Well, it’s a new year. Hope you all had a great time doing whatever it is you do at year’s end. We spent our time with good friends, playing board games and enjoying great (geeky) conversation.

I’m posting a new chapter of Avatar today. Hope you all will like that. I’m trying to bring things to a close in the second Establishment book for a number of reasons. One of which is well, it’s gotta end sometime, right? Besides, I have all the plot lines set up — I just have to actually line them up to make sure everything works. From your perspective, I’m posting chapter 60. From mine? I’ve got probably 16 more chapters already written, and even more to write to finish things up. So don’t worry — the story won’t be ending anytime soon.

I’ve worked pretty hard on Avatar in the last year. Gotten more chapters posted and gotten a lot of plotting done. It’s not easy, but it’s been (mostly) fun. However, other writing has suffered because of it. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing about that. Concentrating on Avatar to the exclusion of everything else has its advantages. But it has some severe disadvantages as well.

I do want to write some actual SciFi someday. And Some Day is gonna have to be sooner rather than later, cuz I ain’t gettin’ any younger. I won’t be writing it under the Dark Pen name, so once I DO write something, I’ll have to hope that hints to you guys about where to look for it help get it sold.

Speaking of which, thus far that hasn’t worked. The hints I mean. I did post on twitter that something has gone up. Not SciFi, but some erotica with a BDSM slant. Let’s just say that the response is well… lacking. To say the least. Over the years I’ve had a lot of people tell me I should do commercial writing. “Commercial” as in putting up the writing on sites OTHER than purely adult ones. So I did, and I’m going to link it in the side bar over there. What you do with that info is up to you.

Anyway, I hope that this New Year will be good to all of us. I think in a lot of ways it’s going to be a rough one. I hope that reason and reality will prevail, but thus far — at least in America — I haven’t seen much to make me believe it will. Perhaps I’m wrong. That would be awesome.

Finally, thanks for all the emails I’ve been receiving about Avatar. I hope I’ve gotten back to all of you, but it’s possible I’ve missed a few. If so, I apologize. Enjoy the new chapter and please take note of the top link.

This is just a quick note to thank all of my readers and followers.  While I love to write, and would probably do it even if no one read it, writing is a gazillion times better when I know that people are out there enjoying it.  So thank you for reading, and thank you for your emails.

For us, 2012 is tonight.  A new year and one that I suspect will be a very tumultuous one for our country.  That's fine -- maybe the changes will be good ones.  I'm hoping that it will be a great year for me and mine.  I have a few goals that I'd like to achieve, so here's to hoping I succeed.

As for you all out there, may your new year be excellent as well.  And thank you again for reading!

    Happy New Year.

Dec 17 2011

Well, here's to hoping the holiday season is finding you all well. You might (or might not) have noticed I haven't been blogging much. The reason for that is because it would be extremely difficult for me to keep politics out of the blog. I am so utterly and completely disgusted with the government, so despondent over what they've done to our country, that the best I could do is rant. People don't want to read a rant. And while it's my blog, I do like it when people read the thing. Plus, politics are slippery. I know that I stopped reading Michael Z. Williamson's books after I'd read his blog for a while. A more conceited, arrogant asswipe I've rarely encountered.

So, that's what I haven't written in the blog. Politics and the idiocy going on in this country have been pretty overwhelming for me.

Anyway, I present to you the latest chapter of Avatar. I really am working hard to finish this book, but there are a huge number of loose ends to tie up. Plots to converge, characters to bring in and a Circle to complete. I have worked on nothing BUT Avatar for months, believe it or not. Hell, I haven't even put out a commercial book this last year, although I did write something back in June.

That's gotta change though. I love Avatar, but if I restrict myself to only working on _it_, I'll probably fall out of love. I feel the press from other stories that I want to tell, and, quite frankly, try and sell. I do have one thing that I'm going to put up on Smashwords and Amazon -- hopefully in the next few days. It's a very nice, romantic, BDSM (of course) story. Of course, I can't put it up under the Dark Pen name because well, Dark Pen stories contain completely fictional accounts of completely fictional characters who are not above the State Approved Age for sex, having sex. And worse, they're enjoying it, and we simply can't have that in this here "Christian State" of ours (theocracy anyone?). Okay, enough politics. But you see how quickly this shit can affect something someone wants to do, yes? Even when what they're doing isn't illegal and concerns FICTIONAL WRITINGS.

So I'll be posting under another name, which sucks for me. But we'll see how things go with the story. It's a short story -- like twenty thousand words or so -- that was rejected by a company I submitted it to. Of course, they couldn't be bothered to keep enough control over their people, and the person who rejected it was fired -- and they lost my story in the shuffle. Nice, eh?

I hope that you and yours enjoy the holiday season. I have every intention of doing just that. But I will leave you with these last thoughts:

"When did the future become a threat instead of a promise?"

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Everyone is thinking and remembering THE September 11th today, and that's as it should be. We shouldn't forget that we were attacked by radicals from a foreign nation and we should never forget that they specifically targeted civilians. They are honorless scum, and deserve little more to be gunned down and shoved into an unmarked grave. Or buried at sea.

We should not forget those people who responded to help others that day -- whether they were professional Firefighters or just people off the street who saw a problem and helped. And we shouldn't forget that too many of them lost their lives as well.

We should never, ever forget the soldiers who were put in harm's way overseas to prove that you may NOT attack our country and walk away. We will come for you. We will find you.

Just as important as all those things, we should never forget what our politicians have done to us. How since we were attacked, they have so often done our enemy's work for them. How they've stolen our liberty and turned to fear and fostered ignorance in an effort to advance their own agendas. You'll note that I'm not naming a party here as I feel that ALL of our so-called leaders are guilty of this. Some far more than others, and it's truly criminal that they will never be tried for the treason that they committed.

It isn't just the men and women in our armed services who have a responsibility to protect our country. We who are not serving that way have a responsibility to ensure that the country those men and women return to, is a proud, free country and not one ruled by and for the elite, the politically powerful, the fear mongers or those who would see the United States turned into the very thing that bread the fanatics that attacked us in the first place: A theocracy.

I'll end this with two quotes by Thomas Jefferson:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. "

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes."

 

So I just wrote my first scene with a submissive male in it. I mean, I did do one with Tina and Greg back in Chapter 41, but it wasn't really a scene. What I just wrote is, although it's kind of a scene-lite.

It was strange. I simply don't envision men in a submissive role. It's not that I think you can't be male and submissive; it's just that my brain doesn't think that way.

When I think up a BDSM scene, I'm more inclined to use women for both top and bottom. There are a bunch of reasons for this, but mainly I think it's because I'm straight. Male/male sex isn't a turn on for me, and the focus of a scene, for me, is what the bottom is going through -- so a male as a bottom isn't interesting to me. Another reason is just that, well... women can cum hard and often, and I like that. With guys, they cum, then that's that for a finite period of time. While that time may vary, one must agree that women got the prize when it comes to orgasms. Yes, I know, they got kinda shorted if you add in that period thing, but you know what I mean.

And that's one of the things that fascinate me about submissive women. You can make them cum a bunch of times, and, in the end, making them cum maybe more than they wanted to is a seriously hot thing. Because you can make a woman cum a lot more often than a man could, I think it makes them easier to train -- all things being equal.

The other thing is this idea that's been nagging me for a while, and that's living more in a sexual moment. I think that women can maintain a higher level of lust much longer than men. I'm sure this isn't a universal truth, but it certainly seems to be more true than not. And that's one of the things that I love to think about when I'm thinking about a sex slave. She's almost always turned on. Not just during an actual scene, but even when she's doing something that might not be inherently sexy. Like washing dishes while wearing cuffs, or simply being bound and left alone until her Master wants to use her. The act of being bound, of simply becoming a sexual object is a turn on for her and she's aroused. Living in the sexual moment, but making that moment extend for a long time.

