Part two
In general, what do you like in mind control fiction?
Can I start with my biggest gripe? 😉 If only a person’s body or level of arousal is controlled, that’s not mind control, dammit! I go to the EMCSA to read about minds in chains, thoughts so tightly bound they can hardly breath without their controller’s command. I want to see deep, dark, iron-hard control that extends right down to the victim’s core.
In no particular order, what are your five favorite mc stories from other authors?
Well, the two top ones, as I mention on my Reader’s Picks page, are trilby else’s Sleeper and Tabico’s Electric Thimble Theater. I find those two stories extremely satisfying on a number of different levels, including plot, heat, romance, and humor. Now let me take a quick peek at my other picks and choose three more at random….
Okay, I’m tempted to choose two more from Tabico and trilby; but that wouldn’t really be fair, would it? So how about Akiko’s New Protege by Aerosol Kid (a good entry point to his ongoing series), Shiny, Happy People by Jukebox (just what the package says – and what I love), and Wrysteria by Sara H (sadly missing from the EMCSA now but still available via the Wayback Machine)?
You’ve collaborated with some real mc heavyweights: two stories with Tabico, one with trilby else. What draws you into a collaboration, what do you like about it?
Creation is fun, but it’s also hard work. Having someone you like and trust to work alongside you makes for twice the fun and half the work.
That’s the short answer, anyway. The long answer is that any kind of artist appreciates the work of another artist and just naturally wants to join efforts and see what happens. It’s like making a baby together, with all the pleasure and sharing that typically involves.
Is there anyone you’d like to collaborate with that you haven’t yet had the chance to?
Oh, now you want to get me into trouble! If I name writer A but don’t name writer B, writer B gets offended! 😉 I’ll just stay mum and say that I’m open to possibilities.
Could you talk a bit about your process. Where do stories start for you? Do you map them out before you start writing or figure things out as you go? How much research do you do? Do you run straight through something or work for a while then step away and come back to it?
Hmm, a multi-parter. Okay. At least half of my stories are inspired by dreams, and about half the other half are revamps of fantasies I’ve been toying with since puberty. I usually spend about a month working out the basic plot line before I start writing; being the personality type I am, there’s just no way I could start a story without knowing how it’s all going to turn out in the end.
I don’t do research for most of my stories, but I did do a bit for Octopus Vulgaris because I had to know what octopuses could and couldn’t do. And I’ve done a bit of research on Irish fairy tales and locations for the story I’m just about to start writing, tentatively titled “Ethna Redux”. It normally takes me at least another month to write a story, so obviously, I do step away. 😉 The only story I’ve ever written (for the EMCSA, anyway) in a single sitting was Solitaire.
You’ve mentioned a number of times how your dreams factor into certain stories. Is it just imagery that gets you thinking about a story or do you also find yourself solving narrative problems and formulating plot devices in your sleep?
You know, I really do work on actual plots and problems in my dreams. Unfortunately, about half the time I wake up to realize that either a) I don’t remember enough of the dream to do anything with it, or b) what seemed like a really cool idea to my sleeping mind just isn’t, on waking.
From your own catalogue, what are your five favorite stories?
Five? That’s almost an intimidatingly large selection! Well, Spellbound, Solitaire, and Willing Subject come to mind immediately as the stories I reread most often and feel most pleased with. After those, I think I’d choose Love in a Silver Socket and Mirrored in Your Eyes because they express my romantic side in a way none of my other stories do.
One theme that we see again and again in your stories (Love in a Silver Socket, Mirrored in Your Eyes, A Tenpack of Trixies) is a Dominant character subverted and enslaved. Sometimes they come back from it, sometimes not. What attracts you to this scenario?
Funny, I’ve never thought about that as a recurring theme of mine, but I guess it is. I suppose it must be interesting to me because I like to see tables turned in any number of different scenarios.
The recurring theme I notice most often in my stories is the abandoned (usually male) lover. I think this is a case of me reliving my shift from assumed heterosexuality to realized homosexuality. I’m sort of thumbing my nose at some of the jerks I dated (Don’t worry; they weren’t all jerks. In fact, some of them were very nice. ;-)) and saying, “See? You just didn’t have what it takes to satisfy me!” On the other hand, I am starting to feel a bit guilty about treating so many men so badly in my stories and plan to rectify that to a certain extent in “Ethna Redux”.
Conversely, A number of your stories turn this framework on its head. Salvation and Mirrored in Your Eyes both feature submissives who go through a decidedly domme streak, though admittedly both do it to secure their own slavery. What do you like about working these “switches” into your stories?
Again, it’s the whole “tables turned” deal. It’s just interesting to watch someone who’s absolutely not cut out for a certain role try her best to fill it. It makes for good storytelling.
Love in a Silver Socket, Chapter 3 is largely dedicated to Mosley’s struggle to break Bellingham free from Ssilm control. Its really quite an epic passage: the sensations, Monica’s state of mind as both sides of her fight for control. And of course there’s some really delicious irony that shows Bellingham and Xziomi may have more in common than either would admit. How did you approach writing this final chapter?
Not any different than any other passage, really. I plotted it all out beforehand, then just wrote it with an eye toward keeping the drama and pathos at the forefront. I also relied (as I do from time to time) on my regular readers’ anticipation of an unhappy ending to ramp up the tension.
That’s interesting. However, it does beg the question: how do you know whether its going to be a happy ending? Do you ever have trouble deciding which way to go while you’re plotting a story?
Sometimes, in the early stages. But I’m a meticulous planner-outer, and being that way requires me to know where I’m headed before I get too far down the road. It saves a lot of fretting and rewriting later on. 😉