You might have noticed that I’ve been quiet of late. Perhaps a little too quiet. This is why:
This is somewhat different from my usual fare. So different, in fact, that I put it up with a different pen name for all of five minutes before deciding that my readers were probably robust enough to handle the jandal, as we say here in Nuw Ziland. What makes it different from my usual books is that although it does contain spanking, there’s just the one scene and it’s not precisely what you might call effective. My bottoms have always been reluctant to be contrite or submit and Timothy takes that trend to quite an extreme. There’s also a great deal more violence in this book than usual, though I think the title probably suggests that. It’s not gratuitously graphic, (if you watched or read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this book will seem more like a soft episode of My Little Pony) but it is there. Aside from that, this has the merit of being my longest M/M work to date at just under 22,000 words, so that’s nice.
After all that preamble, what’s the book about?
Scared Straight? Hardly.
When bored hotel clerk Tim taunts a new guest, the mysterious and devastatingly handsome Jonathan Hashimoto, his life soon spins out of control. Jonathan inhabits a twilight world where the law of the land comes a distant second to the law of blood. Entirely infatuated with a man who kills as easily as he breathes, Tim tries to follow in Jonathan’s footsteps, only to find that there’s one major obstacle in his way – the man himself.
Jonathan has no intention of letting Tim get caught up in the dealings of the criminal underworld, but how can he stop a young man hell bent on proving himself? Jonathan only knows one way to deal with problems, and that’s to come down on them hard, fast and without any mercy at all.
Oh look! It’s a new collection, full of M/M spanking romance for those who like that sort of thing! There’s going to be a competition for this book on Spanking 4 Men, so stay tuned if you want to win a free copy.
Spanking is often bandied about in erotic novels, but in this collection of gay romantic novellas from Loki Renard, the concept of domestic discipline is explored more deeply as something that not only titillates but nourishes and nurtures. In each of these three novellas, misbehaved and occasionally misguided young men meet their match and find love in the hands and arms of older, wiser lovers who believe that discipline goes hand in hand with love.
When bad boy Raid meets the unashamedly masterful Eric Darwin at one of his nocturnal haunts he starts a fist-fight with him only to find himself over the older man’s lap being spanked like a brat. From that moment on, nothing is the same in Raid’s world. Eric decides to take Raid in hand and Raid quickly finds himself caught in a game of domination that he can’t bear to lose – and can’t afford to win.
Caine Bricksford is the son of a multi-billionaire, a spoiled young man with more money than sense. When strict ex-marine turned private security specialist Henry is contracted to provide security for the family, Caine takes a shine to him immediately and embarks on a wildly inappropriate campaign of seduction.
In spite of Caine’s tiresome antics and frequent misbehavior Henry becomes fond of the young man and decides to take him in hand. The heir to the Bricksford fortune soon discovers he is in for some very sound spankings from a man who believes there can be no love without discipline.
Blake Adams has been summoned to serve his immortal master, a mysterious man who goes only by the name Luke. Unfortunately for his master, Blake is more than a little bit of a handful, he is an aggressive, angry young man who has never known a day’s love or care in his short and brutal existence. He is less than impressed by finding himself pressed into eternal servitude and spends all of his time in outright rebellion against his all powerful master. In spite of many threats and punishments Luke finds that correcting Blake is all but futile, after all, how can one hope to tame a servant who owns his master’s heart?
First, a large image of the cover, mostly because it makes me tingly:
Synopsis:
Blake Adams has been summoned to serve his immortal master, a mysterious man who goes only by the name Luke. Unfortunately for his master, Blake is more than a little bit of a handful, he is an aggressive, angry young man who has never known a day’s love or care in his short and brutal existence. He is less than impressed by finding himself pressed into eternal servitude and spends all of his time in outright rebellion against his all powerful master. In spite of many threats and punishments Luke finds that correcting Blake is all but futile, after all, how can one hope to tame a servant who owns his master’s heart?
(only the best site on the internet for finding material in which men spank men and women spank men) has decided that I may very well be the most promising new M/M spanking writer of….. the millennium. Or maybe the month. I prefer millennium. It has a certain ring to it and encourages us all to plan for the long term.
Caine Bricksford is the son of a multi-billionaire, a spoiled young man with more money than sense. When strict ex-marine turned private security specialist Henry is contracted to provide security for the family, Caine takes a shine to him immediately and embarks on a wildly inappropriate campaign of seduction.
In spite of Caine’s tiresome antics and frequent misbehavior Henry becomes fond of the young man and decides to take him in hand. The heir to the Bricksford fortune soon discovers he is in for some very sound spankings from a man who believes there can be no love without discipline.
Here’s the trailer for my upcoming M/M spanking romance, Teaching Caine. If you can’t wait for the release, check out Call Me Boy, which has the distinct advantage of having already been published on the Amazon Kindle store and also Lulu.com.
Three weeks after its release, Call Me Boy still retains a spot in the top 100 bestselling Gay and Lesbian books on Amazon.com. This is pretty awesome *cue self patting on back*. But not all my experiences on Amazon.com of late have been similarly awesome. Some of them were decidedly un-awesome. Let me relate them for a moment.
I got two fairly terrible reviews, one from a reader who was foaming at the mouth because of a spanking relationship portrayed in Little Miss and the Law, which she found to be ‘disgusting’. She was even driven to ask ‘do people really live like this?’ The irony of someone who is presumably lesbian (or at least, a reader of lesbian fiction) pointing the finger at D/s and calling it disgusting whilst being a member / fan of a lifestyle that is often discriminated against for similarly senseless and bigoted reasons is quite amusing. But there you go.
The second was from a reviewer who was kind enough to say that I’m a good storyteller, but the book (Miscreant and the Master) didn’t grip her. I have a feeling that’s because the rather gentle, somewhat paternal D/s relationship between the Master and the Miscreant wasn’t to her more mainstream tastes, or at least, wasn’t quite her kink.
This is the fun (and I use the word ‘fun’ here in the same sense that being put through a meat grinder is fun) thing about Amazon.com. People can accidentally find themselves buying books that don’t fit their particular kink set. This is unfortunate. What’s super unfortunate is that these are the people who are motivated to leave reviews. People who are happy often don’t feel the same urge. This is something I myself have been guilty of.
At the end of the day, the books page of my author bio looks rather dismal indeed, in spite of the fact that so many lovely readers have gotten in touch with encouraging words, which I super appreciate, more than I can say. You people rock with an intensity that cannot be measured by modern science.
You might ask why these kind sentiments don’t translate into reviews. I have a fair idea why. It’s difficult for people who didn’t buy my books through Amazon to leave reviews, because Amazon demands that a person have bought something on Amazon.com at least once in order to leave a review. So with my non kindle reader base pretty much hobbled, it is left to those who are kindle purchasers. But here’s the thing. Many people have their Amazon.com accounts under their real names and aren’t exactly keen to have spanking book reviews connected to their real life personas, which I totally understand.
This would all be enough to dismay even the roughest and toughest of authors, but here’s the interesting thing. Call Me Boy has sold through the roof. It’s sold more in three weeks than any other ebook I’ve ever written. And it too, has 0 reviews. It’s the only book in the Top 100 Gay and Lesbian Bestsellers not to have a review. And that, I feel, is interesting. I’m starting to think that although some reviews on Amazon.com are natural, organic reviews left by people who wanted to share their experiences with a particular book, many of them are as a direct result of ‘review swaps’ ‘reviews for hire’ and other little tricks that exist because authors are feeling that they have to go out and solicit positive reviews. I understand that urge, though I’ve not (rather obviously, because this problem would not be a problem if I did) engaged in any of those techniques myself. Nobody wants to see their book dragged down in the eyes of potential readers by people who were never going to enjoy it in the first place.
So what’s the moral of the story? Well, there are several really.
Moral One
Don’t put too much trust in Amazon.com reviews. They are often inflated or sometimes underrated as a result of malice (there was a scandal at one point where some authors were caught going around leaving negative reviews on other people’s books) or thoughtlessness. Every single kindle book has a free sample for download, so if you’re interested in a book, download that and make your own decision as to the quality of the writing.
Moral Two
If you’re in the position to do so, it’s nice to leave a review. This is a lesson I myself will be acting on in the coming days. There are several books I have rather enjoyed in recent times and not reviewed. That will be changing.
Moral Three
Haters really are going to hate. It often has very little to do with the quality of one’s work – or the number of people who love what you do. This final lesson is applicable to almost everything in life.
Sometimes men spank men, and sometimes, that’s very hot indeed. Like now. Right now.
When bad boy Raid meets the unashamedly masterful Eric Darwin at one of his nocturnal haunts he starts a fist-fight with him only to find himself over the older man’s lap being spanked like a brat. From that moment on, nothing is the same in Raid’s world. Eric decides to take Raid in hand and Raid quickly finds himself caught in a game of domination that he can’t bear to lose – and can’t afford to win.
Mr Dave of Cherry Red Report fame has gone one step farther with his general excellence and created a super site called Spanking 4 Men, a site that focuses on the mysterious male bottom. I for one, am on the record as being all for male subs, for much the same reason I like riding horses. There’s nothing like the feeling of controlling a powerful creature, of harnessing all that energy and muscle and bending it to one’s will.
Spanking 4 Men has a bunch of interesting content all about men getting spanked both by Fem Doms and Male Doms, including male bottom spanking videos and interviews and other superness. I could not recommend it more highly.
