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 