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This is number 129 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL.” So says a proverb that often summarizes what we refer to as a tragic flaw, or hamartia. A person is so sure of himself and so prideful that his well-intentioned actions bring about his own downfall—all because he can’t see past his own certainty. In this case, it is called hubris, or excessive pride, originally toward the gods.
It is only one character trait that might lead to a downfall, or serious misjudgment or crisis. Insecurity, guilt, depression, cowardice, cruelty, trust issues, judgementalism, perfectionism, narcissism, and over competitiveness are all traits that might lead to a conflict. But what role do they have in developing a character for your novel?
My personal opinion is that the most important aspect of writing a novel is to have characters who are so well-developed and real that people fall in love with them or into intense hatred of them. A character that doesn’t inspire a strong emotional response is a wasted character.
Here’s why: Character drives action. Action drives plot.
It’s really that simple. Once you have great characters, their actions in whatever circumstances you place them will automatically drive the plot of your story. Creating such characters should be the first and foremost priority in writing your novel.
That’s all, of course, my opinion. You’ll certainly find other opinions that disagree. But since it’s mine, I’ll talk about it as the most important.
When I decide on a story to tell, I start by figuring out whose story it is. Is it Tony Ames (Model Student), Brian Frost (Living Next Door to Heaven), Dennis Enders (Team Manager), Jacob Hopkins (The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins), or perhaps Nate Hart (Photo Finish)? These characters are referred to as protagonists. They are the ones around whom the stories revolve.
I needed to start by defining who those characters were and what made them tick. I described them on paper. You can start just about anywhere with this. What does the character look like? Five-ten, 160 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair, somewhat athletic, glasses, large hands, straight nose. What’s next?
If it helps, you can do an image search that matches your description. You might actually see the person you described. I invented this description and then looked it up at Shutterstock.
In finding images, you might even further your development of the description. Does he have a beard? Is he Chinese? Is he very unsure of himself? Long hair? Short hair. Snappy dresser? All those can go into your bank of character descriptions.
When I wrote Nathan Everett’s (Wayzgoose) City Limits, back in 2017, I researched and developed every character in the story in detail. I used 3x5 index cards to record the details so I could tack them onto a cork board as I plotted the story. I also developed a web page with every character on it, complete with a photo of most. With a cast as large as that in City Limits and Wild Woods, it was helpful to me to remind myself of what a character is like when it was a chapter or two between times he or she was mentioned.
The significant thing about this is that every character was consistent with the description I’d created. Not every character description was explicitly included in the text of the novel. You don’t have to spell out the description all at once if you create a believable and consistent character.
City Limits and the sequel Wild Woods are available as eBooks at ZBookStore, and in paperback at online retailers.
So far, all you have is a physical description. The character goes much deeper than that. It’s time to dig into who that person really is. My obsession with that started with my first draft of Devon Layne’s A Touch of Magic back in the late 1970s. It was the first ‘novel length’ story I’d written and I discovered that I’d really short-changed it in terms of character development.
Walking home from my first ever critique of my writing, I started asking questions of the most problematic character. I’d spouted off a number of questions about his situation in the novel and during a pause at a traffic light, distinctly heard him say in my head, “If you’d just be quiet a minute, I’ll tell you all about it.” That began my first “interview” with a character. It is a technique I have used frequently over the years.
When I wrote Nathan Everett’s Seattle Noir series, I actually created a journal site for the lead female character and several young women agreed to participate in helping create her. Not only was I not female, I was thirty years older than the character. The participants conducted interviews with the character, shared life stories, and made her real in my mind.
When I wrote Devon Layne’s Model Student series, I actually conducted interviews with over fifteen of the characters to find out what was really going on in their heads. I published those as The Triptych Interviews so other readers who were interested could dig deeper into the characters. I found this to be a very effective way of developing a character that people really relate to.
Why? Why go to all that work for something that won’t actually appear in your novel?
Part of being convincing in the pages of your novel is having characters who behave consistently in your head. If I have a character, for example, who is a true atheist, I really can’t have him spout religious affirmations or even curses. What is he likely to yell instead?
The same is true of any other aspect of the character’s life. And somewhere in that investigation, you will uncover the character’s tragic flaw. Remember that? You will find that his intense loyalty to another person causes him to hurt an innocent bystander. His over confidence leads him into a situation where he is badly beaten. You will find his belief that his marriage is a kind of everlasting tower that he can step outside of and still get back in, leaves him weakened in the face of a tempting woman with whom he cheats on his wife.
