Monthly Archives: January 2010

“The Story of O”

Posted by Lux Zakari on

When I read The Story of O, I learned two things.

The first is there is freedom to be found in willful slavery, in giving up any and all power you might’ve had and entrusting your decisions to be made by someone else. Choosing to be a slave becomes a philosophical, religious and liberating act.

The second thing I realized is the profound sadness involved in wanting to completely possess someone. You will never know if you do, and the fact is no one can be completely owned: he or she will always be him or herself, no matter how much he or she loves you. To judge/base love on whether you can possess someone is futile, and there’s a whole new brand of sadness and loneliness in that futility.

The master becomes the slave, and the slave becomes free.

-LZ.

Worst Novel Ingredients?

Posted by Lux Zakari on

Once upon a time, a prompt had me thinking about what kind of novel I wanted to write for NaNoWriMo 2005. I dreamed up a wacky list of all kinds of things I would include and used it as a guide to help me freestyle a story. In contrast, I whipped up a list of items I never wanted to write about, the stuff of a dull novel, which included the following:

  • Politics
  • War
  • Pretension
  • Graphic descriptions of drug usage’s effects
  • The inner city
  • Rich/preppy college kids
  • Fraternity/sorority antics
  • High school woes
  • American Pie shenanigans
  • Religion
  • The Soviet Union

That last one just makes me laugh, because it had been the first thing to spring to mind and was so bizarre and random.

Now I disagree with most of the list—in fact, reflecting on it, I think much of it sounds very interesting and want to challenge myself to write about it all! It’s just interesting to look back and recall the material I was interested/disinterested in then and how I evolved.

-LZ.

SlackerWriMo Success

Posted by Lux Zakari on

My friend T and I had big plans to do NaNoWriMo 2009 together, but reality unfortunately got in the way. However, I felt like the year would not be complete if I didn’t write at least a first draft of a novel, so we both embarked on what I’m calling SlackerWriMo — a NaNoWriMo favoring December. I admit, I cheated (even further!) by drudging up a 4K story I’d started and working on that, but the point was purely to finish something.

And I did! I finished a day or two after New Year’s, but that sounds much less interesting than New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, so let’s go with that. I’m very excited about this story, which I’m tentatively calling “Cut and Dried” but that’s certainly subject to change. It’s very mid-80s, with lots of crazy famous people doing crazy famous people things, like breaking hearts, making money and the front page, and falling in love–even if they’d rather not.

Now to tend to one of my semi-resolutions (I’m hesitant to make it an official resolution): eat all the 2009 food still lurking in the pantry/freezer. All those Lipton sides? That box of San Giorgio angel hair? The six-month-old bag of tots? Histoire! This is actually pretty smart of me, considering it clears out “food baggage” and forces me to cook instead of contenting myself with Triscuts, cheese and preserves.

-LZ.

Note: This post was not intended to be a product placement, but if you’d like to pay me for the mentions, that’s fine too.

So You Wanna Write Erotica?

Posted by Lux Zakari on

Show Lyrical Press what you’ve got:

Call for submissions: Erotica/BDSM

Lyrical Press is actively acquiring all sub-genres of erotica, with a focus on BDSM.

Let your imagination run wild. Explore the darker side of sexuality. Shed all inhabitations and give free reign to your secret fantasies. Entangle us in a world where sexual boundaries are pushed and readers can dance on a razor’s edge of sex and danger.

Please note – Lyrical will not consider stories containing rape.

Sensuality level: Red hot

Length: 30,000 – 80,000 words

Key Characteristics: Strong sexual relationship between main characters. Elements of bondage and S&M that explore the dominant/submissive roles of a BDSM relationship. Multiple partners acceptable.

Deadline: None

Submission Guidelines: http://www.lyricalpress.com/submissions

Submissions eMail: submissions@lyricalpress.com

If you dare to write it, we dare to consider it.