Words

Looking for something to read? The Words section contains Alert Me news posts, book reviews, and Jane’s erotic stories. To view a complete list of all our reviews, or navigate to the writing you want quickly, please visit the Words Index.)

Free reads disclaimer: if you’re at all offended by naughty language, sex in positions other than missionary, non-vanilla sexual practices (including but not limited to those that involve the use of dairy products or gluten) and general sauciness, steer well clear. Do not pass go, do not collect £200. You’ve been warned!

Feb 05

Title: At Any Price (Gaming the System)
Author: Brenna Aubrey
Publisher: Silver Griffon Associates (13 January 2014)
ISBN: 9781940951010
Reviewer: Jane

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to work in the videogame industry. I won’t go into detail, but suffice to say, when At Any Price (Gaming the System) came to my attention earlier in the week via a link in this post by Skye Warren, I was immediately intrigued. My mind began to whir. Was the heroine going to get ‘serviced’ next to the servers? Would the hero decide to ‘review her build’ during the daily Scrum meeting? In my experience, game dev. is a whole load of (stressful) fun, but calling it sexy would be … a stretch, to say the least. Unless you count listening to hundreds of emote .wav files to make sure they don’t sound unintentionally orgasmic, getting shot (repeatedly) with Nerf guns when you tell the dev. team they need to fix a bug the night before manufacturer submission, asking the rigger to make a character’s boobs smaller, and informing the lead artist that the creature he’s spent the last few days concepting needs to look ‘less penis-like’.

However, it turns out that the videogame backdrop for At Any Price (the first in a series of three books by author Brenna Aubrey) is more peripheral than integral, despite the references to patches, servers and avatars. It’s true that Adam, the hero, can code like a god (apparently, he’s the Zeus of C++) but it’s his addiction to his mobile and laptop, rather than his association with MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing) game development, that ultimately define him in Ms Aubrey’s story. Continue reading →

Feb 03

Hello? Anyone there?

Like Lazarus rising from the dead (although granted, in this case, the resurrection has taken a lot longer than four days), I’m finally (finally!) back on the laptop and twitching the florals. Woot! It’s been pretty damn frustrating not being able to blog and ramble as normal but I suspect it’s been far more so for those of you who’ve continued to visit Chintz over the past two-and-a-half months in the hope of finding a new post. So inappropriate hugs and kisses to everyone who’s stuck with me and offered their support as I’ve moved from one side of the world to the other; it’s been a long slog but at long last I have a reliable Internet connection and an actual house to live in. Largess.

I’ve decided to kick off my new (albeit slightly delayed) blogging year with an Alert Me. Given that I’ve been offline so much recently, it feels like there are about a billion news stories and articles that have passed me by, so in a lot of ways this round-up is as much for me as it is for you. Enjoy.

In Which I Explain Why I Turned Down a Three-book New York Print Deal to Self-publish
Source: Brenna Aubrey (via One Handed Writers)

This piece by Brenna Aubrey makes for fascinating reading. If you’re a self-published or aspiring author, then I strongly encourage you to swing by her Website and cast a beady eye over it. Not least because it gives an excellent breakdown of some key contractual clauses that writers will come across when presented with book deals drawn up by traditional publishers. Pay careful attention, people, to the Non Compete clause. This is a bloody important bit of legal jargon. And can I add that any new author who has the guts and strength of character to turn down a six-figure deal in order to stay true to her own personal writing goals and aspirations has my undying admiration. On the strength of this post of Brenna’s, I’ve now downloaded the book in question, At Any Price (Gaming The System). I’ll let you know how I get on with it; stick figures may be on the horizon. Continue reading →

Dec 24

Image: Christmas Fairy. (Me, wearing my halo, whilst sitting in a Pohutukawa – also known as the ‘New Zealand Christmas tree’.)

This Wicked Wednesday is an unapologetic, sentimental and festive ‘thank you’ – a big one! – to all the amazing people who have made my 2013 so happy and wonderful.

Bloggers, writers, readers, fellow kinksters … There are so many of you that I am pleased and proud to know (both online and in person), and who have been totally selfless in support of me and this little Chintzy corner of the Interweb these past twelve months. To that end, I’d like to embarrass a few of you by specifically calling out your awesomeness. Continue reading →

Dec 22

Title: Make Me Yours Evermore
Author: Cari Silverwood
Publisher: Cari Silverwood
ISBN: 9781311900234

At one point, Chris, a character in Make Me Yours Evermore, mentions brain bleach. By the end of the book, I was surreptitiously checking supermarket shelves for a bottle of the stuff.

Redemption? Remorse? Morality?

Phtt.

Love?

Wash your mouth out.

This book is about lust, desire, control and corruption. But, above all else, it’s about power. Held absolutely and resolutely over another human being. Consensual? No. But compelling and intoxicating, nonetheless.

