Interview with Taedis, an author with an offbeat imagination

Taedis is a writer of size-fetish fiction, focusing on shrunken men with normal-size women. He has a number of stories for sale on Amazon in e-book format. A few, such as “belittled” and “Failure”, are currently available in hard copy at Amazon and Lulu. Taedis has also been a presence at SizeCon from the beginning, and will attend SizeCon 2020 in mid-February next year. Additionally, Taedis has participated in the SizeRiot contests since their start with CruelJan17. He won the competitions in CruelJan19 and GentleApril19!

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

Most of the time I’m a white guy in my late 40’s. I was raised by my grandparents in northern New England and have stayed in the region my adult life. I love baseball, Doctor Who, Broadway musicals, and MST3K. I’ve been a writer as long as I can remember, but I’ve only figured out how to finish a project a few years ago. While I figure out how to make the writing pay the bills I spend my days as a rubber miller for a small local company. It’s a decent day job and it gives me time to think. I wrote my first novel in 2015 and haven’t stopped since.

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

My interest in size started early. The earliest size memory I can recall is watching Mike TV get shrunk and put in his mother’s purse in Willy Wonka, but there might have been something else before that. The pop culture I grew up in was full of shrinking or colossal men. There was a line of toys called Micronauts that I loved. They had a tie-in comic full of sci-fi adventures in a microverse. When the heroes of the comic eventually came to Earth they were the size of the toys I was playing with. Between them and my Star Wars action figures (they were the same scale) I wanted to be get down on that level and ride all the fantastic vehicles.

I do know exactly when my interest in size turned into a fetish. It was elementary school. We’d just read a Shel Silverstein poem in class called “One Inch Tall” about what it would be like to be … wait for it … one inch tall. After class I was in line for the boys’ room and was talking about it to one of the guys.

Me: Imagine being one inch tall.

Other Boy: Imagine being put in her BRA.

I was doomed.

#3) How do you feel about the state of size fetish today?

I may be overly optimistic, but I see this as a bit of a golden age. Yes, there are trolls and haters out there, but we have numerous communities built up around the web. We have some amazingly talented people doing incredible work. That work can be found anywhere from Deviantart to Twitter, Amazon to Facebook, and the web pages of dozens of creators. We have Aborigen’s SizeRiot. We have SizeCon. It’s an exciting time to be alive.

#4) How many of your everyday acquaintances are aware of your interest?

I used my writing to come out to my wife. In 2015 my day job had a slow down and I decided to use the time to finally write a novel. I told my wife about my plan to self publish some smut and that I’d researched the market. I let her know that I was pretty sure I could write shrinking man smut pretty well. She took it very well. As time went by I told her why I thought I’d be able to write about men playing slip-and-slide on their girlfriend’s bare back.

My wife’s parents know and have read some of my SFW size material. My mom was very supportive when I told her what I write; I ended up mailing her print copies of four of my books. About a dozen of my closest friends know. Two of them read my first novel and attended the first SizeCon with me.

There are some more conservative members of the family and friends who I likely will never tell.

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

DreamTales wrote a number of stories that connected with me on a very deep level back when I was first searching the net for size content. Especially the ones that involved super heroes being stripped of their powers, size, and clothes.

“An Interesting Week” by DreamWatch might have been the single best size fantasy I read back in the day. Even now I can’t help but feel a powerful emotional/erotic charge thinking about the protagonist helplessly watching as the victim of his voyeurism unknowingly vacuums up his only way of returning to normal.

Taking it outside the confines of fetish I have at least mention Matheson’s “Shrinking Man.” The protagonist is a study in toxic masculinity and the scene with Scott hitchhiking is more than problematic, but the focus on a shrunken character’s inner life, the non-linear storytelling, and Matheson’s crisp writing make this a story that has to at least be addressed.

For more recent stories I’ve got a list of usual suspects. Undersquid, Aborigen, Miss Kaneda, RobClassact, JDO, Scidram, Reducer Sizechanger, Anoka Kon, Praedatorius, Elle Largesse, Njord, and Nyx.

#6) How would you describe your stories?

Literary pulp adventure smut with in-jokes. I like to focus on the psychological impact of size change as much as the physical. It’s important to me that my tiny protagonist has more to do than get punished and/or have sexy times.

In terms of subject matter I mostly write about men getting shrunk and put through various obscene scenarios. I have ventured into shrunken woman, giant man, and true giant woman content to varying degrees. In terms of light vs darkness/gentle vs cruel I’m all over the map.

#7) Do you have a regular writing schedule?

As much as I can with my day job and family obligations. I try to write 20-25 hours a week with most of that coming on the weekends.

#8) Many of your stories are comparatively lengthy compared to other works in the genre. For example, “Failure” contains an impressive 229,000 words. How long did it take to write that?

“Failure” took about nine months to complete, but it required a more intense writing schedule; 3-5 hours on weeknights and 10-12 hours a day on weekends.

#9) Do you have any upcoming projects that you would like to mention?

I’m close to releasing a new book called Desperate Nora. It’s based on a commission, but I’m not sure how my client wants to be identified. Nora is a brilliant young scientist who gets exposed to an experimental compound that elevates her libido and (at first) causes her to shrink whenever she orgasms. She shrinks multiple times at the hands of an abusive male co-worker before taking the growth formula and getting her giant revenge on her abuser. She’ll go through several growth spurts eventually getting large enough to rampage through the streets of Baltimore. It’s not my darkest story, but it does get pretty dark at times. And it’s very NSFW.

I’m participating in the next SizeRiot story contest, but I can’t say anything about that yet.

I do hope to have another book (in addition to Desperate Nora) ready for SizeCon in February. Time will tell.

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Thank you so much Taedis for this interview!

You can buy his stories at the following sites:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Taedis/e/B013XTJ7AI

Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=1570270

Additionally, please check out Taedis’ blog, DeviantArt, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.

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