Skinflick

‘I will only create life or create quality of life and I will not let somebody or some shame stop me in my pursuit.’ Skinflick was inspired by a brief moment in a student’s life. Michelle Simmons was a high school Maths and English teacher living a good life in Bundaberg. She was admired and respected as a teacher, wife, daughter and friend. She had aspirations of being admired and respected as an author but lacked confidence in herself and her work. That was until she noticed a student and he noticed her. With his help but not his blessing, Michelle Simmons became Michelle Payne. Michelle Payne is Australia’s greatest contribution to the pornography industry. All across the world she is one of the most sought after providers of pleasure. She is admired and questioned for her looks and conduct. She is respected and questioned for her pioneering spirit. Michelle Payne is the product of a life lived striving for greatness. Skinflick is the rise and fall of an educator’s persona. From a high school honey to Australia’s most influential porn star and back down into darkness again as one of Australia’s most influential criminals. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From the Author: Skinflick will be my tenth published work, ninth novel and fifth stand-alone story. I was not looking forward to writing Skinflick when I knew it was the next novel I had to try to tackle. I wanted to seriously tackle the stories, ideas and themes and pin them down together to see what they could produce after completing Double Feature. However, a few things happened in my life and the world that pushed the crafting of Skinflick back. A pandemic and getting the chance to travel to Norfolk Island at the height of the pandemic were the big ones. I’m glad I got to write The Norfolk Solution between Double Feature and Skinflick. Both Double Feature and Skinflick are lengthy-yet-packed-to-capacity novels. Writing The Norfolk Solution was like going on holiday between two intense periods of work. But wonderful work. Double Feature is lengthy and packed-to-capacity and was enjoyable from the get-go. Skinflick is lengthy and packed-to-capacity but it took me years to start enjoying it. I began considering Michelle’s story around the time I was writing Mule. That’s probably why the two novels ended up being an odd couple. That’s all I’ll say on the matter here because anything more could potentially ruin a reading experience or two for you. It was a story I considered for many years but I thought it probably wasn’t a story I’d get to telling. Once The Norfolk Solution was written and I knew it was time to work for real on Skinflick, I was not feeling good about it. I can’t say with complete certainty how many versions of the first chapter I wrote and then deleted to start again with a different setting, voice or jumping-on-point within the narrative. Then I stumbled over a lady driving out of a school car park in Bundaberg. I put up my thumb and she was kind enough to pull over and let me ride shotgun on her way to buy a bottle of Solera Rum for her husband. Then she was kind enough to allow me to ride shotgun for a lot longer than a quick trip south over the Burnett. As the chapters piled up, Skinflick went from a novel I was apprehensive about crafting to one I really enjoyed crafting. Upon completing Skinflick, I looked back over all that beautiful mess and was amused by how I had considered the story a decade back. Sometimes hindsight is a lovely thing. If I wanted to snare as many readers as possible and get them to give the first chapter or two of Skinflick a go, I’d say the novel is a crime-thriller. Wanting to be honest with readers who give journeying through the longest book I’ve written a go, I say the novel is crime-erotica. I could’ve packaged Skinflick as a crime-thriller and sold that label with a straight face. To do this, I would’ve had to have taken out a lot of details. Taking out the details would’ve taken away the novels right to be labelled erotica, taken out a good chunk of its heart, taken out a good chunk of its story and, maybe, it wouldn’t have ended up being the longest novel in the Sibyl Saga . And whatever that book turned out to be, it probably wouldn’t have been titled Skinflick. But none of those things happened and the ninth book in the Sibyl Saga is and will always be Skinflick. Skinflick is an exciting, life-affirming exploration of morality, altruism and hedonism. Some of the themes it deals with are lust, love, marriage, partnership, monogamy, polygamy, sex, pornography, reading, writing, creativity, belief, morality, altruism, hedonism, and excitement. Thanks for getting to it, getting through it or even getting to it and just giving it a go without getting through it. I hope you derive enjoyment, small or large, from the words I’ve written.