duskpeterson.com &para; What's New 2006

The following link has been added to this site:

The Eternal Dungeon Fan Fiction. The characters are set free to roam inside other authors' heads.

>>> Turn-of-the-Century Toughs (includes site content label)

The Video Trailer: Downloadable Versions page has been updated to allow you to download the mature version of the trailer directly from this site.

CONTEMPORARY STORIES

Leatherdar (4500 words).

The following story has been added to this site:

"I don't know what to call the way I can always pick out those guys in a crowd. My friend Martin calls it 'gaydar,' which leads to us having long arguments over whether being able to tag a guy who doesn't know he's gay counts as gaydar.

"Master Trent has another word for it. He calls it 'corruption.'"

The narrator goes on the hunt at a college ballroom dance.

Rating and tags for this story.

OTHER PEOPLE'S FICTION

>>> True Tales: An Erotic E-zine of Masculinity and Power

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

Death, danger, and desire are a potent combination, as generations of soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen have shown. This year, True Tales looks at the long-running tradition of homoeroticism in the military.

As usual, other topics related to masculinity and power also appear in this year's issues.

The following items have been added to this site:

EDITORIAL: Gay Warriors: Aspects of a Lost Tradition. In their eagerness to promote equality in the military, have proponents of gay military men lost sight of past lessons?

FICTION: Death and the Veteran. By Ruthless. As Christmas approaches, a veteran looks back on a lost past and awaits the inevitable arrival of a skeleton.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Views. Text and photos by Kobi Israel. A former Isreali soldier offers photographs that are shot in military settings where soldiers dare not "cross the dangerous line" between homosocial and homoerotic.

The Publication Markets page has been updated with new links in the gay/erotica section and the leather section.

NONFICTION RESOURCES

>>> Booktrailer Links

The following links have been added to this site:

Marsilio Editori. [Publisher.]

Romance Designs. [Production company.]

Scrap-Fairy Designs. [Production company.]

MySpace group where book videos are announced:

Books and Book Trailers.

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

The following links have been added:

Rent Books on Tape. A list of audio book rental services. See also Booksfree.com (in the United States) and Slim Ink Book Rental (in Australia), two online companies that rent paperpacks, sending them to you by mail – a convenient service if you can't easily visit a library.

Baen WebScription. Although most readers must pay a monthly fee to access Baen Books's online e-books, people with a reading disability such as visual impairment may read the books for free. Apply for free access to WebScription through ReadAssist.

THE LEATHER RESEARCH REFERENCE SHELF

The old leather updates page has been merged with this updates page. Updates to my leather sites are also posted at the gayleatherlit blog. That blog is available on the Web through the above link and through Atom and RSS feed subscriptions.

The following entry has been updated:

Berlinger, Cain. Black Men in Leather. Self-published, 1999; reprinted 2006. (Table of contents. Also available through KinkyBooks (with review) and available through Amazon.) [Gay]

>>> International Directory of Online Leather Magazines and Newsletters

The following link has been added:

OhioSMART: SMART News. 1998-2005. [Pansexual]

>>> Leather TOCs: Tables of Contents for Leather Magazines

The following item has been added to the Links page:

Gay Art History Links.

REVIEWS

>>> The Three Lands

Reviews of "Bard of Pain" have been added to the site.

Reviews of "Bad Habit" have been added to the site.

Leather site updates prior to December 2006 can be found on the old leather updates page.

November 2006

The highlights:

—New historical fantasy stories in the Life Prison series.
—A video trailer for the Turn-of-the-Century Toughs historical fantasy cycle.
—A new recommendation of online male homoerotic fiction.
—New Websites devoted to booktrailers and to solitude.
—A new link to Victorian and Edwardian erotica.
—A new community blog devoted to booktrailers.

The details:

FANTASY STORIES

>>> Life Prison

Rating and tags for this story.

The following stories have been added to this site:

Life Prison. In the unmerciful world of Mercy Prison, there is no rule but unending pain. For Merrick, the arrival of his new guard provides hope that he may break beyond the boundaries of his life prison. But appearances can be deceptive, and Merrick does not yet recognize the danger this guard poses to his future.

(This, the first story in the series, has been expanded from its 2002 version. Four new scenes have been added. It can be read as a stand-alone story.)

Coded Messages. One of them rapes prisoners. The other wants to help prisoners. So why are they talking to each other?

Rating and tags for this story.

Two-paragraph series summary.

Series content label.

>>> Turn-of-the-Century Toughs

Turn-of-the-Century Toughs is a cycle of historical fantasy novels about disreputable men on the margins of society, and the men and women who love them. The novels are set in a world based on the late Victorian and Edwardian Eras.

A video introduction to the cycle has been added to the site. The trailer comes in two versions. The first version (which you can watch online or download) is suitable for viewing by most teenagers and adults. The second version (which you can only download) contains brief mature content.

The trailer is accessible to the deaf.

Watch the trailer online. (This page has an embedded video and therefore may take a while to download if you have a slower Internet connection.)

Download the trailer.

Rating for the cycle.

OTHER PEOPLE'S FICTION

>>> Buried Treasure: Online Male Homoerotic Fiction Recommendations

The following review site has been added to this site:

Master List of Original Slash. An impressively large directory of works in this genre. The list is divided into WiPs (works in progress) and finished works; the latter include brief summaries and recommendations. The links are mainly to amateur works.

NONFICTION RESOURCES

>>> Booktrailer Links

A new Web directory devoted to booktrailers, short films that promote books.

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

A new Website that lists online resources about eremitism (living as a hermit) and related topics.

>>> Masculinity, Crime, and Everyday Life in Victorian and Edwardian Times

The following link has been added:

Drinking Songs. Collected by John Patrick. "This website is dedicated to traditional drinking songs (many bawdy), toasts, recitations and other bar room folklore." The Songbooks section reprints a number of erotic writings from the Victorian and Edwardian Eras, including the classic Victorian erotica magazine The Pearl. The Recordings section has a few Victorian and Edwardian songs.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Booktrailers is a new community blog for announcing, recommending, watching, and discussing video trailers to books and other writings.

October 2006

The highlights:

—New fantasy fiction and news on upcoming fiction.
—A new recommendation of a printed version of online male homoerotic fiction.
—A new essay defining darkfic.
—Updates on Victorian and Edwardian history and resources for the blind.
—New community blogs at LiveJournal.

The details:

FANTASY STORIES

>>> Michael's House

The following story has been added to this site:

Offstage. Michael's House is facing ruin – unless one of the partners falls back on old ways.

(You don't need to have read the previous story in the series to understand this one.)

Rating and tags for this story.
Illustrations by glockgal, with text descriptions.
Two-paragraph series summary.

Series content label.

OTHER PEOPLE'S FICTION

>>> Buried Treasure: Online Male Homoerotic Fiction Recommendations

Jesse Hajicek's fantasy novel, The God Eaters, previously recommended at this site, is now available as a trade paperback and PDF e-book. The HTML version remains free online.

NONFICTION RESOURCES

>>> Essays

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

The following essay has been added:

What is Darkfic? An essay on the various ways in which the term "dark fiction" is used.

>>> Masculinity, Crime, and Everyday Life in Victorian and Edwardian Times

The following links have been added:

National Child Labor Committee Collection. More photographs by Lewis Hine, which can be viewed online through the links on the Arrangement and Access page.

Bryant, Billy. Children of Ol' Man River: The Life and Times of a Showboat Trouper (1936; reprinted by Lakeside Press in 1988). American. Memoir of a member of a family that acted on showboats. The prologue by Martin Ridge to the Lakeside Press edition includes a history of showboat acting.

Hart, William S. My Life East and West (1929; reprinted 1994 by Lakeside Press). American. Memoir of a theatrical actor from the West who became a star in silent film Westerns. Excerpt and information on the author.

Clark, Sue Ainsley, and Edith Wyatt. Making Both Ends Meet: The Income and Outlay of New York Working Girls (1911). American. "This book is composed of the economic records of self-supporting women living away from home in New York." Topics covered: saleswomen, shirt-waist makers, factory workers, cloak makers, laundry workers, and scientific management.

Reynolds, John N. The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas
and Missouri Penitentiaries (1890). Memoir of a former prisoner at the Kansas Penitentiary. In a passage that begins, "As I have stated heretofore" (pages 85-87), Reynolds briefly discusses "self-abuse and sodomy" by the prisoners.

A new section has been added, linking to downloads of free software to access the Internet. The section consists of one old link and the following two new links:

Thunder Screenreader. A free screenreader that can be used by individuals.

Nonvisual Desktop Access. A free, open-source screenreader that is still in the development stages.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

>>> News on my fiction

The bad news is that, due to a heavy attack of my Internet addiction this summer, I wasn't able to get Rebirth and Blood Vow published this year, as I'd hoped. The publication for them has been bumped up to next year.

The good news is that I'm working on a long-term solution to this problem. In the meantime, in penance, I've posted a novella of mine that hasn't appeared at this Website before and will post a couple more stories (in a different series) as soon as they've been edited.

truetales is the new blog for my gay e-zine True Tales. Announcements posted here will not be posted at my other blogs, except as a year-end summary.

I've added information on the Atom and RSS feeds available for my LiveJournal blog communities.

Even if you don't want to visit my blog communities regularly, it might be a good idea to bookmark eternaldungeon. If any of my domains should go down for technical reasons, I'll post notices there about when the domains will be back up.

REVIEWS

>>> Master/Other

The following has been added to the reviews page:

A brief review of "The True Master" by hanks_lil_pit (skip down to "upside").

Brief reviews of "What Slaves Do When They Aren't Cleaning Toilets" at the truetales blog.

A general recommendation (skip down to "Dusk") by LitGal.

A general recommendation (skip down to "Dusk") by Kimberly Powell.

A general recommendation by Aesthetic Kismet.

>>> Life Prison

The following has been added to the reviews page:

A review by Ne'ichan from a post to an e-mail list.

June 2006

The highlights:

—New fantasy fiction and new science fiction.
—A new site on intellectual and cultural history.
—Yet another forum.

The details:

FANTASY STORIES

>>> Darkling Plain

The following fantasy story has been posted to this site:

Night Shadow. A prince who could see beyond his borders but not see the people around him. . . . An enemy who would take any measure to get what he wanted. . . . And now a stranger would bring the prince news of an approaching danger.

Rating and tags for this story

>>> The Three Lands

The following story has been transferred to this site from Master/Other:

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

Rating and tags for this story.

The series chronology has been updated to take into account the events before this story.

SCIENCE FICTION STORIES

>>> Master/Other

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

The following story has been posted to this site:

A Sexual Minority Speaks Out. "I am an adult male belonging to a rare minority group that is called, in layman's language, Plain Vanilla Straight. I have had these sexual desires for as long as I can remember . . ."

Rating and tags for this story.
Response to "A Sexual Minority Speaks Out" by Ruthless.

NONFICTION RESOURCES

A new, illustrated site where I'm reprinting some of my articles from the 1990s on intellectual and cultural history from ancient to modern times.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

I forgot to make a proper announcement about this, but for several months now I've had an author forum at the Erotic Romance Writers Forum (ERWF). That's where I report day-to-day progress on my current writing projects (as opposed to the eternaldungeon and gayleatherlit blogs, where I announce newly published writings). I discuss all of my writings there, whether or not they fall into the categories of romance or erotica.

Because I don't like to chat in a crowd – i.e. to the entire World Wide Web – the forum is set up so that you need to register at ERWF in order to read (or even see the link to) my author forum. Registration is free, and the forum maintainers don't spam members.

>>> Author Appearances

This page has been updated.

>>> Domain Navigation

Due to the closure of the ISP cooperative that had been maintaining one of my Webspaces, as well as other factors, some shifting around has taken place with my sites.

Greenbelt Interfaith News and Aslan's Kin: Interfaith Fantasy and Science Fiction (which were previously located at www.greenbelt.com) and Topman: Online Writings by and about John Preston (which was previously located at www.prestonproject.org) are now located at duskpeterson.com.

