Hello and welcome to the Circlet Press community on LiveJournal! We've already got a blog over at www.circlet.com, but if all goes right with our technical wizardry... posts that appear there will also appear here. Or something like that. Or maybe we'll just fake it...

A delicious short-short story awaits you at http://www.circlet.com/ for our weekly Fiction Friday. This one from Kannan Feng.

Call for Submissions: Like the Knave of Hearts

What if Alice returned to Wonderland as an adult, and met up with the White Knight or the Red Queen again? What if there was more going on between the Queen of Hearts and the Knave than just those tarts? And what kind of adventures was Mary Ann, the White Rabbit’s maid, up to when she wasn’t at home? We’re looking for a darker, sexier view of Wonderland. Be creative, keep it legal, and don’t be afraid to explore your nightmares as well as your dreams.

( Submission Details )

Announcing! A print edition of FAEWOLF by D. M. Atkins and Chris Taylor.

Circlet is pleased to announce the first of our ebook titles that now has a print edition, instead of the other way around!

Faewolf, the printed edition, contains all the text of the ebook and comes to 290 whopping pages. It retails for $14.95, the same price as our usual 200-page trade paperbacks!

To order, follow this link to CreateSpace, where it is printed and shipped direct to you!
https://www.createspace.com/3388414

Faewolf is a paranormal m/m erotic romance.

Faewolves, like werewolves, can walk among men. What happens when Kiya White Cloud, a young gay college student in Santa Cruz, wants one of these men enough to risk his heart--and his life?

D.M. Atkins is an author of both non-fiction and fiction. An anthropologist, Atkins has edited several anthologies on LGBT topics, including Looking Queer, Lesbian Sex Scandals, and Bisexual Women in the 21st Century and is the former editor of both Locus and Shadows Of... magazines. Visit DMAtkins.net. Chris Taylor has been writing for years but FAEWOLF is Taylor's first original fiction novel. Taylor is a New Yorker, attending college.

Warning: explicit sex, dubious consent, and rough scenes.

We're having a short break in author chats, with our next one being the fabulous Vinnie Tesla on July 10-11.

Mr. Tesla is one of the first people whose LiveJournal I followed when I dipped my toe into the social networking pool. He has the all-too-rare talent of writing fiction that is both hot and so funny that you'll hurt yourself laughing. He is an expert in such diverse areas as Victorian erotica and tentacle porn. His story "The Ontological Engine, or, the modern Leda appears in the Circlet anthology Up for Grabs, which is available from Circlet Press for a dollar off the cover price.

As a conclusion to a wonderful couple of days of great discussion, I want to jot down my thoughts on steampunk and its role as an aesthetic and as a genre.

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Something I've noticed and wondered about since the growth of the romance/romantasy/romantica/erotica/whatever you want to call it ebook publishing field: where are the malesub/femdom books?

For example, the capture/bondage section of Ellora's Cave is, as far as I can tell, entirely femsub/maledom scenarios. The Wicked Pleasures section of Ravenous Romance is a little less homogenous, but there are few malesub/femdom scenarios. (If someone can supply counter-examples, go right ahead.)

Now, I admit this isn't particularly a fair question. You could ask the same thing of, say, Kink.com, and get much the same answer: "This is what our customer base wants." The assumed primary audience for "romantica" is heterosexual women, and the publishers would answer, "This is what they want, ever since Catherine murmured, 'I am Heathcliff.' in Wuthering Heights."

But why is that? Do scenarios with the woman on top hold no appeal to women? Is there no tradition of female dominant romance? Is this "just the way it is", or is it the unquestioned assumptions of the publishing industry?

This is a personal issue because my own sexual axis is malesub/femdom, and because I'm exploring doing a "romantica" novel in which the pairing is malesub/femdom (and the woman has the supernatural power). Will this be rejected out of hand, on the grounds of, "Sorry, not invented here"? I like to think that my story would appeal, emotionally and sexually, to straight women as well as men.

This is a question for writers of erotica and/or pornography (I tend the use the two terms interchangeably): where do you draw the line on consent?

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“The Innocent’s Progress” was my first fiction sale in many years, since “Subjective Lens” back in 1995. It was quite a departure from what I usually write, being almost entirely character-driven.

“The Innocent’s Progress” wasn’t originally a steampunk story, exactly. At first, I had it set in a more medieval China-like society, one with a highly formalized system of sexual interaction. When I got wind of the steampunk anthology, I migrated it over to a pseudo-Victorian setting, when live theatre was still the window to the imagination. There are air dreadnoughts and difference engines and the like in this world, but they don’t directly affect the character’s lives.

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I’ve have a warm spot in my heart for Circlet Press, ever since Cecilia Tan published my first professional story, “Subjective Lens,” in the S/M Futures anthology back in 1995. I’m very pleased and honored to be part of Circlet’s revival as an ebook publisher.

I’ve been involved in the BDSM scene for about 15 years. Apart from writing fiction and non-fiction, like a column for the now defunct Whiplash magazine, I’ve been involved in many BDSM organization as an organizer and publicist. Right now, I’m vice-president of Metro Vancouver Kink, a non-profit, community-based organization I co-founded in 2007.

Just when I was starting to explore BDSM in the early 1990s, I learned about Hannah Cullwick and Arthur Munby in history class. They were a Victorian maid of all work and her employer, whose relationship included master-slave roleplaying, service, ageplay, infantilism and dirt fetishism. All of this was recorded in the diaries and photos Munby left to posterity. I was tickled to know that there were recognizable forms of BDSM more than a century ago.