I think it's possible to train a slave to live like that, but I'm sure that most people simply wouldn't be interested. Still, for those who are, it must be a serious high to be aroused that much of the time, but knowing that your ultimate pleasure is still controlled by someone else. The owner of such a slave would be a very lucky person.

Anyway, it'll be a while before this chapter is released, since it's number 54 and I just put out 51. But when it does get released, I'll probably make note of the F/m scene and see if I can get peoples' input on it.

    Well, it's three in the fucking morning, and I should be asleep.  I'm feeling tired enough, but it just ain't happenin'.  So what's a guy to do?

    POST PR0N!

    So yeah, I went and posted a chapter of Avatar.  It's getting updated more regularly now, but I still don't feel as if I'm writing fast enough.  As an author, sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff I want to write, and the incredible lack of time I have to write it in.  Then of course, there's the fact that I'm not a professional writer (in that I don't make my living at writing), and how my other, soul destroying job makes some of the time I have to write completely nonproductive.

    But enough of that shit.

    Avatar's coming along, believe it or not.  It's slow, far, far slower than I'd like, but I'm getting more work done on it nowadays.  I'm wondering how many complaints I'm going to get because there's not enough sex in these latest chapters.  Because I got a bunch of complaints when there was too much sex.  Ah well -- some days you just can't win.

    Anyway, hope that you enjoy this latest installment and forgive the rambling shit I'm blogging with no sleep.

Lazlo Zalezac wrote this great story on SOL called Service Society. Generally, I don't read SoL stories like this because they just don't interest me. But I like Lazlo's writing and decided to give it a try.
I wasn't disappointed. I was horrified, but not by the story or poor writing. I was horrified by how spot on the story is.
In short, it's about where our society is moving to when it comes to corporations in America. It shows how workers are losing more and more of their lives every day to corporations that use and abuse us.
We're not quite where the story is, but it wouldn't take us much to get there. And if the current crop of idiotic, screaming, whining children we call congressmen (and women) don't begin to think of the country rather than their corporate masters, we WILL be there in fewer years than I care to think.
Lazlo's story has nothing to do with politics though. It's about one man who finally has had enough and leaves the company that's destroyed his life. In the story, he doesn't view himself as a hero, and he's certainly nowhere near perfect. But he has a vision of what a real service society should look like and tries to bring it about.
So many of the concepts in this story stand out to me as common sense: Making products that work. Letting engineers, not morons from marketing -- and certainly not idiotic managers -- design and build products. Like building products that are designed to last longer than the GE mandated 3 months
I wonder what it would be like to live in a world like that? Because I have the feeling I'm never going to see it. OUR 'service society' will mean getting on our knees and sucking off our corporate masters.

I was totally into the whole Google Plus thing. I really was! I thought, hey, here's a place for adults. Where we could, you know, have Adult conversations and content. Unlike Facebook, who deletes you without warning for random reasons.

The concept of Circles was awesome (even though they clearly stole it from my Avatar story)! I could have other writers in my Circles. I could have fans in some Circles. I could follow people in yet more Circles. It was going to ROCK.

Then... Reality set in.

Now, I'll admit that, at the time of this writing, Google plus is in beta. But fuck, Gmail was in beta FOR YEARS, so I'm not putting too much stock into when G+ will be OUT of beta.

So, about that Reality thing. It appears, that G+ was designed for families and children only. Adult content is not welcome. And, if you post it, they could, and did, bounce your ass. Said bounce could suspend your G+ account -- and every-fucking-other account you had with Google! Your email, calendars and whatever else they felt like taking away from you.

Worse, G+ DEMANDS in the TOS that you use your real name. Oh, artists are allowed to use an alias, but I'm pretty sure it's still supposed to be linked to your real name.

That is total bullshit.

Since there were TONS of discussions dealing with this topic, and several articles written on it, I'm not going to go into great depth here, other than to say that these two ... problems ... make G+ even less suitable for my needs than Facebook.

And here's where the inline identity thing comes in. Dark Pen is my online identity -- or one of them, anyway. But it's the name I write under, the name that writing is known by and I had damned good reasons for not writing under my real name. I'm not going to tie the Dark Pen name to my real name because Google doesn't understand people's reasons for privacy.

Since Dark Pen is an alias, I'm going to remove myself from G+ before they come along and discover I've broken their terms of 'service' and delete all my stuff. Or lock it out and force me to reveal to them who I really am to get it back. 

Yes, I know they could pretty easily track me down. But currently, they have no reason to, and I'd like to keep it that way.

I was trying to get a following on Blogger (which was failing miserably), but then I realized that THAT was a Google product. So. I'll leave that blog alone. I'll put in something saying that I've moved to Wordpress (although I'm still maintaining my LJ account -- where people actually comment and respond to me) and plan to continue here. I will set up pop to download my Gmail, and I've already pulled all my Gmail contacts into Hotmail.

I don't plan to boycott Google -- something that would be almost impossible anyway. And, if they get their shit together and acknowledge the rights of adults, I'll return to G+. But for now? I think it's better not to trust the 'Cloud' with my data (not that I ever did, really) and not to keep all my online eggs in one basket.

Links to Violet Blue's excellent articles on the current state of Google +:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/google-plus-fast-cheap-and-out-of-control/557?tag=mantle_skin;content

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/google-plus-deleting-accounts-en-masse-no-clear-answers/567

Well, I've just posted the 50th chapter of Avatar, book 2. Fifty chapters. That's gotta be a milestone, right? Some kind of, I dunno... something.

It's not finished though. But unlike last time when I got to 50 chapters, I'm not starting a new Establishment book. Two's more than enough.

Honestly, I thought I'd be finished by now, but I didn't realize just how many plotlines I have running. It's not as if I don't have an ending for them, but it's more work than I expected to weave everything together and make it fun to read.

Lately, I've run up against something that I hadn't expected: What to do about a character. See, there is a set number of people who will be part of the Founding Circle, and I thought I had all of them. In fact, I was so certain of it, that I have six chapter (that's thirty THOUSAND words) written about the character already. And now I don't know if I'll be able to use it, because I don't know if that character is going to be part of the First Circle. I'm sure I'll finish out that char's story at some point, but now I'm no longer sure when that'll be.

There's another character that I introduced a while ago, who's been showing up a fair amount, and I don't know what to do about that one either. At least as far as adding said character to the Founding Circle.

I've had a number of people ask if I'm going to finish Avatar. The answer is 'Yes'. Establishment is going to be finished. After all these years of writing it, it would annoy me if I didn't finish it. I used to be able to post a chapter a week. Now I'm down to one a month, which is up from the number of times I posted in the last two years. For that you have my apologies -- but as you've read in my posts, life ain't been all the great. Still isn't, but I'm trying not to let it interfere with my writing.

Speaking of which, I sent off something to Totally eBound a while ago. I haven't heard back from them yet , but when I do, I'll let you know. I think it's a good piece -- although they might not agree. I don't seem to have much luck with the more main stream publishers. However, even if they don't like it, I'm going to post it for sale on Amazon. That should be interesting, at the very least.

Yup, I’m putting up another chapter of Avatar today.  Other than that, I really don’t have a hell of a lot to blog about.  Oh, I could rant on politics, but … naaa.  Don’t feel like it.

I know that people are seeing this on LJ, but since no one is following me on blogger, I’m wondering if I should continue to blog here.  I like the platform better, but LJ is where all the people seem to look for me.  Maybe I’ll write and post some short stories or hot tasty scenes to blogger to try and draw some people in.

Anyway, there should be a new Avatar chapter up today.  Good reading all!