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The Splinter
(This is not a romance. I NEVER write romances. If you're after one, please don't read this.)
For thousands of years, man has sought experience of the divine. He has found strange and sometimes shocking ways to achieve it. Dolores Gutierrez has had visions since early childhood. Convinced that God is calling her to holy orders, she has modeled herself on Teresa of Avila, a medieval saint. But it is pain, not prayer, that brings her visions.
Acutely aware of the dark history of his own religion, Father Steven, the sensible priest of her parish, is certain that Dolores is far more in need of psychiatric care than a nun’s habit. He seeks the help of a colleague, Brother Simon, to assess the disturbed Dolores.
Uniquely qualified to counsel the young woman because of his own struggles with self-immolation, Simon takes on the task only reluctantly; he is not convinced his own demons have been put to rest. Is God really speaking to Dolores, or is it something else?
The Splinter is a dark erotic novella of the intersection between masochism and ecstatic religious experience.
For thousands of years, man has sought experience of the divine. He has found strange and sometimes shocking ways to achieve it. Dolores Gutierrez has had visions since early childhood. Convinced that God is calling her to holy orders, she has modeled herself on Teresa of Avila, a medieval saint. But it is pain, not prayer, that brings her visions.
Acutely aware of the dark history of his own religion, Father Steven, the sensible priest of her parish, is certain that Dolores is far more in need of psychiatric care than a nun’s habit. He seeks the help of a colleague, Brother Simon, to assess the disturbed Dolores.
Uniquely qualified to counsel the young woman because of his own struggles with self-immolation, Simon takes on the task only reluctantly; he is not convinced his own demons have been put to rest. Is God really speaking to Dolores, or is it something else?
The Splinter is a dark erotic novella of the intersection between masochism and ecstatic religious experience.
- GenresEroticaM F RomanceAdult
65 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 3, 2010
117 people want to read
About the author
Remittance Girl
29 books425 followersRemittance Girl is a writer of erotic fiction. NOT ROMANCE OR EROTIC ROMANCE. Most of my work is short stories, but I do write some longer pieces – serials, novellas, etc. I live as an expat in a small Southeast Asian country, where I teach, write and grow orchids. I live with a cat called Seven. Although writing is not my main profession, it is the focus of my life. I hope that shows in the quality of my work.
As a writer, I feel very strongly that the erotica genre has suffered greatly over the years from a lack of quality, good editorship, and a dearth of publishers willing to put new material out there. It seems to have been appropriated by two literary camps: romantic fiction and pornography. These days most erotic fiction is either a romance novel with the spicy bits left in or, on the other side of the spectrum, stroke fiction with the solitary and express purpose of providing guided masturbatory fantasies.
This is sad, because I think erotic fiction, as a genre, should be neither and both those things, but it ought to be more, as well. I have no objection to representations of romantic entanglements in erotica, just as I have no objections to them in a sci-fi novel. Nor do I have any objections to a reader finding that a specific story arouses them to the point of wanting to masturbate. That’s also fine. But there are perfectly good genres where either of those reader desires are fulfilled specifically.
I believe that erotica, as a genre, should deal with the theme of erotic desire and, ideally, how desire informs, changes and manipulates the lives of the characters who are desirous. If erotic fiction can be this, then I think it has the potential to be an important cultural product, and should be proudly included in the literary cannon.
Some of you will have cleverly noticed that Remittance Girl is not the name I was born with. I decided to use a pseudonym because it is in keeping with the tradition of the Victorian pornographers. I could have chosen a name that sounded like a name, but where would be the fun it that. This is my identity for my writing, and for my online persona. I’ve had it for many years now.
The name itself is a reference to a “remittance man”. Wikipedia describes a remittance man thus:
Remittance Man
In the 19th century, the English usage of the word usually referred to money sent from England – the opposite direction to today’s usual usage of the term. A remittance man was an exile living on money sent from home. Within Victorian British culture, this often meant the black sheep of an upper or middle class family who was sent away (from the UK to the Empire), and paid to stay away. These men were generally of dissolute or drunken character, and may have been sent overseas after one or more disgraces at home.
