Some of my readers, all dear friends as I write this, are befuddled by the subject matter of Life Style. Knowing me as well as they do they don’t understand how I could produce a book with such dark subject matter. Or why I would. I believe most of us have a dark side and tapping into mine gave me the glue I needed to hold my little love story together. You might ask why it would come out now, as I approach seventy?
I really started to write a love story, one of discovery and rediscovery, with a contemporary background and a problem to solve. That background, human trafficking, bridges to the love story by way of the BDSM lifestyle. The BDSM community is a link to The Suit, and acts as a vehicle to give us a clear picture of who Alice is, deep inside.
In her own right, Rhonda is more clearly defined in her approach to the community. Her “all in” posture makes life a little uneasy for a reluctant Billy as she tops him from the bottom. He bemoans having a lover who is so much smarter than he. When she takes “No” off the table she demonstrates what lengths to which she will go to demonstrate her affection for him. One wonders if it is love or professional curiosity that drives “The Doc” to bow down to the man she believes she loves.
On the other hand, Billy, whose love for Rhonda, stood dormant for two decades and had never died. He is playing straight man to accomplish the goal of saving Alice from the Suit, and whatever nastiness he may have in mind. And of course, to win the heart of the fair maiden. But he is intrigued by Rhonda’s subscription to a lifestyle that includes intentional pain and conscription as well as pleasure. Throughout, I don’t think he really gets it. But the professional curiosity of the investigative reporter that he is gets the best of him.
They manage to maintain a mostly vanilla relationship amongst all the flavors that are bursting out around them. Inside dungeons and at the action end of a flogger, the love story drives this novel. When Rhonda tells Billy that “If this isn’t love, it’s what I want instead,” it is in a strictly vanilla setting. But her offering herself to him is done in an overall “anything goes” environment when she takes “No” off the table. It is a prayer spoken by a believer in a cult she is not aware she joined. It is her first act of submission. This is pure topping from the bottom.
As I look to categorize this story it looks to me to be almost two stories in one. The first half very much character driven and the second being swept away by the story. But, I believe, as the main characters spend the course of this book massaging a love for one another, that makes it a romancer. However, the bondage portions do not fit the romance paradigm in that most of the BDSM is not performed by the protagonist and his love interest, but for darker reasons. The book will make you see red, but this book is in no way fifty shades of anything. At the center of it are a white slaver and a slut.
I am offering up the latest version of Life Style for the price of a simple conversation, or a solid email. On my site, in the Beta Readers section, is a link to a YouTube video of Jenna Moreci, a published author and Vlogger who is popular with prospective authors. Jenna talks about the qualities and duties of a beta reader. At this point in my journey I don’t need all that, but if someone is of a mind to take the journey step by step I would more than welcome that kind of support. Just a conversation about the content and quality of my work. At this point I just need many eyes willing to have a hard conversation with an old softy who wrote a hard ass book.
The word count of what I consider my best version is over one hundred thirty-five thousand words at last count. I am currently trying to cut it down, as literary agents don’t even want to look at anything over a hundred thousand words. That’s a lot of cutting. But my focus, I believe, in the long run will be the current version being circulated. It still needs some TLC after consultation with my beta team, and a professional edit. But my goal right now is to get it in form to put it into the hands of an editor. That costs money, so I need to get it right the first time. Those folks charge by the word.
Mike Paul 