Positions, Excerpt from The Lodge

Dominant women making submissive men hold positions seems to be a common theme in my books. I suppose that's no accident. That's a hot fantasy to imagine, choosing to obey a command to hold to an uncomfortable position from a woman who, meanwhile, is exercising free range of movement. I must not be the only one. My friend, Mistress Lilyana, who authors an excellent blog, told me her post on positions is one of her most popular. You can find that here:

http://www.mistresslilyana.com/2009/06/about-week-ago-in-my-favorite-fetlife.html

 

The Lodge is an exotic dance club where patrons have the option of paying double price for admission with a collar instead of a wristband. The entertainers carry leashes and target collar boys for double price dances, which these men get to view from their knees. To briefly set up this excerpt. Paul has become a valued regular to his favorite dancer, Destiny. He arrives one night and Destiny isn't there. He purchases a wristband, not wanting to be clipped by another dancer, but disappoints Destiny by showing too much zeal at a night off her collar, particularly making the mistake of hounding a cocktail waitress, Angela, into dancing for him.

 I’m going to teach you a couple of positions.” She sat down and Paul knelt in front of her. “The first we will simply call ‘The Position.’ If I say ‘assume the position’ or if I snap my fingers or if I simply give you a look that says I mean business all of that will mean I want you in this position.” She took her paddle off her hip and moved it between his knees. “First spread them.” Paul inched his knees apart until Destiny nodded. “Now clasp your hands behind your back.” She stood up and moved behind him. “Get your butt up off your legs.” Paul obeyed, though he shuddered at the vulnerability he felt as Destiny touched the paddle to his backside. She moved back around and touched the paddle to his shoulder. “Bend slightly over.” She sat down and crossed her legs. “Now head up and look at me.” Paul craned his neck up and met her gaze. She smiled. “There. That’s exactly how I want you. Take a moment to memorize it.”

            Paul considered his exact position. The feel of his body, the way his quads strained slightly keeping his butt off his legs, the slight tension in his neck from being bent forward with his head up. The acute vulnerability of having his cock and balls hanging fully exposed as Destiny’s heel swung in the air in front of them. “Now unless I say ‘at ease’ or make it clear that you have permission to relax or give another order, this is how you’ll spend the evening. I’ll be inviting the other entertainers in and displaying you to them. If I catch you covering up, I’ll be disappointed in you.” She gave this a moment to sink in, that she and Angela would not be the only women invited into the room. Paul felt a horror and resignation pass over his face that Destiny appeared to notice and enjoy.

            “Position two: Present.” She got up and moved behind him. “Touch your cheek to the floor and get your butt in the air.” Paul obeyed, but she caught him sneaking his knees together and admonished him. Paul moaned as he spread his knees with Destiny just behind him. “I know, it’s very humiliating, but is it much different from positions we’re in while we dance? Get used to it while it’s just me and you, because the entertainers who danced for you last week are all going to see you like this.”

            “Destiny, please, I’m so sorry. Will you please not do this?”

            “Paul, I’m simply making demands and you are capitulating to me. You may have your clothes back and exchange my collar for a wristband at any time. You just have to say. Otherwise, I expect obedience. Are we clear?”

            “Yes, Ma’am.”

When creating this fictional exotic dance club, I tried to include elements of realism, with some club rules and with a focus on the dancers' income. I also took some liberties. So would there really be a club where dancers could take men into the champagne room and strip them naked? Yes! It's called The Lodge, and it's the setting of a femdom novel by Gregory Allen. The Lodge is available in print and as an Ebook at the Pink Flamingo website. The Ebook is available at amazon and other Ebook retailers. Thank you for reading!  

New Release: The Lodge, excerpt from chapter one, "Clipped by Destiny"

The Lodge is an exotic dance club where the dancers carry leashes and, for an extra fee, patrons can enter wearing a collar instead of a wristband. The novel opens with Paul finally working up the courage to visit his favorite dancer at the club wearing one. The excerpt picks up just before Paul receives his first dance.

               Clipped by Destiny, from chapter one of The Lodge by Gregory Allen

Destiny sat in the middle of the couch between the other two and leaned back. She gave the leash a sharp tug and pointed at the floor. Paul crawled to a stop and knelt up. Destiny crossed her legs. She kicked her heel in the air between them. The view up her tiny skirt revealed her bikini bottoms pressed between her tightly closed thighs, but the glorious sight remained in his periphery. He couldn’t remove his gaze from her face as she smiled down at him. “I wondered if you would come in with a collar on. You seemed like the type.” She uncrossed her legs and, placing both feet on the floor, leaned forward. She pinched his cheek. “Were you too shy?”

“Yes.”

She leaned back, drawing the leash tight, pulling him slightly off balance and making him tense up. She raised her chin and glared down. “While you’re at the end of my leash, you will address me as ‘Mistress Destiny.’”

“Yes, Mistress Destiny.”

She smiled and let the leash go slack. She crossed her legs, again. She told him she was enjoying the change at the club. She was having fun with it. Several of her regulars were coming in with collars on. Paul never liked hearing about her other regulars. He didn’t have any delusions. Of course she was an entertainer and men came in to see her, and it never bothered him to see her admired by other men she danced for, but he did like to think she wasn’t anyone else’s primary reason for coming in. When a dancer spots a man and knows when she sees him he’s a certain yes for a dance a nice bond is created. He wished his sharing of that with her was unique, but he obediently nodded along, listening attentively as she continued speaking, her foot moving through the air just under his chin.

The usual chatter took place. She let him know how her week had been and he told her about his. He didn’t have a lot in common with a beautiful woman half his age, but with Destiny, their surface conversations always felt sincere, and her wit and intelligence, during these pre-dance chats, had always made it more amazing that she would be dancing naked just for him and not slightly less the way it could if a dancer seemed too vapid or uninterested during the conversation. Now, on his knees at her feet, their pleasant, mundane chit chat took on a heightened erotic charge.

A few other patrons had been clipped by dancers, but the only two he could see on the adjacent couches wore bands around their wrists and were sitting and talking with their entertainers. Their forearms grazed against the dancers’ naked thighs. The couples seemed focused on each other, but Paul still felt the embarrassment of having to kneel while Destiny relaxed on the middle of the couch, her arms sprawled across both cushions.

She chatted idly, as though not even aware of the humiliation involved in his predicament, yet with subtle looks and sly maneuvering of her feet, which stretched nearer and nearer to his face, Paul could tell she was intentionally heightening his embarrassment.

When the song began, the dancers beside Destiny both rose. The men slid to the middle of their respective couches and opened their legs, and the dancers centered themselves between the knees of the men and began to slither out of their bikinis. Destiny simply uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. “This is going to be fun.” She cupped his cheek, grazing her palm against his skin, and pinched his cheek. “I’ll take it a little easy on you.”

The free amazon sample continues from here, I'll leave a link to it. The novel is also available in paperback at the Pink Flamingo website.

The sample is all of chapter one and a portion of chapter two:

http://amzn.com/B00K3B870G

Three Men and their Romance Writing

I have this strange memory that surfaces when I participate in interviews. It's from Beaches when Bette Midler's character is watching herself on a talk show and answers to some question, all dramatically, after begging herself from the couch to not go and say it, "I would say that C. C. feels things." Then the C. C. from the couch turns to the little girl and asks what she thinks. The girls says, "I thought you sounded kind of dumb."

That haunts me! Although I also think Stephen King was onto something when he said in On Writing, that if you're going to agree to give an interview you have to have something to say. In my case, I've been interviewed by generous people who gave me an opportunity on their blogs, so short of making something up, (The example Stephen King gave in the book was that he once lied and said he didn't write on Easter, Christmas, and his birthday) which I wouldn't be comfortable doing, I attempt to push through my comfort zone and offer something.

Which isn't usually difficult for me, I have strong opinions, but I'm also quite sensitive, especially on the topic of gender stereotypes and the effects of sexism in the erotica writing world. As usual, I probably over stepped, but I was fortunate for two reasons. The author of the article, PM White, did a great job weaving my statements into a balanced article and because Willsin Rowe added a fantastic point I missed. To my point that there are some sex-based biases in the world of romance reading and writing that we would all benefit from having cleaned up, a bit, he offers that it's a relatively, in the context of obvious worse issues in the past, soft issue.

Please check out the article here: http://www.write-sex.com/?p=1792 

  

To Write Books or to Play Video Games?

Is "Keep Writing/Don't Give Up" advice you give?
 
Lately I find myself steering away from giving that kind of advice. When my writing friends post their frustrations (which seems to happen only occasionally, everyone seems to try and present a positive outlook), I like to offer encouragement but I'm more likely to say things like, "Try to focus on enjoying the work," if their complaint is about sales and reaching readers. I've reached a point where I feel like telling people to not give up and keep writing is a way of telling them that the book sales and the reaching readers they desire are just around the corner. And I worry that I might be presenting false hope. The reality is the readers most of us are hoping for probably aren't around the corner.

What I would really like to tell writers struggling with whether or not they want to keep going is to take a quick break and consider if the joy and satisfaction you get from sitting and writing, from doing the work, is enough to keep you going by itself. If all those hopes and dreams of gaining readers and all that might come with that were to go away, would you still write? The answer doesn't have to be yes. Writers give a lot to the blank page and it's okay to want more back, whether it's more communication with an actual person or financial compensation for our investment of time.

I've done this on numerous occasions and I always quickly come back to yes as my answer, but that has to do with a lot more than just me as a writer, that has to do with me as a person. I don't have a challenging day job, I'm not a religious person, and these are two important holes in my life writing fills. I also have the free time available to spend on writing. If I didn't write, I might play video games. That's the analogy I often fall back on when I wonder why I'm bothering when I'm feeling down about sales and gaining readers: I could purchase video games and play them till I conquer them or I could write books. Writing books, if nothing else, is cheaper. 

Femdom Symbols

A friend asked me to read a story she'd written and comment. She apologized if "writers get that a lot," which made me laugh because that marked the first time I'd ever "gotten that." I was immensely flattered my opinion was valued. She also warned me to not expect it to be "as sensual" as my writing, which again flattered me. Then I read this story. It was well written, but I knew it would be because I was familiar with her blog and already knew she wrote well. The characters felt like they had a loving relationship as they played. I was wondering what exactly she might have meant when she said it wasn't like my writing. Then, near the end, the female character (it was a femdom story) peed on her submissive male partner.

I began writing femdom erotica for a few reasons, but one of them was that reading femdom meant running into activities that either didn't turn me on or that I didn't particular like that they turned me on. I "get" enjoying getting peed on as an expression of submission to a partner, it just goes a touch far, for me. In Serving Her, Kimberly tells Alex that peeing on him is on their "list." Their "list" is a mutual one of activities neither of them choose to participate in. It's mostly for Alex, since if Kimberly didn't want to do something, she simply wouldn't, as she tells him. But it's not a judgment against activities anyone else chooses to engage in. Kimberly spanks Alex with all kinds of implements and snaps his cock with rubber bands. Plenty of people would find that "a touch far" as an expression of love between two people. How giant of a hypocrite would I have to be to not recognize that getting peed on is simply another loving expression of dominance and submission between people different from me?

And she didn't mean, I don't think, that I would have an adverse reaction to that scene, but it struck me that she thought I would find less love between them. If two people whose tastes in femdom are close but don't quite sync up, can't come together and recognize that the love is there, how can I expect vanilla people to recognize that Kimberly and Alex share a love as strong as any two people who don't engage in female domination? Only the symbols are different, the love is the same.   

Reaching Readers and Tasting Chocolate Ice Cream

Thinking about reaching readers, I got caught in a loop. I don't know if this is obvious or interesting, but I realized people are averse to the feeling like they're missing something. And none of this is intended as criticism, this is mostly me thinking of me. I'm like a lot of people who say they're always looking for new books to enjoy. I was a reader long before I was a writer and I'm still a reader. I love finding a new book or new author who knocks me off my feet. But in the meantime, I'm not sitting around contemplating the absence of the startling, wonderful feeling of being thrilled by a new book. That would be too painful. Plus I'm too busy for that. I have my personal list of go to authors, whose books I consistently enjoy, enough that I don't want to miss any of them.

Moving away from books, if I've never tasted chocolate ice cream, it doesn't matter how delicious chocolate ice cream might taste to me, I don't feel like I'm missing anything. If someone comes over to my house with a carton of the stuff, I can take a bite and discover how tasty it is. If they pop over empty-handed and just tell me about chocolate ice cream, I might toss it in the memory bank as something to try when I get the chance, but I'm not going to spend the time it takes to get to the nearest grocery store drooling over how much I might enjoy chocolate ice cream that I, at that point, only know my friend finds tasty.

Back to books again. Enjoyment of a book requires more work than somehow getting chocolate ice cream to land on a taste bud. When we consider that people are, on a deeply subconscious level, averse to feeling like they're missing something, it shows the difficulty in reaching them. Then people are resistant even to hearing things like, "You should check out this book!" (You're missing out on the experience of reading this book!) That's how word of mouth eventually works. After hearing enough times, from enough people, how good a book is we finally do feel like we're missing something, that pains us, and so we read that book. That's why just about everyone has read at least one Harry Potter book and a Hunger Games book. (Not saying those books aren't also enjoyable.) That would also explain why while most books are buried in obscurity there is always that occasional book everyone reads. Also the reason movie studios clobber us with advertising for movies. They aren't trying to make sure people see a movie's trailer and decide it's something they might enjoy. They're trying to create, through repetition, a compulsion to see that movie, like a need to scratch an itch. (Not always the case, in either case, a movie trailer can, by content alone, pique the interest of an audience, same with a book synopsis, but I more mean the challenge of reaching a larger audience.)

So I don't know how my theory, if there's anything to it, could be applied to aid us little guys and gals in reaching readers. (I was hoping someone else would come up with that part.) And, again, not intended in any way as a complaint aimed at readers. I'm always amazed and impressed that intrepid readers come upon my books and take the time to read them, with all the literature available, besides being extremely grateful when they do.