Guest Author: Brian Sfinas

Writing The Sexual Adventures of Time and Space

First off, it’s not erotica. I can’t tell you how many reviewers have sent responses to my query letters saying “Our site does not accept erotica”. I feel as though in the 21st century, the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is pretty universal. It makes me wonder how Burroughs got people to take a look at The Naked Lunch and how many kindly old reviewers were disturbed when they sat down to read the friendly-seeming Fifty Shades of Grey. The Sexual Adventures of Time and Space actually refers to an extended metaphor that runs throughout the narrative, and it takes the whole book to explain.

So what is it about?

Lucid dreaming. More specifically, it’s about a group of twenty-nothings that become obsessed with pursuing dreams in which they are in complete control. The allure of unlimited happiness and the ability to escape from the stresses of their waking lives compel the friends to find ways to extend their lucid experiences. This leads them to the drug sodium thiopental, which is the first of the three drugs administered during a lethal injection in the United States. Using this chemical to medically induce themselves into comas, the group thinks they have found the ultimate recreational experience.

Believe it or not, tragedy strikes. Romance, revenge, friendship and the purpose of human existence are all discussed at length in the 38 excerpts from the journal of Michael Thorn. He chronicles not only his own life, but also the lives of those around him. To some degree, he is providing a first-hand commentary on middle class life in 21st century America and urging an apathetic generation to not settle for complacency. 

If you’re looking for a book that will have you captivated from the first sentence to the last page, look no further than The Sexual Adventures of Time and Space. Only $4 on Amazon!

The Sexual Adventures of Time and Space


Author: Brian Sfinas
Kindle Edition
File Size: 350 KB
Print Length: 153 Pages
Amazon Link 


Or you can read more of my writing at : 
http://www.briansfinas.com

Book Spotlight: Larry Rodness' PERVERSE

Perverse
by Larry Rodness

Paperback: 356 pages
Publisher: Itoh Press (December 2, 2012)
Language: English
Amazon Link

Kindle Edition
File Size: 534 KB
Print Length: 193 pages
Publisher: Itoh Press (December 31, 2012)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Amazon Link

Synopsis:

A supernatural fiction about a teenage Goth named Emylene Stipe who finds a charcoal sketch in an antique shop. When she brings it home an image of a young girl appears in the sketch and then materializes in her apartment. Emylene introduces this girl whom she nick-names ‘Poinsettia’, to the local Goth crowd and the two become fast friends. But Poinsettia has an ulterior motive for her sudden and strange intrusion into Emylene’s life which causes the young Goth to question her whole belief system.

EXCERPT

The next day during her lunch break, Emylene returned to the antique shop to find the sketch sitting there on the dusty floor, leaning against the grimy picture window. She looked at it more closely this time. The artist had framed the winter scene by drawing a weathered old wooden fence that zigzagged from the foreground all the way to a line of trees that met the horizon. In the center of the sketch stood the subject of the picture, a great cypress tree surrounded by a blanket of pristine snow. Aside from that there was nothing distinctive about the picture at all except that Stelio seemed captivated by it. And yet the more she looked, the more Emylene felt a strange emotional tug. The sketch was serene and unsettling at the same time, evocative but distant—just the right mix of perversity for the heartsick Goth.

Her mind firmly made up, Emylene pushed open the paint-peeled door that creaked as if it objected to the intrusion. The air inside hung heavy with the smell of melancholia. The items on display, not so much antiques as other people’s castaways, were piled haphazardly onto shelves and tables in no particular order. This was not so much a store as a graveyard, a tomb for forgotten relics and memories. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Emylene sensed an air of gloom emanating from the shopkeeper himself who was behind his counter, staring sour-faced at her. He was a tall, gaunt man in his late sixties with wispy grey hair who had lived in the district for over thirty years and suffered them all— the druggies, the hookers, and the hustlers. He took one look at Emylene and made up his mind about her before she said a single word: Goths. If they were so in love with death, why didn’t they just slit their wrists and let the rest of us get on with our own miserable lives? Nevertheless, Emylene greeted him with a cheery hello.

“Hey there. The picture in the window, the one with the tree? How much?” she asked.

“It’s not for you,” he replied with a trace of a European accent. 

“Maybe it is.”

“Why? Why would you want it?”

“I dunno exactly,” replied Emylene. “It just kinda speaks to me.”

“Really. And what does it say?”

“It says… ‘I’m lonely, I need a friend, a nice place to live.’ So, how much you want for it?”

The storeowner stared at Emylene at first with curiosity, and then with disdain. “A million dollars,” he replied. “You got a million dollars? If not, don’t waste my time.”

Emylene offered her prettiest smile while she lifted the picture from the floor and eyeballed it like an appraiser from Sotheby’s. There was nothing particularly artsy about it. The dust covering the frame and glass told her it had probably been lying around for months, if not years. Artistically, the scale was tipping more towards ‘garbage’ than ‘antique.’ 

“I don’t have that much, but I’ll give you a hundred,” she offered.

“You really want it? Tell you what. You come back here tomorrow…”

Emylene knew what was coming next.

“…dressed from head to toe in white. You wipe all that black polish off your nails and the paint off your face, and you come here dressed like…”

“…like a little lady?” asked Emylene.

“Yes, like that, and she’s yours.”

Emylene put the picture down where she found it.

“See you tomorrow then,” she sang as she left the shop.

Although she had never met this man before Emylene knew him all too well. Her parents had taught her early on that whenever people were confronted with something odd or strange, they generally went into “fear mode.” This man was afraid of something and desperate to keep control of his domain. To do that, he needed to demystify Emylene bydegrading and shaming her into showing that beneath all the make-up and the gear, she was as dull and ordinary as he was. Emylene needed to show him that she was a grown-up, and no one was going to push her around. Both were in for a shock.The next day Emylene returned to the store as requested, wearing the only white dress she owned and treasured—an exact replica of the bridal gown Miss Lucy was buried in, after Dracula turned her into a vampyre. When Emylene stepped across the threshold of the store, she looked more frightening than she did in anything she had worn in black, and the look on the store owner’s face instantly faded to the same pallor of white as the dress. As Emylene approached him she slowly opened her hand.

The owner drew back, fully expecting to find a beating heart pumping away in her little

palm. Instead there were five twenties. He hesitated a moment, wondering whether to deny her the purchase and shoo her out, but instead, he scooped up the bills. Emylene took the picture and exited the store. Not a word was said between the two. After she left, the owner crossed himself, and then oddly, tears began to roll down from his eyes. When Emylene returned to her apartment, she hoped to find another note tied to a black Bacarra rose, which signified that Stelio was back in town. She was anxious to surprise him with the sketch, but there was nothing waiting for her. 

The next morning she looked again. Still no rose or note. A week went by without any contact from Stelio, which frustrated Emylene to no end. Whenever she dropped by his shop, she was told he was away on business. Was he avoiding her? Had he grown tired of her? Never, she told herself, how could he? Perhaps his wife found out about them.

In the meantime Emylene looked around for just the right place to hang the sketch. There really was only one place for it. A nail went into the plaster with two bangs of a hammer and the picture was hung upon the wall opposite the main door of the apartment so that it would be the first thing she’d see upon entering, and the last thing upon leaving. That done, Emylene took a moment to appreciate her new acquisition. Ignoring the slap-dash method with which the simple brush strokes were applied, she concentrated on the basic elements of the scene—a rickety wooden fence that zigzagged all the way back to a line of trees in the distant horizon. A few wavy strokes indicating a blanket of unblemished snow, and of course, the lone Cyprus that commanded center stage. So simpatico did she feel to the tree that, for a moment, Emylene fancied the artist must have had her in mind when he drew it—two lone entities against the world. That was all and yet, there seemed more although she couldn’t put her finger on what, exactly. Perhaps it was in the hastily drawn strokes that she had all but ignored until now. What was the artist’s intention? Was it just plain laziness or was there a sense of urgency? But then, because even Goths get hungry, Emylene stripped off Miss Lucy’s bridal gown and bounced downstairs to grab a sub.

It was 8:15 when she returned. When her world changed. When the glorious mystery of the picture began to reveal itself. When she gazed upon her new treasure and noticed for the first time footprints in the snow that were not there before.

 Amazon Link Paperback

Amazon Link Kindle Edition

Guest Author: Jeff Rivera

Does true love really exist and if it does, why haven't I found it? That's what I wondered when I was first writing Forever My Lady. I had had major crushes on people before, the type that keeps you up at night staring at the ceiling dreaming and wondering if they're thinking about you. Why haven't they called? Why don't they act like they're interested in me? What's wrong with me?

Those are the type of questions my main character Dio is going through but even worse. He and Jennifer have known each other since they were 13 years-old. She was his first love and the only one who ever acted like they gave a damn. She was the only one that understood him and accepted him. Their connection ran deep and he expected her to be in his life forever.  But it's funny how two people can take two totally different paths. As Jennifer tried to clean up her life, Dio was going down the wrong path. It wasn't until he landed in prison boot camp and had no other choice but to really look at his life that he realized, how much he needed to do. He promised Jennifer when he got out, he'd be a new man and she in turn promised they'd be back together, maybe have a family, live a life together. But when Dio get out of boot camp, a totally new man, he gets word that Jennifer's getting ready to marry someone else.

So he goes to her church on her wedding day ... with a gun.

Fortunately, for me, I finally met the one but will Dio's fate be the same? And what's he going to say to Jennifer when he finally sees her? And what about the gun?

Forever My Lady

Author: Jeff Rivera

Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (November 1, 2008)

Amazon Link

Kindle Edition

File Size: 352 KB

Print Length: 202 pages

Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0976283808

Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Amazon Link

About the book

Dio Rodriguez grew up on the streets and knew all too well the hard, cool feeling of the barrel of a gun tucked down the back of his jeans. But his hard exterior softened when he met Jennifer. Jennifer understands Dio like no one else and makes him want to be a better man. Suddenly a drive-by shooting lands Dio in a prison boot camp and sends Jennifer to the hospital. When Dio learns that Jennifer is pregnant, he realizes that he must find a way to turn his life around and return to his lady. But can trainee Rodriguez get his act together among the hardcases in prison? And will Jennifer be waiting for him if and when he does?

About the author:

Jeff Rivera is an author and inspirational media personality. He has appeared on national television, radio and print in such outlets as Forbes.com, The Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, Right On! Magazine, Rotarian Magazine, TMZ, WABC, WNBC, WCBS, SITV, American Latino and NPR.

He also writes or has written for Entertainment Weekly, Mediabistro, GalleyCat, Publishing Perspectives, Digital Book World, Examiner, American Chronicle, School Library Journal and the Huffington Post and has been invited to speak and inspire groups all over the world from South Carolina to Nigeria. He has been on panel discussions for The Library Journal, Authors Guild, the Harlem Book Fair and many others.

He is known to have broken the news that Seth Godin was ditching traditional publishing which lead to mentions on hundreds of blogs and media outlets including The LA Times, Fast Company, and New York Observer. His news break that Jackie Collins would be self-publishing the US-version of her eBook lead to mentions in The Bookseller, The Guardian, USA Today and hundreds of other outlets.

His humble beginnings of living in American poverty on welfare and food stamps as the child of a single mother, to his days living in his car and final rise to becoming a published author, journalist and media personality have inspired many.

Rivera created a massive online following before the eBook revolution even existed. He was able to land an agent and a book deal with Warner Books (now known as Grand Central Publishing) within 7 days. He has used the knowledge he gained from this experience to help coach his clients on social media campaigns and has helped over 100 clients take the first step in landing an agent too.

Top Interviews:

Hugh Hefner, Stan Lee, Jackie Collins, Jamie Raab, Fergie, Enrique Iglesias, Avril Lavigne, Macy Gray, Joel Schumacher, James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Jeff Kinney, Harlan Coben as well as 200 others.

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