Seen a few concerns about me paywalling everything behind Patreon and whether I'm going to post stories on Literotica again. I thought I'd address them here.
I'm always conscious of a need to give people something in return for their hard-earned money, so I want to produce at least one thing (short story, CYOA scenario) for patrons every month. I should stress these are temporary exclusives. The two CYOAs I've done were later posted to the internet. The short stories will find their way into later ebook short story collections.
Anything past that first item is open to be either posted to Literotica or held back as an ebook collection exclusive (I do like to have a few of these to entice people into buying the books).
This would work better if my productivity wasn't quite so painfully slow at the moment. I'm aware of it and trying my best to fix it.
So, no, I've not quit Literotica or posting stories for people to read for free. I just need to shake off this annoying pernickity perfectionism that's crept into my writing process and get back to being a carefree pulp writer of succubus smut again.
Saturday, March 02, 2019
Friday, March 01, 2019
Hentai Game Review: Domination Quest
Bit later than intended on this one. Chez Hydra is still fairly chaotic at the moment, unfortunately.
First, a disclosure. I didn't make it all the way through this one, although I think I played enough (all but maybe the last one or two sections) to give a fair(ish) review.
With that out of the way, let's get onto the game.
Domination Quest: Kuro and the Naughty Monster Girls is the new hentai game from Kokage no Izumi. This is the circle responsible for the Demon Angel Sakura series, and Domination Quest has similar themes and humour. The main difference is the switch in genres from action platformer to JRPG. Weirdly, rather than use RPGMaker like everyone else, they chose to build something resembling a RPGMaker game in Unity. This might just be the most Japanese indie dev thing ever, but to be fair, later in the game they do make use of the 3D backdrop to do things not easily done in your typical RPGMaker game.
You play Kuro, an incubus-type creature with the ability to shrink opponents down and swallow them into his butt with his tail.
(Just roll with it.)
This doesn't consume the swallowees, but instead transports them to a mystical playground where you form contracts with them to add them to your team. It might sound weird, but mechanically it's a pervier take on pokéballs.
The story has Kuro hitting adulthood and then heading off adventures with his succubus(?) companion, Shiro. She gets abducted early on by another mysterious dominator and the quest is on to both get her back and stop this rogue group from stirring up tensions between monsters and humans.
Domination Quest is not really a battlefuck game. Most monsters use regular attacks and you get a regular Game Over if the party wipes. There are a few encounters where the monster girl grabs Kuro and the rest of the party has to break him free before the monster girl sexually slurps up all his energy. I did enjoy those fights and wished the game had more of them.
The H-content is mostly gated behind an affection system. As with Monmusu Quest: Paradox, scenes are unlocked by raising affection with your chosen waifu. Also, as with MQ:P, not all of those scenes are good for Kuro…
One of the ways to raise affection is through the game's skinship system. This is sort of the equivalent of walking hand-in-hand with your waifu (where hand-in-cleavage might be the mildest version of it) and is shown as a little animation on the right of the screen while you're exploring dungeons.
The H-content is pretty good and animated, but not quite to my taste. As with Demon Angel Sakura, the themes lean heavily on vore, giantess and gross-out humour.
(the reveal of where the delicious pink slime comes from is both very funny and unspeakably unspeakably euwwww!)
As with the Demon Angel Sakura series, I found the various scenes funny rather than erotic, but I guess this is a YMMV thing. They were still entertaining.
What killed the game for me were the bugs and too-frequent combat encounters. The game was very unstable on release. So much so that one of the paths in the first area was completely inaccessible because the entry and exit points were set to the same point, looping the player back to the screen they'd come from. After that I didn't seem to have many problems until I hit the later forest area, and the game got very crash-happy. The frequent combat encounters exacerbated this and made later exploration extremely tedious. They trigger randomly as you walk through an area (like the old Final Fantasy games) and occur very very frequently. Like, every few pixels frequently. While this is a feature of this type of game, I really think the developers dialled the frequency too high. The foggy area with the fox was the finisher for me. Trying to explore a shifting maze with a combat encounter going off every couple of steps. No thanks.
Hopefully this will be something the devs patch or fix in future versions.
Overall, despite the shift in genre, I think my recommendations are the same as for the Demon Angel Sakura series. If you like Giantesses and Vore, this is worth checking out for the H-content (even if you have to grab a 100% save to avoid struggling through the later dungeons). For general monster girl lovers, a maybe. The H-content is nicely done, the humour is entertaining, but the game itself is wretchedly unfun to play, unfortunately.
Despite the problems, there were a few monster girl designs I liked. My favourite was probably the Carnivorous Plant Girl and she did give me inspiration for a new short story. Even with all the other problems, if I can get a story idea out of a H-game I normally consider it a win.
Okay, second favourite design. I really wanted to have some fun with this aphrodisiac goop flinging slime girl, but it looks like we're going to have to wait for a future Chapter 2 to get erotically glooped by her.
