Review of 'The Penitentiary' by Tanya Simmonds

Another amusing femdom romp by Tanya Simmonds, with lots of luscious detail to satisfy the most exacting connoisseurs of the genre. Once again, there's a certain cinematic quality to it, though if 'The Paramount Rule' sometimes felt like an Ealing comedy, the trashy Southern aesthetic of this one really feels like it ought to have been made by Russ Meyer. How we would have loved the assertive big-breasted women prison guards!

All of Tanya Simmonds' favourite fetishes are here – orgasm denial, sadistic women getting off on men unable to come, punishment for ejaculation, and lots of cocks in cruel constrictions; I don't believe anyone has explored the erotic potential of the simple rubber band as much as Simmonds has. There's also a strap-on rape of an inmate by a powerful uniformed guard – I mean, really, what more could you ask for? There's lots of enforced cunnilingus, and some rather sweet depictions of vanilla romantic love between some repentant guards and their devoted prisoner-lovers. Once again, the cruellest, most sexually repressed and repressive of the women (a right-wing religious fundamentalist, naturally) is revealed to be a hypocritical sex-obsessed deviant herself.

The plot mechanics are carefully thought through, and there is enough action and twists to thread the sex scenes into a coherent narrative. I could have done without the epilogue which ties up all the loose ends and lets us know what happens to all the characters after the action, but that's just me. I also don't understand what has happened to the cover, either, which seems to depict a woman in bondage – where are all the dominant women and subjugated men from the story?

If you enjoy a sexually charged story with lots of wanton, cruel women in uniform, then this one is definitely for you.

Salome is interviewed!

This celebrity interview with Salome took place ages ago, and then she forgot about it. It appeared in late July, but no-one told her. So she is posting this link late. Oh well, better than never...http://www.bdsmbookreviews.com/2013/07/27/interview-with-salome-verdad/

Another review - this time by acclaimed femdom author Tanya Simmonds

And what a super review it is too - read it all here, then read it again, and tell your friends, slaves and mistresses. And tell them how much fun they are missing out on.

You can find out more about Ms Simmonds here, on her blog. She is a talented femdom author with a string of successful publications, so the review is praise indeed.

The book's Facebook page

With links to all the reviews, and so on. In case there is somebody I still haven't told. Here.

An enjoyable femdom romp in the style of classic British comedy

A review of 'The Paramount Rule' by Tanya Simmonds

The cover from the now-rare first edition

This amusing femdom novel is described by its author as a 'romp', and that's exactly what it is. There's a touch of classic British comedy to it, though it isn't exactly played for laughs. In Oakpark Grange school there's a dodgy institution trading on an undeserved reputation. There are dissolute aristocrats, and ladies of a certain age with refined manners but powerful sex drives. It has the acute social observation that made the Ealing comedies, and subsequently the Carry On films, so excruciating and at the same time enjoyable.

There is a definite retro feel to it, in the settings, the deferential power and social relationships it depicts, and most of all in the language. The male pupils of the school don't have “cocks”, they have “members” (always turgid or tumescent); they don't “come”, they “spend”. The story is set in the early 1950s, but it could just as easily be the 1920s. It's definitely in some mythologised past England, where everything stops for tea at four o'clock.

The retro quality is of course enhanced by the boarding school setting, which provides for arbitrary authoritarianism, rules and punishments, relationships between older women and young men, and lots of creeping about in the dark for illicit nocturnal rendezvous. Well, it worked for J K Rowling, didn't it?

The period feeling doesn't detract from the fun aspects of the book. There are four beautiful, cruel and passionate dommes, and lashings of lashings, with lots of different instruments. There is enforced cunnilingus in a special section of the punishment room, lesbian love between the teachers, and bondage with special equipment, including a penis pillory and an ingenious 'controller' which automatically masturbates the recalcitrant young men but delivers appropriately timed electric shocks to prevent them from coming. Now that's surely an anachronism whatever the time-period the book's setting – I didn't actually get one of those until last year.

