The End Of Clarissa

Are you all ready for an erotic story? Well there’s one on the way.

I’ve always had fun with gothic stories. Take “Yew Tree Manor” and the “Clarissa” tales. In both cases they were initially short stories, a single part in the case of Clarissa’s debut in Night Scented Stock and a triptych for the Halloween story “Yew Tree Manor”.

The fact is that both stories recounted (fictional) events that happened within the protagonists’ “lifetimes”. All characters must have a past and a future, and even if a character dies their actions within the narrative touch the remaining players in the story and affect subsequent events. I can’t help but hint at a past for the lives of characters and speculate about their futures.

I suppose this comes from reading Tolkien as a child. His LOTR books and Silmarillion, speak of the times which predate them. The LOTR sees all events leading up to the final battle at the gates of Minas Tirith as necessary to create the world in which the men of Numenor finally inherit Middle Earth. The Silmarillion, a collection probably never meant to be published in the form Christopher Tolkien brought to print, is much more rooted in the past. It has a semi-mystical quality that again forces a reader to realise that a story is like a short river boat trip. You only see the small stretch of a river’s course, but you know it has a source and eventually flows into the sea, perhaps joining with other rivers along the way, their stories mixing and merging. From the boat you only see the banks but can be tantalised by glimpses of life at the water’s edge and beyond.

No, I’m not comparing myself to Tolkien. What I suppose I’m saying is that he first introduced me to the idea that a story can be part of something bigger. It does not have to have a tidy beginning, middle and end. However in the writer’s mind you have to know what came before to build the characters and make them credible.

Anyway, you’ll have noticed that over the past few months my fiction has become less frequent. Not because I have run out of ideas, quite the opposite, I’m developing a couple of ideas very seriously. Feeling that a story requires substance means I’m considering carefully the ones I’m writing. Adult fiction is no different from any other type. Erotica, written properly, is no less valid than non-erotic fiction

I am however conscious that Clarissa needs an ending so I promise to do that before the end of October. In time for the 31st. I already know what the ending is, I just have commit it to paper (OK the word processor).

Until then here’s where she got to.

If you haven’t already seen our new project you might want to check it out here. The latest post is Suze’s review of the Tingletip. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. She did.

Tags: A-Rouse, Tingletip, Clarissa Stories, Tolkien, J R R Tolkien, Lord Of The Rings, The Silmarillion, Middle Earth