Saturday, July 11, 2009

Who in the World is Fiona Locke?

A reader emailed me recently, asking if I know who Fiona Locke is. It's an interesting deviation from the norm. Because I'm the spanking blogosphere's resident movie critic (one of them, anyway) and a part-time actor, most of the questions I get are about videos. "Who is Lady Vernon from the Calstar videos? Do you have any info about her?" Or: "Do you know any good videos where the girls get their clothes whipped off their bodies? Preferably in slow motion." Or, the perennial favourite: "Hey, Ludwig, what is the hardest, most severe video you ever saw?" That kind of stuff. So, what a nice change of pace, to find that I am now supposed to know all the inside details about spanking literature as well!

The truth is, when it comes to kink in the artforms, I'm a movie buff more than a book buff (as you can see by the fact that I've only managed one single book review so far). Not because I dislike reading - I love reading and I love books, actually. But I already read a lot in my "normal" (job, academic) life. Moreover, while I find that a mediocre spanking video can still be worth watching (for eye candy, if nothing else), I find that mediocre spanking literature is usually just that - a waste of time, with no redeeming qualities. And frankly, there's a lot of crappy literature out there! It might be that moving pictures are, because of their innate qualities, better suited as a medium for trashy entertainment than the written word. Or maybe I'm just biased and I don't have a clue. Either way, justly or unjustly, I find myself more lenient and gracious with videos, even the bad ones.

The point I'm trying to make is, I'm not much of a spanking literature connoisseur (yet?). But Fiona Locke is one of the genre authors whose work I know and admire. In other words, she's bloody damn good. I've been a fan ever since a friend of mine gave me this paperback titled Over the Knee a couple of years ago and said: "You have to read this." I actually mentioned Fiona, albeit briefly, in one of my very first posts after starting this blog. And this year, I devoured her second book, On the Bare, as soon as it was out.

It's not just that Miss Locke's writing style, the form, is superior to that of most other kinky fiction hacks I know. I also like the substance, the content, because many of the CP fantasies she chooses to explore are similar to my own. And even when they aren't, they are never less than interesting. Marketing babble aside, I'm inclined to agree with the publishers from Virgin Books that "Over the Knee" is probably "the definitive CP novel". Or one of the few definitive ones, anyway. I think every spanko should check out Fiona's work at least once, even if you're not much of a reader (or not much of a spanking fiction reader, like me).

The true identity of "Fiona Locke" has been a source of ardent speculation pretty much since her first story came out. Some of the theories making the rounds in our community include Emma Jane of A Painful Awakening..., Abel of The Spanking Writers or - a more adventurous guess, I'd say - Joanne K. Rowling, author of the world-famous "Harry Potter" series. Personally, I don't think it's any of the three. Emma Jane just denied being Fiona, as did Abel. Let's believe their word for now. As for Miss Rowling, well... I think we'd probably have heard about that by now, given how adept the parasites from the British tabloid press are at satisfying the public's supposed "right to know" (particularly when that knowledge involves - gasp! - unusual sexual fetishes).

Emma Jane's post inspired one of our mutual readers to email me, suggesting - as a joke, no doubt - that if she isn't Fiona, maybe I am! Let me respond diplomatically to that: at this time, I can neither deny nor confirm... No, seriously, folks. I am not Fiona Locke! Obviously not. My English is pretty good, but you can tell that it's a second language. Whoever Fiona is, she is definitely a native speaker. I also believe that she is really female, not a guy in disguise. My personal and totally unsubstantiated theory is that Fiona Locke is the nom the plume of someone fairly famous from the UK scene - a blogger and / or spanking model. Someone whom a lot of us know, someone who is laughing about us as we stumble around in the darkness of our ignorance. I don't even know why I believe this. It's just a hunch, I have no solid evidence to back it up. Maybe I believe it simply because I like the idea.

In any case, Fiona's writing is clearly the product of a genuinely kinky mind. I'm absolutely confident that she is a practitioner of CP, rather than someone who merely writes about it. So maybe the blogger / model theory isn't all that far off. Her website also claims that she poses for the covers of her books, that the faceless young lady we see there is really her. I'm not quite ready to swallow that part, though. I believe that it is a smokescreen, and that Miss Locke wouldn't give us such a clear hint about her identity.

So, to finish off today's post and just for the fun of it, I'm going to name my personal prime suspect: Pandora Blake. Why not? She fits the profile. English, great writer, very prolific, artistically minded, well-documented fantasies not too different from Fiona's, and plenty of personal experience which she can inject into her stories. Moreover, she already named her model persona after a famous English poet and painter, so she might as well name her author persona after a famous English philosopher. If nothing else, Pandora is certainly a better suspect than I am.

What do you think? Any more theories on who Fiona Locke is? She isn't me, that's for sure.

23 comments:

! said...

I wonder if the reader who asked both you who you think Ms. Locke is the same reader who emailed Emma Jane about this. I personally have my money on Amelia-Jane Rutherford. She is also known as Ariel Anderson, ad as Adele mentioned in an older post, "having several names is a kink in its own." (http://adelehaze.com/amelia-jane-rutherfords-blog-is-live/) If this is the case, it is possible that having one alter-ego is simply not enough for Ms. Rutherford, and so she had to write spanking stories under a third name. In addition, she fits your criteria of being "English, great writer, very prolific, artistically minded, well-documented fantasies not too different from Fiona's, and plenty of personal experience which she can inject into her stories."

SPANKEDHORTIC said...

Frankly I don't want to know who Fiona Locke is, I'm having far too much fun wondering who he/she is, which would be spoiled by finding out an identity.

Your own suspect, Pandora Blake, is very much capable of being Fiona Locke. Of all the blogs that I read, from amateurs, performers and writers, Ms Blake is without doubt the best word smith, that I have had the pleasure of reading and if she is not writing books, she damn well should be. But although I think she would be more than capable of altering her normal, artistic, literary style to the straight from the hip, gunslinger style of writing, used by Fiona Locke, I can see very little reason why she would.

IMHO I think that it would be unreasonable to dismiss the possibility that Ms Locke may be a he. After all the spanking/kink world is one where it is easier to be taken seriously with a female persona. And the fact that, neither in the acknowledgments in the book or on Ms Locke's website, does Ms Locke ever refer to him/herself as a feminine entity, must be taken into consideration. I am not saying that he/she has lied but he/she may have been a little conservative with the facts. The only time that Ms Locke is identified as a woman is by third parties, reviewers and the like and not by the author him/herself and although we know that the author is on the cover photo, it is equally likely that it is the person with the raised hand as much as the person OTK.

For the author to be a man, it would have to be someone that has regular and in depth knowledge of women who live this kind of lifestyle, highly probably someone who had and has multiple play mates and significant others, within the more high profile scene players. There are many guys that I would put in the line up as "likely suspects" but considering that Ms Blake does give the impression that her closest companions are likely to be of similar, highly educated and artistic nature as her self, I would put either of her two main significant others in prominent positions in that line up.

Prefectdt

D. said...

Prefectdt: "I'm Fiona Locke, and so's my wife"?

:-)

SPANKEDHORTIC said...

Did the cat not play any part in this D.. :P

Prefectdt

Irelynn said...

This is so amusing! Abel, Fiona Locke? Why, he never told me that those times that I met him. Though, having seen him in a tutu, I think he would make an excellent woman.

Now excuse me while I fall about laughing. ;)

Graham said...

Ludwig, for what it's worth, I know plenty of native speakers who can't express themselves in English nearly so well as you.

I like the Pandora theory a lot. I also really like Prefectdt's theory that the author is actually the man on the cover. And I like my theory that it's actually Niki Flynn.

Maybe I just really like theories?

John said...

Des Schweigens Herrin
heisst mich schweigen: -
fass' ich, was sie verschwieg...

John

Pandora Blake said...

Prefectdt: Funnily enough, that was D's suggestion as well... clearly I should be keeping a closer eye on my kitty.

Indy said...

I was sure it was JK Rowling's cat, but I have to concede that it's more likely to be Pandora's. But are cats ever submissive? I'm pretty convinced that Fiona isn't a top.

Pandora Blake said...

If JK Rowling's cat is anything like Crookshanks, Indy, then I have to concede your point ... mine is certainly not remotely submissive!

K'Ehleyr said...

When I read about all the different suspects for being Fiona Locke the following idea comes to mind: What if Fiona Locke isn't just one person? What if the name is used by a team of authors? Is the writing style of the different stories really consistent? Has someone taken a closer look?

K'Ehleyr

EmmaJane said...

Well Pandora has just denied it. I think the cat theories are a goer.

But hey Ludwig don't you feel flattered to be thought of as Fiona Locke ;)

@Graham yes the theories are more fun than actaully knowing at this stage.

Ludwig said...

My, this discussion has really taken off, hasn't it? And not just on my blog. In response to my theory, Pandora denied being Fiona (predictably - you draw your own conclusions!). There is also this post by Zille Defeu, published before mine, which I hadn't noticed before.

In honour of all the wonderful theories out there (some plausible, some hilariously outlandish), I am renaming this post. I'm changing the title from the rather dull "I am not Fiona Locke" to "Where in the World is Fiona Locke?" (if you know what computer game series that title is based on, congratulations, you are a True Geek like me!).

Now let me respond to some of your comments / theories...

Rachel: I never considered Amelia-Jane Rutherford as a likely Fiona candidate myself. She does have a blog, but she posts very sporadically (only 4 entries this year so far). So she is not actually "very prolific" at all, and writing doesn't seem to be something she enjoys doing a lot.

Of course, the reason for her long silences could be that she really is Fiona Locke - and so busy writing books that the Amelia-Jane blog has to suffer! But Amelia-Jane also has a very different writing style, and I don't think that this is very likely.

Prefect: While my gut feeling still insists that Fiona Locke is female and not a guy in disguise, I found your theory that Fiona is actually the male top posing on the book covers very interesting indeed. If true, that would be an extremely clever way for Fiona to technically speak the truth and throw a false lead at the same time! After all, everyone naturally assumes that Fiona is the girl getting spanked in the picture, but as you correctly point out, this has never been explicitly stated.

Personally, I find the idea that Fiona is a top (male or female) hard to believe, because her books are written from the bottom's perspective, really, and written so convincingly. But again, the theory that it is one of Pandora's tops, rather than Pandora herself, is certainly an interesting one (even though they deny it, of course).

Graham: Niki Flynn as Fiona Locke? Don't you think she has enough to do already? Given how much modelling she has done over the years, between the US and Prague, it's a miracle that she found the time to even write a blog, and an autobiography, as herself.

Pandora: Your cat is called Crookshanks? That is wonderful! And I don't care what you say, you are still my prime suspect.

K'Ehleyr: I think the writing style of the different Fiona Locke stories is very consistent, actually, so I have my doubts about the "author collective" theory. Still, there is a certain conspirative beauty to it. So I like it, even though I don't really believe in it.

Then again, hmm... Maybe it is Pandora, plus her boyfriends, plus her cat?

Anonymous said...

It is not unlikely that a profound comparative study of style and syntax between the scribblings of the above mentioned suspects (plus others? Adele Haze?) and the texts by Fiona Lock would would give some clues if not decisive evidence.
Such studies have been made in research of literature - counting the occurrence and place in sentence of certain words, etc. This gives more exact data than a study of topics and themes, I mean, there's panties pulled down all over the place, no?
Who could carry out such an investigation?
Would have to be a native speaker I think.
But I'll get the books and see if I get any ideas.
Fiona Locke may also be some more or less known writer of non-fiction. Maybe a critic or scolar, who knows. But must she be young? Maybe she is some old, long forgotten writer?

Ludwig said...

Anonymous: Of course, a thorough comparative study of Fiona's writing and the writing of various bloggers is an obvious route to take. Not just comparing the writing style itself, but also the particular spanking fantasies / scenarios they talk about. Who could carry out such an investigation? Not me, that's for sure! I have enough on my hands with writing my own blog and doing the occasional movie shoot.

That said, I have read Fiona's works, and I regularly visit various spanking blogs (the good ones, anyway). While not an actual, systematic study, it enables you to discard some of the less probable candidates right away. Looking at the writing style, I have my doubts about Adele Haze, for instance. She is not on my personal list of Fiona Locke suspects.

Yes, it is possible that Fiona is a more or less well-known writer of non-fiction, a critic or a scholar. Yes, she could be an older woman. All this is possible, just as it is, in principle, possible that she is a guy, or a mercenary hack (albeit one who writes better than the average mercenary hack).

However, based on the available evidence, and based on my gut feeling, I still think that she is probably a fairly famous blogger and / or spanking model, female, a younger woman rather than an older one, and a practitioner of CP / genuine kinkster rather than someone who merely writes about it.

By the way, I changed the title of the post again, from "Where in the World is Fiona Locke?" to "Who in the World...?", which makes more sense.

SPANKEDHORTIC said...

I have a new suspect and have posted about it.

Prefectdt

Ludwig said...

To make things easier, here is a direct link to Prefect's post.

So I'm your prime suspect now? Are you mad? (Wait - you don't actually have to answer the second question!)

I already pointed out that me not being a native English speaker rules me out as a likely Fiona Locke candidate on its own. In addition, I'm male and a top. When you look at all these factors combined, I think it would take an astonishing amount of conspiracy theorist thinking to believe that I am Fiona. Of course, I know that there is no shortage of conspiracy theorist thinking, especially on the internet - but still, you're going out on quite a limb there, mate! There are dozens of better suspects than me.

I suppose the only way how your theory could possibly work is if, in addition to Ludwig being Fiona, Ludwig isn't really Ludwig. Let's say I'm not really German, but an Englishman living in Oxfordshire, who only fakes the accent you hear in the videos (and uses the odd Germanism in his writing to throw people off his track some more).

Or, better still, maybe the dark-haired young man you see in these videos isn't the real Ludwig at all? Maybe he is just an accomplice, willing or coerced, who poses as my public face while I protect my true identity? Maybe there is no single "Ludwig" person at all, and this blog is written by a whole group of authors, a sinister cabal? Have you ever heard of the Bavarian Illuminati? I once hinted at my (our?) true identity in a response to a reader (see my last comment here), but ironically and predictably, no one took it seriously!

More food for thought for the conspiracy theorists.

frants said...

Spankedhortic's conspiracy theory that Ludwig himself is Fiona Locke:
Impossible, if the afterword in Over The Knee is assumed to be more than pure fiction. (Which it may be of course, but then, why print that at all?) It says explicitly that the writer's butt is on the cover. So, assuming this is true, we can disregard Spankedhortic saying " - OTK is a fiction and although we know that Fiona Lock is on the cover the author could just as well be the one doing the spanking as the spankee."
So, I would rather look closely at that butt for any possible candidates. And so Adele Haze and the old scolars are ruled out. And Ludwig too.
But why have not the other pen name writers on Nexus been considered? Have them line up and check their buttocks!

Anonymous said...

Hot rumors say Tara Black is also Fiona Lock.
What do u say about this Frants:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/tara-black/drawn-to-discipline.htm

Ludwig said...

frants: Well, technically, the spanker's butt is on the cover, too, even though it can't actually be seen! Or does the afterword explicity say that it is Fiona's butt *getting spanked* on the cover? I don't have "Over the Knee" with me right now, so can't look it up. Also, the whole claim about being on the cover could just be a smokescreen.

frants said...

OTK - Afterword: Here the writer speaks, using the "I" form. As in 'I am the writer' and 'my cheeks'. So there is no ambiguity there! But of course it may all be a hoax.
But doesnt the butt resemble that on the cover of Tara Black's book, in anonymous' link?
What do butt connoseurs say?

Ranger59 said...

I've met Fiona Locke, twice. The last time being at "Night of The Cane", 2004. She's an absolutely lovely American lady, who was caned in the competion by her partner Cameron, who was dressed in a very authentic naval officer's uniform. In my opinion, they should have won!

They both used to post on British Spanking, Cameron as Mentor NE, and Fiona as protege. Fiona now posts there as , well Fiona locke, actually! A cursory search of her posting history should lead you to the actual point where she announced herself as Fiona, and the publication of her first book.

I'm not supplying this info to burst any bubbles, but having seen the speculation on this blog ( and Pandora's ) I feel it's a shame that Fiona isn't getting credit in her own right.

Additionally, even though Fiona freely admits that one of her favourite role-plays is to be punished as a boy, the idea of her being anything other than female is ludicrous!

Regards.

Ludwig said...

Anonymous, frants: To make things more convenient for the other readers, here is a direct link to the book by Tara Black. And no, I don't think the bottom on that cover looks like the one on the Fiona Locke covers at all. Also, the cover of "Drawn to Discipline" very probably shows a random model only, not the author Tara Black.

Ranger59: A lovely American lady? A partner named Cameron? Favourite role-plays include being punished as a boy? Hmm, that does rather point the finger in a certain direction...!

As a matter of fact, someone calling herself (himself?) "The Mystery Minx" has set up a blog seemingly for the sole purpose of making the case that Niki Flynn is Fiona Locke. Take a look at it here and decide for yourselves. However, I'd say that most of the evidence MM presents there is, shall we say, circumstantial!