Erotica

Please note: All erotica projects are currently on hiatus for reasons I’m not getting into online. They might resume in the future, because I’m fond of the characters, but possibly a re-write will be involved – not because I have a problem with anything I’ve written, but in the interests of being able to finish it.

It actually isn’t much of a stretch. The rest of what I write has characters varying widely in sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, relationship terms (monogamy included), kinks and other sexual expression, and other aspects of human sexuality and gender, to say nothing of the frequent underlying themes of power and dominance, self-discovery and self-acceptance, and finding one’s own place to genuinely belong. That makes it an easy step to explore that in more detail. I’ve been writing erotica sporadically, just to amuse myself, for a very long time, but since the handful I shared online in the mid-90s, I’ve kept it to myself. Honestly, there is a stigma, a sort of divide between erotica and all other literature (of course, there’s also one between fantasy and science fiction, and everything else), and I was concerned about being known for that but not my ‘real work’.

It’s all real. It’s all the same level of writing, editing, re-editing, finding the flaws, banging head on wall, fixing them, polishing it. It’s all still character-driven. It’s just a different focus.

My erotica is typically long (at least novel-length) and has more domination, kink, fetish, and interpersonal dynamics than all-out squishy-noises sex. It’s always fantasy, in the supernatural sense. And it’s diverse. If that sounds appealling, you can find the first two of these on Noveltrove Erotica (my Noveltrove author page). Both are on hiatus because life happened, but I do want to get back to them, around other projects. Fair Trade has two dozen published chapters, and Brightside has ten. The third project listed is a novel in progress and not all that far from a complete first draft.

Fair Trade

Powerful, long-lived fae will make bargains with humans, wishes for service. Sounds so simple – right?

What it’s about: Jillian has tried her entire life, now creeping up on 40 years of it, to be as conventional and normal as possible, and to dismiss any restlessness or dissatisfaction as just something everyone feels. When her underachieving younger brother gets himself in trouble thanks to his new circle of friends, Jillian is definitely not expecting an astonishing revelation from her elegant and sympathetic friend Min: fae are real, long-lived and powerful, and are often willing to make bargains with humans. The price is service to the fae, the first time for only twelve hours. Given that she trusts Min, how bad can it be, especially to keep her brother from a conviction he doesn’t deserve? But the world gets stranger by the moment, as she meets Min’s cheerful rescued human pet Flair, Min’s good-natured satyr husband Nikandros, and Min’s fae friends, none of them currently pretending to be human – Min included. Although the bargain ends exactly on schedule, subtle effects linger, reaching deep into Jillian’s life and undermining more and more of her fundamental beliefs about who she is and what she needs in order to be happy. As she steps farther and farther into the reality of humans who are beholden to fae, it gets hard to be certain of anything.

What’s in it: overwhelmingly, submission and self-exploration. Also, fetish (especially corsets, clothes, and chastity), toys, friendship, less outright squishy-noises sex than you might expect but still some, objectification, mild transformation and shapeshifting, exasperating families, a little body modification late in the story, literal living statues, a central character with a mobility disability, mild bondage, fae with a variety of individual powers (and appearances!), and I’m not going to guarantee this is comprehensive. I never make promises about the orientation or gender or monogamy of any character. Minor spoiler: Fae tend to see humans somewhat the way we see animals. While not all fae are benign (to say the least), Min and her friends are genuinely fond of their humans, are protective of their own and each other’s, and will not act in any way that they believe will be detrimental – whether the humans understand it or not – but they are neither omniscient nor omnipotent. But, as always, there’s a happy ending.

Brightside

Losing a job is frustrating, but switching to the other world to visit her best friend leads Kate to Damon, and that makes it all worth it.

What it’s about: To Kate, and to many others, the world we know is only one option, commonly referred to as Brightside. There is a second one, Darkside, which has quite a lot in common with Brightside… and also some very significant differences. One of the largest, at least for our purposes, is that humans never appeared on Darkside, but several other sentient, and usually humanoid, species evolved in separate habitats. Most people live in one or the other and are aware only of one. But to a substantial community, life straddling both worlds is normal. Kate, having lost her most recent job as archivist and librarian in a Darkside town, needs a vacation badly. Her oldest friend Magda is delighted to have her on an indefinite visit. Kate expects to have to return to Darkside eventually to find a job. Then Magda introduces Kate to her Brightside friends… and things change very quickly. One of those friends is Damon, a computer tech and website designer with goth tendencies, who’s half tenebran – a nocturnal, intermittently blood-drinking obligate carnivore. Damon asks Kate out to dinner, and it quickly becomes clear that he not only understands the kinky longings Kate has been suppressing for lack of an outlet, he shares them, has more experience to back it, and is happy to help her explore.

What’s in it: consent and honesty, bondage, domination, a heterosexual romance, mild (non-undead, non-dangerous) vampirism, erotic photography and stories, worldbuilding, some people who started off human but no longer are and some people who never were. I expect to add a lot to this list over time, since this is an open-ended story with no likelihood of developing a clear plot and resolution (but hey, it wouldn’t be the first time a plot has appeared from nowhere and surprised me). The kinky games occur intermittently around a new and developing relationship and within that context, but will not be restricted to only the two of them. This one is temporarily on hiatus after 10 chapters while I work on other projects.

Just A Game

(Still working on first draft! Details subject to change!)

A novelty board game from a Weird Magic Shop (modern version) gives 3 couples a peculiar and illuminating evening.

What’s it about: One night a month, Beth, her long-time friends Lilla and Megan, and their respective guys get together to order takeout and hang out for the evening. This month, Beth found herself on an odd disappearing website that offered her a board game for adults. After a few drinks, they decide to try it, and the first round looks like some silly, slightly naughty fun. When they agree to continue, the intensity and sheer impossibility escalate rapidly. While they could stop, it would mean uncomfortable consequences for the next 24 hours. But continuing to play means learning some astonishing things about each other, and even more surprising things about themselves.

What’s in it: various fetishes and kinks, bondage, domination, loving but imperfect relationships between 40-something adults, toys, exhibitionism, sex acts in multiple combinations, some mild transformation (including furry), multiple kinds of genderfuckery, a long-since-post-op trans character without that being a big deal, real bodies, and anything else that comes to mind. The force behind the game is not malicious, I’ll tell you that much, and there’s a happy ending!

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