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Peter Tupper will be hosting our next Circlet author chat at our LiveJournal community. Peter penned "The Innocent's Progress" in Circlet's recent publication Like a Wisp of Steam. An "accidental expert" on steampunk erotica, Peter maintains the blog Beauty in Darkness: the history of BDSM.

Today's microfiction is the Hymn of the Pearl, by Lauren P. Burka. It's a bit longer than our usual micro, but you know. Sometimes I like them big.

Check it out at http://www.circlet.com/

We're publishing an excerpt of one of our books every Monday, and a new, original microfiction every Friday. And starting in a few weeks I hope to begin running a serial every Wednesday. I know, I know, such a bounteous cornucopia of erotic fantasy and science fiction! We try.

FAEWOLF - An Erotic M/M Paranormal Romance by D.M. Atkins & Chris Taylor

Excerpt Warning: Adult content, Non-Human/Human sexual imagery.

( Click to read Excerpt #3 )

One of my partners and I just read, Wicked Gentlemen by Glinn Hale. It was a book recommended by several people who also write in the same fandom as I do. My partner pointed out that the book is "Hurt/Comfort" fiction without the explicit nature of what I usually write. That got me musing on the nature of comfort as a kink. In fan fiction, Hurt/Comfort is actually a genre of fiction. A specific kink that people like to read. Fandom has institutionalised the erotic component of this, but I know it has been around a lot longer than that.

My first stories were Hurt/Comfort. I was ten when I first began writing down my erotic stories. I found that the few other young people I shared them with also liked this type of story. There is something deeply erotic for me about someone who is abused or hurt being cared for by someone. A lot of people misunderstand H/C fic. They see the violence done to characters and miss that part of the appeal is the contrast with the comfort part of the story. Comfort without the hurt part comes off as too sappy. It's the balance of light and dark. The pain/pleasure mix, that does it.

And it has to be earned. The healing can't be one of those instantaneous things. I want to see the person and their lover struggle to come to terms with and move past what has happened. It has to "feel real" no matter how fantastic the nature of the story.

At a personal level, it strikes a deep cord for me when someone who has been beaten, raped or otherwise abused finds a way to heal. There is something satisfying about the person who is badly damaged still being able to love and be loved. It doesn't just make me happier, it actually turns me on. I remembering being both shocked and thrilled when I found I wasn't the only person with this bent.

Would you like to win a free copy of an ebook from Circlet Press?

Answer the following question in a comment here (replies screened). On Wednesday evening, when our chat finishes up, we will put the names of those who got it right in a hat and draw a winner! The winner will have the option of a copy of Faewolf or one of a several other books from the Circlet Press catalog.

In Faewolf, what is Brian Fenwick's true name and what does the name mean?

(Please include your email so we can contact you if you win!)

WINNER: ladystyx

Brian's true name is Saoi. His name is Gaelic for "scholar" and his clan called him that because he read books.

I was recently on a panel discussion entitled, "I Kissed What? – Paranormal Romance" (at Baycon). We discussed the way paranormal romances adapt and/or subvert the conventions of traditional romance. I think the idea applies equally well, if not more so, to other erotic genres.

One aspect pointed out was that the traditional romance used class and gender differences to create the tension. We see that in the “Cinderella” storylines. The "poor girl" falls for the "rich man." The prince woos the forbidden love of the woman beneath his station. Much of the plot tension in these stories depends on the barriers to their relationship.

In Faewolf, Chris and I played with several barriers to the relationship. The first one was actually a status difference, in that Brian is a graduate student teaching Kiya's class. Unbeknownst to Kiya though, Brian is also a wolf in human form. His struggle to resist the forbidden of his human student is part of the dilemma of the story.

Much of both what I have written and what I have seen in erotic science fiction and fantasy depends on this same kind of tension of "the other" – the werewolf, the vampire, the fairy, the alien. Is this a troupe of eroticizing difference?

FAEWOLF - An Erotic M/M Paranormal Romance by D.M. Atkins & Chris Taylor

( Click to read Excerpt #1 )

Hi, this is DM Atkins (along with co-author, Chris Taylor). We will be the authors chatting with folks June 15-17.

I have some ideas of things to talk about, a contest to post and some excerpts from our new book to post over the next couple days. So, we'd love to hear what folks are curious about, would like to read, etc.

Do you want to know how we came to write what we do? What are works we have in progress? How we go about it? Opinions on topics?

Suggestions are very welcome!

In the meantime, here is information about our recently released novel from Circlet:




Faewolves, like werewolves, can walk among men. What happens when Kiya White Cloud, a young gay college student in Santa Cruz, wants one of these men enough to risk his heart--and his life? An m/m erotic romance from Circlet Press, Inc.

[Warning: explicit sex, dubious consent, and rough scenes.]

D.M. Atkins and Chris Taylor, the co-authors of Circlet's recent ebook publication Faewolf, will be hosting our next author chat. To participate, check out our LiveJournal June 15-17. You will not need to have your own LJ account to participate.

D.M. Atkins is an author of both non-fiction and fiction. An anthropologist, Atkins has edited several anthologies on LGBT topics, including Looking Queer, Lesbian Sex Scandals and Bisexual Women in the 21st Century and is the former editor of both Locus and Shadows Of… magazines. In recent years, Atkins has been a popular fan fiction author, under a pseudonym, and has won awards for online erotic fiction. Atkins lives in the Bay Area with two husbands, a girlfriend, their son, Atkins’ mother, three cats and a dog.

Chris Taylor has been writing for years but this is Taylor's first original fiction novel. Taylor is a New Yorker, attending college. Along with Atkins, Taylor has been writing fan fiction and won awards for erotic fiction in online communities.