Mister Arioch: Blog

The last year-and-a-half, maybe more, has been rough.

Two rounds of chemo treatments and a transplant later, and I'm still here. Less of me, though. If you ever want to lose over a hundred pounds quick, I can tell you how to do it. You might not like the side effects, though.

I'm writing again. Slowly. As fucking usual. My brain's all over the place, from treatment and meds and stress though, so it's hard to stay focused. I apologize for having so much half-finished shit here. And for not delivering on a lot of previously-promised dates. I want to finish something up, just so I can feel like I'm accomplishing, well, something. Even if it's smut that isn't all that great.

Making some progress on "Family Vacation". Bobby and Sarah still have a lot to do (mostly, each other). I have part of a third "Family" tale started, but ... focus. Try to focus, dummy. "Jack" and "Playing Ball" are getting some attention too, but it's slow. Always so damn slow.

For whoever is still interested in these little tales of mine, I thank you. I hope to give you something new to read soon.

Since I've gotten a few requests either politely asking or angrily demanding to know when the next chapter(s) of various stories are coming, I thought I'd simply write this as a blanket answer for now:

1) I'm currently undergoing a second round of chemo treatments. It is not fun. Nor is it really helping what needs to be helped.

2) I don't see myself posting anything new until this coming January at the earliest. Sorry.

3) If further announcements are needed - such as other authors may be taking over certain stories - I will let readers know. I hope that's not the case.

4) Cancer sucks.

Thanks to all who supplied technical advice on saving corrupted flash drive files. I was able to salvage a little more than before with some of that advice, so your kindness is appreciated. I also thank the folks who sent along kind wishes and told me not to be "devastated" by the loss ... although after a life containing tours of duty, divorces, death of loved ones, and cancer, I can't say I'm "devastated" by lost files. "Mildly irked", maybe. But regardless, I appreciate the sentiment.

What's most mildly irking are the now-mostly lost chapters 6 & 7 for "Playing Ball with Mom". I recovered the beginning paragraphs of 6, and recreating the rest has been pretty easy. I didn't get anything for 7, though ... and I'll be damned if I can remember it properly. What happened in the chapter, yes, I remember the beats of it; but the wording and the little details are a mystery. All I know is that whatever I've tried to write so far to recreate it has been a shitty copy of the original. (Which perhaps isn't surprising. I am, after all, a talentless smut-peddling hack, or so I've been told by other writers. But I digress.)

Again, "mildly irked", but irked enough that I want to take a break from it. So maybe it's the Colte Vacation before back to the next round of medical treatments, and bye-bye to writing altogether for the next few weeks. With luck, I can still squeeze out Chapters 2 & 3 of that one. If not ... then maybe I'll have new chapters in September of something.

I hope.

So, I'm an old guy. I like to think that I keep up with technology, but I probably don't, at least as much as I should. But I can remember a time back when I was working when I used to get off the road and back to the office, and needed to type up reports on a Selectric typewriter. And make sure I put in some carbon paper for the office copy. And smoke about half a pack of Marlboros at the desk while getting those reports done.

Times sure change.

Anyway, I was keeping most of my writing files on a flash drive. Made it easier to write both on my home PC, and on my laptop (for on the road when I'm well and able, in the hospital when I'm not). Thought that was pretty safe. Except the flash drive went and got itself corrupted, and I apparently wasn't doing a great job of backing up my story files elsewhere.

So.

I got some recovery software, that got most of my stuff back intact. "Listening to Jack" is fine, as are most of my other stories (some I've posted, some I haven't yet). The big loser was "Playing Ball with Mom". That story should be 12 chapters when all is said and done, and I'd written bits and pieces of the remaining Chapters 6-12. Now ... Chapters 6 & 7 are totally gone (and they were the two furthest along, as you'd expect). I recovered little pieces of 8 through 12, but still a lot of that's gone up in smoke.

So.

Got some rewriting ahead of me, I guess.

By the time you're reading this, Chapter 26 of "Listening to Jack" should be posted. As mentioned in my previous blog entry, this one's fairly dark. Hopefully not too dark. I've had the framework for this chapter in my head for a long time, pretty much since I first started writing this story ages ago, and it's one of a few chapters I always knew I was going to write. Now that it's written ... well, I'm glad it's done. It needed to be written, even though I'm not sure it's necessarily something readers will like, or that I even like it. But I think it still needed to be a part of this story, if that makes any sense.

Maybe it doesn't.

But anyway, like I said, it's done. And I worked a Stephen King reference into the chapter, which is always good.

I'm about to start some more medical treatments, so I don't know how much more I can continue my current productive streak. (The medication I'm on at the moment is one hell of an upper, but I need to start easing off of it.) But I'm hoping to get at least one more chapter of something done. It'll either be Chapter 6 of "Playing Ball with Mom", or Chapter 2 of "A Colte Family Vacation". I'm leaning toward the former, but if fans of either story have a preference, drop me a line. (And hopefully it's a moot point, and I can finish both.)

And speaking of "Playing Ball", I've decided to offer my own version of Marvel's infamous No-Prize to regular readers of this story's installments. As anyone currently reading it can probably guess, Cherie's remarkably stupid and slutty decision to keep fucking her horny sons without any sort of sensible protection is going to lead at some point to a growing swell in her sexy belly. My No-Prize - which is basically just my hearty congratulations in a message or email, as well as an acknowledgment in this blog - will go to the reader who first identifies which of Cherie's sons actually impregnates her, and in which specific chapter and scene it happens. Maybe it's silly, but I like putting little Easter Eggs like that in stories from time to time, as a reward for sharp-eyed readers.

And thanks for reading this, or any of my stories. Appreciated, as always.