The erotic worlds we build are a curious interweaving of language and images. Most of us have done a shit-ton of borrowing. From the first time our mothers speak to us, and from the moment we manage to get our unwieldy, infantile tongues to cooperate just enough to spit out that first word, we are enveloped in an alien language, not of our making. And while the pains and tickles and chills and comforts may be truly ours, we are all bound to use that foreign tongue to express what we feel and what we want. And even that, even what we want is a compromise. That aching pang for what that has no n ..read more

Lot and His Daughters I presented two sessions at #eroticon2018, the first was a more abstract, theoretical look unpacking of the concepts of taboo and transgression, and how these are formed as an inversion of contemporary social values. Sadly, the slides for this were meant as prompts for me, rather than an information-rich text presentation. I will, in the coming days, write a summary of my talk, but here is a pdf of the slides I used Taboo (right click the link to save to your desktop. The second session was a far more practical and hands-on talk on some of the reasons and methods u ..read more

(Originally published in The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 9, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, 2010) 1870, Annam, French Indochina The church of Dak Rede was a small wattle-and-plaster affair, perched inconveniently on the crest of a hill, just beyond the reach of the humid clutches of the jungle. Its placement, however, afforded the cool morning and evening breezes so dismally lacking down in the village below. The young, recently ordained Jesuit priest surveyed his meagre and apathetic congregation with a sigh. Kissing the surplice in his hands, he draped it over his narrow shoulders. There we ..read more

As the publishing restrictions on this long short story have expired, I’ve re-uploaded the audio version of this tale. Please be warned: this is erotic fiction, not romance. The story deals with not only mature but transgressive subjects, including non-consent and violence. Like all transgressive literature, it is morally ambiguous; specifically, the story eroticises torture – which is absolutely reprehensible. It’s entirely natural that you should be morally offended, as long as you keep in mind that this is fiction, and intentionally examines a transgressive theme within the bounds of fictio ..read more

Clever people say you can never truly go home but, in my experience, it’s almost depressingly the opposite. Too often, you can’t escape it. Standing in the humid midnight, beneath an old mango tree, I looked up at the pontianak dangling from a branch. It was a young one, with long, tangled black hair, wearing a ridiculously diaphanous white shift. I thought of all the money my parents had wasted on my excellent Western education and sighed. “Get the fuck out of this tree, bitch,” I called up. The spirit hissed again and rubbed her thighs together seductively. Even amidst the cloying reek of de ..read more