My latest publication, "Tragedy, then Farce"
My short story "Tragedy, then Farce" has been published in Circlet Press' latest anthology, Like an Iron Fist.
Dystopias are never precisely the opposite of utopias-they are closer to being failed “perfected” societies than evil empires by design. And one of the first orders of business for a fledgling dystopia is to figure out what to do about sex. Ban its non-reproductive forms like 1984? Encourage no-strings-attached orgies like Brave New World? Allow sexual variety only for an elite like The Handmaid’s Tale?
Seven authors investigate sex in the shadow of totalitarianism in Circlet’s latest anthology Like an Iron Fist: Dystopian Erotica. Each story explores the lengths people will go through to satisfy their illicit cravings. An ID code-branded stripper with a secret undulates for the pleasure of off-world punters. A Scarlet Lettered young woman craves intimacy in a police-state Heartland. A space pirate plunders corporate booty (in more ways than one). And a shell-shocked former POW confronts a world where his personal horror has become an erotic roleplaying game.
The most bloodthirsty dictatorship can never entirely eradicate the most primal of urges. The stories of Like an Iron Fist burn with the smothered passions of the silenced and the oppressed. Read them before it’s too late…
This was a particularly difficult story to write. I drew a lot on my historical research. The title comes from a quote from Karl Marx: "Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as a tragedy, the second time as farce."
Dystopias are never precisely the opposite of utopias-they are closer to being failed “perfected” societies than evil empires by design. And one of the first orders of business for a fledgling dystopia is to figure out what to do about sex. Ban its non-reproductive forms like 1984? Encourage no-strings-attached orgies like Brave New World? Allow sexual variety only for an elite like The Handmaid’s Tale?
Seven authors investigate sex in the shadow of totalitarianism in Circlet’s latest anthology Like an Iron Fist: Dystopian Erotica. Each story explores the lengths people will go through to satisfy their illicit cravings. An ID code-branded stripper with a secret undulates for the pleasure of off-world punters. A Scarlet Lettered young woman craves intimacy in a police-state Heartland. A space pirate plunders corporate booty (in more ways than one). And a shell-shocked former POW confronts a world where his personal horror has become an erotic roleplaying game.
The most bloodthirsty dictatorship can never entirely eradicate the most primal of urges. The stories of Like an Iron Fist burn with the smothered passions of the silenced and the oppressed. Read them before it’s too late…
This was a particularly difficult story to write. I drew a lot on my historical research. The title comes from a quote from Karl Marx: "Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as a tragedy, the second time as farce."