25July2008
Posted by Denise Kendrick under: My Brother's Keeper; writing.
Welp, the free ebooks we posted have been downloaded a combined 315 times in less than thirty days.
I wish I knew what that meant. I should have put up some sort of poll to at least find out if people were downloading because they heard the book had twincest in it, or if they were more interested in the slave!fic concept–of which our implementation is a bit non-standard.
Maybe some of them just downloaded it because it was free–though, given the reaction people have to twincest, I find that unlikely. It’s not something people tend to feel luke-warm about. More likely they were hoping the book would be more hard core and they could skim for the sexy parts.
I can say that people are far more interested in My Brother’s Keeper than it’s non-twincest counterpart. This makes sense, as MBK is a better story. Triangulations is more of a “character development via smut” foray.
I can also say that people who read slashy!slave!fic are apparently less fazed by twincest. I suppose that makes sense…somehow. I’m basing this assumption on the stats I saw come through after we announced the story in a slave!fic friendly community.
We did not announce the story anywhere that was expressly twincest friendly. This would be because I don’t know of anywhere to announce such things. Ironically, I’m not a big twincest reader.
We did hear from a few authors since releasing My Brother’s Keeper. Apparently there is a lot of twincest lingering about in the “I would write it if anyone would publish it” stages. I would wager that if so many people want to write it, then there are likely lots of people who want to read it. Twincest friendly fandoms are, well, the word rabid comes to mind–but in a good way! And Dark Eden Press did say that twincest was far and away their best seller. So if you want to write the brotherly lurve, then go for it!
(But by the same token, I’m not sure I would do it again. Well, I would write it, for sure. But maybe not bother with the public deployment.)
On a somewhat related note, a while back I queried an epub, who shall remain nameless, about their stance on twincest. Their submissions page didn’t mention it either way, so I figured I’d ask. I had to ask more than once, which suggests to me they are not comfortable with their own stance on the subject. Their initial response managed to completely ignore the question and focus on other items in my email. But eventually they did say yes they would consider twincest if it were menage. But no for a monogamous, consensual relationship.
I was reminded of the scene from an Austin Power’s movie where Austin is presented with two hot twins dressed up as Japanese schoolgirls who want to shag him. He nearly hyperventilates and then pulls out his list of “Things to do before he dies” and crosses off “threesome with japanese twins”. Check out the clip here (top left corner).
In this light, the publisher’s response made perfect sense to me, but when I mentioned it to my sister she was horrified. Menage practically equals cheating in her mind, and that is a major no-no.
So I told another friend who is no stranger to racy material. Surprisingly, her response was the same. She expected menage to be more squicky than monogamous twincest.
I suspect in both cases that twincest gets away with what incest simply cannot. Both my sister and my friend likely would have found incest (non-twin siblings) a greater turn off than menage. Incest has an inherent power squick, for one thing; and don’t even get me started on the het implications. But personally if it’s older brother/younger brother… uh… what? I liked Boromir and Faramir! In theory, of course. *cough*
Er…
Well no, I never wrote Boromir/Faramir. But I read a slash story about them once and I remember thinking 1) it made perfect sense, *snort* and 2) it forever changed that scene from ROTK for me. Then I went back to reading other things. Becoming enamoured with Mr. Sean Bean was to be for later–and, if you want to know a secret, I had him in mind every time I wrote about Dex’s uncle. The same uncle who once taught his nephew how to give a slave a proper spanking. The man looks good in uniform, what can I say?
21July2008
Posted by Denise Kendrick under: Uncategorized.
I have learned yet another m/m author who presents themselves as a male author, is actually a woman.
As someone who primarily reads m/m, I can’t help feeling betrayed when I learn these things.
17July2008
Posted by Denise Kendrick under: Uncategorized.
From Hobby Link Japan.
Bishie sold separately?
10July2008
Posted by rdsolange under: writing.
I am completely fascinated by this concept.
Harlequin Enterprises Limited (http://www.eharlequin.com/), the global leader in series romance and one of the world’s leading publishers of women’s fiction, announced today the launch of their Enriched Edition eBooks. With this launch, Harlequin becomes the first publisher to offer entire eBooks that are enriched with interactive buttons that hyperlink to Web sites with more information about the content.
The launch title, UNMASKED by Nicola Cornick, a Regency-set historical available from www.eBooks.eHarlequin.com, has been enriched with interactive buttons that hyperlink to Web sites containing photos, historical commentaries, illustrations, sound effects, maps, articles and more, bringing the world of the novel to life without the reader having to leave the computer or the current screen page. The interactive buttons have been designed to be unobtrusive, so if one prefers not to access the bonus material, the reading experience remains uninterrupted.
By exploiting the interactive possibilities inherent with eBooks, Harlequin is recognizing the opportunity for online reading to enhance the reading experience, evolving it above and beyond the replication of print books.
