Review: Erotic Shivers

Erotic Shivers by M.S. Tarot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A collection of six erotic horror stories.

Ratz in the Machine: A disgruntled video game developer codes his revenge and makes a victim of Jeff's sexy girlfriend.

The Hangin' Tree: A creepy tale about a tree no one should have disturbed.

The Bag Snatchers: Monsters disguise themselves in Halloween costumes to get the candy necessary for their mating and drive a psychiatrist to madness in the process.

Voices: A teenaged boy leaves a recorder running in his room and discovers a sexy ghost presence.

Lord of Devil's Night: One of M.S. Tarot's most disturbing stories. The story begins with a tragic, first-person account of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911. Flash-forward a hundred years and meet a serial arsonist in love with a good kerosene fire.

A Grimm Tribute: A disturbing tale of a homeless brother and sister who rob the wrong witch.

My Review:

What a collection this is. Yes, I've read almost all of them before, but I still love them. "Ratz in the Machine" is so sexy. The sex in this story is so hot, I got a tingle just selecting an excerpt. Creepy-weird and so damn hot. "The Hangin' Tree" is spooky. Just a simple, creepy tale that connects the reader to the truth of the earth. Rich language and powerful imagery makes this story great. "Voices" exposes a potential truth--disembodied spirits that live amongst us and have very clear desires. What if a being like that one exists in my own home? "The Bag Snatchers" is so in-your-face awful. Strange creatures disguising themselves as children, stealing candy, and devouring the males. And maybe they walk among us? Frightening concept.

"Lord of Devil's Night" is one of my favorite stories of all time. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire was a horrific tragedy, and MST gives it a face, the face of a young immigrant woman. The power in the first half of the story is the tragedy itself. Greedy men exploit women, and when a woman does one thing to give herself pleasure, it creates horrendous tragedy. Powerful.

In the second half of the story, we meet an arsonist--the Lord of Devil's Night. He's obsessed with the heat, the flame, the fire, and when he meets the Triangle Shirtwaist building, he finds the ecstasy of burning it down. My original comment on this story was that I felt like I was covered in soot and death when I finished reading. It's THAT powerful.

"A Grimm Tribute" is not my favorite in this collection. Way more horror than sexiness, but other readers will love it.

This is an amazing collection, and if you like horror, you will love it.



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Work in Progress: The House of Flies

WIP (Work in Progress)

Thanks to sci-fi/romance author Jolie Mason for arranging this WIP blog hoppy thing!

"The House of Flies" is a BDSM tale for an anthology called Erotic Transformations. It's the which will feature stories by M.S. Tarot, Alana Melos, Bryce Calderwood, B. J. Taylor, and others. I'm not sure of the release date, but I'll let you know. I'll also be submitting the story to the Literotica April Fool's Day contest, so you can look for it there in March.

The story was inspired by the Deftones' song "Change (In the House of Flies)". A university professor discovers that his student writes erotica and sets his sights on fulfilling her submissive fantasies. Read below for the first paragraph.

They called her Nerdy Nadine for good reason. Mousy brown hair fell over her face, creating a curtain to hide from other people. The book in which she perpetually stuck her nose was her shelter, protecting her from life outside her own head. Her clothes were too big for her body, making her appear chunky rather than pleasantly curvy. It was all a disguise, hiding the woman inside, but he was her English professor; he read her writing. He knew what lay beneath the surface of Nadine’s cold, prudish exterior, and he planned to bring it out.

 

Why Sell the Cow?

Why sell the cow when you can give away the milk for free?

I wrote my first story in the summer of 2011 and shared it with the world on Literotica.  What a rush it was, getting the first feedback on my stories. My first attempts were journal entries with splashes of outrageous fiction. I wish I could remember how my brain made the jump to writing fiction. Unlike other authors I know, writing fiction was out of my reach. Something other, more creative people did. And then all of a sudden, I was writing Hurricane Season. I have no idea where the idea came from, but it did pretty well on Lit, hovering right around the magic 4.5 point. I thought that was my one story. My one hit wonder.

And then I got another idea. And another. And another. And another. It was awesome! I was a fiction writer. In the winter of 2012, life got hectic, and I pushed the smut aside for a year and a half.

I kept thinking about it though. I kept having other ideas, and I would start stories in my notebook when I had a minute. The stories didn't go away, like I thought they would.

In the summer of 2013, I quit my part time job that consumed more of my life than my full time job, and suddenly, I felt this creative void that ate at me. I picked up my notebook and looked through my story pieces, and then I wrote Skater's Waltz for the Literotica Nude Day Contest. Ice skating in the nude. The idea tickled me to no end. I intended it to be a dirty, little romp for a figure skater and a hockey player, but it morphed into a love story before my eyes. I never thought I'd write a romance, but dammit, I did. (Don't get me wrong. It's dirty.)

My brain took off after Skater's Waltz, and I started posting in the Author's Hangout forum at Lit. A lot of authors were talking about going commercial and selling their ebooks, but I just plugged along, participating in contests and posting my stories.

Why sell the cow when you can give away the milk for free?

That was my philosophy of sharing smut until very recently. I didn't think my stories were good enough for people to spend money on, and I was worried that it wouldn't be worth losing the satisfaction of getting comments on Lit.

What changed my mind was an Amazon author by the name of Ron Mexico. This author copied and pasted one of my stories from Lit, threw a cover on it, and put it up for sale for $2.99. I was furious! Part of me thought I should feel flattered that someone thought that people would pay for it, but I was so pissed. I wasn't ready to take the commercial plunge, so why should somebody else make that decision for me. (Amazon removed the story, but Sr. Mexico has a ton of other stories copied from Lit.)

The incredible Freya Lange gave me the push to sell my stories when she proposed an anthology, Hot Summer Reads, to the members of our writing group. All of a sudden there was a flurry of talk and action about going commercial. Not all of the members jumped on the "sell your books" bandwagon right away, but it was the opportunity I'd been waiting for. I decided to sell the damn cow. I don't even like milk, after all. 

We worked together to make a plan. Freya Lange and TT Tales did a ton of research. JC Winchester already had some books for sale, and his input was valuable to all of us. Freya, TTT, JCW, shea mara, and I are the first wave from our group to sell the cow. MS Tarot and J Kendall Dane won't be far behind.

Our group will be successful. I'm sure of that. In a couple of days, summer will be here, and I'll have time to devote myself to writing smut and selling those cows. How much free milk can the world handle anyway?

I Miss Making Shit Up

I miss making shit up.

I've been so busy with the anthology and the end of the year at school, I haven't written a word. The little notes scrawled in the margins of my notebook are becoming unmanageable. I hardly remember the thoughts that prompted them.

My desk calendar at work is much the same. This morning I looked down to see a note in tomorrow's block that says, "Be afraid. Be very afraid." What the hell was I thinking when I wrote that? I don't have a clue.

I miss writing. I miss thinking of people that don't exist and giving them life. I miss the fictional places I've made up in my head. But to start something new, or even to work on something unfinished is NOT a good idea in the days before finals start. I have real work to do. The kind that pays the bills, you know?

Tomorrow is Friday. I might make it. If I do, there's a chair overlooking the creek with my name on it. I think I can. I think I can.

What a Weekend!

Our anthology, Hot Summer Reads, came out this weekend. What a freaking rush. The chatter amongst my fellow authors was invigorating. The updates on how many downloads we got was inspiring. The tweeting was overwhelming. By the end, I was exhausted. And I can't wait to do it again.

By the end of the weekend, I reached my goal of having six ebooks on Amazon, one for each of the six categories on my website. I think it's a good start, and it will hold me for the next two weeks while my life is crazy.

Once things settle down, I'll figure out the right way to tweet and see how giving away a book for a couple of days works out.

One thing I've learned already is that my covers, for the most part, aren't working. I knew that naked bodies were the way to go, but for some of them, I couldn't do it. Eventually I'll get off my high horse and change them, but not right now. I'll do better in the future instead.

The other thing I've learned is that it isn't my best written stories that will sell. Again, I knew that would be true, but I'm pretty surprised to see that the story that is selling the best is the first one I ever wrote, Hurricane Season. I knew nothing about writing fiction, but I put a couple of perfect asses on the cover, and it's outselling all the others put together.

I'm pretty hopeful about this whole Amazon thing though. As long as I can nail down tweeting and make enough money to advertise on Facebook a bit, I may just make this work.

Romance Lives Forever: The Hot Summer Reads #anthology @freya_lange #RLFb...

Romance Lives Forever: The Hot Summer Reads #anthology @freya_lange #RLFb...: This quick interview includes info about the author, and introduces the story. About the Author Freya Lange is a writer in her early ...

Hot Summer Reads- Free on Memorial Day Weekend

Anthology Story

My group of writer friends is working on a collection of smutty stories. My story is a first time lesbian tale that takes place in a campground. A little light summer reading. I'd like to finish it this weekend. I hit the wall of suck yesterday, but I got past it today. Another 2k words, and I'll be done.