First, a disclosure. I didn't make it all the way through this one, although I think I played enough (all but maybe the last one or two sections) to give a fair(ish) review.
With that out of the way, let's get onto the game.
Domination Quest: Kuro and the Naughty Monster Girls is the new hentai game from Kokage no Izumi. This is the circle responsible for the Demon Angel Sakura series, and Domination Quest has similar themes and humour. The main difference is the switch in genres from action platformer to JRPG. Weirdly, rather than use RPGMaker like everyone else, they chose to build something resembling a RPGMaker game in Unity. This might just be the most Japanese indie dev thing ever, but to be fair, later in the game they do make use of the 3D backdrop to do things not easily done in your typical RPGMaker game.
 |
| RPGMaker, in Unity...? |
You play Kuro, an incubus-type creature with the ability to shrink opponents down and swallow them into his butt with his tail.
 |
| Yeah... um... |
This doesn't consume the swallowees, but instead transports them to a mystical playground where you form contracts with them to add them to your team. It might sound weird, but mechanically it's a pervier take on pokéballs.
The story has Kuro hitting adulthood and then heading off adventures with his succubus(?) companion, Shiro. She gets abducted early on by another mysterious dominator and the quest is on to both get her back and stop this rogue group from stirring up tensions between monsters and humans.
Domination Quest is not really a battlefuck game. Most monsters use regular attacks and you get a regular Game Over if the party wipes. There are a few encounters where the monster girl grabs Kuro and the rest of the party has to break him free before the monster girl sexually slurps up all his energy. I did enjoy those fights and wished the game had more of them.
 |
| Kuro getting slurped. It's a shame more of the fights aren't like this. |
The H-content is mostly gated behind an affection system. As with Monmusu Quest: Paradox, scenes are unlocked by raising affection with your chosen waifu. Also, as with MQ:P, not all of those scenes are good for Kuro…
 |
| Kuro's first date with Julie the goblin girl did not go well... |
One of the ways to raise affection is through the game's skinship system. This is sort of the equivalent of walking hand-in-hand with your waifu (where hand-in-cleavage might be the mildest version of it) and is shown as a little animation on the right of the screen while you're exploring dungeons.
 |
| Hand-in-...Boobies? |
The H-content is pretty good and animated, but not quite to my taste. As with Demon Angel Sakura, the themes lean heavily on vore, giantess and gross-out humour.
(the reveal of where the delicious pink slime comes from is both very funny and unspeakably unspeakably euwwww!)
As with the Demon Angel Sakura series, I found the various scenes funny rather than erotic, but I guess this is a YMMV thing. They were still entertaining.
What killed the game for me were the bugs and too-frequent combat encounters. The game was very unstable on release. So much so that one of the paths in the first area was completely inaccessible because the entry and exit points were set to the same point, looping the player back to the screen they'd come from. After that I didn't seem to have many problems until I hit the later forest area, and the game got very crash-happy. The frequent combat encounters exacerbated this and made later exploration extremely tedious. They trigger randomly as you walk through an area (like the old Final Fantasy games) and occur very very frequently. Like, every few pixels frequently. While this is a feature of this type of game, I really think the developers dialled the frequency too high. The foggy area with the fox was the finisher for me. Trying to explore a shifting maze with a combat encounter going off every couple of steps. No thanks.
Hopefully this will be something the devs patch or fix in future versions.
Overall, despite the shift in genre, I think my recommendations are the same as for the Demon Angel Sakura series. If you like Giantesses and Vore, this is worth checking out for the H-content (even if you have to grab a 100% save to avoid struggling through the later dungeons). For general monster girl lovers, a maybe. The H-content is nicely done, the humour is entertaining, but the game itself is wretchedly unfun to play, unfortunately.
 |
| A Shikibus plant girl? Looks a similar style. |
Despite the problems, there were a few monster girl designs I liked. My favourite was probably the Carnivorous Plant Girl and she did give me inspiration for a new short story. Even with all the other problems, if I can get a story idea out of a H-game I normally consider it a win.
 |
| Looking forward to getting erotically glooped by you, Mio. |
Saturday, January 26, 2019
New Short Story: Joey Farrell Walks Into An Obvious Booby Trap
I finally managed to finish that boobie monster girl story I've hinting at for a while.
It is a Patreon exclusive (temporary) for patrons, because those of you that have been supporting me on there deserve something for your support. If you're not for whatever reason, don't worry, I will be including the story in my next short story collection (still in progress).
I also have another story in progress which I will be putting up on Literotica. I don't intend paywalling everything, but I'd like to be able to give patrons something semi-exclusive every month.
As for my own feelings on Patreon, I still don't like them, but I haven't found a better alternative, so I'm stuck there for now. As I mentioned in the Patreon post, I can't really commit to it as a reliable income stream, so I will be focusing on writing some new ebooks (short story collections, ideally a third Succubus Summoning novel) rather than the CYOA game scenarios on Twine I created last year.
Here is a link to the new story (patrons only, sorry):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-short-story-24241798
If you are a patron, enjoy boobs, lots and lots of demon boobs! If not, I hope to have something for you on Literotica fairly soon.
Also, this story was initially planned to go out in November. If you were a patron for the month of November, but aren't now for whatever reason, you're still entitled to a copy of the new story. Email me at manyeyedhydraATgooglemail.com and I'll email you back a copy if I can find your name on the list of former patrons.
Damn, this was far easier when I just put up ebooks on Amazon!
Anyway, this week has been a a fairly good week for writing. The break in Prague seems to have done me some good (apart from bringing back the plague).
It is a Patreon exclusive (temporary) for patrons, because those of you that have been supporting me on there deserve something for your support. If you're not for whatever reason, don't worry, I will be including the story in my next short story collection (still in progress).
I also have another story in progress which I will be putting up on Literotica. I don't intend paywalling everything, but I'd like to be able to give patrons something semi-exclusive every month.
As for my own feelings on Patreon, I still don't like them, but I haven't found a better alternative, so I'm stuck there for now. As I mentioned in the Patreon post, I can't really commit to it as a reliable income stream, so I will be focusing on writing some new ebooks (short story collections, ideally a third Succubus Summoning novel) rather than the CYOA game scenarios on Twine I created last year.
Here is a link to the new story (patrons only, sorry):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-short-story-24241798
If you are a patron, enjoy boobs, lots and lots of demon boobs! If not, I hope to have something for you on Literotica fairly soon.
Also, this story was initially planned to go out in November. If you were a patron for the month of November, but aren't now for whatever reason, you're still entitled to a copy of the new story. Email me at manyeyedhydraATgooglemail.com and I'll email you back a copy if I can find your name on the list of former patrons.
Damn, this was far easier when I just put up ebooks on Amazon!
Anyway, this week has been a a fairly good week for writing. The break in Prague seems to have done me some good (apart from bringing back the plague).
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Bohemian Adventures and Plagues
Because things haven't been chaotic enough recently, I decided to grab a last minute week in Prague with the money I'd picked up recently from my other, occasional, non-writing work. I didn't go anywhere much last year and felt a change of scenery would do me some good, blow some cobwebs out, that sort of thing.
Ostensibly, the purpose for the trip was an event happening at the weekend, but I managed to find a good deal on a flight and hotel for the whole week and decided to go for a few extra days. I wanted to try out the whole Bohemian writer thing of buggering off to some cheap hotel somewhere with no distractions to blast some words out.
Some notes on that. When looking for a cheap hotel, try not to go too cheap. Make sure you get a room with something resembling a desk, or failing that, at least a downstairs bar you can hang out in. Mine had a bed, en-suite and a thin strip of hallway.
Oh well, despite this I managed to get about three decent days of writing in. The goal was to get an old project moving again, which is now moving again, but - like "Night of the Nude Succubus Orgy" - is probably going to end up far longer than I intended. I should have learned with these multiple-succubi story by now - they always demand their own intricate scene, each!
I'm not going to say much more on it, given how poorly I managed expectations last year. I have a target in mind for it, and if I hit it, I'll let you know then.
I was also in Prague for... ahem... research purposes.
A few years ago I got dragged into one of the strip clubs off the main tourist street. I'm not really a strip club person - it's like a steakhouse where you only get to sniff the steak as far as I'm concerned - and the ones in that part of Prague have terrible reputations as tourist traps. So there we were, supping over-priced pints of beer, and then the lady above comes out with full devil-horn regalia and does some rather questionable things to a nun onstage. It was a little unexpected. I wasn't expecting to see a full burlesque-type sex show at a place like that. It was... dare I say it... weirdly classy.
The new show is a bit more straight to the point (or straight to the fist). Goldfingers itself was a pleasant surprise. It knows what it is, but is very professional about it. One little detail I noticed was when a nervous bespectacled guy botched the process of tipping a dancer. You're supposed to lie on the stage with the note (a custom one of the club's, I believe) in your mouth. The dancer then straddles the tipper for a mini-lap dance before taking the note. The bespectacled guy tried waving his note around aimlessly from the side of the stage. Now, if you're dealing with the stereotypical seedy strip club, the dancer snatches it off him with a bored expression and wanders off back stage. In this case the dancer got him to lie down and do it properly. It was very much - "You will lie down here right now while I rub my boobies in your face." I did like to see that.
The night's highlight was when Succuba and a friend with a gorgeous tattooed body dragged someone up on stage for what I imagine is the typical stag package. Down came the trousers and out came a belt. His mates got him pretty good.
