Hello my lovelies,

It's independent bookstore day and this one is for my fellow erotica writers who are looking for alternatives to Draft2Digital after Draft2Digital decided to penalise anyone making less than $100 / year with their books.

If you are not a writer but an erotica enjoyer, the overview might give you an idea for where to look for the indie smut and where so-called "taboo erotica" is even still published.

Smashwords

Haha, joke's on us, Smashwords was bought by Draft2Digital in 2022 and if we want access to the Smashwords store, we gotta stay with Draft2Digital 🤡

Smashwords is important to the erotica writing community as a well-known marketplace for indie erotica that also offers the so-called "taboo" genres like incest and non-consent. Loosing access to Smashwords is the only reason I haven't immediately closed my account with Draft2Digital.

If you are an erotica writer, Smashwords is likely your biggest sales platform along with Amazon. I wouldn't recommend opening an account with Draft2Digital just to access Smashwords because the $20 activation fee + $12 penalty if you don't make $100 in your first year is mental, but if you already have an account and you can afford the $12 or even make more than $100 / year, it might be worth staying just for that marketplace. But Draft2Digital sucks for penalising low earning authors and they deserve to lose users and sales.

Amazon

Draft2Digital's shitty fees are going to sweep a lot of indie writers back into the gaping maw of Amazon. Because it's still free and Amazon also offers the common 70% of sales price, meaning for a $2.99 eBook I get $2.09 and the platform is huge: too many people still buy their eBooks on Amazon. Amazon always made sense from a profit standpoint. It's easy to use. But Amazon is fucking evil, mate.

I have my eBooks on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) too. "Going wide", the indie publishing term for leaving Amazon's locked system, cost me when I first decided to do it because I made more with Kindle Unlimited reads than I did through the other retailers. But I would always do it again. Putting all your eggs in Amazon's basket is giving them far too much control. Amazon can block your books and there is nothing you can do about it. If you use Kindle Unlimited or Audible, you cannot offer your books anywhere else. Customers can and do read or rip your eBook and just return it, meaning you won't see any royalties.

I know it is tempting to just crawl back to Amazon. But consider this:

Pros

✅ Large platform = large potential audience for sales

✅ Ease of use: creating an eBook with zero knowledge is fool-proof

Cons

🚫 Amazon is fucking evil.

🚫 Amazon can block your books without warning, without explanation, and without ever letting you talk to a human to appeal. I had to publish one of my books five times or so, probably because it contained the keyword "virgin" in the description.

🚫 Return policy makes it super easy to pirate your eBooks.

🚫 Kindle Unlimited and Audible will lock you in, meaning you can't sell your book anywhere outside Amazon. They make you dependent on their locked system.

🚫 AI slop is allowed, as per Amazon's / KDP's content guidelines: "We require you to inform us of AI-generated content. You are not required to disclose AI-assisted content."

🚫 Kindle Unlimited payments are super intransparent. It's a seemingly random amount divided by all authors whose works were read via KU in a given month, meaning AI slop that is read via KU drops the payout amount for everyone.

🚫 Has no clear content guidelines. Erotica is allowed but they might block your book for whatever reason.

🚫 If you label your book correctly it will be thrown into the "adult dungeon" and never see the light of day. "Adult dungeon" means it can't be found via regular search.

🚫 You cannot opt out of Amazon's AI generated recaps of your book.

Kobo

You may know Kobo as an eBook reader or an eBook store but they also have their own self-publishing platform called Kobo Writing Life. I have a Kobo account but I have only used it to publish a single title directly. Kobo has a subscription service similar to Amazon's Kindle Unlimited, but it doesn't require exclusivity to enroll your book, you can still sell it everywhere else. Kobo's royalties are industry standard at 70% retail price for books priced at $2.99 or above. But they have a hefty payment threshold at 50 Canadian dollars, which equals roughly 35 US dollars or 30 Euros and British pounds. Kobo's payout system for their subscription service Kobo Plus is much more transparent than Amazon's, with the amount earned is determined by Kobo's subscription revenue and the share of total time spent reading in a given month. Authors get 60% of the revenue per minute read of their book. Subscription services are usually paid for by the creators because we make a fraction of what we would make with a sale. But it can be a good way for authors starting out because the hurdle of giving the book of an unknown author a read is much lower if it's through a subscription and at least with Kobo, you can still publish elsewhere.

So what is Kobo saying about erotica?

"Adult or explicit content depicting acts that are illegal or that Kobo determines to be sexually exploitative are prohibited. This includes material that portrays or contains direct or indirect references to pornography, pedophilia, incest, bestiality, exploitation and sexual violence or force. Kobo may close accounts and report illegal material to the relevant authorities."
Rakuten Kobo Content Policy, October 5th, 2023

So Kobo doesn't allow incest, bestiality, and non-con. "References to pornography" is pretty vague, as it often is in these content guidelines. Does it mean that characters can't watch porn or enjoy an erotic photograph? Does it mean that exploitation in porn can't be referenced as a sexy thing? But overall, vanilla and even a lot of kinky erotica seems to be allowed, which is a plus.

But now comes the thing that has stirred controversy in the indie publishing world: Kobo's use of AI technology.

"Kobo agrees that Works will not be used to train generative AI technologies. Kobo may utilize artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning algorithms or similar technologies (AI technologies), to read, analyze, and process the Works for the following purposes: (a) enhancing the discoverability of the Works by categorizing and tagging content appropriately, and providing a personalized experience and targeted recommendations for customers; (b) evaluating the suitability of the Works for sale on Kobo’s platform and ensuring adherence to Kobo’s Terms of Service; (c) generating resources to assist prospective customers in making informed decisions, including, but not limited to creating keywords, promotional content, targeted advertisements, customer engagement strategies, and other materials designed to enhance the sales of the Works; and (d) enhancing the experience of a purchased book by providing recaps, reading assistance, and accessibility features."
Kobo Writing Life Terms of Service, Section 2.3

Fellow author Delilah Waan has broken down this part of Kobo's terms of service in a video which I highly recommend you watch in full if you are invested in this topic. The big plus is that Kobo explicitly states that our books won't be used to train generative AI. However, they plan to run our books through their AI to create recaps. On BlueSky, their social media team said the (forthcoming) recap feature will be opt-out but in my opinion, feeding our work to AI should always be opt-in. Of course, adoption is always lower if something is opt-in but if authors really want this feature, they will opt-in. My guess is that most don't. Categorisation and tagging won't be opt-out, as Delilah was told by Kobo Writing Life's director Tara Cremin. According to CEO Michael Tamblyn, Kobo uses a small text-based model to process "samples of a book (not the whole text)" because it "lets us find keywords that we can use to categorize the book accurately. That makes for better merchandising, better recommendations and hopefully more sales."

Judging by the job ad posted on 17 April, they plan to double down on AI use in marketing, seeking a "Marketing Technology Solutions Lead" who "will drive the identification, evaluation, and implementation of MarTech solutions, focusing on workflow automation" and "AI integration". They are supposed to "continually research and monitor developments in the MarTech landscape, including workflow automation, AI capabilities in marketing (creative AI, personalization, data), and emerging tools" as well as "identify and implement opportunities to integrate Artificial Intelligence into marketing workflows and tools, from enhancing creative processes to optimizing campaign execution and personalization across channels". "Proven ability to strategically leverage AI in marketing, encompassing workflow automation, creative applications, and personalization across channels" is listed as a required skill. So for those who are worried about Kobo's AI use in marketing, this seems to be something they are investing in.

