Another Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: "Octopus Vulgaris"

First, a quick note about the title: Octopus vulgaris is the official scientific name of the common octopus; once I learned that, I knew I'd never find a more perfect title.

As for the story itself, if you've been reading my blog, you know it was inspired primarily by several pictures from the Cthulhu Lhust list on Model Mayhem - which was, in turn, inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It's not necessary for you to have read any of Lovecraft's short stories to enjoy "Octopus Vulgaris," but if you know a bit about the Cthulhu mythos, you can appreciate my story on a deeper level. If you're interested in learning more, this Wikipedia article is a good primer.

As you can see, I'm playing pretty fast and loose with the original material, but let's face it: for the most part Lovecraft tended to ignore females, both human and nonhuman, in his stories. And considering what a big stick he had up his ass about race, I shudder to think what he would have thought about sexual minorities. So naturally, I had to make a few...tweaks...to fashion a Cthulhu mythos story suitable for my particular audience.

I also took inspiration from a number of other sources:

• Megan's beach house is a slightly fancier version of one I actually stayed in as a child. I only realized after I started writing that its octagonal shape made it that much more perfect for my story.
  
• The scrapbooking bit arose from a series of reunions I've had in recent years with some college friends, two of whom had developed an interest in scrapbooking and who dragged the rest of us, much against our will, into a scrapbooking store once and only once. And yes, I did titillate those friends with the news that I wrote fetish erotica and posted it online. But you know me; I absolutely refused to provide details or a URL. They're still wondering today. ;-)
  
• The barroom flirtation was inspired by a scene from Kissing Jessica Stein, which played much cuter than mine and which concluded, as you can imagine, rather differently. Still, in the long run, I think the men in my story ended up more satisfied than the ones in Jessica's. ;-)
  
• Clark Ashton Smith was a friend and contemporary of Lovecraft's who, like many of Lovecraft's friends, adopted and expanded the Cthulhu mythos in his own works. In fact, I actually discovered him several years before I discovered HPL. The Abominations of Yondo is a real book that I loved as a teen, though I have no idea whether or not it would hold up to my adult scrutiny. I had to use Wikipedia to remind myself of the story titles and this page to reconstruct the cover I remembered. Anyway, if you're interested, I've discovered that pretty much Smith's entire oeuvre is now available online at The Eldritch Dark. One of these days, I'm going to check back in there and see if I still like him as much as I used to. If you get there before me, let me know what you think.
  
• I had only decided on earth's ultimate fate a few seconds before I remembered that Peter F. Hamilton used a similar plot device in a six-book SF epic called the "Night's Dawn" series. Now I have no idea whether I came up with my version on my own or whether I was subliminally influenced by Hamilton. Don't you hate it when that happens? Anyway, if you're interested, the books are very much worth reading even though Hamilton isn't very gay-friendly. The only non-straight characters in his entire vast universe are the 27th-century version of Satanists. :-/
  
• Now here are a handful of odds and ends that weren't cool enough to post as Tentacular Teases but which did aid me in my research and which you might enjoy if you have a few minutes to spare: a photo of strands of octopus eggs,a video of an octopus chasing down and eating a crab, then inking, a video of - no kidding - the Vampire Squid from Hell (okay, so it's not an octopus, but it's still a very cool video once you get past all the annoying title cards). As for the reverse-giraffe look Howard sports in one scene, I honestly did see a picture of an octopus with that pattern; but I can't for the life of me find it anymore. Sorry.
  

And finally, serendipity has just brought me back to this fondly remembered but long-lost Cthulhu religious tract. What a perfect way to end your Sunday, eh?

The Final Tentacular Tease

Yes, folks, "Octopus Vulgaris" is in the pipeline to publication. I sent it off to Simon this morning after getting thumbs-ups from my girlfriend and my long-suffering e-mail bud trilby else, who has somehow become my default proofreader but doesn't seem to mind a bit, bless his heart. So here's one last tentacular tease to tide you over until Sunday when, hopefully, the story goes live on the EMCSA. Then you can stop back by here afterward for a "Peek Beneath the Duct Tape" on it.

For now, just enjoy watching what happens when an octopus the size of a man attacks said man - and also, incidentally, gain a better understanding of how an octopus bites its prey and injects venom, which is an important plot point in my story.

This particular video has embedding disabled, so you'll have to follow this link to see it.

Tentacular Tease III

"octopus vulgaris" has turned out to be by far the most perverse thing I've ever written. In fact, it even seems to be freaking me out, on a subconscious level. Last night I dreamed my office mates gave me several octopuses of different sizes, and I was totally squicked out and frightened by them. They got out of their tanks and were squirming across the floor, and I was jumping around and wringing my hands, trying to avoid them.

But never fear: my conscious mind remains firmly convinced that tentacles are erotic, and I am very happy with the finished rough draft. In fact, I plan to share it with my girlfriend today, do one more edit sometime next week, and then send it off to Simon for posting on or around September 7.

In between now and then, here's your penultimate tentacular tease. There are apparently two (very popular) versions of this video on YouTube; I've chosen the one with the less annoying narration.

Tentacular Tease II

Well, folks, "octopus vulgaris" is coming along better than I ever imagined. In fact, I fully expect to finish the first draft tonight. Of course, after that comes a period of rewriting, then a week of simmering, and then more rewriting. If all goes as planned, I should have the story ready for posting sometime in early September. And I must say, I'm a bit tickled when I think about the trouble Simon is going to have deciding which codes are appropriate for this one. Does a takeoff of the Cthulhu mythos count as SF, or is it more fantasy/horror? Does a dominant male octopus make the story part mdom? If a male octopus has sex with a woman, does that count as mf? What if he has sex with a man? Is that mm? Boy, Simon's going to have some interesting choices to make!

As for you all, here's another little video to peak your interest while you wait for the big reveal. Just imagine, if even an ordinary octopus is this clever and this flexible, what kinds of mischief a Great-Old-Ones-enhanced octopus could get up to!

Tentacular Tease I

Last night I wrote the first tentacle sex scene for my next EMCSA story, which will be called - and this is an actual species name, not something I just made up because it works so perfectly - "octopus vulgaris." I'm using some of the pictures from the Cthulhu Lhust list at Model Mayhem and the stories of H.P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries as inspiration - though I'll warn you up front that I'm playing very fast and loose with the Lovecraft, so I don't want to hear any gripes from Cthulhu purists. ;-)

Anyway, I've had to do a bit of research on octopuses (or octopi - either is correct) for this story, and I've run across some very interesting videos in the process. I'll start you off easy with this one. Expect some more...surprising...footage in the days and weeks to come.

Another Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: Someday My Prince Will Come

SPOILER ALERT: This blog entry discusses critical plot points of a story that relies on surprise more than most of my stories tend to do. I wouldn't suggest reading it before you've read the story in question. But if you have....

Have you figured it out yet? The characters I was writing about in the snippet of personal fantasy posted last week are Queen Catherine and, well, basically me from Someday My Prince Will Come. Sure, I gave the thrall a different name for the EMCSA story, but who's kidding whom? It was me. It's always me. ;-)

Both story and snippet came from the same early period of my exploring lesbian MC. My first "official" object of lesbian lust was Catherine Zeta-Jones, who had yet to marry an old fart, have kids, and devolve into a winsome chick flicker. When I think about "Queen" Catherine, I'm thinking about the sinuous, flashing-eyed beauty I remember from Entrapment or The Mask of Zorro or even Chicago. But sadly, CZJ learned nothing from Angelina Jolie: you can be married and have kids and still set film stock on fire. Speaking of which, have you all seen Wanted? Mmmmmm. :-)

Anyway, back to the story. I came up with a handful of pseudo-realistic MC scenarios for me and Catherine (But sorry, no more private snippets - the rest are a little too private...not to mention unpolished). "Someday" started out that way and was fleshed out in part by my discovery, while searching for appropriate clothes in which to attire my characters, of a real-life Pervadise Island called Kink in the Caribbean (Note: the site now advertises far more than just the one island, but the island is still in there...somewhere).

I'd already latched onto the rejected boyfriend/would-be-hero theme, and it was easy to fit that into the story via the services of a couple of purely imaginary gay male friends. Not that I don't have real gay male friends, just not any that I think would appreciate being written into a story like "Someday." ;-P

I do love gay men, though; in fact, the most beautiful, passionate kiss I've ever seen on film was between two extremely attractive young males. The movie itself isn't a gay film; it's a road trip flick that takes a surprising turn at the climax, so I'll put the title in spoiler text between brackets - just highlight to read: [Y Tu Mama Tambien]. Anyway, it's an excellent film from start to finish, and I'd recommend it highly even if not for the incredible three-way that includes that kiss. Just be sure, if you want to see it for yourself, that you get the unrated version. The R-rated cut deletes almost the entire scene - including the kiss, which by itself, isn't even censor-worthy unless you're a homophobic old goat.

But here I go digressing again. Anyway, there's not much left to tell you about except the trouble I had trying to find out whether the official title of the song I chose as my title began "Someday" or "Some Day." Internet usage seemed pretty evenly divided between the two, and even the ex-English teacher in me couldn't figure it out. But it was too perfect a title to pass up, so in the end I basically flipped a mental coin. And there you go: "Someday My Prince Will Come."

Oh, and just a little FWIW: If you like seeing the "Hero Rides to the Rescue" meme turned hilariously on its head, you'll love Tabico's Electric Thimble Theater. It's one of my all-time favorite stories on the EMCSA.

Pictures from a White Wedding Album

Just a quickie today to a) follow up on my "Somnambulent Brides" post with some more yummy "white" pictures - not exactly bridal, but lovely nonetheless, and b) clear up any misunderstanding that might have arisen from my post about preferring exotic women and not liking the "blond Barbie look" of Pamela Anderson types. I do like blondes...when they look like this.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Mosh. Once you've clicked on these thumbnails, I strongly suggest you peruse the rest of her Deviant Art gallery and her Model Mayhem Gallery. She's a fetish gal after my own heart.



Oh, and I've also decided to take pity on at least one friend who's still too paranoid to register with Deviant Art and give you some thumbnails, at least, of the two pics of Ulorin Vex and Apnea that I mentioned before. So now my white wedding album is complete and everyone is happy. :-)