Love in Dark Settings

I should have known that my Muse would turn my little bit of prompt fiction into a full-blown novella. By the time I reached Chapter Two, he was demanding that I stop doing everything else in my life in order to spend a fortnight reading Muse-friendly fiction; only under those circumstances would he supply me with the rest of the story.

He's like that. This is why I usually only compose stories in the fall and winter, when I can give him my full service and devotion.

So I'm just going to post the first chapter now. It works well as prompt fiction on its own, and it satisfies half the prompt fic requests. The rest of the novella I'll work on in October and will post as my holiday gift fic for this year. Sorry that it can't be finished sooner than that, but I've got a heck of a lot of offline work to do before the end of summer.

(By the way, I forgot to mention that I've added a brief historical note to Rebirth.)

Parental supervision is strongly suggested. This story includes major spoilers for Rebirth.

He was weaponless. Or rather, not quite weaponless, for he knew what he was capable of doing with his body, but he bore no blade, nor any whip, nor any lead pipe with which to stun his victim, nor any rope with which to strangle the victim . . . The number of potential weapons he had deliberately laid aside was frighteningly high.

No weapons, no allies, and no guarantees that he will survive the test.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested.

He was weaponless. Or rather, not quite weaponless, for he knew what he was capable of doing with his body, but he bore no blade, nor any whip, nor any lead pipe with which to stun his victim, nor any rope with which to strangle the victim . . . The number of potential weapons he had deliberately laid aside was frighteningly high.

Well, as you can see, the second volume of The Eternal Dungeon is an e-book for sale (with the first chapter online). I'd originally planned to offer it free online, but I've no income coming in at the moment. I apologize to any of you who signed up to this blog specifically to see the online serialization of "Transformation." I'll revisit the issue of offering my novels free online once I see how well the paperback version of "Rebirth" (still in preparation) sells.

In the meantime, in another of my optimistic moments of "If you build it, they will come," I've started a discussion thread for anyone who wants to discuss "Transformation." A reminder: Anyone can post the opening question that starts the story discussion rolling.

The Eternal Dungeon, a royal prison where criminals are transformed, has lost its leadership. The duty of returning the dungeon to normal falls on two Seekers (torturers) who are already burdened with their own problems. One Seeker is struggling to understand why an old love affair continues to gnaw at him. The other Seeker is faced with his greatest challenge: whether to risk that which is most precious to him in order to save his own abuser.

This historical fantasy series explores dark aspects of erotic life and includes themes of gay love. But the series goes far beyond that by considering the deeper issues faced by all those who find that their friendships and desires are in conflict with their duties.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

The common room was filled with dozens of Seekers and guards, all trying to avoid looking at the man in the back of the room.

The PDF file of Rebirth is off to the proofreaders, so I can give you folks your first glimpse of what the paperback will look like. The letters are smudged in this enlarged reproduction, because of the manner in which I placed it online, and of course there's no guarantee that I won't end up revising the layout of this particular page. But you'll at least be able to see what a handsome typeface Hoefler Text is.

( Image and grumbles about drop caps )

Anyway, I'm projecting a late August to September publication date for the paperback, which is later in the year than I'd like, but at least it'll be out this year.

It's not quite finished yet, but I'll soon have ready a draft of the PDF version (which will be both an e-book and the basis for the paperback edition) of Rebirth. I'm willing to give an Advance Reader Copy (look up the term in Wikipedia if you've never heard it before) of the PDF file to anyone willing to proofread it for typos and design problems. In particular, I'd like any volunteers to keep their eye out for quotation marks and apostrophes that have been turned round in the wrong direction; the conversion from straight quotation marks and apostrophes to curly quotation marks and apostrophes was done by automation.

The trick is that I'm under a tight schedule, so the proofreading would need to be done within a couple of weeks of the time that the PDF e-book is available. Any volunteers? If so, just e-mail me, so that I can have your e-mail address on hand when the PDF file is ready.

For those of you who are wondering when my next Eternal Dungeon volume is due: I'm still working on the editing and layout, I promise, but most of my energy recently has been going into catching up on correspondence/comments and getting my (*expletive*) layout software to create the (*expletive*) paperback design for "Rebirth." Unlike the layout of "Rebirth" (which has to be finished as soon as possible, if I'm to have time this summer to publish and market the novel), the publication of "Transformation" isn't particularly time-sensitive, so it gets kicked down on my to-do list. But that novel will certainly be out before the end of the summer.

Edited to add:

Yes, I'm still taking proofreader volunteers. I'll let you guys know when I've stopped taking volunteers. If you volunteer, please e-mail me rather than replying to this post. I can't send you the PDF file if I don't have your e-mail address.

Edited to add:

The deadline is closed for this one now, but don't worry - I'm sure I'll have offers like this on future books.

You guys are the best. I'm loving your discussion of the last installment; I'm learning so much from it about my own characters.

Best of all is Telepwen, who has posted a delightful little piece of Eternal Dungeon fan fiction, Fall Together. It has major spoilers for Rebirth 5: As a Seeker.

I've also added a link to this story on my page devoted to fan works set in my worlds.

New online fiction.

The torturer was naive, inexperienced, and lacking in knowledge of the world. The prisoner was tough, worldly-wise, and had an infallible plan that would give him escape from this place. So why did the prisoner feel as though the torturer had the edge?

I could see before me a ceiling-high slate tablet covered with prisoners' names, and a goodly number of those names were crossed out. I knew what that meant.

Index to series links:

Darkling Plain at the Main Bookshelf.

The Eternal Dungeon at the High Bookshelf.

Comments, queries, discussions, and calls for lynching me are welcome. (Okay, not the last, but I'm expecting a few calls after the previous installment.) Main Bookshelf readers should be aware that High Bookshelf stories may be mentioned in the comments below.

This is (I'm sure you High Bookshelf readers have noticed) the final part of the first volume of The Eternal Dungeon. The second volume of the series is coming soon.

New online fiction. Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

If the High Seeker wants something, no power in life or death will hold him from taking it. What he wants now has brought danger to the Eternal Dungeon.

One of the jokes of the Eternal Dungeon was that Layle Smith had designed the Seekers' hoods, and that he had done so for the sole purpose of forcing prisoners to focus their attention upon his cold eyes. It was a joke that inevitably brought nervous laughter.

Comments, queries, and oodles of vigorous discussions are welcome.

New online fiction. Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

Unexpected danger reveals to a torturer the dark mystery of his mentor's past – as well as unpleasant revelations about himself.

"I believe that your suffering will make a difference to the prisoners. Otherwise, I would not send you there."


On another topic: I'm enjoying the Eternal Dungeon story discussions but am not feeling terribly comfortable about being the person to offer the opening question. Would somebody here like to post an opening question or comment to start off the conversation?

(Yes, of course you could have done this all along without my prompting. But maybe now that the discussions have gotten rolling, people will feel less inhibited about posting comments.)

At any rate, this is due warning that - as with all my story announcements - there may be major spoilers in the comments.

New online fiction. Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

One man seeks to heal from abuse. The other man dreams of abusing. Now they're in love.

He was trying to imagine abuse at the same time he was trying to keep his love-mate from remembering abuse; he could have cried at the absurdity of it.

New online fiction. Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

As a torturer learns the art of questioning prisoners, he discovers that the word "love" can have a darker meaning than he had supposed.

He examined the titles there: Racks, A Manual for Woodworkers; Pain and Punishment in Our Queendom's Prisons; Spikes and Their Usage; One Hundred Techniques for Breaking a Prisoner; Man's Cruelty to Man . . . After a while he winced.

Here.

This is the text that inspired Edward Burne-Jones's illustration for William Morris's The Kelmscott Chaucer (1896), which appears in the main image on my home page.

"Rebirth 1: The Breaking" has been revised, but since most of the revision is stylistic, you aren't likely to notice any of the changes.

In the queendom of Yclau lies an underground royal prison that embraces the worst of the past and the best of the future. The Eternal Dungeon is old-fashioned in its equipment and ahead of its time in its treatment of prisoners, seeking to put their best welfare above all else. Torture is part of the process of assisting the prisoners.

The High Seeker, Layle Smith, embodies this contradictory institution: a man of deadly impulses, the head torturer binds himself strictly by the dungeon's code of conduct. His efforts to maintain this delicate balance are altered, though, by the introduction into his life of Elsdon Taylor, a vulnerable prisoner who is coming to terms with his own darkness.

This historical fantasy series explores dark aspects of erotic life and includes themes of gay love. But the series goes far beyond that by considering the deeper issues faced by all those who find that their friendships and desires are in conflict with their duties.

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

"Do you have any questions?" the Seeker asked. "About the routine of the dungeon? The times you will be fed? The questions you will be asked? The instruments of torture I use?"