A.M. Hartnett @ Livejournal

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:10:16 GMT

Moved to

www.amhartnett.com

Short story archive can be found at
http://amhartnett.livejournal.com

New Publication

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 02:34:48 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that Greencoat, the bane of my existence, the story that drove me bonkers for six months tweaking, polishing, submitting, is up at Tit-Elation.

The story is actually an inside joke, and by inside I mean inside my brain. When I was taking children's lit in university I had an exam question in which we had to identify terms from fairy tales and stories (i.e. the golden cap from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the green girdle from King Arthur) and one of the terms was "Sonny". Well, not a single student got this one right because this was the first time we had seen the term and we all argued with the prof about this, but she was insistent that Sonny was the name of the cat in The Grandmother's Tale (if you know the story it's the cannibalistic one in which the cat calls Red Riding Hood a vulgar slut.) Well, I've read that story about 25 times since then and not once did I find any reference to the cat having a name, nor have I found any reference to it on the net.

So in honour of Sonny the cat, I wrote Greencoat, which is The Grandmother's Tale told from the perspective of the cat. If you know your fairy tales you'll pick up on the other story I pulled this particular big bad wolf from.

Spreading the love ...

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:10:40 GMT

Just a note, as seen in my inbox today.

Oysters & Chocolate is now a free site. Go forth, children, and read dirty stories when you're supposed to be pushing paper.

Freaky Fairy Tales are my crack

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 15:59:02 GMT

There aren't enough morbid adaptations of fairy tales these days, I tells ya.

Last week I went shopping on eBay specifically for fairy tales, and I ended up bidding on 2 Grimm Fairy Tale comics: The Robber Bridegroom and Little Red Riding Hood. I frothed at the mouth over the thought of what was inside. Sadly, neither was all I had hoped, although The Robber Bridegroom had a pretty freaky ending.

I've also been reading through Grimm's Grimmest, given to me by someone who knew of my fascination with all things Fairy Tale. It's meh. Very much like Opie, only with more than just the greatest hits.

Datlow & Windling's anthologies are spectacular, but hard as hell to come by. Their Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears had a few gems in it, including an E! True Hollywood Story style story about the Wizard of Oz and the relationship between the characters of the story, and an absolutely chilling adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin, and if memory serves me correct one story that's a cross between Beauty & The Beast and Bluebeard.

There are two that are heads and shoulders above the rest, though. Tanith Lee's Red As Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer was introduced to me during university when it was included in an anthology. The story was When The Clock Strikes and oh my god it was fantastic. Cinderella was a satanist and she had a bone to pick with Prince Charming. And so I went merrily off to eBay to get my hands on the full anthology and it was utterly chilling, particularly her version of The Frog Prince.

My other favourite is Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, which I also discovered in the above mentioned anthology. You might remember the movie that was made from one of the stories, The Company of Wolves was made into a movie years ago. I liked it, but really if one was to turn one of her stories into a movie it should be the title story, which has one of the best endings I've ever read in a story. The whole collection is just a gem.

Not saying that I'm a purist when it comes to Disney movies and the like. I thought Shrek and the sequel were two of the funniest movies I'd ever seen, and I go all girly whenever I watch Beauty & The Beast and yes, I sing along. But overall I want something absolutely gruesome that will keep me up at night.

There was no point to this, I just like blabbing on and on about fairy tales. I'm just weird like that.

MySpace - Boooo! Hiss!

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:44:31 GMT

Found in the Tit-Elation author's area.

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a8194.asp

Though MySpace bills itself as "a place for friends," the networking site has become much more than just simple friendship: These days, it means business, and not just for owner Rupert Murdoch. First, musicians started flocking to the site as a way to promote their new releases and gain exposure by converting MySpace friends into listeners and fans. Now getting in on the act are authors, who by banding together with other writers, racking up thousands of friends interested in their titles, setting up pages for their characters, and holding online contests for writers and readers both, are using MySpace to garner their books a broader readership and help their publishing careers flourish.

Nope. Not gonna do it. I refuse to do it. I'm going to be the last person on earth who gets on MySpace. It's all that is wrong with the world. And it fucks up my browser (both of them) whenever I try to use it. Tried it, hated it. They can kiss my shiny metal ass.

Hrmph!

New Publication

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:12:53 GMT

Now up at Fresh Off The Vine is Left In The Dark, the companion peice to Blackout.

And for the first time, you don't have to pay to see it.

Reviews

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 01:15:47 GMT

Masks, Evangeline Anderson [Ellora's Cave]

So in return for the pleasure of getting a copy of her novella, I agreed to go a review of Evangeline Anderson's, Masks. I've never written a review before, so bear with me.

The first thing that struck me as soon as I started reading was that it was unlike a lot of the erotic stories I had read. I was actually taken back to when I was in high school and first getting into Harlequin's Silhouette Romances which I bought every week at the second hand place next to the grocery store. It had that playful premise that one comes to expect from those light-hearted romances. Chances are if I could get this kind of hot action in those books I never would have given up on them several years ago.

It's a classic premise: twins and mistaken identity. Chloe is a school teacher who is recruited by her sister to fill in for her at work. The catch it that her job happens to be as a dominatrix. Poor Chloe just can't get her groove on as Mistress Sensua and comes off like a nervous drill sergeant. Lucky for her, the masked man she's supposed to dominate is better at being the dom than he is at being the sub.

It was at this point of the novella that I began to drool. Mark is good looking, he's well endowed, and he's wearing a little black mask. What more could you want? Oh, yes. That's right. Mr. Sexypants fastening you to a cross and telling you to call him "Master" would also work nicely. But he's also sweet with a sensitive side, and Masks even has an "Awwww" moment in a break from the hot sex. I would gush but to do so would reveal too much. While it's definitely erotica, it's more romance than anything. Romance with hot sex: the relationship development is as much of a part of the story as the sex.

Masks isn't hard core, there's no degradation, so those who like their BDSM without the SM will enjoy this, but for those who enjoy the extreme aspects of bondage will be better off looking elsewhere. However for those who want a break from cookie-cutter romances, Masks hits the spot.

Click to visit Evangeline's website (and to buy Masks!)

===
Senses Bejewelled, Cleo Cordell [Black Lace]

Senses Bejewelled is about a Frenchwoman, Marietta who has been living as the favourite concubine of Kasim. I think he's a pirate or something. It's never really clear what he does, except that he goes away on business occasionally. Though, if I was rich and had a harem I'd delegate that shit to someone else. Now, in the past he's really pissed off Hamed, who might also be a pirate and has his own harem, but again, these details are a little vague. What I do know is that Kasim and Hamed got into a fight and Kasim wounded Hamed. Apparently Hamed was damaged sexually because of this, but exactly how I'm not sure since Hamed can still get and sustain an erection. Nonetheless, Hamed is pissed and he kidnaps Marietta and another concubine so he can get Kasim in his clutches and degrade him.

This is one of the books in which the sex is hotter than hot but the story is a little off. No spoilers, but this lacks a big-bang. A few things were left unresolved, tension was built up and never followed through that should have, or a sequel should have been written because frankly the most fascinating character went out with a fizzle. Then again, the point of this book was not to have a well put-together sub plot, but to be hot. And it was hot.

Overall though I did like this. The harem thing has been done to death but I personally never get tired of it and scour used bookstores for the old romances that take place in such a setting (and if anyone knows the name of that one that takes place in a harem and features buttsex, please let me know). Sexually there's a full bag, with guy-on-girl, girl-on-girl, guy-on-guy, orgies, toys, BDSM - it's good to have your own harem.

TMI

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 15:29:59 GMT

How much information is too much in an erotic story?