The whole thing is definitely more nuanced than "Kobo is using AI = Kobo bad" and the marketing terminology around LLMs (Large Language Models) is not making it any easier to talk about it. It feels like Kobo understands that authors hate AI but can't quite resist the siren call of promises made about it. I wonder if readers really want AI recaps or if AI categorisation really does yield better results, as Delilah also questioned in one of her threads on the topic. All in all, it's a complex topic and other than with Draft2Digital, I understand Kobo's side as well. At this point, I personally would give them the benefit of the doubt but the AI marketing focus makes me wary.

Pros

✅ No exclusivity clauses, so you can publish anywhere else too.

✅ Erotica is allowed.

✅ Subscription payout scheme is transparent and subscription services can be an asset for new authors or new pen names.

✅ No payout fees, even to international authors. Conversion fees may apply though, depending on your local currency.

✅ Distribution to their library distributor Overdrive.

✅ Global distribution to own stores and global partners.

Cons

🚫 High payment threshold of 50 Canadian dollars.

🚫 Taboo genres like incest, non-con, and bestiality are prohibited.

🚫 Their use of AI and machine learning makes sense in many regards but remains questionable in terms of AI generated recaps being opt-out instead of opt-in and many unknowns for us authors on how exactly AI will be used on our books.

🚫 Distributes to some local partners but not as many as Draft2Digital.

Barnes & Noble

I have no personal experience with Barnes & Noble but they do offer a self-publishing service named Barnes & Noble Press. Royalties are the industry standard 70% for eBooks. You can sell paperbacks as well but the minimum retail price is $14.99 and the 55% royalties after deduction of the printing costs are more like 23% because they deduct the printing costs from your share only. But that doesn't really matter because B&N hates erotica:

"Submitting or posting any of the following content in your eBook file, cover image or product data may, in the exercise of Barnes & Noble's sole and unfettered discretion, result in the removal of said content and/or termination of your account. [...] Obscene or Pornographic Material: This may include content that graphically portrays the sexual exploitation of children or sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction."
Barnes & Noble Press Content Policy, last revised 30 April 2021

If you can get your spicy book into the romance category, you might have a shot here but I won't go through the hassle. The payout threshold is $25, similar to Kobo's. I would never get paid.

Pros

✅ Exclusivity is not required to publish with B&N

Cons

🚫 High payment threshold of $25 US dollars.

🚫 The purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction disqualify a book from publication with B&N, so no erotica allowed.

🚫 Minimum retail price of $14.99 US dollars for print books, even if it's just a novella or short story.

🚫 Unfair royality calculation for print books by deducting the print costs from the author's share of the royalties only. Fellow author Sara Blake explains it here.

Ingram Sparks

IngramSpark is an online self-publishing company that distributes print and eBooks globally and their network is quite impressive, even more options than Draft2Digital. Distribution of paperbacks to independent bookstores is possible as well as eBook distribition to all major players, to libraries, and even bookshop.org. Royalties for eBooks are 85% of of the net revenue received by IngramSpark, so they take 15% of royalties on top of whatever the retailer took. To compare, Draft2Digital takes 10% of the royalties.

So where's the catch?

For one, the website didn't give a lot of information and I had to use a search engine to find their content policy and it's lacking any information on payout methods, thresholds, and so on. I had to agonisingly put that together from search results. The biggest catch seemed to be the $49 fee for setting up a title, no matter if it's an eBook or a print book, but it seems like the setup fee has been removed. The requirement to purchase an expensive ISBN for $85 has also been waived and Ingram Sparks even offers free ISBNs for eBooks now. Free ISBNs list the platform as the publisher, in Ingram Spark's case "Indy Pub", while your own ISBN lists you or your publishing company. They used to charge $25 for any revision made afterward publication, but from 01 February 2026 on, revision fees were removed. The setup fee alone would make using Ingram Sparks uneconomical for many authors, despite the alluring distribution network, which is probably why it was eventually removed. I'm still not entirely sure if they have any restrictions on erotica, and the information on pricing on the website itself is so poor that I am honestly discouraged to sign up because I have no idea if I'll end up paying fees or not. But the distribution network sure is alluring. I might update this if I end up publishing with them.

Pros

✅ No exclusivity clause, so you are free to use other book printers, distributors, and fulfillment services as well.

✅ Damn large distribution network!

✅ Distribution to libraries.

✅ Distribution to all major players (Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble) and then some!

✅ Print book publishing available.

✅ AI generated books are prohibited.

✅ No payout threshold for direct deposits if the bank is based in the US or the UK.

Cons

🚫 15% cut of the royalties compared to 10% taken by Draft2Digital

🚫 Information is incredibly poor on their website without an account.

🚫 High payout threshold for non-US and non-UK authors (25€ or $25 Canadian or Australian dollars but no threshold if using direct deposits at a US or UK bank)

Itch.io

I didn't know eBooks were a think on itch.io. I knew them as a platform for video games, even though I purchased a very sexy Hades Game fan comic through them 😁

And lo and behold, there is a "Books" category hidden in the sidebar. The popular tags list includes LGBT, Transgender, Lesbian, and Queer. So it doesn't seem like the worst place for erotica. So what do their terms say?

"We don’t allow hosting content that includes sexualized images or videos of real-life humans. Fictional, illustrated, and rendered content is generally fine, assuming it’s legal. AI-generated imagery that is designed to resemble photographic content of real people is not allowed. Content glorifying sexual violence is not permitted. Depictions of minors, minor-presenting, or suggested minors in a sexual context are not allowed and will result in account suspension."
itch.io Creator FAQ

However, if we want to get paid for our fictional sexiness, we have to go by the rules set by itch.io's payment processors PayPal, Stripe, and Payoneer, meaning "taboo" genres like non-consensual content (real or implied) including coercion, underage or “barely legal”, incest or pseudo-incest, bestiality or animal-related, sex trafficking implications, revenge porn / voyeur / hidden camera, fetish involving bodily waste like scat or watersports or extreme harm are not allowed. Furthermore, adult works have to be labelled as adult and are hidden from view for anyone who didn't enable it in their account settings, meaning anyone who is not logged in won't see it.

Something that is awesome is that itch.io allows creators to set the percentage they share with itch.io themselves, so we could go for the industry standard of 70% royalties for us and 30% for itch.io or, since itch.io is not an eBook distributor, something closer to the percentage a digital eCommerce platform would take, i.e. 5-10%.

itch.io doesn't impose DRM (Digital Rights Management). If that is a pro or a con is up to you. I personally think that the hassle for people just wanting to enjoy their book is not worth the small protection from theft it may offer, but you might feel differently.

For payouts, there are two different options. Either get paid directly, without a payout threshold, or let itch.io collect the payments and request a payout at $5 or more. The former may seem more desirable but the collected payments have a few advantages: first, itch.io deals with VAT, tax files, and chargebacks, and second, itch.io is the Merchant of Record, meaning the risk of running into problems with PayPal, Stripe, or Payoneer for selling adult stuff is lower. There is also the benefit of sharing revenue with other creators with this option.

I think I will try itch.io with some of my queer erotica and see how it goes. I will update this article with my experiences if I have anything noteworthy to add.

Pros

✅ Offers a "pay what you want" option.

✅ Gifting a download link is possible.

✅ Royalty percentage is self-determined.

✅ Erotica is allowed.

✅ Pro LGBTQ user base.

✅ No exclusivity clause, books can be published elsewhere.

✅ Sharing revenue between multiple creators is possible.

✅ Low payout threshold: zero for immediate payout and $5 for collected payouts.

Cons

🚫 Payment processors are PayPal, Stripe, and Payoneer, all hostile towards erotica. Hence "taboo" erotica genres are not allowed.

🚫 "Adult Dungeon" for erotica, hidden from users who are not logged in or didn't enable seeing adult works in their settings.

🚫 No distribution network for eBooks as itch.io is not a book retailer. You only reach people shopping on itch.io.

Direct Sales

Direct sales is always difficult for us erotica writers because the final boss are credit card companies Mastercard and Visa. And they don't like the smut. So as long as you want to offer credit card payments, it's always possible they'll crack down and suspend your account. Same with all deriving payment platforms that use credit cards like PayPal and Stripe: erotica isn't allowed. Which leaves us with the option to use a payment processor of our choice until suspended, using a payment provider for the adult entertainment industry at the cost of higher fees and the drawback that even with them there might remain certain content that isn't allowed, or restrict yourself to bank transfers only, which is inconvenient for many reasons but especially if you have international customers.

I've been looking at multi-currency bank accounts but many of them don't allow "adult content" either. I haven't found a service that fulfils my criteria yet.

Crypto currencies are free of the restrictions set by Mastercard and Visa, which is why PornHub only accepts crypto right now, but that is a whole other can of worms and I personally would prefer not having to use crypto currencies because the risk for scams is high and the cost to the environment is also high.

So our best bet is an eCommerce platform that doesn't outright ban all adult content and hope it won't get suspended. I'm personally using PayHip and my experience with them is very good. I have all my erotica in my PayHip store with some risqué cover images and I haven't had any problems yet but their Terms of Service say "We do not allow any of the following content: Pornography, [...] Webcam shows and other similar sexual services" so I'm dancing at the edge of an abbyss with them as well because other platforms have deemed my cover images "pornography" in the past.

Things that are nice about PayHip is that all information they hold about us is stored on secure servers in the EU, and, unlike retailers, they let us see the email address of the person purchasing our stuff, and the fees seem fair: they just take a 5% transaction fee. Though PayPal and Stripe will charge their own transaction fee, so while a $2.99 eBook should yield a $2.84 profit, you might end up receiving less if the transaction was completed through Stripe or PayPal. Something that is also very nice is that PayHip pays out immediately, so you get paid after each sale. You can also sell things other than eBooks via PayHip, for instance if you have your own merch.

Platforms that ban adult content (incomprehensive list): BuyMeACoffee, Gumroad

Ko-Fi is like PayHip where you might get away with it because they don't explicitly ban erotica. Also itch.io is essentially the same category as PayHip and Ko-Fi. They all use the same payment processors, after all. 🫠

If you found this guide helpful, let me know because I'm an attention whore. If you want more, you can sub here, either for free or even toss me a coin if you like.

Love,
Aimée

Hello my lovelies,

I'm still recovering from a really nasty cold so I really didn't want to write this fucking thing but since not all of you are fellow writers but all of you are fellow poor people if compared to the Epstein class, I want you to know about this new money grab to squeeze the last few dollars from penniless writers. Trust me, I'd much rather work on escapist horny fiction but the rich just keep on dumping on us.

What the Fuck is Draft2Digital?

If you're not an indie author, you have probably never heard of them. Draft2Digital is a platform that facilitates publishing to a number of retailers like Barnes&Noble, Kobo, and libraries like Libby. You see, an indie author would have to make a separate account with each retailer to sell their book in their online store and then wait until they reach the payout threshold, which might be never. So aggregator platforms like Draft2Digital and Smashwords are useful to indie authors because they allow us to publish to a whole selection of online stores and we only have to reach the payout threshold with our combined sales.

On top of that, Smashwords is the only eBook store that still sells taboo erotica. So many of my fellow erotica writers publish exclusively to Smashwords. I publish a couple of stories exclusively to Smashwords because much of Greek mythology is technically incest and Smashwords allows incest in erotica.

Draft2Digital bought Smashwords in 2022. So right now, there is no major competitor.

The Money Grab

Draft2Digital already takes 10% of every sale. They recently set a payout threshold that used to be $0, so an author only gets paid once they accumulate at least $10 worth of sales. This is not unusual but the zero threshold was really great for anyone starting out.

Now they are adding a $20 "activation fee" for new accounts and a $12 penalty if your books make under $100 / year. Yes, they are going to charge everyone(!) who doesn't make at least $100 in book sales $12. My first year of "going wide", which means stepping outside the Amazon system, I made something like $0.50. My decision to publish via Smashwords and Draft2Digital was not motivated by profit, because I would have made way more than $0.50 if I had kept my books in the Kindle Unlimited catalogue (thereby excluding them from being published anywhere else). If I had had to pay $12 to boot, at a time where I couldn't afford it, I never would have considered it.

Fellow erotica writer Persephone over at Mastodon crunched the numbers.

Persephone (@mindpersephone)

@AimeeMaroux@mastodon.social eep that sounds like a business that’s in financial trouble. If a book doesn’t sell all they should be paying for is data storage. Lets be generous and say the cover images are massive, so 10Mb per book? Using amazon s3 pricing that’s about 2 cents per 100 books, per m…

Spookygirl Social Club

Her generous estimate is that a book that never sells would cost $0,0024, less than a quarter of a cent, to host for a year ($0.02 for 100 books per month).

Do $12 / year look fair to you?

In traditional publishing, there is also just a small amount of writers who make the publisher money but the publisher doesn't know which ones they are going to be, so it is a gamble. Sometimes a huge gamble, back when there were advances for writers and marketing campaigns for the books. In indie publishing, it remains a gamble but the investment in a book is far lower because it is technically just the server cost. And now Draft2Digital wants us to shoulder the remaining risk for them as well. 🤡

It's the AI Slop, Bro

What really pisses me off is that Draft2Digital's corporate email announcing the new fees pretends this is all to combat AI slop, to help us human writers who are harshly affected by LLM (Large Language Model) text generation massively lowering the already low value assigned to our craft.

Listen.

AI slop is a real problem in publishing. Flooding the market with LLM generated books that took like 5 minutes to make is putting strain on publishers who don't want slop and have to spend time and money on weeding it out and on writers who have to share the revenue with those no effort AI generated books. Because you won't know this if you're not a writer, but Amazon isn't paying us in a straight-forward way for i.e. Kindle Unlimited reads. No, that would be way too transparent. They are setting aside some money that will be distributed among all authors who got Kindle Unlimited reads. And the more authors there are, no matter if their book is slop or not, there is less to go around for every individual one.

So I kinda get the $20 pay-to-play "activation fee". I doubt it is going to discourage content farms but maybe it's not completely unreasonable to assume that some "AI authors" will be discouraged by an entry fee. I haven't researched this, so if that were the only change, I probably would have been wary of their reasoning but accepted it as an attempt to deal with the AI slop problem.

But what is penalising those with the fewest sales going to do? If you generate 1000 books in an hour you are much more likely to hit the $100 threshold than any human author, especially someone like me who can only sell their erotica titles at a fraction of Draft2Digital's distributors.

If they were really after AI slop, they'd monetise high book counts. Low sales are no indicator of a book's quality nor whether or not it was written by a person. A high number of published titles is much more suspect, especially if it's something like 100 novel-length books and the author is not Stephen King.

This has nothing to do with protecting us from AI slop. Draft2Digital was chomping at the bit to partner up with AI companies and only due to the overwhelmingly negative feedback poll, they decided not to go there.

What Now?

I don't know. I guess I'll wait and see if there was enough backlash to make them reconsider on the fees. I probably won't make the golden $100 / year but I could afford the $12 fee if I wanted to. But the thing is, if they won't support me at my poorest $0.50 sales, they don't deserve me at my $100+ sales. The only thing making me hesitate is that they have Smashwords. As I mentioned above, the only eBook store that still sells taboo erotica and the largest erotica eBook platform. Losing that would hurt, not just because I make most of my eBook sales through Smashwords, but because I would be turning away from that one place that truly embraces erotica. Though since Draft2Digital bought it, I guess the question is: for how long?

I don't have any recommendations to replace the service Draft2Digital offers but I sell my books at my Payhip shop which is not a book retailer but you can sell all kinds of digital products there and I never had any issues with them so far.

Off to bed,
a coughing, sneezing Aimée

Hello my lovelies,

I was at a protest against digital violence in Hamburg. The protest had been organised in just 6 days after a high-profile case involving German TV host and actress Collien Fernandes became public. English-speaking media are picking up the protests in Germany, so I wanted to give an overview of the "German #MeToo" and my first-hand account.

The Online Abuse of Collien Fernandes

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the case: Collien Fernandes is a German actress and TV host who had been suffering from fake accounts on social media pretending to be her and contacting men in her professional life to start flirtations, send (fake) nudes and videos, and even had phone sex with them. For 10 years, Collien Fernandes didn't know who was behind the fake accounts and even made a documentary about it where she shares that she only found out about the fake accounts when one of her producers, who believed they were having erotic conversations online, made insinuations she didn't understand and eventually showed her his chat with the fake account impersonating her. She first addressed the online abuse publicly in 2023 but it didn't stop. Last week, on 19 March 2026, German polit-magazine Der Spiegel published a piece in which Collien Fernandes reveals that her husband, Christian Ulmen, confessed to be the person behind the decade-long online abuse. She also posted to her Instagram account what he told her: that he had developed a fetish for humiliating her by presenting her to her professional social circle in a way that she would find appalling. That it gave him a feeling of power. He contacted many men, both strangers and acquaintances of Collien Fernandes, and maintained intense online affairs with about 30 of them. He wanted the material he sent to these men to appear as realistic as possible. Christian Ulmen confessed, she says in her Instagram post, because he feared the police would find out after his wife had filed charges against persons unknown on 21 November 2024. The German investigation was closed but since the couple had been living in Spain and hence the crimes had also been committed in Spain, Collien Fernandes filed charges against her husband in Palma de Mallorca on 02 December 2025. The investigation is ongoing.

The Protest in Hamburg

22,000 people showed up to protest digital sexual violence in Hamburg! I'm happy that I was one of them. I had not expected to stay until the end of the event but I did. There were many moving speeches and a few I personally didn't like, but the absolute highlight was Collien Fernandes showing up in person after she had publicly announced she wouldn't be coming due to death threats! "I thought I would be strong," she said, her voice thick with tears. Showing up in public after death threats, wearing a bullet-proof vest because someone might make an attempt on her life, that is unbelievably strong, no matter if you cry on stage or not! Collien, it is unlikely that you will ever read this on my small, niche blog but I stand in awe of your courage ❤
I feel like my sentiment was shared by most if not all protesters, with loud clamours of support coming from the crowd when she entered the stage and while she spoke. To me, it felt like the German #MeToo moment.

The crowd booing at every mention of Germany's Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose public reaction to the allegations against Christian Ulmen by Collien Fernandes had been absolutely atrocious, filled my heart with hope. Friedrich Merz had used Collien's case, that involves a German perpetrator, to further his racist agenda by claiming that it's mostly migrants who commit sexual violence.

Felix 🇺🇦🚴‍♂️🇪🇺 (@leobm@norden.social)

Attached: 1 image #pride #hamburg #csdhamburg

norden.social

The speakers and performers were all women, which seems like a smart decision given the context of the protest. Many of the pieces were about how most women had experienced what Collien Fernandes experienced in some form or other. One especially brave woman spoke of her abuse who is neither a professional speaker, nor a celebrity or media personality in any way. "I've never done this before, so please be kind to me", she started off, telling the crowd of how her husband started beating her. Many others told of their experience of not being believed, of seeing the perpetrators shielded and escape any consequences. One piece of information that stuck with me was that apparently, harder punishments do not discourage perpetrators (a well-known fact) but the likelihood of being caught and facing any kind of consequences does. Most talks called for change and dropped some numbers which may or may not be solid, but did not offer a path of how to get there. But, given the short time frame, maybe they didn't need to be that. I think the emotional impact was the important thing about this event. To offer Collien Fernandes and victims like her visible support and solidarity. To stand in the audience and feel that others want change too.

But What About the Menz?

In my opinion it is always daft to exclude people from your movement. Unless you're a billionaire who can fund their own campaigns and political agendas, our power is in numbers. Why would you exclude anyone who's on your side? It's madness! Some of the speakers in Hamburg acknowledged that. We need everyone who will stand against online abuse of both men and women (and anyone on the gender spectrum) to press for change. The numbers are about 60:40 female to male victims, according to a report by the Federal Criminal Police. We need men who will politically defend us to fight gendered violence. It made me happy to see quite a few men at the protest in Hamburg. It made me happy to listen to a male friend defending trans women to conservative members of our RPG group. I completely get the rage at men who abuse their power, especially after the Epstein files show the power structures very clearly (including women). But we need to stand together with the men who want to support us and condemn this behaviour together. If we exclude men, we get the worst part of the LGBTQ community where everything is about labels and division and rarely about unity. This is how they get us: divide and conquer. Let's not stand divided.

Opening a Door... to Online Surveillance?

Chan-jo Jun, a lawyer specialised in IT legislation, tells German broadcaster BR24 that pornographic deepfakes, AI generated images of apparently real people having sex, are only prosecutable as libel or defamation in Germany. Often, such cases are never prosecuted at all.

A highly visible case like Collien Fernandes' and the resulting protests in Hamburg (22,000 protesters) and Berlin (13,000 protesters) is likely to get things moving. The question is: where?

In a situation like this, when emotions are high and rage is rabid, there will always be those who want to push their surveillance agenda in the name of online safety. Making AI generated images and voices without consent illegal is the right thing to do. Using this as a vehicle to destroy anonymity on the internet is not. Anonymity protects not only perpetrators, it protects everybody, including whistleblowers and marginalised persons. So I will watch these developments like a hawk. German minister of justice, Stefanie Hubig, wants a new law where IP address logs have to be kept for 3 months to help potential investigation and where police or prosecuters can search a suspect's PC. But logging full IP addresses without a specific reason (event) is illegal because it violates privacy rights according to European GDPR law. The ECJ had even declared unjustified mass data storage for use in clarifying serious crimes as unlawful in 2022.

Here's hope that "Germany's #MeToo Moment" has opened the door for real protection online and not for a Trojan Horse of mass surveillance and privacy erosion.

Sources

New York Times: Actress Says She’s Found Her Secret Online Abuser: Her Husband, nytimes.com, 27 March 2026

BBC: German outcry over deep fake porn targeting actress prompts bid to change law, 25 March 2026

Crimes against women – Digital violence is also on the rise, heise.de, 20 November 2024

ECJ ruling on mass data storage for use in the investigation of serious crimes, 05 April 2022

Spanish Organic Act 1/2004 of 28 December on Integrated Protection Measures against Gender Violence, signed into law by parliament, coe.int [PDF]

In German

Instagram Posts by Collien Fernandes

Collien Fernandes posts Christian Ulmen's confession to her on Instagram, 26 March 2026

Collien Fernandes addresses timeline of filed charges on her Instagram, 26 March 2026

Collien Fernandes comments on the article by Der Spiegel on her Instagram, 20 March 2026

German Press

Tausende demonstrieren gegen sexualisierte Gewalt - Fernandes dabei, ndr.de, 27 March 2027

Hamburger Demo gegen sexualisierte Gewalt will Gesellschaft aufrütteln, ndr.de, 26 March 2026

Ermittlungen auf Mallorca im Fall Fernandes-Ulmen: So sehr schützt das spanische Recht Frauen, mallorcamagazin.com, 24 March 2026

Fall Fernandes: Wie Spanien digitale sexuelle Gewalt verfolgt, br.de, 21 March 2026

Härtere Strafen bei digitaler Gewalt?, tagesschau.de, 20 March 2026

Bundeslagebilder - Geschlechtsspezifisch gegen Frauen gerichtete Straftaten 2023, Bundeskriminalamt, 19 November 2024

Hello my lovelies,

I have a Valentine's gift for you 😘

Today I'm sharing a commission that was a long time in the making and I have teased it several times but it is finally here 🥳

Dionysus visits King Oineus and Queen Althaia. Oineus is not his son, even though his name literally means 'wine'! One thing leads to another and a threesome ensues...

