Tales from the Orc Den

Blooded Labyrinth by SJ Sanders and The Monsters in Love Anthology

• Monster Romance Reviews • Season 3 • Episode 3

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It's time for Stacy and Liz to hear Amy talk about The Blooded Labyrinth by S.J. Sanders. If we had a podcast bingo card, then referencing Sanders would get a guaranteed box. 

This book first appeared in the first volume of the Monsters in Love Anthologies. It is also part of a universe of stories Sanders has been publishing. So yes, we’re going down a rabbit hole. And we’re taking you with us!


Books Mentioned:

Other Stuff Mentioned:

The Scream Queenz Podcast: https://www.screamqueenz.com/


Music is called "Undead Bride" by Pagefire https://soundcloud.com/nerdymetalhead202/undead-bride 

Amy:

My book. My story is actually from the first Monsters in Love anthology, which was lost in the Labyrinth. And

EJ:

Oh, that was a good one. Such a good theme.

Amy:

Quite a few of the stories did deal with Minur. There were not, there were some different beings in there as well. Yeah. Including other horned creatures, which I'll talk about that later. Anyways, so the one that I chose is Blooded Labyrinth by SG Sanders. Love it. Woo. And I am not, I, all of us are not new to SJ Sanders. She is a fan favorite on, on this

Stacy:

podcast. She's,

Amy:

If she's listening, I hope you realize how much we do love your work.

Stacy:

Sj. Oh, fuck yes. Oh hell yeah. Just how ent it. I love a writer who loves Halloween, and every October she releases a couple of love letters to Halloween, and it's just Ugh, bless

EJ:

you. Thank you. Mhm. Mhm.

Stacy:

And her offering for the latest Monsters in Love is really fucking good. I

Amy:

can't wait to read it. No spoilers, Stacey.

Stacy:

It selkie. Oh. It turns out he's a Kelpie. Sorry, I ruined that. Oh, Kelpie.

EJ:

Whatever. Anyway. He's not a

Stacy:

Kelpie. I'm kidding. It's a callback to how I ruined the other story for her. Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm still gonna read it anyway,

EJ:

Stacey, so it's not a big deal. It's part of the journey. Yes. Anyway, bloodied labyrinth.

Stacy:

Bloodied, bloodied, not bloodied. Sorry, bloodied. Even though, yes, it is bloodied. It is

EJ:

bloody in there. No. And this was something I feel like I kept on creating typos whenever I'd be writing it. Bloodied.

Stacy:

I don't know, bloodied labyrinth. I'd read that. It sounds like an alternate story for Naomi Lucas's Minotaur series that, Naomi, come on, man, you've only released two. You've got three other brothers, or was it seven? I think it's five brothers, but it might be seven. Come on, Naomi I love the snakes, I love the cyborgs, give me some Minotaur dick.

Amy:

Basically, this is S. G. Sanders take on the original labyrinth from Greek mythology involving

Stacy:

Asarian,

Amy:

the Minotaur, because he actually had a name. Despite what some myth, whatever, myth writers say, he had a name, but Astarion, and it, you also get anyways,

Stacy:

he's the Minoan queen's son. Yes. With the what, the, something bull. It's not the, it's not the Stygian bull, it's the. No, it's the, yeah. It was a white bull. The Parnassus bull? It was a great white bull. Yeah, it was a white bull. Yeah. It was I can't remember. It was, it was a curse against the king. Yeah.

EJ:

That's what it was. That's the real point.

Amy:

Yes. Yes. A curse against the king, so he cursed his wife. Yeah. His

Stacy:

wife was cursed. Was it Zeus turned himself into a bull? Or was it another god who just sent the belt bull and inspired the lust? It

Amy:

inspired the lust. Yeah. And then of course Daedalus

Stacy:

built the the cow armature.

Amy:

The queen could be there. Pasiphae, excuse me. Yes, Pasiphae is another. Anyways in this labyrinth, it's it's actually, what's funny about this story is that it's also part of a greater universe that S. J. has created.

Stacy:

Yes, collided realms, or collided worlds.

Amy:

Collided worlds. This The Dark It's called This one is part of the Dangerous Monsters series, but it's a spin off of the Dark Spirits world, which, of course, is in the Collided Realms.

Stacy:

Which, it also spreads across cause she's also got the, what is it, Demonica Dragos? And those books are actually part they're spun off from this as well, but they're like X amount of generations into the future after the world collided.

Amy:

I gotcha. But it starts with the ravening that happens in Havoc of Souls. Basically where this, there was a rip in time that brought this other realm. Yeah, it's like I said, collided realms, the realms clashed, and yeah, and basically Asterion has been in this labyrinth for centuries. Millennia. It has been driving his hunger for blood and, hunting and whatnot. So anyone who was foolish enough to fall into the labyrinth, and either, either those that were foolish enough to get into the labyrinth, or those that were actually there to pursue him He would go after them and whatnot cause that's just how it was.

