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So I keep forgetting to tell people to watch Vikings on the History Channel
Despite an unfortunate “incident” at the end of last season, the current season, which had it’s mid-season finale last week, that I am just watching tonight continues an excellent tradition.
Interesting notes:
1) In season 5, we finally meet up with the start of “The Last Kingdom” from the UK (on Netflx etc)
2) It really makes me want to tell the tale of Sir Stainsberry’s first mission which involves both Ragnar Lothbrook and a certain mead hall under attack by a certain famous “monster” and his mother.I think the great pathos of the Vikings is that they are/were worshiping gods that had been barred from their planet for a good 3,000 years, awaiting a Ragnarok that had already happened
[SPOILER]or was still happening[/SPOILER]
Aagh, I haven’t even finished #2 yet. I bought it the moment it was released and haven’t gotten to it…
I am most annoyed at M. Krout, his fictionizing fecundity makes me feel very inadequate.
I would have to suspect he lives on KU reads. $2.99 per 90 page book generally doesn’t get a lot of kindle purchases unless its porn, and all Zon-porn is ridiculously expensive.
It’s actually a pretty good model, particular for someone writing serialized fiction, it can generate a fairly reliable income, much more so than bigger books which drop, get a pile of money and then dry up. You may generate the exact same amount of money, but the second is much more of a feast or famine thing. Actually you probably get more money, KU earns me more than straight e-book sales and pretty sure this true for most indie authors writing fiction.
So, I will grant you the thinking about part; however, that is on purpose as I’ve tried to keep this a bit more PG rated, albeit the standard of what is PG has changed over time.
It also comes back to Blah64’s asexual comments. Asexuality is something people now talk openly about as a ‘thing’, but it is not not new at all, and in fact has a very very long history. Ostensibly, the whole monastic life in the middle ages was all about trying to create an asexual environment, not only for males (or women in an abbey) who the powers that be did not want procreating (second and third sons) but also individuals who didn’t want to participate in the alpha male power scheme for mating, for a variety of reasons.
Today, and admittedly, Tom now lives in today, although at one time he lived in the late 80’s/early nineties, there is so much more openness about sex and sexual activity that not obsessing about sex is considered weird. But for long periods of time it was something only discussed in the bedroom or dark alley etc and you didn’t share your sex life with your coworkers, parents and relatives (close friends/locker room yes, but not everyone on Facebook)
Tom is/was originally conceived as one of those “nerds/geeks” that for whatever reason was not strongly sexually driven to date someone. There were (and actually still are) a LOT of people like this. It’s not that they don’t want sex, but for some reason: “Looks”,”shyness”,”lack of self confidence”,”poor interpersonal skills” that were not actively seeking dates in HS, or felt it a lost cause.
In my day, you could spot these individuals in the library with a book rather than socializing, or if they were socializing it was playing D&D or smoking cigarettes/weed while dressed in black back by the dumpsters, or sometimes, they hung out inside their lockers or hallway trashcans if they were discovered by the jocks and the bullies.
Today, the stereotype would be the early (seasons 1 and 2) versions of The Big Bang Theory crew. Leonard, Sheldon and Raj would be very classic examples, Wollowitz being the example of the sex obsessed nerd who still wasn’t getting any.
And again, many people were just clueless at that age (a result of all of the above). I look back on my early and late teens and it wasn’t that I didn’t have sexual urges (I very much did) but my personal skills were such that I can honestly say I was clueless on “how to date” or even socialize outside of shared interests in SF/Fantasy/Gaming with similar social underachievers.
I now, in retrospect I now recognize missed opportunities, from a first girlfriend that I lost because I wasn’t moving around the bases fast enough, to a couple instances where I accidentally turned down opportunities for sex (e.g. classmate staying over who wanted to zip sleeping bags together because “we could have a lot more fun”) because I didn’t realize that’s what they were. I was clueless at socio-sexual dynamics.
Of course, today, unlike in the 80’s, it’s nearly impossible to be clueless about sexual dynamics and relations, but at one time it was much easier to be clueless about relationships. And of course, we also have people that are not clueless, but who may have sexual interests where it is hard to find a (local) partner with shared interests so they go it alone (or online) with fantasy or porn.
Anyway, Tom, before moving to Harding had been a social introvert, a book nerd, it was not that he did not have sexual urges, or a desire to be more social, he had just got into something of a clueless rut. He recognized it and wanted to change it, be more extroverted, that’s why he was forcing himself to go to this party. His natural habit would have been to stay home, read a book, play a video game, etc. But he wanted to have more friends, be more social.
So he goes out, tries, and immediately gets slammed/knocked down/enslaved for trying to rise above his “HS Social Standing”
There was supposed to be some subtle irony in that.
I also have to say, I’ve bounced around on the PG/PG-13/R rating of this book(s). Trying to figure out what the right level of sexual discussion is (outside of traditional romance) is appropriate for a very wide range of ages. I’ve tried to sort of keep it at the Prime Time TV standard, so you see people having bedroom conversations, and with then pushed it further with Reggie.
But it’s that Prime Time TV standard that explains why you don’t see Tom thinking or doing certain things, I am sure masturbation was a staple part of his human life, and I can guarantee if it was me, I’d be wanting to fully explore my own demon body in all sorts of manners. But that strikes me as just a bit too “pervy” for the Prime Time TV Standard. You note, masturbation is still pretty verboten in TV/movies, unless it involves massive humiliation of the perpetrator. There is still a LOT of stigma to self-pleasure.
Of course, this brings up a very real point, when I first started the book, I was in a phase (I was 17-20) where I hated the way so many authors (and adults in general) tried to juvenalize teens and not only sanitize things for them, but to sort of say they didn’t have powers of consent/self determination.
Hence, early on, we have more graphic descriptions of his transformation/equipment, later on in Book 1, when I am in mid to late twenties, things are back to bedroom scenes only.
So, I could argue, that I’ve fallen into the trap that I originally hated when I was a teenager, thinking that “they can’t handle it” or something, which would really have pissed me off.
But, the problem comes, you build a style/comfort level for the reader and if you vary too much from that, you really piss people off.
So anyway, consider this discussion pre-Beta v.IV in that I will deal with this issue in v.IV at least in terms of explaining what Tom is thinking, explore his desires or lack thereof or whatever is going on.
Plus, I am pretty sure Reggie’s work will start in this book so we’ll be going to the 10 pm (EST) hour of TV anyway, if not further.
[url=https://www.amazon.com/Apostles-Doom-Demons-Astlan-Book/dp/B075XRMTSC/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=]The Audible for Vol. III Apostles of Doom is now available![/url]
[url=https://www.amazon.com/Apostles-Doom-Demons-Astlan-Book/dp/B075XRMTSC/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=][albumimg]45[/albumimg][/url]
I expect Whispersync & discounted kindle ebook owner pricing to be available in the next few days!Just got word from Stephen (the narrator) that all his recordings and edits are done, so just now wrapped up.
Very long book with lots of characters and action, so quite challenging.
As mentioned Tantor is targeting 10/3 for release.
Given they have to upload/sync/whatever with Audible/etc I think we should be on target for this release date.
Jerry
Yeah, I am aware of that. I’ve kind of side stepped it for the moment, and it should be discussed in Tom’s head at least.
There are a couple of issues facing him on this front:
1) Tom is a virgin, but he is/was as a human, interested in girls, just didn’t really know how to relate to them, or many people, recall his previous social life was very non-existent before he moved. He was working to change that, hence the party.
2) At first he was very self conscious of his appearance, being a hideous demon and all, and really the only person of potential interest was Jenn, and in fact she was originally to be his love interest, but that has not worked out, and Gastrope’ has been (sort of) making the moves on her, and he hasn’t seen her for some time, and Tom is not getting any friendly vibes from her.
3) Next, he’s been surrounded by male demons, and then D’Orcs. The problem is, he has not been around D’Orcs enough to really be attracted to a female D’Orc, and even if he was, most of them are extremely intimidating and thousands of years old. Which is mentally intimidating.
4) The exception being Zelda, who is very young by D’Orc standards, she’s around 30. However, she’s his subordinate, as are all the D’Orcs and that makes it awkward and then there is the attraction thing.
5) Next, there is Tamarin, and she is a very possible target of his affection, although also still a bit intimidating as she’s literally a genie, who looks like Barbara Edens from I Dream of Jeanie. Now she is very willing, but he’s very awkward towards her, and it will take some time. And her referring to him as ‘Master’ is not a big turn on for him.And one thing, one thing he does/did think about is the size thing. Most of the women he would be attracted to are much smaller than him. He could size change or be Edwyrd, but what if he ‘lost it’ upon orgasm? He could split his partner in two. Now a D’Orc would be fine (but there is the attraction thing) and then there is Tamarin, she could just get bigger, or grow with him.
So in a nutshell, he’s not got a lot of women around to chose from, most of them are thousands of years old or intimidating in some other way, or not attractive to him and then there is his body image issue.
So his best bet is probably Tamarin, but Vaselle is making moves there, slowly. The big hold up is the master/djinni balance of power that Tom doesn’t know how to deal with. Of course, since Vaselle wants nothing more than to be possessed by Tom–this could be quite interesting…
Yeah, I agree, which why I don’t really see it either, she’s just the most obvious choice, and I say that because she actually wants to experience carnality very badly. It’s a big part of why young djinn sign up for several decades of service to a mortal.
I keep tossing girls at him, but none seem right. Jenn, Zelda, Tamarin…
Of course, for immortals, there is no huge rush to fall in love, marry and procreate. They do so for companionship and for sex as desired, but even so, when you have thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions and billion years…there is time.
And that vow of “till death do us part…” is a pretty strong commitment if death never comes…
It did get a bit more air time then, mainly because I wanted to bring out the very carnal nature of demons, and in particular Jenn’s reaction to it.
Also, since I’ve written net porn, including demon porn, between the stuff in book 1 and book 2, I sort of got that out of my system. However, there is still some very kinky stuff to come. I very nearly included a scene where Reggie learns how his mistress and associate intends to “fill him up with souls/seeds” to implement their plan. That scene just wasn’t ready yet, on the timeline, but should be in book 4.
I think across the board, book 1 is much harsher than book 2 and 3, at least in terms of the evil nature of demons, their lusts, crimes, perversions. And to some extent, that was playing off Jenn and the wizards. Their view of evil demons caused them to be much more conscious of any perversions and evils. When the focus switched more to the demons and D’Orcs, such things are pretty much just normal and they don’t think about it too much. Jenn is rather sexually repressed, and I do think her lack of page time has cut things back. But its not just sex, wanton violence and random vicious mayhem to non-regnerable people is down as well. And that I think is because of whose perspectives we are seeing. Demons really don’t think that much about the consequences of horrific violence against mortals, against each other, it’s just fun and games. Orcs are a bit similar in that regard.
The adult level has shifted some, part that is mainstreaming, I suppose, but also some is just where the story is now (see kinky Reggie stuff to come above). I do think that Tom’s libido has been going a bit too low, but that’s probably because he doesn’t have a focus for it, and he’s also very stressed out at the moment. He’s been having existential crises, which for someone trapped in their head, as he often is, such crisis tend to have a libido suppressing effect.
I am rather far behind due to my day job and the fact that the smaller books are taking more effort than I expected. Mainly because they are very new stories that have a lot of details to work out. I have a very good roadmap for the main book, but less of one for the side books.
So it will be a few months before the next beta.
Joomla is a different Content Management System. This current site uses a CMS called DNN (Dot Net Nukem) which is windows based, and the forum is called YAF (Yet Another Forum) that can run independently or inside DNN. It too is windows based.
WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are three competing CMS’s they are all Linux based (if there are Windows ports, I doubt many people are using them)
All three are huge for blog sites and websites. You would be amazed at the number of interactive sites that run on one of these three, particularly WordPress.
The big thing about a CMS is that they are basically website skeletons into which you plug prebuilt modules for functionality and then just worry about content, not the mechanics of the website. They allow users to graphically rearrange content and simply type it in and format it like a program and not use any code.
All three Linux ones and DNN are opensource and free. The Linux ones are the biggest ones, period. DNN is probably the biggest on Windows.
There have been quirks and issues with this site and DNN, and Mikey has suggested on a couple occasions moving to one of the bigger 3 and do it at a completely hosted location so it takes up less of my time. Right now I run the servers and everything.
The big 3 also are really big and have lots of developers and are extremely stable and tested, and if I ran it in a fully hosted environment, I wouldn’t have to worry about maintenance etc.
However, since, as part of my day job, I have the servers, capacity etc, and I’m a Lenamare style control freak, I figure use something of my own so I can do exactly what I want.
Now, I have explored moving to one of the others. joomla.astlan.net is one such example. And there is some attraction to that, there were design changes to how DNN works, and the theming tool I use for it, won’t work with the newer version, but it does work with the big 3. So basically my DNN site and its code aren’t really getting much in terms of updates. To get updates I need to go to newest version that breaks my themes. So there is a reason to go big 3.
However, to go to big three I have to move all the content to a completely different system and that takes time, testing, etc. And that’s time that would otherwise be spent writing more books…
So the move is in Limbo at the moment.
So the others first met his diabolistic family through wizards, so they think everyone in his family should be female? But he’s not, so they don’t see him as part of the family? Or is he now the head of the family but they don’t recognize that.
And I am also getting confused again.
This MC, who’s family are diabolists is the Nightlord vampire/dhampire?
That makes a lot of sense. It also explains that stupid meowing box he has, or at least I think its meowing, I never hear it meowing when it’s in the same room with me, but he goes away with it and I swear I hear meows.