There is plenty of straightforward sex too, between teacher and pupil and then between pupils once the school goes co-ed. In fact, the book is almost awash with semen – for a novel in which the focus is supposed to be orgasm denial, there are an awful lot of high-volume ejaculations. That's my main gripe with the book. Given the orgasm denial theme I was looking forward to a lot more teasing and frustrated male desire, which I find very sexy; but the horny, hot boys are rarely prevented from coming whenever they want to, even if they are often punished afterwards. Chastity devices do make a small appearance near the end, but I'd like to have seen more of them (apparently they are more prevalent in what is in effect the sequel, "Prisoners of the Governess".

Still, this is a minor quibble. Tanya Simmonds is a great femdom author, with a fine eye for telling detail, and the book deserves to be read by every devotee of the genre.

Review of Cuckold Stories: Series One By Eden Rose

First, to dispel any doubts, this is a very dirty, sexy, kinky book. If that's the sort of thing you like, you'll love this. But that said, it's a bit unusual. The sex doesn't really start until at least a third of the way in. Until then we learn a lot about the first-person narrator; in fact, we learn more him than he knows himself. For me that's always an indication of a good writer, and Rose pulls this off rather well. We learn about his background in poverty, his history crawling up from the gutter to star status, his successes and his failures (he's a best selling author but is lonely and has no meaningful relationships with anyone). Curiously, we don't get a strong sense that he is a gay man. The character is rather in denial about this, but even so...it was particularly confusing for me because I knew the author was a woman. Maybe I'm just slow, or perhaps I was reading it too fast to get to the dirty bits. In any case, Rose writes this rather well, and I couldn't help thinking that this part of her work could stand on its own outside of a sex book.

But the story takes off when the narrator is taken to see a sex counsellor with some unusual techniques...and of course, a fully equipped dungeon. Here too Rose has managed to invent what is for me a new kink. Forced bi is a fairly common theme in femdom literature, where as part of his humiliation a straight submissive is forced to perform gay sex, often with another straight submissive. Rose's innovation is forced straight; her narrator is gay, even though he doesn't entirely identify as such, so forcing him to have all kinds of wet, messy sex with a dominatrix carries additional humilation energy. Well done, that woman. She's particularly good on the choreography of threesomes, and the spectacular foursome that completes the story is unlikely to be equalled for some time.

There's an extra little cuckold story on the end, much shorter but for me even more enjoyable. Rose introduces it as a more 'normal' story, and I suppose it does draw on a more conventional part of the femdom palette. But it's pretty damn hot, with bondage, forced chastity, cuckolding, and lots of nasty messy details.

One tiny quibble with this one; as Chekhov says, “One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Similarly, I don't think anyone should introduce a big dildo into a femdom story with a submissive male unless it is going to go up his ass. Sucking it off is just not enough. But as I said, that's a quibble. It's an enjoyable little story, and I'd like to see more short stories like this from Rose – though I suspect that as a writer with a strong interest in the inner life of her characters she wants to write more outside this genre rather than it.

The book has some nice reviews!

One from BDSM Book Reviews, here: http://www.bdsmbookreviews.com/2013/07/10/review-nothing-ventured-by-salome-verdad/

And one from Rude magazine, here: http://www.rudemagazine.co.uk/culture/book-review-nothing-ventured-a-twisted-tale-of-high-tech-high-heels-by-salome-verdad.php

Both reviewers (and some of the others too, including some of the reviews on Amazon) see the book as very much a work of two halves - a first 'sexy' half and a second 'violent' half. This is really interesting to me. I always planned for the plot to go the way that it did.

BDSM is, it seems to be, a highly stylized pageant which is about violence but does not necessarily involve any 'real' hurting. I  think that for many in the scene pain and threat, and humiliation for that matter, are important as symbolic confirmations of the transfer of power. Pain is more important in this way than as a physical stimulus - for the sub, it's a way of proving to yourself that you really have ceded control. Giving up control while remaining safe is what it's all about.

Putting actual violence into the novel violates this, which is why it's so upsetting. From the perspective of a writer something has to happen to make a story; consensual, safe BDSM sex is what you want in real life, but not in fiction. I've noted that other femdom writers do something similar - depicting a good, loving femdom relationship and then bringing in an outsider to disrupt it - Joey Hill does this in Natural Law, for example.

It's probably also worth noting that the internet has democratized BDSM in unexpected ways. Once, the scene was small and closed. People were initiated into the culture via other experienced practitioners. They bought props and stuff from specialist shops, and if they weren't prepared to make that sort of commitment and take that sort of risk then they didn't move beyond fantasy. Now it's possible to order kit online, and to interact with others without having to meet in real life at all. Femdom porn of varying quality, and depicting all kinds of scenarios (not just the scene's prescribed ones) are widely available too.

At the same time images from femdom and BDSM are much more present in mainstream popular culture - advertising, TV, music videos, fashion. Lots of people come into contact with it, and their interest is piqued. It all makes for a very different kind of audience.

Femdom in popular culture

Nice collection by Sidonia von Bork here.

Both sides now: the several faces of Mistress Sidonia von Bork

I've long rather admired Mistress Sidonia von Bork. She's articulate, social-media-smart, and quite witty. As her "name" rather suggests, she's quite literate too, at least in her reading.

It turns out that she is also Ariel Belle, an artist living in Bath. Not surprisingly, some of her work deals with fetish themes. And she's also Lucy Bailey, who was a sub in some old spanking videos. Probably everyone knows this except me.

Of course, it's not really a surprise that the dominatrix entrepreneur von Bork is also the sub Bailey. She's written a little about the relationship between the roles herself. She's not the only one to have crossed the floor.

Being a dominatrix, like being a sub, is about gratifying male fantasies. The dominatrix service route is more challenging because doing it successfully involves conveying the impression that you are not providing a service - that you are really enjoying this. Otherwise the fantasy doesn't work. The sub has to feel that he is subject to the control of another while at the same time feeling safe enough to enjoy it. If it's too obvious that the dom is providing a service then you're in control, not under hers, and the fantasy is ruined.

Apart from her entrepreneurial acumen (she's apparently studying Economics now, though I don't know what they can teach her), von Bork's USP is her attitude. She really does appear to be enjoying herself.

The book is available for free to reviewers on 3rd May 2013

The book is free again for 24 hours on 3rd of May. Download a copy, but please write a review!

http://amzn.to/14UZ6Kv

A (not very favourable) review of the book

Posted here, on Robert Anthony's Chastity and Femdom blog.

I guess preferences here are a very personal matter, in literature and in activity. What the reviewer is alluding to is the way the book crosses out of the consensual sex play domain and into something rather darker. If that's a real turn-off then you might not like the book. Then again, you might find that you do after all.

"Nothing Ventured: a twisted tale of high tech and high heels"

The book is published at last, on 19th April 2013. It has a cover design by the fabulous lowbrow artist Vince Ray. He hasn't done much femdom stuff lately, but you can see some good examples here. I'm very proud that he agreed to provide the cover design for the book, and it was a pleasure to work with him.

I was moved to write the book partly in response to "Fifty Shades of Gray". So many friends said that they were reading it, and that it was dire. They then read both the sequels, complaining about the writing style all the way. I thought if it was that bad, and that popular, then perhaps I could do better. You can judge for yourself whether I succeeded.

Literary influences? Pat Califia, obviously, who is still the best BDSM writer ever - of any gender. And curiously, David Nicholls. So much writing in this genre is really dreary, and I admire his lightness of touch. I was really aiming for a sort of "Macho Sluts" meets "One Day" sort of vibe - a romcom with dommes. I also like the way that his characters have a proper inner life, which is sorely lacking in most BDSM fiction. Who want to read about what the dominatrix is doing if you don't know how it feels to her? I've tried to do it differently in "Nothing Ventured" -  Let me know if you think I've pulled it off. As it were.