Erin O'Riordan writes smart, whimsical erotica. Her erotic romance novel trilogy, Pagan Spirits, is now available. With her husband, she also writes crime novels. Visit her home page at ko-fi.com.
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November 3, 2000, Mishawaka: Tit and I went out to dinner at Applebee’s. I had an Oriental chicken salad and a couple of strawberry daiquiris. They weren’t very strong.
I really enjoyed this performance, too; it was full of laughs. My favorite was Puck, played by Michelle Host. Puck is traditionally played as a male character, but in this play she was played with joyful mischief by a women. The costumes for Puck, Titania, and Oberon were great.
The other fairies were a bit of a disappointment [wardrobe-wise]. They had on masks such as one might wear to a costume party. I much preferred the faces of Puck and Titania, painted with makeup and glitter but still looking human.
Another actor who was very enjoyable was Christopher Ference, who played Bottom. Bottom is a great role, what with the ass-head-wearing and the role-within-a-role of Pyramus. It’s hard work, and a good Bottom takes talent. This guy had talent and he got the biggest laughs.
From the program: “The Bethel Theatre Arts Department welcomes you to our fall production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Since it was first presented in 1594 this magical comedy of lovers and fairies and ‘rude mechanicals’ has delighted audiences worldwide. We trust you will enjoy the play, our eleventh production on the Everest-Rohrer Stage.”
Drawing of Shakespeare's character Puck, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, made by J. E. H. MacDonald for Roy Mitchell's book Shakespeare for Community Players (1919)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare, Act 4, Scene 1), print, after Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, Samuel Cousins (MET, 47.30.46). This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy
Sex With Shakespeare: Here's Much to Do With Pain, But More With Love
I knew from the moment I laid eyes on the title of this book that I had to know more. When I spotted it on the autobiographies shelf at my local Barnes and Noble, I knew I had to buy a copy.
The author, Jillian Keenan, is a spanking fetishist. I am not. Despite the fact that I myself am not a part of the spanking sub-subculture of the BDSM subculture, I found that I felt a tremendous amount of sympathy with the author as she told her story.
This is, after all, a love story. All love stories are relatable, to some extent, to anyone who's ever been in love.
Each chapter is themed around a particular Shakespearean work. The first chapter centers on my favorite of the Bard's comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Here Keenan addresses a topic also brought up by E.T. Malinowski in her romance novel A Midsummer Dream: Are Demetrius and Helena ever really in love?
Keenan thinks they are, as I do. But she adds an interesting new spin. She contends that when Helena says:
"I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love,--
And yet a place of high respect with me,--
Than to be used as you use your dog?"
...she is being literal. She wants Demetrius to treat her like his dog. In Helena, Keenan sees a kindred soul, a woman whose sexuality is incomplete, virtually nonexistent, without her submissive, masochistic side being expressed. Keenan sees Helena as a woman embracing her emerging kink, while Demetrius is still coming to terms with his Dominant/sadist tendencies. Genuinely afraid he will hurt Helena, Demetrius turns his attentions to the woman he perceives as the safe, vanilla choice: Hermia.
Kinky headcanon accepted. Since I can't seem to stop crushing on Christian Bale as Demetrius, I want the interpretation that puts Demetrius in the most sympathetic light.
The second chapter deals with a character I find much less likeable: Caliban from The Tempest. Keenan has a special relationship with Caliban, but I can't get over the fact that he admits he tried to rape Miranda. Keenan doesn't excuse that, but she does remind us that Shakespeare was a humanist and even he, in the authorial voice, allows mercy for Caliban in the end.
There are a few plays mentioned in this memoir that I haven't seen or read yet: Twelfth Night, Cymbeline, Antony and Cleopatra, and As You Like It. By and large, though, all the characters with whom Keenan has a series of imagination conversations that help her find her way are all familiar, beloved characters to me.
Now, Keenan has a master's degree in literature that focused on Shakespeare and is recognized as an expert. Productions call her in when they have questions about interpretation of the text. I'm an amateur fan who fell in love with my fifth grade teacher cast me as Peter Quince. I don't know nearly as much about Shakespeare as Keenan does, but as a fellow fangirl, I can certainly appreciate her enthusiasm for the subject.
She writes with remarkable honesty and openness about matters both deeply personal and professional, and I felt privileged to accompany her on this inward journey. I may not share the specifics of her sexual orientation (and she does call spanking fetishism her orientation - in the more conventional sense of the term, she is bisexual, like me - and like Shakespeare, probably), but through this book, I have new insight into the experience.
One quibble: Keenan mentions that in Shakespeare's time, the liver and not the heart was considered to be the seat of love. However, it seems to me that I have seen references within Shakespeare's plays to the heart as the seat of love. Did she mean that the liver was considered to be the seat of lust?
Either way, I really, really enjoyed reading this memoir.
I purchased this book with my own funds and was not obligated in any way to review it.
This was a short book and a quick read, so I finished it in an afternoon. I love everything to do with my favorite Shakespeare comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I love romance novels in all the genres, with all the possible gender combinations, and I especially like contemporaries. It was a no-brainer that I had to read this one.
I was not disappointed. The writing wasn't perfect, but I really didn't care, because I was heavily invested in the characters. I always like the heroes who are a little bit damaged, and Arik Blackbourne is a classic example of this. He has a tragic past. He's estranged from his sister and niece. He harbors a longstanding crush on a fellow actor who barely knows he exists.
Donovan Montgomery is that actor, and he's a little clueless. He needs to work on his communication skills. But as he performs the role of Demetrius, opposite Arik's gender-swapped Helena ("Helenus"), Donovan is increasingly smitten. And this seems increasingly familiar...
Like Shakespeare's play, this gripping romance proceeds, with much confusion, toward a happily-ever-after ending. The involvement of fairy royalty and their retinue is not even required.
The novella does raise an interesting Shakespearean question, though: At the end of the original play, are Demetrius and Helena really in love? Or is she in love with a guy who's still stuck under a fairy love spell, but deep down he's not even interested in her anymore?
I tend to think that at the end of the wedding scene, when Oberon bestows his blessing upon the marital beds of the three couples, he's also undoing all of his mischievous magic, and at this point, Helena and Demetrius are truly in love. Christian Bale and Calista Flockhart look pretty lovey-dovey at the end of the 1999 movie (which I saw in the theater when it came out, because that's the kind of literature geek I am). But I suppose the Shakespeareans are welcome to debate that point.
I checked this e-book out from the library via HooplaDigital.com. I was not obligated in any way to review it.
I really enjoy a fresh take on A Midsummer Night's Dream, but this one's a bit hard to love. The plot is full of holes, the writing is hacky, and actual references to Shakespeare's play are few and far between. The Puck character never even says, "Lord, what fools these mortals be."
One thing I really didn't like was the main character Claire's tendency to call other girls and women "sluts." To be fair, many young women do really use this term. However, I don't think many thoughtful teenage girls would appreciate the stereotype that they are shallow, catty, and judgmental. In real life, this kind of name-calling can lead to bullying, and a young person who is bullied and doesn't know how to get help may even contemplate suicide. I know this personally because my cousin's 12-year-old daughter committed suicide in May 2015 after being bullied at school about not wearing designer clothes and being "poor." I have strong negative feelings toward girl-on-girl name-calling, or any name-calling between teens. Young folks really need to be positively reinforced for being kind and gentle toward each other.
But if you like kitschy early-1980s horror films, especially of the slasher variety, you might be able to appreciate this book on that level. I did care enough about the characters to root for Claire and Delia to live. It's not the worst young adult horror story ever. It's just not brilliant.
I purchased this audiobook at a library used media sale with my own finds and was not obligated in any way to review it. This review represents my own personal opinion.
This is an affiliate link:
Ghosts in Houses and Other Spooky Places by Daniel Hardie. $2.99 from Smashwords.com
Enter a world of the unknown and the paranormal, where strange ghostly and haunting happenings take place all over the world. Ghosts in Houses & Other Spooky places is a book that explores ghostly realms in haunted houses, haunted hotels, historic castles and cursed graveyards. Read this book... if you dare.
Twitter-based sex chat program Sex Talk Tuesday welcomes Nina Hartley as a special guest moderator for its upcoming show on Tuesday, December 3. "We are thrilled and honored that Nina will be joining us as a guest moderator on Sex Talk Tuesday,” says Angie Rowntree, publisher of Sssh.com. “She is truly an icon and role model. This is going to be a great!"
Nina Hartley has been a driving force in the adult industry for nearly three decades as an actress, director, sex educator, feminist and author. She has been a tireless, outspoken advocate for sexual freedom and promotes a healthy, sex-positive culture. Ms. Hartley strives to change the negative perceptions of adult entertainment and sex itself, believing instead that porn has the capacity to empower women.
Nina has appeared in hundreds of mainstream and adult movies, including Missing Pieces and Boogie Nights. She has also appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows such as The Phil Donahue Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Nina also produces a no-nonsense sex advice series called “Nina Hartley’s Guides” available at her store on Nina.com.
