I’m an independent author of gay D/s romance fiction...a style of fiction that is rather difficult to categorise. It isn't vanilla romance, but neither is it classic BDSM erotica per se. My stories feature elements of control, domination and submission, but the focus is on consensual power exchange within a domestic setting rather than on explicit sexually driven play scenarios, though that's not to say there is no element of sensuality. The interaction between domestic Dom and sub and the discipline, or potential for discipline, provide the erotic undercurrent to my stories, which also tend to have a strong emotional core.
Not everyone understands or 'gets' discipline fiction and that's fine. I don't 'get' prawn cocktail flavour crisps, but I uphold the right of people to eat them should their taste buds be wired that way. :-)
The reasons why people are fascinated by power exchange relationships and the degree to which they choose to practice them are as diverse as the individual’s concerned. For many real life couples discipline is an aspect of intimacy, it enhances and strengthens their relationship. It serves emotional and psychological needs as well as physical. In other words, the craving for discipline is multi layered and is much more than just a prelude to sexual activity.
If you're looking for a complex thriller, hardcore erotica, a horror trip or a gory murder mystery then you've come to the wrong place. The focal point of D/s romance is the discipline and how and why it comes about...the act of discipline and its description is the erotic and sensual core of the stories. That said I do strive to give my readers something more than mere kink. I like to tell a story with intelligence and I like to engage the emotions.
My fiction might also be seen as an updated and pro-gay adjunct to the kind of romance novels that were popular in the pre-feminist era...tales of submissive ladies and alpha males, only the submissive lady has been supplanted by a submissive laddy. ;-)
The point missed by the feminists who damned such works at that time and had them culled from library shelves was that a lot of women, and indeed a lot of gay men, enjoy fantasising about being swept off their feet and over the knee of an alpha male who naturally had a heart of gold beneath his masculine and stern exterior. It was all rather sweet and innocent erotica at a time when sensuality and sexuality were not as overtly expressed as they are now. Far from liberating women, feminism, in that particular context, further suppressed female sexuality by making women with a submissive aspect and submissive desires feel guilty about it (men with a submissive aspect already felt guilty because submissivness was considered to be a 'weak' female trait)
Having an interest in spanking and discipline is not perverse, it isn’t wrong. It's an integral and highly potent aspect of many people’s physical and emotional identity. They can no more help it than having say blue or brown eyes, it's part of their natural genetic coding.
Being a consensual submissive, male or female, is not the same as being a victim, far from it. Submissives tend to be strong and very attuned to their emotional requirements and very sure about how they want them to be met.
Almost all human interactions have some Alpha/beta elements to them, some of us just need to explore and express that element in more depth.
As well as being the vehicle by which I express my interest in discipline practices, my stories are about everyday relationships, situations, affection and love (I'm a kind of kinky Miss Read) They're light hearted, humorous and entertaining, but also thought provoking and observant of the human condition.
I also write poetry and am endeavouring to write more conventional literary fiction.
For the record I'm a female author and am located in the UK. I write in the M/M genre because quite simply I enjoy it and it interests me more than M/F. I'm a keen advocate of GLBT rights and gay marriage.
