M. Christian's Blog, page 68

Yet More Philosophy

AMPUTATION AND NOVEL PUBLICITY: AUTHOR M. CHRISTIAN THREATENS ONE FOR THE OTHER

PRESS RELEASE: In what is clearly an act of pure desperation, author M. Christian has threatened to amputate part of one finger to publicize his new novel, Finger's Breadth (Zumaya Books).
"The fact is, it's getting harder and harder to get the word out about anything new, especially novels," says M. Christian, whose biography includes over 400 short story sales, nine author collections, the editing of 25 anthologies, and six previous novels.  "Is it no surprise that writers are having to resort to obvious stunts to try and get their work noticed?"
Though Finger's Breadth – described as a gay erotic science fiction horror thriller – has garnered respectable reviews, Christian says that it has yet to gain the notoriety he believes it deserves.
"Even with Zee at Firepages saying ' Finger's Breadth has a way of getting under your skin and sending chills to your bones in both a terrifying and arousing kind of way. Finger's Breadth is not a story; it is an experience I highly recommend,' it's been too damned hard to get word out about the book.
Christian points out other reviewers who, apparently, have also found the book to be superb: "I've got Lisabet Sarai, who says 'If you're looking for an easy, sunny, sexy book with a happy ending, don't pick up Finger's Breadth . If, on the other hand, you want a scary but enlightening ride through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, I highly recommend this book,' and the Circlet Press calling it '...one of the most psychologically astute erotic novels since Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs, and it deserves to be just as widely read,' and even science fiction author Ernest Hogan, who calls it 'a world of crime, out-of-control passions, mutilation, and madness. Terms like noir and hardboiled don't quite fit – this is more like ultraviolet, the invisible light that makes the scorpions glow in the dark.'"
 M. Christian, with fingers intact – so far (photo by Shilo McCabe)
As for what the novel is actually about, Christian says that the book's description as erotic, nightmarish, fascinating, disturbing, intriguing, haunting, you have never read a book like Finger's Breadth is actually pretty accurate – if a little vague: "There are far too many scary books and movies about serial killers, psychos, nasty supernatural forces ... but all of that, to me, is just too removed.  It's far too easy to be able to say it's a matter of them – or him – and us: but the real horror I've always felt, and tried to explore in Finger's Breadth is that the real horror is human nature itself.  That, given the right set of circumstances, otherwise good people can have their minds, and most of all their desires, turned inside out."
And so to try and get the word out about what he feels to be his best novel yet, the reclusive author says that he is willing to step into the light with his most audacious publicity plan ever: to lop off one of his own fingertips
"Okay, my track record for honesty isn't the best ... I'm the first to admit that," Christian says about his planned amputation.  "The whole 'stolen identity' campaign around Me2 [his previous novel] was lost on more than a few people.  Never mind that it worked and the book sold like hotcakes.  But this time I'm totally, completely, absolutely, honest: I really want people to read Finger's Breadth ... and if it takes lopping off the tip of my little finger then I'm gonna do it," he says.
When asked if the planned amputation is simply a publicity stunt, Christian responded with faux outrage: "A stunt?  A STUNT?!  Of course it's a publicity stunt ... these days writers have to be creative and, let's be honest here, more than a bit outrageous if they are going to get noticed.  The book's about a mysterious figure cutting off the tips of little fingers in a near-future noir San Francisco so a pretend self-amputation is just too damned perfect!"
In answer to his admission that the whole thing is nothing but a publicity-seeking prank, Christian shook his head: "That's not to say that it still won't happen; they say that a good writer has at least a few good books in them, so if a finger is all it takes to get the word out about this novel ... well, I have 19 more fingers and toes to go.  Seems like a small price to pay."
M. Christian can be reached at zobop@aol.com or mchristianzobop@gmail.com.  His website is http://www.mchristian.com
To receive a review copy of Finger's Breadth send an email to publicity@zumayapublications.com.
#
More Finger's Breadth reviews:
It is not that hard to come up with an idea that can be turned into a horror story and that is why horror has been part of the folklore of America and why these stories are so popular on camp-outs as we sit around a campfire. To successfully do this, we need a combination of characters and plot but more important than all else is a novel way to relate the story. For me that is the definition of M. Christian. This book is unlike anything I have read before and I suspect that it will stay with me for quite a while. – Amos Lassen, reviewer
Finger's Breadth creates a vivid portrait of a community torn apart by suspicion, where the thrills of hot, anonymous sex go hand in mutilated hand with the chill of fear, and no one is entirely what they seem. M. Christian skillfully mixes a dark, potent cocktail of lust, longing, paranoia and an overwhelming need for acceptance... – Liz Coldwell, author of Take Your Slave To Work
To be effective, the act of literary intercourse between horror and erotica should be deeply unsettling. It should leave the reader feeling uncomfortable, overwhelmed by equal parts dread and anticipation. M. Christian understands this better than most, weaving a tale that permits the reader but a finger's breadth of space between fear and arousal. His deft control of the story makes us feel the blade, but it's his subtle manipulation of our emotions that makes us want the cut. – Sally Sapphire, Bellasbookslut
M. Christian has seen the future – and it is hardboiled! If you love crime stories – gay or otherwise – and you love science fiction, you will love Finger's Breadth . No other storyteller nails it quite like M. Christian does. This is a real page turner. – Marilyn Jaye Lewis, author of Freak Parade
M. Christian is a force to be reckoned with. Just when you think you understand the path that his narrative and characters are taking, Christian throws a monkey wrench, or a limb, or a head into the works and you have to get your bearings and start all over again. No matter which book of his you pick up, prepare for an intoxicatedly weird ride. – Ily Goyanes, author and filmmaker
Finger's Breadth is mesmeric storytelling, riveting in execution and appalling in implication.  M. Christian's tale of erotic terror in a near-future San Francisco is imagined so skillfully that it grabs the reader with its easy familiarity, then refuses to let go as it careens to its shocking yet completely believable conclusion.  Evoking such Grand Masters as Armistead Maupin, Thomas Harris and Rod Serling while remaining strikingly original, Finger's Breadth is Christian at the height of his considerable powers.  Like Charon the ferryman, the author takes the reader down the dark rivers of human sexuality and shows us things that would normally never see the light of day.  Ultimately the most compelling aspect of this fiction is how fascinatingly and terrifyingly plausible it is. Finger's Breadth should come with a warning label: Read this before clubbing. – Christopher Pierce, author of Rogue Slave, Rogue Hunted, and Kidnapped By A Sex Maniac
#
M. Christian is – among many things – an acknowledged master of erotica with more than 400 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and many, many other anthologies, magazines, and Web sites.
He is the editor of 25 anthologies including the Best S/M Erotica series, Pirate Booty, My Love For All That Is Bizarre: Sherlock Holmes Erotica, The Burning Pen, Guilty Pleasures, The Mammoth Book of Future Cops and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi) and Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant) as well as many others.
He is the author of the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, Licks & Promises, Filthy, Love Without Gun Control, Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Coming Together Presents M. Christian, Pornotopia, How To Write And Sell Erotica; and the novels Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, Fingers Breadth, and Painted Doll.  His site is http://www.mchristian.com.
Fingers BreadthZumaya BooksPaperback: $15.99ebook: $6.99ISBN-10: 1934841463ISBN-13: 978-1934841464

FINGER'S BREADTH AMPUTATION MADNESS

This is ... well, I am practically speechless: not only is Ernest Hogan of one my favorite authors but he's a really wonderful guy: just check out this great post he just did about  Fingers Breadth  and my (ahem) 'playful' publicity push for the book (the press release, by the way, that started all this will come in my next post).   Thanks so much, Ernest!

The things a writer has to do to get people to buy a book these days! According to a press release I just received, "In what is clearly an act of pure desperation," M. Christian has threatened to have part of one of his fingers amputated to publicized his novel Finger's Breadth. I guess I shouldn't be surprised with bookstores vanishing from the face of the earth, and with everybody who can type an email message putting out an ebook. I guess it's a wonder that it hasn't happened before.

Yeah, William Burroughs cut off part of one his pinkies, but that was a Van Gogh bid for love, not to hawk any books.

In a sane world (is that even possible?) this sort of thing shouldn't be necessary. Finger's Breadth is a sensational read "about a mysterious figure cutting off the tips of little fingers in a near-future noir San Francisco." It's packed with more thrills than you can shake a detached body part at. It should be selling like hotcakes. Filmmakers should be fighting duels over the rights to make a blockbuster movie of it.

So buy and read Finger's Breadth now, before we see missing fingertips all over the place.
I only hope that this doesn't mean that Christian has made some kind of deal with the yakuza.

Still More Fingering Publicity

Oh, Ralph, you are a true star!  Not only does my great friend put something about  Fingers Breadth  on the great Von Gutenberg site - by the way, don't forget that I have an article in the current issue - but then he puts up a fun post about my book on the Short and Sweet NYC site .  Yer the best, Ralphie!


Oh, and speaking of the so-cool Mr. Greco he is also doing an anthology that you all have to send stories in for:  Sex in NewYork City -  Tales ofPleasure and Perversity in the Big Apple .  I'll put the call up in my very next post.

It is amazing what we have to do nowadays to get noticed, even people who already get 

Call for Submissions - Sex in New York City: Tales of Pleasure and Perversity in the Big Apple

Call for Submissions
Sex in NewYork CityTales ofPleasure and Perversity in the Big AppleEditedBy Ralph Greco, Jr.
An anthology ofstories about the one of the world's most spectacularly vibrant and decidedly decadentcities.To be publishedby Sizzler Editions (http://SizzlerEditions.com).

We are looking for stories fromnew and established authors celebrating one of the busiest-and sexiest-citieson earth. Pulsating with a vibrancy unlike any other location how can one thinkabout New York City without thinking of the orgasm-like rise of steamshooting-up through manholes, men and women jostling their bodies oh-so-closein the dirty bowels of subway cars, of the bright lights and the limos whiskingcouples who knows where for God knows what?
Writerswho live in or have been to The Big Apple now get their chance to take a big biteout of it in any way they choose, using the full expanse of this amazing city'slocations, from Times Square, to the The Village, to clear across to one of thevibrant ethnic enclaves of neighboring boroughs like Brooklyn of Queens.
Sexin New York City, like all Sizzler Editions, is open tosubmissions featuring all sexual and gender orientations. We seek stories withwhatever kind of sex seems true to NYC…and you. Fromtender romances to the hardest kinks: a naughty canoodle in Saint Patrick'sCathedral to a high-class dom/client meet in an upper east-side apartment,everything is permissible just as long as NYC is the backdrop. And the folkspopulating your tales should be as vibrant and unique as this city they havecome to play in.Believable, intriguing characters havealways been Sizzler Edition stock-and-trade and we want more of the same forthis anthology. As important as the sights and sounds (and smells) of New YorkCity will be to your stories, you'll need to invest your romps with people wetruly care about, people who have something to say-as well as a somethingnaughty to do! Readers need to care about people they come to imagine, onlythen can we hope to arouse, interest and entertain.
Submissionsmay be fiction or personal experience, but all submissions must be explicitlyerotic.  In short, the sex shouldbe the central focus of your story and not just an incident along the way.
Storiesfeaturing incest, rape, underage characters, homophobia, bestiality, excessive violence,or any portrayal of excrement or urination, will not be considered. If you havequestions about whether or not your story may work for this anthology, pleasecontact Ralph Greco, Jr. at ralphgjr@earthlink.net with your questions orconcerns.
Bothpreviously published and original works will be considered.
Storylength: 2,500 to 12,500 wordsDeadlinefor Submissions: Rights:First North American Anthology RightsPayment:$25, paid on publication
For anthologies we purchase non-exclusive English languageanthology rights throughout the world, for both electronic and print for fiveyears. Author retains all other rights.

a. For e-book editions soldvia the Publisher's own website, the royalty is forty percent (40%) of theretail price.b. For e-book editions soldvia other Internet retail outlets, the royalty is twenty-seven percent (27%) ofthe retail price.c. For paperback editionssold via Internet retail outlets, the royalty is ten percent (10%) of theretail price.d. Said royalties shall bepaid fifty percent (50%) to the editor and fifty percent (50%) to the writersto be distributed on a prorated basis.e. All monies paid to authors on publication shall the accountedas an advance. Once the advance is earned out, royalties shall be paid toeditor who will disburse them to authors.
Emailsubmissions should be sent to:ralphgjr@earthlink.net- inthe subject line put: RalphGreco, Jr. Anthology Submission. File should be in rtf format only, be sure to includecontact information on all attachments.)

Fingering Publicity

One more time: I have some really, truly, wonderfully great friends - and one of my best pals is Ralph Greco: just check out this great post he just did on the (equally great) Von Gutenberg site about an upcoming ... shall we say unique publicity push I've been doing for my queer erotic thrilled  Fingers Breadth :

You know me, I like to champion the Von Gutenberg extended family when I get the chance…and we have lots of people in the family (if you're not part of this marquis club, join us at the Von Gutenberg Facebook Fan Page here. One of the folks/friends/fans/professionals featured in our latest issue is none other then writer M. Christian. Chris (to his friends, and who isn't Chris's friend, the guy is just so damn likeable!) is having fun prompting his latest book, Fingers Breadth.

I'll let Chris tell you what's he's up to in his own imitable style. According to the latest PRESS RELEASE: 

In what is clearly an act of pure desperation, author M. Christian has threatened to amputate part of one finger to publicize his new novel, Fingers Breadth (Zumaya Books). 

"The fact is, it's getting harder and harder to get the word out about anything new, especially novels," says M. Christian, whose biography includes over 400 short story sales, nine author collections, the editing of 25 anthologies, and six previous novels.  "Is it no surprise that writers are having to resort to obvious stunts to try and get their work noticed?" 

When asked if the planned amputation is simply a publicity stunt, Christian responded with faux outrage: "A stunt?  A STUNT?!  Of course it's a publicity stunt … these days writers have to be creative and, let's be honest here, more than a bit outrageous if they are going to get noticed.  The book's about a mysterious figure cutting off the tips of little fingers in a near-future noir San Francisco so a pretend self-amputation is just too damned perfect!" 

No I know Chris, he's one of those guys you would as much see at any of the industries fantasy events (listed on ourFantasy Even List at Twitter) as you would sit down and have over-priced eggs with. When it comes to what he is capable of you better believe as sure-as-shootin' that those damn Zanti Misfits we're gonna crawl up ol' Bruce Dern's leg, Chris has got enough other appendages (and the story is quite a few are very impressive…if you know what I mean) to not miss a digit or two in the selling of his art. 

If you're up for a good read check out Fingers Breadth here:
Paperback: $15.99
ebook: $6.99 

You can reach  M. Christian at his website: http://www.mchristian.com
and check-out the piece he did for us at  http://www.vongutenberg.com/shop

Treasure Island

Determined not to spend every waking moment in front of my computer, I've recently gotten back into some hobbies ... such as photography.  And here's some recent play with just that: some shots from a very cool afternoon my brother, s.a.[here's his blog and here's his own Flickr account], and I spent wandering around Treasure Island.  If you want to see the rest of the shots just click here for my Flickr feed.

Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker: The Four ... Well, Five Deadly Sins. #5: Oh, Shit

Check this out: I just wrote a brand new "Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker" piece for the always-great Erotica Readers & Writers site - all my previous columns, of course, have been collected in How To Write And Sell Erotica by Renaissance Books.  Here's a tease:



Back in the 'good old days' of smut – when pornographers had to haul their steaming piles of sexually explicit materials up four and five flights of stairs – a certain writer with a gleam of sexy potential in his mesmerizing green eyes ... okay, I mean me ... wrote a column for the fantastic Adrienne here at Erotica Readers & Writers called "Confessions Of A Literary Streetwalker."
Now one of the things I did was part of being a Streetwalker that really took off was a little series I did called "The Four Deadly Sins:" a playful examination of the things that smut writers could do but that could – to put it mildly – make their work a tough sell.
Fast forward a ... decade?!  Sigh.  Anyway, I had to put aside my Streetwalker days for other things but that little verboten list has always been by my side, especially since I'm now an Associate Publisher for the wonderful Renaissance Books (which includes Sizzler Editions, our erotica line).  By the way [COMMERCIAL WARNING] my old columns are now in a dead-tree and ebook collection called  How To Write And Sell Erotica  [COMMERCIAL ENDS].
The reason why those "sins" stay with me is because one of my Associate Publisher things is to consider books for publication – and still, today, erotica writers don't seem to understand that while, sure, you can pretty much write whatever you want there are still some things that will more-than-likely keep your work from seeing the light of day.  Just for the record, the four are underage (self-explanatory), beastiality (same), incest (ditto) and excessive violence (torture porn or nonconsensual sex).  But I'm here to talk about a new one that's popped up ... or 'pooped out' to blow the joke.


[MORE]

My Next Book

Yet More Philosophy