I’m going to make a few changes to the Let’s Plays and how I blog about monster girl games. Initially the detailed playthroughs of monster girl hentai games seemed a good way to generate material for this blog. While they’re fun and give me an incentive to actually play all the way through a game, they do take up time that might be better spent on writing my own original fiction.
Also, the entertainment of the playthrough is dependent on how interesting the game is. To be honest, DramaraQuest V didn’t give me a lot to work with other than an excuse to post pictures of semi-naked anime monster girls (not that bad of a thing, admittedly!). I suspect there was also a lack of interest out there judging by the tail off in hits and number of comments.
This doesn’t mean I won’t be doing any more Let’s Plays. I’m just going to be a little choosy with the games I do. The other thing I want to do is get the reviews out faster. Currently I tack them onto the end of the playthroughs as a more permanent summary of my thoughts on the game. What I’ll aim to do is to switch it around and put the review out first so they’ll be a better resource for readers wondering whether they should purchase the game or not. If I find the game sufficiently interesting/sexy/batshit crazy, or you out there want to see more of it, I’ll start a Let’s Play and go through in more detail.
If I really like the game I’ll probably throw Jackson into it for the shits and giggles. It’s about time I got his adventures restarted again.
And yes, I will give Mon-musu Quest: Paradox the full Let’s Play treatment when it comes out (Ilias help me!). That one will almost certainly be interesting/sexy/batshit craxy enough to merit a more detailed look.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Friday, December 05, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Hydra's Inspiration - A Succubus for Christmas (part 3)
And the stories behind the stories for the remaining five tales from A Succubus for Christmas:
Wrapdance
The club and background comes from real life inspiration. I was in Moscow and - after copious amounts of alcohol - found myself in a strip club where the girls gave out lap dances in a similar fashion to how they’re described here. I changed the dancers to succubi and made the venue another Strip Club With A Dark Secret. The real tension is the protagonist’s struggle between his body’s desire for primal pleasure and the mind’s desire to stay alive. The story picked up an editor’s choice tag when it went up on Literotica. This gave me a nice little ego boost at the time and made me think I was doing something right with my writing.
The Coils of Aenictia
This is another story inspired by artwork I’d seen on the internet. This time it was of a lamia or slug-type monster girl engaged in unbirth. I didn’t know that much about the vore fetish at the time. The picture seemed sexy and it gave me an idea to give the protagonist a kind of twisted rebirth (to make a change from all the Sucked To A Withered Husk stories). The planar catastrophe was another excuse to throw a clearly non-human monster girl into a contemporary setting. Trying to think about how that catastrophe happened gave birth to hell-space, my goto setting for monster girls that aren’t an easy fit for a modern-day setting.
Squeezed
This was the second story I submitted to Literotica. Succubi and similar monster girls are one interpretation of the highly seductive, sexually-dominant femme fatale. Other classic examples come from super-hero comics (eg. Poison Ivy). The character that eventually became Sister Squeeze was originally going to be in “The Embrace of Uvulu’ai” until I realised her bright and colourful powers were more suited to a comic book setting. The story was also a fun opportunity to have a sideswipe at the so-called moral guardians who are less than moral themselves.
Happy Ending
The title is both a troll and an allusion to the euphemism of ‘Happy Ending’ (a sex act that gives a client an ejaculation at the end of a massage) used by massage parlours. Erotic body-to-body massage given by a girl on top of an airbed is one of my favourite porn scenarios and I’ve used it a number of times in my stories (it’s also a lot of fun irl too ;) ). It was a perfect opportunity to bring back Annette Brite and also add a sneaky reference back to “Bubble Bath” (yes, the stunning girl Clive walks past as he enters the shop is the succubus from “Bubble Bath”). The troll part is an acknowledgement that most of my stories, while sexy, often don’t end well for the central characters. The title reflects that irony.
Incall with a Succubus
And then the real happy ending. I knew I couldn’t constantly write about ‘dude encounters sexy demon girl, demon girl sucks out his life/soul’ without it starting to get repetitive and/or people starting to wonder if I had some deep-seated psychological problems about sex. Horror (and horror films specifically) doesn’t have a good track record here when the central message of most slasher flicks can be summed as thus: Have Sex And You Will Die!!!
I needed a ‘nice’ succubus and along came Nicole. All the sexy goodness with none of that icky death stuff. Maybe. I wanted to leave enough hints of darkness so the readers don’t forget what she is (and a little uncertainty makes the sex more thrilling). Jack Newman is a politician because it was a realistic way of establishing Nicole’s credentials as an exclusive escort and also because I liked the irony of a politician, normally a despised profession - with good reason - in fiction, being the one to get the ‘happy ending’.
Wrapdance
The club and background comes from real life inspiration. I was in Moscow and - after copious amounts of alcohol - found myself in a strip club where the girls gave out lap dances in a similar fashion to how they’re described here. I changed the dancers to succubi and made the venue another Strip Club With A Dark Secret. The real tension is the protagonist’s struggle between his body’s desire for primal pleasure and the mind’s desire to stay alive. The story picked up an editor’s choice tag when it went up on Literotica. This gave me a nice little ego boost at the time and made me think I was doing something right with my writing.
The Coils of Aenictia
This is another story inspired by artwork I’d seen on the internet. This time it was of a lamia or slug-type monster girl engaged in unbirth. I didn’t know that much about the vore fetish at the time. The picture seemed sexy and it gave me an idea to give the protagonist a kind of twisted rebirth (to make a change from all the Sucked To A Withered Husk stories). The planar catastrophe was another excuse to throw a clearly non-human monster girl into a contemporary setting. Trying to think about how that catastrophe happened gave birth to hell-space, my goto setting for monster girls that aren’t an easy fit for a modern-day setting.
Squeezed
This was the second story I submitted to Literotica. Succubi and similar monster girls are one interpretation of the highly seductive, sexually-dominant femme fatale. Other classic examples come from super-hero comics (eg. Poison Ivy). The character that eventually became Sister Squeeze was originally going to be in “The Embrace of Uvulu’ai” until I realised her bright and colourful powers were more suited to a comic book setting. The story was also a fun opportunity to have a sideswipe at the so-called moral guardians who are less than moral themselves.
Happy Ending
The title is both a troll and an allusion to the euphemism of ‘Happy Ending’ (a sex act that gives a client an ejaculation at the end of a massage) used by massage parlours. Erotic body-to-body massage given by a girl on top of an airbed is one of my favourite porn scenarios and I’ve used it a number of times in my stories (it’s also a lot of fun irl too ;) ). It was a perfect opportunity to bring back Annette Brite and also add a sneaky reference back to “Bubble Bath” (yes, the stunning girl Clive walks past as he enters the shop is the succubus from “Bubble Bath”). The troll part is an acknowledgement that most of my stories, while sexy, often don’t end well for the central characters. The title reflects that irony.
Incall with a Succubus
And then the real happy ending. I knew I couldn’t constantly write about ‘dude encounters sexy demon girl, demon girl sucks out his life/soul’ without it starting to get repetitive and/or people starting to wonder if I had some deep-seated psychological problems about sex. Horror (and horror films specifically) doesn’t have a good track record here when the central message of most slasher flicks can be summed as thus: Have Sex And You Will Die!!!
I needed a ‘nice’ succubus and along came Nicole. All the sexy goodness with none of that icky death stuff. Maybe. I wanted to leave enough hints of darkness so the readers don’t forget what she is (and a little uncertainty makes the sex more thrilling). Jack Newman is a politician because it was a realistic way of establishing Nicole’s credentials as an exclusive escort and also because I liked the irony of a politician, normally a despised profession - with good reason - in fiction, being the one to get the ‘happy ending’.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Hydra's Inspiration - A Succubus for Christmas (part 2)
Carrying on with where the inspiration came from for the stories from my first collection, A Succubus for Christmas.
Hookahed
This was the first story I submitted to Literotica. It’s another old fantasy of mine. For the early stories the plots were usually excuses to set up a twisted sex scene with hot demonesses. Koontz’s unconventional appearance was inspired by news stories of a real life mob boss (think it might have been Vincent Gigante) walking around outside in nothing more than a bathrobe to make the authorities think he was crazy. The idea of a mob boss with a harem of succubi at his command seemed too good not to use again, and so Koontz became another of my regular characters.
Pool of the Undine
Another story inspired by a monster girl picture I’d seen online, this time of a slime girl. The weird cave out in the moors seemed like a nice location for her to hide.
Slayer vs. Succubus
This was intended as an affectionate subversion of the classic eighties action hero stereotype. I love those films even though it’s obvious anyone behaving like that in real life would most likely fuck everything up epically. Super virile action hero versus infernal mistress of temptation was never going to end well in my universe. This is a story I’m torn on. It’s fun, but it’s also very goofy. Quite a few readers let me know they liked this one and I try to remind myself to write similar stories every so often to break up the flow of grimdark ones.
Arachne’s Web
This one is unique to this collection. I’d wanted to do an Arachne story for a while, but unlike succubi, which are easy to hide in a modern-day setting, a demon with the lower body of a giant spider is a little more noticeable. I made her a dream demon to get around this. The non-sex part of the story was inspired by a real life (and tragic) news story of an otherwise successful Brit going on the run in the states after shooting his wife.
The writing of it is another story. Selena Kitt spotted my work on Literotica and encouraged me to put a collection together for publication through eXcessica. I knew it would crazy to expect people to pay for work that was already available for free online, so I decided to include at least one original story (ideally a novella) for the folks prepared to part with their cash. That was this one and it ended up being a complete bitch to write. I suspect this was because I knew I was writing something for publication rather than fun and some of those old niggling writer doubts about being good enough had resurfaced to fuck around with my productivity.
I hated the story at the time. It was only when I came back later I saw how nicely the concepts and imagery (the way she ‘eats’ the memories of his past loves and replaces them with her) came together. It’s my favourite of the collection. It might make a decent horror film as well (hint hint, for anyone out there with experience of making such things).
I'll finish off with the last five stories on Friday.
Hookahed
This was the first story I submitted to Literotica. It’s another old fantasy of mine. For the early stories the plots were usually excuses to set up a twisted sex scene with hot demonesses. Koontz’s unconventional appearance was inspired by news stories of a real life mob boss (think it might have been Vincent Gigante) walking around outside in nothing more than a bathrobe to make the authorities think he was crazy. The idea of a mob boss with a harem of succubi at his command seemed too good not to use again, and so Koontz became another of my regular characters.
Pool of the Undine
Another story inspired by a monster girl picture I’d seen online, this time of a slime girl. The weird cave out in the moors seemed like a nice location for her to hide.
Slayer vs. Succubus
This was intended as an affectionate subversion of the classic eighties action hero stereotype. I love those films even though it’s obvious anyone behaving like that in real life would most likely fuck everything up epically. Super virile action hero versus infernal mistress of temptation was never going to end well in my universe. This is a story I’m torn on. It’s fun, but it’s also very goofy. Quite a few readers let me know they liked this one and I try to remind myself to write similar stories every so often to break up the flow of grimdark ones.
Arachne’s Web
This one is unique to this collection. I’d wanted to do an Arachne story for a while, but unlike succubi, which are easy to hide in a modern-day setting, a demon with the lower body of a giant spider is a little more noticeable. I made her a dream demon to get around this. The non-sex part of the story was inspired by a real life (and tragic) news story of an otherwise successful Brit going on the run in the states after shooting his wife.
The writing of it is another story. Selena Kitt spotted my work on Literotica and encouraged me to put a collection together for publication through eXcessica. I knew it would crazy to expect people to pay for work that was already available for free online, so I decided to include at least one original story (ideally a novella) for the folks prepared to part with their cash. That was this one and it ended up being a complete bitch to write. I suspect this was because I knew I was writing something for publication rather than fun and some of those old niggling writer doubts about being good enough had resurfaced to fuck around with my productivity.
I hated the story at the time. It was only when I came back later I saw how nicely the concepts and imagery (the way she ‘eats’ the memories of his past loves and replaces them with her) came together. It’s my favourite of the collection. It might make a decent horror film as well (hint hint, for anyone out there with experience of making such things).
I'll finish off with the last five stories on Friday.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Hydra's Inspiration - A Succubus for Christmas (part 1)
A couple of months back I wrote a post on examples of where I got my inspiration from. I said I might expand on this for stories I'd already written and a few folk seemed interested. Most horror collections include some musings by the author at the back as to where the stories came from. I thought I'd copy that theme and run through the stories from my first collection, A Succubus for Christmas.
It's a behind-the-scenes look, so there might be a few spoilers if you haven't already read these stories.
A Succubus for Christmas
I wanted a Christmas-themed story to enter into one of Literotica’s online story competitions. For a while I was struggling to think of a way to combine succubi and horror with holiday niceness, and then the little black cells vomited out this idea and it fell into my lap pretty much fully formed. At the heart it’s the classic horror genie trope—character finds artefact containing wish-granting entity, gets good stuff . . . but what about the cost.
The Masterton Covenant
Another classic horror trope—old guy in a bar telling a tale of woe. It’s one of the few stories I’ve written using first-person PoV. I’m not a big fan of using it for horror as—found footage stories and obnoxious stylist tricks aside—it’s a fairly glaring tip off the protagonist survives. In this case it’s the point of the story. He’s trying to warn others but he knows that ultimately the succubus left him alive as bait to draw in fresh prey.
Bubble Bath
This is an old fantasy—a sexy succubus coalescing out of bubbles to share a sexy bubble bath with a(n) (un)lucky dude. This is the first story to feature Annette Brite, New Age shop owner and possible witch. In the original idea she was a wizened old crone with a market stall. I changed her into the alluring and mysterious owner of a New Age shop and realised this was an interesting character I could reuse in further stories.
Flesh Pitchers of Prague
The inspiration for this came from various artworks I’d seen of monster girls that were pitcher plant hybrids. This was the 7th story I posted up on Literotica and my old short story writing instincts were returning with a desire to add more background and story to flesh out the obligatory sex scenes. Strip Club With A Dark Secret is another classic horror trope (Think From Dusk ‘til Dawn, Vamp, etc.). In those stories the survivor is usually the morally upstanding one that never wanted to be there in the first place. I deliberately subverted that as brutally as I did to knock readers off guard. The imagery for the final scene was inspired by a scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I had a set plan when picking the stories for my first collection. The first is a generic succubus story. The second lays out the general background for people unfamiliar with the succubus myth. The third expands on the myth and shows more imaginative interpretations. The ending of the fourth is to let the reader know we’re not fooling around here – this is an erotic horror collection.
I'll continue running through the other stories later this week.
It's a behind-the-scenes look, so there might be a few spoilers if you haven't already read these stories.
A Succubus for Christmas
I wanted a Christmas-themed story to enter into one of Literotica’s online story competitions. For a while I was struggling to think of a way to combine succubi and horror with holiday niceness, and then the little black cells vomited out this idea and it fell into my lap pretty much fully formed. At the heart it’s the classic horror genie trope—character finds artefact containing wish-granting entity, gets good stuff . . . but what about the cost.
The Masterton Covenant
Another classic horror trope—old guy in a bar telling a tale of woe. It’s one of the few stories I’ve written using first-person PoV. I’m not a big fan of using it for horror as—found footage stories and obnoxious stylist tricks aside—it’s a fairly glaring tip off the protagonist survives. In this case it’s the point of the story. He’s trying to warn others but he knows that ultimately the succubus left him alive as bait to draw in fresh prey.
Bubble Bath
This is an old fantasy—a sexy succubus coalescing out of bubbles to share a sexy bubble bath with a(n) (un)lucky dude. This is the first story to feature Annette Brite, New Age shop owner and possible witch. In the original idea she was a wizened old crone with a market stall. I changed her into the alluring and mysterious owner of a New Age shop and realised this was an interesting character I could reuse in further stories.
Flesh Pitchers of Prague
The inspiration for this came from various artworks I’d seen of monster girls that were pitcher plant hybrids. This was the 7th story I posted up on Literotica and my old short story writing instincts were returning with a desire to add more background and story to flesh out the obligatory sex scenes. Strip Club With A Dark Secret is another classic horror trope (Think From Dusk ‘til Dawn, Vamp, etc.). In those stories the survivor is usually the morally upstanding one that never wanted to be there in the first place. I deliberately subverted that as brutally as I did to knock readers off guard. The imagery for the final scene was inspired by a scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I had a set plan when picking the stories for my first collection. The first is a generic succubus story. The second lays out the general background for people unfamiliar with the succubus myth. The third expands on the myth and shows more imaginative interpretations. The ending of the fourth is to let the reader know we’re not fooling around here – this is an erotic horror collection.
I'll continue running through the other stories later this week.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Some questions I got asked (pt 1 of a possibly to be continued infrequent series)
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Sunday, September 07, 2014
This should have been when I tell you about a hot new story, but...
This week didn't exactly go to plan. Actually the whole of August didn't exactly go to plan, considering I was too ill to do anything for half of it.
I did have a good idea for a (loosely) summer themed story for Literotica's current story contest. It was last minute, but I reckoned I might be able to finish it this week and get it out before the deadline of Saturday midnight. (This is also why the Violated Hero 5 updates have been absent this week).
Then I got distracted by the #GamerGate stuff and had to hack up one of those mental hairballs just to get rid of it.
Even then I thought I might make it, until I realised how long the story wanted to be. By Friday I had typed up 7,500 words and just needed to finish the 1st draft, type up the rest, edit it and then get it in before midnight. Didn't seem so bad, except the rest of the story ended up running to 21 pages. The succubus decided she was going to give someone a thorough sexual working over in this story. It's a new succubus character, but I think people will like her. It's also a really steamy story. Plenty of hot succubus sex in this tale.
You won't have to wait too long to read it. I didn't make this deadline, but Literotica's Halloween contest isn't far off and pretty much all of my stories are appropriate for that theme. It will give me a chance to properly edit it so I don't embarrass myself with tons of typos and grammar errors. I'll let you all know as soon as it's posted.
On the positive side, as soon as I realised I wasn't going to make it I switched back to Succubus Summoning and finished typing 210 up. I'll edit that over the next couple of days and it should be up next week sometime.
As for Violated Hero 5, I'll get back to that tomorrow.
And for me:
Stop getting distracted by political things...
Stop getting distracted by political things...
Stop getting distracted by political things...
I did have a good idea for a (loosely) summer themed story for Literotica's current story contest. It was last minute, but I reckoned I might be able to finish it this week and get it out before the deadline of Saturday midnight. (This is also why the Violated Hero 5 updates have been absent this week).
Then I got distracted by the #GamerGate stuff and had to hack up one of those mental hairballs just to get rid of it.
Even then I thought I might make it, until I realised how long the story wanted to be. By Friday I had typed up 7,500 words and just needed to finish the 1st draft, type up the rest, edit it and then get it in before midnight. Didn't seem so bad, except the rest of the story ended up running to 21 pages. The succubus decided she was going to give someone a thorough sexual working over in this story. It's a new succubus character, but I think people will like her. It's also a really steamy story. Plenty of hot succubus sex in this tale.
You won't have to wait too long to read it. I didn't make this deadline, but Literotica's Halloween contest isn't far off and pretty much all of my stories are appropriate for that theme. It will give me a chance to properly edit it so I don't embarrass myself with tons of typos and grammar errors. I'll let you all know as soon as it's posted.
On the positive side, as soon as I realised I wasn't going to make it I switched back to Succubus Summoning and finished typing 210 up. I'll edit that over the next couple of days and it should be up next week sometime.
As for Violated Hero 5, I'll get back to that tomorrow.
And for me:
Stop getting distracted by political things...
Stop getting distracted by political things...
Stop getting distracted by political things...
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
My Donation Button(s)
It's been a fairly quiet month sales-wise. I suppose I should keep my publisher (okay, writing collective of fellow awesome smut writers) happy and remind people I also write books when not blogging about dubious Japanese hentai games.
I'm lousy at the whole monetization side of things because I'm a stupid big softie and find asking for stuff awkward. That's why I consider myself a hobbyist writer rather than a pro writer. It would be nice to be able to go full time because then I'd have an extra 8 hours a day to dream up more bizarre and sexy weird stories. Maybe one day. I can dream (of sultry succubi).
Other blogs have adverts and donate buttons. I hate web adverts because they're usually annoying at best and toxic virus delivery mechanisms at worse. If you ever see adverts for anything other than my own books here it means I've either been replaced with a soulless automaton, or desperately need to pony up cash for a new kidney.
I thought about adding a donation button then remembered I already have something better:
If you like the sexy fiction/game reviews/other stuff I post here and elsewhere on the internet, and are feeling generous enough to ship a few $ my way to incentivize me to keep on writing sexy (and occasionally (okay, okay frequently) horrific) succubus/monster girl stories, click on one of the covers above and buy one of my books. It's better than a donate button as you'll get additional stories/chapters that aren't found anywhere else.
If you hate Amazon and refuse to give them money under any circumstances, my books can also be found on Smashwords, or even directly from my publisher, eXcessica.
If you already have all of these books, thanks a lot for the support and I hope you enjoyed them. You're ahead in my eyes and it's up to me to pull my finger out and write more books to tempt you with.
If you'd like to, but don't have the funds, don't sweat it. That's how it is sometimes. I'll keep posting new erotic fiction to places like Literotica for as long as circumstances allow (although $$$ is the best way of making sure adverse circumstances stay the fuck away).
That's enough shameless begging. Time to get back to writing. Book #7 (should be Succubus Summoning 201) isn't going to write itself.
I'm lousy at the whole monetization side of things because I'm a stupid big softie and find asking for stuff awkward. That's why I consider myself a hobbyist writer rather than a pro writer. It would be nice to be able to go full time because then I'd have an extra 8 hours a day to dream up more bizarre and sexy weird stories. Maybe one day. I can dream (of sultry succubi).
Other blogs have adverts and donate buttons. I hate web adverts because they're usually annoying at best and toxic virus delivery mechanisms at worse. If you ever see adverts for anything other than my own books here it means I've either been replaced with a soulless automaton, or desperately need to pony up cash for a new kidney.
I thought about adding a donation button then remembered I already have something better:
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If you hate Amazon and refuse to give them money under any circumstances, my books can also be found on Smashwords, or even directly from my publisher, eXcessica.
If you already have all of these books, thanks a lot for the support and I hope you enjoyed them. You're ahead in my eyes and it's up to me to pull my finger out and write more books to tempt you with.
If you'd like to, but don't have the funds, don't sweat it. That's how it is sometimes. I'll keep posting new erotic fiction to places like Literotica for as long as circumstances allow (although $$$ is the best way of making sure adverse circumstances stay the fuck away).
That's enough shameless begging. Time to get back to writing. Book #7 (should be Succubus Summoning 201) isn't going to write itself.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Where does Hydra get his inspiration from: part 1 of an infrequent series
Monday was one of those days when a whole bunch of news stories caught my attention and triggered some ideas.
I was going to post this on Monday, but I was out drinking that night and after that in the middle of a blog post on something else that I later abandoned because I realised it was pandering to the holier-than-thou crowd, and as they're a group not exactly known for their intelligence or reading comprehension, it was time I was better off spending on something more worthwhile - like writing more succubus smut.
First off there was the story of the poor drunk lass tricked into giving 24 blokes oral sex in a Magaluf nightclub for a $4 cocktail (she thought she was getting a holiday). This is fairly extreme behaviour even by the usual standards of drunk Brits abroad. Sadly for her, some wanker filmed it, uploaded it to the internet, and . . . well you can guess what happened next.
While it's an embarrassing story for the poor lass in the middle of it, I thought that scenario could be flipped around into an interesting succubus story. A group of drunken lads out on the lash in a Spanish tourist hotspot, and then a ribald and debauched challenge organised by one of the tour guides. The woman is mysterious and extremely sexy, and she seems eager to give out blowjobs to a whole line of blokes. Of course she sucks out more than semen and that might be a fun story to write from the perspective of the last bloke in the line as he starts to get a feeling something is wrong . . .
Then I heard about a US artist taking a slum vacation in one of Bangkok's shanty towns and using the resulting shack as an installation piece. I don't really want to judge the bloke. It sounds horribly condescending to the people that have to live there day in and day out, but he might have done it with the best of intentions.
Of course, in fiction-world, that sort of character can be painted as the stereotypical rich, condescending asshole more interested in stroking their own ego that helping the plight of those in poverty. Tasty monster girl chow, in other words. I have a few ideas for some interesting monster girls, but no protagonist to make it a proper story. Take exotic locale, throw in annoying artist tourist, ring the dinner bell . . .
And speaking of prime monster girl chow. This showed up in my facebook feed as a (presumably feminist) friend of a friend posted it with a single comment: "vile".
http://www.returnofkings.com/37273/a-guide-for-getting-laid-at-anime-conventions
Um, yeah. I don't do the whole outrage or holier-than-thou thing, so we'll describe that one as a little . . . blunt, and leave it at that.
An anime convention has certain advantages as a succubus story location. As with Halloween or a fancy dress party, the succubus-type character can be placed in the open. All the other characters will assume she's just a hot girl in a slutty succubus costume (although I may have used the 'protagonist realises it isn't a costume' denouement a few too many times already). The protagonist presents options. They can be an out-an-out bastard, in which case it's a straightforward Cosmic Justice tale. Or I can muddy it up and give them an insecure centre to make them a little more sympathetic (although last time I tried that I muddied it up too much and ended up with a protagonist more sympathetic than I originally intended.)
I also now have the desire to create a 'landwhale' succubus character for the hell of it. Big, curvy, beautiful, irresistible . . . yum.
For anyone writing their own stories, taking newspaper/online articles and thinking up a possible 'masquerade' explanation for what's happening behind the scenes is a good story-telling exercise. But avoid the obviously weird ones, because hundreds of other writers will already have gone through the same thought processes and scrawled down the exact same story.
And then there's my highly fucked-up imagination. I saw this:
(I found it on E-Hentai galleries, bizarrely enough. The artist is Caroline Jamhour and more of her work can be found here)
. . . and remembered the eyes-as-nipples scene in Ken Russell's Gothic. I was thinking there wasn't really anything I could do with--
The demon woman has eyes where the nipples should be. She pushes her boobs into the face of her victim. The eyes in her breasts eat the eyes of the victim and then take their place. They send feelers into the brain and the victim sees . . .
Um, thanks imagination. I guess.
That was one day of the little black cells working on overdrive for new story ideas.
If it sounds vaguely interesting, I can write some more where-did-that-idea-come-from pieces for the stories I've written (assuming I can remember, some are a few years old now). Let me know in the comments below if there are any you're curious about.
I was going to post this on Monday, but I was out drinking that night and after that in the middle of a blog post on something else that I later abandoned because I realised it was pandering to the holier-than-thou crowd, and as they're a group not exactly known for their intelligence or reading comprehension, it was time I was better off spending on something more worthwhile - like writing more succubus smut.
First off there was the story of the poor drunk lass tricked into giving 24 blokes oral sex in a Magaluf nightclub for a $4 cocktail (she thought she was getting a holiday). This is fairly extreme behaviour even by the usual standards of drunk Brits abroad. Sadly for her, some wanker filmed it, uploaded it to the internet, and . . . well you can guess what happened next.
While it's an embarrassing story for the poor lass in the middle of it, I thought that scenario could be flipped around into an interesting succubus story. A group of drunken lads out on the lash in a Spanish tourist hotspot, and then a ribald and debauched challenge organised by one of the tour guides. The woman is mysterious and extremely sexy, and she seems eager to give out blowjobs to a whole line of blokes. Of course she sucks out more than semen and that might be a fun story to write from the perspective of the last bloke in the line as he starts to get a feeling something is wrong . . .
Then I heard about a US artist taking a slum vacation in one of Bangkok's shanty towns and using the resulting shack as an installation piece. I don't really want to judge the bloke. It sounds horribly condescending to the people that have to live there day in and day out, but he might have done it with the best of intentions.
Of course, in fiction-world, that sort of character can be painted as the stereotypical rich, condescending asshole more interested in stroking their own ego that helping the plight of those in poverty. Tasty monster girl chow, in other words. I have a few ideas for some interesting monster girls, but no protagonist to make it a proper story. Take exotic locale, throw in annoying artist tourist, ring the dinner bell . . .
And speaking of prime monster girl chow. This showed up in my facebook feed as a (presumably feminist) friend of a friend posted it with a single comment: "vile".
http://www.returnofkings.com/37273/a-guide-for-getting-laid-at-anime-conventions
Um, yeah. I don't do the whole outrage or holier-than-thou thing, so we'll describe that one as a little . . . blunt, and leave it at that.
An anime convention has certain advantages as a succubus story location. As with Halloween or a fancy dress party, the succubus-type character can be placed in the open. All the other characters will assume she's just a hot girl in a slutty succubus costume (although I may have used the 'protagonist realises it isn't a costume' denouement a few too many times already). The protagonist presents options. They can be an out-an-out bastard, in which case it's a straightforward Cosmic Justice tale. Or I can muddy it up and give them an insecure centre to make them a little more sympathetic (although last time I tried that I muddied it up too much and ended up with a protagonist more sympathetic than I originally intended.)
I also now have the desire to create a 'landwhale' succubus character for the hell of it. Big, curvy, beautiful, irresistible . . . yum.
For anyone writing their own stories, taking newspaper/online articles and thinking up a possible 'masquerade' explanation for what's happening behind the scenes is a good story-telling exercise. But avoid the obviously weird ones, because hundreds of other writers will already have gone through the same thought processes and scrawled down the exact same story.
And then there's my highly fucked-up imagination. I saw this:
(I found it on E-Hentai galleries, bizarrely enough. The artist is Caroline Jamhour and more of her work can be found here)
. . . and remembered the eyes-as-nipples scene in Ken Russell's Gothic. I was thinking there wasn't really anything I could do with--
The demon woman has eyes where the nipples should be. She pushes her boobs into the face of her victim. The eyes in her breasts eat the eyes of the victim and then take their place. They send feelers into the brain and the victim sees . . .
Um, thanks imagination. I guess.
That was one day of the little black cells working on overdrive for new story ideas.
If it sounds vaguely interesting, I can write some more where-did-that-idea-come-from pieces for the stories I've written (assuming I can remember, some are a few years old now). Let me know in the comments below if there are any you're curious about.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Succubus Summoning 208 is up (finally...)
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Monday, May 26, 2014
Resurrecting the #DailyWriting Tag
For most of last year I used the #DailyWriting tag on twitter as an aid to writing. I set a target of either typing at least 500 words or handwriting 3 notebook pages a day (roughly 1-2 hours of writing). Before going to bed I'd tweet the word/page count. I doubt the people of twitter cared either way, but having the illusion of witnesses was a good way to keep me honest. It was a good discipline aid. One of the best tips for writing is to make it a habit. Once it becomes a habit it's a lot easier to keep the words flowing and a few pages every night eventually pile up into a full novel.
I stopped doing it earlier this year. A big part of that reason was because I'd become pissed off with twitter and all the self-righteous, holier-than-thou jerks that stink out the place. It was also because I was worried it had become a creative straitjacket - that I'd end up joylessly grinding out a bare minimum of useless words every night because of trying to keep to arbitrary targets.
I was also worried about how it would look on my twitter feed. Posting word counts is often sneered at as something those vulgar self-published types do. It's just not the done thing.
By the way, that reason above is without a doubt the stupidest reason of the lot. A quick check of most of the more vocal, sneery writery types on social media will reveal them to be rather light in the publishing credits column. Give those characters a wide berth (and most online writing communities in general, though there are exceptions) and your muse (and readers) will thank you.
Anyway, I decided to stop using the #DailyWriting tag. I was getting the pages done anyway and there was no need to bore the world with the proof. Then indiscipline crept in. A couple of weeks ago I was off work and had a good writing week where I finally burst through a Succubus Summoning chapter that had been blocking me for a while, as well as finishing off another short story that had been clogging up the tubes for a bit. Then the following week I was a lazy cunt and barely got anything done at all.
After that I decided to resurrect the #DailyWriting tag. I'm a shameful procrastinator. Once I start writing I can normally clock in a good hour or two. Starting that first hour and not bumming around on facebook or youtube is the problem. It's surprising how much difference a little tag can make. When I stopped using it I'd have those nights where I'd fart around until the clock ticked past midnight and then think, fuck it, it's too late. The first night I decided to start using it again the same thing happened, but instead of going to bed I thought, no, let's get those 3 pages written first. Sometimes a little psychological push is all that's required.
So the #DailyWriting tag is back and you can follow my feed here:
https://twitter.com/manyeyedhydra
It also has the nice side effect of reassuring people I'm still alive and writing during those periods when this blog goes quiet. I know a few people were concerned about that given the shit that went on earlier in the year. It should also give an idea of what I'm working on currently and how far along I am. (The next chapter of Succubus Summoning needs a further 2.5-3K words typed up and a full edit before posting).
I stopped doing it earlier this year. A big part of that reason was because I'd become pissed off with twitter and all the self-righteous, holier-than-thou jerks that stink out the place. It was also because I was worried it had become a creative straitjacket - that I'd end up joylessly grinding out a bare minimum of useless words every night because of trying to keep to arbitrary targets.
I was also worried about how it would look on my twitter feed. Posting word counts is often sneered at as something those vulgar self-published types do. It's just not the done thing.
By the way, that reason above is without a doubt the stupidest reason of the lot. A quick check of most of the more vocal, sneery writery types on social media will reveal them to be rather light in the publishing credits column. Give those characters a wide berth (and most online writing communities in general, though there are exceptions) and your muse (and readers) will thank you.
Anyway, I decided to stop using the #DailyWriting tag. I was getting the pages done anyway and there was no need to bore the world with the proof. Then indiscipline crept in. A couple of weeks ago I was off work and had a good writing week where I finally burst through a Succubus Summoning chapter that had been blocking me for a while, as well as finishing off another short story that had been clogging up the tubes for a bit. Then the following week I was a lazy cunt and barely got anything done at all.
After that I decided to resurrect the #DailyWriting tag. I'm a shameful procrastinator. Once I start writing I can normally clock in a good hour or two. Starting that first hour and not bumming around on facebook or youtube is the problem. It's surprising how much difference a little tag can make. When I stopped using it I'd have those nights where I'd fart around until the clock ticked past midnight and then think, fuck it, it's too late. The first night I decided to start using it again the same thing happened, but instead of going to bed I thought, no, let's get those 3 pages written first. Sometimes a little psychological push is all that's required.
So the #DailyWriting tag is back and you can follow my feed here:
https://twitter.com/manyeyedhydra
It also has the nice side effect of reassuring people I'm still alive and writing during those periods when this blog goes quiet. I know a few people were concerned about that given the shit that went on earlier in the year. It should also give an idea of what I'm working on currently and how far along I am. (The next chapter of Succubus Summoning needs a further 2.5-3K words typed up and a full edit before posting).
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Random update to reassure people I'm still alive
Oops. Saw PaperClip's comment on the last post and realised my going quiet here combined with some of the unfortunate nastiness from the start of the year might have led people to draw the wrong conclusions. I thought I should post something here in case people were concerned and before I get a reputation as a serial internet flouncer.
Dark Souls 2 was fun. About 100+ hours of fun to be exact. That's part of the reason why I try to avoid computer RPGs now. The Dark Souls series is one I'll make an exception for. While the sequel isn't as strong as its predecessor, it's still damn good. I've completed the main story and while I'm still playing it, it's more an hour or so here and there rather than must-rush-home-from-work-and-play-until-1am.
I did think about writing a few blog posts on reviews/hints and tactics, and some other blog posts on other things, but decided that the time I was spending on trying to scratch blog posts together was writing time I should be spending on stories and more particularly Succubus Summoning 201. If it's not something I can hammer out quickly, it's time I should be spending on a new chapter/story.
Real life work has kept me a little busier than normal. My usual writing method is to write longhand in notepads and then type up afterwards. While the writing longhand in notepads might sound a little 1800s, it works for me as pen ink can't be backspaced and rewriting a first draft improves it a great deal. My usual writing work day is to stay behind after work to do the typing up and maybe do a couple of hours of handwritten drafts before I go to bed. For the last couple of weeks those couple of extra hours have needed to be spent on the day job instead. Such are the realities of the hobbyist author with a 9-to-5 (or 7 in this case) job to pay the bills.
The Easter break was pretty good for me as I managed to get my head down and back to the notepads/typing. After postponing the last collection I turned on ChaosWriting, which promptly thought trying to start two brand new novels and four new short stories was a good idea. Oh ChaosWriting, you naughty little scamp you. It's a pretty good methodology for being prolific with short stories, but you never know what's going to fall off the production line next.
Since the last post I've finished another short story, done about 4,000 words of another, added another ten pages or so to Succubus Summoning, and written the first chapter of another novel (Think Violated Hero, but with the most perverse monster girls ever imagined - more on that later). Definitely still writing, but a little slower and more chaotic than usual over the past couple of months (been that sort of year).
The next Succubus Summoning chapter should be the next thing out. Not going to give a date as it would probably be another filthy lie.
The other reason for a lean spell at the succubus bordello here is there's been a paucity of hot new monster girl eroges. The Violated Hero walkthrough was fun and boosted the hits. I had plans to make these walkthroughs a regular feature . . . and then the hot new monster girl hentai games dried up (or I might have missed them - feel free to recommend any I might have overlooked in the comments below). After a lean spell it looks like Dieselmine has come to the rescue with an add-on for Violated Hero 4 featuring Lilith, the vacuum cleaner robot girl and two new fan-made girls that didn't make the full game. Yep, I will be blogging that, just as I did with the full game.
As with the ending to the other post - still here, still writing, not going away anytime soon, but unfortunately still hopelessly chaotic when it comes to writing new stuff.
Dark Souls 2 was fun. About 100+ hours of fun to be exact. That's part of the reason why I try to avoid computer RPGs now. The Dark Souls series is one I'll make an exception for. While the sequel isn't as strong as its predecessor, it's still damn good. I've completed the main story and while I'm still playing it, it's more an hour or so here and there rather than must-rush-home-from-work-and-play-until-1am.
I did think about writing a few blog posts on reviews/hints and tactics, and some other blog posts on other things, but decided that the time I was spending on trying to scratch blog posts together was writing time I should be spending on stories and more particularly Succubus Summoning 201. If it's not something I can hammer out quickly, it's time I should be spending on a new chapter/story.
Real life work has kept me a little busier than normal. My usual writing method is to write longhand in notepads and then type up afterwards. While the writing longhand in notepads might sound a little 1800s, it works for me as pen ink can't be backspaced and rewriting a first draft improves it a great deal. My usual writing work day is to stay behind after work to do the typing up and maybe do a couple of hours of handwritten drafts before I go to bed. For the last couple of weeks those couple of extra hours have needed to be spent on the day job instead. Such are the realities of the hobbyist author with a 9-to-5 (or 7 in this case) job to pay the bills.
The Easter break was pretty good for me as I managed to get my head down and back to the notepads/typing. After postponing the last collection I turned on ChaosWriting, which promptly thought trying to start two brand new novels and four new short stories was a good idea. Oh ChaosWriting, you naughty little scamp you. It's a pretty good methodology for being prolific with short stories, but you never know what's going to fall off the production line next.
Since the last post I've finished another short story, done about 4,000 words of another, added another ten pages or so to Succubus Summoning, and written the first chapter of another novel (Think Violated Hero, but with the most perverse monster girls ever imagined - more on that later). Definitely still writing, but a little slower and more chaotic than usual over the past couple of months (been that sort of year).
The next Succubus Summoning chapter should be the next thing out. Not going to give a date as it would probably be another filthy lie.
The other reason for a lean spell at the succubus bordello here is there's been a paucity of hot new monster girl eroges. The Violated Hero walkthrough was fun and boosted the hits. I had plans to make these walkthroughs a regular feature . . . and then the hot new monster girl hentai games dried up (or I might have missed them - feel free to recommend any I might have overlooked in the comments below). After a lean spell it looks like Dieselmine has come to the rescue with an add-on for Violated Hero 4 featuring Lilith, the vacuum cleaner robot girl and two new fan-made girls that didn't make the full game. Yep, I will be blogging that, just as I did with the full game.
As with the ending to the other post - still here, still writing, not going away anytime soon, but unfortunately still hopelessly chaotic when it comes to writing new stuff.
Sunday, March 02, 2014
Moving the Forthcoming Collection back to 2015
The curse of date-themed collections strikes again. I don't think I'm going to hit the date I need this month without some severe rushing, and if I do that there's a risk I'm going to end up with error-filled stories that aren't as enjoyable to read because I was stupid enough to suck the enjoyment out of writing them by trying to force-march myself through an arbitrary deadline. Normally I subscribe more to the no-nonsense, words-on-page pulp-writer ethos rather than precious-little-snowflake "literary" noodling, but that's not an excuse to rush out crap to foist on the reader. I might write smut, but I take pride in writing good-quality smut! :)
The last couple of collections I've been writing stories specifically to fit those collections. This isn't working as well as I'd like as when I feel I "have" to write certain stories, procrastination and distraction behaviour kicks in.
(Plus I think readers can tell when something looks forced)
I'm going to switch to ChaosWriting for a while and write the ideas that seem hot'n'sexy at the time until I've built up a nice buffer of fresh material. That should mean better stories and less last-minute panicking (and also more Succubus Summoning). I'm not going to sit on all of these, so expect some new stories/chapters to show up here and on places like Literotica at frequent intervals throughout 2014. The main thing I want to change is to organise my time better so that I'm not still writing/editing a book in the same month it's due to come out. That time should be for promotion only.
I know some people were looking forward to "A Real-Life Goo Girl". I do have a surplus of original stories for the next collection (although unfortunately not as complete as I'd like), so I'll be posting that up here later today.
The next book should now be Succubus Summoning 201. At least that one isn't dependent on a specific date.
Date-themed collections, why did I think that was a good idea. Sigh... :)
The last couple of collections I've been writing stories specifically to fit those collections. This isn't working as well as I'd like as when I feel I "have" to write certain stories, procrastination and distraction behaviour kicks in.
(Plus I think readers can tell when something looks forced)
I'm going to switch to ChaosWriting for a while and write the ideas that seem hot'n'sexy at the time until I've built up a nice buffer of fresh material. That should mean better stories and less last-minute panicking (and also more Succubus Summoning). I'm not going to sit on all of these, so expect some new stories/chapters to show up here and on places like Literotica at frequent intervals throughout 2014. The main thing I want to change is to organise my time better so that I'm not still writing/editing a book in the same month it's due to come out. That time should be for promotion only.
I know some people were looking forward to "A Real-Life Goo Girl". I do have a surplus of original stories for the next collection (although unfortunately not as complete as I'd like), so I'll be posting that up here later today.
The next book should now be Succubus Summoning 201. At least that one isn't dependent on a specific date.
Date-themed collections, why did I think that was a good idea. Sigh... :)
Sunday, February 23, 2014
So Whatever Happened to Succubus Summoning?
“When
are you getting back to the Succubus Summoning series?”
I get
asked this question a lot. Rather than
continue to reply to individual comments and emails I’ll answer it here.
First,
some history. A while back, when I was
only writing the short horror-porn one-shots, I wrote a little HarryPotter-esque parody where two students at a college for warlocks summoned
succubi for some “adult entertainment” and it went horribly wrong. In a rare twist for me, that story ended with
one of the protagonists still alive and facing an uncertain fate at the pussies
of two sexy succubi. Rather than leave
it to the imagination of the reader, I returned to that story and wrote some
follow-up chapters, which then became a series, and then a book.
I
started a sequel (Succubus Summoning 201) and posted a few chapters online
before putting it on hiatus while I untangled some of the plot developments in
my head. Back then I planned to write
the whole thing as a novel, which would have the advantage of allowing me to go
back and fix any obvious screw-ups if I changed my mind on the story. Unfortunately this resulted in Succubus
Summoning constantly sitting on the backburner because my novel-writing
discipline is abject to say the least.
Last
year I figured out where I wanted the plot to go and brought it back off hiatus
with the addition of some new chapters.
I thought the monthly schedule would give me the push to keep the thing
going until completion.
And then
A Succubus for Remembrance got in the way.
Or rather that and the stories for the forthcoming collection (which I originally planned to put out first, but couldn’t finish in time for its
release date). Originally I was hoping
to work on both simultaneously, but then time pressure started, deadlines
loomed, and Succubus Summoning 201 had to go back on the backburner. That’s the problem with naming collections
after certain days of the year – they have to be out by that date. Unfortunately I still have a full-time job
eating up my day and I don’t write quickly enough to be able to work on both.
(really
I should favour Succubus Summoning, as it sells more than the collections, but
I’m a little stupid at these things)
Anyway,
to cut a long story short:
I
haven’t lost interest in the series, or enthusiasm. I’m not going to abandon it. As soon as I’m done with the next collection
I intend going back to Succubus Summoning and working on that until the current
arc (201) is finished (there will be future arcs). After that there are some new Jackson in
HRPG-World sections I want to write.
I’ll keep working on short stories (my ideas file grows at the rate of two new
ideas for every story completed!), but I’m going to wait until I’ve built up a
nice stockpile again before I put out another collection as writing specifically
for a collection seems to slow me down more than just writing the short
stories/chapters that feel like fun to write at the time.
I’m far
more productive when I fully embrace ChaosWriting, but that does occasionally
fuck up deadlines and the orderly production of new series chapters.
Apologies
for the delays for fans of the series.
With a bit of luck Phil and his succubi’s adventures will restart
Mar/Apr.
Saturday, February 08, 2014
Enough moping, it's time to get back to writing
Okay, that’s enough moping around. Time to bash the black dog’s head in with a shovel. Who am I kidding, I doubt I could stop writing even if I had to. I enjoy it too much and I’m not going to allow a spot of holier-than-thou bullying poison the satisfaction I get from writing these stories. I’m probably worrying about nothing anyway. One of the problems with writing horror is that the mind gets very good at spinning out a scenario and stringing together the worst combination of outcomes. I doubt the person was credible and even if they were the most it would likely amount to is some awkward conversations with my workmates.
(Note: this is my situation. For other writers of erotica the circumstances might be very different, which is why an attitude of “They should write under their own name so we know who they are” is the mark of an ignorant asshole.)
I’ve had a week to think things over and I’m going to make a few minor changes. I let myself drift a little too close to the world of “serious” writing. My personal opinion is those online communities are toxic. They’re highly politicized and if – like me – you don’t fit rigidly within a political ideology you get a clubbing from whichever side you get too close to. I don’t think they’re healthy for budding writers either as they’re stultifying environments detrimental to creativity.
(Some might be reading this and thinking: Hey, that doesn’t sound like the warm and friendly community I know.
Well bully for you. Your face fit, someone taught you the secret handshake, or you found an entry point manned by the many decent people I hope don’t feel as if I’m tarring them with the same brush.
Unfortunately I saw a lot of unpleasant sneering assholes, took one too many brickbats to the face and decided I was better off staying right the fuck out of it all.)
“Serious” writing appears to have forgotten the contract between writer and reader and become obsessed on the things that are only ever proxies to this contract between writer and reader. If you write something and even if only ten people read it and enjoy it, congratulations, you have still increased the overall happiness of the world. Do not let anyone else try to tell you otherwise. Only the worst kind of person tries to dictate to everyone else what their fantasies should be.
And hrarghhullll.
That’s another sticky black hateball I had to get off my chest. I hope I’m not going to make a habit of this, otherwise I’ll have to stick a note on the blog – “It has been 7 days since Many-Eyed Hydra’s last online meltdown.”
Plus I assume you’re all here for the sexy succubus action, not a bunch of whiny ranting from someone who should be old enough and wise enough to know better.
The tl;dr version – Fuck the snobs and holier-than-thou bullies, I’m not going to stop writing the stories I enjoy writing.
To show I am most emphatically not done with this writing lark and as a thank you I’ll post one of the stories I have saved for the next collection. There’s even going to be a choice:
Busted Bankster: A city trader is drawn into a deadly cage fight with a succubus and is smothered by her large breasts.
A Special Tube of Lube: A work-at-home software developer is given a sensual ‘4 hands’ massage by two busty students that ends up with them demonstrating a very special tube of lube.
A Real Life Goo Girl: A researcher studying an unusual slime girl brought back from H-space is trapped in the lab with her when she escapes.
Pick the one that most takes your fancy and let me know in the comments. I’ll post the one with the most votes tomorrow.
(don’t pick the one I haven’t finished editing yet . . . don’t pick the one I haven’t finished editing yet . . .)
Thank you all for your messages of support and I'm sorry for being stupid enough to allow myself to get distracted from what's important - supplying the world with sexy succubus smut. Next week normal service should be resumed. I’ll wrap up the walkthrough of Violated Hero 4 and after that I have some reviews of some other monster girl hentai games I’ve played recently.
And of course I'll keep scribbling away on new stories/chapters, it's what I enjoy doing.
(Note: this is my situation. For other writers of erotica the circumstances might be very different, which is why an attitude of “They should write under their own name so we know who they are” is the mark of an ignorant asshole.)
I’ve had a week to think things over and I’m going to make a few minor changes. I let myself drift a little too close to the world of “serious” writing. My personal opinion is those online communities are toxic. They’re highly politicized and if – like me – you don’t fit rigidly within a political ideology you get a clubbing from whichever side you get too close to. I don’t think they’re healthy for budding writers either as they’re stultifying environments detrimental to creativity.
(Some might be reading this and thinking: Hey, that doesn’t sound like the warm and friendly community I know.
Well bully for you. Your face fit, someone taught you the secret handshake, or you found an entry point manned by the many decent people I hope don’t feel as if I’m tarring them with the same brush.
Unfortunately I saw a lot of unpleasant sneering assholes, took one too many brickbats to the face and decided I was better off staying right the fuck out of it all.)
“Serious” writing appears to have forgotten the contract between writer and reader and become obsessed on the things that are only ever proxies to this contract between writer and reader. If you write something and even if only ten people read it and enjoy it, congratulations, you have still increased the overall happiness of the world. Do not let anyone else try to tell you otherwise. Only the worst kind of person tries to dictate to everyone else what their fantasies should be.
And hrarghhullll.
That’s another sticky black hateball I had to get off my chest. I hope I’m not going to make a habit of this, otherwise I’ll have to stick a note on the blog – “It has been 7 days since Many-Eyed Hydra’s last online meltdown.”
Plus I assume you’re all here for the sexy succubus action, not a bunch of whiny ranting from someone who should be old enough and wise enough to know better.
The tl;dr version – Fuck the snobs and holier-than-thou bullies, I’m not going to stop writing the stories I enjoy writing.
To show I am most emphatically not done with this writing lark and as a thank you I’ll post one of the stories I have saved for the next collection. There’s even going to be a choice:
Busted Bankster: A city trader is drawn into a deadly cage fight with a succubus and is smothered by her large breasts.
A Special Tube of Lube: A work-at-home software developer is given a sensual ‘4 hands’ massage by two busty students that ends up with them demonstrating a very special tube of lube.
A Real Life Goo Girl: A researcher studying an unusual slime girl brought back from H-space is trapped in the lab with her when she escapes.
Pick the one that most takes your fancy and let me know in the comments. I’ll post the one with the most votes tomorrow.
(don’t pick the one I haven’t finished editing yet . . . don’t pick the one I haven’t finished editing yet . . .)
Thank you all for your messages of support and I'm sorry for being stupid enough to allow myself to get distracted from what's important - supplying the world with sexy succubus smut. Next week normal service should be resumed. I’ll wrap up the walkthrough of Violated Hero 4 and after that I have some reviews of some other monster girl hentai games I’ve played recently.
And of course I'll keep scribbling away on new stories/chapters, it's what I enjoy doing.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
New Story - "Trent the Traitor"
One of the canards of horror is nothing is scarier than things left to the imagination. There’s a germ of truth there, but too often writers use it as a convenient excuse to bugger off home early. Look, here’s my spooky house—Woooh. Here’s my scary atmosphere—Waaah. Here’s my terrifying monster—Actually, you can create that yourself, because . . . Nothing is Scarier than the Imagination.
Um, yeah, right. I didn’t realise I picked this horror story up from IKEA, or that I’d have to head out into the forest and chop the wood myself.
Sometimes it’s right for the story and other times the Fade to Black to preserve a reader’s delicate sensibilities can feel like a cop out. Lovecraft famously left the finer details of his eldritch abominations to be filled in by the reader, usually because his protagonist’s mind had already disintegrated by that point, but there was at least enough for Chaosium to fill Call of Cthulhu bestiaries with some weird and wonderful critters.
If you’ve got an imagination you might as well use it. Sometimes that’s what the reader is expecting and wants. Especially in erotica, where drawing the curtain across before getting to the juicy squelchy parts is firmly disapproved of.
Hence this outpouring from the noxious regions of my mind:
It was originally a two sentence description. Then I thought, no, that’s not good enough. They’ll want examples.
(Don’t ask where the examples came from. I try not to think about it.)
The full story can be found here on Eka’s Portal.
Eka’s Portal is an online Vore community. Most aspects of Vore don’t appeal to me as a fetish, but there is some crossover with some of the succubus/monster girl stories I write. It also hits that Erotic Horror sweet spot where arousal, disgust and fear smoosh together in a big gooey ball.
It’s been a while since I posted anything there, so I thought a little hell-space story might make up for it and show I’m still writing and alive. Enjoy!
As always, if you like the story and haven’t already picked them up, please consider giving some of my books a look. You’ll like them.
Um, yeah, right. I didn’t realise I picked this horror story up from IKEA, or that I’d have to head out into the forest and chop the wood myself.
Sometimes it’s right for the story and other times the Fade to Black to preserve a reader’s delicate sensibilities can feel like a cop out. Lovecraft famously left the finer details of his eldritch abominations to be filled in by the reader, usually because his protagonist’s mind had already disintegrated by that point, but there was at least enough for Chaosium to fill Call of Cthulhu bestiaries with some weird and wonderful critters.
If you’ve got an imagination you might as well use it. Sometimes that’s what the reader is expecting and wants. Especially in erotica, where drawing the curtain across before getting to the juicy squelchy parts is firmly disapproved of.
Hence this outpouring from the noxious regions of my mind:
“And not only with each other: Trent saw humans caught up in the bacchanalian frenzy. The demons used them like toys made of flesh. He watched as a plump demon with the glistening black skin of a leech embrace a muscular man. The over-cushioned lips of her vagina sucked in the man’s penis, sucked, and the man’s skin was torn away like pink tissue sliding over a raw hunk of meat. A fiend with the head of a fish rammed a cock the length and girth of a moray eel into the vagina of a petite little blonde girl doubled over in front of it. It pushed hips forward and the belly, then whole body of the girl swelled up like a water-filled balloon, swelled up until her eyes bulged, swelled up until something ruptured and white froth tinged with pink poured from her mouth and she deflated like a punctured blow-up doll. A skinny man struggled in the midst of a group of twisted little goblins. They drove penises hard like pointed horns into his anus, his mouth, his ears, even his eye sockets. They tore flesh from the man in ragged strips and wrapped the glistening red bundles of muscle around their cocks and masturbated with them. A slack-faced woman lay wrapped in the tentacles of some kind of abomination with the upper body of a woman and lower body of a deep-sea nightmare aberration. The demon’s sinuous arms terminated not in hands but in obscene appendages that resembled the mouths of lampreys. She fastened them to the woman’s tits and mewled in delight as more of her tentacles slithered up between her captive’s bleeding labia.”
It was originally a two sentence description. Then I thought, no, that’s not good enough. They’ll want examples.
(Don’t ask where the examples came from. I try not to think about it.)
The full story can be found here on Eka’s Portal.
Eka’s Portal is an online Vore community. Most aspects of Vore don’t appeal to me as a fetish, but there is some crossover with some of the succubus/monster girl stories I write. It also hits that Erotic Horror sweet spot where arousal, disgust and fear smoosh together in a big gooey ball.
It’s been a while since I posted anything there, so I thought a little hell-space story might make up for it and show I’m still writing and alive. Enjoy!
As always, if you like the story and haven’t already picked them up, please consider giving some of my books a look. You’ll like them.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The difference between censorship and censorship
The Edinburgh International Book Festival is running at the moment and has thrown up some interesting articles. Patrick Ness put out this brilliant polemic on censorship and in particular how social media can cause problems of self-censorship for writers worried about their words being taken out of context and misunderstood. In the latter article China Miéville made the point it's only really censorship when the police show up.
This is a familiar argument and a problem with how censorship is defined. Selena Kitt brought it up here after the problems with paypal and online retailers banning some of eXcessica’s books. The articles around the time generated some debate with other people making the point that it wasn’t true censorship—no government body was actively banning the books; the booksellers were simply refusing to stock the books, which they had every right to do. I argued back then that the semantics of whether or not it was technically censorship were moot if they resulted in the same outcome. It might not be censorship in the pedantic sense, but the end result is still a writer being unable to get their work out for readers to read. There isn’t really a word to fit this ‘soft’ form of censorship, so we tend to use censorship even though it’s not strictly accurate.
This ‘soft’ censorship is especially appropriate to social media and I think Ness has it spot on. A writer either has to censor themselves and avoid trigger topics completely, or risk something being interpreted the wrong way and then have a baying online mob (most of whom probably didn’t even read the original work in the first place) stomp all over their reputation and career.
Ness raised the example of Salman Rushdie. Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was not banned or censored by Western governments to my knowledge, but after seeing what happened to Rushdie, only an incredibly brave or reckless writer would attempt to tackle the same topics now. Again, this isn’t censorship in the pedantic sense, but the end result is the same—certain work will not be available for the public to read. It’s a kind of censorship by the mob.
And irony of ironies, this is the week when the Save the Pearls and Weird Tales controversy erupted on the internet, a situation that exemplifies Ness’s argument (although I don’t think he’d thank me for drawing the line from A to B).
I don’t want to talk about Victoria Foyt's book too much. I’ll be charitable and assume Foyt was aiming for an anti-racist message, but rather than hit the target, managed to spin around 180° and fire the arrow right through her foot. As a result plenty of people found it racist and were offended by it. They were also offended that Weird Tales (a fiction magazine with a long history) planned to run an extract. Further exacerbating the situation, Weird Tales had recently undergone some kind of editorial coup, with the popular Ann VanderMeer turfed out by the new owners.
This is where being one of those staunch Free Speech Warriors sucks. I fear and loathe all forms of censorship, which by extension means I also fear and loathe Political Correctness, as it’s another form of censorship, albeit by people with more honourable intentions. The moment you start to think certain things should be banned, for the “good”, is the moment you start opening the door to allow other people to ban other things, for their “good”, which might be vastly different and far more narrow-minded than your own “good”. That door should be kept shut and firmly locked. Unfortunately that sometimes means ending up on the side of the river you’d rather not be. As the famous quote goes: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Of course, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism. If someone writes something bone-headed and stupid, someone else has the right to call them out for writing something bone-headed and stupid. There is, however, a fine line between honest and deserved criticism, and hounding a writer off the internet and leaving a smouldering crater where a magazine once stood.
I fear the chilling effects Ness talked about in his polemic. Culture is poorly served if writers are grinding their work down to tasteless gruel for fear of the PC police lurking at their shoulder. Free speech should mean exactly that, not “You can write what you like, but if you write things we don’t like it’s back to rounding up trolleys at Tesco for you.” Our culture shouldn’t be ruled by fear.
Given a choice between a world where people have the freedom to write what they want and occasionally fuck it up completely, and a world where people don't write because they're scared of an online lynch mob coming after them if they do fuck it up, I'll take the former. If that means the existence of the occasional disagreeable—even bigoted—book, it’s a price worth paying.
During the rather lively discussion beneath The Guardian article someone made the point freedom to be published is not the same as the right to be published. Ultimately that decision lies with the publisher or magazine. They’re not obligated to provide a platform to writers whose work they find disagreeable, same as readers are not obligated to support businesses they find disagreeable.
I agree with that, but this is not what happened in this case. Rightly or wrongly, Weird Tales had already taken the decision to publish an extract of Foyt’s work. Then—rightly or wrongly—a pitchfork-wielding mob turned up at the gates and forced the publisher into a U-turn. In doing so they denied other readers the chance to make up their own minds on whether or not to support the magazine’s decision. That choice was taken away.
This is censorship by the mob.
No matter the provocation, we should aspire to be better than this.
This is a familiar argument and a problem with how censorship is defined. Selena Kitt brought it up here after the problems with paypal and online retailers banning some of eXcessica’s books. The articles around the time generated some debate with other people making the point that it wasn’t true censorship—no government body was actively banning the books; the booksellers were simply refusing to stock the books, which they had every right to do. I argued back then that the semantics of whether or not it was technically censorship were moot if they resulted in the same outcome. It might not be censorship in the pedantic sense, but the end result is still a writer being unable to get their work out for readers to read. There isn’t really a word to fit this ‘soft’ form of censorship, so we tend to use censorship even though it’s not strictly accurate.
This ‘soft’ censorship is especially appropriate to social media and I think Ness has it spot on. A writer either has to censor themselves and avoid trigger topics completely, or risk something being interpreted the wrong way and then have a baying online mob (most of whom probably didn’t even read the original work in the first place) stomp all over their reputation and career.
Ness raised the example of Salman Rushdie. Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was not banned or censored by Western governments to my knowledge, but after seeing what happened to Rushdie, only an incredibly brave or reckless writer would attempt to tackle the same topics now. Again, this isn’t censorship in the pedantic sense, but the end result is the same—certain work will not be available for the public to read. It’s a kind of censorship by the mob.
And irony of ironies, this is the week when the Save the Pearls and Weird Tales controversy erupted on the internet, a situation that exemplifies Ness’s argument (although I don’t think he’d thank me for drawing the line from A to B).
I don’t want to talk about Victoria Foyt's book too much. I’ll be charitable and assume Foyt was aiming for an anti-racist message, but rather than hit the target, managed to spin around 180° and fire the arrow right through her foot. As a result plenty of people found it racist and were offended by it. They were also offended that Weird Tales (a fiction magazine with a long history) planned to run an extract. Further exacerbating the situation, Weird Tales had recently undergone some kind of editorial coup, with the popular Ann VanderMeer turfed out by the new owners.
This is where being one of those staunch Free Speech Warriors sucks. I fear and loathe all forms of censorship, which by extension means I also fear and loathe Political Correctness, as it’s another form of censorship, albeit by people with more honourable intentions. The moment you start to think certain things should be banned, for the “good”, is the moment you start opening the door to allow other people to ban other things, for their “good”, which might be vastly different and far more narrow-minded than your own “good”. That door should be kept shut and firmly locked. Unfortunately that sometimes means ending up on the side of the river you’d rather not be. As the famous quote goes: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Of course, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism. If someone writes something bone-headed and stupid, someone else has the right to call them out for writing something bone-headed and stupid. There is, however, a fine line between honest and deserved criticism, and hounding a writer off the internet and leaving a smouldering crater where a magazine once stood.
I fear the chilling effects Ness talked about in his polemic. Culture is poorly served if writers are grinding their work down to tasteless gruel for fear of the PC police lurking at their shoulder. Free speech should mean exactly that, not “You can write what you like, but if you write things we don’t like it’s back to rounding up trolleys at Tesco for you.” Our culture shouldn’t be ruled by fear.
Given a choice between a world where people have the freedom to write what they want and occasionally fuck it up completely, and a world where people don't write because they're scared of an online lynch mob coming after them if they do fuck it up, I'll take the former. If that means the existence of the occasional disagreeable—even bigoted—book, it’s a price worth paying.
During the rather lively discussion beneath The Guardian article someone made the point freedom to be published is not the same as the right to be published. Ultimately that decision lies with the publisher or magazine. They’re not obligated to provide a platform to writers whose work they find disagreeable, same as readers are not obligated to support businesses they find disagreeable.
I agree with that, but this is not what happened in this case. Rightly or wrongly, Weird Tales had already taken the decision to publish an extract of Foyt’s work. Then—rightly or wrongly—a pitchfork-wielding mob turned up at the gates and forced the publisher into a U-turn. In doing so they denied other readers the chance to make up their own minds on whether or not to support the magazine’s decision. That choice was taken away.
This is censorship by the mob.
No matter the provocation, we should aspire to be better than this.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Reviews, Lovely Reviews (Me this time)
Reviews are like buses, wait ages for one to come along and then you get two in the same week.
Here’s a lovely one for A Succubus for Halloween on The Horror Fiction Review:
http://thehorrorfictionreview.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-2012-reviews.html
The horror writer in me that died over a decade ago might have unearthed himself and done a little jig after reading that. As a quasi-self-published author, I always have doubts about whether my work is actually good enough to see print. Reviews like this are great for kicking those bad thoughts back down into the cellar where they belong.
And a nice (and detailed!) one from Tera for A Succubus for Christmas over on The Succubi’s Tale blog:
http://www.succubus.net/blog/2012/05/04/a-review-of-a-succubus-for-christmas/
That one did remind me I’ve been neglecting the fun stories of late. I haven’t written anything like "Slayer vs. Succubus" for a while, something I intend to correct. Don’t worry. I’m not going to stop with the dark stories either. Balance is good. Always keep the audience on their toes. That way they don’t see it coming when you sock them in the guts…
I haven’t seen a big increase in sales after the reviews. That’s fine. Contrary to what some people say about us self-published ruffians, money is not our sole motivation. I’m having fun writing and I’m glad to see I’m not embarrassing myself with my efforts.
I think I might hold off on letting the folks know about the pseudonym for a while—not sure how they’d take to “kinky and depraved”. :D
Here’s a lovely one for A Succubus for Halloween on The Horror Fiction Review:
http://thehorrorfictionreview.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-2012-reviews.html
The horror writer in me that died over a decade ago might have unearthed himself and done a little jig after reading that. As a quasi-self-published author, I always have doubts about whether my work is actually good enough to see print. Reviews like this are great for kicking those bad thoughts back down into the cellar where they belong.
And a nice (and detailed!) one from Tera for A Succubus for Christmas over on The Succubi’s Tale blog:
http://www.succubus.net/blog/2012/05/04/a-review-of-a-succubus-for-christmas/
That one did remind me I’ve been neglecting the fun stories of late. I haven’t written anything like "Slayer vs. Succubus" for a while, something I intend to correct. Don’t worry. I’m not going to stop with the dark stories either. Balance is good. Always keep the audience on their toes. That way they don’t see it coming when you sock them in the guts…
I haven’t seen a big increase in sales after the reviews. That’s fine. Contrary to what some people say about us self-published ruffians, money is not our sole motivation. I’m having fun writing and I’m glad to see I’m not embarrassing myself with my efforts.
I think I might hold off on letting the folks know about the pseudonym for a while—not sure how they’d take to “kinky and depraved”. :D
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