Thanks to Michelle and Dina who always pop in to say ‘hi’ and ask me about where book five is. =)
It’s taken me a more time to write because it is a longer book, it winds up a bunch of story arcs and so I am doing my best to maintain consistency and make sure there is nothing in previous books that contradicts what is going on, and several things have popped up that have occupied my time. With the holidays rapidly approaching and commitments I have through the rest of the year, I guarantee it will be done before Christmas, but it’s hard to say exactly when. I’m a one person shop, so Twitter, email, spam, writing, redesign of books, etc is all through me… in addition to all the other things that make life possible. =) It’s been an, (unfortunately), busier few months than I anticipated, and I’ve rewritten a few scenes already that I wasn’t happy with – I don’t want this book to seem like a quick and sloppy job; my readers – and Lily and Stuart – deserve more than that.
Lisa has posted here and on Amazon expressing concern about Stuart’s behaviour and the intensity of their scenes.
If you go to Fetlife or any of the other kink-oriented sites you will see things far worse than anything Stuart has done to Lily. There (can be) pain in kink, the BDSM lifestyle, but the range of it is something else entirely. Stuart has left marks on Liliana that last a short time – a few days at most. I just went to a birthday party for a kinkster and one of my friends there was lamenting that her marks are finally going away after a week. I worked with a woman – cute, charming, smart and quirky – who loves take-down scenes, where she is thrown into a piece of chain link fence mounted on the wall in one of the local play places. She got a kick going into work knowing that the huge, angry bruises would horrify most people she worked with, but they were covered up by a skirt, sometimes barely.
Perhaps it is a failure in my writing and expression, but Lily is ABSOLUTELY not being abused by Stuart. An intense scene can be very cathartic, and bring you closer to the person you are doing it with. It is trust, a bonding experience, and freeing, as odd as it sounds. It brings you into the present moment in a way few other things ever can, and done properly is an amazing experience. Use of the term ‘beating’ is not uncommon vernacular, as in, ‘he beat me with a flogger’, not to be confused with someone non-consensually beating a person up.
With regard to Lisa’s mention about Stuart leaving marks… he had an inkling they might swim – Elissa mentioned bathing suits – which was why Stuart was careful in his aim, and he did not know Lily would need to go shopping
