New Story: "Stocking Stuffers"

Now available for sale on Amazon is my Christmas story, "Stocking Stuffers."

Story Description:

A Holiday tale of transgender transformation. 

Just in time for Christmas, a man gets the gift of gams after admiring the legs of a trio of women dressed as Santa’s elves. Will he be able to return the gift of these long, elegant legs, or will he be stuck with these "Stocking Stuffers" for good? 

(Transgender Erotic Fiction, Approximately 38,100 words)

If you follow my Twitter feed or my blog, than you already know what I'm going to say next: this story will be available for FREE from this Friday, 11/28/14 through Tuesday 12/2/14. I'm calling this a Black Friday sale, but it's really just a way to say "Thank You" to everyone that likes my stories, or has thought of buying one but didn't want to pay the price. Now's your chance! Get the story this weekend before it reverts to the full, normal price of $5.95.

As a side note to future readers that have already read the whole story, yes, the outfit on the cover doesn't appear in the story. Personally, I like the outfit in the story better, but I'm limited by what photos I can find for use at sites like Shutterstock. I was considering using this image instead, but it's still not a good match for the lingerie in the story, and it doesn't really show enough of the titular "Stocking Stuffers." The extra leg seen in the photo I ended up using is, I think, much more appropriate to the title while still having obvious Christmas ... let's call it "spirit." ;-)

The story itself does not include any sex and is overall pretty PG-13. OK, maybe R for nudity, but still pretty tame. At the end, things gets a little sentimental. If that's not your thing ... well, it's still free. Why not check it out anyway? You may find something to like about it. Perhaps the slow transformation, or the elf costume.

Still to come, an Amazon Kindle Countdown deal as we draw closer to Christmas. Again, this is because I want to make the story available for as little as possible for as long as possible as a way to say "Thank You" to everyone for their support. If anyone wants to thank me for doing this, please leave a review for the story on Amazon.

I hope you enjoy it! 

Christmas Is Coming Early

Within the next day or so, I'll be publishing my next story, a Christmas story, for FREE.

The plan is to submit it tomorrow morning so that it will be published by the time I get home from work. Once it's up, I can put on the promotion to make it FREE (yes, FREE) from Black Friday through this coming Sunday (11/28/14 - 11/30/14). So, be warned. It will be up for $5.95 as soon as tomorrow night, in case you really, really can't wait. Those that are patient enough to wait for Friday can get it for FREE. I think I may have mentioned that once or twice already.

I'd prefer to wait until Thursday to post, then add the promo Thursday night for the next morning to minimize the chance that someone buys it at full cost by mistake. With the holiday, though, that doesn't seem like the wisest course of action. It also give me less time to post notices on TG Comics and Fictionmania to let people know it's up for FREE for the weekend.

After that, I intend to put up a holiday countdown promotion so that the story will scale up in price as the holiday approaches. That's not exactly ideal, but as long as I've committed to distributing through Amazon, these are the tools I have to work with.

One last thing. I do not approve of retailers cutting into the Thanksgiving holiday by starting their Black Friday sales on Thursday. So, no free story until Friday. Them's the breaks, folks.

The Plan

Here's the breakdown of my current plans:

1. Edit and post the next installment of my "Turned Into a Love Doll" (TIALD) series. It's written. I just have to get around to putting it up for sale on Amazon. 
2. Finish writing the Epilogue for the last story in the TIALD series.
3. Find a good cover image for use with that last story.
4. Edit and post the last installment of TIALD. 
5. Edit and post my Christmas story, which is already almost ready to go. 
6. Set up a Black Friday sale so that my Christmas story is available for free Thanksgiving weekend. 
7. Set up a Christmas Countdown sale so that the story is available for as little as possible for as long as possible as a thank you to those who like my stories. 
8. Finish the sequels to "Under Her Skin." 
9. Write a screenplay based on an idea for a full length, mainstream-ish movie I've had for a long time now. I've even written the first few pages of it already. Yes, it includes TG transformations as a major plot point. It's kind of a mix of Gothika and Don't Say A Word.
10. Write a more literary novel that I've been fleshing out in outline form. It would involve a more real life transition, but in a unique way.
11. Become rich from my movie and book and retire to the islands. (Ha ha.)

Time will reveal how far I actually get. 

Trope Fatigue

I am really, really sick of the word "trope." It is so very overused.