I got to use my client's version of Dionysus, who is genderfluid and presents with a vulva, though he also has the ability to summon a magicock.

The beautiful illustration was created by verumew. Find more of verumew's art here!

Glossary

dog: ancient Greek slang for the penis

kantharos: a cup type associated with Dionysos which was used for wine

klinē: a resting couch from which we get the word "recline"

piggy: ancient Greek slang for the vulva

Hello my lovelies,

In February, everything is about love and romance and I added two Norse gods prompts as the weather is still cold here in the Northern hemisphere.

"Monster" Eros making love to Psyche in the dark refers to the prophecy that Psyche would get married to a monster. Eros only came to her in the dark and she didn't know who her husband was until she lit a lamp and looked at him while he was sleeping. Eros fled and kicked off Psyche's heroine's journey.

Unlike in Marvel canon, Odin the Norse god is friends with Loki and his blood brother. Loki is not his son, so no incest, promise. Odin is notoriously curious so I am convinced he wouldn't need much persuasion, especially not from a silver tongue...

Hathor is the cow-headed Egyptian goddess of love. You may have met her in "Queen of Happiness" where she makes love to Ariadne. Freyja is the Norse goddess of love and war. Aphrodite, of course, is the Greek goddess of love and lust. This would be a fun romp, nothing too serious I don't think.

Achilles and Patroklos' first time refers to their first sexual encounter as lovers or boyfriends. Will it be sweeter than Song of Achilles? My track record for romance is not the best but I will try 🌹

As always, I'll write the prompt that gets the most votes. If it's a tie, my artists and I get to choose 😊

Patrons of the Demigod tier get a sexy illustration along with the story instead of the plain text story for everyone else.

Read the full prompt list and make your own requests by commenting below or in our Discord server.

This week's #FlashFillFriday will be about Diana and some lively plants!

Flashfill Friday is a lovely concept I adopted from the kink meme I used to write for when there was still an audience. This is how it works:

1. You remain anonymous unless you specifically ask me for a shout out.
2. You send me a story prompt via Mastodon or simply by commenting on the Flash Fic Requests post. This can be anything from just a kink to a specific pairing with multiple kinks and a plot outline.
      Example: Hades attempts to dirty-talk his lover but fails. It just sounds awkward and unsexy.
3. I pick the prompt that inspires me most to write and share here on the blog with everyone. A "flash fill" or "flash fic" means that it is written in one sitting and can be quite short.
4. If you want me to write something to your exact specifications, you can always comission a story.
5. Please note this is an erotica blog, so the request needs to include at least 1 kink and the result will also be erotic writing.

What is it that YOU want written? Let me know in the comments!

Springtime for Dryads

Prompt: It's springtime so Diana is bringing the world back to life, only the plants are a little more, uh, lively than she expected... vine bondage, face sitting and orgasm denial, oh my!

Diana had counted the hours. It was time. Spring was upon the world by the order of her brother Apollo and she set out to return life to the earth. Sol was melting the snow on the mountains and Diana coaxed the plants and animals back from the stillness of winter. She felt the sap flowing, leaves growing, green and dots of colour adorning the landscape that had been barren and black and white. The ritual always got her juices to flow as well, the pure energy of life coursing through her veins and the land she roused from winter.

Saplings eagerly shot up where she set her foot and flowers bloomed where she passed by. Content with her work, Diana sat down by a tree, evergreen ivy climbing its sturdy trunk. The grass was wet with dew, moistening her dress. Shesighed and lay back, looking up into the crown of the tree. The geniusof the place was present in the plants, in the earth, in the waters. It looked right back downat her, a dryad, the spirit of the tree. With a mischievous grin, the ivy crept around her arms and ankles, a soft, tickling sensation.

“You feel so good,” the dryad said, “Your divinity… it overflows with life. Stay.”

The vines tightened around Diana, a delicate pattern designed to hold her tight. She chuckled.

“You think these can hold me, little nymph?” she asked. “I could destroy them with a blink.”

“But will you?” The dryad approached on bark-like feet. Her green skin was mossy and her fingers gnarly and rigid. She was teeming with the sap of spring. “When I have such a nice gift for you?”

The ivy held Diana in place like a well-packed parcel. She watched the dryad as she exposed her dewy womanhood to her. The lips looked soft, like petals, and wet like a flower after a warm rain. Diana gulped. She had yet to meet a cunt she didn’t like. The dryad lowered herself upon her face, drops of the tree’s arousal wetting her face before she felt her swollen folds on her. Diana felt her need, the zest for life she herself had roused. She opened her mouth, her tongue sweeping over the furrow like a warm breeze. The dryad sighed, her mossy skin growing long, green sporophytes. Diana grinned. That was a tree nymph at peak fertility. She had no doubt this land was going to prosper. No reason not to enjoy herself. She licked up the juices, sweet, divine dew, causing her floral friend to root herself in the soil with both feet, thick shoots penetrating the dark earth, and beautiful blossoms springing from her twig-like hair. Her whole body was reacting and Diana was relishing every moment. The ivy was overgrowing, fresh leaves unfurling everywhere, covering her almost completely. Diana tongued the dryad’s dripping hole, drawing a moan from the nymph. She could taste her juices, hear her pleasure, feel her pent-up desire…

The ivy fell away from her limbs. Diana’s tongue stilled. She rose from the bed of ivy and moss.

“Now, my dear, find yourself some pollen to fertilise you. You’re not getting any more ready than this.”

FIN

If you enjoy dryad lesfic, here is a story about Demeter taking care of a dryad in her sacred grove, illustrated by sapphic artist Sinita. If plant-based BDSM is your thing, you might also be intrigued by Demeter punishing Minthe for bad-mouthing her daughter. Find all sapphic fiction here.

This is a free story sponsored by my lovely patrons. Join here if you too would like to support my writing 💖

After the disaster that was last year, I'm back with the monthly polls, people ❤

A few people had their birthday in January, so I asked them to provide me with an element each to combine into a story and this is what I'll write:

Hera has sexytimes with Tiresias by the fire, wearing this:

Patrons of the Demigod tier get a sexy illustration along with the story instead of the plain text story for everyone else.

Read the full prompt list and make your own requests by commenting below or in our Discord server.

Happy Gaudete Sunday, my lovelies 🕯🕯🕯

Today we are blessed by this guest post by Jürgen Hubert, a #MythologyMonday regular, a weekly hashtag I host on Mastodon. Jürgen knows much more about German folklore than I do, so I am grateful that he agreed to share his vast knowledge with me and my readers. He has been translating a multitude of German folk tale collections in the public domain into English for seven years. Check out the fruits of his labour on “Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles” where he has translated 793 folk tales! He has also published 2 books on German folklore so far, and given the abundance of source material he fully expects to do this long after he has reached retirement age. If you enjoyed this article, find him on Mastodon (also bridged to Bluesky).

Author’s Note: This article focuses primarily on the Wild Hunt phenomenon within German-speaking regions. Links to English-language sources are in bold, while links to German-language sources are in italics.

Spirits in Motion: The Wild Hunt

Imagine yourself wandering through the nighttime countryside of Central Europe of centuries past. The lights of civilization, such as they are, are dim and distant. The noises of human industry are absent, and only the rustling of the trees and the calls of nocturnal animals disturb the silence.

Suddenly, the wind picks up. In the distance you hear strange sounds which gradually come closer and closer. With mounting dread, you hear the clattering of hooves and the baying of hounds.

The Wild Hunt is upon you.

An Attempt At Definition

The term “Wild Hunt” conjures up images of a huntsman leading a pack of hounds - but is that truly the essence of this phenomenon? When examining folkloric narratives of the past, it is easy to be misled by modern portrayals of the same narratives. Consider modern werewolf and vampire stories - while we can identify some traces of the earlier folk tales in these stories, they have morphed into something entirely different. The same is true for the Wild Hunt - just because we can open up a mythology encyclopedia (or, heck, Wikipedia) and see images of a Huntsman surrounded by hounds, it doesn’t mean that we should limit ourselves to this particular interpretation. Even the name “Wild Hunt” (“Wilde Jagd”) itself should not constrain us. For instance, in many regions people told of the “Raging Army” instead, yet they were clearly talking about the same overall phenomenon.

And it is important to understand that folkloric phenomena are not naturalistic phenomena. We can provide clear definitions for a thunderstorm, an earthquake, an eclipse, as these are visible, measurable phenomena. Supernatural events and entities reported to us via the oral record, on the other hand, can best be understood as a collection of narrative tropes that might or might not appear in any given story. So it is with ghosts, night hags, dwarves, and so forth - and so it is with the Wild Hunt.

Nevertheless, I would argue that the single defining element of all Wild Hunt narratives is supernatural entities in constant motion. The Wild Hunt rarely rests, and if it does it is never for long. It is compelled to rush onwards from place to place for eternity (or Judgment Day, or some other fated event). This movement is what distinguishes the Wild Hunt from the more common stationary haunts, specters, and monsters which are bound to a particular house, ruin, forest, or mire.

The Leader of the Hunt

A hunt often has a leading hunter - a character with their own personality who can interact with the protagonist of a folk tale in a more personal manner.

The “iconic” and most well-known version of this is Hans von Hackelberg, a court forester at the court of Braunschweig. When he died, he wished that he could hunt forever - and his wish was granted, forcing him to travel the skies with his spectral hounds night after night, year after year. This male figure is often associated with Odin/Wotan, the “All-Father” of Nordic mythology - but if he is indeed an inspiration for the Leader of the Hunt, he is hardly the only one.

For there are female leaders of the Wild Hunt as well. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Frau Gauden and her 24 cursed daughters roam the skies. She, too, vowed to hunt forever - but she owes at least as much to the goddess-figure of Hulda/Holle/Perchta as she does to Odin. Near Kyffhäuser Mountain and near Schwarza in Thuringia, it is Frau Holle herself who leads the Wild Hunt. And in the Alps, Perchtel leads a procession of the souls of unbaptized children, who can only be saved from this sad fate if they are given a name.

But storytellers were always willing to swap new people into old roles. In Schleswig, the Danish King Abel haunts the region as punishment for murdering his own brother. Near Sehlde, an expy of Saint Hubertus is cursed to hunt because he killed a sacred stag on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, in West Pomerania, the Wild Huntsman appears as a dragon - or rather, as a “Drâk”, a fiery spirit that usually presents as a demonic familiar which brings wealth for their masters.

The Hunting Companions

The Leader of the Wild Hunt - if there is a “Leader” - is not alone, but is accompanied by a multitude of other entities. Most famous among these are the hunting dogs, but they are far from the only option.

Widespread is the tale of “Faithful Eckart”, an old man carrying a white staff who heralds the coming of the Wild Hunt and warns people to stay away, lest they come to harm. He is said to have been an advisor to the 4th century king Ermanaric, but how he came to be in the employ of the Wild Hunt, legend does not say.

In Northern Germany, the ghost of a tone-deaf nun heralds the coming of the Wild Hunt in the form of an owl. She is now known as “Hooting Ursel”.

Near Solingen, the Wild Huntsman is accompanied by a “cursed angel”. In Carinthia, the souls of unbaptized children accompany the Wild Hunt as large black night birds. In Styria, the spirits of the Wild Hunt are souls of the evil female cooks of priests - presumably because they frequently tempted the celibate (Catholic) priests away from the path of virtue by serving as their mistresses, or otherwise became a barrier between priests and their congregations.

Predator and Prey

While the leader of the Wild Hunt might have stalked deer, boars, and other ordinary game animals in life, they turn to more disturbing prey once they lead a host of spirits. Their favorite prey are the spirits of the woods, whom they slaughter with abandon. Sometimes they even receive assistance from mortals in such pursuits, or else the mortals hand over these victims out of fear for their own lives. Only carving three crosses into a tree stump could grant these victims a short reprieve.

Mortals who got tangled up in the affairs of the Wild Hunt often suffered for it, especially if they were so foolish as to attract their attention by shouting at them. Sometimes these unfortunates vanished entirely, while at others they had to ride with them for an extended time - or even for eternity.

Luckier were those who merely received a portion of the kill, although they were rarely happy, either. Their share might be a horse haunch, which will pursue them until they consent to eat from them. Worse still are incidents where people receive large pieces of meat from killed forest spirits, which are equally hard to get rid of.

Processions of the Dead

One of the most persistent folkloric beliefs since the dawn of humanity is that the souls of the departed would linger on in this world even after death. Usually they stayed in a single location that was of some significance to them during life, but other ghosts roam the land and hurry from place to place - similar to other Wild Hunt narratives.

In the Valais in Switzerland, the ghosts follow the “Ridge Trains” - secret paths that wind through the High Alps, from graveyard to graveyard, wearing only clothes that they owned in life and which were given away to the needy. No one knows their ultimate destination, but those who cross their routes at the wrong moment fall ill.

Likewise in Switzerland, in the Aargau Canon, there is a ghostly funeral procession that winds its way through the Hallwil valley. After these souls made a mockery of a funeral in life, they are now condemned to repeat it in death, year after year.

And on the many-storied Untersberg mountain near the Austrian-German border, the souls of the departed can be seen in the vicinity of the quarries that produced the famous Untersberg marble.

The Night Parades

There are also supernatural processions of entities who might not be ghosts, but demons or even stranger entities. In the Untersberg region, armies of dwarves were on the march. In Vorarlberg in Austria, the Night Folk moved from town to town under the din of fantastic music. Sometimes even the Devil can be found in their midst, turning musicians into masters of their craft if they stand their ground.

Witches, too, can form their own processions, riding on broomsticks and oven forks and stranger implements. Their traditional night for a gathering is Walpurgis Night (the eve of May Day), when they can be witnessed rushing through the air. In other tales, they travel in disguised forms, such as a huge mob of cats racing towards Brocken Mountain.

Singular Monsters

Usually the Wild Hunt appears as a group of spirits, but some entities are capable of representing the Wild Hunt all by themselves.

The Night Raven is a massive black bird with iron wings that also accompanies the Wild Hunt from time to time - although it also roams around on its own, at a speed that would make a fighter jet proud. It, too, shares its kill with those who call after it.

In Tyrol, the Wildg’fahr (“Wild Roaming”) is often portrayed as a mountain demon that can take all sorts of forms - a fleshless, eight-legged horse, a fiery hog, a whirlwind, a rapidly-moving wagon with black birds perched on it (this form has also been reported on the Untersberg).

