Interview and GIVEAWAY: Rachel Haimowitz
on April 18, 2012 at 8:00 am
Thank you for joining us on the Power Play: Resistance virtual release tour! *throws penis-shaped confetti borrowed from Anne Tenino* No party is complete without favors, so we’ll be giving away winner’s choice of a backlist book from Cat or Rachel to one lucky commenter from this blog at the end of the tour. We’ll also be giving away a classic Nook pre-loaded with six of our titles to one lucky commenter drawn from all the tour stops, so follow along and party with us at each–you can earn an entry at every stop!
Hi folks! I’m Rachel Haimowitz, co-author of the hot new m/m total-power-exchange kinkapalooza, Power Play: Resistance. Thanks for having me here to grill me… er, answer a few questions about living and writing kink. 
Q: How old were you when you first realized you had kinky tendencies? Was there a particular experience (or set of experiences) that brought it into focus for you?
A: I was actually just six when I realized I was a sadist, but I only know that looking back on it, because at the time I was far too young to understand. When I was a kid we had this big above-ground pool, and my sister (two years older than me) and I were total water-babies. We practically lived in the pool all summer, and we’d play make-believe, and one of our favorite versions was pretending to be mermaids. My sister, who has since gone on to be a nurse practitioner, was always the mermaid who would steer troubled ships around eddies or rocks or whatever and get them off to safety. Whereas, when it was my turn to pick how things went, those ships always crashed, and I was the mermaid who got to rescue the handsome and painfully injured prince. Some days I’d even get to take him home with me and nurse him back to health, but generally I was far more interested in his suffering than in his healing.
Of course at six I didn’t really realize what any of that meant, and it took a good long while to realize I wasn’t alone and that there wasn’t anything wrong with me. I didn’t really even begin to associate sadism with sex until college, but whoo boy was that ever flipping the proverbial switch. Life got pretty delicious after that 
Q: How have your personal experiences with BDSM influenced how you write kink?
A: We all draw on our own personal wells of knowledge and experience when we write, so inevitably, there’s a lot of bits of me—and a lot of bits of the various subs I’ve played with and Doms I’ve learned from—in everything I write. That doesn’t mean every character Dom is like me or that every character sub is like one I’ve known, but a lot of little quirks and tendencies and likes and dislikes and understandings make it onto the page. In particular the psychology that drives people to engage in these kinds of relationships—which of course isn’t even remotely the same for everyone but is endlessly fascinating to me to explore.
And, curiously enough, sometimes I find the reverse happens: writing kink influences how I engage in BDSM. Sometimes the page is a safe place to explore things you might otherwise not have done in real life, or sometimes the process of working through something with a character causes a lightbulb moment for you and something in real life suddenly becomes clear.
Q: Your stories delve deeply into the psychology behind Dominance and submission. So, do you believe people are born kinky?
A: Absolutely, yes. I mean, I certainly think there can be environmental factors, but at the very least I think we’re born with tendencies toward Dominance or submission or both, and toward sadism or masochism or both. But my own experiences as a six-year-old sadist-in-the-making, and the experiences many Doms, subs, sadists, masochists, and switches have shared with me pretty much all come down to the same thing: they’ve always been that way to one degree or another.
Q: Do you think BDSM serves a therapeutic purpose for some people?
A: Absolutely. Kinksters—at least, those engaged in a healthy relationship with their kink—are some of the best-adjusted, happiest people I know. They’re not repressing their urges or denying their needs or telling themselves it’s wrong to want what they want or be who they are. Plus a healthy sex life is certainly good for what ails you. And then there’s also the fact that, at least in all the relationships I’ve been in, the intimacy in a D/s relationship is simply staggering. A sub has no secrets from his Dom. If something’s bothering him or worrying him, his Dom will help him face it and work through it. And sometimes being in a situation where you’re “forced” to talk through issues is the only way you actually can talk through issues, and so engaging in, for example, an interrogation scene might be the only way you find you’re able to face things that are difficult for whatever reason. And you feel so much better after having faced them—stronger and braver and more balanced. So, yes, very therapeutic in the right circumstances.
Q: What book of yours would you recommend for someone who hasn’t read a lot of kinky fiction? Which would appeal to BDSM lifestylers?
A: I suppose that depends what appeals to each individual reader. But for someone who maybe doesn’t “understand” BDSM or why people might engage in power exchange or pain play, Master Class is probably the best place to start. It’s very intense and starts off with a pretty rough scene, but it’s relatively short, very much a romance, and delves quite deeply and specifically into what exactly drives a man to submit and seek pain. It also deals with someone who pursues pain-play for some really unhealthy reasons, and who, by the end—and at the hands of an extremely patient and insightful Dom—comes to delight in playing safely and sanely for the joy of it, rather than seeking to punish himself.
I think lifestylers would enjoy Master Class too. If they’re looking for little erotic nuggets, I’d suggest checking out Sublime: Collected Shorts, which is ten vignettes exploring ten different kinks. And if they’re looking for a much more intense, in-depth exploration of the edges of consent and motivation with a Dom and sub who both make their share of mistakes (plus a whole lotta really insanely hot—but very sadistic—dungeon and bedroom play) , I’d recommend the Power Play series (Power Play: Resistance and Power Play: Awakening)—two full novels full of a wide variety of play in a total power exchange setting that blossoms first into understanding (of both self and other) and then into love.
Q: What advice would you give to writers curious about exploring BDSM through fiction, either for publication or their own personal entertainment?
A: If you’re writing just for yourself, I’d say to go hog-wild and explore. There’s so much you can do on a page that you maybe can’t or simply aren’t ready to do in the bedroom. And, of course, no partner required!
If you’re aiming for publication, do your homework. There are already far too many people out there writing BDSM that isn’t RACK or SSC or even remotely plausible. Don’t add to the pile. Be respectful of the subject matter, the emotions and motivations of your characters, and the limitations of the human body. And if you’re writing anything more than a few thousand words of stroke-fiction, make sure that every sex scene and play session serves a very specific and mission-critical function; if it doesn’t actively advance plot or character, it doesn’t belong in your story, no matter how hot it is. Because otherwise it just ends up being all about the physical—insert-tab-a-into-slot-b repetition—and regular BDSM readers will have lost their patience for that long ago.
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Blurb:
Give me six months, and I’ll give you the world.
Brandon McKinney has scraped and sacrificed for what little in life he’s ever had. Though it’s been fifteen years since he escaped his father’s abuse, the damage remains. Trust seems as far out of reach as his dream of becoming an architect, and though he’s come to accept being gay, he can’t deny the shame and confusion he feels at other urges—the deeply-repressed desire to submit.
Jonathan Watkins is a self-made Silicon Valley billionaire whose ex-wife took half his money and even more of his faith. Comfortable as a Dominant but wary of being hurt again, he resorts to anonymous pickups and occasional six-month contracts with subs seeking only a master, not a lover.
When a sizzling back-alley encounter cues Jonathan in to Brandon’s deep-seated submissive side, he makes the man an offer: Give me six months of your life, and I’ll open your eyes to a whole new world. Brandon doesn’t care about that; all he wants is the three million dollars Jonathan’s offering so he can buy the construction company he works for. But he soon learns that six months on his knees is no easy feat, and shame and pride may keep him from all he ever wanted—and all he never dreamed he had any right to have.
You can read an excerpt and order Power Play: Resistance here.
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About the authors:
Rachel Haimowitz is an M/M erotic romance author, a freelance writer and editor, and the Managing Editor of Riptide Publishing. She’s also a sadist with a pesky conscience, shamelessly silly, and quite proudly pervish. Fortunately, all those things make writing a lot more fun for her . . . if not so much for her characters.
When she’s not writing about hot guys getting it on (or just plain getting it; her characters rarely escape a story unscathed), she loves to read, hike, camp, sing, perform in community theater, and glue captions to cats. She also has a particular fondness for her very needy dog, her even needier cat, and shouting at kids to get off her lawn.
You can find Rachel at her website, Tweeting as RachelHaimowitz, chatting in the Goodreads forums, and blogging at Fantasy Unbound. She loves to hear from folks, so feel free to drop her a line anytime at metarachel (at) gmail (dot) com.
EPIC Award–winning author Cat Grant lives by the sea in beautiful Monterey, California, with one persnickety feline and entirely too many books and DVDs. When she’s not writing, she sings along (badly!) to whatever’s on her iPod shuffle, watches lots of movies, and fantasizes about kinky sex with Michael Fassbender.
Where to find Cat:
Website: http://www.catgrant.com
Blog: http://catgrant.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cat.grant
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/CatGrant2009
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1912055.Cat_Grant
I’m familiar with SSC (Safe, Sane, and Consentual), but what does RACK stand for, Rachel? (Maybe I’ve heard it and just don’t recognize it.)
