Guest Post: The Lusty Adventures of Theseus by Arthur Griffin

I had a lot of inspirations for writing The Lusty Adventures of Theseus. But one of the biggest, and I swear I’m not kidding, was Flesh Gordon.

Not FLASH Gordon.

FLESH Gordon. As in the 70’s-tastic, utterly campy soft porn parody.

My earliest days of technical adulthood coincided with the earliest days of Netflix, and I remember using that service to go on a binge of renting the strange, the bizarre, and occasionally the immensely naughty. I grew up in a town that didn’t have any privately-owned video stores (just Blockbuster), so I only had access to the super-mainstream titles. But I decided I needed to put myself through unofficial film schools by watching all that fringe cinema had to offer.

Someone had mentioned Flesh Gordon to me, and upon hearing of its existence, I was determined to see it. For those who haven’t had the dubious pleasure, rest assured that it is a TERRIBLE movie. It’s so, so, so aggressively bad.

It’s also sort of… fun.

I loved the idea of a sci-fi (or in my case, fantasy) story actually following all the usual tropes, but everyone just having an insane amount of sex while doing it. There was something so unabashedly perverted and joyful about the way sex was integrated into every facet of the plot, even when it made no sense.

I wanted to make something like that but with a gay spin, so I took one of the most archetypal Greek myths out there – Theseus and the Minotaur – and put it through a hyper-sexual filter. And because this was an erotic romance, I also wanted to really focus on the loving relationship between my two leads. (The emotional component was something Flesh Gordon, for all its “strengths,” lacked.)

The other thing I wanted to make sure of was that it was funny. One of the most enjoyable aspects of Flesh Gordon was its dedication to having fun while telling the story. I wanted to honor that as much as I could.

So if you’re looking for a fun, breezy, adventure-filled sex-athon with strapping male leads, I have a feeling you’ll enjoy The Lusty Adventures of Theseus. And who knows? Maybe if grindhouse exploitation films come back into vogue, we’ll even make a movie of it!

Blurb: The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur has never been quite this steamy!

Handsome Theseus journeys to Athens to claim his birthright as heir to the throne, and along the way he meets the roguish Pirithous, who teaches him all about matters of the heart—and body. When they reach the city, Theseus is shocked to discover that his father, the king, has a tradition of sacrificing youths to the Minotaur, the monster that inhabits the island nation of Crete.

Theseus and Pirithous set out to slay the Minotaur. After learning Crete is ruled by a mad tyrant with a fetish for orgies, Theseus puts his skills to the test by fighting, flirting, and fornicating through the ranks, working his way past soldiers, satyrs, and gods alike as he attempts to accomplish his goal and save his city.

Buy Links: Dreamspinner Press (read the excerpt from Chapter One here) || Amazon || Amazon Int’l || Barnes & Noble || All Romance eBooks

About the Author: Arthur Griffin fell in love with mythology as a six-year-old when his mother, not able to find a sitter, took him with her to her art history class. They were studying Renaissance paintings of Greek and Roman legends, and he learned two very important things that day.

One, that there was a whole new world of thrilling stories and myths for him to explore and be enchanted by.

And two, dude! A lot of people were naked back then!

Since then, he’s always enjoyed the steamier side of stories of the ancient world, and is thrilled to be exploring them in his writing. Sometimes his stories are set in a fictional version of the past, or sometimes the gods of old come knockin’ (boots) in the present, but almost always there’s some element of mythology visible in his work.

Arthur lives in Los Angeles with his boyfriend, and works as a ghostwriter and screenwriter. When he’s not writing fantastical tales of two (or more) dudes doing the bone dance, he enjoys hiking, karaoke, superhero comics, getting drinks in West Hollywood, going to the beach, going to the gym, going to the movies, and writing non-smutty screenplays. (But for the record, smut is WAY more fun.)

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