It was ten years ago today that I took the amazing, brave, scary step into the unknown and delurked on the internet, posting a story to the soc.sexuality.spanking newsgroup. The comments were kind; the police didn’t come knocking at my front door, so more stories and posts followed.
With them came the emails, and with them the new friendships that started to form. Before very long, I started to realise that I didn’t need to feel guilty about those guilty secrets I’d been keeping. (And how was I to know that then-eighteen-year-old student in Ukraine would be downloading my writing, and what that would lead to?!) .
I’ve been re-reading my stories over the past few weeks – 67 of them, remarkably, not counting my writing for the Lowewood blog. Many published, some shared only with friends. (I’m trying to narrow the list down for an anthology of my favourites – watch this space! And we do keep meaning to update our stories site online).
Some things remain the same. The build-up is often the point of the story – I love creating a credible scenario, explaining the background, setting the scene. My girls aren’t usually incurably bad, used to regular punishment, but rather good girls who’ve suddenly fallen from grace.
They certainly don’t enjoy it – and neither do the gentlemen wielding the rod. I’m writing about punishment, not pleasure – set in the schoolroom rather than the bondage club. And there’s little or no sex, even though there may be dark hints of entanglements to come…
But what interests me more is how my writing’s changed, matured even. And it certainly has, not surprisingly – when I wrote my first stories, I was a spanking virgin, writing purely from imagination. (LOL and I wasn’t far off being a virgin in other regards, too!).
Four changes really strike me. First, nudity. OK, I confess – I like, love the sight of naked women. In my early stories, girls were regularly stripped for punishment – now, that’s rarer and more appropriate to the scene being played out.
The offenders had it harder, back then: twenty strokes and a girl got off lightly! Not that some of my more recent writing hasn’t featured harsh punishment – but that tends to be the exception rather than the rule, and more likely to be in a judicial setting that anywhere scholastic.
There’s the description of the individual strokes – now less onomatopoeic: I’ve found more creative ways to describe punishments than with a “WHACK! CRACK! THWACK!” repeated a dozen times.
And the girls themselves rarely get described in physical detail. Not because I don’t have a vivid picture of them in mind when I’m writing: I usually do. But I want my readers to relate: sometimes, to put themselves in the shoes (or bare feet) of the young lady being thrashed. And if a reader’s short and fair, and the main character’s described as being tall and dark, that could be alienating, off-putting.
Does that mean I don’t enjoy my older writing? Not at all – I’ve been delighted in my re-reading to find how much I like it. There are some hot scenes in there, waiting to be resurrected in real-life play. But ten years on, life’s improved so much for the better, and I’d like to think that my writing has, too.
I do agree. Your writing *has* matured. But don’t dismiss your stories set in hotels and hotel rooms and even the odd one at home. I really did think Mr. James was delicious and I won’t be soon forgetting that girl who had to go to the bazaar and choose her own belt and slipper for her punishment. Mmmm….now you’ve got me hot and bothered!!
Happy Anniversary!
Those older stories still hold a special place in heart because they were pretty much the first ones that I started to read. It’s unavoidable for stories to change and mature as we all do, but both are equally as vaild and wonderful to read, they just have differnt charms. For me it was all about the Prefect Ex- so magically un PC! Also, that’s so kinkily romantic that Haron was reading your stories and you ended up together!
There, a whole comment and I managed not to make “Maturity” into “Elderly” and not to take the piss at all. Well, it is your anniversary after all.
I’ve said before I really enjoy your stories,the Marrakech one being a particular favourite.(I was in a souk near Carthage last year and chuckled to myself as I thought of it, although sadly didn’t get to re enact it!)I sometimes visit the stories site in the hope that a new story will have appeared,so come on Abel get your finger out!!!!!
I hate spanking stories containing all the whacks,cracks and thwacks,so it is refreshing to read yours.You really do seem to provide just the right amount of information to feed the imagination. Mmmmmmm lovely
Thanks so much for the stories and especially the blog which is a daily addiction!
H x
I liked the Marrakech story so much I use it often as as a fantasy for, well, you know.
Congratulations on 10 productive years! When do you plan to move your stories to the current website?
Hugs,
Hermione
Happy Anniversary Abel!
I also like reading your stories, and especially relate to the “good girls falling from grace”. I like the strictness and how through the doms in your stories always are. Hope you write many more
Yeah, *many* more.
Soon.
Not that I’m demanding or anything.
Congratulations on your anniversary of coming out and thanks for all the great stories and inspiration!
Marrakech will always be my favorite– it was one of the first of yours I ever read, and I keep it bookmarked. “Choose a suitable belt, my dear” still gives me delicious shivers.
Mmmmmm… Now I have to go read it again.
Thank you so much for helping the rest of us out here discover (and embrace) this side of ourselves, and here’s to many more years.
Happy Anniversary to you Abel! I came across your stories on Laura’s Spanking Corner eight years ago when I first got online and typed in the words “spanking stories”. The written word has always had a powerful influence on my life. I went back this afternoon and read some of them again. Thank you! I enjoyed your stories then and enjoy the blog that you and Haron share today!
Congratulations, Abel! For some reason, I’d never read Marrakech before, so I took this opportunity to correct that oversight. So glad I did! I wish you many more decades of sharing your fine writing with the rest of us.
Like allie, I found your stories on Laura’s Spanking Corner within days of getting online, your stories have always been amongst my very favourite because they invariably push all the right buttons, other writers push some but yours, as well as being incredibly well written, hit all the right spots for my kink… so thank you, and Happy Anniversary, even if I am a day late.
Congratulations Abel and good luck for the next ten years.
First I read your stories, and then I met you. And I was, am and always will be very, very glad of that. Big hugs.
Happy anniversary Abel
I also started out by making your “acquaintance” via Laura’s Spanking Corner and you’ve been on a wonderful journey since then, both creatively and for real! I hope that it continues in like vein for many anniversaries to come, and that we get to continue sharing it with you.
I’m so touched by the responses to this post. Thank you all so much for such kind and lovely comments.
Abel, very happy