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This page lists updates to all of the sites at Dusk Peterson's domain. To find the update to a particular site, use your browser's Find function.
The What's New section is updated twice a year; more recent updates may be available at the updates blog. If you want to check what stage upcoming stories are at, check the progress report, which is updated monthly
—It is considered embarrassing to be forced to admit that your primary
tool for curing patients was developed by a group of torturers. ¶
The first two novels of The Eternal Dungeon are published, and a
novella begins to be serialized online.
—He lived in fear that, if he made any complaints, the mister would
tire of him. ¶ A master/servant science fiction story is posted
at Prison City and cross-posted at Darkling Plain.
—Halvar leaned forward; his eyes were the color of an arctic sky.
"I am not a fool, Egon," he said softly, "so do not treat me as such."
¶ An expanded version of a slave story is posted at Master/Other.
—Blind to all images, he waited with tensed muscles, straining
his spirit to hear the Jackal's approach. ¶ The Three Lands
novella "Bard of Pain" is published in braille and DAISY.
—New recommendations have been posted of gay and gender-blending fiction,
nonfiction, and art.
The details:
Need to know which stories feature platonic feelings, gay attraction, mature content, etc.? Read these explanations of the labels used below: What is the Main Bookshelf? | What is the High Bookshelf?
* High Bookshelf. Site content label. A historical fantasy series set in a land where the psychologists wield whips.
Final
installments of the online serialization of this novel:
Rebirth. 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.
This historical fantasy series explores dark aspects of erotic life
and includes themes of gay love. But the series goes far beyond that by
considering the deeper issues faced by all those who find that their friendships
and desires are in conflict with their duties.
New
HTML e-book:
Transformation. 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.
New online serialization of a novella:
The Unanswered Question. No weapons, no allies, and no guarantees that he will survive the test.
The following link has been added to the Eternal Dungeon index page:
The Eternal Dungeon story discussions. Posted by readers at Dusk Peterson's LiveJournal blog. Includes major spoilers for the stories being discussed.
The following work of Eternal Dungeon fan fiction by another author has been linked from Shared Universes: Works set in Dusk Peterson's worlds by other authors and artists:
Telepwen: Fall Together. "While most Vovimian racks were in the design of butterflies or birds or even that one in Wealdside in the form of a faerie, this one was different. A forgotten artist of twisted vision had crafted a wilting Tree of Life, her roots and nearly-bare branches sprawling to cradle the prisoner who was trying so very hard not to tremble."
Includes major spoilers for Rebirth 1-5.
>>> Darkling Plain
* Main Bookshelf. Site content label. Fantasy tales about young people in times of conflict.
See next entry.
>>> Prison City
* High Bookshelf. Site content label. A retrofuture series based on the Chesapeake Bay oyster wars, homoeroticism in British public schools in the 1910s, and 1960s visions of things to come.
New online fiction. The follow short story has been posted at Prison City and cross-posted at Darkling Plain.
Queue. Depositing money in the bank was always the worst problem. Story entry at Prison City | Story entry at Darkling Plain.
>>>
Master/Other
* High Bookshelf. Site content label. Gay fantasy and science fiction about prisoners, slaves, liegemen, and love.
New online fiction. This is the expanded version of a 2003 novella; Chapter Five is new.
Pleasure. Egon had a position that won him respect, friends who raised his spirits, and lovers who gave him pleasure. Then a man came into his life who would take all that away from him. If Egon was lucky.
>>> The Three Lands
* Main Bookshelf. Site content
label. A fantasy series on friendship, romance, and betrayal in
times of war and peace.
New in braille and DAISY (free):
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.
OTHER PEOPLE'S FICTION AND NONFICTION
* Fiction recommendations. Site content label.
New section:
Tops Picks. My personal favorites.
Annual Recommendations. Posted at my blog. Includes titles not listed at Buried Treasure. Feel free to post comments in reply.
New recommendations:
Manna Francis: Control. (Author's Website.) The fourth volume in the Administration series, about a pathological torturer and his lover, who despises torture but loves SM. ¶ Male homoerotic fiction, male/female friendship fiction, BDSM fiction, employer/employee fiction, erotic fiction, mental illness themes, mysteries, prisoner fiction, science fiction. ¶ Online fiction and online samples of fiction books. ¶ On-screen sex. On-screen violence. ¶ Review.
Clare London: Freeman. (Author's Website.) An experienced-scarred man finds himself drawn toward a naive young man. Unbeknownst to them, both pose a danger to the other. ¶ Male homoerotic fiction, male friendship fiction, heterosexual fiction, contemporary fiction, crime themes, employer/employee fiction, erotic love stories, family relationship themes, mentor fiction. ¶ Fiction e-books. ¶ On-screen sex. On-screen violence ¶ Review.
Blake Nelson: Gender Blender. A sixth-grade boy and girl switch bodies. ¶ Male/female friendship fiction, heterosexual fiction, contemporary fiction, fantasy, gender variance themes, school fiction. ¶ Fiction books. ¶ References to topics of sexuality and on-screen violence (mild violence) ¶ Review.
Josh Lanyon: Man, Oh Man! Writing M/M Fiction for Kinks and Cash. (Author's Website.) A popular writer offers advice on authoring M/M fiction, as well as quoting professionals working in that field. ¶ Male homoerotic nonfiction, authorship manuals. ¶ Nonfiction books and nonfiction e-books. ¶ On-screen sex. On-screen violence (occasional) ¶ Review.
>>> True Tales: An Erotic E-zine of Masculinity and Power
* Adults only e-zine. Site's warning page.
The August 2009 issue of True Tales features recommendations of new gay fiction, nonfiction, and art (tales of BDSM and rough sex) in the Leathermen section.
>>> Homoerotic Historical Fiction Links
* Fiction recommendations.
New links:
GLBT Bookshelf: Historical Fiction. From a bookstore focussing mainly on small-press books and e-books. Titles are labelled according to period.
GLBTQ Encyclopedia: Historical Fiction.
Rainbow Reviews: Gay Historical, Lesbian Historical, Bisexual Historical, Transgender Historical, Intersex Historical, and Pansexual Historical. Reviews of queer historical fiction. The gay section is quite large.
Speak Its Name, Speak Its Name e-mail list, The Frosted Monocle e-mail list, and The Macaronis. Three related resources devoted to gay historical fiction. These are the best places online to locate information about GLBT historical fiction and (in the case of The Frosted Monocle) GLBT historical fantasy; all four resources focus primarily on gay fiction. These are the most extensive resources available on the Web about gay historical fiction.
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING FICTION
>>> My summer publishing season and upcoming fiction
Thanks to a two-month struggle with my layout software (*pauses to glare at InDesign*), I wasn't able to get any paperbacks published this year, but I'm finishing up the process of getting the first paperback ready to submit to the printer next spring, when my next publishing season begins. I'm also ending the summer with some research trips around the Chesapeake Bay for my Prison City series. You can follow my progress by checking the Prison City research tag at my duskpeterson blog.
I'm taking steps to speed up the time it takes for me to publish my stories. On the negative side, I'll no longer be posting plain-text editions of my fiction at the friendshipfictionupdate e-mail list and the duskpetersonupdate e-mail list. On the positive side, my experiment of offering all my online writings in a single HTML e-book (which is relatively easy for me to prepare and is thrifty for my readers) has proved to be a successful one, so I'll bring out new editions of the omnibus at the end of each publishing year. I'm hoping to offer similar package deals on the e-book editions of my novels next year. Of course, I will continue to post free online fiction.
As before, I'll be taking a publishing break from October to the end of March in order to devote myself to composing stories. Cross my fingers, I hope to go online only once a month during the fall and winter, so if you have a time-sensitive matter you need to reach me about, you should send your e-mail to both me and my personal assistant, who will tell me of your e-mail's contents if I am offline.
>>> Coming Next
Three more novels in the Three Lands series. The long-promised paperback of Rebirth (The Eternal Dungeon) and, with luck, other paperbacks.
—Now available in a single e-book: all of the fiction, nonfiction, and
fiction recommendations at Love in Dark Settings.
—"He had made it more than clear during the past three years that
he considered me a frail creature, incapable of enduring the hardened life
of a soldier. But, then, his opinion was shared by all in the Tascanian
Army." ¶ The first volume in the Princeling fantasy series
is posted.
—"'Sentenced to sixty lashes of the leaded whip. Sentence commuted
to a transfer to Compassion Life Prison.'" Keeper raised his eyebrows.
"That's the first time I've ever heard a transfer to this prison described
as a commutation. We'll assume that that particular phrasing was meant
as a joke." ¶ Two stories are posted from Hell's Messenger,
a new volume of the Life Prison series.
—It was when Michael's voice went flat and his face drained of
expression that Janus would begin to worry. ¶ The final parts
are posted of the male prostitution novel, Whipster.
—Rudd, who had watched Meredith through narrowed eyes for the first
week or two, gradually lost interest in scrutinizing the activities of
his fag. ¶ An excerpt is posted from a new retrofuture series,
Prison
City.
—Books, films, and online resources are recommended at a new bibliography:
Retrofuture:
Visions of the Future, 1945-1975.
—Online fiction and memoirs are recommended at Buried Treasure:
Online Male Homoerotic Stories and Male Friendship Stories and at the
Turn-of-the-Century
Toughs bibliography.
Need to know which stories feature platonic feelings, gay attraction, mature content, etc.? Read these explanations of the labels used below: What is the Main Bookshelf? | What is the High Bookshelf?
FICTION
>>>
Love
in Dark Settings Omnibus
For the price of a hardback, you can buy Love in Dark Settings Omnibus, a zipped HTML e-book with all of Dusk Peterson's fiction: 700,000 words (3 novels, 10 novellas, 4 novelettes, and 12 short stories) of suspenseful fantasy, historical fantasy, contemporary fiction, friendship fiction, heterosexual love stories, original gen, original het, original slash, hurt/comfort, darkfic, gay fiction, gay erotic love stories, gay erotica, and leather fiction. It's the equivalent of a 2000-page anthology.
As a bonus, the e-book also contains 28 collections of fiction recommendations and nonfiction, including annotated lists of hundreds of novels, short fiction, and memoirs, online and in print: friendship fiction, gay fiction and erotica, original slash and yaoi, leather fiction, Victorian and Edwardian writings, science fiction, fantasy, historical fantasy, and historical fiction.
(Alternatively, rather than buy the e-book, you can download for free the 800+ files contained in Love in Dark Settings Omnibus by clicking on "File > Save As" at all of the relevant pages of duskpeterson.com. Some of us are more DIY than others.)
Ordering information | Contents of the latest edition | Unzipping instructions | Parental guidance note and disclaimer.
>>>
Darkling
Plain
* Main Bookshelf. Site content label. Fantasy tales about young people in times of conflict.
New online fiction:
Princeling 1: Noble. In a world where war has lasted for generations, in which only the pitiless nobles who wage war hold power, and those who cannot fight must suffer or seek slow death . . . What would you do if you were a noble, and you lost the ability to fight?
>>> Life Prison
* High Bookshelf. Site content
label. A historical fantasy series about male desire and determination
in Victorian prisons.
New online fiction:
Hell's Messenger 1: Trial. For fifteen years, he has striven to better the lives of his fellow prisoners. Now he must start all over again.
Hell's Messenger 2: Tour. He has taken his first step to being accepted by the other prisoners. But what is the secret of the missing prisoners?
In addition, a summary of the Hell's Messenger volume has been posted.
>>> Michael's House
*
High Bookshelf. Site content
label. A historical fantasy series set in
an Edwardian slum.
New online fiction:
Whipster 2: Offstage. It is intended as the model pleasure house, the one that will transform the manner in which male prostitution is conducted in the kingdom of Vovim. But Michael's House is facing ruin – unless one of the partners falls back on old ways.
Whipster 3: Blurred Lines. Michael has survived poverty, prostitution, and the loss of love, but not even his partner may be able to help him overcome the latest challenge.
In addition, a summary and excerpt have been posted for the second volume in the series, Honor and Hope.
>>>
Prison
City
* High Bookshelf. Site content label. A retrofuture series based on the Chesapeake Bay oyster wars, homoeroticism in British public schools in the 1910s, and 1960s visions of things to come.
A summary and excerpt have been posted for the first volume in the series, Master and Servant. In addition, the novella The True Master has been transferred from the Master/Other series site; it now constitutes the second story within Master and Servant.
>>> The Three Lands
* Main Bookshelf. Site content label. A fantasy series on friendship, romance, and betrayal in times of war and peace.
