Rory Aiken is my pseudonym as the author of the novel Hypersexual.
My real name is Bradley J. Garso.
The use of a pseudonym was chosen, in this case, because it served as an important mechanism for the transgressive fiction design of the story.
One of the earliest breakthrough moments for me in the conceptual considerations of Hypersexual was the idea to use an author’s pseudonym – and to use that pseudonym as the main character and narrator’s name.
This unusual (though not entirely unique) decision was meant, in part, to help produce the most intimate voice possible for the story. A voice from inside the complicated realities and challenging sex related issues being dealt with.
But equally important, the idea also created a genre bending effect that allowed me to expand the narrative perspective beyond the usual nonfiction single-individual based angle of a memoir, or an autobiography, into something broader in scope and more inclusive. Which was important to me because so much of my information and understanding has come from my intimate and revealing interactions, communications, and relationships with other hypersexuals and sexually deviant persons.
Utilizing the fiction empowered ability to create a protagonist/narrator, as well as an antagonist and other characters, that embodied the real-life attributes from many actual people – including myself and the myriad of persons I’ve known – and which could represent multiple sexual issues, behaviors, and actions that I’d experienced, observed, or been told about, as well as help illustrate the pertinent research points that I’d uncovered, seemed incredibly efficient. Especially when compared to a strictly limited nonfiction approach.
However, these genre bending writing choices and methods have also led to my being questioned by several early readers, including my editors, about whether or not the nature of my book is more or less thinly veiled fiction – in large part because it seemed so vivid it must be descriptions of real occurrences. Which I’ve learned to accept as a compliment, and which I eventually began responding to with a simple “Thank you.”
Because, while the entire storyline and manuscript is fictional, my intention from the beginning has been to create a book that feels – for the readers – as personally unveiling as is possible.
From the outset of this project I’ve tried to merge the informed fiction of the story into a narrative tone that assimilates an intimately shared secret.
Which, I’m hopeful, will produce an interesting, surprisingly informative, and meaningful experience for readers.
Author’s Note: Hypersexual is not about the authors individual life, specific childhood, or family life; Hypersexual is a Novel about many of the often turned-away-from sexual realities and severely challenging sex related issues that have played a part in shaping the lives of countless children, families, and persons like myself.