A warm Love Bytes welcome to author J.A Rock.

Welcome J.A 🙂

Hi! I’m J.A. Rock, and right now I’m touring the internet talking about my latest release Pain Slut—Book 2 in The Subs Club series. Thanks so much to the blogs that are hosting me on this tour, and be sure to leave comments on the tour posts for a chance to win your choice of two backlist ebooks and a $10 Amazon gift card.

“Hardcore” BDSM

I’ll readily admit I’m no Fifty Shades of Grey fan—for many of the same reasons that others are not Fifty Shades fans. But one of the FSoG criticisms I’ve heard a lot from fellow kinksters is that the BDSM in the story is too light to be “real” BDSM.

I see that a lot in reviews of BDSM books in general—people trying to assess how “heavy” the BDSM element is based on what the characters do. But I’m not sure I agree that the hardcoreness of kink can be based on the activities. It has to be based on the characters. For someone like Fifty Shades’s Ana, who is not naturally kinky or submissive, and has been manipulated into a kinky relationship—no, obviously she’s not going to jump right into branding or tit torture.

The reason the BDSM in FSoG isn’t “real” BDSM is that it’s not fully consensual. Not because the things Ana does aren’t painful or elaborate enough for her to make the kink big leagues. If a belt spanking sends someone to the absolute limit of what they can tolerate mentally and physically, then it’s hardcore for them. Other people can’t get to that point unless they’re in a 24/7 D/s relationship. In fiction, if an author can make you believe a character for whom orgasm denial is the ultimate humiliation, then it doesn’t necessarily matter where the average player would place orgasm denial on the Big Scale O’ Humiliations. For that character, the activity is hardcore.

Sure, there are activities in the BDSM world that are typically reserved for players with higher pain thresholds and more experience. I would call edge play scenes involving knives, fire, and breath control more hardcore than, say, a few slaps on the butt and some fuzzy handcuffs. But I also know that kinky people sometimes have a tendency to be competitive in terms of what we’re into and what we can handle. And while it can be fun to brag about our bruises or how many cane strokes we can take without breaking, it might be cool to frame kink in different terms, so that we don’t trivialize the experiences of players who aren’t into fisting or fire play.

Is the kink in Pain Slut hardcore? It depends who’s reading. Miles engages in activities that have more safety concerns, more potential to do permanent damage than, say, what Dave does in The Subs Club. But three strokes of a cane have nearly the same psychological effect on Dave that two hours of bloodplay and burning would have on Miles. Miles and Dave are both “hardcore” enough to want to be pushed to their limits—they just have very different limits. For Miles, the bloodplay and medical torture are things he’s very comfortable with. It’s the emotional component that’s hard for him—this is the first time he’s doing these things with someone he has very deep feelings for. So for him, the real challenge is forging that connection.

I don’t necessarily view “heavy” or “hardcore” BDSM as a matter of what people are into, but rather, how willing they are to challenge themselves. Fuzzy handcuffs are “real” BDSM. So is consensual scrotal electroshock. So is the simple act of trusting a partner to take care of you. It’s all about perspective.

About Pain Slut

Honestly, I’m ready to take a step back from the Subs Club. Making the kink world a safer place for subs is the sort of bandwagon I’d have boarded as an idealist in my early twenties, but now I’m a pragmatist in my late twenties. I prefer to focus on adopting and raising a child.

But unexpected factors inevitably derail my plans. Like Drix Seger—attractive and the first genuine sadist I’ve encountered. If I were not in the process of renouncing my masochistic ways and becoming the normal, responsible potential father the adoption agency wants to see, Drix and I might do well together. But he has a foolish name and belongs to a cult of vampyres, and I am quitting kink. So why does Drix’s infatuation with blood and biting make me so hot I can’t think straight? And why, when he looks at me, does he seem to see something beyond a basket case with a stick up my ass?

Can I start a new phase in my life without leaving part of myself behind? Please send help.

—Miles

Buy Links:

Riptide Publishing

Amazon

About the Subs Club series

After the death of their friend Hal at the hands of an irresponsible dom, submissive friends Dave, Kamen, Miles, and Gould band together to form the Subs Club—an organization seeking to expose dangerous local doms. The club slowly evolves as romances blossom, loyalties are tested, and tensions mount in a community already struggling for unity in the wake of Hal’s death.

From domestic discipline to knife play to fashion paraphilia, and from family drama to new jobs to first loves, the members of the Subs Club explore life’s kinks inside and outside of the bedroom as they attempt to let go of the past and move forward.

J.A. Rock is the author of queer romance and suspense novels, including BY HIS RULES, TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME, and, with Lisa Henry, THE GOOD BOY and WHEN ALL THE WORLD SLEEPS. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama and a BA in theater from Case Western Reserve University. J.A. also writes queer fiction and essays under the name Jill Smith. Raised in Ohio and West Virginia, she now lives in Chicago with her dog, Professor Anne Studebaker.

Website: www.jarockauthor.com

Blog: http://jarockauthor.blogspot.com

Twitter: @jarockauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ja.rock.39

Leave a comment for a chance to win your choice of two backlist titles from J.A. Rock and a $10 Amazon gift card. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on February 6, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. Entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!