Moonlit Escapades

BLURB

There is never a time when a visit from old friends isn’t comforting.

Ever wonder how Jex and Matt ended up in that compromising position in book 4? Or what the fight between Phil and Craig was about? Or how about how they all became so close and ended up living together?

Well, here’s your chance. All the missing pieces that were linked but not fully explained are bundled together in this heart-warming anthology, and just in time for Christmas, because who doesn’t like to visit from family at this time of year.

Note: series must be read in order, but these shorts can be read separately, they’ll just be enjoyed more as companions.

LINKS

Goodreads   eXtasybooks  Amazon

  ARe  Smashwords  Kobo  Barnes&Noble

Excerpt

Jex let out a sigh of relief as he sat back into the lounge. Matt and he hadn’t been in this house for a long time, but he had definitely felt more at home quicker than at any of the other place his father took him.

However, his dad hadn’t been the kindest person, and they’d moved from one town to the next, leaving many people hating him because of what his father had done. Matt, with a quick kidnapping and a much-needed getaway, brought Jex to this lovely little town out in the boondocks, an unlikely place his father would never bother to look.

They’d reached town and a house full to the brim with men. Matt’s cousin and a bunch of mates had taken them both in and treated Jex like no one had done before Matt.

Jex loved the freedom of being himself, even if they all turned out to be a werewolf every time the moon was full. A lot to take in, but he had seen a lot of violence and bullshit in his life, so the werewolf factor seemed like a cakewalk.

In addition, he’d personally seen Matt change, so who was he to say something didn’t exist?

A cold bottle tapped on his shoulder, making Jex look over his shoulder. He took the bottle.

Taking a long drink of this piss-shit that the bottle label said was beer, he studied Matt. His lover rounded the couch and sat down next to him. Jex wasn’t a fan of Tooheys, he was more a VB man, but beggars couldn’t be choosers—or, more for him, lazy arses deserved to drink horse piss. He was, however, a fan of the man—tall, blonde, with deep-set eyes. He was like a walking wet dream. Someone who needed to be naked and fucking so everyone would see his true beauty.

He was a fucking dream. Jex’s dream. Even if it had taken the guy a couple of turns to realise just how Matt liked it when Jex fucked him and then give him more than he’d ever understood he wanted. Jex reckoned it came from the fact that he hadn’t ever been free to actually fuck another person before Matt.

“Taste like shit?” Matt chuckled next to him.

For the first time in a long time—and yet not a first for the thought—Jex wondered what he saw in a man who actually liked this shit.

“Why ask when you know the answer,” Jex spat back at him around another mouthful of beer. He was hoping if he drank it fast enough and got the buzz of beer in his system, it might actually start tasting nice.

Matt shook his head really slowly. That you’re fucking crazy shake, though the twitch of his lips held the joke.

“Fucking arse,” Jex muttered, finishing off his first bottle with a cringe—Fuck! This shit was bad.

Matt chuckled again. “Ah, but that’s what you love ‘bout me.”

Jex shook his head, a small smile pulling at his lips at the words, only his mouth hadn’t even completed the move before Matt’s lips covered his. The move Jex had been waiting for finally came. He snickered softly into Matt’s mouth. They were alone after all.

“It makes me feel all gooey inside to see you smile like that, and knowing it’s all mine... gets me hot as hell,” Matt whispered, a breath away from Jex’s lips.

Jex’s back arched at the scrape of whiskers against his upper lip. “Gooey?” Jex tried to make it a joke, not being able to deal with the softer sides of love.

“Oh, yeah,” Matt moaned theatrically. “It’s like melted lava inside me, mate.”

“So you’re a cooked marshmallow?” Jex muttered between the light kisses Matt was giving him. He needed more than the teasing. Already his skin was hot, his cock throbbed. He hated the teasing. Jex needed more... rubbing, thrusting, harder!

“Cooked Marshmallow?” Matt pulled back, apparently, finally, thinking around his own cock to what Jex had said.

“Shut up, man.” Jex laughed. “How can I think with my cock this hard?”

Matt burst out into laughter. Jex shifted back as Matt’s weight transferred onto his knees, since he’d straddled Jex sometime during the kiss.

ABOUT AUTHOR

I'll show you mine, if you'll show me yours... da da da da dum, author of MM romance

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Just a reminder...

Just a reminder to all the pundits, authorities, know-it-alls, complainers and whiners...

You have no authority to decide what anyone else should write or read...period. If you don't like, don't read. If you want to read something you cannot find, write it yourself. THAT is freedom of expression. We are damn lucky to have it. You have no standing to tell someone else what to write, or how to write it. You have no stake in the outcome, no horse in the race. Whining and complaining only makes you look like an idiot. So wise up, practice tolerance. Find what you love and promote it rather than trying to argue and browbeat someone into changing what they do. The world will be a much kinder, calmer place.

