Darkniciad

Finished that scene last night. It will need a little cleaning up and embellishment because I was a little tired when I wrote it, but it's solid. It also gives me the chapter image that I'll use to advertise it on Lit eventually. http://www.darkniciad.com/covers/minis/sotm_19_thum.jpg

Getting ready to do a little writing before I go to bed. Had a full day with a couple of unexpected things pop up, so I didn't get to use the day to write as I'd hoped. I did manage to get the two finished stories through my first pass edit, though. I needed to double check some of Celes' recounting of her history before going beyond the second story in the quartet. Went and pulled it out of the Danica chapters and realized I had a problem. The rape that cemented her sexuality needs to happen between the second and third chapters of the quartet, otherwise, I have a continuity error in there. It's way too dark to make the quartet a quintet, and it will probably be longer than those stories as well, so it will be its own thing with only a little mention of the story in the third and fourth parts of the quartet. Still need to double check to make sure I didn't use the name of Celes' lover at any point in Danica or SOTM before I release any of the shorts in the quartet. I'm fairly certain I didn't, but I'll look it up at some point before posting. This is here as much as a note to myself as anything. Anyway, off to that scene I've been working on, for however long I can visualize without nodding off LOL EDIT: Double checked the chapters, and her name is never mentioned, so I'm safe with the one I've given her in the stories I've been writing LOL

Another scene in the can, and another in progress. The document has doubled in wordcount in the last few days.

The Meckataur scene is done. I may go back and expand it with a bit more description later, but the framework is there, and I'm quite happy with it. It leads perfectly into the next scene, which leads into the next. A shift to daylight is all it takes to start the next series with Danica and Marlena, Celes and the girls, Andrea... So on and so forth. It may take a little while, but this chapter is on a clearer path than it's been for years. Forward

Got a few more paragraphs done tonight after work. Pretty much have this scene down in my head, so I moved on to contemplating the one that follows while I was at work. The first time I'll have any real time to write is Friday.

I put words on paper tonight. Not many, because it was a long day at work, but I managed to get a few lines in on that Meckataur scene. I'm also happy with them Many more to come when I have time. I left almost as many notes at the bottom of the document as I wrote in actual prose. I've been running this scene through my head all day at work, tweaking it, and I'll continue to do so tomorrow. Still not promising anything, but it's the most progress I've had in years.

