The Pleasure's All Mine: Memoir of a Professional Submissive [Paperback]

Joan Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2006

When Joan Kelly took a weekend job as a professional submissive in a private dungeon, it seemed she'd finally found a perfect outlet for her pent-up desires. Suddenly, Joan was being paid to do things she'd only fantasized about. Having spent several years scouring the Internet unsuccessfully for a man who would dominate her in the bedroom without getting on her nerves outside of it, Joan had nearly lost hope of satisfying her sexually submissive urges. Now, using her professional name, "Marnie," she was being paid to do only what she felt like with kinky men who didn't even expect to have any real sex in their sessions. To Joan, it almost felt like being paid to practice the art of self-centeredness–—except for the part where she had to kneel and address strangers as "Master." The Pleasure's All Mine offers the reader a rare, intimate, often amusing, sometimes disturbing look into the life of a professional submissive–—one whose drive for self-acceptance and respect is as relentless as her sexual need for the services she provides. Readers will experience many humorous, bizarre, frightening, and utterly entertaining events through the perceptive and insightful eyes of this writer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The sweet-natured daughter of a teacher and school principal, Kelly is initially an unlikely player in the sadomasochism realm, more like a journalist reporting on an underground scene. But in relaying her love of paddling, spanking and caning, Kelly emerges as a true submissive, not just an observer. Her journey—and it's a fascinating one—begins when she takes a weekend job as a professional submissive in a "private dungeon." Pent-up with sexual frustration after a breakup with her first master, she's by turns ravenous for punishment and nervous from inexperience. Eventually, she decides to work independently, a rare strategy for a submissive, more common for a dominatrix. With wit and enthrallment, Kelly details encounters that involve various kinky preferences by both her clients and herself, and balances questions of self-worth with scenes of being tied up and whipped. Although the book is predominantly a memoir of Kelly's foray into the kink world, it's also a manifesto about one woman's joy in sex work. Some clients do provoke a creeping dread, but nothing untoward happens to dampen the "pro sub's" enthusiasm, and ultimately Kelly provides a compelling tale of letting go, finding pleasure and getting paid for it. (Feb. 14)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Joan Kelly grew up in a middle-class Southern California neighborhood, the daughter of a teacher and a school principal. Her writing has been published in Ben is Dead, BUST, Kitchen Sink Magazine, and a 2006 anthology about women and horses. Currently a fourth-year undergraduate student at Antioch University in Los Angeles, she is a member of the writer’s group Women at Work. Joan lives in Southern California and, in addition to being semi-obsessed with feminism, she enjoys spending time with her friends and her pets.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (February 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786716487
• ISBN-13: 978-0786716487
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #490,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I brought two kinds of cuffs.", August 30, 2006

By 

girldiver "Enjoy!" (tangled up in blue.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pleasure's All Mine: Memoir of a Professional Submissive (Paperback)

When does a person go from asking why to why not? In a way, that is what Joan Kelly asks through out this memoir of her professional submission. At first, I wasn't so sure I liked Joan Kelly; she came across as aloof and subdued but then she is a submissive. Of course, you realize that she does have a strong will and certainly many personal opinions. I still don't know if I like her but I am most certainly intrigued by her.

"The Memoir of a Professional Submissive" begins with Joan's search to fulfill her desire to submit by attending a BDSM club demonstration. Unlike some, Joan already knows she needs to pursue a submissive role to gain sexual gratification. She's seeking out her fulfillment unsure how to go about it. After stumbling through a few awkward situations she finally ends up at a commercial dungeon for BDSM as a professional submissive. Joan Kelly grants us the privilege of sharing in her journey as a professional submissive. You might not like the journey she takes or the situations she puts herself in but you will certainly be compelled to read each page with pensive interest.

Joan Kelly writes of her journey with wonderful ease and a tempered pace that lends itself nicely to the gradual penetration in to the lifestyle of a professional submissive. This is not some pumped up porn fantasy but a small opening into an alternative lifestyle one woman takes to feel gratification and pay the rent. You can't help feel that this woman was no victim of circumstance but an explorer of self, which brings us back to the question of why or why not. Some of the actions in this book goes beyond what is accepted by the majority and at the same time you read it and societies morality isn't all that important to the discovery of self.

I felt a lot of emotion reading this book. Joan Kelly emblazons her every whim, care, opinion, and most of all her vulnerability into the pages of her memoir. There is a casualness to her writing that lends itself to an intimacy that is rare and delightful.

girldiver:)

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars different paths, March 21, 2006

By 

Sandy Park (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pleasure's All Mine: Memoir of a Professional Submissive (Paperback)

I don't know if there are other books out there describing the journey of a professional submissive, but I enjoyed reading WHY Joan made the choices she did, her difficulties along the way and her courage to find what she needed. One of the main things this book does is show that "submissive" does not equal "doormat."

Her story is bound (pun intended) to strike a chord with many submissives who are NOT professional but who are also searching for that special connection. And it provides a highly personal view into the desires, fears, highs and lows that can accompany a dominant/submissive exchange.

Beyond the sexual nature of the subject matter, it is at heart a story of finding and accepting one's self.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book if not a bit whiney at times, January 14, 2008

By 

J. O'Hara (Southern, ME. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pleasure's All Mine: Memoir of a Professional Submissive (Paperback)

A well written book and it was a fast read. Here is the the problem I had with this book... she presents herself as a submissive for hire/professional submissive in the summery and in the book it reads more like a woman in search of a husband/Master. She lacks the objectivity to do the job, falling in love with her clients, feeling depressed when they don't stay longer than what they have contracted her for. As disappointing a story as The Puppy Papers but better written.