UnCommon Bodies ARCs are here!

Yes, time does pass swiftly. Before I had time to blink, ARCs for UnCommon Bodies were in my mailbox! This is an amazing anthology from Fighting Monkey Press which includes:

We is We By Michael Harris Cohen: We is we follows a day in Mary and Millie’s life, traveling sideshow freaks who’ve lost touch with the outside world.

Don’t Touch Me by Bey Deckard: Fighting is what Beau does best, because the very thing he dreads is exactly what lends him the extraordinary strength to defeat even the worst odds. And he does it all with the help of his angel, the woman he longs desperately to hold… but can’t.

Undead Cyborg Girl by Kim Wells: When she wakes up undead after receiving a cyborg assassin upgrade surgical procedure, Undead Girl’s life is forever changed. Is it for the better? She has all the skills, but she needs a job, she needs some friends, and she needs to remember who she is. Part 1 of the Cyborg Story trilogy.

Skin By Brent Meske: After constant bullying in high school, Patricia vows to change her name and her entire being. When she gains the ability to mold and sculpt flesh, that vow very quickly becomes a terrifying reality.

Scars: First Session by Jordanne Fuller: After a life of abuse, Abigail made the decision to cover her scars with tattoos. What she didn’t expect was to confront her emotional scars in the process.

Mermaids By Robert Pope: Recently graduated from college, with no work prospects, Aqua-boy—so called because of the webbing between his toes—watches and listens to a group of musicians at a bar/restaurant when he notices the woman playing a diminutive red accordion has six fingers.

In Her Image By Vasil Tuchkov: An English PHD student arrives at the scenic but haunting countryside of Matera, Italy, looking for answers. His translator introduces him to a crippled local painter who claims to have depicted the impossible. As the three men converse near the ancient settlement’s caverns, a mystery unravels.

Three Poems By Deanne Charlton: It Runs in the Family, Brenga’s Body, Eternity in a One-night Stand

Reserved by SM Johnson: It’s been five years since the accident that killed Pete Spencer’s younger lover and left him grieving, bitter, and broken. He’s tired of his lonely world, but the kind of young men he’s attracted to dismiss him the moment their eyes land on his cane. Pete’s learned to hide behind the safety of his reserve, but he’s never met anyone like Rory.

UnTamed by Laxmi Hariharan: Wolf girl Leana Iyeroy, the first half breed in her family, only ever wanted to be 100% human. An unexpected encounter with the Hugging Saint of Bombay, forces Leana to face the wolf inside her.

Ruby and Deidre by Robb Grindstaff: A shorter than average man admires a taller than average woman from afar.

All The Devils by Keira Michelle Telford: It’s 1889, and women are being killed in the East End of London. They’ve become the targets of a deranged sexual killer, but why? Because they’re prostitutes? Sapphists? Or something else entirely?

Ruby By Bob Williams: It’s nineteen thirty-six and the town of Ransom, Oklahoma is barely functioning after the “Dust Bowl” storm of the year before. Michael Wootten sits upon the porch of his dilapidated house and watches a caravan of trucks pull into town. Melvin Mitchell Presents: Ruby and her Amazing FreakShow Friends. Maybe this is just the thing to pump a little spirit into the near-dead town. But everything comes at a price, and Ms. Ruby always takes her cut.

Phantom Pain By Philip Harris: Phantom Pain follows amputee, Mariana Jacobs, as she visits a man who claims to have information she needs. But that information comes at a cost.

Daedalus’ Daughter By PK Tyler: After her father’s death, Isha begins sprouting feathers.

The Zealot By Chris Godsoe: Six months ago, Tobin Maldovan was in charge of a manhunt for an enigmatic hacker named ATLAS. He lost his man near the Canadian border after a high speed chase, but not before ATLAS pulled strings to transfer the woman he Tobin loves across the country, hampering any chance at reconciliation. With ATLAS having escaped his jurisdiction, Tobin had nothing left but to follow his wife to California, seeking reassignment at the West Coast cyberterrorism field office. His reputation preceeds him, and he has drawn the case pursuing a man the media has taken to calling “The Zealot.” As usual, Tobin pours himself into his work, but the work becomes personal in ways that he never would have imagined.

Made for This By Sessha Batto: On the heels of unimaginable loss comes reinvention. Sometimes the gain is worth going through hell.

Unbreakable Heart By Rebecca Poole: A cyborg must escape her creators in order to survive.

