Happy Christmas!

Managing, somehow, to spend at least part of Christmas Day quietly writing. Couldn't ask for more.

If you get to be with those you love and be loved by them this Christmas, so much the better. If you don't, feel loved anyway.

Apropos of nothing - call it a cheap Christmas gift - here's a look at the excellent Catwoman fan film, Principles. I'll leave it to you to figure out why I like it so much...!

Slow progress

Writing has not been going great.

It's still going, but at a snail's pace. Less than 500 words a day, some days. It's mostly a lack of time - although, you can always make time - but also a few other distracting factors. Not good ones. I want to write, I really do. So I will get back into the groove eventually.

Around 55K on Housesitting now, so there is progress. I have no concerns about passing my word count well before my self-imposed deadline - although whether the book is done by then, who knows. I don't think I'll be wrapped in 20K more words, but then, that's a good thing. Fingers crossed I'll be close.

Christmas, for me, usually involves family and in-laws, so writing will be curtailed if not killed entirely. Doesn't mean I cannot generate ideas, however, and hopefully that will bring me back fresh in the New Year.

In case you don't hear from me, have a great Christmas celebrating whatever you want to celebrate.

Oh and if the world ends tomorrow, think kindly of me so I secure a place in masking heaven....

Market research

You may have missed my previous mention of this, so let's recap: almost any* piece of writing I release in future is going to be sold, not given away.

Thanks to the meteoric rise of ebook publishing, this is a hell of a lot easier to accomplish than it might have been even five years ago. It's almost literally click-and-publish now. That's great news for folk like me. All my efforts, all my hours and days of writing can be easily converted into a format that can be sold to you directly and discreetly. Heck, if you want a paperback book, you can get one.

Apparently though, I'm late to the party - real late. I went for a casual search on Amazon tonight and found absolutely boatloads of Kindle books with tags like 'transgender', 'crossdressing', 'erotica', 'hardcore'... and so on.

Here's what I find interesting though: a lot of these 'books' aren't even that. They're barely short stories. Many of them are less than 5,000 words in length - I've written multiple chapters in Housesitting that are more than 5,000 words in length. The first chapter is over 5,000 words! I've got transformation scenes that are almost 2,500 long!

And many of these 'books'... are selling at 99c each.

That's not my plan. I plan to complete a novel (arguably, I already have) and I plan to sell it at a similar price to what you'd pay for a paperback (of a similar size) in a bookstore. I aim to give you damn good value for money. Trust me, there's very little 'fluff' in what I'm writing.

But I'll tell you this; it's damn likely I'll put some of my earlier, shorter pieces (Beneath the Veil, Psych, maybe Her Smile) online for sale soon. Why wait? Time to dip my toe in.

I would love to hear your opinions on this. Are all of us just chumps? Should every mask fiction author be selling their work, rather than just giving it away? Let me know here in a comment or by email.

* Anything that doesn't involve characters created by others. In other words, none of my fan fiction (which is, ultimately, is what BBSSG is) will be sold.

Over 50K on Housesitting

Didn't quite have time (yet) today to get to 1,000 words, but I made up for it this weekend:

Over 50,000... feels pretty good.

I have some thoughts about plotting vs writing and rewriting, but I'll save those for another day. Just wanted to show progress. Suffice to say I'm enjoying this.

Unrelated: thanks for the comments I've seen / been sent on BBSSG 25... keep them coming if you want to save/resurrect the series.

New release: Spider-Girl, issue #25

Having discovered an elaborate plot to discredit and impersonate Spider-Girl by Liz Allen, Betty Brant has hatched a scheme of her own - going undercover as her friend Peter Parker to kidnap Liz Allen and take over her life... then discover exactly who is Mysterio?

Issue #25: The Menace of Mysterio

Download from Maskingwriter (Yahoo! Group)
Read it online on Google Drive (no login required)

This is it - arguably the very last issue of the series. If you are a fan of the series' twists and turns, I expect that more than likely, you'll hate me by the end (especially for the ending). Whether you love it or hate it, please speak up and tell me what you think.

That particularly applies if you ever want to see more issues. With the level of feedback the series has been getting recently, it's apparent that if I ever had any fans, they've long left. (I don't much blame them, to be honest - with a two year gap between the start of this arc and the end - but it was a tough arc to write!)

Anyway, I will no doubt blather on further about the series, any potential future and so on at some point. I'll admit tidying up this issue and writing the last few lines re-ignited my excitement for the next steps (Oh, that last scene) but, I'm trying to stay focused on my current project. Anyway! Here it is! Read! Enjoy!

An inspirational cosplayer...

Working on finishing up issue 25... should be up soon. Found this cosplayer in a random Google search, showing off a great Spider-Girl outfit. You can probably guess why I enjoyed her look...

She goes by the handle of Julia, The Wicked Deviant. All images from her Facebook, DeviantArt and Tumblr.

A glance at my writing space today

Here's my writing layout in Scrivener today:

Yes, I deliberately made the image small. No spoilers! If you could see the left hand pane you'd see my entire outline for most of Chapters 4-8 of Housesitting. With important key words like 'unmasks', 'fantasies', 'sex' and 'costume'. To pick them randomly.

The image reference is kind of obvious, though, even at this size. It's just one scene, but I strive for authenticity....

