Welcome to the Belonging ’Verse re-release blog tour with Aleksandr Voinov and Rachel Haimowitz! We’re
very excited to be bringing you edited second editions of our Belonging stories,
ANCHORED and COUNTERPUNCH (in the case
of Anchored, very edited, with over ten thousand new words and a
completely different beginning and ending!), which are finally under the same
roof and back in print after about a year out of circulation.
We’ll be touring for about two weeks, Aleks discussing his slave boxer and the
barrister who tries to free him, and Rachel talking about her slave news anchor
and the talk show host who covets him, and both of us discussing the world of
Belonging at large—which, as you’ve probably guessed, is not a particularly
pretty place. But good things can and do happen in this world, and we hope
you’ll stick with us to find out what!
Speaking of good things, don’t forget to comment on this post for your chance to
win a $25 gift certificate to the Riptide store! Each new post you comment on
earns you an entry into the drawing, so be sure to check out the rest of the tour schedule too!
Wow, it’s hard to believe that the first version of COUNTERPUNCH is already
three years old. In Internet terms, that could just as well be three decades, so
it feels both like more and less than that. Anyway. How did COUNTERPUNCH happen?
Two idea particles smashed together in the somewhat smaller and somewhat
untidier version of the Large Hadron Collider that I call my brain. The first
was Rachel Haimowitz’s book ANCHORED, at that time
published with a now defunct publishing house that had also done a couple of my
short stories (since reverted). Rachel’s vision of a modern world where slavery
was never abolished seemed singularly grim and horrible to me—fascinating in a
way that studying a major low point of human history can be fascinating. It’s
part horror, part intrigue. As I’d studied slavery in antiquity at university, I
was intrigued—was it really something you can buy into if you’re a modern human
being?
But then, the Romans saw themselves as “modern”, too. They were an advanced
civilisation and thought nothing of slavery.
Basically, every civilisation, however horrible its customs, thinks it’s the
pinnacle of evolution. Of course we’re civilised—look at how technically
difficult it is to bomb cities half the globe away.
Well, opening the newspaper or any news website these days, you could be
forgiven for a sad, horrified laugh at the concept that humanity always thinks
its current state is the top or end point. I sure hope there’s a higher state
after this, but I’m an optimist.
The other idea particle that got smashed into tiny pieces of words and phrases
and images was that my partner went to a “white collar” boxing event and trained
quite seriously with boxers in a South London gym. His stories and his interest
in boxing soon took hold, and we spent some happy hours watching fights and
discussing fighters.
With my brain saturated with boxing, “Anchored” hit a fertile place when both
smashed together. I remember talking to Rachel about her creation in a chat
window, and at some point, I said, “I’d really like to write about a slave
fighter who’s never given himself up”.
And from that sprung, fully formed, Brooklyn Marshall. He can be defiant because
breaking him entirely would likely destroy his fighting spirit—and that’s his
worth. Here’s a man who’s caught in a Catch-22. He can’t be broken, but even
unbroken, he’s still enslaved. I wanted to examine how he copes and deals with
his situation, and that’s COUNTERPUNCH.
The book itself came fast and easy—the writing was smooth, but pretty intense
emotionally. For several weeks, I had to believe slavery like that could be real
and that even good people could believe it’s justified—that took some doing. The
Ancient Romans helped a bit, but it was an interesting exercise to write a world
that’s so morally reprehensible and still have characters in there that people
care about. I’m glad I did it, but after some chapters, all I wanted was a
shower and a hug.
Network news anchor Daniel Halstrom is at the top of his field, but being at the
bottom of the social ladder—being a slave—makes that hard to enjoy. Especially
when NewWorld Media, the company that’s owned him since childhood, decides to
lease him privately on evenings and weekends to boost their flagging profits.
Daniel’s not stupid; he knows there’s only one reason someone would pay so much
for what little free time he has. But dark memories of past sexual service leave
him certain he won’t survive it again with his sanity intact.
He finds himself in the home of Carl Whitman, a talk show host whose words fail
him when it comes to ordering Daniel into his bed. Carl can’t seem to take what
he must want, and Daniel’s not willing to give it freely. His recalcitrance
costs him dearly, but with patience and some hard-won understanding, affection
just might flourish over fear and pain. Carl holds the power to be an anchor in
Daniel’s turbulent life, but if he isn’t careful, he’ll end up the weight that
sinks his slave for good.
Fight like a man, or die like a slave.
Two years ago, Brooklyn Marshall was a happily married London policeman and
amateur boxer with a promising future. Then he accidentally killed a rioter
whose powerful father had him convicted of murder. To ease the burden on the
prison system, the state sold Brooklyn into slavery. Now he’s the “Mean
Machine,” competing on the slave prizefighting circuit for the entertainment of
freemen, and being rented out for sexual service to his wealthier fans.
When barrister Nathaniel Bishop purchases Brooklyn’s services for a night,
Brooklyn braces himself for yet another round of humiliation and pain. But the
pair form an unexpected bond that grows into something more. Brooklyn hesitates
to call it love—such feelings can’t truly exist between freemen and slaves—but
when Nathaniel reveals that he wants to get Brooklyn’s conviction overturned,
Brooklyn dares to hope.
Until an accident in the ring sends Brooklyn on the run, jeopardizing everything
he’s worked so hard for. With the law on his tail and Nathaniel in his corner,
he must prepare for the most important fight of his life: the fight for his freedom.
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