The idea of publishing a collection of loosely-connected stories around one central theme arose some time ago.
I was busy getting 'The Ultimate Submission' ready for posting and was putting the finishing touches to 'Triad' when I came across an idea for a new story which I really liked. But starting to write another story would take my focus away from the other two and could have a detrimental effect on all three of them. I made a short annotation of the idea, the plot and the characters involved, with the intention of returning to it as soon as possible.
The story, however, wasn't happy with being put on ice. It wanted to be dealt with there and then. It invaded my mind whenever it wasn't occupied with other things, like when I was watching the coffee make its way through the coffee filter, or when I was standing by the toaster, waiting for it to do its impersonation of a rocket launcher.
Every time the story returned, it offered me a new twist, a different next step. I found that I could configure the five main characters in many different constellations. Someone who was originally conceived as a victim or an innocent bystander, could easily become a villain. There wasn't just one 'right' way of telling this story.
That's when I decided to try something new. I would write an open-ended collection of stories, maybe even different versions of the same story. The stories in this collection would be connected by a common theme: spanking.
As the name for the collection I selected: