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Interview 2015

Chris-t6290 Interview

It's been a little over three years since Chris-t6290 was interviewed here, since when he has continued establishing himself as one of the most prolific authors on ES. Time, then, to catch up with again and let's start by catching people up with what he's done in the intervening years.

A: I initially took up writing, again, as a means of maintaining my Admin skills. I had no idea, now 5+ years on, that I would still be writing erotica and, more to the point, enjoying it, mainly because of the appreciation of the ES community who read and vote for my stories. In that time, I've had 364 of now 409 stories published on ES. Although ES is the only story site I submit my stories to, I have toyed with the idea of re-editing my 14 most read stories and putting them in a single volume on Amazon, but haven't fully found the time yet.

Q: How much of that do you devote to a story, how well organised are you?

A: Other authors no doubt run into blocks or need to take a break. Only the first happens to me. Then, and since of four days ago when I had as many as 6 part written stories open, I'm able to switch over to one of the others. Oddly enough, I came up with the story idea for one of the two I just completed, as long ago as April 2011. Occasionally I'll put off completing a story for some months, then come back to it afresh. In all such cases the finished story benefited from my having done so.

Q: That's amazing. But don't you run the risk of continuity errors?

A: Again, I'm well organised. I have a specially set up and formatted Word template for my stories. An outside border at the top of the page (Imprint name, number, story title and word count) and below that, the (255 max character) 'Summary'. 12 lines below that I have another outside border for the character names and below that goes all my continuity notes: Character descriptions as mentioned in the story, indications as to their state of undress, etc. Below what I've so far written of a story, I may make a note of what is to happen next.

Q: Do you ever find yourself thinking ahead, towards the end, If so, how do you deal with it?

A: That has happened with several of the QF (Quantum F**k) stories in book 2 and 3, in particular those that have two events in them. In either case, I apply 'best practice' and insert a page break several lines below the last continuity note. Once I've completed the story, it's just a matter of deleting the continuity notes etc along with the page break.

Q: You are still one of the most prolific writers here. How do you "keep it up"?

A: Aside from the individual imprints, which have a specific theme to them, I have two main ones that require me to come up with varied story ideas for them. In some cases an idea will come to me: waking up; out shopping; even watching a film. At present, I'm working on the third and final QF book, and so I haven't written any stories for the two main imprints in quite a while; before Christmas, in fact.

Q: What do you understand imprint to mean? As someone who works in publishing, I understand it to mean the name of a publishing house.

A: It's something I noticed in the back of a book. As I recall, 'other imprints' indicated subsidiary publishers to that of the one that published the book I read it in. It's a bit like Warner Brothers records who produced albums for: Warner, Electra and Atlantic record labels; WEA for short. In that sense, I'm an independent publisher who has, in their time, produced 22 different imprints.

Q: Thank you for clearing that up.

Q: Going back almost a year (July 2014), I really enjoyed your Sluts of St Trinians stories... particularly the way you sidestepped what would seem to be the most obvious pitfalls with such a tale. It was not the typical "horny schoolgirls" kind of tale, but still retained a lot of that "first time (more or less)" excitement. Tell us about writing that - and will there be more?

A: When I reply to those who vote for my stories, I explain how the idea etc' came about. I decided to write the three you mention having caught the end of the first new St Trinians film. Although I incorporated the British humour of the originals, as best I could, when I read the first one back, it seemed somewhat corny. Nevertheless, they were well received and so I decided to follow them up with a forth. That one I made more of an adventure (involving the girls from the previous three accompanied by Samantha), which the original films were.

Q: I enjoy the challenge of writing for a recurring character. Tell us how you go about making people believe in your characters?

