Going Slow

New blog post! I know it's been a while, but it's been a lot less newsworthy year than last year. I'm sorry to the few fans I have for my silence.

So, what's up, you ask? Writing. The difference this year is that almost none of it is in service to one project. I've had bursts of creativity all year that lead to very productive outpourings of story content, but never on the same story, and never on any of the projects that I feel are the most important to complete. All of my ideas for more mainstream TG novels are percolating. The sequels to "Alien Body Suit: Under Her Skin" are still plotted and outlined but not started. (OK, maybe part of the first chapter of ABS:IM has been worked on, but that's it.) There's a story for a Topside Press collection that has a deadline of December 1st that is only half written.

What I have been working on are two 100+ page stories that are only getting warmed up. One starts off in a way that reads like standard TG transformation fiction but evolves into a family drama. The other has a similar hook at the beginning that's becoming an identity crisis for the main character. I've also worked on maybe a dozen other stories that are 20 - 50 pages long with a variety of themes and transformation methods.

It's very frustrating professionally to find myself wanting to play instead of doing the work that's needed to move my career forward. In terms of pages written, this might actually be my most productive year ever. In terms of projects completed, it's among my worst. The only real silver lining I can see is that if these longer works ever get put up on Amazon, the large page counts will mean more pages read and more revenue for me. I'm also hoping that a longer work at a reasonable price will result in more direct purchases. All of that will - I hope - put me closer to being financially independent as an author.

That's the real goal: to make enough per month to quit my day job. Once I'm my own boss, I'll have an extra forty hours a week to write. Writing at a rate of about a page an hour, that's about 160 pages a month. More if you figure in an extra five hours a week saved by eliminating my commute (20 extra pages a month) and that I'm likely to eat and write at the same time through my lunch (5 hours a week, 20 pages a month). That's a full length novel every three months figuring in editing and rewriting of drafts. Four novels a year. At shorter lengths, that would be two stories a month, or twenty-four stories a year. With those kinds of numbers, I might actually have a body of work I could be proud of before I'm ready to retire.

Monkey Brains

I found this article online today:

Wiring Monkey Brains Together

Looks like "Head Games" has a basis in scientific fact.  :-)

The Sound of Silence

As anyone that reads this blog regularly would know, I normally do a New Year's resolution for my writing plans for the coming year. We're in the first week of February and it hasn't appeared yet. That's not because I have no ideas for what I want to do this year. Instead, it's because I feel like my time to write has been squeezed down to almost nothing. I'm finding it tough to get motivated about planning to write when my time to do the work of writing has all but dried up.

That's all I have for the moment. Just wanted to let the world and those that read my writing know that I have not forgotten you.

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.