The Turning of the Years

Just like witches gather during Walpurgis Night, the Wild Hunt likewise is particularly prominent during a certain time of the year: The “Rauhnächte” (“Hairy Nights”), which are also known as the “Twelve Nights of Christmas” in the English world. This period lasts from Christmas Day (December 25th) to Epiphany (January 6th). It is a “time between the years”, when the old year is ending but the new year has not yet fully arrived. During such a threshold period, spirits roam the land. In many parts of Austria, it is custom that people disguised as monsters form a procession through villages. And Frau Holla checks on the women in a household to see if they have been diligent in spinning flax.

Thus, it is not surprising that Frau Gauden and other incarnations of the Wild Hunt favor this season as well - and so does Santa Claus, their modern-day successor. But the Wild Hunt can and does appear at any time of the year, even if they favor the nights after Yuletide.

Elsewhere and Everywhere

The Wild Hunt is usually discussed as a phenomenon of European folklore. But shorn of its specific European cultural and religious trappings, is this narrative truly unique to Europe?

In Japan, the Hyakki Yagyō (“Night Parade of One Hundred Demons”) is a procession of spirits that marches or riots through the streets of Japan on summer nights, and mortals who come across them will come to harm unless protected by the right blessings. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

In Hawai’i, the Nightmarchers are the ghosts of ancient warriors who march from their burial sites to old battlefields throughout the night accompanied by the beat of drums and music made with conch shells. Are they really so different from the phantom armies of Europe?

Jacob Grimm first developed the scholarly framework for understanding the “Wild Hunt” concept in his 1835 treaties “Teutonic Mythology”. He quickly tied this to Odin of Norse Mythology, and while he discusses alternative narratives, such as the female Wild Hunt leaders of the Hulda/Holle/Perchta myth-complex, it is this Norse interpretation which became the most popular among the German Romantic Nationalists of the 19th century, and their latter-day heirs.

But to me, this focus on Odin and Norse influences is overly reductive. Ultimately, the Wild Hunt narrative derives from a near-universal human experience - the fear of being alone in the wilds at night, and hearing strange noises one cannot identify. And as usual, folk storytellers took such universal human experiences, and filled them with their own stories - using whatever narrative tropes were available to them, and each storyteller came up with their own interpretation.

Thus, we might see faint traces of Odin in Hans von Hackelberg, and stronger ones of Hulda in Frau Gauden. But the Wild Hunt is bigger than any single of its inspirations, and cannot be tied to any single origin. It lurks wherever humans fear the dark in the wild places of the world - in Europe and elsewhere.

Further reading: For further discussion of the Wild Hunt and its various incarnations, I recommend “Phantom Armies of the Night” by Claude Lecouteux.

Find Jürgen's translated German folk tales on sunkencastles.com and give him a follow on Mastodon 💖

Hello my lovelies,

I know nobody asked for this story but it kept living rent-free in my head and I had to write it down.

This year, I didn't manage to make my own Kinktober list. I'll write up some of the leftover favourites from the previous Kinktobers and use this Tumblr list for inspiration.

I'll aim for 31 shorts yet again. Same procedure as every year. 🥂

Day 01: Incest (Zeus / Persephone)

Warning: I'm playing into the genre with this one, it doesn't just happen to be myth-based incest like I normally write it!

Demeter had kept her away from Olympos. But Zeus wasn't blind. Persephone had bloomed into a voluptuous young goddess. She had Demeter's tits. Zeus had enjoyed them profoundly when he had layn with his sister, his rain of come falling on her fertile earth. Now their daughter was all grown up, her charms plain for all to see. And shouldn't he see to it that his little girl's virginity wasn't taken by some horny peasant Demeter mingled with?

When Hera told him about some event with her sisters his ears perked up. That was his chance! He made love to her passionatly that night, imagining how he would deflower the little Spring goddess.

The day that Demeter would be away came. Zeus kissed Hera goodbye, then snuck down to earth where Demeter lived with Persephone, close to the humans. He transformed into a snake and slithered towards the farm. Persephone tended to the plants by herself, her clothes practical and stained with dirt. If she lived on Olympos, she could wear luxurious dresses without as much as a speck of dust marring it. But Demeter had always had other priorities. And now she let their daughter grow like a weed instead of cultivating her into the beautiful flower she could be.

Zeus transformed back into his divine shape. Persephone dropped the plant she had been carrying.

"Dad...?"

"My little one." He smiled. "All alone."

"Not any more." She smiled back, tugging at her chiton. The neckline was low. Demeter would turn her into a hussy.

"True." He put an arm around her waist. "My, have you grown."

Her tits were almost spilling out of the dress. He reached out a hand to grab them.

"Daddy! What are you doing?"

"Just checking if they're ripe." He winked. "A young maiden's breasts should be perky and small, resembling unripe apples. Not big and heavy like a mother's swollen with milk."

Persephone blushed.

"Daddy! That's so mean!"

"Are you swelling with drops of milk, little one? Did a farmer's boy put his child inside you? It's not becoming of a goddess to sleep with mortals, you know? Did your mother not teach you about that? No, I suppose she wouldn't."

Persephone ducked out of his grasp and picked up the plant she had dropped, continuing with her work.

"I'm still untouched by men if that's what you're worried about, daddy."

"Would you like to be?"

She stilled.

"I..."

"A peasant boy is no consort for a daughter of Zeus, Persephone."

"Right."

"But you're in luck. I have just the right person for you."

Persephone lifted an eyebrow, apparently unconvinced.

"I rejected my divine suitors. Who else would there be."

Zeus grinned. He lifted her earth-stained skirt. Her arse cheeks were nice an plump. Not as fat as Demeter's, but they would be nice and soft all the same when he slammed against them.

"The only way to make sure it's done right is by doing it myself."

Persephone gaped at him. Then she bent forward.

"You know what's best for me, daddy."

He pulled her against him.

"Absolutely."

His cock had been aching for days! He saw her cunt, wild and hairy like an untended garden. He'd have to have a word with Demeter. But right now, all he could think of was her pink hole beneath the coarse shrubbery. He guided his erection toward the entrance and pushed inside, her gasp the sweetest melody.

"There, there, baby girl, you'll get used to it."

"You're so big, daddy!"

"I know, little one, but daddy knows you can take all of him like a good girl."

"Yes, daddy, I will!"

He eased in, feeling a surge of power at his conquest. She was warm and tight and gripped him fully. He grabbed her buttocks with both hands and thrust.

"Be brave, my girl. This is what a man feels like."

"Feels amazing, daddy!"

He swelled inside her.

"Brace yourself, baby girl."

He fucked her, watching her heavy tits sway with each thrust sparking currents of electricity surging through him. She was hot. She was his.

"Oh daddy!" she cried and he thrust deeper.

"This is what you want, isn't it?"

"Oh yes! Oh daddy, please!"

Zeus kept up a good pace but her innocent pleas and moans derailed it completely. He practically burst, his life-giving seed falling on her fertile ground with a grunt.

"You stopped?" she choked.

"Demonstration is over, baby girl."

