Lust Plague by Cari Silverwood... or, a look at the fine art of crossing Zombies, Steampunk & BDSM.

Airship Captain Kaysana is about to have a truly crappy day. The Lust Plague, capable of turning people into raping, torturing, murderous Zombies has infected her ship. (I could stop at this point to make all sorts of puns about her going down with the ship but I won’t. I’m attempting to be more grownup like that.) So, anyways, Kaysana is attacked by a slavering hoard hell bent on torturing and eventually murdering her in a kinky-town fashion. Who’s going to rescue her? Because someone has to!

Cue the entrance of our hero, Sten, a Frankenstruct (Isn’t that the coolest word you’ve seen in a long time?). A monolith of a man who has a Hulk like temper he keeps under control via the use of meditation and Zen suchlike systems. Now, Sten is Alpha Dom to the core and a real rough and rugged charmer. I dare you not to adore him. And our Sten has a great, big thing for the usually buttoned down Captain (I’m allowed one pun, surely...). This unlikely duo of elite Airship Captain and sub-human Frankenstruct are going to have to don goggles and team up  together to stop the plague and save the day.

 Now, I have to admire any Author willing to go so crazy cross genre with the Zombie love.  And Ms Silverwood does it with style and then some. The writing is fabulous and the characters spell-binding. Sten the big brute being the perfect example. He has a wonderful sense of humour. Don’t you love a man with wit? A nice dry dash of sarcastic humour to pull everything into perspective? Yes, Sir-ee. I don’t usually read Steampunk. It’s not really my thing. But this book hooked me well and truly. It deserves all sorts of ‘rollicking good romp’ and ‘steamy sexy times’ labels slapped all over it. The world building is intriguing and the BDSM contained within is handled by deft hands indeed. Add to this that Ms Silverwood is a home grown talent and I am one happy camper. 

 http://www.carisilverwood.net/index.html

 

This has been another review for the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012. If you haven't checked out their great site yet then bang on the button to the side. Go on.

Six Sentence Sunday... smoochin goodness.

     Happy Sunday and welcome to the last snippet between Natalie and Angus. Next weekend we might kick off with something new. You see there’s this other poor girl who’s been busy trying to survive the zombie apocalypse and she’s in a world of trouble. We might catch up with her and see if we can’t fandangle a happy ever after somehow.

  But for now… the kiss. Have a great week!

     Coherent thought sailed straight out the window. He smashed his lips to hers. Shoved his tongue into her mouth. There was nothing smooth or controlled about it. Natalie made a noise beneath him and it might have been laughter but he was too busy to care. Too taken up with kissing her, deep and wet.

http://www.sixsunday.com/

Wherein I apologise for objectifying certain people...

It’s recently been brought to my attention that objectifying people is wrong. Really, really wrong. Because beautiful people have minds too. Personalities. Stuff. You know what I mean. So I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise.  You could say it’s part of the Act Appropriate mantra taken from the last post I did on etiquette. 

Now, some schools of thought believe that objectifying or surveying certain people purely with regards to sexual intent is harmful. It’s possibly bad for you baby. It’s also possibly demeaning to the person involved. On the other hand, to see someone sexually and to appreciate their physical appearance is not necessarily to believe that they don’t have other facets to their personality. That they lack intelligence or a life worth living outside of being a sexual object. Maybe it cuts both ways, hmm? 

There are no doubt situations wherein people are so obsessed with seeing a particular person in a sexual frame of mind that they cease to realise the person exists outside of this. But equally of course there has to be some space for appreciating people’s physical beauty and sexuality not least because we all do it with our partners and potential partners. There would presumably be something wrong with our relationships if we didn’t do so. 

So it can’t follow automatically that perceiving someone as beautiful and sexually attractive is to forget that they have other dimensions to their character. It’s also not to say that there isn’t art within the sexually charged shots. You can find the image of a person sexually attractive because that picture tells you something about that photo that appeals to your sexy time side.

Etiquette by me... because stranger things have happened.

My husband won’t tell me what to write about on my blog. I don’t know what his problem his. Something about my interrupting him in the middle of his busy important work day when he is on a deadline and overstressed and blah blah blah. Aren’t we all? He’s refusing to discuss my favourite TV or movie or whatever random bit of crap currently holds my attention courtesy of the internet. He apparently doesn’t care. Rude, much? I know! Like marriage was meant to be easy. As. If.

