Saturday, 28 February 2009

Nexus Confessions



February is nearly over. It happens that this month saw the publication of the sixth (and sadly final) volume in the Nexus Confessions series. Nexus is of course Black Lace's twin imprint - aimed at men and famous for its specialisation in the kinkier side of smut, with spanking, pony girls and dressing up galore. Did you even know they did short stories?

The Nexus Confessions volumes aren't aimed purely at the fetish market though: they're all about the sort of naughty "true confessions" that appear in the readers' letters pages of adult magazines. The sort of things that leave you wondering "Could it be true? Would anyone really dare do that?" So you won't find the Janine Ashbless name in these volumes. Or the names of any other writers who are ex-members of Lust Bites. Oh no no no no. No no no. 'Cos these are anonymous confessions, see? Say no more.

Virgin of course believes in sexual segregation. Based on my *ahem* extensive reading of these volumes I am able to let you know the differences between their smut aimed at men (let's call those M books), and their smut aimed at women readers (W books):

  1. M anthologies contain some stories told from a male point of view. They're still in the distinct minority but at least there are some. As someone who likes to read male POV I find this rather refreshing.
  2. There are a lot fewer dominant or Alpha males in M books. And an awful lot more dominant women, some of whom are downright mean.
  3. Male narrators in M stories quite often have perfectly ordinary genitalia or are even (gasp!) under-endowed (see previous point).
  4. There are quite a few naughty young minxes ("I suppose I've always been what you'd call a bad girl") and overweight women with large bottoms in M books. In W books the POV heroine is usually more aspirational.
  5. In W books women are conflicted, constrained, and long for something beyond their horizons - something that it turns out can only be provided by the sexual encounter with the Man. In M books women are happy, straightforward, and love sex - any time, any place, anywhere - without worrying about what it means or what it will lead to. (I can't decide if this idealised view of women is sweet or a damning indictment of how neurotic we are in real life. Both, I suspect.)
  6. You can have golden showers in M books. Don't even try getting that into a Black Lace story.
So there you go: Nexus Confessions - recommended for lighthearted, straight-to-the-point smut with plenty of dirty, naughty, gleeful bang for your buck.
at

7 comments:

  1. Nikki Magennis28 February 2009 at 18:41

    'In W books women are conflicted, constrained, and long for something beyond their horizons - something that it turns out can only be provided by the sexual encounter with the Man.'

    Damn. You've just made my one and only plotting idea sound quite tragic.

    Now I shall have to come up with a new one! Shit!

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Charlotte Stein aka The Mighty Viper28 February 2009 at 19:01

    Wow. That post was...amazing. Really thought provoking. And it reflects a lot of my thoughts on the kind of erotic fiction I like to read, and write.

    My heroines are usually far from perfect. I prefer women to facilitate a man's sexual *ahem* awakening, in some way. I prefer male characters to be conflicted or constrained.

    I think I may be a man inside. Though I do like the way women write erotica, even if the content does not always represent me.

    I've ordered one of the Nexus books, but Amazon keep emailing me to tell me it's been delayed. Which is now v. annoying.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Vincent Copsey28 February 2009 at 19:22

    But Janine, there have been golden showers in Black Lace books.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sekrit Shoppa28 February 2009 at 19:48

    I have to confess, I rather love the straightforward get-down-to-it approach of Nexus stories (like Charlotte I have my moments of gender identity confusion) and I hope 'Confessions' will be replaced with another series of collections.

    I'm going to have to thumb through it again now, looking for clues...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Janine Ashbless1 March 2009 at 08:08

    Oh gosh, this wasn't supposed to be thought-provoking except in a light ("10 signs you're a geek" sorta thing) way.

    But Janine, there have been golden showers in Black Lace books. And I put one in a BL novella recently and had to censor it to make it as eliptical as possible. Like, remove the word "piss". But there you are in Confessions 4: a pissy fantasy.

    I think I may be a man inside.
    lol Haven't I said that on my website?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Janine Ashbless1 March 2009 at 16:40

    I've ordered one of the Nexus books, but Amazon keep emailing me to tell me it's been delayed.
    Hmm ... for some reason Confessions 6 seems to be shipping much slower than the other volumes. Dunno why.

    I had that problem trying to order one of Portia Da Costa's books too, a while back.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Madeline Moore2 March 2009 at 19:23

    Ah yes, 'Confessions'. Where do they GET these stories? I don't know why Nexus needs the pros, since these stories are so KINKY. Maybe because the pros have more than one story in them? Or even, novels?
    Still, it is interesting to pick up a volume and see what people are up to...even in Canada...

    ReplyDelete