FozzieBare: Blog

A long time ago, I wrote a free-form, rather disjoined poem for SOL called "What remains when they're gone?"

I won't link it, but it's available from my stories page. It's short. It's melancholy.

But I got drawn back to it today, when I was looking over Kindle Unlimited and its selection of "Men's Adventure".. generally GameLit, Harem, etcetrera.

Don't get me wrong, I love reading them, myself. How else would I know about it.

It's popcorn. Buttery, greasy popcorn, with just the right amount of salt.

But sometimes it bothers me.

It's Poke-porn. (not the site. Don't ask me how I know about that. It doesn't matter)

It's "Gotta Catch them all" writing

Sometimes, it seems like if the main character isn't conquering (figuratively or literally) a new female every fifteen pages, they're afraid the reader will put the story down and never come back.

And that's a shame.

Sex and Smut are great things. I'm no puritan.

But really, there's only so many ways that Tab A can go into slot B. Or if I'm going more modern, only so many ways that Dongle A can interface with Port B.

Sex comprises the whole gamut of human expression. Be it light and fluffy, or grim, dark and gritty (never my thing).

Popcorn is great. But if you're good at Popcorn, think about writing something that will stay with the reader once they put down "The Dark Lord makes the Amazon Adventuring Party serve him". Find the difference. Decide if you want Porn. Porn With Plot, or Plot with Porn, or even Plot with Romance. If it's not the first, the physical descriptions and sensations are great to write, but don't neglect to touch with the emotions that accompany the physical act.

There will always be a market for all of those things.

(and really, if you've read this far, just an aside: I only now realize that my throw away tag line of the fictional novel turned back to my Kindle Unlimited mention at the top of the page. It's amusing the connections the brain makes when writing freely)

I can't count the amount of people who messaged me in the years since I was able to write. They liked my other stories.

But it was Free Trader Mary's Dream that people kept coming back to.

When I started writing again, I even had one message me and say "I was really glad that you are back. I forgive you for not uploading new material for years

But not seeing Free Trader Mary's Dream being back is still a wound.

The old Fozzie would have told them that I felt the wound too.

Not the older, sadder, wiser Fozzie.

I sat, put my fingers over the keys, and I actually prayed to my muse.

That might sound like hyperbole.

It's not.

My prayer was: "I've told this story so many times in my head. Please, if you are still here, let me get it through my brain, into my fingers, and onto the computer screen. I've told the story to myself so many times. It's time for others to hear it."

And I typed. There would not be editors. There would not be pre-readers. No authorial self-doubt could creep in.

One more time.

Then I started typing.

and continued typing.

I kept going back to sentences, to paragraphs. I would edit my voice.

But I couldn't mute that voice.

Twice I was on the verge of getting up and walking away to clear my head.

But I was afraid.

Afraid the voice telling the story would walk away, and I'd be stuck again.

And finally, I reached a stopping point.

I thought about waiting till I had more chapters ready, like Rogue's Rules (which is also in the queue. Thanks for the comments on that one). For the first time in years, I have ideas on how to write the rest of the story, just not run it endlessly through my brain.

But I think we've all waited too long for Alex, Mary, Melissa, to appear on our screens.

So, it's in the submission queue. I hope within the next four-six hours, you will have the first new content for Free Trader Mary's Dream in SIX LONG YEARS.

I pray you like it. I worry that you'll hate it.

But the voice is not silenced. May it continue.

In short, yes, this story is continuing. Thank you to everyone who left it on their watch list all these years. I pray now the wait was worth it.

Fozzie

edit: There is one issue with the current chapter 17, a very important message to Alex is not in there. I've put in for the repost. What's one more hurdle at this point. :)

While I wait for the pre-readers/editors on World of WarMachines..

you get a bonus gift.

Five new chapters of Rogue's Rules over the next week. The first one is already in the queue

I will not promise more than that. I will promise I will try, as I said, the muse is always a fickle creature. But in the words of Arin Wolf "I'll be thrice dammed if I don't take advantage of it while I can"

Arin: Wait, I just woke up, why are you using my voice? And five new chapters? What's going on?

Everything's going on. As you're about to find out.

I'm assuming the five chapters aren't just me wenching and just being totally awesome?

Um. No.

Oh dear.

Yes.

One last note: I'm going into Rogue's Rules hard and fast. That means while I will do my best to edit them, there may be grammatical mistakes, or tense problems. You will get my raw writing. I think it's better than it was years ago. It's not polished. But it's good.

And before my fictional character argues me out of posting, I'll end this blog. Please let me know what you think when you read it. Voting, comments on the story, and messages to the writer are our currency in trade here. Please spend freely.

Just an update:

I've finished the first arc/book (more of a novella then a book), and it's just going through the most frustrating part. editing, waiting for the pre-readers to tell me what works, what doesn't and what silly mistakes I made THIS time. For some reason it seems like it takes forever to get it back from the readers/editors. Maybe I'm just chomping at the bit to keep moving forward.

Elsewhere I compared beating Writer's Block to slaying a dragon. Then I realized it was the wrong metaphor.

It's a hydra. Writer's Block? Head chopped off. In it's place? Two new heads "Editing" and "Revision"

If I slay them? I might run into the Secret Final Boss.
It's Named: "Oh, I'm a much better writer now then when I started this project. Let me rewrite it from scratch"

I could use this post to ask my pre-readers/editors to hurry up, but that's just because to a writer, getting responses to what he's written is like the next hit of certain drugs I won't mention in polite company. A stitch in time saves nine, right? Well, I apparently need to be stitched up.

Fozzie

PS I'm sorry if any excessive giddiness rubs off on you. If it does, send me the dry cleaning bill.

Pre-readers have at least five chapters. Some have nine.

I have to find a way to standardize getting them out to the prereaders.

Once I finish the last three chapters of this arc, it will be a book. A short book, mind you, but one complete arc.

And then it will go to posting.

Thank you for the advice, the suggestions, the offers to pre-read or edit, the whole nine yards.

Keep it coming. And if the fickle muse wills it, EVERYONE will have a new FB story to read for the first time in years in a few days.

Just be like my doctor's office.

Full of Patients. Er.. Patience