A: Well, (laughs), QF is based on the sci-fi TV series, 'Quantum leap'. That said, it's been warmly received with four of the chapters/parts featuring near the top of the top stories list, while 'Black sundae' deposed your story 'The florist' for a few days. It's not so much making people believe in a story, as most books, even bestsellers, are fictional. Look at Ian Fleming's James Bond and the film spin offs. As I revealed at the end of my previous interview, after a year of posting over 100 stories on ES, I am a male. One who (apart from a few stories) in the main narrates the story through the lead female character or as an observer. In either case, I concentrate on the female character and envisage how she would respond to what's being done and said - I use dialogue quite a lot, as for me it makes the story more believable, and that she's not just going through the motions of having sex.

Q: You use some non standard words in your stories, care to enlighten your readers?

A: Thank-you for not going into specifics. Those are my interpretations of a woman's sighs and moans. In most if not all cases, I indicate that as part of the speech verb. I researched them on adult film sites (see ES Videos) and simply applied what I suppose would be a form of phonetics - sounding out the word.

Q: While you certainly don't have a category of story that you regularly write in, there is a running theme of three-(and more) somes... and maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I often consider adultery/slut wife to have a third person involved as well, in spirit at least. What do you like about these sort of situations?

A: Traditionally, 'slut' is/was derogatory. Nowadays, some single women are happy to be labelled a slut. There is only one category on ES for 'slut' and that's 'Slut wife'. Maybe Art could consider adding 'slut'. As for three plus character stories. They offer a greater scope for a long story than that of a couple. I'm not one for padding out a story with unnecessary, unrelated prior events.

Q: How dominant a role do you think the male should take in situations like that? Your girls are rarely submissive - how important do you think definable roles are in erotica?

A: I count myself as an expert (an erotologist) in relation to (erotic) sexual love. For me, a man no less, the point of sexual intimacy is to give a woman sexual pleasure. The main contributing factor to that, is for her to initiate sex: when she is of the mindset and so giving consent without the need to say it. Although the initiation in my stories is female driven, thereafter, the characters will interchange, depending on what's being done. In a lot of the QF stories, I've had the Julie character touch on some of my erotic philosophies etc.

Q: Which do you think is the most arousing - a scene between friends, lovers, people who know one another, even if they've never slept together; or a scene between total strangers? And why?

A: For me, it's how well and engrossing a story is. One that you just have to read all the way to the end and without stopping. Only one ES author that I've read (and read everything they've written) has that ability for me. I don't read to get aroused, but for the author's writing skills. I know, from the e-mails and comments I receive, that those who read my stories; indeed any of the stories on ES, find them arousing. The descriptions used in stories are such that, the reader imagines what is occurring. I put it perfectly in two stories, the first was the first story I had published on ES: 'the Handyman'. At some point he picks up the book that the woman who employed him was reading. 'If you made a film of the book, women like you would no doubt call it porn!' he said. The definition (and a corrupt one, I might add) of porn being...!

Q: An area that I often notice many writers struggling with - not only here at ES, but in print as well - is the difference between a situation seeming "real", and plunging headlong into wild fantasy, purely to get the reader, and the writer, off. Not that that is always a bad thing (at least if its handled correctly), but do you think believability should be sacrificed for sheer erotic madness... or vice versa?

A: My two main imprints are: Erotic stories; those which probably have happened somewhere on our planet, and: If only; those which could happen 'If only' men and women were more liberated about sex, instead of it being seen as something that only loving couples do. On the whole, there's nothing wrong with fantasies. We all have minds, and so...! My next but one imprint, which will appear from June 18 onwards, is entitled 'Brief encounters'. 12 stories (with another 8+ planned) that largely involve uncomplicated sex, which most of us have had from time to time.

Q: In a similar vein, at what point does a story pass from "confession" to "boasting"?

A: That would depend on the inferences used in the story. In the main, a man would be more inclined to be boastful; women less so. I quite like 'Sexy Sadie's' collection of monthly confession type stories, while personal stories are truly confessional. 'Hot Rider's' early ones, to mention just one other author.

Q: Inferences (adjectives) feature a lot in your stories, do you ever get criticised for too many?

