Pyromania

If you're interested in fireplay, have a look at the Caffimages store on Zazzle UK.

See that shadowy figure in the middle of all the fire, on the products labelled 'Pyromania', 'Pyromaniac', 'I love fire art' etc.?

That's me.

We did a series of pics at some pagan camps we've been to over the last 3-4 years.

They were done either on a beach, or in the middle of a field with the farmer's permission. Do not try this at home!

If you have a Zazzle account and put nice things in the comments section that comes up against each product, it'll help drive up the ratings on Zazzle and make the items more visible in the main Zazzle store...

Do you really want to be 'Master'?

Go on many bdsm-related social networking sites and chatrooms, and you'll find guys there who call themselves 'Master' So-and-so. I've never been convinced that a dominant should give themselves that title: I've always seen it as something others give.

I don't think I'm alone in this.

I know a sub who's often online in chatrooms and chatted up by men whose online names are 'Master' something or other. Her usual line is to ask politely on what basis they call themselves 'Master'.

This can lead to quite long exchanges in which she establishes they have no MA or MSc qualification; are not a master in a vocational sense (e.g. master baker, which is a recognised title), and are not recognised within their bdsm community as being a 'bondage master' or whatever.

She then points out that the other use of the term 'master' is an honorific title for young boys who have not yet reached the age at which they can be called 'mister' - and asks whether, in that case, they'd still like her to call them 'master'...

Personally I've always preferred to hear 'Ouch!' and 'You bastard!' rather than 'Please Master!' but maybe that's just me.

(Sorry about the lack of posts, I've been away for a few days but normal service is now resumed.)

Lenny Bruce, comedian and general bad boy

I've been ill recently and spent some of the time re-reading some old Lenny Bruce stuff on my bookshelves. For those who don't know, Lenny Bruce (Leonard Alfred Schneider, 1925-1966) was an American comic who started working as an MC in strip clubs, doing comic turns between the girls. His sharp sense of hypocrisy and injustice in American society worked into his act and often made him a target for law enforcement, including a couple of obscenity trials.

Notable Lenny Bruce quotes:

“I’ve been accused of bad taste, and I’ll go down to my grave accused of it and always by the same people, the ones who eat in restaurants that reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”

“The kind of sickness I wish Time had written about, is that school teachers in Oklahoma get a top annual salary of $4000, while Sammy David, Jr. gets $10,000 a week in Vegas.”

“If something about the human body disgusts you complain to the manufacturer.”

“If a titty is pretty, it’s dirty but not if it’s bloody and maimed.”

“Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.”

“I won’t say ours was a tough school, but we had our own coroner. We used to write essays like: What I’m going to be if I grow up.”

“If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses. “

If you're interested there's an official Lenny Bruce website maintained by his daughter Kitty.

Bruce was a bad boy. He was, for example, a long-time drug user and his death was due to accidental overdosing on morphine. But he was a bad boy in many other respects as well. Here's the sexy bit I rediscovered in his biography: it comes from early in his career, when he was MCing for stripper's at Duffy's club in Los Angeles. Philly Joe, a drummer in the club band, hears Lenny's voice in his ear. 'When you finish this set come straight back in the dressing room - and have your cock out!' And then...

'...when the last ker-plunk had sounded from his drums, he'd be advancing on the dressing room with his fly unzipped. Whipping out his schlong, he'd stand breathless before the maroon drapes. Then he'd enter the dressing room in precisely the condition Lenny desired. There before him is a sight to make a man ship over. A big naked stripper is kneeling in the middle of the floor, a bandage over her eyes, her hands bound behind her back, her mouth wide open waiting to receive the first cock that comes through the door. As Philly Joe, now a robot man, dips his wick, he hears Lenny giggling hysterically in the closet.'

From Ladies and Gentlemen - Lenny Bruce! The Ultimate Biography. Albert Goldman with Lawrence Schiller. Pan Books, 1976 - pages 166-7.

I'll maybe post a couple of other bits in a day or two...

Customers who bought these items...

So I've been looking at stuff on Amazon. This is research for a story, actually, that started out with the question 'what Dewey decimal numbers would be used to classify books on BDSM'?

Various references on the Dewey system tell me the answer is 'it depends' - 155.3 for philosophy/moral/ethical books, 306.77 or, more specifically, 306.77/5 for sociology, psychology, discussion and how-to books, 364.242 for sexually-related criminology/offending and 616.85835 for medical and psychiatric studies. And some books seem to get listed under other numbers, for example if they're more specifically to do with personal memoirs or the history of sexual practices etc.

However, I then started looking at the current availability of some material on Amazon. As a result of this, I get:

Recently Viewed Items:
- S and M: Studies in Dominance and Submission by Thomas Weinberg
- Bound to be Free: SM Experience by Charles Moser
- Essential Papers on Masochism (Essential P... by Margaret Ann F...
- S-M: The Last Taboo by Gerald Greene

And to go with this, 'customers who bought these items also bought...' surprise surprise, the suggestions turn out to be a selection of photographic equipment.

Hmm.

I will say, though, that I came across half a dozen academic books on sexuality that do look more interesting than their often dry titles suggest, and I may well be buying them in the near future.

New stuff in Erotic Review

I've been a bit dilatory about posting recently due to a bug that's taking a while to recover from. But I can report three pieces of good news.
Firstly, your 2011 Fetish Horoscope was published in The Erotic Review, Fire and Ice Issue (issue 116). Yes, I know I'm not a professional astrologer (but I am a highly professional fetishist!).
Secondly, look out for another piece of mine, 'Nostalgia', which will be in the January issue of Erotic Review, due out towards the end of the month.
And thirdly, there's a new free short story over at Deliciously Deviant - 'Viscous Coupling'. The technical details are correct, there is indeed a thing called a viscous coupling on many types of vehicle and the cheap fix for a broken one, as described in the story, is exactly what I'm about to have done on my van. The only thing is, now I'm clearly going to have to write a couple of other mechanically-based stories dealing with 'rigid shaft couplings' and 'restraint couplings'...

Happy New Year to everyone (and some self-congratulation!)

This is a self-congratulatory post and I'm not going to apologise for it! I've been doing some end-of-year sorting and filing, as a result of which I've just noticed that in the course of 2010 I've published, in terms of erotica -

- 14 short stories in magazines/collections/anthologies: 6 with Xcite, 6 in Erotic Review, 1 in Oysters & Chocolate, 1 in Lucrezia magazine
- 3 short stories published individually, all with Xcite
- 3 stories on other people's blogs (Frequently Felt)
- My first full-length erotic novel (with Pink Flamingo)
- a bunch of stories out on my new 'other' blog which I've set up jointly with Velvet Tripp, deliciouslydeviant.wordpress.com

That's in addition to several short science fiction and horror stories published under my real name.

Stuff in progress at the moment includes a single-author erotic story collection and a second novel, with a second story collection and a third novel being planned... I haven't set myself any New Year resolutions about getting things finished, but hopefully most if not all of that stuff will appear in the course of 2011.

Meanwhile, congratulations also to the authors whose blogs appear in the links on the right of this page, who've all put out excellent stuff this year, sometimes in the face of quite serious difficulties. And a happy New Year to everyone.

So what were the trends of 2010?

I've just been looking at Trendhunter's round-up of the top 100 naughty trends of 2010. They include:

- the 'Lady Gag Gag' blow-up doll. Elsewhere they also feature alien blow-up dolls
- Naughty pinup shoots by air stewardesses in the US, to protest about unpaid wages (that's a new twist - 'pay us the money or we'll take our clothes off...' but I guess respectable airlines wouldn't want that kind of publicity?)
- tattoos (of course)
- intergalactic fashion
- leotards for women, suits for men (I can see the attractions... they reference the Suit Supply company ads and various female singers' stage outfits)
- the 'Fleshlight', an aid to male masturbation
- body painting parties (why have I not been invited to one?)
- mass nudity (remember the Spencer Tunick 'artwork with 2,500 people nude outside the Sydney Opera House?)
- sex in libraries (memo to self, I was going to write a story about that...)
- a selection of redheads, transvestites, transsexuals and lesbians in a variety of photo shoots and ad campaigns. Why do redheads get billed the same way as transvestites, transsexuals and lesbians? I find that quite mysterious.

I think they missed a few. For example, burlesque became very big in 2010.

Predictions for 2011? Mine would be

- club crossover, so that it becomes impossible to distinguish between a regular nightclub, a lap-dancing club and a fetish event.
- LGBT pride events become huge tourist festival-like attractions for the places that hold them.

Any other offers, people?

BTW my 'other' blog, deliciouslydeviant, has just had two posts - a short story from me and a round-up of bdsm how-to and reference books from Velvet Tripp.