These are a few of my favorite things: Hedony Design

Hedony Design is a French company that takes a different approach to latex design than many of their competitors. From my 100% amateur point of view, I can best describe this way: Hedony seems more interested in accentuating natural beauty than making torpedo-boobed plastic nun costumes for torpedo-boobed plastic women. And to me, that's a good thing.

I hope you'll think so, too. You can see from the pictures here that some of their designs are plenty fetishy, even without the squeeze-toy breasts; while others are things you could actually wear for a night on a town...in certain towns, anyway. None in my neck of the woods, but, well, you know. ;-)

Anyway, above is my favorite object of lust, Ulorin Vex, wearing Hedony for a photo shoot with Nick Saglimbeni. Just below, Nicotine (by Maxime Avet) and Apnea (by Kencredible) demonstrate two very different approaches to Hedony's most popular design; while the model in the green halter top is one I showed you before, when I said she looked like my idea of Carly from The White Album. She and the rest of the models on this page were photographed by Josselin Guichard, a cofounder of Hedony. They aren't well known enough for me to bother telling you their names (although you can find them in the file names if you're interested), so just sit back and enjoy the pretty pictures instead.

A Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: Love Like Winter

And so...another inspiration for The White Album that I had to wait until now to explain. Oh, I teased you right from the start with this video by AFI, and many of you guessed that Love Like Winter would be the title of the concluding segment (As a matter of fact, my first idea was to use LLW as the title for the whole trilogy, but that was before Jukebox told me he wanted each segment to be a separate story with its own title). What you didn't know until now was just how many ways this song influenced the trilogy's origins.

Watch the video again, if you like. Notice the images, and especially think about the lyrics. Listen to that talk about blood and biting and "drinking my war." Although the symbolism of drained color was part of my idea from the beginning, I did originally plan for a vampire that drank blood. Then, a little later, when I came up with the idea of Dalila's slaves posing like statues and dummies, the line "Press your lips to the sculptures and surely you'll stay" became eerily prescient.



Yeah, you knew the statue/dummy idea was mine, didn't you? ;-) Geoff Coen had the "Jukebox" stamp across his forehead, and the statues and dummies have the "thrall" stamp across theirs. Originally, I was going to take them even further into fetish territory and have Abby dressed in a full-body latex catsuit with goggles over her eyes. But just as we began to write the first mannequin scene, I realized it would be more powerful to have Abby wearing the dress Dalila used to seduce her. So no latex. Sorry. But you know what? I liked the dress idea so much that I don't even miss the alternative.

And you know what else? Even though the statues and dummies have that great big "thrall" stamp, Jukebox still managed to sneak his own signature onto them, too. I've said before that it's almost impossible to talk with J for very long and not have the conversation turn to Dr. Who. Now, I watched a lot of the show in college, myself (mostly Tom Baker, with a bit of Peter Davison and John Pertwee), and even though I don't watch it now, I'm still curious enough to read articles online - and to chat with Jukebox about current developments in the series.

So. Early on in our discussions, Jukebox started raving about the Weeping Angels. At first I thought he wanted to talk about them just because they were really cool monsters, but then I got curious enough to look them up online. I found some pics, some detailed descriptions of the episode in which they first appear, and eventually an extended video clip. By then it was hilariously apparent that where I was thinking mindless minions posed like art, Jukebox was thinking Weeping Angels. Take a look at the clip compilation below, and you'll see just how thoroughly "Blink" worked its way into "Love Like Winter."



And now, one last thing before I hit the "Publish" button. I understand that some people have been...miffed...by the dark tone of The White Album. Hopefully, that doesn't apply to anyone reading this blog; I have to think that if you like my stuff well enough to follow me here, then you're not afraid of the dark. You might actually like it. You might even - and this is my fondest hope - appreciate the pathos of Carly's sacrifice. I think it's a much more powerful ending than if Carly and Abby had just ridden off into the sunset together.

As for those folks who always want fireworks and dancing Ewoks, all I can say is this: I've been posting on the EMCSA since 2002, long enough for regular readers to know my style and know how few of my stories have traditional happy endings. So if you're that scared of getting your feelings hurt, then why the hell do you keep reading my stuff? Go rent Twilight instead.

A Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: A Whiter Shade of Pale

So...A Whiter Shade of Pale has been online for almost a day now, but you might not have noticed because Simon posted this week's update early. He caught me off guard, too, which is why I'm a little late getting this Peek online. But here we go!

Now, at last, you have the answer to at least two riddles I've posed in this blog. The first is the solution to this post, in which I invited you to guess what three out of four pictures have in common.

Actor Jeffrey Combs was the obvious inspiration for the character of Geoff Coen; in fact, Dalila even teases him at one point by "misremembering" his last name as "Combs." Jukebox and I borrowed Amanda Palmer's dress from the center picture for Dalila to wear in seducing Abby (You haven't seen the last of that dress, either!). And of course, the Count was your big clue that the whole post was about my upcoming vampire collaboration with Jukebox - who, as he said in his own Behind the Music blog post, really didn't want our vampires to be traditionally vampiric. That was fine with me, since a certain sparkly blockbuster series has pretty much peed in the genre's pool, anyway. Check out the fantasy/SF section of any large bookstore these days, and practically half the books look like really awful vampire fiction (Half the rest, of course, look like really awful werewolf fiction).

But back to Combs/Coen for a moment. I'm sure you've realized by now that he's the character I had in mind when I said someone had a very obvious "Jukebox" stamp across the forehead. Combs is also the actor I hinted about when I said we'd specifically "cast" one player in our story before we even started writing. It's funny how he turned into such an obvious Jukebox character, considering how equal our input was in his creation.

Let me give you a taste of our collaborative process in action. The dialogue isn't exact, because it's been too long for me to remember everything we said, but this is the gist of the discussion leading to Geoff's creation:

Jukebox: I'd like to have a character who can tell Abby what Dalila is and warn Abby about her. Maybe she's some kind of supernatural detective.

Me: That sounds great, but let's use a man this time. Right now, all our main characters are women. He could be a Harry Dresden kind of guy, a street-smart vampire killer. Having Dalila take him down would show our readers just how powerful she really is.

Jukebox: No, I'm thinking he's just a bumbler who keeps trying and failing to kill Dalila: he uses a stake, but it just glances off her rib, etc. That will make the ending even more tragic.

Me: Oooh, perfect! And hey, if we're going that direction, then let's make him Jeffrey Combs! He always plays the best loonies. [One quick Google Image Search later]. Here, take a look at this picture. Isn't he perfect for the part?

Our whole collaboration was like that: constant back-and-forthing, pushing each other to higher levels of imagination. Every character, every scene, every sentence, is a combination of thrall and Jukebox - even the bits where you think it's all one of us or the other.

And now on to a couple of other sources of entertainment and inspiration. I promised you new pictures, and I try to keep my promises! So first, here are a few more potential Dalilas. My casting post to the contrary, I never really settled on a single mental image of Dalila; she's just too mutable by nature. Before, I used this picture from my collection because I couldn't leave her out, but Mela von Winter is no more "my" Dalila than any of the women below. They all have a certain look, though - a certain essential attitude that is part of my mental image of Dalila. Put all four of these pictures together, and you'll start to see what I think about her.

At left is Kitty Cosmo, photographed by Jennifer Garcia. Next is Ruby True, photographed (wearing Violaceous Latex) by Allan Amato. And on the right is Courtney Cruz, photographed by Michael Helms. Just pretend for a moment that Courtney's tattoos are body paint. ;-)

Now here's one more source of inspiration that I've been dying to share for ages. I just had to wait until enough of the White Album had been published for it to make sense to you. Quite some time ago, I ran across the work of Kimiko Yoshida, a Japanese/French photographer who's even more fascinated with the faceless/voiceless aspect of traditional brides than I am. She takes pictures of herself veiled, painted, and otherwise obscured, so that she becomes less of a person than an object of art. These are just a few of the images I've saved from her website. I chose them because they're most in line with my vision of The White Album, but the website has dozens more - some even tastier than these. Check her out.

Dammit, I've been beaten to the punch!

Simon got the second installment of the White Album trilogy (A Whiter Shade of Pale) online before I had a chance to write my next Peek Beneath the Duct Tape, so you'll have to wait a few hours while I get some sleep, then a few more while I get my brain in gear again afterwards. Fortunately, I already know more or less what I want to say...and what pictures I want to share. You've seen some of them already, but others will be quite new - and quite enjoyable!

In the meantime, go have a look at Jukebox's Behind the Music entry on A Hazy Shade of Winter. It's only because I stopped by his blog just now that I found out the second installment had gone live! Grrr.

This Is That - in White (Album) and Gold

First, just in case you haven't noticed Simon's note at the top of the EMCSA Recent Additions page, the September updates will be on random weekdays instead of the usual weekends. That means Jukebox and I aren't really sure when the next installment of The White Album will debut, but have no fear: I've already e-mailed it to Simon, so it will be in the next update. The only question is what day that update comes out. All I know is that I'd better get the next "Peek Beneath the Duct Tape" written ASAP so I'm not caught off guard!

But in the meantime, here's a bit of "This Is That" which didn't quite make it into my "Hazy Shade of Winter" Peek - and below that, a totally gratuitous second "This Is That" with a piece of artwork I never expected to see duplicated in real life.

At left is the picture I used with my previous Peek. The photographer is Calvato. At right is the gorgeous-but-horribly-named Nicotine, photographed by the almost-as-badly-named Photography Device. Honestly, you'd be amazed how many beautiful models with horrible made-up names you can find out there. One of these days, I'm going to do a theme post on that very subject, and right up at the very top of the page will be an enchanting young thing who for some reason chose to call herself Merkinstache (Don't know what a merkin is? You're better off that way).



And now, for your bonus viewing pleasure, here's what I thought was an incomparable piece of art by Hajime Sorayama - coupled now with a shot of model Curvz by Michael Helms, a.k.a. Pelicanh. Both Curvz and Helms have galleries on Deviant Art, so you can see several more shots in this series by following the Pelicanh link above. In fact, if you want to ruin the magic, you can even see how they achieved the effect by clicking here.

A Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: A Hazy Shade of Winter

The origins of The White Album are shrouded in mystery...by which I mean there's no way I could go back at this late date and find the picture that sparked the whole idea. I'll just have to settle for the next best thing: giving you the image that took me to the next level of the project.

Anyway, I can at least tell you how it all began. As I mentioned before, a longtime e-mail friend shared a picture that started me thinking about a different kind of vampire. The model in this picture was nude and tanned, but her eyes were so pale they were nearly white. It made such a strange contrast that I couldn't help but think about it; and since you already know about my MC-eyes fetish, you can guess what I was thinking! I fantasized that a vampire had drained this woman's will rather than her blood, and that her eyes were the visible symbol of the loss.

Not much later, I ran across the website of a photographer named Calvato and discovered the image above. Now, I know that's just grease on the model's skin; but putting this image together with the one my friend had shared, I came up with a new idea for my vampire. I decided she'd drain her victims by touch rather than bite, and that she wouldn't just leach color from their eyes; she'd take it from their entire bodies. Everywhere she caressed and drained, she'd leave a streak of white that would fill in oh so slowly - and leave the skin just a little paler than it had been before.

The third step in the process was meeting Jukebox last fall at Lady Ru'etha place, offering my still-vestigial idea as a possibility for collaboration, and encountering happy agreement. You can learn more about our general collaborative efforts by clicking the "White Album" tag at the bottom of this post, but I'm assuming you read A Hazy Shade of Winter before you got here, so let's move on to some of the thoughts and questions you might have.

First, yes, I used to be a rabid X-Files fan; however, I never saw the Teliko episode. I'd heard a little about it because I was such a rabid fan, but I really don't think it influenced The White Album. All I knew before starting the collaboration was that the episode involved a color-stealing bad guy, and Jukebox hadn't followed the show closely enough to know about the episode at all. I imagine that's because he was too busy watching Dr. Who at the time (Just try having a conversation with Jukebox that doesn't eventually wind up in Time Lord-land! Just try! ;-P).

Anyway, Jukebox brought all kinds of new ideas to the collaboration - and all kinds of color and humor. Flora is primarily his work (And be sure to ask him where her name comes from; I hadn't read that series, but maybe you have). However, she's not the character I had in mind when I said someone has a great big "Jukebox" stamp across their forehead. You'll have to wait a little longer to meet that individual!

