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Phoenix Rising: the Immortality Curse reached 20,000 downloads today. In celebration I posted revisions to chapters 1-11. I've been working on editing the book in preparation for turning it into an ebook. If you've already read it, you might find it worth reading the first few paragraphs of chapter 1, and the revisions to chapter 7. If not, it's an even better story and I encourage you to take a look.
<p>I'm working on another novel in that universe, and I am really excited about how the first four chapters have turned out. If you are interested in helping proof or act as a beta reader for that project, please get in touch. Everything is more fun with a team, and your support is what makes this worth doing!
There is not a new chapter today for Phoenix Rising: Immortality Curse, but there were two new chapters posted earlier in the week. And they are both long. So there should be plenty of content for you all, even if it is not on the normal schedule.
As always, your comments are welcome.
I've gotten some great feedback from some readers about what they would like to see more of, and it turned out that it aligned well with things I was interested in covering, but I wasn't sure anyone wanted to read.
And so that's what we're going to do.
The pandemic is hard on us in various ways. I'm doing well, but some of the people I most care for are having a harder time. They are physically well; everyone is healthy, and has their basic needs met. But emotionally it's difficult.
I I spent time this week with the people I care for, letting them know they matter, and listening, as well as dealing with some of the inevitable stress of being with the same group of people on an ongoing basis.
I wanted to let people here know that as a result, the next chapter of Phoenix Rising: the Immortality Curse is likely to be delayed by a day or two. The writing is going well, but I've had less time to dedicate to the story than usual.
Once again, I want to thank everyone for all your support. If you're enjoying the story, please join us in the comments or in the Discord server linked from the end notes.
What could be a better time of year for erotic stories than Beltane (May Day)? Dancing around a fire naked in the woods, enjoying connection , love and intimacy without shame? Mm, yeah, give me some of that. Sadly, this year, I was in isolation at home.
But I'll be bringing out a little of that Beltane spirit in tonight's chapter of Phoenix Rising: the Immortality Curse.
I'm really happy with how this chapter came out. It's hot, but I also hope it will touch something deep inside you.
It was not easy to write. This strikes way too close to my own spirituality to be something simple. Of course there are some changes to fit into fiction, but the idea of opening your soul to the divine and sharing that with your community and tribe is very sacred to me.
I had kind of wanted to do something like this, but had shied away from it. But we had a bit of a discussion over on the Phoenix Rising Discord and I found out that my desires mirrored things I was hearing from my readers. It was really neat to find support in my readers for some of the ideas that I anted to pursue but wasn't sure I had enough confidence to pull off. So I did, and I think it's great.
The chapter will come out tonight as usual. If you find this interesting and want to read some non-fiction discussion of what this sort of work is like in the real world, I invite you over to my spiritual blog.
If you are enjoying, please leave a comment and consider joining us over on Discord. Chatting in real time with people exploring a story is a lot of fun.
Chapter 29 of <Phoenix Rising: Immortality Curse> is one of the most intense things I've written, and reader feedback suggests that it's been emotional to read too.
I find it difficult to write about sexual abuse. It's a case where privilege makes things challenging; while I have some experience with my consent not being respected, my characters are facing situations more challenging than I have faced. I don't want to trivialize trauma. I want to respect my readers; I don't want to drag them into an emotionally intense situation just for the sake of jerking them around. There needs to be a point, which in this case is to explore how sexuality and intimacy can be a part of healing from abuse.
Capturing that is extra hard. I remember the first time I read Passionate Marriage, I was uncomfortable with the description of "oral sex night." The author is a therapist and talks about how a particular night when a couple tried oral sex was a turning point in their relationship. I felt at the time like bringing it down to one physical act trivialized the hard work couples do in working on their relationships. Oral sex is not going to save a relationship.
Sex is tricky though. The physical acts become symbols for something greater. Much later after I'd had my own nights I respected the courage of that book. No, oral sex isn't going to save a relationship. But a particular act of oral sex between two people, embedded in the meaning they give that act can change the world for those two people.
Writing about that is hard. Going beyond the sex and connecting to the characters, to how their sex act touches them ... doing that as an author is frightening. It's easy to miss, for the reader to see that as just oral sex. And yet those moments, when the connetion is built on top of the physical act, but comes more are the ones that shape our lives as lovers. With this chapter I reach for that.
And from the feedback I've touched and challenged some readers.
Thanks for all your thoughts and comments.
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