Interview with Syrus Durham (a.k.a. Scidram), Author of Stories That Happen to Involve Shrinking

Syrus Durham has been writing size-fetish content for a long time. His shrinking woman novels “Short Time,” “Desperate Measures,” and “How the Chips May Fall” are on sale at Amazon and other online retailers. Previews of these novels, along with other short stories, are available for free at his DeviantArt account. Syrus also penned the narrative for three comics at ShrinkFan, specifically “A Small Sacrifice,” “Laundry Day,” and “The Littlest Sister.” GiantessFan even included an image and story snippet, entitled “A Big Sacrifice,” in which the protagonist of “A Small Sacrifice” became a giantess. Lastly, Syrus has participated in the SizeRiot contests since WritersOct18. In #GentleApril19, readers selected his story “Sticky Notes” as second place overall, second in two out of six categories, as well as tied for fourth in another category!

#1) Can you tell the readers a little about yourself?

I’ve lived my entire life in New England, and I’ve been writing since at least high school. Back then, I would churn out a new short story every few weeks. They were only a few pages long and handwritten in pencil on unlined notepads, but everyone starts somewhere! Even back then, I wrote about weird or fantastic events happening to normal people. Over time, mostly from taking creative writing classes in college, I was able to write longer and longer stories until I was able to sustain novel-length plots. My degree is in creative writing, and writing is part of my everyday job. Besides my novels written as Syrus Durham, I have several other novels published under other pen names.

#2) How did you first become interested in size-fetish media?

The same way many of us did, by catching a movie or TV show where someone changed size. For me, it was in the early 80s when I saw “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” on cable. Being a bit of a math nerd, I enjoyed imagining what an oversized world would look like. As the years went on, I searched for other movies where people changed size. Though I enjoyed some giantess movies, I kept gravitating toward shrinking movies. I stopped imagining myself as the shrunken one and focused primarily on shrinking women, especially slowly shrinking women. There’s something about those first few inches lost, when the woman wonders what’s happening to her now loose clothing–those feelings of denial that precede the inevitable realization of shrinking–that really resonates in me. Then to do it over and over again transitioning from adult clothes to child clothes to infant clothes to doll clothes to whatever scraps of fabric she can scrounge up, not to mention having to interact with increasingly oversized objects. Wow! Perhaps the fact that my first memory of shrinking people was “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” that I’m so much more interested in slowly shrinking women than anything else. That one night in the dollhouse when she falls asleep on the Ken doll and wakes up the next morning smaller…it left an indelible mark on my psyche!

#3) Are any of your everyday acquaintances aware of your interest?

Only a select few–people I can trust to not look at me as too odd. I had the pleasure of dating a woman a few years back who was intrigued when I shared this fantasy with her. She had never heard of it and wanted to know more. She claimed that brain was the sexiest organ for being able to imagine all sorts of fantasies, and let’s just say that we explored a little. Though we eventually broke up for other reasons, we have remained friends. It’s great having someone in real life that I can talk to about this fantasy. She has read some of my stories and I’ve shown her some of my ShrinkFan comics. She still thinks the idea of shrinking can be hot.

#4) What are a few of your favorite size fantasies from other creators?

I think back to one of the first stories I found when I started searching online in the late 90s. It holds up as one of the best shrinking woman novels I’ve ever read: Princess Parisa’s “The More Things Change.” Also from that time period, Sally Reynolds’s “Slumber Party” was a favorite. A story called “Memoirs of a Shrinking Woman” by an author named db_lou was posted earlier this decade on Minimizer’s old forum, and it remains a favorite. Pseudoclever’s “My Little Sylvia” is also a phenomenal story. And now that I’ve gone to SizeCon and met some people in person and have participated in SizeRiot, I’ve enjoyed works by Taedis, Aborigen, and many others. Actually, I’m thrilled to have found SizeRiot because it has expanded my horizons about what size fiction and fantasies can be.

#5) How would you describe your stories?

I don’t like to describe my stories as merely shrinking woman stories. I write stories that happen to involve shrinking. For example, my novel “Short Time” is really a whodunit mystery story, “Desperate Measures” is really a love story about a married couple on the verge of giving up, and “How the Chips May Fall” is really about secrets a group of friends keep from one another. Really, the stories about the characters, and I look for interesting ways to weave the plot device of shrinking into them. Even my short “Sticky Notes” for SizeRiot’s #GentleApril19 wasn’t about shrinking; it was used metaphorically for something else.

#6) How was your experience working for Interweb Comics? (The company behind ShrinkFan.) How much input were you given on the art for the illustrated comics? Did you see the finished pages before they were published?

I don’t work for Interweb Comics. Like anyone else who wants to, I’ve submitted scripts to be adapted into comics. The experience has been nothing but absolutely fantastic. I feel confident about my ability to construct a story, but I have no illustration abilities whatsoever. As much as I enjoy reading shrinking woman stories, I also enjoy accompanying visuals. To see my work in comic form is surreal and awesome. As for how much input I have, after a script is submitted, I work with an editor, who makes sure the script is clear and well-constructed. I have no input about when a script gets produced or which artist is used, but once it’s in production, I get to see the development of pages from line art to inked to lettered, mainly to make sure that it matches the author’s intent. It’s a wonderful process, and I feel lucky that I can get my work made into comics instead of having to commission the artists myself, and I feel honored that they keep wanting to produce my work. As mentioned above, I have three comic scripts in their catalog, but more have been submitted!

#7) Were you just paid a flat fee for the comics that you wrote, or do you also receive a royalty when fans read the comics?

Once they start producing a script, you get paid a flat fee.

#8) Are there any upcoming projects that you would like to mention?

Another ShrinkFan script I submitted has recently been completed, though its release hasn’t yet been announced. I would assume that’s happening soon! And soon it will be revealed which story I wrote for SizeRiot’s #GiantJuly19 (new ground for me, since the theme is giant man). There’ll be more SizeRiot contests in the future, more ShrinkFan scripts have been submitted, and I really hope to have another novel published in time for February’s SizeCon.

Thank you so much Syrus for this interview!

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