Ok, I need your votes.
Literotica has started its 2013 Halloween Story Contest.
Here's my entrant, a sexy little succubus tale featuring Nicole:
Streetwalking with a Succubus.
This time I thought I'd put a serious entrant in rather than trying to ambush nonhuman-romance fans with a gruesome horror tale. If you like it, please show your appreciation by voting.
I talked about Literotica contests before. They have quirks. Because of the way the scoring works, anything other than the maximum '5' is strictly worse than no vote at all. While a '4' might look like a helpful vote, it's actually a bullet through the head for a story's chances. Also, the site owners are pretty good at detecting skullduggery. Multiple votes and votes trashing an opponent's story are filtered out.
While I'd like to place (oddly, given what I write about, I've never placed in Literotica's Halloween contest), mostly I hope people enjoy the story. I do write lighter and fluffier succubus tales from time to time.
If you like my darker stuff, never fear. I've been sitting on a little stockpile. More will be revealed on that over the coming month. ;)
Think of this tale as a little preview of goodies to come...
Showing posts with label Literotica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Literotica. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
A sort of entry for Literotica's Summer Lovin' Competition
Literotica have started their annual Summer Lovin' short story competition. I wasn't going to enter, but then I remembered "Snared, Sucked and Slurped" had a summery setting and I'd been meaning to post it up on Literotica anyway.
It's not a serious entry. I don't take the competitions that seriously. Occasionally I enter a "nice" story to win like "A Summer Dance With A Succubus" or "Iron Girders and Steel Springs", but most of the time I have fun trying to see how many readers I can catch out with some weird and icky horror. Regular readers here will remember "Snared, Sucked and Slurped", featuring vore and a Sea Anemone Monster Girl, is very much the latter type of story.
Feel free to put a vote in if you're swinging by. I don't expect the story to place. Bad End stories never do because of the bad ending (although "Halloween Nÿte" and "Don't Fuck The Flowers" came surprisingly close) and "Snared" is one of my more simplistic stories. My objective is usually to see if I can pick up some extra readers from the increased exposure the contests have.
And to squick out unsuspecting Romance readers that didn't spot the category before they jumped in. Hyuk, hyuk.
It's going to be a little quiet around here for the next month or so. I'm deep into the last couple of stories for the next collection (more on that soon!). You'll get a chance to see one of those new stories in the Halloween competition in a couple of months. It features Nicole, which should please fans of my nicer stories, and yes, I will be trying to win with that one! :)
It's not a serious entry. I don't take the competitions that seriously. Occasionally I enter a "nice" story to win like "A Summer Dance With A Succubus" or "Iron Girders and Steel Springs", but most of the time I have fun trying to see how many readers I can catch out with some weird and icky horror. Regular readers here will remember "Snared, Sucked and Slurped", featuring vore and a Sea Anemone Monster Girl, is very much the latter type of story.
Feel free to put a vote in if you're swinging by. I don't expect the story to place. Bad End stories never do because of the bad ending (although "Halloween Nÿte" and "Don't Fuck The Flowers" came surprisingly close) and "Snared" is one of my more simplistic stories. My objective is usually to see if I can pick up some extra readers from the increased exposure the contests have.
And to squick out unsuspecting Romance readers that didn't spot the category before they jumped in. Hyuk, hyuk.
It's going to be a little quiet around here for the next month or so. I'm deep into the last couple of stories for the next collection (more on that soon!). You'll get a chance to see one of those new stories in the Halloween competition in a couple of months. It features Nicole, which should please fans of my nicer stories, and yes, I will be trying to win with that one! :)
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Back by popular demand: Succubus Summoning 203 and the return of Phil
I was going to blog about this earlier, but then other things came up and I tend to abandon blog posts if they start to get grindy and scratchy. If it’s not flowing, I’d rather I was battling to get a piece of fiction down than struggle with an ephemeral blog post no one will care about in a month’s time.
I’ve been rather sneaky. If you check Literotica, you’ll see that after a pause of around two and a half years (has it really been that long?) I’ve finally posted Succubus Summoning 203.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean I’ve written the full arc. It was what I said I was going to do, but it wasn’t coming together. I suck at writing novels it seems. I’m too prone to getting distracted by other projects. My hope is that posting the chapters up on Literotica and trying to keep to a monthly schedule will provide the impetus to get it moving again.
It’s what I should have done before to be honest. 203 was an awkward chapter with a lot of new characters to introduce. After writing the first draft I thought it might be too long and be better split in two. But that would mean a chapter without sex. Make people wait two and a half years and then post a chapter with no hot succubus action...that would not go down well.
So we’re back and with any luck the beginning of each month will bring a new chapter. I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep to the schedule, but as long as it’s only a couple of weeks slippage rather than a couple of years I think we’ll be fine. I hope you all enjoy the path the story takes and, as always, feedback and thoughts gratefully accepted.
