The Den of Debauchery's Garden gazebo

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Queer Sci-Fi Holiday blog hop

QueerSciFi is running our first ever holiday blog hop. Our members will be sharing a number of our great holiday-themed titles on their blogs - it's a great way to find speculative-fiction themed LGBT holiday books! We've included buy links for each of the books below - books are listed in alphabetical order by title. Happy Holidays!

And mine just happens to be first. --Angelia

Candle in the Dark Anthology
Author: Various
Price: $5.00 eBook / $10.00 Paperback
Summary: In almost all traditions, winter has been a time to huddle around the fire and be thankful for those the fire is shared with. The holidays grew out of a need to celebrate that time, from Christmas to Chanukah to Solstice. The longest night of the year has always held some special mystery, and we’re proud to present you with several stories of how those mysteries bear fruit.

When exiled Hevik Montag is caught by the Solstice and his daughter's birthday, he makes a very special layover on a new planet to get her a gift, and one for himself as well.
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER | AMAZON | ALL ROMANCE

A Christmas Cactus for the General
Author: Angel Martinez
Price: $3.99 eBook
Summary: Exiled to Earth for perhaps the worst failure in Irasolan history, General Teer must assimilate or die. Earth is too warm, too wet, too foreign, but he does the best he can even though human males are loud, childish louts whom he can't imitate successfully. When a grieving seaplane pilot strikes up a strange and uneasy friendship with him, he finds he may have been too quick to judge human males. They are strange to look at, but perhaps not as unbearable as he thought.
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER | AMAZON | ALL ROMANCE | APPLE | KOBO

The Darkest Midnight in December
Author: Jana Denardo
Price: $3.99 eBook
Summary: The year is 1930, and something is hunting infants and young couples in Economy Village, PA. When a local priest begins to suspect a demon may be the culprit, the sheriff calls in a team of Soldiers of the Sun. Caleb, Agni, Temple, and Li specialize in demon hunting, but they can’t rule out an old religious sect as the true culprit. Prejudice, distraught parents, and angry townspeople don’t make the team’s job any easier. And if something goes wrong, their own their own, because by the time their backup arrives, it will be too late.
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER | AMAZON | ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS

Fruitcakes
Author: Renee George
Price: $1.99 eBook
Summary: Losing your boyfriend because you see monsters...not good. Getting locked up in the local mental hospital because you accused your boss of being an actual ogre…also not good. Falling for your crazy roommate, who thinks he’s one of Santa's elves…so not good! Or is it? Come along for a sexy ride as Donner and Bran try to escape the locked ward before Christmas Eve so Bran doesn't lose the only job important to him. USA Today Bestselling author Renee George pens a laugh-out-loud MM Fairytale Christmas…Nuts included!
Buy Links:

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | APPLE | KOBO

Holiday Lights
Author: Jana Denardo
Price: Free
Summary: Aaron asks Rhys for some help with putting up the tree and finalizing their holiday plans, even though he knows Rhys will have something to say about all of Aaron's geeky ornaments. Rhys puts his own special touches on the holiday decorating as only a fae could.
Buy Links:

LIVE JOURNAL

Ilya and the Wolf
Author: Rory Ni Coileain
Price: $1.99 eBook
Summary: Ilya, the youngest son of a Moscow oligarch, is so deep in the closet he’d find Narnia if that weren’t a decadent Western story. On Christmas Eve, his brothers lure him into the forest, intending to murder him and erase the shame he inflicts on their family by existing. However, the attempt is interrupted by Volyk, a wolf who carries the blood of the ancient oboroten’ —shapeshifters. Ilya never imagined a Christmas gift like the handsome wolf, but accepting what Volyk offers will have consequences that change both of their lives forever.
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER | AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Lion's Hero
Author: Alexis Woods
Price: $.99 eBook
Summary: Eight nights to fall in love. Ari has a mission: meet and fall in love with a man chosen for him by God. The catch: he only has eight nights to complete it—the eight nights of Chanukah Gabriel has a test of faith. Reaching out to a young man, he finds himself confronted with the unbelievable. Believe, and the Festival of Lights may herald a miracle.
Buy Links:

