How not to write ninja pulp erotica - The Amorous Adventures of Ashida Kim
More than you ever wanted to know about a slim novel entitled "The Amorous Adventures of Ashida Kim," plus MC Hot Dog, old school Taiwanese rapper, and a bit on Alice Guo, evil ex-mayor of Bamban.
Greetings! Welcome back to this lovely project, one of many things that make my life worth living.
Today I return to the subject of “ninja silliness,” something I had intended to periodically work on from time to time when I began this project. But before I do, let me mention that early on when I startd this I was contacted by Rob Tuck, a professor of Japanese history in Arizona, and he let me know that he was working on his own projects intended to debunk false ninja history and false ninja claims. He’s doing a great job, and if the subject interests you, check it out at Critical Ninja Theory , his substack. Now I have never met Professor Tuck, and he’s always been polite to me in his communications, but I do have to say that it is a bit annoying that the no-good, blankety blank, *&%$!!@#$!! is not just doing a great job, but he beat me to it on topics like “did ninja really wear black suits and if not where did they image come from?” and “did ninja throw shuriken and if not where did that idea come from?” I really was planning to write on those subjects (still might, I suppose, some day) but he wrote very good essays on those subjects already. Please consider checking them out.
But return I have, and I begin by digging a true treasure out of my “bad ninja books box.”
Apologies in advance for what I write today. And seriously, parts may be offensive to sensitive readers. I am writing about pulp, ninja erotica. You should expect such things.
But seriously, I had to ask myself “What does Ashida Kim, notorious author of how to be a ninja books, really have to do with legitimate Asian studies topics and explorations?”
I mean, as far as I know, he’s never even been to Asia. He’s White and he’s not just American, but he’s a classic “Florida Man.” (Need some idle amusement? Go to google, type in your birthday plus “Florida Man,” and see what comes up. Trust me on this, just do it.)
If forced to answer, I would say that Kim represents a White guy seizing on a stock image from pulp fiction and trying to bring it to life - the White man goes to the orient and masters a thousand and one exotic Asian arts little known in the West becoming super powered in the process. ( Although to the best of my knowledge, Ashida Kim has never visited Asia or studied there. ) It pops up from time to time. Steven Seagal (boo! hiss! Terrible man, even though I loved his early movies) is clearly trying to portray this archetype in his films and to live it out, and a while back I read a novel by a primarily ⁰martial arts non-fiction author, Dave Lowry (We’ve never met but have swapped emails and he seems like a competent, courteous man) called “Chinese Cooking for Diamond Thieves.” Enjoyable, I finished it, but again the protagonist was a White guy who was a master of not just martial arts, but also Chinese cooking. Pretty impressive, unrealistically so, for a young college age guy. So, in that sense, Ashida Kim and his ouvre demonstrate one example of the West trying to interact with the East and in that sense, arguably, are worth covering here. And if not worth covering, hopefully they are entertaining. (And, yes, I just properly used the word “ouvre.” I hope everyone noticed that and is suitably impressed.)
In late June, I covered Ashida Kim’s first and possibly best book. See: Enter the American Ninja, Ashida Kim, a legend and name of renown in the realm of how to be a ninja book publishing.
Here I am covering what is undoubtedly one of his worst. I’ll try to return to others from time to time. As mentioned, I have a box of ninja how-to books and many are by Ashida Kim.
And special thanks to Phil Elmore for his assistance with this week’s project. Elmore and I are both former Paladin Press authors and I discovered he had written his own review of the book in his on-line column, The Martialist ( see https://themartialist.net/author/Phil/ ) For his specific column, see https://themartialist.net/the-amorous-adventures-of-ashida-kim/ ) While we have never met, Mr Elmore and I are both former Paladin Press authors with several contacts and friends in common and a mutual interest in self defense and martial arts, and he was good enough to answer questions and share images when I reached out to him. Please note that he did not read this column prior to publication, did not endorse its contents, and he and I have established that we disagree on several matters (notably politics, although we are both patriots who love our nation and want the best for its future) so do not assume he agrees with anything I say here or anywhere else.
Enjoy please, and feel free to leave comments, likes, and upgrading to a paid subscription. Remember, I genuinely like it when people share what I write with their friends or offer links on social media to it.
Peace.
The Cover of the Unillustrated Edition
How not to write pulp ninja erotica – A look at The Erotic Adventures of Ashida Kim
A couple months ago, if I recall correctly, I wrote about Ashida Kim’s first real book, “Secrets of the Ninja.” Despite my pet peeve that any easily available martial arts book with the word “secrets” in the title is misnamed and false advertising, secrets being, you know, “secret” and all, I actually gave it a pretty positive review, especially when put in historical context as not only one of the first “how to be a ninja” books, but the first one that really offered readers some of the basic knowledge needed to fulfill their ninja fantasies. So in that context, the book wasn’t bad, and Ashida Kim did a pretty good job with it.
But then came the sequels.
Endless sequels.
Many of them.
And the weirdest of them all was his only piece of ninja fiction, an erotic, ninja novel entitled “The Erotic Adventures of Ashida Kim.” 1
And I read it so you don’t have to. Please thank me.
So . . .
Where does one begin with “The Amorous Adventures of Ashida Kim”?
Among Ashida Kim followers, one of his most infamous publications is this novel. Reportedly semi-autobiographical, the author in his afterward says 90% of the novel “actually occurred.”
Personally, I cringe anytime almost any time anything is advertised as “a true story.”
But setting that aside, I’m going to offer two separate articles on this. The first is an evaluation of the book as fiction.
The Cover of the Illustrated Version
The second will deal with its publishing history. Curiously enough, after communicating with Phil Elmore, the only other person I have been able to track down who owns a copy and admits it, we discovered that our copies don’t match. Meanwhile, just understand that there is an early, unillustrated edition that has more pages, and a much newer, illustrated edition that has fewer pages. Apparently something was cut, and the chapters are not in the same order. There is no explanation offered by the publisher, and nothing in the copyright page to explain it.
Therefore, there are at least two editions of this book. Mine has five photos of women in the book. Each has a name under the picture. Three are followed by sex scenes said to be with the woman in the picture, but the other two aren’t. Phil Elmore’s copy has none of these pictures. He also noted that mine appears to have some professional editing and typos and spacing issues that appear in his are fixed. 2 And we know pages have been cut from my edition. I strongly suspect there were more sex scenes in the book at one time.
This is a subject I will return to in more depth soon, probably next week.
The back cover of the earlier, unillustrated version.
Back cover of illustrated version
The Amorous Adventures of Asihida Kim -a Book Review.
But how does the erotic adventures of Ashida Kim stand up as a piece of erotic, martial arts fiction? I mean if a friend of mine were to call me up and ask, “Hey Pete, I was wondering, do you know any good erotic sex novels with lots of kung fu, martial arts, and ninjas in them that you might recommend?” would this one come to mind? (And, hey, I’ve gotten stranger telephone calls, believe me.)
Well, no. Even in that context, I would not recommend it.
To which some might reply, “Well, Pete, what are your qualifications to judge erotic ninja porn novels anyway? What do you know about kung fu pulp fiction and erotica and porn and such? Do you have any credentials in the fields of writing pulp martial arts fiction and / or writing erotica?”
And the answer, and this will surprise some of you greatly and others not at all, are, well actually I do. Having been published for short stories in both the field of erotica and martial arts pulp fiction, 3 not to mention a one-time contributor to Hustler magazine, I’d say my ability to judge is surprisingly high.
SO . . . where do we begin? Two good places to evaluate a novel are “does it fulfill its implied promise?” and “does it have narrative flow?” In other words, when a reader picks up a piece of fiction, they are looking to experience something. What is it that the book seems to offer the reader? What is the “implied promise” of the book? With the “Amorous Adventures of Ashida Kim,” the implied promise seems to be “read this book and you will vicariously experience an X-rated, erotic martial arts adventure with lots of fantastic sexual stories and fight scenes.” If so, does the book deliver on this promise? Does it provide an x-rated, erotic martial arts adventure?
Secondly, does it have “narrative flow”? Narrative flow is the abstract force that keeps a reader turning the pages anxious to see what happens next. Years ago, I read a wonderful book on how to write a mystery novel, title long forgotten and buried deep in my storage area so I can’t accurately share the author or exact title (Um, it had a red cover), and it described “narrative flow” thusly: “narrative flow is when you are reading a book, thinking to yourself, this is stupid, I don’t know why I am bothering to read this, but I just want to see how it all ends.”
So, with these are two guiding principles, unfortunately, “The Amorous Adventures of Ashida Kim” really does not measure up in either area,
Despite the “Must be age 18 to order” and the clear promises that this will be a piece of sexually explicit erotica, there’s surprisingly little here in terms of sex scenes. There is also much less here in terms of martial arts fight scenes than I had expected. As mentioned, we have 102 pages, divided into 10 chapters with a prolog and an epilog.
My version has exactly three sex scenes. Now, I don’t consider myself skilled in writing erotica although bizarrely enough I have been published in that field. (See my previous footnote) While there’s debate over it, most people who do think that while erotic sex scenes can simply stand alone and still be entertaining, they work much better when integrated into a story, and if the story actually make you care about the interpersonal relationship between the people involved, and in such a way that their physical relationship is somehow tied in with their interpersonal, emotional relationship it's a more engaging, more compelling and interesting story. It’s like fight scenes in a martial arts movie. They can be entertaining alone, but they work much better if you know why they are fighting, what is at stake, and what are the consequences of the fight. Same thing with sex scenes.
So a little context, and, yes, there will be spoilers so if you plan to read this and don’t want surprises, don’t read ahead. Instead, might I suggest, go to my archives and read things there that you might have missed. If you have read it all, reread something and leave a comment or push the “like” button, or share with friends.
Table of Contents of the earlier, unillistrated version
Table of contents of the later, illustrated version.
For the context to these fight and sex scenes, the basic plot starts with Ashida Kim meeting the robed and hooded high lords of the ninja clan. This organization is thousands of years old
He wants to have someone expelled from their society. This instructor, says, Kim is a bully, a child-abuser, and a wife-beater as well as a bad instructor who mistreats his students and holds bad classes at his karate school that do not represent the martial arts well,
The ninja lords are against this saying it simply isn’t done, and that they do not interfere in the paths of history and the ways of worldly affairs. It’s also mentioned, by the way, that Ashida Kim has connections with the thuggee. 4
The ninja lords determine that in order to do this, he must first travel somewhere where he has the opportunity to engage in “ritual combat.”
Therefore, unable to have the person expelled, he heads to South Africa, Apartheid era South Africa, where he takes a job as a bouncer in a brothel. Bouncer in a brothel seeking ritual combat in order to be allowed the autonomy to obtain justiceand vengeance. Clearly, an over arching plot that focuses on dealing with an obvious villainous person, a large secret society bound by tradition, and the promise of engaging in ritual contact in order to earn the right to banish this bullying, abusive member.
And thus the novel begins. The writing is a little sloppy, but the basic idea is not bad. But how well does it fulfill the implied promises to the reader? What does it manage to do with this set up?
Let’s begin with the sex scenes.
Well, yes, I paid much more for my copy than Phil Elmore did, but I got half a dozen amazing illustrations like this for added value.
The Sex Scenes
So, here they are:
1. P. 36. Yes, the first sex scene in this novel begins on page 36, over a third into the book. If one has come to the novel seeking erotic stories, this has to be a confusing disappointment.
Basically, for reasons that aren’t quite clear (there’s no build up or anticipation), Ashida Kim is encouraged to go visit one of “the girls,” a woman named Sandy. There’s a photo of a woman labelled Sandy on page 35, the page before the sex scene. Having read the book once, and skimmed again, I can find no reference to Sandy in any of the previous 35 pages, so there’s no pre-existing relationship of any kind here. We have no idea who she is. Curiously there’s no description of her when we meet her, although there is some after the sex scene. The sex scene is a little over a page long. I suspect it was longer in earlier printings.
Yes, one page long approximately.
That’s it.
A couple things worth mentioning. The writing could have been improved with a good editor or critiquing group. ( free plug for Critters )
“Hookers don’t wear underwear,” she explained. [“} Just gets in the way and slows things down. Hope you don’t mind.” She whispered into my ear as she bent over to kiss me.
The dialogue stops here and the actual sex begins, so apparently she was whispering when she said “Hookers don’t wear underwear,” but it’s obviously a bit vague. The author should have explained that the person was whispering before or during their whispering, not after they finished.
They continue.
Another portion of the sex scene that seems worth sharing.
When I did enter her, she was quite pleased and began in earnest to encourage me to orgasm. But having trained in these methods, I was able to extend the normal interval and help her to have a good time instead.
“Trained in these methods,” I assume, refers to Taoist sexual alchemy. Basically, and this is true, from surprisingly early times, Taoism had a great deal to say about sexual health and techniques and the balance of Yin and Yang. Within this context, a male was encouraged to have sex with many women but to do so without achieving orgasm, as this was considered very good for one’s health as the man acquired “yin energy” without losing his “yang energy.” In this fine work, “The Amorous Adventures of Ashida Kim,” we learn that our hero has mastered these techniques, is able to delay orgasm, and thus is quite proficient at pleasing women. Good for him. Good for them, too, I suppose.
And it makes perfect sense, if we accept the basic premise of many Ashida Kim books. We should expect this. Ashida Kim is, reportedly, a master of all things mystical and Asian, (except strangely enough Asian cooking) and he also sells an Asian or at least Asian-esque sex manual through his company DojoPress, something I will write more about next time. (I don’t plan to buy it by the way. If anyone wishes to spend a couple hundred dollars on overpriced, slim Ashida Kim books for me, let me know, and I’ll send you a list of the rare and hard to find ones. In the meantime, I have a box of the common, easily acquired ones. If nothing else, the man is prolific. I admire that in a person.)
Afterwards, they chat a bit, Ashida Kim tells her a story about a tragic incident that happened to a woman he knew once, and they part ways. This seems to be the same tragic incident he alludes to in the prologue.
2. P. 44. The sex scene on page 44 involves a woman named “Shirley” and there’s a picture of her on page 43. Interestingly enough, Shirley becomes very important in the novel but only at its end.
But let’s get back to the sex scene.
The motivation here is that apparently he so impressed Sandy in the previous sex scene with his amazing, Asian / Taoist sexual techniques, that his co-workers wish to catch him on hidden camera and see how does the things he does. This sex scene is much longer, starting on p. 45 and continuing to p. 52.
Well, I am not going to share the details, but if a book advertises as full of sex scenes, it should indeed have sex scenes, so we most certainly can’t fault the author for including them and making them long. That, as I said, is fulfilling the implied promise of the work.
There’s a third and final sex scene in the book on page 57. It involves a sex show that one of the working women in the brothel puts on for the staff in order to win an argument arguing over whether or not a woman can dominate a man or men using her sexuality or if that is just something men can do.
It’s over four pages long, and, no surprise, she dominates the room, making all the men desire her, and wins the argument.
Page 47, Another high quality illustration. Oh, how I pity the poor people who purchased the earlier version that lacked these images. My heart weeps.
The Fight Scenes
What really surprised me about this book is how few and how uninteresting the fight scenes were. I counted five of these.
The first occurs on page 23. It’s actually questionable if it should even be counted as a fight at all.
Basically while working in the brothel, a drunk patron refuses to go home quietly unless one of “the girls” comes out and gives him special attention. This attention he desires is not of a sexual nature, but instead a nice good bye it seems. Nevertheless, she does not wish to give it to him, perhaps because he is drunk, emotional, and unpredictable, or perhaps because it’s simply not a good precedent to give into drunken tantrums from patrons. I didn't really understand to be honest.
Even when he’s made to leave the building, he waits in the parking lot, yelling for the lady, calling for her to come out and say good night to him.
“Want me to get this one?” says Ashida Kim, and alone he goes, out into the parking lot.
He greets the drunk, they chat a bit, and the drunk passes out, because he is a drunk who has had too much to drink. At no point did our hero even touch him.
Very soon after the other bouncers come out to see what happened, find the drunk sleeping on the ground and are awed.
“Did you use the death touch?” they ask. Ashida Kim’s reputation is now made among the bouncers at the brothel
The second fight scene occurs on page 40. It involves a fight that started in the parking lot. Two drunken friends have gotten into a fistfight over who should have paid for the bar tab, he explains. Ashida Kim goes out to break it up, winds up spinning one of them around after he puts his hand on one’s arms just as he pulls back to take a swing at his drinking buddy.
The man falls down, he is drunk after all. Again his fellow bouncers who only saw part of the scene are amazed and in awe at his martial arts powers.
So far, really not much in the way of fight scenes at all.
The third fight scene is on page 69. Ashida Kim is out, away from the brothel, teaching a martial arts class that involves stances similar to Shotokan Karate, (Ashida Kim is known to have studied Shotokan Karate in real life. ) When it’s time to return to the brothel, he catches a ride with “Cuddles,” the effeminate, gay bar tender at the brothel and a couple of his gay friends. Two of these men begin necking and fondling each other in the back seat of the car, ultimately becoming sexual in the back seat. While they invite Kim to join them, he politely declines and clearly has no problem with their behavior.
The problems start though when they stop at a convenience store so Kim can get some cigarettes.
When he comes out, three men are harassing and threatening his gay companions and leaning on the car.
After verbal de-escalation fails, Kim distracts one by pulling a plastic bag over his head, rolls over the car hood and kicks a second, then, as the driver starts the car, he jumps in the back seat while the third thug tries to climb into the car, and grab one of the gay men. They speed off, the third thug hanging on the back of the car, until he falls off. After they see him get back up and run away they all laugh.
The fourth fight scene is on page 80. It, too, is brief, the actual fight is less than a page long after a suitable set up and involves an attempt by some pimps to coerce one of “the girls” to leave the brothel against her will and work for them instead.
We return to the story of Shirley. Shirley, we learn, was raised in a plantation and used as household servant then sex slave as a child by a South African plantation owner named Hendrick and his family until running away when she was 16. One day Hendrick comes to the brothel to demand she return with him to back where she came from. He snatches her arm, smacks her in the head, stuns her, then tosses her in the car and speeds off, firing shots at the brothel staff out of his car window as he does.
It needs to be mentioned that the scene where he threatens to rape her and tells her exactly what he plans to do to her is very ugly. Not saying these things don’t happen, Ashida Kim makes his views on treatment of women clear throughout the book, and encourages treating them well, but it’s an ugly scene.
Here we get an odd point of view shift. A point of view shift is where a story suddenly is told from a different point of view than before. So while most of the novel is told first person from Ashida Kim’s perspective, during this chase and fight scene, it awkwardly shifts back and forth from Shirley’s perspective when she is alone with Hendrick and then back to Ashida Kim’s perspective. This is particularly jarring as the previous 79 pages were told exclusively from Ashida Kim’s point of view. It’s a common mistake or problem in writings done by beginning writers.
It should also be mentioned that if there had been more mention of Hendrick and Shirley’s abusive past previously in this book then the novel would have had more tension and drama. Oh well.
She uses her newly taught martial arts skills on him, puts him in a choke hold, and renders him unconscious.
She leaves quickly.
Hendrick regains consciousness just as Ashida Kim enters the room.
There's an awkward explanation of where he had come from and how he got there.
Page 90 begins an awesome fight scene as Hendrick fires a handgun at him from close range but he uses his ninja skills to dodge three bullets in a row, all fired at short range, then slips behind Hendrick, puts him in a second choke hold, but this time dislocates his skull, producing instant death.
Of course, he tells no one, instead letting the woman victimized by this man feel empowered in the belief that she killed her abuser without his help.
And that is the climactic fight scene of the novel.
Soon he decides to return home to the USA, his purpose in South Africa now fulfilled.
So how does the whole thing end?
Remember how this whole thing began by Ashida Kim embarking on a trip to South Africa after meeting with the ninja clan? It was decided that time abroad, spent away from his usual environs and with the opportunity for ritual combat would help him determine if it was just, moral, and ethical to banish a member of the ninja clan, even if he was a bad man who hurt people, even if he was a pimp?
The last page and a half of this book is devoted to answering this question.
Yes, the last page and a half. No more.
Ashida Kim decides that if after all this time, he still wishes to “banish” (a word I read as “destroy” in this context, but what do I know?) the pimp who hurt a woman he loved and who hurt other women as well, he has earned the right by maintaining his resolve.
And . . . that’s the end of the story.
Do we see this happen? No,
And, I, for one, think this is very disappointing.
He also mentions that he has decided not to show events involving “the Thuggee” or “Black Belt International,”5 alluding to the fact that these events were so awesome and otherworldly that they are not to be shared with the public, merely alluded to for the public.
CONCLUSION
So does the novel have a story arc? Does it show character growth?
A little of each but it could and really should be strengthened.
The big problem is ultimately left unresolved, and only referred to from time to time throughout. A shame and something good novels have. In conclusion, The Amorous Adventures of Ashida Kim . . . um . . . could be improved.
Special Bonus — The Amorous Adventures of Ashida Kim, the entire novel, read aloud on YouTube
Check it out, if you wish.
(This appears to be the Illustrated Version)
MC Hot Dog “I love Taiwan girls!” /
MC HotDog 熱狗&張震嶽 A-Yue【我愛台妹】
Just for fun, this was a big hit in Taiwan in 2006 or so when I was studying Chinese and teaching English there. Obviously, it indicates the rise in Taiwan nationalism that has been such a big thing in the last 40 years. MC Hot Dog has become the host of some mainland Chinese rap competition reality shows since. He even acted in a Taiwanese film called “Zombie Fight Club.” The movie itself was a major disappointment with some exciting scenes thrown together in a disjointed manner, and a lot of sexual exploitation thrown in that I found disappointing. My advice is skip it. BTW, the actual title of the song translates as “I love Taiwanese little sisters” but “Taiwan girls” is probably closer to the meaning for an American,
As for the film:
Zombie Fight Club (Taiwan 2014)
Now, after watching this trailer, I know what you are all going to be thinking, “WOW!! This looks like the greatest movie of all time!” —well, trust me on this. It’s not. Skip it. Some good scenes like a car escape down an apartment hallway, a gladiatorial fight against zombies, but there’s also some memorable, cringey rape scenes and not much of a plot to tie the scenes together. You’ve been warned. And, yes, this did feature MC Hot Dog in a rare acting role. Bizarrely enough, I found it at a local public library, and none of the librarians I asked had any idea why or how it had become part of an upstate New York suburban public library DVD
collection.
Update on the Saga of the Evil, Ex-Mayor Alice Guo
Oooooh!! She’s so bad. At this point in the saga, Alice Guo has been stripped of office but is still in hiding having fled the Philipines after being charged with identity theft and multiple charges including human trafficking. Her lawyer is denying that he lied when he reported that she was in the Philipines after she had fled. “I trusted her!” he explained.
She was last seen in Indonesia where the authorities have actually arrested two of her associates, one being her sister, and returned them to the Philipines. There are rumors that she might try to escape by heading for the Golden Triangle, the region where Thailand, Laos, and Burma / Myanmar join, a site of heavy duty criminal and organized crime activity for decades. The region also has a heavy presence of organized Chinese crime networks.
Meanwhile the authorities in the Philipines have charged 35 people with money laundering in the wake of the scam phone center and human trafficking scandal in which she was charged. There are still new developments each week.
Booo! Hiss! Such a phony looking smile. Catch her and make her fight in The Taiwanese Zombie Fight Club!!
Interestingly enough, Ashida Kim may have written at least two more novels both in the last few years. They did not seem to involve martial arts but instead on the evils of “the war on Christmas” and how the pandemic era lockdowns were attacks on Christianity. Honestly it’s tough to tell if they are fiction or non-fiction. See: https://dojopress.com/catalogbk149.html
Ashida Kim does not have a reputation for being easy to work with, although he would undoubtedly counter by arguing that it’s his former publishers fault and point to the sections on his website ( www.ashidakim.com ) where he lists all his problems with them. If this edition has had professional proof editing, and if there were problems, it would explain a completely incongruous, obscene sentence on page 47 that may have been put there by an unhappy proof reader. I’m not going to reprint it. I do have some sense of decency.
The piece of published erotica was entitled “The Meat Forest and the Wine Lake” and was included in something called “The Best of the Best Meat Erotica," and I wrote it at a time when I wanted to see if i could write a short story no matter what genre and type. (Joe Lansdale used to do this, and I admire his work.) Apparently I succeeded. Interestingly, it was set in ancient China. (Hint when submitting fiction to themed anthologies, find something that checks all the required boxes, but stands out as different and you have a better chance of being published. Hence put your erotic story with lots of meat products and “over the top humor” in ancient China.)
The pulp kung fu fiction was entitled “The Brothers of the Golden Dragon Slam Hong Kong —Four Trained Fists of Blazing Fury Meet Kang the Puppetmaster’s Minions in a 1970s Kung Fu Fantasy Guaranteed to Make Your Chi Flow Like Blood Spurting From a Compound Fracture!” — It was originally available on the website of something called Nth Zine, but that is long gone and it’s no longer available on line. I did republish it in my short story collection “Put Your Favorite Picture Here,” available at your favorite online book vendors.
I also wrote a pair of erotic short stories that I was once promised would be published, but the project fell apart before publication. One involved EMTs, one male and one female, who had their ambulance stolen by a teenager while they were hiding from their dispatcher and having sex in a park (I was very proud of that one) and the other involved baseball and horror comics. (The theme for the anthology was to be “erotic stories about baseball.” Knowing nothing about baseball and having no interest in it, i wrote a story that involved baseball players and the class EC horror comic mentioned in “Seduction of the Innocent” which involved baseball players. It was called “Foul Play.” You all know what I’am talking about, right? It was specifically mentioned as a reason to create the comic book code. Right? Right? Some day on my long list of things to do is to write a couple more such stories, think of a proper pen name, and then publish them all in an anthology. Some day. Some day.
I mentioned the Thuggee in an earlier post here. See Did the notorious 19th Century, savage, New York City Irish-American gang, The Dead Rabbits actually exist? What about other questionable groups that may or may not have existed in history? They were said to be a religious sect in pre-19th Century India that waylaid and strangled strangers as a sacrifice to the Goddess Kali. There’s a controversy on whether or not they existed or if they were merely an urban legend that caused a moral panic by the British authorities.
I suspect this said Black Dragon Fighting Society in the original, but I could be wrong. To learn more about Ashida Kim’s odd relationship with Count Dante and his Black Dragon Society look Ashida Kim up on Wikipedia. Time to deadline precludes a better discussion right now. Sorry.
Wow, fascinating stuff! Glad you did a deep dive into this--so we don't have to!
Yeah, that’s one ninja book I’m happy to leave to you, Peter.