It is the underlying flaw that will often determine the action and the result of the action the character initiates.
And that is where we will pick up next week. Character drives action. How do you match the character with the action you want in your novel?
This is number 128 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“WHERE IS THAT BOOK about a demon with Julius Caesar?”
I was raised in the era of the Dewey Decimal System and vast card catalogs that had codes for authors, titles, and categories of books in the public library. I cannot count the number of hours I spent with a pad of paper, copying down the Dewey Decimal codes for books I wanted to check out.
So, when an interviewer asked me about Bob’s Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon, “What genre would you call this? As they say, what shelf do you put this on?” I immediately jumped to section 813 in the library. That’s American and Canadian Fiction in the Dewey Decimal System. From there, things were broken down into categories like 813.5 for American and Canadian Fiction of the Twentieth Century. Or 813.54, American and Canadian Fiction of the Twentieth Century, 1945-1999.
Sadly, the Dewey Decimal System was invented in 1876 and made no consideration of American and Canadian Fiction of the twenty-first century.
Now libraries generally use the Library of Congress Classification (LCC). It has a lot more numbers, and far more divisions generally divided into Class, Subclass, Topic, Cutter Number, and Publication Date. So, Bob’s Memoir would fall somewhere in the range of P=Literature, S=American, 370-380=Prose Fiction. Then I’d get some kind of Cutter Number=Author Code and the Date=2025.
Unfortunately, none of those definitions will help find my book in either a brick and mortar or online bookstore. My interviewer would never find Bob’s Memoir. And the numbers just keep growing and growing.
Into the gap steps the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) with coding designed for finding books in a bookstore. It’s called the BISAC Subject Codes. You can freely look up codes on the BISG website. But the category names also show up when you upload a book for distribution with an online bookseller or print on demand service. As a general rule, they don’t use the code numbers, but rather their names.
When I was asked the question above, I had to think hard about it. The book covers 4,000 years of history from a mythical character’s viewpoint. So, it could be Historical Fiction. But Bob is constantly interfering in things, so it could be Alternative History. Usually, though, the outcome is the same as with actual history, so it’s not really an alternate. I finally suggested Historical Fantasy. When I uploaded the book, I discovered—much to my surprise—that code FIC009030 is Fiction/Fantasy/Historical.
The next question that comes to mind is ‘What about erotica?’ We’ve reached a point in our culture in which anything that has an explicit sex scene in it is automatically deemed erotica as a way of shunting it out of sight. Put it on a high shelf in the back of the store where only adults are allowed. The BISAC codes have twelve subdivisions of erotica and not one of them comes close to describing Bob’s Memoir. There is a category much farther down the alphabetical list of Romance/Erotic. Perhaps a better classification, however, is Romance/Paranormal/Demons, a new category created just this year. We’re getting popular!
The important thing, however, is to try to match the category as closely to your story as possible. This is where it will be ‘shelved’ online or in a bookstore. So, you want the category to be closest to where people are looking for something like your book to read. Usually, you can pick two categories. On some sites you can pick three.
I wrote the five books of The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins back in 2019-20. My intent was to create a do-over story (not a BISAC classification) in which the old man was returned to his fourteen-year-old body, but in a completely different alternate reality. The closest BISAC category I’ve found is Alternative History. The world in which Jacob finds himself has different laws, relationships, and even family dynamics. Many of the things he discovers are ideas he had endorsed in his previous life that had been implemented in this timeline, but with a very different perspective than when the old man had propounded them. His fourteen-year-old self didn’t see the world in the same way.
I actually set the main category as Fiction/Erotic/SciFi. It could have been classed as Romance/Polyamory. The question was ‘Where would the most likely readers look for it?’
Of course, most readers won’t look online for a category in which they want to invest their reading time. Some readers don’t search at all, but depend on the bookstore to recommend books based on what they’ve read before. Those recommendations come from the same category and list of keywords. There are exceptions. But if they search, most will search for a topic they want. So, the writer is given the option of also providing keywords, or search terms that will lead readers to their book. For Double Team, my keywords were ‘national service, coming of age, polyamory, music, performance, politics, reform, do over.’
You can make up your own list of keywords. The important thing is to think of what your reader was searching for when they came across your book. You may be limited to a certain number of keywords, or to a certain number of characters. You will be asked to separate the terms with commas or semicolons. This is to keep terms like ‘coming of age’ together and not get confused with simple ‘age.’
