Thanks so much, Liz. I love Kate. I didn't start out loving her of course; I was writing from the pov of a wonky, too-verbal submissive, and Kate's so much a woman of action -- not my kind of person, I thought.

But when I thought of all the years she spent waiting for Jonathan to deal with her life choices, and then how he offended her by disrespecting the association she built, I started to have enormous sympathy for her, and wanted to write that. And then she became very hot to me. less

I was reflecting while i was reading Safe Word that the submissives were the really strong ones. Some of the dominants did switch from time to time, but could they have stood the really hard, painful lives of the submissives? And the subs prided themselves on how much punishment they could take. less

That's really interesting that you say that. Yes, submissives are very strong. And one of the things that I found interesting in Carrie's Story was the fact that Johnathon picked such a strong young lady to be his submissive. And the fact that such an intelligent young lady chose to say yes to all of it. less

That's really interesting that you say that. Yes, submissives are very strong. And one of the things that I found interesting in Carrie's Story was the fact that Johnathon picked such a strong young lady to be his submissive. And the fact that such an intelligent young lady chose to say yes to all of it. less

Yes but can't you just see them sitting in the stands a few years later, Carrie has her PhD and has written the first of her many great books and the waiter is no longer an amature but a cognitive intelligence guru and then...Jonathan and Kate walk past.....maybe Stephan.s running in the boys pairs.....and winning if Annie's still the trainer....oh well... less

I love that comment about dominants acing out their fantasies using their submissives and subs dreaming about what they really want their tops to be like.

Wow, thanks, Ivy.

You know -- I don't really know that much about the BDSM world either -- just MY BDSM world. Which you seem to know a whole lot about too. Thanks again. less

Liz--YES. Exactly. Carrie was not some wilting, cowering submissive, and Jonathan was not some perfect, ultra strong dom. He had a lot of weaknesses, and Carrie had a lot of strengths. But when they take on their roles...

There is one part in Safe Word where Jonathan says to Carrie, something like, "Come now...don't you think it's time for you to be my slave again?" or something to that effect, and by choice, she slid down into that role and they just put their roles on like coats and lived in them. I loved that play with the dynamics of the power exchange. less

Oh, and huge congrats, Kristina, on the book and the guy with the furry ears.

My son had furry ears -- I used to call him "little fox". Such a beautiful thing, this hungry little animal that's got all the human switches ready to go off. And now my little fox is going to be a dad himself in 6 weeks. less

Liz--YES. Exactly. Carrie was not some wilting, cowering submissive, and Jonathan was not some perfect, ultra strong dom. He had a lot of weaknesses, and Carrie had a lot of strengths. But when they take on their roles...

There is one part in Safe Word where Jonathan says to Carrie, something like, "Come now...don't you think it's time for you to be my slave again?" or something to that effect, and by choice, she slid down into that role and they just put their roles on like coats and lived in them. I loved that play with the dynamics of the power exchange. less

Oh, and huge congrats, Kristina, on the book and the guy with the furry ears.

My son had furry ears -- I used to call him "little fox". Such a beautiful thing, this hungry little animal that's got all the human switches ready to go off. And now my little fox is going to be a dad himself in 6 weeks. less

Clutching at the computer science link to insert the next bit that Molly shared about the writing of the story:

On Cyberspace and the Journey into Print: I write slowly, so it wasn't until 1995 (14 printings ago now) that Carrie's Story made it onto the written page -- the intervening decade or so spent as a computer programmer engaged in political/personal speculation about the intersections of cyberspace and the workworld.

What writing I was doing in the 80s had largely to do with my day job of sending large sums of money hurtling through the ether at the Federal Reserve Bank. I was particularly interested in science fiction -- Cyberpunk, anything by Vonda McIntyre, futurist novels by Margaret Atwood -- while always looking for the erotic edge to the stories' power and sexual politics. It was a futurist fantasy called Beauty, by Sherrie Tepper, that made me think I might be able to explore my erotic imagination via the voice of a brave young woman. And it's no accident that techies turn up from time to time in the Carrie books, from Margot in Carrie's Story to Daniel in Safe Word. Or that Carrie's Story was reviewed (quite wittily and positively) in the techie zine bOINGbBOING. less

It could be.

I grew up with women ruling the roost and men either following along or not being there at all, so my desire to spend more time with dominant men and less time with dominant women makes sense to me in that context (too much like hanging out with mom! lol).

But of course, there are always exceptions. I've found that male or female, top or bottom, it's really the individual I am attracted to in the end. less

well, every relationship is different, but that was kind of the magic of Safe Word. We got to see the kind of thought processes each character was going through as they were morphing in and out of these roles. Sometimes they exchanged power and sometimes they interacted as equals. It was thrilling for someone like me, who really just gets off on the concept of power exchange. less

It could be.

I grew up with women ruling the roost and men either following along or not being there at all, so my desire to spend more time with dominant men and less time with dominant women makes sense to me in that context (too much like hanging out with mom! lol).

But of course, there are always exceptions. I've found that male or female, top or bottom, it's really the individual I am attracted to in the end. less