VelvetÕs
Velorians & More
A short introductory note by Brantley Thompson
Elkins:
When I first met Velvet Belle Tree, I
knew that I could not, must not
hide anything from her. I told her straight out about my writing. True, I eased
her into it, but it wasnÕt long before she had read even my extreme stuff like Terms
of Enhancement. To my great relief, still she loved me. She even
took an interest in my work, and joined the Aurora Universe Readers Group. Her
first posts there caught the attention of Ed Howdershelt, who thought she had a
way with words and ought to try her hand at fiction.
SheÕd never written any fiction in her
life and yet, from the way she talked about it, I could sense she had the right
instincts. When I was writing Companions, I invited her to complete a scene I had begun. She did it. I invited
her to write entire scenes. She did that too. More to the point, she did it all
well. So well that she was ready
to write Homecoming, in which I
was only a junior collaborator. It proved to be the most popular story by far
at the new incarnation of The Bright Empire. The rest is literary history: a
sequel, the ArishÕka stories, an e-book in progress. WeÕll keep the links up to
date here:
AU/Ubergirl Stories
More Than One Way to Skin an Aurean
Other Stories
The Best Movie YouÕve Never Seen
The Audience Shrugged
A Tale of Two Fuzzys
Speaking of History
And Now, Velvet in
Her Own Words!
Do you know the old saying: Òif you canÕt beat Ôem, join Ôem?Ó Well, that kind of describes my
entry into the Aurora Universe.
There I was, in a new relationship with a guy who fantasizes about
Flying Blonde Goddesses – voluptuous, tall, invulnerable goddesses. And there I was: short, brunette and
definitely not invulnerable. So I
figured that the only way to monitor his activities was to join the group. And I got sucked into the vortex thatÕs
the AU.
Well, BrantleyÕs already told you how Ed
read my early posts and wrote that he thought I should try writing. What he didnÕt say was how excited I
was when I read that. But I
thought: OK, IÕll try that, some
day, in the future. But Brantley
had other ideas. First, he
involved me in discussions of the story line for Companions. Then
he asked me to complete the seduction scene – I was thrilled when he
liked what I did. Then he asked me
to do a couple more scenes. But
the most exciting part was when he gave me the privilege of describing the Scalantrans. What fun to make up a race of
extraterrestrials!
After Companions was posted, he said it was time for me to think of
my own story. Nothing came into my
head for a while. But then, I was
alone in the Phoenix airport on Nov. 14 and had quite some time to kill before
my plane took off. I was returning
home from my cousinÕs sonÕs wedding and was in a romantic mood. I thought about
JuÕlette and LizÕbet having a conversation about love (WhatÕs it like with
someone you love?) before JuÕlette leaves for Velor. And then I thought of a simple story of JuÕletteÕs journey
back to Velor and came up with the title Homecoming. And
over time the story took on a life of its own.
Near the end of March, I began thinking
of doing a story in the first person, and yes, I wanted to see if I could do a
really erotic story. One evening,
in my kitchen, I told Brantley the story idea and he found it hilarious. It was right before the AU anniversary,
and I thought it would be a nice little present for the guys. I had been fantasizing about it so the
actual writing only took two sessions.
And it was so much fun writing it!
I liked the idea that I could write a story that both men and women
found erotic.
Well, by then I could put some of my
early worries to rest. With the
creation of ArishÕka I wasnÕt just on the outside looking in É I had entered
the fantasy and expanded it.
But, the really important thing is that I
had found out how much I loved writing.
It was as if I had a secret desire to write; a desire so secret that
even I didnÕt know about it. And now, itÕs really wonderful to give
free rein to my creative impulses.
And itÕs like Brantley has said:
when youÕre a writer, everything in your life goes into your writing.
***
A word about what will be posted
here: Of course, all of my AU
stories. But there will also be
other things. In This and That I plan
on including non-fiction. The
first entry in that category is my review of the movie The Last Valley, which has already been posted. I would like to write other reviews,
but of books or movies that are not that well known.
And thereÕs also a section for non-AU
stories. The first has previously
been posted and is an excerpt from our forthcoming e-book Pegasus Gate. The
second is a short piece I wrote called ÒMusings of a Rejected Wife.Ó Believe me, this is pure fiction. It started with a conversation with
Brantley about how a woman would feel if her husband left her for a man. I thought about it for a while, and
thought I could best express my ideas as a work of fiction.
Commentaries
Homecoming started out as a
simple, short sequel to "Companions," but the story seemed to take on
a life of its own.
I started writing Ju'lette's background
as a straightforward narrative, but it didn't have too much life. Then
Shadar posted an old story fragment in the form of a diary and I decided to try
that. While writing the diary entries I felt that I was writing in Ju'lette's
voice and getting to know her. It was kind of fun pretending to be a gorgeous,
wild, bisexual Velorian teenager. But you will see from the entries how
she grows and matures.
As for the Scalantrans: I wanted to make
them definitely non-human, but still understandable. The idea of the
mate-groups popped into my head and I tried to see logical consequences of this
type of society. Just remember not to judge them by human standards.
As for the Lottery: When I first thought
of this, it was as a joke. In e-mails to Brantley, I said I thought that
Terran males would be falling over each other to volunteer to administer the
"final exam" to the students at the Companions Academy. How to choose
the lucky men? So I suggested, with tongue firmly in cheek, that a
lottery could be held to select them. Much to my surprise, he thought that was
a good idea!
Posted Mar. 8, 2005
Like Part I, Part II of Homecoming seemed
to take on a life of its own. When I started, I just knew that the
Scalantrans and Ju'lette would go to Andros to report to the Factor General.
I knew that Ju'lette would see Tassos again but wasn't quite sure how
their relationship would develop and certainly didn't think it would take the
path that it did.
As for Kalla, her part in the story just
seemed to grow out of logical necessity. I enjoyed developing her
character and depicting her as the mature woman she would have become.
June 29, 2005
Addendum to Homecoming, Parts I and II:
Dec. 26, 2006
In "What's a Vel to Do?" I just
thought IÕd have a little fun imagining being a Vel on Earth incognito.
And sheÕs finding it difficult to be a true Vel.
By the way, I was surprised when
Brantley, doing some googling, found out that there really is a web site with
the name that I used in "What's a Vel to do?" But don't bother
trying it guys ... you won't find a woman anything like Arish'ka there.
I hope you have as much fun reading it as
I did writing it. Enjoy!
April 1, 2005
"More Than One Way to Skin An
Arion" was written for the third SGI contest. The theme was
ubergirl vs. ubergirl. I thought it would be much more interesting to
have Arish'ka outsmart an Arion woman using her brains and considerable
feminine charms than merely beating her up.
May 1, 2005
"Rocky Mountain High:" I
thought it was time for Arish'ka to have a vacation, so I sent her out to Rocky
Mountain National Park, a place which has given me many fond memories. I really
did go on an evening picnic on the Tundra and the incidents of the clouds and
the campfire extinction did take place. However, it happened more than 35 years
ago and I think they stopped it a long time ago to save the Tundra.
The afternoon thunderstorms do
happen. Although Arish'ka wants to
experience a thunderstorm, I myself am deathly afraid of them. But
through her, I can imagine what it would be like to be invulnerable and revel
in the experience.
For this story, I wanted to give her more
than just a great sexual experience. And although Bjorn's passion knows
no limit when he sees her doing her "super girl" bit, he also forms a
strong emotional bond with her.
And I've tried to give some insight into her thoughts and feelings and what it's like to have to live incognito.
July 20, 2005
March 24, 2006
July 27, 2007