Hi folks. Bad news. I've got to head out for the weekend, so I won't be able to make the Saturday night posting of The Adjusters #41. I should be back for Tuesday, so the posting is tentatively scheduled for later that night.
Thanks for your patience.
In the meantime, here's the long tale of a wife that discovers her exhibitionist tendencies, and the trouble it brings her marriage: Modeling Contract, by Bonnietaylor.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
Weekend Random Links (Superhero Edition)
Writing Journal: I've been stuck on The Adjusters #43 until this morning. I'm still somewhat stuck, but I think I see a way out. I'm having a lot of difficulty with the pacing. I don't want Book IV to be a sprawling 20 installments saga like Book II, but I also want to make sure I give it the room it needs to breathe. In comparison, Book III was pretty straightforward to set up and execute.
Some late weekend random links, with a superhero theme—again, not that I'm particularly reading comics anymore, at least not superhero comics, short of keeping up with the world via Scans_Daily, but part of me still has affection for those crazy everything-remains-the-same-yet-changes-but-without-changing universes. (And yeah, I still have an idea for a DC-based smut story, but it's pretty low on the priority list.)
This is old, but Charlie Jane Anders talks about the history of superhero porn. (And I guess that while we're at it, we can look at modern superhero porn...)
It's not porn, but Alter Egos is a pretty good indie superhero comedy flick, and it has this one scene that really messes with my head.
Let's start slowly with the classics. Here's a stupefyingly innuendo-filled song by the Birds of Prey from Batman: The Brave and the Bold. (Warning: the song tends to stick in your head.)
You may or may not have heard about the latest Spiderman arc in the regular universe, the one about Superior Spiderman, but these scans where the new Superior Spider-man makes a move on MJ, my favorite redhead, are delightfully creepy.
A bit less mainstream, but still within the universe, there's Jessica Jones. Here's the last arc of the Alias series, where we meet the Purple Man, a villain with mind-control powers that does pretty much exactly what we would expect a villain to do...
I wanted to leave you with some good superhero smut, but I seem to have difficulty finding some that I have not already posted. Still, we have two about Supergirl (just don't ask me which incarnation): Supergirl Becomes Superslut, by LisaAnn, and Supergirl Fallen, by Citizen Bane. Both stories are about Supergirl taken down a notch, as you might expect given the titles. They're not great stories, but they're better than the crud that usually passes for superhero smut.
Some late weekend random links, with a superhero theme—again, not that I'm particularly reading comics anymore, at least not superhero comics, short of keeping up with the world via Scans_Daily, but part of me still has affection for those crazy everything-remains-the-same-yet-changes-but-without-changing universes. (And yeah, I still have an idea for a DC-based smut story, but it's pretty low on the priority list.)
This is old, but Charlie Jane Anders talks about the history of superhero porn. (And I guess that while we're at it, we can look at modern superhero porn...)
It's not porn, but Alter Egos is a pretty good indie superhero comedy flick, and it has this one scene that really messes with my head.
Let's start slowly with the classics. Here's a stupefyingly innuendo-filled song by the Birds of Prey from Batman: The Brave and the Bold. (Warning: the song tends to stick in your head.)
You may or may not have heard about the latest Spiderman arc in the regular universe, the one about Superior Spiderman, but these scans where the new Superior Spider-man makes a move on MJ, my favorite redhead, are delightfully creepy.
A bit less mainstream, but still within the universe, there's Jessica Jones. Here's the last arc of the Alias series, where we meet the Purple Man, a villain with mind-control powers that does pretty much exactly what we would expect a villain to do...
I wanted to leave you with some good superhero smut, but I seem to have difficulty finding some that I have not already posted. Still, we have two about Supergirl (just don't ask me which incarnation): Supergirl Becomes Superslut, by LisaAnn, and Supergirl Fallen, by Citizen Bane. Both stories are about Supergirl taken down a notch, as you might expect given the titles. They're not great stories, but they're better than the crud that usually passes for superhero smut.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Thoughts on the Charlie Stories
Writing Journal: I'm done drafting the first two installments of Book IV of The Adjusters, except for the sex scene at the end of #41, and it's showing me some things that seem to work and some that don't. And I've got about 3/4th of the story line for Book IV nailed down. I'm just not sure how it ends—well, I do know how it ends as far as setting up Book V and within the larger story line, but not so much the arc-specific threads.
