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A Personal Demon
| A Personal Demon | |
|---|---|
 A Personal Demon Book Cover, written by David Bischoff, Rich Brown and Linda Richardson | |
| Author(s) |
David Bischoff Rich Brown Linda Richardson |
| Publisher | Signet |
| Publication date | September 3, 1985 |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Length | 253 Pages |
| ISBN | 978-0451138149 |
For other uses of the word Succubus, see Succubus (disambiguation).
A Personal Demon is a novel written by David Bischoff, Rich Brown and Linda Richardson. In this work appears a succubus-like character named Anathae. The novel holds a special place in the lives of TeraS and KeithS, the owners of this website.
Overview
- Title: A Personal Demon
- Author: David Bischoff, Rich Brown and Linda Richardson
- Format: Paperback
- Publisher: Signet
- Length: 253 Pages
- ISBN-10: 0451138147
- ISBN-13: 978-0451138149
- Release Date: September 3, 1985
Plot Summary
A college professor of medieval literature, drunk and desperate to liven up a dull party, performs a demon-summoning ritual, which, unexpectedly, succeeds. The demon, a four thousand year old half-human female, proves more alluring and mischievous than the professor anticipates, and proceeds to turn his life upside down.
Book Review
The following review is from http://home.sprynet.com/~dbrukman/Personal-Demon.html
- An amusing wish-fulfillment fantasy which shows the weaknesses of a made-up novel, this book has a couple of interesting characters but little originality.
- Reviewed by David on August 28, 1998
- Genre: Fantasy (Wish Fulfillment, Demons)
When Willis Baxter, a frustrated professor at a New England university with a penchant for drink and remarkable talent for failure in romantic relationships, got too drunk at his own party, unexpected results ensued. Instead of just impressing his guests with his knowledge of obscure magic rituals, he summoned an absolutely stunning female half-demon, Anathae. The demon, who looks like a naked sixteen year-old redhead with small horns, hooves and a tasteful tail, has been unhappy in Hell, and is extremely grateful to her "liberator". Luckily, most guests attribute the summoning to a party trick, with amusement value pretty much divided by gender.
Anathae's magical pursuit of him is unhampered by such things as modesty or consideration of his desires, and pretty soon Baxter finds himself with enraged girlfriend, infuriated boss, jealous rival professor, and prurient neighbors. Annoyed beyond endurance, Willis send the beauteous Anathae back to Hell. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the rest of the book), circumstances force him to recall the girl-demon.
As their adventures progress, Anathae matures, Baxter loses some inhibitions, and their growing love for each other helps him become more assertive, confident, wise and amusing—not without complications on the way. The relationship becomes intimate quite soon, and handled very matter-of-fact; unlike the coy way of, say, the television series I Dream of Jeanie, whose central conceit this book shares.
This is a compilation of several short stories which appeared in Fantastic between 1975 and 1978. As such, it shows typical problems—there is too much repetition in each segment, originally intended to introduce new readers or remind the old ones of the plot. In addition, there are self-indulgent authorial asides, poking fun at various science fiction and romance conventions, but jarring to the pace and tone of the book, and not sufficiently amusing to compensate.
The book is fun in places, and the demon-professor relationship is pleasingly wish-fulfilling, at least to heterosexual male reader. However, is doesn't rise above a nice "airplane book".
- Includes: A Personal Demon; In a Pig's Eye; With Good Intentions; A Trick of the Tail; Where Angels Fear to Tread
- Overall: 5; Plot: 5; Characters: 5; Style: 4; World-building: 4; Originality: 5;
- Review Copyright © 1998-2003 David Brukman
Special Note from KeithS and TeraS
The story of how we met through this book and what came from it, can be found at Tera's Blog - A Succubi's Tale. We are reposting that story here in the SuccuWiki under this article because it seems to be the right place to do so. Thank you Tera for making my dreams be true.
With Love, Your Eternal Keith
Love you always and forever n ever my Eternal...
Your Succubi forever... Tera
The Story of Tera & Keith and A Personal Demon
Some people have heard this story before, but I think it needs to be told here too… I want to tell you all a story about my husband Keith and I. I want to try and explain why being a Succubus is so important to me… to us. You have to understand that this all started many years ago. I was 26 at the time, and I was very much alone. Mom had passed away years before, Dad was very distant from me from the day Mom passed away. I was brought up by my Grandmom from that day on really. Grandmom taught me how to be a good person. I didn’t want to be one. I wanted to lash out at every person that tried to be nice to me or help me. I just didn’t care. But she told me that I would find someone to love and that when that day happened, I would know it without fear. I would find my soulmate and we would be happy. I took Grandmom’s words to heart. I believed her because she was always right. I wondered how I would know when it was the right person for me. I thought about it through high school and came up with a question to ask. It was a very strange thing to ask and it would get me many a strange look, but I asked it anyway. It turned out that no one that I ever asked it of could answer it the right way. They paused and backed away and probably thought I was a little crazy for asking.