Saltwater Assassin By Samantha Warren: Syren has spent her life as a sideshow freak, caged in a tank of saltwater and gawked at by hundreds of normal humans. She has a secret, though. At night, when the lights are finally off and the fair goers leave, she turns into a human–a mermaid assassin.

The Well-Rounded Head By Sally Basmajian: A woman is smitten with her husband’s big, entirely round head. One day she notices that his temples appear to be slightly indented, so that his head is no longer a perfect sphere. This revolts her, and she moves into their guest room in order to avoid him. When he breaks in, she kills him, in a most bizarre way.

UnCommon Bodies - welcome to the freakshow

I know, I know - I have been conspicuously absent. In all honesty, I have no good excuse, just the usual demands of keeping up with my cross-country commute and juggling the schedules of four adults (well...three, I have no schedule apart from theirs). On the up side, I did finish a short, and rewriting is underway on two novels so I haven't been totally lazy.

Today, however, I want to talk about the short I finished for an upcoming anthology called UnCommon Bodies. Just take a look at this awesome cover!!

 

Step right up to the modern freakshow — We have mermaids, monsters, and more. You won't be disappointed, but you may not get out alive.

UnCommon Bodies presents a collection of 21 beautifully irreverent stories which blend the surreal and the mundane. Together, the authors explore the lives of the odd, the unbelievable, and the impossible. Imagine a world where magic exists, where the physical form has the power to heal or repulse, where a deal with the devil means losing so much more than your soul.

Includes
Phantom Pain by Philip Harris
The Zealot by Chris Godsoe
Undead Cyborg Girl by Kim Wells
Made for This by Sessha Batto
Rudy and Deidre by Robb Grindstaff
Skin by Brent Meske
The Well-Rounded Head by Sally Basmajian
Mermaids by Robert Pope
All the Devils by Keira Michelle Telford
Scars: The First Session by Jordanne Fuller
We is We by Michael Harris Cohen
Poetry by Deanne Charlton
Reserved by SM Johnson
Ruby by Bob Williams
Daedalus' Daughter by PK Tyler
Don't Touch Me by Bey Deckard
In Her Image by Vasil Tuchkov
UnTamed by Laxmi Hariharan
Untitled by Daniel Smith
Saltwater Assassin by Samantha Warren
Unbreakable Heart by Rebecca Poole 

And here is a peek at the promo image for my piece - Made for This 

This anthology is scheduled to be released 11/24 - but for you, my lovely readers, I am offering a special chance to get the first peek at what is inside. I am looking for ten lucky people to receive arc copies for review. If you are interested, email me or leave me a comment. If you aren't up to reading and reviewing the entire thing...I can send you just my story (which is very short, you know me).

Update

I have been more absent than present on social media lately...for a good reason - I have finally dug in and started writing (well, rewriting). So, a short update on what has been happening...

Ripples, the last book in the Shinobi Saga, is getting back on track. I lost steam on this when my alpha reader and dear friend Anzia passed away last year. I had a hard time focusing on a project that she had been such an enthusiastic cheerleader for. But, finally, the pressure to finish Yoshi's story burst to the forefront. The rewrite is about 50% complete, and I am hoping to get it to my editor sometime in early September.

Another project which has been languishing is The Shamisen Player (formerly The Trick). Every time I sat down to work on rewrites I found myself stalled...and then it came to me. I flipped the focus from one main character to the other (hence the title and cover change). It made all the difference. I am now powering along, and have just passed the 25% mark. This, too, should make it to the editor near the end of September. And then I will finally have a couple of new releases and, hopefully, the impetus I need to dig into the the works in progress cluttering my hard drive.

And, just an FYI - I will be at the Baltimore Book Festival Saturday and Sunday, the 26th and 27th of September. If you are in the area stop by and say hi, I would love to meet any and all of you live and in person.

To write erotica . . .or not to write, that is the question

This has been an up and down week for me. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about writing (I know, writers write, they don't think about writing) and, more pointedly, thinking about what I write. It was triggered by a series of marvelous, thoughtful, posts by erotic writers I admire - Remittance Girl delved into the history of erotica and what it has evolved into, Tamsin Flowers wondered if E.L. James has broken the genre irrevocably, and finally Malin James delved into her reasons for writing about sex. If you haven't read these articles, take some time to do so as all the authors are far more eloquent than I shall ever be. 

The bottom line, though, is I have been rethinking whether or not I should continue writing . . .well, publishing. Writing will always happen, if only to get the voices out of my head. The question, of course, is whether there is any point to writing erotica that is more than a series of strung together sex scenes. Erotica divorced from romance (although not necessarily love - romance is a very specific subset of tropes and requirements that I, for one, cannot fit my stories into). Erotica that frequently strays to the dark side - non-consent, dubious consent, conflicted choices, and the results of those acts. For me, it comes down to two questions - is the sexual content in my work relevant or sandwiched in merely to titillate without advancing the characters or the plot, and would I be better off writing more mainstream fiction with a chance of reaching a wider audience?

Only one person can decide whether or not sex is relevant in a piece of literature, and that is the author. You may like or dislike a piece, but only the author knows the story they are trying to tell. Whether it succeeds or fails is always a matter of debate. Art is, after all, subjective. I definitely don't believe anyone has the right to censor an author's choices, no matter how offensive they may find them. Yes, there are things I find offensive (seriously, there are . . . just not much), and I exercise my right to choose not to read those topics. Once you allow censorship it opens a dangerous door, who knows what will next be considered inappropriate? I certainly don't want my writing constrained by any limits other than my own.

Since relevance is in the eye of the author, all I can really consider is why I think sex is an essential aspect of my own writing. Now, before you start screaming about 'the children, the children' – nothing I'm going to say is intended for anyone under eighteen, although, frankly, I don't have any problem with children reading about sex. I live in a city full of pregnant teenagers and, believe me, they did not have sex because of something they read. That honor goes to the media that bombards them daily - television, music, advertising, video games, those are the most powerful influences on today's youth.

I should come clean – I write erotica, explicit gay erotica. Before I go any further, let me clarify. I'm talking about sex in all its permutations, from barely consensual sexual torture to tender lovemaking and the entire gamut in between. My only real boundaries are no children and no women. I write about men exclusively because of the wonderful shifts of power and control possible in a same sex relationship . . . and because I love men. No offense to the ladies, but I don't think I could explore the same boundaries of pleasure and pain without seeming overly abusive, and that is at the core of everything I write. Beyond that, there is something wonderfully vulnerable and revealing about a man's decision to relinquish power that doesn't exist for women as they are already powerless in so many situations.

Remember the old ads in the back of comic books for x-ray specs? For me, sex is my x-ray specs. It strips a character down to his core truth and spotlights who they are with far more accuracy than pages of exposition ever could. Sex is the ultimate act of trust. Who we trust, why, and to what extent reveals much of our psyche that we would normally keep hidden. Sex is the catalyst for revealing hidden baggage, all the events and experiences we think are safely buried but which bubble to the surface under pressure. Our kinks highlight our transgressive natures, throwing into clear definition the whys and hows of our alienation from society in general. In short, it's the knife I wield to cut to the truth. 

So, can I write anything meaningful without that knife? This is where I flounder, because my way of looking at and shaping characters, my tools for revealing internal conflict, for shaping change, have always been rooted in sex. Would I be able to touch such highs and lows, and would the rewards for such a trade off be worth it? For now, at least, the answer is no. Not that I cannot write non-erotic stories, but, rather, I don't want to. They don't sing to me, and the loss of satisfaction with the work isn't worth the trade off of more readers . . .not to me. I think a lot of writers are struggling with these questions right now. Some will go on to mainstream genre, some will find success. Some will pander to the current erotica trends and will also find their audience. Me . . .I will continue to flounder in no-man's land for the time being, and when floundering becomes too painful, I will stop altogether, because I can't conceive of doing it any other way.

I'm feeling generous . . .

I am in a rare, open, mood. So, to celebrate, this weekend (Saturday and Sunday) I am giving away books. That's right - I will give anyone who asks a copy of one of my books of their choice. Just drop me a line at sessha@sesshabattousai.com and let me know which book and what format (mobi, epub or pdf) and I will send it your way asap.

Please bear in mind that these books are all dark, transgressive and homoerotic, and for adults only. If any of this bothers you, please feel free to move on to another writer!

The choices are:

This first book in the Shinobi Saga tells the story of the modern day ninja Yoshi, shadow wolf of the Takahashi clan. In a nation where conformity is prized he is an anomaly. A beautiful and deadly albino, prized for his exotic looks as much as his skills in the shinobi arts. From a young age he finds himself shackled by the bonds of duty, forced into play as a sexual bargaining chip for the welfare of his shuudan. 

An enslaved scribe whose worst nightmare is becoming a pleasure slave, a warlord who can command men, but not his own desires. When they come together both of their expectations are overturned. Will their budding relationship threaten everything they have managed to accomplish?   

A collection of short fiction, which includes the prequel to the Shinobi Saga, Geisha. Sex Ray Specs are a way of looking at the world. People are their most open and vulnerable during sex, and it is then that their inner secrets are revealed. This anthology runs the gamut, from sweet and tender to darkly transgressive, all with one common thread, the search for love.