Merry Christmas - Classic Story - Unwrap Party by Jordan Shelbourne

Merry Christmas from David and Davinci Strykker.  This year, Jordan Shelbourne provided the present.  Here's another classic story we wish we'd written:  Unwrap Party by Jordan Shelbourne.

Chris Hadfield's "Space Oddity" music video filmed on the International Space Station

Here's a music video of astronaut Chris Hadfield's unique version of  David Bowie's song "Space Oddity" from the International Space Station(ISS).

More cures for writer's block

Brenna Lyons has more cures for writer's block in her blog.

Help! I'm blocked!

Are you suffering from writer's block while wrinting a story?  Unsure what will happen next?

The question isn't: Which way do I want the characters to go?  The question is: Which way do the characters want to go?  Based on the current situation, the characters' backstories, and their personalities, what is the natural thing for them to do next?

Blocks mostly happen to me when I'm trying to force the characters to act out of character.  If the characters don't match the plot you have in mind, then either the characters or the plot needs to change.

As a confirmed seat-of-the-pants writer, I almost always change the plot.

I rarely change the characters; often the problem is that I've misunderstood the character.  For example, one character was such a good bullshitter that he had me convinced he was much smarter than he really was.  Once I understood he was an idiot outside of his narrow specialty, he did stupid things which made the originally-envisioned plot possible.

The last resort is to throw away the story :-(

It may help for you to write descriptions of your characters for your own reference.  These descriptions will never be published.  (Although in my case, writing the descriptions tends to
magically develop backstory which may turn into prequels or flashbacks.)  Why are your characters the way you described them?  What happened to them, before the start of your story, that made them the way they are?  Now you know how they will act in a given situation.

Music video - I talk to the wind

Lovely live instrumental version (with pipe organ!) of King Crimson's classic mellow song “I talk to the wind.”



Here's the original album version (sound only, no video).

Welcome to a Comet

Here's a high-resolution picture of comet C67P taken from European Space Agency spacecraft Philae.  You can see a big rock and part of one of the spacecraft's landing legs in the picture.

More details on the mission are in The Register's story.

Twenty Sizzling Summer Sex Stories!

Just a reminder that you can still buy the charity ebook to benefit Sommer Marsden's family, which was originally described on this blog on 7/25/2014.  (Her husband is fighting a serious illness.)  "Summer Loving" includes twenty hot erotic stories with a summer theme.  The price has gone up to $2.99 but I've read the book and it's still a bargain. 

Preditors & Editors

The Preditors & Editors website lists the good, the bad, and the ugly Publishers, Agents, Editors, and book-illustrating Artists.  Much of the listings are old and updates are sparse.  However, the tutorials are still useful.  This is a good place to start.  (Note that literary agents have very little pull with publishers anymore so you probably don't want to bother using an agent.)

Music video - Rock cellist Maya Beiser's haunting version of Led Zeppelin's great song "Kashmir"

Rock cellist Maya Beiser produced a haunting and very entertaining version of Led Zeppelin's great song "Kashmir." Her music video of "Kashmir" features Maya and an army of multi-tracked clones.  Check it out!  You'll like it.

Moon Views

Scroll down the Moon Views website to see beautiful moon photographs that had been lost for decades.

Markets for Your Stories

Cindy Myers' market news blog has markets for (mostly) non-erotic stories.

Heartache

Erin Moran, on her great album "A Girl Called Eddy," sings her haunting song "Heartache." (The link provides audio only, no video.)

More Resources for Writers - How to Get Paid Fairly for Your Work and All That Boring Stuff

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 Kristine Kathryn Rusch explains how to get paid fairly for your work, and all that boring financial stuff writers don't care about.

Setting the Scene

Here's a good example of how to set the scene.  It's the beginning of Margery Allingham's very entertaining mystery/thriller "Coroner's Pidgin."  Note the presence of the dreaded description paragraph which is so loathed in erotic stories.  Anyone want to count the horrible writing sins that Margery got away with?

-------

The man and the woman carried the body cautiously up the stairs.  Although it was still early evening, the narrow way was grey and shadowy, and it was very cold, colder even than it had been outside amid the thin traffic of a war-time London. 

The two who were alive in that grim little group which writhed and breathed so hard in the gloom were both elderly people.  They were an unexpected couple in any situation; the man was a large blank-faced Cockney without any pretensions and the woman was out of place beside him, her delicate aristocratic grace accentuating both his clumsiness and the horror of her present task.

