rlfj: Blog

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my idea behind this story was to explore the back story behind the strange hill that causes families to get so familiar with each other. I never really liked the back story in the original story, Curse of the House of Incest. This was my chance to redo it. My plan is to alternate sections, a back story and history section with modified sections from my story Influence of the House of Incest. This upload is the first of those modified sections.

Belinda Jacobs is now publishing on goodreads. Considering that Amazon owns goodreads, they don't have a big interest in killing off a source of income, no matter how illegal. Regardless, I have begun adding reviews on stories specifying "This author steals stories from StoriesOnLine.net and then sells them elsewhere. Do not buy this story!" At least it's something.

It took them several days, but Amazon killed off all the stories from 'Belinda Jacobs'. From what I and several other authors could figure out he/she had been mining SOL for all the stories posted. Now they are all gone, as is the author page. I am sure, however, that this individual will simply republish them with new titles and a new name. As the saying goes, stolen goods are never sold at a loss. We'll just have to see.

As for recompense from Amazon, I am not holding my breath. A week after the Belinda Jacobs page and stories were removed, I received the following message from Amazon: "We reviewed the additional information regarding your identity and could not verify the information you have provided." So, they couldn't verify who I was and couldn't verify the theft, but the page and stories are gone. Color me confused.

It's time to start uploading the new story. As always, I plan to publish Tuesdays and Fridays. It will probably take 4-5 weeks to put it all up. Sorry if that seems slow, but feel free to attempt to bribe me to send you a copy. As Carl Buckman once said, 'I can't be bought, but I can certainly be rented!' (There are some instructions in the end note. Email me for more.)

I mentioned in my last blog post that the 'writer' on Amazon, Belinda Jacobs, had stolen a story of mine. I reported it to Amazon. Afterwards, two other SOL writers reported to me that they had also been ripped off and I was able to verify that. I urge every writer on SOL to check this individual's Amazon page and check for your work. It is obvious he/she is mining SOL for stories to publish and sell. Let me know if you've been ripped off. I am taking what action I can. Thanks.

Warning - I just received an email from SpartySam that a 'writer' named Belinda Jacobs copied my story Disparate Housewives and published it under the title Desperate Housewives on Amazon. Thank you SpartySam! I thought this was pretty ballsy, since my story is already on Amazon and has been for five years! I contacted Amazon and have begun getting this fixed. I'm more pissed than anything else at this point. I'll keep you posted.

And now to the real reason I am posting a blog entry…

About ten years ago I wrote a story titled Influence of the House of Incest that was an add-on to the story Curse of the House of Incest by Notlef. The original story, which is unfinished, was about a house that mysteriously affected anybody who visited and caused them to immediately start screwing everybody in their family. My strange and perverse mind sort of liked the premise of the story and I very quickly began writing my add-on. Eventually the original story went off the rails, but I finished my story. Still, for years I have had in mind a complete rewrite of my story, separating it from the original.

This spring, after finishing The War of the Crystals I found myself with some time on my hands. Combined with my retirement in December, I decided I had the time to revisit the story. I came up with a different origin story, a few follow-up tales, and a complete rewrite of my original Influence story. Now it all ties together. This is a totally new story and I will begin posting it by the end of the month. I'll be pulling the original story down shortly, so if you want to read it, you have a small window to do so.

For those who want me to return to writing literature like A Fresh Start and The Grim Reaper I'll remind you why I started writing. I began reading Internet porn about twenty years ago, and my feelings at the time were simple. It was AWFUL! Monkeys with typewriters could write better stuff than the schlock that I was seeing. (I've had email exchanges with authors who were proud and happy that they were able to get a Six on their scores. I don't even read stuff with scores that low! Jeez, can't you even turn on the spell checker?) I wanted to write what I call literate porn. By and large, I think I've succeeded. I didn't plan to become a writer of literature. I simply wanted to write some stuff late at night that would get me warmed up before heading to bed with my wife.

All that being said, I am still planning on writing another book or novella based on the next chapter in the life of the Grim Reaper. He remains one of my favorite characters, and I already have several chapters laid out in my head, and another three or four later chapters planned. I plan to work on this in the near future, but it will be at least another year before I am ready to do anything with it.

I've had several thoughts on this story.

First, a major dichotomy developed in the readership of the story. One group wanted more sex, more graphic sex, more of the harem, and more breeding. The other wanted less, in some cases significantly less, and more about the crystals and what they could do. It seemed that it was a fine line to walk, and I don't think I walked it the way most people liked. I thought it would have done better in the ratings than it has, especially compared to the original unfinished story. I am also sure that is my vanity speaking and not my intellect. Oh well.

Many readers enjoyed the premise of the final chapter, where Construct explained how Jack could fix much of what is happening in Washington. I heard from readers on both ends of the spectrum and most everybody agreed Congress and the Presidency are massively screwed up currently. Many wanted the story to continue, to show how Jack and Construct fixed things. Unfortunately, once you get past the 'Washington needs fixing' stage, nobody can agree on what the fix should be! As a result, I took to sending out the following reply - "Thanks but continuing the story would get into too much politics, and I don't need the hate mail." I got enough of that with both Carl Buckman and the Grim Reaper!