If you wish to contact me, please email me at remittancegirl(at)gmail(dot)com
As a writer, I feel very strongly that the erotica genre has suffered greatly over the years from a lack of quality, good editorship, and a dearth of publishers willing to put new material out there. It seems to have been appropriated by two literary camps: romantic fiction and pornography. These days most erotic fiction is either a romance novel with the spicy bits left in or, on the other side of the spectrum, stroke fiction with the solitary and express purpose of providing guided masturbatory fantasies.
This is sad, because I think erotic fiction, as a genre, should be neither and both those things, but it ought to be more, as well. I have no objection to representations of romantic entanglements in erotica, just as I have no objections to them in a sci-fi novel. Nor do I have any objections to a reader finding that a specific story arouses them to the point of wanting to masturbate. That’s also fine. But there are perfectly good genres where either of those reader desires are fulfilled specifically.
I believe that erotica, as a genre, should deal with the theme of erotic desire and, ideally, how desire informs, changes and manipulates the lives of the characters who are desirous. If erotic fiction can be this, then I think it has the potential to be an important cultural product, and should be proudly included in the literary cannon.
Some of you will have cleverly noticed that Remittance Girl is not the name I was born with. I decided to use a pseudonym because it is in keeping with the tradition of the Victorian pornographers. I could have chosen a name that sounded like a name, but where would be the fun it that. This is my identity for my writing, and for my online persona. I’ve had it for many years now.
The name itself is a reference to a “remittance man”. Wikipedia describes a remittance man thus:
Remittance Man
In the 19th century, the English usage of the word usually referred to money sent from England – the opposite direction to today’s usual usage of the term. A remittance man was an exile living on money sent from home. Within Victorian British culture, this often meant the black sheep of an upper or middle class family who was sent away (from the UK to the Empire), and paid to stay away. These men were generally of dissolute or drunken character, and may have been sent overseas after one or more disgraces at home.
If you wish to contact me, please email me at remittancegirl(at)gmail(dot)com
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
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November 29, 2012I will refrain from rating and reviewing this book. As I see it I can't do it because I think it'd get nasty and too personal. I have a sudden urge to vomit.
The spoiler is rather shocking and self-explanatory.
I can't recommend this book but feel free to read it.
The spoiler is rather shocking and self-explanatory.
I can't recommend this book but feel free to read it.
October 4, 2015
God, please forgive me for enjoying this book as much as I did . Amen.
... Full review to come........if I remember to write one :-)
For more reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
... Full review to come........if I remember to write one :-)
For more reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
June 13, 2012
The Splinter by Remittance Girl is an amazingly tender and profound novella about desire, pain, the religious life, and ecstasy -- both sexual and divine. It’s beautifully written, and RG treats her characters so lovingly that I can’t let them go. I haven’t read RG’s other, more erotic work, but I sure plan to. Of her stories, this one caught my attention because its themes are of great interest to me (as in, why the heck does a nice churchy girl like me like to read and write about sex?).
Dolores is a modern, eighteen year old young woman who feels close to God when she hurts herself, like a medieval nun. She believes she is called to become a nun, but her mother and her parish priest are concerned by her self-harming habits. To persuade her from the religious life, they send her to the scar-faced Brother Simon, who understands better than anyone what Dolores’s need for pain is about. Simon longs to help Dolores, but she rekindles his own addiction to pain.
This story is so well and sensitively written that it’s open to many interpretations, like a parable. My interpretation is that, in the end, Simon teaches Dolores a lesson he fails to learn himself. Or perhaps his demons are darker than we realize. But, even with a tight moment of tragedy in this story, Dolores finds her happily ever after. I would have loved this story without it, but that redemption makes it even sweeter. In the end, sexual and divine ecstasy aren’t so different.
Dolores is a modern, eighteen year old young woman who feels close to God when she hurts herself, like a medieval nun. She believes she is called to become a nun, but her mother and her parish priest are concerned by her self-harming habits. To persuade her from the religious life, they send her to the scar-faced Brother Simon, who understands better than anyone what Dolores’s need for pain is about. Simon longs to help Dolores, but she rekindles his own addiction to pain.
