Kenn Ghannon: Blog

This will be brief. I've been seriously ill which has hindered my writing ability...but I'm still alive and should be back to writing shortly.

Well, it's good news for me but potentially bad news for you, my dear readers.

My work is sending me out of the country for the next 6-10 weeks. I'll have only sporadic access to internet...and then, it won't be much of a signal. This means that I'll have time to write (since I'll be away from my family) but I really won't have time to post (at least, not very often). Hopefully, this means I'll get one or more of my stories completed so I can upload them in full when I return.

In the mean time, I'm going to try to get another chapter of "Ring" out to you on Saturday, before I leave. Hope you and yours have a great couple of months!

I do a bad thing when I read. I invest myself in the characters. That's one of the reasons I prefer longer stories, it's easier to invest in a character when the story is longer because you really get to know them.

I guess what I'm saying is that a part of me begins to identify with one or more of the characters. Reading, even reading erotica, is almost NEVER sexual for me. I don't masturbate to it. I'll admit I get hard but..sometimes the wind can do that to me.

I was reading a story that I probably never should have started. The writing style seems very juvenile and yet innocent even when it's not. Simple sentences. Lots of repetitiveness. Little to no punctuation. It sucked me in and I just couldn't seem to put it down. The author is Gulf Coast Mattie. I read the first story called "It's better than Nothing" and I was thrilled until the very end. It's about a rather innocent young man who has sexual relations with his mom and sister and a bunch of their friends. He's a bit of a milque-toast; very subservient (especially to his sister and then, later, his wife). It was hard to read but I couldn't put it down...until the end.

Now, one of the things the story is about is how his wife allows him to have sex with other girls (blow jobs mostly but sex with a select few). His mother and sister are extremely sexual (most of the women in the story are) and get off on having 2 lovers at a time (or more).

I've started on the second book "Living with Strong Willed Women" and...I'm not going to be able to finish it. It starts with his wife coming to him and wanting to have an affair with a well-hung college professor -- one that his mother and sister have already had. I found myself growing angrier and angrier and I'm not sure why. I mean, she was letting him have his fun so turnabout is fair play, right?

Wrong. She starts the conversation about how she wants to have the affair by saying "Oh, I'm real understanding and let you have all of these other women so you should let me have this one." She makes it abundantly clear that he can say no at any time -- but she practically guilts him into it. That's wrong. Way wrong.

She has complete control over his life (at his insistence) and he feels he HAS to say 'yes' to her because she's let him have sex with other women. That's fucked up. I'm not saying what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander or whatever metaphor you want, but she had a choice whether her husband can continue. He doesn't really have that choice. It's evident that he doesn't want her to do this -- and they're supposed to know him so well -- but they essentially talk him into it.

Don't get me wrong, if the guy is all for it that's one thing. Same with the girl. She was evidently okay with sharing him -- but if he isn't, and you know it, that's not alright.

I found myself angrily writing a story about what I would do if I found myself in a similar situation. Luckily, I stopped after a half page -- I've got enough stories I'm writing right now and I don't need another.

I will say -- this is not something I could EVER put up with. If my wife ever 'has a fling' that's it for me and her. Forever. Knowing my wife, I can honestly say that the opposite is equally true.

Anyway, I just needed to get that out here instead of writing another stupid story about it. :)

So, I went story hopping today while taking a break from writing; I won't say what I was writing because too many people will get mad (let's just say, I had an idea that came to me and haven't been able to put it down). Sadly, I couldn't find anything I liked. I started a few stories but they just trailed off into absurdity or the dialogue began reading like some strange 1st grade book (You know the one: Jack likes Jane. Jane likes Jack. See Jack fuck Jane? Fuck Jack Fuck!). I can't help it...realistic dialogue is important; if it doesn't sound real I completely lose the story.

I also look for long stories; nothing against short stories (and there are some in certain areas I really enjoy reading) but I prefer the long developed story that has great character development and where the sex is a natural part of the story instead of the intention of the story. Stories like "Burr" or like "Robin" by John Smith (even though that one hit a few of my minor squicks, I still enjoyed the heck out of -- even to the point of having read it about 3 times now over time). Memorable characters, excellent plot -- these are the things I crave and there seem to be so few stories I've found that I like. In a way, that's what drives the stories I write. I put a lot of time and effort into making the characters as real as I can; I don't always succeed but I try. For example, all of my dialogue is read out loud to let me hear the words spoken. I'll often change a single word or two because a contraction sounds better or I've used a word that that character wouldn't really say or isn't familiar with.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my frustration...and I guess I have...so I'll shut up now. :)

An anonymous e-mailer asked me "How is nudging someone into having sex with you by using mind control not rape? It is not a free choice if you push them for it."

My first answer is -- this is a story and that point of view was within Jess' perspective. What my characters say and do are not necessarily (or even usually -- if I had a Ring of Control I don't think I'd be strong enough NOT to use it to have sex with everyone within the sound of my voice, etc.) what I would say or do.

That's kind of the short answer. The longer one is that we ALL do things to get others into bed with us. From the moment we go out on that first date, we are trying very hard to end the night in bed. It usually takes some persuasion. It usually takes some acting. We're not really trying to be deceitful -- we're just trying to ease someone into our shell, to see the real person underneath in bits and pieces instead of all at once because we think, rightly or wrongly, that subjecting someone to all of ourselves at once will cause them to run screaming into the night -- and we're usually right. So, is that rape? I mean, we're bedding someone without being truthful with them so...

Andy just has a different and more powerful means to enact that persuasion that we all use. Is it rape? Ah, that's a trick question. He changes their mind to *THINK* it isn't rape -- and perception is reality. To them, then, it isn't. However, to an outsider it most certainly is. Semantics, I know...but viewpoints are going to differ.

Anyway, I just had to answer the question the way *I* think it should be answered. Other people may disagree. :) That's what's so great about being human -- our penchant to disagree and discourse about why we think we're right.