Full Circle release date!!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you information we've been waiting for since August 2006…

(drum roll)

(Yes, I'm milking this for all it's worth)

Full Circle, the debut novel by I. M. Cupnjava, will be released TOMORROW! July 20, 2007! Link to publisher: Lady Aibell

Woohoo!!!




Blurb:

In a war-torn world a group of vampires struggle to reclaim their past glory. One of their own is missing. Weakened by solitude, the leader of the vampires, Kendrick, must find Byron, his covenant mate, before the pain of isolation kills them both. Locating Byron is the least of the vampires' problems.

The chaos of the world's death rattle breeds suffering, death and pestilence as well as a call for vengeance. The opposing sides of good and evil never looked so similar. A war that began with the dawn of time has enjoyed a respite. That respite is ending. Vampiric history, human history and the lives of two lovers are about to come full circle.

Here's the excerpt from the first chapter (non-adult excerpt):

An eerie smile that tried too hard to be sultry crept upon the stranger's face. It sent a shiver down Byron's spine. Was this man trying to kill or seduce? Either way, he was going to have a fight on his hands. "You sense that I'm dying."

Byron hiked an eyebrow. Dying? He was neither priest nor undertaker and had no solace or service to offer the dying. Regardless, he'd witnessed a lot of death in what he remembered of his life and death never looked nor smelt like this.

The man in the suit continued. "That's sweet." He stepped closer to Byron and curled one hand around Byron's waist. "Do you ever thirst, Byron?"

Byron turned his head to the side and shivered when the man's cold cheek brushed against his skin. What was this guy? Some specter-man hybrid? Some conglomeration of spirit and flesh? A tangible ghost? Some neither dead nor living poltergeist? A man stuck neither here nor there—living between worlds? Maybe all of that was too complicated. Maybe he was certifiably insane. Freaky—that's what this guy was. A freak, plain and simple.

"I like your heat. Your life force is strong, Byron." He pointed his tongue and lightly licked Byron's earlobe. "I need you." He moaned. "Oh, so warm."

"That's too damn bad, because I don't need you." The longer the man held on to Byron, the more the light bulb smell faded.

"You need me. You just don't feel it yet." He dipped his head and ran the tip of his tongue up Byron's throat. After kissing Byron's chin, he whispered, "My name is Kendrick. Nice to meet you, lover." He closed his eyes and pressed his lips against Byron's.

Kendrick's lips were cool, but not the ice cold that his fingers were. When their tongues met, air raced from Byron's lungs. Byron's heartbeat slowed and blood rang in his ears. Panic grabbed his mind. This guy was sucking the very life out of him! He strained against whatever spell Kendrick cast and pushed his hands against Kendrick's shoulders. He pried their lips apart and started coughing for air.

A raven screeched and took flight.

Kendrick screamed and his body curled around itself. "Why, Byron?" He fell to his knees. "Why do you deny me?"

Byron stumbled to the side and leaned on the altar railing. "You're fucking sick!" He knew this was his chance to run and if he could control his legs, he would. His body forsook him and he fell limply to the floor.

"I can't very well feed upon you, Byron." He rolled his head up. "Why do you not want me to live?"

Byron's ears rang, drowning out everything. His vision blurred. "Sick…fuck." Everything in the room grew bright and his eyes rolled back.

"Not the homewarming welcome I had hoped." Kendrick sighed. "Perhaps, I borrowed too much. Pity." He drew himself to his feet and lifted Byron. "Come, my love, let us rest together. You have a lot more to learn and remember."

Acts of Charity by Erotica Writers

Erotica—stories about characters that have hot steamy sex. Aside from the obvious things such as reminding people that they're sexual beings, giving people a safe place to celebrate being a sexual being, helping sexual assault victims heal just a teeny bit and providing more therapy to writers than readers would ever want to know and a few other things, what other types of good come out of erotica?

I'm going to tell you about two things going on right now.

First, there's "Coming Together: For The Cure" anthology edited by Alessia Brio and being published by Phaze. This anthology will be generating money for breast cancer research. Coming Together: For The Cure website

Second, K. M. Frontain is making a personal sacrifice. The royalties she earns on her title Loved Him 1 will be donated to Gai Écoute, an organization in Quebec that helps GLBT teens who have been turned away from their families. She'll be turning in her donation come January. K. M.'s myspace blog post dated July 07, 2007 explains this in more detail. KM's myspace. Friend her darn it.