Hometown: Two Years in the Life of a Small Town Grown Large is now located at duskpeterson.com.

[Other sites have since been changed again.]

All of the relevant links have been changed, so you don't need to memorize any of this.

REVIEWS

A new review of the series by gay erotic author Barbara Sheridan has been added to the reviews page.

May 2006

The highlights:

—New fantasy fiction and new leather fiction.
—Notices about upcoming fantasy novels.
—New recommendations of online male homoerotic fiction.
—Last October's issue of True Tales e-zine.
—Updates on Victorian and Edwardian history, science fiction and fantasy podcasts, homoerotic historical fiction, and leather history.
—New community blogs at LiveJournal.
—A new domain, as well as policies on copyright, derivative works, and fan fiction and fan art.

The details:

FANTASY STORIES

>>> The Three Lands

A new fantasy novel series has been inaugurated. Here is its description:

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

The Three Lands, fantasy novels on friendship and betrayal in wartime.

Koretia, Emor, and Daxis were all founded on the same day, but as the centuries have passed, the Three Lands of the Great Peninsula have become increasingly divided by religion, government, and culture. Koretians worship many gods, Daxions worship one goddess, and Emorians revere only their law. Emorians claim that Koretians are vicious and superstitious, Koretians think that Daxions are vile oath-breakers, and Daxions charge that Emorians abuse their children and slaves.

If a god were to appear in the Three Lands, would his appearance bring an end to the fighting? Or would he merely help to spark an inferno of war?

As the inhabitants of the Three Lands struggle to adjust to the appearance of an unexpected visitor into the human world, two people will play crucial roles in the conflict. One is a young Emorian – clever, courageous, and affectionate – who will come to understand the Koretians with a depth and intimacy that few others of his land can match. The other person is a Koretian boy whom the Emorian will seek to destroy.

A site content label is available.

A Three Lands novel, Blood Vow, will appear later this year. A short description of the novel has been posted at the site. More information will be posted there in later updates. In the meantime . . .

The following has been posted at the site:

Bard of Pain. 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.

"The beginning of the end for him (or so it seemed at the time) came in the moment that he stepped into the shadow of Capitol Mountain and was assaulted by a stranger."

Rating and tags for this story.

Chronology of the Three Lands of the Great Peninsula. A timeline, periodically updated.

Pronunciation Guide to Proper Names. Includes an MP3 file.

>>> Life Prison

Some time in the future (not the immediate future, unless my Muse is more cooperative than usual), I'll be creating a novel series out of the novella "Life Prison," which has been moved from Master/Other. A site content label is available.

For those of you who haven't yet read it, here is the summary of the novella:

Life Prison. In the unmerciful world of Mercy Prison, there is no rule but unending pain. For Merrick, the arrival of his new guard provides hope that he may break beyond the boundaries of his life prison. But appearances can be deceptive, and Merrick does not yet recognize the danger this guard poses to his future.

>>> Turn-of-the-Century Toughs

An introductory page to three series that are set in the same world, The Eternal Dungeon, Life Prison, and Michael's House. The cycle consists of historical fantasy novels about disreputable men on the margins of society, and the men and women who love them. The novels are set in a world based on the late Victorian and Edwardian Eras.

The introductory page provides information on the geography and timeline of the stories, as well as a bibliography for the series.

>>> The Eternal Dungeon

Rebirth, the first volume in the Eternal Dungeon series, will appear online and in print this summer. A short description of the novel has been posted at the site.

>>> Master/Other

The "Table of Contents with Labels" is now renamed the Table of Contents with Tags. You can also check the list of Tags for Stories for such information as the jobs of the characters in the stories (such as guard/prisoner). As before, there remains an unannotated Table of Contents for those of you who prefer to approach stories spoiler-free.

The Gallery has been updated with corrected links and with information on the source art for the new banners for The Three Lands, Life Prison, and Turn-of-the-Century Toughs.

A link has been added to True Tales: Links, a Web directory of erotic gay arts and news. (At an adults-only site.)

>>> Michael's House

The broken links to glockgal's illustrations in the Gallery have been fixed.

CONTEMPORARY STORIES

The following story has been added:

Bad Habit. "Lawnville's Hamburger Palace is the sort of place where opposites meet. You come here for Saturday lunch, and you'll see three-piece-suited businessmen eating with rednecks, housewives eating with long-haired artsy guys, and a homophobe eating with the local pervert."

The narrator shows off his boy to a skeptic.

Tags for this story.

OTHER PEOPLE'S FICTION

>>> Buried Treasure: Online Male Homoerotic Fiction Recommendations

Recommendations have been added to Jesse Hajicek's fantasy novel, The God Eaters, Mamih Lapinatapai's series of contemporary short stories on West and Brose, Richard J. Martin's contemporary narrative poem about prisoners, On the Big Yard, Mouse's science fiction story about a police officer, Jump, and Shinju Yuri's steampunk short story, Your Cover's Blown.

A new section devoted to E-zines, Archives, and Review Sites has been added.

>>> True Tales: An Erotic E-zine of Masculinity and Power

Regional works about the past seven decades of gay life are offered in the October 2005 issue of True Tales, from Jack Fritscher's account of a dark healing ritual in a San Francisco bathhouse to John Preston's tale of a lonely leatherman in Provincetown.

The issue also examines the world of desire in New Orleans in the past and present, provides a link to erotic photos on imprisonment, and offers the first annual True Tales Leather Journalism Awards.

NONFICTION RESOURCES

>>> Essays

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

My essay "Drag Queens, Leathermen, and Telling the Truth: Franny and the Life of John Preston" is now available in the new Arsenal Pulp edition of John Preston's Franny, the Queen of Provincetown. The essay examines the author's attitudes toward gender, and how they were shaped by his time as a gay activist and as a leatherman. The new edition also includes contemporary reviews of Franny from Drummer magazine, as well as additional material.

Another essay of mine has been in print since 2002: the afterword to Andrew Callimach's Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths. That essay examines the modern relevance and spiritual significance of homoerotic Greek mythology.

Several reviewers of the book mentioned the essay favorably; comments by a couple of them were amusing. A reviewer for the Gay & Lesbian Humanist refers to me as someone who appears "in the acknowledgments also, but of whom we hear no more." A reviewer for the Bryn Mawr Classical Review was more blunt: "Who this person is, we are not told."

New links have been added, primarily to sites about science fiction and fantasy podcasts.

>>> GLBT Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: A Web Directory

The following links have been added:

On Gay Science Fiction & Fantasy. A discussion on the gaybombay e-mail list, with recommendations.

glbtq: Ghost and Horror Fiction. Article in the online encyclopedia.

>>> Homoerotic Historical Fiction Links

The following link has been added:

More Historical Fiction of the Queer Variety. A section within a long list of GLBT literature recommendations by Switchknife.

>>> Masculinity, Crime, and Everyday Life in Victorian and Edwardian Times

A list of books, articles, Websites, and museums that I consulted while researching Turn-of-the-Century Toughs.

>>> Friendship and Romantic Friendship: Stories and History

A new subdirectory listing all of my friendship-related sites.

>>> Leather Nonfiction Updates

Listed on a separate page, updates to the home page of The Leather Research Reference Shelf and Leather Books in Alternative Formats.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Reading Dusk Peterson's Blogs.

I now have a blog community, eternaldungeon, devoted to discussions of my writings. Website and book updates will also be posted there. A second blog community, gayleatherlit, is intended for readers who are specifically interested in my leather writings or who prefer a blog that is more likely to attract gay male readers. (Readers who are not gay men are also welcome to post at the blog.) And a third blog community, powerfic, is for other people's stories on emotional bonds between men of different ranks.

I've also started an e-mail list, duskpetersonbooks, which will carry only notices of my upcoming books. If you already belong to the duskpetersonupdate list, you don't need to join this one, since book notices will be sent to both lists.

>>> Information Pages

New pages have been posted about my policies on copyright, derivative works, and fan fiction and fan art, my fiction sites listed by relationship category (friendship fiction, etc.), my fiction sites listed by theme, an author biography (on my writings for adults), another author biography (on my writings for young people), and author appearances (online and in real life).

For amusement, there's The Back Door to Dusk Peterson's Domain, which I put together to attract Google to certain keywords, but which ended up being a rambling essay on my literary interests.

>>> New Domain

'Cause it's easier to remember, that's why. Please update your bookmarks.

>>> Domain Navigation

I've rearranged the nonfiction contents of this domain a bit. Everything's still here, just shuffled around. If you can't find something you had visited previously, just drop me a line and I'll let you know where it is. Or, if you're shy about doing that, do a Google search within the domain.

>>> Site Content Labels

I've brushed up the site content labels system, which I provide for parents, guardians, and visitors who control their own reading matter. It's basically the same levels of classification as before, but with different labels and with more detailed explanations.

>>> Accessibility Information for duskpeterson.com

The following section has been added:

>>> Honor

Toward the end of 2005, I was nominated for the Mid Atlantic Regional Award in the Pantheon of Leather Awards 2006, sponsored by The Leather Journal. These are the American leather community's top community service awards. I assume that the anonymous person who nominated me did so for my leather writings and editing, as I can't imagine that I'd receive this sort of honor for sorting magazines at a leather flea market (the only other type of community service I've done).

My congratulations to the winner of this year's Mid Atlantic Regional Award, Mary Elizabeth Boyd.

REVIEWS

A new general reviews page has been established, and the Master/Other reviews page has been updated. Most of the following has been added:

>>> Master/Other

Review of Debt Price by logophilos at Uniquely Pleasurable, with follow-up commentary.

Review (skip down to "Peterson") of Debt Price by Lady Cyrrh at The Annex Reviews.

Brief review by beatrice of Debt Price at Slash Cotillion.

Brief review (skip down to "Peterson") by Pam Hollier of Debt Price at MAS-Zine.

Brief recommendation of Debt Price by David Nunes da Silva.

Brief review (skip down to "Peterson") of The Fool at Haven's Dark Slash.

Review of O Most Unthankful by kateelvellon at The Mists of Avalon LJ.

Review of O Most Unthankful by kenovay at Panfandom Slash Recs.

Brief recommendation of O Most Unthankful by Bellona at Templum Bellonae.

Review of Pleasure by logophilos at Uniquely Pleasurable.

Brief reviews of Pleasure at AdultFanFiction.net.

Review of Puppets by Bellona at Templum Bellonae.

Brief review of What Slaves Do When They Aren't Cleaning Toilets by logophilos at Uniquely Pleasurable.

Brief review of What Slaves Do When They Aren't Cleaning Toilets by AngstPuppy.

Several recommendations of What Slaves Do When They Aren't Cleaning Toilets at del.icio.us. (Amusingly, the first recommendation is by a gentleman who works for the World Wide Web Consortium.)

Review of Leather in Lawnville by Bellnoa at Templum Bellonae.

Brief review of Leather in Lawnville by nancyapar (skip down to "Dusk") at Uniquely Pleasurable, with a follow-up.

Review of Leather in Lawnville by logophilos at Uniquely Pleasurable.

Reviews of Clothesline (from the Leather in Lawnville series) at Literotica.

Reviewsof Clothesline (from the Leather in Lawnville series) at BDSM Library.

Review of Spontaneous (from the Leather in Lawnville series) at Literotica.

>>> Life Prison

Review of Life Prison (from the Life Prison series) by Rispa at Rispa Recommends.

>>> The Three Lands

Brief review of Mystery (from the Three Lands series) by Bellona at Templum Bellonae.

>>> True Tales

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

True Tales has been linked to quite a bit since it began last year, primarily because of the news posted there about the new M/s and D/s Flag, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the recent FBI obscenity raids. Among the places where references to the magazine have turned up:

Wikipedia's entry on Obscenity. (Skip down to "Red Rose".)

The Internet Archive's Hurricanes Katrina & Rita Web Archive. (See the list of crawled Websites and the results.)