I have a story on the go that I've been struggling with for the last few weeks. The problem is that the way it's going I don't know if it has too much reality and background in it. Is knowing that the woman is a single mother with single mother problems distracting? It the undercurrent of relationship problems between herself and her lover going to make you find something else to read?

My preference depends entirely on the context. I feel that if the backstory has context, then fine. Just make sure everything is relevent to what you're purpose is -- to write an erotic story -- and don't depress me. If the backstory has nothing to do with what's going on, just give me the bare minimum.

Rant v.2

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 06:00:32 GMT

Since I brought it up in my last post, and since I feel the need to prattle on a little more to keep myself awake, I want to post about something iffy.

I logged into Tit-Elation a few days ago and in scrolling down to find something to read I saw a story called "Speeding Ticket" that peaked my interest. I clicked on the story and found out that it was written by Evangeline Anderson. She's an author I'd never heard of until last month when I saw her name elsewhere on the net, and might actually get me over my fear of mutant CGI cover people and technological progress in general and actually purchase an e-book (her Masks sounds HOT.) So filled with squees I started reading.

A few paragraphs in ...

"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!!!"

Without giving too much away, the story is about a teen wanting to get it on with a hot member of the highway patrol. Usually when I see "teen" and "erotica" in the same context it usually involves barely legal girls-gone-wild or I'm watching Dateline's "To Catch a Predator". No, not barely legal. No, not evil old man porn. The heroine is completely making out with the hero when she's still shy of her eighteenth.

I was floored. Absolutely floored. I wondered if somehow this had slipped past the editors, as generally publishers don't allow sex with minors (they also don't allow sex with animals, but we obviously have a grey area here considering all the werewolf/shapeshifter stories out there.) I became obsessed, checking the writer's guidelines, then rereading to make sure I hadn't blinked in mid-sentence and misread the age thing. Nope. She's seventeen. And there it is in black and white.

I was so sure some tight-ass was going to come along and be a priss about it that when I logged in again tonight and couldn't immediately find the story I thought they had taken it down. Still there. And my jaw is still on the floor.

Not a huge difference, and the police officer points out that she's essentially jail-bait, but in terms of stuff that's highlighted in submission guidelines the 18+ rule is right up there with no goat-sex and no snuff.

Make no mistake, it's an awesome story. Follow the link below, print it, and I defy you not to break out the good vibe. But ... seventeen? Holy crap, I can't believe she's gotten away with it.

In my last post I mentioned Rosemary Roger's "Wicked Loving Lies". I commented that I was pretty sure that the heroine was about 16. I also gushed about how much I'm loving this book so far. Given the fact that it was written in the golden age of romance and is set in the 18th Century I wasn't as floored. Same goes for Jane Feather's "Vixen", in which the main character is also seventeen and has tons of great sex (and she doesn't even see eighteen in this book). If this was written today by, say, Liz Carlyle, she would be tied to a stake and thrashed by a posse before being burned alive.

However, how many non-romance/erotica books out there involve teenagers? I mean contemporary books. I was 12 when I read V.C. Andrews. Anyone remember Paul shrieking to a 15 year-old Cathy "Hurry!!! Come!!!"? Years ago I read Robert McNeil's (yes, the guy from that PBS show) "Burden of Desire" in which one of the main male characters is at a boarding school and ends up experimenting with an older boy--and believe me, McNeil did not skimp on the details here--and the main female character fantasized about having sex with her husband when he was 12. Sex with/involving minors, and they sell this at the local museum along with all their other Halifax Explosion books. And let's not forget Jean M. Auel's "Clan of the Cave Bear", where the main character becomes the object of Neanderthal man's lust when she's fourteen.

And my all time favourite -- Original Sin by Gabriel Marius (yes, I know you've never heard of it; yes, I'm fully aware that I'm the only one on the planet who read this). It has everything that makes you go WTF?!?!?! Rape, incest, and sex with minors (in this case all at the same time, something it shares with most of the old VC Andrews books).

Can you say double standard? Why is it okay for a mainstream book to blur the lines but not the genre dedicated to sex?

Now, I'm not advocating kiddie porn in the least. People who write about sex with children should have their nuts teabagged and twisted off. I'm talking about the acknowledgement of older adolescents as sexual creatures. The ones who are old enough to drive, hold down a job, go on birth control, etc...

I was twelve when I sat in the waiting room of a clinic, nose buried deep in the love scene between Heaven and her step-father in VC Andrews' "Heaven" while I waited for my Mom to come out from some bloodwork, and i read all of the above-mentioned books while I was a teen and they didn't phase me one iota. Nor did they phase my mom, who knew that I wasn't so stupid and impressionable as to read a romance novel and think, "Wow. That's a fantastic idea. I should have sex with middle-aged men and do it often." Twelve was also the year I wrote my first erotic story (shuddup, I had a completely uncensored childhood), and discovered both Grandpa's stash of porn in the tool chest and the dirty movies they showed on the French channel (a right of passage for any Canadian teen) and, not surprisingly, the year I masturbated for the first time.

Now, many parents who discovered this chronology in their child would assume "OHNOEZ! SHE'S GOING TO HAVE SEX NOW!" Uh, no. I was twelve. Forget sex. I was still getting over the shock of getting my period. It would be years before I lost my virginity, but this illustrates my point. Once those hormones kick in, sex implants itself in the brain. The irresponsibilty of all this comes into effect when parents are too stupid to tackle the issue, resulting in stupid kids. Case in point--my best friend. Her parents were ministers who couldn't fathom their little girl having sex, and she was the first of out group of have sex and have it often. Perhaps if they had been realistic about it and done something like, say, hold a pair of scissors in front of her face while giving her the talk (thanks Mom) she might have thought twice about screwing everyone on the planet, including all the white-trash brothers she did at the same time before moving to Toronto.

The testy head of adulthood appeared when I was 21. The aforementioned best friend started chatting online to a seventeen year old, and when the twerp added me to his ICQ I discovered that their conversations were very explicit. I went ballistic and lectured her on how she shouldn't be messing with an impressionable and lonely teen who was so hormonally charged he threatened to kill me when I told him she had a fiance. We went down this road again a few years later when she had an inappropriate relationship with some kid she was tutoring. Naturally I was also getting all huffy about the kids I used to babysit popping up pregnant, news reports about thirteen year old girls hooking up with 19 year-old guys for blowjobs via IM programs, and teachers having sex with their students. then you have MySpace & sites which are basically one big hook-ups

I completely 100% stand by my fist-shaking over the above. I might have been a sexual creature when I was a teen but I was also bat-shit crazy half the time, crying myself sick over the most insignificant shit. Emotionally teenagers take everything harder than adults and cannot handle the extremes that come along with sex. My only guess is that neither can the adults who have sex with teens and imagine themselves in love with teens, but for the love of Christ as much as they justify it to themselves they at least can differentiate right from wrong. Teens don't see things in those terms, especially today's teens (look around LJ, find a 14-year old who uses an icon of themselves with the word WHORE proudly emblazoned across the image.)

It's all so icky, and it brings me back to Evangeline Anderson's story and why I'm okay with it. Again there's another double standard -- Evangeline is a grown woman and the story was published in a context meant for other grown women. If she was actually Steve Anderson I have no doubt in my mind I'd be pointing the finger of shame at him. However as a grown woman writing for women, Evangeline, along with VC Andrews & Jane Feather, is taking the reader back to a time in a woman's life when she had no real responsibility and her universe centred around sex and men and attaining both. If your teen sex life was absolutely craptastic with the horny teen boy whining about how he doesn't like condoms, couldn't find your clitoris if you drew him a map, and almost poking you up the arse twice before actualy getting it in the right hole then this is your chance to vicariously do it with a real man who not only knows where the clitoris but the g-spot you were sure you didn't have until much later.

