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Category: Erotica/BDSM Erotica/Fantasy
Description: Sizzling tales of pirates and captives. Here's your chance to swing by or force others to swing by all-kinds of yardarms in this outrageous collection of erotic tales by Zander Vyne, Jude Mason, Theda Hudson, Catherine Lundoff, Billierosie, PM White, Joe Vadalma, Wade Heaton, Jay Lawrence And Harry Neptune, RV Raiment, Karen Taylor, and Blake C. Aarens - many of them our top authors - and edited by M.Christian. Full of the funrestrained, twisted passions and lusts that make pirates so hot! Populated by historical, contemporary and space-faring privateers ... plus a good dash of BDSM to spice up the brew. Pick up this anthology and you will not be disappointed.
eBook Publisher: Renaissance E Books/Sizzler,
eBookwise Release Date: December 2011

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [236 KB]
Words: 52511
Reading time: 150-210 min.

INTRODUCTION: AVAST, ME HEARTIES!

This, well, this is kind of embarrassing. I mean I do try -- really try -- to be a nice, and best of all, professional editor. To have this happen, well, it just isn't like me.

It's just that there were some kind of unexpected circumstances. A really dramatic one, actually. Not that what happened is an excuse... But it was certainly a surprise!

What bothers me the most is that it was a particularly nice introduction: full of thoughtful, thoughts and all that. I remember a particularly nice part of it where I drew a thoughtful conclusion concerning the parallels between the so-called classic view of pirates as anarchists who lived their loves according to their own rules and the sexual explorations of Free Love advocates in the 18th, and then the 20th century -- particularly how the pirates pushed the limits of their own current social and sexual mores by forming erotic as well as simple financial partnerships. I recall a particularly ironic section about how pirates, for all their swagger and thunder -- especially over-actors like Blackbeard who supposedly wound, and then lit, cannon fuses through his immense beard 'for effect' -- were actually a pretty sedate and even civilized bunch. Something that the sexual outlaws of both of the eras I mentioned would have blushed to be called.

I know I also -- ahem -- 'borrowed' a bit from a previous article I wrote about 'classic' pirate sexuality, particularly this bit:

...pirates, who some would think would be lax when it comes to rules and regulations, were much more stern in their sharing of the sexual favors of their fellow crews. Always concerned with equality among their crews, some pirate charters went as far as requiring 'stranding' on a desert or severe floggings as punishments for bring aboard women. It's ironic that two of the more legendary pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, were women -- and who managed to escape the gallows by the singular female plea of the time: "we plead our bellies" meaning they were pregnant.

Pirates, by and large, during this time treated women -- particularly women captives -- rather well. Part of it was wanting to stay on fairly good terms with the authorities (nothing like ravaging some women to get your ship hunted down) but also because women fetched high prices as merchandise as well as in ransom from rich fathers and husbands. A crewman guilty of harming a female captive was treated as someone who had either stolen or damaged merchandise -- a very serious charge in pirate law.

While women (when they weren't captain, that is) were banned from ships, sailors managed to keep their sanity by keeping any number of common-law wives in a variety of ports. The system worked actually rather well, since the pirates were at the whim of the wind and available profit -- and many of their wives were also the wives of other pirates, sailing on other ships. The only time there was a problem was when there was a question of seniority, such as when a husband died and his goods had to be divided among his wives -- in such cases the women he was married to the longest usually won out, unless the younger one had children. Pirates, for their much-maligned reputations, were remarkably civilized.

Other pirate societies, such as the buccaneers, created a form of partnership that often included homosexual love. Matelots were a form of permanent relationship between two men that served both their financial needs and their emotional well being. Many men were more protective and emotionally tied to their matelots than to their own wives -- going so far as to will them their lands and goods.

Early Christian Missionaries -- and puritans in general who sought to kill or capture pirates -- often used these forms of same-sex marriage to condemn their society, though it's telling that the fact that these men where practicing homosexual love and marriage wasn't as damaging as the rumor that was also spread that some of the gay pirates were converting to Islam -- a more accepting faith (at least at the time): religious intolerance obviously being a greater motivator than simple queer sex.

In more rough-and-tumble pirate societies, such as among the famous South China Sea pirates, sex and love between men became a political force as well as a sexual one. Kidnapped as children from raided ships, the boys would often form long-lasting sexual relationships among themselves as well as with their captors who later helped hold together the scattered pirate tribes.

Luckily I still had a copy of that old piece (whew), so there it is. I also know I had a huge section of the introduction dedicated to praising the work of the authors included in the book, heaping compliments -- all worthy -- on each and every one for their own unique approaches to what makes pirates such a sexy trope. The idea of making your own rules, on living a life on the edge of society in all kinds of ways -- including sexual -- has seemed to have brought out the best in an already wonderful bunch of writers. From buccaneers of the old school to modern pirates roaming contemporary seas, to alternative worlds brimming with strange booty, and even out into the cold void of space where the pirates there may ply their adventurous trade between alien worlds -- each of these writers, I wrote, outdid themselves and then some!

I really wish I still had that introduction but ... it's gone now. At least I can say that when it went it went in a loud, roaring, and outrageous way -- sort of fitting for this book.

There I was, hammering it out at my loyal computer, in my little room, when the window blasted in and through the smoking hole that had been my view out into the garden came a motley crew of scallywags and ruffians, a misbegotten tribe of boisterous and ... frankly 'aroused' band of men and women, intent on god-knows-what.

Except that ... (ahem) I did find out what they wanted, and it sure wasn't my introduction, though it got caught in the ferocious battle -- one of several casualties. In the end, they left: having had their way with my possessions, as well as myself. While my bruises were slow to heal, and the repairs taking much longer to fix, I still stare out the window they'd come chaotically through...

I wish they'd taken me with them -- out into their wild world of adventure.

--M. Christian, 2011