metal  

• “What happens to a man’s mind in a woman’s body? Stine makes you inhabit that mind and slowly, imperceptibly, 
absorbs you into the existence of a woman until you as a man no longer exist. You become a woman, different from the one you raped and killed, and a better woman, at the end. Stine is a remarkable writer both for style, which is turgid with evocative detail and intense psychological insight, and for use of the second-person technique, which in fiction is used very infrequently, but which is required for the Punishment and Retribution parts in this book. There is eroticism in the book. The sex act is the most important sphere of life for this book, for Stine, for you, in the working out of the changes of psyche involved. …and it is there that Stine takes you to show the subtle altering of man to woman in the body of Josette Kovacs, deceased. If four-letter words bother you, don’t read this book. But then, perhaps you are precisely the person who should read it!” Science Fiction Review  

• “Passion, pain, real pluck … a good eye for physical detail and a strong feeling for the human predicament.” Fritz Leiber, Fantastic

Still More Philosophy

Flying On Books

(via invisiblestories)

Eines Morgens im November by Quint Buchholz

Thanks, bro!

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.

More Von Gutenberg

(from M.Christian's Technorotica)

Remember how I mentioned how absolutely thrilled I am to have an article on steampunk in the brand new Von Gutenberg fetish fashion app?  Well, here are a few very lovely - and very fetishy - images from the app.

Boo!

(from M.Christian's Queer Imaginings)


This is a nice little Halloween Treat: the very cool Jan Graham gave my queer vampire/horror/comedy, The Very Bloody Marys, a nice little mention on her blog:

I don't always read romances, although they are one of my fav genres. It's just that sometimes a girl needs a little more excitement, something different to dwell on rather than a HEA tale. What book could better at Halloween than, a queer vampire horror story with a touch of erotica thrown in. I was in my element, tucked up in bed, lights out, reading a bloody vampire tale. I still haven't finished it but I love the way this author writes. His books always make me think, there's usually some kind of twist in the plot and I never know what to expect when I read one of M.Christian's stories. So if you want to take a look at what I'm reading, there is a little blurb below and to find out more about the book or to buy it just scroll over the title...

The Very Bloody Marys by M.Christian

A gang of Vespa-riding vampires are killing San Franciscans so indiscriminately they threaten to not only drain the city dry--but risk the discovery of vampires everywhere. Gay vampire cop Valentino is called upon to stop the group calling themselves The Very Bloody Marys before the situation gets worse. Unfortunately, it already has. You see, Valentino is still only a trainee who is in way over his head now that Pogue, his mentor, is missing. And this brutal gang is tough, smart, and very, very bloodthirsty.

Future Sex For Dr. Amy Marsh's Sexuality Salon

(via M.Christian's Classes And Appearances)

This is going to be a blast: I just agreed to lead a group discussion on the future of sex for the fantastic Dr. Amy Marsh's Sexuality Salon on December 28th.

Here's a quickie write-up on the event ... hope to see you there!

Future Sex  

Welcome to the World Of Tomorrow!  Sure, we have iPads, iPhones, Viagra, the staggering depths of the Internet, but what could the day after tomorrow bring?  In this combination discussion and lecture, participants will share in some thought experiments on what sex may be like in the year year – or the next thousand years. Subjects included will be speculations on drug and chemical enhancements, extrapolation on current – and future – consumer technology, where gender and sexual orientation may be headed, the idea of artificial implants and enhancements, and even the prospects of intimate encounters with cyborgs, androids, robots, and artificial intelligences. 

I'm In The Von Gutenerg App!

(from M.Christian's Technorotica)

I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to announce that my article on steampunk fetish culture is part of the brand new online Von Gutenberg app - now available for every smart-device out there:

• iTunes
• Android
• Amazon Kindle Fire

Cupping: Using The Ancient Medicinal Technique For Erotic Play

(from M.Christian's Classes And Appearances)

Here's some great news: I'm going to be teaching my very fun (and hands-on) class and workshop Cupping: Using The Ancient Medicinal Technique For Erotic Play for the great folks at The Looking Glass on December 2nd.

Where: The Looking Glass Arts

When: December 2nd, from 2:00PM to 4:00PM

How Much: TBD (stay tuned)

Cupping: Using The Ancient Medicinal Technique For Erotic Play 
For thousands of years, Asian cultures have been using 'cupping' as a remedy for a variety of ills – from muscle strains to just a wonderful way to relax. In this unique class, participants will not just learn how to use cupping safely but also how to use it to enhance all kinds of erotic – and kinky – play.

