The Floating World - Madelyn Redux

As The Rolling Stones famously said, "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste..."

Not exactly; the first is a lie, but the second might just be true. I've been a writer here at Literotica since 2014, with a body of work that wanders through a number of categories; but I'm neither a master of, nor a citizen in, any single category. I do not consider myself to be an "Incest writer" - to pick the busiest category on Literotica, just as an example - nor a "Sci-Fi and Fantasy writer," and not by a long shot, a "BDSM writer." Sure, I have some stories in each of those categories, but I don't define myself by any category.

Those who follow me, who know my work, might say, "Ahh yes, ElectricBlue, he writes long languid tales with a slow burn, and he weaves a spell or two. He tells close and intimate stories, inviting readers into his inter-connected worlds." One reader called my work, "a safe haven," which I liked very much, although it possibly told me more about her than it did about me.

I write stories about consensual, respectful sex, adoring of women, occasionally indulgent of men. I write with a male gaze, I won't deny that, but it's an appreciative one, complete with lingerie and lace and beautiful dresses that flow like water, worn by smouldering women who will burn the unwary.

This is by way of a preamble to explain why this short submission has been placed into the BDSM category. This is not a story (there's a link to one at the end), it's a request. Thank god, some of you are saying, is there a point to all this? There is. I've invited myself into your category with a little trepidation. Looking in on the category from the outside, an uninformed writer might sense (this one did, anyway) that the BDSM category can be a bit of a minefield for the unwary - revolving, so far as I can tell, around a debate about stories "correctly" portraying safe, sane, consensual activity, versus those who say, "But it's fiction, I can write what I like."

That's where my reticence came from - I simply don't know BDSM ethics in any kind of detail because I'm not in the scene. I've been restrained several times as a bucket-list curiosity, but that's it. My BDSM profile, high vanilla. I didn't want to enter a mine-field by writing about something I knew little about.

Backing up some (I have 750 words to fill, so please, bear with me), I'll explain some more.

Two years ago I wrote the first five parts of my Floating World series. The first three were vanilla older man/younger woman stories, but they were well liked, with some long and thoughtful commentary received. I'd hit my pace as a writer. Each part was written as a stand-alone story, with the same male protagonist but with different partners. So I got to know my male lead, Adam, very well. In collaboration with one of my beta readers, Part 4 was an experiment, coupling Adam with one of my co-writer's well-established male characters, Jesse.

On the basis of that story and another GM story written around the same time, my betas said, "We like that you're writing slightly darker stories, digging deeper into your own psyche. We'd like to see how you'd go, writing BDSM."

To which I replied, WTF? I know nothing of that world, nor the dynamics, don't be silly. Those readers would spot me a mile off as a fake, they'd tear me apart.

"You do realise you write Adam as a natural top, don't you?"

Umm, no. What ARE you talking about?

"And that you're a top, yourself?"

By now, my head was spinning. These two were talking stuff about which I knew nothing. I didn't even know what a top was, for God's sake, let alone sub-space or the drop, nor what went on in the mind of a dominant or a submissive. I just didn't know.

"We'll educate you," they said. "But you know, you just naturally know." WTF?

So I proceeded to get an education; hence my arrival here, with a simple request. How did I do?

I have a completed story cycle: Floating World - the Madelyn Chapters (five parts). As I submitted the first chapter with no clue as to where the story-line would go, I put them all in Group. One of the characteristics of those Group readers though, is that those guys just don't rate or score stories, they just don't.

But, to re-categorise the stories as BDSM now would merely see them drop completely below the surface. So I've "cunningly" thought up this introduction as a way attract some interest from readers in the category that I should have been brave enough to put the stories in, in the first place.

The first chapter (linked below) establishes some power dynamics between my leading characters, but it's not BDSM by any stretch of the imagination (and I'm not pretending it is). There are several scenes in the later chapters with rope and a lash, but it's all very mild. But it's all pretty lush and sensuous too, and might appeal to a broader audience - who might have something to say on the power dynamics being explored (they became my real interest, as the characters evolved and began to write themselves).

So I'm asking, dear BDSM reader, that you might indulge me by reading and scoring and commenting as you always do - hopefully reading all five chapters as they've been presented, nothing more, nothing less.

Please note, you don't need to read the earlier parts for the Madelyn chapters to make sense. I made a writer's choice to portray my leading man only as the women see him and get to know him - so if you don't know Adam from Adam, that's okay. You'll get to know him as the other characters do. I think it worked.

Here's the first of the Madelyn Chapters:

The Floating World Part 06 - Madelyn