Here's a brief, unedited preview of "Facing Destiny", which takes place when Darkni is about 20 years old. ====================================== The inn where the workmen of his father’s business were staying was a far cry from the well-appointed one where his own rooms were. The smell of cheap pipe weed and stale sweat lingered beneath the aroma of whatever was cooking for the evening. Through the dim lighting and haze of smoke, he spotted Ernest sitting at a corner table and crossed the creaking floor boards to join him. The man was one of his father’s wagon drivers, and was only rarely pressed into other service while on a business trip, freeing up his time. Darkni sat down, doing his best to drop the cultured tongue to which he had grown accustomed for the benefit of his more plainspoken conspirator. “Any luck?” he asked. “Yep,” Ernest answered. He then nodded toward the bar. “You’ll need to order something. I can already see the bartender giving you the evil eye.” “We can’t have that, can we?” Darkni turned and signaled a barmaid. He thought that she must have been quite pretty before hard work and long hours had hardened her. She was still curvy and attractive, but the bloom was certainly off the rose. From the crude words and gestures of the other patrons as she passed, it appeared the clientele still found her fetching. “What can I get you?” she asked with a thoroughly false tone and even falser smile of congeniality. Darkni pulled a silver coin from his purse and saw her eyes widen. “Bring me a cup of your finest wine, and you may keep what remains for yourself.” “Our finest isn’t all that good,” she warned. A flirtatious note crept into her voice when she added, “I can make sure the bartender doesn’t water it down and puts it in a clean cup for you, though.” “That will do,” he said as he held up the coin for her to take. She did so, making sure to let her fingers brush his. A genuine – if somewhat calculating – smile decorated her face as she turned and strutted back toward the bar with her hips swaying. “If you want to bed her, you just bought her,” Ernest said. “She won’t see that much from the whole of this lot all night. Might steal your purse while you’re all knackered, though.” He took a long look at her behind and said, “Think it would be worth it.” Darkniciad chuckled. “My father would faint if I even thought about it.” “True that.” “The shop?” Darkni enquired. Ernest tore his eyes away from the barmaid. “Place didn’t even have a sign. I asked about those herbs, and when he had those, I asked about the others. He got a bit antsy then, but I slipped him that coin you gave me and he brightened right up. Said he had a book, too.” The workman gave the slightest of nods, indicating that someone was approaching. Darkni glanced that way and saw the barmaid carrying his cup. “Here you are,” she said as she sat the cup down and stood in such a way as to display her womanly charms quite prominently. “Fresh bottle, only opened a few minutes ago. Just long enough for it to breathe.” “You know your craft. I thank you, my dear,” Darkni said as he lifted his cup. He took a sip, and while it was a relatively poor wine compared to his usual fare, it was passable. “This will do nicely.” She batted her eyelashes at him and said, “If you need anything, just ask for Milli.” “I will keep that in mind, Milli.” Once again she strutted as she left the table. Ernest let out a quiet whistle once she was out of hearing range. “Yep,” he said, “She’s yours for the askin’. Anyway, he had a book, and he let me see it. It was like you said to look for. The words almost looked like they were crawling on the page. Made my head hurt.” Darkniciad sat up a little straighter and leaned in at the description. “It had about fifty pages, and they all had that writing on them. There was some regular writing here and there, but I couldn’t make much more sense out of it than the spidery stuff. A little bigger than the size of your hand.” It had all the hallmarks of a traveling spellbook, and the number of pages presented a good probability of spells that were new to his studies. Darkni asked, “Was he willing to allow me to visit at such a late hour?” “He didn’t seem happy about it, but he said yes, so long as he knows you’re coming beforehand.” “Then let him know I will be there this evening. I should go and be seen somewhere my father expects me,” Darkniciad said as he pushed his chair back. “You’re going to break her heart,” his conspirator said, and then chuckled. “Well then,” Darkni said, and fished into his purse. He retrieved a coin of the same size as the one he’d given to the barmaid and pushed it to Ernest. “When you return, you could test your theory about the value of that coin in her eyes. You’ve certainly earned it.” He picked up the coin. “Doubt it’s worth half as much in my grubby fingers, but it might be worth just enough.” “Good luck.” With that, Darkni took his leave. As he moved toward the door, he noticed that Ernest’s prediction was bearing fruit. The barmaid’s shoulders slumped at the sight of him leaving. He felt a stirring in his loins as he considered that his conspirator’s other suggestion might also be true and he could bed the woman if he would only stay and let her take him home. But, if his father learned of such a liaison, it would jeopardize something far more important. He would almost certainly be left tending the business at home during these trips, rather than having the opportunity to seek out new magic. With just such a possibility on the horizon, he suppressed the swell of ardor with planning. There was much of that to be done.

No promises, because gods know I've had nothing but struggles with the story since '08, but there is a little progress here. First, I went to look up something as a reference for a topic on the Lit forums, and in the process of trying to find it, ended up getting caught up in the last 4 or so chapters of Danica, followed by all of the posted chapters of SOTM. Lots of memory refreshing there. Not to mention that I got sucked into the story again. Then, tonight, I opened it up for the first time in a long time. The very first scene in Ch. 19 is the one I've been fighting the hardest all this time. It never felt right. I think I may have it now. I'll look back at it over the next couple of days and make sure I'm still happy with it, but this is the most satisfied I've been with the scene since I first typed the original version years ago. The second scene I've been happy with since I typed it around the time Ch. 18 posted. The third scene I was struggling with, but looking at it now, I think it may have been as much frustration with that first scene as anything else. I tweaked a couple of things here and there, and I'm satisfied with where I am. The scene isn't complete, though. I need to go back through and double check some timing of things I sprinkled through the last few chapters. Zoraster always has several irons in the fire for contingencies, and it's been so long that I don't remember which one is ready to poke the beast that's trying to arise off schedule here. I know the scenes I'm looking for, but I can't remember them in the detail I need. I also can't remember which chapter they're in, so I'm going to have to go skim through the last few chapters. Fortunately, all the elements I need are in Zoraster/Ebonar scenes, so they're a little easier to pluck out than they might have otherwise been. This scene is fairly critical, so I feel like I need to finish it before moving on. However, if it gives me fits, I think I might go ahead and write the next Danica and Marlena scene, which has been fairly clear to me for a long time now. Maybe that will give me some momentum. Anyway, I'm off to skim and research. I've had a couple of questions about the status of the series recently, so I thought I'd post this since there's actually something to report -- small as it is. EDIT/UPDATE: Found it. Wasn't even as difficult as I thought it would be. When I first read through it, I wasn't thinking about a period of passed time that was around it. There's a "Danica and everyone did this for a while" in there that had me thrown off. The plot point I need is there, and ready to spring. Probably too tired to write anything tonight, but I have all the elements I need to continue when I'm more awake. Maybe tomorrow after I've finished up the weekly chores I kept putting off because I was on vacation

I just added a new data point to the Danica timeline that wasn't a new story for the first time in a long time. 868: Cantel Bellows, known as Dark Obsidian, breaks his magical staff in Obsidian tower as a last act of defiance against heroes come to end his reign of power. The resulting magical explosion creates the Great Crater. I needed to pin this down before writing the last scene of "Facing Destiny". What's not on the timeline yet, and won't be unless I decide to delve deeper into Dark Obsidian's history than I plan, is that he was well over 100 years old at the time of his death. I'm thinking around 120. For close to a hundred years, he was a force of terror and near unlimited power in what would become Egoria, Draxnia, Freeland, The Western Baronies, and other surrounding lands. Little did the heroes who took him down know that they were paving the path for Draxnog to rise. There are significant changes to the PnP history of the character. In that continuity, he was Darkni's grandfather. Now, he's a many times great grandfather because it makes sense for the crater to have been there far longer. He also originally carried the same surname, but I decided to have the family change it to Softspake for the stories. I thought Bellows was a nice counterpoint to Softspake. I've also sketched out the details of what made him go off the rails to become Dark Obsidian. Some of that will be revealed in another Darkni history story. Darkni is about 20 years older than the rest of the companions, by the way. So because Destiny is an early story in his life, it's going to be way up the timeline from everyone else's history stories. Okay. Now that I'm done with that, back to writing

Went out and cut that limb off. Frikkin' bird found something else to perch on. At least now it doesn't seem to be able to reach the window with its beak very well. It keeps flapping its wings at the glass and gets in the occasional peck, though. It reduced the aggravation factor enough for me to get back to writing. "Facing Destiny" is up to around 7700 words now. This one is easily going to break 10k based on the way the sex scene is playing out, and the ending, which isn't going to be short.

For the last two hours, I've had a robin constantly flying up to one of my windows and sitting on a stick, pecking at the damn window. It's driving me fucking nuts. I've went over and ooga-boogad at the window a half dozen times now to scare it off, and the thing just keeps coming back. The next time I hear a peck, I think I'm going to go cut that limb off the bleedin' tree. This has been your completely off-topic pointless rambling for the day.

That's one of the hallmarks of the RR stories — an opening for continuations. They don't typically happen, but the threads are always there. Glad you enjoyed it. I like it, but it obviously didn't do much for most of my readership. It could very well be my abysmal production rate lately, though. I'm barely getting anything finished, and my name has probably fallen off everyone's radar. I've even debated posting all my website-only stories to the story sites so they'll always be available and shutting this place down a couple of times. Haven't reached that point yet, but I'm in a horrific slump for certain.

It's actually done in the next-to-most-recent version of CC. I haven't gotten around to downloading CC3 yet, even though I have a free download for it after purchasing something else during a promotion. The order is correct, with "Blessing" being #9. The "My Work" page always lists series in chronological order. The next will probably be a break from pattern, because I fizzled out on Dale's story. There's another that really needs to be told first, anyway, and has to do with something on the map I've never addressed before in a story. It's also something I've been putting pieces in place for since Kindred of the Wood. I have the general outline of it ready, but there's something missing. The only thing I know for sure is that it will also break the title pattern. While it will still follow the timeline, falling between Blessing and Dale's story, it's not the generational progression of the main series. Also, it's getting hard as hell to come up with one word that fits the title pattern. LOL So giving myself an out with side stories and history stories ( also a possibility ) will help that. It will start out around the time of Ella and Terra's dual wedding on the Summer Solstice.

Thanks I really need to go through everything on my tablets again. I've been cheating and only checking everything after conversion in the windows app. I'm in a serious motivation and creativity slump, though — worse than usual. I really need to update all my code to the new version of the forum software, but even thinking about that makes me want to walk into traffic instead. Trying to find the jumpstart I need, but all the things that used to work aren't. Trying to just step away for a while and see if that helps.

Working on the tracks. Decided to do them using my tablet as a second screen this time, and it went much faster. Overall, 1548 votes, 218,181 views, 18 PCs, and 133 Favs on Lit. The annual totals are 48,916 words in new stories, 8509 votes, 1,022,276 views, 98 PCs, 811 Favs The low wordcount on new stories is the reason for the drop from last year's totals, I'm sure. Not being able to find the will to write is just killing me everywhere. Now, to see if I can log into SOL with my tablet... I haven't logged into SOL for so long that I don't know if I remember the password. ( It's been stored, so I didn't need to log in ) EDIT: Managed to remember which email I used to sign up and my password in one shot! W00t! LOL

Now that the website is back up, I can post this. Watched Civil War yesterday. Main verdict is that it's not knocking Winter Soldier out of my #1 spot. That said, the plot certainly had a Winter Soldier vibe to it. It's a darker storyline with some unexpected twists. The beginning feels a little slow after the opening scene. The action in that is really good, even though I feel as if they wasted Crossbones. After that, it feels to me as if it drags for a while. More or less until the next action scene. It just doesn't have the energy of Winter Soldier. Falcon's action scenes are superb. The use of his new wings and tech really makes him dynamic and fun to watch. Of course, Anthony Mackie delivers his lines with panache, same as he did in Winter Soldier. The stairwell scene is awesome. So is the tunnel chase. Black Panther is great. His accent, body language, and demeanor are perfect. Chadwick sells it big time. Ant-Man is a great addition. Paul Rudd is killing it, and the twist in the airport scene with him is awesomesauce. Looking forward to Ant-Man & the Wasp. I'm still not ready to call Holland the best Peter Parker and best Spider-Man, even though he gets an unexpected amount of screen time in this to establish the character. He's good as both, but I still need to see a movie centering on him before I'll make that call. He's got great lines ( beyond the ones shown in the trailers ) and looks awesome. One thing I will say for certain is that I like him better than Garfield in both parts. I really didn't like the ( now middle ) reboot. We'll see if he edges out Toby. Seeing Vision in street clothes was just weird. I get where they're going, trying to add a little fan service suggesting the comic romance between him and Scarlet Witch, but I don't think they really sold it. It's so lightly suggested that I don't even consider it a spoiler. They're the most underwhelming characters to me. Further viewings may change my mind as I catch other nuances, but the first impression is meh... Hawkeye was fun, and his comic persona comes through more here, as it did in AoU. Getting to see the arrow-riding scene made it worth him being in there, although it almost feels as if he was in there exclusively for that purpose. Rhodey's plot point is what bumps him up a notch. Naturally, I won't spoil that. Black Widow's fighting is naturally awesome. Her place in the film is exactly what you would expect it to be, considering her character. The last third is easily as good as Winter Soldier. It's fast paced and gut-punching. Zemo is a decent villain. He has a fair back story, his evil plan is convoluted, and it gives that mastermind feel. Thunderbolt Ross maintains his black-ops feel from Hulk, but tempered by someone who's been promoted to a suit. I think he did quite well. Wakanda looks great in the end. They didn't sell me on Sharon Carter. What's going on with her feels even more fan-servicey than the romance between Vision and Scarlet Witch. Freeman didn't have much to do here. What I hear is that they're establishing him for Black Panther. I barely noticed him, honestly. Evans and RDJ kill it, of course. To me, this is somewhere around AoU, so far as how much I like it. It's not at the top with Winter Soldier, Guardians, Deadpool, the first Avengers, the first Iron Man, etc. It's well worth the watch for the action alone, but it just isn't as fast-paced as Winter Soldier, keeping up the energy from start to finish. I'll probably go back for a second viewing next Friday. We'll see if I add to this.