For those that don't know or care, "trope" has come into common use among those that discuss fiction. What is a trope? Under it's current use, it's any idea that has been used more than once in a TV, movie, or other popular entertainment. The girl next door? Trope. The happy hooker? Trope. The bad guy that pretends to be a good guy to get the girl? Trope. Car chase? Trope. The slow clap? Trope.

This is my problem with the way the word is being used. It's meaning is so broad that it holds very little meaning. It has a somewhat negative connotation, as if the author that uses it is being lazy or unoriginal. This, by the way, is bullshit. Just because a "trope" is used - or even overused - doesn't make it bad. "The guy gets the girl in the end" is a trope, but there are many, many examples of it being used in entertaining and original ways. I would much rather have someone say that a story is weak because it's predictable and boring than because it uses a common trope. The first gives me something to work on. The second is too generic to be meaningful.

When will people critiquing fiction realize that it isn't about the elements an author uses? It's the skill that's used to combine them.

New Story: "The Birthday Girl"

Time for the last of my longer stories for the summer. "The Birthday Girl" is now up for sale on Amazon. I was originally going to call this story "Bitch and Moan," (BaM) but it didn't really seem to be a good fit for the story as a whole, so I changed it.

This story is the second time this year that I've had something almost done (or so I thought), only to end up with WAY more pages added at the end to tie things up. For those that read my blog regularly, or my Twitter feed (@TGAuthor), you may have seen me do some complaining / procrastinating on this one. Trust me, that's par for the course. I normally just keep it private. In this case, because I'd promised a longer story in July, I felt the need to be a little more open about my process.

I have to say that I'm really, really happy with the cover for this one. Being the worrywart that I am, I felt it might be a little too reminiscent of the cover for "The Cardinal Sins," but I think it's different enough to stand on its own. Plus, it uses elements of the story, which I always love. (The red satin sheets. The black lace lingerie.) I didn't notice until the last minute that the stockings are fishnets. I also wish the model had a better hip to waist ratio. All in all, minor gripes. I guess my inner perfectionist will just have to put on her straitjacket for a while until she calms down.

The story itself is pretty NC-17. To use Femur's proposed rating system:
Genre: Slice-of-Life / Magic
Transformation: Magic Transformation, Full XX Change, M2F Transformation, F2M Transformation
Transformation Details: Forced, Ravished, Transformation As Punishment, Tricked
Sexual Preferences: Pre-Hetero, Post-Unsure

In fact, this is the story I was describing in the thread. You'll notice I left out the "Bad Boy to Good Girl" from the transformation description. That's because the primary character is more of a "Bad Boy to Bad Girl" in this story. I mean, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you can't help feeling (IMHO) like he's always going to be a difficult person to like, no matter what his gender is.

Story Description:

A man's long-suffering girlfriend throws a very special party for herself to celebrate her twenty-fifth birthday. Her plans include decorations, dressing up, alcohol, black lace lingerie, red satin sheets, candlelight, lovemaking, a very special meal, cake and a big helping of revenge! By the time this party's over, it will be a night "The Birthday Girl" will never be able to forget.

(Transgender Erotic Fiction, Approximately 33,800 words)

This story came in at 53 pages in my standard format. I priced it at $4.95 because I wanted it to come in under five bucks. Next up, the final two chapters of the Turned Into A Love Doll series. The next chapter is done. The last chapter just needs an epilogue to tie up the loose ends and give the story some closure. Fingers crossed for that to go quick!

Finished!

I finished the story I've been working on last night. I ended up rewriting that last few pages to remove a pronoun shift that I'd previously included. It felt both constipated and premature, so I took it out. I like the ending I managed to reach.

Now I just have to reread it to edit out any typos, grammatical errors and generally spruce it up. It should be out by Monday at the latest on Amazon.

Schrodinger's Cat

Last post for bit, I promise. Just let me get this thought out and I'll go right back to work.

I both love and hate finishing a story. On the one hand, it's done. Yay! On the other hand, the story is then fixed. Boo! Scenes you've imagined that have no place in the final draft have to go in the dustbin. Things that contradict the continuity must likewise be discarded. It doesn't matter how much you like a particular scene, character, turn of phrase or outcome. If it doesn't serve the story, it's got to go. Unless you want the story to suffer, which is - let's face facts - just plain sadistic. Or is that masochistic? After all, bad editing decisions tend to hurt the author more than anyone else.

I hate having two good endings. I've made my decision about which one I've chosen, but for now, as long as the ending remains unwritten, both of them still exist as possibilities. Like Schrodinger's Cat, they are, for the moment, still both alive.

But one of these cats must die. Observation requires an outcome.