“… the submissive is portrayed as a person who has to be convinced by the more dominant partner of what they need like a child who needs a parent to explain why it’s important to brush their teeth. I found her entire review stunningly beautiful, but I’ve placed the (paraphrased) comment which struck me hardest here: Novak, of the review site Seduce Me With Words, said something in her review of Grif’s Toy that so matches my feelings they could’ve been my own words. Of most significance is my self-identification as a submissive. My challenge in finding those books has grown as, over time, who I am has changed. The hope that I’ll meet characters I can relate to, hope that I’ll ‘see’ places I might long to visit, and hope that I’ll experience stories that will stay with me long after those dreaded The End words are read.

When I pick up a book, I’m filled with hope. And, now they’re the vehicle I use to tell my own naughty stories. Later, as an adult, they offered a level of entertainment, with their gay content, no television show or trip to the movie theatre could even come close to matching. In my teen years they allowed me to escape a strictly religious home life and venture into worlds where being gay wasn’t an unequivocal sentence to a fiery place of damnation. Throughout my life books have offered me a safe place. Books are my passion, they’re my entertainment, my escape, and they’re my hobby. *smiles* I don’t’ know if it applies to all authors, but the often repeated I’m a reader first, and an author second definitely rings true for me. I’m going to veer off for a bit, but I promise to return to the topic. Additionally, there’s no implication of weakness – which is another important point. Indeed, nothing that I can see within the definition implies something being done to me (without my consent) or being taken from me (without my consent). As a submissive, I believe that act of giving is a gift, and it’s something I take enormous pride in.

The most important word in that definition, as it applies to this article, is act. An act of submitting to the authority or control of another

Wes' Denial by Joseph Lance Tonlet