Bow chikka wow-wow. The FitzSimmons boot knocking was played so perfectly. Then there was the professional disagreement immediately followed by assurance that such things weren't going to affect their relationship. Perfect. That effect when Lincoln injected himself wowed me. Can't really say why, but it did. It looked really natural to me. I didn't get a CGI vibe from it at all. And now, off to my non-spoiler Civil War post.

Over 700 again this month, putting me over the top of the total spam registrations blocked last year, which was more than double the year before. So, I'm on track to double up again.

Last year, I exceeded the previous year's blocked spam registrations by May. I'm on track to do it again with over 700 last month, and over 150 already this month. Just crazy

This ticks me off to no end, and lately, people whom I thought were smart enough to avoid such tinfoil hat theories have jumped on the bandwagon, so I'm going to rant a bit. The current theory is as follows: A cabal of authors ( fewer than 20 ) is engaged in the following practices, which give them an unfair advantage in the contests. Entering at the last minute. Voting and commenting on each other's stories as soon as posted. Maliciously choosing a category with fewer readers than the "proper" category. Adding an off-putting scene a certain distance into the story for the sole purpose of making all but the most hardcore fans back-click. Let's begin with "Entering at the last minute". http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=69412239&highlight=day-1#post69412239 This is the most recent example of me demonstrating that this is complete and utter hogwash. Throughout the entire history of the contests, there is a general parity of early and late entries placing. When asked to narrow the timeframe to the last five years, early entries actually gained a statistically significant advantage over late ones. And no matter how you slice it, stories entered near the middle of the contest win more often than stories on either end. There is a full week of voting following the end of the submissions period. Most of the voting on a story happens within the first two days. A week is more than sufficient for a last-minute entry to have the same pattern of voting as a day-1 story. The secondary element of this complaint is that "Late entries avoid some of the sweeps." The problem with that is that few to no sweeps happen before the end of the submission period. Those sweeps that do occur may very well be related to other causes, such as toplist manipulation, author requested sweeps, etc. This theory too is complete nonsense. Now, let's move on to the cabal voting for each other to boost their ratings early. Most of the people making these allegations have in excess of 2000 people listing them as a favorite author. Considering this "cabal" has fewer than 20 members, it takes only 1% of the people who have listed them as a favorite author to exceed the number of members in this "cabal". So, first and foremost, the "advantage" being decried is myopic. Authors with large fanbases can easily exceed the number of votes and comments alleged to be left by the "cabal" Why would gaining early votes be advantageous? First, early five votes get you a Red H earlier, which attracts more people to your story. Because of the lag between when the story is live and it appearing on the new story list, it may even show up with a red H. This can be quite good for picking up more readers than you might have otherwise. Problem with this theory? It's in direct opposition to another portion of this ridiculous nonsense, which says that the authors are purposely attempting to minimize the number of people reading and voting on their story. So, to subscribe to this, you have to believe they're cheating by trying to get people to read them, while simultaneously cheating to keep people from reading them. Comments are the same thing. A string of positive comments may very well attract more people to your story. How does that jive with saying that the authors are attempting to limit the number of people reading and voting? It doesn't. And discouraging people from commenting on stories by telling them that it paints a target on their back that may result in relentless slander? Fuck that. Every time