I’m so pleased to have a story in this anthology; who doesn’t love steampunk-erotica? I keep sneaking over to look at the list of stories and feeling a little rush of excitement at being on there.
Like a Corset Undone: All the trappings of steampunk society–corsets, airships, and ‘leaping technologie’–meet the simmering undertone of sexuality so well-hidden by Victorian morality in LIKE A CORSET UNDONE, Circlet Press’s third volume of erotic steampunk stories. By turns kinky and romantic, the stories in Like a Corset Undone explores all the reasons to unlace, whether to rebel, or for more intimate purposes.
(Am currently sleep-deprived and battle-scarred; you know, NOTHING else in life has adequately prepared me for life with a newborn. But my little werepup is precious and perfect, and worth it. And I’m just starting to feel enough like myself again to be beaming with delight over this review…)
So I’ve been thinking about the appeal of shapeshifter romance, which is the sort of thing I sit around pondering, if you’ve ever wondered.
Aside from the “wouldn’t it be cool to be able to do that?” aspect of shapeshifting, I have a loose theory that shifters “stand in” for certain problems and issues in real life. Having a character with two selves makes it possible to explore the “pulled in two directions” problems we all face, especially when it comes to balancing sex-and-romance with the rest of our lives.
Take werewolves, for example: a lot of compelling werewolf fic deals with the conflict between loyalty and duty to family/clan, on the one hand, and wanting to be free to pursue one’s own emotional/sexual needs, and outside interests, on the other. Or between animal instinct, including sexual desire, and rational decision-making.
And then there are the, um, cute shifters (everyone admire that oh-so-subtle segue, there!). Okay, forgive the shameless self promotion, or in this case group promotion, but take the whole Dawg Town thing. Aside from being both hot and hilarious (I hope), I think we’ve got something interesting going on there, with the contrast between stereotypes-about-bikers (tough, scary, dangerous) and things-you-want-to-cuddle.
Okay, yes, none of us will ever date a shapeshifter. Probably. But that tension between desire and nervousness, between the “threat” inherent in getting to know someone and the “lure” of how touchable, trustworthy, and attractive they might also be: that’s a reality.
We’ve just taken the idea and made it literal, and in the process, entertaining (we hope).
The soon-to-be-released series:
Selena Illyria, Dawg Town : Homecoming
Tuesday Richards, Dawg Town : Mad Dawg
Lena Austin, Dawg Town : Bad Dawg
Anne Kane, Dawg Town : Hustle
Carlanime Bligh, Dawg Town : Prairie Rose
Marteeka Karland, Dawg Town: Hot Dawg
Dawn Montgomery, Dawg Town : Playing for Keeps
Mary Winter, Dawg Town : Chip & Dale
My own contribution, Prairie Rose, is one of several erotic shapeshifter stories in the Dawg Town series. Unusual shapeshifters, to put it mildly. Really cute ones.
I have a shapeshifter story coming out soon from Changeling Press. It’s one of a whole series of shapeshifter stories–all written by different people. Guess what they shift into. Go on, guess.
For personal reasons I’m about to be missing from the computer for an extended period (from the 16th of June until the end of August, it looks like, although I *might* manage to sneak a few moments online in the latter half of August). And I mean, really missing from the computer–not just no updates, but no email, which means no submissions anywhere.
And no writing, although I have surrounded myself with notebooks. So I will actually be writing, technically, just in the inconvenient way that will leave me with lots to type up afterwards.
Anyway, knowing I can’t submit anything until the autumn has had a predictably depressing effect on my wordcounts. But it hasn’t stopped me from doing a lot of note-jotting, outlining, and worldbuilding, so that’s all to the good.
I’ve been playing around a lot with my D/s-based Steampunk-esque world, and have come to the conclusion that what I’m trying to create there is a sort of not-Gor. That is, I want to keep all the dominance-and-submission social structure of Gor, but I don’t want it to be mandatory male-Dom female-sub; I want a world with more permutations. And of course, the “feel” of the world is entirely different: it’s pseudo-Victorian, so it’s all very “manners and tea and spanking”….
“Oh, god, yes,” she moaned, as he parted her legs.
Erotic Romance
Writing and Selling erotic Fiction
Five Keys to Writing a Good Erotic Romance Novel
Erotic Romance: How to Write Hot Romantic Fiction
Virginia Romance Writers: erotica links
Packing Heat: Erotica Writing Tips and Techniques
“Oh, God.”
“Yes,” he said, rising from all fours as the last of the thick fur disappeared. “I’m a werewolf.”
Paranormal Romance
Virginia Romance Writers: Paranormal links
Becci Clayton: Writing the Paranormal Romance
Brandi Loyd: Top Mistakes that Authors Make When Writing Paranormal Romance
Paranormal Romance: Secrets of the Female Fantastic
Harlequin’s Paranormal Romance Blog
RWA’s Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Chapter
“Oh yes: God,” she said simply, when he asked if there was some reason she didn’t believe in casual sex.
Inspirational Romance
Virginia Romance Writers: Inspirational links
Essence of Motown Literary Jam: Writing Inspirational Romance with Gail Gaymer Martin
Brenda Coulter: How to Get Started writing Inspirational Romance
An Interview with Inspirational Romance Author, Kendra Norman Bellamy
Higher Love: What Women Gain from Christian Romance Novels
Writing the Romance Novel: History of the Inspirational Romance
I’d like to start this post with a confession: when I was a child, I had the most massive crush on Julian of the Famous Five.
Continue Reading »
Forthwritten has written a really interesting essay on Steampunk that neatly pokes at the point where my enjoyment of Steampunk and my awareness of what Victorian society was really like collide.
And right now I’m feeling particularly fascinated with the conventions of steampunk, because I have a steampunk-erotica story which will appear in an upcoming (fall-release) anthology.
My story doesn’t quite fit the conventions Forthwritten brings up; it features a young woman who isn’t an explorer or a countess, she’s attending a maid-training school (yes, there really were such things); and the hero isn’t the glamorous kind of engineer, he’s a civil engineer with a deep concern for public hygiene/infectious disease.
The thing is, though, I think steampunk-erotica is already expanding the steampunk genre, and not just because it includes the explicitly sexual bits of the whole alternate-history fantasy. Circlet Press’ Like a Wisp of Steam (I get to plug that shamelessly, because I didn’t write any of it!) is a good taste of this. There’s a story by Peter Tupper (The Innocent’s Progress) that I can’t rec highly enough, and it’s one of the most unique bits of steampunk I’ve ever read.
So (warning: this sentence is very vaguely spoilerish for 5-22, in case you’re rigidly avoiding spoilers) we now know that House’s subconscious doesn’t think Taub looks good in a lab coat.
I can see its point. Taub is not “conventionally good looking” by tv-show standards. He hasn’t got that jaw-dropping beauty that a lot of the cast have.
But he is strangely attractive. Deeply flawed — the whole “cheating on his wife for years” thing makes me cringe, and I found myself disliking him during 5-15) — but in spite of all that, I can’t help thinking that his character is the perfect example of a person who, while not handsome or cute or whatever, is loaded with appeal. That character? Would be a hell of a good time in bed: wry, witty, balanced between hubris and self-deprecation, obviously wild about women…
If it were possible to step briefly into the House-verse, he’d be my consequence-free good time of choice, I think. Not the kind of character you’d want to have to cope with in the long term, but a few nights of having those intense eyes all to yourself? Definitely.
