Surveillance and Selfies

We have a wired world that exhorts us to reveal ourselves. Of course, this didn’t start with the web. It was brewing since we said goodbye to our Victorian reserve. Early celebrity magazines like “Tattler” and “Hello” both served and punished those who featured in them; congratulating the rich and famous on their weddings, and […]

Pork Satay With Peanut Dipping Sauce

This is another one of those posts that should probably go on another site, but in the interests of not being one-dimensional, here’s my recipe and guide for Pork Satay with Peanut Dipping Sauce. You can download it in PDF, ePub or Mobi (Kindle) format. Right-click to save to your desktop. PDF version ePub version […]

Extremist Sites and Rape Porn: Fear and Disgust and our Mindless Reactions

Mr Cameron is targeting websites which show videos and images of rape – whether they claim they are ‘simulated’ or not. The prime minister has previously attacked websites which show the material, saying: ‘These images normalise sexual violence against women – and they are quite simply poisonous to the young people who see them.’ (“Rape […]

Make Better: Critical Writing Friends and Process

I am very fortunate to have two excellent supervisors for my PhD. My primary supervisor oversees my theoretical and critical work, my secondary supervisor acts in the spirit of a critical friend. She reads the work I’m producing for the creative part of the PhD, and gives me very good, very deep critiques. I thought […]

Say it ain’t so: when reality doesn’t accord with our beliefs

I’ve spent a lot of this week collecting references for some papers I’d like to write. One attempts to challenge the very pervasive belief that being aroused by fiction sexually, emotionally, sentimentally or fearfully is somehow fundamentally negative – that it impairs our judgement completely and renders us quivering idiots (no, that’s not quite how […]

Silken Tofu with Ginger Syrup

Yes, this has nothing to do with erotic fiction. But you know, I do other stuff too. I wrote up this recipe for a friend. It’s downloadable in PDF or Kindle version. Silken Tofu with Ginger Syrup PDF document Epub document Kindle document    

Censorship & Concrete Remedies: Who do you link to?

It occurred to me that as I waxed philosophical in my last post on censorship and the vagaries of being a writer of erotic fiction, I did not suggest any remedies. It’s all very well to bitch and philosophize, but offering solutions is far more constructive. While we’re all tearing our hair out about Kobo, […]

Censorship: On the Bright Side

It is easy to get tremendously worked up over the recent and ongoing changes taking place at the various e-book retailers. Many self-published erotica works are being cleared off the virtual shelves of stores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. For more on this read Nate Hoffeider’s article: “Self-Published Erotica is Being Singled Out […]

The By-blow of Good Intention

Now she wants to get in. The woman who keeps fucking up my dreams. Cloth coat buttoned up to her aging chin and a thick scree of make-up forever threatening to slide off her face and reveal… what? She’s half-zombie, half-vampire, an undead machine of unthinking consumption. Even as I lock her out: imaginary bolts […]

The Honourable Mishap

Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head. “Oranges and Lemons” Traditional English Nursery Rhyme There was before and there was after. I remember the chill silk of the quilt beneath my naked skin, crisply urging me to arch my back. My small, perfect breasts, […]