P.S. I’ll try my best not to kill him.
I’ve been rather sneaky. If you check Literotica, you’ll see that after a pause of around two and a half years (has it really been that long?) I’ve finally posted Succubus Summoning 203.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean I’ve written the full arc. It was what I said I was going to do, but it wasn’t coming together. I suck at writing novels it seems. I’m too prone to getting distracted by other projects. My hope is that posting the chapters up on Literotica and trying to keep to a monthly schedule will provide the impetus to get it moving again.
It’s what I should have done before to be honest. 203 was an awkward chapter with a lot of new characters to introduce. After writing the first draft I thought it might be too long and be better split in two. But that would mean a chapter without sex. Make people wait two and a half years and then post a chapter with no hot succubus action...that would not go down well.
So we’re back and with any luck the beginning of each month will bring a new chapter. I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep to the schedule, but as long as it’s only a couple of weeks slippage rather than a couple of years I think we’ll be fine. I hope you all enjoy the path the story takes and, as always, feedback and thoughts gratefully accepted.
P.S. I’ll try my best not to kill him.
Friday, October 12, 2012
New story for Literotica's 2012 Halloween Short Story Contest
October is normally a month where I rouse myself out of torpor and start posting new stories up on various web sites. It's a Halloween thing!
First up is "Ways to Break a Good Man, no.2", my entrant for this year's Halloween contest on Literotica. I'm not eligible to win as I already placed in the Nude Day contest earlier this year. I still like to enter stories, it's Halloween after all, and not being eligible means I can let Horror-head off the leash and throw out something dark, nasty and not necessarily crowd-pleasing. That's always a good thing, as if I don't feed him every so often he kills off all my characters or has them do odd things like gobbling people up inside their vagina.
I'm not sure on this one. It was a bugger to write and might be one of those ideas that are impossible to make work no matter how they're tackled (advice M. Night Shyamalan should have heeded before making The Village). After all, it's quite difficult to make one of these
sinister and scary.
I like taking a situation that looks absurd on the outside (a man wrestling a blow-up doll) and contrasting the silliness with what is actually a horrific threat to the protagonist. It's the same car crash as smashing erotica into horror and seeing what bounces out of the wreckage. The Biggest Tits in the World (the version in Succubus for Freedom is much better than the early draft on Lit) ran off the same principle, and like that story this one is already picking up mixed comments. It'd be nice if the bad comments were more helpful than 'stories with sex dolls suck', but it might be one of those concepts that are virtually impossible to pull off. I have a weakness for trying to make the absurd and silly scary. Anyway, I hope more like it than dislike it. I also get to cross the doll fetish off the To Corrupt In A Story list.
If you're after a more conventional succubus story, I'll add to C's recommendation of Ironiclaconic's "Thirteenth Seduction". Classy tale of a man and his devil girl. Wish I'd written it myself. LiquidMatthew's "A Bestiary of Monster Girls" is also a humourous variation on the Monster Girl Encyclopedia. The Halloween contest seems very popular this year.
I'm planning to post a few other stories this month. Hopefully that will placate the people left a little bemused by this rather odd tale.
First up is "Ways to Break a Good Man, no.2", my entrant for this year's Halloween contest on Literotica. I'm not eligible to win as I already placed in the Nude Day contest earlier this year. I still like to enter stories, it's Halloween after all, and not being eligible means I can let Horror-head off the leash and throw out something dark, nasty and not necessarily crowd-pleasing. That's always a good thing, as if I don't feed him every so often he kills off all my characters or has them do odd things like gobbling people up inside their vagina.
I'm not sure on this one. It was a bugger to write and might be one of those ideas that are impossible to make work no matter how they're tackled (advice M. Night Shyamalan should have heeded before making The Village). After all, it's quite difficult to make one of these
sinister and scary.
I like taking a situation that looks absurd on the outside (a man wrestling a blow-up doll) and contrasting the silliness with what is actually a horrific threat to the protagonist. It's the same car crash as smashing erotica into horror and seeing what bounces out of the wreckage. The Biggest Tits in the World (the version in Succubus for Freedom is much better than the early draft on Lit) ran off the same principle, and like that story this one is already picking up mixed comments. It'd be nice if the bad comments were more helpful than 'stories with sex dolls suck', but it might be one of those concepts that are virtually impossible to pull off. I have a weakness for trying to make the absurd and silly scary. Anyway, I hope more like it than dislike it. I also get to cross the doll fetish off the To Corrupt In A Story list.
If you're after a more conventional succubus story, I'll add to C's recommendation of Ironiclaconic's "Thirteenth Seduction". Classy tale of a man and his devil girl. Wish I'd written it myself. LiquidMatthew's "A Bestiary of Monster Girls" is also a humourous variation on the Monster Girl Encyclopedia. The Halloween contest seems very popular this year.
I'm planning to post a few other stories this month. Hopefully that will placate the people left a little bemused by this rather odd tale.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Literotica's Contest Scoring Explained
A question from Ed that makes better sense to answer as a short blog post (and to assuage my guilt over leaving it there for three days without replying):
"AS an author, would you say generally its better to give a story a 5 rating or none at all on literotica or just for contests?"
For Lit's contests, sad to say, no vote is indeed better than anything other than a 5 for the majority of authors. The reason is how the scoring works. For an entrant to be eligible it must pick up at least twenty-five valid votes. Once a story gets over that threshold, the score is then the average of all votes. This can throw up the counter-intuitive scenario where a story with twenty-five perfect 5 votes will place higher than a story with ninety-nine 5 votes and one 4 vote. It's not Literotica's fault. Whatever they run with is going to be less than perfect, because that's how it is when judging an activity as subjective as writing short stories.
So, while a 4 is technically a "good" vote, because the winning entries usually end up with final average scores of around 4.80+, it's easy to see it doesn't take too many "good" 4 votes to completely torpedo a story's chances of winning. Unless the author is struggling to reach the twenty-five vote threshold, they really want 5's or nothing. Knowing this, the savvy authors tend to enter very long stories with slow build-ups, warm and fuzzy endings, and obtuse titles so that the more disinterested readers have already backclicked long before they even get to a rating button.
(Now what kind of cynical, soulless monster of an author would even think of engaging in such shameless skullduggery. *whistle* Iron Girders and Steel Springs *whistle*)
At the end of the day it's best to treat the contests as a bit of fun and not too seriously. If you think a story only deserves a 4 (or a 3 or . . . ulp . . . less), give it a 4. Ultimately all literary contests are nonsense. Peel the layers back and all that lies at the heart is flawed subjective opinion.
Good for a giggle, though.
"AS an author, would you say generally its better to give a story a 5 rating or none at all on literotica or just for contests?"
For Lit's contests, sad to say, no vote is indeed better than anything other than a 5 for the majority of authors. The reason is how the scoring works. For an entrant to be eligible it must pick up at least twenty-five valid votes. Once a story gets over that threshold, the score is then the average of all votes. This can throw up the counter-intuitive scenario where a story with twenty-five perfect 5 votes will place higher than a story with ninety-nine 5 votes and one 4 vote. It's not Literotica's fault. Whatever they run with is going to be less than perfect, because that's how it is when judging an activity as subjective as writing short stories.
So, while a 4 is technically a "good" vote, because the winning entries usually end up with final average scores of around 4.80+, it's easy to see it doesn't take too many "good" 4 votes to completely torpedo a story's chances of winning. Unless the author is struggling to reach the twenty-five vote threshold, they really want 5's or nothing. Knowing this, the savvy authors tend to enter very long stories with slow build-ups, warm and fuzzy endings, and obtuse titles so that the more disinterested readers have already backclicked long before they even get to a rating button.
(Now what kind of cynical, soulless monster of an author would even think of engaging in such shameless skullduggery. *whistle* Iron Girders and Steel Springs *whistle*)
At the end of the day it's best to treat the contests as a bit of fun and not too seriously. If you think a story only deserves a 4 (or a 3 or . . . ulp . . . less), give it a 4. Ultimately all literary contests are nonsense. Peel the layers back and all that lies at the heart is flawed subjective opinion.
Good for a giggle, though.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
New story for Literotica's 2012 Nude Day contest
At some point soon I'll be starting previews for the my next collection, A Succubus for Freedom. Sadly there's the small matter of finishing the last two stories first so I can edit and upload the manuscript. They're putting up a bit of a fight. More news on that when I have an exact publication date.
In the meantime here's a brand new story I've been sitting on until Literotica's Nude Day short story competition opened up:
Iron Girders and Steel Springs
It's a monster at 11K words and is also a bit of a change of pace for me. Bizarrely, given how many horror stories I've written, this is the first time I've tackled this particular horror trope. Actually, if you don't count "Vampiric Boobies" as a vampire story, this is the first time I've tackled any of the big three supernatural horror tropes.
Normally I enter nasty horror stories into Literotica's contests for the amusement value. This time I thought I'd try and put a serious entrant in for a change. Hence the length, slow build-up and additional focus on characterisation (these are common features of most winning entries).
If you like it, and I hope you do, please show your appreciation by rating the story a '5' at the end (given how Literotica contests work, anything else is worse than not voting at all). If you don't like it, sorry and don't worry, we'll be back to the usual succubus-related mayhem in the forthcoming collection.
In the meantime here's a brand new story I've been sitting on until Literotica's Nude Day short story competition opened up:
Iron Girders and Steel Springs
It's a monster at 11K words and is also a bit of a change of pace for me. Bizarrely, given how many horror stories I've written, this is the first time I've tackled this particular horror trope. Actually, if you don't count "Vampiric Boobies" as a vampire story, this is the first time I've tackled any of the big three supernatural horror tropes.
Normally I enter nasty horror stories into Literotica's contests for the amusement value. This time I thought I'd try and put a serious entrant in for a change. Hence the length, slow build-up and additional focus on characterisation (these are common features of most winning entries).
If you like it, and I hope you do, please show your appreciation by rating the story a '5' at the end (given how Literotica contests work, anything else is worse than not voting at all). If you don't like it, sorry and don't worry, we'll be back to the usual succubus-related mayhem in the forthcoming collection.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Cέrμləan Circles unbanned for Literotica
"Cέrμləan Circles" made it onto Literotica at the second attempt. Their first filter can be a little over-zealous sometimes. I had similar problems with "Don't Fuck The Flowers" and her first appearance in "Succubus Summoning 110". The views/votes will suffer a little (Not that I care that much about them--I enter the cash competitions with the nastiest stories I have lying around because I think it's funny) as most people will have already read the story either here or on the other places I posted it. It's good for Succubus Summoning 201. At least I don't have to worry about whether I'll be able to complete the series on Literotica.
Hmm. Now I need to find another excuse to get people to buy it when it comes out as an ebook...
Hmm. Now I need to find another excuse to get people to buy it when it comes out as an ebook...
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Cέrμləa falls foul of Literotica’s Underage Filters
Oops. I was hoping the new one-shot story set in the Succubus Summoning 101 universe would have gone up on Literotica by now. I intended it as my apology for taking so damn long on Succubus Summoning 201 and also to show I hadn’t forgotten about Phil and friends. Unfortunately it’s been rejected for underage content. Not sure why—it’s clear Cέrμləa isn’t the young girl she’s masquerading as and she isn’t even around for the sex scene either.
Oh well. I was going to post it here as well anyway. I’ll give it another read through for errors and put it up over the weekend.
I’m not sure what this means for posting the Succubus Summoning 201 series up on Literotica. I'm not going to write out Cέrμləa or change what I've written/plan to write. I'll try and post as much of the series as possible. At the worst, the complete uncensored version will still be available as an ebook.
Oh well. I was going to post it here as well anyway. I’ll give it another read through for errors and put it up over the weekend.
I’m not sure what this means for posting the Succubus Summoning 201 series up on Literotica. I'm not going to write out Cέrμləa or change what I've written/plan to write. I'll try and post as much of the series as possible. At the worst, the complete uncensored version will still be available as an ebook.
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Follow-up on Robin Scott, Plagiarist
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Some Naughty Little Bondage Elves For Christmas
The season of new manyeyedhydra stories is not quite over. Literotica have kicked off their Winter Holidays competition and I have a runner. Because it's the season of goodwill, blah, blah, blah, etc., etc., I did the usual thing and entered a nasty horror story with lashings of gratuitous and inappropriate sex.
You might never look at Santa the same way ever again:
"What Bad Boys Get For Christmas."
Perfect bedtime reading for unruly children...
Bad Horror-Head! Get back in your cave!
With another anthology opportunity/deadline presenting itself and my glacial art skills leaving the cover for Succubus Summoning 101 still at the top of the Urgently To Do list, this is a bad month to attempt NaNoWriMo. I think I'll set myself my own personal NaNoWriMo from Mid-Nov to Mid-Dec to see if I would have achieved it with a clear run right from the start.
You might never look at Santa the same way ever again:
"What Bad Boys Get For Christmas."
Perfect bedtime reading for unruly children...
Bad Horror-Head! Get back in your cave!
With another anthology opportunity/deadline presenting itself and my glacial art skills leaving the cover for Succubus Summoning 101 still at the top of the Urgently To Do list, this is a bad month to attempt NaNoWriMo. I think I'll set myself my own personal NaNoWriMo from Mid-Nov to Mid-Dec to see if I would have achieved it with a clear run right from the start.
Saturday, October 08, 2011
October is the month for new manyeyedhydra stories
Not only do I have a 3rd anthology coming out on the 21st (I may have mentioned this a few times), but I also have a few runners in Literotica's annual Halloween competition.
"Guard Duty" features gangsters, a mysterious crime boss and a succubus in a cage. It expands on the little universe I'm slowly putting together and introduces a new player. It also features a very nasty bit of philosophical fridge horror if you look hard enough.
"Naga Massage Review" is a follow-up to "Naga Special Massage" and shows a different aspect of the lovely Amanda.
I might also enter a new Nicole story for the less death-by-sex inclined if I manage to finish it in time.
So there you go. Stories are like buses. You wait ages for one to show up and then a whole bunch appear at once.
Enjoy! ;)
"Guard Duty" features gangsters, a mysterious crime boss and a succubus in a cage. It expands on the little universe I'm slowly putting together and introduces a new player. It also features a very nasty bit of philosophical fridge horror if you look hard enough.
"Naga Massage Review" is a follow-up to "Naga Special Massage" and shows a different aspect of the lovely Amanda.
I might also enter a new Nicole story for the less death-by-sex inclined if I manage to finish it in time.
So there you go. Stories are like buses. You wait ages for one to show up and then a whole bunch appear at once.
Enjoy! ;)
Thursday, September 01, 2011
12th Annual Literotica Awards
It's time again for the Annual Literotica Reader's Choice awards. It's not as grand as it sounds. I don't think most of the readers know or care it exists, and there's usually a writer or three making a tit of themselves by taking it far too seriously.
It's hard to take it that seriously. There's no prize other than bragging rights and it's an internet vote that struggles to scrape double figures. Mind you, I'm probably just bitter I get nominated for the Erotic Horror category every year and never win it. Not even with "Succubus Summoning 114" surprisingly, and that's been the number one chapter/story on Lit's Erotic Horror all-time top list for just about forever.
This year "Succubus Summoning 202" is up. I keep trying to tell myself it's not important, nobody actually cares, and I should ignore it, but I have a stupid competitive streak That. Won't. Let. It. Lie.
So, to keep it happy, here's the link where you can vote. Or even check out some of the other nominated stories to see what the other writers on Literotica are up to.
The embarassing part is realising just how long it's been since I posted that chapter. I really need to get back to that series.
It's hard to take it that seriously. There's no prize other than bragging rights and it's an internet vote that struggles to scrape double figures. Mind you, I'm probably just bitter I get nominated for the Erotic Horror category every year and never win it. Not even with "Succubus Summoning 114" surprisingly, and that's been the number one chapter/story on Lit's Erotic Horror all-time top list for just about forever.
This year "Succubus Summoning 202" is up. I keep trying to tell myself it's not important, nobody actually cares, and I should ignore it, but I have a stupid competitive streak That. Won't. Let. It. Lie.
So, to keep it happy, here's the link where you can vote. Or even check out some of the other nominated stories to see what the other writers on Literotica are up to.
The embarassing part is realising just how long it's been since I posted that chapter. I really need to get back to that series.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Succubus Summoning 201: Literotica or No?
A question from the comments yesterday:
"You mentioned "book", does that mean we won't see any new Succubus Summoning 201 stories being posted on Literotica, but instead have to buy your books?"
The answer is long and complex and when I went past the third paragraph in trying to type it into the comments section, I thought I may was well make it a blogpost.
It depends on how the whole 201 arc shapes up at the end. I stopped going chapter-by-chapter when I was writing 203 and realised I'd gone over 5,000 words with no sign of a sex scene in sight. There are a few new characters to introduce and a lot more background to reveal. 201 is also less episodic overall. This left me with a problem. Either post a huge big chapter on Lit, which no-one will bother to read, or split it up and risk posting a chapter with no sex at all. No-sex chapters go down very badly on Literotica unless they're romance-heavy Twilight clones. I figured my best plan is to write the whole thing out in rough (which I'm still in the process of doing) and then go back through with a chainsaw to edit the whole arc into a more pleasing shape.
There's also the tension between getting readers and getting paid. I love writing and I like posting work up on web sites like Literotica to gain exposure and for the feedback to make me a better writer, but I don't want to be the big soft chump who gives all his work away for free!
I know some writers start series on Literotica and then deliberately make the ending an exclusive to their book. I can see how it works from a marketing perspective, but it strikes me as a scumbag manoeuvre more likely to alienate readers in the long term. It's not how I roll.
I did think about making 201 book only, probably with a super-cheap first month price as a reward and apology to the long(-suffering)-term followers for their patience. I also considered taking down stories when Succubus for Christmas came out. I'm painfully conscious of the 'Why should I pay for it when I can get it for free?' argument.
I don't think Succubus for Christmas and Succubus for Valentine's Day have suffered too much for having some of their content available on the internet for free. It could be argued I might have sold more if those stories hadn't been available for free. It could also be argued I might have sold far less because new readers wouldn't have the faintest idea who I am. Personally, I like having stories up on Literotica for the exposure. If people like them, they can always buy the books to get more stories.
My current plan is to post the remaining chapters on Literotica if I can get them into the right shape. I started it there, so I want to finish it there. I'll keep some additional goodies back for the ebook version and I'll put it out some time before the run on Lit completes. I reckon that should strike the right balance.
It's a horribly long hiatus between 202 and 203, I know. Please have patience. I'm still only a part-time writer. I have to work 9-to-5 on my real-life day-job like everyone else. :)
"You mentioned "book", does that mean we won't see any new Succubus Summoning 201 stories being posted on Literotica, but instead have to buy your books?"
The answer is long and complex and when I went past the third paragraph in trying to type it into the comments section, I thought I may was well make it a blogpost.
It depends on how the whole 201 arc shapes up at the end. I stopped going chapter-by-chapter when I was writing 203 and realised I'd gone over 5,000 words with no sign of a sex scene in sight. There are a few new characters to introduce and a lot more background to reveal. 201 is also less episodic overall. This left me with a problem. Either post a huge big chapter on Lit, which no-one will bother to read, or split it up and risk posting a chapter with no sex at all. No-sex chapters go down very badly on Literotica unless they're romance-heavy Twilight clones. I figured my best plan is to write the whole thing out in rough (which I'm still in the process of doing) and then go back through with a chainsaw to edit the whole arc into a more pleasing shape.
There's also the tension between getting readers and getting paid. I love writing and I like posting work up on web sites like Literotica to gain exposure and for the feedback to make me a better writer, but I don't want to be the big soft chump who gives all his work away for free!
I know some writers start series on Literotica and then deliberately make the ending an exclusive to their book. I can see how it works from a marketing perspective, but it strikes me as a scumbag manoeuvre more likely to alienate readers in the long term. It's not how I roll.
I did think about making 201 book only, probably with a super-cheap first month price as a reward and apology to the long(-suffering)-term followers for their patience. I also considered taking down stories when Succubus for Christmas came out. I'm painfully conscious of the 'Why should I pay for it when I can get it for free?' argument.
I don't think Succubus for Christmas and Succubus for Valentine's Day have suffered too much for having some of their content available on the internet for free. It could be argued I might have sold more if those stories hadn't been available for free. It could also be argued I might have sold far less because new readers wouldn't have the faintest idea who I am. Personally, I like having stories up on Literotica for the exposure. If people like them, they can always buy the books to get more stories.
My current plan is to post the remaining chapters on Literotica if I can get them into the right shape. I started it there, so I want to finish it there. I'll keep some additional goodies back for the ebook version and I'll put it out some time before the run on Lit completes. I reckon that should strike the right balance.
It's a horribly long hiatus between 202 and 203, I know. Please have patience. I'm still only a part-time writer. I have to work 9-to-5 on my real-life day-job like everyone else. :)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Erotica: When Your Chapter Has No Sex
I’ve started posting the “Locked in with a Succubus” chapters up on Literotica. It’s the first time I’ve gone outside of the Erotic Horror category. I thought I’d try and see if I could pick up some new readers by posting in the NonNuman category instead (and then promptly lose them as the story heads off into too-dark territory). The first chapter (intro + part 2) went live yesterday.
It has the worst score of any of my Literotica stories.
(lower even than "The Biggest Tits in the World", where I screwed up and tossed out a mental image most readers spotted right off was simply impossible—although I do have a fix now)
That’s something I was expecting and knew I’d have to take on the chin. People like their erotica to have, you know, naughty bits.
It’s always a dilemma. I like my sex scenes to be surrounded by a strong story and the problem with Plot with Porn as opposed to Plot? What Plot? is sometimes the plot heads off into areas with no sex. So what do you do? Crowbar in the naughty anyway, or cross your fingers and hope the story is compelling enough to keep the readers interested until the next pair of jiggling boobs appears on the horizon?
I’m a bit weird, so the story is always sacrosanct to me. No sex unless it fits naturally into the plot.
Fortunately for me, when you write about succubi, sex always naturally fits into the plot!
I was going to combine "Locked in with a Succubus" into one single piece, but I think it might diminish the impact of all those teasing little chapter endings. It’s given me some ideas on how to put my 4th collection of short stories together. I’ll see what happens on Literotica over the next couple of weeks. If everyone gets bored waiting for the hot stuff to happen and buggers off, then I’ll know it was a failed experiment.
It has the worst score of any of my Literotica stories.
(lower even than "The Biggest Tits in the World", where I screwed up and tossed out a mental image most readers spotted right off was simply impossible—although I do have a fix now)
That’s something I was expecting and knew I’d have to take on the chin. People like their erotica to have, you know, naughty bits.
It’s always a dilemma. I like my sex scenes to be surrounded by a strong story and the problem with Plot with Porn as opposed to Plot? What Plot? is sometimes the plot heads off into areas with no sex. So what do you do? Crowbar in the naughty anyway, or cross your fingers and hope the story is compelling enough to keep the readers interested until the next pair of jiggling boobs appears on the horizon?
I’m a bit weird, so the story is always sacrosanct to me. No sex unless it fits naturally into the plot.
Fortunately for me, when you write about succubi, sex always naturally fits into the plot!
I was going to combine "Locked in with a Succubus" into one single piece, but I think it might diminish the impact of all those teasing little chapter endings. It’s given me some ideas on how to put my 4th collection of short stories together. I’ll see what happens on Literotica over the next couple of weeks. If everyone gets bored waiting for the hot stuff to happen and buggers off, then I’ll know it was a failed experiment.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Close, but no Earth Day goodies for me
The winners of Literotica's 2011 Earth Day contest were announced yesterday. My internet connection has been lousy all week (which is why this is a day late), but I was able to log in and find out I'd finished outside the top three.
Don't Fuck The Flowers did a lot better than I expected considering it's a weird erotic horror story with a bad ending and some highly dubious humour. At one point, right before the cut off, the story was in second place, although I think this was more a quirk of the anti-cheating measures Literotica has in place. It finished 5th, about .01 off third place in score.
I was surprised by how close it came. Traditionally, slushy feel-good stories come out on top. People like nice endings. I enter freaky kinky horror stories that are more likely to squick out than please the average reader because... well, that's just the way I am. :)
Thanks to everyone who read and voted. Hell-Space is turning into a nice little playground for me. I have a word file filling up with snippets and story ideas, so expect me to return there again in the future.
Don't Fuck The Flowers did a lot better than I expected considering it's a weird erotic horror story with a bad ending and some highly dubious humour. At one point, right before the cut off, the story was in second place, although I think this was more a quirk of the anti-cheating measures Literotica has in place. It finished 5th, about .01 off third place in score.
I was surprised by how close it came. Traditionally, slushy feel-good stories come out on top. People like nice endings. I enter freaky kinky horror stories that are more likely to squick out than please the average reader because... well, that's just the way I am. :)
Thanks to everyone who read and voted. Hell-Space is turning into a nice little playground for me. I have a word file filling up with snippets and story ideas, so expect me to return there again in the future.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Officially good enough to be plagiarised
Some people have a lot of nerve.
A few days ago I got an anonymous email through Literotica’s feedback system (thanks, whoever you are) asking if I was posting chapters up on DeviantArt.com under a different username. I followed the link and found a gallery with the first eight chapters of my Succubus Summoning 101 series.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen my stories crop up elsewhere on the internet. It’s the nature of the beast. If you post something up where everyone can see it, it’s inevitable the same work will be reproduced elsewhere. As long as my name’s still on the top and no-one’s milking it for cash, I’m usually content to turn a blind eye. Often it’s extra advertising and the stories are already available for people to read for free online anyway.
This is the first time I’ve ever had someone else try to claim my work as their own and that’s a whole damn different ball game. When they’ve already picked up fanart for my original characters you know this shit has to be sorted out damn quickly. Obviously, I couldn’t resist leaving the odd sarcastic comment or three, especially a “Please tell, I’m curious to know myself”, in response to their answer of “All will be revealed in time,” when someone asked what Verdé’s plans were.
Sadly, DeviantArt gives page owners the ability to hide comments, which rather spoiled my fun somewhat.
Fortunately, I also frequent the Monster Girl Unlimited forums, where a good proportion of the members also have DeviantArt accounts…
I’m not sure whether DeviantArt terminated the account after it was reported, or the plagiarist de-activated it themselves once they realised it was impossible to maintain the pretence anymore. Either way it was gone by the time I got back from work.
I wonder how they thought they could get away with it in the first place. One google search to the wrong place by any of their fans would have blown the deception wide open. It’s a little mortifying to think they managed to get eight chapters up without anyone actually noticing, and that the chapters hadn’t really picked up many comments either. Take that knee in the soft and squishy parts, ego. Big time infamous succubus writer, ha!
Oh well.
I suppose I was lucky. It was only a case of someone trying to impress their circle of friends on an art site. Other writers from Literotica are still struggling to get stolen work pulled down from amazon’s ebook store.
A few days ago I got an anonymous email through Literotica’s feedback system (thanks, whoever you are) asking if I was posting chapters up on DeviantArt.com under a different username. I followed the link and found a gallery with the first eight chapters of my Succubus Summoning 101 series.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen my stories crop up elsewhere on the internet. It’s the nature of the beast. If you post something up where everyone can see it, it’s inevitable the same work will be reproduced elsewhere. As long as my name’s still on the top and no-one’s milking it for cash, I’m usually content to turn a blind eye. Often it’s extra advertising and the stories are already available for people to read for free online anyway.
This is the first time I’ve ever had someone else try to claim my work as their own and that’s a whole damn different ball game. When they’ve already picked up fanart for my original characters you know this shit has to be sorted out damn quickly. Obviously, I couldn’t resist leaving the odd sarcastic comment or three, especially a “Please tell, I’m curious to know myself”, in response to their answer of “All will be revealed in time,” when someone asked what Verdé’s plans were.
Sadly, DeviantArt gives page owners the ability to hide comments, which rather spoiled my fun somewhat.
Fortunately, I also frequent the Monster Girl Unlimited forums, where a good proportion of the members also have DeviantArt accounts…
I’m not sure whether DeviantArt terminated the account after it was reported, or the plagiarist de-activated it themselves once they realised it was impossible to maintain the pretence anymore. Either way it was gone by the time I got back from work.
I wonder how they thought they could get away with it in the first place. One google search to the wrong place by any of their fans would have blown the deception wide open. It’s a little mortifying to think they managed to get eight chapters up without anyone actually noticing, and that the chapters hadn’t really picked up many comments either. Take that knee in the soft and squishy parts, ego. Big time infamous succubus writer, ha!
Oh well.
I suppose I was lucky. It was only a case of someone trying to impress their circle of friends on an art site. Other writers from Literotica are still struggling to get stolen work pulled down from amazon’s ebook store.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
No fish were hurt in the writing of this story...
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Not Gone Yet
I saw a comment on a recent succubus story on Literotica bemoaning that I no longer write for the site. This isn’t actually correct, but given that the only story I’ve posted in something like the last six months was “A Succubus for Halloween”, I can see why people might think this.
I haven’t stopped posting stories on the site just yet, but I’ll be keeping some back for the books. Got to have something to reward the nice folks that chip in with financial support. ;)
I feel a bit more caught up now (aside from Succubus Summoning 201, but I’ll get to that in a mo). My first collection had one brand new story, “Arachne’s Web”. There’s a second collection coming out in February with three original stories and the third collection I submitted to eXcessica a week ago has five brand new stories.
I might post some of these online. I haven’t decided yet. Crashing the competitions with my nastier horror stories is always fun, although one of new ones is so depraved the ‘bad end’ haters will probably lynch me if I ever submit it. :D
Succubus Summoning 201 hasn’t been abandoned. It’s off hiatus and I’m back to scribbling down lines in a notebook. I’m not going to post anything until I’ve got the whole arc out of the way, or at least a good chunk of it. Dribs and drabs with months between chapters is something I want to avoid as it screws up the flow of the story and I grind to a halt whenever I start to feel pressure to get something finished by a certain date.
I haven’t stopped posting stories on the site just yet, but I’ll be keeping some back for the books. Got to have something to reward the nice folks that chip in with financial support. ;)
I feel a bit more caught up now (aside from Succubus Summoning 201, but I’ll get to that in a mo). My first collection had one brand new story, “Arachne’s Web”. There’s a second collection coming out in February with three original stories and the third collection I submitted to eXcessica a week ago has five brand new stories.
I might post some of these online. I haven’t decided yet. Crashing the competitions with my nastier horror stories is always fun, although one of new ones is so depraved the ‘bad end’ haters will probably lynch me if I ever submit it. :D
Succubus Summoning 201 hasn’t been abandoned. It’s off hiatus and I’m back to scribbling down lines in a notebook. I’m not going to post anything until I’ve got the whole arc out of the way, or at least a good chunk of it. Dribs and drabs with months between chapters is something I want to avoid as it screws up the flow of the story and I grind to a halt whenever I start to feel pressure to get something finished by a certain date.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Literotica's Halloween Competition 2010
I didn't quite finish the two stories I wanted to get done for this year's competition. It's a shame as they both complement each other. You'll see what I mean when my third collection comes out next year (providing I finish it first and the sales of the other two aren't so bad I get canned!).
In the meantime I got one in before the deadline and you can read and vote for it right here.
The succubus from the black stone tablet is back and she's as naughty as ever.
(naughty might be a teensy bit of an understatement...)
Enjoy!
In the meantime I got one in before the deadline and you can read and vote for it right here.
The succubus from the black stone tablet is back and she's as naughty as ever.
(naughty might be a teensy bit of an understatement...)
Enjoy!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Rosa and Verdé need your votes!
It's the 11th Annual Literotica Reader's Choice Awards and Succubus Summoning is up in the Erotic Horror category. Actually, two chapters of Succubus Summoning (113 and 114) are up, which is a little awkward.
If you like the series and want to show your appreciation, then please vote here. 114 is probably the best choice to avoid splitting the vote as it's the end of the first story arc.
I haven't forgotten the 201 arc. It's just that pesky real life thing gobbling up my time. Must write faster!
If you like the series and want to show your appreciation, then please vote here. 114 is probably the best choice to avoid splitting the vote as it's the end of the first story arc.
I haven't forgotten the 201 arc. It's just that pesky real life thing gobbling up my time. Must write faster!
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