I can’t recall a single time I’ve ‘enjoyed’ (not to be confused with ‘been impressed by’) a book featuring a core protagonist I was unable to like, empathise with, or warm to. But in this particular case, I did. Continue reading →

Dec 05

I’m back! On the other side of the world, granted, but hooked into the interweb at long last. I don’t have a house (that’s still a work in progress) and the contents of my chintzy home are on a ship in the middle of one of the world’s oceans – likely the Atlantic. Pray that my container-load of worldly possessions isn’t one of the thousands that ends up lost at sea every year (I need all those books and, er, play things).

In the middle of all this chaos, however, I’ve just received some extremely exciting news: my short story, Thorn King, will be appearing in Cleis Press’s naughty fairy tale anthology, A Princess Bound, in June 2014. Woot! Edited by Kristina Wright, it’s a fabulous collection of fairy stories – both reworked and original – that celebrate the fanciful, dark and the sensual. Needless to say, I’m totally thrilled to have been included, not least because I’m going to be sliding between the covers with some very fine writers, including Kristina herself. Continue reading →

Nov 06

Image: Kenny Louie

Yeah, I know it’s been a bit quiet around here these past few weeks. Sincere apologies. I’m currently preparing to move abroad – literally to the other side of the world – and it’s kind of eating into my writing and blogging time. :-/ I hope to be back up and running properly in early December once I’m resettled but, fingers crossed, I might be able to squeak in a few posts here and there. Continue reading →

Oct 16

*A massive ‘thank you’ to everyone who voted my Pain Positive and Sex toy manuals: puppies, kittens and a whole lot of nonsensical fluff as top picks for this month’s edition of e[lust], and an even bigger one to the wonderful people who made the former article possible – Molly (Molly’s Daily Kiss, @Mollysdailykiss), DomSigns (@DomSigns), Trent Evans (Trent Evans Letters, @TrentEvansTales) and M. They, without doubt, deserve the lion’s share of the credit.

Photo courtesy of Property of Potter

Welcome to e[lust] - The only place where the smartest and hottest sex bloggers are featured under one roof every month. Whether you’re looking for sex journalism, erotic writing, relationship advice or kinky discussions it’ll be here at e[lust]. Want to be included in e[lust] #52? Start with the newly updated rules, come back November 1st to submit something and subscribe to the RSS feed for updates!

~ This Month’s Top Three Posts ~

7 (Random!) Suggestions for Dominant Types!

Pain Positive

i know what you are.

~ Featured Post (Molly’s Picks) ~

Golden Girl

Have You Met Larry

~ Readers Choice from Sexbytes ~

*You really should consider adding your popular posts here too*

Sex toy manuals: puppies, kittens and a whole lot of nonsensical fluff

Continue reading →

Oct 08

Image: Pendleton Sinking Ship Richard C. Kelsey, via Wikimedia Commons

I find writing to be something of a hillocky process. One minute I’m on a peak, ideas flowing out of me in a torrent (a sometimes nonsensical torrent). The next, I’m stuck in a valley of frustration with potential story concepts and threads lurking about in the shadows, not quite willing to reveal themselves.

Over time, I’ve discovered that my better pieces of writing – or at least the pieces I, personally, deem to be my better ones – have something in common: they all started with a very specific inspirational emotion, object or element that I then went on to build the text around. Perhaps wrongly, I almost never start by etching out/detailing characters. Rather, the concept that’s kicked off the creative process and determines the mood and the emotion of the story I’m going to write subsequently influences the personas and behaviours of those who appear in it.

Frostbite? Inspired by a rural footpath I often walk along. All Girls Love Ponies? Riding whips. Table Manners? A beautifully set table. Dark (a story that I am holding onto and have not published here on Chintz)? Objectification. Continue reading →

Sep 24

Title: Bad Girl Good
Author: Sadey Quinn
Publisher: Sea and Sky (26 July 2013)
ASIN: B00E6HJ16W
Reviewer(s): Michael & Jane

A huge apology to Sadey Quinn, Bad Girl Good’s author, who has been waiting super-patiently for me to post our review of this book. As many of you may be aware from my Tumbleweed post, things are slightly chaotic behind the florals at the moment and I’m rather behind on, well, pretty much everything. Hmm. Maybe I need Todd, Bad Girl Good’s male protagonist, to keep me in line…?

MICHAEL’S TAKE

Bad Girl Good is a Domestic Discipline novel. When Chloe breaks one of her boyfriend’s rules, Todd gets to spank her.

Bad Girl Good is a Total Power Exchange novel. Chloe has given control of her life to her Dom, Todd, and he disciplines her when she violates any of his dictates.

Which one of those is accurate? I am still not entirely sure. Continue reading →

Sep 19

*This month’s e[lust] is out and there are some truly fantastic articles in this edition, as well as a stunning photograph by Down the Rabbit Hole. (Please note that I’ve placed the latter below the fold for this particular post as it features a pair of – extremely beautiful! – naked breasts. Just something to be aware of if you’re clicking the ‘Read More’ tab in full view of others!)

Welcome to e[lust] - The only place where the smartest and hottest sex bloggers are featured under one roof every month. Whether you’re looking for sex journalism, erotic writing, relationship advice or kinky discussions it’ll be here at e[lust]. Want to be included in e[lust] #51? Start with the newly updated rules, come back October 1st to submit something and subscribe to the RSS feed for updates!