That is until the day I met Keith.
I was invited to a party on a Friday night by my girlfriend at the time, Sandy. It was a nice party and it was a lot of fun. I really wasn’t interested in talking to many people there. Most of the people there knew me and were friendly to me, but they knew that I wasn’t interested in them. The answers were wrong. I was talking to Sandy by her fireplace when Keith came into the room. He arrived with his best friend Jim and later told he that he didn’t want to come to the party because he didn’t know anyone there except for Jim. I saw him come in… I couldn’t look away… He wasn’t too handsome. He wasn’t anything special that I could see. But he was… interesting…. Not loud, not crazy or ill mannered. Just a nice guy, well dressed. I noticed that he didn’t drink, that was very attractive to me. He didn’t seem to be a smoker either as he seemed to avoid smokers like the plague. After a little while I watched him leave the party and go out to Sandy’s pool where some of the party had spilled out to. To this day, I do not know why I followed him out. I left the house and found myself at the patio door looking at him sitting at a patio table looking at the night sky above him.
I walked over to him and said, “Hello.”
He looked over to me and then scrambled to his feet. He answered, “Hello. May I offer you a seat?” I nodded and sat at the table with him. We talked for a while about things that I can’t remember in detail anymore and then Keith said, “Is there something I can offer you?” I couldn’t help myself and said, “Be careful who you give your soul to. You will never get it back.”
He just gave me a smile and said, “You had it at hello….”
And he meant it. I just knew that he did.
It was a certainty that I had never felt before and that has never left me from that day. I can almost feel him at any time in the day, he doesn’t have to be there, or touch me, or hold me, I just know that I am in his thoughts and I know that he knows that he is in mine.
A few weeks later Keith invited me to dinner at his place. He owned a nice home and one of the things that I found interesting was that he had created a small library in his home. He left me there while he finished dinner and I looked over the books he owned. He had books on photography, art, science and many other subjects. All of them were hardcover books and many of them were signed copies. There were a few very old books on the shelf that I didn’t dare touch as they were so fragile looking. But one book stood out like a sore thumb on the shelf. It was a paperback book. It was the only paperback book there. The title was in white on a dark spine and literally screamed at me to look at it.
The title was, “A Personal Demon”
I really didn’t know what to make of it. Keith seemed like a nice guy and wasn’t weird. Why a book like this? I pulled it out and noticed that the book was very well worn. The pages were dog eared and the cover was damaged. This book had been read many times I could tell. I stared at it for a minute…. And then I put it in my purse. I didn’t tell Keith I took it either. We had dinner and a lovely evening together, and afterwards I went home. And stayed up all night reading the book. And read it over and over again through the next week. It was a romance about a university professor that summoned a demoness and by the end of the book, they were in love with each other. Something in the book just grabbed my heart and I knew what I was going to do. Keith called me over for dinner again that week and I returned the book without saying anything to him. But I left something in the book. I took a card and wrote a note on it.
I wrote, “I can be your personal demoness. Love Tera”. And left a lipstick kiss on it. I put that note inside the front cover of the book and put it back on the shelf.
Keith never said anything about the book being missing. At the end of dinner, I invited him to my place for dinner the next weekend.
I spent the week looking for a demoness outfit to wear. I couldn’t find anything that didn’t look tacky. So I put one together on my own. A set of soft red horns, lipstick and nail polish to match the horns. A wonderful red dress that went perfectly with a set of red heels that I had. I wanted to look classy for him. I wanted to be the one to fulfil his fantasy. I made dinner and wore everything except the horns when Keith arrived for dinner. We ate and afterwards we were sitting on my sofa looking at the fireplace and talking about things when Keith reached over to his jacket and pulled out the note I had left him.
He looked into my eyes and said, “Do you mean this Tera?”
I took the card, got off the sofa and told him to stay there. I went upstairs and got my horns and came back to him.
He was speechless.
I sat back down beside him and said, “Yes. I can. I must, for I have your soul.”
And I became a demoness or rather a Succubus…
He fulfilled a dream for me. I could not do less than give him his fantasy in return. It’s something wonderful when two souls that are meant for each other find one another and fill each other’s needs and wants. I will admit that we have a great deal of fun with the fantasy that we have created together. It’s something very special to us and I hope that it is something special that I… that we have shared with all of you here in this place we are creating. I wish to all of you that have found someone special in your life all of the happiness in the world always. I wish to all of you looking for that person all of my hopes and dreams that you are fulfilled and find that person soon. I know that I am a romantic, and that I have a need to speak from my heart to you all.
I have to. I can do no less for those I care about. My love to you all
Tera Queen of the Succubi