LOVE IN DARK SETTINGS PRESS  ¶ Omnibus Contents

Sections below:

* Love in Dark Settings Omnibus.
* The Three Lands Omnibus.
* The Eternal Dungeon Omnibus.
* Waterman Omnibus.
* Loren's Lashes Omnibus.

Love in Dark Settings Omnibus

The Three Lands

He vowed himself to his god. Now the god is growing impatient . . .

The Three Lands, a fantasy series on friendship, romance, and betrayal in times of war and peace.

Darkling Plain

Separated in time and place, a young woman and two young men are united in their goal: to protect those they care for from the destruction of battle. The odds are against them.

Darkling Plain, fantasy tales about young people in times of conflict.

This series also contains Princeling, a fantasy novel set in a world where war has lasted for generations, From Hell to the Stars, a loose translation of a medieval science fiction classic, and Main Stream, a sampling of suspenseful historical fantasy stories.

The Eternal Dungeon

In a cool, dark cavern, guarded by men and by oaths, lies a dungeon in which prisoners fearfully await the inevitable. The inevitable will be replaced by the unexpected.

The Eternal Dungeon, a historical fantasy series set in a land where the psychologists wield whips.

Life Prison

They are imprisoned until death, and their lives cannot get worse . . . or so they think. But when an unlikely alliance forms against their captors, the reformers risk losing what little comforts they possess.

Life Prison, a historical fantasy series about male desire and determination in Victorian prisons.

Michael's House

In a world where temples are dying and sacred theaters have been replaced by brothels, what will happen when a hard-headed businessman joins forces with an idealist?

Michael's House, a historical fantasy series set in an Edwardian slum.

Prison City (later renamed Waterman)

What will happen when a youth from a bay island boarding school ends up in a futuristic prison?

Prison City, a historical fantasy series and retrofuture series based on the Chesapeake Bay oyster wars, boarding school rivalries in the 1910s, and 1960s visions of things to come.

Master/Other

Masters come in many forms. Some don't even know they're masters.

Master/Other, gay fantasy and science fiction about prisoners, slaves, liegemen, and love.

This series also contains Leathermen, Plain Vanilla Straights, and Other Rebels, humor and satire about transgressive sexuality in the twenty-first century, and Unmasked, contemporary fiction about people who hide behind masks.

Loren's Lashes

Leather is a world of rich pleasure palaces and endless sensual delights, where dreams can be pursued without limit, provided that a man has the strength to stand the test. . . . But in the rural town of Mayhill, population 32,000, leather life is a little different.

Loren's Lashes, a retro series about a Midwestern community of closeted leathermen.

For rights reasons, the fan fiction in the Subtext series is not available in this collection; however, the index page for that series is included.

Fiction Recommendations and Nonfiction

Ampersand History: Intersections Between History & Science & Art & Music & Literature & Religion & Philosophy.

Aslan's Kin: Interfaith Fantasy and Science Fiction.

The Boer War and Turn-of-the-Century Firearms: A Bibliography of Printed and Online Resources.

Booktrailer Links.

Buried Treasure: Recommendations of Online Male Homoerotic Stories and Male Friendship Stories (and anything else that catches my interest).

Essays by Dusk Peterson.

Gay and Lesbian Books in Alternative Formats.

GLBT Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: A Web Directory.

Greenbelt Interfaith News.

Historical Fantasy: Links for Readers of Historical Fiction and Fantasy.

Hometown: Two Years in the Life of a Small Town Grown Large.

Homoerotic Historical Fiction Links.

International Directory of Online Leather Magazines and Newsletters.

International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day: A Directory of Online Creations.

Islanders and Watermen of the Chesapeake Bay: A Bibliography of Printed and Online Resources.

Leather Books in Alternative Formats.

Leather Culture, 1945-1985: A Bibliography of Printed and Online Resources.

Leather Fonds: Archives and Libraries with Collections Related to Leather Culture.

Leather TOCs: Tables of Contents for Leather Magazines.

Links on the History of Friendship, Romantic Friendship, Romance, and Sexuality.

A Little List of Links on Solitude, Simplicity, and Self-Discipline.

Male Romantic Friendships in Historical Photography and Literature.

Masculinity, Crime, and Everyday Life in Victorian and Edwardian Times: A Bibliography of Online and Printed Resources.

Online Resources for Blind and Partially Sighted Readers of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Private Parlor: Online Male Homoerotic Fiction Recommendations by Guest Reviewers.

Retrofuture: Visions of the Future, 1945-1975.

Sites on the History and Literature of Western Hierarchical Relationships.

The Slash Skinny: Publishing News and Market Report on Original Slash.

Topman: Online Writings by and about John Preston.

Transcend: Leather Spirituality News and Links.

Love in Dark Settings Omnibus blurb, ordering information, and preview.

The Three Lands

The following stories appear in The Three Lands Omnibus:

Law Links (novel)

Few events are more thrilling in a Koretian boy's life than a blood feud between two villages. Or so Adrian thought.

Torn between affection toward his traditional-minded father and worship of his peace-loving, heretical priest, Adrian finds himself caught between two incompatible visions of his duty to the gods. Then the Jackal God sends Adrian a message that will disrupt his life and send him fleeing from a danger he knows too well.
 

Blood Vow (novel)

He has taken a blood vow to the Jackal God to bring freedom to his land by killing Koretia's greatest enemy. But what will he do when the enemy becomes his friend?

Thrust into exile and pain, young Andrew has no choice but to accept the friendship of the very person he had vowed to kill. When he returns with his friend to his homeland fifteen years later, though, he finds himself in a land of conflicting loyalties . . . where a vengeful god awaits him.
 

Re-creation (novelette; also available as a free e-book)

What can you give a slave who, by law, can own nothing?

A 2008 holiday gift story for Dusk Peterson's readers.
 

"Bard of Pain" (novella)

In the battle-weary lands of the Great Peninsula, only one fate is worse than being taken prisoner by the Lieutenant: being taken prisoner if you are the Lieutenant.

As the world's most skilled torturer struggles with his change of fortune, he finds that his fate is intertwined with the destinies of an idealistic army commander, an affectionate prisoner, and a protégé who reveres the Lieutenant's art . . . but is on the wrong side of the conflict.
 

"Mystery" (novella)

Three days ago he faced death by fire. Now he faces a bigger challenge.
 

Excerpt from upcoming fiction.

Total: 360,000 words.

The Three Lands Omnibus blurb, ordering information, and preview.

The Eternal Dungeon Omnibus

The following stories appear in The Eternal Dungeon Omnibus:.

Rebirth (novel)

In the Queendom of Yclau lies an underground royal prison that embraces the worst of the past and the best of the future. The Eternal Dungeon is old-fashioned in its equipment and ahead of its time in its treatment of prisoners, seeking to put their best welfare above all else. Torture is part of the process of assisting the prisoners.

The High Seeker, Layle Smith, embodies this contradictory institution: a man of deadly impulses, the head torturer binds himself strictly by the dungeon's code of conduct. His efforts to maintain this delicate balance are altered, though, by the introduction into his life of Elsdon Taylor, a vulnerable prisoner who is coming to terms with his own darkness.
 

Transformation (novel)

The Eternal Dungeon, a royal prison where criminals are transformed, has lost its leadership. The duty of returning the dungeon to normal falls on two Seekers (torturers) who are already burdened with their own problems. One Seeker is struggling to understand why an old love affair continues to gnaw at him. The other Seeker is faced with his greatest challenge: whether to risk that which is most precious to him in order to save his own abuser.
 

The Balance (novel)

The workers in the Eternal Dungeon have always expressed contempt toward the Hidden Dungeon in the neighboring kingdom of Vovim, whose torturers abuse prisoners without restraint. But the balance between mercy and hell is not so clear as might be thought in either dungeon, and now that balance is about to tip. Only the strength of love and integrity will determine the paths of two Seekers whose fortunes are bound together.
 

On Guard (novel)

The ties forged between the noble-minded Eternal Dungeon and the abusive Hidden Dungeon have set off an unpredictable chain of horrific events, in which the love between two Seekers (torturers) will be tested to the straining point. Caught in the middle of the struggle are Barrett Boyd and Seward Sobel, two loyal guards who will find themselves questioning their most fundamental beliefs about the Eternal Dungeon's ideals.
 

"The Unanswered Question" (novella)

No weapons, no allies, and no guarantees that he will survive the test.

A 2009 holiday gift story for Dusk Peterson's readers.
 

Excerpt from upcoming fiction.

Total: 440,000 words.

The Eternal Dungeon Omnibus blurbs, ordering information, and preview.

Waterman Omnibus

2010 EDITION

"The True Master" (novella)

An interlude, flashing back to six tri-centuries before the beginning of Master and Servant: In a society where the rank of master or slave defines every aspect of a person's being, what do you do when you're a master and you envy your slaves?
 

"Unmarked" (novella)

"Fair play" is the motto of the Third House at Narrows School, but that motto takes on a different meaning when a lonely member of the Third House is secretly wooed by a young man from a rival House.
 

"Queue" (short story)

Depositing money in the bank was always the worst problem.
 

Excerpt from upcoming fiction.

Total: 100,000 words.

Waterman Omnibus blurb, ordering information, and preview.


 

Loren's Lashes Omnibus

2010 EDITION
 

Edgeplay in Mayhill 1-3 (first three parts of a five-part serialized novel)

In 1965, Loren was initiated into the mysteries of leather by a motorcyclist passing through his isolated Midwestern town. Twenty years later, he is owner of the town's gay bar, which serves as a leather bar after hours. He is a master, trained to control and discipline men.

If only he could convince other leathermen of this fact. Having given up hope of ever finding someone who will submit to him, Loren is forced to content himself with secret fantasies. Then he meets the perfect man for his fantasies: handsome, uniformed, full of confidence and strength. But Loren doesn't realize that Ken holds secrets which will initiate them both into a new mystery. . . .

Leather life in a rural town is explored in this series, which looks back on an earlier era. In a time and place where being gay is reason enough to be arrested, the leathermen of Mayhill struggle to keep their small community alive.
 

"First Lesson" (short story)

"He couldn't remember later why he began talking about bondage."

When a security guard walks into the wrong bar in town, he learns about the dark side of erotic desire, and also about the hope that lies beyond it.
 

Excerpts from upcoming fiction.

Total: 80,000 words.

Loren's Lashes Omnibus blurb, ordering information, and preview.

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