Double Team and the entire Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins eBook series is available on ZBookStore.
You should begin compiling a list of search terms for your novel early in the process. What concepts might a person be looking for when they stumble across your book? You should not need to include either the category or words in the title in your keywords. They will already come up.
A good technique is to look at the listing for books you consider similar to your book and check what keywords and categories those books are listed under.
I will say that the only online bookstore that came up with Double Team when I searched for ‘national service’ was ZBookStore.
Using our imaginary story, The Year I Lived, that I might write in November, let’s see if we can come up with a good category and some keywords (understanding that the story has not yet been written). Since the story is set in 1979-80, the first thing we can put on the list is Fiction/Historical/20th Century/General. Second, simply because I don’t know better yet, is Fiction/Action and Adventure. I am specifically leaving all categories of erotica off. Even though it might have a sex scene or two in it, I’m rejecting the notion that makes it erotica.
Next, let’s look at the keywords. The description says Lowell is remembering the things that happened in 1979, so I’ll start by suggesting ‘memory’ as a keyword. Interestingly, on ZBookStore, the first book in the results when searching for the keyword ‘memory’ is Nathan Everett’s City Limits. Since keywords are not limited to single words, let’s try ‘rags to riches’ as a search term. Fourteen books come up when entering that search term on ZBookStore.
Only two results come up when I use the search term ‘recovery.’ One of them is Devon Layne’s Double Take. If you remember the synopsis from last week’s post, Lowell starts the story divorced, unemployed, homeless, and hopeless. I tried entering the search term ‘homeless.’ Two results. One was Devon Layne’s Not This Time. The other was Nathan Everett’s The Volunteer.
There were two results when searching for divorced, none for hopeless, and none for unemployed. Many other terms, like community leader or police brutality brought up no results on ZBookStore. All of these terms brought up multiple pages of results on the big online booksellers.
The lesson is to go to the various online bookstores and do searches for your proposed keywords. Then look at the results and consider whether or not your book should be listed in that company. Certainly, in the case of The Year I Lived, the terms memory, homeless, and recovery all put me in exactly the company I want to be in on ZBookStore. That’s not necessarily true of the behemoth booksellers. Search every term you can think of that will describe your book and see what company it would put your book in. Yes, it is desirable to be high in the list of books with that keyword, but it’s not a good thing to be the only thing in it. That likely means no one is searching for that term. Just carefully consider the kind of company you want to be in.
All the things we’ve discussed so far will help you sell your finished novel. What we haven’t looked at yet are things that will help you get it written. Next week, “Building Character.”
This is number 127 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
READ THE DAMN REQUIREMENTS!
I’m going to give some instructions on writing a typical synopsis as required by a typical agent, publisher, or contest sponsor. But before you DARE to submit your novel for consideration, read and understand the actual requirements spelled out by the place you are submitting to. Most will require a one-page synopsis and sample chapter or ten to twenty pages. That’s not a lot. In fact, your synopsis may be shorter than the description described in last week’s post.
In nearly every instance, a publisher, agent, or contest will have ‘submission guidelines’ that spell out exactly what they want in a submission. The first and foremost rule in submitting a novel, memoir, or even non-fiction book is to follow that entity’s submission guidelines.
Too many aspiring authors develop their own approach to the topic and don’t understand why they receive a rejection so quickly. Did the agent even read your manuscript?
Probably not. If a submission doesn’t follow the guidelines, it is usually automatically rejected. It’s a harsh reality, but it’s reality.
First off, what is a synopsis?
A synopsis is a short summary of the plot, characters, and significant events in a book, including the ending. That makes it very different than the description. In a description, you want to tantalize the reader and not give any spoilers. But the people who read the synopsis want to know you can actually end the novel.
This is often written after your novel is finished and you are ready to circulate it. It needn’t be. You can write the synopsis up front, but expect it will change by the time you write ‘The End.’
The purpose of the synopsis is to show the reader that you know your story and understand its plot and characters. It is not a ‘marketing piece’ in the sense the blurb and description are. It is not targeted to a casual reader, but to a writing and publishing professional who will decide if your story is ever exposed to a buying reader.
The typical submission requirements for a synopsis are that it be one page, with one-inch margins on all sides. It should be in Times New Roman typeface, 12-point type, double spaced. All paragraphs should be indented half an inch. (Metric measurements are a near adaptation.) This amounts to roughly 375-400 words. Some agents and contests request 500-800 words, which allows extension to two pages. I have personally never seen a submission requirement for more than that.
It should include the inciting incident (delay of Bob’s spaceship), the events illustrating his opposition (needs to keep show running while also fighting trafficking), the climax (Bob and Lacey free 10,000 captives in a single night), and the resolution or concluding state (how the story ends).
To avoid the risk of a spoiler for something you might read, let’s take another look at the imaginary book I might write in November, The Year I Lived. If I had written the book already, the synopsis might have looked like this:
Lowell Thompson had lived a completely ordinary life until the one temptation he couldn’t resist. Now he is divorced, unemployed, homeless, and hopeless. Things can’t get worse for Lowell, but they do. A police sweep of the area removes all homeless people from the street. Even Lowell’s old car, for which he can’t afford gas or insurance, is impounded and Lowell is arrested for vagrancy and panhandling.
During the roundup, Lowell witnesses Alliya Carver being sexually assaulted by one of the officers and intervenes. He injures the officer and escapes with Alliya to the edge of the city. With nothing but the clothes on their backs, the two attempt to make a life out of their bleak prospects.
Lowell and Alliya find temporary work and food at a small company just outside of town. Both are willing workers and soon attract the attention of other homeless people who seek help from them. With their limited funds, they establish a community, work to keep people off drugs, and get them employed. Some leave, but others join the effort to improve their lives.
At great risk to himself, Lowell fights against an ordinance to remove homeless people from the streets of their community, but he shows those people to be genuine contributors to the community.
Even when they are assaulted by a gang, Lowell stands up to the oppression and is hospitalized. Unable to pay, he is released quickly, but one of his employers steps up to get medical aid for him.
With the new-found fame, resulting from the beating, the police officer from the sweep identifies him as his assailant and he is arrested again. This time, Lowell argues his case in court with an army of the unhoused to back him up. Noting his exceptional sales ability in the courtroom, a corporate executive offers Lowell a job that is perfectly ordinary and gets him and Alliya off the street. When temptation comes with the job, Lowell resists and resumes his new perfectly ordinary and uneventful life.
Here we have an example of a one-page synopsis of about 340 words. It is in present tense, begins with a statement of how the story starts and ends with a statement of how it ends. Between there are events that contribute to the outcome and the climactic courtroom scene that establishes Lowell as a salesperson if nothing else. Coupled with the first 20 pages of the story (which I haven’t written) this would make a reasonable submission for consideration by an agent or a cover for a contest entry.
There are so many things in writing a novel that aren’t actually sitting down and writing the novel. We’ll consider more of them next week as we discuss ‘Categories and Keywords.’
This is a special edition in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
AS WE NEAR THE END of “Banned Books Week,” I’m pleased to note that none of my books have been banned in Florida or Texas, though some probably should have been. In fact, all my Devon Layne books (at least those published since I figured it out) contain this note on the copyright page:
This book contains content of an adult nature. This includes explicit sexual content and characters whose beliefs, actions, and comments may be contrary to your religious, political, or world view. The content is inappropriate and in some cases illegal for readers under the age of 18.
And in fact, if a reader cannot respect divergent views on religious, political, and world society, they have no business reading ‘adult’ content. It’s too bad, we don’t have a classification for those juveniles. I list all of my books, both Nathan Everett books and Devon Layne books as “Adult Trade Fiction.”
But none of my books have been banned that I know of.
Why?
Because people tend to self-select their reading material. That includes children. If a child is interested in explicit sexual content, he or she will seek it out. Just like an adult will. If the topic is not of interest, the child will ignore it. Unfortunately, most adults lack that capacity.
And so, when I read a notification that removing books from children’s shelves in a library is not the same as banning, my first response was “Bullshit.”
The argument is that the book isn’t ‘banned,’ it’s just taken off the shelves. It is still available at public libraries and bookstores. Books are only flagged for removal when parents determine the book contains explicit sexual material or content detrimental to children.
It sounds good, but that’s not the way it works. Over 850 demands to remove some 2,300 different titles were received last year. Because parents are concerned about their children. Many of those books did not contain any such material, but the mere mention of a person who is LGBTQIA+ in a book, or the mention of the struggle of a person of color, or the mention of a union, or the mention of a non-Christian is enough to land a book on this list. Most people submitting these lists have not read the books in question, but have a list of books supplied to them.
