Sonni de Soto loves to tell stories, exploring not just the world of our sexual fantasies, but the practicalities too. She laments that most mainstream BDSM fiction avoids looking at the ‘realities’. She explains, “For real-life players, kink takes connection. Not the kismet kind or the magic soulmate sort, but the type that comes with a lot of communication and a lot of earned trust. Too often, in fiction, that’s seen as unromantic but, for me, that’s where the romance and sizzle always lie.”

Of her own reading, she tells us, “I’m a big fan of interconnected stories: when we follow characters within the same world, seeing how one character sets in motion events which affect all the others, in their own stories. This echoes the truth that everything we do affects everyone else (whether on butterfly-wing levels or typhoon ones).”

Among her favourite such reads is David Schickler’s Kissing In Manhattan collection, which gives readers a ‘strange and seemingly random cast of characters, centred on a mythic Manhattan apartment complex called The Preemption’.

Sonni asserts, “I love that each story is complete, and can stand entirely on its own, but gains greater impact when viewed alongside the others. Like people in the real world, everyone has a story. Everyone is the star—the main character—of their own story, as well as being a side character in everyone else’s. We all make an impact. I wonder if my own Donovan’s Door world would even exist without Schickler’s Preemption.”

Although Sonni rarely writes speculative fiction, she notes “I love to read such stories, and sonni quotewatch films which take a fresh look at our everyday world by adding extraordinary elements, making our familiar settings seem somehow strange and unknown. Unexpected futures we’ve yet to fulfill. The occult lurking in our shadows. Hidden powers that manifest in the meeker among us. The magical meeting realism.”

Among Sonni’s favourite films are surrealistic-fantasy masterpieces Pan’s Labyrinth, Brazil, and Mirrormask.

She adds, “That’s how kink scenes in stories feel for me. A fantasy constructed within—constructed from—reality. They require a certain suspension of disbelief but also rely on there being basic, consistent ‘rules’.”

“Whenever we try to translate fantasy—whether sexual or speculative—into the believable, we need a firm grounding in reality or we risk straying too far from the humanity that connects stories to audiences,” warns Sonni.

“In movies, you want the special effects to be mind-blowing and unlike anything anyone has ever seen before but, if they go too far or are overdone, the film falls flat. For me, kink scenes follow the same logic. I want my sexy story bits to be steamy and hot, but I want to be sure that they’re still grounded in something real. Do body parts actually move and react that way? Is proper safety, negotiation, and consent being observed? Does the kink serve a purpose to the plot and character development or is it more flash over substance?”

She asserts, “Speculative films taught me that if you want to make someone believe something unknown and strange—be that aliens walking among us or that pain can be exquisite pleasure—you have to really sell the setup.”

Theatre made a significant impact on Sonni from an early age. She tells us, “I’ve been involved in theatre one way or another since I was able to walk, but it took thirteen years before I really saw roles on the stage—and in stories in general—that looked like me. RENT was a huge influence on me, as a writer and as a person. It was the first time I really got to see characters of color and LGBTQ+ characters as the stars of a show. That was so powerful: to see that our stories are worth telling and that there are people who want to hear them.” She adds, “I never used to tell stories that featured characters of color or LGBTQ+ characters. Now that’s pretty much all I do.”

Sonni underlines, “As creators, we fear that nothing we do is original… that everything has been done before. I know that all stories have been told in some form or another before, but mine offer my own special spin.”

Sonni’s latest release, with Sinful Press, is Show Me, Sir, exploring the themes of feminism, BDSM, kink, and community.

Max Wells is a ball-busting, ass-kicking testament to female empowerment, who’s yet to meet the person who can push her down.

Until she meets a man she only knows as Sir. Shamelessly deviant, Hayato knows exactly what Max thinks of Dominants like him. Ready to dismiss his lifestyle, she’s the type to assume she knows everything about it, and him, after one cursory glance from the outside in. But, looking at Max—at her intelligence and passion—he can see more in her than the misconceptions with which she’s deliberately blinding herself. And, determined, he plans to show her more.

Max and Hayato engage in a dance of wit, will, and seduction as they negotiate roles, rewrite rules, and learn the true meaning of empowerment.

However, just as their game heats up, someone threatens to drag their private lives into the spotlight. With high stakes and bitter scandal looming, Max and her Sir must work together to show that they’re not defined by what the world thinks they are.

Buy Show Me, Sir here

About the Author

Sonni is an office-grunt geek with a passion for cosplay, taking cloth, paint, wire and, even, plumbing parts to bring some of her favourite fictional characters to life.

She describes herself as a kinkster of colour, and is the author of The Taming School (Sizzler Editions) and Show Me, Sir (Sinful Press), as well as Give to You (Deep Desires Press). Her short stories feature in six anthologies, including in Riverdale Ave Books’ First Annual Geeky Kink Anthology, in Sexy Little Pages’ Sacred & Profane, and in Stupid Fish Productions’ For the Men (and the Women who Love Them).

Follow Sonni on Facebook, pay a visit to her blog, or find her on Amazon