Interview with Powell Donovan

Q. Hello, Mr. Donovan.

A. Hi there.

Q. Is your name really Powell Donovan?

A. Why, no. Did you really ask that question? I suppose you believe that George Eliot's name was really George Eliot, or that Adrian Leverkuehn (of this site, check him out, he's really good) is really named Adrian Leverkuehn? I won't even go into the more obvious pseudonyms.

Q. Well, what is your real name, then?

A. (silence)

Q. Okay, okay. At least tell me this: why did you pick the name "Powell Donovan"?

A. (still miffed) For Isaac Asimov's Powell and Donovan stories.

Q. What are they about? Are they erotica?

A. No, they're about robots. Asimov wrote a bunch of stories in the 1950s about two guys named Gregory Powell and Michael Donovan who were specialists in figuring out why robots were misbehaving. Their stories show up in his collection I, Robot (nothing to do with the Will Smith movie) and in a later collection called The Complete Robot.

Q. Ah. And how many of these stories are there?

A. Four.

Q. Um. I see. And you picked their names in forming your pseudonym because they are your favorite stories?

A. I think anyone who has a favorite story can't have read very many of them.

Q. (silence)

A. The name "Powell Donovan" was free on both Literotica and GMail, you see.

Q. Oh.

A. (mumbles) Well, it was.

Q. Okay then, tell me this: what's your favorite Powell/Donovan story?

A. Well. Hmm. My favorite Asimov Powell and Donovan story is called "Reason". It's about a robot who thinks he's the Messiah, and -- well, go read it yourself. But my favorite Powell slash Donovan story, emphasis on slash, is undoubtedly "Nice Work If You Can Get It", by shalott. (Google for it by title, in quotes of course, and author's name, and you'll easily find it from any of the top few hits.) Pure Asimov robot-puzzle story plus erotica, sensibly motivated for once, plus sensahuma.

Q. Um. Right. To carry on, then: Why don't you write sequels? Eight out of ten stories on Literotica are parts of series, anywhere from two or three parts to sixty or more.

A. As I've explained before, I'm most interested in my characters at the point where their lives are changing completely. In an incest story, that's the point where they engage in sex with their family members (who previously have been not only off-limits, but often not perceived as sexual at all) for the first time. A story like that either pulls in more and more family members, straining credibility to or beyond the breaking point, or it just becomes repetitive more of the same. Who wants to read about the tenth or hundredth or thousandth time a man sleeps with his daughter?

Q. Apparently a lot of people.

A. Well, I can't help that. My stories are intended to make me come, and if possible, other people too. The people who write comments consistently rate my stories very high, although of course people who hate them or are bored by them probably won't bother to write comments, so that's hardly surprising.

Q. Why do you spell it "come" instead of "cum"?

A. Personal prejudice. The spelling "cum" looks funny to me and probably always will.

Q. How many Powell Donovan stories are there in the closet?

A. Probably hundreds altogether. I went through them all to choose the good stuff, but I didn't count them.

Q. How many of them will always remain in the closet (unless you throw them out)?

A. Almost all of them, fortunately. You wouldn't want to read the rest (or maybe you would, but I wouldn't want to be associated with them). They are one or more of: too crude, too blatant, too subtle, too fancy, or (worst of sins) too boring. So in the closet they stay, unless I do indeed throw them out.

Q. So how many are you going to publish?

A. About forty. I've typed them all into the computer now, and made lots of edits to improve them (I hope). It's just a matter of waiting for Literotica to publish them all.

Q. How long have these stories been piling up in your closet? And are they really on paper?

A. I'd have to check to be sure, but I think the first one I consider publishable was in 1991. Yes, they're on paper.

Q. How often does a new Powell Donovan story come out?

A. About every five days, since that's the time it takes Literotica to publish a submission. I don't like to have more than one in the queue at a time, and anyway, antici-(say it!)-pation only encourages the readership.

Q. What's your comment policy?

A. I love 'em. The more the better. I haven't had to delete a comment yet, though I might have to one day.

Q. And private mails?

A. All good.

Q. I hear you send replies.

A. I always reply to a comment or private mail if you give me an email address to reply to. What's more, if you tell me what you like, you'll hear from me when I publish a new story (or sometimes beforehand) when I publish another one that I think might be to your taste.

Q. Are they all incest stories?

A. No, only about half. Sometimes I decide a story doesn't really benefit from the incest element, and I edit it a bit to remove that part. Others were never incest stories to start with. Anyway, if there's any incest element at all, the story has to go in the Incest/Taboo category, even if the theme is mostly something else altogether.

Q. Why incest, anyhow?

A. I think it's about the excitement of breaking taboos, now that there are so few left to break. I understand it's the most popular category on Literotica, anyhow, so there must be plenty of people to agree with me. And certainly when it comes to life-changing events, there can hardly be anything more life-changing than becoming a motherfucker (or whatever).

Q. Do you engage in incest? Do you think everyone should?

A. (gently) If I did, you'd hardly expect me to tell you, would you? But no, I don't. I don't even have any sexual interest in any of my relatives. And I think it's a bad idea to mix up power relationships of any kind (like parent/child or boss/employee or teacher/student) with sex. But as fantasy, I think it's hot.

Q. And the other stories? Do they represent personal experience?

A. No, no, and no. In all respects but two, my sex life is boringly vanilla (to anyone else, that is; I think it's wonderful). As it says in my bio, my stories are 100% fiction, and the opinions of the characters are not necessarily those of the author or anyone else.

Q. Which two?

A. (laughs) That would be telling!

Q. Well. Why do some of your stories have titles like "Donovan's Maiden Aunts"?

A. (laughs again) I don't think I have that one! But generally the stories called "Donovan's" something or other are two shorter pieces I've put together, usually for contrast. Literotica has a lower limit on how short a story can be, so that's how I get around it.

Q. Are you writing new stories these days?

A. Not really. I think the last story in the closet is from 2004 or so. But anything is possible, I suppose.

Q. Well, thanks for your time, Mr. Donovan.

A. My time is yours.