Now, while I'm more of an eat-the-steak rather than sniff-the-steak guy, that was something I did feel tempted to hand some cash over for. (I should probably use it as an incentive to get Succubus Summoning 301 written so I can get around to putting the royalties to degenerate purposes! :) )
Despite all this, I'd recommend visiting only when the club is busy. The girls aren't that pushy, but if the club is quiet enough for them to outnumber the dudes, you will start to feel overwhelmed.
Obviously, there is a lot more to Prague. It's a beautiful city. But to be honest, I like trawling the seedier sides (even in this case when they're surprisingly professional) to places and wallowing in a bit of sin. It helps me create more authentic backdrops to stories. I did get a decent idea for a novel while I was out there - a succubus-run strip club/brothel in one of the classic old buildings, on the wrong night at the wrong time. Sort of like Dusk till Dawn, but with a fuck-load more fucking.
Unfortunately, walking around at midnight in near-freezing rain had predictable consequences. My plan to get home and immediately hit the writing desk was scuppered by the nasty flu bug/virus thing I had the misfortune to bring back with me. Last couple of days I've been confined to bed and snotting up more slime than The Alien.
Other than that, a pretty good trip to recharge the batteries. Probably what was needed, to be honest (aside from the flu bug thingy - that can fuck right off).
Ostensibly, the purpose for the trip was an event happening at the weekend, but I managed to find a good deal on a flight and hotel for the whole week and decided to go for a few extra days. I wanted to try out the whole Bohemian writer thing of buggering off to some cheap hotel somewhere with no distractions to blast some words out.
Some notes on that. When looking for a cheap hotel, try not to go too cheap. Make sure you get a room with something resembling a desk, or failing that, at least a downstairs bar you can hang out in. Mine had a bed, en-suite and a thin strip of hallway.
Oh well, despite this I managed to get about three decent days of writing in. The goal was to get an old project moving again, which is now moving again, but - like "Night of the Nude Succubus Orgy" - is probably going to end up far longer than I intended. I should have learned with these multiple-succubi story by now - they always demand their own intricate scene, each!
I'm not going to say much more on it, given how poorly I managed expectations last year. I have a target in mind for it, and if I hit it, I'll let you know then.
I was also in Prague for... ahem... research purposes.
A few years ago I got dragged into one of the strip clubs off the main tourist street. I'm not really a strip club person - it's like a steakhouse where you only get to sniff the steak as far as I'm concerned - and the ones in that part of Prague have terrible reputations as tourist traps. So there we were, supping over-priced pints of beer, and then the lady above comes out with full devil-horn regalia and does some rather questionable things to a nun onstage. It was a little unexpected. I wasn't expecting to see a full burlesque-type sex show at a place like that. It was... dare I say it... weirdly classy.
The new show is a bit more straight to the point (or straight to the fist). Goldfingers itself was a pleasant surprise. It knows what it is, but is very professional about it. One little detail I noticed was when a nervous bespectacled guy botched the process of tipping a dancer. You're supposed to lie on the stage with the note (a custom one of the club's, I believe) in your mouth. The dancer then straddles the tipper for a mini-lap dance before taking the note. The bespectacled guy tried waving his note around aimlessly from the side of the stage. Now, if you're dealing with the stereotypical seedy strip club, the dancer snatches it off him with a bored expression and wanders off back stage. In this case the dancer got him to lie down and do it properly. It was very much - "You will lie down here right now while I rub my boobies in your face." I did like to see that.
The night's highlight was when Succuba and a friend with a gorgeous tattooed body dragged someone up on stage for what I imagine is the typical stag package. Down came the trousers and out came a belt. His mates got him pretty good.
Now, while I'm more of an eat-the-steak rather than sniff-the-steak guy, that was something I did feel tempted to hand some cash over for. (I should probably use it as an incentive to get Succubus Summoning 301 written so I can get around to putting the royalties to degenerate purposes! :) )
Despite all this, I'd recommend visiting only when the club is busy. The girls aren't that pushy, but if the club is quiet enough for them to outnumber the dudes, you will start to feel overwhelmed.
Obviously, there is a lot more to Prague. It's a beautiful city. But to be honest, I like trawling the seedier sides (even in this case when they're surprisingly professional) to places and wallowing in a bit of sin. It helps me create more authentic backdrops to stories. I did get a decent idea for a novel while I was out there - a succubus-run strip club/brothel in one of the classic old buildings, on the wrong night at the wrong time. Sort of like Dusk till Dawn, but with a fuck-load more fucking.
Unfortunately, walking around at midnight in near-freezing rain had predictable consequences. My plan to get home and immediately hit the writing desk was scuppered by the nasty flu bug/virus thing I had the misfortune to bring back with me. Last couple of days I've been confined to bed and snotting up more slime than The Alien.
Other than that, a pretty good trip to recharge the batteries. Probably what was needed, to be honest (aside from the flu bug thingy - that can fuck right off).
Wednesday, January 02, 2019
Ebook plans for 2019
After all the recent negativity over Patreon being a bunch of Orwellian cunts, here's me trying to be positive with plans for 2019.
2018 (and 2017) were a little weird. In terms of word count I'm still producing a decent amount of content. In total word count, "Escape Volumpula, the Pink Jelly" was about the same size as a large novella and "Escape the Arachne" wasn't much shorter. The main problem with them is they're not something I can easily monetise on Amazon. Patreon was a good fit... until they decided to shit the bed. "Night of the Nude Succubus Orgy" was also very lengthy. That I think could be expanded into a full novel.
The instability at Patreon has forced me to reassess priorities. Ebook royalties are a reliable portion of my income. It's been a while (2 years) since I've put any out and I want to rectify that in 2019. This doesn't mean I'll be abandoning the CYOAs. Given how chaotic my writing process is, there will no doubt be times when I want to tinker with game mechanics and programming rather than working on whatever ebook I'm supposed to be working on!
Here are some candidates to get done in 2019. I'll probably expand them out into full posts later to discuss in more detail.
A new A Succubus for collection
While I haven't been as active on Literotica as I would like, I do now seem to have accumulated close to enough material for a new collection. I don't have my stockpile of stories to use as collection (or even Patreon) exclusives. About 4 or 5 brand new ones should be enough to finish a collection.
Succubus Summoning 301
This is probably the thing I need most to stabilise my royalty income. While I am terrified of fucking it up, I think I might just sit down and let the story go where it wants to go rather than obsessing about not wanting to let people down. (Please don't kill him, Rosa and co. I have bills to pay!)
These two are my highest priority. The collection because it's easy. Succubus Summoning 301 because it's long overdue.
Tales from H-space
I've been trying to figure out what to do with the bestiary shorts for a while. I think they could make a nice themed short story collection, possibly a regular ongoing series. It would require rewriting and expanding the better ones into "proper" short stories as I don't think they are high enough quality in their current state (and I never really felt I got the accompanying "monster manual" file entries right).
This could be an easy win. Or the rewrite process could be nightmarish. The concept as a slightly more grimdark version of the Monster Girl Encyclopaedia was always a good one.
Sandwiched by
I've given up trying to chase my tail on hitting a regular monthly schedule with these novellas. I want to relaunch them with new covers. I think the best way to do that is to stealthily write them all in advance, then release them on a monthly basis over a year. Another stealth project I'll keep quiet on until the whole thing is done and ready to release.
Okasare Kenny
Similar to Sandwiched by. This is perfect as a novella serial released monthly over a year. I already know I can't chase my tail in terms of deadlines, so the best thing would be to write it all out in advance.
Both have been screwed up by me in the past through a twitchy desire to rush something—anything—out. I want to get away from that mentality and just focus on getting the proper groundwork done to be able to release them as I originally intended.
Then some speculative projects. I'm not going to force myself to work on set things given that it made a mess of my productivity last year. These will jump up and down my priority queue depending on how burning hot the desire to work on them is.
Night of the Nude Succubus Orgy
I think the short story could be expanded into a full novel. It would likely be a strange mix of nasty period horror (the initial sacrifices and rituals) mixed with modern-day pornfest. Could work. Maybe…?
The Succubus Trap
The Nicole novel. The first couple of chapters are really hot (Nicole and Madam Voluptula tag-teaming to fuck someone's brains out) and I think it would do really well as a novel, which makes my inability to get beyond chapter 3 incredibly frustrating. Maybe I'll finally figure out how to bust through that block.
The Succubus Invasion
Another one I've already written multiple chapters for, but haven't quite got it to click. It's also a strange mix of nasty sexual horror and goofy pornfest moments.
Jackson in HRPG-World
Less a novel than 8 short stories set in game-parody worlds. I wrote the first four, hit a wall on the fifth and it's been stuck in development hell ever since. Given I have nearly half the material written already, I should really focus on getting this done and published.
Then the really speculative stuff. I don't think I'll get to these, but I might suddenly get a burning desire to work on them and I want to try and raise my productivity by letting enthusiasm dictate what projects to work on rather than trying to brute force specific ones.
Bubblelicious
Themed collection set around a soapland-style massage parlour. Stemmed from a single short story idea. This one is probably super-speculative,
Invading the Hive
A H-space novel, themed collection? The bee girl entry for the H-space monster girl bestiary ended up getting a little long and complex. I think it will likely be seven or so elaborate sex scenes featuring bee/wasp monster girls stitched together with some kind of underlying plot. I've had a similar idea for a slime girl cave kicking around for years. Maybe another series prospect?
There are others, but they're either far from ready or been left on hiatus long enough to require a degree of archaeology to dig up. I might post them as glimpses into my ideas file for patrons.
My plan is to try and be more flexible in 2019. Trying to force things out backfired far too often in 2018. I'd rather have a 10-hour day working on some of the speculative stuff, than limping to a 2-hour day trying to brute force a more "important" project.