So it's been almost three weeks now since I've posted the second half the last Charlie story—Charlie and the Convent of Oblivion—and a consensus seems to be emerging from the comments I've received so far. Basically, those that came to the story from the perspective of The Adjusters were a bit disappointed (possibly too strong a word) and felt that the story distracted from the main story line and that it might have been better to just get on with Jenn's adventures directly; while those that came to the story independently of the serial liked it better (when they got past the god-awful first section).
That's very good to know. Usually, I don't question too much how stories are received. Some work, some don't. I'm okay with stories not working when I've tried to do something different, and sometimes they don't work not because of anything I've done, but just because somehow, the story didn't quite come into the world at the right time or in the right place. I don't really lose sleep over it.
The Charlie stories are a bit different, though, because I would like to know whether I should continue with the idea. See, my original thought—before actually trying it out on the world—was for those stories to be a way to tease the reader, giving them a glimpse of what was coming down the pipe, but without actually revealing enough to spoil the story. But it's not quite working out as planned: the last story was a bit too long to serve as a teaser (it was freakin' 30000 words longs... Yes. I count them) and all in all it might just be too distracting to be effective. And I'm not basing this solely on readers' comments, but also on my own sensibilities looking back on it. Don't get me wrong: I like those stories. I'm just now sure they work as I intended them to work within the larger picture. So I don't know. Right now, I'm leaning towards not having further Charlie stories within the serial. (Thankfully, they're not actually required by the plot after the second one—I know, because I create the plot!)
On a different topic: last weekend, as you may have noticed, I've reposted the first book of The Adjusters in the new HTML format that I'm trying out for posting stories. Mostly, it's to get the UTF-8 encoding for quotes, em-dashes, and accents, and to get italics. No one's reported any problems, so I'm continuing to convert the rest of my stories as well the rest of The Adjusters.
Stories for this week? Nothing particularly caught my eye, but I did notice that Bluedragon seems to have a new entry in his An Ordinary Sex Life series: An Ordinary College Sex Life 3. I haven't started reading it yet, because it's a bit like getting into a new volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, namely you have to remember a boatload of backstory. But I feel I should let everyone know, since it is a pretty good series.
So it's been almost three weeks now since I've posted the second half the last Charlie story—Charlie and the Convent of Oblivion—and a consensus seems to be emerging from the comments I've received so far. Basically, those that came to the story from the perspective of The Adjusters were a bit disappointed (possibly too strong a word) and felt that the story distracted from the main story line and that it might have been better to just get on with Jenn's adventures directly; while those that came to the story independently of the serial liked it better (when they got past the god-awful first section).
That's very good to know. Usually, I don't question too much how stories are received. Some work, some don't. I'm okay with stories not working when I've tried to do something different, and sometimes they don't work not because of anything I've done, but just because somehow, the story didn't quite come into the world at the right time or in the right place. I don't really lose sleep over it.
The Charlie stories are a bit different, though, because I would like to know whether I should continue with the idea. See, my original thought—before actually trying it out on the world—was for those stories to be a way to tease the reader, giving them a glimpse of what was coming down the pipe, but without actually revealing enough to spoil the story. But it's not quite working out as planned: the last story was a bit too long to serve as a teaser (it was freakin' 30000 words longs... Yes. I count them) and all in all it might just be too distracting to be effective. And I'm not basing this solely on readers' comments, but also on my own sensibilities looking back on it. Don't get me wrong: I like those stories. I'm just now sure they work as I intended them to work within the larger picture. So I don't know. Right now, I'm leaning towards not having further Charlie stories within the serial. (Thankfully, they're not actually required by the plot after the second one—I know, because I create the plot!)
On a different topic: last weekend, as you may have noticed, I've reposted the first book of The Adjusters in the new HTML format that I'm trying out for posting stories. Mostly, it's to get the UTF-8 encoding for quotes, em-dashes, and accents, and to get italics. No one's reported any problems, so I'm continuing to convert the rest of my stories as well the rest of The Adjusters.
Stories for this week? Nothing particularly caught my eye, but I did notice that Bluedragon seems to have a new entry in his An Ordinary Sex Life series: An Ordinary College Sex Life 3. I haven't started reading it yet, because it's a bit like getting into a new volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, namely you have to remember a boatload of backstory. But I feel I should let everyone know, since it is a pretty good series.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
HTML Format for Stories
Writing Journal: Jauntily hacking on The Adjusters #41. Going well—it's a pretty straightforward chapter, as far as those things are concerned. Some things are still rough, but I'll figure them out when revising. And there's one character that I wasn't expecting that showed up and said: “Hey, can I have a part?” And the answer might just be yes, yes indeed.