I think Carly's a bit more mine than J's, but she and all the other characters are split pretty evenly between us as far as personality, behavior, and dialogue go. The most interesting thing, to me, is that we didn't plan Carly and Abby's personalities ahead of time.* We just started writing, and it was almost as though they wrote themselves. That's what happens when you're in the zone, authorially speaking. ;-) And when you're in the zone with another person, bouncing ideas off each other in realtime, it can be a pretty heady experience. It's hard work, but also damn fun!...And when you're writing an explicit sex scene with another person in realtime, it can be damn embarrassing, too. ;-/ Fortunately (for me and for you), I had plenty of opportunity to get used to that before The White Album was finished.

So..where do we go from here? In a storyverse where vampires drain will instead of blood, how many of the other classic vamp tropes can you rely on? Is Dalila allergic to sunlight? Stakes? Garlic? What happens to Carly and Abby now? Who (or what) are the harajuku gang? And how does Renata figure into it all? Obviously, I'm not going to answer these questions yet, but I'd love to hear your speculations! Yes, I know most people online prefer to lurk rather than post; but this is a loud, clear call for you to make your voices heard. Authors love feedback, and Jukebox and I would be tickled to know where you think everything is headed. So please, drop a comment. We'd love to hear from you!


*Yes, I know Abby's personality isn't as well developed as Carly's...yet. But it will be! She's just naturally more demure. ;-)

We have liftoff! I repeat: we have liftoff!

Save a little space in your weekend for "A Hazy Shade of Winter," the first installment in Jukebox's and my collaboration. Each of the three stories/chapters will have its own title, and though you can probably guess the name of the third one already, I'll keep the second title to myself for the moment. ;-) I will, however, tell you that we're calling the series as a whole The White Album - and that I've made a tag of the title so you can trace the progression of our collaboration more easily, if you're into that sort of thing. I am. ;-) Of course, I'll also have a "Peek Beneath the Duct Tape" for each chapter/story; and I'm sure Jukebox will have a "Behind the Music" or two...or three.

In the meantime, you can consider this post to be your final tease before the big event. I've blogged before about "casting" my stories with real people on occasion, and The White Album was no exception. In fact, Jukebox and I actually wrote one character with a certain person in mind right from the start. After awhile, I had so many players running around in my head that I decided to make a special post about it, all by itself. And here it is.

Three notes before you meet the players: 1) This is not everyone I've cast, just the ones who show up in "A Hazy Shade of Winter." 2) Not all the characters below are equally important, and you can't assume anything from the order in which the pictures are arranged. I just put them in what I thought was the most attractive layout. 3) You should not take these images as canon. I have no idea how Jukebox imagines any of our characters except for the one we agreed would be "played by" _____ _____. This is just how these people look in my imagination.

A few days ago, I was browsing through the Hedony Design website when I ran across the picture at right and said to myself, "Holy crap, that's Carly!" Not that I think Carly would be into latex, but I do think she'd wear a halter top like this if it was made of some other material. I've always pictured her as a Coyote Ugly kind of gal, though not as traditionally gorgeous as the actresses in the movie. And to be honest, this model (Elyther) is a bit too pretty, but she has the right body type, the right hair, and the right attitude.

On the right in this picture is Naomi Watts, whom I cast in A Tenpack of Trixies. Today, however, she's Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Story. But Ann Miller somehow became my Flora very early on. That probably gives Jukebox fits, since he wrote the description of Flora as looking like she's just stepped out of a Tom Wolfe novel. As for me, I've never read Tom Wolfe, but somehow I get the impression his characters don't dress much like this. Unfortunately, I can't control my subconscious. It gave me Ann Miller in Mulholland Drive mode, and I'm stuck with her. ;-)

This is Parminder Nagra as Abby. I browsed through a lot of pictures of this actress before finding just the right one to convey Abby-ness, and this is definitely it. Plus, she's wearing a winter coat here, which fits the setting of the story...but that's just gravy. It's Parminder's overall look that I like in this shot.

Dalila was almost impossible to cast, but once I decided to write this blog post, I hunted through my collection until I came up with a shot of Mela von Winter (great coincidence with the name, eh?) by Silent View. I have a lot of pictures of Mela looking Dalila-ish, but I chose this one because of the whole scene.