All they had in common was the job in hand and a sense of nightmare, and as they plodded upwards with the dead weight between them their feet trod the carpeted stairs without feeling them and they strained their muscles without noticing the strain.

Mr. Lugg, who was in his disreputable Civil Defence uniform, reflected that he had to hand it to the old girl even if she was a marchioness, she was showing very game.

'One more flight,' he muttered.

'Hush,' said Lady Carados, adding breathlessly: 'oh, can't we keep her feet off the ground?'

Discount Code for High-resolution Music Downloads from HDtracks.com

The nice people at Crutchfield.com sent a 15% off discount code for high-resolution music file downloads from the HDtracks.com music download website.  The code is CRUTCHFIELDHD15
and it is good until 9/29/14.  Be sure to click "Apply Discount Code" before checkout.

I've never purchased anything from HDtracks but Crutchfield supplied most of the audio and video equipment in my home.  Of course Crutchfield is most famous for their top-notch car audio equipment and superb installation instructions.

Alice in Wonderland music video from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Tom Petty has a new hit album out.  To celebrate, here's the classic music video from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with the Alice in Wonderland theme: Don't Come Around Here No More.

Beauty Out of Grief

Sommer Marsden’s husband is sick. Very, very, sick. She’s a writer, so she’s coping with it
by writing a serial on her blog. The story is free and well worth reading.

If you want to help Sommer, then buy the erotic fiction anthology that is a fundraiser for
her family. I did and it’s well worth the money.

Free erotic story - Practicing Lovecraft by Robert Buckley

Here is another classic free erotic story that we wish we'd written.

Practicing Lovecraft by ERWA author Robert Buckley

Tree of 40 Fruit

Artist Sam Van Aken got carried away with fruit-tree grafting.  It was the sort of mad-scientist experiment which normally ends in disaster.  The result, however, is beautiful art.  Check out the "Tree of Forty Fruit" picture of the tree in bloom.

How to be Popular

A reader asked, "How do you get people to read the blog?"

Well, the best way to get people to read an ordinary website is to provide content which is interesting and/or useful.  I believe the same is true for blogs.  Sommer Marsden primarily uses recipes and book excerpts.  Alison Tyler concentrates on writing contests and book excerpts.

The trick is to get a critical mass of people to find you.  Most recent calls for story submissions also request a short author bio, which can include a link to your writer's blog.

Writers who know each other link to each other's blogs, and also guest-post on each other's blogs. 

Some websites, such as Clean Sheets and ERWA, don't pay money for stories, but if they use a story that you sent them then they will post links to your blog or website.

My experience with my non-blog personal website is that it takes about a year to really get the ball rolling. By "get the ball rolling" I mean attracting 5000 unique vistors per month.

Music Review: Aoife O'Donovan "Fossils" album

Aoife O'Donovan's debut solo album "Fossils" is great music that will make you happy. 

She writes modern folk songs which are very much in the spirit of traditional English folk songs from centuries ago.  The songs include the traditional topics of love, death, and loneliness, but the songs as delivered are never depressing and often downright cheerful. 

Her voice is clear and beautiful.  Although many modern singers go into histrionics, Aoife just sings, comfortably within her range.  The word to sum her up is "smooth."  (She reminds me a bit of singer Janet Pressley from Cincinnati, who I also highly recommend.  See www.bluejordan.com for Janet Pressley.)

The arrangements are never cluttered.  The musicians are first-rate. The recording is clear; it isn't over-produced or mixed too loud.

Aoife comes out of the bluegrass world, but this album has more in common with Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album than with any bluegrass album.  You'll like this music even if you hate bluegrass.

If you like Sade, Joni Mitchell, or Judy Collins, you'll probably like this album. 

Highly recommended. 

You can listen to MP3 previews on Amazon.  You'll find the album if you search for "aoife".  I bought the album on CD, instead of MP3,to get the extra sound quality.  The CD sounds much much better on a good stereo system than the MP3 does on computer speakers or cheap headphones. 

As a bonus, the CD's front cover is an amusing picture of the lovely Aoife O'Donovan herself.  As one Amazon reviewer put it, "Could they possibly have made her look any goofier?"

Vimeo has Aoife's video for her song "Red & White & Blue & Gold."

Twenty sizzling summer sex stories for 99 cents!