And even though I consider them stupid, I admit the right of a parent to monitor and restrict the reading material for their children.
I do not, under any circumstances, recognize their right to restrict the reading material for ALL children. The books requested to be removed are largely considered Adult Trade Fiction already and are not on children’s shelves. To Kill a Mockingbird, It, The Handmaid’s Tale, etc. Those which are considered children’s literature mostly lack explicit or obscene material and simply don’t match the parent’s prejudices. I'm afraid I know many people who gasp in shock and horror and scream "pornography" at the mere mention of sex in any context!
That is not to say that none of my books have been banned! Twelve of my books have been blocked officially or unofficially by Amazon. I was shocked when the first one was rejected. I uploaded all nine volumes of Living Next Door to Heaven 1 & 2 at the same time. Book 7: Hearthstone Entertainment, was blocked. I tried to fight it and was sent a message that there was a problem with the cover and some inside material. When I asked for more details, I was told that if I persisted, Amazon would review all my titles to determine if others should also be blocked.
If you look at all the covers, you'll find it hard to guess which cover was deemed inappropriate! Amazon offers no ability to mitigate the problem. Once blocked, I can’t even remove it! I responded by offering Hearthstone Entertainment for free at Barnes and Noble, ZBookStore, and on my own website.
I received a notification from Amazon a year ago that my book Art Something was blocked seven years after it was published! It came about because of a reader complaint. One. The three-book Strange Art series doesn’t make sense without the first book. It has been released on Barnes and Noble, ZBookStore, and on my own site, and will be released as a single volume Signature Edition paperback in 2026.
On January 30, 2019, during the release process, I received notification that Double Take had been blocked. It’s a science fiction story about a man sent to his 14-year-old body, but it is in an alternate timeline and parallel universe. Though Amazon did not give any reasons, I did lose a lot of readers who were upset that a character they liked turned out to be trans. Once again, with the first book in the series blocked, there was no sense in releasing the other four. They are available on ZBookStore and my own website. They will also be released as individual Signature Edition paperbacks in 2026.
In case it is not clear, I am opposed to censorship, book banning, and stick-up-the-butt parents who think they can set the rules for everyone. We have people who are professionals in that area. They are called Librarians.
Enjoy Banned Books!
author Devon Layne (aroslav), aka Nathan Everett (Wayzgoose)
This is number 126 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
“HE WAS TALLER than I am by a couple of inches, weighing a little over 200. He had sandy hair that stuck out like he’d slept on it when it was wet. No, a little longer. I’d say his face was a little rounder than that, but not fat. Just shaped like a balloon. Thin lips. Nose was sort of flat, like it had been hit a few times. He squinted all the time, like he wasn’t used to the light. Yes. That’s it.”
“Based on your description, we have brought in five suspects. Could you take a look at these five men and tell me if any of them was the man who assaulted you?”
“Well, he was about the height of number three. The eyes were like number five. I think number one is too short…”
Now, if you were describing your novel, would a reader be able to pick it out of a lineup? That’s the next step in selling your novel. The logline is an eye-stopper. The elevator pitch sparks interest. The blurb makes a person open the listing to see what it’s all about. But the description is what causes the nickel to drop. Or the $5.95, as the case may be.
Do you recall the blurb I presented last week for an imaginary novel I might write in November? Here it is.
“What if your whole life was condensed into a single year and everything important in it happened that year. For fifty years, Lowell has lived in the memories of his life in 1979. As the song goes, ‘I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king.’ And Lowell was all those things in just one year! These are his memories of that one incredible year.”
When you post a book for sale, you typically have two different boxes for describing it. The first is the blurb (less than 400 characters) and the second is the description (less than 4,000 characters). The description is the author’s opportunity to finally convince the reader to buy his book. Here’s what I created for The Year I Lived.
Lowell’s life was nothing but ordinary from the day he was born to the day he died—except that one year from the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1980. That year gave him enough memories to last a lifetime. In fact, for the past fifty years, he’s been caught in a loop, reliving all those memories.
When he tells people what happened to him, they assume he’s just telling stories made up from a reasonably long life, but no one believes they all happened in a single twelve-month period, give or take a few weeks. And those who have known him for any length of time can’t believe they happened at all. But from June 1979 to June 1980, Lowell lived an entire life’s worth of adventure and excitement.
