Love in Dark Settings

Egon had a position that won him respect, friends who raised his spirits, and lovers who gave him pleasure. Then a man came into his life who would take all that away from him. If Egon was lucky.

Note: This is an expanded version of my 2003 novella; Chapter Five is new.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

Halvar leaned forward; his eyes were the color of an arctic sky. "I am not a fool, Egon," he said softly, "so do not treat me as such."

Born into a society with a strictly ranked system of masters and servants, Carr has sought to tred his way delicately between the clashing values of the parents who raised him and the uncle whose household Carr will one day live in. Yet when he and other students at his boarding school become the latest participants in an ongoing battle between the oystermen of their bay, Carr finds that his position of power may bring danger, not only to himself, but also to a schoolfellow he is drawn toward.

Master and Servant is the first volume in Prison City, a retrofuture series based on the Chesapeake Bay oyster wars, homoeroticism in British public schools in the 1910s, and 1960s visions of things to come.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

Rudd, who had watched Meredith through narrowed eyes for the first week or two, gradually lost interest in scrutinizing the activities of his fag.

What can you give a slave who, by law, can own nothing? . . . A 2008 holiday gift story for Dusk Peterson's readers.

He could not leave this room without his father's permission. And he could not imagine going to his father and saying, "Please let me go gather moss so that my slave can have a proper New Year for once."

No one would pay his debt price to gain him release from prison. So he sought to pay it himself by offering the only thing he could, his body. But one man would require more.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

He kept his gaze cast below the belt; in the chill cell, sweat was beginning to form now on his neck, running down his back and between his bound wrists. "Lord," he said softly, "I would be glad to pay to you my debt in any way I can."

He has taken a blood vow to the Jackal God to bring freedom to his land by killing Koretia's greatest enemy. But what will he do when the enemy becomes his friend?

Thrust into exile and pain, young Andrew has no choice but to accept the friendship of the very person he had vowed to kill. When he returns with his friend to his homeland fifteen years later, though, he finds himself in a land of conflicting loyalties . . . where a vengeful god awaits him.

This novel is part of The Three Lands, a fantasy series set in a multicultural world where conflicts over law and spirituality provide opportunities for friendship and romance, and for betrayal.

I had come to tell him, in the cheerful manner boys have, that our world was about to be destroyed.

In a society where the rank of master or slave defines every aspect of a person's being, what do you do when you're a master and you envy your slaves?

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

"True slavery or mastership comes as much through training as through birth, and when the training has only just begun, it is natural that a young person would be confused as to his or her proper role in life. I think that patience should be shown toward young people who demonstrate perverse tendencies."

When fan fiction writers have had way too much caffeine.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

You will note that several reply buttons in this questionnaire have been disabled. The buttons are present because a volunteer (since dismissed) made the error of feeding historical data on real-life slavery into the computer.

He'd abducted him, bedded him, and taught him every position he knew. So why wasn't the fool grateful?

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

I tried to cheer him by telling him that I'd decided not to share him with anyone, but that only made him sob louder.