Diving into Illumination

Introducing Britni Pepper

“Brightening?” asked the new girl. “Sounds like fun. What is it?”

“Housecleaning,” grumbled another girl.

Meditation was at dawn, so we had to be out of bed well before then, to shower, brush our teeth, put on our clothes — no uniform, but if your knees or elbows were visible, you were sent back — and settle down in the hall for half an hour of perfect stillness.

Meditation was followed by Sounding — the Sanskrit mistress led us all in our prayers and chanting, making sure we all had our mouths and tongues and lips in exactly the right positions.

Then, in a state of enlightenment, we assembled for Brightening, where the In Charge handed out jobs, along with mops, dusters, vacuum cleaners to pairs of girls who went off to scrub the toilets, sweep the paths, polish the windows and so on.

And then, finally, breakfast.

The day was full of housework and schoolwork. We prepared every meal, served it, cleaned up after, and left the house spotless before it began again the next morning.

Believe it or not, I enjoyed the discipline. The work was never onerous, we had good company in each other, and we discussed deep things: the soul, Shakespeare, Sanskrit literature, Socrates. I missed it when I left at eighteen, but if I had stayed, I would have been asked to marry a man fifteen years older, and I wasn’t ready for that.

Sex was my adventure

One day I’ll tell the story of my entrance into the real world, coinciding with university, an investigation of the possibilities of young — and old— men, and the turmoil of life in a post 9/11 world. It was an adventure and a half.

Stick around!

Writing about sex was an accident. I heard about how easy it is to self-publish on platforms like Amazon Kindle — and it is; just submit a Word file and tick a few boxes — so I investigated some of the results of this concept.

One of the stories I read was erotica, based around a skinny nerd and an “Indian auntie” instructor at a computer coding camp. It was so awful that I gasped in horror. “I can do better than that,” I thought. And I did.

Since then I’ve published a few more saucy stories, made a few sales, had people say nice things about my work, and entered a weird and wonderful writing world.

The #WritingCommunity on Twitter is a magic place. Endlessly supportive, a bottomless stream of ideas, bubbling enthusiasm; I could dip in and emerge an hour later refreshed, a great new idea or three whirling in my mind, and another hundred followers richer.

Writing about sex is always fun. I like to tell spicy stories, and I know people like to read them. I just need to be a little more discreet, perhaps. Last year I was on a long-haul flight — in Economy, alas! — pounding away at my latest erotic masterpiece when there was a gasp of horror from the lady beside me. I had to suspend writing for a bit, for fear she’d buzz the flight attendant and lodge a complaint.

Sex, travel, and cameras: oh my!

Writing seems to be about self-promotion more than talent, at least in the self-publishing world, and I set up a blog to help point people towards my published efforts. As part of the “tat for tit” environment, I began reading and reviewing the work of others and writing about whatever interesting thoughts crossed my mind, and this naturally led me to Medium, and well, here I am.

I have three main interests in life. Sex — of course, but I suspect I share that with everybody else — travel, and photography.

My working life has been in the travel industry, and I’ve been lucky enough to travel around the world nine times and visit some interesting places. The sky-high shower suites aboard the Emirates A380 superjumbo, Persepolis, Omaha Beach, Skara Brae, the Bernina Express, Strawberry Fields, Hiroshima, the Great Ocean Road, Route 66 and many more.

Photography isn’t about the camera so much as the light. A good photographer reads the illumination around her, raises her camera and captures the photons at the precise best moment.

Or finds it later on in software. Bit of a cheat, that, but a lot of fun!

I just dip into my memories and my photostream to come up with an easy story. Just add wings of imagination for a flight of fancy!

A little about me

Tall, blonde, mid-30s, Australian. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I speak English and dabble in Sanskrit, German, French and Italian.

One cat — Princess Fluffypants — who enjoys birdwatching, dining, meditation, and warm affection.

Two chooks in a backyard enclosure, who produce the occasional egg, turn kitchen scraps into mulch, and whenever I let them have a romp in the yard, dig up the soil with happy faces.

Various cockatoos, parrots, magpies, kookaburras and more pigeons than I really want. I make friends with them all, via birdseed and the occasional bit of kibble. Princess Fluffypants tries to get closer, but they regard her with mixed emotions: fear and mistrust.

Missing my international travel this year. I had a week in New Zealand, and I’ve missed out on a long-planned mountain trek in Japan. Then again, I’m here to look forward to the end of the isolation, and so many thousands of others aren’t, so there’s luck.

Medium well done

I joined Medium late last year. A little hesitant at first, but when I discovered how it worked, I dived in, tarted putting out an article every day, enjoying the platform. And the company.

There is nothing quite so enjoyable as being part of a community of diverse creative writers, each one busily exploring the world, sparking off the others, picking up themes and taking them for a test flight.

Medium is good, but on looking around the Illumination village, I think I might just settle down and enjoy myself.

Thanks for reading. I’m on various social media, always happy to engage.

Britni

@britnipepper on Twitter

Britni Pepper on Facebook

Spice and Sauce in the blogiverse

Britni Pepper on Flickr

Also on the Illumination Slack channel, and email at Google.

Some of my favourite Medium stories: