Jim our sweet friend is dying, here is a bit more

Our adventures to find like-minded fetishes people began by looking at publications with contact ads. We found “Encore” and “Epic’s” publisher was hosting an event on April 1, 1989 at “The Queen Mary” in Studio City. It seemed to us like a fantastic way to meet people. We did meet a lot of people including Frank Marsh the publisher (later murdered by one of his sons, more later) and Jim Thompson both of whom became our friends. One month after meeting them, my picture was on the cover of Encore, it was the first of many magazines covers for me. Connecting with Jim was a big opening for us into the culture of kinky.
Jim was managing a store “Versatile Fashions” a fetish fashion boutique with corsets, leather, PVC, rubber, transvestite attire, along with stockings, wigs, whips, restraints, toys, boots and heels in Anaheim Ca, for Mistress Antoinette. Through his work at the store, along with distributing contact magazines, and networking with like-minded people Jim had assembled a sort of S/M fetish community of people. We went to the store thinking of adding to our fetish wear for the day before the event. Jim helped me into a rubber dress, which we all thought would be great for pictures. Later that evening after the store had closed, Jim and Frank came by our hotel room and took pictures. In 1989 all cameras still used film, which needed to be developed at a cost, along with the expense of the film. Most everyone tried to make sure the picture was good before snapping it. Jim would focus and as he composed the shot he would say “Hold it, hold it, hold it” until he got the shot. Everyone remembers him saying that with affection.