Mushroom: Blog

Well, this time it is being stubborn, so I did my usual thing of turning to other stories in an effort to shake some things lose. But instead of starting yet another long story, I have been working on some shorter ones.

The one I just posted, Holly Silver Gets a Contract is indeed part of the "Country Boy, City Girl" universe. But it is about somebody new, and some of the CBCG characters only make cameo appearances. And I may indeed feature more short segments like this, set in the universe, but only having small appearances from the main characters.

And trust me, I wish I could keep writing The Sensei as well. There are some good parts I want to get to, but I have to get through the current segment first.

Wow, this story has gotten me some of the strongest backlash yet. And I love it!

Understand people, many of us really look carefully at story tags when we post a story here. And just because it is a "Do over" story, you should not expect what 99.8% of do over stories will all be the same.

So when an author puts it into a series of stories they themselves call "Dark Tales", and puts in both "Caution" and "Tear Jerker", do not get upset when it does not have a happy ending and the main character riding off into the sunset to live happily ever after. You were all warned in multiple ways that it would not be a happy story.

Also, I will be absolutely honest here. The "Do over" genre has largely gotten stale I think. Somebody lives for 60 years, returns to being a teen again, and for some reason thinks they can make any changes they want, and there will be no real consequences and they are still guaranteed to live once again until they are 60 or older. Meanwhile, getting to bang teen girls again.

In "Dark Tales", I often twist, explode, or destroy common tropes. It is my playground in which to do so in fact. None really have happy endings, that is why they are dark. And as Heath Ledger as the Joker said, ""Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos."

Well, Dark Tales are my little contribution of anarchy into erotica tropes. And I am sorry if some do not like the ending, but you really have no right to be upset, as there were a great many warnings that it was not your typical do over story.

Well, after writing what is probably my darkest story yet, I think I now have a good idea what was causing my writer's block. One thing I noticed long ago, is that if I start to write in the same style for too long, things either go sideways or dry up altogether.

And to be honest, the part of Sensei I have been writing has actually been good and happy. And like happened sometimes with Country Boy, it was like I wanted to just bust it all up. So instead, I started writing Bohica. And then alternated back and forth when things were getting to sappy, or to dark.

This time, I ended up digging out yet another of my old stories. But this time, I took the base concept only (a "do over"), and pretty much throwing it all away except for the first half a page and writing a completely new story.

And a cautionary warning, "Another Life" is unquestionably one of my darkest tales yet. This one is not even moderately dark, it is downright horrible at the end.

But hopefully after knocking out three like this, I can return to give some sunshine into the life of Clint.

Yes, I am still writing. And still writer's block on The Sensei. So instead I turned to two stories that had been started last year and finished them both up.

And these are both "Dark Tales". In other words, do not expect happy endings in them. These are never intended to be my usual "sappy-happy love stories", they are dark and twisted stories that come out of some of the deepest parts of my imagination. Think less "One For the Angels" and "The Mighty Casey", and more "To Serve Man" and "A Nice Place to Visit" from the Twilight Zone.

Some are cautionary, some are outright depressing. Others have twists involved in the end, may get a bit silly, or veer off in a totally different direction than expected. Some are simply plays on the title themselves, or essentially a giant joke like the works of O. Henry.

But each of them is also part of my trying to tell a different kind of story. Something that does not fit into my usual writing, or I wanted to play with a concept and putting it into that helps warn others that the story is not of my typical style.

Because in the end, I readily admit that I really enjoy telling "love stories". But sometimes, I just gotta write something down that fucks that all up.

The two stories I finished were "Loss Prevention" and "Orientation Day". Both of these I started over 6 months ago, and have spent ages just sitting in the "in process" folder waiting to be finished. One was my attempt to write an "asshole" character, the other I wanted to try a story in the vein of "Naked in School", but different than most like that I have seen (and much shorter).

I just had an almost classic message, from somebody screaming at me how much of an insensitive racist I am. At how I dared used the "N word" in a story, and used it repeatedly.

Ans to be honest, I mostly laughed at it. If somebody reads "Bohica", and then at the end thinks I am some kind of racist, they seriously need to get their head examined. In fact, the main idea of the story was very much in BUSTING racism, and showing how stupid it was.

Of course, the person also screamed that they will never read anything I write ever again, and that I should be banned from all platforms.

So I guess they will never read the final chapter of that story. Which is sad, because I actually believe that is how all real racists should end up. And their entire rant just goes to prove how idiotic and moronic such people are. Who only look at the surface and do not even try to think about what is the actual meaning of a story.

Like those who read Huck Finn and see racism. Not even seeing that a young man from the South was bucking his entire cultural norm and helping Jim get his freedom at the end.