Another Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: Spellbound

I think it's about time I talked about my first foray into writing for the EMCSA, Spellbound. When I wrote this one, I was still pretty new at being a lesbian and even newer at the world of online erotica; and though even today I think it's one of my best stories, my inexperience does show through in a few places. Still, that story uncorked nearly three decades' worth of private fantasies, so it's no wonder it packs a punch.

When I sent it in, though, I had absolutely no idea how it would be received. There didn't seem to be any other stories like mine on the EMCSA. I mean, really: fairies as mind controllers? Those flitty little winged creatures who like to perch on flowers? I didn't know if anyone else would see the eroticism in them, or if they'd all find the story a) artsy-fartsy or b) just plain silly. I was extremely pleased and relieved when several people complimented me on the old MC Forum and by e-mail.

The story itself has complicated roots, the earliest being a scene in a 1980's horror movie called The Believers. The movie was about a voodoo-like cult whose members sacrificed their firstborn children for some reason I can't quite remember and were trying to get Martin Sheen to do the same. The cult leader was a spooky-looking young African guy whose eyes turned white when he used his mystical powers (I was turned on by that look even then). Anyway, there was a single MC scene somewhere in the middle of the movie. It's been a long time and I'm probably misremembering it, but this is what I recall. The heroine, played by Helen Shaver, is in the middle of a ring of cult members with the Big Bad Guy in the center. There's music - probably drums - and he starts to dance and do his eye thing while focusing intently on her. Helen begins to blink and sway, falling under his spell (To my shame, I can't remember whether her eyes roll up, too, or whether she just looks dazed). Unfortunately, they get interrupted before we find out what the bad guy had planned for her, but it was a hot scene while it lasted.

Well, that was the earliest root of "Spellbound." Later I fantasized privately about African witch doctors and snakes and things like that. Callidus understands the attraction there.

Then I realized I was gay and re-imagined the MC'er as a woman, and then I began to re-think the method of MC in the fantasy to make it even hotter. I tend to avoid real-life forms of MC like hypnosis in my stories because I don't think the depth of control I enjoy can be achieved without an element of the supernatural or advanced technology. This particular fantasy had always relied on the former, and I have read a few novels through the years where fairies or elves came across as erotic and powerful; so who better to be my domme than Titania, Queen of the Fairies? And how better to picture her than this? (Okay, so that's actually a picture of Luthien from The Silmarillion, but it did inspire me in writing "Spellbound.")

Yes, you've found me out: I'm a secret Tolkien geek. But just look what I've done with the Professor's handiwork!