Zen Master: Blog

It's early morning and I'm trying to be quiet so my wife can sleep. We're "entertaining" today and she's stressed because everything must be perfect. Because...family, you know.
So. I'm wandering aimlessly through the forums and some really old discussions. I mean, here's a comment from Ernest Bywater/Edwards, who left this vale of tears a year or more ago.
One of our still-living writers AJ posted a link to a.PDF that contains a will for writers. As the writer who posted that article says, when you're gone you don't care who gets your old jeans and matching plaid shirts and socks. If you're a writer, though, do you really want your unfinished/unpublished stories to get tossed like your underwear? I know my own wife will happily toss it all the first chance she gets, since she doesn't approve of my smut.
If you're a writer and you think your writing has value, it might be prudent to put something like this article by Neil Gaiman in your own will:
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html
(Sorry, but the "blog" software doesn't allow links)
Okay, I've done my good deed for the day. I can go back to being a cranky old man.
-ZM

...I want to do something that's not allowed here. SOL, because of where it is hosted, has rules that prohibit some possible content. The one that gets most people is "no sex in your story before age 14". On the one hand, I gotta agree. Children shouldn't be doing adult things.
On the other hand, here's a pair of examples. The second story I ever posted on ASSTR, back in the 1980s, was "Johnny's Girls", about a young woman who has changed owners. Yeah, she's an adult NOW, but flashbacks include being sexually abused as a child. That story was well-received because it's about adults dealing with life, but it has forced pedo/rape underaged sex in it. I hate it, but I agree with the webmaster. That story should absolutely NOT be on a site that prohibits stories that include underaged sex.
For the last several years I've been working on a 'do-over' story about being sent back to my childhood to live my life over again. My _mind_ is 60. My _body_ is 10. There is plot and struggle and all that, but I used to be a adult and I want sex. Believe me, as soon as my willy starts to work, I'm gonna get some use out of it.
That story has turned into a four-volume set with each part about 1 MB. Parts 1 & 2 are complete and ready for posting, but I can't post them here. Me and my girlfriend don't turn 14 until the middle of volume 2. ASSTR would have taken them, but that site is dead. I can put volumes 3 & 4 here once they are done, but what's the sense in that?
I have hosting set up on Dreamhost for several vanity domains (like the "Tampa After Dark" domain I use for my real email address @TampaAD.net), but they don't want anything to do with porn. Literotica wants all characters to be at least 18.
Anybody got any ideas?
-ZM

Having absolutely nothing better to do, I was just trolling through the recent blogs, and I saw something from 'dstar'. Now, I once knew someone with that handle, so I clicked on it. Yep, that's another pen-name for an old UseNet friend I knew as Pele, and I really appreciate his letting us know what's up. Sorry for your loss, man.

Not as sorry as I am for _our_ loss, though. The two of you wrote some good stuff, and now none of it will ever be finished.
-ZM

I'm trying desperately to finish one of my half-written stories "Jason's Second Tale", and occasionally I go back to the original to make sure I don't introduce anything that doesn't match. Well, four years after I started posting JT and roughly five years after I started having assorted friends and competitors proofread it, I just noticed something.
In Chapter 6 of Jason's Tale, someone is killed in the shop where the protagonist lives for the next year or so. Apparently, no one ever notices the body just laying there. Does the body simply evaporate after a few minutes, like in the old "Warcraft" games?
I'm working on a revised version of JT, and it now has a couple of paragraphs about getting rid of Bill's body.
-ZM

It has been pointed out to me that I'm looking at it (*) wrong. I should be _grateful_ that the writers are thoughtful enough to provide a good sample of their work in the teaser, thus saving me time and aggravation. Yes, you're right. My blood pressure thanks you for pointing that out. :) -ZM

(* This is a continuation of an earlier rant about writers who care so little about their quality that they don't even get their title or 'teaser' right.)