Anyway, that's a glimpse of my current ebook project plans. Let's hope 2019 will be a lovely year filled with sexy succubus smut!
-manyeyedhydra
2018 (and 2017) were a little weird. In terms of word count I'm still producing a decent amount of content. In total word count, "Escape Volumpula, the Pink Jelly" was about the same size as a large novella and "Escape the Arachne" wasn't much shorter. The main problem with them is they're not something I can easily monetise on Amazon. Patreon was a good fit... until they decided to shit the bed. "Night of the Nude Succubus Orgy" was also very lengthy. That I think could be expanded into a full novel.
The instability at Patreon has forced me to reassess priorities. Ebook royalties are a reliable portion of my income. It's been a while (2 years) since I've put any out and I want to rectify that in 2019. This doesn't mean I'll be abandoning the CYOAs. Given how chaotic my writing process is, there will no doubt be times when I want to tinker with game mechanics and programming rather than working on whatever ebook I'm supposed to be working on!
Here are some candidates to get done in 2019. I'll probably expand them out into full posts later to discuss in more detail.
A new A Succubus for collection
While I haven't been as active on Literotica as I would like, I do now seem to have accumulated close to enough material for a new collection. I don't have my stockpile of stories to use as collection (or even Patreon) exclusives. About 4 or 5 brand new ones should be enough to finish a collection.
Succubus Summoning 301
This is probably the thing I need most to stabilise my royalty income. While I am terrified of fucking it up, I think I might just sit down and let the story go where it wants to go rather than obsessing about not wanting to let people down. (Please don't kill him, Rosa and co. I have bills to pay!)
These two are my highest priority. The collection because it's easy. Succubus Summoning 301 because it's long overdue.
Tales from H-space
I've been trying to figure out what to do with the bestiary shorts for a while. I think they could make a nice themed short story collection, possibly a regular ongoing series. It would require rewriting and expanding the better ones into "proper" short stories as I don't think they are high enough quality in their current state (and I never really felt I got the accompanying "monster manual" file entries right).
This could be an easy win. Or the rewrite process could be nightmarish. The concept as a slightly more grimdark version of the Monster Girl Encyclopaedia was always a good one.
Sandwiched by
I've given up trying to chase my tail on hitting a regular monthly schedule with these novellas. I want to relaunch them with new covers. I think the best way to do that is to stealthily write them all in advance, then release them on a monthly basis over a year. Another stealth project I'll keep quiet on until the whole thing is done and ready to release.
Okasare Kenny
Similar to Sandwiched by. This is perfect as a novella serial released monthly over a year. I already know I can't chase my tail in terms of deadlines, so the best thing would be to write it all out in advance.
Both have been screwed up by me in the past through a twitchy desire to rush something—anything—out. I want to get away from that mentality and just focus on getting the proper groundwork done to be able to release them as I originally intended.
Then some speculative projects. I'm not going to force myself to work on set things given that it made a mess of my productivity last year. These will jump up and down my priority queue depending on how burning hot the desire to work on them is.
Night of the Nude Succubus Orgy
I think the short story could be expanded into a full novel. It would likely be a strange mix of nasty period horror (the initial sacrifices and rituals) mixed with modern-day pornfest. Could work. Maybe…?
The Succubus Trap
The Nicole novel. The first couple of chapters are really hot (Nicole and Madam Voluptula tag-teaming to fuck someone's brains out) and I think it would do really well as a novel, which makes my inability to get beyond chapter 3 incredibly frustrating. Maybe I'll finally figure out how to bust through that block.
The Succubus Invasion
Another one I've already written multiple chapters for, but haven't quite got it to click. It's also a strange mix of nasty sexual horror and goofy pornfest moments.
Jackson in HRPG-World
Less a novel than 8 short stories set in game-parody worlds. I wrote the first four, hit a wall on the fifth and it's been stuck in development hell ever since. Given I have nearly half the material written already, I should really focus on getting this done and published.
Then the really speculative stuff. I don't think I'll get to these, but I might suddenly get a burning desire to work on them and I want to try and raise my productivity by letting enthusiasm dictate what projects to work on rather than trying to brute force specific ones.
Bubblelicious
Themed collection set around a soapland-style massage parlour. Stemmed from a single short story idea. This one is probably super-speculative,
Invading the Hive
A H-space novel, themed collection? The bee girl entry for the H-space monster girl bestiary ended up getting a little long and complex. I think it will likely be seven or so elaborate sex scenes featuring bee/wasp monster girls stitched together with some kind of underlying plot. I've had a similar idea for a slime girl cave kicking around for years. Maybe another series prospect?
There are others, but they're either far from ready or been left on hiatus long enough to require a degree of archaeology to dig up. I might post them as glimpses into my ideas file for patrons.
My plan is to try and be more flexible in 2019. Trying to force things out backfired far too often in 2018. I'd rather have a 10-hour day working on some of the speculative stuff, than limping to a 2-hour day trying to brute force a more "important" project.
