The main person is Jim Drew.  I came into the leather community in the early 1990s in the Bay Area, and moved to Seattle in 2000, where I have been very active.  Amongst my accomplishments are 2nd runner-up to Mr. International Rubber 2000 and 2001, Seattle Leather Daddy 2004, and recipient of a Washington State Mr. & Ms. Leather Organization Leather Emerald Award (2003), Seattle Men in Leather’s Man of the Year award (2004), and Generic Leather Productions of Washington’s Man of the Year award (2005).  I have served on the boards of Seattle Men in Leather and Seattle’s Sex-Positive Community Center (aka the Wet Spot).  In less leather-specific arenas, I spent four years as an editorial cartoonist, reviewer, and reporter for the Silicon Valley gay newspaper OutNOW! in the mid-90s, I have been a country-western dance performer, choreographer, and instructor, I was the secretary for the International Association of Gay/Lesbian Country Western Dance Clubs (IAGLCWDC) for three years, and I run the small design company (graphic/print/t-shirts) CFM Designs.

For information about why I have put together SoundsKinky, read this story.

SoundsKinky is dedicated to “leather oral history,” which we define as stories about the leather community and the leather lifestyle, as told by the individuals who experienced them (or sometimes by those to whom the stories were told).

In many cases, these are personal stories – why I did this, what happened when we were there, how that event came together – filled with humor, touching moments, and “Oh, did I forget to mention…” tangential digressions.  In other cases, they are somewhat dispassionate recountings of events, loaded with names and facts but perhaps distanced from emotion.  Both sorts of stories are welcomed and encouraged, because leather community history requires both.

If you have photos, drawings, ephemera (event posters and programs, pins, patches, etc.), or even audio and video clips, we would love to include them along with the text stories, as such items can really make the stories come alive.  (Digital photo and scans of physical items, and duplicates of audio or video are best.  Keep the originals for your own mementos, or send them to the Leather Archives & Museum.)

Porn: While sex is an intrinsic part of the leather community’s nature, SoundsKinky is not a site hosting jerk-off materials.  (Even if they are true.)  Of course, some stories included on SoundsKinky may have sexual content to them, but that should not be the primary focus of the story.

Fiction: As with Porn, Fiction has its place, but that place is not at SoundsKinky.  We want to provide true stories (or at least stories that are intended to be true; for each person who experienced something, there’s a different yet also true story to be told).

News Reports and Press Releases: SoundsKinky archives the stories of individuals rather than journalistic articles (although we may link to such items from within given stories).

Essays and Opinion: Midway toward the truth from Fiction are opinion and editorial essays.  We love the fact that you have strongly held opinions on some subject pertinent to the leather community, but SoundsKinky is not the proper place for such items.  (Have you considered starting a blog?)

Dish and Dirt: Stories which have an obvious agenda, or which spread innuendo and gossip, will not be included in SoundsKinky.  A rule of thumb is to wait at least a year after the events in the story before sending it to us.  That allows the dust to settle, tempers to calm, truth to separate from fiction, and the value of a story to become clear.  (Make no mistake, however: some of the best leather stories have negative parts to them.  It may be wisest to leave out specific names where hurt feelings might arise.)

Ideally, a story could be presented exactly as it is delivered to us.  In practice, though, it needs editing and fact checking.  At the very least, spell checking and formatting needs to be done.  We reserve the right to edit for accuracy, completeness, and readability.  We will do our best to retain both the content and intent of the storyteller, while ensuring maximum accessibility to readers; we will do our best to retain the exact wording used by the storyteller where possible.

Some stories come as transcriptions of interviews or spoken talks.  Such are rarely appropriate for direct dispersal, since people rarely speak in a manner ideal for reading, loading their speech with “um” and “so” and run-on sentences.  In other cases, extraneous content may need to be trimmed to better highlight the core story.  And some people, to be frank, are not skilled writers, and others are simply more interested in getting the story told than on the niceties of grammar.  (We agree!  By all means, tell the story first, and let us worry about the dangling prepositions.)

Prior to posting any story, we will give the submitter the opportunity to review the edited version.  This will allow further modification, expansion, and correction to occur, and if need be, the entire story can be withdrawn prior to going live.

This is a sticky point.  In some cases, the individuals involved in a story may not wish to be identified with they full names, preferring a nickname, a scene name, or just a first name and last initial.  In many cases, the people involved may not even be alive to express their opinions on the matter today.  When there is no information to the contrary, SoundsKinky will err on the side of completeness (and on the side of having a more useful index): we will use first and last names unless directed otherwise, and we will include nicknames and scene names where available.

At the same time, we do not want to cause stress or problems for anyone, and if contacted about preferred names to use, we will be glad to change such in a prompt manner.  (Note that such contact needs to be legitimate, from the individual or the individual’s estate.  Information that "John Smith should always be listed as ‘Master High Horse’ needs to come from Mr. Smith himself.)  If need be, entire stories can be removed.

Definitely.  “All stories are true,” as the saying goes, but not all stories are correct.  Or complete.

With each story, we include a comment link, allowing you to send us an e-mail.  Please let us know any corrections, expansions, or comments you have about the story.

For comments which are pertinent, we will post them as addenda to the story, with metadata and index tracking of their own.  For that reason, we ask that commenters be willing to provide a name and contact information, although such can be kept private if desired.

Comments are subject to the same guidelines for appropriate content and editing as full stories.  Longer comments may be turned into full story entries of their own, as appropriate.

I live in Seattle, so it’s only natural that much of the early content will relate to Seattle and other Northwest locations and their events.  This will even out over time, as stories from other areas are added.

Only via inspiration.

Not directly.  SoundsKinky supports the goals of the Leather Archives & Museum, and will seek to work with them, including eventually providing a paper archive of the stories in this site to be stored there.

And we recommend that you become a member of the organization.