Darkniciad

I finished not a whole lot after that previous post, but it took me until January of this year to get it into editing. I go through these long periods of drought where I can't accomplish anything. More or less still in it. I have scene after scene of Gates of Enchantment written in my head, but every time I sit down to put them on "paper" I manage a couple of lines... A paragraph or two... and then nothing. It's frustrating as all get-out. Despite that, it's progress. Not long after that post above, I went into complete shut-down. I couldn't even visualize scenes for about a year. I'm at least having ideas for scenes and stories now, even if I can't get them written. One Whore's Town has 6 chapters live, with three to go. Seven should come out either Monday or Tuesday, and is more or less one giant debauched orgy. LOL So anyone who's been reading and wishing there was more sex... Well, it's coming. Then for anybody who wishes there was a little more action, keep your eyes out Thursday or Friday for Chapter Eight. That's where Josephine plays her hand. Then early next week, it's the wrap up.

Many thanks There's one new story in Danica's World that's making its way through the editing pipeline. It's mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but "One Whore's Town" is a pseudo sequel to Lowborn following Betty, one of the prostitutes who set out to open their own brothel in "Stingy Pussy" at the end of the story. 9 chapters, over 90k words, so it will take a while to edit. It is done, however. Just needs the old rub n' buff. A peripheral character from Lowborn gets a starring role, there's a whole load of new interesting characters, and just maybe some familiar faces New Darkni solo story also moving along ( which is one of the stepping stones to eventually writing the two long stories that bridge the gap between the coming of age stories and the later ones after freeing Egoria in my Nobles by Deed series. ) As always, SOTM gets a little love here and there. Some days may just be reading back through what I've written, tweaking, and musing when to bring threads in, but it does make slow forward progress in written words.

As I've been musing this epilogue, it's starting to feel complicated to write, and truthfully feels as if it needs to be its own story. I don't know that it will ever get told ( as there's no larger conflict encompassing it like OWT... At least in my head right now ) but I think that's what's causing me to struggle. So, I've more or less decided that I'm going to move that first scene of 10 to 9, which will make it a great deal longer than any other chapter, but oh well. I'll probably tweak the ending of that scene to make it feel just a bit more grand, and then the story will be ready for editing. I'm in the process of submitting finished stuff as RR right now, but this is on the docket.

If you like the Guardians of the Galaxy series, do not miss the Guardians Holiday Special on Disney+ It is 100% in universe with the films, 100% a genuine Christmas special, and hilarious. Right up there with No Way Home as best thing to come out of Marvel ( and adjacent ) this year, as far as I'm concerned. If James Gunn can actually bring the kind of consistency and love of the characters to the DCEU, it might have a renaissance. And if Gunn isn't directing or at least heavily involved in the production, the Guardians series needs to end with the upcoming Vol. 3. There's just too much risk of it going off the rails and tainting the legacy. Jerry Seinfeld that shizznit. Walk away while it's on top. Go watch it.

That transition scene is done, and the epilogue is underway. With my time off through the end of the year and beginning of next year, I should have it done, edited and ready to start posting before the new year.

Chapter 8 complete. Trying to decide whether what follows to start Ch. 9 should be a scene, or a description in the first coda. Getting closer by the day.

Actually logged in as Dark. Within a couple thousand words of finishing Ch. 8. Now that I've worked past that part where I had a sticky spot, a couple more scenes make sense, so the first coda will be in Ch. 9. I still think it will probably be the last chapter, but we'll see.

Wow... I guess I won't be cutting and pasting anymore after the forum update. I just looked in on this and realized all of my apostrophes and quote marks are getting mangled. Must be the curly quotes. I should probably turn that off in Wordperfect anyway. That would solve the problem here, and they're automatically changed to straight quotes most places I post anyway. Might take some getting used to in Wordperfect, but I'll get over it.

Just finished with a nightmare of an infrastructure update. If you've tried to come here over the last few days, you undoubtedly came across all kinds of broken links and errors. I think I've got all that solved now. Unfortunately, all of my pages are going to have to be tweaked to function again. That means my work listings and everything else on the public side will be down for a while. All of my backend tools are also down, so I'll have to do manual database entry if I manage to get my muse in gear and release any new work. ( Not that anybody would be able to see it with the public pages down ) The forum needs massive tweaking, because it's a brand new version, and my old hooks and templates don't work anymore. Same for the blog, because the updates there made the theme I was using defunct. RRs blog escaped the horror because it was using a theme compatible with the new infrastructure.

Just going on record here to say that I believe the Sharon Carter depicted in Falcon and Winter Soldier is our introduction to the evil Skrull faction that we'll see play out in Secret Invasion.

The one thing I can promise is that I'm always working on it. Even when there aren't words going on paper, I almost always have a few minutes each day where I'm working through how the various threads of the story are going to play out, and refining them. Believe me, I hate that it's languishing unfinished just as much as ( if not more than ) everyone else. I changed my whole posting philosophy because of that to never post a single word of any story that I haven't already penned "The End" for, with the exception of SOTM itself.

