Readers, Your Opinions, Please

OK, ok, I got curious about Elise Sutton.  I downloaded her Female Domination last year around this time, and couldn't quite muster through it.  Typographical errors are quite a distraction.  So, dear readers, I'm curious. Opinions?  Good?  Bad?  Ugly?  Anyone read In Search of Wanda yet?  Suggestions?  Please advise at y'all's earliest convenience.  I'll even put the e-mail link back up.  BUT--on one condition--NO STALKERS.  You wanna stalk something?  Go find some celery.  I have books to review.  Thanks!

Just In Time for Halloween. . .

In honor of my favorite holiday, and in honor of filthy pagans and beatniks and oddballs everywhere, I will be bringing you some short story reviews from a delightful anthology, Here Be Monsters.

I just finished India Drummond's The Reaver, a science fiction piece in which human souls are captured for the pleasure of demons and encased in orbs.  Why have I chosen this one?  Because the soul of a human princess is seen as filthy, brown, muddy and plain, while the soul of a woman-warrior is many-faceted, like the jewels We are.  Krel is a creator of such orbs, and is so obsessed with his work that he doesn't even notice when his only daughter, Ruygret, is killed later by human upstarts.

I am also mid-way through Anabel Portillo's Lux, and have already found my favorite quote:  ". . . a good little monster, doing her chores."  I'll review this one after I've finished it.  Lux is perhaps one of my favorite new fictional characters I've been introduced to, and I certainly don't mind stating that, aside from her honey-blonde hair and blue eyes, I like her because she reminds me so very much of me--small, slight, freakishly strong with a sky-high metabolism and a fast heart, and a monster-hunter.

Yeah, I'm crushin' hard, too. . . . I'll write more on this as soon as I finish it, I swear!

FetLife

I'm curious. . . .and yes, this will be a short post, because I'm tired.  Lace knitting isn't as difficult as I thought it would be, but because I'm still somewhat new to it (heh--Life theme, anyone?) I still pay scrupulous attention to my stitch-count and what my hands are doing, as well as stopping every five or so rows to make sure I'm getting the length right.  But I was trying to research the background of a blog post a friend sent me, and ran across something called FetLife.  I'm curious about this, but won't be able to sign up just yet due to time constraints and some work stuff I need.  More on that later, though.  If someone (or quite a few someones) can give me rave reviews--good, bad, ugly, but mostly honest--then I'll look into it.  Look, dear Readers, I'm not new to social networking.  However--if this thing turns out to be just as hideous and heinous as collarme.com or has way more smarm and "I'm-ever-so-much-better-than-you-because-I'm-from-London" horseshit I've read at informedconsent, I simply won't bother.  But I thank you dear Readers.  I thank you.

Masks--A Review

Evangeline Anderson's short novel Masks first caught my attention because it was a free download from Amazon, and it hinted at D/s.

Brief Plot Synopsis:  Zoe is a ProDomme with a twisted ankle, so she asks her shy, retiring, school-teacher twin, Chloe, to stand in for her.  Zoe has been keeping secrets about her true Dominant nature (and job) and must nearly twist Chloe's arm to get her to stand in for her.  There are three rules Chloe must abide by, however:  1) don't lose control, 2) don't have sex with the client, and 3) NEVER take off the mask.

The meat of the review:  Chloe, of course, manages to BREAK all three rules.  She DOES lose control, and her "client," Mark, easily gains the upper hand.  She DOES have sex with the client, who turns out to be not only dominant and rather vanilla, but is also quite gentle.  He requests that she take off her mask, which she eventually does.  Mark takes off his mask, too, and that is where the story truly takes an interesting turn.

Problems with the plot:  Right off the bat--no professional Dominatrix would EVER request someone stand in for her.  She'd just call her client and cancel.  She also certainly would NOT request that her stand-in be someone who is COMPLETELY FOREIGN to the BDSM community, even IF aforementioned stand-in were here identical twin sister.  REAL PRO DOMMES DO NOT HAVE SEX WITH THE CLIENT ANYWAY!  This later plays itself out in the end of the story, in which Zoe, dressed as her sister, must substitute for Chloe as the teacher of her first-grade class so Mark can speak with her.  I have problems with this, too.  I am an educator out there in the vanilla world.  You can't be a Domme with first graders, parents will call by day's end and demand your firing at the least, see you in court and push for hard-core jail time at the most.  First graders don't require a Domme/Dom, they require gentle guidance, a firm but loving voice, and lots of patience.  LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of patience.  Oh, and a tolerance for accidental bodily fluids (hey--if a first grader says, "I have to go to the bathroom," LET THEM GO!  Unless you have a thing for the smell of urine, chances are good the rest of the kids in that class DO NOT!  LET THEM GO!).  Chloe seems the stereotypical stick-in-the-mud schoolmarm with zero sense of humor and outdated moral hang-ups about sex.  Zoe seems way more fun and authentic, even if she is just a cookie-cutter.

I'd only read this if it was free.  The sex is steamy but gentle, and really, really vanilla.  Mark slips up by stating Chloe's name after sex (she never did formally introduce herself by her name, merely as Mistress Sensua) and he later really messes things up by saying, "I'm hungry.  Let's see what your sister has to eat around here."  If you'd like to find out why Chloe reacts with shock and horror and goes from cuddly satisfied Woman to Bitch in .03 seconds, I'd suggest you download and read the book by clicking here.

Fiction and D/s/BDSM

My apologies for the lateness of this post, I have been slightly under the weather. . . the cold, wet, hideously grey weather.  Brothers and Sisters on the East Coast of the US, boy howdy do I feel y'all's pain. . . mostly in my back, knees, and ankles, but it's pain, nonetheless.

Since my acquisition of a Kindle this past Christmas, I have been perusing and downloading several samples of fictional works that I have been led to believe are reflective of the D/s and BDSM lifestyle.  But I must say--if this is the best of the best, then I've really got my work cut out for me.  Oh my. . .

Here's what I've downloaded thus far, and been able to read just based on the samples:

High Heels in the Library S. J. Barellstalk

Dominatrix of FemDom Hell (Book 1 of a trilogy) S. J. Barellstalk

Domme by Default Tymber Dalton

The Reluctant Dom Tymber Dalton

The Melinoe Project D. L. King

I also managed to download a sample of a couple of anthologies, but haven't quite made it that far yet.

I humbly request that if any of my readers know of works of fiction they would like to suggest, please forward them.  Also--I'm curious. . . don't get me wrong, Readers, sex is all fine nice and wonderful when it comes to this sort of lifestyle, but I am curious. . . romance.  Anyone like to be romanced?  Or is my inner girl showing too much?  Please advise at your earliest convenience.

Personally, I find a man willing to submit to me, and to serve me and assist me in any way, shape or form, to be one of the most romantic gestures a man could ever make.  Flowers, candy, jewelry, nifty-gifties. . . yeah, yeah, yeah, nothing sets the alarm bells off like material goods out of the blue, for no apparent reason.  However. . . if a man greets me after a long day at work with a glass of white wine, a warm cup of tea with apples and cinnamon and honey, and who literally sweeps me off my feet into a nice warm blanket or bath, that's all I need to be truly happy.  And to think, I haven't even gotten to the nudity yet!

Maybe I should write a book. . .