Michael Offutt's Blog, page 148

Rubber Mask Fetish

Have you heard of "Kerry"? He runs a website that has videos featuring feminine rubber masks. This particular fetish isn't dangerous per se. So why am I featuring it here?
Perhaps the reason I highlight it is because of the imagery it conjures ala "Buffalo Bill" from Silence of the Lambs or the creepy, expressionless mask worn by the serial killer in Halloween (Michael Meyers?) I guess I consider this extreme, because most people I know would not be "turned on" if someone were to don a rubber mask to "get it on." In fact, most people I know would immediately leave.
So yeah, I think this one is really weird. And you have to admit...the whole "latex mask" thing definitely fits with Halloween which is at the crux of my countdown.

Do you believe in djinn? Laura Eno does in Wish, The Awakening

"Show me wonders..." said the sultan.

"As you wish," said the djinn.

       --Wishmaster
         1990's horror flick

It's launch day for Laura's latest novel. Let's welcome her with a big "Congratulations" and if you have the time, be sure to check out her book or download a free sample.

BLURB:
Most residents of Pine Hill shy away from seventeen-year-old Lelah without knowing why. It's the Djinn magic surging through her blood. She lives in a world where wishes are really curses, dark power meant to twist and deceive in unimaginable ways.

When a fit of temper exposes Lelah for what she really is, she must flee to a sanctuary only whispered about, before her family is exposed and enslaved by their ancient enemy. What she discovers is a treacherous path filled with power, lies, and betrayal – a path that's destined to ensnare her and destroy a civilization.

LINKS:

AmazonUS AmazonUK Nook Smashwords Print

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laura Eno lives in Florida with a very tolerant husband, three skulking cats and two absurdly happy dogs. After spending years immersed in college but never figuring out what she wanted to be when she grew up, she now writes novels late at night with the help of muses from the underworld. And, no, she still hasn't grown up but that's okay.

Symphorophilia and Mina Lobo's blog fest

From Wikipedia -- Symphorophilia is a paraphilia in which sexual arousal hinges on staging and watching a disaster, such as a fire or a traffic accident.

The term was coined by John Money in his 1984 paper Paraphilias: Phenomenology and classification, formed from the Greek root "συμφορά" ("symphora").

A special form of sacrificial paraphilia, for which a suitable name is symphorophilia (being erotically turned on by accidents or catastrophes), culminates in an arranged disaster, such as an automobile crash. Like a game of Russian roulette, it may end in death — alone or with the partner. However, flirting with disaster, rather than suicide and murder is the trigger responsible for autoerotic arousal and excitement. Being the daredevil who will live to risk a love-death again is an essential part of this paraphilia.

As a photographic print is the positive made from its negative, so also the positive of self-crashing is arranging for a disaster to occur on the highway, and then watching the carnage from a pre-selected observation post. Disasters other than on the highway may be arranged — catastrophic fires, for example. For those members of the general public who have a touch of sadomasochism in them, disaster as an unrehearsed event is often a large part of the appeal of entertainment stunts and sports, from the circus to stock-car racing.

My commentary: I think this is a very dangerous fetish. The idea that someone could intentionally create a horrific accident so that they could get off is disturbing and incredibly scary. And this fetish is REAL. It'll make you think differently next time you see a terrible accident where multiple people may have died. You may ask "did someone plan this?"
I want to give a shout out to Mina Lobo who is having a "Resurrection Blog Fest" on November 7th. Please check it out HERE and sign up if you are interested in participating. Have a great weekend. On Monday, I'll be participating in the release day blitz for Laura Eno and her book "Wish."

Acrotomophilia and Apotemnophilia

From Wikipedia -- Acrotomophilia (from the Greek akron [extremity], tomein [to cut] and philein [to love]), refers to a paraphilia in which an individual expresses strong sexual interest in amputees. It is a counterpart to apotemnophilia, the sexual interest in being an amputee.

