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Back to The Wanderings
of Amy
Introduction - Author's notes
about �The Wanderings of Amy� and other erotic discipline fiction
The "Wanderings of Amy" was my first effort to write fiction of any
sort. I had prior experience writing works of non-fiction, journalism,
and academic research. However, I had always wanted to write fiction and
have had ideas for a couple of political novels for many years. During
the summer of 2002, for reasons I myself do not understand, I started to
write a story in which I sought to explore a variety of erotic
punishment scenarios. Originally I intended to write a story of about 10
chapters, but as my imagination took off, I ended up with a novel of 28
chapters instead.
�The Wanderings of Amy� began its existence as a series of connected
short stories posted to several Yahoo spanking forums. I did not write
the novel from beginning to end. The chapters that most heavily
concentrate on scenes of discipline were written first. As I became more
interested in developing the characters I subsequently wrote the
chapters that do not have discipline scenes. I sought to explore their
issues and thought patterns, and how their personalities make them
interact with each other. I needed to develop a plot to justify the
characters' punishments, and then develop the characters to make the
plot flow. As time went on I began to like my characters more and more,
and increasingly sought to explore their lives, as well as their
thoughts and personalities.
Because �The Wanderings of Amy� was my first novel, I experimented to
find a style of storytelling that worked for what I was trying to
accomplish. My work on the project did not end with the concluding
chapter, because I did two major revisions of the chapters to make them
more consistent and to further develop the characters after completing
the original draft. I later came to like my characters so much that I
later wrote a non-fetish version of the story that continues the
characters� lives three years past the ending of the fetish version.
As the fetish version of the novel neared its conclusion, I realized I
really wanted something better for the story, and started looking around
for a better place to post. Eventually I decided to build my own website
in FrontPage and feature the story along with my Corel Draw art. The
website with the story stayed posted for over a year and was visited by
quite a few people. However, over time the hassle of trying to post
changes to the website, the lack of any feedback from my visitors, and
the increasing amount of spam filling my inbox convinced me the website
was not worth maintaining. After I allowed my Internet contract to
expire, I decided to revise the novel to its current form and posted it
my Yahoo group �EC�s Adult Spanking Forum�.
The characters from �The Wanderings of Amy� remained largely forgotten
during 2004 while I wrote my second novel �Maragana Girl�. However, as I
started working with Poser and creating images for both novels, the
characters from the first novel re-entered my mind as I selected models
to represent them in my art and began making illustrations. The models I
used for Amy Debbs and Suzanne Foster were downloaded character sets,
but I decided to create my own characters to represent Robert Johnson,
Ruth Burnside, and Paul Glisan from original base models I purchased
from DAZ.
As �Maragana Girl� neared its conclusion, the desire to further develop
a couple of the characters from �The Wanderings of Amy� returned to my
thoughts. My original idea was to write a novel that featured the
earlier years of my fictional dominatrix Ruth Burnside. However I felt
that I did not have enough material to dedicate an entire novel to Dr.
Burnside. I solved the problem by making her a secondary character in my
third novel �The Freshman�. Another character from �The Wanderings of
Amy�, the photographer Suzanne Foster, also makes brief appearance in
�The Freshman�.
Originally there was no connection between the plots or characters of my
first two novels �The Wanderings of Amy� and �Maragana Girl�. However,
because one of the goals I had for writing �The Freshman� was to further
develop the lives of several characters from earlier projects, my third
novel bridges the first two.
The story of �The Wanderings of Amy� begins about three years after the
conclusion of �The Freshman�. Suzanne Foster, who was a college
sophomore when she met Cecilia Sanchez, now is about to graduate. Dr.
Ruth Burnside�s life is somewhat less changed; instead of 38 she now is
42, but her career and her sex life remain the same.
If you read �The Wanderings of Amy� in its entirety, you will notice
that the punishment scenes throughout the novel vary tremendously.
Scenarios can be M/F, F/F, or F/M, and characters that were submissive
in one chapter can become dominant in another. That is because I wanted
to keep the novel from becoming monotonous, and also because over the
course of the story my characters grow and become more confident in
themselves. The changes within my characters continued to be a pattern
in my later novels �Maragana Girl� and �The Freshman�.
"The Wanderings of Amy" is a work of erotic fantasy. All characters and
situations are purely figments of my imagination. The story is not
intended to represent real people or events, nor how I feel people
should behave in real life. There are a few autobiographical elements in
certain events, descriptions, and characters in this story, but for the
most part everything that takes place is purely a product of my head. I
tried to keep the story's settings and elements as realistic as
possible, but took the liberty to diverge from reality when I felt it
was necessary to make the story flow better.
The Setting for "The Wanderings of Amy"
I have only been to Chicago once, so I know what the city looks like,
and that is about it. I deliberately picked a city where I have not
spent much time. The choice of Chicago was arbitrary, as were all other
places mentioned in the story. I just needed some place names and chose
some out of the Mid-West. The
university is not supposed to be any in
particular. The reader may assume that Amy and the other characters
attend a major university, but it is a fictitious one, located in a
south-western suburb away from the downtown area.
My characters' names also are arbitrary. I was sparing with giving names
to my characters on purpose. I chose common first names for everyone. In
the cases where I felt I had to provide a last name, I simply used
street names from the area where I currently live.
My thoughts on erotic discipline fiction in general and
influences on �The Wanderings of Amy�
I became interested in erotic discipline fiction when I was about 15
years old. I managed to buy
several Victorian-era erotic discipline novels, which were the main
fiction of the genre available at the time. The two earliest novels
I read were �A Man with a Maid� series and �Frank and I�. I greatly
enjoyed those novels and their generally upbeat mood and positive
endings. Those two novels greatly influenced my how I viewed other
erotic discipline fiction I read later.
I believe that the single character that has most influenced erotic
discipline literature is the fictitious dominatrix Harriet Marwood from
�The Governess�. I have seen elements of Harriet Marwood in many
different erotic discipline stories that feature a dominant female
character. Undoubtedly Harriet Marwood heavily influenced my character
Ruth Burnside. However, Burnside also contains a lot of myself and
shares many of my own thoughts and values.
I presume that the most famous and influential novel in the genre of
erotic discipline fiction has been �The Story of O�. I read it, and
found the psychological setting of the novel fascinating. However, I was
repulsed by the novel�s violence and scenes of mutilation. In spite of
my overall dislike of �The Story of O�, some of its influence has worked
its way into �The Wanderings of Amy�. Wendy Lee�s submission to Ruth
Burnside is as complete as O�s submission was to Sir Stephen. However,
in my story Ruth Burnside cares about Wendy and ultimately hopes to help
her. Burnside subjects Wendy to intense suffering to satisfy Wendy�s
needs, not so much her own desires. In contrast with O, Wendy leaves her
internment in Burnside�s house a stronger person and is able to move on
with her life.
The Wanderings of Amy - Chapter 1 |