Selling Out
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Frequently Asked Questions

Are Ariel and Selling Out based on your life?

How did you become interested in diapers?

Do you want to have your stories published as novels?

How are all of Danielle and Ariel's family members related?

You plagiarized Ashley's Diaper Adventures!

Why don't you like people putting your story on other websites?

Q: Are Ariel and Selling Out based on your life?

A: Not really. Both stories take place in the city I grew up in, Virginia Beach, VA, and the places and road names mentioned in the story are real. However, none of the characters are real, although some are based on people I know. Ariel is almost completely fantasy. Although I was a late potty trainer (about 3 1/2), I never wore diapers after potty training and was only an occasional bedwetter. I'm not even sure if I would've wanted to be Ariel. I was the kind of kid who wanted to fit in and not be considered "weird" in any way.

Selling Out, however, is based more on me. Danielle's character is somewhat autobiographical. She usually reacts to situations similarly to how I would react, and her personal opinions about diapers and keeping them a secret mirror mine, especially as a teenager. I was more of an AB than a DL, however. I also didn't get to wear nearly as often as she does until I was in college. I also was probably a little bit more careful about keeping them a secret - no matter how drunk I got, that was one thing I did NOT blurt out!

Q: How did you become interested in diapers?

See the rather vague about me section for an answer to this. I don't post much personal info on the net anymore.

Q: Do you want to have your stories published as novels?

A: I have mixed feelings about this. While I would like to have a fiction writing career, I'm worried about the negative stigma publishing such stories could create. I could publish under another name, but that seems almost like denying myself and some of the wholeness of the story. I get nervous sometimes about the story being found by friends or co-workers, but I've always been proud that I put my full name on it.

I also have doubts about the mass-market appeal of Selling Out and especially Ariel, and much of the publicity the stories received would likely be negative. While the overall result might be positive for the AB/DL community, being at the center of any publicity would be emotionally and physically exhausting for me.

Finally, publishing takes away some of the purity of the AB/DL fiction genre. I have never earned a dime from my stories, and as far as I know, no other author of online AB/DL fiction has either. At the risk of sounding egocentric, the altruism of these authors benefits the AB/DL community in priceless ways. I've had teens tell me that they hated reading and my story was the only book they ever enjoyed. Stories and the message boards or mailing lists devoted to them provide ways for AB/DLs to meet and interact. It is vital to this community that websites and stories remain free so that anyone can access them. If Ariel and Selling Out were published, they would only be available to those who had the freedom and money to go out and buy them and weren't too ashamed to be seen in public buying such materials.

Q: How are Ariel and Danielle's family members related?

A: I'm currently working on a family tree, but I'm having technical difficulties getting it onto the website. Basically, Elizabeth was the sister of Jessica's mother, also named Ariel. Ariel got married and had Jessica, and Elizabeth got married and had Stephanie and Jenny. Stephanie married Greg and had Danielle. Jenny married another guy who's never been named and had Caitlin and Cody. Jessica had Ariel with Josh, married Ryan and had Joey.

So, Elizabeth is the grandmother of Danielle, Caitlin and Cody. She is Jessica's aunt and Ariel and Joey's great-aunt. Danielle is the first cousin of Caitlin and Cody. Jenny and Jessica are first cousins. Caitlin and Cody are Ariel's first cousins once removed, or something like that. Let's just leave it that they're cousins.

Q: You plagiarized Ashley's Diaper Adventures!

A: If you read ADA and Ariel carefully, you will notice that about the only similarity is that they're the same age and wear diapers. The stories differ in plot development and writing style. I did read ADA before writing Ariel, and it's possible that I might have never written Ariel if I hadn't read it. However, I've always given Kevin credit for inspiring me, and he was the first person to ever read Ariel and hosted the story for awhile. Girls are SADLY underrepresented in this genre and I for one would like to read more diaper fiction involving girls, even if it's hard to come up with too many completely original stories.

Q: Why don't you like people putting your story on other websites?

A: Under current U.S. copyright laws, Selling Out, or any written material, is protected if the author can prove that he/she created the work first. My feelings about my stories on other websites are hard to put into words. The two main issues are completeness and credit. First, when people post my stories on their own websites, the story never hits their website as soon as it hits mine, and often they don't update for months or years. This results in people who have never read past chapter 30 of Ariel and have no idea that more even exists. Even if there is a link to the website along with the reprinted chapters, it is often out of date or people simply don't bother to go. The other thing is that people often don't know who writes the story, and even if they do, they don't have all the supplemental info on the websites (like this FAQs list, or the yahoo group).

I could probably come up with more intelligent reasons if I wasn't writing this at 11 p.m. The bottom line is, this is my story, so please respect what I want done with it. I do appreciate people putting links to the stories on their websites and sincerely thank anyone who does.