A Succubus for Valentine's Day is out! (sort of)

 My 2nd collection, "A Succubus for Valentine's Day and other tales of Perilous Pleasures" is now out (sort of).

Here is the obligatory blurb:

Alluring, exotic, delectable, sexy... dangerous.

M. E. Hydra returns with a second collection of thirteen sizzling stories featuring seductive succubi, amorous aliens and other sexy femme fatales.

“A Succubus for Valentine’s Day” shows the perils of letting a succubus play cupid.  Two tourists discover a dark secret lurking in Amsterdam’s red light district in “Venus of the Red Lights”.  In “Knight vs Succubus”, a knight battles for his life and soul against a cunning and seductive demon.  A man finds out his pleasure planet of blue-skinned alien babes is not as it seems in “The Spiders of Thomisoidus”.  And finally, a young man has a very special date in “A Summer Dance with a Succubus”.

You will be enthralled, aroused, and terrified in equal measure by these and other tales of wicked, sensual predators.  They’ll give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams, and terrors beyond your darkest nightmares...

This is my second collection of short stories, first published in 2011 through Excessica. I've republished it with a new cover and afterword (and a thorough editing pass to fix anything I missed the first time around). 

You can find it at

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-succubus-for-valentine-s-day

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-succubus-for-valentines-day-me-hydra/1141813683?ean=2940166601001

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/a-succubus-for-valentines-day/id6443171589

It should also have updated at Smashwords, but check the preview first to make sure you're getting the updated version (the copyright page should mention cover art by Wombo AI and a 2nd edition date of 2022, which should indicate it's the correct version):
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/41826

I also uploaded it to Google Play this morning, so it should go live there in a couple of days.  Check my author page:
https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=M.E.+Hydra

Where it isn't currently available, sadly, is Amazon.  I'm working on it and hopefully will have it available at some point, but I'm having to deal with staggering levels of incompetency from Amazon KDP's support department.  I'll put up a post describing my 'experiences' in full grisly details in a few days.  Kafka-esque nightmare doesn't even begin to cover it.

UPDATE: The problems at Amazon appear to have been resolved.  You can now find it there as well:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8487XQ6

Problem with publishing rights for "A Succubus for Valentine's Day" on Amazon

About this time I was expecting to start promotion for "A Succubus for Valentine's Day" and giving you the link to pre-order it.  In fact, on some other ebook sites, eg Kobo, it is available for pre-order:
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-succubus-for-valentine-s-day

But not currently on Amazon.  This is where it gets complicated.

I finished preparing the manuscript and uploaded it to the regular ebook sites last Sunday, setting an official release date of the 29th.  Amazon came back to me with an email warning of possible rights infringement.  I wasn't too fussed about this.  The same thing happened while I was republishing "A Succubus for Christmas".  Thankfully, Selina Kitt, the owner of my previous publisher, Excessica, was ahead of the game, and so when Excessica closed its doors at the end of 2021, she sent out letters to all authors officially reverting their rights back to them.  I replied to Amazon attaching that letter and "A Succubus for Christmas" was available for pre-order the next day.

I figured it would be the same here.  Except nothing happened.

I waited a week and then gave them a prod, thinking it had just been forgotten and that would jog them into making the book go live for pre-order.

This wasn't the case.  I got a response indicating they hadn't received the necessary documentation... despite me already sending them the relevant documentation.

So, I'm not really sure what's going on here.  It's unfortunately stressful and concerning.  It could be a mix-up that's easily fixed in the next couple of days, but then I thought that last weekend.  The problem with being the little guy dealing with the massive corporation is you can be in the right and it not matter a jot.  If something gets stuck, it gets stuck, and then you're shit out of luck.

I'm going to proceed with the July 29th release date as planned for everywhere else and hope I can resolve whatever is blocking things at Amazon.

It does have me concerned.  Amazon is 90% of sales and I was hoping to put all 6 collections back up as a series.  Amazon are not something I can just route around if they fuck up and don't fix it.

Coming soon... I hope!

A Succubus for Christmas is out!

It's publication day!  Or rather, second publication day.  My 1st collection, "A Succubus for Christmas and other tales of Devilish Delights" is now live on Amazon (and other ebook stores) and ready to buy.  You can find it here:

https://www.amazon.com/Succubus-Christmas-other-Devilish-Delights-ebook/dp/B0B66LRCT4

And the obligatory back cover blurb:

Beautiful, seductive, enthralling, sensual, irresistible... deadly.

The succubus is an enduring icon of myth – a demon that seduces and sleeps with her prey before taking their life and soul.  In this collection M. E. Hydra brings you thirteen erotically charged tales of sexy succubi and other exotic creatures.

In “A Succubus for Christmas” a man discovers his surprise sexy gift also possesses a dark side.  “The Masterton Covenant” asks how much would you risk for one night of perfect pleasure.  Four men are taken to a very special establishment in “Flesh Pitchers of Prague”.  A tough demon slayer discovers why ‘men can’t fight them’ in “Slayer vs. Succubus”.  A man is drawn into a deadly yet delectable web by a sexy spider woman in “Arachne’s Web”.

You will be enthralled, aroused, and terrified in equal measure by these and other tales of dark, seductive beauties.  They’ll give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams, and terrors beyond your darkest nightmares...

This is a republication of my 2010 short story collection.  My previous publisher, Excessica, has sadly closed their doors, so I'm republishing my old books under my author account.  To mark the republication I've added a new cover and an afterword detailing where the stories first appeared and the inspiration behind them.

The others will follow over the next few weeks.  I'm also hoping I'll kick my lazy ass in shape and get that brand new 7th collection finished before the end of year as well (or at least early next year).

A Succubus for Christmas is available for pre-order

A Succubus for Christmas and other tales of Devilish Delights is now available for pre-order on Amazon.  You can find it here.

Here is the obligatory blurb:

Beautiful, seductive, enthralling, sensual, irresistible... deadly.

The succubus is an enduring icon of myth – a demon that seduces and sleeps with her prey before taking their life and soul.  In this collection M. E. Hydra brings you thirteen erotically charged tales of sexy succubi and other exotic creatures.

In “A Succubus for Christmas” a man discovers his surprise sexy gift also possesses a dark side.  “The Masterton Covenant” asks how much would you risk for one night of perfect pleasure.  Four men are taken to a very special establishment in “Flesh Pitchers of Prague”.  A tough demon slayer discovers why ‘men can’t fight them’ in “Slayer vs. Succubus”.  A man is drawn into a deadly yet delectable web by a sexy spider woman in “Arachne’s Web”.

You will be enthralled, aroused, and terrified in equal measure by these and other tales of dark, seductive beauties.  They’ll give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams, and terrors beyond your darkest nightmares...

This is a republication of my 2010 short story collection.  My previous publisher, Excessica, has sadly closed their doors, so I'm republishing my old books under my author account.  To mark the republication I've added a new cover and an afterword detailing where the stories first appeared and the inspiration behind them.

These are mostly my early stories before I started to tie them together into a shared universe.  One of them, "Arachne's Web", can only be found in this collection and might arguably be the best one in there.

If you already have the old collection, you probably don't need to pick up the newer version, but I'm certainly not going to say no if you wish to buy it to support my future writing!  I'd appreciate reviews if people can give them, but this is erotica (and fairly weird erotica at that!), so fully understand people wanting to remain anonymous with their purchases.

The ebook is scheduled to go live on Friday (15th), but is available for pre-order now.  I'm not normally the best at self-promotion, so I'm trying to give a little more pre-warning than usual.  A spike of sales is usually good for pushing a book up the ranks and helping more readers to discover it.

More importantly, I hope you all have fun reading it!

No "House of Hellish Harlots" Update This Month

As title.  I spent June working on getting my old ebook collections ready for re-publication.

I did write a few more harlot 1st drafts, so patrons will be getting a choice of which ones to add first in a few days.

The first collection, "A Succubus for Christmas" should be back up in a couple of weeks.  I'll start hyping that up as soon as I've uploaded it to Amazon.

July should be back to normal with a new "House of Hellish Harlots" update at the end of it.

Art of Queen Colubridis (from House of Hellish Harlots)

Continuing the theme of art of harlots, here's Queen Colubridis in all her gluttonous glory.

This commission was mine.  After seeing how the first Khanara Anandanum came out for Mark45.  I looked at Marwmellow's DeviantArt page, saw a lot of lovely lamias, and reckoned they'd be perfect for drawing Queen Colubridis.

Queen Colubridis is another one of the harlots from my erotic horror interactive fiction game "The House of Hellish Harlots".  In it, you the player have to try and survive the night in a brothel filled with hungry succubi and other monster girls.  It's still a work in progress and has morphed into a slightly more ambitious project than I originally thought.  There are over 50 harlots to interact with.  You can check it out here.

The money for the commission was raised through my Patreon.  If you'd like to support the creation of more works like this, please consider subscribing.  This month I'll be looking into other alternatives to Patreon as well.  I know some people refuse to use Patreon for ideological reasons (which I fully understand).

More Art of Khanara Anandanum (from House of Hellish Harlots)

Mark45 has shared with me the 2nd piece of art of Khanara Anandanum he had commissioned from Marwmellow and has kindly given me permission to post it here.

This time we get to see her with her dress off.  She might look a little strange, but once she's wrapped around you, you won't care...

Khanara is one of the (more unusual) monster girl/succubus harlots from my erotic horror interactive fiction game "The House of Hellish Harlots".  While the project is still a work in progress, there are over 50 harlots to 'play' with.  You can check it out here and support the project (and me!) on my patreon here.