Demonstrations will include not just how to use cupping on various parts of the body in new and exciting ways but also the different types of cupping sets that are available and what type is right for everything from advanced BDSM play to just soothing an achy back.

A Rave About Dr. Amy's Sexology Salon

(from M.Christian's Classes And Appearances)

Had an absolutely BLAST last night hanging out with the great Dr. Amy Marsh at her monthly Sexuality Salon.  If you don't do Meetup then sign up just to attend her shindigs: Dr. Amy is not just fun and funny but she's scary smart and her get-togethers are a real blast!

A. Paul Weber: The Rumor

(via mindsigh)

A. Paul Weber: The Rumor

My New Home

 

I'm Reading At The The Godless Perverts Story Hour

(from M.Christian's Classes And Appearances)

I'm VERY jazzed to be reading at the upcoming Godless Perverts Story Hour at the Center for Sex And Culture In San Francisco on November 17th.


Here's a bit about the event - as well as there wheres and whens and such:

The Godless Perverts Story Hour is an evening about how to have good sex without having any gods, goddesses, spirits, or their earthly representatives hanging over your shoulder and telling you that you’re doing it wrong. With fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and performances from Maggie Mayhem, Victor Harris, Greta Christina, David Fitzgerald, Chris Hall, Dana Fredsti, Anthony O’Con, and Simon Sheppard, we’ll be bringing you depictions, explorations, and celebrations of godless sexualities, as well as critical, mocking, and blasphemous views of sex and religion. The evening’s entertainment will have a range of voices — sexy and serious, passionate and funny, and all of the above — talking about how our sexualities can not only exist, but even thrive, without the supernatural. 

We’ve only got one life — what better way to spend it than an evening of sexy godless fun? 

Official website:http://godlessperverts.com 

Sat, November 17, 7:00 PM
Center for Sex and Culture1349 Mission St,
San Francisco CA

How Do You Live Your Life?

 

"The only way to get rid of a temptation-"

Billierosie Likes Dirty Words

(from M.Christian Queer Imaginings)


My fantastic pal, Billierosie, sent me this great review for Dirty Words (out now in a brand new edition from Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions)... thanks, sweetie!

What's also cool is that this edition restores Patrick Califia's very special introduction.

What is it about M.Christian’s DIRTY WORDS, that has me thinking of tapestry? In particular the Bayeux Tapestry, in Northern France? DIRTY WORDS is M.Christian’s collection of erotic, if not pornographic stories, displaying human sexuality at its most raw and crude. The Bayeux Tapestry, as I remember it, has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with Queen Matilda and her refined Ladies in Waiting, stitching away in chilly castles in Normandy, France, while their men folk sail off to conquer the unrefined British.

[MORE] 

Yet More Philosophy

Thanks, bro!

More Philosophy

Patrick Califia Likes Rude Mechanicals

(from M.Christian's Technorotica)

This is a very special treat: a blurb from the legendary Patrick Califia - a great writer and an even greater friend. Thanks, Pat!


Here is the latest collection of M.Christian's insightful and original work. Fabulous! I have yet to read anything Chris has written without feeling that my own assumptions were challenged, and I was pushed to think about sexuality, politics, gender, and literature in a whole different way. There aren't enough people who can write from the polymorphous perverse perspective that he seamlessly adopts. He is a genuine ally of sexual minority communities and has walked the walk and talked the talk in dozens of different erotic and edgy experiences. If you'd like to expand your horizons and spread your wings (or your legs, or somebody else's legs), you couldn't have a better guide than the wise, wry, irreverent, and twisted M.Christian.
-Patrick Califia, author of Mortal Companion, Hard Men, and Macho Sluts.

Metro Spirit Loves Me2

(from M.Christian's Queer Imaginings)


Here's a wonderful - and very touching - review of Me2 (not now, of course, in a brand new edition) by J. Edward Sumerau over at Metro Spirit.

The latest offering from M. Christian — “Me2” — poses a bit of a dilemma for the average reader. While it contains an intricate plotline leading readers deeper and deeper into psychological consideration, it is constructed upon a narrative style that is often jumpy, tense and hard to follow. The end result is an intriguing argument buried in a difficult format.

M. Christian is of course a variety of voices wrapped into a single moniker. Whether found in erotic collections of the straight or gay variety or in horror compilations and psychological intrigues, Christian holds power over a voice deeply original in a time where conformity is all too common. Having found his work in collections such as “Dirty Words," “Speaking Parts” and “Best American Erotica," it was about time that Christian offered a vision of the contemporary world in the form of a longer offering. 

