Traci Ashbe Dark Epic Fantasy Author

I asked that question in one of my college courses some years ago, in front of a group of students all sitting in a room together. You wouldn’t believe—or maybe you would believe—how deeply uncomfortable that question made them, and I mean all of them. Most people either politely refused to answer or came up with some quick catch-all, like “loss of control” or “being injured” or something, frankly, safe.

Only one person had the guts to actually dig deep into that question and I could see the rest of the class turning on him as he spoke. I don’t remember what he said, but I do remember it was pretty rough, sort of a form of mixed physical and psychological torture. But that’s not the point. The thing that worried me was that out of a dozen people, eleven wouldn’t go there. Or wouldn’t go there in public.

But…