by J. Allison Baird & S.M. Shifflett
J. Allison: Hello, this is going to be an unusual foreword, because we are going to do this somewhat as a conversation between the two of us because we had so much we wanted to say.
S.M. Shifflett: I think it’s interesting that we are recording the foreword, because we’re really like combining really old-fashioned things, like books with illustrations, and having podcasts and having a website.
J. Allison: So, yeah, we are releasing this in rather a strange way. Partly because we didn’t know if we could get a publisher. I spoke to a darling friend and she suggested that it would be difficult... [Continue Reading]
Writing was exhausting. You wouldn’t have known it by looking at the blank _Word 98_ document, staring back defiantly with its incessant blinking cursor.
I just wanted to write perfect, erudite, insightful prose. That wasn’t so much to ask for, was it?
The keyboard compressed under the weight of my face as I slumped forward onto it, no doubt causing a snake of symbols to rattle across the screen. My decline may have been a touch dramatic, but I had very much reached my capacity for care. So, with a pencil in my left hand, and without looking, I scrawled the word ‘fuck’ in large letters onto the notepad lying next to my head... [Continue Reading]
Jane was visibly thrilled as I followed her and Tara down the stone stairs. I had no idea what to expect at the bottom of them. Perhaps a grande set of closet doors, pushed aside to reveal a bountiful garden, bright and wild, full of kinky people doing whatever it is they do. Instead, we were met by a concrete-floored basement which, in contrast to my flights of fancy, felt more like a small well-attended pub than a mystical land of iniquity.
Groups of chattering people sat at tall tables lit by candles held in old bottles. The bar itself was a worn countertop preceded by mismatched bar stools... [Continue Reading]
They felt like someone else’s dreams. Or maybe a mixture of thoughts and memories. A woman knelt in front of another towering over her. Someone else was blindfolded, pulled roughly by a leash and a handful of hair.
Were they really all me?
Or someones I’d seen at the... [Continue Reading]
I shuffled back into the kitchen.
“Sooooo?” Andy shut his book with a thud, “How did the fair Katherine fare?”
“We’re going to see each other again.”
“Outstanding!” he boomed, then squinted, “You seem to be in shock about this?”
“Um… no, I mean, yes... [Continue Reading]
I sat on a rickety seat in the back of the bus, rested my head against the cold glass, and drifted.
Of course, it wasn’t long before I started to ruminate about why I was able to be so present, calm, and happy.
It started with a simple thought, I had sex.
Amazing... [Continue Reading]
I floated the whole tube ride home. It was an odd state to be in, mentally so peaceful and yet sure I should be trying to figure out what the hell just happened. The impulse to do something with Astrid had been evident, but I hadn’t known what that something was nor what it would actually be like... [Continue Reading]
I watched the cane fall again and again onto Penny’s bottom, which was now laced with angry red stripes.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the spectacle. I barely registered what I said to Astrid.
I just watched the rod fly and Penny screech. Jen seemed to be putting her whole arm into it. And even with my complete lack of knowledge of the practice... [Continue Reading].
I woke groggy and with an oddly stiff neck.
Opening one narrow eye, I was greeted by an out of focus mound. After a moment’s confusion, I lifted my head to realise I had been sleeping all night on Astrid’s tit.
Shifting to get more comfortable, my face felt strangely wet. Still very much out of it, I tried to look down at my own chin, barely aware that was not going to work, before being struck by an awful instant of realisation... [Continue Reading].
Very slowly, my consciousness faded back in. I went to rub my blurry eyes only to find my wrists still bound. I looked down at them and then to Astrid. Her eyes were shut.
I tested pulling my wrists apart, finding the cuffs sturdy and very able to resist my efforts.
It was comforting. Like I was held and secure.
I studied the cuffs, twisting my wrists within them. Each was a soft black leather strap held in place with a buckle and metal rings, clipped together with a carabiner... [Continue Reading]
”Yes, Miss.”
My stomach somersaulted as I stepped around the table to draw out her chair. She stood and turned to face me, looking very satisfied indeed. I had the strongest impulse to stare at the floor but managed to pull myself together enough to screech her chair back under the table and reach over for my jacket. Astrid smoothed down her skirt and buttoned her blazer, her hands moving gracefully to adjust everything just so. She finished by checking her collar before looking at... [Continue Reading]
I’d never ridden around London that way. It was wild. The wind whipping past. And clutching onto my new Dominant for dear life. All whilst trying to sit so my tawsed arse didn’t bounce around on the sorest parts.
We rode through the now more familiar parts of Shoreditch and Old Street, and it occurred that I had absolutely no idea where we were going or where Astrid worked. I presumed an office in the City or maybe... [Continue Reading]
I couldn’t fathom what Astrid might have in store for us as we walked out of the Old Street tube.
She hadn’t elaborated, despite my protests.
”You’ll find out soon enough,” Astrid grinned.
The notion of the unexpected was scary, but also, I had to admit, alluring. To an almost scandalising... [Continue Reading]
Astrid’s shoe jerked away from my face and I yelped in shock.
Moments earlier I was shocked I was even in that position at all.
It was nothing I ever imagined I would do. '
None of what I had been doing recently was anything I had ever imagined... [Continue Reading]
The way home had become routine. I didn’t have to worry where to get the bus or where to get off anymore. Which gave me the chance to worry about other things. I really hadn’t wanted to leave Astrid that day and I wondered if she had felt the same.
After training, we snogged on the sofa. It felt... [Continue Reading]
Astrid fussed over me the whole morning, and I had to admit, I loved it. As embarrassed as I was about the previous evening, it meant so much to have her there.
Ordering me not to apologise was hard though. I earned myself another stroke of the tawse before she left. She offered to postpone giving it to me, but the prospect of having to wait felt worse. And on reflection, I wanted the feeling of release that I knew would follow.
She insisted on making sure I was alright first, so held off until she felt confident to leave and go to brunch. That was when she turned up my CD player... [Continue Reading]
“So, Kitty, what do you like to do for fun?” David rested his chin in his hands, elbows either side of his well-laden plate of chicken, peas, and potatoes.
I honestly didn’t know how to answer his question, as sweet and simple as it was.
“Don’t put her on the spot like that, David,” Caroline came to my rescue.
“What? I just wanted to get to know her…” he complained.
“It’s really alright,” I tried to placate, but it became quickly apparent this was not about me.
“Well, it’s rude,” Caroline... [Continue Reading]
I hadn’t known the meaning of the phrase “blinding pain” until the cane exploded for the first time.
I had bent over the seat of the stool, my arms and the tails of the bow hanging in front of me. My already short breath was compressed by the hard seat. I tried to imagine what it could possibly be like, to get the cane. My nerves almost got the better of me when... [Continue Reading]
