Fans, friends and fiends

Yes, I'm the one who dreamed up this topic and when I did, it seemed like such a good idea. From what Jamie said, perhaps it was, but only for me.

I've been amazingly lucky with readers or fans over the years. Yes, I've had my share of them who think, to quote a bit of Wayne's dialogue from Lisabet's story, 'You couldn't write the way you do if you weren't a real slut. That orgy in 'The Antidote'. The public flogging in 'Incognito'. And the billiards scene... you couldn't have made that up! There's nothing you wouldn't try – probably very little that you haven't tried.”' It's amazes me when I get email from people assuming I am all the things I write about. My response has always been, 'Do you think Stephan King did all those horrible things?'

But then there are the people at the other end of the fandom scale. Those people who send an email thanking me for looking inside them. For years I wrote for a fetish ezine that centered around breast torture. I was skeptical about doing it, at first. The money was very good, but the subject matter wasn't something that I got off on. I decided to give it a whirl, after talking to the owner about pulling out if I found I couldn't do it. He was very understanding and I took the leap.

Now, you'd expect I'd get comments from men about the stories, right? You'd be dead wrong. I wrote for this site for just over 3 years, contributed over 35 stories or novellas and heard from wives and girlfriends exclusively. I never had an email from a man while I wrote for them. Okay, I admit, all of the email could have come from men masquarading as women, but it didn't seem so. They were mostly wives saying it was wonderful to have someone who could delve into the fetish they enjoyed without making it feel dirty or nasty. Wow! What a shocker. What a real eye opener.

I've written for a few sites, two spanking sites, an audio site, a couple of others, and I've met some amazing people. There are the few men who find my femdom material to their liking. But, for whatever reason, they can't share this with their wive's or lover's. A few I've remained friends with, others I hear from occasionally with a quick note saying they've just read my latest or when am I going to write more. I've had suggested scenarios, been told off for not writing something the way the fan wanted, and still others that wanted to meet me, to submit to me. Now there's a shocker for sure.

We author are in our own little worlds, a lot. We tend to forget there are real people out there and that sometimes we should come out of our caves and maybe meet them. When a fan contacts us, in some ways it's like one of our characters have talked them into saying hi. The fan is touched by a character, or a scenario we've created. Isn't that amazing?

Yes, that's a tad weird, but no one ever said I wasn't weird.

I've actually only met a couple of fans, and it's heart stopping, thought provoking, terrifying, such a rush it's like drugs and more. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive. I was completely touched when I met them. Something I'd created brought us together. To me, that's huge.

Fans are why we submit our work. They're why we struggle to improve our writing. They're why we agonize over a plot or a color or the shape of a man's .... never mind. *G* Thought I was gonna didn't you?

Thank you. To any and all of you who have read me, who will read me and who have returned to read more. I can't say it often enough, you're why I'm here. Thank you.

Hugs