Reviews of Re-creation
I enjoyed [this] holiday gift story so much that I sent the url to my 14-year-old son. Thank you. It did, indeed, feel like a gift.
[Reader comment at duskpeterson (LiveJournal).]
Your portrayal of the relationship between these two boys was beautiful.
[Reader comment at duskpeterson (InsaneJournal).]
Story summary and link to story.
* High Bookshelf. Site content label. A historical fantasy series set in a land where the psychologists wield whips.
Review of Rebirth 1: The Breaking
I've been obsessively rereading "The Breaking" from the "Eternal Dungeon" series since you posted the link, and envying your knack for . . .
. . . ascetic sweetness? Monastic tenderness? Restrained catharsis?
Something like that.
[Maculategiraffe, Comment to the author, August 2008]
Story summary and link to story.
>>> Life Prison
* High Bookshelf. Site content label. A historical fantasy series about male desire and determination in Victorian prisons.
Reviews of Hell's Messenger
I feared that the story would be endless hopelessness and abuse. Thankfully, that's not the case. . . . Compassion Prison exists caught between a truly independent microcosm of society and the heavily controlled typical "prison" idea, and you can see Tyrrell trying to reconcile that existence with his own beliefs and morals, along with a desire to survive.
[Review by Sychaeus at The Slash Pile.]
I find myself reading it over again to catch subtleties in the interactions that I'd originally missed. The society that's developed in Compassion is strangely touching.
[Reader comment at orig_slavefic.]
The amount of research you must do and the detail you put into your work is awe inspiring.
[Reader comment at duskpeterson.]
Story summary and link to story.
>>> Master/Other
* High Bookshelf. Site content label. Gay fantasy and science fiction about prisoners, slaves, liegemen, and love.
Review of Debt Price
I didn't want to like this piece. I mean, really. We're all here for lovely smut and [gay love] and you had to go and make me think. How dare you.
[Reader comments at orig_slavefic.]
Story summary and link to story.
Review of Leather, Licking, and Lawnmowers
I'm amazed at your ability to create a story that is so amazingly hot and sexy and also makes a statement (without bludgeoning the reader over the head) that inspires thought-provoking analysis of self.
[Reader comments at duskpeterson.]
Story summary and link to story.
Review of Twenty Thousand Gold Stars
I was so captivated by the interweaving plotlines as we slowly learned more about the characters through posts that I made it through the whole thing in one sitting. A beautifully written and haunting tale.
[Reader comments (with spoilers) at duskpeterson.]
Story summary and link to story.
OTHER PEOPLE'S FICTION AND NARRATIVES
* Fiction recommendations. Site content label.
New recommendations:
M. Chandler: Shadow of the Templar. A wacky cat burglar encounters equally wacky FBI agents. Brilliant dialogue ensues. ¶ Male homoerotic fiction, male friendship fiction, male/female friendship fiction, heterosexual fiction, contemporary fiction, crime themes, disability themes, employer/employee fiction, erotic fiction, mysteries, race/ethnicity themes, shared universe (Shadow of the Templar), spy fiction. ¶ Online fiction and fiction books. ¶ On-screen sex, but more often off-screen than on. On-screen violence. ¶ Review.
Alec Waugh: The Loom of Youth. A student rebels against the hypocrisy his schoolmasters show toward such subjects as cribbing, athletics, and homosexuality. ¶ Male friendship fiction, male romantic friendship fiction, historical fiction (1910s and World War One), school fiction. ¶ Fiction books and online fiction. ¶ References to topics of sexuality. References to topics of violence. ¶ Review.
Ernest Raymond: Tell England. Two boys striving for something higher than the mundanities of school life find what they seek in the fields of war. ¶ Male friendship fiction, male romantic friendship fiction, historical fiction (1910s and World War One), mentor fiction, military fiction, school fiction, spirituality themes. ¶ Fiction books and online fiction. ¶ On-screen violence. ¶ Review.
E. F. Benson: David Blaize. A stolid, faithful pal and a quicksilver, exciting older boy serve as bookends in the life of a schoolboy. ¶ Male friendship fiction, male romantic friendship fiction, historical fiction (1910s), mentor fiction, school fiction. ¶ Fiction books and online fiction. ¶ References to topics of sexuality. References to topics of violence. ¶ Review.
>>> Masculinity, Crime, and Everyday Life in Victorian and Edwardian Times
* Web directory.
A new section has been added, devoted to writings, photography, and videos on islanders and watermen of the Chesapeake Bay. Both historical and modern studies are listed in that section.
In addition, a new section has been added listing fiction, memoirs, and historical studies on education (boarding schools). Both boys' schools and girls' schools are covered.
>>> Retrofuture: Visions of the Future, 1945-1975
* Web directory.
Retrofuture (also called retro-future, paleo-future, and Raygun Gothic) is a word used for past visions of the future. This new bibliography of book, films, and online resources focusses on retrofuturistic visions in the decades immediately following the invention of the computer, when scientists, journalists, artists, film-makers, and science fiction writers were especially interested in how technology such as computers would affect life in the future. From the 1960s onwards, human captivity in computer-controlled prisons and dystopias became a recurring theme.
This site serves a partial bibliography for my novel series Prison City.
A separate page within the site covers Media Representations of Everyday Life and of Battles Against the Mainstream, 1962-1965, focussing on media representations of everyday life, as well as of the people who battled against mainstream America: youth, racial minorities, women, musicians, the working class, and the counterculture. The current topics listed there are: General, Advertising, Counterculture and Youth, Daily Life, Greenwich Village and the South Village, Journalism and the Media, Music and Dance, and Northeast Blackout of 1965.
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING FICTION
>>> E-Book and site navigation change
As you can see, I've switched this year from publishing e-books of my individual stories to publishing a single zipped-file e-book of all my fiction, nonfiction, and fiction recommendations, which I'll update once a year. I'm hoping this will be convenient and relatively inexpensive for any of my readers who like to store lots of my writings on their hard drives; it will certainly free up a lot of publishing time for me.
In the process of preparing the e-book, I've done some navigation changes at this domain to try to cut down on the amount of links-clicking readers have to do to reach stories:
Princeling, From Hell to the Stars, and Main Stream have been moved to Darkling Plain (which now has a revised site content label).
Leather in Lawnville (renamed "Leather, Licking, and Lawnmowers") has been moved to Master/Other (which now has a revised organization and revised site content label).
To summarize, the main index now consists of the following:
The Three Lands: Main Bookshelf novel series.I hope that will make things a little less complicated.Darkling Plain: Main Bookshelf stand-alone stories.
Turn-of-the-Century Toughs, consisting of four High Bookshelf novel series: The Eternal Dungeon, Life Prison, Michael's House, and Prison City.
Master/Other: High Bookshelf stand-alone stories.
Loren's Lashes: High Bookshelf novel series.
>>> Progress reports
If you want to check what stage upcoming stories are at, check the monthly progress report.
>>> Copyright
All of my writings at this domain are now licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License. My policy on fan works hasn't changed (create them! please!), but my policy on derivative works has loosened.
>>> My winter break and upcoming fiction
Despite my continued struggles with Internet addiction, my winter writing time went well, with 170,000 words completed. I finished a new Eternal Dungeon novella (from the fifth volume, so you won't see it for a while), wrote a new Three Lands novelette (that is to say, my 2008 holiday story, Re-creation), did substantial work on two Three Lands novels and on the first Prison City volume, and did bits and pieces of work on other stories.
In addition to getting my much-delayed paperbacks published, I plan to devote this publishing season to The Eternal Dungeon; I'll begin posting every story in that series that's been completed so far. Depending on how much time that leaves me with, I also hope to get online a few stories from other series, both in the Main Bookshelf and in the High Bookshelf.
>>> Coming Next
A marathon begins of the Eternal Dungeon series.
Continue to
What's New 2008
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Copyright © 2009 Dusk Peterson. Some rights reserved. The text is
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You may freely print, post, e-mail, share, or otherwise distribute the
text for noncommercial purposes, provided that you include this paragraph.
The author's policies on
derivative works and fan works are available online (duskpeterson.com/copyright.htm).
Cover designs: Dusk Peterson. Main
Bookshelf art credits. High
Bookshelf art credits. Permission is granted for the reposting and
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purposes of providing information on Dusk Peterson's writings. Please link
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