catherineldf | RIP, M. Christian 😢 (Reply)

RIP, M.Christian

This is a heartbreaker of a post to write. I don’t remember when I first met Chris online, but we were all part of a fairly large community of erotica writers who also crossed over into other genres from the late 1980s to the early 2010s, by which point the literary erotica markets largely disintegrated. Everyone knew everyone else to some extent or another. We all shared TOCs, appeared in each other’s publications and socialized in person, if we lived close enough. Since I am in the Midwest, I didn’t get to do much socializing in person, but I did meet Chris and a bunch of other folks at an erotica writers conference in Vegas in the mid2000s.

In my experience, Chris was kind and genial, loved to write, wrote very well and enjoyed supporting other writers. Their body of work, between erotica, horror, science fiction and nonfiction, was enormous and well worth reading. I appeared in at least 3 of the anthologies that they edited and they sent me a great lesbian ghost for one of mine. I also had a short essay in Chris’s nonfiction book about writing and selling erotica. I have no idea how many TOCs we shared, but it was a lot. I blurbed a couple of his/their books along the way, as well. Most recently, I released a new edition of Chris’s terrific gay vampire novel, Running Dry through Queen of Swords Press.

Chris’s fiction ranged from the smoking hot to the atmospheric and suspenseful. While they finaled for multiple awards, they never really got the wins and recognition outside the erotica writing community that they deserved, which is a damn shame. I was reaching out to Chris to tell them that I had just nominated Running Dry for the SSBA Awards in the Horror category when I got the bad news. 😢

As I’ve posted elsewhere, I’m trying to track down an estate contact. In the meantime, I plan to keep their book in print until I hear otherwise. Author royalties will be set aside until I have a designee or will be donated to some of the organizations they cared deeply about. In the meantime, remember them for their work. Read it, enjoy it and pass it along to your friends. Chris would like that.

https://books2read.com/runningdry

And their website: http://www.mchristian.com

UPDATE: I have spoken with Chris's brother and have gotten permission to keep Running Dry in print and to pay him the royalties. In the meantime, Samuel needs help getting to Eugene, covering associated expenses, etc. If you're in a position to help, his Venmo is @Samuel-AddisonMuncy