We’re happy to announce the start of original art accompanying some of our serial fiction. The first two pieces illustrate moments from chapter one of the Ahara Chronicles. The art is created exclusively for this site by artist and illustrator Nick Gagg. More pieces will follow over the course of the next few weeks.

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He awakens helplessly bound to a bed, and suddenly she’s there… the formidable Serena. If she doesn’t want him for ransom, why then has he become her captive?

He let out a gasp and jumped in his bonds when the door crashed open and the woman swept in. He’d been certain that he would recognise her but no, he’d definitely never seen her before. He would without a shadow of a doubt have remembered it if he had ever set eyes on her previously because she was quite stunningly beautiful, a dark-haired Amazonian vision beyond compare.

She had exotically high cheekbones, a straight nose, generous lips, and big hypnotic eyes the colour of mahogany. Her black hair was soft and shiny and hung straight down to her shoulders. She had a lush body, with a big frame and a sumptuous well-proportioned figure. It was displayed to great effect by the extremely short, almost see-through purple dress that she was wearing and underneath which she was obviously naked.

Continue reading ‘The Cold Hard Truth’

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Can the cross be beautiful? Can a crucifixion be aesthetic?

Of course not, if you consider the historical reality of the punishment of crucifixion in ancient times. The brutal, and furthermore state-ordered killing of a human is in my opinion one of the most disdainful facets of human civilisation, of which we still haven’t freed ourself. The dying of a person is rarely “beautiful”, rarely “aesthetic”, let alone erotic.

It is likely that the fascination with crucifixion stems from its apparent historical remoteness (we believe ourselves free of such barbarism, even though recent happenings keep on contradicting that), while at the same time having a strongly subversive presence in a Christianity-orientated society. Even little children know about the the way and circumstances of the death of Jesus Christ, grow up with the depiction of the crucified, without being able to properly process this. The suffering is endowed with an aspect of the godlike, the impalpable, which is further strengthened by the teachings of the church. The cross becomes something to aspire to; one “bears the cross with joy” and “follows the saviour.” The cross is praised with near lustful intensity—especially in the scriptures of medieval mystics—and the pictures of Christian martyrs more often than not contain the expression of sexual ecstasy.

Continue reading ‘Beauty of the Cross / Beauty on the Cross’

Tags: about crucified women, female crucifixion