Stacy:

But. And the labyrinth itself hungers for blood.

Amy:

Yes. The labyrinth in this instance is an entity unto itself. It was not built by Daedalus. This was just a realm itself, and I think because he, because Astarion was cast into it, the Labyrinth chose to turn its back on humanity, and that's when it why there's, why, yes, why it is so dark and why it does, it longs

Stacy:

for human, human's blood. Because originally it could be because Ariadne would visit him, right? Yes. Correct. And it was safe for her to do so at that point.

Amy:

Yes. But then she left with Theseus, and that was just great.

Stacy:

Yeah. But anyways. She did end up married to Bacchus, so at least there was, or not Bacchus Dionysus. Yeah, Bacchus, Dionysus,

Amy:

Same.

Stacy:

Same dude, different

Amy:

aliases. Pretty much. But anyways, so we have our main character, Vicky, who, Has been living the life of a wanderer. She's been wandering around trying to, and shelter, and this is a land that's overrun by monsters and ever changing forests, and so she's trying to figure out what to

Stacy:

do next, and then and strangers aren't exactly welcome. Precisely. Because of

Amy:

that. Yes. And she gets trapped in the labyrinth, and When she first enters, when she first falls into it, she's, like trying to figure her way out, and then she hears a cluster of chatter from satyrs, because a flock of satyrs has been trapped in the labyrinth as well, and the satyrs are even worse with their hungers than Asterion

Stacy:

is, thank goodness.

Amy:

With one exception, but I'll talk about him later. But anyways so Asterion ends up saving her from the satyrs, and... But, it's not for one to possibly, slaking his bloodlust, but perhaps some other

Stacy:

bloodlust. But he's also lonely. Yes, he is very

Amy:

lonely. And he does long for companionship because he hasn't had anyone to really talk to, aside from his sister. Millennia ago. And that was many centuries ago that she abandoned him, and so basically it's just them bonding slowly but surely, but there is that element of terror at first because obviously he is very fearsome and I love the cover that she has for the book itself.

Stacy:

But anyways. For real.

Amy:

I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear

Stacy:

here, but it was, it's. No, you're fine.

Amy:

But it ends up being that they have to get out of the labyrinth because the labyrinth itself starts to crumble because it wants

Stacy:

her blood. Yeah. It wants her dead. And so even though. And it's turning against Astarian too. Yes. Because Astarian is standing between her and the labyrinth.

Amy:

Correct. He has claimed her as his and is like saying. It's it will accept the offerings that I give it, which will, of course, be our fluid, our combined fluids once we're, able to get Cardinal and all that fun stuff.

Stacy:

Yeah. But and the other thing, too, is she can't leave his rooms.

Amy:

Yes, because there's a barrier set in place to where only his blood can get through that barrier into the

EJ:

Labyrinth. Yeah, and so as I recall, the rest of the story is really them like, how the hell do we get out of this labyrinth? How do you fight the labyrinth? And it trying, because it's in a Assyrian's brain is trying to fight like, no, you are a blood lusty individual, not just a lusty individual, you're not going to abandon me. And it, I think for me, where I get both scared and horny is they've got like this, sweet little place where they're getting to know each other. It's in the, this sanctuary within the labyrinth, just outside of it. It's waiting. It's wanting

Stacy:

Yeah. And it's the kind of thing too where like you're talking about like it's this lovely sweet place that they have, but you can't live your whole life No. In this. Handful of rooms with a threat outside the door. Basically,

EJ:

Yeah, the threat is

Stacy:

all around you.

EJ:

Exactly. So I want to hear Amy going into my questions. What was the first time. Can you tell us about you know your first encounter with the monsters in love? anthology, that first volume. Also, why did this story stick out? Why does it merit your attention?

Amy:

Okay, so the first time I was really excited to hear about the Monsters in Love anthology. And when I figured, when I heard that it was going to be a series of anthologies, that made me even happier. Because, hey, lots of different monster stories and lots of different monsters to encounter. Why not? So I was just thrilled with that. So of course I pre ordered this one. This story in particular drew me because one, I love Greek mythology. I am a massive Greek mythology fan. And if there's one thing that I've learned is I have figured out how much of a monster lover I am is how much the monsters in Greek mythology were taken advantage of in a horrible way. Oh, yeah. And how they were never given their own. Their own license or

EJ:

agency.

Stacy:

Agency, thank you.

Amy:

And to see that with Asteria, anytime that I see that sort of thing, because PCCast did it with Goddess of the Rose. She also had Asterius, I believe is who she named. But he was the original Minotaur as well. Anytime I see that kind of, Myth retelling, because, granted, the most common mythological retelling we're going to hear from Greek mythology is what, say it with me now, Hades and Persephone.