Certainly there are other authors who are doing things to give back to humanity and I mean no disrespect by failing to mention them here. If I don't know about the selfless deeds, I can't report them.

So, please, help these Alessia Brio and KM Frontain in their efforts. Purchase those books (Coming Together isn't ready yet) and also buy something else by KM Frontain so she can eat.

I know there are certain religious groups *cough* fundamentalists *cough* and a certain company who has banned me because they run a "wholesome romance website" and my readers (those who enjoy the beauty of male/male couplings) aren't her audience for her "wholesome" business. *rolls eyes*, --who don't see the good that we do. However, I think if they understood how much erotica writers give of themselves through their work and acts of charity like these, they'd be more welcoming of the work that we do.

Kudos to them! Keep up the great work ladies!

Cup


Yes, that's one more thing I can add to my banned from list. Let's see here…my list is now (not in order of occurrence)…

1) Asked to leave a Christian outreach center. (I didn't even get to say anything.)
2) Banned from an IHOP location
3) Snubbed by countless priests.
4) Asked to leave the Methodist church by the same preacher who'd encouraged me to go into the ministry.
5) Banned from the Consumption Junction chat room.
6) Snubbed by a Pagan fellowship board because I have a priest listed in my top friends. (on myspace)
7) Banned by a "wholesome romance" website.
8) Rejected twice by publishers for writing a story that's "too controversial" due to "religious themes" and "rape/torture" themes.
9) Banned from a Christian Outreach chat room. (Once again I didn't even get to say anything.)

It feels like I'm skipping something.

Anyways…

I'm doing AWESOME! Now, if I could only get the Roman Catholic Church to protest one of my books, I'd be GOLDEN!


A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord's hand.

~Mummer's Dance by Loreena McKennitt

Thank you!

When I check my inbox, myspace, LJ or blogspot and I find feedback from readers, I’m always floored and humbled. I’ve often said that I have the best readers in the world and I’m constantly reminded of that.

Thank you, dear readers, for allowing me into your computer screens. Thank you for allowing me to entertain you. Thank you for telling me what you like about my work. Thank you for telling me what didn’t work for you, providing me with the opportunity to grow and giving me a second chance to show you my growth. Thank you for not turning your backs on me when I make mistakes.

I don’t expect to change the world with my work, but if I can, for one brief moment, pull you from the chaos of the world, entertain you and remind you of the beauty of sexuality; then, my work is done.

Thank you for giving me that opportunity. Thank you, The Powers That Be, for giving me a gift to share with the world. Thank you, technology, for giving me a keyboard and spell check so that can I express myself and hide the fact that I’m a horrible speller.

I close with a few quotes from great minds:

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.
John Irving (1942 - )

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.
Leo Rosten (1908 - )

Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.
Thomas Berger

We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)

Faith and Sexuality or Why Write Erotica?

(Some of you may find this post offensive.)

Why write erotica?

That question, in various forms, has to be the most common question asked of me. People understand why someone would want to be a writer. When you tell someone you have stories inside you that claw at you until they're told, they understand.

Everyone—everyone—has some kind of creative outlet in their lives. It might not be as recognized as writing, drawing, singing or dancing, but everyone has something that allows themselves to express their creativity. (Sewing, cooking, prayer, home decorating, gardening, etc.) Thus, everyone understands why someone writes.

What they don't understand is why someone writes erotica. I'm going to tell you why. Other erotica writers might word it differently, but when you listen to what they say, we all say the same thing.

We want to remind everyone that they are sexual beings and, for those who do remember, we want to give you a place to celebrate it.

Sure, we say things like "it's hot" and stuff like that, but the bottom line of what we're doing is celebrating beauty and life through sexuality.

Everyone expresses sexuality differently. Everyone defines beauty differently. For some, celebrating life means highlighting the eloquence of death. For some people embracing the beautiful means surviving ugliness. And for some, those very few people who are truly asexual, they express sexuality through silence and platonic love. Non-expression is a form of expression.

Every single one of us is the product of a sexual experience. Sex brings life—how can we not celebrate and enjoy that? Oh sure, biologically speaking, there are sexual acts that do not carry the potential for creating life…or is that true? Well, maybe not.