He didn’t start off rich or noble, nor did he end rich or noble. He was caught up in an extraordinary adventure and was left just an ordinary guy. Of course, there were changes. Life before the year, he was on one course, certain that he had his career, family, and spirit set on a permanent trajectory. Life since the year, found him also on a course with a career, family, and spirit set on a permanent trajectory. It was just a different one than before the year.
Of course, you’ll need to know a little about his life before the year—a topic Lowell has always avoided—in order to understand how extraordinary that one year was. His totally unremarkable life was coming to a depressing end as his divorce was finalized. He was completely unprepared for what came after. (1467 characters)
The purpose of the description is to draw the reader into the story just far enough that he or she wants to know what happened. The reader has invested two minutes at this point and is ready to invest a few hours learning about Lowell’s life.
I’ve been spending most of September preparing the Signature Edition of my three-volume work, Bob’s Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon. It’s scheduled for release November 1, 2025. The book (Signature Edition is only available as a hardcover print edition) will sell for $49.95. The most expensive book I’ve ever produced. Who would ever buy it?
I don’t really care. I created it so I could put it on my bookshelf of Signature Editions. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought everything through about the book. Why do I think it’s worth it?
“Hi! I’m Bob and I’ll be your demon tonight.”
So begins the adventure of a free demon, loosed on the world by an inept adept some 4,000 years ago. But Bob is not your ordinary demon. He was not imbued with any traits of evil when he was summoned and as a result is rather benign. He’s just your everyday, slightly horny, happy-go-lucky (mostly lucky) demon.
It’s a romp through the annals of human history from a unique perspective. A little bit spooky. A little bit sexy. A lot funny.
That 395-character blurb is what truly inspired me to write the three-volume series, all combined in a single book for the Signature Edition. But if anyone is going to look further than the blurb for a $50 book, they’ll need to have a little more to go on. Here’s the description:
This Signature Edition of Bob’s Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon contains all three volumes of Bob’s seminal work on the history of the world for the past four millennia. It has been designed in a way that seems appropriate for the work of an immortal sharing his insights on the development of humanity and inhumanity. Bob has experienced all aspects.
It was a difficult thing for a poor defenseless demon to endure, especially finding how terribly wrong the history books and religious teachings and scientific writings have gotten the story over the years. It is his attempt to set the record straight. He’s done everything possible to make the work simple and understandable, stopping short of labeling chapter and verse all the way through.
As a Signature Edition, this volume includes a digitally signed photo of the real author, Devon Layne, and an interview. Devon (me) wishes to assure you that he is not a 4,000-year-old demon, no matter what his ex-wives might say. He has merely acted as the intermediary for Bob, who introduced himself as Devon was driving on US Route 95 through Idaho, in search of inspiration and groceries.
Bob introduced himself politely as if he were a passenger in the cab of Devon’s truck, and told him he would be dictating his story and as soon as Devon was conveniently settled in front of his computer, the story would begin. And thus, it began.
As Devon sat naked in front of his campfire that night, fellow nudist and story consultant Doug showed up to share a beer and discuss the latest story. Devon told him about Bob’s arrival on the scene and a little about what he’d been told so far. Doug nodded, downed another beer, and stared into the fire.
“I get it,” he said. “Bob is just your everyday, slightly horny, happy-go-lucky—mostly lucky—demon.”
“That Doug,” Bob whispered in Devon’s ear. “He shows up every century or two. He gets it.”
And so, it proved to be. Of course, Doug was only a little of the story Bob told when compared to the many, many women who crossed Bob’s path—some of whom, came to stay.
So, I, Devon Layne, have endeavored faithfully to record Bob’s story, even when it seemed disjointed and to extend into a future not yet seen. Enjoy!
The description sets the tone of the story and encourages the reader to shell out the funds necessary to read it. Personally, I’ve read it at least a dozen times.
Of course, the three normal eBooks of Bob’s Memoir can be purchased from ZBookStore for just $4.99 each or the set for $12.00. An all-new second edition of Volume 3 will be released on October 12 and is unavailable until then, and as always, my works can be read online for free at SOL or at my own website. The current edition of Volume 3 will remain at SOL until next Sunday when I'll begin replacing it with the 2nd edition.
Next week, I’ll discuss other important tools and documents you might be asked for in attempting to publish your book. The synopsis, the outline, the first twenty pages, keywords, and categories remain to be covered. Starting next week.
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