Interview with Steve Richardson, publisher of CF Publications, a company devoted to erotic spanking stories.

On the website of CF Publications at http://www.cfpub.com, it bills itself as "the oldest and largest publisher of spanking stories in the world." It publishes seven magazines devoted to erotic spanking and publishes stand-alone spanking stories. CF stories include man spanks woman, man spanks man, woman spanks woman, and woman spanks man. They feature hand spankings, hairbrushes, paddles, straps, belts, switches, whips, and just about every possible disciplinary instrument. The publisher of CF is Steve Richardson (not his real name) who founded it in 1982.

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Denise Noe: Why did you start CF Publications?

Steve Richardson: I got a computer with a word processing program and a printer and I found out that I could publish things without anybody outside my basement knowing what a pervert I was. I was one of the inventors of desktop publishing -- others may have done it sooner but for me I invented it from scratch.

DN: How many stories do you publish per year?

SR: Somewhere between 160-200 not counting the magazines. With the magazines it's at least 200 but under 225 total.

DN: What do you think is most distinctive about CF as a publishing house?

SR: We publish spanking short stories and as far as I know we're the only people who publish freestanding spanking stories.

DN: You publish all four major types of spanking stories: man spanks man, man spanks woman, woman spanks woman, and woman spanks man. What types of people tend to be interested in one type of story or another?

SR: Women typically are not interested in stories in which men get spanked.

DN: Are there many people who are interested in all four types?

SR: There's a bunch interested in three out of the four but men spanking men tends to be a separate group just as male homosexual erotica is usually separate from erotica involving other combinations of the sexes.

DN: What types of settings tend to be most common in spanking stories?

SR: A variety. Probably what's being published most on the Internet these days is romantic settings, a lot of romantic settings. The other big group is naughty teenagers. The first is primarily man spanks woman but the other is both sexes.

DN: What time periods are most common in spanking stories?

SR: The 1950s are popular, seen as a Golden Age in which wives got spanked by husbands or 20-year-olds living at home would get spanked. There is a lot of overlap, especially among women, of spanking and romance set in the Victorian period.

DN: What are the most common types of CF stories?

SR: Naughty teenage girls or naughty young adult woman spanked mostly by men but there's a fair amount of interest in female spanking female. Of the magazines, the one devoted to women spanking men is the best seller. People who buy magazines at adult bookstores seem to prefer it,

DN: Do you think these stories may encourage violence?

SR: No. I think that's essentially asking the same question as whether reading Agatha Christie increases the murder rate. I know of absolutely no evidence that it does.

DN: What qualities make a story one that you'll buy?

SR: I read it and decide whether I think it's a good story or not. If there's only a casual mention of spanking I won't buy it. If it's what I consider SM rather than spanking, I won't buy it.

DN: Spanking is often thought of as a part of SM. How do you differentiate between an SM story and a spanking story?

SR: In a generalization that a lot of people will object to, I think spankers give spankings as the fetishized event. Part of the nature of that event is that it should hurt but spankers are not interested primarily in hurting or being hurt and SMers are.

DN: When did your interest in spanking start?

SR: I've had it as long as I can remember. I can't ever remember not having it. I remember I was in kindergarten telling stories to a girl about Tarzan and in my stories Tarzan would always take the woman across his knee, pull her panties down, and spank her.

DN: Were you spanked as a child?

SR: No.

DN: Then how were you disciplined?

SR: Yelled at mostly.

DN: Why do you think you have this particular fetish?

SR: I think most kids have it but most lose it. Kids know there's such a thing and it's fairly sexy. If you look at little kids, they play a lot of spanking games and the question shouldn't be why I and others have it but why most people outgrow it.

DN: How exactly does spanking figure for spanking fetishists in sexual arousal?

SR: Not sure. The partial nakedness, the control, the caring.

DN: How many women have you personally spanked?

SR: Probably about 40-60. I don't carve notches on my hairbrush so I don't have an accurate answer.

DN: Did they reach orgasms during the spanking?

SR: Most no.

DN: Did they masturbate to reach orgasm?

SR: Some I would guess, not with me present.

DN: With how many did you participate in sex acts?

SR: About half.

DN: Is the person who gives the spanking or the person who receives more likely to reach climax during it?

SR: I haven't the slightest idea. If I had to guess, it would be the recipient.

DN: Do you think most people masturbate while reading spanking stories? While giving spankings? While receiving them?

SR: While reading about them -- yes. While giving or receiving them -- no.

DN: Do you believe any harm can come out of an interest in spanking?

SR: No. I suppose you could always make up a situation where harm could come from excessive Bible reading or excessive soccer playing or just about anything but I don't believe there's anything especially negative attached to an interest in spanking.

DN: Do you know people who've tried to rid themselves of having a spanking fetish?

SR: Yes.

DN: Were any of them successful?

SR: Not that I know of but if they successfully did it I wouldn't know because we'd probably lose contact. But a lot of people will talk about having once purged their selections of spanking magazines or videos but these are people who've come back and deeply regret the purge.

DN: What do you foresee for the future of CF?

SR: We'll keep on keeping on. We're selling more on the Internet and less by mail order but that seems to be the way the world is going in general.