Author Interview: edrider73

Note from Literoticauthor

I'm posting this interview for multiple interviewers, listed below.

Other author interviews are on my favorites list.

Interviewers' Introduction

This interview is a collaboration of SueDanym, 49greg, tonygrant277, Explorer121, H.C. Waller and others who prefer to remain anonymous.

Thanks to editor-authors SueDanym and Vix_Giovanni and editor lovesexandmore for their outstanding work in fixing many errors, some small and many big, and for other important improvements.

The interview was slightly revised in December, 2021.

How do you come up with the themes, ideas and plots of your stories?

If there wasn't an Internet, there would be no Ed Rider.

My ideas come from things I've read and watched. Initially, that was movies, plays, television, books and magazines, mostly mainstream. Then, along came the Internet and a whole new world of the strange and bizarre. I didn't realize how deep an impression the weirdest writings and videos made on me until I began writing my stories.

What inspired you to start writing?

The name edrider73 is composed of two parts. One of them is a careless mistake, like the ones in my stories. Before finding Literotica, I had written what I thought were seventy-three stories, but when I was going over them while they were being edited and posted on this site, I found that I had renamed one by accident, so one story had two different names. The total was really seventy-two.

When I discovered this site, I thought at first that I'd finished writing stories in this genre. But the wonderful work the editors did on my stories inspired me to write more of them.

The other part of my name is my inspiration. Ed Rider is an anagram of her name, Deirdre. To me, she's the best Internet erotica writer of all time. You may not have heard of her because she wrote and retired before this site was created.

Deirdre's stories are mostly short and succinct. She doesn't spell everything out for you. She makes you use your imagination, so your mind fills in the details, and the stories become special in a personal way.

Before reading her stories, I would sometimes imagine situations and forget them. After discovering her, I began writing my ideas down and trying to do something with them. I quickly found out that I didn't have her talent for making a big impression with few words. I ended up doing things my way, but I always had her in mind and tried to control my impulse to overwrite -- mostly unsuccessfully.

I once wrote to Literotica's founders suggesting they re-publish her works. She left instructions on how to get permission, and it would seem to be simple. But operating a website has all kinds of legal implications I know nothing about.

If anyone is interested, her stories aren't hard to find. Do a search on "Deirdre erotic stories" and the top response will usually be the site that has collected her stories.

What satisfaction do you get from writing your stories?

I get the most satisfaction from literate comments by discerning readers with high standards who truly get my stories, whether they like them or not. I like to imagine that each of these comments stands for hundreds of readers who agree but never comment.

If the story has a surprise ending and I fool them, I'm happy. But I'm almost as happy when they write that they figured out where the story was going halfway through. I love it when readers leave comments because they struggle with my stories. It shows they've invested themselves deeply in the characters and plots. Their imaginative reactions (sometimes almost a new story) tell me how deeply the story affected them. I enjoy every comment in some way because it shows that the story got someone involved enough to respond.

Another satisfaction is that my stories seem to attract new readers daily. They now have over four million views, which is nothing next to the Literotica giants, but I prefer to make a different comparison. It only takes five thousand or so book sales (in one week) to get on the New York Times bestseller list.

Your stories draw a lot of negative comments. Is that intentional?

No, although I do like to provoke a response. I want to grab and hold readers and put them through an emotional wringer while they're reading the story. Ideally, they will also have a second response later. It could be minutes, hours or days, but when they think of it again, I want them to smile and realize that the story was only an amusement to distract them and had no deep meaning.

Some of the comments are awful. I can just imagine the ones you've deleted. How do you decide which ones to delete?

I've only ever deleted one comment. However, the site editors have deleted some, mostly threats of murder or dismemberment.

Many of those who comment negatively on your stories make it clear that they have read other stories by you. Can you comment on readers who know what to expect from your stories, know they will hate them and still read them?

I've noticed the same thing, and my reaction is positive. Readers who love to hate my stories make me happy because it confirms the stories have succeeded in drawing a strong emotional response that keeps bringing them back.

A lot of your stories aren't that erotic. Why is it that you bring up situations that have the potential to be hot and then ignore the possibilities?

Many Literotica readers, maybe most, are looking for stories where the plot generates detailed erotic scenes and descriptions. My stories are the opposite kind. They are plot heavy, and sometimes I skimp on the hot action to keep them from getting too long. For me, everything must serve the story, including the sex.

Many of your characters aren't that well developed. Some are generalized cookie-cutter characters that only speak through their actions and voices. Other authors go to great lengths to fill out a character's biography and back story. Why do you use this minimalist approach?

In a word, Deirdre. If you think I'm minimalist, wait until you read her. She does more with less than any writer I've ever read. Yes, I'm emulating her. The other reason I don't flesh out characters more is that it slows the story down. Are you really interested in her or his measurements, parents, siblings, food preferences and how they met when he bumped into her chair at Denny's and made her spill a drink?

A lot of your stories are awfully similar. Is that on purpose?

No. I write what comes to my mind. I think my mind works like those old-time composers who wrote variations on a theme. I'm surprised myself when I notice one of my newer stories is similar to one I wrote years ago. Once, I wrote three or four different stories that had one plot device in common. I hesitated to submit them. Then I thought of another story with the same plot device and that gave me the idea to submit all of them as a series. I ended up with twelve. By posting them this way, it looked like I was doing it on purpose.

Are you in North America? Are you male? Are you older than 50? Are you married? If not, were you ever married?

I grew up in North America. The reason I'm not answering the other questions is something I noticed when I started reading stories on Literotica. When I like a story, I have a strong feeling about the author. It's almost as if I know the author personally.

Often, I visit the author's home page and whenever the reality matches what is in my mind, I feel great. I feel just as good if the author prefers to be private and say nothing. When I get a few things right and a few wrong, that's all right. But when it turns out that the writer is someone totally different from the picture in my mind, it often upsets me and spoils the story for me. Yes, I know that's stupid, but it is real.

I think the decision to not disclose personal data turned out to be a good one. I found I'm not the only one with this kind of quirk. Different readers imagine me in different ways. I'm convinced that the author's persona in a reader's mind heightens the impact of the story.

"Strange Car in the Driveway" and a lot of your other stories seem incomplete to me and a lot of commenters. Why are so many of your stories unfinished?

All my stories are complete. I give the most thought to how they begin and end. In addition to the comments, I've received a number of messages from people pleading for me to continue "Strange Car," so I'll use that as an example. If someone hasn't read the story, this won't make a lot of sense, but I don't think it will spoil the story. This is what I tell those who beg for a sequel:

Read the story again, and you'll realize that another chapter would only make it longer and boring. Everything that happens after Gary reads the letter is already in the story, and it would be an insult to the reader's intelligence to spell it out.

We know how much Gary and Vera love each other. Early on, we find that she thinks he's the best thing that ever happened to her, and he feels the same about her. Later, Vera says she loves him so much that she would never exchange their relatively boring happy marriage for the excitement of dysfunctionality that her fellow students have experienced. She realizes her idea would cause him emotional distress, so she won't take a chance without making sure he'll forgive her. That's why she gets his permission, even though he doesn't know he's giving it.

She also knows what he'll probably do if she succeeds. That's why she hides the gun and cleans out the bedroom. Gary's not going anywhere near Denny's. First, he destroys the room. Then, he takes the sledgehammer to the car.

When she arrives home, she watches him finish off the car while he cusses her out and tells her graphically the gruesome things he'd like to do to her. Maybe she'll wince when he tells her to stay away from him and the thought of touching her again makes him want to throw up. He tells her to get in the car, and they pick up the kids. When they're at the pizza place, the kids wonder what's going on between their parents.

Their house is as cold as "Frozen" for more than a week, but slowly it begins to thaw. She gives him space but is extra seductive when the kids aren't around. The first time he gives in, he is brutal, but despite the pain, she is thrilled that he still desires her. Gradually, things get back to their normal loving family life. The dramatic night is not mentioned again - for a long time.

Fast forward twenty years, and they run into Reg and Penny while vacationing at a resort. Things are awkward at first when Vera explains who they are. Gary is cool as Reg tells him he wanted to apologize in person but Vera thought it best that they never meet and that he's sorry he's the reason Vera dropped out of the writing program and went back to work.

Finally, Gary relaxes and tells them he forgave Vera a long time ago. Then he remembers that Reg and Penny still owe them a steak dinner. They have a great time at dinner talking about the night of the strange car, which now seems funny to all of them, most of all Gary.

If I made that into a story, it would be a big yawn because nothing happens. The same goes with other stories that readers think are "incomplete." What happens after the story ends is always so obvious that it's pointless to belabor it.

On the other hand, it doesn't bother me in the least if readers imagine my stories going in a different direction than I think. A number of Literotica authors have been thoughtful enough to ask my permission to write sequels. I always give it, even though there is no rule I know of that requires it. I bestow my blessing on anyone who wants to write anything that I inspire.

These stories are not my stories and have to stand on their own. But they have just as much validity as movies made from books or historical events that change characters and plots whenever it suits them. If you see "Inspired by a true story," you know you're going to watch a movie that has only a slight connection with reality.

Why do you portray weak men as loathsome in your stories?

I looked over my stories and found loathsome men and weak men, but not in the same character.

Sometimes weak men make a mistake and pay heavily for it. Or they may be innocent victims. The men occasionally go from weak to strong.

Some of my commenters seem to think that if you're weak, you're automatically loathsome. It's the macho vs. wimp argument. From my experience, all men have a bit of both in them. In real life, I don't enjoy being around a man who's at either extreme, but I don't loathe weak men. I feel sorry for them.

Some recurring themes in your stories are videotaping of the action and anal penetration. Could you comment on this?

I don't know what else to say that would add to your observation except that it's correct.

Do you have more writings posted somewhere else?

I think the Literotica guidelines are excellent and are largely responsible for its success and the high quality of its stories compared to those on other sites. Before I found Literotica, I wrote two stories that don't conform to the guidelines. I probably wouldn't have written them if I had started here first. Imagine some of my more extreme stories taken a bit further. All I'll say is that the characters are over eighteen. Some wonderful Lit editors volunteered to work on them, and I posted them on a site where anything goes.

