Who is Caitlin?
Simply put, she’s the narrator from my story “Strange Relationship“. More specifically, she’s ‘in her forties’ (that’s all she’ll say), a widower for several years now, and works backstage at a theatre. She has a boyfriend of sorts – Richard, who is a professor and lecturer of Drama at the local university. He’s a good ten years older than her and seems far more interested in his work than he does Caitlin.
Caitlin
(When I found these images – on VoyeurWeb, which you can get to from my blogroll – I was amazed at how much this lady looks like I imagined Caitlin would, so I adopted her as my body template. If using this picture offends anyone in any way and they would like me to get to take it down, please get in touch. It’s just that Caitlin has become a bit of a heroine for me and I wanted other people to see her the way I did! On the other hand, if anyone wants to volunteer to submit pictures to use as Caitlin then please get in touch… Oh well, I guess I can dream!)
Caitlin
Caitlin’s husband trained as an architect but discovered he wanted to concentrate on his hobby – cooking – and so opened a restaurant, called “Kyz Kuu” (which I’d forgotten about when I named this blog!). Ownership of the restaurant now resides with Caitlin, but she has little to do with the running of it. She leaves that to a manager who has worked at the restaurant for some time.
All this sort of stuff is a good example of the lengths I go to to produce consistent characters and a back story with some depth. I tend to sketch all this out before I start in order to keep my facts straight, then add facts that occur to me as I go along.
Synopsis 1
This contains the first potted biography of Caitlin, the first short synopsis, and the synopsis that went away to the publisher’s. At this time, it’s pretty much just a battle of wills between Caitlin and her son-in-law Ben, as she struggles to cast off her mental repression and he wants her to express the sexual desires he is sure she possesses.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/strange-relationship-synopsis-1/
Prologue and Chapter 1 (Version 1)
In this entry, we gain an insight into Caitlin’s background, and the incident that leads to them getting together.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/strange-relationship-prologue-and-chapter-1-version-1/
Prologue and Chapter 1 (Version 2)
This is the second version of the same part. I’ve taken out the actual prologue because that’s the same, word for word. In this version, which is much longer than Version 1, the fantasy masturbation scene where she thinks about having sex with Ben in the kitchen is longer and nastier. There’s the confrontation scene, where Ben admits that he saw Caitlin masturbating and she admits that she’s missing sex. We see Caitlin modelling her lingerie, shyly, for him and him taking her shopping for new gear. They talk about what she would like to do and she admits she wants to have sex with a stranger, which Ben arranges.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/prologue-and-chapter-1-version-2/
Synopsis 2
After the first communication with the publisher, I decided I needed to expand the scope of the story if I was to accomplish everything the editor had suggested. It took me a while to think about because it had to be something that I felt comfortavle with. After much deliberation, I knocked together a second synopsis.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/strange-relationship-synopsis-2/
Chapter 1 (Version 3)
This is the third version of the first chapter and signifies a massive change in the direction of the story. In previous version Caitlin was quite passive and had to be actively encouraged to reveal anything about herself, or indulge in anything risque. With this version, she starts to become more active, even if at times she’s a little shy or unsure about what she’s being talked into. To achieve this, I’ve given her a boyfriend – Richard – who is unattentive, distracted and poor in bed. She’s now actively frustrated and possibly even open to an advance, although nothing like she eventually receives!
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/strange-relationship-chapter-1-version-3/
Chapter 2 (Version 3)
Without meaning to, Caitlin has accepted a date from the gorgeous stranger that she seems on the tram every morning. Somewhat nervously, she meets him in a trendy wine bar in the city centre. Her nerves lead to her having a drink or two to calm down, but this degenerates into a drunken game of forfeits which, by the end, see them having sex in the toilets.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/strange-relationship-chapter-2-version-3/
Chapter 3 (version 3)
Patience, dear reader; there are only a couple more versions of the early chapters! In this early version of the third chapter, we finally meet the inattentive boyfriend Richard and discover that the beatiful stranger who Caitlin so recently had sex with is her boyfriend’s son.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/strange-relationship-chapter-3-version-3/
Chapter 4 (Version 3)
Having been forced to accept Ben’s invitation for lunch, he gets in touch by email and instant messenger. Again Caitlin finds herself on the end of Ben’s kinky suggestions as she is introduced to the world of cybersex and text sex for the first time.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/strange-relationship-chapter-4-version-3/
Chapter 5 (Version 3)
Against her better judgement, Caitlin accepts another date with Ben and agrees to meet him for a drink in a city centre bar. However, when Ben stands her up she make a new friend and they have a very interesting evening (note that this chapter is only half-finished in this version – there’s a completed version coming shortly).
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/strange-relationship-chapter-5-version-3/
Chapter 6 (Version 3)
In this chapter, which is again only half-finished, Caitlin accepts an invitation to visit Jodie at her house and see her at work.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/strange-relationship-chapter-6-version-3/
Chapter 1 (Version VI)
Don’t ask me where the intervening versions are – I suspect they were only scripted in my head – and don’t ask me why I suddenly started using roman numerals. These are questions for the philosophers. So now we jump from version 3 to version VI and once again I go back to the start and elaborate on what has gone before, tease out story strands and build in more back story. This first chapter hasn’t changed a great deal from the last one but for the sake of completeness I have put it in here. Please bear with me, there is a whole host of brand new stuff coming!
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/strange-relationship-chapter-1-version-vi/
Chapter 2 (Version VI)
A slightly more polished version of the scene where Caitlin discovers that the gorgeous strangers who came all over her bum is practically her son-in-law.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/strange-relationship-chapter-2-version-vi/
Chapter 3 (Version VI)
see, I told you there was new stuff coming! The point of having this section here is to re-ignite Caitlin’s sexual imagination. Ben discovers that she has only slept with two men, and that neither were particularly adventurous. He correctly identifies that C wants, and is capable of, much more and that she will eventually be an apt and willing pupil. So when the conversation between Caitlin, Ben and his strange friend Christian turns distinctly blue, Caitlin can’t help but become excited despite her best intentions.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/strange-relationship-chapter-3-version-vi/
Chapter 5 (Version VI)
Don’t know why, but I never got round to finishing Chapter 4 – I mean, I only wrote a couple of paragraphs. So here is Chapter 5, which is a much longer version of Chapter 5 from Version 3. Caitlin and her new friend Jodie leave the bar where they met and head for what turns out to be lapdancing club. For a natural exhibitionist like Jodie, there’s only one course of action – whether Caitlin likes it or not. The performance gets one of the audience too excited to let the action end when the curtain goes down.
http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/strange-relationship-chapter-5-version-vi/
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Version X
Version X – the tenth version, if you prefer – is the final version. This represents the current state of the story and this is the one that I shall be working on now to finish. It’s quite well-developed already but it needs some proofing, spell- and sense-checking which I intend to do as I go along.
So, because there have been quite a few characters introduced in the last version and more to be introduced this time round, I’ll produce a cast list to help you out:
Version X cast list:http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/strange-relationship-cast-list/
There’s also a synopsis which is quite markedly different from those that have gone before …
Version X synopsis: http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/strange-relationship-version-x-synopsis/
And finally, the story proper. I think this is the first time the prologue has appeared since the very first incarnation and it too is markedly different. We get to meet the bitch queen Karen and see the roots of Caitlin’s anxieties laid bare. It’s also the only part of the book that isn’t narrated by Caitlin:
Version X prologue:http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/strange-relationship-version-x-prologue/
So after that comes the most repeated content so far, chapter 001. Now, we meet Karen againn, who didn’t really feature until this version of the story. She provides an antagonist to Caitlin’s heroine. Again, Karen prays on Caitlin’s weaknesses and insecurities and for the first time (I think) we see that it is Caitlin’s friends, who don’t think much of Richard, who really egg her on to have (as they put it) “a nice safe shag”.
Version X chapter 001:http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/strange-relationship-version-x-chapter-001-first-meeting/
And so, in the form of chapter 002 comes the first brand new content in this version – everything that has gone before has in some way appeared in the earlier versions. Now, Caitlin bumps into her mystery man for the first time in a different environment. In previous versions her early meetings with him were always tentative – she was not always a willing partner. Now, not entirely liberated or empowred, she at least feels a certain indignation because of Karen’s comments and is prepared to embrace the possibility that she might have some fun on the side. She doesn’t want to hurt Richard but at the same time she is desperate for some company. Additionally, she is annoyed by the constant references to being safe, sensible, boring and old.