It all comes back to women owning their sexuality. The fantasy of the schoolgirl is as much the woman's as it is the man's. Like the forced seduction mentioned in the last rant, the teen girl/older guy is the female, in this case the writer and her readers, putting themselves in the shoes of the teen girl being seduced. Would I want to be seventeen again if it meant I got to have a hot police officer's hands down my panties? Hell yeah.

It's still shocking as hell to see it, though, which prompted me to go off for a second time in a night. and it's a little unfair, isn't it? Dangerous, too, if you consider a gay man/woman writing the same kind of story would you tend to lean towards "They want to have sex with a minor" or "They're putting themselves in the place of the teen"?

Like I said, iffy.

(Read Speeding Ticket on Evangeline's website -- and someone buy me Masks, dag-nabbit!)

Rant v.1

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 03:18:38 GMT

http://www.dionnegalace.com/covers/2006/07/sweet-savage-boredom.html

I wouldn't believe that this nice young lady will soon be laying beneath some long-haired bum with his hand over her mouth as he tickles her ivories with his free hand, while whispering to her, "Your body was made for this. It betrays you. It says 'yes, yes, yes' even as your mouth says no." Unless Johanna Lindsey heroes don't do forced seductions anymore. I don't know. I haven't read any of more books since I was in the 8th grade. Can anyone verify if the heroine in this novel gets ~~raped~~ forcibly seduced?

Now, more than once I've seen comments like these, which makes me feel like a complete and utter freak. I've read a few of these. The first one I read was by Elizabeth Lowell. I was in 8th grade. There were male-buttocks on the cover. My English teacher spazzed out and a boy in my class accused me of reading porn (duh.) Add to that the obscene amount of V.C. Andrews books I read from the ages 12-18.

Recently I started reading "Wicked Loving Lies" by Rosemary Rogers, who I've never read before but from reviews I understand she's some sort of anti-woman because her heroes are total Alpha-males who will rip the clothes off of any woman and bang the shit out of her before she knows what's going on. In this particular book a pirate gets her drunk, dunks her in bed, screw her, then gets pissed at her when he finds out she's a virgin and then kicks her out. Then he gets her back, rapes her again, and she spends about 30 pages as his nekkid love-slave. Flash-forward to when they're forced to marry and one orgasm later she's in lurve (that's as far as I got, btw.) I'm also pretty sure that, aside from the raping and captivity, he would have been up on charges of corrupting a minor, because I highly doubt she was older than 16.

Another book I recently read, "Hades Daughter" by Sara Douglass, is all about the brutal Trojan male (coincidentally named Brutus, as in ancestor of Aeneas) who forces a marriage to a Greek princess and proceeds to dominate the hell out of her for something like 50 years. And she kicks the ass of the woman who took him away from her and forced her to miscarry his baby, then she offs herself when he dies.

I love these books. There. I've said it. The whole "Muaha! I'm big and strong and my dick is huge and you're teeny and tight and I'm going to make you come whether you like it or not" will keep me reading from beginning to end. And I completely refuse to apologize for it, nor should the authors who write these. Why?

Boring answer first. The books are usually written better, with more exciting plots, more fleshed out characters, and historically they're pretty on the mark. Compare that to most romances of the day and a good chunk of the erotica out there. I loathe it when the hero is perfect and you just HAVE to love him because of how much he loves her heroine.

The other answer is that if it's just a fantasy then I'm all for it. Lots of women have rough-sex/rape fantasies that they may or may not act on with a partner. No one is advocating violent rape as a real life scenario. If I knew of a woman who had been raped, kept a sex slave and then forced to marry her rapist I'd be outraged. But this is a romance novel, and for all the shrieking about how it's not porn for women it is. My late great-aunt used to read romances as faithfully as she read the Bible (she took that virgin/whore thing really seriously) and she always, always skipped straight to the sex. Sex is no longer something you simply do as a woman, it's something you own. And if you fantasy is to be the co-ed who's gang-banged by the football team then it's entirely your right. Just like it's the right of women to read a trashy book and totally get off on Dominic the pirate screwing the brains out of a less-than-consenting captive.

I'm not alone in this, either. The biggest romance ever is hands-down "Gone With The Wind". 60+ years later women still get wet when Rhett Butler snatches up Scarlett O'Hara, tells her that he won't be taking no for an answer and carries her upstairs. Oh yes, we know exactly why Scarlett has that I-just-came face on the next morning. She's been a frigid Southern Belle and Rhett taught her a lesson (the book is more graphic about this.)

Going back earlier than that, waaaaaaay earlier than that, we have the aforementioned Trojans and Greeks. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the Trojan war, is a big giant rapist. In the Trojan war alone he's awarded Briseis who becomes his slave. Unless you buy Sarah B. Franklin's version of things she was an object, albeit one he happened to like, and their first coupling was probably non-consensual, or at the very least entirely one-sided as far as the big O is concerned. For those who want to scream, "But he lurved her!!!!" I point out that he also had a questionable affair with Priam's daughter, Polyxena. I can't quite remember which work this is cited in, but he "fell in love" with her and raped her too. Then her father handed her over to Achilles. After Achilles died she got the blame for setting him up and Odysseus slit her throat to send her to Hades with Achilles.

So here we have at least two great romantic heroes, both of which were less than PC in the romantic department. Some people have learned to hate Rhett Butler in the same way they hate the entire movie for its often ridiculous depiction of the South and I could go on for a week about the dynamic of both, but Rhett remains one of those panty-soaker heroes whether you're willing to admit it or not. And while Achilles has been watered down to bleached-blonde Brad Pittage running through the ruins of Troy to find his Briseis doesn't change the fact that not only is he a rapist but as a raging homosexual (and potentially a necrophiliac, if you want to really get into it), he's still classical literature's #1 coverboy.

It's a tricky subject, but when you get right down to it the rapist-as-hero is not anti-feminine or dangerous. He's entirely a female creation. In a romance novel, the woman controls him. The woman places her heroine, probably a literary version of herself, in a completely implausible situation in which the sex, albeit forced, is so good she has multiple orgasms. This is just mind-candy for the woman who likes to be called a dirty whore while being fucked and frankly, if no one is getting hurt, then there's no reason whatsoever why the woman should be ashamed of it. I for one would rather read something with a character who's a bit of a prick than one who has the personality of a teletubby.

To subscribe to Dionne's book & cover reviews, add this link to your feed (she also has awesome cover snark):
http://dionnegalace.com/books/atom.xml

The Hurricane Story:

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 22:17:33 GMT

Under construction because Livejournal's rich text mode hates me.

Published Works

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 21:59:52 GMT

Oysters & Chocolate

Blackout *now read free online*
Published July 2006

Excerpt:

"So, you're work here is done? Good job, Batman."

He laughed and edged a little further inside, watching me as though to gauge my reaction. "I just thought I'd check to see if you needed anything."

I raised my right brow and took on a sober tone. "What would I possibly need from you now?"

The expression on his face was too much. He honestly thought I was serious. He winced slightly and shook his head, no doubt on the verge of apologizing when I shoved the door open and stepped aside. "I was just finishing my shower. You're more than welcome to join me."

Tit-Elation

Little Mother
Published April 2006

Excerpt:

Her back was pressed against the tree trunk with Christian standing directly in front of her, clasping her hands. He was a head taller than Arden so she had to tilt her head backwards to meet his naughty gaze. “I know my life seems dull to you but I’ve made my bed.”

“And now you must sleep in it? Beds are made for more than just sleeping.”

“Spare me the details of your escapades. I hear enough of them through the walls at night.”

“And I hear yours; though I would hardly call what you do an escapade. That suggests something that’s fun, as lovemaking should always be. Not a chore that comes along with a set of instructions on how to mount a half-flaccid prick.”

Arden’s mouth popped open to reply but at the same moment Justin snorted and she twisted her head to ensure he hadn’t been roused. Relief ebbed through her to find him still soundly sleeping.

Christian hooked his finger under her chin and without an ounce of hesitation crushed his mouth over hers.

Between the Sun and the Moon
Published May 2006

Excerpt:

Bolder now she glanced up at him, parting her lips so he could see the enticing pink tongue she held between her teeth.

"You're wasting your time, Helen," he insisted but he was defeated by his own desire. All there was left for him to do is to talk out loud, to reason with her so that she might lose interest in him. "You're suffering from boredom, perhaps guilt over all the grief you've caused. I won't mollify you. I’ve my own troubles."

Helen grinned, looking down to where his feet were planted to the floor in spite of his conviction. She stepped back and with catlike movements shimmied out of her chiton, then closed the gap between them. "Then allow me to ease your burden, Hektor."

He could hear a rushing in his ears like waves crashing onto the surf as he watched her go down on one knee and cup the back of his muscular calves.

Incentive
Published June 2006

Excerpt:

“I don’t want you to go to jail.” She turned to face him. “If I reward you will that change anything?”

“Won’t that sully your pristine new life? I thought you’d left all that behind you.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “Or is it that you can’t go back to before there was you and I?”

Reluctantly she crossed the floor and stood before him, her cheek throbbing where her tongue worked thoughtfully inside. She let her coppery bang fall over her eyes. “I’ve met someone else.”

With a disgusted croak Noah grasped her hips and pulled her between his legs. “Is that so? Have you fucked him yet?”

"No.”

“Then this,” He shoved his hand up her skirt and cupped her crotch. “Is still mine.”

Midday Ruckus
Published June 2006
(Honourable mention in the Humo-Erotic contest)

Excerpt:

The men scooted back as a more ferocious assault followed. A rainbow of toys and books rained down from above like gifts from the angel of pornography. Rubbing his sore, sun burnt nose, Eustace stuck his leg out and with his toe rolled one of the toys towards him.

“What do you suppose this is?”

Barton simply glanced up from the erotic book he had snagged. “Butt stuff.”

“Butt stuff? But it has a tail!”

“That should have been your first clue.”

“Do you suppose it’s for him or her?”

“I don’t want to discuss it, Eustace.” The book fumbled from his hands when a shrill scream rang out. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.”

Heavy footfall pounded from inside and the men twisted their necks around. Jeremy was stomping through the kitchen towards them.

Their nephew wore only a pair of green plaid boxers and a ball cap. A fuzzy purple handcuff dangled from his wrist.

Eustace’s jaw dropped and he nudged Barton. “Get a load of that.”

Noel was slung over Jeremy’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes and she was squirming like a worm on a fishing hook. His wide forearm was braced beneath her bare bottom, which was bisected by a black g-string. Up to mid-thigh her shapely legs were covered in black fishnets topped with hot-pink lace. One foot was bare while a glossy stiletto barely clung to the other.

Greencoat
Published September 2006

Excerpt:

“Undress, my child, and come to bed.”

In the air there was a current of something passing between the two that made my neck prickle. She fumbled with the ties of her cape and let it pool at her feet like a crimson stain. Shrouded in shadow, he twisted his head to look over his shoulder to see what I saw. Down to her underclothes now, she approached the bed with the backlight from the weakening fire illuminating her silhouette.

“Take off your shift and stockings.” He murmured, his voice beginning to change now. “You won’t need them anymore.”

Fresh Off The Vine

Left In The Dark >*read online in current issue*
Published July 2006

Excerpt:

"I called the power company this morning and they said it could be days before we get our lights back. I feel so vulnerable all alone over there with no power."

"Well I'm alone here, too," I pointed out as I filled her thermos. "If you get lonely ..."

Her cheeks reddened and she giggled nervously. "I might take you up on that."