1. What first inspired you to write this particular story?
I wanted to try my hand at the competition. I wanted a story that had a plot and offered the reader more than just a sexual escapade. I also wanted to go out of what I thought were the usual sports to something a bit different. Judo is relatively ignored by the media and is a sport I know well as a competitor, a coach, and as an official.
2. How did you come up with these characters?
The characters are a composite of myself and of people who I have coached. None of the characters existed in real life as such with perhaps partly the character of the trainer which combines several of my life experiences.
3. How does it differ from some of your other stories?
I think it is much more a story than most of my other offerings in that the sexual part I added almost as an afterthought. My main focus was with the changing emotional state of the characters over a period of time.
4. What was the most challenging thing about writing this piece?
I had to write the story incorporating three different voices; the coach, the trainee, and the spirit voice of the coach's dead wife. They each needed to have their own voice and that voice had to change as the story moved forward.