Joelle - thank you so much for letting me interview you. I'm sure there are many out here that know you well, but there are always newcomers. I'm really enjoying learning about different writers here. We seem to be a diverse group, and I love that.
Now, who is …
Now, who is …
Joelle Casteel
1. Give us your basic bio, what
ever you’re willing to let us know.
I'm 36 and have lived in Michigan all my life, while also
cursing it all my life- I'm convinced I wasn't born in the right state :D . I
grew up in the metro Detroit area, which was tolerable, while I now live in
"mid Michigan" not far from Saginaw, which I don't consider tolerable
(and yes, this is one of the few things that I'll actually get into fights with
my Master about). After 14 years of relationship with my Master, most of which
we've had several pets, we are currently without any, after the passing of our
nearly 14 year old dog Chyna. I carry constantly a bunch of identity pieces
that put me outside the mainstream- queer, polyamorous, kinky, lifestyle
submissive, home educator/unschooler, activist, gender questioner, sexuality
educator, person living with mental health issues, bipolar person. I never
expected to write full time; I'd tricked myself into accepting my parents' "you
can't just write, you won't make a living off it," but then I was kicked
out of college for being suicidal. I'm also a survivor of multiple rapes, the
first one having happened 23 years ago. Hm, I'm still looking at PK's
"...please tell us as much as your comfortable with." and laughing a
bit. I mean, telling has become a thing I reflexively do, no matter how
stigmatized or painful something is. I guess I'll wait for people to ask in the
comments for more info :D.
2. When did you first realize that
you were interested in the idea of spanking?
Oh this is a tricky one for me... just spanking? Because my
BDSM sexuality has never been "just" about spanking and the notion of
spanking being enough only came after finding domestic discipline fiction. I
need to backtrack in explaining my sexuality just a bit to explain that I had
abstinence-only sexual education, my parents did nothing, I was pretty much a
sex-less, overweight kid until I lost my virginity from the heterosexual
perspective to being raped by an older teen boy when I was 13. So whether it's
a BDSM- or DD- focused person talking about remembering being interested in
their fetish "as a child," I can't relate. I was first fascinated by
the idea of any sort of BDSM when my first girlfriend, when I was 15 and had
just come out as bisexual, moved from us engaging in rough sex to sharing
"The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" by Anne Rice with me.
3. I’ve heard you speak of your
master, how would you describe your relationship?
This is a fun one :D- I tend to say "We're a BDSM poly
couple" while He's said "We're a kinky couple." I think part of
the discrepancy is He doesn't care to engage in the conversation (with other
people mostly) about the idea of "the big tent of BDSM activities,"
as I've seen Thianna D. describe the BDSM community. Currently we are
struggling- it's been a very hard year with job issues, health issues etc;
while I get angry at Him often enough, I'm most likely when talking to Him to
say "My sex drive is broken," not commenting on His half of the
problems. The thing is, when we're doing good, our fetish activities (things
like bondage, flogging, orgasm denial/begging) are not kept separate from our
sex lives- and we've ran into judgmental types (especially locally in mid
Michigan) who would tell us we were wrong not to have any division.
4. Were you spanked as a child?
Whether yes or no, do you think this affected your interest?
Nope, time outs were used; however I always felt like I was
a bother to my mother (who instead "disciplined" by screaming at me
or coldly avoiding me. So spanking and related activities to me are a form of
care- my Master cares enough to give me that attention. That really stood out
for me in the Blushing Book's sharing of Fiona Wilde's "The Gift of
Guidance." The lack of spanking, the lack of guidance totally resonated
with me.
5. Did you, do you, or might you
use spanking with your own children?
I didn't although between having my Master as now-teen's
step-dad and then father and wife #4 and whatever they did, yeah, he's gotten
some spankings, even if I didn't agree with them totally. I'm quite the
attachment parenting person and probably would have been more so if I'd had a
supportive community of such mothers when teen was younger. I think, talking
about parenting in general, that spanking shouldn't be used or not used with
every child; sometimes it is what's going to work the best. Although that
"best" is hard to define sometimes.
6. When did you first begin writing
spanking stories?
It wasn't long after reading Anne Rice's "The Claiming
of Sleeping Beauty" that I started writing erotic fiction- yeah, I have a
history of starting things before I was "old enough" to do whatever
it was. I wanted to "see myself" in the complexities of my sexuality
and I knew I wasn't represented in the bodice rippers in the grocery store and
I was sure since I wasn't seeing non-monosexual and/or polyamorous people on
TV, I wasn't going to see myself in erotic books, even when I was old enough to
buy them for myself.
7. How comfortable are you with
people in your real life knowing that you write spanking fiction? Does everyone
know, a select few, or do you try to keep it private?
I am completely and totally out about what I write; I'm
"out" about being queer, kinky, and poly- why wouldn't I be out about
what I write? I ask that a bit rhetorically. When I got more serious about
"author" and "publishing" back in 2012, I asked my Master
what He thought of me publishing erotic fiction under my legal name; He had no problem
about it and will openly talk about what I write when in the company of people
where it fits in the conversation. It did take me awhile in general on what to
say though. "I write adult fiction." "I write erotic
fiction." etc etc ... many days I still debate if what I usually write is
erotica or erotic romance. In a dark erotica group I'm in, I enjoyed one
comment that was made when I was talking about my erotic fiction- "Intense
BDSM doesn't necessarily make something dark erotica." Because The Queen
dearly loves his slaves- no matter how "hard core" that BDSM
activities I describe might be. I realized, thinking on this, that I'm not
actually, really out to my parents, but you see (and I'm sure thinking on my
story about Thanksgiving and mashed potatoes that you can understand where I'm
coming from, PK), my parents are so in denial about all sorts of parts of me
that they are uncomfortable with- my mother more so than my father. I'm
thinking I may have to start answering writing questions with "Yes, I'm
published, but no, you wouldn't want to read it." My mother is viciously
anti-GLBT.
8. Some people don’t like to be
labeled in only one area, but do you feel your writing is in a particular
category?
I see I managed to start answering this question in my
previous answer :D What I write does tend to be more hard core BDSM; I've used
the phrase "I write BDSM erotic romance with erotica word choice and a
feminist porn perspective." That said, I do enjoy adventuring, like I have
one book of erotica that I intentionally gathered M/f BDSM, all female BDSM
relationships, "bear erotica" (gay men who are hairy and can often be
almost hyper-masculine), and a variety of other kinks and sexual identities. I
really pushed myself in my last Nanowrimo novel to write a female/female
spanking romance that included a long distance relationship between two erotic
romance authors (and included their WIPs, which were all over the place in
erotic romance and erotica :D)
9. Do you think you might someday
like to branch out and write something totally different, either within the
spanking fiction world or something else completely?
I have most definitely enjoyed experimenting more with
ageplay in my last Nano-novel. I find when I think of "something
different," for me it's often different from what others are doing, not
necessarily what I'm doing. To this end, I love writing experienced submissives
who know what they want and are ready to negotiate with the dominant on an
equal footing, although I don't think that quite qualifies as branching out for
me. One thing I'd like to do is work with genderqueer characters,
nudists/naturists, and invented gender-neutral pronouns in novel(la)-length
books; so far I've only done that in short stories.
10. How attached do you get to your
characters? Do you know what happens after the book ends?
Some of them, yes. The Queen, Vala, and the rest of his
slaves and friends- yeah, attached. I talk to them all the time, write them in
different situations, I have "enjoyed sex" by picturing The Queen
making love to one of his slaves. It's definitely part of why I refuse to allow
a publisher to touch "Vala's Story." I'm thinking on a sequel to my
Nano-novel "Tabitha and Bina in Love," in part because there is
simply not enough female/female erotic romance out there. The funny thing is
that I really want to know what's going to happen to Tabitha's characters in
her FFF spanking trilogy- I only made it into "book 2," which she's
hoping her editor will have a title suggestion for. Yes, lots of jokes about
story-ception in my household during this past Nanowrimo :D.
11. Describe your ‘perfect’ writing
day.
I'm really not sure I have one. I'm so used to writing in
the middle of life happening. Like when I started the first draft of the first
book of in Vala's Story, I was writing with now-teen as a toddler- it was a
regular thing for me to have Tele-tubbies on the TV and bands like Nine Inch
Nails playing the same time through the stereo. Also my "perfect writing
day" would like depend on what I'm writing. Since I don't really just
write one thing- certainly not "just m/f BDSM," for example- there is
no one perfect. Am I working in the "Vala's Story" world? Am I
working on a short story or a novel(la)? What are the genders, sexual
identities of the characters I'm working with? These questions will usually
affect what music I choose to listen to, let alone other factors of what I want
while writing.
12. When did you first begin
publishing? What caused you to jump in at that moment in time?
2012. I really can't say why I decided then was the time to
get serious about it, but I decided I need to get serious, especially as I was
planning to self-publish and I was sure it was a certain kind of work and
possibly/probably more work than traditional or e-publishing.
13. With so many wonderful writers
here I can get confused as to who writes what. Would you list all the books
you’ve published so far. I’m assuming most can be purchased through Amazon and
Barnes and Noble, but let us know where else your books are available.
"Joelle's Chaotic Collection of Screwing" (free
and only available on Smashwords. Then from the Vala's Story serial, I have
"Out of the Night: Book One" and "Gates of the Garden: Book
Two." Both Vala's Story books are available several places, including
Amazon and Barnes and Noble. For blurbs, buy links (if you want to get a book
somewhere other than the big guys), I'm giving you the link for the "MyBooks" page: http://joellecasteel.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html
Please join Vala's world. http://joellecasteel.blogspot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/JoelleCasteelAuthor http://authorjoellecasteel.tumblr.com/ and on http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10571043-joelle
https://twitter.com/JoelleCasteel