Okay, so I spent part of the weekend hacking on getting an HTML version of The Adjusters on ASSTR.
And I do mean hacking. I ended up writing a perl script to take the HTML output of Scrivener (which is what I generally use to write my stories) and clean it up and massage it to that it matches the CSS I wanted to use. All in all, it went better than expected.
Why do I want HTML? Mainly, because I want true UTF8 encoding, so I can get accents (fiancée) and nice quotes (“...”) and true em-dashes (—). And because I rely a lot on italics for internal dialogue.
Right now, I've only converted the installments from the first book, such as the first installment, Daniel and Jennifer. Check it out, let me know what you think.
In the coming week, I'll finish converting the rest of the tale, and upcoming installments will be posted that way as well, coinciding with the start of Book IV.
A couple of questions for you all, if you care about this in any way:
(1) does anyone actually need the .txt versions? They are suboptimal because of the lack of italics, and it might be a pain to keep in sync, but I'm willing to keep producing them if there's demand.
(2) does anyone care about reading the stories on mobile? Right now, the layout I favor may not look great on mobile (though I haven't tried except on my phone, which is frighteningly dinky). If you do, let me know how things look.
Feel free to post in the comments, or contact me privately.
And as far as stories are concerned, here's another one by Kirk, Marlene's Story: “Marlene Catalano reunites with her brother, who used to dominate her when they were younger.” Sweet, sweet domination. And hopefully, more parts to come.
Okay, so I spent part of the weekend hacking on getting an HTML version of The Adjusters on ASSTR.
And I do mean hacking. I ended up writing a perl script to take the HTML output of Scrivener (which is what I generally use to write my stories) and clean it up and massage it to that it matches the CSS I wanted to use. All in all, it went better than expected.
Why do I want HTML? Mainly, because I want true UTF8 encoding, so I can get accents (fiancée) and nice quotes (“...”) and true em-dashes (—). And because I rely a lot on italics for internal dialogue.
Right now, I've only converted the installments from the first book, such as the first installment, Daniel and Jennifer. Check it out, let me know what you think.
In the coming week, I'll finish converting the rest of the tale, and upcoming installments will be posted that way as well, coinciding with the start of Book IV.
A couple of questions for you all, if you care about this in any way:
(1) does anyone actually need the .txt versions? They are suboptimal because of the lack of italics, and it might be a pain to keep in sync, but I'm willing to keep producing them if there's demand.
(2) does anyone care about reading the stories on mobile? Right now, the layout I favor may not look great on mobile (though I haven't tried except on my phone, which is frighteningly dinky). If you do, let me know how things look.
Feel free to post in the comments, or contact me privately.
And as far as stories are concerned, here's another one by Kirk, Marlene's Story: “Marlene Catalano reunites with her brother, who used to dominate her when they were younger.” Sweet, sweet domination. And hopefully, more parts to come.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Honeymoon Gone Awry
Writing Journal: I'm writing The Adjusters #41 and #42 more or less in parallel. I'm trying my hardest, within the bounds of the time that I have, to knock them out as fast as I can so that I can move on to #43 and #44 and give me some welcome buffer room. We'll see how well I can get that to work. The biggest writing decision right now, the one over which I'm going back and forth and probably won't nail until I've started on #43, is whether to have Book IV exclusively from Jenn's perspective, or allow some back and forth with another character.
I still haven't finished digesting the comments I'm receiving for Charlie and the Convent of Oblivion, so I'll wait a bit to comment myself. Probably this weekend.
In the meantime, here's a long story that I'm in the middle of reading. It's Honeymoon Gone Awry, by Kirk: “This is the story of Julie and Doug, two young newlyweds who are very much in love. Our story begins on their wedding day as they drive to their honeymoon suite in Lake George. A flat tire changes the course of their lives in a dramatic way.” This one has humiliation aplenty, a reluctant wife that slowly, ever so slowly, gets turned, and a poor husband who has to suffer as well, for several different reasons. A really great read.
Edit: oops. Forgot the post title.
I still haven't finished digesting the comments I'm receiving for Charlie and the Convent of Oblivion, so I'll wait a bit to comment myself. Probably this weekend.
