Mushroom: Blog

I have had more than a few people ask me over the years who the girls in Country Boy would look like. So here is a rough rundown of them in general terms, and links to give an idea. And these are in no particular order, when they are adults and not when introduced.

Linda: Angel, also known as Jennifer James. Ironically, the real Jennifer is botn less than a month after Linda.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35Zaq.jpg

Holly: As I said in the story, she looks amazingly like Desiree Cousteau, when she had long hair.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35Zau.jpg

Mandy: I always pictured her as an early Tajia Rae, before she got her implants and dyed her hair blonde.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35Z6K.png

Peggy: Always as a young Kristara Barrington:
https://funkyimg.com/i/35Zay.jpg

Kimmie: Aki Wang.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35ZaY.jpg

Julie: Nancy Hoffman.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35Zbo.jpg

Kim: Alicia Rio in her early years.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35Zbv.jpeg

Jackie: None other than the great Angel Kelly.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35ZbC.jpg

Frannie: Tawny Pearl.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35Zcu.jpg

Lisa: Sharon Mitchell.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35Zcd.gif

Becky: I always pictured her looking like Raven, before she got implants.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35ZcE.jpg

Melissa: Well, picture a young Christy Canyon *grin*.
https://funkyimg.com/i/35ZcN.jpg

The hard thing I have found, is that a lot of actresses have changed their looks over the years. Desiree Cousteau for example did modeling with long hair, then cut it to a short pixie cut at the time she started porn, and she retired before it got long again. Tajia Rae, Raven, and many others made drastic changes after they "made it big", both getting implants. And of course Kristen Barrington was constantly changing her look.

Hopefully this will help some make pictures in their mind of what the main girls look like.

For those that have written, thank you. Your feedback is always appreciated (even if not used).

And no, I have not stopped adding to the story. I just updated Chapter 31, and am actually writing Chapter 35 as I post this. CBCG II is not on hold, just slowing a tad as I work on editing my older story.

Which by the way now has 18 chapters cleaned up. And if anybody has read those, they should see that nothing major has changed. Maybe an extra paragraph or two here and there, but nothing critical that would require it be read again.

But it is by far my longest story, and it is something that simply needed to be done. Additionally because I have been out of work for months since this COVID started, and am considering trying to monetize what has always been a hobby for me. And I am not about to start doing that in the sorry shape it is in now.

But I am not "selling out", I will always post my stories here for free. CBCG, Night of Madness, those will never be hidden behind a pay wall here or elsewhere. Although I may start to offer chapters somewhere else before posting them here.

And no, not like another one that got people hooked into his story for years, then slammed everything shut behind a pay door, and has not written anything in here for over 2 years. I will always write first for myself, then for my fans who enjoy these scriblings that I put down. But mostly, I write to get these stories out of my head, and hopefully let others discover them.

And yes, CBCG II is indeed a complete story, if only in my head at this time. My mind tends to race far ahead of what I can actually type. To give an idea how far, I already was working out scenes that I am only now writing well over 2 years ago. Many things do indeed pop up later as I am writing them, but the basic outline was actually already complete in my head way back in January 2018.

Before Holly even started dating Keith, I knew who Pete was going to end up with. And I need to revise an earlier prediction. I know when I started Book II I said it would be a shorter story, maybe half as long. But now I think it may well be just as long as part 1. But in less than 4 months I have pumped out over 31 chapters, so this should take nowhere near as long to complete.

And if anybody can help me find something appropriate for "cover art", I would appreciate it. I found an image that I love, but since I can not find who created it I am not going to just steal it. Having had my works stolen before, I am not about to do that. But if somebody knows of a Creative Commons image that is similar it would be appreciated.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9b/9c/d1/9b9cd1bd5f88e7b0c00cdf279c0a7e55.jpg

I actually think this is a perfect image. And it just screams out to the romantic in me looking at it. Plus it does not give away who it is. Pete and... ??????

Well, for at least a week or so I am largely going to be putting Country Boy, City Girl Book II on hold as I do a major edit on it and the previous story.

I had a few people suggest I try Grammarly (a free web based grammar tool), and that is what I have been doing. And indeed it has helped me catch a lot more mistakes than I was able to catch on my own. After using it to clean up several chapters, I finally just decided to do it properly.

