Our first book editions are now online!
I'm back and Hefestus Editions are running smoothly.
The past two weeks, the first book collection out of Hefestus Editions, The Lust Collection, has been put to print and is now available in Amazon and elsewhere. The first books published, inserted in the Literary Erotic Thriller cathegory are: GOSPEL, MARIACHI, TANGO and OPUS, authored by Damien Cross.
Literary erotic thriller is a hybrid genre in which the sensual and psychological intensity of erotica is interwoven with the suspenseful mechanics of the thriller. In such works, erotic encounters are not incidental but central to character development and plot, while elements of danger, mystery, or pursuit provide narrative propulsion. The fusion creates a distinctive atmosphere where intimacy and menace coexist, blurring pleasure and peril, and producing moral and emotional ambiguity. From a literary standpoint, these texts belongs primarily to erotica, since desire and sensuality drive its core energy, but its structure borrows from the thriller tradition, situating it within the broader category of genre fusion that destabilizes conventional boundaries.
The first four books in this collection, the "Cannon", are a tetralogy that presents a sharp critique of modern love, masculinity, and the transactional nature of intimacy.
The Cannon books are literature with a whip in its hand and a cigar between its teeth. Beneath the raw language and explicit scenes lies an exploraration of the dividing lines between love, lust and sex through the story arc of Enrique Ruiz, a character that, starting as a jilted groom, styles himself into an unapologetic libertine and through a narrative where danger is a looming presence, is faced with the psichological cost of his choices in a permanent swing that oscilates between meaningless sex and ascetic love.
The Lust Collection is not another collection of “hanky-panky" books. It is a literary exploration of masculinity, desire, and transformation, an odyssey across four volumes where psychology takes precedence over fact, and where absurdity, excess, and surreal compression of time serve only to sharpen the human truths beneath.
From Gospel, the raw apology of liberty, through Mariachi and Tango, where demons, both external and internal, are confronted, to Opus, the final meditation on redemption and cult, this saga blends sensuality, satire, and metaphysical inquiry.
Here, intimacy is never gratuitous; every act is a catalyst for revelation. Beneath the shock lies a mirror, daring the reader to confront prejudice, self‑image, and the boundaries of love.
Pedro Chora Estadão, through his heteronym Damien Cross, orchestrates a work where music, psychology, and narrative cadence intertwine. The Lust Collection is not about the number of acts described, but about the enlightenment they provoke—catharsis, ascesis, satori, nirvana.
Title
The Lust Collection
Author
Pedro Chora Estadão (writing through the heteronym Damien Cross)
Format
Four‑volume literary saga (Gospel, Mariachi, Tango, Opus) ~1,000+ pages
Themes
.Masculinity and psychological transformation
.Liberty, betrayal, redemption
.Polyamory
.Critique of society, media, politics, and financial elites
.Chaos as a creative and spiritual force
.Music as structural metaphor (Gospel, Mariachi, Tango, Opus)
Distinguishing Features
Not pornography: Intimacy is used as a lens for psychological and philosophical inquiry.
Layered narrative: Surreal compression of time, absurd situations, and excessive characters serve as vehicles for deeper truths.
Musical cadence: Each volume is structured around a musical form, blending rhythm with narrative architecture.
Philosophical depth: Explores ascesis, catharsis, satori, nirvana—states of transformation beyond mere plot.
Author’s Statement
“Damien Cross was not an alias but a heteronym - a state of mind through which I created novels at the intersection of sensuality, intrigue, and psychological depth. His voice died in 2008, but the manuscripts, dormant for nearly two decades, have now returned to life. The Lust Collection is not about the number of acts described, but about the enlightenment they provoke.”
Key Quote for Media
Karma always balances its ledgers. The rest is up to the reader.
Quote from the Collection afterword:
On the overarching themes: Gospel, Mariachi, Tango, Opus
“Gospel” is the foundation. It is liberty stripped bare, liberty in its most personal and uncompromising sense, unburdened by societal pretenses. The protagonist becomes, in Depeche Mode’s words, a “Personal Jesus.” His actions ripple outward, reshaping the lives of others, and in the process converting Enrique - from broken disbelief in enduring love into surrender, into trust. From the ashes of betrayal, he rediscovers the possibility of love: a love without possession, ethereal yet born of physical ecstasy rather than ascetic denial.
The subsequent volumes trace the reverberations of this transformation. Mariachi confronts the master demon, Erika; Tango wrestles with the alter‑self, the personal demon. The necessity of deceiving this inner adversary in order to defeat him runs like a thread through the narrative. Mariachi, with its paradoxical blend of loss and betrayal sung in uplifting tones, becomes the soundtrack of struggle. Tango, music of tension and fatality, frames the dismantling of illusions of control - especially sexual control - culminating in the “last dance in paradise,” a chaotic anti‑tango performed at the gates of heaven beneath the thunderous metaphor of the Iguazu Falls. Paradise is lost again in the confrontation with Kostas, its consequences etched into Raymond’s broken body.
Finally, Opus turns to redemption. Its ripples extend outward, shaping a wider world, until illumination coheres into cult. Sharon’s remark - “We started a cult” - marks the moment when the ascetic journey transcends the personal and becomes revelation: a new global mindset driven by chaos, or perhaps by God, working through a trinity. Immersion in uncontrollable circumstances strips away care, and Karma delivers its inevitable verdict. Kostas falls not by Enrique’s hand but by the inexorable balancing of cosmic ledgers.
On interpretation
The social and political critique embedded in these pages is self‑evident. Other interpretive layers I leave untouched, for discovery belongs to future readers. What matters is not the number of acts described, but the effect they produce - the shaping of themes of enlightenment, catharsis, ascesis, satori, nirvana. Call it what you will.
God works in mysterious ways. One does not choose whether one’s personal calvary comes through prayer and fasting or through unsatisfying sexual encounters. In the end, Karma balances its accounts.
And Marta? That is another story.
On fiction and psychology
Some may allege that the circumstances are absurd, extreme, or surreal—that such a number of events could never occur within the given timeline. Fortunately, this is fiction. In fiction, anything may happen in the way, time, and form the author decides. That freedom allows for absurd situations, excessive characters, and the compression of weeks into a single minute, hour, or night. This possibility is precisely what makes a novel more engaging than a strictly realistic—and inevitably unbearable - report.
Here, psychology takes precedence over fact. It does not matter whether the events that generate stress are realistic, whether the crimes that move the story forward could occur, or whether the values inserted into the text bear any connection to reality. What matters is the feeling conveyed, and how far that feeling drives the characters into the psychological states where we want them. Hitchcock—the Bar‑le‑Duc jam fanatic - would have called such details “MacGuffins.” This book is jam‑packed with them. Pun intended.
Other deliberate patterns include criticism of society, mass media, politics, and the influence of chaos on the global economic scene. These themes cannot be introduced without confronting Western notions of morality - and the lack thereof among its financial elites. Added to this are religious, social, and political dimensions. In this work, these themes appear in layers, perceived through sarcasm, direct criticism, humor, and, at times, cynicism.
Who is Damien Cross?
Damien Cross is not an alias, a pseudonym, nor a device for anonymity. Damien Cross is a heteronym of Pedro Chora Estadão. The literary production attributed to this entity can be isolated in terms of time, style, state of mind, and even language.
The works of Damien Cross belong to a set of moleskines written between 1997 and early 2008. I could call this a phase, but that would not be entirely accurate, since during the same timeframe I produced works in other languages and styles, each self‑contained in ways only time has allowed me to define.
These books are destined to an adult, discerning audience. If you are looking for porn, move along, or you may find yourself looking in the mirror.