Internet Trolls

 

Internet trolls. Many of whom work for Google.

Summer in SPACE!

 

In my Summer Lovin' contest entry, Summer in SPACE! (Adult Content) a young spaceman flies to Armstrong Naval Space Station at Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1, and docks in time to see the Summer Solstice Festival. The station commander, Space Force General Rhodes turns up the heat in A sector on the Earth Ring, and turns up the lights. There is also a Winter Solstice Festival which General Rhodes describes as "Same thing with more holly." 

This image came in 5th Plance in a nationwide AI art contest

Newsletter 08/23/26

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Futuristic Jousting

 

Futuristic Jousting

I wanted to do a jousting image in a futuristic setting and this is what I ended up with. I love the way the stadium turned out - ancient, hewn from the side of a mountain. I love the crowd also. Their clothing could be from any era and with everyone standing, it looks like a stadium where an old school soccer rowdy would feel at home. I'm not sure why my gladiator isn't holding the handlebars, maybe she saw a photographer and is posing for Page 6.

Newsletter 08/02/2026

 

Happy Anniversary! We've been together for TWENTY YEARS!!!

 Twenty years ago this week I put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard—and published my first erotic story, Sea Cat and the Dragon Lady. It was actually a story I wrote for an on again/off again lover, a story of what I was planning to do to her at our reunion. She was into bondage and lots of kinky things. She also had a thing for Renaissance Fairs, something I also enjoyed. Sea Cat devised a basket of flowers with handcuffs for the Dragon Lady where she was handcuffed and nobody could tell. He took off her panties and replaced them with a pearl G-string and took her for a walk around the RennFaire. She was bound in public and nobody could tell, and the pearl G-string under her skirt drove her crazy. Bound and brought to orgasm in public and no one noticed—my lover's fondest wish.

                 My lover thought that was great and two weeks later came my next opus The Revenge of the Dragon Lady, that was based on a fantasy that she was eager to try. The Dragon Lady wanted to have an evening exploring an FFM Menage a Trois, but first she wanted to try the FF portion of the Menage. In my fertile imagination, Sea Cat (C-Cat) had to sit in the other room and listen to the girls carry on. It was the Dragon Lady's form of bondage on C-cat, he had promised to sit and wait until they were ready for him, and it was painful, but he remained true to his word.

                 That was followed two weeks later by Camping in Bondage. I grew up in a pine forest that was planted by hand, so the trees are all in long rows and I thought a couple could have a lot of fun camping in the trees and enjoying each other. The setting of Camping in Bondage is about 100 yards away from the cabin that Nick restored for Mike von Köster.

                 Then life intervened, my lover went one way and I went the other. I crash landed in Denver and in 2008 I crawled out from under the rubble and wrote Just Friends, a story based on something that happened in the previous century. A lot of that story is true, it really happened, but everything else is a lie. Even the names are lies. That was followed by my first and second big mistake as a writer, Naveen Knights. Once upon a time there was an awesome, sexy story called the Virgin Princess. It was sexy and kinky and it disappeared. I tried to rekindle the fun and kink from that story, but it was really awful. That put me off writing for a while, as did my employer.

                 A bad job with good pay is still a bad job and "Uncle Brian" did me a favor by tossing me to the streets. I was still in denial about my disability and searching hard for work. My doctor finally convinced me that the altitude was killing me so I moved to God's Waiting Room and began to write. I wrote A Krissmas Karole for the 2021 Winter Holiday contest, but I missed the submission date, so I started writing the back story about Don Campbell and his cute little Vietnamese girlfriend Lanh. I wrote the first chapter of We're a Wonderful Wife, but since it had been so long since I had posted anything, I wrote a little side story of Don and Lanh having fun in Luxembourg while he was stationed nearby in Germany.

                 Serendipitous Liaison was a fun story to write and took me back to Luxembourg. (I love Luxembourg) And I haven't stopped writing since, even though it taught me a painful lesson - don't make the titles too fancy. If the reader doesn't understand the title, they won't read the story. Aim for the lowest common denominator. My Very Dear Cô Dâu was another lesson in that vein. Cô Dâu is Vietnamese for wife. The story is a letter. A very lonely Airman Don Campbell was sitting alone in Germany, missing his wife so he writes her a love letter.  It's a sweet story, but it tanked. No more fancy titles for me.

                 My Summer Lovin' contest entry stayed true to that lesson. Summer in SPACE! was written in the Alan Scarlett universe, twenty Earth years after Alan hung up his spurs and became President of Mars. My uber-awesome beta/editor KMaz told me that she didn't like Sci-Fi, but she liked this one. There's nothing weird or painful about it, it's exactly what you've found in all my other stories: young horny man meets a woman old enough to be his mother and, as they say in the Western Alliance Navy, "In Space, No One Can Hear You Cum." It's not an Alan Scarlett story so you don't need to know the lore, but there's plenty of callbacks to those stories so if you have read them, you'll recognize the mentions. It will go live in 2 weeks, on August 15. I'm hoping to have Stormwatch ready for you a week after that.

                 So back to Stormwatch 17. It's moving along quite nicely. I've got 9000+ words into it and I really like the feel of it. While Paul and Andi are visiting a Country Roads rehearsal in North East Pennsylvania, Yi turned the twins over to Heather and Harold and she and Kenny took off to Cocoa Beach to get the boat ready for Madam Mayor. Theres a lot of bonding between Kenny and Yi's dad Stan. Stan is still the captain of the Andi's Dream and he wants to train Kenny, get him a Coast Guard license so he and Yi can haul paying passengers letting Stan and Sunny retire. I think I'm going to modify SpaceX's Starship. I'm going to strap two Falcon 9 boosters to Starship and make Starship Heavy for this story. Why not? It's MY world. Here's an advertisement for cruising on Andi's Dream.

 And finally -

                 As I look back on 20 years of writing, I can see no end in sight. So many ideas still cropping up, and it's you, the reader that makes it all worth my time. Your comments on my stories are worth every key stroke, every busted keyboard, every leaky air piston on every cheap office chair, every aching wrist, every cramped finger. Like my publisher says, "Comments to writers are like wings to angels. They help us fly." Even back handed compliments like "Hey! This didn't suck as bad as usual!" help. A few folks here like Ender 2k2k, SexySenior56, Boyd Percy, and so many more, they're there as soon as the story goes up, sometimes with nothing more than to say, "Hi! Thanks for writing!"

                 You have no idea how much that means.