AMAZON | ALL ROMANCE | BARNES & NOBLE

Loving Blitz
Author: Charlie Cochet
Price: $3.99 eBook
Summary: From North Pole City to Winter Wonderland, preparations are underway after a royal announcement sweeps everyone into a frenzy of festivity. At the heart of the celebration are the city’s most beloved elf pilots, the Rein Dears. Once the Big Flight is behind them, the pilots prepare for the royal event. Assigned a special task of finding an Elska rose, Cupid and Blitzen are unaware of how their friendship is about to change forever. Yet not all that glitters is gold. The sweet, angelic Cupid hides a dark secret, one that threatens to destroy his Rein Dear status, his friends, and the elf who’s captured his heart. It’s up to Blitzen to help Cupid see the light in the darkness and show him that together they can mend broken hearts.
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER

The Magic of Christmas
Author: Pelaam
Price: $2.99 eBook
Summary: Jared joins his four best friends on an early Christmas holiday in a beautiful winter wonderland. He's been in love with the talented and extroverted Casey for years, but lacked the courage to say anything. Casey loves Jared, but despite his gregarious exterior, inside lurks someone shy and insecure and so he's never spoken up. Both men are about to experience real Christmas magic.
Buy Links:

MLR BOOKS | AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | APPLE | KOBO

Nicolas
Author: Dianne Hartsock
Price: $6.99 eBook / $14.99 Paperback
Summary: Betrayed by a lover, Jamie rents an isolated cabin on Lake Huron, wanting only to be left alone. Instead, he is pulled from his solitary existence as an artist and tumbles headlong into the legend of Saint Nicolas. As a young man, Nicolas accidentally killed a man intent on murdering three children, only to have the man's malicious spirit rise up against him. Fleeing through the centuries from the Krampus, the evil troll-like creature that dogs his steps, Nico finds refuge with the young artist who takes him into his home and bed. But Jamie has questions. Who is Nicolas, and why does the Krampus want to destroy him?
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER EBOOK | PUBLISHER PAPERBACK

No One to Greet the Season
Author: Elizabeth Barrette
Price: Free (poem)
Summary: Victor Frankenstein and Igor have a queerplatonic relationship and a constructed son. Igor's deformed back causes him more trouble in cold weather, which makes Christmas more of a challenge. Victor helps him through it. Gothic fluff, holiday hurt/comfort.
Buy Links:

LIVE JOURNAL

Scrudge & Barley, Inc
Author: John Inman
Price: $6.99 eBook / $14.99 Paperback
Summary: A classic tale takes off in sexy new directions! Poor Mr. Dickens must be twirling in his grave. When E.B. Scrudge, putz extraordinaire and all-around numbnuts, is visited by his dead ex on Christmas Eve, he can’t imagine how his life could sink any lower. But the three ghostly spirits that come along after are even worse! Good lord, a dyke, a drag queen, and rounding out the trio, a big, hunky bear with nipple rings and a butt plug! What’s next? What’s next is a good deal of soul-searching and some hard lessons learned with a dash of redemption thrown in for good measure.
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER EBOOK | PUBLISHER PAPERBACK ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS

Silver/Steel
Author: Belinda McBride
Price: $6.99 eBook
Summary: When dream hunter Dylan Ryve spots a beautiful shapeshifter raising hell in a bar, he knows he wants the wild young man. But Travis Feris is more to Dylan than a few hot minutes outside in the snow; he's the assassin's ticket into the magical town of Arcada. He didn't plan to rescue the kid, but when he found the shifter being attacked, the opportunity to play hero was too good to pass up. Through the solitude of a long winter night, Dylan walks in Travis's fevered dreams, learning about Arcada and the pack, and showing the shifter the man he'd been so very long ago.
Buy Links:

AMAZON | ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS

Spindrift Gifts
Author: Aidee Ladnier
Price: $TBD
Summary: Scars and a tattoo may be the only physical reminders from his years as a slave, but when Jimenez suffers a setback in his medical treatment, the only option is a therapy that will wipe away his all memories of the past including his time with Teo. Teo, torn between supporting his lover's decisions and the good intentions of his family, sets out to teach Jimenez about Spindrift Gifts and how memories are celebrated on Celos even when they are painful. Can Teo and Jimenez weather the storm to find their happily-ever-after on Celos?
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER | ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS

Tempted from the Oak
Author: Rory Ni Coileain
Price: $5.60 eBook
Summary: With his blue eyes and heart-melting smile, Gavin could have been made-to-order to entice Tearlach, a lonely tree spirit. But the human is the one who’s been enticed—stolen from snow-buried Minneapolis to the Scottish Highlands by Tearlach’s darag, the ancient oak tree of which he is the living spirit. Tearlach is trapped within the darag by the terrible memory of his own death—hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago, but as recent to him as his last heartbeat. And if desire for the handsome human fails to tempt him out, spirit and oak are both doomed.
Buy Links:

PUBLISHER | AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Saturday, November 14, 2015

My Sexy Saturday: Their Sexy Gaze

I couldn't resist subverting the theme this week. After all, when you have a love story involving Medusa, it was just too delicious.

