aroslav: Blog

Happy to say that my trailer has been repaired and I have started my journey south. I have a new roof, new water connection at the toilet, new toilet seat, new kitchen faucet, new stabilizer jack, and new microwave/convection oven. Even though insurance and warranty covered most of the costs, I was still out $850 in deductibles and non-covered items, plus nine nights in a cheap hotel. (Which might or might not be the title for an upcoming story!)

Today, I've made it to Fort Worth, Texas and will be brunching with my editor, Old Rotorhead. I'm camped for the weekend at a lovely Corps of Engineers RV park at Lake Benbrook, southwest of town. Tomorrow I'll move on to Waco and then to McDade, TX where I'll spend two weeks at the Star Ranch Nudist Resort while I also take some time to explore Austin, where I've never visited before.

Progress is steady on Things I Never Told My Wife and I expect to finish the story this week. As soon as it is all back from the hands of my editors, I'll start posting it.

I had a request from a reader of Double Tears for a cast list. It's gotten big enough he's forgotten who some of the characters are. Instead of inserting this into the book, I'm giving the cast list below.

Double Tears Cast
Jacob Hopkins, 80-year-old man reincarnated as a 14-year-old. Just turned 17 in the book.
Emily Hopkins, 19-year-old about to turn 20. Sister of Jacob now doing her National Service in Salinas, KS.
Peyton Hopkins, 10-year-old little sister of Jacob.
Mary and John Hopkins, Jacob's parents.
Rebeca 'Beca' Brown, 16-year-old trans girlfriend of Jacob.
Jamie Brown, Rebeca's mother.
Rachel Evans, Jacob's 18-year-old girlfriend and soulmate.
Richard Evans, Rachel's 12-year-old brother.
Bert and Dee Evans, Rachel's parents.
Donna Levy, Jacob's 28-year-old girlfriend and former English teacher.
Joan Long, Jacob's 18-year-old girlfriend and Beca's soulmate. Now in National Service in Chicago.
Sharon Long, Joan's mother.
Ray Long, Joan's father.
Debbie Long, Joan's stepmother.
Desiree 'Desi' Whitcomb, Jacob's 17-year old girlfriend and avid cosplayer, actress, and singer.
Riko and Riley Whitcomb, Desi's parents, running an independent costume and props business.
Brittany Adams, Jacob's 16-year-old girlfriend whose quinceañera he attended as her escort.
Lisa Adams, Brittany's 13-year-old sister.
Joyce Adams, Brittany's 11-year-old sister.
John and Lupe Adams, Brittany's parents.
Sophie Grant, Jacob's 31-year-old girlfriend, Brittany's aunt and Lupe's sister. Professional dancer.
Grandmother Grant, Sophie and Lupe's mother.
Nanette Schwartz, Jacob's 44-year-old girlfriend and running mentor. Physical Therapist.
Olivia 'Livy' Dayton, Jacob's 18-year-old girlfriend, runner, and Rachel's girlfriend.
Donnie Dayton, Livy's 10-year-old brother.
Barb Dayton, Livy's 12-year-old sister.
Randall and Eva Dayton, Livy's parents.
Cindy Marvel, Jacob's 15-year-old music partner, floutist.
Keith Marvel, Cindy's 17-year-old brother.
Luke Marvel, Cindy's 13-year-old brother.
Betty and Mark Marvel, Cindy's parents.

Jock Anderson, Jacob's cross country coach.
Mr. Gieseke, Jacob's guidance counselor.
Miss Lustig, Jacob's aging Latin teacher.
Mr. Richard's, Jacob's history teacher.
Ms. Devine, Jacob's music theory teacher.
Leonard LeBlanc, Jacob's orchestra teacher.
Jannie Rentz, Cindy's flute teacher.
Vinnie Russo, Jacob's guitar teacher.
Mrs. Chambers, Jacob's junior English teacher.
Herr Richter, Jacob's instructor on viola da gamba.

Of course, there are others, but these are the ones most likely to be confused. Pod members are in bold.
Enjoy!
Devon

Here's a blatant promotion of my alter ego, Wayzgoose, and his new book, American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. I generally keep my two personalities as separate as I can so I don't get confused. But this is a story I'm quite excited about.

During the first draft writing, I was torn as to whether this would be a Devon Layne book or a Nathan Everett book. It has a lot of sexual content as a coming of age story like Devon Layne stories do. But there is very little explicit sex in the story and what is there could be toned down enough to make it acceptable in the literary genre of Nathan Everett. The result was ultimately that it would be released in June as Nathan Everett's newest literary romance.

However, the version posted here under my author name 'Wayzgoose' still has the unexpurgated sexual content, making it the first story under that name to be marked with the code 'Minimal Sex' rather than 'No Sex.' At the same time, don't expect this story to have my 16- and 18-year-olds falling into bed in the first chapter with the best sex of their lives. There will be a long slow build before it gets to the point fumbling explorations.

Because American Royalty 1: Coming of Age isn't about the sex. It is set in an alternate universe in which America has a well-defined and functioning class structure. Unlike class structures you may be familiar with, however, this one is not based on wealth, hierarchy, or heredity. It is based on the careful analysis of a person's fundamental character. The entire education system is tasked with determining a child's ultimate class and teaching accordingly. Typically, a child is told what his or her class is at about the time of reaching majority-sixteen. However, in some instances, a final classification might not occur until the early twenties, and people may influence their class standing by applying themselves to developing the necessary character. In other instances, it seems some kids know what class they are from the moment they are born.

In this defined class structure, however, someone must teach the newest royal what it means and how to behave socially as a royal. And who better to mentor a royal than a servant?

American Royalty 1: Coming of Age follows young Liam Cyning from the time he is told he is royal until he shows he can actually act and perform as a royal. Beside him through this growth is his new personal assistant and mentor (and one-time nemesis), Meredith Sauvage. The two struggle with developing relationships, class conflict, and family values.

You will find the language in this story to more formal and possibly stilted than most of my writing. It might be helpful to imagine a William Powell/Myrna Loy or Clark Gable/Joan Crawford movie of the 1930s. However, you will find social, political, and scientific development to have its own timeline in this story. The actual date is never mentioned. Automobiles are plentiful but air travel is rare. Telephones (landlines) are so common as to have one in almost every room but there are no cellphones or personal computers. Children reach their majority as adults at age sixteen but there are still restrictions on their movement and school is far more flexible with some leaving at age sixteen to go on to the workforce and some simply continuing either in high school or moving directly to college.

The story structure is slightly more complex than most of my stories. The odd numbered chapters are written from the point of view of someone from one of the twelve classes, each different. The short chapters of 1,000 to 2,000 words each often provide explanations or introduce action from the long chapters. The even numbered chapters are between 8,000 and 10,000 words and are written from either the point of view of Liam or of Meredith. They switch back and forth after chapter four.

Chapters one to three of American Royalty 1: Coming of Age have been posted today. Each week, a long chapter and a short chapter will be posted on Sunday mornings for ten weeks. I am most interested in your comments, which will be publicly viewable. Voting will be turned on at the end of chapter seven-in two weeks. Please feel free to leave comments or to send email as I will be rewriting during the next month for a commercial release in June. Since this will not be the 'final' version, no eBook of this version will be made available.

I appreciate all your support for both my author identities, aroslav and Wayzgoose. Please enjoy!

I've received so much email in response to my fried computer that I can't answer everyone individually. Thank you all for your suggestions and words of encouragement.

Just to update, yes, I know the data may be safe. I don't have the skillset or the tools to open my laptop. I have an appointment this morning to drop it off for data recovery if it is possible.

I don't have a home network that is unmetered. I live on the road--a nomad. I do have, and use a 3 terabyte USB drive to do my backups on a fairly regular, if not daily basis. It is not convenient to have it tethered all the time while I am writing with little space and have my USB ports all occupied.

I'm sure there were more suggestions I've failed to mention here, but I am taking action on the computer. I'm not simply crying in my beer. I drink wine.

Now I need to dress and hit the road because the repair shop is 50 miles from here and I wasn't able to get there during the Christmas rush. Today was the first appointment I could get.

Thank you for all your suggestions and good wishes!

Gigabytes.

The flood originated from a flimsy coffee to go cup I set down next to my computer and then proceeded to dump all over the keyboard. I acted quickly to dry things out but within minutes I received a message to install a system on the hard drive and seconds thereafter everything went dark. No survivors.

I was just in the process of sending three new chapters of the new story I'm working on, Things I Never Told My Wife to Pixel and then to do a holiday backup onto an external drive. Neither were successful. My most recent backup was a month and a half ago when I hit the road after my heart problems.

So there you have it. Losses in the thousands of words.

This will be a long post.

As it happened, because I was traveling, I'd been working on my lightweight backup computer. I still had my production computer and restored the most recent backup on it.

Let me say first that many people have suggested that I use a cloud backup system. I understand that is logical for people who are plugged into a cable modem or corporate network. I am on a metered network. I travel a lot and wifi is often, if not usually, unavailable. So, I use a cellular hotspot. Do not be fooled by statements about "Unlimited Data". My data is high speed (4G) up to 15gb. Then it slows down to 600bps. About the speed of a 9600 baud modem. I have two "unlimited" hotspots (15gb) and this month I had to buy an extra 5gb to make it through to the end of the month. That was with my normal moving of files, movies, and layouts. If I backed up my photos, music, and all the rest of that work to the cloud I would be in excess of 60gb per month. I understand there are cellular services that have real unlimited data but they are metro area based. When I'm camping in National Parks, deserts, and along the roadway, I can't reach a signal from those providers at all. A slow signal is better than none.

What I should have done was back up more frequently.

So, I went hunting to find out what was lost.

1) I was able to restore the first ten chapters of Things I Never Told My Wife from earlier email exchanges, but lost the next three I'd written. Pixel originally thought chapter 10 would be the end but I had an idea for the next five chapters. I am struggling to recreate the storyline from there but it might end at chapter ten instead of fifteen afterall.

2) I lost most of the original files of American Royalty 1: Coming of Age but was able to restore emailed copy from Old Rotorhead. Sadly, all the material prepared and formatted for posting of the story had to be recreated so I can (and will) start posting it next week for patrons and in about three weeks here on SOL.

3) All the files for Stocks & Blondes were lost. I had email again to restore the edited version and downloaded the html files from my website, but all the prep for the eBook and print book commercial release were destroyed. I can recreate all that, but it means commercial release will be delayed at least a month. The story is complete on my website and all chapters were uploaded for posting on SOL, I just can't edit them.

4) Records of word counts and stats after Nov 7 are gone. I'll make no attempt to reconstruct those.

The good news is that except the new chapters of Things, I can recreate the other material. And all of "The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins" books 1-5 were completed before the November 7 backup. In order to create an extra safety net, I've uploaded all existing files of my current works to my website in preparation for release.

I guess there is something to be said for starting the new year with a "clean slate". Have you had enough jokes about entering the Roaring 20s or having 2020 hindsight after the first? I have, so I won't plague you with any.

I have been following a very interesting conversation in the comments of Double Tears that started out with talking about the implementation of National Service and somehow morphed into a dialog about public assistance, taxes, and who should have to pay for the indigent. I'm happy to let people express their opinions based on experience and observation. When a "fact" is presented as absolute truth, however, I'd like to see a data source. If you don't have a data source, please don't express it as a fact.

My own opinion, based on experience and observation but not backed by a data source, differs from all the sides expressed in the very civil discussion in comments. I think we have become a people who weigh our decisions on helping someone against whether they deserve our help, have earned our help, or are entitled to our help. When did we stop helping people simply because they need it?

I wish you the very best for a happy New Year. May the best day you had in 2019 compare equally to your worst day of 2020.

author Devon Layne

My high holiday of this season was last night. At 10:19 CST where I'm currently located, the earth reached the point in its annual revolution around the sun at which its rotational axis points the northern hemisphere farthest away from the sun causing the longest night and shortest day of the year-darkness lasting longest, the farther north you travel.

Or, like me, you might say the goddess has descended to convince the god of the underworld to release the light and bring back growth to the world by being reborn through her as the prince of light. I think that makes more sense.

I had a lovely celebration Solstice dinner with my girlfriend and her two kids last night and we shared in my traditions of naming what we were leaving behind from the past year, what we want to be remembered from the past year, and what we hope for the coming year. Please let me share my responses.

What are you leaving behind from the past year? Heart problems and sickness! I mean, really, I am so done with that shit! I had a miserable five months and am happy to place it firmly in the past.

What are do you want remembered from the past year? Oh, she was sitting right beside me last night. I had given up hope of ever finding love again when my long-time friend and fellow writer suddenly became my girlfriend and lover. I am blown away and want to take this relationship as far as it will go.

What are your hopes for the coming year? I'm hoping to become more mindful and participative in the important relationships I have-friends, readers, and family. I always knew I had friends and fans and family. But I never understood how deep that friendship and concern went until I was facing my possible demise this summer. People stepped up to take care of me when I couldn't take care of myself. They provided transportation, food, emergency intervention, and even money when I needed it most. I can only tell you all, thank you! I want to get more involved with my friends.

We toasted the Solstice with a glass of sparkling apple/pomegranate juice and ate a meal that really turned out quite well.

WRITING THIS YEAR. I had a big year writing, even though through parts of September the best I could do was write a hundred words before I'd fall asleep. My current stats say I've written 1,137,474 words this year. That included writing four of the five Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins novels (The first book was completed before I started posting it in January), three published Wayzgoose novels-Wild Woods, Municipal Blondes, and Stocks & Blondes-a new Wayzgoose novel that will be posted here starting in January titled American Royalty 1: Coming of Age, and another new Devon Layne book titled Things I Never Told My Wife that should start posting here by the end of January or thereabouts. Those last two will post in parallel with the continuing saga of Jacob Hopkins, which will not finish posting until November 2020.

I did all that while I was dying of heart failure. Imagine what the new year might bring now that I'm healthy! My own take on a MILF story? A story on the fringe of the SWARM universe? A sequel to The Props Master series? A sequel to Drawing on the Dark Side of the Brain? A fun new take on time travel? This is your chance to speak up. My schedule is filling rapidly.

Of course, I have a life now that includes things other than writing. Fortunately, my girlfriend is also an author and has set her own lofty goals for the New Year. I just finished editing an airline thriller from one of my clients and will be laying that book out for publication in January. I expect she will also have her new non-fiction airline book to me for editing by the time I get the first laid out. And I'll happily pick up more jobs as they come available.

After the catastrophe of last summer, I'll be picking up a Medicare supplement insurance that should only cost half in 2020 what I had to pay in bills in 2019. I'll need to pick up some more work and make sure I'm providing new material for my patrons way in advance of when it appears here. The money I received from patrons this year paid exactly what my prescriptions drugs cost and about half of the hospital bills. I couldn't survive without them. If you are interested in joining them, just put /aroslav after the Patreon web address.

Well, in my typical long-winded way, I've brought you all up to date on the happenings in my world. I hope you can tell I'm excited about the coming year.

Enjoy the stories!