Sunday, May 31, 2015

Stories in the Works - 5/31/2015

May wasn't as productive as I'd hoped it would be. I had a lot of fun with family and friends and even visited Mickey in southern CA, but my writing took a hit. I averaged nearly 1,000 words a day for the whole month, but I averaged 2500 words a day for the first ten days and then a pitiful 5000 words over the final three weeks (and half of that was done today, 5/31). I'm hoping that June will be more productive.

Here are the stories I have in the works as of today. The titles are my place holders, not the real titles.
Actively writing

"cubism"
I don't know how I came up with this as the working title. It doesn't really fit. Family of three Mom, Dad and adopted 16-year-old son share a birthday and get a birthday candle at Spells R Us. Many, many wishes in this story. Lots of reality warping. I almost wrote this story instead of "Just Pretending". I'm glad I didn't. I love "Just Pretending" and it probably wouldn't have been written if I'd been struggling through this one instead. AR, MtF

"Earthy"
Another crappy working title. Wife gets involved with the wrong meetup group and starts getting very in tune with nature. Hubby will most likely share some adventures in the woods with his wife.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Summer Secrets finally posted!

I finally finished my novel, Summer Secrets. I entered it into the Summer 2015: Summer Vacation Getaway! story contest at BigCloset. I'll post it on this blog once the contest is finished.

I want to thank Gandar for his post on the FictionMania forum back on 2/8/2014. It is what inspired me to write the story. His post was in response to another and, unfortunately, I did not write down that person's name. Here is what Gandar wrote:  

"You have good taste. I keep waiting for someone to write a 60's or 70's style story where a woman who owns a salon has a hippie-type son in that age group (13-18) who won't cut his long hair for a summer job and ends up keeping his long hair, but forced to work as a shampoo girl working for his mom in a skirted uniform and finds he loves it."

After reading the post I remembered that I'd worked in a salon as a teenager in the 1970s. I didn't wash hair or crossdress, but I did sweep up and clean the break room for a couple of weeks.

I started writing the story on 2/11/2014 and wrote the bulk of the it over the next five weeks. It was 56,000 words long at that point. I knew that it was seriously flawed, but I had no idea how to fix it. I was very frustrated. I shelved the story and wrote another story.

In late July I decided to take another crack at the story. I found that taking the long break is exactly what the story needed. I was able to fix a lot of the problems that had been bothering me on the first draft. The story grew to 67,000 words and I now liked it. I decided to shelve it again. I could tell that it still needed work and hoped that another break would be help again.  

As the months passed my desire to tackle another draft plummeted. I knew that a third revision would likely take weeks and I did not want to dedicate that much time to it. I had too many other stories I wanted to write.

In April I noticed that the BigCloset was holding a contest that fit my story perfectly. I finally started revising on May 7th. Amid a myriad of distractions I was able to finish the story to my satisfaction and I posted it on 5/21/2015, a little over 15 months after I started it.




Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Story Recommendation: Descent

Today I am recommending Decent by Tabico.

If you like corruption stories, where the good become bad, then this story is probably for you. Tabico is a great writer and it is quite evident in this story. In a scant 3806 words Tabico sets up a universe, introduces his characters and describes an amazingly hot mental and physical transformation.

Tabico has more than 50 stories for free on the EMC Story Archive. A few other stories that stand out in my mind are, Arachnae, or The Icky-Squicky Spider, Bitch, Fey, The Loosing of the Dark and Whose Dreams

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Story: Wishes

Wishes
By Varian Milagro


“For my next wish I want to know how to make my wife happy. Whenever I ask her she always says ‘if you truly knew me, you wouldn’t have to ask.’ Well, that’s what I want. I wish I truly knew her.”

“As you command, master,” the immense, smoky male figure intoned.

A colorful wave shot from his fingers and slammed into my chest. It coursed through my body, shrinking me in stature while enlarging my chest, hips and buttocks. The hair on my head flowed over my shoulders as the rest my hair retreated. I looked at my reflection in the lamp’s polished surface. I looked exactly like my wife.

“This isn’t what I wanted,” I protested just as the magic hit my brain and I then knew what my wife wanted.

She wanted to be adored, to be cherished. She wanted to be wooed like in the days before her wedding. Was it too much to ask for the occasional, unsolicited “I love you”? Would it kill him if he complimented my looks once in a while? God, what I’d do just to have him give me half the attention he gave his precious sports teams. What did he see in them anyway?

“I know what I want for my next wish,” I said.

Stories in the works - 5/3/2015

Here are the stories I have in the works as of today. The titles are my place holders, not the real titles.

Actively writing

"hubby"
I finished the first draft and am halfway through the second. 

Magical TG with MtF and FtM. Husband and wife start taking on each others characteristics. 

"hog"  
First draft should be done before 5/5/2015.
Magical, MtM & FtF, biker, smoking story. This is the start of a "universe" which will feature physical transformations. A vegan pacifist is given a box of cigars by his biker neighbor. Guess where it goes.

"Ghost 2"
First draft should be completed by 5/7/2015

This is a poor name, even for a place holder. It reflects the genesis for the idea, but not the story itself. In a nutshell it is a story that starts off as The Birth of Bethany, except that Elizabeth's boyfriend, Paul, encounters the strange being. It goes off in its own direction from there. (Ghost was my working title for The Birth of Bethany)

"mundane"
The writer wishes that he were putting more effort into this story.

Story that is being written by my alter ego
.
On Hold