Slowly stockpiling

In my last post before Christmas, I promised I'd be back with gifts. Well, I'm working on them. I could post a couple of them today, but since it's still the holiday season and a lot of people are away on vacation, I think I'll just give you a teaser and save the  goodies until everyone's back home.

I'm not feeling the bite of the writing bug right now, but the manipping bug is biting hard, and I've been having fun with Gimp: making the kind pictorial mini-stories that a lot of other EMC fetishists have been doing for years. What you see today is just one piece of a much larger puzzle, but I'm sure some of you can guess the overall shape. If you're having trouble figuring it out, I encourage you to study the eye makeup. ;-P

On a related note, I plan to do another manip today that will include a man, so last night I went Googling for pictures of male porn stars. It was quite an education. I saw more dicks in one hour than I'd seen in my whole life previously, and had no idea that ball sacks came in so many different sizes.

But I didn't quite find what I was hunting for. I like to look at men, but I have a particular type, and it seems that male porn stars aren't that type (As a matter of fact, I wondered how a few of them could be anyone's type at all). Then it hit me: I was looking in the wrong place for my images. I like latex, rubber, and leather; but these guys were either naked or dressed like construction workers. Instead of wasting my time on them, I needed to be looking for fetish models. Well, once I figured that out, I realized I knew just the right fetish fashion designer to start with. Now I'm off to check it out, and if I don't find the right kind of guys there, I know a few other places to get them.

And on that teasing note, I wish everyone a Happy New Year and a happy anything else you're celebrating.

Push, push

Here's a post I've been meaning to make for awhile. Way back when, I blogged about an upcoming movie called Push, starring a then-unknown Chris Evans (who went on to become Captain America, as I hope you know ;-P). The plot is fairly nonsensical but revolves around a bunch of people with psychic powers fighting each other. Evans' character is telekinetic; Dakota Fanning's character is a precog; and most importantly for this blog entry, Camilla Belle and Djimon Hounsou's characters have the power of mind control.

Here's the last section of the movie (which is available in full on YouTube, if you're so inclined), so beware of spoilers - if you still care about spoilers for a movie from 2009 that sank almost without a trace. ;-)

It would take too long to set up this video in any detail, and even if I did, it still wouldn't make much sense; so I'll just say this. Chris Evans is the hero. The young woman with long brown hair is Kira, his MC-powered girlfriend - only she herself has been MC'ed by Djimon Hounsou's character into forgetting she's his girlfriend, so she's fighting on Hounsou's side. Meanwhile, a third group of guys with psychic screams (don't ask) are fighting everyone who isn't them. See, I told you it didn't make much sense.

Anyway, the reason I'm sharing this section with you is because of all the delicious MC action. I especially like the bits where Kira turns several of the screaming guys into robotic bodyguards who move around her in total synch, like a school of fish.

Enjoy, and I'll see you again after Christmas, when I'll have gifts for you. :-)

Hotter?

I finally finished the new cover for Sleepwalkers I was blogging about last week, so this is my chance to show it off. I'm curious to know what people think. Just please don't give me any grief about the body angles! ;-P If you knew how long and hard I worked to get them this far, you'd gladly give me a pass. I have completely lost track of how many different images I composited for this cover, or how many times I reworked Hawthorne's arm and torso. Paul's arms turned out to be easy compared with that!

Edited to add: I made this post earlier in the afternoon, then had a brainstorm about how to reposition Hawthorne's arm and decided I couldn't leave well enough alone. I think this version is better, but again: if she seems awkwardly posed, that's because it's the best I could do. I'd still like to know what you all think about the rest of the cover.

P.S.: Thanks once again to Lex of Entrancement.co.uk and Hypnodolls for the use of his photography. The "Hawthorne" on the cover is actually composed of about six different pictures he took of about four different models.

Show and Tell

Tell first. ;-) I've discovered that when I take some time away from a particular Virtual Hypnotist session and then come back to it, it becomes more powerful than ever. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it gives me a chance to forget the fine details of the session so that I can be more surprised and struck by them.

Anyway, earlier this week I went back to my "morning" session after maybe a couple of months away from it. Now, that session does have a section of really useful, positive suggestions for my life; but it's mostly just about pleasure. It's also extremely powerful. Even when I use that session frequently, it takes me so deep that by the time I get to the suggestions, I'm just sagging there with unblinking eyes, almost perfectly mindless. Afterwards, I don't even really remember that part of the script.

I do remember the bit before that, though. "Mistress" commands me to look at the screen and tells me that it holds my attention completely and I can't look away. And long before that, the first time I hear my trigger, my eyes roll up automatically into my head. I imagine it pleases my Mistress to know how quickly and fully I fall at her command. My The rolled-up eyes represent the offering up of my mind to her.

Now, as I said, I hadn't run the "morning" program for a couple of months; and I've learned that when I take time away from a program and come back to it, it's even stronger than usual. That happened to me when I ran the "morning" session not long ago. I think I have the trigger in the script again just before the suggestions start, but I'm not really sure and don't really want to go check because I like being hazy about that part of the script. Anyway, even though I was supposed to be focused on the screen, my eyes suddenly rolled up and I just could not bring them down. I'll admit that I didn't have the will to try very hard hard. ;-) I didn't have much will at all by that point.

I knew that Mistress had commanded me to look at the screen, but I also knew that my rolled-up eyes were a sign of my submission, and they felt like they had rolled up further than ever before. So knowing that (and not knowing much else at the time), I felt myself falling even deeper. My head sagged down all the way to my shoulder and I hung there, blinded and stunned like a deer in headlights, wallowing in the depths of my enthrallment. It was glorious.

