I just loved this story — which is the story of two submissive people in a happy marriage. I liked it for a lot of reasons, but a main one is this: the man and the woman are different. Does that seem obvious? Well, it isn’t clear in every erotica book I’ve read, that’s for sure. From my experience, men and women submit a little differently, and they dominate a little differently. And yes, of course there are endless variations that depend on individuality and not just gender, but I still see some commonalities — such as men preferring a little humiliation, or women wanting more reassurance. Although Gregory Allen’s characters might talk about doing to each other what they wish they could have done to them, they don’t in fact behave that way — they really do give their partner what he/she needs. And I love that.
I liked too the look at what could be called “service topping” — topping or dominating someone because they want it — which is enormously difficult. What the bottom wants, after all, is to give the top pleasure. So if the top isn’t deriving any pleasure, the encounter doesn’t “work.” It’s no fun to have sex with someone who’s just going through the motions as a favor; you need a partner who is engaged and ultimately satisfied, no matter which end you’re on. That can be tricky to achieve in a relationship with conflicting or non-compatible desires, but I don’t know that it’s any easier in fiction — any easier to write convincingly, I mean. But Bottoms in Love succeeds there.
But enough from me. Let’s hear what the author has to say about how this story came to be written. And, if you leave a comment on this post within a week (so, deadline: Friday, September 21), you’ll be entered to win a free copy of the book!
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I hesitate to tell story origin stories because I think some people enjoy the romantic notion that a story comes from some mystical place and the author is simply the medium, and when is a better time to indulge in romantic notions than when reading a story? The origin story for Bottoms in Love has the potential to sound especially clunky because it involves that unromantic aspect of the writing life: finding the time. The original idea for Bottoms in Love came in a single scene. I planned to write a man spanking a woman who was begging for more, but from the vantage point of outside the bedroom. From there, I wanted to establish them as a married couple, with kids, making it all work and even enjoying some kinky play on the rare occasions they got the chance. Then I planned to enter the bedroom and have Carter pause, with the flat of his hand raised behind her, just as Lindsey’s craving to receive a hard spank was at a peak, and say, “If I spank you hard, do you promise to spank me hard next?” Lindsey would answer, as if this were not the first time her turn at playing the submissive was interrupted by her husband’s worry over getting his turn, “Yes! I promise. Just please, spank me!” Carter would oblige.
I liked the story idea and I had every intention of writing it, one day. But the idea wasn’t quite compelling enough to interrupt my other projects, so it went to the back of my mind. While there, it expanded, and a week or so later, I started writing, but I backed it up to how it got to be Lindsey’s turn first. So I wrote what turned out to be the opening of Bottoms in Love, with Carter losing yet another coin flip and having to have his way with his beautiful wife when he desperately wants his beautiful wife to have her way with him.
The original version would have been a decent short story with a nice twist, but I consider it a lucky coincidence that I didn’t have time to sit and write it because that brought Bottoms in Love into existence. And maybe mystic forces were involved because while I was considering where to submit part 1 as a standalone story, I finished part 2. Just then Sharazade pointed out that Oysters and Chocolate was just starting OC Press. So I sent the completed story to Jordan and Samantha and it got to be part of the launch of a brand new publishing house, which was an incredible honor.
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Good fortune all around, I’d say! And don’t forget to comment on or before September 21 for a chance to win a free ebook of Bottoms in Love. If you don’t win, though, you can still pick up a copy here from Oysters & Chocolate.
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