As it is better to start off with the truth than a lie. The name J.W. Anitole is a pseudonym. The J is for Jane and W is for Wynter. The last name of Anitole I picked because I was watching Danny Kaye sing about being “Anatole of Paris” in the 1947 version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I just decided to spell it differently on a whim.

In a recent conversation with a dear confidant, I explained it as best I could. It’s like having a little room in my brain that I lease to a strange woman who writes smutty stories and has a sweet but sassy disposition.

Jane and I both began reading erotica in about 2004, adding it to a list of genres that had already piqued our interest in fiction and literature.

By 2008, I visited several sites, including Oysters & Chocolate and Literotica.com. I had also thumbed more than a few anthologies of The Best American Erotica, edited by Susie Bright. Other authors that influenced me included Anais Nin, Nancy Friday, & (by the start of 2012) E.L. James.

Many of the short stories and novels I read were not only arousing but poignant and lovingly crafted. I will admit, with E.L. James, I did laugh out loud more than once (In Fifty Shades Darker, when Christian gives Anastasia the command “Come, don’t pee,” for example, I nearly did a spit-take all over my young feminist’s reading group.)

At any rate, I was reading stories I liked and then reading stories that left me asking myself questions like “How could this be improved?” “Why does this seem ridiculous?” “How could they have written that better?”

So, in 2008, I settled down and started “ka-noodling” on my laptop. At that period in history, I had only one rule “ANYTHING BUT SPARKLING VAMPIRES!”

Nothing against those books if you like them, but I prefer my vampires “still” and my water “sparkling.” A few of the stories I wrote in those early days are still up, and I have not edited or touched them in over 10 years. Others I started and stopped and re-started. The point of submitting stories to online communities is to learn about who is reading what and determining what they find enjoyable.

Readers at large are reading for pleasure. Stories that jar readers out of their enjoyment get such beautiful comments as “Need an editor. type-s were so distracting that I couldn’t get in the story.”

My abilities as a typist are constantly improving, I hope. And Grammarly Pro has advanced over the past 10 years, and we’ve learned to use each other lovingly to mutual satisfaction. (how’s that for a double-entendre?)

I’ve prattled on, haven’t I? “Derailed the narrative” is another one of those lovely notes I often get in comments sections from readers and editors alike.

In short, I must keep the mystery of my real name alive. Suffice it to say I am from the United States. I have a “real job” and live a quiet, unassuming life that would “nary shock the average church organist.” I enjoy animals, spending time with my child(ren), art, live music, dancing, and supporting local businesses in my hometown (which is more significant than Lost Springs, Wyoming, but smaller than Kansas City, Missouri.)

Of the unspeakable tragedies that may or may not have befallen me during my formative years, the loves won and lost, the ill-fortunes of my world-weary life… I don’t do autobiography. To me, it comes off as either bosting or whining.

To learn more about me, you are always welcome to ask questions. I will do my best to be cagey and vague in my answers, dashing up upon my great stead, Tornado, and galavanting off into the setting sun to the cheers of the liberated villagers like Zorro.