Amelia Elias: Chosen

Chosen by Amelia Elias
From: Samhain

I bought all three of these dang books from Samhain yesterday Amelia Elias and read them through the night. I wanted you to know that in case I seem a wee bit cranky and maybe even exhausted as I sit here attempting to review them in the middle of my work day nightmare. But I will dang it!

So let’s get right to the latest one from Samhain…

Chosen, the third book in The Guardians’ League series, takes us to New Orleans and introduces us to Gareth Ambrocio, Patriarch of the Arachnid Clan (Meat Packers Local #666) and Alexa London an ICU nurse and part time dhampyr. Alexa does a body shot off our bad boy Patriarch at the Bourbon Street Vamp watering hole and sparks fly. Well sparks and a roving gang of Outcasts and some religious fanatics called Templars and then Eli and Renee show up on their honeymoon. Well, if you can’t tell it gets a bit complicated.

The fun part is Alexa not buying the poor home boy Gareth’s story about being a Vampire, until she gets attacked that is. Those bad, evil, nasty, Outcasts! But love conquers all, even the rare elusive dhampyr it seems.

This book just seemed to breeze by with no outrageous mistakes to cut short my enjoyment, not like book two of The Guardians’ League was… but we will talk about Outcast in good time.

All in all, I loved Chosen. It’s not a short story (280 pages) but I finished this thing in like maybe 4 hours and I rushed off in search of the rest the series. Chosen is fast paced, tightly plotted, hot and sexy in all the good Vampire ways and best of all the world they inhabit is dark and scary, and has a logic that makes sense. I am totally on Alexa’s side about the whole “Dame Matron” deal. That’s not a rank or title, that’s a punch line.

I will say that it is evident that the next book is probably going to be around Jenyssa aka Nyssa and Ronin which should be interesting seeing as how Ronin has not done much in the series but grunt and kill things so far. Oh, and he shed that single tear over the baby. The big manly grunting softy.

So I just had to go pick up the first book in the series to find out what I missed…

Hunted is the first book of The Guardians’ League series. We start off in beautiful San Francisco although we do not see much of my fair city. Why do people bother writing about this town without showing it off. I mean even Anne Rice shorted us with the Vampire in San Francisco writing thingy, now she’s writing “Jesus stories” so that should tell you something right there. The point is, I know more about what New Orleans looks like than I do San Francisco and we are a pretty place. Just do not breath in through your nose while down town and you’ll think we are the fairest jewel of all US tourist traps. Urine Town! Boo-Yah!

Anyway, here we meet Diego Leonides Patriarch of The Panther Clan, and former prince of Spain, and Sian Lazuro, bad driver, former cop and full time mob target. Sian runs into Diego with her Mini Cooper and almost does herself in as well. Diego, the studly Vampire hero he is, helps her get it back together only to have Eli (His big boss man Head Vampire) catch him in bed with her. Eli works a whammy and next thing you know they are “bondmates” with matching arm tats. I thought that was a very expensive and yet considerate wedding gift for the new couple but Diego did not seem all that thrilled in the least.
Sucker! Heh, Get it? Vampire… sucker… *sigh*

Sian is not too happy either, since she trusts no one first and asks questions later. Not since dear old dad got the bullet meant for her. Oops, sorry. I hate spoiling all that angst. So, she fights with Diego “the sexy” in a continual verbal battle that gets a little forced near the end of the book. I mean after the first big sex scene she should have tuned it down a little bit there but then we find out she’s a dhampyr so maybe that was the problem. Maybe she’s upset that dhampyr’s are not as rare and elusive as they are made out to be? Maybe she needs to feel special?

It was after Hunted that Eli started to get to me. I liked him. He was dark and mysterious and all powerful and a hoot. He came across as a very well written secondary character in both these books and the best part was after reading both the third and first books in the series I realized Amelia had done the impossible and had not made these stories dependent on each other. I figured it out by watching the secondary characters interact. You could pick up either of these books and read only one and feel you had gotten the whole story even with the underlying running interplay between the characters. Amelia never relies on past story lines or those “remember when” moments at any time so you could read Hunted or simply buy Chosen, the new book, and enjoy, it does not matter and that my friends is pure writing talent. Thanks Amelia!

Now the bad side of this review… on to Outcast.

Oh my my my!

Have you ever read a book, liked it, but about halfway through started to get a sinking feeling when the writer began to color in the hero and the back story sucked?

Sorry Amelia, I got that horrible feeling here in Outcast the second book of The Guardians’ League series. I mean, I already loved Eli. He was tall, very dark “character wise”, handsome, a wild card that came and went any way he pleased and was far far more powerful than any of the Vampires you introduced us to and far far more knowledgeable. In fact so much so the others stood in awe of Eli.

I liked him already. You did not have to do a dang thing to make him better. Then you wrote this book about him and his romance with Renee Hardin whom Eli watches get attacked and turned into a Vampire by the evil, nasty, vicious, Outcasts. Eli is guilt ridden with ages of issues and baggage beyond belief. The whole “sire” thing was a smart move. Even making Eli “THE OLDEST” Vampire was pretty much in keeping with what you had already written and more than one of your other main characters has suspected as much. That was logical, really, believable too.

But the whole Eli “God Thing”! The whole Eli “Greek God Thing”! Oh my my my my…

Nope, that explanation just fell flat. It was dead in the water from the get go. Greek Mythology is rife with Disney-fication amongst other things. It is not as dark or mysterious as say Egyptian Mythology (Eh no, Anne Rice did that one already. Sorry, but the great thing is she will never write another page and a half description of a room with an open window again. Woohoo!) or hell, Sumerian Mythology. Yeah, next time try Sumerian Mythology. Or just write your own, this is fiction you know. The other problem was Eli became way too powerful. The balance got lost with the modern day story setting and the whole story fell over.

Eli would have been the perfect “imperfect god”. He could have been the first Vampire and not really known why he was created or how and the story could have taken an even darker and more realistic turn with the lack of answers. He could even have created that bad Vampire and felt all that guilt without once saying one word about any Greek Gods. I have this thing about “SHOW ME” do not “TELL ME” in writing. Well, the big thing was there was a lot of telling. This happened with Diego in the first book too, but not as bad. Both these books could have used a prologue that showed the heros way back when they first started and it would have had more impact and lessened the need to recount everything about their past.

The best part of this series again is that anyone could read the first book and the third book and skip Outcast and have a great time reading some good Vampire stories. I would so dump Outcast and set it aside for re-write in a New York minute. I felt like the last part dragged me so far down, jeez, it sucked. I had just breezed through the last two books with no problems, then this fine mess.

Amelia you are a damn good writer (Not surprising since you are published by Samhain) and not many people, even those writers presented to us continually in romance as “the best”, can write a series of books that work individually as well as together. You have done this and done it very very well. I respect your writing talent and thank you for some really good Vampire Romance stories. I really want to give this whole series an overall A for consistency but not in it’s current shape.

Till then, my only request Amelia Elias is… Where is the Gay Vampire Patriarch and can two men be “bondmates”? Now that would be hot and sexy in your more than capable writing hands.

Grade B for Chosen, Grade B for Hunted, Outcast? What Outcast?

Tags: Amelia Elias, Grade B, Samhain Publishing, Straight, Vampire Romance

Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Catch Trap

Cause It’s Men In Tights And It Feels Alright, Oh What A Night!

27 years ago I was a closeted teenage gay geek. Yep, that’s right, a 16 year old boy that was being raised in a very strict “Holy Roller” household and far too aware of his sexuality and the pain it would eventually cause me and those around me and (Thank god!) I had a ravenous curiosity to read. One day after finding a suitable library far enough away from my parents and my neighborhood and with librarians who were… how shall I say this… gullible as to my exact age, I started picking up and reading any and all gay literature I could get my grubby hands on.

Let me tell you, most of the gay coming-out literature out there is CRAP!

Sorry but even at that ripe old age I was well aware of the fact that even in my great inexperience I in no way wanted to become a stage actor, a screen director, a wearer of women’s dresses, sing show tunes, become an Olympic athlete, worry about my cloths or hair, shave various parts of my body, or be involved with men who hold such things in much import. Unfortunately in most gay literature shelves in a public library blue collar characters are absent and this leaves you with pretty much nothing but the porno section.

This leads me here, to probably the one book that even came close to having any meaning for me at that time.

You may know Marion Zimmer Bradley’s highly entertaining writings the well known author of the vast Darkover science fiction series and the gorgeous Avalon Arthurian fantasy series of books. You might know that she helped found The Society for Creative Anachronism here in the Bay Area. You might even be aware of the real life scandals surrounding her centering on the two husbands she married both of whom were considered to be gay and one of whom was an accused pedophile. I highly doubt though that you have ever read her most ambitious work and the best damn teenage gay male romance I have ever come across.

The Catch Trap originally titled The Flyers was actually written or at least started in 1948 but not published until 1979.

This particular book, considered by her family and close friends to be her best work, was unfortunately hidden in the fiction stacks well away from public view, to be kept away from curious children and sensitive adults, due to the fact that unlike her science fiction and fantasy stories this one was very above board in it’s subject matter. One of the first gay romance novels by a mainstream author, between two masculine guys, with a realistic circus setting and containing a very very taboo topic, and most threatening of all to the puritans of literature, it was damn good.

The Story
Though heavily populated with very realistic historical circus minutia and lots of Italian family members and assorted characters both gay and straight, the real “core” story centers on Mario Santelli (of The Flying Santelli’s) and Tommy Zane Jr. (the Lion Tamer’s kid) both living and working (in the beginning of the book) at a second tier circus during the 1940’s. Mario is 20 and Tommy is 15 when they meet, Mario allows Tommy to start working with him on the trapeze. Tommy’s dreams of becoming a flyer like Mario are quickly realized when he starts to show a real talent for it.

Tommy evolves from a typical boyish childhood crush on Mario to an almost heart aching first love that culminates in an eventual reciprocation from Mario. Sexual tension leads to a few stolen kisses to some heavy petting, then proceeded from there. Which brings on the whole still taboo subject matter involving sex between a young adult man and a teenage boy, even though it is entirely consensual and very much a part of the gay teenage coming of age story being told. The whole argument is just overblown and silly, at this age these kids were both pretty bad at sex anyway. We are not talking anywhere near the level of pornographic description I have read in most modern day romance books, here it was just more awkward and emotional than any real heavy action.

Now don’t go getting the idea this is all about Mario, the senior of the two, leading Tommy on, allot of the initial seduction is fully on Tommy’s part with Mario scared witless that they will be caught (He’s right they are) and he alone will be blamed. I was rooting for Tommy to keep hitting on the guy and thinking to myself, yum, muscular Italian stud in tights, I’d hit it! At the time I kept picturing Mikhail Baryshnikov from the movie The Turning Point *hubba hubba* whenever he turned his back to the camera in those tights and showed those round perky luscious buttocks that even at age 16 I had the distinct urge to plant my face firmly between them and… Never mind!

The book falls into two parts the 1940’s, and the 1950’s. Remember this book was written during these years and should be considered contemporary in subject for that period. So do not be surprised by the obvious non-politically correct homosexual points of view. It was hard enough just to be a homosexual, to just have any type of contact with another man without getting thrown into jail, then add to that actually having a long term relationship, well…

The initial story is of Tommy and Mario meeting and working together and falling in love, then the eventual heartbreak and realization when The Flying Santelli’s troupe they are in falls apart that they too will have to break up and leave each other.
The second story takes place later in their lives when Tommy purposefully seeks Mario out and helps to not only rebuild the troupe (The Flying Santelli’s) but also rebuild a life in which he and Mario can remain together as an adult homosexual male couple.

What I Learned (at age 16)
The Catch Trap is more than just the average gay or even straight epic historical romantic bodice ripper. Sure there is sex and heartache and turmoil and lots of heavy sighs and a couple of very violent moments but they are not the best part. There are distinct gay life lessons, real valid messages falling out of these pages even though it is written by an obviously intelligent but none the less straight woman.

Just because you fall in love with an older guy does not mean that his age will automatically make him the more mature of the two parties involved.

Realize very quickly that being an outrageous swishy queen or an alcoholic psychotic closet case with severe violence issues will not make you popular or a real catch.

Sex is not the most important thing in your life or relationships.

Violence will eventually destroy any relationship and most likely yourself.

Sexuality should be an extension of your life and goals not the focus of it.

Just because you can have sex with a woman does not mean you should and having a child won’t make you straight.

And last but not least…

No matter how desperate and painful life gets because you were being honest about yourself, and who you really are, accept that you will survive and be better for it.

Pretty heady stuff for a romance book huh? I have not even mentioned the emotional growth that is shown or the underlying look at the naturally occurring roles of submission and dominance in a very masculine Gay relationship. All I know is a copy of this book remains forever in my library. It struck several chords with me even at that very early age and those same things continue to resonate in my life.

Besides All That
Don’t get me wrong, the writing in The Catch Trap ain’t in any way, shape, or form, perfect and we are talking about a very very long book. Some of the early parts of the book have a little too much foreshadowing for real comfort. Lines like…
“It was the only promise to one another they never broke.” I mean come on I’m 1/3 of the way through the book, I know there is more to this story, stop hinting about that and get on with it.

Some of the later parts of the book get so philosophical and dated I was cringing for some of the characters going so far outside of how they had been initially written. Tommy turns into a thought context bubble factory in the second half of the book.

“It’s my job to get him back to the Coast in one piece. But it’s because I need to have him in one piece. But we’ve got to find a way to live together without tearing each other up this way. And it’s my job, because his nerves are all to pieces, and mine are in pretty good shape.”

It gets especially obvious that some of these internal discussions were not something that they would actually be thinking and was planned to provide the required nice and tidy ending Marion was going for. It just can become damn awkward reading. And… As far as endings go, sometimes loose ends and unforgiving view points left intact make a book more realistic for me, not everyone should become accepting at the outcome or resolution of the story, just like real life is not perfect.

It’s just my guess that the bigger the book is the more glaring and lengthy the mistakes a writer may make become. The Catch Trap still pays off ten times over despite these quibbles. This in my view really was Marion Zimmer Bradley’s best.

Even though this book is out of print, all I can hope is for you to click over to Amazon and maybe pick up an old used copy for yourself. If you happen to know any young teenage boys who you think might need this type of positive supportive message leave an extra copy lying around inconspicuously, you never know it might save some young gay guy a lot of unnecessary a pain and some pretty nasty, rotten life experiences.

Grade A for one of the unknown classics of Gay Romance.

Tags: Ballantine Books, Gay, Gay Romance, Grade A, Marion Zimmer Bradley

John Preston: Mr. Benson

And Here’s To You Mr. Benson

I miss Drummer Magazine, DAMN IT! It was the first Gay magazine I ever subscribed to, part pornography, part pop culture critique, part advice for the truly perverted man, sometimes as funny as shit when they looked at some off-the-wall fetish and always very masculine, in fact it’s title read America’s Mag For The Masculine Male. I love these commentators I see today revising history to fit the latest fad they are discussing like the Bear culture and going on about how Bears brought masculinity back to the Gay community and how they overnight founded a revolution, an anti-mainstream movement. Bullshit!

Look at the original untouched grainy pictures and the original Leathermen published in these old copies of this one magazine. Drummer Magazine and the Leather community were years ahead in exploring masculinity, when the Bear movement was simply yet another fetish that Drummer covered in one of their themed issues.

I guess in talking about Drummer being a big Leather icon for me and most likely many others of my time I have to admit that I got involved reading it in the late 80’s and early 90’s when it was already slowly transforming itself first with slicked pages and then with even slicker models into a less honest BDSM oriented forum. Some people swear that the only good Drummer were those with the grainy pictures and the news print pages. Sad to say even by the time I was finding Leather and Drummer Magazine it had been quite a while since Drummer had truly been instrumental in giving the hyper masculine world of Leather and Gay BDSM a powerful voice with stories like this book right here. Drummer Magazine died a hateful, messy, irrelevant death in 1999.

John Preston originally wrote Mr. Benson as a short story, a small run through of what it would later become. The editors at Drummer Magazine were so impressed with the writing that they sent it back and requested that the story be rewritten into a novel for serialization. This novel was then run with its first chapter appearing in issue 29 in 1979 till the final chapter was published in issue 38 in 1980. I myself only have issues 35 through 38 of those. Mr. Benson became an eagerly awaited almost mythic tale and Drummer became the magazine to read for most Gay men. Soon t-shirts would appear with the words Looking For Mr. Benson across the chest and for the really daring and together Leather Tops they added a question mark to the end.

The story itself is actually quite simple it’s about two guys meeting in a nameless pseudo-Leather bar off Christopher Street in New York. Jamie the young bottom thinks he has got what it takes to handle Mr. Benson and soon learns he knows nothing at all. Most of the rest of the book is about Jamie’s journey into becoming Mr. Benson’s slave, his exploration of the mindset involved and the various nasty things that occur to him and with a relatively short side story that I can only best describe as something of a Nancy Slave and The Whipping Boys mystery that even included a van and yet no one asked for Scooby Snacks.

I want you to think about those boots, boy, think about the feel inside them. Think about how much you want to lick the surface of the leather… how much you want to suck on the feet inside. Think about them rubbing into your mouth and pressing against your balls… Keep those boots in your mind, boy… You have to learn every part of my body is to be taken care of, every part of my body is another chance at sex for you… I want you to get hard thinking about my toes… my fingers… every single part of my body. John Preston – Mr. Benson

Despite my picking on some of it’s minor flaws I honestly wish I had read Mr. Benson sooner than I did, it is an important addition to my book shelf and the writing really is not bad as S&M Erotica goes, in fact it’s very good. But… I have to agree with the comment John my Top once made about John Preston’s book giving people somewhat fantasized and inaccurate expectations of what a real BDSM relationship is about.

Let’s go over some common sense stuff for a minute since I am recommending this book.

Fulltime Roles

Um well, first up, Mr. Benson has Jamie quit his job to become a fulltime slave. I myself have never been given a chance at this type of an arrangement and quite honestly I most likely would not take it despite whatever escapist fantasies I may still secretly enjoy. The saving grace here is that John Preston added an epilogue later when the story was republished in book form that goes a little further to explain this issue. Mr. Benson states clearly how much work it is to maintain the Top role with Jamie full time and from my limited experience as a bottom this does help make this book more realistic. I am not saying this can never be done just that it is not typical or easy.

Even though you do eventually learn the habits, protocol, even the Top’s particular expectations of the role as second nature it’s not easy to pickup and it can take years to get it all down naturally, from my view at least. Then to add to that difficulty the idea of having to maintain these roles from the start full time with no time outs or downtime? Nice fantasy but not likely to happen. The other problem is not many people I know can afford the luxury of a 24/7 slave running around the house. I don’t know if these types of role problems grow less or worse if you continue to be trained as what I was taught to consider a Slave, since I never reached that level of commitment myself (although I do know the rules get stricter and even more narrowly defined), I still find it hard to believe it changes the issues of maintaining a role very much.

So Jamie has gone and told you his life story. I knew the little fucker was up to something. He’s been in his little playroom for hours every day, and I’ve known he’s been using the typewriter whenever I’ve left him alone in the apartment. I don’t care that he’s written it all down, not at all. It does sort of amuse me to read the result, though. Bottoms are so typical. They inject everything with so much symbolism and so much jargon. Not that he hasn’t told you the truth, at least basically. He’s right about the meeting, the training I put him through, and the ridiculous mess he got himself into. He’s even right when he tells you this is basically a love story. I’m man enough to admit I love the little bastard. John Preston – Mr. Benson

Real Hardcore Tops “do it all”
Real hardcore bottoms “accept everything”

Most Tops I have met do not get off on or perform every single one of the following acts… fist/whip/flog/watersports/scat/gangbang/bind/suspend/shave/pierce etc etc etc.
Most bottoms I know do not get off on or provide every single one of the following acts… fist/whip/flog/watersports/scat/gangbang/bind/suspend/shave/pierce etc etc etc.

Doing all of this and being seriously into all of this would be mighty interesting, maybe even a little dangerous and most likely make you quite popular. Expecting this to be the norm in reality or a requirement for being REAL hardcore is a REAL bad idea. This is why there are always initial negotiations (Which is not shown in the book.) especially if you do not intimately know the person whom you are doing these things with. Just to really mess with a lot of peoples fantasies here, quite a few Leather Tops I have met do not even fuck after the scene, they go home to their lovers. Sorry… Just so you know.

The only other small quibbles I have with the story, that seemed sorta off from my experience was some other hard to describe intangibles like, there are many reasons men get involved in BDSM and many reasons men choose to serve a Master, this fantasy only covers a few of any possible combination of reasons for these choices.

Then there’s the whole branding scene the night Jamie becomes Mr. Benson’s slave close to the beginning of the book. Now, I am not stating no one does the branding thing. But… one of the things John always said was “A Top always keeps his bottoms recyclable.” In other words, the bottom should be able to trust the Top and at a bare minimum expect to be able to leave the relationship in the exact same shape or even better shape than he came to him in.

Branding is sort of a permanent deal to happen so quickly without the required commitment or even slave (absolute ownership) aspects being discussed like when Mr. Benson does the tit-piercing scene at the end of the book, you almost want to reverse the events. See, there are things I have a hard time describing in all this, changes in the rules so to speak, that would be hard to write about without a whole other post so let’s just leave it at “levels of commitment that do not follow the actions very well”. Not the best wording but oh well…

If your looking for a great one-handed Gay BDSM classic do not miss Mr. Benson it’s too bad I can’t say the same about Drummer Magazine though.

Grade A for this well loved Classic Gay BDSM Romance!
That’s my stupid opinion at least.

Tags: BDSM, BDSM Romance, Cleis Press, Gay, Grade A, John Preston

Larry Townsend: The Leatherman’s Handbook

Dancers are not made of their technique, but their passion.

I was a young sailor who had just been stationed in the DC area when I first met Rocco at the small Leather shop in downtown DC. Now I fully admit, I had been turned on by various books I had read like The Leatherman’s Handbook but I had never intentionally gone out seeking any real experience in what it talked about.

Anyway, Rocco asked if I wanted to join him that night for a drink at The DC Eagle, a well known Leather bar in town which I had never gone to. I met him there and had a drink and during our conversation he introduced me to a very good-looking strikingly handsome man in full Leather sitting across the second floor bar from us by the name of John. In recounting to you that night I have to admit I was totally clueless, little did I know that one; Rocco was the president of a well known local motorcycle club not to mention a remarkable Leathersmith and two; John was a well known and highly respected Top.

Rocco left me in John’s care after a couple of drinks and John and I proceeded to talk some more. Then John noticed a young guy in a harness approaching us and asked me if I would be adverse to him indicating we were intending to leave together to this other person he termed a ‘pushy bottom’. Being that I had just spent the last hour or so drooling while staring intently into his beautiful pale blue eyes hoping that he might just suggest such a thing, I readily agreed.