In the meantime, here's a long story that I'm in the middle of reading. It's Honeymoon Gone Awry, by Kirk: “This is the story of Julie and Doug, two young newlyweds who are very much in love. Our story begins on their wedding day as they drive to their honeymoon suite in Lake George. A flat tire changes the course of their lives in a dramatic way.” This one has humiliation aplenty, a reluctant wife that slowly, ever so slowly, gets turned, and a poor husband who has to suffer as well, for several different reasons. A really great read.
Edit: oops. Forgot the post title.
Friday, May 3, 2013
New Story: The Adjusters #40
(Sorry for the delay folks. My internet decided to go on the fritz this week. It seems to be limping along now, so I'll take advantage of it to post.)
Here is May's installment of The Adjusters, “Charlie and the Convent of Oblivion (II)”, wherein we conclude the story that Jennifer Hansen wrote about her time since the infamous DIK-Bash.
As usual, comments welcome.
I'll also remind you that we have a Speculation Thread available for general discussion. (A thread which I read but do not comment on.)
The Adjusters #40 - Charlie and Convent of Oblivion (II)
Story by J. Dumas. First appeared in Flights of Erotic Fantasy
Magazine, Vol. 13, Nos. 7-8.
(4)
Help me. Those words, mouthed by a briefly clear-eyed Charlie,
distressed Sarah of Charnia, keeping her company throughout the day
and invading her dreams at night. That the plea came after Sarah had
experienced an almost mystical experience at the hands and tongue of
the beautiful dark-haired young woman cemented the poignancy that
suffused Charlie's supplication. For Sarah carried the memory of her
time with Charlie like a treasured gem in her heart, unwilling to face
the meaning of her actions and associated emotions, but relishing the
pleasure she had experienced.
Sarah did not entirely succeed in camouflaging her troubled mind, but
Gertrude, who kept a sharp eye on the other novices, mistook Sarah's
agitation for the emotional charge of the young woman's first lesbian
encounter.
Gertrude, always on the lookout for new novices to bring under her
wings and guide and control--for they provided a small but
non-negligible foothold of power within the Covenant--was more than
willing to use Charlie as the temptation with which to ensnare
Sarah. And if temptation did not suffice, Gertrude determined,
blackmail would be an equally effective mean of persuasion.
During the day, whenever Gertrude was busy, Sarah would sneak a peek
at Charlie, who remained locked in her draught-induced sleep, and
would remember how those fingers and those lips and those breasts felt
on her body, the memories never failing to send delicious tingles to
her pussy.
Continue reading...
Next month: “The Craven-Wilford Institute”.
Here is May's installment of The Adjusters, “Charlie and the Convent of Oblivion (II)”, wherein we conclude the story that Jennifer Hansen wrote about her time since the infamous DIK-Bash.
As usual, comments welcome.
I'll also remind you that we have a Speculation Thread available for general discussion. (A thread which I read but do not comment on.)
The Adjusters #40 - Charlie and Convent of Oblivion (II)
Story by J. Dumas. First appeared in Flights of Erotic Fantasy
Magazine, Vol. 13, Nos. 7-8.
(4)
Help me. Those words, mouthed by a briefly clear-eyed Charlie,
distressed Sarah of Charnia, keeping her company throughout the day
and invading her dreams at night. That the plea came after Sarah had
experienced an almost mystical experience at the hands and tongue of
the beautiful dark-haired young woman cemented the poignancy that
suffused Charlie's supplication. For Sarah carried the memory of her
time with Charlie like a treasured gem in her heart, unwilling to face
the meaning of her actions and associated emotions, but relishing the
pleasure she had experienced.
Sarah did not entirely succeed in camouflaging her troubled mind, but
Gertrude, who kept a sharp eye on the other novices, mistook Sarah's
agitation for the emotional charge of the young woman's first lesbian
encounter.
Gertrude, always on the lookout for new novices to bring under her
wings and guide and control--for they provided a small but
non-negligible foothold of power within the Covenant--was more than
willing to use Charlie as the temptation with which to ensnare
Sarah. And if temptation did not suffice, Gertrude determined,
blackmail would be an equally effective mean of persuasion.
During the day, whenever Gertrude was busy, Sarah would sneak a peek
at Charlie, who remained locked in her draught-induced sleep, and
would remember how those fingers and those lips and those breasts felt
on her body, the memories never failing to send delicious tingles to
her pussy.
Continue reading...
Next month: “The Craven-Wilford Institute”.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)