Must try harder

If it was a school project I'd be in trouble. Progress is so poor I reckon there'd be a 'see me after school' scribbled in red at the bottom of my work (and perhaps more red on my bottom too).

But the truth is I've not had much time over the last few weeks to do much of my ongoing novel. Significant Other is always at work and the kids have all sorts of time-consuming and important things happening in their lives.

But Project Begsi is there in my mind when I'm coming and going doing other things. Or at least a sense that I'm letting the project down - I must give myself a good talking to.

What I need is to set a me-day aside and really get back into it - to really get immersed in period, story and, hopefully, character. For 'A Week in the Country' it worked well to read as many Victorian novels as I could lay may hands on - both vanilla and not - and to go looking for lots and lots of period erotica. 

I've found it a bit harder to do with the the 1940s. I love the look that found its epitome in the work of Gil Elvgren. His pin-up girls are naughty and nice all at the same time. Or they're unable to not be naughty, however hard they try.

For me, they're the fabulous Forties to a tee. Or is it the fab 1950s? Don't know, but it's fabulous whatever it is.

I can watch period movies too. Vivien Leigh, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth and the rest. There's plenty of mainstream fiction to read too. But where I can I find the erotica literature of the time? I know there was a war on, but surely somebody was writing naughty novels?

PS Nothing overtly spanko in Elvgren. But when you put his name into Google Image and see rows and rows of his pin-ups there are lots and lots of archly out-thrust bottoms that look to me to be asking for a firm smack.

Spankos: Born, or made?

I'd definitely say born. Making up little doll dramas that involved 'crime' and punishment is one of my earliest memories. In my bedroom super-strict Barbie gave someone a spanking on most nights of the week.

And I can think of no reason why that should have been the case. Kids weren't spanked in our house, although 1970s Britain was a place were corporal punishment was talked about a lot and happened fairly often too.

It's a question that's debated at my house time and again. I don't want to screw up the outcome of the poll on the right, but it's one reason why I put it there. Please take a moment to cast your vote.

When it comes to the nature/nurture debate I'm definitely in the nature camp. I'm pretty certain that I was born with a gene that means that I find CP thrilling.The majority don't have it and can't understand.
Some early occurrence - now forgotten - my have switched that gene on, but if I hadn't been born with it I'd never have become a spanko. I think some people have it, but it's dormant - waiting to be triggered into life.

Significant Other is in the other camp. SO thinks it's all about influences - about environment. The logic of SO's way of thinking is that I've made myself a spanko by first reading spanking mags and novels and, later, by venturing into the online Spankoland.

SO tolerates, but doesn't approve. The implication is that if I made an effort to close my mind to spanko thoughts I'd be transformed magically into a Vanilla.

As I think you know that's not going to happen any time soon... What set me off on this train of thought this morning was Bonnie's post introducing another batch of new spanko blogs. She's got a great way with words, saying: "Someone has definitely been watering in the domestic discipline part of the garden because new DD blogs are popping up all over."

What's going on. SO's environmental theory would suggest that more spankos are being made because there's more spanking-material out their to 'corrupt' them - lots opf watering going on.
I'd say it's that many more people carry the spanko gene than anyone guessed pre-internet. And thanks to the internet they're happier with expressing that fact than ever before.

Christmas shopping and spanko radar

I think Underling hit on something recently commenting on my ramblings on the subject of the poet John Betjeman. You can read it here somewhere, but the jist was that I like to think I can detect a spanko spirit in the work of jolly old Sir J.

But am I fooling myself? Underling said: "I suspect our spanko radar is probably a little overdeveloped, and the sentiments we detect are often our own." Am I a bit too ready spotting spanko references and sentiments where all is innocent? Possibly. 

But possibly not. I've been out shopping today and found myself in the cookware section of a department store. While I was busy looking for the perfect potato pan (to par boil tyhose essential Christmas Day roast spuds) I couldn't help notice the attractive thirtysomething guy who seemed to be spending way too long selecting just the right wooden spoon from the wide selection of spoons, spatulas and other spanking implements on display...

A Christmas disappointment

What's really on her mind...?

Bum! Guess who gets left off Santa's Christmas list again this year? I might be getting gifts (see left for paste-on smile), but I won't get what I want.

...something like this, perhaps.

All the spanko stuff in this house happens during the day when the kids are out. Finding 'windows of opportunity' can be tricky. But it was looking quite promising. Significant Other's last shift before the holidays is today and the schools are still in business until next Thursday - four more play days before Xmas.

So, there's been a bit of verbal banter about naughtiness, niceness and what has to happen to the ever-naughty. Then oldest child arrived home last night to say that her course tutor had decided that yesterday should be their de facto last day! I know that Christmas is about family, but really...

Rights for vanillas?

Bad move, I’ve upset Significant Other. The way things work is that over time we’ve reached an understanding that allows me the space to enjoy reading, writing and thinking things spanko as long as the reading and writing is kept  out of SO’s consciousness.

I also get my ration of CP-related activities too, which over time SO has got quite into. I say ration, because SO decides when and where and believes that too much of a good thing is bad for me. Most of the time the arrangement works.

Undervalued?

But this morning I made the mistake of using the v-word, which SO hates. Being called vanilla is derogatory, says SO.  It amounts to saying that non-spankos are boring, apparently. And, we spankos think we’re ‘so’ special and look down on non-spankos in a way that can amount to arrogance.

That’s me told. At the time I scoffed; surely us spankos are an oppressed minority, laughed at and misunderstood by a righteous vanilla moral majority? But as the day has gone on I’m beginning to think SO may have a point.

Do I end up taking it all too seriously? Actually, me writing this post could probably be used as evidence for the prosecution. I'd better pop off and find something else to do - maybe I see if I can work a poor downtrodden and undervalued vanilla character into Begsi*.

*Current working title of the 1940s novel - Beryl Gets Stuck In (or Begsi for short).

Those were the days...

Or were they? It's interesting how long it takes for a decade to begin to go all hazy with nostalgia.  The 1990s are in sharp detail - we were there, weren't we, so we know. But the 1890s are all fuzzy and soft focus and just right for all sorts of imaginings.
At the moment I'd say that the 1950s were going through the process. They are certainly being re-invented and especially by spankos, who see the decade as a sort of domestic discipline nirvana. And why not?
The fashions turn up in shoots and there are any number of stories featuring no-nonsense dads, scarily strict mothers and 18-plus daughters (and sometimes sons) who accept corporal punishment when they do wrong.
And it sort of works for me as a child of the 1970s. Growing up in the 70s corporal punishment was part of our lives, but a rarity (where I lived anyway). But adults were more than happy to tell us about how we had it good and how the tough the rules - and punishments - were when they were kids.
As a spanko-in-the-making it gave me a thrill - it was scary and exciting all at the same time. I'd love to know your favourite decade for spanko fantasy - please vote in the poll over on the right of this page.

Our present difficulties

How subtle should a Christmas present hint be? From time to time we've talked about the sort of hairbrush I need. And I mean NEED.

Classic, made of wood, not too big, not too small. You know the thing otherwise you wouldn't be here.
But my mostly-vanilla Significant Other doesn't seem to get the message. A tacky plastic supermarket hairbrush may do the job but it spoils the moment if you're obsessed with period detail.
Yes, I could buy my own I know. But that would miss the point - it's the thought that counts, isn't it? Just the right brush all wrapped up in Christmas paper with a little bow on it would be the best present ever.
Another hint will have to be pinged in SO's direction and I think I've just found the perfect thing. In all the Love our Lurkers excitement I missed Dioneo's great post 25 Reasons Why Spankos are So Awesome over at Ecco Spanko. It's wry, witty and made me laugh.
As a sometime kayaker I like number 13, 'If one of us is up a creek, there's probably a paddle around.' From experience I'd recommend taking a spare paddle just in case, but I digress. Dioneo's reason  number 2 is the one I'm hoping SO will pick up on: 'We're the reason antique shops sell hairbrushes.'