RACK = risk-aware consensual kink. Many people prefer that to SSC because it encompasses a wider variety of play styles and choices. Especially since not everything we do is always going to be *entirely* safe (but really, what in life is?), but as long as all involved parties are consenting adults with an awareness of the risks involved, that’s okay.
ummmmmm. I’ve never seen penis shaped confetti. May need to look into this concept.
You are a new to me author Rachel and I read your blurb/excerpt. VERY VERY VERY good. Had to buy this book today but would love to win any of your other ones too.
I love reading BDSM books that don’t give me the Cinderalla slant on lifestlye and play scenes so was glad to see your take on your writing style and general philosophy. Interview post makes me want to read more from you and/or your co-authors. Thanks for doing the interview.
Oh, and did I say I would love to win any of your other books because I would.
Hello Rita!
This is fantastic to hear, and I hope you enjoy Power Play
I do think the Cinderella slant has its place–sometimes it’s just a lovely fantasy to go read about a perfect Dom and sub who have perfect play scenes where the Dom never misreads anything and the sub never says “Eh, I have a headache tonight” and everyone’s a mind-reader and every scene is so hot it sets your kindle on fire. But I very much agree that the more /human/ side of BDSM–where people do misjudge or misread or don’t always feel like playing or things don’t go as planned is pretty underrepresented in fiction. It’s interesting to see the responses to Power Play, because we sort of did break a cardinal rule: we had not just the sub but also the Dom make some pretty huge mistakes.
And as for the all-important penis-shaped confetti?
Try here: bachelorette.com/sexparcon.html
but as long as all involved parties are consenting adults with an awareness of the risks involved, that’s okay.
This is exactly how I feel in regards to anyone and everyone’s personal/sexual lives. May not float my boat but who am I to tell someone else it’s wrong? Hell, I’m almost 35 and still don’t know everything that turns me on, LOL!
Wonderful interview Rachel. Always a pleasure to hear you talk kink
Same here! I am on occasion still quite surprised by new things in fiction or life that turn my crank. Thank you for stopping by, Kassandra!
Hi, Rachel:
Thank you so much for everything that you said here. It so refreshing to hear from an author is in the scene and has a healthy understanding of it. Far too many writers do not do any research into the lifestyle and their books end up aggravating me to the point that I wish I still bought paperbacks and I could fling it across the room! That isn’t to say that a really good book about BDSM or a book that has BDSM in it can’t be written by a vanilla author. As long as they’ve done their research from going out to a club or play party or more importantly, they spoken to kinksters personally, their books can be just as good as the kinky authors.
I am very new to the scene and even newer with being out in the scene, I found my way there through, you guessed it, books! I started indetifying the female subs in Cherise Sinclair’s Shadowloands series. Then I joined the BDSM group on Goodreads and started talking with the folks there who were amazing and welcoming. Many are in the scene and many are exploring so there is always a lot of open and honest talk about their experiences. I finally asked the group about how one finds the scene. The moderator in that group, BookAddict (not sure if this is how she writes it) or BA as we call her is amazing! She led me to Fetlife as the best resource for finding local groups and the rest was history in the making! It was about 3 months between joing FL and doing something in the scene. Since taking my first class in February, I’ve been to so many classes and presentaitons that I’d have to sit down and look in my calendar to get an accurate counr! I’ve also been to NYC’s oldest public dungeon numerous times; a priavet party called the House of Pain which was supposed to be a hardcore play party but was really an SM party – that’s a Stand and Model type party.
This weekend is going to be big: I’m going to a presentation/demo tomorrow night at Paddles on mind fucks and fear play and I volunteered to be one of the demo-bottoms (for those who don’t know,demo-bottoming is what it sounds like – I’m the bottom or sub to the presenter. I’ve taken a few classes with this presenter and have a high school-type crush on him, but that’s a whole other story.
Anyway, I’ve gone on and on, but you inspired me to share my experiences as a newbie. I also hope I win the giveaway!
MJB
msmjb65 AT gmail DOT com
Wow, it sounds like you’re diving right in–good for you!
I’m over at the BDSM group on Goodreads as well (though I’m mostly a lurker these days), and know BookAddict–a lovely person indeed. I’m on Fetlife too, and since I live in Jersey I keep eyeballing Paddles but somehow have never made it there yet. Do let me know how that goes! 
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your experiences!
Thanks for stopping by, everyone!
And without further ado, the winner is . . . Adara!
Adara, we’ll be contacting you via email about claiming your prize!
Big thanks to Kinky Book Reviews for hosting us!