- I've got 5 stories out that have been accepted by editors but need final approval from the publisher before I can tell you. In fact one is named in the blurb already up on Amazon, and I still can't tell you!
- I've got 4 short stories out with editors, no answer yet.
- I've revised and reformatted my novella The King's Viper. It needs a final read-through next week.
- I'm in the middle of writing my second short story this month, which is pretty good going for me, although I know plenty of writers who work much faster.
It's a petplay story, btw. It's a theme I've written about before, and as part of the BDSM spectrum I find it pretty interesting. It strikes me as a form of D/s with extra fun, roleplay and built-in consent: it's a collaborative thing. I understand that the theme divides readers though. It's interesting that official guidelines from Ellora's Cave say that, according to their readers' focus group, "Pet play was also mentioned repeatedly as a squick." I'm really not sure why that should be. Why is it any less acceptable than, say spanking?
Any thoughts?
Anyway, nothing to do with petplay, but if you like real dogs you ought to read this illustrated story from Hyperbole and a Half. Jo sent me the link and I laughed so hard I ended up folded over the computer desk crying and dribbling (Sorry for the horrible mental image there!). I have a feeling that the Special Needs Dog looks a lot like a greyhound....
I'm kind of on the squink side of this. Though I was musing about squink reactions last night, and accepting how what I like is as weird to someone else as the things that squink me are to me. If that makes sense. So it's all relative.
ReplyDeleteI see how pet play is fun, and funny. But for me, spanking's about power play and pet play shades a little closer to the concept of having sex with animals? Or is it the dehumanisation? I don't know... it doesn't bother me, as such, it just bemuses me a bit.
Ach, I know that doesn't really hold up. It's submission and ownership, one way or another, I suppose. it's just about what sparks for you, isn't it?
pet play shades a little closer to the concept of having sex with animals
ReplyDeleteWell, I get how it looks that way - but then power play looks like abuse and spanking looks like assault. Yet it's NOT. "BDSM sex is not what it looks like it is" - the most important thing I ever read about the subject.
As you wisely say: "what I like is as weird to someone else as the things that squink me are to me." I think maybe as a society we're just more used to seeing bondage and whips so it no longer sets off alarm signals.
Thanks for commenting, Jo!
The list of forthcoming stuff is impressive, and congratulations!
ReplyDeleteOn pet play - familiar with it, seen it, know people who enjoy it. I'm not, however, a great enthusiast myself. I guess I just can't summon up enough dedication to 'training' or 'exercising' a pet. And as Jo said, once I've defined someone as a 'pet' sex with them seems just a little bit weird! I have the same reaction to extreme age play, such as a women I know who's now in her mid-30s but enjoys acting the role of a 5 year-old.
A case of 'your milage may vary' I suspect. I know people who can get their head round these situations quite easily but I never have. I guess I'll just stay with the many and varied other forms of power play/power exchange!
Hi Fulani - interestingly, you've hit on one of my major squicks. Age-play creeps me out. Grown women dressing as slutty schoolgirls for sexual titilation squicks the fuck out me - I find that Britney Spears video genuinely disturbing for example, even though it seems to be perfectly acceptable to the mainstream majority.
ReplyDeleteSo, I suppose I do get how a visceral rejection of some particular sexual angle can overwhelm rational detatchement and analysis.
Hmm!
But of course. To think otherwise might be a wee bit more sex-positive than thou.
ReplyDeleteBut age play to me is more than grown women pretending to be nubile 16 year olds. It's the pretending to be little girls or wanting to be put in nappies and all the daddy stuff I find uncomfortable.
I mean, Britney wasn't doing age play with that video, she really was that age! I think that particular titllation wasn't kink, just bog standard creepy objectification, whatever you want to call it.
My rational detachemtn and analysis tells me that fetishes are born out of frustrated needs in child and infanthood, and as such should probably be explored and emotinally fulfilled and thus resolved. And yet... that just doesn't sound like so much fun.
Oh, I don't think Britney Spears herself was being kinky - as you say, she was that age herself when she made the video (I did look it up before writing my last comment!). It's the whole thing of a record label putting out a video that says "Look! Girls in school uniform are SEXY! PWOAR!! School clothes are DIRTY!!! Rub your cocks to this, guys!" Given the current climate of paranoia, it's one hell of a mixed message.
