Guest Post: Charming Man's Senseless Journey

Here is the Guest Post by CM that I promised. I'm so glad I invited him on my blog. Enjoy! xx

Charming Man’s Senseless Journey

I am indebted to Punya for offering me the chance to write a few words on her wonderful blog. At the outset, she explained to me that she rarely does author interviews, so she very much left the content of my post up to me; and rather like the groom whispering in the ear of his best man on his wedding day, she asked me not to make it too long!

During my university days, I shared a house with ten fellow inmates, most of us engineers and natural science students. There was, however, one mature student amongst us, who was studying philosophy and theology. He was a strange animal; he spent his days with his nose in a book, seldom had any lectures and seemed to be having an easy ride. I say that, because us techie geeks had a most rigorous timetable, often attending over thirty hours of lectures a week, on top of practical assessments and compulsory tutor groups.Fast forward to the end of our final year and we’re all down the pub celebrating the end of a gruelling week of exams that would determine our future. The philosopher was already in the pub, musing over the bitch of a final paper he’d been faced with that morning. Surely nothing as complicated as we’d been subjected to, we joshed, as we sipped our first pint. He sighed dejectedly and told us that the paper comprised one question, which read: Write a question and then answer it; a three hour paper and presumably he had to show all his workings!

Clearly this story has stuck with me over the years, but only now do I have a use for it. Punya doesn’t want to interview me… (Punya rolls her eyes at that) So I figured why not interview myself? OK, I promise to try and make this quick!

# Who Are We?

Collectively we are two wannabe writers, in the one body, wearing two very different hats. The first is Charming Man, who goes by the Twitter name of @charmingxman and has been writing sensual romance as a hobby for over twelve years. He launched his CharmingMan.com website some fifteen months ago, following the success of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

The second is Stop Making Sense, known as @senselessxman on Twitter, very much Charming Man’s creator and benefactor and the brains behind the two of them. Stop Making Sense is currently the quiet one, happily following in the shadows of Charming Man, waiting his moment.StopMakingSense.net is up and running, but it’s very much early days.

# Why Charming Man?

I have yearned to be a writer for many years, more so as a comedian than anything else. I have the kind of mind that is always looking for a witty comeback to anything that is said to me, no matter what the situation. Often I get a laugh; all too often I get into hot water!

I stumbled into writing erotica when my wife died over fifteen years ago and I was left with two small children to bring up on my own. I sought solace in online chat rooms once the children had been put to bed and soon began engaging women from all over the world in the comfort (and safety!) of my own living room. The Smiths were (and still are) my favourite band and This Charming Man was (and still is) my favourite song. It seemed most befitting that my chat room handle should be CharmingMan. Several of my online ‘encounters’ led to me writingthe basis of a number of short stories, which remained confined to the numerous hard drives of ever changing PCs and laptops over the subsequent years, until the launch of the CharmingMan.com website in 2012.

# Why The Senseless Ethos?

Stop Making Sense is an expression that has for a long time grabbed my imagination. I remember watching the Talking Head’s film many years ago and thinking how wonderful a title it was; it conjures up perfectlythe way I often feel. Rather more poignantly, when my wife tragically died, I suddenly felt that everything in my life had stopped making sense. The expression Stop Making Sense now serves two meanings for me, both very different in sentiment.

# Turning Negatives Into Positives?

Hmmm… Yes, another expression that has for some time become a motto in my life; more so than Stop Making Sense. I’ve endured a roller coaster of a ride over the last twenty years, very much a mixture of highs and lows. I know I’m not alone here; along the way I’ve met many wonderful individuals, who all have their equally topsy-turvy tales to tell. I often ask myself how we all manage to cope with these emotional swings. And I guess the answer is, we all deal with them in our own way. Some of us just get on with life; others seek counselling. I realised I was in a trance-like state for almost three years after my wife died. I went into auto-pilot. I’ve recently watched video of my children’s birthdays and cannot recall the event, yet I was the person behind the camera.

I’ve learned throughout my life, we can never change what has happened. We must savour the good times and suffer the bad. As a result, if a positive comes from something negative that has happened, I no longer feel guilty for that positive. I think we’re all owed a little pay back on occasions.

# Your Trilogy?

The majority of my public exposure as a writer has undoubtedly been as Charming Man. There are a dozen or so story teasers on the CharmingMan.com website, four of which are completed and available to purchase via Amazon and Smashwords; the remainder are works in progress and I am working hard, whenever possible, to get them finished. But Stop Making Sense needs to get a look in at some point; I am very keen to finally tell the story of my five year relationship with my late wife.

Entitled My Fun Loving Dane, I plan to relive the roller coaster ride that takes in our chance meeting in Switzerland in 1993, our long distance relationship fuelled by letters and telephone calls, the birth of our son in 1995, our wonderful marriage in Copenhagen in 1996, right on through to the day the world stopped making sense in 1998. A sequel, entitled The Lost Words, will address the sad fact that all the letters my late wife and I wrote to each other during our long distance relationship, have mysteriously disappeared. A fictional follow-up, The Lost Wordswill offer a plausible, if not paranormal, explanation as to what might have become of them.And no trilogy would be complete without a third and final tome. After fact and paranormal fiction, I am currently undecided as to which direction this concluding twist to the tale might take... You'll just have to watch this space!

# Having The last Laugh?

Absolutely! Despite what people might say, I still feel I have a lot to offer the world with my comedic hat on. I have a wealth of scraps of paper filed away in drawers and folders; ideas for sit-coms, sketches and stand-up routines. Just as I dusted off my sensual romance, I need to sift through my ramblings and breathe some life into some of them. Hopefully, all in good time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and a big thank you to Punya for inviting me along. I hope I’ve shed some light on who I am and what makes me tick!

About the Author:

Charming Man has been writing erotica for over twelve years. It all started quite by accident, following the tragic death of his wife in 1998, when he was left with two small children to bring up alone, as well as manage his own software consultancy. While still in a state of shock, he neither had the opportunity nor desire to meet anyone new, yet he craved companionship. He began to trawl online chat rooms, striking up conversations with anonymous individuals who may or may not have been who they said they were; it made little difference to him.

Before too long these intimate exchanges often left him wanting more, but charming by name and charming by nature, he chose never to cross the line until encouraged to do so by others. This led to many a cat and mouse exchange of words with many a like-minded soul, which both intrigued and excited him. It was during this time that Charming Man wrote his first short story, Night Vision, detailing his longing for the next love to enter his life. The more he chatted, the more he became obsessed with the notion of sexual encounters between strangers. Still not in a position to embark on a new relationship in the real world, he continued to engage women in cyberspace and together they would contrive a variety of scenarios from the respective comfort of their laptops. Many of these scenarios were later to become short stories; Beach Encounter, Mid Air Collusion, Ariana, A Greek Tragedy and The Secret Garden to name a few.

Charming Man would not deny that he is always on the lookout for the next encounter to write about. When two individuals make eye contact across a room or on a crowded train, and a connection is made, this is often the green light that sets his imagination on fire. A knowing look is all it can take; a word might never be spoken. But once the connection is made, a scenario is hatched in his head and this will then be honed over the coming days and weeks into a believable idea for a story.

Author Links

Charming Man: