Up Now At FutureOfSex: Part One of The Ten Greatest Sexual Innovations to Come!

Alas, badoink is gone - fun while it lasted - but the great news is that I'm now writing for the fabulous FutureOf Sex ... and my very first piece, part one of a series called The Ten Greatest Sexual Innovations to Come is live!

Just click here and read The Future of Sexual Sensing: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Neurostimulation!

As the old saying goes: the only constant is change—and the last few years have certainly seen a lot of it. So many changes, in fact, that it’s hard to think of any aspect of human society that hasn’t been touched by technological innovation over the last decade or so.

Books became ebooks, the Internet went from novelty to essential, electric and hybrid vehicles have become ubiquitous, gay marriage changed from “don’t talk about it” to “no big deal” (at least in some countries), and 3D printers left the prototype stage to become at-home appliances—just to hit some highlights.

But the greatest changes are right around the corner. Many of these innovations will occur in one of our favorite areas: sex.

Part one of our three-part tour into future sex developments is this speculation on sensory tech: how our seeing—and feeling—will be more than believing. These incredible sensory advances will be introduced to us via three innovative technologies.
Innovation One: Virtual Reality

Despite some initial clumsy attempts, virtual reality promises to become a societal game changer. Like many huge innovations, the basic idea of virtual reality is essentially simple: an artificial world accessed by miniature monitors over the eyes. These, coupled with motion sensors, means when you turn your head, the view through those monitors changes as well.

Where the game changing comes in is two pronged. The first is that VR promises a level of total immersion that we have never experienced before. With a VR headset—like the popular Oculus Rift—you’ll feel like you’re actually in whatever artificial world you’re visiting. Right now all we’re missing to complete this total immersion is haptics—touch technology, but that’s right around the corner.

The other prong is part of what drove the ebook revolution in publishing: privacy. With a VR set, no one will know where you are but you.

With VR you can visit—or create—any erotic world of your choosing in privacy. There is, literally, nothing you could not see nor do in a synthetic reality. As the tech gets better and better, soon the line between “real” reality and a virtual experience will get thinner and thinner.

Gazing into my—albeit cracked—crystal ball, it’s not too difficult to envision a few years from now. With VR we’ll not just be able to see films, but be parts of them. Interactivity will mean that entertainment, erotic or otherwise, will be multi-dimensional and totally immersive.

[MORE]

M.Christian's Erotic Science Fiction Collection, Bachelor Machine, Back in A New Edition – PLUS Groundbreaking Sequel: Skin Effect!

M.Christian and Renaissance E Books, through its Sizzler Editions imprint, is pleased and proud to announce the republication of M.Christian's groundbreaking science fiction collection, Bachelor Machine, plus a brand new, never-before seen, follow-up collection: Skin Effect!

M.Christian rocked the world of both science fiction and erotica with Bachelor Machine – Cynthia Ward at Locus Online calling it "smart, taboo-breaking SF" and – and now his groundbreaking book is back in a brand new edition!

Not only that, but M.Christian will further amaze as well as arouse with a follow up collection of imaginative and stimulating stories: Skin Effect!

In Skin Effect and Bachelor Machine are tales that push the envelopes of both science fiction as well as erotica in innovative and stimulating ways: stories voyaging to the near as well as the far future, exploring the ultimate limits of sex and arousal.

In her introduction to Bachelor Machine, Cecilia Tan says of M.Christian "There are only two people in the world I envy. One is the late Roger Zelazny, whose talent for an almost jazz improvisational way of writing I could never match. The other is M.Christian, for writing exactly what I’d write if only I could get off my ass. Which is to say, raunchy hallucinatory sexfuture dreams that never fail to arouse me and kick me in the gut at the same time."

In his forward to Skin Effect, the Chicano science fiction legend Ernest Hogan (author of High Aztech and Cortez On Jupiter), says "The stories in Skin Effect are erotic, and original, state-of-the-art science fiction. They take the technological developments of recent years and plug them into the engines of human desire, taking us beyond our present day sexual issues into worlds that deliver in ways I hadn't imagined possible."

In Skin Effect and Bachelor Machine are tales that are riveting as well as arousing, stories of technology and desire, and arousal and innovation ... told in an engaging and evocative style guaranteed to amaze as well as excite.

From down and out hustlers, enhanced sex workers, enigmatic aliens, bleeding edge erotic technologies, and more – Bachelor Machine and Skin Effect are an unique visions of the future, while celebrating humanity's oldest pleasure ... sex!

"M.Christian’s stories squat at the intersection of Primal Urges Avenue and Hi-Tech Parkway like a feral-eyed, half-naked Karen Black leering and stabbing her fractal machete into the tarmac. Truly an author for our post-everything 21st century."
–Paul Di Filippo, The Steampunk Trilogy

"M.Christian speaks with a totally unique and truly fascinating voice. There are a lot of writers out there who'd better protect their markets – M. Christian has arrived!"
–Mike Resnick, Hugo and Nebula Award winning science fiction author

"When I tell you that these stories are hot, I might be giving you an understatement. M.Christian’s erotica comes from the heart ... he has created an entire new genre."
–Amos Lassen

"There is an uncommon variety of material in here [Bachelor Machine], from cyberpunk to space opera, alternative history to dystopia. The science-fictional settings are manifold, as are the sexual positions and inclinations—and, more importantly, the role of the inevitable explicit sex within each story. From the frivolous to the poignant to the socio-politically scathing, there’s something in this book for everyone."
–Johann Carlisle, Future Fire

"M.Christian is a hybrid artist and knockout stylist on the order of Jonathan Lethem. Hard-boiled, sharp-edged, funny and fierce, his tales brim with unbridled imagination and pitch-perfect satire,"
–Jim Gladstone

"M.Christian is a writer who takes you for a long walk down a dark wet street at midnight. You can't get much more edgy and still be legal. His fiction never disappoints."
–Nancy Kilpatrick, The Power of the Blood series and In the Shadow of the Gargoyle

Calling M.Christian versatile is a tremendous understatement. Extensively published in science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and even non-fiction, it is in erotica that M.Christian has become an acknowledged master, with more than 400 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and in fact too many anthologies, magazines, and sites to name. In erotica, M.Christian is known and respected not just for his passion on the page but also his staggering imagination and chameleonic ability to successfully and convincingly write for any and all orientations.

But M.Christian has other tricks up his literary sleeve: in addition to writing, he is a prolific and respected anthologist, having edited 25 anthologies to date including the Best S/M Erotica series; Pirate Booty; My Love For All That Is Bizarre: Sherlock Holmes Erotica; The Burning Pen; The Mammoth Book of Future Cops, and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi); Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant), and many more.

M.Christian's short fiction has been collected into many bestselling books in a wide variety of genres, including the Lambda Award finalist Dirty Words and other queer collections like Filthy Boys, BodyWork, and his best-of-his-best gay erotica book, Stroke the Fire. He also has collections of non-fiction (Welcome to Weirdsville, Pornotopia, and How To Write And Sell Erotica); science fiction, fantasy and horror (Love Without Gun Control); and erotic science fiction including Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, and the acclaimed Bachelor Machine.

As a novelist, M.Christian has shown his monumental versatility with books such as the queer vamp novels Running Dry and The Very Bloody Marys; the erotic romance Brushes; the science fiction erotic novel Painted Doll; and the rather controversial gay horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth and Me2.

M.Christian is also the Publisher of Digital Parchment Services and an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books, where he strives to be the publisher he'd want to have as a writer, and to help bring quality books (erotica, noir, science fiction, and more) and authors out into the world.

Bachelor Machine: $2.99

Skin Effect: $2.99

Check Out The New Installment Of Badoink Future Sex Tech!

I am seriously having a blast doing my series for Future SexTech: The Five New Technologies That Will Change Sex Forever for Badoink!

Just check out the brand new installment that just went up and live on the kick-ass site:

Future SexTech: 

The Five New Technologies That Will Change Sex Forever

#3 Haptic Tech

Here it comes, faster than you think: the world of tomorrow. And, even better, it’s going to be a very erotic future!

We’ve delved into the visual sexuality of virtual and augmented reality, and then 3D printing equipment that’ll bring dreams into fabricated existence. But what we’ve been missing so far, that’ll really turn any erotic dream into pretty-near reality, is what people call haptic technology.

That’s a sense of touch, to you and I.

True, touch tech has been around for quite a while – at least as long as the earliest attempts at virtual reality. Given, in erotic circles, the less-than-sensual label of teledildonics, the idea is simple enough: wire a motorized ‘accessory’ to the web, or specialized games, and have at it… or have it at you. Whatever rocks your world, as they say.

Alas, those early attempts were rather crude, to be polite. But that’s changing and fast. New Bluetooth vibrators – for every orientation and inclination – are small, efficient, and even stylish. Models such as the We-Vibe can even connect to special smartphone apps, as can the tech by a company called OhMiBod. Pretty soon we’ll be able to mate them to specialized virtual or augmented reality games so you’ll be able to not just see your wildest sexual fantasy but have a pretty realistic illusion of being touched.

Ah, but what about the other direction? Being touched is one thing – we are getting pretty close to that, but being able to reach out and virtually touch is really the next big thing. One possible direction this development will take is using direct neural interface: wiring technology directly into the brain. We already have made huge advances in this direction, like the development of prostheses with an actual sense of touch.

[MORE]

Future Sex Tech And Porn Can Be Good For You: Great New Badoink Fun!

I am having a real blast writing for the great site, badoink. In fact not one but two of my new pieces just went up: part two of my new series Future SexTech: The Five New Technologies That Will Change Sex Forever and a great article on how watching porn can really, actually be good for your sex life!

Check out these teasers ... and be sure to go to the site itself for my pieces a lot more cool stuff!

Future SexTech: The Five New Technologies 

That Will Change Sex Forever. 

#2 3D Printing

Like a lot of technology that has completely changed the world, 3D printing is – on the surface – really quite simple. How simple? Well, it’s printing… but in three dimensions.

Okay, okay, I bet you want a bit more information. Really, 3D printing is, in essence, the same as regular old printing but instead of ink on a flat surface the technology uses plastics – and other materials – to build up layer after later until, voila, you have a solid object. Plastic, metal, sugar… you name it and we can, or will very soon, be able to make it.

The revolution in 3D printing came very recently, but the really big change is just on the horizon. That first step was in making 3D printing much more accessible: going from a novelty to an almost common piece of technology. Staples, in fact, recently announced that some of their stores will feature 3D printers; all you need to do is drop off a design, or email it, and your physical object will be made for you.

Then you have the very cool company, Shapeways; people upload their designs to the site and then anyone can order that gizmo or whatever you’ve created in all kinds of materials. For the first time anyone can create pretty much anything and then have people own a physical version of it.

Which gets us to sex. The problem with the old world of sex toys is the same problem with manufacturing, period: bulk. To make anything you had to make a lot of it. Just making one of anything was hideously expensive.

[MORE]

Porn Can Be Good For Your Sex Life… Really!

Pretty much everyone – and we mean everyone – likes to look at adult videos and pictures, or read erotic books, now and again. But what most don’t know is that porn can actually be a huge benefit to a healthy sex life.

Putting aside political issues, or concerns about porn addiction – which is a concern but not as common as some fear it can be – indulging in adult entertainment has proved to be a great way not just to lift the sexual spirit but can actually be educational, or even good for self-esteem!

In a study in Sexual Medicine, for instance, researchers discovered that porn viewing can actually help men achieve erections with their partners. Putting aside the medical jargon, the basic idea is that fantasy is a key part of getting turned on – and watching adult videos helps that. After all, most people fantasize during sex and not just during masturbation. So anything that feeds a good sexual fantasy life is a good thing.