Buy Links:

Adventuresses ebook from Inkstained Succcubus
At Amazon, in Kindle and paperback
At All Romance Ebooks.

Your Seven Sexy Paragraphs:

Medusa laughed. "Child, I served the Cyprian for two thousand years before you were born. Think you I do not know my own faith, the one I taught you?"

"My lady, I am grateful for all you have taught me. But tonight," Rapunzel marveled at her own boldness, "I wish to learn more. Aphrodite hears me. She tells me this is right." She leaned across the table and kissed her hostess through the veil.

Medusa drew back, stunned by her first human touch in millennia. "Child, do you wish to die? You know what I am."

"I do not lift your veil, my lady. I will not try to see your face. But I do love you."

Medusa nodded slowly. "Bathe then in Aphrodite's pool, and come to my bed when Diana is at her highest."

Rapunzel looked at her. "You... are willing?"

The veiled lips grazed her forehead. "It has been long since I had a lover in my bed. You will be in no danger, my sweet Rapunzel. Go bathe. I have preparations of my own to make."

The Other Sexy People:

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Sending out an SOS

We're getting the audiobook section of the business underway.

In order to build producers' interest in the books, we need reviews. There is not one Inkstained Succubus Book that has more than three Amazon reviews. Reviews and ratings drive how many people see a book.

So we, the publishers, are asking you, the authors and readers, to help us out.

If you're in an anthology, review the other stories in it. If you've read our books, leave some stars and a couple sentences at Amazon.

Word of mouth is the best advertising. (and for our authors it means more sales and more money)

Reviewers:

If you are interested in review copies, drop me a message.

Even while the Website is down,
you can find us at
Amazon
Square Marketplace
All Romance Ebooks

Monday, November 2, 2015

Reading and writing

Each year, I try to read 50 books. I say try because some years I read 15 and some I read 60.
My one rule has been they must be mostly new books to me.

For 2016, that's out the window. I'm going to revisit old favorites.
Gabriel and I are doing the 50 book challenge together.
He's picking 25 for me, and I'm picking 25 for him. I will read some of the ones I recommend.

My list so far. This is subject to chance.

1) Han Solo at Star's End. Brian Daley defined the way my generation thought about Han.

2) The Many Colored Land. Julian May. (The other three are optional but recommended, as are the 5 prequels) This influenced me in ways I'm only starting to understand.

3) A Princess of Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs. This man taught me all I know about sswashbuckling. There are 11, but the last isn't worth the bother.

4) Elric of Melnibone. Michael Moorcock. He is the anti-hero, the decadent elf-lord. Give it a whirl. You may hate it, you may love it.

5) Sweet Silver Blues. Glen Cook. A .lot of my basis fpr urban fantasy, also, vampires.

6) Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural. Marvin Kaye, ed. Some of the finest horror ever collected. Strong influences on what I like to read

7) Red as Blood. Tanith Lee. Reimagined fairy tales from a mistress of the language.

8) The Ladies of Mandrygen. Barbara Hambly. (The other two in the series are all right)

9) Strange Wine. Harlan Ellison. One of his best collections.

10) The Color of Magic. Terry Prachett. A greaty fun romp.

11) Split Infinity. Piers Anthony. A SF and fantasy novel.

12) Friday. Robert Heinlein. A great influence on the DisUnited States.

13) Another Fine Myth. Robert Lynn Asprin. Hilarious. Informs my sense of humor a great deal. (the rest of the books are pretty good too)

14) The Laughing Corpse. Laurell K Hamilton. I highly recommend the series up to Obsidian Butterfly.

15) Fool moon. Jim Butcher. Storm front is all right, but he doesn't hit his stride until the second book.

16) Dies the Fire. SM Stirling. Post-apoc. Or Heather Alexander kicks John Norman's ass after the end of the world.

17) The Crawling Abattoir. Martin Mundt. Scary, sexy and funny as hell, these horror shorts are some I want to revisit.

18) The Freakshow. Bryan Smith. Horror at its finest.

19) Good Omens. Neil Gaiman & Terry Prachett

20) Bimboes of the Death Sun. Sharyn McCrumb

21) Neuromancer. William Gibson

22) Sackett's land. Louis L'Amour. Elizabethan tale of pirates, revenge, intrigue and migration

23) Cheating Chance. James Buchanan. Sexy sexy times (inland Empire is good too)

24) The Wind in the Willows. Kenneth Graham

25) On Writing. Stephen King

Saturday, October 24, 2015

My Sexy Saturday: Something About Sexy

Sorry we're late today. Work got out of hand last night. Just as Rick's job is about to get out of hand...

Blurb:
19 Tales of Love and Darkness
Into Dark Waters ebook from Inkstained Succcubus

Your Seven Sexy Paragraphs:

Michael pulled away a little and ran a hand over him about an inch from his skin. “Your aura. You’re dead, but there are no hougan marks or loup-garous in it. What sort of revenant are you?”

Rick shrugged. “The Rick kind. I woke up on a morgue slab after I cracked up my bike back in 1981. I just sort of kept waking up after being shot or killed. Lost my last job when a scene in a kink club I was working went really bad. I wound up getting hanged. Boy, did the police freak out when I stopped them from zipping the body bag. I can’t stand those things.”

“You talk too much." Michael bit at his neck, hard enough to leave a bruise. “I’m not killing you tonight." He settled back onto the couch. “Suck me off.” Rick followed him and knelt between his feet, still naked. One large hand slid over his hair and down to trace his lips. "Your mouth was made for this." Michael's dark eyes burned and Rick felt his own cock jerk against his belly.

“Anything you want,” Rick said and swallowed his cock.

Afterward, Michael had him stay kneeling. He adjusted Rick’s posture and position with taps from his belt until he was satisfied. Rick stayed there a long time while Michael just looked. He was looking at the floor, as Michael had insisted. Then he heard a ruffle, like a pack of playing cards released into the air, and several bills fluttered to the floor around him.

“Undead whore with dead presidents." Michael walked to the door. “Pick them up, in your teeth. And crawl."

Rick went to hands and knees and picked up the first bill.

The Other Sexy People:

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Let's talk about depression

Depression runs in my family. Not virulently, just a low-grade background for the women of the Tanner line.

Melvina Tanner my great-great-great grandmother died in the state asylum. She was a psychopath.

Grandma Jones, her daughter, spent a year in bed after losing two children in the same year.

Grandma O'Neill had low grade depression all her life. She coped, supported herself after being widowed and even enjoyed a late second marriage.

Grandma Wymer would have denied she was depressed, She carried on with frantic energy, cleaning, cooking, working, always busy, always on the run from silence and being alone.

My mother fought it. She didn't always win. The baseline memory of my childhood is coming home and mom was in bed. She did not work outside the home after she got pregnant with my sister in 73, until 1983, when she went back to nursing.

I fight it.
Some days I cope. I adult. I go to work, I handle the house. Some days I accomplish much, above and beyond the basics. Some days, I sit in the recliner with kittens atop me and crochet my way through too many episodes of the TV show du jour. Some days I lie in bed and stare at the walls. Sometimes I can harness the depression and write books.

But always, the depression lies to me. Always, it tells me I can't. Always, it and chronic pain steal my energy, my enthusiasm. The only question is, how hard am I fighting today? How loud is it? Sometimes the lies are whispers and the pain is low. On these days I accomplish much. Sometimes it shouts and the pain is high. On these days, we eat too many hot pockets.

I make things.

Beautiful things come off my hooks and needles, and yet, all I hear in my head is jokes about the ugly homemade sweaters and mental words about how old-fashioned and tacky crochet is. Because I can make the afghan, but I can't do the painting. (My grandmother did the painting in the photo) I can't draw. I can't sing. How can I consider myself artistic?

The depression lies. I know it lies. And yet, it is so pervasive, such a mental background noise, that I have to be alert to it every minute or it gets me.

My daughters fight it.
Oli wears a semi-colon tattoo to remind her that she needs to keep going. She battles chronic pain and sometimes it all gets the better of her.
I got her this for the bad days:

Yeah, it's a celebrity based t-shirt (the guys from Supernatural).
Knowing that other people have this--even famous people-- and that she isn't alone seems to help more than anything.

Remember, if you have it, if you love someone who has it, we're listening to a voice that lies to us constantly. A voice that tells us we're second rate, useless, worthless. And some days, we can't hear you loving us over it. And we don't love ourselves. How can we? If you knew what we were, you wouldn't love us either, the depression tells us.

So we fight. And the volume changes day by day, minute by minute. Sometimes, we can change this ourselves. Sometimes we find our Guide who helps us learn to dial it down. (Yes, "Sentinel" reference) But we keep going, minute by minute sometime.

I don't know if it ever ends. I don't know if I'll ever get better, But I do know, I want to see if it does.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

My Sexy Saturday: All About the Sexy

This week, a bit from "Blood Roses" in Hungry Hearts

Hungry Hearts Ebook from Inkstained Succcubus

Your Seven Sexy Paragraphs:

“My mother's roses. My father did the same when he proposed to her, years ago. I started the cuttings when I knew I wanted to marry you. I've planted five of them, for five is a magical number,” he told her. “Solomon's Seal of Truth had five points. It has the five senses. It has the four limbs and the heart, for what is conceived in the heart is done by the hands and feet. It is the five wounds of our Blessed Savior. It means I love you.” He pricked his index finger on the first bush and let five drops of blood fall on the disturbed earth at its base. “I will be true to you.” He pricked his middle finger and let five more fall at the base of the second bush. “I will be chaste for you.” His ring finger bled for the third. “I will remember you.” His smallest finger put its five drops at the base of the fourth. He held up his thumb. “I will return to you.” That bled on the earth of the fifth rosebush.

Lilah watched, her hands pressed to her mouth, feeling faint at the sight of her fiancé’s bloody fingers. She pulled out her kerchief, took his hand, covered in dirt from the planting and blood from the vows, and wiped it clean.

“When they bloom, I am on my way home to you and we shall be wed, dearest,” Michael said.

Lilah smiled. “That will be lovely. I'll carry them in my wedding bouquet.”

Michael held up his unhurt hand, one finger raised. “But, love, if they wither and die, despite the best of your care, the vows I have made are broken. I will be dead or unable to return to you.”

Lilah covered his lips with her own two fingers. “Hush. That's bad luck. Say a prayer quickly that it will pass you by.” She mumbled under her breath, begging God to not have heard Michael's words. Part of her considered the words silly superstition, a relic of the middle ages, in this day of railroads and telegraphs.

His voyage would be dangerous and there was every chance he might not return. She wanted him back. She wanted to hear his voice in the night, telling her all was well, to see his dark eyes look back from the face of her son, or brush out his fair curls on her daughter's head, before tying a ribbon around them

The Other Sexy People:

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Let's talk about Post Apocalypse

I got asked, "Can't you envision a post apocalypse that doesn't turn into a rape-ridden hellhole? Are you so limited that you can't believe men and women might work together to survive?"

I looked at my questioner. "Serbia. Rwanda. Pitcairn Island. The Beta Boys. MRAs. And every shooter who did it because 'he didn't have a girlfriend.' I believe some men and women will work together. I believe more men will revert to might makes right and start noticing they have 5 inches of height, 30% more upper body strength and a lot more aggression."

And they thought I was the sad one.

Another week, another campus shooting by a man who was upset that women would not acquiesce sexually as he thought they should. (Shakesville has a good article listing these) More attacks on women's bodily autonomy and health care from terrorists on the street and from our lawmakers.

All I have to do is look and I see a lot of men who don't think women are people, but rather objects for their comfort.

An apocalypse won't change this.

If anything, it will reinforce it.

In Stephen King's The Stand, the character of Fran comes to realize she is not protected by laws and society any more. The only thing standing between her pregnant self and the depredations of the lawless is her own gun and possibly a man of good will. "Women got pregnant and a pregnant woman was a vulnerable human being."

So yes, when I write post-apocalypses, there are going to be horrible people. There are going to be people who set up groups designed to oppress other people. Unless the group has strong female leaders, it will revert right back to male dominance and possibly chattel within a generation or two.

There's a scene in Brian Keene's Dead Sea, where the survivors on a boat are discussing how to negotiate with an oil rig crew. One suggests offering the women as trade goods. A couple agree with him but the captain shuts that down fast.

If one person is thinking like that within less than a month of civilization being gone, more will follow the longer the crisis goes on.

Even in my own post-apoc, the circuit-riding bikers sell women between settlements and get a higher price for pregnant ones. In my zombie apoc, the lady trucker mentions some places are using women as currency.

And because I follow the news and reality and I see the pushback and hate, THAT'S why I write post-apocs as horrible places. Even without the zombies.