I've also had a few great German editors translate some stories that are posted on German Literotica. They've amazed me with the way they've reworked the stories to fit a different culture.

Wie wird aus eine Ihrer Ideen eine vollständigen Geschichte?

When an idea comes to me, I think about it for a while. If it's still in my mind after a few weeks, I jot down the outline of the plot and some of the dialogue that I've imagined. Then I begin writing it. As I work on it, the story leads me in many directions, some far removed from the original idea. In some cases, the idea that sparks the story ends up being discarded because it gets in the way of much better ideas. I'm most interested in the characters, and developing them often changes the story. The extreme example is "Ruined." I fell in love with a few of the people I imagined and couldn't stop writing about them. A short story turned into my longest story, almost a novella.

In "School for Scoundrels" and more than a dozen other stories, you depict women inflicting over-the-top punishment and humiliation on the men they are supposed to love. Your description of this story is "Finally, the answer to the question, 'What do women want?'" Does that mean the story illustrates how you view women?

Yes. Many of my stories come from this view. Both men and women can be complicated, inconsistent, irrational, paradoxical and vengeful, but when it comes to dealing with unfaithfulness, women, much more than men, take these traits to the extreme.

"School for Scoundrels" and many other stories have strong, self-centered and conniving women as central characters who drive the action. Does this come from personal experience? Also, does your personal experience include giving or receiving any of the punishments you describe in your stories?

I hope this won't disappoint you, but I'm nothing like any character in my stories, although maybe that's wrong, because, after all, I'm the one who wrote the stories. All I can say for sure is that my life is a happy one, much happier than I deserve, and I've never experienced any of the things I've written about or known anyone like the people in my stories.

You often have a woman, either a wife or girlfriend, strongly influenced by other women in deciding how to respond to what the man does. Is this a plot device to remove a little of the blame from the wife for what happens to her man?

Yes.

The characters in "Billiards" seemed familiar to me from my high school and later life experience. I'm sure many men and women have imagined some sort of revenge on similar people. Where did you get the idea for the revenge in the story?

I took your description of the revenge out of your question so it wouldn't spoil the story for anyone. The answer to your question is right in the story. It's the true anecdote a famous porn star told an interviewer.

In "Gambling Debt Cuckold," you didn't describe in detail what happens as the result of the husband's misdeeds as you do in other stories -- "Humble Pie," for example. Why aren't you as explicit in this story?

Because this story was about what led up to the dramatic event. It's like one of those movies about a big con job. Nearly the entire movie is the setup, and the con itself just takes a few minutes at the end. There's nothing interesting anymore once the wife tells the husband what's about to happen.

On the other hand, in "Humble Pie", the action is about the gradual and surprising unveiling of bizarre sexual behavior and its consequences. It requires the detail to show how the characters are affected.

"Gambling Debt Cuckold" was told from the husband's point of view, but despite what she did, I felt the wife was the real hero because she saved him from possible death. Did you intend that?

Yes.

Are you still writing stories or are you on hiatus?

Maybe. I think of my last story as "The Sweetest Thing," which was posted in 2017. The last two lines of that story are my farewell wish for my readers. But other ideas kept creeping into my mind and wouldn't let go until I turned them into stories -- especially during the coronavirus craziness. I think my final Literotica story now is "Checking Out," so the title has a second meaning for me. I'm continuing to write in other genres. My goal is that one day you will read the latest international best seller and some things will strike you as familiar, so you think, "Could this be the writer who once wrote those strange stories on Literotica?"

Why are men always getting punished in your stories and not women?

Women being hurt by men is a total turn-off to me - and to most people. Yes, there are men and women into that, and you can find plenty of stories and videos of female torture on the Internet. But they are nearly always highly exaggerated BDSM fantasies, almost cartoonish, and are usually consensual.

I try to make my stories as believable as possible. The things my women do to my men are sometimes mean and cruel, and you may not think they are justified. But if I reversed the story and had the men do the same things to the women, the stories would be repugnant. They wouldn't work.

We feel sorry for a beautiful woman who gets a harsh prison sentence for violence against a man, but if it's a good-looking man who attacked a woman, the brute is getting what he deserves.

Here's a simple illustration: If an angry woman slaps a man, it's shocking. If an angry man slaps a woman, it's abuse.

In many femdom stories, the domme will have high heels on. I don't remember you using this except once or twice in passing. Are you a female who doesn't find heels "sexy," or just that rare guy who doesn't like them for some reason?

Neither category fits me, so I think when I call attention to shoes, it's in the context of the story. On the other hand, I could be unconsciously revealing deep-seated psychological quirks that I've suppressed my whole life. Sometimes when I look at one of my stories long after it's posted, it's hard for me to believe I wrote it.

Do you read stories on Lit for pleasure, and if so, do you have a favorite author or genre?

I scan Lit periodically and usually begin reading a few stories whenever I do. As long as the story moves along and holds my interest, I'll keep reading, no matter how long it is. If I'm on the second page and it starts to lag, I'll check and see how long it is. If it's only a page or two longer, I'll finish it. Otherwise, I'll give up. I've read some great stories, but as is to be expected, they are few and far between.