Returning to Diverse Desires: A Decade Later, the Darkness Still Smolders
It’s wild to think it has been twelve years since Diverse Desires: Short Tales of Twisted Erotica first came to life as an ebook on October 17, 2013. Back then, self-publishing was still an untamed landscape filled with promise, chaos, and late nights spent staring at glowing screens. A year later, on August 18, 2014, the audiobook followed, with sultry voices breathing life into my depraved little worlds. I had always planned to release a paperback version, but life got busy, projects stacked up, and time slipped away. What was supposed to be a quick follow-up ended up waiting more than a decade to materialize.
Now, in 2025, I’ve come full circle. I’m revisiting unfinished ideas, rekindling old fires, and finally giving this collection the physical form it always deserved. Diverse Desires has officially returned as a paperback, available through Amazon and major booksellers, with the ebook still available everywhere digital books are sold. The audiobook remains exclusive to Audible, whispering dark secrets into the ears of adventurous listeners.
Working on this new edition was like opening a time capsule from a past version of myself. As I skimmed over each story while formatting the manuscript and designing the cover in Photoshop, I could see the evolution of my writing and the boldness that started it all. These stories were the first time I dared to explore the murky space where lust and dread intertwine, where eroticism becomes a catalyst for transformation, destruction, or revelation.
Revisiting My Twisted Little Worlds
When I first wrote these tales, I wasn’t interested in creating conventional erotica. I wanted something that lived in the shadows, something that dared readers to be aroused and unsettled at the same time. Every story in Diverse Desires has a pulse of darkness running through it, whether it’s a crime gone wrong, a cosmic temptation, or a fantasy that turns on itself.
One of my favorites from the collection is Terminal Affair, a sci-fi story that dives deep into isolation, sexuality, and duty. It follows Specialist Kinari, a member of an over-sexed alien species who’s been sent on a high-stakes deep-space mission. Her challenge isn’t just completing the assignment; it’s managing her own biology in a setting where desire becomes as dangerous as the vacuum of space itself.
I loved writing Terminal Affair because it pushed me to think about how desire operates beyond human boundaries. What happens when physical need and emotional connection are separated by galaxies? The story is unapologetically erotic, but it’s also about loneliness, control, and the struggle to reconcile instinct with responsibility. It’s been especially fun to see the story live on in another format—performed by the incredible Rose Caraway on the premiere episode of The Sexy Librarian Podcast. Hearing her voice bring Kinari’s tension and yearning to life still gives me chills.
Another story close to my heart is Last Call. This one plays with more earthly cravings—a tiki bar hookup that serves as the prequel to my paranormal erotic novel The Girl Alone. Sophie, the main character, is that person we’ve all been at some point: lonely, dressed up with nowhere to go, trying to find connection in a neon-drenched night that feels both cheap and magical.
The story unfolds slowly, wrapped in the scent of rum and the glow of tiki lights, until desire overtakes hesitation. It’s sensual and raw, but beneath the surface, it’s about vulnerability—the fear of rejection, the quiet courage of putting yourself out there, even for one night. Revisiting it reminded me how much I love grounding erotic tension in real human emotion. The sexiest moments often come from the things left unsaid.
Creating the Paperback Experience
Putting Diverse Desires into print was more than a nostalgic project. It was a reclamation. I’ve grown as a writer, designer, and storyteller over the past twelve years, and I wanted this edition to reflect that. I redesigned the cover from scratch, pulling together textures and tones that capture the seductive decay and wicked allure inside the pages. I formatted every story carefully so it would read cleanly, allowing the rhythm of each line to carry its weight on paper.
There’s something special about holding a book filled with stories that once only existed in digital form. The tactile experience of flipping through the pages, the slight scent of ink and paper, the way the shadows fall between the lines—it brings the collection to life in a way screens never could. For readers who love the physicality of books, I wanted Diverse Desires to feel like a forbidden treasure tucked on the shelf, something that draws you in with a whisper of danger.
Reflections from the Shadows
When I released the original ebook in 2013, I didn’t know what kind of audience would find it. Dark erotica isn’t for everyone, and that’s fine. But the readers who connected with it really connected. I received messages from people who said the stories made them question where the line between pleasure and fear really lies. That kind of reaction reminded me why I write what I write—to explore the gray spaces of desire, the places where fantasy and fear blur into something deeply human.
Coming back to this collection in 2025 feels like revisiting an old lover. Familiar, yet transformed. I can see the rawness in those early stories, the experimentation, the risks I was willing to take before I even knew what “brand” or “genre expectations” meant. That kind of creative recklessness is intoxicating, and it’s something I want to carry forward as I dive into new projects this year.
The Power of Returning
This paperback isn’t just about finishing what I started. It’s about honoring the creative spark that got me here in the first place. For years, I let certain projects drift into suspended animation, waiting for the right time, the right energy, the right version of myself to bring them back. Now feels like that time. I’m not the same writer I was in 2013, but the fire that drove me then still burns.
Holding Diverse Desires in my hands for the first time felt like closing a circle—a decade-long orbit finally completed. It reminded me that creative work doesn’t expire just because time passes. Some ideas simply wait until we’re ready to finish them.
If you’ve never read Diverse Desires, the collection drags readers down twisted paths that descend into the darkest shadows of erotica. A blue-collar thief trapped in a circus wagon, a jealous wife who goes too far, a voyeur whose fantasies blur with reality—each story dares the reader to savor the bittersweet and the grisly until the senses overflow.
For me, these stories mark the beginning of a journey that continues to evolve with every project I take on. And bringing them into print feels like giving that journey a tangible heartbeat once again.
So here’s to unfinished business, to the stories that haunt us until we give them form, and to the strange beauty of rediscovering who we were through the words we wrote long ago.
Diverse Desires: Short Tales of Twisted Erotica is available now in paperback from Amazon and major booksellers. The ebook can be found at most major online retailers, and the audiobook is exclusively available on Audible.
Because some stories never stop whispering—they just wait for you to listen again.
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