Do Judge a Book By its Cover...

... at least when it's a Space Princess cover!

As I work to deliver Season Two of Space Princess with the fine people at Uruk Press, I'm delighted to bring you a sneak peek at cover art from the one and only Lady Amaranthine. I'm truly blessed to have her as the cover artist for this series, and to be able to share these images with you. Some mildly NSFW art after the jump.

Flowers of Evil & The Wolf at the Door.

Flowers of Evil sees our heroines encountering a derelict ship and a bevy of the beautiful -- but reputedly dangerous and sadistic -- concubines of a faction called the Optimates, who once came close to destroying the United Space Alliance. It's our first cover to feature a villainess.

The Wolf at the Door features an encounter with alien lycanthropes on a distant frontier planet. This time the cover girl is Lt. Gemma Mitchell, the adorable redhead who can often be found at the Helm station of the S.S. Ecstasy. 

As always, sexy hijinks will ensue. Thanks again to Lady Amaranthine for the part she's played in bringing the campy retro-SF universe of the Space Princess stories to life. And stay tuned for more Season Two news!

A Brief Word on Hefner's Sunset

(Before I get into it: the passing of Hugh Hefner has already been displaced in the news cycle by the single worst mass shooting in modern American history. I hope those reading this will consider giving to the Las Vegas Victims' Fund.) 

Hugh Hefner's passing already seems much further in the rear-view than it really is. But it would be remiss of someone who is currently writing a retro-SF series so heavily influenced in many ways by the aesthetic of Playboy magazine in the Sixties and Seventies not to say a few words about his departure from this mortal coil.

Space Princess owes a great deal of its existence to the models of Playboy. Many of its characters were originally inspired by women who posed in the pages of that most iconic of soft-porn rags. Not a few of the women who have posed in Playboy have memorialised Hef as a legend, an icon and one of a kind. 

That opinion is not universal, including among those who knew him, and I'd be lying if I told you that I was ever entirely comfortable with the spectacle and image presented by Hugh Hefner, the man, or that I ever really bought the notion that his life and business model was about some uncomplicated kind of "liberation." 

So I'll just say that to whatever extent he made the world a little sexier, and helped launch the careers of women who've been able to celebrate their sexuality more openly as a result, that was to the good. To whatever extent he made the world worse -- and he was pretty clearly as much an embodiment of the dark side of the "sexual revolution" as of the light -- he should serve as a cautionary tale. We can, I hope, acknowledge that he played a part in the zeitgeist and modern sexuality without having to either prop up a false memory of him or blame him for all our current ills. May he rest in peace, and may we learn.

Allow Me to Play You Out

With a little memorial to one of the brighter parts of the Playboy legacy in these performances from "Playboy After Dark." Starting with the immortal Sammy Davis Jr.: 

Steppenwolf:

The Grand Funk Railroad:

Deep Purple:

Fleetwood Mac:

James Brown:

Until next time, dear readers!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: the third chapter of our Starfinder campaign is up! This one featuring sexytimes! Go check it out, or read and rate over at Literotica! The fourth chapter is live too, wherein our adventurers encounter literally the cutest dragon ever!