Omachuck: Blog

Damsels: Incredibly beautiful and sexy - check! Want a baby and willing to risk their lives to get one - check! Perpetually horny and oversexed - check! So, they're pretty much all the same, right? Pēteris finds out different.

What if one is a Hero at heart and one doesn't like men? Say what?! Meet Damsel Monica Mechanic and Damsel Trudi Masseuse. This story, set in Lazlo Zalezac's 'Damsels In Distress Universe,' is a sequel to Pēteris, a story that should be read first.

So I finished the first draft. Now I need to read through and stomp bugs before I inflict it on my editors and proofreaders.

Why this post? I don't like sequels that go back and relate most of the original story to catch folks up. This will give my one or two readers the chance to get ahead of me.

With holidays on the near horizon, I don't know how otherwise occupied my editors will be. I wish I could tell you the date I'll start posting, but I can't. "Soon" is the best I can do.

First - To Ndogo Devushki - Welcome to the madhouse. I enjoyed Katherine Lynne and think that it would make a very good prologue to a longer story, no matter how long it takes to write.

To all new authors, especially Ndogo Devushki - As a relatively new author (I started two years ago) I highly recommend that you turn on the comments when submitting a story or at least put an email address on your author's page. (I created a separate email address used solely for communications from SOL readers and authors. Omachuck @ AOL.COM). This time, I had no other way to reach you, hence this open note.

Excepting a very few jerks who don't know the word 'polite' this is a very welcoming and helpful community. The feedback you receive - even the negative - will help you become a better author. Trust me on this.

Even better, you would probably receive offers to edit and/or proof, something every author needs.

I wish I had one.

Yesterday, there were eighty downloads of my lowest rated story The Sunshine of Your Smile. That was more than the last couple of months put together. It was my most downloaded story for the last seven days. Never happened before except when first posted...

Not a comment, not a note, so not a clue why. The rating didn't change.

My curiosity bump is itching something awful. Please, someone give me a touch or two of feedback on why the spurt and how it struck you.

On a separate note, my sequel to Pēteris is a chapter or so from a completed first draft. If I don't drive my editors and proofreaders nuts, we'll likely see the first chapter of Monica Mechanic posted between Christmas and the New Year.

I know where I am - right here in my recliner. You just haven't sent me anything to proof....

There's no smoke 'cuz there is no fire.

I wanted to hold off posting Damn It All! Until Thornfoote's Linda's Posse was complete. But he wanted it posted now. He has kindly opened his universe, so how can I deny him?

Now, that's not quite the whole thing. We've been discussing Linda since before he started writing about her, and it was clear to me that he had the spark and the talent to write her story. Turns out, he has a real fire in his belly. You've seen that if you've read Retribution and are reading Linda's Posse.

So here's the thing. I read the initial draft of the first chapter of the next story in Linda's World Universe, and it became clear that there were some opportunities to play off of Damn It All! Thornfoote might choose to do that, or he might not, but if he wants to, Damn It needs to be out there. So it is in the queue and should post tomorrow - all of it.

Please tell me what you think.