No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on August 5, 2020

I think I am going to start doing this once a week so I can get the word out about some authors who are magnificent writers but might not be in the public eye as much.

I am starting with Laura Antoniou who is one of the best world builders I know along with making us care about her characters even those who we might not care about upon first glance. She is also a dámņ fine teller of tales.

Most of her work would be in the NC17 as she has quite a following due to her Marketplace series which is heavy BDSM with lots of fornicating along the way. More on that later.

She has written a mystery novel entitled “The Killer Wore Leather” about a murder at the Mr. & Mrs. Global Leather and Bootblack contest. Detective Rebecca Feldblum is assigned the case being openly lesbian and the assumption is that these are her people which is far from true. As she works her way to finding the murder, she has to deal with a colorful cast of characters and not everything is as it seems.

 For those of you who have run conventions, you will find yourself nodding your head a lot as you will find situations that only the convention runners know. 

For those of you who have participated in a leather contest, you will be saying Oh yeah to a lot that happens and laughing at her send up of some of the closely held tropes about leather folk.

It is a fine mystery and she doesn’t cheat with the who done it.

You can find it on Amazon.

You can find Laura all over social media

Her sales site is  http://shop.lantoniou.com

Her Patreon is www.patreon.com/Kvetch

She is on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/laura.antoniou

Her twitter is LAntoniou

Tumblr is lauraantoniou

Like I said, she is on top of social media.

Under the cut is all about the Marketplace

The Marketplace is a series of books based on the idea there is this underground group going back before the American Revolution that consists of Masters and Slaves. The slaves are such by choice rather than forced to become. They submit to their Master’s whims and are handsomely paid at the end of their contract. 

Yes, there is a contract that spells out a lot of how the slave and master relationship will go. There is a governing body that oversees the whole operation and sets up the sales and the rules that must be obeyed to own a slave.

There are two other groups in this world. There are Spotters who find people that want this life. And the Trainers who get promising clients ready for a life under the Marketplace rules.

Laura has a skill for worldbuilding that is breathtaking. I shouldn’t be surprised as she was one of the founders of Gateway Magazine in the 1980s which talked about Dungeons and Dragons and a lot of other table-top games. She is a skilled dungeon master who creates amazing game play for her friends. 

That is not the best part of her work. 

It is the characters who have full backstories that she has sorted out. We only get glimpses of the characters past, but you can tell she has it all worked out. The more books a character is in, the more you learn about that character.

One of the breakout favorites in her first book, The Marketplace, was an under-trainer named Chris Parker. Throughout the books and short stories we learn a lot about him. Some of it is startling. Some of it is poignant. And some of it is laugh out loud funny.

The stories are erotica with leather and sex in abundance. But that feels secondary to the story that she is telling. These scenes do fit within the books and don’t throw you out of the story.

I became enamored of Chris Parker from the first book which I purchased back in 1993 from a display of Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty series that has a sign “If you liked this, then you might like these”.

I have followed his adventures through her books and short stories.

A number of years ago on a whim, I made a Chris Parker puppet for Laura which I got to her as my appreciation for all she has written.

Laura and Chris

(for the VI: This is a photo Laura Antoniou seated with the Chris Parker puppet in her lap. She is wearing a black shirt and pants. Her salt and pepper hair is cut short and she is wearing glasses. The puppet is wearing a grey suit with a black tie and white shirt. He has a brown van dÿkë beard and brown hair. He is wearing glasses.)

Laura and me at Heliosphere. I am holding Parker and she is holding Chris’ trainer Imala Anderson

(For the VI: I am on the left and Laura is on the right. We are standing behind a table of her books. I am holding the Chris Parker puppet who is wearing a leather vest and his tattoos are peeking out. She is holding a puppet of Anderson who is wearing a black and white dress with a white jacket. She has long black hair and a lot of jewelry and bangles.)

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