Abundant Gratitude for Generosity and Grit

What an amazing September! Looking back, I am filled with abundant gratitude for the generosity and grit fellow writers, pundits and critics have bestowed upon me. It has resulted in some of my best writing to date. A hearty thank you to my creative family at Rosy, ERWA, eLust, and the many other creatives throughout TwiX (my stubborn name for the social media site formerly known as Twitter).

Let’s start with Rosy. I had submitted the story A Lesson in Sensuality for consideration last February. It is about the connection between two foreigners, a younger man and older woman, and the explorations she leads him through. While the story has sexul content in it, there is no penile or replicating toy penetration. Fingers and hands do just fine in complimenting a really good mindfuck.

I thought the story was solid and complete as is, and the response I got back was very complimentary. But the editor challenged me to take the tail end and build it into a part 2. I resisted at first, for three reasons. The first: I felt so much joy in creating this story, and how it turned out, that I didn’t want to deconstruct it. The second was fear that Part 2 wouldn’t measure up, and may even ruin the submission as is. I, for one, hate sequels that fall flat. Lastly, I had a few other stories that had benefited from the mindset this one had put me in, and good juju should be respected.

Which means that I followed my editor’s lead and took on the challenge. Despite all of the reasons mentioned above, I love and trust this editor, the opportunity to grow, and the process of failing well. With my faith embedded in discovery and learning, I took a shot at it.

The results? Nothing!

The dots weren’t connecting, the ideas weren’t flowing. All that happened was that I began eating more junk food than I should. I followed my normal process of setting it aside and returning days later, hoping other writings and such would create that much-needed spark. Nope. After struggling for a few weeks, I decided to park it, and then forgot about it.

Four months later, Rosy got back to me about the story’s status, and I came clean about my dilemma. The editor and I kicked around options, during which time I envisioned a very different conclusion. Words flowed, paragraphs merged, and I thought I was on my way, until I envisioned yet another plot twist! This one did more than make me smile, it made me tingle with the same surge of energy as the original. I roughed it out that day, then called the editor.

Maybe it was the excitement in my voice, or that I was finally committing to something, but I got the thumbs up. It was completed and submitted the next morning. While I hope it is well received, the challenge and results have already paid dividends in other writings, namely my latest ERWA writing.

ERWA, which is a community of writers supporting each other. As with such communities, you’re expected to edit as much as you submit. I love that aspect of it, but I’d been overwhelmed with real life, and had not been able to keep up my end of the bargain. Things freed up a bit, and I was able to restart by giving feedback in genres that I had interest in.

Last week, I sent them a cuckold story I’d recently completed for their feedback. This one is also part of my challenge to write good erotic stories that had little or no sexual intercourse. The response here was very positive as well. Not like “yeah, this is nice and it could work” positive. More like, “this is damn good and let’s challenge you a bit more”. This story should join three or four others in my first book offering, targeted for next year. Each story includes a different expression of the cuckold lifestyle, just as everyone’s take on their sexual expression varies.

Both of these efforts are meaningful segues into writing longer stories as either multiple chapters of stories connected by a common theme, place or people. I never intended to go there. Never thought I could, until someone calmed my nerves before convincing me to try.

Lastly, eLust is a monthly that highlights blog posts, essays, stories and such from various creators. I’m honored that they chose to include a blog post of mine in Issue 165. Please check it out. Comments on any of my posts and stories are always welcome.

And that is why September filled my with abundant gratitude for generosity and grit. Now, it’s off to October, Locktober, costumes, and way too many pumpkin products than should ever exist. This fall has a unique twist that I’ll talk about in my next post come December. Until then…