‘Touch Me’ by Chris Scully #LGBT #Spotlight #Guestpost #Giveaway

 TOUCH ME: AN EROTIC ROMANCE
By Chris Scully, author of ‘Inseparable’

This book was published by the author on September 23, 2014, 64 pages.

Chris Scully has written a wonderful Guest Post about the challenge of writing erotica and will reward two randomly drawn commenters of this post with an eBook copy. More details below. Good Luck! 🙂

Massage therapist Erik Morgan offers a very special after-hours service to a handful of select clients. From a young man anxious to explore his sexuality, to a stroke patient who fears he’ll never be a man again, Erik touches them all. But no one touches him. Not anymore.

Faced with a very personal tragedy, Erik loses himself in helping others. Until one brave client turns the tables and gets under his skin, and Erik finds himself touched in unexpected ways.

Warning! This gay erotic romance novella is intended for an adult audience. It contains explicit scenes of erotic massage, edging, rimming, m/m sex and a vibrator or two.

Buy @ Amazon  (Available in all Amazon Kindle stores)

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Touch Me and the Challenge of Writing Erotica

“To his surprise he found he loved young men most of all. Not for their hard, youthful bodies or tight, glowing skin, but because they were still new and shiny. More open to everything. For them it was all about getting off. They didn’t care as much about how it happened. But they could still be surprised. While they may have fucked like bunnies, almost none of them had ever really been touched or shown what their bodies were capable of. Awakening them was his job.”

Touch Me is the story of Erik Morgan, a massage therapist who gives after-hours erotic massages to select clients. It is told through a series of short interconnected vignettes, each examining the power of touch in different ways. There is young Jeremy, exploring his sexuality for the first time, and perhaps looking to Erik as a role model. There is straight, sexagenarian Allan, a stroke patient struggling to redefine his manhood. And finally there is Erik himself, who after giving so much to others, finally finds new hope in the most unexpected place.

When I started work on this project, I had just finished writing a very emotional novel, and I was looking for a short, angst-free project that wouldn’t leave me bawling like a baby in front of the laptop. Something hot and sexy seemed just the thing. But setting out to intentionally write an erotic story was a challenge for me; not because of any lack of imagination, but because it’s opposite to the way I usually work. Generally, I let the heat levels evolve organically based on the characters and tone of the story. Sex becomes secondary to the romance. In this case it had to come first. As a reader, I like variety. So it’s no surprise that as a writer, I’m open to trying new things.

Touch Me was originally conceived as a multi-part series based on the various clients of an erotic masseuse. Why erotic massage? Because it’s damn hot, that’s why! I’m not talking about your quick and dirty rub ‘n’ tug here. I’m talking about a man who knows what he’s doing and takes his time; a man who thrives on giving pleasure. It may be tame to some, but there’s a level of intimacy and sensuality involved that I find incredibly erotic. There is a sense of power and control but without the domination aspect.

Now, I’ve read my share of sexually explicit fiction, the good and not-so-good, but erotica is one of those genres that means different things to different people. You only have to Google it to see that, or better yet, check Amazon. Unfortunately the term is sometimes so loosely applied that, as a reader, you might not be sure what you’re going to get. Some people stay away from the genre entirely because they think it’s only about lots of spanking and sex toys. Most literary experts will agree that while the genre includes sexually explicit details as a primary feature, unlike pornography, erotica does not aim exclusively at sexual arousal. This still leaves a lot of room for interpretation. My introduction to the genre was the incomparable Anais Nin, whose explicit erotica first shocked a generation in the forties but can still compete with the best erotica today. What this means is that my concept of erotica is likely different than that of someone whose introduction was Fifty Shades of Grey.

One definition I particularly like is that in erotica, sex compliments the plot, characters and writing rather than simply being a work of fiction with sexually explicit scenes. If you remove the sexual aspects, the story can’t be told. This, more than anything, describes Touch Me.