Stacy:

Which, there's nothing wrong I love me a good Hades, Persephone retelling. Yeah,

EJ:

you're Lore Olympus fan over here. I've got every single goddamn volume

Stacy:

of the hard covers.

EJ:

Yeah, it's good stuff. But yeah, it's, it is super common. So whenever someone goes outside of that, I admit the myth nerd in me is okay.

Stacy:

And part of it too is it's like Hades and Persephone is one of the only myths that have a sort of happy ending. Depending on how you skew it, if you look at anybody who interacted with Zeus. Tragedy. Granted that the kids might go on to be heroes, but half of those heroes had a tragic death, or were pricks, like when Theseus abandoned Ariadne. And And so Hades and Persephone is the only one, especially because if you look at it pre Hellenic, when the myth was that Persephone ran away with Hades then, it really is a suite, and it's, she has much more, don't get me wrong, I love the dark, like the abduction dragged down to the underworld, but there's also, a beauty in someone, a girl being allowed to make her own choice, even if the choice is potentially a dangerous one. And so I can

EJ:

see that. That whole theme of, young woman breaking free, choosing her own path. It speaks so hard to, I think, the female experience right now. So

Stacy:

there was me, I saw not like years ago that it was a it's like Persephone sitting in a cafe with Apollo or something like that. And the phone rings. This is daddy. And he goes, Oh, you still call your dad, daddy. And she answers it. And she goes, Hey, Hades, what's up, babe? We're making like eye contact. Yes, I

EJ:

love it. Absolutely. That's really

Amy:

the main thing. I also

Stacy:

It's also the least rapey of the gods, oh yeah. Definitely. But

Amy:

When they choose to explore one of the monster myths, that, that really gets to me. Medusa has actually received a few retellings, basically, to where she has

Stacy:

elaborated her story. Yeah, just as for Medusa. And I saw a really great perspective that somebody had where it was like, maybe Medusa wasn't being cursed by Artemis. Athena? Maybe. No, Athena. Too many a names. I know. She wasn't being cursed by Athena, she was being protected by Athena. Oh yeah. That isn't a concept there.

EJ:

Yeah. Yeah, and I appreciate how in the tattoo community to that's her face has been taken on as something that sometimes women will get tattooed on them as a symbol of they are rape survivor,

Stacy:

and they will that's because Friday. In Greece the face of Medusa was used as a place of basically a safe place for women. So like women who were fleeing something abusive, there were temples that would put up the face of Medusa and women were safe there. I actually have a Medusa bath relief on my wall. It's one of the few wall hangings I had that survived the fire. I need

EJ:

to look that up. That sounds like such an interesting thing. Yeah, there we go. Oh yeah, she was.

Stacy:

Hell yeah. Hell yeah, she was.

Amy:

I have seen some comics that go into they're short comics that go into Medusa, just, Oh my goodness, just trying to find a friend and whatnot, and I'm like, oh,

Stacy:

I don't know who you Medusa is such a heartbreaking story. Yes. She didn't do anything wrong.

Amy:

No, she didn't.

EJ:

I'm looking at some of my other questions, I'm like How does this story fit in with the theme of the anthology? I'm like, it's a freaking labyrinth. It's about a labyrinth. I feel so silly. And we're already talking. Everybody's in a labyrinth. Yes, everyone is in a labyrinth. It's one of the reasons I actually love that anthology, because it was a very specific sort of theme, and yet everyone fucking delivered in a unique, artistic way. I loved that.

Stacy:

And another thing that's really great about, especially S. J. Sanders rendition is, in the hands of a lesser audience, Writer, it could have just been like, Oh, we're in a labyrinth. Oh, we got out. We get to live happily ever after. But she really put the research into it. I love his visits from Ariadne. Them doing, her teaching him the steps to the crane dance. She really invested in it. Astarion is more than just a monster who needs to be saved by a human.

EJ:

Once again, we had a internal, emotional journey, both the female main character and especially Asterion. Asterion, I was so proud of Asterion. And

Stacy:

both of them, because both of them are dealing with the theme of abandonment. Yeah. And the labyrinth has been abandoned and it's driven the labyrinth insane. Asterion was able to hold on to his sanity and what's Vicky? Vicky, yeah. Vicky was finally able to find a safe spot.

EJ:

Yeah, how beautiful is that? What's from the outside is like a sexy thriller is like really a story of I Thriving beyond the trauma of abandonment.

Stacy:

Exactly. Exactly. Surviving your trauma. You go on to be happy despite it.

EJ:

Shit, this is one of the reasons why I love this book world.

