Bertram Fox

Published stuff

Impudent Crimes

Unnatural vices
Are fathered of our heroisms. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
- T. S. Eliot

The blurb:
Set in the 1980s, this crime thriller recalls a time when sexual minorities were under attack from both the law and freelance moral vigilantes. When the cheerfully directionless party girl Celia is claimed and collared by an arrogant dominant, she finds herself appointed servant to a household of oddballs: Peter Hews the fetter maker, Gabriel the leather dyke, Juno the dominatrix and Jason the professional stud. But the "Master and Mistress Workshop" has violent enemies, and Celia is in more danger from the forces of Good who want to save her, than the perverts who want to enslave her.

The thoughts:
The bad guys were the most interesting work. A writer needs to remember that everyone, even the worst villain, thinks they're the good guy. I had fun writing a chapter from Eric's point of view, where he sees himself as an action hero up till it goes wrong. The Reverend Worthy might be just nasty, but I still wanted to know and explain how he came to be that way. And Prudence was more tragic than bad: if she wanted to save Celia, I wanted just as much to save her.

The Reluctant Master

The blurbs:

"If you ever call me 'Master,' the deal's off."

Larry is a gentle feministic man who believes that women should be strong and independent, men who hit women are beneath contempt, and BDSM is just another word for abuse. Bella has been deeply hurt by a man who trained her as a slave then dumped her. Can Larry ever accept that it's OK for a man who loves her to dominate and punish her? And is Bella looking for a Master in all the wrong places?

"Owning one slave was nowhere on my life plan, never mind owning two."

Rose is in love with her handsome young lawyer, and couldn't bear to have him learn about her perverted fantasies of being bound and tortured into submission. But when she finds him spanking his secretary over the desk, they might have more in common than she thought. But will the Reluctant Master want to trade up to a harem?

"Why do so many of your cunning plans involve more damage to my long-suffering behind?"

Larry and Bella are preparing for their wedding, and Rose is happy to spend the occasional evening as Larry's Number Two Slave. They know the mysterious Felix Culpa only as the entrepreneur financing Rose's inventions, but he has his own plans for both of them. Can the sister-slaves escape his sadistic plot - and will they want to?

The thoughts:
I started this series because I was fed up with both vanilla and BDSM tales of powerful, rich, utterly confident and vastly experienced men not so much seducing as emotionally overwhelming young, powerless, nervous, naive girls. Apart from anything else, where's the fun - or romance - in shooting fish in a barrel? I wanted to try a story of what I've seen often enough in real life: an experienced sub who knows what she needs, and is prepared to help a man learn how to dominate her. I hope I proved that it can be at least as much fun as all those arrogant billionaires.

Watch this space