Where No Man Has Gone Before

I’m rounding out the week with an excerpt from another recent Coming Together release, Coming Together Outside the Box. This volume, edited by speculative erotica author and podcast publisher Nobilis Reed, benefits the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for this vicious and unrelenting cancer.

The theme for this anthology is “pioneers”. The contributors have interpreted this in a variety of ways. My own story, written expressly for this collection, is a humorous tale of a shy young man who finally dares to cross-dress at a Star Trek convention.

Leave a comment with your email and you could win a copy of my speculative erotica story The Antidote. And remember, there’s a grand prize of $40 up for grabs. The more blog posts where you leave comments, the more likely you are to win! Plus every participant has a special prize for you at his or her blog.

You’ll find a bit from “To Boldly Go” below. Links to all the hop posts follow.

Thanks for participating in the Thanks-Giving Back blog hop, by the way. I hope you enjoyed it. (I hope you bought some of our altruistic erotica books, too! They make great holiday presents!) We’ll announce the grand prize winner next week.

“You’ve got to be kidding! No way am I going to EnterCon in drag!”

My best friend Lorelei bats her mascara-laden lashes. “You know you want to....”

“Yeah, well, I want to get up close and personal with Benedict Cumberbatch, too. It’s not going to happen!”

Lo assumes a well-practiced pout. “But you’d make such a great Uhura. Come on! You’ve done it before.”

“Sure, I’ve dressed up in some of your less slutty outfits and gone clubbing with you. But this is different. Despite George Takei, Trek cons aren’t exactly gay friendly. Remember last year, in Tulsa? The crowd almost killed that Kirk and Spock when they found the two in a slash scene.”

“That was God forsaken Oklahoma, Jeremy! Nothing like that’s going to happen in San Jose!” She flashes me a deceptively innocent smile. “Anyway, by the time I’m done with you, it’ll be impossible to tell you’re not a girl.”

A little thrill sings through me at that – Lo knows me all too well. It’s not that I want to be a woman. I mean, I’d never go under the knife. I’m very happy with my dick, thank you very much. But I love the way I feel in female clothing – pretty, flirtatious, desirable, far bolder than the meek, nerdy web developer I am in the real world. Just imagining myself as the tall, dignified, curvy starship lieutenant has me half hard. It would be pretty tough to hide my excitement if I were to actually go along with Lorelei’s scheme.

Yeah, I know most drag queens hide their junk between their legs, but that’s just too uncomfortable for me. I don’t plan to enter a bikini contest or anything. A pair of elasticized control panties keeps my bulge fairly discreet.

“I’ve got a red velour shift that will be perfect. It flares at the hips and will be plenty long enough to cover your crotch.”

“Lorelei, you’re impossible!” My blush probably doesn’t show under my dark skin, but hot embarrassment makes me squirm. Lorelei shoots a pointed glance at the obvious swelling in my jeans.

Blog Hop Links

Sunday 22 November

http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2015/11/sunday-snog-for-good-mm-201.html

http://leighwantsfood.blogspot.com/2015/11/coming-together-giving-back-hop.html

Monday 23 November

http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2015/11/giving-it-away.html

http://delilahnight.com/2015/11/23/giving-back-blog-hop/

http://paidbytheweird.blogspot.com/2015/11/coming-together-thanksgiving-giving-back.html

http://wp.me/p1EqZm-Vt 

Tuesday 24 November

http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2015/11/funny-brutal-tender.html

Wednesday 25 November

http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2015/11/erotic-visions-for-brave.html

Thursday 26 November

http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2015/11/bloody-good-erotica.html

http://annabetherotica.com/

Friday 27 November

http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2015/11/release-day-for-another-coming-together.html

Saturday 28 November

http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2015/11/where-no-man-has-gone-before.html

Free Audio Story - Green Cheese

Greetings! 

If you like to hear your erotic romance tales read out loud, check out Nobilis Reed's podcast site. He's featuring my steampunk story Green Cheese. To listen to it, go to the link below. You'll need Flash-enabled web browser.

http://nobilis.libsyn.com/episode-320-green-cheese-by-lisabet-sarai

Nobilis has the longest-running erotic podcast in history. Now he's trying to get some funding to pay authors and voice artists. If you'd like to support his work, you can donate here: 

http://www.patreon.com/nobilis

Even the smallest amount of support is very welcome.

Thanks!

Current Events

By Nobilis Reed (Guest Blogger)

Whenever I see something exciting or intriguing or infuriating come up in the news, my first instinct is to write a story about it. It's a perfect example of the principle, "When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a Loki."

I resist that temptation. By the time a story is published, even on the short turnaround of self-publishing (because I don't publish stuff that hasn't been edited) the individual news item will be somewhat stale. On the other hand, as a writer of speculative fiction, I feel it's important to comment on how human society is changing. Some folks argue that that is what science fiction, at its core, is about. But these two impulses are not incompatible.

What I've learned to do is this: I take a broader view, and look at the trends implied by the events. What would the world look like with broader corporate power, and governments that are generally unable to restrict them? What would the world look like with androids that appeared nearly identical to humans? How would society adapt to the ability to finely control how our brains work?

Those questions will continue to be important. Things will continue to come up in the news on those themes, and they will continue to provoke questions. That means that stories about those themes will continue to be relevant, at least for as long as it takes to get a story out there for people to read.

At this point, you might ask, "But Nobilis, you write erotica. Erotica is for escapism. People don't want to be thinking about profound issues of world-shaking import when they're getting their rocks off." My answer is: Screw that. I think that erotica is a perfect place to talk about society. Sex is one of the most personal, most intimate aspects of a person's relationship, and when events in the world intrude that far into a person's life that it affects their sexual relationships, it's an important event indeed.

Now that's not to say that every story I write has deep sociological meaning. I write plenty of fluff alongside more serious work. But I see no reason not to talk about things that are important to me, just because I write erotica.

What do you think? Do you like to think about what sexual relationships might be like in other circumstances than the here and now? Comment here and in one week (July 16, 2014) I'll pick one commenter at random for a free copy of "Metharmea's Journey," an exploration of fluid sexuality in a context of radical, bizarre body modification.

Incursion at Gene Bunker Four by Nobilis Reed

Three women guard one of the world's most precious resources--a man. He is one of only a few that remain after the mysterious gender plague turned the vast majority of humanity.  Females Sasha, Andie and Lena are about to discover the purpose of the gender plague, and will feel all of the terror--and the ecstasy--that those responsible can bring.

Matharea's Journey by Nobilis Reed

She journeyed deep into the underground world of her own time and found it Hell, Heaven, and Purgatory - all in one! A mesmerizing science fiction novel of tomorrow's disturbing possibilities that are already emerging today.

Metharmea discovers a secret world where the human body can be transformed. Will she chose to change? And how? And what price is she willing to pay?

The human form is a work of art. Over the centuries it's been depicted on canvas, in stone, and using all mediums. The body itself has been decorated and embellished yet the basic anatomy has remained the same. But what if it's no longer fantasy? Or not just artwork any more? When science is able to transform human flesh into these fantasy bodies, who will undergo the transformation and at what price?

An erotic science fiction novel that pushes the boundaries of modern fiction.

About Nobilis

A few years ago NOBILIS REED decided to start sharing the naughty little stories he scribbled out in hidden notebooks. To his surprise, people actually liked them! Now, he can’t stop. The poor man is addicted. His wife, teenage children, and even the cats just look on this wretch of a man, hunched over his computer and shake their heads. Clearly, there is no hope for him. The best that can be hoped for is to just make him as comfortable as his condition will allow. Symptoms of his condition include a novel, several novellas, and numerous short stories, and the longest-running erotica podcast in the history of the world.

Review: Coming Together In Flux

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Coming Together: In Flux

Edited by Nobilis Reed

Coming Together, 2011

Most of the anthologies I review have fairly concrete themes. During the past year, I've tackled collections on the topics of lesbian lust, dysfunctional romance, one night stands, female submission, and gay sex in the afternoon. Indeed, one sees calls these days for stories focused on particular sexual events: anal sex, oral sex, orgasms, spanking. Books like these target specific audiences who want to know exactly what they can expect from the stories inside.

When I picked up ComingTogether: In Flux, a charity anthology on the slippery topic of “transformation”, I had little idea what I would find within. Having finished the book, I find myself astonished by the myriad creative ways the authors of these tales have interpreted the theme. About the only things these stories have in common are originality and exceptional craft.

The book begins with Angela Caperton's “Lawman”. An aging, retired member of an elite cadre of morality police enjoys the first blow job of his life as he tries to let go of the craving for the chemicals that made him a superman, but denied him desire. Even with a stranger, the experience of unfettered sex changes everything.

“Final Note” by Shanna Germain comes next – a wrenchingly honest portrayal of a woman whose long-time partner lies dying.

===

“Clara, Clara, Clara.”

My name slips from her lips, caw-cawed as though she is a dying creature on a sidewalk and not a full- grown woman. Not an adult, not a lover, not the former fabulous Raven Freemont. Just a fragile thing, wings crushed, beak croaking out the only word it can still remember. I need to end it.

===

The darkness of this tale is relieved by startling passion, as Clara burrows into the body of another woman to soothe the pain she can scarcely admit.

After this difficult story, editor Nobilis Reed transforms the mood completely in “Actual Size”, a bawdy tale featuring hypnotism, ménage and self-expanding breasts. He takes the anthology theme more literally than many of the other contributors, balancing philosophy with raunchy physicality. His other story later in the volume, “Explosion”, features psychological transformation, as the fallout from a mysterious blast turns women into insatiable, demanding dominants.

In Xan West's “Ready”, an uncertain young man trusts his rough but loving Daddy to take him where he needs to go. I'd read this story before and loved it. I found it every bit as intense and poignant upon rereading.

Ann Regentin's “Meltdown” is more an essay than a story. In luminous prose, she draws an extended comparison between the ruined, twisted environs of Chernobyl and her own experience of sexuality mutated by disability. Defying expectations, she paints her life as fundamentally changed but not necessarily diminished.

===

I, too, have stabilized, and I think I seem asexual to most people, just as Chernobyl seems quiet under its concrete lid. Who would imagine a disabled woman otherwise?

But in solitude, I have gone feral, able to give in to every desire, and fiercely defensive of my territory. Female sexuality is a powerful force, one that most cultures put enormous time and effort into controlling, and mine is now unchecked. It can go anywhere it wants, burning through what was supposed to contain it, consuming everything manmade and transforming into something no one has ever seen before, including me.

===

Several of the stories feature science fiction themes. Peter Tupper's “Upgrade” envisions an increasingly depopulated world as humans elect to “upgrade” their consciousness, transferring their memories and cognitive processes to a sort of group mind. Two late adopters – strangers - come together for a last, wistful coupling before relinquishing their physical bodies and their separateness.

“Feast of the Incarnations” by Gayle Straun is a wildly imaginative political fable of corrupting power and liberating sexuality, where the ruling class do nightly backups of their consciousness so that they can be reincarnated in the event of their assassination.

The book includes several stories about shape shifting: ancient vampires in Skylar Sinclair's “Love Everlasting”, werewolves in Mildred Cady's “Three Moons”, finned and scaled mer-creatures in Jhada Addams' “Water Shaman”. Meanwhile, Kissiah Aiken's “Transformative” deals with a real world shape shift, as the narrator crosses genders from female to male – and then realizes this is only the first stage in her change.

Possibly the most erotic tale in the mix is the lovely “Unlock My Heart”, by R. Taylor, about a female automaton, created as a servant for humans, seeking her one true mate.

===

She knew her lock by heart, having examined it with mirrors and fingers often. It was set low in her abdomen, decorated with silver filigree that stood out against the deep purple of her ceramic skin. It had a rounded upper opening extending to a long rectangular hole, seven tumblers waiting inside to be depressed by the properly-shaped key. The man gazed at her lock as his key extended with a small grating sound. It seemed to be a match, with its curved top and oblong base, and crenellations that looked as though they would fit into hers. But only the test would tell.

===

The ending of this story took me by surprise – but then, pleasurable surprise was a common experience for me while I was reading this volume.

If you're looking for a whole book full of stories about the specific kinks that push your buttons, you might find Coming Together: In Flux a disappointment. If you're more like me, capable of being aroused by a novel premise or a stunning sentence, buy this book.

All profits from the sale of Coming Together: In Flux benefit the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance.

A Valentine for One Person, and the World

By Nobilis Reed

There’s a truism among authors: “Write to please yourself first.” It works, as far as it goes, but for me, it’s not enough. What I find works best for me, is to have one particular reader in mind, and write to please both of us, aiming for the spot in the Venn diagram intersection between another’s desires and my own. There’s connection there, a link between me and that one specific reader that gives the story a heart right from the first draft.

“Actual Size” was written for a woman who goes by the name of “Cunning Minx” online. She’s a podcaster like me, host of “Polyamory Weekly” and an avowed ‘boobiesexual.’ She has revealed that one of her favorite scenes is to have her face buried in a woman’s bountiful bosom while a strong man gives her a round spanking. I thought the scene was interesting, so I decided to give it some fictional context.

Much of my own interests lie in the worlds of various transformation kinks; that’s why I used transformation as the theme of my Coming Together anthology, “In Flux.” I found the scene that Minx had in mind to be a natural fit for the ‘breast expansion’ subset of the transformation fetish.

‘Breast Expansion’ is one of those little fetishes that has grown (so to speak) in the fertile ground of the Internet age, now that people can share and express their desires without having to worry too much about what outsiders will think. It’s a simple fetish, just what it says on the tin; boobs getting bigger--MUCH bigger. There are a few websites devoted to it, here and there, and on any forum devoted to sexual transformation you’ll likely find discussions of this particular subset. The very first story I ever sold, “The Nefarious Plot of Professor Bolster,” was published at a website devoted to breast expansion. It’s not my only kink by a long stretch, but it’s one I like to return to once in a while.

When the story was done, and my beta readers and I had fine-tuned it, I asked Minx to give her voice to the story in my podcast. To my delight she agreed, and found the story much to her liking. To this day I find it one of my listener favorites, and I believe that this connection between myself and this one particular reader to be the foundation of the appeal of the story. Because of this connection I believe it transcends interest in the breast expansion fetish, and becomes something that many people can enjoy.

An excerpt from “Actual Size” from Coming Together: In Flux:

Diane's apartment was in a luxury high-rise in Crystal City, just around the corner from the metro station. When I got to the lobby, Diane was waiting for me, dressed in a floral print sun-dress. She waved me over to the elevators.

"Aren't I supposed to sign in?" I asked, as the doors closed.

"Not this time."

"Why all this secrecy?"

The elevator stopped and a teenage kid with a telescope stepped on. He smiled nervously and turned toward the doors. Diane said nothing. When the doors opened at Diane's floor, she hurried down the hall to her door and let us in. With the door closed and locked behind us, Diane relaxed visibly.

"Is everything okay? Is Drake having you followed?"

Diane crossed the room and pulled the curtains across the floor-to-ceiling windows and their view of the Washington skyline. "No, just wait. You won't believe me until I show you, anyways." Diane looked like she was on a stage, standing on the proscenium. She closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and took a slow, deep breath.

At first, I couldn't tell what was happening. but after a few seconds, it became clear. Diane's chest was swelling. It wasn't just her chest expanding with the air she was pulling in. Her breasts were actually getting bigger. Flesh appeared at the sides of the long triangles that made up the top of her dress. The waist rose as the volume underneath pushed out on the top of the dress. Cleavage occurred.

They surpassed any size I could call 'normal', reaching well into the ranges found only among porn stars. I stepped forward, mesmerized. "How did you do that? Some kind of...inflatable implant?"

"No implants. All natural. All me."

"Can I touch them?"

Diane nodded.

I pressed on them with my fingers, on top, on the sides, underneath. Even a gentle squeeze yielded no clue of artifice. "These are real!"

"I think I need a glass of wine," said Diane, suddenly.

"Sorry." I disengaged and ran my hands over my skirt.

"No, it's okay. I'd probably do the same myself. Actually, I did. Rather a lot, actually."

I couldn't help noticing how Diane's chest bobbed and swayed as she walked over to a wine rack and selected a bottle. Every movement seemed to echo in her massive bosom. Diane came back with two very full goblets, and handed one to me.

"So how is this possible?"

"I don't know...exactly. Drake is a stage magician. He also does hypnosis. We were playing around with it one night, making me think I had really big boobs, and, well, this happened."

"So why all the secrecy?"

"Could you imagine what would happen anyone found out? I'd be locked up in a lab somewhere."

"You're probably right." I took a long drink of the wine, draining nearly half the glass.

"I think it might be magic," said Diane. "My grandmother said one of our ancestors was a swan-maiden. I wonder now if she might have been right."

"Swan-maiden...you mean she could become a swan? Like in Swan Lake?"

"Yes. A kind of a shape-shifter, like a werewolf." Diane looked down at her chest and smirked. "And swans do have rather large chests."

I took another drink of wine. My curiosity was getting the better of me. "So how big can you make them?"

"Pretty big."

I finished the wine and looked Diane in the eye. I spoke softly, too nervous to speak any louder. "Show me?"

Diane plucked at the fabric of her dress. "I won't be able to stay in this."

My heartbeat threatened to deafen me. "I don't mind if you don't." I could feel a flush coming to my face, embarrassment but also arousal.

"What the hell. I've never been able to show anyone. Might as well show off." Diane sat down on the sofa, downed the rest of her wine, and set the glass aside. The knot holding up the top of her sun-dress came open with a moment of fiddling, and the fabric fell down around her waist. Her breasts were full and round, not the way badly-implanted breasts looked, with that unnatural curve across the top, but they didn't droop either. These were impossibly perky without looking fake. She stroked her breasts idly, and smiled at me. "I take it you... like... women?"

"I tried it once, in college. It was nice, but I'm pretty sure I'm straight."

Diane's eyes sparkled as she smiled, running her hands underneath her breasts and lifting them, as if making them an offering. "You don't look straight right now."

I realized that my hands had strayed to my own breasts, and that I could feel dampness growing between my thighs. I longed to bury my face between those orbs of flesh, stroke their soft skin, and lose myself in the cleavage. A tingle ran through my body. I swallowed and tried to smile. "I know vegetarians who say pepperoni is a vegetable."

"Well then, my hungry vegetarian, let's not wait any longer." Diane leaned back, closed her eyes, and cupped her breasts with both hands. Once again, there was a kind of thickening in the air, an electric scent, and the skin under her hands swelled. Her complexion got paler as her breasts slowly grew beyond any size I had ever seen before, beyond anything I had ever even imagined. A minute passed, two, and they became bigger and bigger, until they came down below her ribs, and then her navel, and finally touched her thighs. Diane's pink nipples, which had become easily an inch thick and two inches long, were almost out of the woman's reach, and her skin had turned nearly completely white.

I could hardly breathe. It felt like my heart was beating a hundred times a minute. I knew I wasn't supposed to feel this way. The display was supposed to be absurd, even grotesque, but I was more turned on than I had felt in months.

"Touch me," said Diane. "You want to. I can see it."

-----

The spanking comes a bit later in the story. If you would like to see how that turns out, pick up Coming Together: In Flux from All Romance Ebooks. It includes stories by Shanna Germain and Angela Caperton, among many others. It has superheroes, steampunk androids, transhumanism, werewolves and immortality clones. Even if this particular excerpt doesn’t spin your bottle, the sheer diversity of this anthology should leave you with something that will touch you in a way you never expected.

Bio: A few years ago Nobilis Reed decided to start sharing the naughty little stories he scribbled out in hidden notebooks. To his surprise, people actually liked them! Now, he can’t stop. The poor man is addicted. His wife, teenage children, and even the cats just look on this wretch of a man, hunched over his computer and shake their heads. Clearly, there is no hope for him. The best that can be hoped for is to just make him as comfortable as his condition will allow. Symptoms of his condition include two novels, several novellas, numerous short stories, and the longest-running erotica podcast in the history of the world.