Friday, February 27, 2015

Spooky Stuff!

Wolves are spooky! The final Part to the first Chapter of To Own a Wolf is up on Amazon Kindle, so if you can't stand to start a story without reaching a nice conclusion, now's a great time to have a look!

But that's not the really spooky thing today. I don't know how many of you heard, but a few days ago Google announced a moratorium on adult content on blogspot. Now, I decided to refrain from flipping out and trusted that my concern with this issue would be shared with many others, and that there would be a certain amount of feedback. I could only hope that Google would listen.

Well, it looks like the other shoe came down just in time for my Friday update, thankfully. It seems that they've decided not to root up their entire adult blogging community, but rather to enforce their existing policies a little more strictly to root out people straight up selling porn on here, especially that which does not belong to them or which depicts illegal acts.

So I've gone from very concerned to... somewhat concerned. I don't believe that the MVOL blog falls into the categories they're trying to root out, but I worry that whoever they have appraising these blogs for unacceptable content will see only the sensuality and not the art of what I am trying to accomplish with My Very Own Lith.

If I am told to remove content from my blog, I will have to find somewhere else to make the new home for MVOL. I've heard good things about Tumblr. Hopefully this will all blow over without much trouble, but should such a thing happen, it may be somewhat... sudden. So I thought I'd best let you all know. Thanks, everyone, for-- oh, wait.

While I'm here, I should mention, I have been making progress with MVOL. I've been getting a better handle on just how much content the rest of the stone door will involve, and how I can pare it down to an experience that is rich and rewarding but not so extensive that it becomes overburdening for anyone trying to explore it in full (and not so colossal to write that it kills me). So between getting more writing in and adjusting my expectations to try and get ready for a release by the end of March in keeping with my new deadline goals, I'm bumping up the progress meter!

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Forty percent may be conservative, but there's a few bits besides the writing that I really need to get started on, so hopefully while I've got the written content in with my proofers in mid-March I can get to work on the rest of that. Hopefully I'll have more good news for you soon!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Enough is Enough

I've been working myself up into a better place, both through easing up out of the funk and trying to find ways to improve myself so that I spend less (or preferably no) time right out not doing anything. Today is a good example: To Own a Wolf, Part Four is up on Amazon for Kindle, and I actually slammed out a bit of a story as an homage without particularly meaning to, which you can check out over on SoFurry and FurAffinity. It's a bit of a stretch into the kinkier stuff I've been enjoying quietly for quite a while and publicly more recently, so you can look forward to some size difference, vore, and a bit of all-around weirdness. It felt great to write something just for the fun of it rather than as an obligation.

But planning and scheduling is also a big part of how I work, and while it's helped me keep my personal blog going and nicely productive, I've decided it's time for some more aggressive steps. My progress with MVOL has been, frankly, abysmal. Even for a one-man project, even with other stuff going on the side, any time I look back at what kind of actual time frame this work has happened in, I physically cannot believe it, and I am ashamed. So. Enough is enough.

From here on, I'm going to release a new version of MVOL four times a year: in March, June, September, and December. Whatever I have ready when the deadline comes up will just have to be enough, even if it means not covering every route fairly, including all the content I want to offer, or even including a new sex scene. It's my hope, though, that setting this as a hard goal for myself --and committing to it publicly-- will act as an impetus to get me more focused on the project. Deadlines can be an important part of productivity, and I've gone too long without one on this project. Who knows, if this works well, maybe I'll be able to set up something along the line of a Patreon down the line, assuming I can actually manage fairly regular new content.

Three months is the compromise I'm setting for myself for now. At first reflection, I can't help but feel like it's terribly stifling-- the last update took literally about a year. Just getting the new content proofed can be a week or two, and I release to the largest donators a week early, so it feels more like only two months, and I don't know how I'll deal with all that. But it's time for me to kick myself in the butt a bit here. Three months for a single update also seems like a terribly long time, still embarrassingly so, especially compared to most other projects of its ilk available. I'm interested to see how this works out, and I hope you are all sharing my shaky excitement for what this could mean for the future if it goes well.

I'd like to send my thanks out once more to everyone that's been so supportive of this project, and all my extraordinarily patient fans. It's my fervent hope that this marks a serious turning point in this project for the better.

Just promise me that you all won't let me get away with flaking out on this :p

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Slow and Steady

Hey, folks! Got a few updates I've been meaning to mention, and I reckon it's past time I get to it.

First off, if you haven't been following my other blog, you may not be aware that To Own a Wolf Part Two and Part Three are up on Amazon for kindle! It's felt great to dust off these stories and tighten them up to really read smoothly. I remember feeling pretty proud of them back in the day, but as I've grown as a writer, I've picked up a few things, haha. I personally really like how Part Two came out, and I hope you guys will enjoy them if you have the chance.

Secondly, speaking of my personal blog, it's been going along updating regularly! If you haven't been reading, you've missed out on the in-depth origin of both Lith and MVOL, two snippets from my upcoming Tag It story, some interesting little stories from me you won't see anywhere else, and a variety of rants on many subjects, especially the tribulations of creativity and writing. What's coming up next? Who knows? I sure don't!

And, lastly, a short word on my progress with MVOL. I've been working on and off on the content for the second visit to the Stone Door, and it's gradually turned into a more ambitious and heavy piece of writing than I originally expected. Right now I'm considering the best way to divide it into smaller pieces so that I can release v0.16 a little sooner. My main two options would be to either divide it up by route, such as only including the pink collar paths and one of the two decision paths from the black, or by progress, so we can get a little bit of something for everyone, without actually getting all the way through this chunk of the story as I'd envisioned it. The main drawback to the former would be that if you only follow a particular path in the game, you effectively get no real new content. The main drawback to the latter would be that it may well not have any sex scenes at all in the update @_@; So that's the dilemma I'm wrestling with when I'm working on the game, in between the Tag It, stuff for the other blog, and an odd little story you may be seeing soon. But for now, progress!:

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I really should just make little pictures for this or something. Right now we're at 20% to v0.16. I've got a fair bit written up, but if I was going to cram EVERYTHING in that I wanted for v0.16 I'd have to either trim back the story some or go a looong ways still. So I may be setting my goal for this chunk a little lower, in which case we might be at more like 30 or 40% currently.

I've also got a new little treat ready to add to the next update :3 I hope you all will enjoy it!