Do you fantasize about rubbing nubs? I think out of the two of these, apotemnophilia seems the worst because it's the desire to have healthy limbs cut off. There are a handful of people that have had limbs permanently removed in order to better suit their fetish. If I were a doctor, I'd have a serious issue with this kind of request.
Here's Rose McGowan as a sexualized amputee in the movie "Death Proof."Have a great Thursday

I noticed Disciple by L. Blankenship

Today I'm participating in the "Did I Notice Your Book" blog fest orchestrated by the Queen and King of Fabulous:

Ciara KnightAlex J. Cavanaugh
The book that caught my attention today is by science fiction author L. Blankenship. It is called "Disciple" and has some amazing cover art. She says that it will be available on November 1, 2012. But I did a quick search for it, and it's already up on Amazon! I hope she doesn't mind if I spill the beans.
What really got me to notice this book aside from the astounding cover art is her wonderful blog which you can visit HERE.


FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK

The saints favor her, else-wise a peasant girl like Kate Carpenter would never be apprenticed to the kingdom’s master healer. But her patron saint also marks her ready for the duty of tending to a mission that must cross the ice-bound mountains. Their little kingdom faces invasion by a vast empire and desperately needs allies; across the snow-filled pass, through the deathly thin air, is a country that’s held off the empire and may be willing to lend an army.

Kate knows about frostbite and the everyday injuries of wilderness travel. She can heal those.

She’s not ready for the attentions of a ne’er-do-well knight and the kingdom’s only prince, though.

And she isn’t ready for the monsters that harry them night and day, picking off their archers first, wearing the party to exhaustion, pushing Kate beyond the limits her healing abilities.

She must keep them alive, or her blood will be on the snow too.

Her book could use some love on GOODREADS with a "Want To Read".

And if you want to download it now, it's on Amazon for $4.99. CLICK HERE TO BUY.

I bought my copy yesterday and started reading it.

Thanks to everyone who complimented me on my new blog banner. My skills with Adobe Photoshop are getting better and better AND I just got myself a copy of Adobe CS5.5. Soooo excited to play with FLASH and After Effects.

Have a great Wednesday

Formicophilia

If you don't like bugs, then this fetish will probably really creep you out. Formicophiles are not just turned on by insects, but the idea of insects biting them or climbing all over their bodies.

From Wikipedia--Formicophilia, a form of zoophilia, is the sexual interest in being crawled upon or nibbled by small insects, such as ants.This paraphilia often involves the application of insects to the genitals, but other areas of the body may also be the focus. The desired effect may be a tickling or stinging sensation, or the infliction of psychological distress on another person.

My mind is unable to comprehend the enjoyment of this one. I smash anything that dares to crawl on me as soon as I'm aware of it.

Have a great Tuesday. I hope no tiny spiders drop on you today (especially in great numbers) unless of course that's what you want. :)

Win a FREE copy of A Hero's Journey by P.T. Dilloway with one comment

Isn't the cover fantastic on this? That's cause it's by the blog world's very own
RUSTY WEBB (or RUSTY CARL) or whatever he calls himself these days. He
blogs at "The Blutonian Death Egg." 
I'm friends with Patrick who blogs over at his website: P.T. DILLOWAY. He's a man of unflinching honesty. He never sugar coats anything, and I kind of like that "confrontational" style that he embraces when leaving comments on the web. And a lot of them are funny. Anyway, Patrick has written another book. As an author, he's quite prolific so this may be his fourth or fifth published novel. You can check out my five star review of it HERE on GOODREADS. If you want to be supportive, please mark it "to read." I end my review by saying:

"A Hero's Journey is appropriate for any age level. Children should have a lot of fun with it and be inspired by Emma in her fight against the forces of evil. I hope that when you finish it, you'll join me in my desire to return to Rampart City soon. There's definitely enough source material to keep the story of the Scarlet Knight going for many books to come."

Now I'm going to turn my blog over to Patrick who is exploring a comparison with A Hero's Journey and my favorite television series, "Breaking Bad" which (I have to say) I'm solely responsible for getting him hooked on.

MR. WHITE Vs. MR. X by Patrick Dilloway
First of all, thanks to Michael for hosting me today!

As a longtime reader of Michael’s blog, I know one of his many favorite TV shows is “Breaking Bad” on AMC.  Unlike most of his other favorite TV shows, I actually watched this one recently on Netflix.  As I did, I noticed some similarities in the show’s main character, Walter White, and the villain of my novel A Hero’s Journey.

When the series begins, Walter White is a pretty normal guy.  He teaches high school chemistry and works on the side at a car wash to make up a few extra bucks. He’s got a teenage son with cerebral palsy and another kid on the way.  So what makes him decide to join forces with a junkie to cook crystal meth out of a Winnebago?
Mr. White reminding all of us why chemistry teachers
have the most fun.It’s because he’s diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a short time to live. Walter wants to provide for his family, and he knows he can’t do that on $40,000/year from teaching and whatever pocket change he gets at the car wash. Cooking meth seems like a good way to make some quick cash that can provide for his family after he’s gone.
Aaron Paul who plays Jesse Pinkman has the ability to look sexy in anything. That includes
a chemical suit in a New Mexico desert with a shitty Winnebago in the distance.In my book, the villain “breaks bad” in a different way, but it’s very similar.  It starts out with just a small idea.  In this case a tragedy befalls Mr. X’s family.  He’s able to convince himself that putting on a suit of cursed armor and becoming an ancient monster known as the Black Dragoon is a good way to get justice for his family, especially when it becomes clear the police are not going to be of much help.

In both cases it starts with a little rationalization and then it snowballs.  Mr. White says, “I’ll just make a little crystal meth and then get out.”  Mr. X says, “I’ll just kill these people for my family and then I’m done.”  Except it’s not that simple.  Because as Yoda said, “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it control your destiny.”

Or in other words, once you’ve done one bad thing, it becomes easier to justify doing another one.  You might start out wanting to make some money or avenge your family, but soon you become drawn into lies and murders and so forth.  Eventually you start to lose sight of what caused you to break bad in the first place.  All that nobility becomes washed away in a sea of blood.
This is kind of the point where Walt's "Breaking Bad" has consumed him, and he
is now completely and utterly EVIL.As they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

If you want to see Mr. X break bad, you can buy my book from Solstice Publishing here  for only $2.99.  The book is also available from other retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  To find out more about A Hero’s Journey including character bios, deleted scenes, and a visitor’s guide to Rampart City visit my blog located HERE.

AMAZON
BARNES AND NOBLE

And thanks again to Michael for hosting me!

*****
Patrick is giving away a free .pdf copy of his book to one lucky commenter that wants it. Please indicate in the comments whether you would like one or not by leaving your email address. That way he knows to send it if you are a winner.

If you wouldn't mind doing so, please TWEET about this post so that Mr. Dilloway gets as much exposure as possible.

Have a great Monday

Vorarephilia

From Wikipedia -- Vorarephilia (often shortened to vore) is a paraphilia where arousal occurs from the idea of eating, or being eaten by, another person, by an animal, or by a plant. The fantasy may sometimes involve the victim being swallowed dead or alive, and may or may not include digestion.
Cool statue, eh?Ever heard of Armin Meiwes? He's serving a life sentence in Germany after he killed and ate a willing victim that he met over the internet. The case got a lot of attention as people debated whether it was truly murder given the victim's conscious consent to the act. Here's the link to his Wikipedia page.

Can you believe that this fetish is real? That there are actually people out there who want to get eaten because it is arousing? Clive Barker could not top this real life story.

That's it for today's entry. I hope I didn't scare you too much.

On Monday, I'm hosting author Patrick Dilloway as part of his blog tour. So you'll have to wait until Tuesday for number 2 in my Halloween Fetish Countdown.

Have a great weekend.

13 Disturbing Sex Fetishes to celebrate Halloween

Because it's October, (and I'm inspired by Jay Noel who is blogging about real life creepy things) I'm going to post about 13 disturbing sex fetishes that just may leave you sick to your stomach, incredibly intrigued, or generally frightened for the fate of human kind. I've researched these bizarre things (in part) as a writer because when you create villains, it serves you well to have a full toolbox. I'm going to design a badge and change the number each day for my mini-blog-a-thon. And for my badge, I have chosen the image of this woman:  Her name is Wu Zetian.
Wu Zetian was Empress of China from October 690 to February 705. She is the only woman in Chinese history to rule in her own right. She was a ruthless, cruel, sadistic and sexually depraved murderess who drove her people into chaos. She ordered tortures, executions and forced suicides on a daily basis. She had all of her rivals exiled or executed including the ex-empress Wang. She also had members of her family executed including her niece and nephews. She also killed her newly born daughter. Other family members were exiled including her sons, in which one was eventually ordered to commit suicide. Wu had thousands of her people poisoned, strangled, mutilated, burned and boiled alive. Others had their noses, ears, feet and legs cut off. She died in December 705 at age 81.
I think Wu Zetian shall be a fine icon for this strange countdown of the extremely bizarre.
I will attempt to keep my descriptions of these fetishes very clinical. But all of them are real (I won't be posting many pictures). I'll let your imaginations do all of that for you. I hope you will join me and not be too scared.
I'll start with number 1 tomorrow :).

