The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[NotWise]

Woke up to find my latest story, published this morning, is already hot and already has 1200 views, all while North America was sleeping. I also lucked out on prime placement (2nd from top) on new in the EC page, and it's presently the only hot new story from today.

I'm so happy with the story and I'm over the moon it's doing so well already. Seems like I'm on track for it to become my most popular story, which I couldn't be happier about.

Okay, I'll stop gushing now. Thank you for indulging me.

It's great when the cards fall your way--especially in EC where a story can fall through the cracks.

 

[old_prof]

My SO gave me some great feedback for my Nude Day story last night. It is a beautiful morning here, the birds are chirping, and I have already incorporated all of the suggestions. Hopefully I can get that submitted today and maybe finish a sequel to an earlier story as well.

Thanks to whoever put the kettle on for my tea. Always makes for a good day.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Sleep, refuel, and try again tomorrow.

Sleep has happened, now I'll just have to get through the day and see if I have any energy left by the end of it.

 

[MrPixel]

Beautiful outside and will be for the rest of the week. However, start to this day was marred by waking up to a nightmare, a "video replay" of my ex from 45 years ago talking around that it was over, but not telling me it was over. She strung me along for something like three years with that shit. Ms. Gaslight Extraordinaire, waving her hand, "These are not the boyfriends you are looking for."

Hoping my mood improves.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

It's another beautiful morning but the weekend sounds like it will be a washout. The baby birds are following their mothers around yelling "Feed me" to them every time they try to get food.

I've got a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is hot. There are donuts and some fresh blueberry muffins on the counter. The blueberries were in the field yesterday and are delicious.

I'll be over in the corner working on my story. It's coming along and I'm pretty sure I'll make my deadline. I hope everyone else's stories are coming along, too.

 

[filthytrancendence]

The muffins are delicious, thank you Candy

I had quite a productive day yesterday, though it didn't feel like it. My latest story doing well put me in a good frame of mind to finish drafting the next story I've been working on. It's one of several kinda close to finished ones that's been sitting in the warehouse of the documents folder for a while, but I dusted it off and I'm really happy with how it ended up.

It's funny, I find lately that writing a first sex scene between two characters to be one of the most difficult parts of the process. And that's where I got hung up on this one last year. I banged out all the scene setting, character work, and conflict and then smashed my face into the sex scene and gave up.

It's because I feel pretty strongly about the sex scene being the most compelling part of characterization, and I have to really get into the heads of these people and the moment I've created in order to take the sex somewhere I'm happy with. If I just write two people fucking, I end up hating it because it feels like a waste of the characters I put so much into.

Anyway, I got the sex scene out and I love it. Came up with an ending I like. Got through my entire editing process which is about 6 passes. Got it submitted before I went to sleep. Woke up and it's already approved, set for publishing on the 14th.

Sometimes a day is too productive... now I have to decide on the next project, which is my least favorite thing to have to do.

 

[MrPixel]

G'morning, all. Hope y'all got more sleep last night than I did.

Last night's nightmare was still a nightmare, but it played out like a Twilight Zone-type horror movie where "I" was an observer suckered/kidnapped into joining a cult. None of the characters were anything from my past. I woke up on realizing my phone and wallet had been taken, and that the only law I could possibly contact was on the take. I was walking down the street and townsfolk would bellow at me as they drove by, shouting "Run!", "It's a cult!", and "Hop a train!"

So why all of a sudden am I having nightmares? I'm suspecting switching one of my pills to the evening meds batch may be a factor. Funny how the brain works.

EDIT: Yes, I could easily make a LitE story out of this. Problem is the plot in my nightmare is that "my" fellow captors were 20-something men. There was one female who was... you can guess... and there was a burial field full of past females. If any of you are comfortable with the horror genre, have at it. I'm not.

 

[MrPixel]

Damn. I just finished my Nude Day story. 11.5K words. Edit pass, proofreading pass, build the submission header, and I'm off to the races. Wow.

 

[MillieDynamite]

You can say anything you want here; we're all the friendliest folks in AH, right here in the Coffee Shop. Coffee shop, Coffeeshop, hum! I'm Millie, hey there Helen, how are you today?

Is this where I say hello?

Hello.

 

[MillieDynamite]

This is a secondary market for me. I usually only publish something here (other than 750-word stories, which are only written for here) after they've been for sale for some time.