 

 

 

(In case you didn't get the link) https://i.postimg.cc/rshFMTtX/Yachting-done-right.jpg

Welcome to Kodu Chapter 4 - The Nature of Magic on Kodu

 The Nature of Magic on Kodu

The planet Kodu is a world of magic. There are wizards, witches, magical creatures, and even magical methods of travel. So how does this happen on Kodu but not on Earth? Well, to be honest, before the Starfall that destroyed every city on Kodu, the elves were far more advanced scientifically than humans ever were. Because of millennia of scientific research, the elves became more capable at magic than humans ever were.

At the very deepest level, magic is the manipulation of two sub-atomic particles known as Allokos, and Tháumos. Allokos is the particle of order, structure and potential. Tháumos is the particle of change, energy, and possibility. These particles have quantum mechanical barriers and therefore, in nature, cannot interact with each other. However, if those quantum mechanical barriers can be overcome and the allokos and tháumos particles are allowed to interact, magic occurs. Someone who has Romi, which is the strength to bind the allokos with the thaumos in the right combinations, can cause a quantum event known as a Tarachi which is a disturbance in the fabric of reality, which the commoner calls magic. Manipulated properly a tarachi can heal wounds, turn a sword into a plowshare, and cause a dog to speak any language you desire. It all depends on the discipline used and how it's applied.

Sometimes a commoner will assume that wizards and witches accumulate allokos and thaumos, but on Kodu they are always available to a wizard or witch. Allokos and thaumos are common parts of the fabric of life. Another misconception is that of mana. Commoners believe that wizards accumulate mana, and they cannot do magic if they do not have enough mana. Mana does not exist; there is no such thing. The commoner may be confused about a wizards romi, his strength to manipulate allokos and tháumos, but in reality the main reason why a wizard won't do magic is because he doesn't want to or doesn't see a need to do it. Occasionally it is because he doesn't have the strength or the imagination (fantasia) to do the kind of magic requested. And lastly (and most often) it's because you didn't pay him enough. (Even wizards need to eat)

Magical Disciplines

Magevo or Witches Magic

Common tarachis spun by an adept at magevo is often used for healing wounds. They often use magevo to help crops grow, or pickled vegetables to ferment faster, sourdough starter to rise faster, or dye fabric without dyes. Witches can leave their body behind and accompany an animal, fly with a hawk, run with a stag. This is called Enosi or Joining.  It's not a permanent thing, when the animal is tired of enosi, the animal kicks them out. Successful levitation and locomotion while levitating is the sign of a skilled witch. Witches do not need a broom to fly, but straddling a broom prevents people on the ground from looking up their skirts. They don't need a familiar, but cats and owls are fun to have around and don't mind trainees attempts at joining. Witches Magic is often called "kitchen magic."

Duke Nicholas Stein is an advanced adept at Magevo, but he says it gives him a headache to use magic.

 Magos or Wizard's Magic

While a witch can learn her craft in a few years, Magos or Wizard's Magic takes decades to learn. It combines advanced manipulation with quantum entanglements, but it also requires intense study of the world around. Alignment of the stars often makes binding the allokos with the tháumos much easier and a wizard is able to do so much more during a Stardance. The results of magos is only limited by the wizard's fantasia (imagination), his romi (strength), and the amount of training he has had.

Note: while a wizard may be able to change shape to a lion, they are a man dressed like a lion, they don't know how a lion thinks or communicates. Duke Nicholas Stein was affected by ancient Elven magic, Vanemate Rasside Jõud, the Power of the Elder Races. This made Duke Nicholas a Polyeidus, a person who can actually become those creatures. When he becomes a different creature, he can think and act like that creature. According to Elven legend, only an elf is capable of becoming a polyeidus.

Gois or Enchanter

Gois is the most powerful adept at Magos. What makes a gois is not the amount of study, but romi, their natural strength to manipulate allokos and tháumos. They are so powerful that they can perform tarachi inside their targets mind. If they can achieve that, without destroying their target's mind, they don't need to become a lion, their target or targets will see them as a lion. Enchanters are rare. Neth Skelm was an Enchanter.

Goissa or Enchantress.

A goissa is a female enchanter, also known as an enchantress. The enchantress is considered dangerous because she can manipulate a man's sexual desires and enslave him, but that is a two edge sword. If an enchantress manipulates a man (or woman) to desire her, she in turn ends up feeling the same desire toward her target. It is rumored that Duchess Octavia Stein is an Enchantress which would make her the most powerful magic user on Kodu. It is also said that she had enchanted Duke Nicholas and often wears a gown that is completely transparent to the man she enchants and to tease him, she wears it at palace functions. Rumors abound that she uses the enchanted staff Virga with the ancient artifact the Orb of Jørn as a long-range weapon.

 Magical Species

 Fairies

Fairies are the most magical of all humanoid species. Everything about them is magic, without magic they would not exist. They can understand and speak any spoken language, and read any written language. They can lull any baby to sleep with their singing and are adept at telepathy but it bothers most humans. Contrary to common belief, fairies reproduce sexually, in fact sometimes that's all they do. Humans have a hard time telling male fairies from female fairies, but they don't need to know. Only the fairies do.

Elves

Elves are the most magically powerful species of humanoid on Kodu. It is said that an elf wizard is born skilled in manipulating allokos and tháumos and their training is mostly a matter of teaching themselves to control their impulses. There are few elf wizards and elf witches. The wizards serve elven royalty and rarely speak to anyone outside of the royal classes, but there are rumors of elven wizards in Teurnia, a non-elven kingdom. It is said that elves are being trained in Magevo in Uduithia, a human kingdom with elf villages.

Humans

A human that is skilled enough to properly manipulate allokos with thaumos is rare. Often it's found that the best wizards have some elf ancestry. Humans have built universities to train human wizards with mixed results. Vampires and Werewolves are humans that were cursed by an elf wizard in their ancestor's past. They have high romi or strength but lack the imagination to manipulate allokos and thaumos into something useful.

Gnomes

Most gnomes are born knowing Magevo, or witches magic, which makes them ideal garden gnomes. However, gnomes do not have the desire or strength to advance their magical abilities.

Dwarves

Dwarves are masters of earth and stone, great craftsmen and rune-workers. Dwarves with any magical abilities are rare but their magic is handy in shoring up new tunnels.

Goblins

Goblins are clever and cunning, they use magic in chaotic and unpredictable ways. Fortunately they are light on romi so their attacks are rare and weak. They're more effective with their claws.

Demi-giants

There is no record of a demi-giant with any magical abilities.

Ancient Elvish Glossary

Allokos = weird - a quantum level subatomic particle, the particle of order, structure and potential

Thaumos = wonder - a quantum level subatomic particle, the particle of change, energy, and possibility

Tarachi = agitation - a disturbance in the fabric of reality commonly called Magic

Romi = Strength - the ability to manipulate allokos and thaumos

Fantasia = imagination - the imagination needed to properly combine allokos and thaumos

Magevo = witch - kitchen magic (Wizards believe only females can be a witch and use magevo)

Magos = wizard - the magic of a wizard (Wizards believe only males can be a wizard and use magos)

Gois = Enchanter - Most powerful wizard (no human gois currently exists on Kodu)

Goissa = Enchantress - Most powerful female wizard (wizards claim that no female can become a wizard on Kodu)

Animal Farm

 Once upon a time, George Orwell wrote Animal Farm, which many took as a warning. As time went by the warning was forgotten and people began to see it as a fairy tale, which it was not. It is prophesy. Here is a list of all countries where socialism/communism worked:

1.

2.

3.

Newsletter 07/26/26

          I want to start with SpaceX - I don't know if you saw the flight of Starship 13, but it was amazing. I'm talking Buck Rogers amazing. The launch was delayed more than a week because several motors didn't fire because of ice in the fuel turbopumps… in South Texas… in July. Someone needs to have a talk with Elon, because ice does not occur in nature in South Texas in July. Regardless, it launched beautifully and the video was amazing. The videos looking back down the length of the rocket (missile actually) as it took off was dizzying. You could see the clouds of steam from the flame diverters from miles up in the air. Sadly the booster was traveling far to fast when it returned because several engines didn't light (that imaginary ice again?) but Ship 40 was incredible. The Pez dispenser was incredible and it spewed out satellites with floodlights so you could inspect the ship's heat shield. Then landing without burning up or blowing up was fantastic. That's the kind of thing that spawned Captain Scarlett. (Hint hint)

                 Gods Save the Queen Book 5 Part 1 is doing quite well on Literotica. As usual the trolls had a field day gnawing away at the score. It went from 4.89 to 4.63, in one day, but now that they have that out of their system, the score is climbing back up and is at 4.73. I expect those troll votes will be swept away during the Summer Lovin contest. I wasn't expecting such a great response because GSTQ doesn't do well on an erotica site, but also this episode is complex. Each chapter jumped from the present to another point in Josh and Octavia's history then back to the present. However one reader was kind enough to leave a wonderful comment:

                Not much new can be said about your creations. Your ability to weave a tale is among the best. I am not a literary type of person. I have read very few books, mostly things like Isaac Asimov creations, or trilogy’s, such as Dune. War and Peace was good but not my cup of tea… Your creations hold the best of all my favorites. Intrigue, emotions, and levity make you one of those creators of vision that are fun to read as well as visualize. Oh yeah, this one got another Outstanding Read ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating. Thanks for sharing your creations. I am looking forward to the next part of this one.

                 Was I just compared with Asimov, Frank Herbert, and Tolstoy? I'll take it. This story was so much fun to write and I proof-tested my AI Grammar Prompt which ran smoothly.  Also - GSTQ Book 5 Part 1 was the 150th story that I posted on Literotica.

                Also I want to answer a question that I received from a reader, because I'm sure that other readers have the same question - Yes! There is much more Stormwatch on the way. As you know, I jump from project to project mostly for you. I would love to stick with Gods Save the Queen, but Stormwatch fans would feel left out. So I jump from project to project to try to even out the time between chapters. It also gives me time to think up ideas to add to the stories. Right now I am working on Stormwatch Chapter 17, but it's coming a bit slow. It starts with Josh being summoned to the mayor's office and she sounded angry.

                I hate to say it for you Stormwatch fan, but Chapter 17 has been pushed to the background again. When a project wraps up there's actually a couple of days between KMaz and I getting it as perfect as we can make it, then it goes off to wherever the next stop is. I usually take a day or two to unwind and the dive into the production of the next project, and currently I have my stories, this newsletter, a blog on blogger, a blog on Wrist.com, a blog on Stories on Line, and a daily AI Image on Nightcafe. Ok, the blogs are sort of the same… they are now at least. I'm writing a series on what it takes to write Gods Save the Queen for Stories On Line, but that's only 500 words or so. It gets expanded and illustrations added for Wrist (Confessions of a Writing Dog) then that gets dumped int Duleigh's Bookshelf where everything else gets dumped, including this newsletter and my AI images.

                I was wondering what to do for the Summer Lovin' contest. I had a couple of options, I was thinking of two characters on another part of Kodu that hasn't been explored yet, but I thought where would summer not happen? In space, of course. Then I remembered - I have two huge "wagon wheel" space stations, one in Earth orbit (Camp Schmidt Marine Space Station) and one parked on Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1 (Armstrong Naval Space Station).

                It started to fall together. A young rocket-jockey wannabe did something that got his training accelerated and he was blasted into space in a single seat fighter to find his way to Armstrong NSS. That station is 85% of the way to the moon, and he had to solo in a tiny ship. When he gets there he discovers two things, one is that the station is having a huge Summer Solstice party on the Earth Ring (Largest ring on the station) and he also found a super-hot middle-aged woman who used to be a Zero-G combat tactics instructor. Mayhem ensues.

Lehigh Valley Timetable Cover (my design)

Readers of this blog know my love of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Another love of mine is Art Deco. If I ever grace New York City with my presence ever again, it will be to only view the great Art Deco creations remaining, like the Chrysler building. As a lark one day I created a cover for a passenger timetable for the Lehigh Valley Railroad using art deco styling. Could the LV have survived if I was in charge of their publications?

 

Welcome to Kodu Chapter #3

 

The "Gods" of Kodu

 I designed Kodu to be a stable planet in an unstable solar system, but more on that later. The history of Kodu was lost or hidden from the residents for thousands of years and by the time of Gods Save the Queen book #3, the history was slowly being uncovered. In the beginning, the only humanoid residents on Kodu were the elves. They built cities of whatever was available locally, but mostly stone and crystal. Their cities were described as the glory of Kodu, and that the Gods looked down on them in envy. Notice I said Gods with a capital G.

 The elves had one God and a huge pantheon of saints, powerful beings that assisted the elves. Their God and his saints lived in Taevas, a mythical land of forests, rivers, and silver, three sacred items to elves. Each saint had a specific task they performed to keep Kodu a peaceful and joyful world. The name of their God was Cannan, the God of Gods. He or she (the elves never recorded the gender of Cannan) was the one that the saints turned to for advice and guidance.

 Then came the Starfall. Tānlán, a huge iron planet that orbits Thaal once every 60,000 years, entered the picture. Its vast, elliptical orbit usually kept Tānlán out of the way of Kodu and Zigu, but this time it passed close to Zigu. Tānlán's gravitational pull drew Zigu out of its orbit and drew it toward the sun, Thaal. As if to seal the deal, Tānlán's moon Gion struck Zigu, causing untold damage to the massive planet. Luckily, Zigu was not inhabited, however its largest moon Aestea was. The Aesteans were technically advanced and able to use a force of nature that the elves called maagia, which elven high priests were adept at.

 The Aesteans knew that their world was doomed and that it was going to strike Kodu's only moon, Hiphus. The Aesteans moved to Kodu and tried to warn the elves of the danger that was coming in mere decades, but the elves refused to listen. That's when the Aesteans discovered the elves' pantheon of the saints, but mistook them for elven gods. The Aesteans, pretending to be gods in points all over Kodu, tried to convince the elves that tragedy was coming, but the high priests of the elves knew these visitors from Aestea were pretenders.

 One god, Saehrimnir, chose to turn to elven astronomers and speak with their college. The astronomers made the observations, did the math, saw the calamity coming, and convinced the elven rulers of the coming disaster. With the help of the powerful Aesteans, the elves built underground shelters along with the races that the Aesteans made—the dwarves, demi-giants, and fairies—and thus survived the collision of the moons and the year-long meteor storm that followed.

 The elves called the Aesteans Jumaliku Sõbrad, meaning divine friends, which over the centuries became Jumal (Gods), and the original God of the elves was forgotten, but the title of God was always written with a lowercase g when referring to the people of Aestea. Unlike the God of the elven worship, the Aesteans didn't have a singular leader; all gods were equal. However, when the elves emerged from the rubble of their destroyed planet, so did humans.

 Nobody knew where they came from, just that they emerged from shelters like the elves did. The humans had a shorter life span than the elves and they multiplied more rapidly, and they spread across the continents of Kodu. They also worshiped the gods, something the elves never did. The Aesteans enjoyed receiving worship and praise and soon a pantheon of gods formed, and the gods that received the most praise became more powerful.

 Ten thousand years later, Cannan was completely forgotten, as were the shining crystal cities of the elves. In some areas of Kodu, elves were forgotten as well. The gods remained but their origins were forgotten. The gods loved the praise and adoration so much that they were not going to tell the true story. The gods became withdrawn from Kodu society, and when the gods appeared to people, it was almost always in the temples that humans built for them. The gods had a way to move between temples, and only their chosen people, the temple priests and acolytes, could use it, but that's a different blog entry.

 Then, a wizard whose family owned an entire mountain taught himself the language of the ancient elves and began to study the scraps of ancient documents he found scattered across Kodu, and his voice caught the ear of a beautiful queen.

 Next week we will continue with the gods, magic and the demons of Kodu.

 Gods Save the Queen book #3, The Last Elven King, is available at:

 Zbookstore.com

 Bookapy.com

Newsletter 07/19/26

                Yes, it is done! The creation portion of Part 1 of Gods Save the Queen Book 5; tentatively titled Yuletide is complete. The editing portion is in full swing and I just released it to KMaz who will review and then after her approval it will go up on Literotica for your review. It should be up soon so that will give you days to read it before we meet again. Bring a sharpened #2 pencil because there will be a quiz.

                It's been quite a week, I've been nose down in GSTQ 5 writing from 9:00 AM to usually 9:00 PM with breaks for lunch, a quick nap, and dinner. I'm usually up by 6:30 and in those early morning hours I am usually working on AI imaging at NightCafé. I spend an hour fiddling around with an idea or two, and I generally come up with something for their daily AI Art Challenge. One of my favorites is this one: Octavia Standing Guard. I put Octavia on a dragon and parked her on a mountain top overlooking a walled city with a gigundus castle. Nobody seemed to notice it until I entered in in a daily challenge and they loved it. Octavia Standing Guard came in the top 20% which earned me a few points to make more images.

                Of course, for those of you who read my Gods Save the Queen series, you may have figured out that the dragon is actually her husband Sir Nicholas. Do you think King Uric would allow his court wizard to ride a wild dragon? No sir. However I have introduced Tianmas. Nick gives Octavia a pair, a colt named Mei and a filly named Xiu.

                My publisher has asked for a series of blog posts for the web site Stories On Line. SOL is owned by the fellow that owns Bookapy.com and Zbookstore.com Between them that's where 100% of my sales are coming from, so I have started a "Welcome to Kodu" series of blog posts. I'm aiming at 500 to 800 words per post. They get posted on my real blog, and my first is Welcome to Kodu - Chapter 1, which explains what you already know - how I had a series of fan fiction stories that I wanted to make 100% my own. Chapter 1 is an introduction to my universe and how it came about. Chapter 2 will probably be more of the same. If it sells my books I'll re-write the Magna Carta.

                By the complaining I hear about global warming I'm sure it's summer. Summer means the Summer Lovin' contest. I've never won this one, and I'm not going to win it this year. I placed in the April Fools contest so I'm out of the running for 6 months which means the soonest contest I could possibly win is Halloween, but I'm going to target Winter Holiday. But I still like participating. No idea what I'm going to write yet, but I'm thinking short story May/December. Set the scene, introduce the characters, let them get it on then bail out. Now where do I put it? When do I put it? Two ideas come to mind:

Option 1: 1950's style sci-fi featuring young Lieutenant Roger Ramjet and his commander General Honeyrack test the zero g hub of the space station?

Option 2: Some 12th century naughty when the queen and her guard give her husband's throne the royal treatment?

Someone give me a hint - which one would you like? Just drop me an email and say option1 or option 2 or your own idea.

While you guys are discussing this, I'll be preparing the system to switch gears from Kodu Standard time to Western New York Summer. Stormwatch Chapter 17 is my next long-form story and it's going to be a re-run of a previous story. Now the cruise on Paul and Andi's yacht is going to be Josh and Veronica's honeymoon cruise. We'll explore the jillion dollar swimming pool that Paul installed in their home in Jupiter Florida. I gave my cousin Elon a call and asked if he'd launch a falcon heavy for this and he said no, sorry Duleigh. I'll be launching a starship from the cape that day.

Let's get back to GSTQ - 5. My dad was an artist, he could rebuild a detonated Turbo-Hydramatic 350 transmission, then come home and fill the house with happy little trees. He got quite good, because he understood the need to show opposites. He would show me that if you wanted to accentuate the light, you had to have dark. Gods Save The Queen 5 is meant to be light and happy, but to make that light and happy pop, I need dark and painful.

In part 1 we explore the history on Nick's family. How did they suddenly get control of an entire mountain? And where did they all go? All that we know about is Aunt Agness and's she's the example of a witch that shouldn't be allowed within 1000 feet of an elementary school. And Octavia - her folks just drop her off at an orphanage and walk off? What's up with that?

And why would someone who was raised to be a snotty upper crust royalty chasing wife-for-hire fall in love with an enlisted man? Someone whose idea of heaven is finding a full dozen fresh eggs in the hen house?

In Part one we explore those families, and hint at the attraction between Nick and Octavia. First of all, we are now 6 years past Book 4. Their son Marlon is 6, his kid sister is 4, and Octavia is pregnant with twins. Then in the next chapter we go back in time about 30 years to where Octavia's parents meet. The third chapter is back in current time where Nick is teaching reading at the local pub. Then in the next chapter we go back three generations to where Nia Frost buys the family legacy, Black Mountain. The story keeps hopping time-lines like that. I try to show exactly when and where the story is centered at the beginning of each chapter.

All these different plot lines come together in Part 2 and trust me, it will be worth the wait. I'm aiming for tears of joy and puppies that can speak English.

Thank you again for hanging in there and as always if you have any questions or ideas, drop me an email or on Literotica or Wrist shoot me a direct message, I always answer my main.

 

Licorice Dragon

The thing I like about AI is that it lets you explore ideas, then see them with image-real clarity. Somehow the idea of a licorice dragon came to mind, and the image came out so much better than I expected. 

Welcome to Kodu Chapter 2

 

The Humanoids of Kodu

 The second thing you need to create when you build a universe is people. As the philosopher Klavan once said, "A universe without people is just a bunch of rocks floating around in space." On the planet of Kodu I filled the planet with six different species of humanoid creatures, each species has a role to play on the planet. Four are created species and one is an invading species. Some of the species have different races while some do not.

 Elves - Elves are tall and fair, averaging six feet five inches tall. Elves are long lived and many have gone on over three hundred years. Their history goes back thousands of centuries, but only recently in their history did they discover magic. Elves are the only humanoid species on Kodu. It is said that their technology was advanced far beyond what star faring races use today, but then came the Star Fall, a calamity on a planetary scale.

When the planet Zigu was drawn to a closer orbit to Thaal, Zigu's moon Aestea collided with Kodu's moon Hiphus. What followed was a year long bombardment of Kodu. Every city, forest, and field were hammered flat. Many elves escaped by building vast cities under mountains with the help of the gods. The gods are not God, and to be honest, they're not gods either, but they are powerful. More about them later.

Demi-Giants - The gods made demi-giants first. Demi-Giants are big, strong, and burly. Their life span is about eighty years. Their average height is seven feet five inches, and they were built to do the heavy lifting it would take to create the underground cities. They are fairly shy and soft spoken and hang out on the outskirts of rural communities. Occasionally, when in need of money, they will resort to crime. Wise farmers have learned to hire demi-giants on as farm hands. Demi-Giants have no magical capabilities.

Dwarves - The gods made dwarves shortly after they made Demi-Giants. While the demi-giants are doing the heavy lifting, the dwarves were digging and shoring up the tunnels. Dwarves are short, husky, and strong and they average four feet in height and live about 250 years. They became the miners of Kodu mining for precious metals, ores, and coal, which can be fabulously valuable in a cold mountain winter. Dwarves can be war-like if driven, but rarely are they criminal. It is a slanderous lie to say that female dwarves have beards like the males, female dwarves are quite cute. But when they get over 175 years old, the women will start to show whiskers. Dwarves have no magical capabilities.

Goblins - Short, angry, stupid with no redeeming values, goblins were assembled for a purpose. As the underground cities were built, the cities were being overrun by rats, snakes, badgers, and other wild animals. The Goblins were built to clear the shafts and cities of these invasive species. When the elves moved into the cities, they would seal themselves in their apartments and let the goblins roam the city at night, looking for rats and snakes and this is how goblins became the 'boogie men' of children's stories. Goblins are three feet tall and now they are rare. Once the underground cities were abandoned, they disappeared and moved into abandoned animal burrows. Only male goblins have been seen so nobody knows how they reproduce, and nobody wants to know. Goblins have no magical capabilities.

Fairies - these tiny creatures are the first magical being that gods made, and they were made for three important purposes. They can glow, which provided light for people in underground cities. They understand what people are thinking when they speak, so they became translators for the post-star fall elves. And they were often used as messengers. It was not unusual to see fairies buzzing every which way through the underground cities carrying important messages they could repeat verbatim. These days they are often seen in farmhouses where they catch bugs and entertain by singing. Because they can glow different colors they light up Yule trees. Fairies are about four inches tall and all appear to be female. The only way to tell the sex of a fairy is by their hair. Males are always brunette, females can have any colored hair. Fairies are a monotreme species.

Humans - Humans are not a native species to Kodu. It is said that they arrived from their home planet to observe the star-fall and got caught up in the destruction and some survived. Humans and fairies fell in love with each other and it's not unusual to see fairies carrying messages from home to home for a bit of their favorite food, honey. When humans began to study fairies they discovered magic. Some humans have an aptitude for magic and will become witches or wizards. Being humans there have been magical wars over the years, but eventually humans became a dominant species on Kodu alongside the elves. It is humans who first called the gods "gods" and are the only species to worship the gods, which is something the gods got addicted to.

Next week, we will talk about gods on Kodu, magic, and how magic is used.

Gods Save the Queen book #2, Warrior Duchess, is available at

Zbookstore.com

Bookapy.com

Queen Octavia Standing Guard

 Queen Octavia astride Pommeraie de la Montesquieu

This is an image I did not too long ago of one of my favorite subjects, Octavia riding the golden dragon Pommeraie de la Montesquieu, whom she calls Pommy. This is a scene from a future book I will write, probably Gods Save the Queen #7. In books 1 through 5 I've only written a few scenes of Octavia riding her dragon, and in Book 5 she receives a pair of Tianma - flying horses similar to Pegasus. Tianma is a flying horse of Chinese Mythology, and since Octavia was an empress of the Xuantang empire the horses would be a fine gift from the current emperor.

The longest scene I've written of Octavia and the dragon was when she went into labor in Palace of the Jade Lotus in Chéngshì Jin, the capital city of the Xuantang empire. She reclined on the throne and Pommy grabbed the throne and they crashed through a paper wall and flew up the Lu Yazi river to escape. That was a very exciting, fun scene to write. It is in Gods Save the Queen Book 3 - The Last Elven King

I also have introduced unicorns in the stories. Unicorns are mostly ridden by elves and they only ride the mares. The stallions are too skittish and never calm down. They have that horn which makes it difficult to put the bridle on, so they're just kept as pets. 

Welcome to Kodu - Chapter 1

 

Welcome to Kodu!

This is a story about how I wrote a story. This is a gift for you lovers of romance and lovers of fantasy: my newest series, Gods Save the Queen. Notice the plural, in my imaginary world there are many gods who are not gods, but they like having people come to them in adoration so it kind of went to their heads. This is a work of love and for those of you that are interested in how a story comes together, this blog is for you.

In this series of blog posts, I'll walk you through the creation of this series of romantasy novels and give you a hint to what you can expect.

It all started on a disc-shaped planet that roamed the multiverse. It didn't have a sun to orbit, in fact, the sun orbited the planet. The ten-thousand-mile in diameter disc sat on the backs of four gigantic elephants, who stood on the back of an enormous sea turtle that swam through space. This Discworld was the creation of Sir Terry Pratchett, an amazing writer whom I adore and try to fashion myself after. I love the Discworld so much, I wrote eight fan-fiction novellas that took place on that Discworld and got some wonderful feedback from the readers.

The problem I had was that the stories were quite good, but I couldn't go anywhere with them. While Sir Terry's estate allows writers to write fan fiction, it does not allow them to profit off of his material, and his daughter is aware of my stories. 

What to do… what to do… 

I decided to extract my stories from Sir Terry's universe and make my own universe. There were many things that were strictly "Discworld Only," and needed that magic for the plot to advance, so I had to do some serious thinking. I couldn't just plop my story on an earth-like world; I had an entire universe to build.

So, we start at the beginning with a whole new solar system. My star is named Thaal, a Sol-like star that is circled by two planets: Zigu, a huge planet with a solid nickel-iron core that is the inner planet. The next planet out is Kodu, a smaller, Earth-size planet with an iron-nickel core. Every 88 days, or four times every Kodu year, Zigu and Kodu pass close together. The gravity/magnetic/magic field of Zigu causes the core of Kodu to tremble, which causes the stars to shudder if you looked up. The inhabitants of Kodu call this the Stardance, and it's said that babies made on a stardance evening grow to be strong and lucky. Because of the orbital ecliptics of both planets, the Stardance in Autumn is most noticeable.

Kodu has three moons for multiple reasons. It used to have one, but at one time in history, Zigu was the outer planet, and the gravitational pull of a rogue planet passing through the solar system pulled Zigu inward to the inner orbit it has today. One of its moons slammed into Kodu's moon, showering Kodu with a year-long meteor shower that destroyed every city on the planet. When the shower was over, Kodu had a series of rings that used to be its moon, and it picked up three other moons. These moons are Kuu, a large, ringed moon; Rahn, the crimson moon which has three rings; and Livi a tiny, bright moon that's not often seen because it's normally in the daytime sky.

Next week, we will talk about life on Kodu, who is there roaming the planet, what they drive, what kind of animals you may see as we explore Kodu with some of its inhabitants. 

Gods Save the Queen book #1, the Enchantress, is available at

Zbookstore.com

Bookapy.com

Another victorious image

 

The challenge this time was to create a poster using the Art Nouveau style. I was able to create the Art Nouveau style, but what kind of poster do I make. I settled on an advertisement for toilet paper. Toilet paper as we know it did not exist during the time of the Art Nouveau craze, and I really don't want to know what they used. Special credit for anyone who recognizes the word "Dren." Hint: it's from something that first got me into writing.

Newsletter 07/05/2026

I hope you all had an outstanding Independence Day. My new neighbors had a great party. The house next to me sat empty for years, but the young couple who took over did an incredible job cleaning it up and remodeling the interior. They also have a Groodle (Golden Retriever + Poodle) and they're such wonderful dogs. They rented an inflatable bounce-house for the kids while the folks sat out in the shade and chatted. We had a nice time.

                 This week I'm going to introduce to you plot animals that writers have to put up with.

 The Plot Bunny - 🐰 Story ideas that come bounding in and start multiplying. Writers often say they have plot bunnies, but they're just bragging.

 The Plot Chicken - 🐣They squawk, flap around, and shit everywhere, but when you actually need to do something with them, they scatter. These are the creatures that writers encounter most often, but we lie and say that they're Plot Bunnies

 The Plot Sloth - 🦥Takes its sweet goddamned time turning into something useful. Plot Sloths are a common companion of writers who have a publisher whose favorite word is "Deadline!"

 The Plot Mule - 🫏When you take two story plots and mate them together, and you get something totally cool, but you can’t get a sequel out of it to save your life.

 The Plot Cat - 😼 Lazy little bastards who take up your headspace, scare away all the plot bunnies, chase around the plot chickens and make so much racket you can't work, they scratch up all your current work, and after all that they won’t do anything except lay there.

 The Plottweiler - 🐕Barks loudly and viciously so you can’t ignore it, distracts you from everything else you want to write, but leaves you too paralyzed with fear to actually put words down.

 The Plot Squirrel - 🐿️ Cute, distracting, full of nuts, and just TRY to keep up with that train of thought.

 The Plot Bedbug - 🦑Shows up during the night, chews on you so you can’t sleep, and disappears in the daylight. EVERY writer has a bedroom full of Plot Bedbugs. We keep a note pad on our night table hoping to write down the ideas that the Plot Bedbugs generate, but in the morning we find we wrote everything in Martian Hieroglyphics

 The Plot Tick - 🐞Burrows in, bleeds you dry, and leaves you with the creepy-crawlies. Mostly preys on horror writers. They're why I don't write horror anymore.

 The Plotroach - 🪳Totally unappealing, but so tenacious they’ll survive anything until you finally give up and write them. They're good for a story score of 3.9 on Literotica.

 The entire time I wrote Stormwatch Chapter 16, I had a Plottweiler barking at me, demanding I write Gods Save the Queen Book 5. I finally finished Chapter 16 and turned to start Gods Save the Queen Book 5, and where is he? Snoring under the bed.

                 I'm deep into Gods Save the Queen Book 5. Part one is going to be a bit odd - The book starts with the birth of the twins. Nick and Octavia's son Marlon is six-years-old, their daughter Hollie is three-years-old, and Octavia gives birth to the twins, Llywellyn (Lou), and Llywella (Loo Loo). Those names have meanings and will be explained in the book. Then, in Chapter 2, we jump backwards in time about 28 years and join Octavia's parents Felix and Jutta Aldana, and you find out why they drop off Octavia at the orphanage in Torwin-Armistad.

                 Then we return to Elm Springs for a chapter of Nick being Nick, then jump back in time about 60 years and learn about Nana Peacock. We spend a chapter with the Peacock family, Nana and Norm and their kids, Nicholas, Agness, Gertrude, and Martyn. A sudden plot bunny popped up. Martyn is Nana's youngest son; Nick was named for her oldest son. I had planned to make Martyn a wizard of some sort and return. What fun would that be for Marlon and Hollie to have a great-great uncle appear for the holidays and keep confusing their dad for a man that died 40 years ago?

                 I'm going to disappear Martyn one way or another. I'd like to bring him back around Yuletide. Another plot bunny hopped up - he's looking for the most powerful wizard on Edux, and possibly the entire world of Kodu, only to find that his great-grandnephew married her. Any thoughts on this? Could he be a permanent plot member? I think he'd be a great companion for Pepin who is getting on in years and spends his days lying in front of the fireplace.

                 Another thought - This is a re-write of my Discworld story Happy Hogswatch, but there's no disc, no elephants, no turtle, no silliness, and worst of all, no librarian. Great-great-granduncle Martyn Peacock could be my replacement for the librarian. Unfortunately he won't speak ook, but I'll give him a different language that only Octavia will understand. He won't have rabbit-ear antennas coming out of his head like some other Uncle Martin, but he'll fill the same niche. I'll give him a door into his laboratory like Izhar… or maybe I could make him Izhar! He's been watching his great-great grandnephew for the past seven years. What do you think?

                 This is a shining example of how these plot critters work. They whisper in your ear and give you so many great ideas. Plot bunnies are the worst. I'll be working on Stormwatch, then a plot bunny wearing a Uduithian coat of arms comes up and whispers in my ear. "We'll have the king come to Nicks farm unannounced and go fishing. He tells Nick of impending danger; international spies, elf ninjas, squadrons of dragons!"

                 I write the plot bunny's whispers down and say, "Yes! That's good! What's next?"

                 The bunny looks at me and says, "Next? Whatsoever do you mean?" and begins to gnaw on my notebook. Don't count on plot-critters to finish anything, they're only good at getting you to start writing, then they step back and giggle as you try to make sense of their babbling.

                 Other than getting swarmed by plot bunnies it's been an interesting week. I've been experimenting with AI prompts, using premade AI prompts to force the AI that comes with Microsoft to do something creative rather than corrosive. I'll discuss the prompts next time because they're quite involved, but they work! If you're subscribing to Grammarly or ProWriterAid, these prompts will be your ticket back to return $120 to your pocket when you cancel your subscription.

                 Thanks again for being there, and keep in mind that if you have any questions or suggestions, I'm here to answer your emails. Also, I'm still looking for story suggestions for Summer Lovin' and  Halloween so if there's something you'd like to read, let me know and I'll try to make your dream come true.

Art Deco Victory

 

This was another Night Café image contest, where I came in the top 10% out of over 5,000 entrants. 

the ER-I-EE was risin

This was one of my best received images on NightCafe. The theme was "Canal Towns" and the nearest Canal Town to me was Tonawanda NY where the Erie Canal met the Niagara River. The scene is historically accurate; the mule drover is leading the tow-mules down the towpath while a second set of mules takes a break on the boat. The boat captain has his family on board as they travel. The image came in the top 5% of 4,668 entries. The title of this post comes from an old canal song that was sung as they worked along the canal.

Ooh... the ER-I-EE was risin'

And the gin was gettin' low

And I scarcely think

We'll get a little drink

'Til we get to Buffalo

'Til we get to Buffalo

 

Newsletter 06-29-26

 

                The life of a writer is often times beset with trial and tribulations, but the loss of a trusted took is the cruelest thing of all. G. is a friend of mine, who is a writer and is blind. Recently G. had to have her brailler repaired, which means she could not write for a long time. A brailler is a device with six keys. You press the proper keys at the same time and you get one letter punched into a piece of cardstock in braille. While many of us struggle to hit U instead of I or Y, she has to create each letter. G. says she can type fifteen words a minute with her brailler, then she and her assistant edit what she wrote. I don't know if I could work like she does, but she's an incredible writer of erotica.

                 Writing is a deeply personal thing, most writers have their own style, and to some like G. each letter is a creation from the soul. For me the creation comes from the whole. I'm usually banging out the wrong letters. Two writers shape my path, Andrew Klavan, and Garrison Keillor. Politically, artistically, spiritually, the two are polar opposites, but when they talk about the art of writing, they echo each other, One quote from Garrison Keillor echoes my style of writing:

 “We writers don’t really think about whether what we write is good or not. It’s too much to worry about. We just put the words down, trying to get them right, operating by some inner sense of pitch and proportion, and from time to time, we stick the stuff in an envelope and ship it to an editor.”

 That's kind of what I do. Instead of mail it off, I put in in the cloud and share it online with KMaz and she goes over it and we discuss it in real time. But the problem for me is that the story is the thing, the words I use and the punctuation I chose to convey that story come next, the story comes first. And the tool I've used for the past 2 years to straighten out my words and my punctuation was ProWritingAid.

 ProWritingAid helped with grammar, punctuation, and would tag me on all sorts of things, like sticky sentences (whatever that is) and comma splices (I hate them things) but recently it stopped doing handy things like grammar, punctuation, and wording. It wanted to review what I was writing, search for plagiarism, give me a critique report, do paraphrasing and stuff my PC with AI. All these extra goodies cost extra. You pay $120 a year then buy more credits to make the software that you paid $120 for to work. After it's AI update it missed all forms of errors that I toss on the page because I'm writing quickly.

I cancelled my subscription, why should I pay $120 for 12 months of "For only five credits you can…?" The problem is that "You can…" was something that was part of the subscription 3 months ago. And now there's nowhere to go. So I'm working with what is installed in Word. Their editor is getting better, and there is also the worst AI in the world: CoPilot. I'm experimenting with CoPilot. I've got a set of instructions that I feed into CoPilot: "Review this document searching for grammar and punctuation errors. DO NOT correct anything, point out what you find and let me decide how to fix it." So far it's working, but if I forget to say "DO NOT correct anything…" it will re-write everything.

I have started Gods Save the Queen Book 5, and I'm working without a safety net of ProWritingAid, just editor, which is so-so, and CoPilot, which is like a six-year-old with a search engine strapped to its ass. I just started and I'm up to 3,500 words and it's time for a time shift. I'll be bouncing back and forth in time and I hope it doesn't get too confusing. Book 5 starts six years after the end of Book 4. Marlon is a healthy six-year-old boy with a three-year-old sister named Hollie. Chapter 1 starts with the birth of Marlon and Hollie's new brother and sister: Llywellyn and Llewela (Named after elven warriors from the past) but Chapter 2 starts 36 years in the past with a woman named Jutta Aldana who just had a child out of wedlock. I hope that isn't too confusing. We'll see. That's why I do these books in pieces like that.

Where is Stormwatch? I can here some of you saying that. Stormwatch Chapter 16 is done. It was very tough to write because so many people in the story were sad, but now that Chapter 16 is finished, everyone can be happy. We're going to send Josh and Veronica on their honeymoon, John is going to take a week off and splash in the new pool in Jupiter, and Audrey is going to introduce Mike to his cabin while everyone is gone. But that's all in Chapter 17 which I won't start for a few weeks.