The Big Smoke by Cally Jackson

Yes, yes dear blog follower. I plowed through some books recently. And I'm not done telling you about them. Here is my five star review of Cally's debut novel The Big Smoke. In short, if you like new adult stuff in a pseudo present time (it's within a decade of 2012) then you'll like this story. As a heads up, Cally will be guest blogging here as part of her tour on Monday, October 29th.

*****
MY REVIEW
I received an Advanced Reader Edition of Cally Jackson's debut novel, and I read it in just a few days. It was THAT good. As a warning I want to say that my review may contain some spoilers, because I can't think of a way of talking about this tale without discussing what goes on in Ceara and Seb's lives.

"The Big Smoke" has two narrators. We've seen this plenty of times before most notably used by William Faulkner in "Absalom, Absalom." However, it is also used to great effect by George R.R. Martin in a "Song of Ice and Fire" and by countless other writers who use it to find a means of perspective in a story that is too big to encompass just one point-of-view. Cally's take on this is to use first-person, and it works wonderfully as a vehicle to tell her story. So expect to be inserted into the heads of Ceara and Seb alternately throughout the book. Cally does tell you which head you are in because the chapters are labeled with their names, and they both possess a very distinctive voice.

Cally Jackson is a great writer. The first character I want to talk about is Ceara. Her narrative can be summarized by something her friend Kristi says to her. "You're so desperate to be in a relationship, you fall in love with anyone who gives you the slightest bit of attention. You seem to think your life will only be complete when you have a boyfriend."

And it was at that moment in the book that I finally understood that behind the angst of being a new adult is often the search for validation, because we (guys and gals) go into college without a sense of identity. And maybe that's what college is supposed to do: give us time to find ourselves. I can comfortably say that Ceara definitely understands who she is by the end of the book, and it is through this vehicle that she attains happiness.

The second narrator, Seb (short for Sebastian) is told in an authentic male voice that oftentimes left me in awe that Cally could capture so perfectly how boys feel in the first year of college. Do we think about sex all the time? Absolutely. I often lament when looking back on my college years about how difficult the curriculum was because I had too many distractions caused by raging hormones. Sebastian really connects with this feeling. As well, she gives us a very human side to Seb by showing us the many rights of passage that men must attain to reach adulthood, the compromises of living with a roommate, and ultimately how every story has multiple points of view.

And it is in this that Cally is amazing. Seb's parents are divorced and there are two sides to that story. But the deconstruction doesn't stop there. "The Big Smoke" also has two sides (the tale of Ceara and Seb). Cally brings these two ships together by the end after they have each worked through their myriad issues and are now ultimately ready for a true relationship that will stand the test of time. And I just want to say, I love the way these two narratives interweave with each other through events like Seb saving Ceara's life, to mutual acquaintances and friends, to the university they both attend, and to the city they both call home. We know from the beginning (of course) that boy and girl will eventually come together. But the fun is finding out exactly how that's going to be done. And I liked that it happened naturally through time as they both became adults and knew exactly what they needed to make them complete.

This book is difficult for me to classify in terms of genre. I think it fits soundly into "New Adult," but I have no idea if that is an actual genre yet (even though more and more people are talking about it).

I think "The Big Smoke" would appeal to those who like "Literary Fiction." If you have read Michael Chabon (author of "The Wonder Boys") you would like this book, or perhaps readers of "The Ice Storm" might find similarities that they would enjoy. "The Big Smoke" is a complex look into the lives of college freshman that tackles issues of body image disorder, anorexia, abandonment, sex, relationships, and loss. This is a great book, and you would do good to read it for yourself.
*****BUY THIS BOOK ON AMAZON FOR $4.99 HERE