Amy:

Yeah. It is weird because the main antagonist really is the Labyrinth itself, but you also have a tiny, teeny tiny secondary antagonist, and I'm calling him an antagonist because he's not an enemy. He's just antagonizing

Stacy:

our hero and heroine. It's what they do. That would be Barbassa. That's

Amy:

true actually. He is the leader of the satyr flock. Now, the great thing about Barbassa is that he gets his story in the third Monsters in

Stacy:

Love. Yeah, I don't, I need that one. Which S. J. has said she will be

Amy:

expanding it

Stacy:

and of course, God bless you S. J. Sanders. For real. And the other thing, too, that I thought was interesting about the Satyrs is the Satyrs were dangerous. Vicky definitely couldn't be around the Satyrs, but the Satyrs themselves wanted out of the

EJ:

fucking labyrinth, too. Oh, yeah. And they were, there was some dark shit happening with the Satyrs, because on one hand, you're scared of them. On the other hand, one of the things that makes them scary is not that they themselves are dangerous, but because they are being actively targeted and destroyed by the labyrinth. Such. It is such a freaky detail, especially once I realized as a reader, Oh, the labyrinth is sentient. Oh, it's driving these satyrs mad. Once you had that layer, it was, that was fun. I got freaked out. I

Stacy:

loved that. Because if you, yeah, the satyrs were scary in this book. But the other thing too, is that cause if you look at the origin of the satyrs, satyrs are like pyramid head. Where it's like, they are the ultimate male. There is no female psyche in them. They're always erect. They're always looking to fuck. And yeah, granted a satyr likes a good time, but a satyr's good time might be at your expense. Yeah. And so that's something that makes them compelling, but it also makes them fucking terrifying. You can also talk about the fact that Even though the Satyrs and Astarion himself are monsters they are potential, they have tasted the flesh of man, they're also victims. They're not they don't possess their own agency, let alone the agency of the female, so it doesn't have to be just that. The male has all of the power, the female has none of the power, and the world is a blood labyrinth. Nobody has power, and even the labyrinth itself doesn't have the power that it wants.

Amy:

Yeah. Which is not the power that it used to have.

Stacy:

It can't bend Asterian to its will. It can't seem to catch all of the Satyrs. It can't seem to get to Vicky. So really, it's about a bunch of beings that have no power trying to escape from other beings that have no power but want to take what limited control you have

EJ:

away from you. It feels like a bucket, like a crab bucket, yeah. Allegory. But a labyrinth.

Stacy:

Yeah. Yeah.

Amy:

It started with Astarion being thrown into the labyrinth, because obviously he was purposefully thrown in there. And I want to say that probably everyone else, at least those that are, have survived, barely stumbled into the labyrinth. And of course it just would not let them go. I don't know if there were other victims that were thrown in there, but anyways, like the satyrs, they stumbled into the labyrinth. And, they just went bonkers safe for Barbasa and then Vicky stumbled in there and it's just,

Stacy:

yeah,

Amy:

It all started with a starion being imprisoned

Stacy:

there, right for crimes for he of everyone in the labyrinth. He's the only true innocent. Which is why

Amy:

it's getting sent there.

Stacy:

Favorite son.

EJ:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Favorite son. Yeah, because Yeah, it just likes it.

Stacy:

And there's almost a The Labyrinth almost has a scorned lover vibe. They

EJ:

do. Yeah, as far as, Uniqueness in this genre, it is somehow S. J. Sanders gave some real life to a An inanimate object. A place, yeah. A place, a thing. And usually it's like Vera Valentine who's doing it because it's fun. Because someone fucked the door. And I would love that for her, by the way. Oh, hell yes. In this particular case, S. J. Sanders is yes, that, but let's make it very serious.

Stacy:

Very

Amy:

serious and very scary.

Stacy:

Yes. And it's one of those things where it's the longer you think about it, it's just is the labyrinth like the mother figure. And so this is like literally the mother of all. Oh, yeah. The labyrinth wishes. That's To assume a human figure and wants to become like a lover of a starion. You know what I mean? Like you could really. Oh, man. Or shit, maybe it's bull. Maybe it's some kind of fucked up like the mother lover kind of thing that astarion is mine. Astarion has always been mine. And then this interloper comes in and is trying to take my son slash love from me. Oh, crap.

EJ:

Yeah. That makes perfect sense. I want SJ Sanders to give some thoughts on this I feel like we just came across like a light bulb moment, but I want to hear from her are we anywhere close?

Stacy:

That's right. But the other thing too, is it's so the labyrinth loves Asterion, but the labyrinth has Asterion trapped. The labyrinth thinks that everything is perfect, and a starian has been fooled into thinking that everything is as it should be, never knowing. It's like a baby who's been kept trapped in an attic their entire life. They don't understand that there's a whole fucking world out there full of experiences and pleasures and pains that, they have

EJ:

no, no

Stacy:

notion of. And granted this like womb like existence that the labyrinth has him trapped in is the comfortable one for him. But at the same time, it's still a place of

EJ:

denial and it's still huge.

Stacy:

It's a cage. Yeah cages. So if granted the labyrinth loves a staring on but it's a selfish possessive destructive love, because it doesn't care what a staring on wants.

