Guest post and giveaway by Josephine Myles: Violet rays and vintage kink

Part of the How to Train Your Dom in Five Easy Steps Blog Tour

 

You might well wonder why I’m blogging about vintage kink in a blog tour for a contemporary BDSM novel. Okay, so those of you who follow my blog will be well aware of my love of vintage porn pictures, but I’ve also been letting this fascination seep into my writing.

So which kinky practices have the longest pedigree? I recently saw an antique vibrator in a local museum, but it was supposedly for “medical use”. To be honest, it’s hard to know what was really going on as up until relatively recently perverts had to keep quiet about what they got up to behind closed doors. However, as you’ll be able to see if you check out my vintage porn post from last Sunday, getting one’s rocks off with bondage, floggings and spankings was common enough in the early days of photography. So perhaps most BDSM techniques can be said to have a venerable history, but there are two particular ones I’m going to explore in more detail today.

Figging:

In How to Train Your Dom in Five Easy Steps I included a couple of less common BDSM techniques. Figging was a practice I first heard about in my fanfiction days, and even there it wasn’t common, but would occasionally appear on “kink bingo” writing challenges. For those who aren’t in the know (as I wasn’t back then), figging involves genital or anal stimulation with a peeled piece of root ginger. It was used as a humiliating punishment as far back as ancient Greece, but it was those sadistic Victorians who refined the technique, creating buttplugs of root ginger to cause extra pain when a spankee clenched their buttocks.

But figging isn’t painful for everyone. Some find the warming sensation positively erotic, and so figging has found a niche in modern BDSM practice. I did have fun writing the figging scene in How to Train Your Dom, and I like to think submissive Eddie enjoyed himself too! For anyone who wants to find out more about the safety and techniques, check out this informative post: http://www.seekers.org.uk/Figging.html

Violet rays:

The second bit of vintage kink I explored in the novel was the use of a violet ray (known these days as a violet wand). Now, if you look up violet wands online you’ll probably see them described as a modern toy, but they’ve actually been around as medical electrotherapy devices since the early 1900s. I had the privilege to see one of these early violet rays and speak to its owner. It came in a beautiful velvet-lined wooden case, with all the different glass electrodes arranged in their little compartments. I had a chance to feel the effect of this vintage machine on my arm, and I’m positive that it would have been fun for at least some of those early patients! It also glowed a beautiful violet colour (hence the name), and small sparks leapt between the electrode and my skin. I knew then that I’d have to write a scene featuring one of these fascinating devices. Here’s a short excerpt from the violet wand scene:

[Jeff] fumbled with the case and nearly knocked it off the table.

“Whoa! That’s some pricey kit in there. Careful. Here, allow me.” Eddie took the case from Jeff and stroked it like it was a bloody dog or something.

“What is it?”

“This, my friend, is a genuine antique electrotherapy device, better known these days as a violet wand.” As he spoke, Eddie lifted the lid. The case was velvet lined inside like something out of a jewellers, and a collection of differently shaped hollow glass rods nestled into custom-shaped cutouts in the lining.

Jeff had to admire the workmanship. “This is amazing. I’ve seen these things on the Internet, but they didn’t look anything like this.”

“Modern ones aren’t nearly as stylish. I found this one on eBay, amazingly enough, but got in a bidding war, so it set me back a fair bit. It’s from the 1920s. Back then it was a huge medical craze. People thought it was a cure-all, so all these bits are shaped to stimulate different parts of the body. This one here…” Eddie lifted out something that looked like a large test tube. “Can you guess what it was used for?”

Jeff squinted. He didn’t want to go for the obvious. “A back massager?”

“Nice try, but this was to be used vaginally to supposedly cure all kinds of things, including general malaise. I bet it worked too, lucky ladies.”

“So how do I use all this on you?” The fact it was an antique was kind of intimidating. Jeff didn’t want to drop one of those glass thingamabobs. Maybe Eddie had brought it along just to show off, though.

But Eddie gave him a hungry kind of look, then pointed at a mushroom-shaped attachment. “Well, this one is meant for nipple stimulation, so you could always try that one first. But you know, I always think you should try out stuff on yourself first. A good Top knows what he’s dishing out from firsthand experience.”

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Want to find out how the scene ends? You’ll just have to buy the book!

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Readers, have you read about (or tried for yourself!) any other “vintage” kinks? And would you like to see more of them in BDSM fiction?

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The How to Train Your Dom in Five Easy Steps Blog Tour Giveaway!

I’m currently touring blog land, chatting about my latest Samhain Publishing release. Each post gives a unique insight into the book, and a lucky commenter will win a prize at every stop along the way. Winner’s choice of either:

• two of Jo’s backlist ebooks
• or a signed copy of Junk (or another backlist paperback, subject to availability) – shipping worldwide

Comment on this post for a chance to win today’s draw. The winning entry will be picked on oct 12 th and the winner will be notified by email within 48 hours.

Check out the full Blog Tour itinerary here

Blurb:

Sometimes the little head really does know best.

Jeff White’s needs are simple. All he wants is a submissive to help him explore the dominant side that his ex-girlfriend couldn’t handle. Problem is, inexperience in both dating and domming has resulted in a string of rejections.

What he needs is an experienced sub willing to show him the ins and outs of controlling a scene. Unfortunately, the only one willing to take him on is male, and Jeff is straight. One hundred percent, never-gonna-happen straight.

Easygoing painslut Eddie Powell doesn’t care that Jeff is younger, working class, and shorter. Eddie likes a bit of rough, and Jeff fits the bill perfectly. The trick will be convincing him to follow Eddie’s five-step training programme—which would be easy if Eddie wasn’t starting to have feelings for the rough-around-the-edges landscaper.

Once Jeff lays his hands on Eddie, things definitely get out of hand. But it’ll take more than hot, sweaty, kinky sex to persuade him to come out of the closet—especially to himself.

Warning: Contains a happy sub, a confused Dom, a high ratio of sex to plot, misuse of root ginger, and a suitcase of kink. Written in Jo’s usual exceedingly “English” English.

Buy links:

Samhain

Amazon

Amazon.uk

Author bio:

English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo publishes regularly with Samhain. She has also been known to edit anthologies and self-publish on occasion.

 

Website and blog: http://josephinemyles.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josephine.myles.author

Twitter: @JosephineMyles

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3499509.Josephine_Myles

Instagram: http://instagram.com/josephine_myles

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hrQ4s

 

Check out Carissa’s Review Here!

Photo credits:

Antique vibrator: author’s own pic

Violet wand: <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/foxgrrl/8507155002/”>foxgrrl</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>cc</a>