Category Archives: Uncategorized

Microfiction: Fathoms Untold by TS Porter

“Fathoms Untold”
by TS Porter

Pearl Gleam the Huntress led her pod on their yearly migration. She was one of the largest of the Sea Peoples, and where most decorated themselves with bright shells and pearls, she wore strange armor fashioned from the carapaces of giant abyssal crabs. She was as long as an oarfish, faster than a mako shark, and her notched fins and the many scars on her arms and down the length of her tail proved her prowess as a warrior. Her pod trusted her to protect them, and protect them she did on their long journey, more often breaking the current at the head of the pod than swimming in any easier position.

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Halloween Microfiction: The Season by T.C. Mill

Editor’s Note: This story contains knife and blood play. Read accordingly please.

“The Season”
by T.C. Mill

This time of year finds them on the deep porch of the century-old farmhouse. It always will, even if they’re here in another century.

From under the overhang, they watch the rain fall. Leaves fall with it, beaten copper and winking gold coins dropping to the wet-darkened gravel drive. For an autumn day, it’s warm, and the porch is filled not with damp or chill but the sound: rattling and swelling like gusts of hungry breath. The pressure of the house looms above it like another thundercloud.

The last roses, pink as rare meat, have their heads bowed, heavy petals plucked by needles of rain. Out past the garden, along the tree-lined drive, it falls in such thick sheets that the world seems motionless. As if it has always been this way and always will be, seasons frozen in a silver amber.

They both know better.

Continue reading Halloween Microfiction: The Season by T.C. Mill

Halloween Microfiction: Playing With Your Food by Sonni de Soto

Editor’s Note: If you are afraid of spiders you may want to skip this story though I hope you don’t as it’s a wonderful piece.

“Playing With Your Food”
by Sonni de Soto

You hate the gasps and the stares as people around us scuttle away. But I don’t. Whether in the shadows or the streets, I’ve been the boogeyman too long for it to bother me. I smile, flashing my fangs at the full and frightened street, the long curved lengths sharp against my bottom lip, and blink innocently. All six, pitch black eyes. Scenting their collective fear combine and swell, my joints shake, the sensitive hairs along my limbs at attention, as my articulated legs twitch as if to pounce. I lick my lips and feel my heart race.

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Join us for a Tea Party at Worldcon!


Editor/Founder Cecilia Tan, author Laura Antoniou, and other special guests await you in a caffeinated salon of literary erotic tastes. Which is a fancy way of saying we’ll have tea, and books, and good conversation about erotic science fiction, kinky writing, and our other favorite subjects. (Which may or may not include cats, Pokemon Go, and comic books…)

Sunday, August 19

4pm – 6pm

Fairmont Hotel, San Jose

We won’t know the room number until we check in on Thursday, so watch Cecilia’s twitter feed for that or check the Party Board when you arrive at the Fairmont Hotel.

We will have a limited selection of books to sell, and lots of tea, and some tea snacks, as well.

Please drop by!

(If you’d like to know where else to find our founder Cecilia Tan, she posted her schedule of panels and autographings over on her blog: https://blog.ceciliatan.com/archives/3402)

Like a little tentacle in your… ear? Monster Whisperer audiobook by @nobilis is live!

News comes to us from Nobilis Reed! His novel MONSTER WHISPERER, which was originally run an audio serial on the Nobilis Erotica podcast and which Circlet published in ebook and paperback form in 2017, is now available as a standalone audiobook! Download the audiobook now from Audible.com.

Nobilis adds, “And if [you] don’t have an Audible account, [you] can get the audiobook for free during a thirty day free trial: https://www.audible.com/t2/title?asin=B07FKWWWB1

The ebook of course can be ordered right here on Circlet.com or purchase paperback or Kindle version on Amazon.

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Microfiction: The Pack by Keller Marie

“The Pack”
by Keller Marie

Gabriel moaned under him, one hand clinging to the headboard as the other fisted into the sheets. His head was thrown back, exposing his throat, sweat clinging to his skin and Lune was unable to tear his eyes from his partner’s Adam ’s apple as he swallowed. Lune could smell the lust, the want and need to continue to reach completion. His lover’s body was tight, muscles quivering as he bucked his hips to meet every sharp thrust he made.

