Sexual Positions - What's your pleasure?

So last month I tracked eye and hair colour in the books I read and the consensus seemed to be (or maybe I wanted it to be) was that I should track sexual positions. So, woo hoo, go me. I did.

What was my data collection strategy? I couldn't very well record EVERY sex act, I wanted to have time to read too, so I went with the first incidence of anal sex in which a character bottoms. So in some books I would have two positions to record and in other only one. And of course in some shorts none at all but I didn't count that because I assume the characters have sex at some point, they are just being totally rude and refusing to allow me to watch. Bastards.

I only came across six basic positions, I decided bent over a desk or bent over a couch, was pretty much the same thing. I got:

• face-to-face (lying down)
• guy on top
• standing from behind
• standing-to-face
• sitting (similar to guy on top)
• hands and knees or on stomach

No, I did not run across any using the position to the left. Someones going to end up at the ER when they slip.

Statistically how was it? Out of 34 recorded acts:
16 face-to-face (47%)
7 hands and knees (21%)
4 standing behind (12%)
3 on top (9%)
2 standing face-to-face (6%)
2 sitting (6%)

So the question is, what does this tell us? Well, I'm assuming since we are reading romance, the face-to-face position is most prevalent because it tends to be more intimate, having eye contact and the ability to kiss more easily during sex making it more "romantic". In fact two or three of the books using hands and knees specifically noted that the character used it as a mechanism to maintain a distance with his sexual parter. In the books where there was a switch for the partners, not that many actually - probably because of all the shorts I've been reading, no time - in only one case was the second sex act the same position. So I guess that falls into the need to mix-it-up category, despite the implied intimacy of a face-to-face encounter.

Anyway, I wasn't overly surprised by the results I found. I assumed a majority would be the face-to-face encounter. I personally find reading it does add an element of "romantic love" to a scene, or it can, but I like variety too.

I'm not tracking anything in December with trying to keep up with the new blog and Christmas and my trip and ... Yeah. Busy busy. However I'm thinking January I might keep track of what their first sexual interaction is beyond kissing. Do blow jobs and hand jobs usually precede the buttsecks or is that an m/m romance myth? My life is tough huh? ;-)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Friday Update

To say I haven't gotten much reading done this week is an understatement. Between crazy work and getting the new blog up and running, it's been a bit unusual. I'm even behind on my DSP Daily Dose and it's only Day 3. Ack! I'm off to Chicago for a couple of days on Sunday and have a ton to do to get ready, but obviously I'll have time to read on the plane, but I've never been to Chicago before so a couple of friends are picking me up at the airport and are going to be tourists with me. Then two days of meetings and whisked back home.

I did however read one book and have a couple up over at Brief Encounters which I've linked to below.

Taste of Love by Andrew Grey (200 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

Darryl is a successful restaurant owner, and when business picks up he hires a desperate young man, Billy, to be a waiter. He's instantly attracted, but feels Billy is too young. Despite his determination to stay away, he can't help but be drawn to him. A misunderstanding leads to the knowledge that Billy is struggling to raise his five year old twin brothers following their father's death. Once Darryl gets past the age thing, and there is a good reason for his reticence which I won't divulge, things are going well. When Billy has to find a new place to live, they all move in together and are forming a happy family when it comes to light that maybe something hinky is going on surrounding the birth of the youngsters that could tear their new family apart. I do enjoy Andrew's style of writing and I liked both characters, Billy is very innocent and earnest and upbeat despite raising his brothers since his mother died shortly after their birth. I was pleasantly surprised, that when the crisis arose with the twins' origins, that it didn't get wiped away as a bit of a false drama. Sometimes there's an "oh my god, could it be true?" crisis which is then neatly solved with a "nope, we're fine now" ending that negates the whole drama. This doesn't happen here, and I think the way they had to deal with first the uncertainly, and then the reality of the changes in life, was handled well, but not overly melodramatically. This is a nice read which despite some serious subject matter, doesn't fall into a too heavy or angsty tone.

Click on the book title below to see my reviews at Brief Encounters Reviews.

Kid Christmas Rides Again by Eric Arvin



Picture Window by Dallas Coleman



Dinner and a Movie by Beth Wylde

Secret Santa Time at Kassa's Place

That adorable little elf Kassa is once again organizing her Secret Santa extravaganza. It's pretty straight forward, you put your wish list, e-mail, etc. in a comment and then you'll get someone else's info. You send them a book and someone sends you a book. Win-win.

