Bob Wingate's Blog

Interview with Eric Tide

The “interview” that follows derives from a difference of opinion between Eric and me over the posting of the two-part Chapter 6 of Joshua. Eric’s Part 1, which he sent me first, was what subsequently became Part 2: the story of Dylan’s fascination over a picture of a guy in stocks, the making of the stocks by Logan and their first use by the two brothers. There was no mention in Part 1 of Joshua at all. I was bewildered. It was as if an unpublished chapter from David Copperfield had suddenly popped up in the middle of Great Expectations.

 

When I said this to Eric he told me to wait for Part 2, and of course when Part 2 arrived a few days later, everything became clear. But I was unhappy about posting the chapter in Eric’s order, and suggested that he either write a short intro to his preferred Part 1 (“Before I continue my story of Joshua…”) or simply juxtapose the two parts, in which case no explanation would be needed. Eric eventually did accept my suggestion, if reluctantly. He preferred to place the sections in their original chronological order.

 

“Readers should be able to figure out the connections without insulting their intelligence,” he wrote.

 

I replied that it had nothing to do with insulting anyone’s intelligence; that while I loved both parts, my initial reaction to the confusing placement of the two parts—misplacement, I felt—especially without prior warning—was one of annoyance, a feeling of being played with by the writer, which risked me losing sympathy with him. I didn’t care how he’d place future “flashbacks”, as long as people were prepared for them to happen.

 

This mollified Eric, who told me he intended to use a lot of flashbacks during the series.

 

I’ll let Eric take up the subject from here:

 

Some of the flashbacks have a direct connection to my Joshua experiences, as should be clear in this first one. But others will seem less direct. I still want to include them, though, because I want to continue bringing in my time with Logan, Dylan, and [their cousin] Graham without the slowly developing, chronological saga I had been writing.

A First Experience

As I said some months back, you write, I post.

 

The writer who just sent me this piece was decidedly under legal age when the events he describes took place. As was always my policy with Bound & Gagged, while I would never publish any account by an older person telling me of something he had done as an adult with or to someone under 18, even if that young person was a "willing" participant—since it is never possible to tell if children or adolescents really know their own minds, convinced as they may be that they do—I have never hesitated to publish the accounts of people telling me about how they were molested (willingly, or not) when they were very young by adults who should have known better. They have a right to tell their stories, too.

 

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE

I was 15, he was much older, probably in his 40s. A gentleman who lived up the street. He discovered me doing self bondage in some nearby woods and he offered me a chance to experience the real thing.