Sex, Art, and Marble - On Sale!
Over the next two weeks, during the course of the All Romance eBooks and eXstasy Books sale, I’m going to revisit some of my works that eXstasy has published and hope they may be of interest to some of my newer readers.
The very first story I ever placed with a publisher was Inspiration, which eXstasy was gracious enough to accept. The little novella has remained in e-print ever since. I’m still pleased with how the book turned out and hope that someday more people will read it than have so far. Inspiration is the story of Niccolo, a sculptor in Renaissance Florence, and his model and lover Madelena - Lena. Niccolo is carving a special piece for the wife of a Medici cousin, a simple little commission to pay the bills while he works on the larger statuary that embodies his obsessions.
As an artist, Nicco finds his inspiration in myth and dream, but also in the expert amorous skills of Lena. Together, they find the practical essence of art and learn a lesson about inspiration together. In this scene, while Nicco works, he loses himself in a reverie.
**
Nicco thought often of the old day of the pagans, and he sometimes wished he had lived then. In his studies, he had heard many learned men talk about the myths of ancient times, teaching both the stories and their meaning, in the eyes of priests, of philosophers, and of artists, but all the dry talk in the world had not turned him from daydreams of what it must have been like when gods walked the earth as bulls or fell in the naked lap of a maiden like a shower of gold.He imagined himself as a satyr, wild in the fields, springtime turning his blood to fire, chasing the nymphs as they scattered before him, bare, bouncing, and beautiful, fair as Germanic girls or dark as Moors, each of them a delight when he caught them, no guilt in their coupling, only divine pleasure. He smelled the scent of bent grass, heated by the twining of bodies; he imagined the divine crush of a nymph’s cunt as he entered her, filling her to capacity, his hairy flanks against her perfect, smooth butt as he thrust deep into her until her musical screams filled the wood and he filled her cunt with his hot seed.
It seemed to him that the world must have grown grayer, that colors then must have been rich and wild as a master’s painting. Nicco had been shown galleries in certain of the Florentine homes, where paintings were hung that could not be displayed in the villas’ common rooms. Ethereal and bold, the masterpieces sharply contrasted to the somber portraits and endless Pietas and Flights Into Egypts that adorned the common rooms of the nobles’ homes.
He thought of Artemis at her bath, her beauty unparalleled, dark hair and tanned skin illumined by morning sunlight, her breasts perfect and brown-tipped, the dark tangle of hair at the base of her belly, the droplets of river water caressing her as they ran down her long, firm legs. He imagined the hunter Acteaon, in the brush, watching the goddess and her maidens bathing, his prick growing hard as he wondered what it would be like to fuck a goddess, knowing that some men had been granted that pleasure, he worshipped her with his eyes and wanted her with his flesh.
Nicco expected the flash of anger in the goddess’ eyes when she saw the hunter spying on her, the curve of her breast as she raised her arm in imperious, magical command, changing Acteaon, bringing the stag out of his soul, antlers twining above his head, dropping to all fours, hands become hooves. Nicco saw the dripping jaws of the hounds.
He prayed to God that he would someday have time and the patronage to carve the death of Acteaon in marble, for the work would be his masterpiece, the depiction of a man who had died for desire, consumed by his own passions. He would make Artemis the most beautiful woman who had ever been birthed from stone.
Lena would be his model.
**
Looking back on this work now (4 years!), I see many of my own obsessions in the story that I have played out in other tales and books since – sex as a divine consecration, the obsessive, sometimes destructive power of art, and, well, a real enjoyment of oral sex.
I am nothing if I am not consistent.
If you like eros in a historical setting with just a touch of fantasy, I think you might like Inspiration.
Pick up Inspiration at All Romance eBooks for 25% off through September 23rd!
Posted by Angela Caperton at 9/9/2010 8:33 PM 
Categories: eXtasy Books, Historical, Angela Caperton, All Romance eBooks, Erotica
Tags: eXtasy Books All Romance eBooks Angela Caperton Historical Erotica
Categories: eXtasy Books, Historical, Angela Caperton, All Romance eBooks, Erotica
Tags: eXtasy Books All Romance eBooks Angela Caperton Historical Erotica
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