About 'The Training School'

Readers may remember that I went to a Writers' Festival not so long ago and there I heard Bryce Courtenay speak. Rather than talk too much about what he wrote or even how he wrote, he used the time to talk about himself, which is actually the most interesting topic of all.

Bryce is an extraordinary story teller and although the talk went over the hour, I remember what he said almost word for word. He was asked about his childhood and he spent the early years of his life in an orphanage in South Africa; a dark and sinister orphanage where he was beaten almost daily.

He doesn't know how he came by the name he has but it is an English name and surrounded by Boers, who hated the English for what they did to them in the War (burning their homes and farms), they hated him too. It was almost comical when someone from the audience asked him if he had any scars from those times that he has carried into his adulthood. He rather sheepishly said that he had, alas, a thing about obese women because the Matron was obese and she beat him regularly.

One day in the orphanage, some awful man who came to beat him up every day (he's seven, mind you!) approached him as he regularly did and Bryce instinctively said,

"Please, please, please Mister, don't beat me. If you don't beat me, I'll...I'll tell you a story."

"What kind of story?" the man wanted to know. "It had better be a good story or I'll pummel you..."

"It's a very good story, " he assured the brute and he proceeded to tell him a story.

He got to a certain point in the story and said something like,

"I can tell you more of the story tomorrow."

Bryce said that it was very important that he keep hold of the story and have more for tomorrow because he wasn't saving himself here from one beating but all the beatings to come.

Every day, the man arrived and Bryce had more of the story to tell him, and in this way he saved his hide.

Many years later, he was listening to the radio and on came what they called a serial...maybe 'Blue Hills'. I remember my father had three radio serials that he listened to every morning while he did his book work, so I knew what Bryce was talking about.

"The bastards," he apparently said, "they stole my idea."

He believes that the serial was his invention, all those years ago!

'The Training School' is something of a serial. I only had the vaguest ideas of where the story was going when I began it and when I publish a chapter it is hot off the page. I definitely will have to adjust things. What you are reading is nothing more than a first draft.

So far, the story is pretty tame. The general idea is that there is a girl, Lucille who recognizes her submissive nature, has married a dominant man but remains hidden inside her shell. She has secrets that she keeps even from herself. The role of Nicholas and the others at the Training School is to get her to a point where she embraces her whole self, even her most deviant thoughts and desires. This is important not only in order that she understand more about her role and status in the relationship but also that she embrace her deepest, darkest needs and desires and thereby come to peace with them and her 'inner slut'.

It is rather interesting listening to feedback through the back channels. The views do vary a lot but I certainly do listen to each one of them. Please feel free to offer your thoughts. All constructive criticism is appreciated.

Meanwhile, it is time to take things up a notch or so, so buckle in for the ride, and close your eyes if you are squeamish.