If you define creating life as producing a child, then yes. There are a lot of forms of sexual expression that don't do that. If you define creating life as fostering the spirit of living, then all forms of sexual expression do that at least on some level. Alone, partnered, or in a large group sexuality becomes a form of life and fosters the spirit of living.

When we place restrictions on expressing sexuality, we run into taboos and shame. And here's where I start offending people.

I believe religion is the biggest enemy to sexuality. Not faith, but religion. Religion—where you deal with rules and processes of prayer. Religion where you deal with condemnation and "shoulds", "oughts" and "shouldn'ts".

It doesn't have to be that way, but, sadly, all too often it is.

Faith, the mother of religion, is a glorious friend of sexuality. For those who believe in a creator deity, they know their body was fashioned for work and pleasure. They know the pleasure of witnessing a sunrise should be cherished as much as feeling their own skin or their lover's skin beneath their fingers. How better to thank your deity for life than to enjoy that life?

Additionally, sexuality is how we perpetuate the species. (All forms of sexuality including homosexual expressions are based off this instinct. Instinct drives us to do this, but does not promise results.) The creator deity you see when you pray or worship knew this when they created us. The deity planned this. Why would that deity give us such a powerful form of communication and then give us all sorts of limitations on how to express it?

Religion's rules are an attempt at preserving the sacredness of sexuality. I understand what religion is trying to do with this. It's trying to keep the virtue of sexuality from becoming the vice of sexuality.

I don't believe that humans are inherently evil. I don't believe that without religion we'd fall into a pit of destruction and become selfish hedonists. (Not to be confused with selfless hedonism.) I don't believe STD's are punishments for orgasm just as I don't believe the flu is punishment for breathing.

So, why would religion even want to limit forms of sexual expression? I think it's a misguided attempt at keeping us from becoming obsessed with all things sexual (thus a vice). When we do that, we miss out on the beauty of non-sexual things in the world. Sexuality as a vice is detrimental where as sexuality as a virtue is wholly positive. (Note: I believe the line between vice and virtue varies from person to person.)

When I sit quietly and think of the most personal and intimate thing I can possibly do, two things come to mind and I can't decide which one is more initiate—expressing myself sexually or expressing myself through prayer. Both are equally intimate, powerful and beautiful. That can't be a coincidence.

When we're intimate with someone, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. We express desires and needs that we might not otherwise express. We allow our mouths to be manipulated through kissing and other ways. (That's trusting someone with our breath and voice.) We cannot wield a weapon while someone licks and nibbles our fingers. We close our eyes and allow someone to put their teeth upon our necks. We literally open our arms and give someone access to all of our tender bits. How is that any different from prayer? We're showing the same vulnerability. One cannot fight a god that they worship. And, when you pray and offer your concerns, worries and celebrations are you not allowing that deity a glimpse at your most tender bits?

Humans need language and physical gestures to communicate. Deities do not need these things. So, when we pray are we whispering thoughts or greeting a lover? Some of you just realized I'm saying prayer is having sex with God. And you would be right. Don't believe me? Try praying without words. Clear your mind and just feel the presence of your god(s). Take a quiet moment and bask in the base sensuality of raw faith.

Some of you may think I'm picking on the Christians with this. No, I'm not. Yes, Christians either by design or accident usually end up at the forefront of any puritanical statements. But, they're not alone. Are you familiar with some of the "family purity" practices of Orthodox Judaism? Or some of the sexual limitations of Muslims or Hindus? Yes, even some Pagans have hang-ups. There are extremists in every religion. Extremists manage to scream loud enough to get noticed by the world and some times they scream loud enough and long enough to become tradition.

With that stated, I'll close post…

The next time you wonder why someone would want to express themselves through erotic arts, take a moment to set your religion aside and examine your faith. Perhaps you'll find your own answer. If you don't find it, try praying without words.

Writing Ethical Question

No, this one isn’t about social responsibility in relation to condom use or SSC in BDSM presentation. We all know how I feel about that. (Actually some of you probably don’t and I should do another post about that.)

This is about providing feedback.

I was out blog hopping several months ago (yes, this has been weighing on my mind that long) and I came across a sample chapter of a book someone was planning on trying to get published.

It was bad. I was real bad. It was POV errors like crazy, completely flat, telling and not showing, painful to read, riddled with grammatical errors bad. If it wasn’t the worst writing I’d read, it was definitely in the top 5.

I kept my mouth shut. This writer wasn’t a part of any crit group with me. He/She did not come to me for feedback. They did include that standard line asking for feedback in the blog post, but other than that, I had not been invited to state my opinion. This was also not on any writing board or anything like that. It was just posted on the writer’s blog.

After a few weeks, I wondered if I should drop that person a line asking if they wanted a crit of the work. I have crits to do and my own WIP’s and contracts to fulfill, so it’s not like I’m wanting for something do. I, simply, started to wonder if keeping my mouth shut was the right thing to do. I keep reminding myself that this person does not know me and has not come to me for help and we all know how well unsolicited advice goes over. Then, I remind myself of my early writing and how it would have been nice to have someone point out some errors before I broke the 100k word mark in Purpose Chaos.

So, here’s my dilemma: Do you think I'm doing the right thing by keeping my mouth shut and not offering unsolicited advice to this writer?

A blogging award!

K.M. Fontain has named me a Rockin’ Wench Blogger! Thank you KM!

And that has reminded me that I need to show my blogspot a bit more love. I give plenty of attention to my LJ and my myspace, but I neglect this poor little blog. I think that’s because I’m actively trying to be professional here and I don’t want a whole bunch of cross-posting on my blogs.

So, here’s what you can expect from my other blogs.

LJ is my most personal blog. That’s where you get to see me batshit insane. When I fight with bouts of insomnia and I get that spazz session just before crashing, I post it there. I also post fanfiction there. So if you’re one of those “Oh noes! The EEBILS of fanfiction!!!111ONE!!!” Types, then give it a pass. I also do a lot of fangirling there. So, yes, you get to see me at my fanigirling worst with things like, “OMG! Hakkai and Gojyo are so freaking HAWT!” or “OMG! Have you seen the raws of the Burial Arc yet?” or “I have new doujinshi to share!” and all that other great kind of stuff.

Myspace is an intellectual-personal blend between LJ and Blogspot. That’s also where I’ll put out some of my humor such as translating the first few chapters of the Bible in netspeak:

Genesis 1:1 G0d wrote BIOS.
Genesis 1:2-25 G0d slung code.
Genesis 1: 27 G0d used a hex editor and cheat code.
*Adam_01 has entered the chat*
Genesis 2:2 Reboot.

Genesis 2: 16-17 G0d: “Eat this and u phail.”
Genesis 2: 20 Adam_01: :( *sniffle* “lonely”
Genesis 2:21-22 G0d used another cheat code.
*Eve_02 has entered the chat*
Genesis 2:23 Adam_01: “OMG! R0xz0rz! Cyber? Woot!”

Genesis 3: 1 Eve_02: “WTF! No wai! 4 real? G0d sayz dat?”
Genesis 3:2 Adam_01: “Yes wai!”
Genesis 3:4 xXxSerpentxXx: “Caffeine good. Eat FTW!” (FTW=For The Win)
Genesis 3:7 Adam_01 & Eve_02: >.<
Genesis 3:8 Adam_01 & Eve_02: -.-‘
Genesis 3:11 G0d: *tsk*
Genesis 3:12 Adam_01: “She r teh h4x0rz.”
Genesis 3:13 G0d: “WTF!”
Eve_02: *points* “D00d! xXxSerpentxXx is teh sux.”
Genesis 3:14-15 G0d: “FuQ! I r pissed! KOS4LIF!” (KOS=kill on sight)
Genesis 3:16: G0d: “Eve u sux. u phail @ lif.”
Genesis 3:17 G0d: “Adam w/ teh no ballz or skillz!”
Genesis 3:23: G0d: “GTFO muh internets! STFU! U sux x2 !!!111!!!ONE!!!”

Genesis 3:24—and so on: World v2.0

“And so on” until God c:/format with TEH big flood and World v3.0 came out.

Then World v3.5 with the release of the Jesus patch.

World v4.0 is expected around Armageddon.

And I shared Priest Kitty there! (I wrote the caption, but didn’t take the picture.) Love cat macros!