A fun and provocative Twitter-based chat held every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month from 4pm to 5pm Eastern Standard Time, #SexTalkTuesday is hosted and coordinated by Sssh.com, the web’s premier destination for erotica made by and for women. Each session, a guest moderator asks thought-provoking questions to a large and active group of participants, who send hundreds of tweets during each round of #SexTalkTuesday. The result is a lively and entertaining discussion that invites participants to be open and candid with their thoughts and opinions on sex, life, love and the humor of it all, in a way that fosters a supportive and compassionate environment for the conversation.
To participate in Sex Talk Tuesday, go to twitter.com and use the #SexTalkTuesday hashtag. For more information, or to inquire about serving as a guest moderator, contact Angie Rowntree at editor@sssh.com.
Erin's Note: I wrote about one of Nina Hartley's films, an x-rated parody of William Shakespeare's immortal classic A Midsummer Night's Dream, for the website TheEroticWoman.com in 2007. You can read "Adult Film Review: A Midsummer Night's Cream" there.
Does this black-and-white version of the fairy queen Titania look familiar? A bit like Scarlett O'Hara, perhaps? Yes, that's Vivien Leigh.
"Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through brier,
Over park, over pale,
Through flood, through fire,
I do wonder everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green."
(Act II, Sc. I, Lines 2-9)
"If we shadows have offended.
Think but this, and all is mended -
That you have but slumb'red here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend...
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends."
(Act V. Sc. I Lines 418-425, 432-433)
Oberon: Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
Titania: What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence.
I have foresworn his bed and company.
Oberon: Tarry, rash wanton: am I not thy Lord?
Titania: Then I must be thy lady...
(Act II, Sc. I, Lines 61-65)
"The course of true love never did run smooth."
(Act I, Sc. I, Line 136)
Yesterday was my library's once-monthly used media sale, which I attend a few times a year (at one time, with my grandma, although she's stopped reading due to health problems - that is, until she indulges herself in an e-reader. I hope she'll do so for her birthday, coming up this weekend. But I digress. My Haul:
The Books: 1.The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I haven't read it yet. It's the only novel by Stephenie Meyer that I haven't read. Perhaps I'll get to it by the time the movie comes out on DVD and I rent it on Netflix. I understand it's something about aliens. 2. The unauthorized Twilight companion by Lois H. Gresh, who also wrote The Truth Behind 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'. I wasn't terribly impressed with her SOUE book, but I was willing to give the Twilight one a chance for 25 cents. 3. An unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo. It's a little rumpled, but at least this time I won't miss out on the lesbian elopement. (I promise I'll never read an abridged classic again. I didn't even do it on purpose this time.) 4. Darkest Highlander by Donna Grant. Granted, it's the 6th book in the series, I only own 1-3 and I've only read 1 (Dangerous Highlander; review here), but I'll still have a head start when I someday eventually finish the Dark Sword series.
5. Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. I've never read it before. I do think that when I took the "Which Jane Austen Character Are You?" quiz, I got Catherine Morland. I did suggest the other day that Joseph Gordon-Levitt should star in a period-piece adaptation by a beloved female author - as Christian Bale did in Little Women and Tom Hardy did in Wuthering Heights - and could play Henry Tilney. (That Tom Hardy is an unlikely choice for Heathcliff will be a rant for another day.) The Movies: 1. The Hunger Games. I saw it twice, but I didn't own it until now. 2. Becoming Jane. Ihaven't seen it, but Anne Hathaway as a young Jane Austen - how bad could that be? It also has James MacAvoy (Mr. Tumnus the faun), Julie Walters (Molly Weasley) and Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagal). 3. The Orlando BloomThree Musketeers. I haven't seen this one either. To be honest, I don't have very high hopes for it - the previews looked like more special effects than story - but it's a Dumas adaptation and it's been ages since we had a big Hollywood Musketeers movie. (Coincidentally enough, the last one was in 1993, the year I wrote about in yesterday's music post. If we count The Man in the Iron Mask, which came out in 1998, it's still been 15 years.) 4. Best of all, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), with Christian Bale, Stanley Tucci, Rupert Everett and Michelle Pfeiffer, among many other stars. I've seen this one literally dozens of times, starting when it came out in theaters. It's hard to believe I didn't own it, but I didn't until now.
Stopping by from the Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop? Please visit Friday's post HERE for a chance to win free books!
Erin O'Riordan: Good news! If you've ever wanted to listen to my A Midsummer Night's Dream-inspired erotic short story "Pucked" in audiobook, it's now available on Amazon! You can get Erotica Volume 3: Four Hot New Tales of Desire as an Audible.com download.