Wehat she doesn’t bargain for is quite how far the fun will go. She ends up in the changing rooms and shower of the gorgeous strangerrrrr’s football team. She is labouring under the misapprehension that his name is Roger Thornhill – a reference to one of my favourite films North by Northwest. He does try to tell her his real name, but she interrupts him and calls him ‘Skipper’, which is what the boys in the football team call him (because he’s the captain, obviously). She keeps calling him that, setting her up for an even larger fall when she does eventually find out who he is.
So, she ends up with Ben and the football team’s physio, a young Asian medical student called Asok. Ben shows much more of a kinky side than he has in any of the material up to press. He’s clearly not shy or bashful; he is forceful and direct, not afraid of voocalising his desires; and he also displays what Caitlin refers to as a surprising amount of sexual ambivalence. She says this because twice he takes hold of Asok’s penis – once to guide it into Caitlin when she is bound in the shower, and once to hold it to ensure that he has collected all of Asok’s sperm on his fingers before he puts them into Caitlin’s mouth. I don’t know why he is so comfortable holding another man’s penis – maybe it’s a foretaste of something that is to come that I haven’t written yet.
When this chapter ends, Caitlin is alone, naked, dripping with cum and trapped without her clothes in the middle of a male changing room.
Version X chapter 002:http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/strange-relationship-version-x-chapter-002-changing-room/
Chapter 003 now takes place in the Red Dragon, rather than in some city centre bar. It’s important for a plot development point of view that Richard’s familiarity with the Red Dragon be established early on, given that we will be returning there later in the piece. We meet Christian for the first time in this version, learn how the two get together and see the root of Ben’s fascination with voyeurism.
Version X chapter 003: http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/11/23/strange-relationship-version-x-chapter-3-discovery/
Chapter 004 sees Ben almost literally take Caitlin out of her father’s arms and whisks her away to the red light district. There they meet a teenage prostitute who Ben has arranged for Caitlin to spend some time with, as a first girl/girl encounter. Later, after an unhappy parting from Ben, she is surprised in the kitchen by Richard. He takes her over the kitchen table and it is the first time she has tried anal sex with him; a night of firsts all round for her.
Version X chapter 004: http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/strange-relationship-version-x-chapter-004-in-the-car/
In Chapter 005 Ben tries to make amends with Caitlin by arranging to take Caitlin out for the night, but he stands her up. Whilst waiting she befriends a gorgeous young blonde who shows her how to have a good time without men; a lesson that their new acquaintance Becky is only too happy to underline.
Version X chapter 005: http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/strange-relationship-version-x-chapter-005-come-dancing/
Chapter 005a is a bonus chapter which was in the original draft of the novel, but was cut from the finished synopsis. I can’t remember why I cut it; maybe for pacing reasons, maybe it didn’t make sense, but when I realised it was 3/4 written I thought I’d finish it off and post it on here. Originally Caitlin was a passive observer, but these days she seems to be so willing to take a risk that it only seemed right that she would get involved. However, I added the last little twist at the end on the spur of the moment …
Version X chapter 005a: http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/strange-relationship-version-x-chapter-005a-caught-watching/
Chapter 006: at this point we’ve given up on the synopsis. I remember now why I culled so much stuff that had already been written – it was because I’d been given a word count for the book and in order to get the plot arc right in my head, some bits had to go. Well, I’m fairly sure that the internet is big enough for a slightly expanded word count, so I’m re-inserting all the bits that I took out. Some of these bits are much earlier and therefore need some re-writing to make them fit (I guess at this point I’m apologising in advance for any logical or chronological non sequiturs).
Anyway, Chapter 6 is a remix of what would have been the second chapter, a long time ago. In it Ben calls Caitlin and offers to buy her lunch by some way of apology for standing her up. Of course, he has ulterior motives and hers aren’t far behind his; so when the tequila comes out there’s no way it’s all going to end well!
Version X chapter 006: http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/strange-relationship-version-x-chapter-006-tequila-forfeits-at-lunch/
Chapter 007 is also an updated version of an older chapter, and would have followed on immediately from the encounter with the tequila forfeits, just as it does here. Caitlin is working alone when Ben begs her to log into the text messenger so he can have a little fun with Caitlin.
Version X chapter 007: http://kyzkuu.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/strange-relationship-version-x-chapter-007-watching-me-watching-you/