Anyway, that's a glimpse of my current ebook project plans. Let's hope 2019 will be a lovely year filled with sexy succubus smut!
-manyeyedhydra
Monday, December 31, 2018
The Patreon Problem
Another xpost from my Patreon. I'm trying to get all of this out of the way so I can hit the ground running with my regular writing as soon as 2019 hits.
Thank you to the people sending me comments over the past couple of days.
In case you were unaware, Patreon have been de-platforming creators on what appear to be ideological or political grounds. I object strongly to this for both ethical and practical reasons.
Ethically, I believe it wrong for a company to discriminate on political or ideological affiliation and hide this behind a gauze of vague "hate speech" rules. This has been happening far too regularly and companies that play these games deserve to go out of business.
Practically, it is hard for me, as a creator, to justify spending lots of time and energy building up a following on Patreon when my account can be yanked at any time on a whim by their Trust and Safety team. Patreon have as much as admitted they're making up the rules as they go along with respect to their ToS. This makes them a very unsafe and untrustworthy platform for creators, as we can be terminated at any moment for not adhering to rules that are subjectively enforced and can change at any time.
At this point I'm not sure what to do. The ethical thing would be to close everything down and refuse to countenance Patreon's BS. But this would also hurt me and the people who wish to support my writing (I've heard you, thanks for your comments and support).
I don't like Patreon and would like to move everything over to a more political neutral platform (ideally one that sees a "Trust and Safety Team" for the Orwellian nonsense it is) as soon as a reliable competitor emerges. Any suggestions here will be gratefully received.
I also need to work something out for the patrons who no longer feel they can keep an account up on Patreon in the light of Patreon's Orwellian nonsense. If you supported me during November and December I still owe you a boob monster girl short story and the next CYOA. I'll need some way of getting those to you when they're done. Suggestions again gratefully received.
And once again, I'm really sorry for wasting good writing time on this political shite. I know you're here for sexy succubus smut, not to hear me sperg out about free speech. Unfortunately, this is something I've always held a fairly absolutist position on, largely out of self-interest. I write horror. I write erotica. While we might not always be first in line, we're usually somewhere in the queue when it comes to banning people and stripping their income. That's why it's important to always take a stand against censorshit whenever it rears its ugly head.
Blegh. I just wanted to write sexy succubus smut.
Anyway, have a lovely New Year's Eve out there, ya filthy animals! Let's all hope for a better 2019.
-manyeyedhydra
Friday, December 28, 2018
Something for Patrons - Stealth Tuckers
This is a xpost from my Patreon (which I will likely be exiting soon in light of the Orwellian creepiness they've displayed recently). This is currently for paying patrons, but I might expand it to whatever platform I move to in 2019 if there's interest.
First up, apologies for the quietness this December. Some other-life stuff cropped up at the start of the month and by the time I was through it I was caught up in the holidays.
And then Patreon decided to shit the bed…
I'm not going to go into it in great detail, but I am of the opinion Patreon is no longer a safe or trustworthy platform for creators. If it wasn't for the fact other work had caused my current writing projects to fall behind schedule, I would have already cancelled my account here.
More on this later, but for now I thought I'd do a better job of managing expectation and lead off with the more positive stuff first.
First, as far as I'm concerned, everyone who has subbed to me up until December is owed a sexy boob monster girl short story and an advance look at the next monster girl CYOA. I intend to stick to that plan regardless of what happens here. If you no longer wish to use Patreon in the light of the Orwellian nonsense they've been pulling recently (or support me—I'm fully aware my own output has been very erratic), I fully understand. If you have been a backer up until now, I will try to get the projects to you as soon as they are completed.
Whatever happens, I do want to thank the people here that have supported me, even for this brief period of time.
Because of the nature of my work, I'm aware a lot of you are uncomfortable about seeing your names in any kind of credits list. However, I think I might have a sneaky solution that might be of interest.
All of my stories contain references to writers, movies and bands that I've enjoyed over the years. These are usually reflected in the names of characters, but I'll sometimes use them as references for place names (street names, etc).
I should also add that I don't do "Take That's." I only ever reference things I've enjoyed, so even my most feckless and/or despicable characters are named after creators/creations I like. This is because of a story I heard (possibly apocryphal) about Wes Craven naming his iconic Freddy Krueger after a bully who used to torment him at school. It might have been initially intended as a Take That, but then Freddy Krueger became a horror icon. My imagination pictures that bully looking at a film poster years later and thinking, "I used to beat this runt up at school and he went on to name a horror icon after me, how cool is that!" So, no Take That's, ever.
More recently I've been moving away from this. It's fine for a random nobody on Literotica, but starts to look icky on a sort-of erotic horror writer with multiple books published on Amazon, especially if people come to the erroneous conclusion they were intended as disses.
However, this does leave me with something I can give back to those of you who've supported me here. Whatever happens in the future, I'm still going to be writing stories and those stories will have characters and places that requires names. It doesn't even need to be a name. It can be a little snippet of description—something you'll be able to recognise and think, I helped fund this.
If you would like to be included in this, please comment below with the name or little descriptive tag you'd like to see used in a story at some point. If you want, also add your favourite monster girl or fetish and I'll try to use your reference in an appropriate story.
Just to be clear, this is just a minor name or descriptive tag rather than any insert characters. When it comes to storytelling, I always do what I feel is right for the story first. On that note, it's quite likely your name might get dropped on a less-than-stellar example of humanity (my succubi do love slurping up assholes). If you really really don't want this, let me know and I'll try and apply your moniker to a less-assholish doomed succubus meal instead (my succubi also love slurping up the innocent as well).
Also, if you'd prefer even this sneaky reference to be totally anonymous, feel free to DM me rather than commenting. My aim is to put a private list together and dip into it for future stories.
(And maybe even grow that list with future subscribers if this political nonsense blows over, or an apolitical competitor to Patreon emerges.)
Obviously, I can't put a timeline on when I'll sneak your reference in—there are over a hundred of you for starters!
Once again, thanks for your support and apologies for the uncertainty. I'll try to post again over the weekend while I try to figure out some backup plans for 2019.
Fuck Censorshit!
-manyeyedhydra
First up, apologies for the quietness this December. Some other-life stuff cropped up at the start of the month and by the time I was through it I was caught up in the holidays.
And then Patreon decided to shit the bed…
I'm not going to go into it in great detail, but I am of the opinion Patreon is no longer a safe or trustworthy platform for creators. If it wasn't for the fact other work had caused my current writing projects to fall behind schedule, I would have already cancelled my account here.
More on this later, but for now I thought I'd do a better job of managing expectation and lead off with the more positive stuff first.
First, as far as I'm concerned, everyone who has subbed to me up until December is owed a sexy boob monster girl short story and an advance look at the next monster girl CYOA. I intend to stick to that plan regardless of what happens here. If you no longer wish to use Patreon in the light of the Orwellian nonsense they've been pulling recently (or support me—I'm fully aware my own output has been very erratic), I fully understand. If you have been a backer up until now, I will try to get the projects to you as soon as they are completed.
Whatever happens, I do want to thank the people here that have supported me, even for this brief period of time.
Because of the nature of my work, I'm aware a lot of you are uncomfortable about seeing your names in any kind of credits list. However, I think I might have a sneaky solution that might be of interest.
All of my stories contain references to writers, movies and bands that I've enjoyed over the years. These are usually reflected in the names of characters, but I'll sometimes use them as references for place names (street names, etc).
I should also add that I don't do "Take That's." I only ever reference things I've enjoyed, so even my most feckless and/or despicable characters are named after creators/creations I like. This is because of a story I heard (possibly apocryphal) about Wes Craven naming his iconic Freddy Krueger after a bully who used to torment him at school. It might have been initially intended as a Take That, but then Freddy Krueger became a horror icon. My imagination pictures that bully looking at a film poster years later and thinking, "I used to beat this runt up at school and he went on to name a horror icon after me, how cool is that!" So, no Take That's, ever.
More recently I've been moving away from this. It's fine for a random nobody on Literotica, but starts to look icky on a sort-of erotic horror writer with multiple books published on Amazon, especially if people come to the erroneous conclusion they were intended as disses.
However, this does leave me with something I can give back to those of you who've supported me here. Whatever happens in the future, I'm still going to be writing stories and those stories will have characters and places that requires names. It doesn't even need to be a name. It can be a little snippet of description—something you'll be able to recognise and think, I helped fund this.
If you would like to be included in this, please comment below with the name or little descriptive tag you'd like to see used in a story at some point. If you want, also add your favourite monster girl or fetish and I'll try to use your reference in an appropriate story.
Just to be clear, this is just a minor name or descriptive tag rather than any insert characters. When it comes to storytelling, I always do what I feel is right for the story first. On that note, it's quite likely your name might get dropped on a less-than-stellar example of humanity (my succubi do love slurping up assholes). If you really really don't want this, let me know and I'll try and apply your moniker to a less-assholish doomed succubus meal instead (my succubi also love slurping up the innocent as well).
Also, if you'd prefer even this sneaky reference to be totally anonymous, feel free to DM me rather than commenting. My aim is to put a private list together and dip into it for future stories.
(And maybe even grow that list with future subscribers if this political nonsense blows over, or an apolitical competitor to Patreon emerges.)
Obviously, I can't put a timeline on when I'll sneak your reference in—there are over a hundred of you for starters!
Once again, thanks for your support and apologies for the uncertainty. I'll try to post again over the weekend while I try to figure out some backup plans for 2019.
Fuck Censorshit!
-manyeyedhydra
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