Thursday, November 13, 2008

Slow Melt to be released by loveyoudivine Alterotica!


My second short story will be released soon from loveyoudivine Alterotica! It's definitely more hard core BDSM than "Safe Word".


Here is a synopsis:


Mutt is a sex slave sworn to obey his Master commands, even if that means acting as a dog or having sex with another Master. Mutt’s only purpose is to please his Master.
One night, Master takes him to help train another couple interested in puppy play. During the session, Master decides to show off Mutt’s extensive training, but the pet fails to keep one of Master’s strictest rules. As a result, he is forced to experience his Dom’s wrath.
Facing humiliating punishment at the hands of his Master, he is kept chained and locked in the dungeon. When he sees Master again, he realizes that his punishment has only begun….and that he may not survive it.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Screwed-Up Life of Charles the Second by Drew Ferguson


High school is an awkward time for everyone, but Charles Stewart, the main character of Drew Ferguson’s novel, manages to cope by masturbating continuously and fantasizing about every other senior male at school. Told through Charles’s diary, the book takes the reader through the first few months of his senior year, dealing with his parents’ rocky marriage, being openly gay to his soccer teammates and dating the hottest and richest guy in school.

He finds comfort with his best friend, Neil ‘Bink’ Binkmeyer, whose family is reminiscent of the Weasley family in J. K. Rowlings’ Henry Potter series. They are numerous, quirky and a big support system for Charlie as he struggles with the pitfalls of being gay. Bink is straight but loves and protects Charlie like a brother. Bink’s mother is adorable as she stumbles around trying to find upstanding gay role models for Charlie, but ends up thinking of the most flawed. But Bink’s girlfriend Dana remains mad at Charlie for most of the book because she blames him for ruining her back-to-school party.

It’s at this same party that Charlie meets Rob Hunt, the new senior in town. He’s hot, loaded and falls head-over-heels for the tall, gangly, big-nosed and big-eared Charlie Stewart. Their open relationship creates some interesting dynamics at their high school since they go to the homecoming dance as a couple and they share a room when the soccer team travels to an out-of-town game. But as typical, the good-looking rich kid is left alone while the lesser one (Charlie, in this case) takes the brunt of his classmates’ homophobia.

Despite their differences, they become lovers with Rob teaching Charlie the joys of sex. When Rob’s mother dies, the two boys are drawn closer together, until some questions are raised about the circumstances surrounding her death.

Rob does a one-eighty on Charlie, accusing him of withholding information which he believes indicates that his mother’s death may not have been due to natural causes and his father may have been involved. Even taking into consideration a young man’s grief over the untimely demise of a mother, Rob’s extreme reactions seem a bit far-fetched especially with the brutal beating of Charlie so soon after the prom.

For the rest of the book, I hoped that Rob would come around after realizing his cruel and inhumane treatment of Charlie but I think Ferguson handled the ending well without disappointing the reader with a cop-out or a ‘happily ever after’. When Rob does come around after Charlie narrowly avoids a serious head injury during a soccer game, the damage has been done, but there is a glimmer of hope for Charlie.

I enjoyed reading Charles the Second but sometimes his attitude got a bit too sarcastic. Very, VERY sarcastic. Also his propensity to masturbate pushes the envelope when he has to ‘disappear’ for a spell during the viewing at the funeral home. Does death turn him on that much? Creepy.

Although, Charlie lacks the innocence that many of us had during high school, he is an enjoyable character. It’s his flaws that ultimately make us like him and cheer for him through his senior year.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Sex Club by L. J. Sellers


Sellers’s first novel featuring Detective Wade Jackson of Eugene, Oregon is a disturbing mystery involving teenage sex and fanatical Christian extremism. The story open with the bombing of a Planned Parenthood birth control clinic, followed closely by the death of a young client, found nude in a trash dumpster. Jackson becomes worried bout his own teenaged daughter, once it becomes known she used to be friends with the murdered girl. And the victim was sexually active. With his marriage to an alcoholic wife disintegrating and taking on Eugene’s top elected official, Jackson continues to uncover startling revelations about the students at his daughter’s middle school.

Meanwhile, Kera Kollmorgan, a nurse at the clinic, is caught in the midst of the bombing and knowledge of the dead girl’s sexual activities but cannot divulge confidential patient information to the police. She initiates her own investigation starting with an email she received from the dead girl after she left the clinic that fateful day, but before she died. Kera stumbles upon a website where teenage girls and boys chat openly about their sexual escapades with unabashed bluntness. The more she probes, the more she unwittingly puts herself in the bomber’s eye and becomes the next target.

Jackson meanwhile believes he has the murder investigation wrapped up, when another body surfaces. Is it a copycat murder or is there a serial killer loose in Eugene?

The aspects of The Sex Club I found to be disturbing was how the bomber used Bible passages to justify her violent quest, relying on them to guide her quest for destruction and murder. Fundamentalists like this get so caught up in their religious fervor that they can twist the verses in the Good Book to fit their own agenda. On the other hand, Sellers’s concept of Suzie Homemaker/terrorist is hysterical. In one scene, she plans a nice meal for her family after cleaning up her bomb-making materials.

The realism of the teen sex in the story may cause some readers to squirm. It’s interesting to note that the emphasis in The Sex Club was clearly on the girls, while the boys were virtually non-existent, and hardly mentioned after their names appeared.

Sellers does a great job of keeping the pace moving and dialogue interesting. She has a good knowledge of police procedures and autopsy methods that are as fascinating as the mystery. The build-up to the climax will thrill you to its exciting conclusion.