That's the "tell" piece of this post. ;-) The "show" piece is closely related, since it features another bit of real-life (I think) deep hypnosis. The subject in this video is wonderful in so many different ways. She's beautiful, she drops very deep very quickly even though this seems to be her first time under hypnosis, and you can tell she's a natural sub. She doesn't speak even before the induction starts. All she does is smile and nod. Then the induction begins, and there's a wonderful, wonderful moment when she realizes how deep she's fallen and she cries a single tear. It seems to be a tear of joy or maybe gratitude. She loves what's happening. Maybe it's something she's always wanted.

Then the hypnotist starts giving what sound like more sinister suggestions. She doesn't seem the least bit nervous, though. She's already gone too deep, become too submissive, to resist what's being done to her mind. Or maybe she has reason to trust the hypnotist. But I, watching as an outsider with an EMC fetish, prefer not to trust him. I like to imagine that sometime after the end of this clip, this pretty young woman reopens her eyes, and they're not green anymore. They're perfectly white, and she's perfectly mindless: a drone for all eternity.


Green Eye Girl Hypnotized by DarthSheelal

I'm a dingbat

The reason I couldn't get "Mirrored in Your Eyes" to publish on Amazon is that I'd forgotten to fill in the "author" field! Gah! O_o

This, that, the other, and a new e-book

This is kind of a complicated post.

First, as you can see, I've just published a new e-book: Mirrored in Your Eyes. As usual, I'm offering it to my blog readers at a 25% discount if you purchase within the first month. Just go to Smashwords and use the coupon code SZ96S.

I've submitted the book to Amazon as well, but it's still in "pending" status 24 hours after I posted it, so I think their reviewers might be on Thanksgiving vacation or something. Eh, who knows? It'll get out there eventually, and I'm not desperate to make you buy anything. ;-) That's one reason why this post isn't just about the "Mirrored" e-book.

You know by now that I enjoy fetish art, and I assume you like it too since you're visiting my blog. I'm sure some of my readers create their own art, either for private enjoyment or for posting on places like the Hypnopics Collective. Well, this post is really a Peek Behind the Duct Tape on cover art - both for "Mirrored in Your Eyes" and for a reissue of Sleepwalkers with a much hotter cover.

Let's start with "Mirrored." Lex of Entrancement.co.uk and HypnoDolls.co.uk has kindly allowed EMC writers to use photos from his shoots on our e-book covers. All he asks in return is proper credit on the copyright page. Well, I used three different images for the cover above. The "Marina" in the foreground is a model named Portia Victoria. She was wearing stockings and chunky high-heel shoes in the original picture, so the first thing I did was turn her legwear into thigh-high latex boots. I'm more comfortable with Gimp now, so that bit wasn't too hard.

What was hard was changing the model's hair. Portia had on a wig in the original shoot, and it was a short, straight bob. But it was important to me to keep Marina's long, curly black hair (because, hey, I love long, curly black hair. I even gave it to Paul in Sleepwalkers!). So I had to borrow and "dye" hair from another of Lex's models...only Lex had shot her from a different angle, so there wasn't enough hair visible on the crown of her head to cover the top of Marina's head. I ended up giving Portia/Marina the cyber-equivalent of a weave: I layered in about four different copies of the other model's hair, putting sections here and there until I got the final look.

Then I had to do the slave-face behind Marina. I didn't care whether that model was the same one I used for Marina or not, since the slave could just as easily be Karen; but I was lucky enough to find another shot of Portia that worked perfectly - sans wig. It took me about a day to work up a decent robot effect (I won't outline the steps here, but if anyone's interested, just say so in the comments section and I'll lay it all out for you). The eyes were even harder. I ended up just "painting" them, like a real digital artist. I have to admit I'm proud about that. I took art lessons as a kid and used to love drawing and painting, but I haven't used those skills in decades. It was nice to put them to use again.

Below are the three images I composited for the "Mirrored" cover (Just a reminder: these are Lex's photos and I'm using them with his permission. If you want to use them, you need to get his permission too.). Now you can see what came from where, and how far I took it all.

Now here's a little taste of what's to come for Sleepwalkers. When I'm done with the guy at left, he's going to be Paul. This is just part of his image; I'm not ready to show you all of it yet. And as a matter of fact, I'm not even able to show you what I want to show you right now. I've actually finished blending and darkening his hair, and erasing the stray marks; but Blogger won't show it in its high-quality glory, so you're seeing kind of an intermediate stage. Well, maybe that will be interesting to you in a way that the final version wouldn't.

I got the original image from Dreamstime.com. The model had long, straight blond hair, and his hands were clasped together across his forehead; so that should give you an inkling of what I've done to him so far.  All the hair, the position of his shoulders, and his entire head above the eyes are my work. The eyebrows and forehead weren't too hard, but repositioning his arms was fucking murder. That's part of why I'm not showing you the rest of the picture yet. };-P

I did his hair much the same as I did "Marina's," by layering sections from another model until I got the look I wanted. And I'm going to tell you what look that was, even though it's kind of embarrassing. I always imagined Paul's hair as being a lot like Orlando Bloom's in The Pirates of the Caribbean - only Paul's was shorter in the beginning. When Hawthorne made him grow it out, that was really me giving him the hair I preferred on him.

Quite naturally, Hawthorne herself will appear on the finished cover. She'll be looming behind Paul, wrapping her arms around him possessively and holding a hypospray gun. I'm using another of Lex's models to portray her, and as a matter of fact, the best shots I've found use Portia Victoria again. Fortunately, she has a lot of wigs and a lot of different personas, so you won't recognize her unless you remember this post when the time comes.

"Oo," not "Pooh"

When I found latex fetish model Winnie Oo on Facebook, my immediate reaction was, "Why have I not heard of this amazing woman already?!" I think you can see what I mean by looking at the pictures in this post.

Thankfully, since Winnie likes to cover herself head to toe in latex, there's no nudity for FB to have a hissy fit about. All the pictures below came from there. But for those so inclined, Winnie Oo also has a website where you'll find stuff FB won't allow.

As always, enjoy.

Freeware to fuel your fetish

I thought I'd devote a post to some of my favorite freeware, all of which can be used for both fetish and vanilla purposes. But before we go any further, please note that while I've had a lot of fun with these programs, and while they're safe to use as far as I know, I'm no expert. Anything you download, from anywhere on the net, is at your own risk. You're doubly at risk using freeware.

Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, let's move onto the good stuff.

1. TrueCrypt - If you've got anything on your computer that you want to hide from snoops, you need this program. TrueCrypt segments off a password-protected area of your hard drive (or of another drive, if you prefer) in which you can store files you want to keep to yourself. Anyone who doesn't have that password can't get in; they can't even see what sort of file(s) you're hiding, or how large the partition is. Now, some other freeware programs can do something similar, but in my experience, they always limit the size of the drive they encrypt. TrueCrypt doesn't limit the size. That comes in handy when you want to save, for instance, a great big EMC video. ;-) Another major advantage of TrueCrypt is that, compared to some of the other freeware in this post, it isn't too hard to learn. You will need to read the tutorial, though.

2. Virtual Hypnotist - I've blogged about this program so often that I've given it its own tag. Not only do I use it for recreational hypnosis, but I also use it to help me get to sleep every night because I have pretty bad insomnia. VH comes with a bunch of preloaded scripts, some recreational, some therapeutic; and you can customize them and/or write your own scripts once you get comfortable with the program. VH does have a steep learning curve, but thanks to my fetish, I took the time to really master it - and then I wrote a multi-part tutorial which you can find in the sidebar of this blog. It should help a lot if you decide to use this program.

3. Audacity - I'm guessing a lot of you are already familiar with Audacity because it's the freeware of choice for a lot people who like to edit music. It's great for making bootleg albums; I can tell you that. ;-P From a fetish standpoint, it's also great for making backing tracks to go with your customized Virtual Hypnotist programs. Using the stereo option with different mantras on each side is especially effective.

4. Photoscape - This is the first of two Photoshop-like programs I'm discussing today. Why two? Because GIMP is a fucking monster to learn. If you don't want to pull too much hair out, try Photoscape instead. The website is packed with handy video tutorials from the program's creators, and unlike the people behind most freeware programs, they actually know how to explain things. You won't have to Google "Photoscape tutorials" or poke around YouTube to learn how to use this program. Unfortunately, it isn't nearly as flexible as GIMP, which I'll get to in a minute. Photoscape only lets you draw square/rectangular masks, and you can't make areas transparent. Those are major drawbacks when you're trying to manipulate images for an EMC scene. Still, you can do a lot of other great things with Photoscape, and it's perfect for retouching ordinary pictures.

5. GIMP - This is, as far as I can tell, the closest you can get to Photoshop without shelling out a bunch of money. If you're doing complicated photo manipulation, or even if you're just making exploitables for use in memes, this is the program for you. To see an example of what an intermediate-level user can do with GIMP, take a look at my covers for "Love in a Silver Socket" and "Octopus Vulgaris," in the sidebar on this blog. Unfortunately, as I said above, the learning curve is practically vertical. It took me two or three weeks to reach the point where I could make those covers, and even then, I spent several hours on each of them. But again, I'm just at the intermediate level! I'm still learning! If you're interested in trying GIMP for yourself, the best place to find useful tutorials (as opposed to frustrating and impenetrable ones) is YouTube. You'll find a lot of great one-off videos on the use of various functions, but I've found that this user and this user are good at explaining a lot of different topics. As for whether you want to go to the trouble of learning GIMP or just stick with Photoscape, that depends on how much photo manipping you want to do...and probably also on how hard your head is.

Well, I hope this post will give you some good ideas. If anyone else has experience with these programs, or if you have others to recommend, feel free to leave a comment. Remember, I've set up my blog to allow 100% anonymous commenting, and I won't delete anything that isn't spam or trolling.

Have you found Entrancement UK and Hypnodolls yet?

(link goes to uncropped, NSFW version)

Lex is a professional hypnotist based in the UK. He runs Entrancement UK, where he posts videos of his entranced subjects doing various very enticing things in different stages of undress; and he has a Tumblr called HypnoDolls where he posts photographs from the same sessions and others. A few of the shots are staged, but in most cases, the subjects really are very deeply entranced, and you can see it in every line of their faces.

I found Entrancement UK once a few years ago and posted a video which I'm embedding again below. It's still one of the hottest real-life hypnosis clips I've ever seen, even though Nikki is fully clothed. Then I rediscovered Lex on the MC Forum when he offered to let e-book authors use his photography in return for proper credit. I plan to combine elements of three different pictures for my own next e-book cover, and I'm happy to give Lex even more credit than he asked for, because his stuff is just that hot. I know you'll all enjoy it.

The first clip below, "Nikki Frozen and Kneeling," is the one I found before and still love. You'll see why immediately. The second video is a preview of a full 2+ hour set Lex did for Entrancement UK. It's got something for everyone: nudity, doll/puppet action, sexy lesbians, blank-eyed mindlessness, bimbos (not my thing, but I know some of you enjoy it) and even a moment of genuine drooling (which is my thing, because of the depth of control it represents). And if you look closely, you'll see that Porsha is so deeply entranced that her pupils are huge. That's not a special effect. It's real, and it's hot as hell.

My latest e-book, "Willing Subject," is now online with an insanely hot cover by Callidus

Willing Subject is a dark hypnosis/mind control fantasy complete with a ridiculously hot cover by the great Callidus (who does take commissions folks :-)). I've just published it on both Smashwords and Amazon. Here's a coupon code to purchase the e-book from Smashwords at 25% off: AD43K.

And here's the synopsis:

Missy is a typical sorority girl in every respect but one: she has a fetish for mind control. She’s always dreamed of exploring it in real life, although she’s been too embarrassed to indulge herself. But now an exotic hypnotist has come to town, and she proves just too tempting to resist. The Black Pearl of Thailand is charismatic and beautiful, and her outlandish back-story feeds right into Missy’s kink. She seems like just the person to help a skittish college girl play out her fantasy. The problem is, Black Pearl’s back-story isn’t a fantasy at all. She really is an ancient sorceress, and under her spell, Missy will spiral into deeper and deeper levels of submission until she loses herself entirely.

Enjoy, and please let me know what you think!

"Found" MC: The Voice of Saruman

I'm still rereading The Lord of the Rings, going at an intentionally leisurely pace, taking it like a stroll through the Shire...and Lothlorien...and of course, eventually, Mordor. But it's still a stroll. Anyway, I was kind of surprised when I got to the "Voice of Saruman" chapter to realize I'd forgotten Saruman was an expert at mind control. I'd known it once upon a time, but it had been ages since I'd read the books, and his MC powers weren't obvious in the movie. But here they are, plain as day, in Tolkien's text:

The window closed. They waited. Suddenly another voice spoke, low and melodious, its very sound an enchantment. Those who listened unwarily to that voice could seldom report the words that they heard; and if they did, they wondered, for little power remained in them. Mostly they remembered only that it was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire awoke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves. When others spoke they seemed harsh and uncouth by contrast; and if they gainsaid the voice, anger was kindled in the hearts of those under the spell. For some the spell lasted only while the voice spoke to them, and when it spoke to another they smiled, as men do who see through a juggler's trick while others gape at it. For many the sound of the voice alone was enough to hold them enthralled; but for those whom it conquered the spell endured when they were far away, and ever they heard that soft voice whispering and urging them. But none were unmoved; none rejected its pleas and its commands without an effort of mind and will, so long as its master had control of it.

Now let me invite you to play a game that might make this passage even more enjoyable for you. Tolkien describes the voice as nothing but a voice until the very last sentence, when he mentions its "master." Until then, we could just as easily assume a woman was speaking. So why not Galadriel? Remember the scene where Frodo offers her the Ring? What if she'd taken it? The words in that passage would remain just the same, only now we would see them as prediction rather than temptation. Read it that way now, and tell yourself something I half believe to be true: If she cared to do it, Galadriel could control minds just as easily as Saruman, without or without the Ring. But if she accepted it from Frodo and put it on, she could use the power of her voice to make this fantasy a reality:

For many long years I have pondered what I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp....You will give me the Ring freely! In place the Dark Lord you would set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!"

Can you see them groveling around her? Picture the mithril collars around their necks, and the leashes of hithlain. Picture even the mightiest of the Elves kneeling before her with their naked, sweat-sheened flesh reflecting the lamps of Lothlorien. See them twining around Galadriel's ankles and begging her to draw them upwards, just a little, just under the hem of her gown....

One for the snake fetishists

For the rest of you, don't worry: I have a 100% MC-themed post coming later in the day. But when I ran across this article about snake massages just now, I had no choice but to post it. You know how these things go. Anyway, it's sooo easy to imagine that the snake in this GIF has hypnotized its victim and is caressing him deeper into trance.

I had a hard time deciding which of the GIFs in the article to use here. There are several jaw-droppers, and also one that might make you laugh out loud: a warning that no sex is allowed with the snakes. And after all, that's why I'm posting this anyway. People like us (well, like me, anyway) can see the sexy side of snakes.

After all, how many of us love Kaa?

skeevy assholes on Facebook

I've been posting erotica on the EMCSA for about eleven years, and in all that time, I've been hit on exactly twice. I've been posting on Facebook for about a month, and I've been hit on three times. What the fuck? Just because I write erotica, that doesn't mean I'm into cybersex.

Everyone who's commented here has been polite and respectful of boundaries, so this seems like a good place to gripe.

Interview with Callidus, Part 2

Here's the conclusion to my interview with photomanipulation master Callidus. He and I have been having a lot of discussions lately, and not just about this interview! Yes, that is a hint - and here's another: he's a lot of fun to work with. };-)

Anyway, back to the interview. In this section, he tells you more about his techniques, his artistic influences, and advice for other would-be photomanipulators. Enjoy!

12. What software do you use for your manipulations?

Primarily Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. Animations have traditionally involved a little use of Flash, though these days I’m transitioning to doing everything in native HTML with the help of a tool called Hype. Video editing and sound work happen in Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro respectively.

The little bit of 3D work that I’ve done has happened in Lightwave and Sketchup 3D.