Okay, finally had a spark when I opened up Ch. 21, so I just spent several hours reading back through SOTM ( skimming the sex scenes ) to get myself acquainted with where I was, and wrote the next scene. It's a brief one, but it's forward progress. Caught a one word ( name ) error in a previous chapter. I had originally given Turner a different name, and apparently didn't notice that I'd actually named him before coming up with the better ( and more appropriate ) name for him. I'm just going to leave it. It's a single mention a couple of chapters before the character even becomes truly relevant, and I hate to put in an edit everywhere for something so tiny. Ditto for naming the prostitute that broke in Matthias in a chapter of SOTM, even though I didn't recall doing so. It contradicts "Breakin' in the Boy", but I'm going to leave it as well. If someone calls them out, I'll just have to accept getting caught in a mistake. LOL That thread I thought I left dangling wasn't dangling as much as I thought. It is something that needs to be addressed soon in the storyline, but not something that has as much urgency as I believed it did. I'd mused where that thread was going far in advance, and for some reason, I thought I was farther along in writing that plotline than I actually was. Where it is right now is fine until it feels natural to pick it up again... Which actually feels like this chapter, because Ebonar is going to want to get something done while Zoraster is following his obsession. Anyway, I'm back up to speed, and making at least a tiny bit of progress. We'll see how long it lasts. I'm in a later-than-usual surge of writing. With the boy out of school, I didn't have as much time to sleep as I usually did during my end of the year time off. Took me a lot longer to get caught up. Unfortunately, I'm back to full time now at the first of the year, so I hope it doesn't cause me to fizzle out. Cross your fingers.

Just thought I'd write a post about some of the stories that are moving in the background, since it takes so long to complete most of the stuff I post as Dark and Les. I learned my lesson from the difficulty I'm having with Sisters of the Mists ( which is always getting some attention, even if it's only brief little spurts or reading back through previous chapters to refresh my memory ) and I'll never release any part of any story that isn't already complete on my hard drive. First, I have a significant portion of "Gates of Enchantment" complete. This is the second Darkni history story, following "Facing Destiny", and is a big part of the the foundation for the bridge between the history stories in "Nobles by Deed" prior to the freeing of Egoria, where the companions become the nobles of the country they set free from the tyrrany of Draxnia. I haven't been in the correct frame of mind to write the next scene ( sex ) but once I'm in that sort of mood, I hit the heart of the action afterwards. More information about that story can be found in the thread about bridging the gap in Nobles, and the thread with the preview of Gates. Second is a new story I've mentioned a few times, "One Whore's Town". It is a follow-up to "Lowborn" taking place a few years after that story, and following Betty, one of the three prostitutes who struck out to start their own brothel at the end of that story. It's about 2/3 into its third chapter right now. I started that particular chapter a couple of days ago. I honestly have no idea how many chapters this one is going to be. I know the general plot beats, and where it ends, but a lot of the middle is writing itself as the characters interact. It's a lot like Lowborn in that respect. Lowborn took years from first word on paper to release, so I can't even begin to guess when this one will be complete either. There's a thread with a preview for Chapter 1 here on the forum. Third is "Queen of the Wood" which has made a lot of progress this year. Usually, I lose my drive as the possibility of releasing the story by Earth Day dwindles. This year, the story feels a lot more focused in my head after some changes, and it's still moving along. Much like Gates, I haven't been in the right frame of mind to write a sex scene that's next in the story beat, so the last few days it has moved to the back burner of what I consider active WIPs. Other than that, it still feels as if its on track. I have the next two stories in the "Ancient Peoples" series worked out in my head. The first is called "Tangled Coils" and will introduce Nagas to the world, as well as the first Lamia who isn't the Queen or her sister. Following that will be "Beneath" which will introduce Krakens, and actually be a two part story where Aris isn't the protagonist, but only has a cameo role. His part of the story will be part 2. The next story in "The Fey Folk" is in progress, and is geared toward the current "Love the One(s) you're with" contest on Lit. So, provided that story keeps moving, it should come out soon. Those stories have all been shorter tales anyway, and this one will fit right in with the rest. I've covered Sylphs, Fairies, and Gremlins so far. This story will introduce Brownies into the world. With such a variety of stories on the active WIP list, I've only been sneaking in the occasional RR story ( most of them microfiction of late ) when a particularly strong idea strikes me. It's tempting to dive into those short, sex-heavy, and often tongue-in-cheek stories that don't require much thought or planning. There's also the fact that it's my most popular pen name, and the gratification of the feedback is a boost. It slows down production of my more involved works in these names, but it's also a necessity. I need the boost of that feedback every so often to keep me going, and I don't really spend a lot of time on any one story, so it balances out once a long story as Dark or Les finally goes gold. I also have a few real world stories as Les that have been percolating. One is of a similar theme to one of my recent micros, where a man and an escort form something of a more significant relationship during their sessions, and eventually end up breaking out of their self-destructive lifestyles to find something better with each other. Another is a story where a guy and his first girlfriend meet after years and years. They never went beyond a little heavy petting before she got tempted by some older boy with a car, and becomes the town's go-to girl for easy sex. They never really broke up, she just sort of went wild and left him behind. When he moves back to town after a bitter divorce, she's deeply depressed because she's outgrown that wild, sex-crazy phase, and now she can't find a meaningful relationship because of her reputation. He still feels a little hurt by her running off on him all those years ago, but he still has feelings for her, and they end up being exactly what the other needs.