next little thing

Madeline Moore kindly asked me to participate in writing about My Next Big Thing, but I don't have a big thing to write about, as the Novel continues to elude me. She said it would be ok to write about a short story, and I will, but looking at the questions involved, it feels silly - so I will just share the cold details of the antho with you all and leave it at that.

The wonderful, joyous title of Alison Tyler's forthcoming antho is The Big Book of Bondage. Isn't that perfect? I'm thinking the next one should be The Girls' Own Book of Bondage, actually, I might have to suggest that. There's another one in the wings, I hope I can write something for it.

My story in this one is called Life Drawing, and it's a sweet little one about a woman who meets an old flame at a life drawing class and accepts his invitation to come up and see his etchings... and be drawn by him.

It was born out of my own small experience of sitting for friends, and feeling what it feels like to be looked at in such a studied way, and the places my thoughts went ... which were to how pretty a subject shibari would be - and online I found photos from Shibari life drawing sessions, which were just perfect!

Oh, this was one - dolls' chairs in bondage - this was just fun.

And I loved this one, where she stitches in thread for the rope.

But this is the sort of thing I was thinking of.

And this is where the story ends up...

Morning Noon and Night

Well, I am an idiot, who due to inner confusion cannot read calendars or understand dates, and I've posted this by accident not once, but twice! But I've checked the list twice, and many times over the last couple days, and I'm pretty certain that today is the fifteenth and therefore time to hit publish. Finally. Apologies to the three people who've seen it already. SO:

Blog tour! Check out Ms Alison Tyler's blog for more dates and info. 

Ok, I confess, I already posted this paragraph about this antho in an earlier post: 

Remember the days when it seemed taboo to admit to really liking the person you were sleeping with? Ireland doesn't really do dating... at least it didn't back when I was ... not dating. People tend to get drunk and hook up, and if they REALLY like each other then they MIGHT consider sex sober, and if that goes well they MIGHT go out together in a non-sex situation. And then at some point they MIGHT admit to having feelings of affection. Maybe. 

And that's a really quick summary of what I was thinking of when I wrote this story. I'm now thinking about the girls' nights out we went on that we were hoping would end with a more intimate  hook up, and we'd blow off our grlz for the promise of a little bit of body contact and affection and arousal. No sisters before misters for us! Or was that just me? Oops... 

The truth is my prowling ended in monogamy fairly quickly (far too quickly, really, my granny was right!) but before that, I do remember a time when I used to stay in a friend's house on Friday nights, but bring my bag out with me, 'just in Jason' - Jay had leathers and my favourite long blond hair 'n' beard combo. He didn't inspire this story (for in truth he was a bit of an ass) but the feeling of not being allowed to admit to liking him did. It's a depressing story, that feeling of knowing no one's going to fall in love with you, or even be friends with you, they just want sex, and they know you'll be grateful for that and not cause any fuss. I know a girl barely in her twenties who still lets this happen to her, or at least she did - and it makes me so sad. I wish there was a way to teach us it's not worth it. Not Worth It! I hope there is.

So in this story, the heroine thinks that's what's going on, and tries to protect herself from it. But it's hard to stay away. And all might not be what it seems... 

Find my story '1 am, Girls' Night Out' in Morning, Noon and Night by Alison Tyler. 

Sudden Sex

I have a tiny wee story called Night Heat in this new anthology of 69 stories by Alison Tyler. I confess, it could have been more, but I was lazy. This one's a little flight of fancy set in the moonlight and in the dark.  No listing for it yet, but coming soon, no doubt. 

:/

I hate you, blogger. Why can't I update my pictures n things? Don't say 'specify image' when I've specified it as much as I can. Don't you know how long it's taken me to get round to actually doing this? Demoralised*

Deep Desires by Charlotte Stein

Deep Desires by Charlotte Stein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Man. I had no expectations of this book, knew nothing about it - only a very intense and lengthy review that didn't quite make sense to me, not having read it. It does now!

Like the previous reviewer, I read all this book at once - I can't imagine being able to stop and start it - though that would match the initial teasing uncertain flow of the interaction.

This book is dedicated to delicious tension, yet there's no tease - once the relationship gets going it lives up to its tender promise utterly. A wonderful, sympathetic, beautifully drawn couple. I love the tiny world with its huge boundaries - it's bound by past and present fears and Charlotte carries it through so well.

It's brilliant.


View all my reviews

Morning, Noon and Night

Thank you thank you to Cora Zane for her lovely review of 'One am Girls' Night Out' from Alison Tyler's Morning, Noon and Night. It's so wonderful when someone sees the same thing in your story that you did! I'm also happy because I was just thinking demoralising things about my lack of talent, so this has been a nice little pick me up. You can see the review on Alison's blog here. And you can also one of my reviews of another story from the book there too - we writers are having a happy little ... well, Alison called it a clusterfuck, but I think it's more of a circlejerk, really... over there about our favourite stories from the book, extra fun. 

why is M/M so appealing?

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