Today I am so pleased to welcome J.A. Rock to Joyfully Jay. J.A. has come to talk to us about her latest release, Pain Slut. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

PainSlut_TourBanner

 

Hi! I’m J.A. Rock, and right now I’m touring the internet talking about my latest release Pain Slut—Book 2 in The Subs Club series. Thanks so much to the blogs that are hosting me on this tour, and be sure to leave comments on the tour posts for a chance to win your choice of two backlist ebooks and a $10 Amazon gift card!

Using Real Life Experience to Write BDSM Fiction

During The Subs Club blog tour back in December, I talked about the idea of writing authentic kink, and how it’s difficult to define “authentic,” since kink encompasses such a wide range of activities and experiences. When I write BDSM, I write a lot from experience—not always in terms of what the characters do, but in terms of how they interact and how they struggle to find a version of the lifestyle that suits them. Pain Slut was no exception, and I want to talk a little about how, exactly, real life informs my fiction.

I know this is gonna sound like a personal ad, but here’s some background:

I’m a submissive-leaning switch. I’m queer and female-identified, and play with a variety of partners. I have one long-term domme, with whom I’ve played for almost ten years. I have more experience as a bottom than as a top, but my top experiences have vastly influenced how I bottom. I’m super nerdy about BDSM, and love reading everything I can about the lifestyle, as well as talking to people whose kinks differ from my own. I try hard to play safe, but as with every area of life, kink has inherent risks. I’m a masochist, and learning how to be that safely has taken time.

BDSM fiction, no matter the attention to detail and quest for “accuracy,” is always going to be fiction. Even though The Subs Club series attempts to be realistic in its depictions of various kinks, online interactions, scene negotiations, safety, and more, there are still places I’ve taken small liberties. Because reality doesn’t always work as fiction. Also, reality is so strange that people often don’t believe it when it’s fictionalized. 🙂

BDSM presents an interesting quandary, because for years there were so few fictional depictions of the lifestyle. Then people started depicting it a lot, but almost always in the context of fantasy-based romance and erotica. So it gets sanitized, or idealized, or…fetishized even. Turned into some dark, exotic anathema. Which can be fun, but limits mainstream understanding of the lifestyle. I agree with many kinky people that it would be cool to see more “accurate” kinky stories, movies, etc.

However…

Kink works differently for everyone. Dungeons have different rules and different atmospheres. States and countries have different laws regarding BDSM practices. Partners have different personalities and preferences. No two bottoms I know play the same way. No two tops have the same style. Nobody I know takes 100% of the safety precautions they could take 100% of the time. So what is “accurate,” exactly?

What I wanted to capture in the Subs Club series is that people are not particularly logical. They’re never completely careful, or kind, or fair, or smart. They’re often foolish and irresponsible and fucked up and judgmental. Kinky people are no exception (though I’ll add that I’ve met some of the kindest, most open-minded people I know through the lifestyle). One reason RACK (Risk-Aware Consensual Kink) spawned from SSC (Safe Sane & Consensual; the “old school” BDSM mantra) is that it was impossible to come up with a collective definition of safe or sane when it comes to BDSM.

The kink “scene” is even harder to define. For some people “the scene” is Fetlife and other alt lifestyle websites. For others, it’s going to clubs and events. I have little interest in the online scene, though I’ve been involved in it enough to know how creepy it can be. I like clubs, and all the interesting people I meet there (many of whom have inspired Subs Club side characters. Thanks, waterboarding Nazis), but I prefer playing at home, and with people I already know well. I love workshops and lectures, but most of what I’ve learned comes from trial and error. So while the members of the Subs Club define their “community” primarily as members of the local dungeon who are involved in events, I’d be more inclined to identify my “community” or my “scene” as the kinky friends I hang out and talk with.

Are the Subs Club books a how-to manual for kink? Definitely not. Are they reflective of everybody’s kinksperience? No way. But I’ve tried to bring what I’ve learned over the years—by doing, watching, and discussing—to this series. And not just the good things I’ve learned, but the hard stuff as well. As Miles says in The Subs Club, kinky people are just people. And people often suck.

But they’re trying. That’s the theme I keep coming back to in my work. Even people who suck in some ways are often working to be better. I don’t want to sanitize kinky people or their experiences, or try to force my characters to be ambassadors for the lifestyle. While the Subs Club is comprised of characters who are mostly good-hearted, and for whom things generally turn out well in the end, I wanted their journeys toward HFN to be based, not on epic drama, but on the day-to-day struggles of being human. That, more so than how to swing dual floggers or how to balltie, is real life experience I can use in my fiction.


Blurb

Pain Slut

About Pain Slut

Honestly, I’m ready to take a step back from the Subs Club. Making the kink world a safer place for subs is the sort of bandwagon I’d have boarded as an idealist in my early twenties, but now I’m a pragmatist in my late twenties. I prefer to focus on adopting and raising a child.

But unexpected factors inevitably derail my plans. Like Drix Seger—attractive and the first genuine sadist I’ve encountered. If I were not in the process of renouncing my masochistic ways and becoming the normal, responsible potential father the adoption agency wants to see, Drix and I might do well together. But he has a foolish name and belongs to a cult of vampyres, and I am quitting kink. So why does Drix’s infatuation with blood and biting make me so hot I can’t think straight? And why, when he looks at me, does he seem to see something beyond a basket case with a stick up my ass?

Can I start a new phase in my life without leaving part of myself behind? Please send help.

—Miles

 

About the Subs Club series

After the death of their friend Hal at the hands of an irresponsible dom, submissive friends Dave, Kamen, Miles, and Gould band together to form the Subs Club—an organization seeking to expose dangerous local doms. The club slowly evolves as romances blossom, loyalties are tested, and tensions mount in a community already struggling for unity in the wake of Hal’s death.

From domestic discipline to knife play to fashion paraphilia, and from family drama to new jobs to first loves, the members of the Subs Club explore life’s kinks inside and outside of the bedroom as they attempt to let go of the past and move forward.


Bio

J.A. Rock is the author of queer romance and suspense novels, including BY HIS RULES, TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME, and, with Lisa Henry, THE GOOD BOY and WHEN ALL THE WORLD SLEEPS. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama and a BA in theater from Case Western Reserve University. J.A. also writes queer fiction and essays under the name Jill Smith. Raised in Ohio and West Virginia, she now lives in Chicago with her dog, Professor Anne Studebaker.


Giveaway

Leave a comment for a chance to win your choice of two backlist titles from J.A. Rock and a $10 Amazon gift card. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on February 6, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. Entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

  • By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win.  The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
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