The Seduction of Cyrynda Strong is one of my stories which readers, editors, and publishers love and which editors and publishers won’t accept under it’s original title, The Raping of Cyrynda Strong. I explain the original title with:
It is meant to be provocative.
The title comes from my work as a trauma therapist. I have traveled, taught, and lectured widely to therapists, psychologists, and law enforcement that rape is power abuse, not sexual abuse. Sex is the vector for the display of power.
One pathology repeated leagues more than others dealt with people not realizing they were being used and abused. They were not physically harmed, but the psycho-emotional damage was devastating because the victim believed they acted out of love and could not accept their love was being used to control, manipulate, and diminish them.
In the story, an alien uses Cyrynda to get home knowing its action will kill her. She believes “he” is suffering some kind of trauma and giving herself to him will anchor him in reality. Hence the title “The Raping of Cyrynda Strong.”
The story also appears in my Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires Volume 2.
Wherever you read it, hope you enjoy.
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