It was my honor and pleasure to invite into the spotlight one of the most consistently outstanding and prolific writers on the EMCSA,
Jukebox. I hope you'll all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed doing it with him. (Wait, that doesn't sound right ...)
Ah, Jukebox! Good to see you. Please, have a seat in this nice comfy chair.
Put your feet up ... just relax and make yourself nice and comfortable. Don't mind the swirling lights, they're just there to help set the mood, if you will. You can simply let them wash over you until you barely notice them anymore. 
Now, my good friend, as you relax and let go, you can open your mind enough to answer a few questions for me ... What drew you to MC fiction in the first place?Oh, gosh, that's a field of study in and of itself.
"Doctor Who" was probably an early warping influence; I'm not saying that Doctor Who fans all grow up to be MC fetishists, but if you drew a Venn diagram of people who have a hypno-kink and people who watched the lovely Sarah Jane Smith getting hypnotized when they were impressionable youths, I suspect there'd be a lot of overlap.
Then there's the late Jack Chalker, a wonderful science-fiction writer who wasn't ashamed to say, "Yes, my bad guys want to use mind control to conquer the world/galaxy/universe...but they're going to use it to screw their way through a harem of sexy women, too."
And of course, Chris Claremont, who's such an obvious MC fetishist that he's probably reading this interview. Hi, Chris, loved the story where Kraven puts the brainwashing collar on Tigra!
You're famous for titling your stories after popular songs, but I have to know: are the stories inspired by the songs, or do you find yourself getting story ideas and then looking for a song title to match?Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Well, actually, four of one, two sets of two of the other, and a quartet of the third; sometimes, I'm inspired by the actual song (as in "Simply Irresistible"); sometimes, I'm inspired by the title (as in "Help Me Rhonda"); and sometimes, I have an idea and go hunting for a title to use for it (as in "Wake Up Call".) Probably the second set is the most common, but I've done all three.
Do you ever go back and reread old stories of yours, especially from the first year or two? What do you think of them today? Have you evolved as a writer, and if so how?I do a lot of re-reading, actually, because I edit my stories so obsessively. (The average story gets five edit passes before it goes to Simon.) In general, I'm pretty happy with what I've written; there are a few stories that I don't feel have aged well ("She Blinded Me With Science", for example, still makes me wince) but as I get distance and perspective from my own stuff, I think I can evaluate it better. Of course, that could still be my ego talking.
Unlike a lot of other writers, your stories cover almost all the usual combinations and pairings. Is there a particular combination (MF/FF/MM, MD/FD) that you enjoy more than the others, and why?FF, because everything's better with lesbians!
(FD is also nummy, but reading about a beautiful woman submitting is hot...and reading about a beautiful, dominant mind-controlling woman is hot...and FF stories have both at once.
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Is there an element or kink that you would never put into a story? Why not?Incest, because Lady Ru'etha is so utterly, firmly squicked out by it that She would never want to read a story with incest in it, and She is my audience. (She's the only person who gets to see rough drafts of my stories.)
Your stories are, in general, short and light-hearted. Have you ever considered doing a really long piece or taking a turn on the dark side?Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by "really long". Or by "a turn on the dark side", for that matter. "Transylvanian Concubine" ends with the one of the main characters nailing the other one to the floor of her attic so that she can keep an eye on him for the rest of his eternal life, and "Eternal Flame" ends with the lead character murdering her father, then committing suicide. It's hard to get much darker than that without involving puppies and wood chippers.
As to long, I think ten thousand words is probably my limit. "True Colors" is about 10K, and that involves sleeper agents, warring mind controllers, double sleeper agents, and the rare triple sleeper agent in the final twist. If I can fit that into 10,000 words, I think I can fit in anything.
(Alan Moore once talked about how the best thing for his writing skills was writing eight-page comics for 2000AD, because it forced him to figure out how to tell complex stories in a short space, and I think there's some truth to that. Not to knock people with long, multi-part epics, but I don't think that longer necessarily equals better.)
Does your own writing still "work" for you as stroke?Nope. Never has, really. I can count the number of times I've actually...um, left the room, to use trilby else's euphemism...to one of my own stories on the fingers of one hand. Which isn't to say I don't get turned on by them, only that I tend to find something, sooner or later, that throws me out of the story and into editor mode.
There was a time when you stopped writing for a while. What happened, and what got you back?What happened was...**deep breath**
Well, what happened first was I got a book contract.
I wrote a book, it took a couple of months, and as I only had so much time to write, paid writing trumped free writing. (This is, shameless plug, why you should plunk down a few bucks for my self-published books if you can spare it. I don't write for the money, but it helps.) Then, after that, I moved to be with Lady Ru'etha and there was a long period where I felt like I didn't need to fantasize about mind control because I was quite happily living out my fantasies.
Then I wound up moving back home, primarily for family reasons, and there was quite a long stretch where both Lady Ru'etha and I had managed to send each other the wrong signals. She thought She was being noble by only hypnotizing me when I asked, because She didn't want to be unethical and pounce on my vulnerable brain. I thought I was being noble by only tranceplaying with Her when She offered, because I didn't want Her to think I was just calling Her up whenever I needed hypnosis. Anyone who does the math can figure out this is a recipe for mutual frustration.
We stayed wonderful friends the whole time, but hypnosis kind of became an inadvertent taboo.
Then one day, it all just kind of clicked together. I don't know what I did to let Her know that it was okay, but suddenly She was triggering me, and once I was under and didn't have all the filters in my conscious mind to get in the way, I was able to really explain how I felt. Once She understood that was how I felt, She felt much freer to hypnotize me, and a couple of weeks later, the words just started flowing again.
I know, long answer. But you did just ask me to summarize five years.
That does lead to the thing everyone seems to want to know: to the extent that you're willing to share, how has your relationship with Lady Ru'etha influenced your writing?Every which way it can.
She is my biggest fan, my constant inspiration (pretty much every sympathetic Domme in one of my stories is in some way based on Her), and our real-life experiences constantly find their way into stories in ways both large and small. Many of my stories are really just extended love letters to Her, and even the ones that aren't, the details of my hypnotic experiences with Her make more authentic and believable. She encourages me, She collaborates with me, She gives me valuable feedback every time I send Her a story...honestly, without Her, I'd be a very different person. Much lonelier, for a start.
Since you came back, you've posted a story a week consistently and mentioned that you have enough already written to keep doing so well into the coming year. Where do you find the time for all that writing? How do you balance that with work, sleep, and real life?Well, part of it is that I write shorter stories than everyone else.
Seriously, I think it's a matter of discipline, scheduling, and knowing when to take a break. I work a normal eight-hour day, and about three to four days a week, I come home and write for three to four hours a day. That's a whole lot of writing, if you just sit down and do it and don't let anything else get in the way. Then I save the weekends for a social life (such as it is...) to keep myself from getting too tense.
That said, I've also taken extended time off--it's just that nobody notices, because my backlog is so long. I wrote very little this summer, for example; I was just worn out, and writing seemed too much like work. But since you guys are still reading my stuff from last July, it seems like I'm some kind of machine.
Oh, and I probably shouldn't mention this, but it helps that I got a laptop. And that I have about three hours a night at work where there's nothing to do and I'm alone in the building.
Which of your own stories is your favorite and why?"Headwires". I love the hell out of WildRose, who started out as a Batgirl pastiche for about five sentences, then she suddenly turned into this sort of crazy mix of Batgirl, the Huntress, and Guy Gardner and went on from there.
I love Sharpe, who started out as Oracle but turned into a robo-kinky Willow as she grew in my head. I love the Technophile's scheme, because it's an actual villainous plan and not just, "I'm going to have a harem of super-hero babes!" And ashamed as I am to toot my own horn so vigorously, I am stupidly proud of that twist at the end. "I sent him WildRose...and Adventure Girl..." I don't quote myself often, but I recite that bit whenever I'm feeling blue to cheer myself up.
With all those posted stories, you must get a lot of reader feedback. Care to share some of the more interesting bits?Hmm. Without violating confidences, I can mention that at least a few people read my "induction pieces" to their significant others as part of their love life, which is sweet and wonderful; I've had a couple of people read them and assume I'm the speaker in those pieces, and asked if I could maybe hypnotize them. I've always had to gently explain to them that I really write those imagining myself as the listener.
You've made a lot of your catalog available in print-on-demand book form. What prompted you to do that, and has it worked out well for you, either monetarily or otherwise?Originally, it started as a present for Lady Ru'etha. We had arranged a romantic weekend together, and I thought it would be nice to give Her permanent copies of my stories, bound together like they were "real books". Then, when I investigated Lulu.com, I found out that it was pretty easy to actually make them available for sale as real books, and I thought that people might actually enjoy my work enough to want to support it with cash. Because I am something of a perfectionist once I get going on a project, I wound up commissioning covers for them, spending ages formatting them, and generally getting them to look nice enough that I wouldn't feel guilty charging for them.
(I didn't actually ask Lady Ru'etha to provide forewords, though. That was Her surprise gift to me, a couple of weeks after I gave Her the books. Words cannot express how gratified I felt.)
As to how it's worked out monetarily...well, I won't be paying the rent with it anytime soon **grin**, but I've gotten to the point where I am actually making a small profit on each new volume. Michelle's advice that I should make them available as ebooks really helped in that regard; I can sell an ebook for a lot less than a print book, but more of that money actually goes back to me and less to the printer. (Which, again shameless plug time: I'm just barely too proud to beg, so you'll never see a donation button on my blog, but if you want to throw some money my way just to say you appreciate my work, buying an ebook helps. It costs less than a quarter a story, and I like to think the product is good.)
(Hey, I'm too proud to beg, not too proud to shill.
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What do your friends and family think of your MC writing? Do they even know?They don't know. I consider it a favor to them; I once said to a friend of mine, "Rule Number One of Friendship: You really don't want to know about your friends' sex lives. Even if you think you want to know, you really don't want to know." I think it's just something they probably don't want to think about.
That said, my family does know I self-publish. They don't ask to read it, and I don't offer.
When the weekly update posts, what other writers do you look for? What is it about those writers (or their work) that appeals to you most?I'm ashamed to admit that I'm actually really terrible about reading other people's stuff. Remember how you asked about how I balance everything out and still find time to write? Yeah, the only real casualty of that is reading.
Most weeks, I only look at the update to make sure Simon got my story, and skim the descriptions of everything else. Occasionally something will catch my eye, but most of the time, it's back to writing after that.
That said, I do always take the time to read one of Flibinite's stories, for two reasons. One, she's a diligent and conscientious reviewer who reads and comments on my work, and I feel that I am honor-bound to return the favor; and two, pretty much all of her stories involve lesbians, bondage, and mind-control-by-seduction, which are three of my personal hot buttons.
Oh, and on the off-chance she's reading this: Jo, port your old stuff to the EMCSA!
There could be any number of people reading this interview and thinking they'd like to try their hand at MC writing. What advice can you offer them?The three R's: Read, Write, and Revise. Read as much stuff as you can, not just MC stuff but everything of every genre (non-fiction, too! Heck, non-fiction especially!) The more ideas that come into your mind, the more ideas will go back out. Write often. The only way to get better at writing is to practice, the only practice for writing is to write. And be ruthless in revising your own work. Practice isn't just the act of repeatedly doing something, it's learning how to repeat what works and stop repeating what doesn't. Listen to feedback, worship your editor, and check your ego at the door.
What do you see as your place within the MC writing community? Old guard or new? Romantic or 'pathic? Paper or plastic?Court jester.
If I ever feel like I'm settling too much into a "place" in the writing community, I'll write against type just to keep myself from getting lazy. I try to make myself change styles, tenses, genres, pairings, voices, anything to keep myself from feeling like I'm just churning out the same damn story over and over again with the names changed.
That said, I can't actually change who's writing the stories.
I'm a hopeless romantic, I'm a submissive, I adore romantically dominant women, and I especially above all else adore Lady Ru'etha. That creeps in, and I can't deny it.
We like to ask writers whether life ever imitates art for them. In your case it's pretty widely known that you do have experience with hypnotic play. Do you find that your real-life scenes inspire stories, or that your stories end up inspiring real-life play scenes?Mostly the former. I'm pretty open about the fact that "Feels Like the First Time" is as direct a transcription of my first hypnotic experience with Lady Ru'etha as memory can make it (well, right up until the last few paragraphs, at least. Oh, and I changed the names.) On occasion, Lady Ru'etha will read a story of mine and get mischievous, but mostly I write about what we do, not the other way around.
Okay, fantasy time: You're alone on a beach stroking a bottle (by which I actually mean a bottle) and a genie emerges. You can have three wishes, but they all must benefit either A) mankind, or B) your personal sex life. What do you wish for?Immortality, indestructibility, and mind control powers. But it's all for the benefit of mankind, I swear.
It just seems to me that there are a (relatively) few people out there who have a disproportionate ability to influence the world--not in the sense of a conspiracy, but just powerful people, CEOs, politicians, and the like. I think that a lot of those people tend to act selfishly, just because that's the nature of the system--the people who most want the power tend to get it, and the people who most want it, want it for themselves. So I think if I could make those people want to help the world instead of themselves, we really could see a much nicer Earth in a very short period of time.
And I'd need to be immortal and indestructible so that it wouldn't all go to hell again after I died.
The ghost of Milton Erickson appears before you and grants you the ability to hypnotically control anyone for any purpose for the next 48 hours. How will you use that power?I'd have myself hired as Bill Gates' "personal ethics advisor", at a salary of a hundred grand a year, with an ironclad, unbreakable contract. Then I'd tell him that nobody actually needs a freaking smart house, and to put that money to good use.
It's hard to imagine you have time for anything else, but do you have any real-world hobbies or interests you'd be willing to share with the class?Any time that doesn't go to writing, work, or socializing is lost playing "City of Heroes".
You've got months' worth of stories ready to post. Anything surprising or extra special in the pipeline? Which one are you most looking forward to seeing come out?"What's On Your Mind", which is coming up the weekend of the 10th, is a favorite of mine, a sort of X-Men pastiche that answers the question of just why Professor X locked off Jean Grey's telepathic abilities...a telepath in a school full of horny teenagers is a recipe for disaster.
Further out, "Black Velvet" is probably going to surprise a few people, as it's written in a very different voice than usual; "Talking In Your Sleep" is the one I'm most looking forward to people reading, as it's probably the hottest thing I've ever written (and yes, it's in one of my POD books--"Past, Present and Future", for those who can't wait)...and, for those of you who are more into cyan, next year about this time should see my first MM story hit the archives.
Very good, Jukebox. Thank you so much for coming to see me today. How great does it feel to realize that you've got so many fans who will enjoy reading these responses? And when I count to three you'll be completely awake and aware and ready to enjoy some cheddar garlic biscuits. One ... two ... three Mmmmmmm...cheddar garlic biscuits.
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