It took a little longer to come than I thought

Must have been practicing tantra or something, but here it is at last, and I couldn't be prouder. :)

Here's the link, and here's the full description. Have fun!

If you have a fetish, chances are that you’ll find it in this book. At least 20 different naughty needs are bound up in these stories, including BDSM, latex, suspension, dark magic, heavy rubber, total enclosure, hypnosis, anonymous trysts, corsets, ballet boots, leather, pony girls, gimp suits, masturbation, collars, chains, and both damsels *and* their knights in shining armor in distress.

In “Solitaire,” the simplest of computer games draws a woman into the deepest levels of heavy rubber slavery.

In “Knights in White Bondage,” a fetish party is interrupted by a young man claiming that the slave of a self-proclaimed enchantress really *is* enslaved, and that he’s come to rescue her.

“Quick and Dirty” is just what it says: a filthy little tale about a tryst in a public bathroom.

In “Spellbound,” a supernatural researcher finds out that fairies are all too real – and all too seductive.

Finally, in “High Strung,” a powerful Queen comes to parley with a sorceress but finds herself in over her head – and over everybody else’s heads as well.

A Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: Spy vs. Guy

Hmm, where to start? Should I begin by reminding you that my model for Guy in Spy vs. Guy is the same fellow I used for Finvarra in Ethna Redux, fetish model Perish (Click the pic for a link to his Model Mayhem gallery)? Or should I begin by telling you that I haven't had this much sheer fun writing an EMC story since Solitaire? Gay men are always a blast to hang out with.

How about detailing all the trouble I went to, trying to find the right sort of EMC fetishists to proof me on my m/m sex scenes, before finally turning to two long-time friends from entirely outside the EMC community? I've done my best to reward the two of them, both with thank-you's in the credits and by addressing their various requests/concerns in the bulk of the story. The slash fan asked if I could let her favorite couple in on the fun, which I did (disguised, of course); and Jordan's "boner" gave my usually-blasé orc pal a literal case of the willies, so I added a "P.S." at the bottom of Chapter One to reassure my male readers that no, it really didn't hurt at all. Certainly not like this would, anyway. ;-P

Speaking of Jordan, I'm sure any of you who've seen The Crying Game know exactly where I got the idea for his big reveal. Oh, and if you happen to like Jaye Davidson (as I certainly do!), you might enjoy this lovely pic.

But there's so much more to this story, so many little geeky references and in-jokes that you might or might not get. The Monty Python and Star Wars shout-outs are pretty obvious, but I wonder how many of you will catch the nod to Stephen King or to the Village People's second-best-known song, much less the "I see your schwartz is as big as mine" moment. ;-) Then again, I suppose many of you are young enough (or Mad-illiterate enough) to miss the significance of the title itself. :-/

I've already discussed the origins of this story in an older post, so I won't repeat myself here. I'll just note the add-on's that occurred to me as I was writing, like the symbolic possibilities of the Samson and Hercules stories (Each of those scenes is "real," though obviously twisted to suit my purposes), and the Freudian connotations of various weapons - which I also played with in "Ethna Redux," as I do hope some of you noticed.

I also toyed with including Jacob's sexy tussle with that angel - it's always seemed to me that the angel let him win, as proven by how easily it disabled him in the end with just a touch - but I ditched that idea before writing a word of it; it was just too much for the story to take. I did, however, sneak in another crypto-homo-biblical reference split into halves, just to make it a little tricker to spot...though I do hope some of you will spot it. I like to add the occasional Easter egg to my stories; unfortunately, sometimes they're so subtle that no one catches them at all (as in Queen Bee Becomes a Drone - I'm really going to have to go back and spell that one out one of these days. In the meantime, please, someone let me know you figured out Morgaine's real identity!).

The design of Wylde's retreat was one of those happy cases where my subconscious did a lot of the work for me, and my conscious only twigged to what was going on toward the end. For those of you unfamiliar with the symbolism of houses (especially in dreams), they signify the totality of a person's soul or self or whatever you want to call it. I didn't realize at first just how appropriate it was that the upper levels of Guy's home are all bright and shiny; while below ground, it's pretty damn freaky. You can thank H.R. Giger for that - and yes, Wylde's sort-of throne in the third chapter is a Harkonnen Chair.

Now, about that ending. Yes, that's two open-ended conclusions in a row for me - though judging by the responses to "Ethna Redux," I'm not sure how open-ended some of you realized that one really was. Both of these stories feature The Lady or the Tiger scenarios, which should be familiar to anyone who grew up in the American school system, at least. I have no idea about the curriculum of other countries.

Then again, maybe "Spy vs. Guy" isn't quite as open-ended as it looks from outside my head. Jacob and the Angel weren't all that got left on the cutting room floor; I had also designed a seal for Wylde, LLC, which would have been a stylized lion's head with the motto split in half above and below the image: "Flexible Ethics - For the Greater Good." Besides, Guy's merry band of brainwashers just ended up being too nice to be true bad guys. Not that I didn't try to make them a bit more sinister in the final scene, but...well, you know. ;-)

Voicelessness

Behold the lovely Ancilla Tilia, nude, muzzled, and loving every second of it. I discovered in an interview I read that "ancilla" is Latin for "slave," and she really is a lifestyle sub.

