The Story That Started This Journey Also Keeps Me Writing
I submitted Sampling From the Sex Toy Salesman’s Case of Goodies back in the summer of 2022, when I first started writing and trying to publish my stories.
I wrote the story knowing I was going to submit it to Tantalizing Tales, whose editors May More and (at the time) ✍ Posy Churchgate I desperately wanted to impress. So I worked hard on it, and looking back, it may be the first example of my “old” style: sarcastic, with alliterative wordplay and a female character who knows what she wants and is determined to get it.
I’ve tried to write deeper stories since then, inspired by May, Posy, Paragonas Vaunt, Hazel Porter, and Celia McKinley. I’ve tried to write in a more literary style, to develop characters and themes more thoroughly, and to write more from my own fantasies and experiences.
Twenty-eight months later, I think this story still stands up. It was the beginning of me finding my voice, even if that voice has changed since. For instance, Salesman has a ton of Simpsons references and I’ve mostly grown out of those. I’m a lot more serious these days.
When I read the story now, I cringe at parts, but I also smile. That story is all me, with no artifice, no affectations. I could learn from past me, and from Lisa, the story’s hotel maid protagonist; I could learn to…