Last but not least, here's Tilda Swinton as Renata. She's another character I cast very early on, so it was just a matter of finding the right picture for this post. The photographer is Craig McDean, and yes, this is the way he wanted the pic to be viewed: greenish and sideways. Works for me! ;-)

I couldn't have teased any better, myself

Jukebox has just formally announced, in his own inimitable style, the completion of our collaboration...which is pretty funny, considering that he says he didn't blog much about it during the process because he didn't want to disappoint anyone if it fell through; while I had no worries about blogging until now...when I suddenly got cold feet.

But speaking of inimitable styles, there's one character in our trilogy who bears a very obvious "Jukebox" stamp across the forehead. Then again, there's one scene in the trilogy that bears a very obvious "thrall" stamp across the, er....okay, never mind. The point is that otherwise, I think we've managed to blend our styles pretty thoroughly, which is amazing when you consider how far apart they were to begin with. And I'm very, very happy with the result. I can't wait to share it with all of you.

Silver and Cold

Since Jukebox and I are probably just a couple of sessions away from finishing the (rough draft) final installment of our collaboration, I thought now would the perfect time for this particular themed post. You'll understand at least one of the reasons already, if you've been following my blog for any length of time and/or if you know about Jukebox's story-naming convention (Speaking of which, AFI was my idea, and I've always wondered what J thought about that choice; he's definitely not a goth fan). You'll figure out more of the riddle as our trilogy makes its way online....and you'll also figure out a few hints I've dropped in previous posts, whether you knew they were hints or not!

Until then, here are some lovely images of ladies in various stages of iciness, beginning with Ancilla Tilia above (photographed by Iconogenic). Next we have three shots of Meluxine by her favorite collaborator, Mastertouch.

Now here are Sara X photographed by Robot Art Fashion, Hexabelle by I-don't-know-but-don't-miss-the-not-so-subliminal-image, and Kumi Monster by Allan Amato.

And of course, no post about silvery beauty would be complete without at least a couple of rows devoted entirely to Mosh. So here you go. Credits, from left to right on the top row, are Ama Lea, Kencredible, and Jason Simon. On the bottom row, the photogs are Sideshowsito, Harmony Nicholas, and Michael Helms.

You're welcome. ;-P

This is not the post you were looking for

I decided to save the post I had planned for today until Wednesday, because something happened last night that needs to be shared: Jukebox and I finished the rough draft of the second part of our vampire collaboration!

We're at the point now where we know each other's styles and writing methods well enough to turn them easily to the story's advantage. He's the quick ideas man, and I'm the OCD polisher. So, for instance, while he's writing a paragraph, I'm coming along behind him, smoothing things here or tweaking things there. And while I'm writing a paragraph, he's coming along behind me, adding more details and being generally clever. Okay, honestly, we're both enjoying our cleverness right now. ;-) I can't wait to hear the comments after people finish reading the second installment!

We've also both been able to spot potential plotholes and discrepancies. For instance, last night, at the very tail end of this chapter installment, we realized we had two very different ideas about the top floor of our villainess' home. That was a funny moment, considering how much action had already taken place in the building. But now we'll have the chance to make everything gel as we edit the draft. And, of course, we'll also begin work on the finale.

We're hoping that Jukebox's schedule will be more open now, for a number of reasons, and that we'll be able to write two nights a week instead of one. That's to be determined, but keep your fingers crossed. And in the meantime, know that the rough draft is resting in the cool, dark wine cellars of my hard drive - and aging beautifully.

Miscellaneous updates

Where to begin? There's a lot going on right now, not least the continuance of tree sex in my throat. I swear, I wish they'd just come and be done with it. But anyway, here are a few quick notes about various things I'm involved with.

My collaboration with Jukebox is just about exactly at the halfway point, meaning halfway through the second of our three stories. I don't know how Jukebox feels, but I think the interplay with someone whose ideas are very different from mine brings out the best in me. It takes me to places I wouldn't go on my own, and that's cool. It's also kind of funny to watch how gently two subs butt heads. ;-)

I'm still reading Anathem and am down to the last two hundred pages. I continue to be amazed and in love with the novel, but I've also realized that the average SF/fantasy reader might have a problem with it because it's pretty talky in spots. There's a heck of a lot of theorizing about belief systems, parallel worlds, and other things Terry Pratchett's stodgier characters tend to dismiss as "quantum" (I have a hunch Neal Stephenson is a big Terry Pratchett fan. Either that, or they read a lot of the same books). Fortunately, just when the story seemed about to turn completely into Socratic dialogue, there was a huge revelation - one I should have seen coming from a lot further down the pike - that changed the nature of all the talk preceding it. And now several of the main characters are floating around in space having Apollo 13-like adventures. I'm curious to see where Stephenson takes things next. I don't think we're in for a typical space Western, but I do think there's room for some wuxia to creep in. ;-P

Lastly, I've finally cracked a lock I've been working on for awhile now: I've figured out how to turn my Virtual Hypnotist morning session into a proper MC story. See, I didn't want to just post the text as an induction; I wanted to build a tale around it. So the trick was finding the right sort of tale, something that would include pretty much the whole induction but still be just as spooky and dramatic as the rest of my stories. Well, a couple of days ago, it came to me - in the middle of one of my morning sessions, as a matter of fact. This is definitely one of those cases where not being able to go completely mindless worked to my benefit. I know how to write the story now, and I plan to begin it this weekend. No telling when I'll have it finished, but I don't anticipate it being more than one chapter. Oh, and some ideas for a title so far: "Inside-Out," "Onion," "The Worm at the Heart."

The evolution of a fetish, graphically illustrated

It's been a little less than ten years since I broke down and really started indulging my fetishes, writing erotica for the EMCSA and scouring the Internet for pictures that pushed my buttons. So I suppose I shouldn't be surprised about this, but I am: my fetish has evolved more during this decade than any of the previous ones.

The most obvious change is that I've finally embraced the joy of submission instead of pretending that dominance or feigned submission was hotter. But that's such an obvious change that it hardly bears mentioning.

A slightly less obvious change is how I involve men in my stories. As I noted in this post, my earliest EMCSA stories featured men mostly as rejected bystanders to the MC. I think that was because I was still processing my newly-discovered lesbianism in conjunction with my newly-embraced fetish. My later stories involve men more actively and portray them more frequently as heroic. And as a matter of fact, my portion of the (sadly grounded) three-way mystery collaboration I hinted about last year would have given equal time - and equal MC opportunity - to a hero and a heroine.* In fact, I liked the hero I'd created a lot and was sorry I'd never have the chance to share him with you. Maybe one day, somewhere down the line, I'll ask my would-have-been-co-authors if I can post my third of the story without them. Heck, they could even post their own thirds later, on their own time, if they wanted. The structure we'd worked up would allow for that.

But let's talk now about some of the less obvious ways my fetish has evolved this last decade. When I first started trawling the Internet for pictures, I was focused on three things: robots, women who looked MC'ed, and latex. I wasn't too picky then because I didn't know how very much was out there; and I didn't know how much was free for the taking if I only knew where to look. So I ended up with a few gems and bunch of gaudy, poorly crafted rhinestones. Some were just bad imagealters made by amateurs. Others were teaser pictures from porn sites that featured garish makeup and godawful boob jobs.

Well, thank goodness I've learned to be more selective. Never again will I download a pic that would be hot, if not for the model's horrible bolt-ons. If they look that bad, I'll just sigh for what could have been and move on to something nicer. Something more natural. For instance, the model featured in this blog entry is Ivory Flame, who has an exquisite gallery on Model Mayhem as well as a lovely website. As far as I'm concerned, the picture just above is the most gorgeous, mouth-watering nude I have ever seen in my entire life. This woman is a living nymph.


As you can see, she does occasionally pose for fetish pictures, but most of her work has a more classical feel. And that brings me to the last part of my fetish evolution. When I first started trawling, I was completely hung up on latex because it's so slick and alien and depersonalizing. And, hell, it's just plain gorgeous.

Now, don't worry: I still adore latex today. But I'm no longer so focused on it  that I ignore other forms of beauty, like nudity, corsets, period costumes, or even just a drape of sheer fabric. It's all gorgeous, and I refuse to deprive myself of any of it.



* Note: Please don't confuse that collaboration with my still-perking-along-quite-nicely-thank-you  collaboration with Jukebox. We're well into the second part of that trilogy, and I fully expect us to carry it to the finish line.