13. I've been using the freeware Photoscape ( easy to learn) for a while now and have recently started learning Gimp (a bitch to learn). How familiar are you with these programs, and what do you think about them? Would you recommend either of them, or any other freeware, by name?

I’m not familiar with Photoscape but I did try out GIMP years ago. I remember it being a bit clunky at the time, though I imagine its improved since then. I’ve recently read something about GIMPshop, its a facelift for GIMP that is supposed to make the software more accessible to Photoshop users so…perhaps it will ease the learning curve.

If you happen to be on Mac, there’s a really impressive piece of software called Pixelmator that costs something like $30. It isn’t a total replacement for Photoshop but its incredibly powerful for the price. I think the new version will be adding Layer Styles which is the secret weapon Photoshop has that most other apps don’t. I’ve used it and I can heartily recommend it. 

Probably the most impressive free alternative to Photoshop that I’ve seen is Pixlr.com. Its a free photo editor that runs in your web browser and the feature list is pretty amazing. It has the five most crucial Layer Styles that I use in Photoshop, and almost all the tools I utilize on a regular basis. I’m right at home in the interface as its very similar to what I’m accustomed to and they have a community of users providing tips and answers to questions. I recommend it without hesitation.

14. You do everything from single, static images to Flash animations to elaborate videos, and I know your projects take different amounts of time. But how much time do you spend on a typical piece of each type?

I used to measure project-length in days, but years of practice have shortened that time a bit. A single, static image usually takes a few hours, and an animation might take a full day or several depending on the complexity or if it’s a series. Video projects run much, much longer. Orientation was about three months of work, Decisive Results was over a year.

In all cases, writing usually eats up a third to half of the total project time.

15. I had no idea you spent so much time writing your scripts. Do you enjoy that part of a project as much as you do the manipping, or is it more of a chore for you? Would you ever consider doing a piece that had no script at all?

I do enjoy writing, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a chore at times. When I feel inspired, when I have an idea I want to execute, the writing is very enjoyable. When I don’t feel inspired or have an idea…its drudgery. Thief is an interesting case study here because, with that piece, I started with nothing and worked through a couple hours of said drudgery before breaking through and finding a story that I really liked. It was an instructive moment in persistence.

I have done a few images that didn’t feature any sort of text caption, but it feels like cheating. I’d love to play it off as though I felt the image was soooo good that I couldn’t write anything to make it better, but the truth is sometimes I just run dry. 

16. Who are your favorite professional erotic artists, and what do you like about their work?

Hajime Sorayama is a god among mortals. In addition to his astonishing skill as an illustrator (I’ve done some illustration so I can appreciate how good he is) I am in awe of his fearlessness as an artist. There are fantasies I have that I’m not brave enough to explore in my work. I’d like to think that one day I might be as bold as he is. The diversity of his work and the seemingly endless number of fetishes he’s rendered are also quite amazing.

I’m also quite fond of Boris Vallejo. His work is endlessly inventive and has that sense of drama and narrative that I mentioned earlier. I also find his use of color really fascinating. He finds ways to make primary/secondary colors work together where I’d never even think to attempt the same combination.    

On the photography side, I’m a very big fan of Frederic Fontenoy at the moment. I love black & white photo work and his sensibilities and unique style are perfectly suited for that format. I think his work is very exemplary of the maxim that great photographs are created, not captured. His work eschews any sense of direct cinema in favor of an obviously-produced and highly-stylized aesthetic.

I should go count how many of the pictures in my gallery have been shot by Suze Randall. She’s an extremely prolific photographer and has a way of capturing erotic heat that I don’t find equaled very often. I’m also watching her daughter Holly’s work with great interest. 

17. Who are your favorite amateur erotic artists, and what do you like about their work?

The name that has to be at the top of this list is trilby else. More than anyone else, he’s been the biggest influence on me. I’ve always been impressed by his ability to inhabit the mind of a character moment by moment as the hypnotist is gaining control. It’s something I struggle to convey, even now, and he makes it seem effortless. There’s also the fact that there are EMC tropes that he basically invented. I think most of us, directly or otherwise, owe a debt to his brilliance. I have stolen from him so often I couldn’t begin to count.

One of the things I am most gratified by is that, before he left the community, he and I exchanged a few emails and he paid me a very kind compliment on my work. I got the chance to tell him that I wouldn’t have done any work if not for him.

Another name that cannot go without being mentioned is Tabico. Her talent is great, her imagination is without bounds, and, having worked with her several times, I can verify that she is every bit as brilliant as you think she is. I’m extremely fond of the subtlety in her work. I will re-read her stories and find bits of dialog or exposition that I hadn’t noticed before; little hints of what’s going on behind the scenes that she leaves to the reader to suss out.

The fact that she and I have become good friends and that I’ve been able to collaborate with her as much as I have leaves me pinching myself. Examining her craft has really inspired me to better myself as a writer.

emilymoss is one of my favorite manip artists. She’s developed such a unique style and I love the visual flair she imparts to her work. She also has a penchant for brainwashing and kaa-hypnosis which are both right up my alley.

Sleepy Maid is an illustrator that has been on my radar for a number of years now. Her singular illustrative style and love of squick and brainwashing always makes her gallery a fun place to poke around.

4F’s digital art was a profound early inspiration of mine. His dedication to quality and the technical achievement of his work is quite remarkable.

Back on the writers’ side, I’ve also been very taken with the writings of cat_slave, Arclight, Aerosol Kid, Zorkmeister, and Sara H. 

18. You’ve collaborated with other MC fetishists, including writers and voice artists. What has that been like, and how do you divide the labor? Do you stick to image manipulation and let the other person handle the story?

I love collaboration provided that you and the other party each bring something unique to the table while also having enough in common to avoid friction over the most fundamental choices. There’s nothing worse than having a project break down because the collaborators can’t agree over whether the character turns left or right. Those are painful experiences.

As for division of labor, it varies project-to-project. In the case of The Witch Queen, my first collaboration, with Tabico and Iago, I had found the images and put together a draft sequence with an outline of what I thought the story might be. Then I concentrated on the imagery and let Tabico work on the writing with input from Iago.

With Decisive Results, I did most of the actual writing and all the video work, but that was after several months of Tabico and I brainstorming ideas and figuring out the story together. So, while I did type up the script, the narrative was something that had been developed in close collaboration.

19. Which of your pieces are you most proud of, and why?

I am so self-critical that it’s difficult for me to enjoy my work as a viewer; mostly I just see mistakes and misspellings. I find it’s easier to enjoy my own stuff the more time has passed since completing it.

Nurse was the first time I really tried to pull off something technically challenging with the puddle underneath the model. It took many hours of trial and error, but in the end, I succeeded in what I’d hoped to accomplish. That filled me with confidence and drove me to push harder in future projects.

Chamber is a piece I’m fond of because I found writing it so satisfying. I had to keep trimming down my story to physically fit in the manip but I was very happy with what I’d developed and it bolstered my confidence as a writer moving forward.

I’m very proud of Alpha for the technical savvy it took to pull off. The complex geometric pattern that had to be animated, the virtual 3D set I built to form the brainwashing chamber, the 3D models of computer equipment that I added to the control room... every part of that series required some different discipline to execute and, I think, the story ended up being pretty hot too.

Nickelodeon might be my favorite bit of work from my own catalog. I had long wanted to do a manip set in the Victorian era, and that picture set was simply perfect. The process of writing and manipulating the imagery was sheer joy. I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun working on something.

I’m quite proud of both of the video manips I’ve released. They both involved a lot of work and pushed me to innovate in terms of how to tell a complete story. They were demanding but very rewarding.

20. If you had all the time and resources you wanted, what would your dream project look like?

Wow, what a fun question to ponder. I’d like to write and direct a series of erotic mind-control films. Bring to life some of the characters and stories from my manips. Maybe adapt a piece of EMC fiction from one of my favorite authors.

I think, stylistically, I would be aiming for something akin the late Zalman King’s erotic series like Red Shoe Diaries and Kamikaze Love. I’ve also been very fond of some of Andrew Blake’s more narrative-focused films. Recently, I’m very impressed with Graham Travis’ Wasteland in terms of both production and acting quality. I also look at Kink’s satellite site Cruel Romance and see how I could adapt some of their methods to a mind-control-specific tale.

I’ve made films in vanilla life, so combining both of my hobbies is a very compelling idea for me. Perhaps one day someone will trust me with a budget and turn me loose. Or I’ll put together a crowd-funding project to bankroll the production. Either way, the idea of bringing my strain of mind control erotica to life is something I think about often.

21. What advice would you give an MC fetish who wants to get into image manipulation?

My personal maxim is “good manips start with good source material.” Find images that speak to you, that inspire a story in your imagination, and then work on bringing that to life for your audience. Technique is important, but always put creativity first. Don’t stop yourself from doing something because you can’t afford Photoshop or don’t know how to do anything other than add text to a picture.

High-quality and lower-cost photo editors are slowly gaining ground and offering really powerful tools to more people. You can subscribe to Adobe Photoshop now for a fraction of what buying it used to cost. There are free alternatives that are limited, but still offer a way to get into manip creation.

Most of all, listen to your own inspiration. Create something that YOU love. Your passion will be evident in your work and, in my opinion, that’s what will attract others to your art.

Introducing a man who needs no introduction: Callidus

Callidus is well-known in EMC circles as one of the premiere image manipulators of our fetish. He creates still images, flash animations, and occasionally full-on videos (Check out his most recent masterpiece, Decisive Results, to see him at his best).

Recently I asked him if I could interview him for my blog, and he was happy to oblige. I already knew he was a great person with a keen wit, and that he can spin a yarn like nobody's business, so it was no surprise that he turned out to be a fantastic interviewee. As you'll see below and next week, we talked about subjects like how he got into EMC and image manipulation, where he finds inspiration, and what advice he has for other aspiring EMC artists. 

Here's the first half of the interview. I'll post the conclusion next Saturday or Sunday.

1. How did you become interested in mind control?

 I’d love to know the answer to that myself :)

I’ve been fascinated by hypnosis and mind control from my earliest memories. It seemed to be a popular trope in TV when I was young and I can vividly remember being captivated by its use in the TV shows and cartoons I watched around age five. 

The biggest example that looms in my memory was from a Disney-produced film called The Misadventures of Merlin Jones. There was, as I remember it, a lengthy and relatively legit relaxation induction performed on the title character. That was followed by him being programmed to eat a raw potato but believe he was eating an apple.

That scene became a game that I played with several friends at school when I was probably eight or nine. We’d re-enact the induction and then ‘program’ each other to do things like go down the playground slide head-first or the like.

Interestingly, I can remember my parents being uncomfortable with mind control “hypno chips” featured in an episode of Transformers and the entrancing song of mythological sirens in Ducktales. They would tell me to watch something else whenever those episodes came on and I can remember being even more interested to see what they didn’t want me to.