This story is so well and sensitively written that it’s open to many interpretations, like a parable. My interpretation is that, in the end, Simon teaches Dolores a lesson he fails to learn himself. Or perhaps his demons are darker than we realize. But, even with a tight moment of tragedy in this story, Dolores finds her happily ever after. I would have loved this story without it, but that redemption makes it even sweeter. In the end, sexual and divine ecstasy aren’t so different.
June 1, 2012
have changed my rating from four to five stars--this is one of those stories that won't let go-
April 11, 2011
I cried. There are so many stories out there which mangle their characters because of bad choices the writer makes. This is not one of them. This is a difficult subject which highlights the sexual ecstasy of two taboo topics. As usual, Remittance Girl explores, instead of exploits, the topic. Stripping away the "jiggada-jiggada" aspect of erotic writing, she brings the strangeness of the individual into focus with her clearly written prose.
For those who love to read about pain or priests, this is a story which makes the mockery of trivializing stories evident. This is human writing.
Amazing.
For those who love to read about pain or priests, this is a story which makes the mockery of trivializing stories evident. This is human writing.
Amazing.
October 13, 2014
well,that was a new level of crazy fucked up...i liked it at first but then it got really looney.....and i didn’t see the reason behind what simon did what he did!!!
August 6, 2016
Remittancr Girl writes exceptionally well, but her resistance to writing Romance apparently makes it hard for her to wrap up her stories originally. This is the third of her novellas that I read, and all of them ended the same way! That's just as repitive as slapping a HEA on the story. I really would have preferred an open ending to this. Very disappointing, as this could have easily been a 5 star read.
September 2, 2016
Never have I given a Remittance Girl less than 4 stars, but for once I'm underwhelmed. It's true that the subject matter is one I tend to avoid both in life and in my reads: suffocating religion. However, this author's writing is usually glorious, and it was good in The Splinter too, so I wasn't too concerned. The characters and plotting did little for me this time though.
I didn't enjoy the many POV switches, that made me hop from character to character in what was such a short story already. The story itself was dark and depressing (what do you expect with all those overzealous religious nutbags?), the erotic content was quirky but far from arousing, that 'twist' that made other reviewers go berserk (and justifiably so, I suppose) I found fitting, but then that disappointingly convenient epilogue followed and a feeling of overall meh came over me.
I didn't enjoy the many POV switches, that made me hop from character to character in what was such a short story already. The story itself was dark and depressing (what do you expect with all those overzealous religious nutbags?), the erotic content was quirky but far from arousing, that 'twist' that made other reviewers go berserk (and justifiably so, I suppose) I found fitting, but then that disappointingly convenient epilogue followed and a feeling of overall meh came over me.
February 16, 2012
I have to say that this is one of the most erotic books I've ever read. That being said, it is not because the book is stuffed to the brim with a bazillion sex scenes (there's only a couple scenes that would qualify), but because the interaction between the characters is so completely sensual and tense and desperate. It's a short at about 19,000 words, but I'm left feeling for the characters and saddened by what occurs when their shortcomings collide, head on. Sniffle. The best Remittance Girl I've read yet!
July 30, 2014
4.5 Questioning my Faith stars...
Seriously messed up short story about a young girl struggling with how much faith is needed to see or feel God.
I say...
Seriously messed up short story about a young girl struggling with how much faith is needed to see or feel God.
I say...
February 3, 2021
Before reading this, I've only thought of the erotica genre as something you read for the sole purpose of getting off. So it was such a welcome surprise to read this atmospheric story. I really appreciate the thoughftulness in the writing and how sex was used as a means to explore the characters' psyche and the church's obsession with violence that borders on fetishization. This was really interesting for me because the writing was really sensual, yet it didn't evoke arousal because of the context so I was able to contemplate about its subject matter more.
November 15, 2025
I read this as it was in development, and will say it's not for those without constitution or S/M depth. It is not a romance. It's a depth of understanding and I do wish everyone could see all versions as they were developed, the changes in the character and the development of how they came to be. RG made these people BREATHE for so many that watched this story come to life. It's beautiful and honestly, I've been chasing that feeling in my writing ever since.
June 25, 2024
Hard for me to read.
May 21, 2012
Short and sweet. If you like your 'sweet' with a bitter tang.
Remittance Girl has a peculiar gift for seeing into decidedly flawed characters and making them shine. It's like seeing the punk kid with the spiky hair, tattoos and a thousand piercings, on his way to do volunteer work in the community. Decidedly foreign yet, for all his strangeness, sympathetically human too.
Without wishing to spoil the story, it's about a devout young lady whose a little too devout. Believing she is bound for the nunnery, if not out-right sainthood, she's into the self-mortification thing - the religious practice of self-harming to atone for sin and be closer to God. As might be expected, it causes those around her to be concerned for her well being and the story follows her path to a hopefully brighter future.
As always with Remittance Girl, the writing is superb and both the story and it's characters are more nuanced and engaging than they have any right to be.
Remittance Girl has a peculiar gift for seeing into decidedly flawed characters and making them shine. It's like seeing the punk kid with the spiky hair, tattoos and a thousand piercings, on his way to do volunteer work in the community. Decidedly foreign yet, for all his strangeness, sympathetically human too.
Without wishing to spoil the story, it's about a devout young lady whose a little too devout. Believing she is bound for the nunnery, if not out-right sainthood, she's into the self-mortification thing - the religious practice of self-harming to atone for sin and be closer to God. As might be expected, it causes those around her to be concerned for her well being and the story follows her path to a hopefully brighter future.
As always with Remittance Girl, the writing is superb and both the story and it's characters are more nuanced and engaging than they have any right to be.
February 13, 2013
I have mixed feelings, and overall I'm not sure how I feel about the book. It makes some interesting remarks about the Catholic Church that mirror my own vision of the Church, and to a certain degree it portrays self-flagellation and some aspects of faith as fetishes. It's almost as if it's trying to bring together the spiritual with the physical, and show us that these two can't be separated and that instead, they feed off each other. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it and I'm doing it through my own bias because I've always thought that the Catholic Church has an obsession with death, pain and blood that's more than borderline fetishistic.
But all these thoughts aside, this is a story about a troubled young woman and the man who takes advantage of her. It's particularly troubling because 1. he's a symbol of both power and a safety, and 2. he justifies it by declaring himself helpless when it comes to her. Worse, it would appear that his actions actually helped her, and that's what truly bothers me.
It's an uncomfortable story, and I don't know what to make of it.
But all these thoughts aside, this is a story about a troubled young woman and the man who takes advantage of her. It's particularly troubling because 1. he's a symbol of both power and a safety, and 2. he justifies it by declaring himself helpless when it comes to her. Worse, it would appear that his actions actually helped her, and that's what truly bothers me.
It's an uncomfortable story, and I don't know what to make of it.
July 9, 2024
"Please, Simon. I can't do it by myself. I've tried, but I get tired and dizzy. You have to help me, Simon. I want to see the Virgin. I want to feel her grace pouring down on me, cleansing me of sin, and taking me into the divine light." She reached her arm over him, pulling herself up, until her face was next to his. "Please, Simon. I feel so alone. I need to be with Her."What a tragic reread, from 4.5 to 2 stars.
Competently written like everything RG creates, but abrupt in the wrong way, and could have done without the profiling of Hispanic people.
January 6, 2013
This was the third of Remittance Girl's novellas which I have read.
It is very well written and thought provoking, however I didn't like it as much as her other two.
That is not to sat when compared to other erotica it isn't brilliant!
The story addresses addiction, punishment and sub-space without being a BDSM novel. I was a little surprised by the ending as well, although I never expect RG to follow an easy path.
I would and have recommended this book, I just didn't love it as much as Gaijin and The Waiting Room!
It is very well written and thought provoking, however I didn't like it as much as her other two.
That is not to sat when compared to other erotica it isn't brilliant!
The story addresses addiction, punishment and sub-space without being a BDSM novel. I was a little surprised by the ending as well, although I never expect RG to follow an easy path.
I would and have recommended this book, I just didn't love it as much as Gaijin and The Waiting Room!
May 20, 2012
There's no denying the writing is fantastic, but this story just wasn't my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews