Friday 11 March 2011

Sale: Cover Him With Darkness


Down into the dark we go ...

I can't tell you how pleased I am that Mitzi Szereto, editor of forthcoming Cleis anthology Red Velvet and Absinthe, has picked my short story Cover Him With Darkness as part of the lineup! It's a story of long-suffering, romance and a lover who may, or may not, be something truly awful. It's about love and compassion and terrible risk.

The first time I saw him fettered there in the dark, I wept.

I wrote this one one in the grip of a red-hot compulsion.

I was only little: he looked huge to me. Huge and filthy and all but naked. I stared at the thongs, as thick as my skinny wrist, knotted cruelly tight about his broader ones. They stretched his arms above his head so that one hand could not touch the other, and they held his ankles apart. I felt a terrible ache gather in my chest. I pressed backward, into Father’s black robes.
    “Who is he?” I whispered.
    “He is a very bad man.”


Red Velvet and Absinthe is published in paperback this September. The full list of authors should be revealed next month.  In the meantime, if you know any more, please do tell!

Pre-order from Amazon US : Pre-order from Amazon UK

6 comments:

Jo said...

Brilliant! Great to see it's coming out. How did the edits work out in the end?

Janine Ashbless said...

Thanks Jo. Yes, no problem with the edits :-)

Kat Black said...

You tease us with that and then leave us to suffer until September, Janine? You are a very bad woman.

(Co-incidentally, have just sold something dark and dangerous myself this week. Go us!)

Janine Ashbless said...

Go Kat! Tell us more!

Charlotte Stein aka The Mighty Viper said...

Hee hee- high five, hon!

Janine Ashbless said...

*slap!*