That kind of stuff. I also post writing tips and struggles on that blog. That blog has turned into an odd little mix of things because I have old high school friends, readers, editors, publishers, fellow writers as well as two priests and bishop friended on myspace.

My blogspot blog was intended to be a blog for writers (published, self-published, and not-yet-published.) The intent was to only include things that could clearly be linked to my writing life. So, there was no angsting about my biopsy (which turned out fine), pending surgery, bitching about being broke, or any of that. I think that lack of a personal touch is keeping this blog from feeling like a real blog. Poor blogspot, the bastard child of my blogging life.

So, I come to you with a question. Do you want me to make this blog more personal or do you enjoy the way it is?

The Problems with having a Priest Fetish

There are several problems associated with having a priest fetish. First, it's DAMN hard to find good priest erotica. As a general rule, I won't publicly complain about someone else's writing. I feel that's unprofessional. However, I've not liked most of what I've found and what I have liked is from a writer who REFUSES to post her stuff and share it with the world (or try to get professionally published.) So, if you know of some good gay priest smut, PLEASE, tell me.

The second problem is that it's difficult to take religious matters seriously if you have the visual. My religious path is an odd mixture of this, that and the other thing. Lately, I've been considering attending mass, because it's one of the few I haven't attended in person. Do you have ANY idea how difficult that is when you find all that imagery a turn on? >.< I can't even look for churches with old and unattractive priests, because the imagery is STILL there.

Another problem is trying to keep it hot without being sacrilegious. The beauty of religious erotica is that it is not blasphemy.

Yet another problem is figuring out which storylines are played out. Is a timid torn priest tired or is an aggressive, assertive and confident priest tired? As a general rule, I do not like the erotica that has the priest going from "hello" to opening his robes in a breath. That destroys my willing suspension of disbelief and as I'm getting to know some priests (yes, I'm actually making friends with priests. No, I do not hide my priest fetish. Yes, I'm being smart and friending only gay priests. *sweatdrop* And that just might be backfiring on me. Oh it's helpful to prevent anything physical from happening, but my MIND is running so fast I can't keep up with it.) But, as I'm getting to know some priests, I'm finding out that they aren't anything like I expected. The percentage that actually keeps that promise of celibacy is…well…small enough to REALLY make you wonder about those seminaries.

This is further complicated by all of the "it's no fun if…" stuff. It's no fun if the priest is a non-celibate priest. (Yes, there are Catholic priests who have not taken a vow or promise of celibacy.) It's no fun if they aren't Catholic priests (Episcopalian priests have the right look, but none of that forbidden fruit thing going on.) It's no fun if they aren't in that SEXY collar and don't even get me started on how unbelievably sexy cassocks are. *bites knuckle* It's no fun if they're straight. Yes, there are plenty of people out there who fully appreciate the sexiness of a straight priest, but for me I want that straight priest either being pursued by another man or longing for one (even if it's just idle curiosity and exploration.)

It also makes it damn hard to write a sex scene with Father Daniel. I want him in his clerical shirt for it, but I also don't want to force that into the story. Also thinking about him tied up on a bed all wanting and full of lust is enough to…well…let's just say you DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT write good erotica one-handed. (Take care of business and then return to the writing or write it and then take care of business, but do not do both at the same time.)

As you can obviously tell, I'm really picky about my priest erotica. Can anyone else feel my pain with this?

EDIT: (updated:4/1/2011)

Judging by the stats, this is a very popular post. It seems a lot of people are seeking religious erotica and/or priest erotica. I have a short (and cheap) title out called Personal Demon .

Here's the blurb:

Temptation in an alb...

Those of the most devout faith face private struggles. When the man inside the priest fights carnal desires, the priest can only pray he has the inner fortitude to resist. Eve succumbed to the serpent. Adam succumbed to the apple. Now, Father Blake Krey stands in a private Garden of Eden tempted by his own Personal Demon.

If you read it, I hope you enjoy it. If you don't read it, I hope you find something that you do enjoy.

About to Sin: Updated

I think it's nice that after a blog post about religious erotica, I find out that Erotic Dreams has updated my story there.

Ever wondered what would happen if Anand exchanged his back pew for a front one? Read and find out. ^_^

http://www.eroticdreamspublishing.com/EroticDreams

It's free to read. All you need to do is register with the site (which is also free and spam free), log in, click fiction and it's the first story. If you've ever wanted to check out gay religious erotica, this is a no-risk way to do it.

It doesn’t have to be sacrilegious.

There’s a multitude of genres under the umbrella “Erotica.” One of the genres I particularly enjoy is “Religious Erotica.”

So what is religious erotica and what is it not? First things first, do not confuse religious erotica with inspirational romance. Those are two very different beasts. Inspirational romance is, generally, tamer than erotica and Christian themes are quite common. Religious erotica uses religious themes, of various faiths but Roman Catholicism is favored. Or it uses religious imagery. It plays up the taboo or forbidden element of sexuality blended with faith. It’s the juxtaposition of religion and sexuality.

Maybe it deals with a Roman Catholic priest struggling with temptation. Maybe it’s two members of laity who know this is wrong, but cave to carnal desires. Maybe it’s the setting or an underlying theme.

I’ve been toying in the realm of religious erotica for a while now. Obviously, About to Sin is religious erotica. That’s full on religious erotica that not only has a priest in a sexual situation, but I also use religious imagery in the setting and I make Father Daniel’s faith a major character motivation factor.

Full Circle, by all rights, could be considered religious erotica and there’s not a single member of clergy in it. If I explain fully why this is, it will ruin the moment in the story that Tami Parrington says, “…will shock the shit out of [my readers].” I can tell you this. The book starts in a destroyed sanctuary. Religious history plays a critical role in the story and Kendrick’s faith is nearly unshakeable. If that man had a choice of what to do with his last breath it would either be: stating his love for Byron or praying.

The beauty of good religious erotica, in my eyes at least, is that it respects religion. It’s not blasphemous or sacrilegious. Even after befriending some members of clergy, I’m not ashamed of what I’ve written. I don’t know if they are reading my story or not, but the thoughts of it does make me nervous. I’m not nervous that they might be offended by the story. I’m nervous that I jacked up something liturgical and they’d call me on it. (You bet your ass they’d call me on it too. They’d GLEEFULLY call me on it and they’d NEVER let me live it down.)

One piece of religious fiction that I wish had been more erotic was Tami Parrington’s Hell’s Own. It’s a story about a demon, Alexander, who escapes hell. Lucifer sends guys out to recapture his pet. God sends people out to snag the demon. I wanted Alexander and Michael the Archangel to get it on so bad I could taste it. There’s a hilarious scene where Lucifer calls (yes, calls as in on the phone a vidphone to be exact) God that had me laughing so hard I had to walk away from my computer to calm down. God was so “oh what now” with his attitude and Gabriele nearly soiled his robes. Too freaking funny! What she does with Adam (yes, THE Adam) is pure genius. I don’t know the status of that book and if it ever gets published, I will pimp it. I promise you.

Religious erotica can be light and funny like Hell’s Own. It can be flippant and irreverent. It can also be dark angst. What it shouldn’t do, in my eyes, is cheapen religion or faith.

There are things I won’t do in my religious erotica. I won’t make a predatory priest the hero. I have used it as a plot point and I have no problems making the antagonist a predatory priest, but what makes religious erotica work for me is that it’s the GOOD guy who is struggling with what he thinks is bad. I won’t make a charlatan a hero. If I’ve presented a priest/pastor/whatever as hero, you can bank on me thinking he’s a good guy even if you disagree.

Someone who isn’t into religious erotica may never see the respect in the story. Or they may find the whole concept blasphemous.

I don’t see a dang thing blasphemous about Anand and Daniel using Boy Butter (best name for lube ever) and having a blacklight reactive Pyrex dildo show up. Using confession-like language as pillow talk? Not sacrilegious in my eyes. Getting it on in a confessional booth? Yep, I totally have the balls for that. Playing a game DURING mass? Yes, I’ve gone there. Sex inside a baptismal tub? That’s in Full Circle.

Religious imagery is beautiful and powerful. Sexual imagery is beautiful and powerful. In my mind those naturally go together. The next time you find yourself in church look around and make note of all the phallic symbols. Look closer and you’ll find female equivalents. The Pagans make no bones about what dipping the athame into the chalice means. The Great Rite carried out—symbolic or otherwise. Do others see it when they dip those communion wafers into the wine? Or submerging someone fully into a basin of water? Does anyone look at those long taper candles with the brass heads and NOT see it as a phallic symbol? The shape of most sanctuaries can be likened to a huge intimidating womb add the long wide aisle that divides the pews, and you totally have symbolic representations of sex.