While it’s true there’s a lot of, well, let’s just say unrealistic porn out there, enjoying adult videos or reading an erotic book now and again can also be a great source of sex ed. More than ever – thank you, Internet – we have access to all kinds of information and sexual interests. Meaning that if anything should tickle your fancy a video of either how to do it, or people enjoying it, is just a mouse click away. Wonder how to use bondage gear? Click! Wonder about new sex positions? Click! Wonder about vibrators? Click!

Even better, it’s usually presented without prejudice or judgment. No matter that turns you on there’s almost guaranteed to be a site offering exactly what you want. What this means – aside from having lots of fun – is that people don’t have to think, “I’m the only one,” anymore. With a quick press of that mouse – or a flick of a touch screen – you’ve got a whole bunch of places to visit for your particular kind of sexual fun.

[MORE]

I'm A Reader For The Amazing Stories Gernsback Science Fiction Short Story Contest!

This is a true honor: I've been selected to be one of the readers for the Amazing Stories Gernsback Science Fiction Short Story Contest!

Here's the info - and best of all to everyone who submits!

#

(from the Amazing Stories site)

The Gernsback Contest will consist of two stages of evaluation of submissions.

Yesterday, we introduced you to our stellar cast of Judges, who will be making the final selections from among twenty nominees.

Those twenty nominees will be selected by our in-house reading team – all of whom are contributors to Amazing Stories, fine, upstanding fannish citizens. Many are authors, editors and artists themselves. Collectively, they command CENTURIES of experience with the written word.

Our readers will be assigned submissions on a random, rotational basis. The names of the authors of those submissions will be redacted prior to sending them along for a read (to guard against unconscious bias).

The Scarlet Pencil - Up Now At Bewildering Stories!

Now this is great news: my - to put it mildly - surreal take on Holmes and Moriarity, "The Sacrlet Pencil" is now up at the excellent Bewildering Stories site!  A big round of applause goes to Don Webb for his fantastic editing of my story.  Bravo, Don!

I'm especially touched by this nice little welcome message ... thanks so much!!

“Prolific” is too weak a term to describe M. Christian’s writing; he’s a publishing powerhouse. He has edited more than two dozen anthologies and published novels as well as hundreds of short stories in a very wide variety of genres. He is also Associate Editor of Renaissance eBooks and the publisher of Digital Parchment Services. 

“The Scarlet Pencil” takes readers on a famiiar and yet ironic journey into some literary classics, where the archvillain Moriarty attempts to derail the plots. And of course, he will have to deal with none other than Sherlock Holmes. In addition to playing on the title The Scarlet Pimpernel, “The Scarlet Pencil” seems to have a lot to do with an editor’s own adventures in literature. 

Welcome to Bewildering Stories, M. Christian. We hope to hear from you again soon and often!

M. Christian’s bio sketch can be found here.

The Future Of Sex At Badoink!

This is very exciting: I'm now writing for the great folks at badoink - and my first fun project is a five-part look at Future SexTech: The Five New Technologies That Will Change Sex Forever!  

Check out my first installment, on augmented and virtual reality, here ... and be sure and check out the great site and my next installments!

In the meantime here's a tease:

Future SexTech: The Five New Technologies 

That Will Change Sex Forever

#1 Virtual and Augmented Reality

While we don’t have food pills (who’d want that, anyway?) or jetpacks (at least not for a few years) we really are living in a time of unprecedented technological change.

And the best tech is yet to come… and even better it’s sexy tech!

One of the more far-reaching and powerful of these upcoming innovations got, to be blunt, a less thanwowie reception when it first appeared. Mostly this was, back in the 90s, because the dreams of the VR developers were a lot bigger than the available hardware.

Fortunately, a lot of those literal headaches early users experienced are pretty much gone. So we are looking at a Virtual Reality explosion in the very near future.

Without getting too technical – because, frankly, it’s really not that complicated – virtual reality is using miniature, eye-mounted monitors coupled with motion sensors to give the wearer the illusion of being submerged in a brand new, artificial environment. One people can explore and interact with very much like they can in our so-called ‘real’ world.

