So, back in... 2006...2007? God, I'm not sure... Alison Tyler started her blog . I was so excited to find it - I had been reading her stories on the Good Vibrations site and had been scouring the internet for more. Imagine my delight to find a blog you could see her posts in, and comment on. It was completely thrilling. I remember the first post I read of hers, a picture of a scribbled story from years before.
It got better though - she started writing stories from her past, and this incredible voyage unfolded, glowing words swirling off the dark pages to delight and thrill and shock me. A lot of what she was describing was new to me then, or at least the detail. I'm a lot less alarmable now, but the dark secret magic of the story still remains as fresh as ever.
Alison sent me the Dark Secret Love ebook to reread, and I swore I would wait for the paperback, because I had visions of how nostalgic and lovely it would be to curl up in bed with it, touch the cover, see the type. So I just read the first chapter. Then I thought I'd just read til Jack appeared. Then of course, I sat up late and read the whole thing. Cos, you know... self control issues and all.
I was preoccupied wondering if anything was put in or taken out - the original tome was a blog post or two a day, but scenes were often divided into multiple short glimpses of the moment. I have to say I didn't notice her editing, or miss anything, it still held all the intensity and gripping interest that it had the first time around in serial form.
I'm so delighted to see this book come out. It's a great antidote to the whole Fifty Shades-machine mess. This is the book that should have told the world about the joys of BDSM. It's an authentic voice - Alison uses the same phrases throughout her fiction and on her blog, and I met them again with a familiar pleasure in DSL. It's hers through and through.
I can't wait for the next one. Not to be spoilery, but I can't WAIT for Alex. I loved the Alex stuff. I want to know what happens. A little community built around that story on Alison's Trollop blog. We got to react and discuss and live in her moments. It meant a lot to me at a lonely time, and pregnant and horny, I submitted my first story to Alison - she's been a generous and patient editor since then.
I await critical discussion with interest - I think the commitment Sam shows to her lifestyle and exploring her limits may alarm people who read Fifty Shades because it was popular - and I think it's a good thing. The Dark Secret Love story is not always comfortable. It's brave and it's stark and I suspect you will come to care about it a lot. I certainly did, those years ago, and I still do, with great investment, now. Somehow, this feels like my story. Not mine to have written, but my story as a reader. As a reader, it belonged to me to, in the midst of the reader experience - a more than conceptual dialogue, given that I was in the unique position to be able to respond and ask questions during the process. We were so lucky!