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The Censoring of LGBT Covers & Posters at #RT18

Hi folks! Cecilia Tan here, reporting from the RT Booklovers Convention in Reno.

If it’s your first time hearing about RT, this is a massive annual convention that brings together thousands of readers with hundreds of authors, mostly in the romance genres but also a lot of YA, fantasy, mystery, and science fiction. (“RT” stands for Romantic Times, the original magazine that founded the conference.)

RT typically has nonstop promo parties thrown by publishers and authors, and every hotel where it takes place (it move around all over, Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans, Las Vegas) is usually plastered with giant posters of romance novels. It’s typical to see each elevator door with a massive add on it, for example. Here at the Peppermill much of that type of advertising seems to have been moved to large video screens that rotate through, but there are also floor clings, large ads on the floor as you walk to and from the convention area. Thus far my impression is that there is less advertising than in past years, but I don’t know if that’s because the Peppermill is pickier about what can be displayed, or if fewer ads were bought (romance publishing has suffered some big blows this year), or what.

What I can tell you is that in particular, though, the advertising floor clings purchased by the Rainbow Romance Writers, the chapter of the RWA (Romance Writers of America) that promotes specifically LGBT romances, have been censored. I know because I just heard from a Circlet Press author, Elizabeth Schechter, about this:

Example:
Censoring of LGBT book covers at RT by the Peppermill Resort

Censoring of LGBT book covers at RT by the Peppermill Resort

Detail:

Censoring of LGBT book cover Heart's Master by Elizabeth Schechter

Here’s the cover that the Peppermill Resort thought was necessary to censor:

Heart's Master Elizabeth Schechter

For contrast, here is the larger-than-life-size floor cling RIGHT NEXT TO the censored one:

Leveque floor cling

It’s got all the abs, all the muscled thighs, all the SEE THROUGH CHAIN MAIL, but apparently it’s OK because…? Ropes are too much…? Or is it because they gave gay and lesbian and queer books more scrutiny?

The board of the Rainbow Romance Writers apparently found out yesterday (Tuesday) when the floor clings were being installed that the hotel objected to the images. They had the choice of either censor or pull the clings entirely. These ads were paid for by the authors of the books who each chipped in hard-earned dollars to have their book displayed. I can’t really blame them for making the snap decision to censor the covers rather than risk not having any of the books displayed and losing their money.

But I think the Peppermill Resort had better be prepared to give Elizabeth Schechter and TL Travis back their money. And I think they better be ready to defend their decision to censor these LGBT covers and not any of the heterosexual imagery (at least so far as I’ve heard): that’s what we call anti-LGBT discrimination folks.

(And if it’s the ropes… hello, folks, we are at a casino in RENO not DISNEYLAND? Didn’t 50 Shades of Grey prove that BDSM is mainstream? They sold bondage kits in TARGET for f’s sake…)

Anyway, that’s what’s going on here. If you’d like to show Elizabeth Schechter some love and help us turn lemons into lemonade, please share her censored cover far and wide?

Elizabeth Schechter Heart's Master Too Hot for Reno

(And maybe let the Peppermill Resort know you think censorship is wrong and slightly ridiculous? Did they not know what RT Booklovers is about?)

UPDATE! Edited to add:

The Peppermill Reno has apologized and will be reprinting the ads without the coverups! Text of their tweet:

(1/2) Our sincere apologies for the miscommunication, as the two book covers in questions were never taped over due to their LGBTQ nature. As a family-friendly resort with many guests not here for the convention, we made a mistake in covering the original artwork.

(2/2) We’re now in the process of getting the ad reprinted and replaced, which should be done tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. Again, we’re truly sorry this was ever misconstrued as a bias against the LGBTQ community.

From author Elizabeth Schechter:

According to @RenoPeppermill, the ads are being reprinted and replaced and they’re calling me tomorrow to apologize. I’m satisfied with that and have thanked them.

UPDATED AGAIN: As of Wednesday midday I am happy to report the unexpurgated ad was in place on the floor cling! And I heard from Elizabeth Schechter who spoke with the hotel’s GM to get his personal apology. Thank you, Reno Peppermill!

