Working away on various projects. I don’t think I’ll tease any of the longer projects quite yet since I not sure which will be finished first, but definitely have some good stuff in the works.

I will be putting out another short in a few weeks, more on that soon when I have a cover to show off.

I’ve gotten some nice feedback from people about my last book, The Surrogate Master. Reviewer Max Lemberger, writes:

The Surrogate Master is an incredible book worthy of the highest praise. I’d even go so far to say it is an important book. While the content is erotica with light BDSM, the context is about infidelity and the havoc it wreaks in a relationship.

That is the sort praise that gives me the motivation to keep writing and writing.

That said, my dreams of a 50 Shades of Grey style breakthrough seems to have wait for the next novel. Surrogate Master is selling fine, but not as well as Honeymoon Hazards, which is, you know, just a silly romp.

Maybe some readers are turned off by the handcuffs on the cover? Maybe the whole BDSM genre (of which Surrogate Master is really just barely a part of) is saturated? I have no idea. Not that it really matters. I write, as I think I’ve mentioned before, what I want to read rather than what I think will sell, but even still, curious.

From the much maligned FiveThirtyEight:

Here is a graph of the age of men women find most attractive:

As women get older, the age of the men they find most attractive increases as well. And for men:

Men always find 20 year olds most attractive.

You could extend that back down to 13 year olds and up to 80 year olds and find the same thing, I suspect. Not sure what that says about men, women, societal definitions of beauty or what. But nice to see quasi-empirical confirmation of what I’ve always suspected.

Title of the post says it all. Book will be released on November 7. http://www.amazon.com/Surrogate-Master-Ben-Boswell-ebook/dp/B00P3FDIE2

And while you’re at it, pick up a copy of Kenny Wright’s newest: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P37KQ3G

My newest book is in production! Cover design by the always amazing Kenny Wright (who has a new book coming soon as well!).

The Surrogate Master

My nom de plume is a tribute to perhaps my favorite author in the slutty-wife genre. I had always enjoyed reading erotica. Penthouse letters were the best, though there were only a few each issue, it was sort of hit or miss about whether they would be something you might be interested in. So the Internet was a huge boon to written erotica, as it has been to all porn. In particular what was interesting was the explosion in availability of amateur erotica. A lot of it was (and is) terrible. And so, for a time, the best stories were passed around and reposted all over the place — on BBS, on the various online services (CompuServe, Prodigy, etc.) — until finally once USENET access became common, it seems like much of the energy went into the alt.sex.stories newsgroup.

Amazingly enough, for a time, before the spam bots became common, even unmoderated USENET groups had a feeling of community. There were tons of lurkers — I was one — but there was a core of posters and commenters who put up work on a regular basis and discussed it as well. There were reviews and periodic lists of new stories, and so on. In this kind of environment, it was possible for a handful of authors to become favorites and not just get lost in the crowd.

Anyway, my favorite author from the USENET days in the cuckold genre (though it was usually called “slut wives” back then) was a guy named J BOSWELL. J BOSWELL wrote, I think, about a dozen stories. At some point, I’ll collate them and release them as an eBook on Amazon with some commentary and additional features. And they were great. Short by current standards (very short in some cases), they nonetheless were well-written and very sexy.

Anyway, my favorite story, by far, was one called “Winning (Amanda) through Intimidation.” She’s sexy. The bull — the husband’s older cousin — is plausible. The seduction quick and darkly erotic.

A taste:

When Amanda returned from delivering Cindy to her 
party, and checking to be sure it was chaperoned, we 
broke out some cards and began to play "Hearts." I 
guess with the drinks, and the fact that Greg hadn't 
done anything really outrageous, Amanda and I began to 
relax and enjoy the evening, and (as usual, after a few 
drinks) Amanda became a tiny bit of a flirt. Around 
about 10 o'clock, Greg asked if we ever went skinny-
dipping. I guess he could tell from the look and smile 
Amanda and I shared, that we had - quite often, as a 
matter of fact.

He grabbed the deck of cards and said, "I thought so. 
Well, we're all friends here. Let's play a few hands of 
'strip blackjack' and then we'll go swimming."
I started to decline, when I felt Amanda's hand on 
mine, "What the hell, James. We're all family, and we 
don't want to get our guest angry on his first night 
here."

She was right. I didn't want to piss off a boozed-up 
Greg. Greg was the dealer and, to my surprise, he lost 
the first hand. He was wearing only his swimtrunks and 
he stood up and lowered them off his hips. He had the 
largest, thickest cock I have ever seen, hanging semi-
hard between his legs, and a little surprised I could 
see Amanda giving it a close inspection.

He started to deal, and I asked him what he was 
betting, since he didn't have any more clothes on.

He smiled at me and said, "Don't worry about it, Jimmy-
boy." He won the next hand, and Amanda and I shed our 
shirts. I tied Greg on the next hand, but Amanda went 
bust.

"Mandy, Mandy, Mandy. Time to pay the piper, Dear." 
Greg grinned from ear to ear as Amanda stood and slowly 
removed her bathing suit. I think she was really 
enjoying the attention even though she looked a little 
nervous as she quickly stripped and sat back down at 
the table. "I knew you were a natural blonde - never 
doubted it for a moment, Mandy. And your tits - 
magnificent. You give new meaning to going 'bust.'" 
Greg only lifted his eyes from Amanda's large breasts 
to stare into her eyes and smile. Amanda smiled back, 
totally confident with her body.

I stood up, "Well, I guess the game's over. Let's go 
swimming."

Greg grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me back down 
into my chair. "Jimmy-boy, what say you and me go mano-
a-mano for one hand? Winner take all?"

"What are we betting, Greg?"

He smiled at Amanda and then looked at me, "Well, the 
loser gets the sofa for the night."

"And the winner?"

"Don't be dense, Jimmy-boy. The winner gets Mandy."

You can find the rest of the story at http://www.asstr.org/~Kristen/13/amanda.txt.

Over the past few month, I pulled down several of my better short stories from literotica. I’ve been working through them, re-editing them, revising them in some case, and generally cleaning them up and improving the quality of the stories.

I am re-issuing the first of these as a short on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Cottage-Cuckolding-Shorts-Book-ebook/dp/B00NY1CQAE. It is now available for pre-order.

If you’ve already read it, you’ll find only a few minor improvements. Some of the other stories will be more thoroughly re-written, but I thought this one held up pretty well.

Either way it is only $0.99, so give it a shot. The cover is worth the price by itself!

First the good news. My latest book, Honeymoon Hazards has been doing very well on Amazon recently. For the first time, I have title in the top 100 best sellers in the erotica category. Not 50 Shades of Grey territory, but still neat. So thank you all.

If you haven’t bought it yet, you can get it here: http://www.amazon.com/Honeymoon-Hazards-Ben-Boswell-ebook/dp/B00N84NIRM

Now, and more importantly, a funny cat picture. I love this one because my dog used to always be sniffing around my cat and this is what I always imagined he wanted to do there. My cat never allowed it, but this one here seems a little… and I mean a little… more tolerant. Happy Caturday.

More funny cat pictures are… well… everywhere. But I found this particular one at The Chive.

My new book, Honeymoon Hazards is out and available for purchase at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Honeymoon-Hazards-Ben-Boswell-ebook/dp/B00N84NIRM

So take a break from looking at stolen Jennifer Lawrence pics and check it out!

Honeymoon Hazards

I am finishing off edits on my new book — tentative titled Honeymoon Hazards — so I’ve been thinking a lot about writing in the abstract.

One of the things that I try to do when I write is create characters and reactions that feel realistic. I think a lot of people confuse realism with commonality.

A story, whether long or short, is inherently about an uncommon situation. No one wants to read a story about an ordinary day. What’s more, no one wants to read a story that develops in real time. So as a writer, you’re inherently creating something that is “unrealistic” in a very important sense — you are writing about an exceptional situation and really, usually, only focusing on certain key moments.

Most of my writing revolves around the theme of sexual betrayal and exploration. My characters cheat on their partners, they get into inappropriate relationships, and they seek out novel sexual experiences. All of these things tend to resolve themselves over the course of a couple of hundred pages as the characters struggle with their emotions, grow (usually), and reach some sort of accommodation with their new situation. The speed at which all of this occurs is also unrealistic. Again, a story is about focusing in on those transitions, not in all the down-time in between.

Finally, a lot of my characters tend to have exaggerated physical attributes. The women are all beautiful. The men handsome. There are an uncommon number of sexual dynamos in the narrative. Now, I’ll admit there is a lot of fantasy there. Writing about beautiful people having exuberant sex is more fun that writing about out-of-shape people have missionary sex under the covers. But, more importantly, I tend to write in the first person. I just feel more comfortable with it, and first person narrative is inherently in someone’s head. Since I am writing about attraction and emotions (lust, jealousy, insecurity, etc.), there is is inevitably going to be some exaggeration. In those moments of first attraction, we notice and exaggerate certain attributes. We see that long, silky hair, the full breasts, and not the thick ankles or beginning of crows feet at the eyes.

But given those factors, I do try to capture some essence of realism, or truth. People do cheat. Their partners often do forgive them. In my stories, the timelines are compressed. Characteristics are magnified, and yet I’d like to think that the characters feel plausible and whole.

I’ll post an update about Honeymoon Hazards later this week. But it is COMING SOON!