#PreOrder #GuestPost – “The Pornographer’s Apprentice” by Lisabet Sarai

A Life Long Love Affair

I’ve always felt an affinity for the Victorian period. I was wearing high-necked blouses with cameos, long flowing skirts, and lace-up boots in my teens, long before they were fashionable. (The corsets came later…!) With my long hair parted in the middle and pulled back into a bun, I could well have been one of the heroines in the books I loved so much.

I was also a science geek from my earliest days. I received my first microscope when I was five, and my first chemistry set at seven. I entered every science fair. In seventh grade, I won grand prize on a televised science quiz show. 

So it’s hardly surprising I’ve become a devotee of steam punk. I’ve been in love with this strange meld of science fiction and Victoriana for as long as I can remember – long before steam punk even had a name.  When I was in high school, I devoured H.G. Wells and H. Rider Haggard, and shared a Sherlock Holmes obsession with my dad. Later, I marveled at Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age and more recently, I discovered Gordon Dahlquist’s incredible The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters.  

I’ve written a number of steam punk short stories for anthologies, as well as a full length novel, Rajasthani Moon. All these tales, though, were set in Asia rather than in the British Isles. I think I was afraid I’d make errors my UK readers would notice if I tried setting a story in Queen Victoria’s home country. In my latest steam punk release, The Pornographer’s Apprentice, I finally bit the bullet and wrote an English steam punk novel. I had a lot of help with details from my critique group at the Erotica Readers & Writers Association, but of course I take responsibility for any residual mistakes.

I just hope you’ll find the story so exciting, you won’t notice them!

Blurb

She wants to build sex toys… if they’ll let her.

In prudish, patriarchal Victorian England, nineteen year old prodigy Gillian Smith finds a secret society dedicated to the erotic arts. She’ll need both her intellect and her physical charms to earn the permanent position she craves.

Inspired by a salacious catalogue found in her deceased uncle’s library, she applies for an apprenticeship with the Toymakers Guild. The Guild fabricates bespoke sexual artifacts for the private pleasure of select clients – an occupation for which Gillian, with her technical abilities and her lascivious temperament, is eminently suited.

The other apprentices, initially skeptical about a female engineer, become enthusiastic supporters once they’ve tested her erotic aptitude. The voluptuous Governing Director, and the dashing French journeyman likewise help expand her carnal repertoire. The final decision, however, rests with the reclusive Master Toymaker, who has been missing for nearly two years. 

When an unscrupulous nobleman sets up a competing enterprise, he threatens not only the livelihood of the Guild’s members but their lives as well. Gillian hatches an audacious plan to entrap the villain, save the Guild, and leave the absent Master no choice but to grant her heart’s desire.

If you like steam punk erotica with a kinky feminist bent, you’ll love The Pornographer’s Apprentice.

Series Blurb

Defying the repressive morality of the Victorian era, the Toymakers Guild uses advanced technology to fabricate bespoke sexual artifacts for the discrete pleasure of select clients. Its members are not only brilliant engineers but also sexual renegades seeking freedom from the prudish society that surrounds them. These are their stories.

Buy Links

Kinky Literature – https://www.kinkyliterature.com/book/8424-the-pornographers-apprentice-the-toymakers-guild-book-1/
Amazon  US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MWMZZGP
Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08MWMZZGP
Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1053072
Barnes and Noble – Coming Soon
Kobo –  Coming Soon
Add on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55857159-the-pornographer-s-apprentice

Excerpt

She pressed on, determined to break through Tug’s reserve. “Can you show me how the frame works? I gather it can be configured in a variety of positions.”

“Yup,” he answered. “Folded like this, it’s for spanking and such.” A leather-padded central beam about four feet long stretched between two A-frame supports, at just the right height for elevating a bent-over victim’s posterior. Another plank ran between them, nearer the ground, studded with shiny hooks for securing the ankles while a rectangle of vertical joists behind the beam provided a variety of attachment points for upper limbs.

Gillian couldn’t help remembering her recent impromptu beating on the settee. What fearsome mischief might Amelia do, had she a device like this?

He grabbed a vertical element, yanking it towards him. Sliding along well-greased grooves, the rectangle cantilevered out, over the beam, enabling access to the beam from both sides. “This way’s for riding, horse-like.”

Gillian flushed. She could all too easily imagine straddling that broad, cushioned mass, the way it would stretch her thighs and press against her mons. She didn’t need Tug to explain the straps on the underside of the beam, or the deep, cylindrical depressions in the upper surface, at locations that would clearly correspond with various orifices.

“Or you can use it as a cross, for serious whippin’.” He pushed down on one end of the padded beam, which rotated around a horizontal axis until one end brushed the floor and the other stretched over her head.  He tugged at the rectangle until it slipped part way behind the now-vertical beam, snapping into place to provide a horizontal element for the cross.

“Very impressive,” said Gillian, with total sincerity.

About Lisabet

Lisabet Sarai became addicted to words at an early age. She began reading when she was four. She wrote her first story at five years old and her first poem at seven. Since then, she has written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – over one hundred titles, and counting, in nearly every sub-genre—paranormal, scifi, ménage, BDSM, GLBT, and more. Regardless of the genre, every one of her stories illustrates her motto: Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

You’ll find information and excerpts from all Lisabet’s books on her website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html), along with more than fifty free stories and lots more. At her blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com), she shares her philosophy and her news and hosts lots of other great authors. She’s also on Goodreads, Pinterest, and  Twitter. Join her VIP email list here: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh