Please welcome today's Dirty Mind, I. G. Frederick.
This is another author who has no need of me. Fresh coffee's perking in the corner, and I'll be nearby. Pull up a chair and take your time. If you're like me, you'll want to read this post more than once.
This is another author who has no need of me. Fresh coffee's perking in the corner, and I'll be nearby. Pull up a chair and take your time. If you're like me, you'll want to read this post more than once.
Many years ago I corresponded at length with a young man who was seeking an owner. Although we decided we weren't suitable for each other, we grew quite close during the exchange of numerous e-mails and telephone calls.
The young man, who had
multiple mental diagnoses, had been introduced to BDSM several years earlier by
his therapist. She enslaved him and kept him in what's known as a 24/7 TPE
(Total Power Exchange) relationship. She whipped him, used him sexually, and
kept him a prisoner in her house. Although he believes he consented to this
relationship, under such circumstances he would have been unable to give
informed, legitimate consent.
To compound the woman's
abhorrent, unethical relationship with this boy, she abandoned him after two
years, releasing him to flounder on his own in the vanilla world.
I have kept a slave in a
consensual Total Power Exchange relationship in the past. Someone in this type
of relationship can't make the leap to individual independence without some
transitional time and assistance. The young man was given neither. And, this is
a young man who already had difficulty functioning in the world at large
because of the severe problems that had sent him to seek therapy in the first
place.
I was horrified. But, as much
as I tried, I couldn't convince the young man that this woman had abused him.
My anger inspired me to write
a novel. Unlike real life, readers require that fiction make sense. I tried to
imagine how anyone could perpetuate such horrific torture on another human
being. In a desperate attempt not to write a one-dimensional villain, I ended
up with an additional novel.
Although I originally tried
to market them as one book, in reality they needed to be two. At the suggestion
of the books' original publisher, I split them. Originally, the combined book
was called Broken. Searching for a title for the second book, my TPE
slave, who was in service to me at the time, suggested Shattered.
And, so the protagonist in Broken
is the antagonist in Shattered. Both books are works of fiction.
However, I know first hand
that what Zachary suffers in Shattered is all too close to the truth. My
beta reader was a friend who had studied for his doctorate in psychology. He
had first hand experience of the environment I had chosen to explain how
Jessica could abuse Zachary to the extent that she did. I found it
disconcerting that he thought Broken very believable, given his own experience.
These novels are not
romances. They're cautionary tales about abuse and the meaning of consent. (In Broken
Jessica consents to enslavement by her professor when he threatens to expel her
from the university and blacklist her.) I know some readers find them arousing.
Others have found them revolting. But, my intention was that readers find them
thought provoking and that has indeed been the case.
One reader of both books
wrote: "The longer the books gestate in my mind, they give me some things
to think about in my own life, as well as stirring me physically.
"I.G. touches upon
darkness that many of us hold within ourselves and the inner core that can be
broken and rebuilt. She brought out the things that we will do and go through
in order to achieve our life goals."
One reviewer, Brenda
Thatcher, Co-Owner of Mystique Books http://mystiquebooks.livejournal.com/32329.html, wrote of Shattered: "If art is
meant to disturb, to reach out and touch an individual on a visceral level,
then I.G. Frederick did so for this reader. Not an easy accomplishment, for I
have layers of scars over those wounds. Read SHATTERED if you've a
lion's heart. Live it if you dare."
I found it amusing that another
reviewer wrote: "This book only generated negative emotions for me – fury,
disgust, loathing and sorrow," without ever understanding that those were
the emotions I wanted my readers to experience.
Broken and Shattered are in my opinion and that of
others, important books. They show how BDSM can be used to justify abuse
(something that happens too often in the real world). The revolted reviewer
wrote: "Jessica’s understanding of BDSM is so perverted and twisted, it
pisses me off." That was precisely my point.
I have read too many blog
posts from women who have been raped by a play partner who ignored their limits
(one is too many, but I've read far more than that). The slave who titled Shattered
had been the victim of not one, but two abusers who masqueraded as dominants
and pretended to offer him the Master/slave relationship he craved.
A Master/slave relationship
can be a beautiful symbiosis that exceeds vanilla couplings in intimacy and
intensity. But, four times I have sheltered, literally or figuratively, someone
escaping an abusive and parasitic relationship that was supposed to be
symbiotic.
You ask about sales. These
books haven't sold a huge number of copies. One of the reasons is that they are
not written to be erotic as in "sexually arousing." They are more
mainstream literary works with graphic sex and S&M than what people think
of as erotica. But, I don't want someone to pick up one of my books to read
without knowing what they're getting into.
One of the great things Nyla
Alisia of Pussy Cat Press did as part of creating fabulous new covers
for the books was label them: "A Disturbing Erotic Novel" and "A
Deeply Disturbing Erotic Novel." No one should pick one up expecting a
romance.
Last week, I was required to
make Broken and Shattered, “inactive” on All Romance ebooks. I
intend to fight that decision (a fight I expect to lose) because although the consent in both is "questionable," they do not contain
non-consensual sex or non-consensual S&M.
It shouldn’t matter.
I'm also concerned that I'll
be required to remove Dommemoir. It's a romance, but it does
include watersports and I've seen reports
that that is making the censorship lists of some publishers/retailers. My cover
designer, Nyla Alisia, has said that
reading Dommemoir "changed my life forever" and came up with
the tagline: "WARNING: This book will change women's perspective on relationship
dynamics forever."
Ashley Lister wrote in a review on Erotica Readers & Writers Association that "Dommemoir is a well-written story of sexual expression
triumphing over sexual repression and a brand of true love that could only ever
be experienced within the restrictions of a BDSM relationship. For those who
are already familiar with this lifestyle, Dommemoir should prove a
telling tale where readers can recognise their own experiences and
preconceptions as they are met and managed. For those who don’t know the
lifestyle but are curious to learn more, Dommemoir will give a
fascinating insight to unimagined possibilities."
I also expect to have trouble
with my next book, Playing With Dolls, which I intend to release later
this month, because it also contains questionable consent.
I spent too much time last
week (time I could have spent writing or prepping for a class I'm teaching)
changing many of the keyword tags on Smashwords. Those would be the ones that
make it possible for people who like what I write to find my stories.
I will have to re-title and possibly rewrite “Jail
Bait” (a story I had planned to publish this week) not because it includes “underage”
sex, but because the male waits until midnight on the female’s 18th birthday to
initiate sex. Is that long enough under the circumstances? Is the fact that she
wants sex with him before that arbitrary date/time, but he insists on waiting
make my story “obscene”?
I object to having my work
censored, pre- or post-publication. I admit that many of my short stories,
often originally written for men's magazines, are pure wank-off material, but I
see nothing wrong with that.
However, some of my short
stories and all of my novels are written to make readers think. They're
inspired by ugly things I see in this world. Playing with Dolls, for
example, was motivated by a letter to an advice columnist in which the writer
complained that her friend was going to marry an "obviously" gay man
-- obvious, according to her, because he was effeminate. My letter to that
columnist which refuted the friend's concerns based on the possibility that the
couple she was concerned about might be in a FemDom/sissy boy relationship was
ignored.
I know lots of effeminate
males. Ninety percent are straight and most of the other 10 percent are
bisexual. I also know many gay males. Most of them are about as macho as a guy
can be. You're not likely to find a more butch male than a gay leatherman.
Unlike macho straight guys, a gay leatherman has absolutely no exposure to
anything female in his personal life. But our society insists on equating
"feminine male" with "gay."
I got nailed by one of my
beta readers because the m/m sex scenes weren't erotic. Given that they're
written from the point of view of someone who doesn't like gay sex, well, duh.
I won't look for a publisher for Playing With Dolls because it's such an
unusual book. It's a coming of age story about someone who's been kicked so
hard by societal misconceptions (including his own parents) that he ends up in
abusive BDSM relationships. Transgressive, yes. Best seller, not likely. Censor
target, I'm sure it will be.
There's something wrong with
a country in which children are routinely abused by their parents and their
priests and no one does anything about it, while our educational system
produces people who only know how to take tests and are unable to think critically,
and our infrastructure is crumbling around us. But we waste resources censoring
books that might make a reader uncomfortable.
I should have the right to
write and sell anything that anyone else will buy.
I also strongly respect the
right of any reader to draw a line that they don't wish to cross in their
reading experience. But, I will fight any person who tries to move that line
for anyone else. No one should be permitted to force someone to read what they
finds offensive, but that reader shouldn't be able to prevent anyone else from
reading that same material just because they don't like it.
Any author who believes this
censorship doesn't apply to them because they don't write erotica or anything
"squicky," needs to look up the poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller
about the Holocaust and those who didn't speak up until it was too late. I also
urge them to remember that almost half the top 100 novels of the 20th century
have been targeted by book banners including: The Great Gatsby, The
Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird,
The Color Purple, James Joyce's Ulysses, Toni Morrison's Beloved,
The Lord of the Flies, Orwell's 1984, and, of course, Nabokov's Lolita.
The first amendment to the
U.S. Constitution prevents government from "abridging the freedom of
speech." But, corporations (who currently own the government) can
arbitrarily decide what can and can't be sold on their sites or what work we
can pay for or receive payment from through their systems. Today PayPal won't
allow pseudo-bestiality or pseudo-incest. Tomorrow they can ban any works they
choose. I'm guessing LGBT relationships will be the next target.
Don't think that will happen?
Were you paying attention three years ago when Amazon removed all LGBT books and
authors from its search engine?
http://eroticawriter.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/why-we-should-not-forget-amazonfail/
Some of those books STILL have not had their visibility restored.
When you search for
"homosexuality in books" on Amazon you STILL get: A Parent's Guide
to Preventing Homosexuality, 101 Frequently Asked Questions About
Homosexuality, and Coming Out of Homosexuality: New Freedom for Men and
Women in the top ten -- all books based on the fabricated theory that the
bible says homosexuality is an "abomination." If you change the list
to "most popular" you won't find any of those books. People are NOT
buying the books Amazon claims are most relevant, but those are the books
Amazon delivers to your screen when you search for that word.
If you care about the fact
that corporations are deciding what you can and can't read, there are things
you can do:
1) close your PayPal and eBay accounts and tell them why you're
doing so (money talks)
2) tell retailers who only accept payment via PayPal why you
won't buy from them
3) don't buy books from Amazon unless you can't find them
anywhere else.
4) tell all your friends/fans to do the same.
Bio: I.G. Frederick (http://eroticawriter.net/)
has traded words for cash more years than she cares to admit and has
specialized in erotic fiction and poetry since 2001. She has sold numerous
short stories and poems to various print, electronic, and audio magazines and
anthologies. Her novels have received high praise from readers, critics, and
other authors.
You can read reviews of her
work and find links to purchase her novels, poetry books, and individual short
stories on her website: http://eroticawriter.net/. You can also find her
at LiveJournal http://eroticawriter.livejournal.com/, Twitter http://twitter.com/eroticawriter,
and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/eroticawriter.
In addition, I.G. Frederick
is an accomplished book designer and together with the awesome artist Nyla
Alisia (http://www.nylaalisia.net/)
and her submissive Patrick (web designer extraordinaire) provides services to
indie authors and small presses as part of Pussy Cat Press
(http://pussycatpress.com/). Pussy Cat Press services include elegant cover design
for print and electronic books (check out the fabulous new covers for Broken
and Shattered), print and electronic book formatting/design, and web
development and design.
Thank you I.G., for sharing your convictions as well as your life experiences. I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to participate. I'd like to tell the audience you gave up more much-needed class prep and sleep time to be my guest today.
We're nearly halfway through E-Book Week. Have you bought one yet? Even better, have you bought one from one of my Dirty Minds? If so, I'd like to hear what you think. Still more Dirty Minds to come.
Thanks for reading. Please, share the link to this series, and tell your friends. This issue needs an outcry, it needs publicity, it needs YOU to speak up and tell Paypal you want the right to choose what you read. If you're just dropping in for the first time, please scroll through older posts. This series started several days ago. Don't miss one.UPDATE! I'm pleased to report author I.G. Frederick won her appeal with All Romance E-Books. Broken and Shattered have both been reviewed and re-activated at ARe.
Brava! Thanks for this wonderful interview and a list of very concrete and effective actions that people can take.
ReplyDeleteYet another take on why it is so important to protect this type of writing. And I love the list of actions . . . except #3 because, well, Amazon is the only place my books aren't banned at this point. It would be a bit hypocritical for me to bite the hand that feeds me (especially when I'm boycotting all the other outlets because of Paypal). For me, at least, I need to take one battle at a time ;)
ReplyDeleteYes, I have a problem with #3 as well. I had to think long and hard about putting my books up on Amazon because of what happened in '09 and their attempts to destroy any other entity that produces or sells books in competition (or even not really in competition) with them.
DeleteI did say "if you can't find them anywhere else." I would never encourage anyone not to buy a book that was only available there. But, remember they censor too. And the TOS for their payment system is the same as PayPal (you can blame the credit card companies for that).
BTW, have you looked into selling your books where mine are available? http://tinyurl.com/BrokenEbook and http://tinyurl.com/ShatteredEbook (and on Amazon, but I only point there for print books.)
I'll pass that on to my publisher - it's really her decision, not mine ;) I am profoundly lucky to have her backing me up on this 100% as I'm the only erotica author she has.
DeleteYour books sound interesting and fascinating. I love erotica that isn't standard, that's weird and strange and explores the nature of relationships that don't seem right.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post. It was lovely.
God. Reading the opening of this was a little like being punched in the gut. I have been far more fortunate than I realized.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I.G. Your books do sound fascinating and I cannot imagine anyone who's been on the fence about this reading your thoughts and not feeling a pang of concern for their own works, or the books and stories they might enjoy reading.
I think I need more coffee, that sentence was a bit convoluted.
I'll share my brew with you, Corinna, I've made it extra-strong today. :)
DeleteWhat I thought was: Thank God there are books available written by one who lives the Lifestyle and whose motivations are righteous, and whose first-hand knowledge is unassailable. To suppress this content is an outrage. To sweep it under the rug because some corporation decided to be offended ON MY BEHALF is unacceptable, to me.
I'll second that!
Delete