Once Stormwatch Chapter 16 got the a-ok from KMaz I sent that to Lit for publication. The minute it went, so did I. I was so sick last week, I only had 6,000 words to write (that's about 3 days of writing for me) and it took me eight days to do that. I missed Trivia on Friday (G. won) and I almost missed Music Night on Saturday, and I had a great music theme - bands with siblings in them. But the story is done, KMaz liked it, and now it's yours, ready for you to read, there on Literotica.

Rubber Hose Santa Claus

 

I was fiddling with new filters on NightCafe and I found one called "1920s Rubber Hose Ink Wash" Rubber hose is the style of animation used in cartoons produced in the 1920s and 1930s. I love those cartoons, with the bold lines, film grain, sepia tone due to film aging, but mostly I love the characters. What's not to love? Those big cheery toothless smiles, the huge eyes with a pie slice cut out, the round shining puppy noses, those big, round shoes that look like over-inflated pool toys, those huge, white three finger Mickey Mouse gloves, it's all so perfect. But also, those noodle arms and legs. 

That's where Rubber Hose style of illustration gets its name from. There's no elbows or knee joints, the arms and legs are rubber hoses that bend almost like a human arm. 

When I first created the wizard above, I really wasn't quite sure what I was going to get. A good AI will take a while to put together an image and this was worth the wait. I was creating a satire of shoveling snow in Buffalo and the point was that even a wizard has to get out and clear the driveway on occasion. But when Mister Wizard popped up I gasped, it was perfection! It was completely different from what I was expecting, but it came out beautifully. 

Then I thought: he looks like Santa Claus from a 1930 cartoon. I had to try to make a Santa, but I had to do it my way. The Santa Claus that we perceive as the real Santa was invented by the Coca Cola in 1931, and some of my fondest childhood memories of Christmas were centered on a four-foot tall, illuminated Coca Cola Santa that my dad had absconded from his family's grocery store. It was big and beautiful, and to me, it wasn't Christmas season until dad put Santa up on the front porch. But in 1964, Coca Cola moved away from the image they created and eventually switched to the only creature in North America that will hunt and kill a human being for sport - the polar bear. Nothing says Christmas to Coke like being stalked across an icepack by a fifteen-hundred-pound man eating bear. 

So, MY Santa drinks Pepsi. If it's good enough for Joan Crawford, it's good enough for my Santa. Besides, I prefer it to coke. I've done a couple of images of Santa slamming back an ice-cold Pepsi on his infrequent breaks, so my rubber hose 1920 Santa looks right at home in the Pepsi Generation. However when I went to animate the image, AI showed its stupidity. I wanted one deer to peek out and the only bit of color would be the deer's NOSE. Those simple instructions were too much for AI.

Never let AI run the train!

Newsletter 06-24-26

 

                I hope you all had a wonderful Father's Day, and if the country you're in reading this does not have Father's day, drop me a line and tell me what you celebrate in June, besides winter - 🤣(Shout out to Australia)

                It's been an interesting week here at the doghouse. The weather has been interesting, to say the least. Morning arrives with thick fog, but soon becomes a sunny late morning. By late afternoon the clouds roll in and the rain started. And it's been a torrential downpour. Rain coming so hard and fast that as it pours off the roof, it jumps over the rain gutters.

                The weather has been a triple threat to me because it hampers my writing in at least three ways. First it's warm and welcome rain, and it's amazing to watch as it pours out of the sky. However, my dog, Marly, hates it. She's a pit/lab mix, and the only thing she's ferocious with is the neighbor's chickens. The rain gets her nervous, and the thunder terrifies her, so looking for comfort she comes and forces her way under my desk and takes over down there. I will have an 85 lbs. beast laying on my feet, crying. All I can say is, "Suck it up Buttercup, Independence Day is getting closer, and I'm not holding back this year."

                The next headache is the power. Today was the first rainy day where we did not lose power this month. Swampland Rural Electric Cooperative must know when I'm in the mood to do some serious writing, because that's the time they pull the plug. We don't lose power for very long, just long enough for me to get my laptop set up and my notes copied over so I can finish up the thought I was working on. My Wi-Fi is set up on a battery backup so when the power goes out, I still have internet for devices. Usually, by the time I get rolling on the laptop, the power comes back on, and I have to move everything back to the desktop.

                The last headache is Cell. We've lost cell service here three times this month. That's an enormous pain because our internet is 5G, so if we lose cell, we lose everything else. We cut the cable years ago, and all TVs are connected to Roku now. Most of my library is eBooks, and since the VA is crap at providing me with the proper optical prescription, the hard copy books I have can be impossible to read. I store all my notes and stories in the cloud so I can work from anywhere, and suddenly I'm cut off from that. I have a hard drive with older anime stored on it so I can put that on, but it's all subtitled. These cell outages are not quick; each one was a five hours wait.

                I've finally gotten to a point where Stormwatch 16 is flowing. It's been a pretty painful write because Pierre Lévesque and his family are in Springville. Pierre wants the man who killed his daughter and son-in-law. Josh thinks he knows, but he doesn't want to say because what if it was someone else? Either way, there's a senator who needs to go to prison.

                It's not going to be all sadness. The girls Josianne and Marcelline are fascinated by snow and the twins. They became addicted to Ranch Dressing, fish fry, air hockey, beef on weck, Loganberry pop, and their nephew Cholly. The people of Springville can't understand them at all. In their eyes, this family traveled from Heaven on Earth to the slush capital of the world. Why would you do such a thing? And are they going to take Cholly back to New Caledonia when they leave?

                I'm estimating that I'll have Stormwatch 16 finished up and in KMaz's hands for her awesome editing skills by this time next week or sooner. That means I can start working on Gods Save the Queen Book 5, Yuletide. Yes, it's going to be a Yule celebration in the Snowcross Mountains. It's also a leap forward by about six years. Marlon Stein will have a three-year-old sister when the book opens. I am looking for ancient Yuletide traditions that we can transfer to Kodu. I have a Santa Claus/Father Christmas figure already, he's been mentioned in each book, but I didn't expand on that. Maz Dracus, the god of Charity and Generosity. He's called "Draka" or "Saint Heldus" or "Father Yuletide."

                If you have or know of an ancient Mid-Winter tradition that we can export to Kodu, please drop me a line. Sorry, but the Missile Toast joke won't make it to Kodu, but I'm sure we can figure some evergreen plants that the elves of the far southern regions used for Yuletide ceremonies.

                And that's it. I have maybe 5,000 words to go then Stormwatch 16 goes into its editing phase. When I return to work on Stormwatch 17, Josh and Veronica will be on their Honeymoon along with Paul, Andi, Yi, Kenny, Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly. If there's anything you'd like to see on their vacation to Nisi Arcadia, please let me know, I'll entertain any suggestion!

 

Duleigh - Doug.