Fairy Tale Bundle Teasers #5: The Stepmother’s Girl

The final volume of the fairy tale bundle is Like a Queen, lesbian stories based on traditional fairy tales. Today’s excerpt is from “The Stepmother’s Girl” by Quatre Grey:

For weeks I have cooked, cleaned, repaired, tended, mended, answered to the every whim of my stepsisters and of you. I had long since recovered from the aches and soreness of the hard labor but my patience with my step-sisters haughty attitudes and your cold harsh tone is growing thin. I have not received the pleasures of your satisfaction and gratitude at my apt obedience that I had anticipated. I have been given no reward, and am losing the simple joy I once had in servitude.

Tonight my step-sisters are at a party and my father sleeps soundly in the upstairs library. You call me to your personal chamber–you never share a bed with my father–for instructions on another menial task about the estate. Your chamber decorated like your gowns; draped in blacks and reds, midnight shades of purple and blue, like the lair of an ancient vampire. My clothes worn and dirty but as neat as I can make them, I step into your room and shut the door behind me, coming to stand at an easy attention while my eyes adjust to the dim illumination of the oil lamps. I hear you in an adjoining room, one I have never been allowed into and have heard referred to as your painting room. From the door left ajar, your voice beckons me in. I hesitate a moment before stepping to the door and entering.

The light is even dimmer here and yellow flame flickers off polished black leather, metal, wood. Shadows sneak and obscure the structures in the room. You stand by a wall which props up several large paintings and cradles an easel in its corner. These painting supplies and oil-covered canvases are the only objects I can clearly discern here. You glance up from your musings and paralyze me with another of your gazes I am unable to resist. Stepping towards me, slow with the soft rustle of fabric, you continue to hold me in place with nothing but those eyes.

Continue reading Fairy Tale Bundle Teasers #5: The Stepmother’s Girl

Fairy Tale Bundle Teaser #4: The Goose Boy

Volume four of our fairy tale bundle is Like a Prince, a collection of gay male erotic fairy tales. Our excerpt is from “The Goose Boy” by Monique Poirier:

…There was a man standing in the corner, watching him. Watching him very intently.

He was dressed in the clothes of a merchant, and he wore a long cloak with a hood. Giles could see his eyes flashing from within the shadows of it, warmly brown and uncomfortably direct. When they met his own, the hooded man grinned with a flash of white teeth. Giles looked into his cup studiously.

He approached. Giles held his ground; the warning had been brief and maddeningly cryptic, but he wasn’t the sort of man who ran away. The hooded man sat down on the bench beside him, very close. Close enough that Giles could feel the heat of him.

I’m told that you can’t speak,” the man said. His voice was smooth and clear; a young man’s voice – one that demanded attention. Giles shook his head slightly without looking up.

Can’t, or won’t?”

At that Giles did look up, scowling slightly, sighing through his nose. The man who stared back at him was… arresting. The face of an angel gazed at him from the shadows of that hood, framed in dark curls. He’d never seen an angel, painted or otherwise, with so much hunger in its eyes.Giles shuddered, because the intense scrutiny he suddenly faced stirred something low in his belly that was probably best left undisturbed…

Continue reading Fairy Tale Bundle Teaser #4: The Goose Boy

Fairy Tale Bundle Teaser #3: That Wicked Witch

Like a Thorn is an anthology of BDSM fairy tales. Today’s excerpt is a little teaser from Sunny Moraine’s “That Wicked Witch:”

So,” said the woman, and she tossed her long black hair back over one shoulder. Her arms were crossed over her chest, the swells of her breasts hidden under a black suit jacket, and Greta couldn’t stop looking at her. Since she’d walked in Greta and Han attempting to walk out with the last piece of her stereo system, things had been a little awkward.

They were on their knees, hands behind their heads. That was part of why things were awkward.

So,” the woman said again. She raised a hand to her face and tapped an immaculately tapered fingernail against her chin, looking coolly thoughtful. “I should probably call the police, now. Shouldn’t I?”

Continue reading Fairy Tale Bundle Teaser #3: That Wicked Witch