So starting at Chapter 1 in the first book I am doing a major re-edit of the story. Don't worry, there will be no major changes at all. This is primarily just a long-overdue cleanup of the story, fixing spelling and other grammatical errors.

I am figuring it will take me a week or so to do this, and I will still be working on CBCG II, but at a much slower pace during this time.

OK, I just wanted to put something out there that I do get a lot of comments on.

I know I am not the greatest when it comes to proofreading. And there are many reasons for it. Not least of which because I am typing on a laptop and not a desktop, which has a keyboard nowhere near as good. Also, when I get into my writing spurts, I can crank out 2-4 chapters a day. Each chapter 8-11+ pages on 12 point font (around 5,000 words or 25k characters) each.

And yes, I do go through them again before posting. I generally write 2-4 chapters ahead of what I post. Most recently I posted Chapter 29, and am finishing up Chapter 31 at this time. But between trying to type on what I consider a joke keyboard, my decreasing vision, and the screen it can be hard for me to find all of them.

I am very grateful to DomAbrazo, richardshagrin, and all of the others that have been helping me catch all of the mistakes that slip through. And I notice that these problems are much more common in my longer stories (CBCG, Night of Madness) than they are in my short ones. Probably because of the speed in which I write those.

A chapter in say Dark Tales which is an anthology may be around 35k characters, and maybe an hour and a half to knock out. Country Boy, those are much faster and I will often knock out 2 chapters of that (around 50k) in just about an hour.

It is not being lazy, I simply know those characters much better, and do not have to think much when it comes to putting their thoughts and actions onto the screen. As opposed to a single shot story, where I have to keep every detail in my head as I write. Because of that I am much slower in typing those, and get less key fumbles.

And yes, I did try an editor in here once before. That was maybe 16 years ago, and it was not a very good experience. Thankfully I have the two I mentioned and others who are kind enough to send me corrections, and I do go back every few weeks and fix my previous chapters. But then it also becomes a bit of a chore, especially when I am in a writing frenzy like I have been in lately.

So I continue to try to finish up 4-8 chapters a week for as long as I can while the setting is fresh in my head? Or do I stop every day or so, open up my old chapters, make the corrections and then upload them all over again?

Oh, and some "mistakes" are on purpose. If I have a character say something in quotes and it sounds wrong, like bad syntax or wrong word, sometimes it is actually on purpose. That is literally what they said, most of us do not speak like English majors all the time. Or as in one case I still chuckle about, somebody tried to correct me when I had somebody say "bag it", saying it made no sense. When in reality to anybody from that era it would have made perfect sense, it is just slang that has fallen out of use.

My thanks again to those that have been trying to help in sending me emails correcting me when I screwed the pooch with my typing. I do go back through them before I post, but my vision now makes it increasingly hard to actually see them. I have found it impossible now to write with bifocals because of the neck angle, so simply remove my glasses in writing or reading. So many times I literally "do not see them", and that is entirely my fault.

And this weekend I do plan on sitting down and knocking out all of those that have been piling up. It is around 10 chapters worth, so that is about a day I figure.

Or better yet, if somebody can send me a link so I can get replacement eyes and fingers, so I will not make so many typos in the first place and see those I do make.

EDIT: Honest thanks to all those that suggested I get a "real keyboard". As an FYI, I lost my job to COVID, and moved in with some family in another state. My computer (desktop, 19" and 27" monitors, Logitech keyboard) are sitting in the closet, just no room to set any of them up. My current "computer desk" is actually a turn of the century foot pedaled sewing machine, that just has enough room for the laptop and a mouse.

I long for the day when I can set them all up again and return to writing as I am used to. Kind of like how I long for the day when I would be spat in the face (could not resist throwing in an obscure Monty Python quote).

I just added a long section to the end of Country Boy, City Girl (part 1) that explains a bit about how I wrote it, and other things like trivia. It is in no way required to read, but it does fill in a bit about the era and place that those younger would not know.

And many of these questions I have been asked over and over again. And for those interested in writing, it can give a guide into how I often come up with settings and places. Because even though my story is fictional, most of the places and people are actually loosely based on somewhere I went or somebody I knew in real life.