Guest author, Sasha Bailey

Brooke Molineux's deepest desires remained secret. Her colleagues respected her, her students feared her, and her husband treated her gently. But one night, when she was alone in her office, one of her students decided to risk his career to give some of her treatment back to her. Brooke seized the opportunity to admit how much pleasure she took in the pain he administered. His punishments opened her ability to love him and fulfilled her deepest needs, until she went too far, and he punished too hard—and opened up another level of her desire and fantasy.

That's the blurb for Torts, and it took me two weeks to write it. Whenever I read it, I hope it's short enough. My first book, Torts, is short. My attention span is short. I have trouble writing the parts of books I don't read. So I look for a few words that characterize a setting or a person. When I read my drafts, my mind wanders. I rewrite any passage that loses my attention. If it continues to lose my attention because I skim in order to get to the action, I know the plot is strong and I cross out that passage.

What about you? When are you reading so intently that you don't even know you are reading intently? When do you skim in order to find out what happens faster? When do you tune out? If you are a reader and not yet a writer, the answers to these questions might tell you what you write well and who will like your books.

You have heard this: write what you know. Yes and no. Maybe you have some werewolves or danger in another dimension. But the desires that drive your characters are akin to deep human ones and trigger ours. You have heard this: write what you like to read. Yes and no. I like to read cookbooks and the sports section. Both, however, are vivid and easy to read and tell stories. That is also true of Torts.

I have learned this: write what you can read. You will read your work a thousand times. You will read it when you admire it. You will read it when it embarrasses you. You will read it and feel like singing with joy. You will read it and think it is contrived. But if you read it and your mind wanders, cross it out. If you read it and it leaves you wanting more detail or another scene, fill it in. Make it into what you can read. Make it what you can read easily because your nervous system absorbs and moves with the rhythm of your writing. Make it a book that reads itself to you while you receive it. Make it effortless for you to read.

This is your style. No one else has it. But your readers are waiting for it. They are waiting for your book to flow into them the way it flowed into you when it was effortless for you to read. To those readers who are not yet writers: sit down at your typewriters and pour.

*****
Sasha Bailey is a crotchety old bag whose favorite book is the Iliad. Her Zen moments of complete peace take place while she does the crossword puzzle in the New York Times.
When she has no work and no ideas, or too much work and no ideas, she hikes or goes to the movies.

Torts by Sasha Bailey
http://www.eternalpress.ca/torts.htm
Erotic / BDSM without graphic sex scenes, 15,758 words
$3.95 US .pdf
ebook: 978-1-926647-52-4
print: 978-1-926647-60-9


Summary:

Brooke Molineux's deepest desires remained a secret. Her colleagues respected her, her students feared her, and her husband treated her gently. But one night, when she was alone in her office, one of her students decided to risk his career to give some of her treatment back to her. Brooke seized the opportunity to admit how much pleasure she took in the pain he administered. His punishments opened her ability to love him and fulfilled her deepest needs, until she went too far, and he punished too hard? and opened up another level of her desire and fantasy.