Holy Sex

Holy Sex: That is the name of my next series of stories.
Each will be based on Holy Scriptures. In some ways, the Holy Bible is practically an R-rated book, with stories of rape, incest, adultery, violence, scheming, betrayals and so much more, from the depths of human depravity.
In my youth I read the Good Book a lot, and my fertile imagination would flesh out the sometimes scant details in contained. From such imaginings these new stories are coming.
Some of my stories in the Holy Sex series will be retellings of Biblical stories, ones that already have gobs of shockingly lewd situations. Things like Amnon's rape of his half-sister Tamar; the Bible already has lots of detail, I will just retell it in my own way.
Others will be putting a narrative around a biblical event that is not described. We are told, for example, that Potiphar's wife attempted to seduce Joseph. No details. So I will take the freedom to put some details into the story.
Others are entirely flights of fancy, involving beloved characters.
The stories are being revised and will start appearing on Smashwords and other eBook distribution sites in the coming weeks, likely around Easter.
Won't you join me in reading the Bible for all its salaciousness?

50 dull shades

Wow, has it really been so many months since my last blog post? Shame on me.
The writing impetus today is from viewing - at last, say a couple close friends - the 50 Shades of Grey movie.
My overriding sense during the film and after was of disappointment. The book was such a wonderful read that I had high hopes. But haven't we all had an experience where a film adaption of a beloved book fails to meet our fervent hopes?
For me it was two things. First, I just could not get into Dakota Johnson as Anastasia. She left me flat. And second, the steamy scenes lacked the punch, the titillation of their written versions. There is so much scope for imagination, for spinning and interpreting a written scene. But when someone else interprets it to show in their movie, if their and our visions do not sufficiently overlap, we can be left disappointed.
Unless, of course, it is so radically different an interpretation that it bears no resemblance to our own visualizations. In those cases, when it hardly seems like the same scene by the same author, my enjoyment actually increases. I have an example in mind, maybe that will be a post for another day.

Lily Loses Her Shirt

Book #1 of my Strip Poker Club series is finally out!

Lily Loses Her Shirt 
Here is the description:
It's Lily's first night at the strip poker club. She and her date, Pierre, are a bit intimidated at first. The four regulars are young, sexy and, more importantly, good at poker. Lily? Not so much. As she loses more hands, she loses more clothes. And when there's nothing left to strip, her losses lead to owing sexual favors. She and her date are fresh flesh to the regulars. But the price to pay is so thrilling that it's impossible to resist.

To celebrate its release, I have lowered the prices on two other books: "Queen Over Two Jacks" which is Book #2 of the series, but was out months before Book #1; and "Fortune's Keys" my full-length novel. Please check them out, too!

How much steam required?

A contact recently suggested that I had too many words and too little sex in my stories, and they challenged whether what I wrote was truly erotic fiction.
I leave that for you to decide, although I reviewed my published and imminent stories and here is what I found:

• Fortune's Keys, my full-length novel, has 45,000 words. In that text there are 6 sex scenes, including an extended rape.

This is the one I feel the criticism most fits. There is lots of sex, but it might better be classified as a Romance as the thrust of the story is more romantic than erotic.
I may yet reclassify this one.

• Take 2 Takes 2 has 5,200 words, and the whole frame of the story is the filming of a sex scene in a film, a scene in which the lines between acting, consent and assault are blurred.

To me, that fits within the broader definition of erotic fiction. Obviously not to everyone's taste.

• My Sweet Comforter is a brief 2,000 words, the second half of which is a sex scene.

I also examined my Strip Poker series, and found:

• #1 - Lily Loses Her Shirt (due out very soon) has 9,300 words and four sex scenes, including one with bondage and one of group sex, plus lots of sensual stripping;
• #2 - Queen Over Two Jacks is 5,400 words with two sex scenes, both threesomes;
• #3 - Bound to Cheat (due out very soon) has 5 bondage-themed sex scenes spread over 9,400 words, pending final edits.

Perhaps not as many or as dense with sex as some other authors. But my fantasies, out of which my stories come, always have more than just sex.

I hope that the extra characters and details add to the enjoyment of my stories for more people than are turned off. They certainly sustain my own interest!

Strip Poker series out this month

As this awful winter finally turns to spring, as April arrives to banish the last vestiges of polar incursions, I am offering to my readers a new series of short stories.
All are set in a group of friends and sometimes lovers who enjoy each other's company - and bodies - in regular strip poker nights.
They live, they love, they laugh. The winners peel clothing from the losers. And when the card games end, the real games begin.
Expect three stories to be released between now and the end of May:

• Lily Loses her Shirt
• Queen Over Two Jacks
• Bound to Cheat

Check smashwords to download them: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/YBCharles
If they are well-received, you should expect at least two more to follow in the coming months.
They will be in the realm of fiction / romance / eroticism, with explicit sex scenes. For mature readers only.

The exact release sequence is not finalized and may not match the chronological order of their world. But the stories are stand-alone, so you may read them in any order.
Enjoy! I have enjoyed living with these characters for much of my adult life.

Does order matter?

The famous Chronicles of Narnia are out of order. Or, rather, they have multiple possible orders.
Do you read them from book 1 to book 7? Makes sense.
Except that is not the sequence in which the author wrote them.
Nor is it the order in which he wanted them read.
No, the sequence is numbered based on the passage of time in the Narnia world. Mostly, at least.

The topic is on my mind this month because my strip poker series - granted in a whole different category and level of writing skill! - is coming together in a different order than I meant.
One is ready to go, publish as soon as I say to throw the proverbial switch.
Alas, I meant it to be #2.
And one is almost ready, just waiting on some final revisions.
You guessed it, I meant it to be #3.
But I like some of the developments the characters have shown me in these later stories. So I am returning to do some overhaul on #1, delaying it a few more weeks.
They are, like Narnia, numbered chronologically in my head. But they are largely stand-alone, not depending much, in my opinion, on what came before. So no reason why I could not release the one that  is ready, #2, any time. But all the years that these fantasies have been in my head, it has been second.
To release or not. In sequence or not.
Does order matter?

Strip poker delay

My dreams of having my latest project, a multi-part series based on a group of friends and lovers who play strip poker, is behind schedule.
I had hoped to have at least a couple out in March. But that is looking unlikely. Two are in revisions, and may see the light of published day soon if all goes well. More details to come.
Thanks for your patience!