I wrote this last night, just for fun. I've decided that I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and read James Jones' trilogy all the way through. I have a copy of From Here to Eternity coming from Better World Books (not only a bookstore, but also a literacy project founded by University of Notre Dame grads). I can get The Thin Red Line and Whistle from the library (oddly enough, they don't have Jones' more well-known first novel). 'Cause me and Mr. James Jones - we got an American literature thing going on.
(I just wanted an excuse to listen to Amy Winehouse, ok?) For a little more background on this free-write, see the Memorial Day pin-up post:
“Private Witt.” I hated to wake him; sleeping, he looked calm and boyish. I needed the bed, so I held him by the shoulder and shook him. The slow way he opened his eyes told me he was still half drunk. “Private Witt, you’re being discharged.”
He jerked out of the grasp I had on his upper arm. “Is it morning yet?” After he spoke, he winced slightly, no doubt remembering the stitches beneath his left eye.
“No,” I whispered. He’d been so drunk when we stitched him up, we hadn’t bothered to undress him. I handed him his boots; he sat up and pulled them on. “Follow me.” I wasn’t sure if he followed me as I walked to the rear of the tent; I turned and caught a glimpse of him in the low light.
When we were outside, I looked him over in the moonlight. “You won’t be able to shave for a few days. I don’t want you undoing my handiwork.”
“So you’re the one who stitched me up.”
“Yeah. I’ll have the head nurse write you a no-shave chit. Before you go back to your company, I could give you something for the pain.” I touched his cheek below the wound. “Does this hurt?”
He clapped his big hand over mine, took my hand from his face and repositioned it on the zipper of his trousers. “My face don’t hurt, nurse, but I got another ache you could take care of for me.”
I drew my hand back. “What kind of a girl do you think I am?” I turned to go inside.
He caught the sleeve of my uniform. “I just think you’re kind, that’s all. Kind, and pretty. I thought maybe I could make you happy for a little while.”
I took his fingers from my sleeve. “I’m one of – what? Maybe twelve American women on this island. If we count the Australians, there are maybe thirty of us – compared to how many G.I.s?” He narrowed his eyes, lost. “My point is, if we nurses did it with every joe who gave us the eye, we’d all have fallen dead from V.D. weeks ago.”
He smiled; his smile was distractingly nice. “You married, Nurse…” He looked at my tag. “...McLaren?”
“Not anymore.”
“He get himself killed?”
“Nothing like that. I divorced him.” I looked Witt straight in the eyes. “He got drunk and hit me. I told him first off, I didn’t care how drunk he got as long as he didn’t hit me. The bastard must have forgot, because he busted my lip. I didn’t give him a chance to do it again.”
I hadn’t said anything funny, but Witt laughed. “I ain’t never hit a woman.”
I turned again to go back inside. The head nurse would wonder where I’d gone. Something stopped me, and I turned back around to see the G.I. standing in the moonlight, a half-drunk smile still plastered to his face. “What would you do?” I asked him.
“Beg pardon?”
I smiled then, at his Southern way of speaking. I didn’t know anybody who talked like him back in Boston. “What would you do, then, if you were drunk and I made you so mad you couldn’t stand me anymore?”
He moved in, closing the space between us, and put his hand in my hair, under my hat. “I’d take you by the ponytail,” he said. His face was so close to mine, our noses almost touched. Starlight sparkled in his pale blue eyes. “I’d take you by the hair and drag you into the bedroom. I’d throw you on the bed, lift up your skirt and rip off your little pink panties. Then I’d fuck you good and hard and I wouldn’t stop until you squealed like a little puppy dog with her tail caught in the car door.”
We were so close now, the moonlight couldn’t shine between us, and I could feel his hardness through our uniforms. I wanted it. I wanted it all so badly, and that smirk on his face told me he knew it, too. “Five minutes,” I heard myself whisper. He cocked his head to the side. I brushed the back of my hand against the front of his trousers. “Five minutes –no more- and just my hand. I don’t want to go home with a bastard baby.”
All at once, he pulled him into him with one hand, kissed me and undid his zipper with the other hand. I broke away from our kiss long enough to spit in my hand. I wrapped my fingers around his shaft, long and hard and ready for my attention. “It’s beautiful,” I whispered. He moaned as I ran my thumb over the tip, and I caught his lips with mine. He tasted like sour whiskey, but I didn’t mind. I kissed him until I felt him shudder and fill my hand with his seed. I pulled my lips away and our eyes met.
“I’m gonna find you again, Nurse McLaren,” he said.
“I’ll be right here. Try not to fall down and cut your face open on a rock again, though.” I stepped back inside, wiping my sticky hand against my hip. The head nurse was really going to have my head on a platter.
“After the war,” he said through the tent flap. “What’s your first name?”
“Mariellen.”
“Mariellen McLaren, after the war – if I’m still alive – I’m gonna find you and marry you.”
“Who said I wanted to get married again?”
“I love you, Mariellen McLaren, and I’m gonna marry you.” Smiling like a fool, he ran off toward his company. He was still half drunk, I told myself, and still under the influence of my fingers; he’d get over it. I doubted he’d remember my name by the time the sun came up.
But I was wrong.
Sonja Diane Bandolik: Sex Warrior is a journey story that goes behind the scenes, delving into sexual subcultures that are readily available but mostly misunderstood by the mainstream. The quest began as a serious exploration to find the path to sexual self-actualization for women. It was in that spirit that Sonja struck out into the sexual arena ready to fight the good fight. "I learned so much about my world, relationships, & sexuality it made me impatient to discover what else was out there to enrich my experience." Fear & trepidation gave way to confidant joy; a most pleasant surprise! The bigger picture that presented itself ultimately made this story a revelation in human sexuality, bridging gender and culture in a celebration of connections. "I can't wait to share all the details with you!"
While it may surprise many who know Sonja as a teacher and healer, Sex Warrior is a natural sequel to her first novel. Surviving is simply a prerequisite for living - it's not the journey - and the best journeys answer questions you didn't think to ask when you first embarked. The end of Twisted Passage begged the question, "What next?' The answer turned out to be one wild and surprising ride into foreign territory.
Happy first night of Hanukkah! I love how the Festival of Lights falls around the Winter Solstice this year. This is my Hanukkah gift to you, my readers: eight crazy nights of Hanukkah Hebrew hotties. First up is a guy I mentioned in my Howl post the other day as one of David Strathairn's co-stars in Good Night, and Good Luck: Robert Downey Jr. (originally, Robert Elias.)
I have a confession to make: for years, I thought Robert Downey, Jr. was bisexual. I don't know where I got such information (probably from National Enquirer, which Yiddish grandma used to read with regularity, then pass on to me), but it doesn't seem to be true. All his significant relationships have been with women, including the red-hot Yiddish mama Sarah Jessica Parker. I won't hold being a straight guy against him, but it does ruin my vision of RDJ ascending into GLBT heaven, where he would sit at the right hand of James Dean. Amen.
(In actual spiritual practice, RDJ does not believe in heaven. He's a combination of Jewish, Buddhist and Hare Krishna.)
He is in a particularly awesome Elton John video. I love that this is one continuous take, no cuts.
RDJ is best known as Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes these days, but he got his start acting in Less Than Zero, the film adaptation of possibly the second-best Bret Easton Ellis novel, after American Psycho. This landed him in a Bangles video, the Simon & Garfunkel cover from the soundtrack. (As an added bonus, Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs is also Jewish!)
He's also a Shakespearean actor: he was in Richard III with Sir Ian McKellan and Dominic West. (West played Lysander in the 1999 A Midsummer Night's Dream - with David Strathairn.)
Photo by Alan Light
Join me HERE on December 28th for a special Hanukkah post and giveaway.
Everyone over the age of 16 should see the movie Howl, starring James Franco as American poet Allen Ginsberg. It's a brilliant film about a seminal American book. Every word of dialogue comes from Ginsberg's poetry and writings or the transcript of the obscenity trial to which the book's publisher was subjected. (The publisher won.)
James Franco is a fine actor, and I like him in this, but I don't quite buy the illusion of him as Allen Ginsberg. He doesn't quite have the right spirit. Maybe that's just because I so admire Ginsberg and his poetry. When he died in 1997, losing his cancer battle at only 71, I grieved for his loss as if I knew him. I didn't know him, except through his words, but that's what good poetry does to you. When the poet dies, a little part of the reader dies, too.
The movie also has David Strathairn, as the prosecutor in the obscenity trial. Why do I love David Strathairn? For playing the regal Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream. (The Hippolyta opposite him isn't very Amazonian, but it's too late to go back and fix that now.) He's kind of big in literature-based films. If you're a huge fan of children's books and their screen adaptations, you may know him as Arthur Spiderwick in The Spiderwick Chronicles. If you're a fan of Stephen King adaptations, you might known him as Dolores Claiborne's asshole husband. However, his best-known role may be as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck, an intriguing historical drama with the hotness factor of George Clooney + Robert Downey, Jr. (That one was not based on a book; Clooney wrote it with Grant Heslov.)
(This is Titania and Bottom, not Theseus and Hippolyta, but we do know from the play that Theseus and Titania had been lovers.)
I wrote a derivative poem once, based on "Footnote to Howl." I call it "Moist Howlette."
"Sacred! Sacred! Sacred! My poet, my prophet, my Jewish saint and guru declares that all is sacred!
The world is divine! The soul is divine! The skin is sacred! The vulva is sacred! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole sacred!
Everybody’s sacred! Everywhere’s sacred! Every thing is sacred! Every day is an eternity! Every man and woman is an angel!
The sacred whore’s as holy as the seraphim! The sex worker is holy as you my soul are holy! The clitoral orgasm’s as sacred as the vaginal orgasm!
The keyboard is sacred the poem is sacred the voice is sacred the hearers and readers are sacred the ecstasy is sacred!
Holy Erin holy Allen holy Purrrrrrrrr holy Kathryn E holy Walt Whitman holy Joan Jett holy fuckers holy every human angel!
Sacred the vibrators! Sacred, the cock and the cock ring and the clit and the clit ring!
Sacred the groaning saxophone! Sacred the orgasm apocalypse! Sacred the womb scrotum balls peace and junk and drums!
Sacred the solitudes of men’s rooms and elevators! Sacred the strip clubs filled with the millions! Sacred the mysterious rivers of cum and pussy juice and blood and sweat and tears under the sheets!
Sacred the lesbian and the gay man! Sacred the bisexual! Sacred the straight feminist and sexual shepherds of rebellion!
Sacred the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of Allen Ginsberg’s dear departed soul!"
And now for something completely different.
This award comes from Shah Wharton, writer extraordinaire and proprietress of Words in Sync. As an award recipient, I'm supposed to pass the award along to 15 other bloggers.
These are 15 of the most fabulous-est blogs, in alphabetical order:
Are you an author? Would you like to tease future readers with a blurb about your current work in progress on a WIP Wednesday? If so, e-mail me at erinoriordan (at) sbcglobal (dot) net.
Erin O'Riordan: "Pucked" is out in Erotica, Volume 3: Four Hot New Tales of Desire, edited by Barbara Cardy. This sizzling brand-new short was inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's available on Amazon.co.uk, too, but here in the U.S. the Kindle price is only $1.38!
Teri Louise Kelly: Journey to the Start of a Trilogy
It didn’t start that way.
It started as an idea several years ago about a serial killer called the Toolman. He was a hardware nut, killed people with nail guns and hammer drills, got himself wrapped up in torque. It was written as a short story, won an award I seem to recall. Then I left him there and went onto St Angelinas, an island – I had this thing about island life, it’s insular lifestyle and tainted bloodlines. Paganism, I wanted them to have burned blasphemers along a cliff headland – Bonfyre Night on St Angelinas, it was a big tourist drawcard. Dumped that too after sixty pages, moved to memoir, and then these past two-years I wrote a Spec Fiction entitled Cultivores (Released Dec 15), about life after a climate atrocity and I used both the Toolman and St Angelinas in it.
Which took me right back to the island and the two characters I’d left there years ago, Boogie Cane and Dana De Lalley, drunk journo and new-to-island homicide cop. Re-titled Pretey Deyde Gyrls (after the island’s hatred of the letter “I”) I’m reacquainting myself with mysterious deaths and weathermen who read poetry . . . it’s odd, but sometimes going back is better than going forward . . . and anyhow, how do you catch a killer that might not even physically exist? I love island life . . .
Find Teri Louise Kelly online at http://open-bks.com/writers-corner/kelly-louise-teri/teri-louise-kelly.html Jesse V. Coffey: When I wrote the first book in the Brothers Cameron series, I had no intention of making it into a series. I really had no intention of writing a romance novel, but it certainly became one quickly. But to write more than one book? Never crossed my mind. Until I started describing the original story to a friend, and in the telling, one book led to another and the adventures in that book. Which led to another and the adventures there. I realized -- wow, I had a series. Three books, to be certain, but still a series. And now, several years after writing An Opportunity for Resentment, I slip back into this world of mine with amazing ease.
A Crooked Rainbow Trail picks up about four months after the end of Opportunity. Stephan and Jessica are still very much in love and plan to wed, but Stephan is dragging his heels in calling the banns. William has wed his beloved Mary and become the town patron in the place of his deceased father, but he'd rather be breeding horses and spending his days as a gentleman farmer. Old enemies resurface from book one and make their way into book two. Jessica's former love, Robin St. Thomas, finds out that her father's will states that she must marry within the six month after the man's death or she will lose everything. He's strapped for cash and will do anything to get his hands on her and her fortune. William's nemesis, the Irish mercenary/assassin Cieran Morris, wants revenge and he's willing to do whatever it takes to kill his enemy. So many lives will be thrown into turmoil...and death is around the corner.
Back into my world, writing this story has become a labor of love for me. I hope it pleases those who read the books. While you wait for this one, The Brothers Cameron: An Opportunity for Resentment is available on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and iTunes/iBookstore, along with any online bookstore that sells ebooks. A Crooked Rainbow Trail will be released in 2012, along with book three, A Wild Heart.
The way things are going, a fourth book -- as yet untitled -- will be out in 2013. I hope you'll read along.
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Midsummer Eve and Midsummer Night are celebrated in Europe around the time of the summer solstice (which sounds a little odd, since we now consider the solstice the beginning of the season, not the middle). It’s typically observed some time between June 19 and June 26. It's a particularly popular celebration in northern Europe, especially the Scandinavian countries. In the British Isles, Ireland and Cornwall celebrate Midsummer most actively.
American cities with large Swedish populations, including New York and Chicago, sometimes have public Midsummer celebrations. Midsummer is also celebrated in New Orleans by those who practice Voudou.
In the agricultural year, Midsummer marks the transition from spring planting to summer hay-making. It’s also the harvest time for early potatoes and strawberries. In folklore, Midsummer is one of the times of year when magic is at its strongest. It’s one of the nights to be on the lookout for fairies (as in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and/or evil spirits.
The Christianized named for Midsummer is St. John’s Day. It refers to St. John the Baptist, who is called Ivan Kupala in Russian. Gwyl Ifan is the Welsh name for St. John’s Day, and its Irish name is Oiche Fheile Eoin. The saint’s official feast day in the Catholic Church is June 24, corresponding to six months before and after Christmas. St. John’s Day is also a Masonic holiday, as John the Baptist is considered one of the “patron saints” of Masonry.
Before the Christian era, Finland celebrated Midsummer as the holiday of the god Ukko. The Irish associate it with Aine, the goddess of the moon and of love. On the Neopagan calendar, Midsummer is sometimes called Litha, a Germanic word.
Midsummer customs include gathering or ingesting certain herbs; herbs with healing powers are said to be especially effective at this time of year. Plants associated with Midsummer include the elder flower, fennel, fern, foxglove, oak, rosemary, rowan, and of course, St. John’s wort.
Some visit a stream, well or other water source said to have healing powers. In Poland, women throw wreaths of flowers into the Baltic Sea after wearing them in their hair. Young men swim out to catch the wreath of the girl they want to marry. In Spain, women who stand in the ocean until they are lapped with nine waves are said to have increased fertility.
Bonfires are also common. Jumping over the bonfire is an ancient fertility custom, and it also represents cleansing and purification. The fires are said to “call down” the sun, encouraging the sun to help the crops grow. In Ireland, on the day after Midsummer, the bonfire’s ashes are scattered in the field for good luck. In Christian times, religious icons that became broken or worn out could be destroyed in a Midsummer fire without disrespect.
In Cornwall (the south-western tip of England, south of Wales), a Midsummer (Golowan or Gol-Jowan in Cornish) ceremony has a Lady of the Flowers who casts a wreath of both medicinal and poisonous plants into the bonfire. Her traditional chant goes:
Otta kelmys yn-kemyskys
Blejyow, may fons-y cowl leskys,
Ha'n da, ha'n drok.
Re dartho an da myl egyn,
Glan re bo dyswres pup dregyn,
Yn tan, yn mok!
(In one bunch together bound
Flowers for burning here are found
Both good and ill.
Thousandfold let good seed spring
Wicked weeds, fast withering,
Let this fire kill!)
In very far northern latitudes, Midsummer is the time of the midnight sun, when there is no sunset. Further south, people might keep torches or other lights burning all night at Midsummer. Latvia observes this custom, and in more recent times has added a 3 a.m. nude run through the town of Kuldiga.
Midsummer is almost as popular as Christmas in some Scandinavian countries. The Swedish celebration includes a bonfire, a maypole, decorating the outsides of homes with flowers, and divination. Midsummer divination, like the customs surrounding St. Mark’s Day, often involves trying to find out whom one’s future spouse will be. In Denmark, witch effigies are burned on the bonfire, as is the custom in some parts of Spain.
Were the World Mine is a thoroughly charming film. It's a musical with a great rock soundtrack with the lyrics based on William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Midsummer Night's Dream happens to be my favorite of all of Shakespeare's brilliant plays. I cross-dressed and played the workman-actor Peter Quince in my fifth grade school production of it. I took my husband to see it live on stage when we were first dating. I adore the 1999 film version, and not just because it has a young Christian Bale as Demetrius. Heck, I named my last book Midsummer Night, and in one scene the characters are watching the Shakespearean film.
Were the World Mine is not just a new adaptation of the play, though. Its central character is Timothy, a gay teen at an all-male private school. He has an unrequited crush on Jonathon, who happens to be an uber-jock rugby player. Enter Miss T, the English teacher. She insists on casting the macho rugby players in the school play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Everyone knows that English teachers possess magic, and in this case, it's literally true. She casts Timothy as the mischievous fairy Puck, prompting many "fairy" jokes but also teaching him the magic formula for making the play's love-inducing flower.
With the magic pansy that can make people fall in love with each other at first sight, Timothy gets Jonathon to fall in love with him. Unfortunately, he makes a mistake and accidentally also gets his heterosexual friend Max to fall in love with him. Then Timothy goes a little wild and turns most of the town gay. But this is a comedy, and like the Shakespearean version, all the star-crossed romances and rivalries will be straightened out (literally, in this case) by the end of the film. I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn that when all the magic is reversed, it turns out Jonathon's feelings for Timothy are genuine, and the two live happily ever after.
The music is great, the characters are adorable, and Miss T's glam production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is gorgeous. (Adam Lambert could easily star in this, if it were adapted as a stage musical.) Lovers of theater will appreciate the play within the play. In fact, only the crustiest homophobe could dislike this disarming production.
Welcome to PS! When you're done here, please check out my guest blog post, "The Ten Best Jobs For Men in Romance Novels," at The Best of Everything. Now, enjoy a brief excerpt from Midsummer Night!
Zen completed the circle of candles around the two of them. She held up the candelabra with the white, red and black candles in front of Allie. She offered Allie the lighter in her other hand. “Would you like to do the honors, oh daughter of Brigid, goddess of fire?”
Allie nodded her head graciously and took the lighter. She lit the white candle as she composed an impromptu prayer. “Oh Brigid, our mother, goddess of fire, we dedicate this sacred feast of Imbolc to you. At this dark and gloomy time of year, when it seems winter will never end, we know the days are actually getting longer and warmer, and spring is coming soon, thanks to you. Care for us, mother, and do not neglect to give us your light and your heat so we may live. Give your light and your heat to the earth so the springtime crops grow so we may have food to sustain ourselves and our children. Let the young be birthed and plants renewed so that fresh breath is given to life. So let it be.”
“So let it be,” Zen echoed her. She set the lighter aside and placed the candelabra in the circle. She used its black candle to light the candle next to it, and then used that candle to light the next, until she had gone all the way around the circle. As she did, she added her own prayer. “Goddess, if it is your will for Allie’s son to be born today, on your sacred day, then please grant that she and the baby be safe in childbirth. And please don’t let us fall asleep and burn the house down. So let it be.”
“So let it be,” Allie said. “Now, what do you want to watch?”
“Since it’s just the two of us, how about Thelma and Louise?"
Allie shook her head. “How about something a little less tragic?”
“How about Romeo and Juliet, the Leonardo and Claire version?”
“Zen, that movie is tragic in every sense of the word. Since you want to be all Shakespearean, how about A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Rupert and Michelle version? There’s nothing like Midsummer to get your mind off a long winter’s night.”
“Good call. Romance, magic, fairies, and a young Christian Bale. Yummy.”
“Down, girl!” Allie laughed. “Is it possible my pregnancy estrogen is screwing with your brain?”
“It’s almost certain, and yet knowing this does nothing to diminish Christian Bale's deliciousness."
She gave Allie a satisfied smile, then went to the entertainment center and looked through her sister’s movie collection until she found the right disc. The costumed fantasy, with its star-crossed lovers and mischievous fairies, distracted them from Allie’s discomfort. When the movie ended, they started it up again.
The candle light aided the mood, and soon Zen almost forgot they were waiting for Kameko and Melissa. The headlights of Melissa’s ancient, battered Volkswagen outside of Allie’s house snapped Zen back to reality. She got up and opened the door for them.
************
Midsummer Night by Erin O'Riordan, new January 2010 from eXcessica Publishing. In print, e-book and for Kindle.
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Ghosts in Houses and Other Spooky Places
, edited by Barbara Cardy. This sizzling brand-new short was inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's available on Amazon.co.uk, too, but here in the U.S. the Kindle price is only $1.38! 
