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"Author To Author: Finishing Touches"

written by Max D

Every story has an ending. It just takes a long time to get there. Because of how I write, both non-sequentially and across multiple character arcs, I'm often dealing with pieces from multiple puzzles all thrown into the same box. Teasing out which pieces belong together, which pieces are the chapters of the next Cherish Desire Singles title, is not always easy and definitely not predictable.

And that's top of mind as I revisit, revise, and publish Object Confessions titles.

There are stories within these collections which link together. Stories here which were supposed to have a common first word in the name so I'd remember they were linked together and chapters of the same book. And some are so close to done. Finishing is an effort unto itself though, and finishing can only begin when you acknowledge what you've forgotten.

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"Author To Author: Brutal Trial And Error"

written by Max D

I just published and republished the same title to Smashwords 21 times. I just iterated through the same title 8 times on Amazon KDP. I just tested the same title 5 times on Rakuten Kobo. Each time finding something wrong. Each time seeing a new glitch. Each time needing to tailor the Word document source further to suit a specific retailer.

This whole process sucks.

While I had hoped there would be a better convergence over time for retailers supporting self-publishing, I'm finding the opposite it true.

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"Coping: Isolation and Continuity"

written by Max D

I've seen most of my work colleagues' pets now. Their kids, spouses, partners, bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens, and a few accidental very candid scenes which none of us will ever actively remember but can't forget either. I'm not coping well. I'm extraordinary fortunate to be well situated despite the pandemic tearing the world around me to pieces. It's too hot to go outdoors. Too hazardous to risk any incident that might mean interacting with people. The denial is strong here, but the elderly Hispanic ladies have bought all the bleach. All of it. There's this terrible sense that they know it's breaking down, but clinging to denial might make it less real.

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Zara DuRose London Event (2019 January 19)

Zara DuRose and Black Tiger Sex Machine in London!

Zara DuRose is throwing another awesome party in London, this time with Black Tiger Sex Magic headlining. Should be fantastic, and ZDR members have access to a Private Kink Area. Definitely worth checking out!

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"Inspiration: Exploring Emotional Rhythms"

written by Max D

Language is cluttered with expressions of rhythm. The pitter patter of footsteps. The punctuated tapping of fingers on glass. The heartbeat. While a lot of writing tends to focus on visual input, sound matters a great deal in how we perceive invisible emotions. Organizing that sound, creating symphonies not chaos, is masterfully handled by talented and skilled musicians. Broadening our exposure to music gives us tools to reframe emotions, and I'd like to share a fantastic resource for exploring new music accompanied by the delightfully human bantering of DJs who definitely enjoy their vices.

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"Author To Author: Nailing Down The Details"

written by Max D

The journey every update of the Cherish Desire Erotica Catalog takes is a combination of trailblazing and masochism. There's no denying the stupefying level of interwoven complexities that need to be broken down into bite sized chunks, tackled, completed, and then woven back together again for each release. Catalog changes range from minor corrections to additions of new titles to re-architecting the entire book layout and style sheets to accommodate fresh ideas on how to best present the stories we want people to know about.

And that's just step one.

After innumerable hours spent writing, publication looms overhead. Tame the process, and you can get it done. Here's how we navigate the labyrinth to get our titles on the virtual shelves.

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"Author to Author: Fear Matters"

written by Max D

What lingers in the shadows?

Writing something impactful is never easy. Writing content for Very Wicked Dirty Stories often requires taking a step back and reflecting on the fears which become compulsions, which gnaw at the edge of our awareness, and which make us shout "NOPE!" while pondering "What if?" Most horror has props and stage sets, but fear can come unbidden in broad daylight if done right.

That's the hardest part.

In recognition of our favorite holiday, Halloween, we wanted to talk about fear. It makes any number of stories tick - from Object Confessions to Sexy Identities - and it's a tool that can be used sparingly to haunt the audience or forcefully to provoke a strong emotional connection. What scares you is as important as what scares our characters. After all, you feel you know someone once you know what makes them want to run.

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"Author to Author: Are You Telling Your Stories?"

written by Max D

Sharing your world matters.

The two predators at the start of "The Lioness" exist in a London I know far too well. The stretch of sidewalks drenched in black tears that have washed litter into soggy piles in the shadows of streetlamps clinging to the streets of Camden Town. I've gone back to that same spot over and over for close to eighteen years. Given the current plans economic development within the area, that bit of London won't exist for much longer. It will be built over, the references in "The Lioness" will no longer be anchored to a physical reality, and that part of my world will have come to an end.

What does it matter? This is the normal state of our existence. We are transient in a landscape that evolves and changes as much as we do. The technology we use, the things we take for granted, and the places we know are moments in time. A friend of mine, now in her late seventies, lamented the lack of stories about the shenanigans and sexual passions of a generation confounded by war and loss over tea, and I asked her what should we know now. "Well," she said, "this whole gays and lesbians thing isn't new at all." She was half laughing expecting me to be shocked and sipped some fancy Whittard blend which was a personal preference before continuing. "We were all huddled together, waiting for the bombers to pass, and my second girlfriend liked to sneak in a quick grope under my skirt when she knew I couldn't make a sound." Unfortunately, there are very few stories about those other relationships. No one told them. People conveniently forgot. My friend's memories will fade with her, and no one will know any differently than the popular fiction and radio shows of that era which largely censored homosexuality to avoid government intervention.

Unable to sleep while winging my way across the Atlantic, my friend's smirk stuck with me long after I forgot the name and scent of her favorite tea. This is our job now. The barriers have been removed. The publishers can no longer bar the gates and prevent the people from being heard. Do you want other authors to speak for you? Do you want their beliefs to eclipse yours? Will you share your world? Or will you let it wither and fade as if it never existed at all?

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"Author to Author: Ten Things To Consider About Your Web Presence"

written by Max D

Is your presence you?

Blogger, Wordpress, Wix, Weebly... what do these have in common?

Free.

Setting up a website, blog, or even an online store has always been about what you're willing to spend, and free is powerful bait.

Is free you though? Free isn't always the least expensive option. Even with free hosting - which is a really good deal - you still need to find a template, work through layouts, produce visual and multimedia content, and then actually get down to the business of tailoring a web presence that represents you. That's a lot of time and energy that is not usually your core business. You need an approach that streamlines your time away from the products and services that you provide.

So read along while I talk through some of the basics. We're going to explore what's important in your web presence, and then touch on how to make your web presence an asset instead of a time sink.

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"Author to Author: We Need To Talk About Apple iBooks"

written by Max D

Why can't iBooks embrace rational consistency?

You've heard of iBooks of course. iTunes was the start of a closed marketplace aimed directly at Apple product owners, and both iBooks and iTunes have the distinct benefit of being tightly bundled with the 231 million iPhones sold since 2007. In terms of customer marketplace, this makes iTunes and iBooks a very lucrative market opportunity.

So I expect some hassles. When you're dealing with a gorilla who can convince people to pay $700 for a smartphone that costs $250 to manufacture, it's going to be all about profit for them. Apple isn't evil, but they want their devices - iPads, MacBooks, iPhones - to be ubiquitous and in the hands of every age group. Adult erotic content is going to have some bumps along the way.

But it's February now, and someone at iBooks unpublished all our Smashwords distributed titles back in November 2015. The reason? "Max" is not an acceptable first name and last name combination.

They're surely going to remove Sophocles next, and, without Oedipus Rex, I fear their whole collection of Greek sagas will be tarnished!

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"Author to Author: The Dreaded Revised Edition"

written by Max D

Isn't this the digital age?

I'm working hard on the upcoming Cherish Desire Singles: "His Toy Chest (The Complete Seven Part Series) featuring Angel" and along the way I have the usual list of minor edits and corrections to the previously published stories. I know. I know. It's self-inflicted pain. This is the digital age though, when we can recognize a misplaced word, a dangling plot thread, or an annoying redundancy, and just fix it. Right?

Maybe not so much. I don't know how other authors really deal with revisions, but it's a challenge for Cherish Desire. We have a standard revision edition notation in each book - [alpha][alpha] - where the first letter is the publishing year of revision and the second increments by quarter or by major format change.

In 2016 there's a big push underway that goes all the way back to August 2015 to revise all AA, BA through BC, and some CA titles to DA or higher. I bring up August 2015 because our first pass revising AA titles in July 2015 ran into technical glitches at Amazon. So we backed off and prepared for the hard push to DC editions.

On the surface, this should be a straightforward exercise. This is much harder work than it sounds though, and mostly it's for internal consistency. Plus making the covers look nicer and the descriptions match Amazon's latest formating. Still it shouldn't be so hard to just assemble the revised parts of the ebook and publish the revision.

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