The Real Monsters

Tags

Bryn Colvin, cain berlinger, erotica, monsters

Guest blog by author Bryn Colvin

We’ve just had Halloween, festival of parties, fancy dress and playing with horror. Just like the paranormal romance genre, Halloween is really an exercise in making dangerous things safe and comprehensible. We forget what the monster stories are really for, exchanging them for sparkly vampires who don’t drink blood, werewolves who just want to get laid, and only the kinds of undead who do not exhibit rotting flesh at all.

Monster stories have a purpose. They aren’t kinky romance, they are there to remind us that monsters exist. Most of us won’t have a paranormal encounter, but in our daily lives we can easily come into contact with rapists, abusers, psychopaths. They’ll all be wearing human faces, and none of them are easy to spot.

The real monsters either don’t understand, or don’t care that anyone else feels anything, or they know, and they enjoy causing pain. They are amongst us. Sometimes they sleep in our beds, not under them.

Real monster stories are cathartic. Sometimes seeing the monster taken down can be affirming, reassuring us that there is justice after all. But even if good doesn’t triumph, even if the bad guys get away with it, there’s a release in reading the story. We recognise the monster. We know what they are. One of the worst things about real monsters is not what they do to your body, but what they do to your mind. Believe me, the mind stuff is worse. Bodies heal, or they die. Minds can continue in ways that make every day a living hell. The prison inside your head is the hardest one to escape from. Monster stories help us place the monster on the outside, and help take away the bars we may have on the inside. Sometimes they help us deal with our own monstrosity too, letting us imagine the things we might have done. I don’t think encountering horror necessarily corrupts anyone. I think if you have it in you to be honourable, what horror does is help you affirm your own boundaries and beliefs.

For stories about real monsters, I’d like to direct you to Cain Berlinger’s Dark Side. These are all stories that have come out individually, but if you buy the set it works out cheaper. These are dark, dark tales that you make you shiver, and cringe, and wonder about human nature. Some of them are shocking. It is good to be shocked. It’s a way of reminding yourself that you are indeed, human.

BOO!

Tags

cain berlinger, erotica

What a big much ado about nuthin’! I prefer Europe’s Carnival, that starts on November 11, at 11pm and generally go to January or February. Too much? Yeah, maybe a bit, but one night? Hardly seems worth the estimated four billion dollars a year Americans spend on it, but it is enjoyed and celebrated by big kids and little kids alike, and who am I to begrudge the 99% a reason to get silly. Party on America!

Since my (soon to be) eight months bout with a staph infection, that knocked me on my ass I have become a lot more charitable toward friends and acquaintances and mankind in general. I have really learned the meaning of ‘family’. Simply put, like the song, they may not be there when you want them but they are always right on time! I am happy to say I have over the years, through no conscious effort of my own amassed not one,not two, but three or four ‘families’ that love the hell out of me. Unaware of much of this love till recently I haven’t in my mind returned it in kind. That’s going to change, now that I know just how quietly people chose to care.

I have tried to focus on three things that I love the best, writing, promoting my sex website and parties. The rest of the time I lie about thinking of new ways to add to all three and when that’s done I fall asleep from exhaustion, not physical but mental. I watch a lot of television as white noise behind me and occasionally glean an idea or two or three. I now walk temporarily with a cane, a handsome silver tipped cane given to me by my very supportive partner. “Cain on Cane.” Make all the jokes you want and get them out of your system. Ha ha. They say if you do the thing (s) you really love, you’ll get rich from it eventually. I’m waiting, patiently I might add. I am certainly doing the things I love best.

Good Night Estevan received its first criticism in my kitchen when a friend informed me that the Spanish name was misspelled. To late for corrections I merely attributed the awkward spelling to Estevan’s rebellious nature. Good Night Estevan is about two men who are passionate about their country but less demonstrative of their passion when it comes to the personal. This is a Rock Hudson/ Doris Day romance with a savage turn to match a savage environment. Estevan is never NOT sweating and Ramirez is never NOT lusting. Here is foreplay the way REAL men do it, I’d imagine.