ReplyDeleteI've the same squick reaction to St Trinian's movies. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong ....
Sorry. Lost all rational detachment there. And I know a bunch of (female) erotica writers like writing school uniform stories. I just don't.
But this is making me rethink my own attitudes.
ReplyDeleteI wish my real pet wouldn't get up on my desk the moment I sit down and plant himself in front of the monitor, insisting I pay great attention to me and if I refuse, biting me. We just had a little exchange about it. Sharp words were exchanged on both sides. Siamese cats can really be a big fat stinkin' pain in the butt.
ReplyDeleteOkay, hm. Pet play. I read a short story in one of the "Best American Erotica" stories that made me want to drink from a bowl of water and eat Alphabits from a bowl. Pet play can be fun as long as one's 'tail' is not excruciatingly painful. But in my case it didn't end in sex, on account of the tail and ensuing freakout.
I think age play is fab. However, my personal position on age play is that the age of the person one is playing is legal. So - schoolgirl - sure, why not? BABY? Excellent game for those days when a gal wants to be cuddled and praised and spoon fed. NOT treated in any way as a sexual being. It is an excellent way to 'recover' from poor parenting (as Jo says, in other words.)
Not much makes me uneasy. I had a poor opinion of verbal abuse as part of bdsm play before getting to know Kristina Lloyd and her work. Now I get it, though it would never be something I'd enjoy.
There's a lot of bdsm stuff I wouldn't enjoy but it doesn't stop me from getting hot and bothered by stories that feature it. Like boot licking,
strap on dildos, hot wax, extreme tit torture.
Oh, here's one that turns me off. Felching.
And Janine congratulations on all your successes. You deserve it because you work so damn hard.
ReplyDeleteI know I would be a major player in the erotica biz if I weren't so goddam lazy. Although I did write a crime novel last year, so that explains why MM didn't publish a book last year. And I have two stories appearing in anthos in 2011, so far.
I've been working on my online presence, trying to get traffic to my blog (which today features a piece on grammar, with sexy pics) which feature new posts on Monday and Thursday.
I'm so damn tired of working on my presence on the web. Also, as I'm a writing tutor now I keep getting students work to assess. But if I don't sit down and write my own creative story soon, I'm going to lose my mind. Literally. I'm going to go insane, get a smaller tail and sit on Felix's desk yowling for attention. I am going to become what is already his pet name for me, "Pet."
Of course, Janine, the juicy topic distracted me from your list of achievements. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteFelching! Meheh. Come on, there's such a long list of weird and wonderful and ghastly things that people love doing, of course lots of them won't be for everyone.
As for liking the idea of versus doing, well, yeah. I have absolutely no idea about what the reality of most of the stuff that turns me on would actually be like. But my internet education rolls on...
Pet play can be fun as long as one's 'tail' is not excruciatingly painful. But in my case it didn't end in sex, on account of the tail and ensuing freakout.
Oh dear, Madeline! This is real life biting you in ass, isn't it? Wishing you more successful adventures :)
We are Siamese, if you please/we are Siamese if you don't please...
:)
Oh yes! What mae me angriest about Britney S was her statement about how girls should be teases, but also virgins, as she paraded round in fantasy schoolgirl outfits, essentially inciting date rape.
ReplyDeleteMixed messages indeed, and what a dangerous and unfair one to give to teenage boys and girls. A horrible role model for young girls and one that just leaves boys up the swannee.
I'm really enjoying your increased blog output, Madeline :-) Also, love your petplay anecdote! LMAO!
ReplyDeleteI can assure you, though, that you work way harder than I do. I really need to give up Spider and trawling through online newspapers. And having people round.
BTW, I've heard that siamese are cats that act like dogs, and greyhounds are dogs that act like cats...
There's a lot of bdsm stuff I wouldn't enjoy but it doesn't stop me from getting hot and bothered by stories that feature it.
ReplyDeleteYES! That is so true for me too.
I have absolutely no idea about what the reality of most of the stuff that turns me on would actually be like
Interesting, isn't it, that "I like to read about it," does not mean "I want to do it for real," even in erotica.