A: The mark of a good author is to avoid repeating the same word in close proximity. In reading other stories on ES, I've added to a list of adjectives and spellings of words that's now 29 columns long. Most of the negative comments I receive are unfounded, and I go to great length to explain why commas are correctly placed and how to read very complex sentences. Although I've refrained from including them in stories, they are sometimes the only way to explain something without making it fractured or even more complicated and long with it. The worst thing I was ever accused of was that the reluctant sex in 'Ravaged in the park' amounted to 'R*pe'; that coming from a man.

Q: Your early work is noticeably lacking in punctuation, how did you, quickly, perfect it?

A: When I came to ES in December 2011, I had an archive of over 100 stories that were published on an Adult dating site since 2009; from that, I wrote the 12 'Sex escort' stories. In 2010 and again in 2011, I borrowed two books on Punctuation, from my local library and typed out all that was needed from them on Word documents; the chapter on commas in the second book was 56 pages long, not something that could be covered in an English lesson. The big piece of advice I got from them, was to read books, and make notes where differentials occurred, especially in the use of commas; 'as' being a perfect example.

Q: That was a brave decision to publish the complete 'Diary of a cougar' on ES, any regrets?

A: God, no. I've never once regretted submitting a story to ES. Of all the single character bodies of work I've written, 'Diary of a cougar' was the most enjoyable and most pleasurable one to write. I had great affinity for the Rachel character. Rather than the usual summary, I indicated my selfless reasons for submitting it, and, apart from the two negative votes it scored quite high. NB. If anyone would like an e-reader version of 'Diary of a cougar' (only that one from stories submitted before 2015), simply send me an e-mail requesting it.

Q: Have you had much interest in an e-reader version of QF? How did you produce them yourself?

A: Yes, I noticed from your profile that you publish in both book and Kindle on amazon, and thank-you for checking that my initial attempt was okay. I've had one person show interest in all of them while another ES user asked for part 15, 'the Train journey'. People can read the story on ES and so there's little point. However, a laptop is far bigger to read it on, while the person next to you may take offence at it's content. I use Calibre, which can also handle jpegs. I wonder if Art could find a way to make an e-reader version of stories available; produced by the author, of course.

Q: What are your future projects, besides, after QF?

A: Possibly before. A week ago, now, I thought about something else, then last weekend, I envisaged how it could also work with a story; an 'Interactive story'. The reader finds his or herself in the main lounge of a large house, one that has 4 bedrooms and each devoted to a single story. At 3 points in each story, they are given the option to leave the room and enter one of the other 3. From there, they read what occurs next (they can't read what's gone before). If they want to read each room's story from start to end, they simply go back to the list of links.

Q: You're quite resourceful, Chris, any plans for an audio version of your stories?

A: Although audio books are quite the thing at present, I'd need to employ a female. Even then, they may not be able to put across the necessary inferences. If there was an application that could change my deep male voice to a woman's, I may consider it.

Q: Do you have any writing tips you'd like to pass on to other authors?

A: Two, both of which relate to 'AutoCorrect' in Word (not sue about open office, which is freeware). Use of long names in stories. In AutoCorrect you have something that replaces a typed word with something else. For names, I type N + a number for female characters, M + a number for male, and S + a number for surnames. The same Proofing application already has a list of commonly misspelt words. When I make spelling mistakes I wait until the end of a paragraph or writing session before correcting them and adding them to AutoCorrect. I also use it for words and phrases.

Q: And finally, what do you think are your strongest points as an erotic writer... or what have other people told you they are? What do you hope people get out of your stories (beyond the obvious, of course!)

A: I write for the reading pleasure of whoever selects my story. Some comments indicate 'the obvious', which is likely to be the case, considering the descriptions that ES authors use. My strong points, I would have to say, are, the ability to come up with so many different stories, and to make them interesting, hopefully engrossing, and a pleasure to read.

Please read Chris-t6290's stories!