rlfj: Blog

One of the readers of the Epilogue of Reaper Security Consulting commented that the Coast Guard was not a member of the Department of Defense, and thus Riley could not become a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In a case of art imitating life, the August 2020 issue of Proceedings, 'The Independent Forum of the Sea Services', had an article in it titled, "Time for the Coast Guard to Join the Joint Chiefs." Who knows what might happen in the future?

A couple of interesting comments on the story: 1) "Now you're showing your age." & 2) "I have heard about I Dream of Jeannie, but I don't know much about it." Damned if you do or damned if you don't. I'm 64; I figured I'd publish this before senility did me in.

A recent purchaser of the story on Bookapy discovered a problem with the published version. The Table of Contents was messed up, so the last story, I (Wet) Dream of Jeannie, was not shown. The story was present, just not listed properly. That's been fixed, but if you email me your bad copy, I will send you the good copy; my email address is rlfj1234@gmail.com. The published version has been fixed.

I will finish uploading the story next Tuesday. At that time, I will turn voting on. By then the haters will have given up on it.

One of the interesting things about voting is how early votes influence later votes. This is seen in a wide variety of areas. Take the same story and give it to three groups of ten readers each. The first group is asked to grade the story and they rate the story an 8. The second group is given the same instructions but is told that the cumulative voting is already at 6.5; they vote that the same story is only worth 7.2. Something similar happens with the third group, who are told the story has already been rated at 9.1; they vote the story is actually worth 8.6. This sort of thing is studied all the time by grad students looking for their PhD. It affects fields such as political voting, economics, and television/movie rating.

And now for some good old-fashioned smut!

I was recently going through my computer files of all the stories I have written over the years and came across a story I had started but never finished. No matter how many stories a writer writes, there are always some that he never finished, for whatever reason. We call it writer's block, and it affects all of us. I have several unfinished stories still.

This one was an updated porn version of an old sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie. I thought I could do something quick and fun, have a few laughs and put it up quickly. Somehow, after the first couple of chapters, I hit the Save button and never went back. How long ago was that, you ask? Let's just say that when I first started writing this story, Tony Nelson and Roger Healey were flying the Space Shuttle! The Space Shuttle hasn't flown since 2011, so I started this story a decade ago! That's probably a record for me.

Anyway, I did a quick read and had a good laugh. Reaper Security Consulting was coming to an end and I needed a new project. Editing and finishing the story wasn't going to be difficult, and I could write it fast. It only took me a couple of weeks to finish. I still have plans for something a lot bigger, but only have a couple of chapters of that project written. That will be another big book, but I am not giving any hints other than that it will be a PG-13 project, like RSC.

For those who love my more 'serious' works, I know this is a disappointment. My advice to you? Get over it! We're on a porn site! That's why I first started reading here, and when I started writing, it was because I figured I could write better porn than some of the schlock I saw being posted. It was a harmless hobby that I could play with after my wife went to bed, and it warmed me up for some fun and games when I climbed into bed with her. I had no plans otherwise.

Special thanks to mustang69n8 and petdoc2be for some assistance with naval slang and terminology.

I plan to put this up in just a few installments, so nobody will have to wait a long time. I also included it in a new book on Bookapy and Lulu, Naughty Shorts, containing some of my remaining short stories. Anyway, enjoy!

No, I'm not leaving any time soon. This is more a parting thought to Grim and Company. A few people commented on the Epilogue and how the family ended up. A little over the top? No! A lot over the top! Then again, most of the family was more than a bit above average. I decided to go big and go home! As for continuing the story, or writing small interlude pieces, sorry, but I just don't see that happening. It's time to stop.

Many thanks to all the kind readers who enjoyed this series. Your thoughts (and dollars!) are much appreciated. My wife thanks you as well, since she spends it!

Quite a few noticed that there were some major formatting problems in the last chapter and epilogue. No idea what happened, but the SOL system added a bunch of random paragraph breaks that weren't in the original html files. I spent many a year coding in html so I could read the code and find things that weren't in what I had uploaded. I had to regenerate the files and reload them. They look okay now.

Again, I can't thank my editors enough. I'm nowhere near smart enough to do this stuff on my own, especially since I've never served or been a cop. RSC got a lot of assistance from grynslvr2, jjmcdonald7911, pdkrause, and Old Rotorhead. I could never have done this without their assistance.

Quite a few readers wanted to know what I was doing next. It's going to be tough to come up with somebody as interesting as either Carl Buckman or Graham Reaper. Not sure I'm even going to try. I've been going through my archives, reviewing some stories that I started but never got around to finishing. Some of them have some real possibilities. I finished one, a short story, and I'll be putting it up sometime in August. I have two other strong contenders that I am still giving some thought to; they are going to take longer to sort out. I don't imagine I will be publishing them this year.

Major formatting problems in the last chapter, etc. Reloading, but it is taking some time to fix.

The Reaper Saga ends with this final chapter and the epilogue. It's been a long run, but it needs to end, and this seems a good point to do it. From what I've been hearing, everybody seems to like the way it's been going.

For the readers who want me to keep going, to tell Riley's story or Seamus' story, sorry, no. I was uncomfortable enough moving into the near future, 2020 to 2028. When I started writing nobody had ever heard of coronavirus, Black Lives Matter, or any of the other events we've seen this year. What strange events will happen in the future? And how can I even begin to wonder what will happen to the rest of the family in the next ten, twenty, forty years? What I wrote in the Epilogue pushes my imagination to the limits. I can imagine writing scifi set in the far future, but not in the immediate future.

Still don't know if we've been exposed to Covid-19. Still haven't heard yet whether we have it or not. Hopefully not. This is nuts. Thanks to everybody who sent their thoughts and prayers for my family with coronavirus. I've had two heart attacks so that's a comorbidity issue. I hope I still have a few years left.

Speaking of coronavirus, my wife works at a local grocery store. Last week she got assigned as a greeter, to tell people to wear masks. An old lady shopping with her grandkids came in without a mask. When my wife said she needed to wear one, she replied, no, she didn't need one, it was all nonsense. My wife replied she must not have known anyone who had it. The old lady answered that her sister had died of it, but she was old and had other diseases, so she was dying anyway. My wife just blinked and sent her inside. I can't make this shit up!

I had a reader respond and part of their comment included the term baited breath. Something didn't sound right, so I googled it. It actually refers to the words bated breath, which comes from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and is an abbreviation of abated breath, to hold one's breath due to suspense. Odd, the things you latch onto.

Anyway, enjoy!