To be completely honest, I didn’t set out to write erotica. I was going for smut. I had intended to write a ton of outrageous sex with very little plot and slap it up there under a different pen name. But I forgot one key thing—I’m a romance writer. It’s ingrained in me. Something happened as I began work on the first part. Instead of several disconnected pieces, a common thread emerged. The focus became less on the clients, on the sexual aspects, and became more about my mysterious massage therapist Erik. He takes no payment, he’s not filming sessions for an X-rated website; so what makes a man dedicate himself to touching others, but take nothing for himself?

“…he thought, more than ever now, that touch was the most powerful and most important of the senses. Unfortunately it seemed to be the one we all too often did without. Touch could bring comfort, desire, relief, healing. Pain too, but he preferred not to dwell on that. He was an optimist at heart. With his very own hands, he could ease someone’s pain, bring someone pleasure. For a little while at least.”

When I was done, I definitely had a love story—maybe even two love stories depending on how you look at it—and my simple, sexy project had become something more than I anticipated. Where it falls on the genre spectrum I still don’t know for sure. I wish I could tell you, but I don’t think it fits neatly in one category. Is it romance? Is it erotica? Is it a happily ever after or a happy for now? I think it’s up to the reader to decide that. At turns amusing, sensuous and moving, Touch Me explores the power of touch in all our lives.

 

Chris Scully

 

THE KID WAS NERVOUS.

Terrified might have been a more appropriate description given how his chocolate-brown eyes darted wildly over Erik and then into the shadows behind him as they shook hands. His palm was cold but clammy. His lips quirked as he realized it too. “Ah, sorry about that.” He wiped both palms on the front of his thighs, leaving dark streaks on his faded jeans. “I’m a little nervous.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Erik said with a comforting grin as he ushered the kid in the back door and out of the cold dusk. He always instructed his extra-curricular clients to use this entrance. It’s not that he was worried about anonymity—his office assistant and the other massage therapists he shared the practice with were gone for the day, and he’d already given the kid this address and his first name, but he preferred to be discrete. He supposed discretion must seem very old-fashioned in this these days when everything got posted to Facebook or Instagram, when a good sex tape launched celebrity careers and privacy was nothing but a fond memory. Then again, he considered himself to be a bit old-fashioned despite his current, distinctly non-old-fashioned activities.

He led the way down the narrow, carpeted corridor and past two other small rooms before he came to the one he wanted. He was relieved to see the young man’s tenseness easing with each passing second as he surveyed the dimly-lit but immaculate room with the professional massage table in the center. Erik knew exactly what he was thinking. “I bet you thought you’d be in some guy’s dingy basement, right?”

“Yeah.” The kid shucked his down-filled coat, hugging it awkwardly in front of him for protection. He was tall—the same height as Erik—but without all the extra layers Erik saw that he was on the lean side, and gawky, as if his body hadn’t quite caught up to the rest of him yet. Erik took the coat and hung it up on the coat rack behind the door. The cold radiated off the waterproof fabric. The calendar may have said March, but the weather apparently hadn’t flipped the page yet.

Erik turned back to the kid just in time to see his eyes widen as they landed on the array of dildos and vibrators displayed next to the massage oils on the nearby shelves. He looked away and then back. Good, Erik thought, he was curious. His body tingled in anticipation of a enjoyable session. The more open his clients, the better the experience. For all of them.

Buy @ Amazon  (Available in all Amazon Kindle stores)

*****

CHRIS SCULLY lives in Toronto, Canada and grew up spinning romantic stories in her head. When the tedium of a corporate day job grew too much, she took a chance and found her escape in writing. Now she longs for the day she can make writing a full-time career. Tired of the same old boy-meets-girl stories, she found a home in M/M romance and strives to give her characters the happy endings they deserve. She has written several M/M romances for Dreamspinner Press and her debut novel, Nights Like These will be released in early 2015. Touch Me is her first foray into self-publishing and more erotic content.

Find Chris at:

Facebook, Goodreads, Blog

Email: cscully@bell.net

 

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 Comment on this post for the chance to win one of two eBook copies of ‘Touch Me’ by Chris Scully.

You need to be 18 or older to enter this Giveaway. Void where prohibited. Etc.

This Giveaway will end on 10/2/14 at 11:59 CDT. Good Luck!