It is with great honor that I present my interview of erotic hypnosis author RC.

Hypnosis Addiction: On the main page of your site, www.rcwrites.com, it states "This site is all about imagination. It's about the power of the mind. Anything is possible. Isn't that an intensely thrilling thought?" I agree it is very intensely thrilling. I'm curious, what type of things fuel your imagination, where do you draw the inspiration that become your stories?

RC: I've always had a bad case of free association, so anything I see, hear, or whatever, is likely to trigger some totally unrelated (to anyone else) thought. I've come up with stories based on single words, images, phrases, inductions, news articles, my own fantasies - you name it. On a few occasions I've come up with titles and gone from there. Sometimes I write a story and can't come up with a title. Of course, not everything ends up worth reading in the end.

HA: Your stories are all very well written not only in the story which you tell but also in the nuances of detail. Do you find yourself critical of your own stories as you are writing them, do you set high standards for yourself?

RC: I'm critical of them as I write them, and after I've written them as well. I recently pulled a story after only a few days, and several months ago I pruned some older stories from the site. I would say that my basic standards are, that I enjoy it, and that it's pretty clean grammatically.

HA: It's a known fact that authors such as yourself on the web do not receive the kind of feedback they deserve from the stories they write. I am certain that it has to be rewarding when someone takes the time to write to you concerning one of your stories. What other kinds of rewards do you receive from your writing, what are your motivations to write?

RC: On the "Decade Musings" page of my site, I mention that I got several hundred comments about the first story I did ("Hypnotized") in 1995. That was over just a few weeks. These days it's unusual to get more than a few comments about a new story - ever. I think part of the reason is, back then, a story like that was new and different, so to speak. Nowadays I think people are... well, maybe a little spoiled, because there's so much available now. The Doobie Brothers had a record called, "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits". That phrase applies to this fetish pretty nicely.

To your question, yes, I certainly do enjoy it when someone takes the time to let me know how they liked a story - even if they didn't. I know that not everyone will like every story.

Motivations. Hmm. That's a tough one. I don't know if I can even explain to me, much less to anyone else. I'm nowhere as prolific as I used to be, I know that. Real life has changed in the dozen years (jeez!) I've been doing this.

At first, years ago, the reader response was probably a lot of the motivation. These days, it's harder to explain why I spend my dollars on the site and my time on the stories, because god knows I don't have much of either LOL. I really can't say WHY I do it, but I still enjoy it (most of the time LOL) and as long as I do, I'll keep doing it.

HA: What kinds of changes have you seen in the hypno-fetish community from its early beginnings to today? Do you see its popularity growing?

RC: Wow. Where to begin ?

When I started, you couldn't find anything about this on the net without some real digging. Each thing you did find was like a little nugget of gold. It may not have been exactly what you were looking for, but it related in some way to erotic hypnosis, and that in itself was enough. Finding a story was great, finding a real hypnosis image was fantastic, and finding a photo-manip... well, they were rare at first. Maddy Wrose was one of the pioneers there.

I started what was very likely the first hypnosis-related IRC channel, while now there are hundreds of Yahoo chat rooms, etc.

I really don't recall the first voice file I found, but they opened the floodgates to this fetish. It boomed from there. Now you have erotic hypnotists with specialties - I think that right there says a lot. And like I said before, it may almost be spoiling people. Twelve years ago, we were grateful for any tidbit we found. Now people EXPECT to find a file relating to their specific fantasy, or EXPECT a new story to be posted every certain number of weeks or months or something.

It was ONE community back then, small and maybe a little tentative, surprised and quite pleased that there were others with this interest. Nowadays, it’s more complicated.

Yes, the popularity is certainly growing. Try a Google search on erotic hypnosis, you get 895,000 hits. Yeah, close to a million. Twelve years ago, you would do an ARCHIE (am I dating myself?) or search the usenet groups, and the thing wouldn't know what you were talking about. Is this popularity a good thing? In most ways yes, because of the variety that's out there now. But I hope the community doesn't degenerate into a number of separate entities with their own agendas. I mean, you have some hypnotists who prohibit even the mention of any other hypnotist, or web site, or whatever. That's their prerogative, of course, and many people seem quite willing to go along. But to me, that isn't an erotic hypnosis fetish as such.

