RS: I Haz Planz 08/11/15 & October Round Up

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Raven ShadowHawk

So . . . new plan for the blog and the first of my new(ish) fortnightly goal posts.

Let’s see . . .

Actions Last Week

All done! ^_^

All done! ^_^

~Write another 10,000 words of ‘Slippers & Chains: Picking Out Curtains’
Sorted. In fact, not only did I do that, but I kept going and finished it! The novella is now completed in first draft and resting while Ileandra works on her NaNo piece. I’m so pleased and surprised at how easy it was to work through. Gotta say, there is something to be said about the merits of outlining. 😉

~Draft half of my third Smexxy Snippet
Nope. conscious decision to leave this since DSB was about to experience ahead explosion. What with ‘Picking Out Curtains’ and ‘Clash of the Animal Kings (Mach II)’ it seemed a bit insane to expect to do more. But . . . ‘Picking Out Curtains’ is done now, so I should be able to look into that. ^_^

October Round Upblank calendar from OpenClipArt

~Draft 13,000 words of ‘Slippers & Chains Three’
Done. See above. ^_^

~Order proofs of ‘Slippers & Chains: Second Base’ and finalise all details across Amazon, CreateSpace and Smashwords
Sorted. Book is now available for pre-order on Amazon and the CreateSpace version is just waiting for me to hit ‘go’ as I don’t believe I can do pre-orders there.

~Put ‘Slippers & Chains: Second Base’ up for pre-order on all available sites
Yep. Looking gooooood!

Change That Shit Up!

Completed tasks struck out, changes/clarifications in red and new tasks in green.

  1. Draft ‘Slippers & Chains Three’ (and give it a damn title!) by end of November 2015
  2. Publish ‘Slippers & Chains: Second Base’ on 21 November 2015
  3. List titles of ten Smexxy Snippets and have them arrayed for pre-order by end of December 2015

Targets for November 2015

Since Ileandra is working on NaNoWriMo and I just drafted a whole novella in 25 days (!!!), I figure it’s time to reel it back a bit. Plus, my goals are largely done now. All the big projects for the year are complete. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! ^_^

  1. Create covers for and list the ten Smexxy Snippets I have planned. Have them up as pre-orders as far as Amazon and Smashwords will allow.
  2. Ensure the release of ‘Slippers & Chains: Second Base’ goes as smoothly as possible on 21 November.

 Activities For This Fortnight

  1. Create and complete five Smexxy Snippet covers
  2. Release ‘Slippers & Chains: Second Base’ on CreateSpace

Thoughts . . .

checking off feedbackI’m sooooo pleased with what I’ve achieved this year. It’s been incredible and there is still a whole month to go. I’m not sure what else I’ll pull out in that time, but there’s no reason why I couldn’t just have a month off!

We’ll see.

After all, I still need to plan what I want to do next year. 😉

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RS: The ‘D/s’ In #BDSM – Part One, Dominance and Submission

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Raven ShadowHawk

I suppose it would be kind to leave a warning here before you start. Many, if not all, of the links in this series of posts are totally NSFW. If you want to have a look, do, by all means, but don’t be surprised if you find naked boy bits at the other end . . . or girl bits.
Happy? Let’s go.

line break, swirling graphics, from openclipart

Probably my favourite part of the BDSM acronym is dominance and submission. All of my erotic writings that involve BDSM in any way are based around the D/s (or DS) dynamic and I love the psychology that goes along with it.

For the purposes of this post (and others on this topic) I talk about a hypothetical D/s coupling in which the ‘D’ (dominant) is male and the ‘s’ (submissive) is female. Note that I know full well that this is NOT the only way it works and that there are dozens of variations on this. But . . . for the purpose of not throwing confusing pronouns all over the place, this is how I plan to proceed.

In a D/s relationship the Dominant is the one who controls the submissive. This can be confined simply to sexual encounters, but sometimes extends beyond the bedroom. In these relationships the submissive is expected to follow the rules and guidelines set out by their dominant in the knowledge that disobedience may result in punishment and/or correction.

D/s relationships vary in intensity, ranging from those confined to the bedroom, to those in which the control aspect is present in every day situations. This can include picking what to eat, what to wear, or even how to style one’s hair. The level of control depends wholly on the needs of both the dominant and the submissive and the agreement they have between themselves.

I guess . . . it’s difficult to cover this topic in any way without referring to those books. I’ve talked about those books many times across the blog and my rants range from tight and tidy, to half-crazed, nonsensical babble with a healthy dose of rage. I’m not going to do that here, but I am going to talk about those books if only because they do have a place here.

Since my fascination with this aspect of BDSM is so strong, I expect this section of the series to go on for many parts. I’ll try to keep posts below the 500 word mark, but do expect me to talk a lot. A lot . . .

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Slow day today. There had to be one. Not worried though, I’m using the ‘down time’ to come up with a magic system that makes a bit of sense to me and some lore governing the way these shifters work. And that’s if I decide to stick with shifters.

If you recall, the original Clash of the Animal Kings was all about feuding shifter types (cat, dog, frog, bird and . . . something O.o I think it was snakes). Now I’m focused wholly on the cats and dogs and can’t decide if I want to stick with shifters or have another form of magic.

At the moment none of the shifter stuff is engrained into the plot and can be easily changed. However I know, if I go too much further, I’ll find it harder to make amendments without rewriting lots of text. This means, I need to have these thoughts cemented in my mind by Wednesday.

*sigh*

Aaah well. I’ll figure it out, I’m sure. In the meantime . . . have some pictures!

new ileandra signature,

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Ileandra Young | 2 Comments

Considering I wasn’t sure of how much I’d get done today I think I’ve done pretty well. Very well in fact. I’m now well beyond the half way mark and nudging quickly towards the final stretch (of the NaNo word count goal, that is).

At this stage of the story Michelle is starting to understand that there is a lot happening in the world that she doesn’t understand and she’s learning to be (even more) suspicious of everything happening around her. At some point I’ll give you an excerpt, but not today.

Today I leave you with my latest NaNo badge:25k badge

And the usual stats in graphic form.

Woop, woop!
Maybe tomorrow I’ll have a day off.
. . . naaaaaaaaah! Having WAY too much fun! ^_^

new ileandra signature,

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Ileandra Young | 5 Comments

RS: eBook Review – All Of Me, Harper Bliss

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Raven ShadowHawk

All of Me cover art

Credit: Harper Bliss

Author: Harper Bliss
Title: All of Me
Genre: F/F Erotica
ASIN: B00A0DQFYC
Length: ’13 pages’

Jess’ girlfriend Laila surprises her one night when she flips her over and demands all of her.

 

line break, swirling graphics, from openclipart

Cover:

It’s a bum! ^_^ Not sure what else to say beyond that. It’s a bum and in what I’m learning to be classic Harper Bliss Style, it’s black and white picture (usually featuring sweat) with simple text to the top and bottom. *shrugs* It does the job, doesn’t it?

Story:

Jess gets a (pleasant) shock when her girlfriend Laila decides to take firm control in the bedroom.

Yeeeah, this isn’t a ‘story’ so much as a snippet. There’s no beginning-middle-end as such, no conflict, but it was still entertaining. Shame I can’t call it a ‘story’ though.

Characters:

Jess: The bottom. Rolls over beneath her super smexxy girlfriend and takes it aaaaaaaaaaaaaall! Fair play to her. 😉
Laila: The top. Can I . . . can I get a Laila of my own? Please?

. . . I wish I could say more, but unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to get to know these characters. So that’s all I can give you. 😦

Eroticism:

Very, very hot. I’m fairly certain my Kindle is still smoking a little bit.

Overall experience:

Short for a quickie while sitting on the loo (and no, that’s not what I meant!). Since I do most of my reading either right before bed, or on the move with a toddler dangling off my arm, this is good length for me to read in one go.

I maintain what I said above though; this isn’t a story. Or not a story in the way I’ve been taught a story works. It’s a very (very!) smexxy snippet that belongs in something else to make one satisfying whole.

Final score:

Average across all scores is 3.4, which rounds out to 3.5 fireballs.

Interesting. I wasn’t sure it would average out that low, but as I think about it more, I’m not too surprised. Maybe if I wasn’t so much in my ‘writing head’ that I could avoid thinking about this piece as a fellow erotic author, I might have more luck, but unfortunately I can’t.

The book is great as a quickie, to fill a gap, but there is little-to-no character development/growth and no story at all, in a traditional sense.

Regardless . . . if you want a smexxy romp to fire you up for whatever reason, this will certainly do the trick.

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