Anyway, I chose this picture to share with you today because it represents a subset of my general mind control/enclosure/bondage fetish: enforced muteness. After all, isn't our ability to speak, to express our wants and feelings and opinions, an essential part of what makes us human? Taking away someone's voice, literally or figuratively, is extremely depersonalizing. In real life, it's horrible; but in MC fantasy, it's delicious. A slave has no voice at all in what happens to her or him.

Voicelessness is a theme I explored first in private fantasies; then later in several of my stories, including Spellbound, Solitaire and Willing Subject. Funny how those three just happen to be my personal favorites.

I've also explored the theme in some early photomanips I created for my own private pleasure. I'm sorry to say none of them are good enough to share online; however, I will give you this little tease: Callidus is interviewing me for his blog and has convinced me to share another pic I did which came out rather better than the mouthless ones. I'm not sure when he'll post the interview, but I'll let you know once it's up.

Oh, and one other tease: I hope to start writing "Ethna Redux" today or tomorrow.

*sigh of relief*

I'll admit to being a bit worried when the new update showed up on the EMCSA and my revised versions of Solitaire and A Tenpack of Trixies weren't included. Fortunately, they're up now. I guess Simon just had so much on his plate this week that he had to do the update in pieces.

So anyway, for those of you who didn't like the thought of downloading the RTF previews, the long wait is over. ;-P "Solitaire" is about 95% what it was before, though I am quite pleased with at least one new turn of phrase. On the other hand, I think "Tenpack" 2.0 is a significant improvement over the original, especially in two crucial explanatory passages that I don't think were clear enough the first time around. I hope you'll enjoy both stories.

As for me, when I haven't turning and returning to the EMCSA in search of my updates, I've been continuing my research into Irish fairy lore. My plan for (working title) "Ethna Redux" is to stick as close to the original script as possible, but at the same time give you "the rest of the story" as I prefer to imagine it. And we all know what that means, don't we...or do we? I might surprise you this time. I might surprise myself. To be honest, I'm not 100% where this one is going yet.

A Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: Solitaire

But first, some good news for those of you who were reluctant to download those RTF previews of Willing Subject and What Do You Give the Man Who Has Everything?: the updates are now online. Unfortunately, it's going to be another week before Simon can post "A Tenpack of Trixies," so you're stuck with the RTF files on that one a little longer.

At the same time I send Simon the five Trixie chapters, I also plan to send him a new tweak on Solitaire; but I must admit that when I looked it over again recently, I only felt the need to change a handful of words. My Muse and I were really going at it hot and heavy that day in a way I've only experienced once before - and that wasn't in writing erotica (though it did involve some MC - tease, tease). I came up with the idea for "Solitaire" one morning (probably after spending a long time the previous night really playing it), sat down to write that afternoon, and had the whole piece finished before sundown. You might say, continuing the Greek goddess analogy, that it sprang full-blown from my head onto the screen.

Of course, I was influenced by several other stories in writing this one, including one by a writer sadly no longer active on the EMCSA. Thank goodness for the Wayback Machine - and thank goodness Sara H herself has returned, even if she's not quite up to writing yet. Sara, if you're reading this, here's a virtual hug and a genuine "Glad to have you back." EDIT: Sara is fully back now, stories and all. You can find "Hiss" on the EMCSA here.

Anyway, at the time I wrote "Solitaire," I was still reveling in the newness of finding a fetish home on the web and reading everything I could get my greedy little eyeballs on. I also really was playing a lot of Solitaire and Freecell while writing as a sort of cybernetic alternative to tapping a pencil against my teeth in thought. Such simple games, but they really do suck you in - and zone you out. It really is true, as I say in the story, that we can fall into a low-grade trance while focusing on a simple task; it's happened to me countless times, especially with computer games. It's like that demanding king who follows you with his eyes (in Freecell, actually, not Solitaire) really does force you to keep playing game after game after game. I used to love that feeling of half wanting to stop and not quite being able to pull myself away from the screen.

But of course, my favorite part of the story is the latter half, when the narrator is transformed into a mindless, shiny black robot with a number (and not even a unique one, at that) where her face used to be. I've always been fascinated with the idea of depersonalization...okay, well, I've always been extremely turned on by the idea of depersonalization. Taking everything that makes a human being an individual, right down to her/his face and fingerprints, and erasing it completely - that, to me, is the hottest aspect of mind control. Adding a slick, black layer of fetishy goodness is really just icing on the cake; but such yummy icing it is.

Then there's the bit about the mouse - the whole reason (as if you couldn't guess) I added a "Don't try this at home" warning at the top of the story. It seems ridiculous to think I'd have to issue a warning about something as obvious as that, but there's a reason gas stations have signs advising people not to suction gas with their mouths, and that a milk carton I saw once in Wales (Hi, sc ;-)) bore a label saying, "Warning: contains milk." Some people are just stupid enough to need such warnings, and I will accept no responsibility for anyone who ends up in some emergency room somewhere with a computer mouse jammed inside an orifice not designed to handle it. But I do still think it's a cool idea. The female anatomy just makes such a perfect computer port, doesn't it?