Well, well, well! You would hardly credit it! This one definitely comes under the heading of 'you couldn't make it up'. As those of you who know me and who are familiar with the stuff I write about will already know, nothing quite gets me going like stumbling across evidence of some factual scenario, device or practise, whether historical or contemporaneous, which mirrors or even surpasses the kind of fictional goings-ons that pepper the pages of the books I write (usually from the historical annals of experimental psychology - a particularly rich vein!). Plausibility in story plotting has been a watchword with me from the outset, when back in 2008 I published INSTITUTIONALISED 1: BEYOND THE STANDFORD EXPERIMENT and so on the basis of anything which has happened can potentially occur again in some form or other... Well, you get the idea, I'm sure! Anyway, for the sake of plausibility and research generally - and based on an idea supplied by my graphic artist collaborator and friend, Angela Fox (with whom, as you know, I am planning a comic book / graphic novel type thing - something of a departure for me) - I found myself Googling Victorian hand-cranked hard labour devices (or machines; I can't remember exactly right now)... And guess what i came across? Yep! That newspaper cutting right there on the left! As I said; you couldn't make it up (and I just hope somebody else hasn't)- and I just love that sblog archive, and on my website where they are easier to find, including reader's letters scanned from various spanking magazines) I had to share this with you, my loyal followers! But imagine for a moment that industrial school! In my mind I see not just the ‘bad girls’ but a whole row of young women, all working away bare bottomed at some mindlessly tedious task - and with a spanking always just a press of a button away! Or the basis of some unethical aversion therapy experiment or other? You tell me!
Meanwhile in the background, and away from the graphic art stuff, I have also started writing a bit more. Whether this will develop and evolve into a new book or stay as a short piece for 'The Erotic Mind Control Story Archive' (which inspired the piece and towards whose audience it is largely targeted) I don't yet know; I'll keep you posted, as I will the website as and when I next update it (soon, honestly) and my tumblr blog (Google Toynatan Tumblr - because it doesn't really have a title yet).