Even when dealing with same-sex couples there’s usually something going IN somewhere—oral sex, finger play, anal sex. Someone is the chalice and someone is the wafer/athame. It’s all the same. The difference is semantics. The union of flesh is one the most powerful things we can experience as humans and that act can produce life. Why shouldn’t we celebrate this? Why shouldn’t we write about it?

(As a side note: Sex can also be completely not worth taking off your socks. Sometimes, it’s just lame.)

Religious erotica dances a very fine line. And that’s a line that some publishers do not want to go near. Some publishers refuse submissions that have a priest or nun in a sexual situation. In my eyes priests, nuns, rabbis, etc have stories to tell and there’s nothing wrong with telling them.

Call for Submissions: Freya’s Bower

Freya's Bower is looking for submissions to go with a faerie anthology.

Here’s the blurb:

This anth is fantasy at it's highest. An element of legitimate faerie lore research must be present in the story. This is a pet project of mine, and I'm a avid fan of faerie lore, so I'll know if you fudged the details, lol.

Okay, 10K min wc and 20K max. Rating sweet to beyond sizzling. Deadline for submissions is August 1. Submissions MUST have "SUBMISSION: FAERIE" in the subject heading.

I'll select 4 to 5 submissions, depending on word count. Any content is acceptable minus the taboos listed on our Freya's Bower submissions page. Lesbian and m/m content is accepted.

I want to see some well thought out stories. Beautiful faeries with wings and sparkles are nice, but show me some imagination and wow me with strong prose and good grammar/puncutation.

For this anth to be considered for print format, a minimum of 75 electronic copies must be sold (that shouldn't be too difficult with 4 to 5 authors promo'ing), but this does not guarantee print format.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact me at editorfaith@sbcglobal.net

If you don’t know about FB. Let me tell you what I know. They have an excellent reputation for not only quality, but treating their authors quite well. Nothing against my publisher, but I do hope to have a title under FB one day. I also know one of their editors, KM Frontain. She’s quite talented and I’d love to work with her one day.

So get cracking on those faeries people!

Chicago or BUST!!

As some of you may or may not know, I’m desperate to get to Chicago for a visit. (If you don’t know this, then you don’t follow my myspace.) But, I’m a writer. A new writer. And if you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know we’re paid less than minimum wage. >.<

So I need Hotel Discounts. Well, I checked out their website for my fantasy-but-it-is-gonna-be-real-dang-it trip and I was pleased with what I saw.

First, unlike some other sites, I quickly found where I typed in the destination city and the prospective dates of my trip. I can’t tell you how many times airline sites have made this a major pain.

The first page of results gave me an at-a-glance of costs and ranks for the hotel. They also provided maps and that helps me figure out how close I’d be sleeping to what is making me crave Chicago so badly. I mentioned ranks earlier, they have these stars that rank all of the hotels. I don’t know if these are user ranks or those official ranks that the hotel industry uses. Probably the official ones.

Wowza, I had no idea Chicago had so many hotels! Geez…if I would have checked all of these individually, I’d gotten NO writing done.

It seems the per day hotel stay will range from $177.00 to $400.00 a night. Ok…can someone tell me what a hotel offers that’s worth $400 for a place to sleep? Are my mountain roots showing with that?

Geez…

Now, when I click on an individual hotel, I get all sorts of goodie information about it. The site calculates my expected cost for my entire trip which is great for people like me who suck at math. The rest of the page is filled with information and pictures of the hotel everything from amenities to property rules.

Maybe I’ve been living under a rock or something, but this seems cool to me. I’ve tried other sites, but I don’t think they were this informative. Out of curiosity, I poked my nose around and checked the rates with one of the hotels directly. This really is cheaper. I refuse to type the price the hotel told me. It’s that scary.

So, everyone cross your fingers for me! I want to visit Chicago so badly I can taste it! The real scary part of this? Is that I want to get to Chicago to visit a priest. >.< Talk about jumping in the fire.