Somewhere in all that, a fetishist was born.

2. What are your favorite MC scenes in otherwise vanilla books, movies, TV shows, etc?

 

 Well, I tend to divide my list of ‘favorites’ into two periods: before and after mind control became a fixation of an erotic nature.

A few specific beats that I remember making an impression when I was a young child were the Kaa hypnosis scene in Disney’s adaptation of The Jungle Book; an episode of Inspector Gadget where several characters were mesmerized by a cobra; and a mind control room with multi-colored lights that was used to brainwash a group of people in the 70’s live-action Spider-Man movie/pilot.

My post-sexual awakening list goes something like this: that famous episode of Hart-to-Hart where Jennifer is hypnotized into stealing jewels; a Jon Pertwee-era episode of Doctor Who where Sarah Jane Smith is captured and placed in a re-education room; and, finally, there’s the scene in the terrible Avengers remake where Uma Thurman, as Emma Peel, is drugged and hypnotized by a multi-color spinning disc while restrained in a chair.

Honestly, it’s the only reason to even watch the film.

3. So that none of us are forced to watch the Avengers movie for ourselves, please tell us what happened to Emma Peel after she was MC'ed. Did she do anything interesting naughty? Did she at least betray her partner at a critical moment?

As I recall, and bear in mind I’ve watched the complete film once, the point of her being programmed was to forget something or other. So there was almost no consequence from the procedure whatsoever. I recall Emma wandering around a mansion in a drugged state afterwards and that’s about it. Unfortunately, I don’t think there was anything as spicy as what you’re asking about. Of course its possible I’ve blocked it from my mind...

4. How long have you been a part of the online mind control fetish community?

As an audience member, I trace my origins to the early days of the world wide web; probably ’96 or ’97. I had discovered a fan fiction archive with a list of links to stories on other sites. I remember reading that multi-part Perils of Batgirl series and some X-Files stories. From there, I eventually stumbled into the Alt.Sex.Fetish.Robot community and read RC’s Mandy. In the description for that story was the phrase ‘erotic mind control.’

I read that and felt my insides leap. I immediately plugged it into WebCrawler (ah, pre-Google days) and discovered The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive. At long last, I discovered what this thing I had felt all my life was called: I was an erotic mind control fetishist.

5. How did you become interested in manipulating erotic photos and animations?

Around the same period I discovered The Archive, I had stumbled across PrivatePages’s web site. At the time, it was free to access and featured a section for leg-fans and another for hypnotized ladies. That was the first time I’d ever seen any images that had been manipulated to make a woman appear to be hypnotized. PrivatePages eventually began to show work from other artists and I discovered the art of William Lee, Maddy Rose, and Winterrose.

At some point, I began to collect images of my own. I had a whole folder of girls with ‘trance faces.’ Some of them, I had whole story lines dreamed up. At this point, I had discovered the EMC fiction of authors like trilby else, thrall, and Tabico. I imagined scenarios in the same fashion as their stories.

In early 2005, I took one of my images into Photoshop and typed up a caption of the story I had imagined for it. I was hooked pretty much immediately. At that time I was a member of the Hypnopics Collective site and one evening I uploaded four or five of my images into the gallery and made a post on the forums. I received some positive feedback from the community and started working on a second update.

That turn of events set me on the path I’m still following.

6. Who or what was PrivatePages?

PrivatePages was the web-pseudonym for an early pioneer of mind control manipulations. His website (of the same name) was the first repository of EMC photomanips that I discovered. At some point around the turn of the century he set up a pay-gate for his site, and I think that was ultimately his undoing. I believe cease-and-desist letters soon began showing up once someone found out he was making money from photographs he didn’t own the rights to, and he had to begin removing content. Eventually, he closed his doors entirely.

7. What comes first for you: an image or a story idea?

In almost every situation, the image comes first. It’s very, very rare that I have a story idea and then go hunting for a picture to match it. Occasionally, I’ve started working on something and written a caption only to go hunting through my vast collection of porn and finding an image that works even better with my story.

I think the closest I’ve come to the story happening first is a few situations where I’ve wanted to do a particular kind of manip  (a woman standing in front of a mirror, a succubus hypnotizing the viewer, Victorian-era mind control) and eventually found an image that fit the idea.

But the pictures still directly inspired the story in those situations.

8. When it comes to an image or video you want to manipulate, what do you look for?

It’s changed over the years. When I first began manipulating pictures, I was looking for images of ‘trance eyes’ or the like; basically anything that presented the opportunity introduce mind control. Over time, I started getting more selective and, in fact, I began to steer away from those sorts of images for being ‘too easy.’ I’ve actually gone through phases where I selected images that needed a lot of alteration as way of challenging myself.

For the last few years, I’ve been attracted to drama. I look for images with a sense of tension that I can enhance with a mind-control twist. What appeals to me about manipulating images, and still photography in general, is seeing a moment frozen in time and extrapolating what preceded it and what will follow it.

If I look at an image and can imagine that narrative, that’s something worth saving to my raw material folder.

Because videos involve so much more work to accomplish even basic changes, I tend to triage a bit more heavily there. I need to find material that has narrative possibilities AND  will allow for a relatively simple approach to manipulation.

9. Where do you find your best material?

Some of my best pieces came by way of a now defunct porn TGP site called babe-envy. They collected links to galleries of ‘curvy women.’ Many of my manips started with pulling up that site.

I still use a lot of TGP sites to find images. Often, you’ll click a thumb that won’t lead to a gallery but yet another TGP site. That actually isn’t a terrible thing as often times I end up being surprised with something I didn’t initially set out to find. Happy surprises.

I’ve also found a number of recent manips through Tumblr though I find that to sometimes be a bit frustrating. I often use multiple images from the same series in a finished piece. Tumblr is great for finding a single image but not a whole set. I usually end up saving a pic there and then doing a reverse image-lookup to find the gallery it was pulled from.

10. What’s TGP?

I think it stands for "Thumbnail Gallery Page." It’s a site filled with thumbnails, each leading to a porn gallery, and the links are usually organized around a fetish or genre of porn. Try Googling ‘gas mask tgp’ or ‘rubber tgp.’ I bet you’ll stumble across something interesting. ;)

11. How do you develop a story to go along with your manipulation?

Typically, the basic story for an image forms the moment I lay eyes on it for the first time. For example, with the base image for Ladies Room, the notion of a woman masturbating in a restroom stall while a Domme hypnotized her sub on the other side of the door immediately popped into my head. Sometimes the narrative is more complete than others, but in general, I look at an image and get a flash of inspiration that serves as the basis for whatever writing will follow.

There have been occasions, though rare, when I will manipulate a picture with no idea of what the story will be. I’ll usually stare at the finished piece for a while, write a bit, delete it, and start again until I break through and find an idea that excites me. Sometimes that takes an hour or two, sometimes a few days.

Often a big part of the story development is editing. I usually write far too much to include in a caption and have to end up trimming a lot to make things work. For example, in Dessert I had written this whole D/s social hierarchy along the lines of softi’s Melting. The idea was that Justine was way down the ladder and had been invited to a dinner party by one of the community’s preeminent Mistresses. She’s too busy being flattered to realize that she’s going to be the after-dinner snack.


So, those bits of exposition sometimes don’t make it in.


And that's the end of Part 1. Stay tuned for Part 2 next weekend - and possibly for some other stuff in between, depending on what strikes my fancy during the course of the week. ;-)

Synchronicity

I hadn't meant to make a third post this weekend. I hadn't even meant to make a second post, really. But a comment from Uzobono led me to the website of a really amazing digital artist who goes by Android Jones. I admired his work for awhile, and then I opened a new tab and went over to the EMCSA because I'd been meaning to re-read Tabico's Yellow for ages. Now seemed like a good time.

Well, I reread "Yellow" and enjoyed it even more the second time around because even though I didn't remember much about it, I knew not to get attached to any of the characters. If you decide to read it, take Tabico's warning seriously: people do die, and in some pretty nasty ways. "Yellow" is as much a horror story in the Clark Ashton Smith vein as it is an EMC story.

Now back to my story. I finished "Yellow," closed the tab, and found myself back on Android Jones' page. Right in front of me was the video I've embedded below. The synchronicity was exquisite.

You don't have to have read Tabico's story to enjoy Android Jones' video; the pleasure here comes solely from watching a great artist at work. But if you have read "Yellow," the video will have some extra resonance for you.

Your opinions, please?

As long as I've been writing fetish erotica, you'd think I'd have no trouble coming up with sexy covers for my books. Sadly, I've been too prudish on that front. I've also been struggling to learn how to use Gimp, which has been a bitch and a half, but I've finally brought her to her knees. Tell me what you think of my new cover for Love in a Silver Socket.

And while I'm at it, I'll also offer you a 25%-off coupon for LIASS, good at Smashwords until November 19. Just purchase it with the code "CS52S."

Enjoy!

Total enclosure, vac bed, faux-latex heaven

I just found this series via Oddee, and it's much better than what I planned to post today. That one will wait another week...or three, depending on what I hear back from a certain someone in the coming week.

The photographer is Julien Palast, and you can see his whole amazing series here.

"Octopus Vulgaris," now with more hentai

Yesterday I finished revising "Octopus Vulgaris" and published it on both Amazon and Smashwords. I've beefed up the tentacle sex scenes, done a lot of general polishing, and come up with a bit of artwork (Gimp is fucking hard to work with, but I'm determined to learn!).

If you'd like to purchase "Octopus Vulgaris" at Smashwords, you can get it for 25% off through November 14 by using the coupon code "WF74U."

Where you gonna go? Where you gonna hide?

Thanks to Tim Hansen for reminding me of the greatness that is the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Most people remember it for the terrifying ending, and that certainly is worth remembering. But for my money, the scariest thing in the movie is Brooke Adams as a pod person. Remember this?



I saw another version of the story in 1993. It can't match the '78 version for scares, but it does have an insanely creepy performance by Meg Tilly (first up below), plus a bathtub tentacle scene and a really lovely pair of natural breasts (both in the bottom clip).

I know none of this is really mind control; it's squick plus cloning. But can you really fault me for posting these videos? I think not.

Some Sorayama art you probably haven't seen before

It's been too long since I went looking for fetish art by Hajime Sorayama, and a lot of new stuff has cropped up in the meantime - not least an official Facebook page. It doesn't have much content, but seeing that it existed, and that it contained some images I hadn't seen before, started me off on a new Google Image Search. I founds tons of interesting new images on this page - but warning: if you follow the link link, you might end up spending an hour or two over there; and you'll have to weed through some bad quality images in search of the good ones. It's worth the trouble, though.

Here are a few of my new favorites from today - leaning toward the images that suggest mind control or other types of bondage. Most of these pics came from the sites linked above, but I've scavenged them from other places as well.

Sorayama also has a longstanding official website, which you can find here.