"Crammed at the Christmas Craft Fair"
Or how to turn a holiday shopping trip into a dirty story ...
This is another entry in my ongoing “My Filthy Hobby” series, in which I offer some thoughts on the stories I’ve published. This week, a look at “Crammed at the Christmas Craft Fair”, a little palette cleanser I wrote between projects after an inspirational holiday shopping trip.
Also - don’t forget to cast your vote in the Golden Pigtail finals! I’ve got two stories in the running, plus the Rookie award this year. Voting ends February 29, so act now! You can find my nominated stories here.
I like a good Christmas fair. When I was a kid, we lived in West Germany (this was in the early ‘80s, when you got two Germanys for the price of a couple of world wars), and I remember the various Kriskindlmarkts (not just the big one in Nuremberg, but all of the local ones, too) as magical places, full of lights and colors and smells and sounds that filled me with the wonder of the season. The city I live in now has an outdoor Christmas market that attempts to capture some of that Kriskindlmarkt vibe, and it does a pretty good job: their Lebkuchen can be a little dry, but their Currywurst is top notch.
We also have a few Christmas fairs that are more on the artistic side, with lots of handmade arts and crafts for sale. These have a different vibe than the classic fairs, but I enjoy them as well. Some are set in craft breweries and coffee roasters, but my favorites are in old converted industrial buildings that have been divided up into artists’ studios and galleries. You can browse the art, talk with the artist, and come away with some unique gifts.
It was a trip to several of these Christmas craft fairs jammed into one winter afternoon that inspired this particular story. In fact, I can pinpoint it to the studio of a fiber artist, the walls covered with colorful spools of yarn and cozy knitted goods. There was something about the sensuous feel of warm, soft wool on my hands that made me think, “This would be a great setting for a gangbang!” As you can see, gentle reader, my mind works a little differently than most …
At another fair, there was a whimsical triptych portraying the nursery rhyme’s butcher, baker, and candlestick maker, and that pinged the part of my brain that was churning out scenarios for a gangbang in a knitting studio — surely these would the male participants. I try to engage all of the senses in my stories, and food is often a big part of them, so the butcher and baker had some lovely treats to bring. And a timely bit of research into wax play (oh my poor browser history …) gave my candlestick maker a special role to play. This article put me on the right path (in and out of the writer’s chair …), and I highly recommend giving it a read; and don’t forget to stock up on locally sourced soy candles the next time you’re at the craft fair!
One of the fairs we visited that day, in what used to be a casket maker’s factory, there was a gallery with beautifully dark and evocative paintings that evoked the pre-Raphaelite movement, one of my favorite schools of art. My brain was already buzzing at that point, so I immediately imagined some pre-Raphaelite BDSM portraits. That was how Maria and her Muse stepped onto the stage — I honestly wasn’t expecting them to join the party, but I’m very glad they did.
The story was more or less fully formed in my head by the time we got home, and I locked myself in the office for about nine (non-consecutive) hours to crank it out. It was fun to write, and I think you’ll find it fun to read, too!
It was also written as something of an exercise in procrastination. I had been working on “The Contours of Desire” for about a month, and kept getting stuck. I was having another case of the resistant main character (neither Jessie nor Petra would behave), and felt frustrated at all the dead ends and tangled scenes that I was stumbling around in. “Crammed at the Christmas Craft Fair” was just the kind of palette cleanser I needed: pretty straightforward, mostly action, light tone, and plenty of joy for everyone (even, I think, the Muse). This story blew up some sort of block, because I was able to buckle down and pull “Contours” into shape after I got it out of my system.
I like the characters in this story, and I have plans to revisit them. The story alludes to an upcoming Valentine’s Day market; alas, I didn’t get there this year — with an early Easter, Mardi Gras interrupted my plans, and I wanted to get “Beneath the Mask” out the door in time for Carnival. But I have plans for two different Valentine’s stories featuring Vickie and Jennie. And there’s a reference to a legendary Real Beard Santa Christmas train that Jennie pulls — I think it works as a little hint of how kinky Jennie is, much to her sister Vickie’s surprise, but it’s also too good to leave as background material. Expect some fun with a bevy of jolly old elves this coming Christmas as we explore more of Jennie’s holiday cheer!
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