EJ:

It cares what it wants. And that's

Stacy:

the only thing. It's interested in filling

EJ:

the niche for and this is so like heavy actually makes sense because as I'm thinking of the cover for the blooded labyrinth it is I wonder if they got the same illustrator to do the blooded labyrinths book as the monsters and love anthology series because the art styles are very much the same if not the same it's definitely

Stacy:

possible it would not surprise me if well good and she's because she's done other books That have a, cause the Toadstools and Vampire Kisses has a similar cover, and so does the Frog Prince, and I know that there are others. I'm not sure if the second Derwent Witches cover is like that or not, but she has a bunch that are that sort of 3D rendered. Dragon

Amy:

Treasure is that way, isn't it?

Stacy:

No, Dragon's Treasure, it's an Italian artist. It's the same guy that did the cover of the first with Charlie and... Darville. The first Darville

EJ:

Tarongal. I'm going to ask you one particular question that is just for this book, and then I'm going to expand it a little bit more. Emmy, if you had the opportunity to discuss The Blooded Labyrinth with S. J. Sanders? What would you like to ask her?

Stacy:

Ooh, that's a tough question,

Amy:

because I would ask her

Stacy:

a lot of

EJ:

questions. I'm over here I could have asked Ashley Bennett many other questions. My number one question is like, what are the dark shit you got in your brain there?

Amy:

My thing is, I would actually want to know what other areas in mythology she would like to explore monster wise, because Greek mythology is full of...

EJ:

The possibilities many

Amy:

different monsters. Yeah, I've been in a kid and

Stacy:

that we're very

EJ:

busy. Oh, yeah.

Stacy:

It's yeah, there's a reason why she's called the mother of monsters, but it's just you literally have generations of culture.

EJ:

But yeah, she's, the point is, there's a whole freaking huge world, if you even wanted to stay in the Greek world I know she, Because, she has dabbled with orcs and goblins, I would also be absolutely fine with her going into further north in Europe. So many options.

Stacy:

Yeah, but the cool thing is she doesn't stick with just one pantheon, because the first thing I ever read by her was the first... Dark Spirits book, which is Havoc of Souls. And that's Etruscan. Perfect. And that's Etruscan. And she went into the Etruscan underworld because the main character, the main male character, him, he is the gatekeeper, he's the lantern keeper, who is the keeper of the gate into the underworld. So he's not Hades, he's more Charon. The ferryman in the mythology. And so he's weighed against the lantern light. And if you're like, if your light is pure, you pass into the underworld. If your light is dark, you're sucked into the lantern, basically. And they and there are these creatures from the Etruscan underworld. It starts with W, I can't remember the word now, and they are, they were essentially like eaters of the dead. Like they were carrion eaters, I think is what it was, and they served a necessary purpose, but they escaped from the underworld and went insane in our world, basically, and started stealing the bodies of people and pushing their souls out, and that was how they figured was their way that they could stay in our world. And that's what started the whole downfall with the that leads into what we have in the Blooded Labyrinth and all of that. So you have multiple pantheons that are touched on. Because in Matchsticks, which is one of her retold fairy tales, that is also in this world, and it was actually, I have to give her credit because Apollo is like my least favorite god. Apollo and Zeus are like neck and neck for who I think is the rapiest. That's fair. That's fair. Apollo is actually a very interesting character in Matchsticks, who is guiding the story, and he doesn't end up raping anybody that we're aware of in the story. And Aquilos the god of the north winds, is like a servant of Apollo's, basically. And she's, basically, it's whatever catches her attention, like, all worlds are welcome here, basically is the... The rundown and there was something about I know at one point there was. I think in the second book, the Locomo, who were essentially like, I call them forest lords, because that's what Tiffany Roberts called it, the same thing in His Darkest Kiss, or His Darkest Graving where it's the, they're like satyrs, but they have the elf branches, so Sir Nudos, in Celtic mythology kind of thing, and I believe the Locomo are part of Artemis, or under Artemis Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.

EJ:

watch. Oh yeah. If I'm remembering correctly. And like I had been, I've been slowly getting more and more into Pennsylvania, Dutch folklore. And there is also a, yeah, there is actually a character just like that that's just like the green men who are essentially

Stacy:

like the green men covered the green man.

EJ:

Yeah. The, I love because

Stacy:

that's what Cruz is in. Tiffany Roberts is, and that's another great Halloween read if anybody's looking for one. Is his darkest craving definitely a good book?

EJ:

Oh yeah. The, oh, that's

Stacy:

such a good book. They're working on the second one. Yeah. Cover looks awesome. It's gonna be a goblin.

EJ:

Yes. I love the Pennsylvania Dutch word for it. I gotta just share it with you. Yeah. He's called a bush mops. Of

Stacy:

Bushmops? Yeah! With an S? I like that. Bushmops. I'm

EJ:

dead serious! I'm like, that sounds so cute! And, yeah. And It's a cute name for

Stacy:

such

Amy:

a possibly

Stacy:

deadly being. Oh, yeah. I was gonna say, right? Super cute as he's banging your knees into the ground

EJ:

by your ears. Pretty much. Every single time you get Bushmops in, There's like serious shit that's about to happen. Shit that's gonna

Stacy:

arrive.

EJ:

Most powerful Fae has arrived. You be afraid.

Stacy:

That's the cool thing about Cruz in the Tiffany Roberts story. He fucking, he's under a curse and he fucking eats a bunch of hunters and it's like, all right, that happened.

Amy:

That regard, though, for questions, I would be curious to know what other pantheon she would want to

Stacy:

explore. Oh, that's a good question. She dabbles in vampires, we got dragons, we got, it's really whatever is thrown at the wall and sticks is basically, and I love that.

Amy:

unicorn. She has a unicorn.

Stacy:

Yep. The unicorn's mare. Yep. Yeah. It's really good.

EJ:

I do have at least one more question for you, Aimee, and that is in relation to the anthology at large. Beside, so in that volume one of Monsters and Lepisides Blooded Labyrinth, would you have any other favorite stories? Certainly. I

Amy:

actually just brought this up on StoryGraph because I need, I have my, I have to have my list. All right, so in Lost in the Labyrinth, I, there were two others that really stood out to me among my little cluster of stories. The first one is actually my first foray into Cleo Evans writing, and that would be

Stacy:

Curse of the Cyclops. Oh, that was a good one. I read that one. Which one? That one was great. It was

Amy:

all I don't think I read that one. Stacey, if, Stacey, if you don't, if you got Lost in the Labyrinth, right? The first one? Yeah. Yeah. It was the second story. It was the second story. But the great thing about Curse of the Cyclops is that one, There's actually two main male characters who are also involved together. They're both Cyclopses. And the labyrinth that they're trapped in is a library.

EJ:

Oh, that's cool.

Stacy:

Yup. Yeah! At least she wouldn't be bored. For real. What would the plural of Cyclops be? Cyclopides?

Amy:

I don't know, I think Cyclopsies?

Stacy:

Cyclopsies? Oh, that makes sense. Cyclopsies. I think that's what it is. I know the plural of clitoris is clitorides,

Amy:

ha! Anyways, what this story is they actually have to confront their monstrous side in order to finally escape the labyrinth. And also, of course, have their female be confronted by said... Monstrous side. Yeah, but yeah.

Stacy:

They do transform into much bigger

EJ:

Cyclops. Yeah, they have a sort of Bruce Banner moment. Because they're like sweet nerds and they're like, but, you would, yeah, they have a kind of, you would like me when I'm angry.

Amy:

But anyways so yeah, that was my first foray into Cleo Evans writing and I'm like, this is an author I should give a chance to and I did.

Stacy:

I did this year. I'm sure I've read stuff by her because I definitely recognize her name.

Amy:

Oh and Demons was great. But anyways, moving on. We're going to talk about that later, much, much later. Whenever you guys finally read it or not because it is.

Stacy:

It's R E H, yeah, it's a reverse harem. It's more of a polycule. Yeah, but I don't like polycules either.

Amy:

I know, Stacey. Anyways.

Stacy:

Anyways. Anyway! I can hang the triad as far as I can go. Yes. That's fair.

Amy:

Stalking Temera by Nova Blake was another great one, and that one also features a satyr.

EJ:

Ooh, yummy. Yeah!

Stacy:

With a

Amy:

morning

Stacy:

star of all things perhaps. With a morning star? Like a as in a mace?

Amy:

But that was a really good one too. So I recommend that one because, yeah, the title really belies the story. I'm like, yes, yeah, it's pretty much an overt yes, he is. ish stalking her, but more or less that's mostly because he's Oh, have the humans come to challenge me again? No, it's a woman. Cool. Let's

Stacy:

do this. Oh, I got it. I got it. I got a different stick for you. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. Yes. But he has to save her, of course, because she's stumped.

Amy:

The thing is, this labyrinth is actually on the compound of A wellness camp, which

Stacy:

she's at with her work group or whatever. Okay, that

Amy:

whole area.

Stacy:

Yeah, I'm just like, this is bizarre. She just hauls it. Thinking you're going to be doing some shitty ropes course thing on building trust, and instead you're being chased around by a satyr with He doesn't chase her.

Amy:

He actually ends up saving her from something that was in the labyrinth, but yes, it was great. I wish I remembered his name and her na her name is Tamara.

Stacy:

But I don't remember his name. I'm like, what the frig is your name, dude was it Woody? No. It should have been. Was it Hezekiah? Nope. Sorry. No Hezekiah. Huck. When in doubt, drive it into the ground.

Amy:

Kavi, either Kavi or Kavi, it's spelled K A V I.

Stacy:

I'd say Kavi. I would say copy. Sounds cute. I like it. No, that's volume two. Where the fuck is volume

EJ:

one,

Stacy:

Please say you have volume one. Oh, God, yes, I do. Okay. Okay, wait, I'm seeing two with the same

EJ:

volume one, Lost in the Labyrinth, and what the hell is

Stacy:

that one? Monsters in Love. Wicked Tales and Monsters Ever Afters. Curse of the Cyclops is also in that one.

EJ:

Gotcha.

Stacy:

S. J. Sanders. Ashley Bennett. Evangeline Priest. Nova Blake. Oh yeah, this was for a no kill animal shelter organization. Was this just a spin off of the first one? Or...

Amy:

Hmmmm... The Wicked... Cause it's not

Stacy:

book two. No... The Wicked Tales and Monsters Ever Afters, was that just a spin off of the first one? I don't think so

Amy:

I... That's the thing, I'm not sure what that one was. Because there's stuff, there's original stuff in there that was not released in previous ones, but then there's also Yeah, because

Stacy:

This is a full I must not have read this one, because there's a CM Naskovstein here that I know I haven't read yet. I must have just gotten this one, and Mastered by the Gladiator by L. B. Lane, I haven't read that. The monsters mistaken bride. There's another Cleo. That's the curse. That's the one that curse of the Cyclops is in. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to see if there's any Vera Valentine, Eden Ember, Katie,

EJ:

who's hit or miss for me, but whatever. YD LaMere, Cassie

Stacy:

Alexander, trying to see a Carol Wilde, Ashley Bennett, a Briar Glen Halloween.

EJ:

I don't know what

Stacy:

Devil's Night is, but that sounds fun. Krista Luna. Of course. Angeline Graves, The Stone and the Star. Yeah, I must not have read this one. I read the first one because I read The Blooded Labyrinth, but, let's see, and what the hell story am I on here? Apparently I stopped in the middle of a story too. I

EJ:

hate when I do that. Fallen, Fall Harvest.

Stacy:

Damn. Isabelle Du Nord. I need to put the stories that I like best in the first. Isabelle Dufresne. Isabelle So this is another D. J. Holmes story that I apparently stopped in the middle of, Belfry. Ah yes,

Amy:

Belfry was pretty good, I liked that one.

Stacy:

I liked that one on the list. I need to come back and

EJ:

really go through this again. Finding Her Minotaur. Not, who's that by?

Stacy:

Shit, this one doesn't have the, in the... That one is Evangeline Priest. Yep. Okay, Evangeline

EJ:

Priest. Dark Heart is by Vivian Hart.

Stacy:

Thank you for skipping back to the cover, which isn't what I wanted

EJ:

you to do, you dickbag.

Stacy:

The Den is by...

EJ:

Atlas Rose. Yeah, I had to skip that one. Not for you. No, not

Stacy:

for me. I think I've read some Atlas Rose and I liked it, but I can't think of anything. Blooded Labyrinth,

EJ:

I definitely read that one. I read dispelled bruise. I don't think so. That doesn't sound familiar. No, because it's for her hair.

Stacy:

I'm sure this makes for

EJ:

fucking great listening. The beautiful thing, once again, about not doing it live is that we can edit later.

Stacy:

That's true. Yeah. Stalking Tamara is in that. So I definitely need to read that. My Veiled Pursuer by Opal Fairchild. In the

Amy:

second one, there's Another one that takes place in that same world, which I at first got confused by. I'm like, wait a minute. Is this the same? No, it's not the same story. It's a different story.

Stacy:

Okay, cool. Which one? In which one?

Amy:

Oh, in, in Lost in the Dark, there was another one by Nova Blake that took place in the same wellness

Stacy:

camp. Oh gotcha. Because I think I have Lost

EJ:

in the Dark too, where was the one I was on?

Stacy:

Fuck, what was the one that I was Belfry, right? That's the one that

Amy:

Yeah, that one was I thought that one

Stacy:

was great, too. Okay, I'm gonna stay on that one then so I can come back and read that,

EJ:

because Yeah, Belfry was fun. I actually Unsurprisingly, we have There is a Venn diagram of all of us liking certain books, quite a Venn diagram. I love it. I like to think it's because we just have really good taste. We do.

Amy:

Yeah, the last time I read five that really stuck out to me and Yeah, Blooded Labyrinth was, of course, number one, really.

EJ:

Oh, yeah. That one, I was super glad

Stacy:

that SJ did a standalone of that. In fact,

EJ:

I will say too, I think it's worth mentioning that when we were, like, hashing out on Discord which

Stacy:

books we were going to do, Blooded Labyrinth ended up on Everyone's

EJ:

list. Yeah. Blood Labyrinth is really good.

Amy:

I'm really looking forward to after reading Satyr's Wood. and figuring out who an additional side character that was not revealed in there but definitely was present in some regard that one is going to probably feature in her story in the fifth anthology which is Lost in the Fire.

Stacy:

Is that the one with the orc? No. Which, there was one that we, I was just, we were just talking about a couple days ago and I was like, oh shit, he was the secondary character in Forest of Spirits.

Amy:

No. No, the one you're thinking of is the troll the Carnival of Monsters. That one's coming out this year separately. Yes. Gotcha,

Stacy:

gotcha. I can't wait for

Amy:

that. I actually put Forest of Spirits on my, I actually specifically asked a friend of mine to get me that one because I asked her what she wanted for her birthday because her birthday is a week exactly after mine, and she wants Exodus 20, colon, 3. With an actual biblical accurate angel.

Stacy:

Oh, creepy. I love it. Very creepy. I read a book. There's a book. I can't remember the author off to find it. She has really short, very steamy, like holiday shorts and she didn't for Valentine's Day. And he was half cupid, half biblically accurate angel. And he turned into his angelic side and it was the full thing with the wings

EJ:

with eyes and it was pretty cool.

Stacy:

Also,

Amy:

I don't think this is the right edition. Where's the one that she's looking at? Ah, here we go. Okay, let me send you guys a link, because this is the cover that she wants, and I'm definitely getting her the cover she wants. Yeah. I would never deprive her. It's on story graph, so you should be able to see

Stacy:

it. Hang on

EJ:

just a second. I'm trying to look something up. Just super quick. My, oh,

Stacy:

that's hot,

EJ:

isn't it though? What am I looking for? God dammit. Where's it at? I loved that combo. Religious eroticism and queer emancipation.

Amy:

Yes.

EJ:

I found it. Okay. Oh, that is so

Stacy:

cool. Oh, that is really beautiful. Oh, yeah. That that cover is

EJ:

gorgeous art. Yeah, don't worry. I'm, I'll put it in the show notes. So listeners don't have to be like, What's so pretty?!

Amy:

So yes, that's what I'll be getting my friend for her birthday, which is a week after mine. And she's going to be getting me Forest of Spirits by S. J. Sanders because I need it in my life.

Stacy:

That's a good that's a really

EJ:

good book

Stacy:

and he's a very interesting character in, he's a secondary character in Karos's story in the first book. In Havoc of Souls? Yep. He is he is they're the entities in these are all on their own side, but he is a sometimes ally of Karos. Interesting. That should be a possible lead. Yeah. Interesting. It's really interesting because you see one side of him in the first book, and then you see who he truly is in the second book, and it's an entirely different animal. See, this is why I want to finish this into the villain,

Amy:

so I can read The Fall of the Orc,

Stacy:

and then I can read Havoc of Souls. October is

Amy:

really a distracting month for

Stacy:

me. October for me is almost Halloween's month. Because I'm currently reading the latest Naomi, Lucas, Mel Braxton, the Scarecrow one. Yeah. Yes, it's really hot.

EJ:

I'm

Stacy:

like three, I think I'm like a third of the way into it now. And then I know SJ Sanders has a couple of books planned that she's going to release this month that it's just no,

EJ:

I'm reading those. Thank you and good day. I think one of the things I really love about the direction we decided to go with the anthology stuff is Ashley Bennett, SJ Sanders. And I assume we will be talking about Alexis B. Osborne. These are all really fucking good authors. I've been appreciating how it's just been one big simp fest so far. Fuck yeah. For

Stacy:

all of these authors. I just don't see unless we're gonna get mean, which we're not. I don't much see the point in reading, you're talking about stories that nobody enjoyed, basically.

EJ:

There are other podcasts that can do that. We're here to talk about how we love stuff. We're

Stacy:

talking up stuff rather than talking down stuff. Yeah. Because like my friend Patrick has, he has a very popular movie review podcast called Scream Queens with Z. And he's gay, so it's a lot of through the gay perspective and stuff like that. And Patrick can go bitch like nobody else. Patrick has a fucking skill when it comes to eviscerating people, because Patrick was also born and raised in New York City. And he likes to have me and Cindy on to watch something horrible. Because he thinks it's funny when we start foaming at the mouth, basically. And, mercifully, the last movie he had us on for was good, but the previous three have been shitshows. Oh dear. And part of it is because his patrons get to vote. Okay. And the patrons are gonna choose violence every fucking time, the little bastards. Of course they will. Of course they will. And, which I can't blame them. I'd do the same damn thing if I was in their position. So there is, it can be fun to just like rage flip a table and scream about something that you hated. But at the same time with a movie is different than a book because a movie you're out what, an hour and a half, maybe two? Yeah. A book you can be out like a significant chunk of time.

EJ:

A movie. So yeah. Yep. I am. And I'm certainly not immune to it. I've I could go on. I won't. Instead I will be like let's wrap this section up and I, and rev up Stacy to talk about her choice. Yeah. After I take a bathroom

Stacy:

break.