Halloween could not have been a better time to release Cain Berlinger’s Darkside. It’s all about things that not only go bump in the night but bump inside the protagonist’s head. Almost every lead character in the many stories wrapped up in Darkside, all have ‘issues’ , issues of intensity, of obsession, involvement, and sexual deviancy in many of its assorted forms. It just proves as I’ve said before that not all monsters are ghoulish green goblins, sometimes they look like you and me. And the faces we wear are the masks of others. It’s always fun to play with the characters when you know that for the moment they are safely consigned to the pages of your book. For now.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!

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Genesis

Tags

cain berlinger, erotica, twins

A film by acclaimed director Almodover is a sub titled masterpiece named “The Skin I Live In”. It’s the best film I’ve enjoyed in a long while, starring Antonio Banderas, who knew? There was a time I used to fancy myself as a film buff until I matched wits with the contestants of “Who wants to be a millionaire” during movie buff week. Here are some things you already know. And that is life is full of humbling experiences that force you to grow up and face the fact that you aren’t as perfect as you may have thought you were back in your youth, and people aren’t always as you see them in black and white but shades of gray, providing writers with various templates that apply in depicting human beings in often challenging situations.

The seven deadly sins are always going to be applicable to everyone even though few of us are going to be guilty of ALL of the sins. It’s a safe bet you can latch onto any one of them to exploit in your main character, maybe two or more to the villain (if there is one) in the piece. The author can play god and decide whether his/her characters are going to be held accountable or not. It’s the most fun of being a writer.

With erotica, it’s with certainty your main characters are going to be bringing sex to the table along with desire and greed. Sex of course is an important part of erotica, which is what I like to think is what I do. I consider it porn when you take out the sex and there is no story left. Erotica is when you can remove the blatant sex and still have a viable storyline.

When I first started writing I was told that there are only twenty five workable scenarios. Therefore it has always been my goal to come up with some of the most unlikely scenarios and pairings that I can think of, and I believe I have been successful at doing that in many instances.

In writing TWINS I was simply playing to an old theme. I had never written a story involving twins and knew little about them. I had to do research on the types of twins I was going to do. Fraternal or identical. The old theme of the ‘evil twin’ is played with here without ever knowing in the end if there ever was an ‘evil’ twin, and in the end is there a ‘triumph’? Introducing Victor as an ‘innocent’ was just a challenge to the reader. However you saw Victor, would define who you saw as the ‘evil’ twin. I must admit the challenge for me was trying to tell Tracy and Trent apart, especially for the final scenes.

When I wrote LOVE BOAT I was attempting to parody the popular 70’s television show “The Love Boat”. The story is about two lovers who find each other, lose each other, then find each other again. The story hangs on a caricature of a devious film actor who wants to destroy the lovers happiness. When I wrote the story many years ago, it was meant as a light hearted romp, but life experiences since then obviously put me in a darker more cynical albeit realistic space. So when I brought it out of the archives for a much needed rewrite, I added the ‘bad guy’ and all the darkness that he brought with him. Of course in the end it all works out well, or does it? (insert spooky halloween music) to be continued…

S’Long Summer

Tags

ebook, erotica, gay, pain, warriors, writing

Forgive the brief absence but I had to take some time to pick myself up from the floor. Summer’s done! White ducks into the storage bin, sweaters out of the vacuum seal wrappers (really does work). They are canceling television shows as fast as I can record them, while some of my favorites “take a break”. How many TRUE BLOOD episodes am I going to have to relive online before Bill, Eric and Sookie come back to me? Well, I bit the bullet and not only got a land line but a DVR so I can watch more TV but fewer commercials. Time wise I guess it all balances out. I tend to hibernate in the winter.

I know everyone’s dying to know “Hey Cain, what about the foot?” Well, the foot is healing quite well, thank you for asking. I can walk without a cane but prefer walking with it so I don’t come across on the streets of New York as being feeble and easy prey for the predators. My cane can be perceived as a powerful weapon, or not. The foot pain of course is my ever present buddy. I’ve made peace with it in all of its many manifestations, and I am told by my doctor that it won’t be gone till the wound is totally closed. More vicadin please.

All the important people in my life did ok by me this summer in my time of crisis, in one way or another. Some more than others, and if they are reading this they know who they are. Never ever though did I hurt for love or support in whatever form it took. An e-mail, a Facebook posting, all meant a lot and served its purpose. Don’t ever think that a simple “How are you feeling?” isn’t speeding the healing process. It always helps to know someone cares.

I’m also saying bon voyage (good journey) to a dear friend and client. For over seven years I have been this man’s personal trainer in his building’s gym and later the New York Sport Club. I’ve been his life coach battling his demons as well as occasionally my own. He’s leaving for Florida and I’ll miss him, but no one stays away from New York for long. Many will come screaming back the same way they were screaming when they left. That’s New York.

This week’s offering is WARRIORS and it will always be special to me because it was the first time I learned the value of “backing up” what I write on the computer. The first draft of WARRIORS disappeared into computer hell, through no fault of my own, (really I swear) and I could not retrieve it. I literally took to my bed, devastated, as I felt at the time that it was the best piece I’d ever written and I’d never be that imaginative again. I never tried to recapture what I had written and moved on to other projects. Yes, I left it to die, languish, whatever.

Well years later I gathered up my courage and pulled out what was left of WARRIORS out of the archives (notes, lines, thoughts). Completely re-wrote it and am prouder of it now than I ever was. I introduced new elements into it that had previously not existed and cut down a lot of excessive description, preferring to let the reader picture in his own mind the beauty of the native village and its people.

My favorite scene in the whole story is the dance around the fire. I played on my ipod certain drum selections that played through my headphones as I wrote about the sensuality and overt sexuality between the men and women of the tribe, as they welcomed the conquering hero into their fold. WARRIOR unites western culture with a culture vaguely resembling Mayan in its beauty and simplicity. Our hero’s journey toward redeeming his life and entering upon a new phase, is touching, tender and at the same time both challenging and exciting.

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Cain’s Second Blog

Tags

amazon, bdsm, cain berlinger, ebook, erotic, erotica, kindle, morphine

Hey There Readers, Please take your time to enjoy my new website. It’s a brand new birthing process and I’d really like to share in your feedback, suggestions etc. I’m asking you to shared in the birth process as it were! I’ve had a bit of time on my hands due to a nasty foot infection which landed me in the hospital for three weeks of this lovely summer. Instead of writing about my travels and party highlights I’m writing about pain and surgery and learning to walk again.

BUT WAIT….

This is not going to be a ‘woe is me entry’, we all have problems of our own. There will be time for that later (I look forward to your letters). What I’d like to point out is how to harvest the positive side of a murky situation. First of all try not to go head to toe with the Universe, especialy when it sends you the message that you need to slow down and, yes, smell the roses. I had so much on my plate I couldn’t really enjoy all of it as much as I’d like to, racing off to one airport after another, one event after another. This incident has forced me to see the people I care about more and meet a lot of friends whom I had previously not a lot of time for. Life is not a PBS special and I haven’t changed my ways totally but I’m going to set about a plan to amend them.

Old mans here got to get to the gym and get more of the basics, sleep and water! Who knew? As I rush toward the autumn of my years I realize that without your health, ya got nuthin. As a former personal trainer I know all the stuff to do, I just need a few friendly nudges to push me in the right direction and keep me there.

The real exciting part of this was that while I was almost constantly in pain which means I was almost constantly on pain killers, in the hospital it was the morphine that calmed me the most. A lot of the time it was really hard to focus on anything but the pain, but the writer in me decided to take the madness and sexual fantasies and just go for broke and over the top. The result is my latest offering ‘MORPHINE’. (On Kindle and all other digital formats) and It takes place in an English manor that passes for an institute that houses sexual deviants and is run by Viscount Hillary Preston. Hillary, who seems to have affected cures for man’s most basic instincts, invites his protege Sir Arthur Tinsdale come to Briarcliff Institute to learn of the doctor’s methods. And then watch as the mayhem ensues.

It’s clear I was fighting a lot of demons, morphine induced and otherwise to pound out this 22,000 word novella. There is a little bit of something for everyone, and as my usual trademark, one man’s perversion is another man’s vacation spot. There’s a lot of clear imagery and some murky ideals but don’t read it all in one sitting. Savor the mood, get to know the protagonists as Arthur does. Did I mention there is one mystery? Someone’s in a room at the top of the stairs!

A lot of my writing has explored a lot of ‘vanilla’ sex and veered off into other realms of …difference. I hope you’ll enjoy this book as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

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