I've found that my longer stories perform better here. Also, in a longer chapter, I have the time/space to flesh out my characters and my world. It's an erotic story for sure, but it's also an erotic fantasy novel...or at least it WILL be a novel when I'm done...
And 2-4k sometimes is just not enough. Chapter 2 and 3 were both around 4-5k so I combined them for submission, (still not published...not sure why it's taking so long...this is the longest I've ever had to wait before...)
But I think sticking to around 10k+ is where I want to be.

 

[Helen_Highwater]

You can say anything you want here; we're all the friendliest folks in AH, right here in the Coffee Shop. Coffee shop, Coffeeshop, hum! I'm Millie, hey there Helen, how are you today?

Hi Millie Dynamite! Somebody said I'd do better starting a thread of my own in AH, so I did.

I've been busy getting to know people, and fending off approaches from some, let's say, rather overfamiliar gentlemen. Also thinking about what to write, and whether there's some unpublished stuff in my files that I could try here.

I gather the publishing process is rather slow here. I'm not really into extended pieces. The short story, 5,000 words absolute tops, is more my style.

 

[old_prof]

Although I have been told longer stories get better ratings overall, there are some very good examples of shorter pieces. @ElectricBlue goes comes to mind and he writes in several categories.

 

[NotWise]

I gather the publishing process is rather slow here. I'm not really into extended pieces. The short story, 5,000 words absolute tops, is more my style.

The publishing process isn't automatic, but I wouldn't call it "slow." I think most people see their stories published within 3-4 days. This may be longer for new writers and under some cases it's shortened to a few hours.

The "Toys and Masturbation" category includes many shorter works. Audio scripts are usually also quite short.

I was taught to write short stories. At the time, short stories were your gateway to writing. That wasn't a consideration when I started writing as a pastime, and my stories grew on me. My first stories on Lit were planned with the intent that I'd get back to writing short stories. My first story for Lit was ~3200 words. I wanted my second to be half that size. It came in under 2K. I wanted my third story to about 800 words and I think I submitted it at 940 words.

I realized before that third story was published just how strongly the readers preferred longer stories. There was a little delay getting it out, and that gave me a chance to withdraw it. In its place I published a series of short chapters from a novel I started, grouped so they'd come closer to readers' expectations. I didn't even review or edit them. They were my first successes on Lit. I've since taken them down because I wasn't going to finish the story for Lit.

You can find appreciative readers for shorter pieces (5000 words is less than a Lit page and a half), but getting much appreciation from the readers for a stand-alone story that short might require a rare convergence. Short chapters in a series are more accepted.

 

[MillieDynamite]

To each their own! I love short, short stories and long novels, and dang near everything betwix and between.

Hi Millie Dynamite! Somebody said I'd do better starting a thread of my own in AH, so I did.

I've been busy getting to know people, and fending off approaches from some, let's say, rather overfamiliar gentlemen. Also thinking about what to write, and whether there's some unpublished stuff in my files that I could try here.

I gather the publishing process is rather slow here. I'm not really into extended pieces. The short story, 5,000 words absolute tops, is more my style.

 

[GrantBricksly]

This is a secondary market for me. I usually only publish something here (other than 750-word stories, which are only written for here) after they've been for sale for some time.

I've only ever published one book thus far, and it only had one thing in it that was from here. And I honestly don't recall if it was here first, or published first...It was a collection of short stories I wrote for my wife, and I posted one of them here as a 750-word challenge.

My new series, the one I'm working on now, is intended to be a book. One, I hope to publish when it's done. I figure I'll use Lit as a way to fine-tune it. As I post chapters, I get feedback, and I figure out what works and what doesn't. And I'll go back and edit them, eventually putting the edited version together as a book.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Despite the weatherman saying it is a cloudy day, I'm getting the bright sunshine in my face as I watch the birds and critters in the backyard.

In any event, I've got a fresh pot of coffee brewing and the teapot is hot. There are sweets on the counter for those with a sweet tooth. And don;t forget the cappuccino machine - it look lonely ...

I'll be over in the corner fleshing out my story. I've layered so many themes in the vignettes that it's turning into a real connected story. Now if I can just get it finished in time to meet my deadline ...

 

[MillieDynamite]

Not a bad way to get started. I posted hundreds of short stories at free sites, with many different pens, before I started writing under this pen.