Harlequin will release select Enriched Edition titles from its many series and imprints, but chose to launch with a historical release since the period setting particularly lends itself to the enriched experience. Obscure period details, customs, terms and references become instantly accessible should the reader wish to learn more about the story’s context.
Enriched Edition eBooks are available at www.eBooks.eHarlequin.com and are being sold at the same price as regular eBooks.
I am now imagining what links would have appeared in My Brother’s Keeper. HA!
RD
8July2008
Posted by Denise Kendrick under: writing.
Special Handling is turning out a bit longer than we expected. It’s done this several times already, in fact. Makes it look like we’ve made no progress, but we have!
A wonderful friend finally told me what was wrong with in need of improvement in Skylar’s story, so I’m resetting the total back to zero. Woe. Still, I shall look at this as a wonderful chance to add more sex scenes. Er, not that the sex scenes were what was missing, just, why not add more!
Ciaran’s Gift is proceeding, but won’t really make any headway until Special Handling is done as RD is strictly limiting me now to single stories at a time. Er. Single co-written stories that is. Skylar is more my pet project.
But I do have some extra stories about Dex and Dashi that might see the light of day when I have a free moment.
And in local news, the local Kiwani’s organization is having a duckie race for charity. I have entered Dex, Ciaran and Dashi in the race. Malik shall watch from the sidelines as he is ruler now and cannot play in the water with everyone else. 
8July2008
Posted by Denise Kendrick under: My Brother's Keeper; Triangulations; free ebooks.
Sex may not be the answer, but you gotta start somewhere.
In Malik’s world, nothing goes unpunished. Pleasure slave turned soldier, he can’t outgrow his master’s whims. Romance is out of the question.
Dex has never had to ask twice for anything. Sex, money, friends, he has it all. When he sets his sights on Malik, the last thing he expects to find in the notorious sex slave is a shy virgin-like man.
Determined to give his friend confidence, or die trying, Dex takes Malik on a sexual journey and forges a friendship that will be tested like no other.
Triangulations is 44k novel that provides the backstory for My Brother’s Keeper. Although it stands alone, don’t look for an HEA here. You’ll find the happy ending in My Brother’s Keeper — along with the twincest. Be advised. *g*
Download the pdf - right click and choose Save As
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Please feel free to pass the book on, but you may not alter it, create derivative works or use the work for commercial gain.
Warnings: m/m, sexual content, slavery themes, multiple partners.
12/08 ETA - Thanks to everyone who downloaded! The book has gone back into the drawer for now, hopefully to eventually be expanded.
3July2008
Posted by rdsolange under: Things We Like.
You knew it was bound to happen. Give people free money and they tend to do some interesting things with it.
According to a press release from the Adult Internet Market Research Company:
An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans’ mailboxes across the country.
According to Kirk Mishkin, Head Research Consultant for AIMRCo, “Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20-30% growth in membership rates since mid-May when the checks were first sent out, and typically the summer is a slow period for this market.”
Thanks for the porn, George.
1July2008
Posted by Denise Kendrick under: My Brother's Keeper; free ebooks.
Well, that’s a sub-genre to be sure, but we love it. After DEP closed we mourned for a short while, then decided this book and its prequel would a gift to whomever would like to read it. I hope to post the prequel, Triangulations, by next weekend.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Please feel free to pass the book on, but you may not create derivative works or use the work for commercial gain.
Download the pdf - right click and choose Save As
For more info on the story, including reviews, visit the (currently outdated) book page.
If you like it, we’d appreciate a link back!
eta: The gorgeous cover was done by Skylar Sinclair. 
12/08 ETA - Thanks to everyone who downloaded! There were far more of you than we expected. 
My Brother’s Keeper is going back into the drawer for now.
27June2008
Posted by Denise Kendrick under: Uncategorized.
New word counter. Pink this time! RD hates pink. 
I am cheating and using a book that’s already complete. Hopefully the fonts will be clearer than they were the last time.
25June2008
Posted by rdsolange under: recommendations.
I am on a reading kick these days. To keep all my buying lists and reading lists straight I’ve been using LibraryThing.com
Have you used this yet? You really should. They’ve just enhanced their user interface and there’s been a tiny bit of downtime, but I love it. It’s handy to enter in the books I buy and then as I finish them, I just pop back in and rate the book, put up a little comment or review and then move on. And you can friend other people’s libraries to see what they’re reading. Which is awesome when you get a bunch of people who like to read the same things. Here I am!
The thing that is the most difficult for me is keeping the tags straight. I’m trying harder to keep them all relevant though. So hopefully I won’t end up with a mish-mash of rediculous tags that make my head throb.
mmmm… throb.
Sorry. Where was I? Oh, yes, books. Librarything.com. It’s a good thing.
RD