By
Dale Cameron Lowry (Guest Blogger)
My
new
paranormal
erotica
anthology
Myths,
Moons,
and
Mayhem
was
conceived
over
a
Facebook
chat
I
had
with
Sexy
Little
Pages
publisher
Anna
Sky
last
winter.
She
thought
it
would
be
fun
to
release
a
Halloween
anthology
of
gay
ménage
erotica
with
that
title,
and
ever
the
sucker
for
a
good
pun
,
I
naturally
agreed.
(The
book’s
initials
and
the
abbreviation
for
gay
ménage
are
both
MMM.)
And
then—silly me!—I said, “I’ll edit it.”
That
was the
beginning
of spending
a lot
of quality
weekends in
the office
together
with my
cat. I
read
through
dozens of
incredible
stories,
made tough
choices
about what
to include,
and then
annoyed my
authors
with
repeated
rounds of
revisions
and
punctuation
checks.
It
was also
the genesis
of my
own story
for the
anthology,
“The
Cave.”
I’d
written
paranormal
fiction
before, of
course—ghosts,
vampires,
fairies,
were-raccoons—but
for this,
I had
to come
up with
something
completely
different.
I didn’t
want to
play with
any of
the popular
paranormal
character
types like
vampires or
werewolves,
because I
knew I’d
be getting
plenty of
those in
the
submissions,
and the
final
anthology
needed to
have a
good
balance of
the
familiar
and the
completely
unexpected.
So
I wrote
a story
in a
setting I’d
never seen
before in
paranormal
fiction—a
paleontological
excavation
in western
Madagascar—where
the
predominant
attitude
toward the
paranormal
isn’t
one of
awe or
wonder.
In
“The
Cave,” my
contribution
to Myths,
Moons,
and
Mayhem,
magic
is widely
recognized
as real,
but most
people view
it as
ho-hum and
passé, to
such an
extreme
degree they
forget to
use it
when all
else fails.
Nature
photographer
and
perpetual
singleton
Ethan is
accompanying
a group
of
scientists
on
fieldwork
when some
team
members
fall into
a rock
fissure.
The team
tries all
the usual,
real-world
rescue
methods to
no avail.
Only after
several
hours does
Ethan
realize his
magical
skills—which
he’s
always had
but, like
most
people,
never done
much
with—might
come in
handy.
The
event
launches a
complicated
erotic
dance
between
Ethan,
Mendrika
(one of
the
rescuees—Mendrika
is a
common
man’s
name in
Malagasy),
and Joseph
(Mendrika’s
French
husband),
as well
as a
deeper
exploration
of all
three men’s
magic.
Of
course, working with the other stories in the anthology has been just
as magical for me. They have deepened my passion for both the fantasy
and ménage
subgenres,
which both stretch our imaginations beyond preconceived limits.
There’s
a moment in Rebecca Buchanan’s “The Secret of the Golden Cup,”
the second story in Myths, Moons, and
Mayhem, when the lead character whispers in sudden
realization, “Magic is real. Magic is
real.” That’s how I feel about the stories in this
collection: they create worlds that let me, as a reader, experience a
whole new universe of possibilities.
Reading
truly is magic.
In
a world where so many of us are loudly and frequently told that we’re
lesser people, I need those kinds of stories. I need those reminders
that the world is bigger than what I see in front of me. I need to
know that love, happiness, and magic is out there for everyone to
find—including you and me.
Giveaway
To
celebrate
the
release
of
the
paranormal
gay
ménage
anthology
Myths,
Moons
&
Mayhem,
Dale
Cameron
Lowry
is
giving
away
a
bunch
of
paranormal
and
ménage
ebooks
for
your
reading
pleasure.
Prizes
include:
Chance & Possibility: Seven Fantastical Tales of Gay Desire, an eclectic selection of Dale’s previously published paranormal, fantasy, and sci-fi stories. Chance & Possibility isn’t available to buy anywhere.Pacific Rimming, a contemporary novelette about a middle-aged gay married couple who fall in love with a younger man while vacationing on Canada’s Vancouver IslandLove Unmasked, the story of a gay man who’s unlucky in love because, once in a blue moon, he turns into a raccoon.
Where to buy Myths, Moons, and Mayhem
Amazon
Paperback
link
(this will get you to the paperback at your country’s Amazon store):
http://getBook.at/mmm
(this will get you to the paperback at your country’s Amazon store):
http://getBook.at/mmm
About
Myths, Moons, and Mayhem
Myths,
moons, and mayhem make the perfect threesome—and so do the men in
this anthology.
Enjoy
nine erotic
stories of
paranormal
ménages
a
trois
fueled by
lust and
magic, where
mystical
forces
collide
with
the
everyday
world
and
even
monsters
have
their
own
demons
to
conquer.
A
werewolf gets a lust-fueled lesson on fitting in with the pack, a
professor unlocks ancient secrets and two men’s hearts, and a pair
of supernaturals find themselves at the erotic mercy of a remarkable
human. Ghosts, fairies, aliens, and mere mortals test the boundaries
of their desires, creating magic of their own.
Penned by popular authors such as Rob Rosen and Clare London, as well as by newcomers to the genre, Myths, Moons & Mayhem is an eclectic mix of paranormal lust and polymythic beings that will spark your fantasies and fuel your bonfires.
About
“The Cave”:
Nature photographer and
perpetual singleton Ethan
is accompanying a group
of paleontologists on a
caving expedition in
Madagascar when Mendrika, a
Malagasy scientist, falls
into a rock fissure.
After using magic to
rescue him, Ethan gets
quite the passionate thank
you from Mendrika and
his husband Joseph.
This
scene takes place just after the rescue, while the team medic is
looking Mendrika over and the rest of the group heads back toward
camp. Mendrika, by the way, is a common man’s name in Malagasy, the
national language of Madagascar. It means “dignified” or
“deserving.” His husband, Joseph, is French.
Joseph
was so unlike his usual self on the way back to camp, gregarious and
expansive, thanking each of the rescuers with a kiss on the cheek.
“I’m
sorry I was short with you,” Joseph said when it was my turn. His
English accent was usually pretty clean, as he’d spent some
undergraduate semesters in the United States. But now, due to the
stress of the day or his newfound ebullience, he was slipping into
something more lyrical.
“Don’t
worry about it. We were all a little freaked out.”
“No,
no,” he said, though his accent was so thick now it might as well
have been Non, non. “I was rude. Forgive me?”
His eyes were as wide and doleful as a white-browed owl’s.
“Of
course. I’m sure if my husband was stuck in a cave, my behavior
would have been much worse.”
Joseph’s
eyes turned into a chameleon’s. They bugged out of his head. “You
have a husband?”
“I
was speaking hypothetically. I’ve never been married.”
“Oh!
But you are… homosexual?” He pronounced it all French-like,
dropping the “h” and rounding his lips into such a tight ring
around the “u” of “sexual” that the sound verged on a
whistle. I’ve never liked that word—too clinical—but in
Joseph’s mouth, it became a symphony in five syllables.
“Bisexual,
actually.”
“Bee-sex-soo-elle?
I had no idea.” Joseph squeezed my hand. “I suppose being with
the same man for nine years has killed my… gaydar? That is what you
Americans call it, yes?”
I
chuckled. “Yup.”
“Well,
thank you, my friend.” Joseph leaned in to kiss me. I could smell
the dirt on him, the sweat and strain, but also the sweet, evocative
scent of his skin. His lips were soft against the sharp, itchy
stubble I’d let grow over the past few days.
Since
we weren’t in France, I was under no obligation to echo his silly
French customs. But what would it hurt to humor him this once? As he
withdrew I moved toward him, returning the peck on his opposite
cheek. His face was rough from five o'clock shadow and dirt. I closed
my eyes and tried to memorize that texture. I took a second whiff in
hopes of memorizing his scent.
About
Dale Cameron Lowry
Dale
Cameron
Lowry had
a jagged
forehead
scar before
Harry
Potter made
it cool.
When not
busy
fighting
evil, Dale
writes and
edits queer
romance and
speculative
fiction.
Come to
think of
it, maybe
those are
ways of
fighting
evil too.
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/DaleCLowry
2 comments:
The book sounds great, Dale. Is this your first editing gig?
It's both rewarding and frustrating, isn't it?
Anyway, I hope it does really well!
It's not my first editing gig—my professional background is in journalism and I've done lots of freelance fiction editing—but it's my first fiction editing gig with my name on the cover!
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