Blackmail Stories

I spent last weekend hacking upwards of 5000 words on The Adjusters #17 and The Adjusters #13: #17 because that's where I'm at in terms of actually writing new stuff, and #13 because that's the one that needs to come out in two weeks and it's not quite in shape.

The thing is -- and I know I've said this before, and if this kind of stuff bores you feel free to skip down to the stories below the cut -- when I first thought up The Adjusters back in 2008, I wrote five chapters: two introductory chapters, followed by what is now #12-#14. That's when I realized that the story started way too abruptly. I decided to write a prequel, basically, which became the Whatever Happened to Marjorie Duquesne arc, to introduce everyone and give them some life. Now that I've reached the point where I can actually tell the original story, enough stuff has changed that I need to rewrite those chapters almost from scratch. Which is what I'm doing now, and it's so much better than it ever was, so I'm happy. But it's more work than I expected.

And before you start screaming that because I'm writing #17 now I should post the other chapters faster, you should know that being 5 chapters ahead in terms of storyline is exactly what I need right now, because I'm in plot hell, trying to figure out how to get all the events that I want to happen to happen, in the order in which I want them to happen. So I've been shuffling stuff back and forth amongst all the chapters between #13 and #17, and pushing some stuff beyond that. It's slowly taking shape, but it's really convincing me that for Book III and beyond, I'll want to stick to simpler arcs.

To add to the madness -- dropping 5000 words on a single story in one weekend is more time than I can afford on smut, sadly -- I had a stroke of inspiration about something completely different that had been fermenting in that perverted mind of mine and I wrote the first chapter of a new story provisionally titled The Mesmerization of Daphne Fonseca. That story, which looks like it is going to be long too, will probably not see the light of day until at least 2012, but it'll let me explore stuff that The Adjusters will not quite let me explore without trying to shove square pegs into roundish holes.

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I mentioned in my last post blackmail stories, and I promised some pointers to good stories along those lines. Here are some of my favorites on the topic, by no means exhausting the subject.

The Mortgage by Marlissa, is a classic in the genre. "The Mortgage is a ten part story about how an older man manipulates a young newlywed wife into becoming first, his secretary and then eventually his personal sexual plaything, both on and off-the-job."

Amy looked over at the secretaries busily preparing banking documents,
the clicking-clacking of computer printers and typewriters filling the
cavernous bank with the sounds of mortgages being prepared, deeds being
registered, statements being generated for scores of homeowners. Each and
every day thousands of mortgages are processed, each representing struggle,
persistence and a whole change of life. Owning property -- it was The American
Dream, a dream which had just come true for she and her husband. [...]

The Atonement by Racecar is another classic. A long story about a woman who pays the price for hitting someone with her car and running from the scene.

She can still see it all as if it were happening again this moment. The
expression on his face just before impact. She could see he knew it was coming
-- that he knew he was going to be severely injured and there was no way he
could avoid it. That expression clearly said what writers would take volumes
to say. She could see the face change as it hit the windshield only inches
from her eyes. It changed as if everything were happening in slow motion -- as
if he were willing time to slow down enough to allow him to get out of this
mess. She could feel the bump of the rear tires running over the body. And she
could still feel her foot pressing on the accelerator taking her away from
there as quickly as possible. She wonders if anyone else witnessed the horror
that occurred that night. She wonders if she could have saved his life if she
had stopped. She wonders how long these flashbacks would go on. She wonders
just what John really thinks of her. Outwardly he acts like the model of a
devoted husband -- offering her support and solace, as well as trying to cover
up everything. She wonders what would happen to her if the authorities found
out she was the hit-and-run driver they've been looking for since Saturday.
Mostly she wonders "why me?" [...]

For the next one, we're moving to much harsher stuff. Grace's Hard Lessons, by Darkavenger, is a twisted tale of a poor woman, Grace, caught stealing by her boss and blackmailed into more and more depraved behavior. It that wasn't enough, the story continues with Grace's Very Hard Lessons.

Grace looked at the tape in shock. There she was, changing the numbers
on the account transfer slip. It was caught on tape. She looked up at
Royston, her face pale.

"You wouldn't have been caught if you haven't been so greedy, Grace,"
the executive in his mid-thirties said.

"Nobody noticed anything the first three times you stole money from
the company," he continued quietly. "The numbers did not match up when
I did check the report, and that's when I suspected you. Obviously
relocating the security camera to point at your desk did help to catch
you red-handed." [...]

Let me finish with a guilty pleasure of mine, a story that is oddly written, with strange pacing, and unfortunately never finished as far as I can tell. But what's there is surprisingly hot, and it has gained a devoted following since it came out more than a decade ago. It's Better Than Prison by (I believe) Rex Molder.

My wife is a CPA who worked for a large weapons manufacturing
corporation. She was in charge of accounts for several foreign
governments and was good at her job. What she didn't know is that other
members of her corporation had been modifying some of her records to
cover up dealings with the Iraqi government, which are very illegal.
Everything went unnoticed for quite a while until the IRS performed a
surprise audit on her department. The audit took several days and when
it was finished everything seemed to be in order. A few days later the
head of the auditing team, a black man named Ron, called to set up an
appointment with her, saying there were a few things they needed to
discuss. When he arrived at her office he was acting very different than
he did at the audit. Instead of his previous professional behavior he
was being very obvious in his lewd appraisal of my wife. Although she
was conservatively dressed in business attire, he seemed to be paying a
lot of attention to her breasts and legs and wasn't trying to hide it. [...]

Any other interesting blackmail stories you know of?