That was a few years ago now, in the great Jinn era at the BDSMLibrary. The contest was based on a painting of a general Arabic theme - a middle-aged man with a young woman at his feet. That's about all I can remember of the image. My weakness (and maybe my strength) as a writer is that in whatever I write there needs to be a story where characters are introduced, a situation occurs and something is resolved. So I went into this short story competition still locked in this mind-set, and out came this unnecessarily sprawling and sometimes unfocussed work.
I'm not sure how much of the fairly authentic detailing was appreciated by readers. I applied what I knew and researched the rest. The great French poet Arthur Rimbaud, who was a trader in Aden during the time of the story, has a cameo role. Alas, none of the readers and comment makers picked up on this historical name check. But I'm a fan of Rimbaud's poetry and have read various biographies on him, so I'm proud to have him featured in my writing. I recommend Enid Starkey's biography, one of the most compelling biographies I've ever read.
Read the story here
Not my thing, but as another fan of Rimbaud I was curious to read it. Quite impressed with the local details and historical authenticity in what is basically erotica. So well done I guess. Stephen K
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