More recent reads and reviews . . .

Boy Farm by Rose Thornwell:

I really hate to say it but, despite some really hot scenes of male bondage and pegging, they were just way too many plot holes for me to enjoy this. It's a shame, because there was so much potential in the idea of a mother-daughter femdom rivalry, and so much that could have been done with the concept of a boy farm. Unfortunately, the plot falls apart right from the start when the daughter makes it clear how much she is disgusted by her mother's dominatrix role, only to demonstrate a few pages later that she has no such issue with her her best friend's dominatrix antics. As if that weren't enough, she is all-too-eager to try and fill her mother's high-heel bitch boots for somebody so disgusted by the BDSM world. As for her poor/lucky boyfriend, he completely wastes the opportunity to submit to a powerful older woman (probably the most realistic part of the story), and then makes a miraculous weekend transformation from reluctantly submissive heterosexual boyfriend to eagerly submissive bisexual boy slave. The emphasis here is definitely more on cruelty and humiliation, which is not my thing, but if you isolate the sex scenes and enjoy them independently of the plot, they are quite good.


What Worse Place Can I Beg in Your Love? by Syd McGinley

Wow, what a weirdly erotic, strangely seductive read. On the surface, it's a story that should be more clinical than arousing, more science-fiction that erotic, and yet it works superbly. Basically, this is the story of a young gay man who, after playing bottom to a fellow human captive, is prepped for display and sold to an alien as his pet. The aliens here are humanoid in shape, but with reptilian characteristics, and (of course) almost impossibly large genitalia. To them, humans are nothing more than domesticated animals, flesh-and-blood companions to be kept as pets. There's no affection beyond that of an owner for his pet, no attempts to communicate beyond the simplest commands, and no interest in the pet's pleasure or satisfaction. There's a very strong element of domination here that made me weak in the knees, and I simply cannot get the image of the burly alien walking around his home, carrying out his daily tasks, while his human pet sits, arms wrapped about his torso, impaled upon his manhood for hours at a time. Not at all the story I expected, but a wonderful read.



Pretty Face Vol. 1 by Yasuhiro Kano

Well now, wasn't this a fun but of PG-rated shojo manga! Cute, amusing, and deliciously twisted, it's the story of an arrogant bully who is horribly mangled and left for dead after a bus crash, only to have his face reconstructed in the image of his high-school crush (whose photo he keeps in his wallet). It's a rather preposterous scenario, but the book quickly owns up to the fact, which makes the whole thing a bit more clever than I expected. Although the usual manga exaggerated facial expressions and dialogue are here, the story is actually told very well through the characters. You really come to emphasize with Rando, finally coming so close to the girl he loves, but being unable to express his love . . . outside of an excruciatingly teasing big sister/best friend sort of way. Rina slowly changes the young man, redeeming the jock/jerk he used to be, while Dr. Manabe keeps trying to push him into a complete sex change. Definitely a fun story, although I'm not sure there's enough depth to make me want to read the other 5 instalments.


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Labyrinth - The Alternate Cut

In honour of David Bowie's 65th birthday, I thought I'd celebrate the occasion with a pair of captions telling the story of the original, alternate cut of his epic masterpiece, Labyrinth. Okay, so maybe Jim Henson was never quite that twisted, but it' how I always dreamt the movie should work. Over the years I've thought about rewriting the story as a piece of fan fiction, but it just doesn't work without the soundtrack.

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Petals, Purses, Pumps & My New Obsession

As someone who is proudly genderqueer, yet also sensitive to office etiquette, I often have to compromise between my pleasures and my profession. Every morning I wake up, decide on what I would like to wear, consider what I likely should wear, and then frustrate myself into being late while I try to find an acceptable middle ground. Much is the same with my office.

When I finally secured a corner office, complete with windows that look onto the outside world (gasp!), I was in heaven. I daydreamed about all the ways I would decorate it, and then got realistic and looked around at all the little touches my female coworkers brought to their own offices. We are not permitted to put anything on the walls (tacks or tape), curtains are frowned upon (either  a security or fire risk, depending on who you ask), and flowers are completely unacceptable (allergy concerns). So, for the longest time, the only real feminine touches I brought to the office were my herd of My Little Pony Unicorns, the porcelain high-heeled shoe (red, of course) that feeds me sticky-notes, and the plastic corset (white and purple) that holds my pens.

With the new year coming, I knew I wanted to find a desk calendar that would blend in, yet make me smile every time I looked at it. I will freely admit, I obsessed over the search a bit, looking high and low, online and in the malls, to find the right calendar. I had just about given up when I stumbled across Petals, Purses & Pumps. The cover was definitely pretty, but I did not really notice what I was looking at until my purse knocked it off the rack and I had to bend over to pick it up. When I finally saw the detail there, I do believe I let out an audible squeal of girlish glee.

If you have never heard of Michel Tcherevkoff (I had not), then you are in for a treat. This wonderful, amazing, talented gentleman crafts the most delicate pieces of artwork from real flowers. The Petals, Purses, and Pumps calendar, along with his Shoe Fleur: A Footwear Fantasy photo book, are dedicated to the most gorgeous shoes, boots, purses, and handbags you could ever wish to wear, all crafted from beautiful blossoms and pretty petals. His Butterfly Blossoms calendar, as you might expect, is dedicated to flower-borne butterflies that look so real, you almost expect them to flutter off the page. For something a little more daring, his Passion Flower Pinups calendar is full of beautiful women dressed in lingerie, dresses, gowns, stocking, and heels made entirely of flowers.

Take a look at a few of these images and tell me the man is not a genius . . . I think you will understand why I am so in love. :)

Do yourself a favour, check out Michael's site here, and then buy one of the collections I mentioned above. You will not regret it!
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Some recent reads and reviews . . .

The Cuckold Husband by Sophia Kimberly

Not a bad read, just not quite what I was looking for. A little too much heterosexual foreplay for my tastes, and not enough ooey gooey bisexual bliss. It takes quite a while to set up the cuckolding session, and it's primarily focused around hubby watching his wife being taken by another man. Call me a dirty gurl if you will, but I like it when hubby is forced to participate . . . to prep and fluff the other man, to clean up afterwards, and even to serve as a back-up bottom when his wife gets too tired or sore to go another round.

Well written and sexy, just not what I was hoping for.


The Photo Shoot by Sara Desmarais

The lovely Sara does it again, with another incredibly erotic tale of crossdressing. I love that her bois are always (to some extent) willing subjects, aroused by the idea of expressing their hidden femininity, and curious about how far they can push it. Here, everything starts with a simple request for hubby to take part in a boudoir photo shoot, providing his wife with a compliment for her own shoot. As nervous about how she'll react as about how he'll look, he reluctantly agrees.

Things start out slow, with a fairly routine photo shoot that proceeds from casual to softcore sexy. The wife is a bit of an enigma here, pushing things forward, but also appearing reluctant or uncertain herself. This leaves poor hubby to take responsibility for his own participation, and to acknowledge the fact that he not only wants to keep going, but is enjoying it. By the time the hunky lighting assistant steps into the scene, and the photographer asks if he'd stand next to hubby to demonstrate the contrast between them, you kind of know where the story is going. Despite that, it's still a surprise when everybody agrees it would make for a hot photo to see his naked penis pressed against hubby's naked butt cheeks . . . and you know it can't stop there.

Hot, sexy, and incredibly detailed, this is a fantasy cum true.

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New Year's Resolutions

We all make 'em, and (eventually) we all break 'em. So, this year I have decided to forego the usual New Year's resolutions about diet and exercise and focus instead on what I need to do to be successful in 2012.

After all, if the world is really going to end, I want to go out on top. Actually, strike that, as a submissive I never want to to anything on top! Instead, let's just say I want to go out happier and hornier than I was in 2011. :)

So, here goes:

1. I will not permit myself to masturbate unless I have written at least 250 words per day, whether that be a story, a novel, or just on my blog.
2. I will keep my toenails manicured and brightly painted 365 days per year (that one caused some issues at the gym last year, but since the gym is out for 2012, hot pink and fuck-me red are in).
3. I will invest in a better collection of anal vibrators and dildos with suction cups or other attachments to better simulate being at their mercy (my current partner has great fingers, but no interest in my trio of strap-ons).
4. I will try every recipe in Natural Harvest (including the foods I don't think I'll like) with at least 3 different ingredient donors. No real reason why, I just had a ton of fun with the first feast through.
5. I will invest in either laser hair removal or laser eye surgery - one way or another, a part of me is being blasted.

How about you? What are your resolutions?

What's the Big Deal with "Work it"?

As a rule, I tend to stay away from the politics of gender, but the fuss surrounding ABC's new "Work It" sitcom has me somewhat perplexed. Granted, nobody has actually seen an episode yet, but the premise itself suggest another poorly scripted 80s throwback sitcom that would likely have failed quickly, and then faded into obscurity after an episode or two.

Efforts to stop the show, however, have provided it with the kind of widespread media exposure that most shows would kill for. Check out the full-page ad GLAAD and HRC placed in Daily Variety:

Where my problem begins is with the premise of the show itself. Like Bosom Buddies (the 80s sitcom that launched Tom Hank's career), it's a sitcom about two men who decide to dress as women in order to get a job. They're not drag queens, they're not genderqueer, they're not transvestites, and they're not transsexuals. They are opportunistic scam artists who chose to adopt a costume . . . an obvious disguise.

From what I've read of the premise, these characters are portraying themselves as 100% natural women, and their coworkers completely buy the deception. These characters are NOT transgender, and are not trying to pass themselves off AS transgender. As a TV nation, Americans and Canadians may have atrocious taste, but I really do believe the majority of viewers are smart enough to make the distinction.

As somebody who proudly identifies as genderqueer, I would never EVER laugh at the difficulties faced by my transgender sisters and brothers, but I do get a few chuckles out of sitcom absurdity - recent case in point being when the Big Bang Theory gang dressed in superheroine drag after losing a bet. Honestly, I dare you to look at Sheldon awkwardly dressed as Wonder Woman, or Raj vamping it up as Catwoman, and not laugh . . . and I don't feel the least bit insensitive for doing so.

It all comes down to intent versus content, and to context versus subtext. I don't think people are any more likely to mistake the characters in "Work It" as transgender than they are to do the same with Adam Sandler (Jack and Jill) or the Wayans Brothers (White Chicks).

When it comes to politics, especially gender politics, you have to pick your battles. I just happen to think there are better ones to fight than this one.
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The Bayba Set by Roberto Baldazzini (Part 1)

Maybe it's the constant staring at the computer, working on press releases and proposals all day in the office, and then working on my novel all night at home. Then again, maybe it's just e-reader backlash, and a desperate attempt by my senses to once again experience the thrill of glossy a paper and the heft of a real book.

Whatever the reason, I went on a bit of a shopping spree last week, ordering copies of The Bayba Set by Roberto Baldazzini, Pretty Face, Vol. 1 by Yasuhiro Kano, Boy Princess Vol. 1 by Seyoung Kim, Click Volume 1 by Youngran Lee, and Kashimashi Omnibus vol. 1 by Satoru Akahori.

The good postal fairy delivered this afternoon. :)

Just because it's big, bold, and colourful, I decided to start by reading Domina in Red, the first of the 2 books in The Bayba Set. What a curious tale . . . not at all what I expected . . . yet somehow more delightful for it.

Basically, this is the tale of a young submissive shemale breaking into the world of porn. She's partnered with another shemale by the name of Red Domina, who has a hard time getting an erection (pun intended), and who speaks with a deliberate lisp. Maybe it's just the translation, but the imagery leads me to suggest she really is designed to be a rather lightweight domina, tentative, anxious, and really quite needy.

Bayba, on the other hand, is a submissive little whore - and proud of it! The more she's used, abused, tortured, and humiliated, the more she loves it. The best part of the book is the flashback to her early days as a sissy, and her discovery by the woman whose house she cleaned. There was some real domination there, and even a suggestion of forced coercion one her husband stepped in.

Along with the porno shoot storyline, there's also a developing romance that seems to end poorly when Bayba catches Red Domina giving up her ass to the producer, who loves it so much he promises to make her he star. The final panel redeems it all, however, when the humiliation leaves Bayba writhing on the floor and cumming all over herself.

The narrative is a little weak, and the dialogue awkward (especially Red's lisp), but the book looks gorgeous. The colours are stark (reds, browns, blacks, and fleshtones), and the whole thing has a vibrant, yet almost washed out look that adds to the atmosphere. The bondage situations into which Bayba gets put are glorious in their intricacies, and Red always looks stunning in her red latex. The pig-faced men are a bit strange, to be sure, but I'm guessing that's a trademark of Baldazzini's work.

All in all, a nice little graphic novel. I'm looking forward to giving the 2nd volume, Lady Brown, a read next.

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