It’s still debatable at what point it became clear the world had taken a sharp turn down an unlovely path. It was probably around three years ago, though. Back then, at first, I was inclined to encourage a keep-calm-and-carry-on viewpoint. And I didn’t stop, at least not at first. Slowly, though, it started getting harder. A lot of the ideas I came up with seemed less and less relevant, less and less able to get off the ground and fly. A case of basic writer’s block? Maybe, or maybe not. I could still blog, still rant and yell on social media, but I kept going back to older, unfinished stories and finding them impossible to connect with and impossible to bring into contemporary settings.
What to do? Well, do what you do. You’re a writer, write something. You won’t be the only one. So I started thinking about the filthy, kinky potential to be wrung out of the social and political clusterfuck. I wasn’t the only one, of course: the unmitigated overlord of current-affairs-driven porn is Chuck Tingle but other people have been having a go.There was a bit of chat on Twitter about fantasies of being roleplay-topped by John Bercow, and Girl On The Net was inspired by parliamentary proceedings as well.
I got to work.Gradually, a clutch of stories took shape, and now they are nearly finished. There’s one about not letting the news scare you, one about the best or the worst place to be trapped when the apocalypse happens, stuff about how you might want to fight back or turn things around in kinkier ways… I even found a cracking cover image (always driven up the wall by finding covers. And, in a few weeks, there will be a new book out that’s all kind of inspired by the mess we’re in, and hopefully isn’t so dark it just depresses you all even further. Watch this space for updates. If we’re all going to end up in hell, at least we can have a wank on the way.
And if you want something else to read while you’re waiting, you could check out the bookshop.