Musings

Contemplating potential futures for 2019 and beyond

bookselling, future, hope, writing 22nd January 2019 Musings

Around this time every year, just like most of the other bloggers and authors, I find myself musing about the future, and the past. I did it last year and the year before, and looking at those posts… well. (When … Continued

Are You Feeling Festive Yet?

books, bookselling, erotic fiction. writers. writing, erotica, fetish, kinky, politics, porn 19th December 2018 Fairs and Markets, Musings, Other Things

You’d think the festive season is prime time for traders everywhere, but one thing I have noted throughout my years of selling kinky books and bits and bobs is that December is often one of the less good months at … Continued

Hiatus, slacking and bouncing back.

comeback, events 17th November 2018 Musings, Other Things

Anthology editing: choices and the mental mixtape

anthology, choice, editing, erotica, fetish, stories, writing 6th September 2018 Musings, New Books

The call having closed for Rule 34 Vol 2, I’ve spent most of this week going through the submitted stories and picking out which ones to include. This is always a fun job, and even more so when it’s an … Continued

A Black Bond and the Possibilities of Iconic Characters

characters, creation, fiction, film, icons, James Bond 24th August 2018 Musings, Other Things

There’s currently speculation (again) about the possibility of Idris Elba getting cast as the new Bond once wossname who is currently doing it hangs up his Martini. (You can tell, can’t you, that Bond films are not terribly my thing.) … Continued

How Much Responsibility Do We Have?

characters, fiction, research, responsibility, safer sex, stories 19th June 2018 Musings

responsibility, content warning, safe sex, safe kink

Back in the early days of mainstream(ish) erotic fiction, when Nexus and Black Lace were thriving, a lot of the books had a little note in the front along the lines of: this is fiction, in real life, don’t forget … Continued

Talking and Writing

author, event, reading slam, workshop, writer 6th June 2018 Musings

There’s a line in one of Stephen King’s novels (it’s either The Regulators or Desperation: those two being odd mirror images of one another is a subject for a future blog post) where one character remembers his ex-wife telling him … Continued

So Do You Judge A Book By Its Cover?

authors, books, bookselling, cover art, erotica, writing 24th April 2018 Musings

One of the perennial pieces of advice given to the self-publishing author is: spend some money on your cover. Don’t have a go with some Photoshop knock-off and FFS don’t do a drawing, scan it in and add the title … Continued

Taking Stock: 20 years of selling naughty books.

books, bookselling, erotica, fetish, kink, markets 6th March 2018 Fairs and Markets, Musings

To be fair, it was initially magazines… I started taking a stall at what was then the Whiplash Market in the mid-90s, selling copies of the magazines I worked for. It was fun, but it was predominantly pocket money: I … Continued