FozzieBare: Blog

Where our intrepid "hero" finds out it's just about time for him to make a choice. One that will change his life. Or possibly end it.

Chapter 6 of FTMD is out at the pre-readers as we speak. I probably will upload that early next week.

Things have taken a bit of a delay, as I spent the last couple days undergoing sleep studies for severe obstructive sleep apnea, where I have an episode of apnea approximately every TWO MINUTES (no joke).

A sleep study is the 21st century of equivalent of a Spanish Inquisition. They attach 60 wires to your body, all across the body and head, connected to electrodes. They combine that with three bands around your chest , and a couple pound mask covering your nose and/or your mouth, firmly pressed against your face.

Then they tell you to sleep normally.

(theme from Mission:Impossible plays).

But, hopefully things are getting better on that side.

As always, thanks for reading, and I'm writing upcoming chapters as quickly as I can.

FB

Nearly 15,000 Downloads of Free Trader's Mary Dream, 4,300 downloads this week alone. That made it my #1 viewed story of all time, after First Times, a story that has been on Stories Online for FIFTEEN YEARS. (well, FTMD has been almost as long, but of course, no one wants to read a story that was written and then quickly faded, until my Muse returned to me).

Combined with 3,000 Downloads of Rogue's Rules, and the amount of feedback I've received, both for my stories, and these blog entries.. and I decided that I had to do something special for you guys. I tried to figure out what you guys wanted that I could give you (except for the couple of you who really wish I wouldn't post blog posts everyday), without breaking my promise to keep to a strict schedule until I have a really good backlog of my two current main stories.

Then I figured it out.

If you're reading this sometime after the morning of the 22nd, you may want to check updated stories.

I cannot and WILL not guarantee regular scheduled updates of this story. Right now, Free Trader Mary's Dream and Rogue's Rules are the two main stories that I've promised folks. But I hope every now and then to provide updates to this story as well.

You guys have spent so much time and effort thanking me for writing something that keeps you guys entertained, in guessing where the story goes. It's time I gave back to you guys.

Fozzie D Bare.

Formerly known as SirFozzie

(Don't scroll past here unless you want to be spoiled)

PS: Spoiler Alert: I've written a chapter of One-on-One, another of my old stories, and will be putting it up in the queue shortly.

From the outside, you see someone posting a lot of great stuff (Don Lockwood, ProfessorC and Jay Cantrell comes to mind for me, but that's just my favorites, I'm pretty sure that you can fill in a different set of names).

Seeing the way they do it week after week, story after story, chapter after chapter. I sometimes imagine their writing process must be like this:

Great author sits at high-end PC in a yoga like trance, facing an empty document..

Great Author: OMMMMMM..

(15-20 pages of awesome stuff appears on screen, like magic.)

Great Author: That was easy.

(presses Post)


I am NOT a great author. So, I want to clue you in on how the rest of us not-so-great authors tend to do things. At least for me recently.

Me:(doing anything BUT sitting at my computer, like for example, trying to SLEEP (big time for me), or driving to a doctor's appointment): Hmm.. That's a good idea. And if we do that, then we can move the story there.. and I think we can build off on that a bit earlier than planned. I just gotta remember it when I sit down.

(me, later that day sitting at the computer trying to marshal all my previous thoughts into one coherent whole, and watching the muse turn it into the Gordian Knot of confused ideas)

Me: Um.. I R STUPIDFACE? Where.. wait.. mo.. that can't go there, it needs to.. no that's not even IN THIS CHAPTER, WHERE'D THAT COME FROM.. ARE YOU SURE THIS IS THE SAME STORY I WAS WRITING BEFORE?

(dam finally breaks, and I get a couple pages done, frantically writing, fearing that if I stop, I won't be able to get going again.)

Me: Ok.. I think that's.. oh my god, so many spelling mistakes. Wait. Did I name the city Tortar or Forfar.. who's actually talking in this paragraph. Why did I ever agree to do this? Be consistent, Foz. Is it jump gates, jumpgates, or Jumpgates. Is a little consistency too much to ask for? Apparently so.

(spends hours rearranging the story to fit, try to fix the worst of the grammar errors and the formatting)

Me: Ok, that's a good enough state from now (emails the pre-readers editors)

(five minutes later)

Me: Wait, I can add a little bit here, make this clearer.. oh yeah, and then this section works better if I put a bit of description of it.

(edits half the document, meanwhile my poor Pre-readers do their best to edit and proof read the unchanged document I sent them and get them back to me)

Me: Wow, they caught a lot of stuff. Thank goodness for pre-readers/proof readers. Wait. I changed that.. and that.. and that..

(frantically tries to incorporate pre-reader changes and my changes all together, in a mad panic)

Me: Well, I think that's ok. Let's hit post.

(five seconds after hitting post)

Me: ARGH! I missed that, and that.. but it's small, I hope noone will notice.. I can always repost a fixed version.

(someone pings my mail pointing out a mistake that I had made that no one caught)

Me: Why do I do this? I should have gone into an easier field, something like a used condom salesman.

(someone writes me telling me they like the story. Heavenly choirs ring out, angels singing, the whole nine yards)

Me: Oh yeah. That's why I do this. So where do we go from here? Where do we go, sweet literary child of mine?

And off we go again. Or to throw one more musical saying in there from Emerson Lake and Palmer.

Welcome back, my friends

To the show that never ends

We're so glad you could attend

Come inside! Come inside.

(post edit: And I prove my point, by having to come in and bold a couple sections I missed. Oy Vey)

Work to build up a queue continues.

I have two chapters of FTMD out and checked.

Working this weekend to build that up to four, as well as start the Rogue Rules queue.

Happy Friday all.

Didn't get much writing done today, (Massive Migraine), but managed to get some down of Rogues Rules 4).

As always, your thoughts, comments and votes are welcome.

Now, back to bed