[MORE] 

I'm Going To XBIZ 360° - Digital Media Conference!

(via M.Christian's Classes And Appearances)

Very cool! I'm going to be winging my way down to Los Angeles to attend the
XBIZ 360° | Digital Media Conference from January 9th to the 12th - courtesy of a absolutely fantastic friend.

Keep an eye on my new classes and appearances page for news and updates and the like.

Even More Revamp, Revamp, Revamp -

I'm on a blogging roll!

Not only does www.mchristian.com now take you to my brand new landing page but I JUST created a bland new sub-blog just for my classes, appearances, readings and the like (which you can also access by click on my rather-handsome face to the left or on the links bar at the top). 

Check out M.Christian's Classes And Appearances when you get a sec and lemmie know what you think.

Speaking of, I just got word that I'll be teaching one of my fan-favorites in December: Impact Play: Beyond Floggers And Canes for the SF Citadel ... plus three other classes over the next few months. So keep an eye on M.Christian's Classes And Appearances for more info

Revamp, Revamp, Revamp -

The four or five people who actually follow my blog will, no doubt, have noticed some creeping changes here: the tab bars at the top, for instance, that will take folks to my specialized blogs as well as my other online 'presences' ... AND, a link (to the right) which will direct anyone to info on my classes and appearances and the like.

But the big thing that's gonna happen is what (hopefully within a few days) www.mchristian.com will actually take you to my new landing page.  If you wanna see a preview just click here.

Amen!

(via M.Christian's Technorotica)


Okay, the story may be a teeny-tiny bit cliche but the visuals are stylish and, best of all, unique - more than anything because the future the makers have presented isn't just (blanky-blank) gray.

Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out-

Check this out: I just wrote a brand new "Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker" piece for the always-great Erotica Readers and 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:

It's a huge no-duh that we live in an Information Age: from high speed Internet to 4G cell networks, we can get whatever we want wherever we want it - data-wise - at practically at the speed of light.

But sometimes I miss the old days. No, they weren't - ever - the Good Old Days (I still remember liquid paper, SASEs, and letter-sized manila envelopes ... shudder), but back then a writer had a damned long time to hear about anything to do withthe biz.

If you were lucky you got a monthly mimeographed newsletter but otherwise you spent weeks, even months, before hearing about markets or trends ... and if you actually wanted contact with another writer you either had to pick up the phone, sit down and have coffee, or (gasp) write a letter.

No, I'm far from being a Luddite. To borrow a bit from the great (and late) George Carlin: "I've been uplinked and downloaded. I've been inputted and outsourced. I know the upside of downsizing; I know the downside of upgrading. I'm a high-tech lowlife. A cutting-edge, state-of-the-art, bicoastal mutlitasker, and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond."

I love living in The World Of Tomorrow. Sure, we may not have food pills or jetpacks but with the push of a ... well, the click of a mouse I can see just about every movie or show I want, read any book ever written, play incredibly realistic games, or learn anything I want to know.

Here it comes, what you've been waiting for ... but ... well, as I've said many times before, writing can be an emotionally difficult, if not actually scarring endeavor. We forget, far too often, to care for ourselves in the manic pursuit of our writing 'careers.' We hover over Facebook, Twitter and blog-after-blog: our creative hopes of success - and fears of failure - rising and falling with every teeny-tiny bit of information that comes our way.

[MORE]

Through The Yellow Hour

Remember my rave about the great time I had with my pal, Ralph Greco, seeing Adam Rapp's Through The Yellow Hour? Well, Ralph has just posted a great review of the very cool play as part of his Short & Sweet NYC column:

Adam Rapp wrote and directs Through The Yellow Hour, yet another arresting night of theatre from the Rattlestick Playrights Theatre. The taut nearly 2 hour one-act, where the world (though the play takes place in a NYC downtown apartment) has been invaded by ‘egg heads’ seemingly maybe Muslim meanies whose identity we never seem to learn. Not that this matters, in fact, as the play progressed I found I didn’t care as much for the details about what had gone on to get Ellen, played spectacularly by Hani Furstenberg-her performance alone should get you out to see this play-locked-in and gun toting in her two room apartment. 

I was left a few times wondering if Mr. Rapp was trying to belabor points as some of the black-outs seemed a little long for the prop pieces and characters that are revealed following them. But generally what you get from Through The Yellow Hour is a taut nearly 2 hour one-act... 

[MORE]

Amen!

 

(cool ... even though I'm an atheist)

Showtime!

It ain’t a work of genius but here’s a little fun I had making a short video of all my books that are available from Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions

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