"Busted!"

Oh, Femur. I know that great minds think alike and all, but I'm sad to lose the title for one of my favorite story concepts.

Femur's "Busted" (no exclamation point) is a great Premium offering from TG Comics. Femur did the story and Gluebubble did the art. It has a great future-retro feel that makes for a fun read. While I wouldn't call the ending a "twist," it certainly was unexpected. All in all a great read and well worth the money to purchase access, in my opinion.

But ... that was MY title!!!  ;-)  I have had a story idea that's partially written for a number of years with this title. How long? I did a Fictionmania search before opening the file on my hard drive, amazed that no one had written a story with that title yet. Now there are two. The oldest of them is from 2003. That should give you an idea of how long some of my ideas take to bring to fruition.

If you think I'm going to just delete the story, don't despair. While I may have to rename this story, I like it too much to just throw it out. It will see the light of day eventually.

But do you see now why I'm so tight lipped about my story names?!? It's way too easy to lose a good idea to another author. It's not like you can own a name either. Sometimes the best way to keep something from being used by other people is to keep it secret. And the best way to keep a secret? Simple: DON'T TELL ANYONE.

Story Recommendation: "Just Pretending" by Varian Milagro

I don't normally recommend other author's stories. In fact, this may be a first. However, I'm recommending "Just Pretending"  by Varian Milagro over at Fictionmania. You can my review of the story at the site, but it has spoilers. I suggest you just take my word and go check it out.

As a time saver, here's the story's blurb from FM:

"A poorly worded wish on a birthday candle bought at Spells R Us turns Keith into Kaylee. Now, except Keith and his best friend Seth, everyone remembers him as always being Kaylee. Keith has no clue how to be a girl and the store has vanished. Can Keith fake it long enough until he finds the store again?"

Sometimes a blurb makes a story seem more interesting than it actually is. In this case, it doesn't really do the story justice. The friendship is deep and believable. While the physical transformation is near instantaneous, the more gradual transformation of young man into young woman is far more subtle. I would go so far as to state that it is one of the best mental transformation stories I've read in a long time. Maybe ever.

Yes, it really is that good.

What are you still doing here? Stop reading my dumb blog and go check out the story!

TG Forums Shut Down January 2014

Good for you, Femur! (Yes, I know it's supposed to be a lowercase "f.") You rock! I doubt shutting the forum down will teach the offending parties any manners, but it still made me sit up and cheer. You seldom use your power, but when you do, it is always on the side of basic manners and decency. That's a rare thing in these days of "shoot from the lip" (lip, not hip) blogging where snark is confused for quality.

Job well done!

New Year's Resolution 2014

I'm sitting at home waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square. At this time, as I always do, I'm looking forward to the new year. Here are my goals in no particular order:

1. Turn my outlines for the two sequels to "Alien Body Suit: Under Her Skin" into completed stories.
2. Publish / find a home for a number of the stories I've completed but not released. (TPF, TotTC, HG, and a trilogy of shorter stories in the same universe I don't think I've mentioned before: AH, INF, BU)
3. Finish the stories I have mostly - but not all the way - completed. (COT, TB, BaM, MAU: SEP)
4. Complete my outline and start work on my screenplay project: CS.
5. Set up a webpage as a home for the content / stories I intend to start self-publishing. It's past time for me to jump on the Amazon bandwagon.
6. Start work on the on one or both of the two book projects I've had in mind for a while now.
7. Make time to write. This resolution involves watching less TV, which is a huge, HUGE time suck for me.

There are a couple more minor goals, like how many pages a week I want to write, forming an LLC, getting illustrations done for my stories to be published and so forth, but the ones above are the biggies.

Random Observation

No one wants a King as a servant. All that does is highlight the inadequacies of those that the King serves.

Whatchama'callit

I'm always amazed when I search story titles at Fictionmania that seem obvious to me and come up empty. Oh well. More clever titles for me to use.

Wanted: Writing Agent

I've got a few finished stories that I'm not sure what to do with at this point. I really wish I had a test reader that I could trust to give me feedback on my work. One of them for sure is bound for Fictionmania and TGStorytime. I've considered self-publishing a couple of them. Really kind of lost and frustrated.

All my writing lately is the literary equivalent of puttering in the garage. Things happen, progress is made, but nothing really gets done.

I need a like minded individual to bounce ideas off of. Like an agent. Someone that could say, "Hey, this story is really good. Don't give it away for free. This one's OK, but don't charge for it. And this one? Burn it; it's horrible."