Maybe I'm what would be called a purist. If so, I'm probably a minority, and I know it. That's why I pretty much remain quietly in the background. :)

HA: Do you do much reading yourself, any particular authors or stories that you really enjoy?

RC: I don't read much, to be honest. It's not a lack of interest, it's more a lack of time.

HA: On your site you talk about your story Madam Zoe almost being made into film, logistical issues preventing it from actually happening. Is there ever any thought given to reviving that project and if so what sort of things might have to fall into place for it to happen?

RC: I don't know if I would try Zoe again. Maybe if Kismet Video could make an arrangement with Carrie Stevens, I'd consider doing 'Winner". :) Otherwise, I'd probably prefer coming up with something new if there was to be another film project. I tend to give rather sparse descriptions of some of the characters, so readers more or less fill in their own blanks. I don't want to ruin someone's vision of any given story.

I'd love to do something with Kismet Video . He's got some great stuff out there.

HA: You mentioned Kismet Video and their excellent work, which I very much agree. There are many facets to the hypno-fetish, stories, videos, hypnosis mp3's, photo manips. Are there any of these that you seem to enjoy more than others?

RC: The overall quality of an audio or video file depends on two things as far as I’m concerned – content and production quality. I’ve heard some files where the content was good but the production was horrid, and vice-versa. For MP3’s, Nikki at Hypnofantasy has both aspects covered. :)

For video, we mentioned Kismet, he has the content and the production quality there. "Scenes From A Trance" is simply incredible.

Stories and manips, well, as I said, I don’t read many stories. Manips, I like the work of Hypme, and The Velvet Vortex has some really interesting stuff. I enjoy Sue Chan’s art as well.

HA: In your story "Hypnotized", at the very beginning where Tracy is hypnotizing Amy and tells her to look for the image in the pendant, then eventually about the time that Tracy tells her "don't worry about it you can find it next time", its like right at that moment as I read it, Amy has just slipped over the point of no return, that is something that gets me every time.

Is there one special thing about the hypno-fetish that you find in particular most erotic? Or perhaps asked a different way, is there something that you almost always include in your writing because its something you find especially erotic?

RC: You used a good phrase - "slipped over the point of no return". To some, that right there is what this is all about. To others, hypnosis is only a means to an end. I probably fall into the first category. :)

I never really thought about whether or not I always included anything in my stories, but if I do, it's most likely an induction. I don't think I have too many "ZAP-AND-OBEY" stories. :) To me, the fun part is leading up to, and perhaps dancing around the edges of, the point of no return.

Of course, in a story like “Because”, I sometimes explore what happens BEYOND the point of no return. ;)

HA: The first time I discovered your work, and correct me if my memory is bad, but I seem to recall your site on the main page displayed a link to your stories and to Look Deeply's stories and I think there was link to the stories you had written together as well. Do you enjoy collaborating with other authors? Are there special challenges? special rewards?

RC: Yes, Look Deeply and I did a number of stories together. Maddy Wrose and I did two together as well, before she passed away in 1996. All are still on my site. Look Deeply is a wonderful person, as was Maddy, and I certainly enjoyed working with them. I can't say that there were any special challenges. As far as the rewards, working with them was rewarding in and of itself. :) And between the two of them, I learned a lot about hypnosis, as well as about people.

HA: To paraphrase you speak of imagination as the key and with it anything is possible. I'd like to personally thank you for sharing your imagination with the world. Is there any advice you can offer to others who may have aspirations to share their own imaginations whether it be story telling or other creative work?

RC: Again, you said it right there - "share their own imaginations". Create what you feel comfortable with. It’s your story. Make it what you want.

HA: I think your work is amazing RC, I have enjoyed very much the opportunity to meet you and a chance to learn something behind the person who's stories have certainly fueled many of my hypno fantasies. I would like to personally thank you for this opportunity. Are there any closing thoughts that you would like to add?

RC: Thank you for having me. Good luck with the site, and remember anything is possible. :)