Birthday boy or not, hogging the cake is way uncool, Rodney.

Therefore, we shall discuss manners. It could have been priorities and my husband’s lack of them, but for now let’s roll with manners. Due to the rise of Email and Facebook and Twitter and every other damn mode of communication we have at our finger tips, manners has become a bit of an issue. Who do you follow on Twit? What if they don’t follow you? What if they’re having a conversation with someone and you’ve had the funniest darn one-liner of all time appear in your head and are just dying to insert it? What do you do? What? WHAT? #convointruder only gets you so far. The lines are blurred and the honest answer is – I don’t know. When does friendly become stalker painful? What if you’re following someone and they don’t follow you back? What to do? And humour, it’s a bitch and it doesn’t always carry well, no matter the amounts of ;) attached.

The propensity for us to curl up into our paranoid, self-obsessed, anti-social geeky little shells is high given the stresses inflicted by the abundance of chat thrust upon us. And let’s face it, for writers at least, the introversion thing generally rings true. Social graces aren’t always rocking and rolling. Or maybe that’s just me. It’s probably just me.  See – PARANOIA!!! F*ck it. Go forth with good intentions and learn when to back off. Hopefully. But here are some things to think about...

Be Generous – If someone @’s you then reply. Unless you’re the President of the United States or Neil Gaiman... you know what I mean. Go on, it won’t hurt you to make friends. Much. Or it shouldn’t.

Think Twice – I could perhaps benefit from this one. Because that joke about cat poop I just put on Facebook, well... I don’t think it’s going to go over so well. But it made me laugh... but then there’s your audience to consider. And perhaps good taste. Oh well.

Act Appropriate – There was an interesting debate going on about the content of blogs and such like being G rated across the board. Umm, no. But do be a dear and give a warning. And remember, there are times and places. Potty humour aside, maybe the F-bomb doesn’t belong on Twitter and FB. I dunno. Are you going to peeve more people than you impress? Should it matter? What if you’re some free radical crazy boozing it up and having a blast? Well? So go for it. But remember, if people are tuning you out then thems the breaks. Have you considered the well bred * insertion into your language? I think it looks cute. I really like it. Yeah, M*t*er F*c*er!!! Or perhaps the abbreviated WTF? Consider.

I’m not telling you to express yourself in ways that are untrue to your wholesome loveliness. I’ve been accused of being crass on more than one occasion. But it can pay to think about what you’re putting out there. We’re all learning on the fly, this is the truth. And if you’re online in a professional capacity then it’s worth contemplation. I myself have an L plate stuck to my forehead and maybe this was all to get it straight in my own head, but I hope some of this has been of use.

One last hard definite for people of the writerly persuasion...

Don't send nasty crap to Publishers or Agents when they reject you – It makes me sad that this even needs to be stated and yet I keep seeing it coming up time and again. Don’t do it. Pointless. Unprofessional. And maybe the catharsis is not so helpful if you just vent and jump up and down and wave your arms and sh*t. Maybe you should take some time and figure out if there was actually something to what they said. You never know. But if you can’t take rejection then boy are you in the wrong business. This applies to book reviewers and competition judges too. You will never please everyone and not everyone’s going to love you. Walk away.  So they didn’t get your tortured tale of torrid love between the Billionaires Undead Virgin Bride and whoever. Move on! If you can’t think of anything nice to say then thank them for their time and leave it be. Or better yet, say nothing.

Six Sentence Sunday...

Alright, apologies for my absence last week. I was off at a writing retreat and the internet was dodgy. You’d be amazed how much work got done due to that fact. Or perhaps not...

Now to end the will-she-won’t-she going on between our poor long suffering Angus and the capricious Natalie.  I actually left out a few lines but I figured we’d dallied here long enough. Next week I’ll even lay a big smooch on you just to round things off.

Have an awesome Sunday and start of the week! Thanks for dropping by!

“I mean, I want to have sex with you.”

Natalie’s eyes darkened and her mouth opened, but she said nothing for the longest time.

He could have choked on the silence.

Then her soft hands cupped his face, drawing him in. And God, he wanted in. More than he could remember ever wanting anything, he wanted inside of her.

http://www.sixsunday.com/