The charity ebook to benefit Sommer Marsden's family has finally been released! (Her husband is fighting a serious illness.)  "Summer Loving" includes twenty hot erotic stories with a summer theme for the low low price of 99 cents.  I've only read the first three stories so far and I've already gotten my money's worth. 

The twenty stories are the best of the hundreds of stories submitted by generous writers. You'll recognize the authors and love the stories.  

This project was organized by the great Alison Tyler so you're guaranteed high-quality smut.

Go to All Romance Ebooks to download "Summer Loving."

EDIT: As of August 2014, the price had increased from $.99 to $2.99.  It's still worth the money.

Another great writer's blog

Another example of a great writer's blog is

Sommer Marsden's blog

Writer Beware

The Writer Beware blog exposes the shady characters who try to cheat authors.

Music Video - Renaissance - BBC Sight and Sound concert from 1977

The band Renaissance performed a beautiful mixture of rock and classical-inspired music featuring Annie Haslam's lovely voice.  Here's their BBC Sight and Sound concert from 1977 on Youtube.

Where do you get those crazy ideas for stories?

 Actual headlines from the September 4, 2013 issue of an Ohio newspaper:

Shots fired when woman attacked with ironing board

Chain-reaction with police cars becomes drug bust

Lebron James to produce his own sitcom

Put on your kilt for Irish Fest this weekend.

Live video from the International Space Station

Live streaming video from the International Space Station shows the interior of the space station while the astronauts are working and views of the Earth while the astronauts are off-duty.

Good Example of a Writer's Blog - Alison Tyler

If you're a writer who wants to setup a blog, and you wonder what the perfect writer's blog looks like, go see Alison Tyler's Blog.  I'm not crazy about her blog's color scheme but everything else is perfect. 

Great music video - The Kinks "Do It Again"

You'll want to watch this music video twice to see how they did it! 

The Kinks "Do It Again"

Downloading videos

You can use the free ATUBE video downloader software to download videos from most video-sharing sites including Youtube.  ATUBE will not work on copy-protected videos.

When you install ATUBE, be sure to say no to all of the included offers for search engines, toolbars, driver tools, etc.  You don't need any of that junk. 

Some modern "Smart" TV sets have a USB slot and can play downloaded MP4 format video that is stored on a USB memory stick.  However, ATUBE downloads files in WMV format by default.  You can manually choose to download MP4 instead.  Or you can convert downloaded WMV files to MP4 files using the file converter built into ATUBE.

http://www.atube.me/video/

Resources for Writers

The single most important resource for erotica writers is Morgan Hawke's Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Sex Scenes.  She doesn't call it an idiot's guide, but that's what it is.  We recently started using Morgan's framework in most of our own stories.  Sex scenes constructed this way are hotter, easier to write, and also quicker to write.

Need honest feedback on a story before you send it to a publisher?  Want that feedback to come from experienced writers who will enthusiastically help you improve your story?  Desdmona's Fish Tank is our favorite place for story critiques.  Pick a pen name, sign up, and post a story to the free web forum.  Note that the feedback will be as blunt as it is helpful unless you specifically say "please be gentle."  You can post erotic stories to the Tank and non-erotic stories to the Cooler.  Note:  Before posting a story, replace any smart quotes in your story with straight quotes or else the results will be ugly!

The Erotica Readers and Writers Association has an email list for critiques.  However, the mailing list is high volume.  Reading it is like trying to drink from a fire hose.  If you are willing to invest the necessary time, you can get great critiques from ERWA. The ERWA also has many other resources for erotica authors, including sample stories, a writing blog, tutorials, and especially calls for submissions.  

Many editors require your story to be submitted in "Standard Manuscript Format" which may be abbreviated as SMF.  If editors ask for this format, and you don't follow it, your story will normally be discarded unread.  If they specify a different format, then follow their format instead.  If no format is specified, it is safest to follow SMF.  (It's better to show up for a job interview wearing a suit and tie, even if the interviewer isn't, than to show up without a suit and tie, only to discover the interviewer is wearing his.)  Here are good explanations of Standard Manuscript Format from William Shunn - modern SMF for short stories and Daily Writing Tips - SMF is evolving and Mary Soon Lee - traditional SMF

The Best in Erotica Authors - Baton Blog Hop

Thanks to Spencer Dryden, writer of the suspenseful romance novella Bliss, for inviting David to this blog hop.

Spencer asked four questions.  Here are David's answers:

1.  What am I working on?

Just a bunch of typical erotic short stories: An author with a fear of depths, not heights, takes a terrifying ride with the kinky lady who operates a glass elevator; On her first night in England, a kind-hearted American woman meets a charming Englishman whose incredible tale of woe complements his offer of "Free Willy," and he isn't talking about the movie; Two of a stripper's admiring fans claim to be God and Jesus, respectively, before she receives a Heaven-sent marriage proposal.  Like I said, just typical stories.  Well, they're typical for me, anyway.

2.  How does my work differ from others of its genre?

It reflects my strange sense of humor.  My characters work themselves into the most ridiculous situations without any apparent effort. 

3.  Why do I write what I do?

To find out what happens.  I'm a confirmed "seat-of-the-pants" style writer.  The characters talk to me and I write down what they say.  They only talk as long as I write.  If I didn't write, I'd never find out how the stories end.

4.  How does my writing process work?

Well, mostly either a scene or a character pops into my head.  If it's a scene, I try to reverse-engineer what happened to create the scene, and then guess what will follow the scene.  If it's a character, then I just write down what the character tells me.  Very few of my stories happen in the traditional way, where the author gets an idea and then methodically expands it into a story.  My brain doesn't work that way.

Favorite music video - Meryn Cadell's "The Sweater"

Here's one of our favorite music videos.  Meryn Cadell's humorous song "The Sweater" is performed as an interpretive dance by a brilliant group of dancers!  Be sure to use Youtube's Full Screen button on this video.

Guest post and free excerpt from romantic suspense novella "Bliss" by Spencer Dryden

Bliss is available now from Breathless Press. 

  

Hello all. My name is Spencer Dryden.

My novella "Bliss" is a dark story of a woman's struggle with sexual shame. My main character, Christina McArdle, is experiencing an enviable amount of career and social success. However, inwardly she's very troubled. Her husband, Ben, has lost sexual interest in her. She doesn't have the tools to deal with her fears, so she goes to a shrink, where dark secrets from her past are revealed.

The interesting question I was asked for this blog post is "Why did I write this story?" The simple answer is: I thought I could. I have great reservations about writing from a female POV, but I had some insight into Christina's character. Once upon a time, a long time ago (the late '70's), I coached a women's basketball team. As I got to know the young women better, I was surprised to discover how many of them had been assaulted or raped as tweens.  The incidents were dismissed and memories packed away. Society laid the blame on them. Now as adults, it came back as trust and intimacy problems for them as they began exploring serious relationships. Christina McArdle has a similar character arc.

Instead of a 100,000 word novel of agonizing self-discovery, I threw an additional hurdle in front of her—a misogynous pastor on a sexual purity kick among the men of the church where Christina and her husband Ben attend. Sinister elements emerge. Christina must cast out demons of past and present or lose the love of her life. You'll have to read the rest.

This leads directly to the second question I was asked: "Were there any important lessons you learned along the path to publishing?" In a word, yes.

The first is: follow the muse. "Bliss" was outside of my normal writing focus, but I had a strong sense of the story, a believable character arc and a good conclusion. I got stuck several times for long periods but kept whacking away. It ends up being first in line of my work. Go figure. If it's in your heart, get it on paper.

Second is, properly categorizing the story when doing a submission. I had started out with the notion of writing an erotic romance. Feedback from crit partners and comments from serial publishing on a private list server, ERWA, told me the story was resonating with women. Off I went to find a home without much thought.  Two erotic publishers rejected the story. It took a couple of rejections to realize I had written something else. The central theme of the story is about sex, but it is not erotica. There is a central love story, but it's not the stuff of  romance novels.  A crit partner suggested that the plot was closer to mainstream than to erotica or romance. I went on a search for a publisher with that in mind. To my good fortune, Breathless Press has a line called Covert, which is romantic suspense. Bingo. It was a mere four weeks from submission to contract.

Third is the advantage of working with an established publisher. My editor, Haleigh Rucinski, was marvelous. Her sharp eye and gentle manor made for a much better story. Despite numerous edits and crits prior to submission, the red ink flowed like a river. A good editor does more than blot out the stains on the fabric of the English language. She was invaluable in helping me fill the potholes of continuity, eliminate head hopping and sudden shifts from third person to omniscient.

I got great cover art from Virginia Miller and now I'm treated to savvy marketing by a bevy of professionals. For all the allure of indie publishing, I know at this stage of my career I could not have pulled all these elements together.

Thanks so much for your attention. If you'd like to reach me, you can find me through my website: http://www.fictionbyspencer.com/ 

I am on twitter  @SpencerDryden and on Goodreads, Google+ and Facebook under Spencer Dryden. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpt from Bliss

Dr. Rachel Morissey touched Christina's arm gently and handed her another Kleenex.

"Mrs. Mc Ardle, I'm a sex therapist and not a family doctor. I find that I need to speak about sex bluntly in order to get through people's resistance." She searched Christina's eyes to see if she was tracking. It had been a hard first session, Taking the first steps in breaking down resistance, confronting demons, bringing up painful personal memories always brought tears.

"Sexuality is a hard discussion topic for couples. I don't mean to diminish your pain, but so far it's like so many others. When you're young, sex may be clumsy, but quantity is a quality all its own. So is time. Now you're thirty-five, a working professional mother of young twins, with an at-home husband. You're both living in a different world from your parents, and there are a lot of demands on your time that sap sexual energy. In this phase of life, you have to be much more intentional about sex." Dr. Morissey paused again, waiting for Christina to process. "Lying in bed in the dark, waiting for your husband to initiate sex, isn't a good strategy for fostering intimacy."

Christina wiped away another nagging tear.

"But there's something else I need to explore," said Dr. Morissey. "I am wondering if you were ever raped or sexually abused?"

"Why? Is that important?" asked Christina.

"Very. It often creates problems with intimacy years later. You seem almost fearful of sex."

Christina hung her head. "I was nearly raped once," she whispered.

"So you were assaulted."

"I guess."

"Mrs. McArdle, I'm sensing a lot of guilt here. Physical contact without your permission is assault. It's another person's crime, not yours. You said nearly raped. What happened?"

Christina shuddered as she recalled the forbidden memory. "We had a boy in our neighborhood that was a bully to the boys and terror to the girls. Nobody would do anything about him. Our parents told us to stay away. But he would hide out and grab girls, rip their clothes off, and grope them. It happened to many of my friends."

"How old were you then?"

"Eighth grade."

"Did he actually do forceful penetration on any of his victims?"

"You sound like the police now."

"It's an important distinction, especially with a minor perpetrator."

"No. He didn't."

"What happened with you?"

"I was taking a shortcut home across the athletic fields one evening. No one was around. He jumped out from between the outbuildings, threw me down to the ground, and jumped on top of me. I tried to fight, but he had his hand on my throat."

Christina unconsciously reached for her throat and pulled on her necklace.

"Sometimes I can still feel him squeezing my throat," she said through closed eyes. "I couldn't breathe. I tried to scream but couldn't. He was pressing down on me with his crotch between my legs."

"Were his pants on?"

"Yes, but he was humping me like some kind of animal."

Christina gasped as if she were going to scream. "Finally, he leaned down and put his cheek next to mine. I was hysterical with fear, that's why I did it."

"Did what?"

"I bit off a big chunk of his ear."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bliss

$2.99

ISBN: 978-1-77101-258-4
By Spencer Dryden
Heat Rating: 3
Word Count: 20322
Release Date: April 18, 2014

Christina McArdle must cast out the demons of her past and present or lose the love of her life.

In the prosperous community of Bliss, New Hampshire, in 1995, Christina McArdle is living a feminist dream. In short order she has become the first female partner of the venerable, male dominated CPA firm of Driscol, Ryan, Jensen and Palmer. The honor was followed by her selection as the first female member of the prestigious Maplewood Country Club.

But Christina fears that her career success has come at a terrible price. Her husband, Ben, has lost sexual interest in her. Unable to ignite his passion for her and desperate for understanding of her own inhibitions, Christina turns to Dr. Rachel Morrisey, a sex therapist, who helps her uncover dark secrets from her past. Christina's path to recovery is blocked by a misogynistic pastor who traps her and many other women of her church in a shame bind that serves his perverted interests.

Her path to freedom requires Christina to break bonds from past and present or lose the thing she loves most in life—the love of husband and family.
 

Free Funny Erotic Story "The Dude"

Perhaps for a limited time, Spencer Dryden's hilarious erotic story "The Dude"
is available on the Erotica Readers and Writer's website.

Free erotic stories from Uther Pendragon

If you like erotic fiction where the emphasis is on the characters and their emotions, then you'll like Uther Pendragon's free erotic stories.

Review of Sandisk Sansa Clip+ 8GB MP3 music player

Santa delivered a Sandisk Sansa Clip+ 8GB MP3 music player from Amazon.  (The Clip+ will also play audio books and podcasts.)

Note that the Clip+ is not the same as the Clip or the Clip Zip.  Also note that the Clip+ gets much better reviews on Amazon than Sandisk's more expensive MP3 players.

I (David) like the Clip+.  The sound is good, although I can occasionally hear the audio compression artifacts inherent in the lossy MP3 compression standard.  It's easy to operate, cheap ($55 for the 8GB size at Amazon), and small.  Cheaper than an iPod and much easier to use, judging by the struggles a friend has with her iPod.

The Clip+ comes with a quick start guide, in-ear earbud headphones, a mini CD with Rhapsody music service software, and a USB A to mini-B cable.  The headphones sound pretty good, actually.  You use the USB cable to charge the Clip+ from a computer's USB port and to copy MP3 music files from a computer to the Clip+. 

The Clip+ comes from the factory designed to interface with Windows Media Player.  However, if you set the Clip+ "USB Settings" option to MSC then your computer thinks the Clip+ is just a USB memory stick and you simply copy and paste MP3 files into the Clip+'s memory.  The Clip+ defaults to MSC mode if you plug it into a Mac or if your Windows computer doesn't have a recent version of Windows Media Player installed.

You don't need to install or use the Rhapsody software.  MP3 files downloaded from Amazon work just fine.  So do MP3 or FLAC files you rip from your existing CD yourself using the "Exact Audio Copy" software from http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

Clip+ battery life is rated at 15 hours between charges.

The included quick start guide isn't much help but you can download a complete user manual from the Sandisk website at
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4303/

The Clip+ does not include a car charger or spare USB A to mini-B cable.  Both are available from the Sandisk store
http://shop.sandisk.com/
under Accessories and Readers > Sansa Accessories.
The car charger is hidden on the second page of results.  Supposedly the Sansa players are fussy about which car chargers they will work with.  The same page has a cable kit for plugging your Sansa player into a home stereo or a car radio.  (Provided your home stereo has RCA input jacks and your car radio has a 1/8 inch (3.5mm) input jack.)

You can expand music storage by inserting a micro-SDHC camera memory card.  These memory cards are available from Walmart, Amazon, etc.  I used a Sandisk Ultra microSDHC "Ultra" 32GB memory card from Walmart and it works great.  If you are in MSC mode then the added storage shows up as a second USB memory stick on your computer.  However, the Clip+ indexes all the music seamlessly.

If you're thinking about an MP3 player then buy the Clip+.  Highly recommended.

Two Favorite Classic Erotic Stories

We wish we'd written these classic erotic stories.  

In Our Tenth Year On The Yellow Brick Road by Jordan Shelbourne

Fibonacci's Window by BlackShanglan

Laura's Toes

Mat Twassel’s book “Laura’s Toes” contains more than a hundred pages of good erotic fiction.  The description and reviews of the book on the Lulu.com website are a bit misleading. Not all of the stories are flash fiction. Lengths range from flash to short stories.  The stories are entertaining and also good examples for aspiring writers. Mat’s writing approach ranges from realistic and touching to the sort of inspired silliness made famous by Jeremy Edwards.

About a third of the way through the book I told myself, “Yep, I got my money’s worth already.” My favorite story, however, was “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton” which appears late in the book. I could see that story vividly in my head.

Highly recommended.

Mat's website contains free samples of his writing but of course he saved his best stories for the book.

The buying link to the paperback version is near the bottom of Mat’s website and here is a direct link to the $3.75 ebook version.


- David Strykker

Welcome to the Official Blog for Authors David Strykker and Davinci Strykker

Welcome!  This blog will feature the erotic fiction of writing partners David Strykker
and Davinci Strykker, plus resources for aspiring writers, book reviews, and even
technology reviews.

About Us

David Strykker writes erotic stories with happy endings, from the male point of view. 
His primary literary influences are the contemporary erotica author Jeremy Edwards and the legendary mystery author Dorothy Sayers. 

Davinci Strykker writes erotic fiction from the female point of view.  Her stories feature passionate
surprises and a sharp edge. Supernatural elements sometimes creep in.

In real life, David and Davinci work in the computer industry, while they wait for their
writing genius to be recognized and publishers to shower them with gold.  They can often
be found at the Desdmona's Fish Tank writers forum, and sometimes post to the Erotica
Readers and Writers Association mailing lists.