I see one of these people complaining that people don't vote or comment, I want to tell them to enjoy their shit sandwich, because they made it. Everything else is completely subjective. It's claiming that creative choices are actually manipulation. Every time I've looked at the story list of an author accused of this ( including myself ) I've found that the supposed "manipulation" is actually the author's normal style. I was accused of entering Sci-Fi&Fantasy stories in order to score easy wins. It takes about three seconds to see that Sci-Fi&Fantasy is not only my dominant preferred category, it's also the category I started out in and didn't deviate from for quite some time. I was accused of writing fluffy feel-good romances in order to score easy wins. It doesn't take much longer to see that this is likewise my preferred type of story. By writing what I always have and daring to win, I was cheating. The same has proved true of other authors accused of similar "tactics". One was lambasted for throwing a m/m scene into a story in order to make readers back-click. The author has m/m scenes in a large percentage of his stories, including those not entered into contests. One was accused of writing ditzy, cock-crazy, barely-legal teens as a tactic. His list has a lot of such stories. It's something he enjoys writing. It's nothing more than repeatedly throwing everything including the kitchen sink on top of someone. People are badgered on a daily basis, across every thread where it can be shoe-horned in, or where that person dares to make a post on the topic of the thread. None of the individual pieces of the theory hold water when subjected to scrutiny, which means the entire pile is nothing but bullshit piled high in hopes of hiding what it is. It's mob justice. Assholes with torches and pitchforks looking for witches to burn.

Damn, that bar scene at the end of this week's episode. I don't think there was a lot of acting going on there. That all looked really genuine to me. Major heart-strings moment. Looking forward to what they do with the spin-off.

Finally finished the stats. No recap this time, other than to say Lush is rapidly dropping in readership. Unless I put out something new there in a quarter, I actually lose statistics because when someone removes their account, all their votes, favs, and comments go with them. The only thing that doesn't vanish are views. Now that I finally have that off my plate, I feel a little better. Let's see if I can do something about adding some new work. Meanwhile, here's the links if you want to check out the reports. http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/All_3_Names_02_08_16.htm http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/All_3_Names_sol_02_10_16.htm http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/lush_stats_02_16.htm

Having trouble finding the time and motivation to get the tracks done this quarter. I've finished the Lit and SOL ones now, but still have the Lush one to do. The links up yonder can lead you to the stat page index, where you can find them until I finish the one for Lush and make the quarterly post.

The tally so far? Half a dozen caught by the forum built-in spam service. Around 20 who made it through the entire process, but which I caught via spam links in the website of the bio before they could post. One who actually managed to make a single post that was up for a few hours. Who knows how many were blocked from completing their registration by my email domain filters. There's no record of that. And... As of this morning, 400 blocked this month by the primary spam filtering plugin. In my little cyber backwater.

At this point, I think I can officially declare this one a flop. Barely over 200 votes at Lit, and didn't even break 10k views. That is beyond pitiful in the Mature category. I've done that well in Sci-Fi&Fantasy before with Sylph Esteem. It only did passingly well at SOL by recent standards. The score is a notch or two up and the downloads are favorable, but the vote count is a little low for what I would expect. I know they can't all be winners, but the difference between this one and even my worst performing Mature story at Lit is stark. At best, it's a third of the stats. Oh well. Guess I'll see what happens with the next one.