Monday 23 August 2021

Blue Monday: Lustcraftian Horrors is on sale!

 

My story The Witch's Need appears in the Lustcraftian Horrors anthology, edited by Hydra M. Star, which is on release now! For all you fans of tentacles and unhappy endings...

Lovecraft never intended for his mythos to be overtly sexual, but the Great Old Ones are horny for human flesh and all those hybrids don’t just create themselves. Within Lustcraftian Horrors lies thirteen glimpses into the sexual adventures, dominance, and violations the Elder Gods and their kin visit upon the unsuspecting human world. Consider your triggers warned and prepare to enter the void.

The Witch's Need (excerpt) by Janine Ashbless

Agnes looked around her prison, determined not to think more on the men, though the ache in her cunny made her clench her fists. They’d left her one candle in a horn-windowed lantern; it was just enough light to make out her surroundings. The crypt was rectangular, with two raised tombs either side of an aisle to a rear apse, where the stone figure of some medieval knight lay in state on his sarcophagus. Probably these belonged to the Squire’s own forebears, but they did not interest her greatly. The dead were not her provenance. More frustratingly—and more by luck than design, or so she assumed—the close-set flagstones and walls offered her no glimpse of the raw earth she hoped to find. Earth might permit her aid; stone did not. 

She sighed and sat on the corner of one of the tombs, resting her sore legs. They’d kept her standing all day—another petty cruelty, like the fact she’d been given nothing to eat—but the pressure of the stone between her legs was soothing now and she tilted against the hard surface, grinding her hips. Then she lifted her layered skirts and touched her mound, sliding her finger into the slick furrow between her newly-shaven nether lips. Her sex felt strange to her, a foreign thing. Mother Hislop, the old bitch, had stuck her fingers inside during the search for the witch-mark, and Agnes had had to stifle her groan of involuntary arousal. She’d not been able to hide the slickness of her gape though, or the spasming clench of her muscles. Mother Hislop had been triumphant in her disapproval. 

Ah, if only she did possess the powers they accused her of. She would like to blast them all with the ague and the cholera. Let them shit themselves to death

Agnes pressed her fingers to her wetness then and worked it over her pip, hoping to comfort her need. It might be her last chance, she thought, before they hanged her on Whinney Gibbet for the crows to pick at. Maybe the next fellows to enjoy her hot cunny would be the worms that feasted there, and what pleasure would she get from that? This night could be her final ride. 

Then she heard footfalls on the steps outside, and voices, and the rasp of metal. They were returning. She bit her lip. 

When the Witchfinder walked into the crypt followed by two of his soldiers, Agnes was bringing herself to climax, her thighs spread wide, her feet braced on the carved stone of the tomb, and her hand working frantically on her exposed gash. She locked eyes with him, gasping as she tumbled over into her ecstasy, defiant in her shamelessness. 

The two soldiers, hands full of the things they carried, stared with mouths open. She liked that. 

“Are you quite finished?” asked the Witchfinder coldly. 

She withdrew her sticky, pungent fingers with a grin and rearranged her skirts in a parody of decorum. The last waves of her bliss washed through her, balm to her rage and her need. “For the moment.”  

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Tuesday 13 July 2021

Not Dead But Writing!


"That Is Not Dead Which Can Still Type"

Hello Blog! Boy, it's a bit dusty in here ... *blows cobwebs off Blogger*

This is the BIG UPDATE POST just to let you know that Janine Ashbless survived the lockdown and is still (sorta) around. In fact ... *fanfare*

🎺 I'VE GOT A NEW SHORT STORY COMING OUT!!! 🎺

My story The Witch's Need is due to appear in Lustcraftian Horrors, edited by Hydra M. Star, which is currently up for pre-orders on Amazon, due for release in August!

 Lovecraft never intended for his mythos to be overtly sexual, but the Great Old Ones are horny for human flesh and all those hybrids don’t just create themselves. Within Lustcraftian Horrors lies thirteen glimpses into the sexual adventures, dominance, and violations the Elder Gods and their kin visit upon the unsuspecting human world. Consider your triggers warned and prepare to enter the void.

I shall be posting an excerpt from my story in due course; but here's how it opens...

After the first day of her trial, they moved Agnes Pritchard to the crypt of the village church for safekeeping overnight. Since she hadn’t deigned to plead her innocence, the Witchfinder John Samuels had declared her a more-than-usually-arrogant and dangerous sorceress, and no one wanted to have her on their land overnight, not even in a guarded barn. If she had denied the charges then they would have kept her awake all night, working in teams to walk her up and down without rest, in the hope of causing her to summon her familiars and so prove her guilt. But there was no need in this case. Her contemptuous silence was as good as a confession.

* * * * * * * * * * 

It is in many ways an incredibly appropriate story to introduce this roundup of my news. It also may well be the most appropriate story on which to bow out as Janine Ashbless, if that is to happen. 

Those of you who have no idea what Lovecraftian fiction is might struggle with the rest of this blogpost! 😋 Any description of what I've been doing for the last two years is going to reference him and his Cthulhu Mythos. MY WRITING DREAMS HAVE ALL COME TRUE so please forgive my allcaps and blog silence! 

If you'd asked me at any time in the last three decades what I would most like to be known for writing, it wouldn't be for erotica. I would have said "I want to write Call of Cthulhu for Chaosium."

And that's what I'm doing right now - which is why I've put the erotica and even the horror fiction on the back-burner. Chaosium Inc. is a major roleplaying games company, and I've been working freelance for them. First I contributed to the forthcoming Rivers of London RPG. And then I was handed the humungous task of reworking Cthulhu by Gaslight, their Victorian setting for the Call of Cthulhu game, into a new and improved edition. I've had some experience with running Victorian horror LARP, but this is on another level altogether, so basically I've been researching and writing non-fiction for the last year. The first Gaslight book has been turned in and I'm hard at work on the second. I am wonderfully, stupidly, happy, and also a bit cross-eyed from hyper-focus.

This is my life now

I've not been blogging much because this blog belongs to Janine Ashbless, erotica writer - and though there is some overlap in readership with my horror and gaming interests (and there are many posts to prove it), it would be a distinct and confusing change of direction to start talking tentacles all the time.

Will I be writing more smut in future? Who can say? The current puritanical publishing atmosphere does not make it rewarding or inspiring. Sinful Press (very much missed) is only one of the many presses, small and large, to have closed their doors recently, and my optimism has run low. It is probably a lot easier to self-publish than to go through endless cycles of submitting stories, waiting months (sometimes years) for publication, and crossing fingers for payment - just to see the anthology/press pulled from the shelves. I'm re-releasing as much of my own stuff in e-format as possible, but it will only take one censorious move from Amazon to destroy decades of work.

I'm not planning for the future. I'm enjoying what I'm writing NOW. And Now is awesome 💝💝💝

My Janine Ashbless Facebook Page is still ticking over.

And I am active on Facebook under my Keris McDonald name