I know I was born with D/s in my blood. It wasn’t nurture; it was nature – embedded in my DNA since day one. During my formative years there was no internet (for the masses, anyway). I scoured magazines like Penthouse or Playboy, searching for any article I could find on BDSM. Later, I got my hands on ‘The Story of O’, and a smattering of other kinky novels. I began to understand the difference between consensual and non-consensual, the eroticism of bondage and discipline, the necessity of limits and a safeword, etc. There’s a great quote from Paul Valery, “I write half the poem; the reader writes the other half”. These early novels including the Beauty series by Anne Rice spurred my own imagination in ways that movies (such as 9 and a ½ Weeks) could not. Reading lets you add your own interpretive spin on the story or fantasy, imagining it your own unique way. Times have changed, and now there are hundreds of kinky novels out there – and a great number of educational websites, etc. I hope my work moves others in the same way that previous BDSM books moved me.