Monday, October 29, 2012

Changeling Moon Give-Away!

 As I'm sure everyone has realized Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I thought this year I would celebrate by giving away a copy of my Halloween Rentboy story Changeling Moon.


Changeling Moon by E.E. Ottoman

Dyer has a secret, and the only one who can help him keep it, and thereby help keep him alive, is the beautiful changeling whore that Dyer visits whenever he’s in town—the changeling that Dyer wishes could be so much more than a man with whom he has struck a bargain.



Back in August I started to see discussion of Halloween themed monster-rentboy stories being jokingly batted around on my Twitter feed. I didn't pay much attention since I was moving into a new apartment. About a week or so later I was kicking around my new apartment, waiting for graduate school to start and going a little crazy with boredom. I needed something to take my mind off of it so I thought "well let's try and see what I come up with for a Halloween rentboy story."

I had never written a story about any form of sex work before, it had never been a trope I was interested in, but figured I could give it try. Originally I wanted to write a story about an incubus but I knew someone else was already doing an incubus story (the amazing Magen Derr and you should totally check it out). So I went online and started going though lists of mythical creatures trying to find something that was both interesting and I could make vaguely creepy. At some point I stumbled across an articles on Irish folklore around changelings.

I have mixed feeling about fantasy stories about faerie, similar to my feelings about vampires stories, in that I both love them and love to hate them. I've always loved the idea of a stolen child though. We've white-washed fairies in so many ways, and the changeling stands in start contrast to the moden idea of British fairies or the modern take on Norse elves. There there is something deeply horrifying, to me, about being taken away by creatures so much more powerful than you, brainwashed, driven mad and then just thrown away. This time around though I started to think of more what it would be like for the faerie child who was put in the human child's place. They'd have been abandoned by their people in a world in which their life would be in danger if they were found out, raised to be human and yet decidedly not. In folklore changeling cases were handled very similarly to witchcraft cases and we all know what happened to people accused of witchcraft so the changeling child had a pretty raw deal too. How would someone survive that? What kind of person would they be?

Originally the story was going to have a Weird West feel to it, with gunslingers and a faerie twist. Somehow it morphed into a kind of early Republic New York City but with magic. After that the story kind of wrote itself and I enjoyed Dyer and Bran's sexual chemistry. Although it's not creepy as much as cute, I tried to keep the fall/Halloween connection here at least a little. Over all I'm quite happy with this fun little Halloween story.  



So here is how the give away apart works:
* Comment with what your favorite creepy, paranormal creature is and why
*Include away for me to reach you if you win, especially if you comment anonymously 
*Commenting will be open from today October 29th through 8:00 am EST November 3rd :~) 
*At 8:00 am EST on November 3rd I'll use an online random generator to pick a winner and notify them (Note: Unless work is canceled I'll probably not be able to get your electronic copy to you until 4:30 pm EST) 
*The winner will have until Monday to get back to me before I pick someone else  

 Remember to pick up copies of all of the Halloween Rentboy stories! 

4 comments:

  1. Ooh, I love faeries ^^ The creepier the better.

    It's so hard to choose a favourite paranormal creature. I quite like the innocuous things: death omens like black dogs; will o' the wisps, kelpies.

    In general though the creature that scares me the most are ghosts. There's a lot you can do with ghosts, and they can be anywhere. But in my mind they almost always have a sinister edge, even if they're a sympathetic victim of circumstance. I think if you're human and scared of death, even the friendliest ghost can be scary.

    Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WintersSA

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    1. This Halloween had been all about ghosts for me and ghost stories which I love. I find them incredibly scary but also awesome, especially the local legends.

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  2. Hey hon. Your contest deadline says Oct 3rd - just pointing that out. :)

    My creature would be a banshee just because I couldn't stand all its screaming and wailing. :)

    Feel free to enter my giveaway today too.

    *squishes*

    K-lee

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  3. Thanks for stopping by and also whoops! That's what happens when you try to do these kinds of things fast while crammed onto a tiny bar stool.

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