The big change with VR has come with the arrival of our new favorite sex toy: the smartphone. After all, it has everything that VR had always been lacking. In the palm of your hand you’ve got your high-res screen, your motion sensors, stereo output, and even wifi and cell reception.

[MORE]

Steve Williams Loves Painted Doll

Steve Williams at Suite101.com:

Examining The Dark New Book From A Rising American Genre Writer

In a future where technology is key, what do you do when you are being hunted by a volume of unknown, lethal, cyberneticaly enhanced assassins that can be activated remotely and at a moments notice, sent after you by an employer who’s reach in the world is unparalleled, and the Far East is the last refuge after the disintegration of the United States of America? Well, you might go into hiding in the very best way possible. You might change your identity, your name, your speech and become everything that you were not. You might even hide behind the thick makeup of the porcelain like Geisha.

This is the story of rogue computer analyst Claire, or Domino the Erotist as she becomes, the heroin in a wonderfully dark new novel from M. Christian. Claire adopts the hard, frozen persona of Domino to escape the clutches of her ex-employer who believes she has been stealing from him. Claire goes into a protection program of sorts, becoming Domino, who, with her excellently conceived kit of neuron stimulating inks and large, wand like brush, is charged with giving various clients a special service: using the inks she can stimulate any emotion she so chooses and create visions of fantasy more real than anything the client has previously experienced. But more than this, the Erotist can gauge a client, and in the guise of Domino, Claire is able to discern what truly motivates them and ‘pushes their buttons’.

The character of Domino is a fascinating creation, but there are others here for those interested in the world of science-fiction. ‘Many’ is a creature capable of jumping between bodies through some sort of data transfer, and is an interesting edition to the plethora of characters. Unfortunately, we only meet Many on an ironically few occasions, but he/she is certainly memorable.

Less interesting is Claire’s love interest Flower, a girl from whom she has had to be separated from. Whilst Flower is characterized by M. Christian in such a way that she is immediately recognizable with her own distinct tone and voice, she seems to function largely as a sounding-board in Claire’s loss of identity as maintaining the persona of Domino becomes more of a threat to her emotional health. There is nothing wrong with this, but had M. Christian chose to split the narrative apart and had it from multiple points of view, rather than from solely Claire’s, it may have served to give more of a life to Flower than what she ultimately had. However, when dealing with what could be perceived as a split personality to begin with – Claire and Domino wrestle for hold over the other – this limiting of the narrative voice may have been the right move technically.

The only real problem here, and one that is easily forgivable, is that, after a while, it becomes apparent that in order to write good erotica one must avoid cliché and, if possible, hyperbole. With these limiting factors in place, there are only so many ways that you can describe an erection through the eyes of a foe-Geisha giving sexual pleasures to her male clients through some nero-stimulant paints, without it becoming repetitive. M. Christian does remarkably well however in grounding his stories in strong characters, and because of this, this problem fails to blossom into any kind of real issue. It would be apt to call M. Christian’s descriptions here minimalism on the page, and the story benefits from this greatly.

On the whole, this is a story about love, betrayal, fidelity and an exploration of the dark desires that we all have, things that are seemingly inexplicable to our waking selves, but fundamental to our being. Once again, M. Christian exposes the underbelly of his characters and shows us truths that are rarely found in this genre in which he writes so well. This is a masterful piece of work, and recommended.

Future Fire Likes Love Without Gun Control

Now this is a treat: not only did the folks at Future Fire ("social political and speculative cyber-fiction") like The Bachelor Machine, my collection of erotic science fiction, but they also just posted a nice review of my non-erotic collection of fantasy/science fiction/horror, Love Without Gun Control:

I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect when Love Without Gun Control  showed up to be reviewed. The cover is very retro-pulp-comic, a scene on Mars, all bright colors and simple lines, misleading as to the  content. It seems more like a graphic-novel cover, or a series of 70's porn. The book itself is quite thin, only 155 pages. I was pleasantly surprised. The collection opens with the eponymous story, ‘Love Without Gun Control’, published for the first time in this collection. Ultra-violent and rather bizarre, it is somewhat reminiscent of a D. Harlan Wilson story. A sort of modern-day Western romance, the story really does defy labeling as it shows the effects of one snake-oil doctor’s ‘love potion’, applied erroneously, and the destruction that can come from thwarted desire. A fun, rollicking ride with a very unique flavor.

The second story, ‘Needle Taste’, is a unique concept with an ambiguous ending. The story itself is a totally different beast from the previous tale, but the wistful tone holds up the strange story well enough until the end, when it feels a little... abrupt. If there’s a weak one in the bunch, it’s this one, simply on a relative scale. It is in no way a bad one, it just doesn’t have quite the force of the others.

...seeking a forever-quiet man in the whole buzzing, humming, singing, cackling city.

‘Hush Hush’ is my favorite story in the collection. The language is absolutely beautiful: weird, eery and slippery. The tale is half mystery, half internal journey. Whether he solves the mystery or not is really unimportant. What he learns along the way is not. This was a lovely to read for the language as for the story.

‘The Rich Man’s Ghost’ is probably my least favorite of the stories. It lacks the smoothness of voice, the weird beauty of most of the other pieces. The story is a little less Weird, too, and maybe that colors my opinion.

‘Wanderlust’ is one of the stories that I’m not really sure, at first, how I feel about it. On the one hand, the reader is kept in the dark until the very end of the story. I simply didn’t have a clue what was going on. On the other hand, the writing is very rich, so it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to enjoy the ride. A man who inspires absolute  ecstasy from everyone he meets comes across a bit thin at first, but their reactions if he stays around for longer than a few minutes are... interesting.

‘Orphan’ is chilling and haunting. A young man running from something, to something, carrying a horrible secret. There were a couple of places that could have used a clarity edit or that read a little  contrived, but overall, definitely a memorable piece worth reading again.

Really, though, I’d be hard-pressed to say that any story in this collection is best skipped over or read in a hurry. There’s just enough  variation in the stories to keep them unique, and enough cohesion to develop a voice that just draws me in more deeply, the farther I read. (The first story is an odd difference to the rest of them, but no less enjoyable.) The cover-art remains a sticking point, as it has no apparent connection to the content, and prose like this needs something lovely to wrap it up, and what it has is not something I would be wild about displaying on a shelf.

Read this one slowly, because each story is best savored and mulled over. And I’ll be keeping an eye out for more of M. Christian’s stories.

Rainbow Reviews Likes Painted Doll!

Rainbow Reviews:

The first thing that stuck me about Painted Doll was the very mannered, structured and layered language; clause upon clause of dense evocative phrasing which could serve to push readers away, but instead drew me deeper into Domino's world. The effect is a little like standing on a beach with the waves of a rising tide lapping at your toes until you're standing calf deep without really having made the decision to get wet. 

The chaotic, dystopic future in which Painted Doll is set is expertly sketched amongst this layered detail. It is sufficiently fully realized to be concrete and real; sufficiently impressionistic to leave me with intriguing questions. I suspect the Ecole Polytechnique's creature may not be an obvious choice for a sequel, but the glimpses we're given into his/its mind really grabbed me. 

This rich, layered language also heightens the erotic scenes in the novel - both the artificial professional sessions, where Domino wields distilled emotions without so much as touching one finger to her male clients, and in the more innocent and earthy remembered sex she shared with her female lover, Flower. 

As a fan of the epistolary novel, it was an unexpected joy to find this vein of letter-based story telling running through this cyberpunk thriller. Although we never meet Flower directly, her character and her voice shines through. We only get to see the first flush of their love affair through the cracks in the masks of Domino's new life, but I could still see why they would fall in love, why it was worth risking so much to be together, which means that what happens to Flower as the story comes to an end really hits home. 

This isn't an easy romance, either in its plot or the reading experience, but it is a very strong, compelling story which drew me in, and which I will remember for some time. M. Christian masterfully slides between the different parts of Domino/Claire's identity, building and revealing the world, the character, the conflict at the heart of the story, and it's a grand ride.