Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Bottoms are Back!

It takes a brave writer to admit to a mistake, but I'm not going to be brave. Instead I'm going to rationalize! But it's a rationalization I actually believe, if you can believe it. This is the second origin story about Bottoms in Love. The first can be found at the personal website of Sharazade, who would end up republishing Bottoms in Love with her publishing company 1001 Nights Press:

http://sharazade.com/?cat=78
 
I'll summarize it for anyone who doesn't want to click over. The Bottoms in Love originally published last year by OC Press of Oysters and Chocolate was conceived as a flash fiction idea. A man stops in the middle of spanking his wife to make her promise she'll give him a good turn next. "Yes, I promise! Just please spank me!" It sounded like something that would turn out well as a 500 word story. I planned to enter the home of a couple, pictures of their kids on the walls, and show somehow that these were rare opportunities for them to indulge in power exchange. Then describe a man giving a sexy punishment to his wife, letting it go on just long enough to make it seem like an enjoyable maledom scene before delivering the surprise twist ending.

That story sat on the back burner while I worked on something else. Then I opened, instead, with where Bottoms in Love opens now, with Carter and Lindsey enjoying a rare night out with the kids at Lindsey's parents'. They flip a dime, and Carter loses and has to dominate his wife. Just for fun, I began the story with Carter losing for the fourth time in a row, which leaves him just a touch whiny (okay, maybe more than a touch) as he gets started on their drive home.

I was happy with the story. I never felt anything was missing. The mystery of just how these couple of bottoms ended up married played nicely in the background. But that dynamic played out to the extent that I was playing with it. An opening scene came to mind of Lindsey exhausting Carter with her submissive desires, early in their courtship. Carter was spanking her nightly and getting blowjobs, but how much of that was he supposed to take? Not until he set dumping her in motion did he realize what he really wanted was a turn!

I intended to follow that moment with them working out the rotation of submitting to each other. Expecting to end the prequel with them celebrating their compromise over dinner and picking out from their change a shiny dime. Again, that stayed on the back burner while I worked on other things. Then OC Press and Oysters and Chocolate decided to move on and released their titles to the authors. OC Press had gotten Bottoms in Love to readers, which is something I'm always tremendously grateful to publishers for, so that was upsetting news, but Sharazade wanted to republish it at 1001 Nights Press. I told her about the prequel idea and then, in the email, mentioned moving the prequel scenes into Bottoms in Love as back story. My musings on just how those scenes would fit together were so vivid, I recall joking in the email that I guessed I'd started writing it!

Which puts me in a strange place, I suppose. Because I'm super excited for this latest and longest version of Bottoms in Love to go out to readers; although I still think the original version worked nicely, I guess I reached a point where that untold back story got so compelling, I felt compelled to tell it. (A part of me still longs for that 500 word flash fiction story that never came to be, so I suppose writers are just hard to please.) Here's a bit from Carter's POV:

“We need to talk. I don’t think I can do this.”

Lindsey’s bowed head lifted. Her downward gaze sharpened and pointed up at him. “Stop. Get my clothes.” She turned to the side and raised an arm to cover her breasts. Carter sat up. He rose and scampered off, gathering her clothing. He touched the balled up fabric softly to her back shoulder. She pulled it over. “If I am going to get dumped, I want it to happen while I’m dressed.”

“No one’s getting dumped.” Carter glanced at Lindsey’s naked back before turning around to let her dress privately. “I just don’t think... I don’t see why... I mean...”

He could hear her clothes coming on, faster than they’d come off. The hurried sound of limbs fighting roughly through folds. She sat and her shoes lifted off the floor. Carter turned. “Wait,” he said.

Lindsey looked up at him, no longer hurt. She looked angry and determined.

“It just seems like I should get a turn.”

“Oh, is that what this is about?” Lindsey shifted back slightly on the couch. Carter felt instantly vulnerable standing over her calm form. “You want a turn?”

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