We actually did go back to his place where I begged him to take me into a scene having absolutely no clue what I was asking for or from whom I was asking it of. I stripped and lay there on the bed expecting the typical few swats and a fuck I had thought would take place. Well, the flogging part I got right but one thing lead to another and next thing I know those beautiful blue eyes had me wordlessly accepting first one then another and another till the best way I can describe it I was literally pinned to his bed. Not with restraints, not with ropes or chains or anything I was expecting but with real fucking needles. John later admitted he was testing me, he was testing my limits and would have stopped at any time I wanted, but did so without any verbal negotiation and taking me farther than anyone would expect a total newbie to go and I had readily gone there. Well at least up to a point that is, the moment I let myself realize exactly what had been done and exactly how many of those damn needles were sticking out of my body, well I am sure you know what happened next, I FUCKING FREAKED OUT! All I can recall was the way John soothed me, had me stare directly into his eyes, a primitive way of creating that connection we would later have without any eye contact, it would not be the last time we did this and just as attentively as he had before he pulled each and every one of those needles out as painlessly as it had gone in.

Now what I just recounted to you is a story, a vignette, detailing my first real Leather experience with a well trained and exceedingly experienced Top. This is roughly the same type of structure you will find in The Leatherman’s Handbook and it contains many of the same issues with it’s lack of common sense safety advice and all around lack of context as I have so far given you. In 1972 The Leatherman’s Handbook was published written by Larry Townsend a journalist with a particular interest in Leathersex. Larry basically covers a lot of ground concerning strictly Gay BDSM, unfortunately with no particular detail, with such subjects as Bondage, Equipment, Finding a partner, Assuming Roles, etc etc. Each subject usually comes with a particular short story attached to illustrate the concepts involved.

Some of the information is so basic and general that it can’t help but be accurate. Although some things like the whole chapter he writes titled Of Friendship and Lovers is highly questionable in my opinion and seems to promote Larry Townsend’s ‘over generalized personal view’ of the people involved in BDSM and their ability to form lasting relationships between them while maintaining the roles of Top and bottoms. The thing that bugs me is this information is uniformly dressed up in the same matter of fact tone of ‘general advice’ as the rest of the book making no particular claim of simply being his ‘personal belief’. Not to mention many of the stories in the book also reflect this ‘personal view’ making me at least wonder about validity in if he actually witnessed this or that event taking place in some cases.

So as to it’s importance for simply being the first ‘how-to book’ written concerning this subject, that my friends is indisputable, but in regards to it’s reputation as a compendium of Leathersex the book in my opinion sadly falls short in providing any depth of information in going about safely doing these things. There have been many other books published that provide a greater understanding and far more explicit and detailed information. Ties That Bind by Guy Baldwin or Leathersex by Joseph W. Bean cover far more ground and with greater depth. Then there are books taking only certain subjects and focusing on them in an almost meditative way like Joseph Bean’s Flogging who writes so lovingly about it I swear I had a crush on the man after I finished reading it. I personally believe by simply adding these few books to your library you will be far more informed than anything you might get out of The Leatherman’s Handbook that has always been seen mainly as more Gay BDSM Erotica than reality.

While were on this particular subject of S&M ‘how-to books’ I have to be honest here I can’t recommend this type of thing be used in exchange for real one-on-one teaching experiences. If there is one thing true about BDSM, you will not learn what I hold most dear from any book I know of on the subject or from some incomplete rambling texts found on the Internet or from attending some beauty pageant/Leather event and most certainly not from reading this stupid review. The essence of what I know I was taught from someone with a great deal of experience at the right place and time when I was also willing to receive it in a meaningful way.

Things like Leather or BDSM in my opinion should be taught to you by example, and they are best communicated intimately like that eye contact I told you about, they are best presented to you from someone with hard won experience and belief that they provide meaning to the age old actions and interactions you become apart of. I think ultimately they give you direction in who you really are as a person and meaning to why you are doing these things. They were presented to me in respect to the current stage of growth of the relationship I was in, the current scene I was doing at the time or the item or knowledge I was being entrusted with.

I know I fail miserably in finding the words to describe what I have experienced and I most certainly do not have the ability to communicate those things so clearly that it would somehow ‘click on’ that circuit in your brain so that during a flogging you understand that it is not in the stroke used or the amount of pain received or the length of time but in that almost visible connection with that other person that takes you beyond that pain being given and focuses you instead on the giving of yourself. I can’t describe or diagram some elaborate suspension or bondage scene and provide a way of how to get beyond the very important aspects of ‘points of support’ and the use of restraints or some of the dangers involved and instead point out to you the total trust and the depth of commitment being displayed and the mutual needle point focus of attention and trust that I have experienced in doing these things.

If you are looking for those things I have just talked about, the things only hinted at in these books, those nebulous meanings behind all these seemingly rough or violent images and actions that turn you on and get you off from reading this or any other BDSM book or perhaps after partaking in one of those scenes yourself… You simply have to go and find that Top, a person with whom you can give your trust to, whom you can give yourself to, and who can physically and intimately teach you some of these things from priceless experience and that unfortunately is not an easy thing to do but it is essential and can’t be bought but most certainly is paid for.

Grade C for a Leather how-to-book that is not aging well at all.
That’s my stupid opinion at least.

Tags: BDSM, Gay, Grade C, L.T. Publications, Larry Townsend

What I Am Reading ~ Angela Fiddler: Lineage

Angela Fiddler: Lineage
From: Loose-Id

Tags: Angela Fiddler, BDSM, Gay, Loose-Id, Vampire Romance

What I Am Reading ~ Kira Stone: Heart Of A Lion

Kira Stone: Heart Of A Lion
From: Samhain

Tags: Fantasy Romance, Gay, Kira Stone, Samhain Publishing

There’s A New Kid In Town

Laura Baumbach a writer who first got me interested in eBooks and who writes an excellent Gay Werewolf Romance has started up a new eBook Publisher Man Love Romance Press.

That is exciting to me to see someone putting herself out there to promote M/M Romance. So get your asses over there and buy something damn it!

Our goal is to offer quality stories to readers of our genre, mainly gay fiction and erotic romance. All manuscripts are professionally edited and proofed and our art work is unique and creative, an artistic expression of the stories between the covers.Our goal is to offer quality stories to readers of our genre, mainly gay fiction and erotic romance. All manuscripts are professionally edited and proofed and our art work is unique and creative, an artistic expression of the stories between the covers.Our goal is to offer quality stories to readers of our genre, mainly gay fiction and erotic romance. All manuscripts are professionally edited and proofed and our art work is unique and creative, an artistic expression of the stories between the covers.

Tags: Laura Baumbach, MLR Press

Listening To The Net

Teh Ghey Mix

Right Click The Picture to download the music!

Memo

From: Teddypig

To: All the M/M Romance Writers and Evil Plot Bunnies headed for RT

Here is something to get the party started!

Tracklisting:

8) The Visitors (Transensual Mix)
8) Dancing Queen (Kinky Boyz Mix)
8) Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Definitive Mix)
8) Angel Eyes
8) Take A Chance On Me
8) S.O.S. (Definitive Mix)
8) Waterloo (Tribal Mix)
8) Knowing Me Knowing You
8) The Winner Takes It All
8) The Name Of The Game (Breeze Mix)

Warning: Common side effects of this mix have shown to include sneezing, headache, flushing, anal sex, prolonged erections, skin moisturizing and a intense need for tighter fitting jeans. Visual changes including buying of mirrored disco balls and a constant urge to check out that guys package have also been reported.

Tags: Music

What I Am Reading ~ Sherri L. King: Hyde

Sherri L. King: Hyde
From: Ellora’s Cave

OH MY GOD! It’s an all out Incredible Hulk rip-off!
Oh, I gotta read this…

WTF? Why is he speaking French? Dr. David Bruce Banner did not speak fucking French! Hell, he could barely speak.

Tags: Ellora's Cave, Sci-fi Romance, Sherri L. King, Straight

Anne McCaffrey: The Dragonriders Of Pern

It’s a proven fact that a single anal sex experience causes one to be homosexual. The hormones released by a sexual situation involving the anus being broached, are the same hormones found in large quantities in effeminate homosexual males. For example, when I was much younger I knew a young man who has for all intents and purposes, heterosexual. He was mugged, and involved in a rape situation involving a tent peg. This one event was enough to have him start on a road that eventually led to him becoming effeminate and gay. - Anne McCaffrey

- The Dragon Porn of Pern

I am not a Fan Boy, never have been, and so I find it is difficult at times to review books or series that I have loved from my childhood, not because I cannot tell you what attracted me to them originally, but mostly because I find myself extremely bias if not out right critical of what the author eventually said or did or wrote that added or in this case seriously detracted from my personal enjoyment of the series after I got older. Ursula K. Le Guin and her Earthsea, Marion Zimmer Bradley and her groundbreaking Darkover, and last but not least Andre Norton and her Witch World come to mind often (Not that Anne McCaffrey is truly in their league mind you…) in this regard because these are all classic, voluminous, Science Fiction/Fantasy series with which I am torn because, like it or not, I always will be a supreme bitch, and not every god damn book in a series is actually worth reading!

Here in The Dragonriders of Pern I have found unfortunately a prime example of a writer that should have quit while she was ahead and shut her mouth and not tried to act like she had some brilliant, well reasoned, and scientifically researched plan to begin with long, long ago. In my opinion most of her work rides just this side of a Harlequin Romance with space ships and soft porn despite Anne’s continued denial of being a romance writer with a small side of Sci-fi. Yeah, and I am really straight Anne and just have not met the right woman yet.

The Dragonriders of Pern is a compendium of the first three novels of the well known, much loved Dragonrider series, Dragonflight published in 1968, Dragonquest published in 1971, and finally The White Dragon published in 1978. If you only read these first three books, and maybe (I don’t know.), throw in the three children’s books that form the Harper Hall Trilogy Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums, you would find an exciting if somewhat flawed Science Fiction/Fantasy world with dark yet strong willed adult characters bent on survival and some added alternative sexuality (Rough sex, Homosexuality and Rape) explored in the subtext. In this regard this particular book is an excellent purchase, giving you all the juicy Pern goodness you would ever want to read in one easily obtainable lump.

Now, I have to caution you before starting in on a review of these first three novels that I have over the years spent considerable amounts of time and money buying and reading the 15 or so books that compromise the rest of this misguided series and so I must try (Try!… Try, as hard as I can.) to ignore the horrifying and on going wretched disappointments I have been dealt after about the seventh book (Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern published in 1983) one of my absolute favorites in the series and also the last of the “core books” or should I say the last of the “consistent & logical books” written in the series that I recommend. The rest hit me as watching what I assumed to be capable writer (Through bad plotting, bad characterization, bad continuity, obvious greed, and maybe just old age.) trash her best known and most beloved series. So if I get maybe a tad caustic, and maybe a smidgen unfair, be forewarned. I obviously love, and continue to love, after all this time the first seven books of this series. I own them all and read them often enough. I simply refuse to mislead you my friends into thinking they do not have some very very serious flaws.

- Dragonflight

The first book of Pern-lishiousness Eva! Here we meet the sleek and sensuous, oops! I mean, orphaned, rag covered and dirty-smelly Lessa plotting and plying her vengeful way to the tippy-top of Ruatha Hold. She is willing to do, say, or kill whatever and whomever it takes to get back her rightful property from the evil Big Daddy Fax, I mean Lord Fax. Lessa is originally portrayed here as anything but a dumb blond, she admits to killing or overcoming at least eight guys whom Fax had sent over the years to run Ruatha Hold. Then the pesky Dragonriders show up one day looking for some of that old blood, super human, Ruatha womanhood to provide a right and proper candidate for the freshly laid Gold dragon egg back at Benden Weyr. So after years and years of finagling and plotting and finally getting rid of, once and for all, that nasty evil vicious Big Daddy Fax, poor Lessa’s big chance in local politics gets cut short and she gets immediately whisked off to be the next Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr.

If all this goes a little too quickly and comes across slightly disjointed just wait till you check out this first book, we’re talking slap dash action all the way and its quite clear chapter one here of the story was written at a much earlier, less thought out time, and then slapped right on to the rest of the book without a rewrite. Editing and consistency of world building is one of Anne McCaffrey’s major fucking issues, I do not think she believes in it or something.

Dragonflight proceeds on with an introduction of Lessa learning about those wild and wicked Dragonrider ways of life at the Weyr. Let’s talk about sex baby…

Dragons and their riders are the only fighting force that can save Pern from the deadly Thread (evil parasites) that fall from a star that rotates by every so many turns (years). It’s been hundreds of years since the last time this happened and the Holds are questioning if the Weyrs are really all that useful anymore. They want a tax audit! Plucky Bronze Dragonrider F’lar KNOWS, he just KNOWS, that the Thread will be coming SOON (Because he is old school and down with the knowledge of the ancients.) and Benden Weyr on it’s own (As in that’s all the dragons and riders they got.) is not prepared for the coming planet wide catastrophe.

Lessa our sleek sensuous heroine (That’s better.) gets thrown into a ceremony to Impress the mighty Gold dragon Ramoth at the hatching. The riders of the dragons we learn are psychically, telepathically, emotionally and I guess financially bound (Impressed) to their dragons for life much like a yuppie and a BMW with a Starbucks coffee cup holder.

You then find out that there are Green, Blue, Brown, Bronze and Gold dragons (But no Purple! Oh lordy not that!), Gold dragons being biggest female queens of the bunch, it’s on them to lay all the eggs for more dragons, and they in turn are basically loved and cherished by all of dragon kind. Not to mention they are bonded to the only “real women” who ride dragons. Like our Lessa.

OK I’ll do my Anne impersonation here, stomp my feet and demand repeatedly DAMN YOU SLASH WRITERS! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!, Only women are ever allowed to ride the precious and fertile female Gold dragons, nasty smelly manly men ride the rest, well almost, but we will talk of those Green riders later. Bronze dragons are second in size to Gold dragons and the only male dragons allowed to mate with the picky Gold girly-girl dragons. Only one Bronze dragon and rider can logistically mate with the queen at any given mating flight, and that Bronze dude (In Lessa’s case the studly, heterosexual, Bronze rider, and man about town, F’lar.) is the Weyrleader till the next mating flight where the contest for Weyrleader and a chance to get some raunchy rough passionate hetro-sex with a real live female rider begins anew. Well, at least in theory, maybe sometime I’ll go over how Anne relies on constant contrivance in this series to pad the big romances that eventually undercut the functional logic of the world she created.

Everyone else (Including the rest of the heterosexual manly men, Bronze and Brown riders) has to make do with a quickie from the unfertile small Green dragons and their prancing male riders otherwise noted as “those prissy hoes”.

Besides the fact I have not gone into the whole “Must Save Pern” story presented in Dragonflight, because well the whole story is not half as interesting sexy wise, the saving grace of Dragonflight is Lessa and her no holds barred female character. Here is a strong willed woman striving to survive in a world where women are thought of as no more than trophies for the enjoyment of the men who rule. Alpha males abound and scour the planet looking for blond chicks daily.

Lessa’s relationship with F’lar is surprisingly evolved as an equal in cunning and manipulation. They both come to realize that they need each other in order to succeed in their individual goals of saving Pern and earning the respect of those around them. Not to mention F’lar finds out that Lessa is gifted with the unique ability to talk to any dragon she wants and has the useful if limited ability to control men’s minds and then there’s that having sex with the Weyrwoman keeps you in the Weyrleader position deal. Gotta love those job benis!

Now, here is where I have the problem of knowing what the future holds for Lessa and let me be very honest in noting that by the end of this book she is happily married to F’lar and so from now on Anne McCaffrey will simply ignore and marginalize her making F’lar the more important and heroic manly hetro man of the pair.

- Dragonquest

The second book in our Pern-astic tales presents us with F’nor a Brown rider and F’lars second in command (The biggest Brown dragon Eva! Thank you Anne. This is after Ramoth is the biggest Gold dragon Eva! and Mnementh is the biggest Bronze dragon Eva! etc etc etc) and Brekke a new Gold rider (With the biggest Sexual Hangups Eva!) and this book I guess is about their blossoming romance and subsequent tragedy.

Oh yes, and let’s not forget the Oldtimers otherwise known as the Deus Ex Machina from the last book which Lessa valiantly brings with her from the past to help Benden Weyr fight the onslaught of deadly falling Thread the Dragonriders now face. Any-who the Oldtimers and their Weyrs expect a little more lovin from the Holds they protect and thus cause more political problems, and a whole lotta whining and gnashing of collective teeth, while Pern faces certain death *again* from the Thread that decided suddenly to show up on a different time schedule.

Then we have that problem with EVIL NASTY Kylara. Why is Kylara EVIL and NASTY? Maybe because she decided to have an abortion, not that these women have access to “the pill” or anything like that and not because she did not already have two kids from before becoming a Gold rider and not that any of the Dragonriders are great parents to begin with. She just decided to be responsible and figured out a way to do something about it. Oh, boo hiss!
Maybe because she admits she enjoys rough raw nasty dragon sex and plots to see if she can lure F’lar away from Lessa by accidentally having him around when her dragon rises to mate thus trapping him in a evil scheme for at least a night of fun F’lar lovin.
Maybe because she like the rest of the men on this planet are plotting and scheming with their friendly neighborhood Lord Holders to position themselves and consolidate power. Who knows, anyway she is EVIL and NASTY! Anne McCaffrey said so.

Kylara comes across as the strongest and most solidly interesting character in this book, someone who definitely could give Lessa a run for her money. When she has a sudden and nasty head on collision that involves her Gold dragon and Brekke’s Gold dragon killing each other during a unplanned for mating flights of two Gold dragons rising in the same close vicinity and all the dragon men blame evil nasty Kylara for being slack in her duties…

RANT MODE ON: WTF? Mating flights are shown in both these books so far as being pretty much unplanned affairs and fully out of the control of the rider down to the point that the Gold and Bronze riders can all be caught unaware and involved. Remember that is the necessary ingredient of Kylara’s scheme for F’lar? If the Dragonriders knew enough to blame Kylara for not taking some type of precautions or responsibilities here, then where were they to advise both women to get their precious Gold dragons butts away from each other? Tsk tsk tsk.

The rest of the book has F’nor doing something heroic and Brekke tragically coming to terms with the loss of her Gold dragon. Boo-friggin-hoo Brekke, snap out of it already!

- The White Dragon

Oh yes Pern-acious ones! Here is the third and last of the core Dragonrider tales. Introducing Jaxom Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold and his dragon Ruth. (The Biggest White dragon Eva! Well ok, the ONLY White dragon Eva! Anne you shouldn’t have.) Jaxom I will kindly label for you my dear dear friends as the “Wesley Crusher of Pern”.
Oh yeah baby! This guy makes me blow solid chunks I tell ya.

Now Lessa, poor girl, had to give up her dream of being Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold due to impressing her dragon Ramoth and becoming Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr but not our boy Wesley, I mean Jaxom. Nope he gets to keep the dragon and play Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold too. Not to mention a few other things that will come about later in the series. This guy has more cake and eats it too than anyone else in the entire Dragonrider series. Unfortunately unlike the other Wesley Crusher he never suddenly disappears leaving us with a warm and fuzzy feeling which would have made him more palatable in my mind.

Oh my friends, that aint all she wrote oh no siree bob. Anne McCaffrey in this family friendly volume finally addresses the underlying homosexuality of the Dragonriders by seeing it in all it’s sick and twisted perversion through the eyes of our little straight boy Jaxom and man oh man what a mess that is. About halfway through the book Jaxom catches the mating rise of some dragons and after observing a Green dragon rider and his fellows gettin it on, and might I point out turning on Wesley, I mean Jaxom in the process, he immediately runs off to see his little girlfriend Corana and proceeds to RAPE her. Yep, I spelled it in uppercase there so you would catch that. Now there’s some wholesome family entertainment I tell you!

I am not making this up folks. We have so far allowed for the fact that Lessa and F’lar had a rough and tumble, almost BDSM like, mating flight of a Bronze and Gold dragon going one on one, we have even lived through F’nor doing the nasty with Brekke when he barely knew her name. Now in hindsight, it is also apparent to me that Anne McCaffrey meant to show these sex scenes as passionate, unfortunately VIOLENT seems a better word to describe how these various scenes actually come across.

Yes my friends, right here in this handy dandy edition you get a main character raping his girlfriend forcibly and then to top off the whole precious moment he proceeds to chat about it with his dragon getting all guilty and deciding to never, ever, ever, see Corana again, ever! Because she… she… she… let him do it! She liked it? Oh man! Bummer dude! It’s like reading the life and trials of a drunken frat boy.

Anyway Jaxom goes on to do something even more heroic but by this point I start getting nauseous and stop reading.

- Of Subtext and Sexuality and Summary

Homosexual relations do not take place openly in these writings and not by any of the main characters because obviously homosexuals and most females have no power on Pern, they hold no high ranking, decision making, offices to uphold. Homosexuality is simply presented, as the way things are because of the way the Dragonriders respond to the sexual needs of their dragons. Brown riders and Bronze riders are continually presented as “fully male” and Gold riders are “fully female” (and the rest… well you get the picture, they get snickered at.) Even when it is apparent from the number of Bronze and Brown riders not paired with the precious few Gold riders that they must be using the services of a Green dragon and her MALE rider (Especially since F’lar has the biggest Gold dragon Eva! locked up tight there buddy). Anne McCaffrey has obviously meant to present these “fully male”, Browns and Bronze, as finding any Green pairing distasteful (Like Marines after the fifth beer, just don’t kiss me!). Bisexuals and Lesbians apparently don’t exist on Pern (At least in these “core books”.) When it is logical if you have one, then the rest should follow. Right?

So much for a fine example of forward thinking fantasy/sci-fi as Anne McCaffrey tends to want to present it all, because in my estimate at least, it falls way way short of that. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s early sci-fi/fantasy work has no insulting behavior or condescending tone and does a much better job of handling homosexuality without the apparent stereotypes. But in the end what honestly bothers me most is not the way homosexuals or women get portrayed in Anne McCaffrey’s series, not at all. I think there are some good stories here and I do find it interesting and I have spent many years rereading the series over and over again. I really enjoy the dark motivations and the imperfect heroes even when it drips with sexism and so on, much like watching some old anachronistic James Bond flick.

Nope, what really bothers me is when Anne McCaffrey promotes eight year old kiddies coming to her website to talk about reading these very same books and when I hear her change her tune about The Harper Hall trilogy being specifically written for children and the rest of the series for adults and starts promoting the whole damn series as somehow being safe for children to read.

WHAT THE HELL IS SHE THINKING?!?

Please do me a favor and read these books for yourself before giving them to young kids.

That just aint right.

Tags: Anne McCaffrey, Del Rey, Grade C, Sci-fi Romance, Straight

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