He pulled out, watching his seed run down her thigh with deep satisfaction. He had claimed her before Demeter could ruin her.

~~~

Demeter sipped her wine.

"Your father was here?"

"Sure was." Persephone gave her a lopsided grin. "Thought he was my first."

Both of them laughed heartily.

FIN

Day 02: Kidnapping (Eos / Kephalos)

"Kephalos was another whom Eos loved and kidnapped."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 86

Kephalos was in the mountains at first light. He loved the hunt. He loved the coolness in the morning before Helios' scorching heat parched his throat. The blue twilight gave way to fiery red as Eos lit the sky. It was an unbelievably beautiful sight and Kephalos stopped to witness it. The warm glow of the newborn day bathed the mountain peaks in light. Something fell from the sky into the grass beside him with a thud. No, not something. Someone. His eyes bulged in awe. A woman with wings and a burning torch had fallen – or landed? – from the sky. She had to be a goddes. Had to be! Mortal women didn't drop out of the sky and survived to tell the tale. She gave him a radiant smile.

"How pretty you are!" she cooed. "Even prettier up close. I'll take you for myself!"

And with those words, she snatched him and took to the air, never heeding his cries of protest.

"Where are you taking me? I have a father! I have a bride!"

The goddess held on to him tighter.

"Now you have a new bride, my pretty. And a new home. You'll love it there! Imperfection is banned from Mount Olympos. Which doesn't mean mortals are. Lord Zeus who gathers the clouds has invited many a mortal to his table."

"Put me down! I have a bride!"

"Oh, my dear, don't be so rude. An invitation to the table of the gods is an invaluable honour!"

Kephalos stopped shouting. He submitted to Fate. Unless he wanted to fall to a swift death, he better complied with his abductor.

Eos finally set him down on a meadow, high on the peaks of Mount Olympos.

"And now, my beauty, we will take our pleasure with one another."

Eos pressed him into the soft grass. His heart hammered. A goddess. And she wanted him. He was not in the mood. Not at all. He wanted to go back to earth. He wanted to go back home. But Eos wasn't wasting any time. She was already working on his cock.

"Come on, little one. Don't be afraid."

He was afraid. What if she was displeased? What then? Would she punish him? Would she kill him?

Even intense mechanical stimulation from the rose-fingered goddess left him limp as he was shaking, fearing for his life and future.

"Oh well, I don't know what this impotence is about, but even impotent men can enjoy a woman."

She lifted her skirts.

"Lick"

Kephalos nodded, attempting to get up but she pressed him back into the meadow, sitting down on his face, her rosy lips already swollen, her womanhood already wet as the morning dew.

Kephalos gulped. He opened his mouth, tasting her, probing her. He'd do what she wanted and be done with it.

"Yes, little darling, like that!" she purred. Her hands closed around his wrists, guiding him to grab her bum cheeks. "Keep on licking. Like a kitten."

Kephalos did. His tongue followed her slit, up and down, up and down, the juices from her womanhood nigh drowning him, or so he felt. He had never licked a woman before. But he'd give it his all if that meant he could finally go home again.

His face was coated in her juices, his fingers digging firmly into her plump rear, his tongue tired from its constant movement. But the goddess didn't seem satisfied yet.

"Don't stop!" she told him when he was slowing down, pushing against his aching tongue like a tidal wave against a swimmer. He faltered. The goddess looked thoroughly displeased. "We'll have to try again later, then." She picked him up with ease, back into the air. "You clearly need some training," she muttered. "I'll take it on myself and keep you. We'll make a lover of you yet."

FIN

Hello my lovely demigoddesses and demigods,

please enjoy this sapphic treat of Artemis rewarding Penthesileia for her outstanding dance performance.

The illustration was created by the amazing Sinita, who worked off a reference for armour and my first version of Artemis looking "like Makoto (Sailor Jupiter) from Sailor Moon" 😁

The illustration is available here for download below the cut.

I hope you enjoy both the story and the beautiful illustration!

Glossary

Agrotera: the Huntress, a surname of Artemis.

aspis: ἀσπίς, a heavy wooden shield used by the infantry in ancient Greece.

pteryges: πτέρυγες, "feathers", are strip-like defences for the upper parts of limbs, the iconic skirt-like ancient Greek armour.

chitoniskos: "little chiton", a short chiton, reaching only to the mid-thigh.

Otrere: the first Queen of the Amazons, the consort of Ares and mother of Hippolyte and Penthesileia. She is credited with being the founder of the shrine of Artemis in Ephesos.

cuirass: a piece of armour that covers the torso, generally both a breastplate and a backplate piece.

strophion: a linen breastband, ancestor of the bra

kitharoidos: professional musician who plays the kithara, a large lyre.

potnia: lady, mistress

Phoibê: "the radiant one", a surname of Artemis as Phoibos is a surname of her brother Apollon.

Paphian: Aphrodite, after Paphos, the place where she was said to have first set foot after her birth from the sea and cult centre of her worship.

Hello my lovelies,

please enjoy this sapphic treat of Artemis rewarding Penthesileia for her good performance.

Glossary

Agrotera: the Huntress, a surname of Artemis.

aspis: ἀσπίς, a heavy wooden shield used by the infantry in ancient Greece.

pteryges: πτέρυγες, "feathers", are strip-like defences for the upper parts of limbs, the iconic skirt-like ancient Greek armour.

chitoniskos: "little chiton", a short chiton, reaching only to the mid-thigh.

Otrere: the first Queen of the Amazons, the consort of Ares and mother of Hippolyte and Penthesileia. She is credited with being the founder of the shrine of Artemis in Ephesos.

cuirass: a piece of armour that covers the torso, generally both a breastplate and a backplate piece.

strophion: a linen breastband, ancestor of the bra

kitharoidos: professional musician who plays the kithara, a large lyre.

potnia: lady, mistress

Phoibê: "the radiant one", a surname of Artemis as Phoibos is a surname of her brother Apollon.

Paphian: Aphrodite, after Paphos, the place where she was said to have first set foot after her birth from the sea and cult centre of her worship.

Just Dance

For you, too, the Amazons, whose mind is set on war, in Ephesos beside the sea established a wooden image beneath an oak trunk, and Hippo performed a holy rite for you, and, O Queen Oupis, around the image they danced a war-dance with shields and in armour, and then in a broad circle dance.
Hymn to Artemis (237-250) by Callimachus

Hello my lovelies,

it's fucking hoooot! Everyone be safe ❤️

We are in the ancient Athenian month Hekatombion and in ancient Athens, athletic games in honour of Athena would take place this month. Therefore we have an Athena prompt, a sequel suggestion, and, because it's summer, two Egyptian mythology prompts.

Hello my lovelies,

first off, I am a cis woman writing a trans story, so if it doesn't work for you, I hope you can forgive me. I did my best but I want to be clear about this not being an "own story" situation. Personally, I firmly believe that the empathy that is created by writing characters different from myself far outweigh the cringe it sometimes produces but you may disagree and that's OK. My goal is to tell a story of trans joy and, hopefully, a relatable male-to-female trans Herakles. Transitioning in ancient times is limited (unless you involve a god), without hormone replacement therapy and plastic surgery available. But not all trans people can or want to go this route, so it's not like medical intervention is needed to transition. Trans people have always existed and I'm certain they found ways to live joyfully, even if they didn't have the same options modern trans folks have.

This story was chosen from four different trans stories based on Greek mythology. In the original mythology, Herakles is forced to wear female clothes and do female work as a slave which is supposed to be funny because a manly man like Herakles wearing women's clothes? An evergreen of comedy AmIRite? I was inspired by stories of trans women going through a hypermasculine phase before discovering that they are trans, so a lot of them join the military or sports or other activities that are considered masculine. Herakles is considered the manliest man who ever manned this earth, with "lovers beyond counting" and superhuman strength. In modern adaptations, his male lovers never show up because modern masculinity is threatend by sex with other men, not boosted like it was in ancient Greece. So what if this manly man is in denial about being trans?

If you're not a member already, you can start a free trial during Pride Month or buy this story as an eBook here. All proceeds will be donated to The Good Law Project to fight against the Supreme Court's recent anti trans ruling in the UK.

The illustration for this story was created by Topher, who is well-known among my readers for creating the Hades Game Stripper AU Club Olympus. Find the illustrated version here ❤