Eau Claire author Julian Augustus Finisterre wrote, edited, designed, and is marketing his erotic novel.

For writers, the publishing world is the challenge of a lifetime. It’s that big scary place where readers are fickle and the critics seem to enjoy tearing apart anything that does not conform to the current standard that the mysterious “They” have formulated for the contemporary age. It’s even harder for those whose works don’t just border the line of acceptable discourse, but are brave enough to leap beyond it.

That is exactly what Julian Augustus Finisterre has dared to do.

In a totally self-created erotic novel – from writing and editing to designing and marketing – Finisterre approaches his “disgust [for] the hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness so prevalent in the public discourse” by using the erotic novel as a vessel for a morality tale. In his debut novel, Cocksmith at the Helm, Finisterre creates a self-proclaimed “adult fairytale” of sex, myth, and magic. Delivered in short chapters, the hero Myron Cocksmith serves as a man on the road to self-discovery, ultimately portraying the moral values that Finisterre holds dear: “love and respect for one another regardless, the sacred nature of sexuality, the inherent sacredness of the natural world, and acceptance of one another in general.”

Julian Augustus Finisterre is a nom de plume, adopted for discretion during his teaching years while publishing online erotica. Finisterre is taken from the Latin finis terra, meaning “the end of the earth” or a stepping away point, which seems only fitting for this author’s particular daring.

Finisterre took his first step into the world of erotica as a young boy, when he found he wasn’t so much drawn to the pictures in PentHouse magazines as he was to the written work. As he grew older, his imagination and view of the sacred nature of the body and the world was only further stimulated and both friends and teachers encouraged him to incorporate sensuality into his written voice.

    An alumnus of UW-Eau Claire and a retired teacher, Finisterre has loved literature his whole life. He has taught in several places, including Gambell, Alaska on St. Lawrence Island where during the school year of ’05-’06 he found his inspiration for Cocksmith, the sequel drafts, and a collection of short stories. In a place where classwork was rarely taken home and the people seemed to be caught between an old and a new world, the extremities of the land offered a spiritual place where Finisterre experienced a period of self-realization. It was also where he became truly disgusted by the formulaic world of teaching and writing, and his vision of his own future began to develop.

Since that period of self-definition, Finisterre has faced the challenges of financial difficulty as well as personal loss. However, with the death of his father last summer, he was nudged toward the pursuit of his creative dreams. Originally, Cocksmith had been a novella, but quickly morphed into a “cycle” that was not quite ready to end. As the characters declared their stories further, Finisterre accepted a personal challenge that “became an unlikely love song, to life and to Woman, to the Earth and sensuality, to the beauty of difference, and the sacred sense of interconnection among beings, sentient or otherwise, that share existence with us.”

For what is perceived by most as inappropriate subject matter, Finisterre seems to take erotica to a higher intellectual level, introducing a lyrical tale of open-mindedness. Although many consider him foolish for pursuing such a road, in the world of online erotica Finisterre has received both praise and interest for where his writing is going. As he works on the third installment of his Cocksmith cycle, he continues to dare the world to reject his spiritual and moral convictions, unabashedly turning what is considered acceptable discourse on its head.