I've only ever published one book thus far, and it only had one thing in it that was from here. And I honestly don't recall if it was here first, or published first...It was a collection of short stories I wrote for my wife, and I posted one of them here as a 750-word challenge.

My new series, the one I'm working on now, is intended to be a book. One, I hope to publish when it's done. I figure I'll use Lit as a way to fine-tune it. As I post chapters, I get feedback, and I figure out what works and what doesn't. And I'll go back and edit them, eventually putting the edited version together as a book.

 

[GrantBricksly]

Not a bad way to get started. I posted hundreds of short stories at free sites, with many different pens, before I started writing under this pen.

Yeah. This is the only site I post on, but I like it, and I do fairly well thus far.

And if chapter 2-3 ever gets posted, I'm hoping it will do as well as chapter 1 did. (I've never had a story take this long before...been 9 days...Not even my very first story took this long to be approved...)

 

[NotWise]

My planting is done until I start fall crops. All the beds have their assigned occupants. I planted late, so most of my crops are going to come in late.

There are two exceptions. Garlic was planted last November and we had a warm winter, so the garlic is nearly ready to harvest. That's about two weeks early. It looks like the glads will also start flowering about two weeks early. I suspect the early bloomers might be water-stressed and that plants that aren't stressed will start flowering at their usual time.

Temps here are supposed to warm each day until we reach 100F on Sunday. No rain in sight.

 

[MrPixel]

Just let another one out of its cage, for the Nude Day event. This will be my first contest entry despite five years of publishing on LitE. I don't expect to make anywhere near the top of the contest list due to the GS category, and my dialog-heavy style is not appreciated by a discernible portion of the general audience.

Heh. That last point was sort of made in my sports event contribution, with two comments. First was positive feedback in covering the actual sports event, second was a complaint about too much sports and by inference not enough graphic sex. I'm okay with that, actually. I don't write strokers, I write interesting, playful characters, and situations which may or may not have a sexual component.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

A gray morning today but a Downy woodpecker is enjoying my hummingbird feeder. I don't think she's after the sugar water but the ants crawling all over it.

There's a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is steaming. There are donuts and crullers (aren't they the same thing?) on the counter for your snacking needs.

My story is rapidly coming to the point that I can start believing it's close to complete so I'm starting to get excited about publishing my first story this year ...

 

[Candy_Kane54]

We didn't get the promised rain yesterday but it's still gray this morning so we may get it today.

The coffee's hot and the teapot is steaming. There weren't many donuts eaten yesterday so I had to throw a lot of them away. Apparently no one dropped by for drinks and snacks. We can do better, folks!

I'll be over in the corner working on my story. It is nearing completion except for the sexy bits which I'll be working on this week. It looks like I'll make my deadline with a few days to spare, so I'll be able to spend some time on editing it and smoothing out the wrinkles.

 

[NotWise]

I need a bowl of Cheerios. Who's got the milk?

It's going to be a beautifully clear and calm Father's Day. My son-in-law is smoking a brisket and my daughter is making apple crisp. Hopefully we'll get the celebrations done to everyone's satisfaction before the temperature hits 100F, which should happen around 6PM.

Before we go, I have some ideas I need to get down and the lawn needs to be mowed.

Unfortunately, one of the main topics of conversation today will be the demise of one of my wife's last local relatives (a cousin). He was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. His daughter put him on hospice and he probably won't last more than a couple weeks.

 

[MrPixel]

Who's got the milk?

And does it still pass the sniff test.

Last night we took the dog to the local dog bar for a party. Started slow, but eventually a big crowd as the night went on - maybe 50 or so. Sky was the hit of the party! Lots of petting, nearly everybody accepting of his inquisitive nose, and he would do his tricks on command. It was very clear he was having a great time. Friendly Dalmatians are serious crowd-pleasers.

C, less so. She's demophobic, and sequestered herself holding down one of the sofas furthest from the bar. I would have loved for her to take command of the icebreaker-on-a-leash, but he's too strong for her. The last thing we needed under the circumstances was him loose in a big crowd with poor door control.

Downside is I acquired a case of pink-eye. Great. Have to be extra careful around the house and everything to keep from passing it to C.

 

[filthytrancendence]

It was me who used the last of the milk

I'll be spending the day pretending I don't know its father's day.

And to add insult to injury, my eyes fell upon this gem in my control panel just now


I mean. Come on, universe. Just the one tiny break today? No?

Alright. Guess I'll go write something.