Anyway, if you want to play, hop on over to Kassa's and sign yourself up. M/f fans are welcome to join as well, so it's not limited to m/m readers. Authors, reviewers, fans, relatives, children (well, maybe not so much children), pets, etc. are all welcome to participate. You have until next Wed. to sign up.

Hope to see you in the comments.

And today ... on the internet, a new blog is born

So we've been tossing some hints around, some small, some significantly less so, but today is the day. Jenre (who many know from her own blog she had, and from her reviews at Reviews by Jessewave and at Three Dollar Bill Reviews and me of ... here, and the occasional post at Wave's as well - must get on that) have started up a new blog devoted to reviewing short stories.

I am a self-admitted short story slut and Jen is also a fan. We find that shorts don't get much coverage on most review sites. Once in a while. but certainly not on a regular basis. I do cover them and Jen used to do her Saturday shorts, but our new blog will be nothing but short reviews, we mean that in all ways. Short stories along with short reviews. So click on our banner up top and stop by and say hi on our first day in our new life.

I'll still be doing my regular thing here, longer stories along with links to any shorts I post reviews for over on the other site and the odd other fun thing I do. We hope to make a few more converts to the short story genre.

If you have your own blog and would like to help get the word out for us, feel free to steal the banner up top as our advertising budget is limited. Like zero. :-)

It's Almost Here!!!

Be ready ....

Quicky update

I'm slipping this in amongst the anticipation of my big news. But I don't want to get too far behind.

In and Out by LB Gregg (195 pages)
Aspen Mountain Press

Holden is a former adventurer, TV host and author until his lover of many years reveals he also writes porn. Now a couple of years later he's housebound due to agoraphobia living in his family home. He hires a gardener, Adam, to do something with the disaster, and he finds a body in the compost heap. Eeep. Holden's life then starts to get even more complicated as his alcoholic brother who is in the process of divorce, his brother's soon to be ex, his own cheating ex, his brothers best friend and a host of others start traipsing through his house. They show up, they disappear and the whole town is sure Holden is involved somehow and it looks like he's being set up. It was interesting with Holden suffering from agoraphobia and Adam wasn't a regular guy either, perhaps a bit of Aspergers, unable to recognize facial cues or pick up on sarcasm and verbal bantering. I found Holden a bit annoying at times, the police want to speak to X whose supposedly upstairs sleeping but it would take him forever to get around to going up and knocking on the door, by then the guy is gone. Just let the cops go get him for cripes sake (or maybe the house is much larger than I can imagine). I did love how Adam seemed to see how Holden used humour as a bit of a mask and I also liked that Holden was annoyed by his own disability, but was still trapped by it. And I swear I never know who the bad guy is until it's revealed in the author's books. I always think I know but I'm usually wrong. Another great addition to the series.

Euphorbia by Glyn Soitino (103 pages)
Torquere Press

A few years ago, Mark came home to find his snobby lawyer boyfriend left him for someone more sociably acceptable. He has since sworn off love. When Colin, a popular mystery writer (and erotic romance writer - two writer books with overgrown gardens - huh) moves to the country he needs to find someone to tame his garden. Mark is now working freelance as a gardener and takes on the task. He's impressed that Colin is one of his favourite authors and they form a fledgling friendship until Colin asks him out and Mark shuts him down. When the Euphorbia plant "attacks" Mark and he gets sap in his eye, Colin takes care of him, taking him to the doctor and refusing to take advantage of Mark's pain killer induced horniness. I quite enjoyed this, I liked how Mark had to face up to the walls he'd erected after the jerk broke his heart. The interaction with Mark's parents were great, a bit of humour and understanding when he needed it. All in all, this is a sweet little story about opening your heart again with engaging characters. And I have no freaking clue what a Euphorbia is, maybe it's a British thing. I don't think we have them here. Apparently the sap will burn your skin if it touches you and I don't know of any plants like that. Don't want one either, sounds nasty.

Countdown to December 1

It's nearly here.

Lions and Tigers and .... No, just lions today

Happy Sunday. Winter has come to our fair land, although I think it's actually even colder in the UK so go figure, but we do have some snow on the ground but it's supposed to be +8C on Wednesday with rain so I don't imagine it will stay until Christmas.

I've had a few things I've been working on that haven't been reading but I did read these two books. Some of you may remember I had serious issues with book 1 in this series and nearly didn't finish but with some encouragement from the masses I did. I didn't love it, because I didn't love the main characters, however I was curious about some of the other lions in the book and so I was motivated to read about them. I find them easy reads, fast, kind of brain candy.

Marrick's Promise by Kim Dare (103 pages)
Resplendence Publishing

Marrick is an adrenalin junkie who hangs out at the BDSM clubs and figures it will be a lark to be thrown to the lions. Another rush. Were-lion Mates Blaine and Luthor are instantly attracted to him and despite knowing it's only one night, start stalking him. Finally they "rescue" him at a BDSM club and Arslan agrees they can "court" him. Sure it's all fun and games, two hot sexy guys, however Marrick likes it rough (as in scar inducing rough) and the lions have been taught that you have to be gentle with your pets and have taken it to heart after their first experience with a human didn't go well and he was injured. But if Marrick can't get one he needs from the two hotties, is there any hope. Blaine and Luthor are not too bright, in fact none of the lions except the boss seem that bright. They live in human society but seem totally oblivious to how it works. I also understood part of Marrick's reason to live life to the max given a childhood illness, but needing to draw blood and be scarred permanently to feel alive may mean you need to see a therapist. LOL There was an amusing scene as Blaine and Luthor show up at Marrick's parents house and have tea with them. It was okay, I had been curious about the couple so was happy to read more about them, but they were a bit too bratty and annoying to really appeal to me.

Ellery's Duty by Kim Dare (117 pages)
Resplendence Publishing

And so we continue with more lions. Ellery is a local dom who's a bit concerned about all the subs in town being thrown to the lions so he decided to do it to make sure they are okay. He is chosen by Kefir, the smallest lion who knows there is something different about him, but Ellery tells him he'll never be a pet. Knowing that Kefir is "different" than other lions, the pride leader invites Ellery back to witness another person thrown to the lions to see what it's really like. He instantly recognizes that Kefir is an untrained sub and is in seventh heaven. However, two dominants in the house makes for some tense moments and the other members of the pride, especially Blaine and Luthor do NOT like the fact that a lion is not the dominant member of a mating and make plans to show Ellery how it's supposed to work. Well, we all knew Kefir was a sub right cause he was small and soft spoken. *eye roll* But I just wanted to take him home and hug and care for him. LOL Lions appear to have no recognition of things like sarcasm or subtlety or reading between the lines. Everything is face value and Kefir was so eager to please his master that I really think he'd do anything, whether he wanted to or not, including allowing whipping even though every indication showed that it freaked him out. But of course his Dom would KNOW he likes it even if Kefir says no. Sigh. There were safe words for the lion sacrifices but none for the humans. Hmmmm. I found Ellery a bit of a he-man Dom which was annoying. It was okay, but I just never felt comfortable that Kefir wasn't going to allow himself to be pushed farther than he should.

So there. There was mumbling about the pride leaders brother who disappeared and rumours of a stripper/prostitute who was a were-lion so I imagine his story is up next. Not sure I'd get it. Maybe. I only got these because I'd been curious about these particular characters in the series. Oh and they all needed Muggle Studies classes to figure out humans. Why wasn't Ryland doing that for them? Or they need to watch TV or something (even though that was said to be an inaccurate picture) at least they'd have half a clue.

So what have I been doing?

Well you'd think I'd be busy beavering away, reading books and being all efficient since my week is far less stressful on the work front. Lots of time for fun stuff. Um. Yeah. Not so much. So what have I been busy doing? Well, someone who shall remain nameless, but has two demonic boy cats, lives in Australia, has a baby brother who doesn't appreciate pirate butt sex and is generally evil, gave me a little task. Write a story for Christmas meeting all of the criteria picked by her evil minions. Sigh.

So I've been beavering away for two days typing my little fingers to the bone. What do I have so far? Well, I don't want to give it away, but I'll give you some basics.

• I so far have 13,500 words. (oops, a secret baby scenario takes a lot of set-up what can I say?)
• My two heroes are Aaron and Ben
• The baby is Gavin and he is cute but rather at the blobby stage
• It takes place in Tampa Bay, Florida
• No evil Russian Blue cats are involved
• The baby is NOT an elf
• Werekangas are not present
  

That's it. That's all you're getting. So I did read one book before I started slaving. But I'll probably not read much else for a couple of days until I finish this. Once I get started I'm not good at putting things aside. It's like I'm compelled to finish it. Which I'm sure makes She Who Must Not Be Named happy.

Unspeakable Words by Sarah Madison (160 pages)
Dreamspinner Press

Jerry is an outstanding FBI officer at what he does, however he's also rather a social misfit and has been pulled off a case to pair up with an incoming agent Flynn, who is obsessed with a serial murder case he worked on in town a while ago. Flynn ends up staying at Jerry's and Flynn is everything Jerry isn't. Smooth, smart, on the way to the top, athletic and straight. However after a day or so of rubbing each other the wrong way they start to work well together, until Flynn touches something that electrocutes him (?) and suddenly he can hear people's thoughts, including Jerry's dirty thoughts about him. He needs to spend some time figuring out how to control his problem without overloading and they are also seeking the murderer who may or may not be the serial killer. I seem to have enjoyed this more than some people. I didn't find the mystery all that unappealing and I get the impression there will be more as it kind of ends at the start of the relationship. This is GFY. They don't kiss until damn near the end but I was fine with that. I quite enjoyed the build-up and I think if they had fallen into bed after a day I would have been rolling my eyes. I liked how Flynn got Jerry to lighten up a bit, there were cute cats involved and nice descriptions of food since Jerry liked to cook. So I will definitely pick up another if there is a continuation. I hope there is as I'd love to find out more about the serial killer story and see how Flynn copes with being gay (in San Francisco which obviously makes it a little easier). So if you like your mysteries all wrapped up with a bow, everything explained and clearly put to bed, this will probably make you nuts, but I didn't need that and just took at as a start to something more. Not sure that's true or not. We'll see I guess.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1

Last night my daughter and I went to see the latest Harry Potter. I have to say the theatre was very nice, it's new in our multi-plex and has a bigger screen and really comfy rocking chairs and you get assigned seats so no stampede to get there early or get good seats. We also bought them on-line so breezed right in past the lines of people waiting for tickets (Tuesday is cheap movie night here so always busy).

Anyway, those of you that follow the stories know how it goes. After Dumbledore's death, Harry, Ron and Hermione set out to find and destroy the horcruxes while Voldemort causes mayhem generally. How was it? Very good, although it leaves you at a cliff hanger which is going to make waiting months and months rather frustrating, but I think it ended in a proper spot.

It's very dark, in the sense this is not the movie you take a 6 year old who dresses up like Harry Potter to. A couple of seriously intense scenes that had me scrunching my eyes shut and cringing. There is some humour too to lighten the mood a bit, but it's pretty subtle. This movie really focuses on the three main characters along with Voldemort. If your looking for that ensemble cast of teachers and students or even the Order of the Phoenix gang, it's not there. Of the more popular well-known characters, you see:

• Neville Longbottom - one short scene
• Luna Lovegood - a couple of scenes
  
• teachers at the school - none
• The Weasley gang - a few scenes at the beginning then nothing
• Ginny - one or two scenes (including a kiss) then nothing
• Snape - a couple of scenes (and he seems to have gotten his greasy hair under control, it looked rather luscious and wavy)
• The Malfoys and Bellatrix - several scenes although I'm not sure Draco had a speaking line)
• Hagrid - one or two scenes at the beginning
• Order of the Phoenix, Tonks, Lupin, Bill, Fleur, etc. - two scenes
• Voldemort - well he showed up quite a bit as he sought the Deathly Hallows
• The Dursleys - one short scene
• Various baddies - quite a few scenes.
  

This is a movie about the bad guys finally getting their chance, so they are all over the place doing evil things. There were some great special effects, the battle scenes in the air were great and when Hermione tells the story of the three brothers there is a use of animation as she speaks that I was really impressed with. Kind of old school shadow puppets, but not quite. Anyway, it was very effective I thought. I forgot to mention the scenery. I don't know where they filmed or if it's all sound stage or CGI, but it was VERY impressive much of it.

So for Potter fans it's a must of course. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen and I would even say worth springing for the extra money to pay for 3-D if it's available in your theatre.

My how they've changed and damn she looks good in that short hair.