A pretty good morning

Small scene ended up being something a little more. This isn't core stuff for Housesitting, but still fun to write, and explores a bit more for Billy, the central character:

With a sweaty, sucking sound the mask came away. Billy moved it upwards just enough to expose Rich’s lips, stood on the tips of his heels to reach him, and allowed their lips to touch.

Oh, and that mask is not what you're thinking.

1,355 today so far.

Project target: Housesitting

This is a screenshot of today's project target for Housesitting:

Good day (well, morning) writing wise. I subscribe to the theory that when you sit down to write, it's a 'good session' if you manage to complete 1,000 words or more. That might sound like a lot, but when you're 'in the zone' it's pretty easy to churn them out. Today was one of those days, so that felt good.

You might have noticed something else: my deadline, as well as my projected word count. While it started as a short story, Housesitting has expanded, and about a month ago I decided to make it a full-fledged project - a novel, in the strictest definition of the term. I added a few plot twists and some other fun stuff to my overall plan, and now I feel pretty confident I can get to that word count without it feeling stretched. If I'm lucky, it'll go longer than that.

I share this with you because I've decided enough is enough. I'm fed up of my inner critic preventing me from finishing stuff and I'm fed up of complaining about it. So this is what I'm pledging to myself and also to you, as a potential consumer: Housesitting will be complete (at least in first draft) by March 1st, 2013. It'll be available to buy (yes, buy - it will not be free) sometime shortly after that.

More soon.

A rare jawdropper moment

The best moments when writing are the flashes of inspiration that come mid-writing - where a character does something you didn't expect ("Of course she should kiss him here").

The better moments are when that inspiration suddenly coalesces into a future plot event... and your jaw drops open at the sheer audacity and excitement of it.

(And as a bonus, when that moment actually wraps up your story in a climax that is completely perfect for what you had planned.)

Just had one of those moments while working on Housesitting. Wow oh wow.

Let's hope I get to write it....

New release: Spider-Girl, issue #24

Working with Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio, Liz Allen impersonated Spider-Girl in an attempt to catch the eye of Liz’s on-and-off boyfriend, Flash Thompson. Meanwhile Beck discovers Spider-Girl’s true identity as Betty Brant after discovering an accidental photo of her changing. After being caught and exposed by the real Spider-Girl, Liz swears to Beck that she will never impersonate Spider-Girl again... but Beck has other plans.

Issue #24: The Coming of Captain Spider

Download from Maskingwriter (Yahoo! Group)
Read it online on Google Drive (no login required)

Yep, I promised to get this out earlier but real life got in the way. No promises on when issue 25 will come around, but when it does, that'll be it for the current storyline.

Thanks for those who reached out privately about the last issue - as I got zero comments in public, as usual, I guess it was a smash hit. Bitter, me? Nah, just honest.

New release: Spider-Girl, issue #23

A case of mistaken identity has become a deliberate plan to deceive, as after school girl Liz Allen was kidnapped by Hollywood reject Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio, together they hatch a plan for Liz to become Spider-Girl. Both of them have quite different agendas, however, and Betty Brant - newly employed as an investigative reporter for the Daily Bugle - is about to get caught in the middle....

Issue #23: The Girl Who Would Be Spider-Girl

Download from Maskingwriter (Yahoo! Group)
Read it online on Google Drive (no login required)

Yep, it's here. Just over two years since the last issue. Not much more to say, really; read the previous blog post if you have the time.

Issue #24 and #25 to follow in the next few weeks when I have time. I forgot what a pain in the ass it was to get these from my word processor to the wider world.

PS: Yep, I'm 'sharing' these on Google Drive (AKA Google Docs). I am not publishing them as web pages - yet. I may do in the near future. Let me know if you like/prefer that option.

PPS: I've finally disabled anonymous comments. Getting a Gmail account or OpenID that's anonymous is stupidly easy. If you want to comment, please do so in a way that helps me track who said what.

The real reason for a four month gap

Yep, still haven't released the 'missing' SG issues I mentioned last time. I have a pretty good excuse. Excuses, actually.

First the big one. Some time after I wrote the last post, I was laid off from my job. Unexpectedly, as tends to be the case with layoffs. It's not a good feeling and it tends to throw your life into disarray. I was lucky to find another job not too long afterwards, but that came with a lot of life changes. Needless to say I didn't want to sit in front of the keyboard much after that.

Second. The truth is when I dashed off that post in May I wasn't actually done with 25. I was really close. In fact I'm still not done; there's one last scene. It's probably 30 minutes of work. I also need to edit and rewrite 23, 24 and 25 itself, although I'm almost done with that process. So, bit of work still to be done. But why haven't I done it in the last few months?

Ah, excuse the third. Truth is, I have no damn idea what I'm doing any more, and not much of a clue why I'm doing it, either.

The series could run indefinitely. I know that now. I have plotlines that could run forever. I have major arcs, minor arcs and all sorts of crazy ideas. I have long term plans. I could even throw in a 'Brand New Day' or a 'Marvel Knights' style reboot (or even, as I contemplated a while back, a MAX version of the series - AKA 'all the sex, swearing and violence I want').

Here's the problem: right now, I gain nothing from this. Absolutely zero. Allow me to get very 'real' for the rest of this post.

Only took six months or so

Issue 25 is finished. The arc is done, finally. I have no excuses for how long it's taken, but it's done.

I may even release it at some point.