Authors : What are you working on?

I was going to take a hiatus and enjoy summer. But had an idea last night.

Swingers category. Six characters, with a multiple POV format from the perspective of three of the characters.

I’ve outlined the story, but am thinking through what the three unique voices might sound like and how to transition seamlessly between them without losing the reader.

This could be epic. Or it could be an epic flop.

Quote by paddlingincognito

I was going to take a hiatus and enjoy summer. But had an idea last night.

Swingers category. Six characters, with a multiple POV format from the perspective of three of the characters.

I’ve outlined the story, but am thinking through what the three unique voices might sound like and how to transition seamlessly between them without losing the reader.

This could be epic. Or it could be an epic flop.

Very good luck, and get the pacing right. It could work. Also, choose very different names for your characters: no alliteration, not too many syllables, and make them memorable. Last, in a group scene, names everywhere, and don't split a subject between paragraphs without their name. Imagine your words as a camera. You are panning into action somewhere, and it's all on them, until the camera goes somewhere else.

When you've done it, let me know. I would love to learn how, too. 🤣

Quote by RowanThorn
But in the meantime I'm getting it ready to reach out to multiple publishers and to self-publish.

Best wishes, and do let us all know how that works out! I think most of us here are curious, especially with the swampy flood of AI "writing" suffocating real human writing, what the process looks like these days.

Like many here, I've contemplated eventually turning some of my series into publications someday, though I acknowledge that (a) heavy rewriting would be needed to make any of them a coherent whole, and (b) I'd never make any money to speak of. Nevertheless, it's something I (and probably most of us) fantasize about, like the sexual tales themselves.

As well as working on my next One Euro Coin story, I'm sort of playing with a few ideas from stories I saw in the news. A woman pregnant with twins by two different men is one of them. Also, for my sexual autobiography, which I take from Lush forum questions, "What is the wrongest thing you've done?" has potential!

Quote by RowanThorn

Book done, ready for publishing. Waiting on the cover art to finish.

But in the meantime I'm getting it ready to reach out to multiple publishers and to self-publish.

Best wishes with publishers, Rowan! You can do it!

As for me, KimmiBeCreepy is going to be spreading sunshine all over the pages of Lush with a joyful end-of-the-world story in the queue. 🤣 After that I’m publishing a Steampunk one about a dying man, and then writing a man’s-worst-nightmare story inspired by a famous song and artist. The trick will be staying within Lush rules yet detailing so that the reader knows what it references. This cover gives a big hint.

Kimmi's always gotta be starting something

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

Kimmi's always gotta be starting something

Yup, I’m real good at starting stuff. It’s the finishing that’s the problem. 🙄

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Yup, I’m real good at starting stuff. It’s the finishing that’s the problem. 🙄

God don't i know how THAT works!

Nearly done working on the first draft of the final chapter of mine and Jen's Chloe series, so if you're following along with the filthy oral in chapter 4, you won't have too long to wait for the series to wrap.

I'm also juggling stories for the remaining few categories in my Omnium badge quest. Slow progress but I'll get there when I'm happy with the quality of them.

I've also had a randomly awesome idea for a non-erotic (gasp!) short story that I would like to publish one day if it gains traction (and I actually finish it). Excited about that.

https://www.lushstories.com/stories/flash-erotica/a-sweet-treat-and-a-baguette-please

A little something for if you've ever been kept waiting for something sweet, or to nibble on.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

I've also had a randomly awesome idea for a non-erotic (gasp!) short story that I would like to publish one day if it gains traction (and I actually finish it). Excited about that.

Nah! I don't think you're capable of non-erotic work. Something naughty will slip in, if you pardon the pun.

I just wrote a story: Maria Stops Pretending. It's more a thriller than a sex story. I have been working on several similar stories. One was so extreme that the site didn't want to publish it. It was a kind of "1984" plus sex.

I've had time to write this week... and have added to the long list of partially finished stories on my flash drive. Hubby travels next week and, sadly, I won't be able to join him. I'm hoping to complete and edit a few things. Fingers crossed there will be some new techgoddess material in August!

I am putting this ridiculous heatwave to good use and writing with total abandon. I have an actual computer now, a desk, a bigger screen (my eyesight!) and an amazing keyboard. I had the idea for a series of true stories spaced over a year. So I have a plan for about 11 of them all mapped out. Yes, another series. 😳 I am a fool to myself.

I am putting the finishing touches to "The Mechanic of the Luberon." Of course, this will sit idle while I fret and worry about it. This is normal. The next is "The Widow of the Camargue."

I just submitted part three of Take My Breath Away. I have a couple of idead perking about, but I think i will concentrate on the next install of Mira, or a second Mandi series

I have this story that I would almost rather let go of but seem to keep coming back to. It's a family dramedy with a strong romance element (and I kind of hope to rejig that into the focus) with the centrepiece being a nineteen year-old recovering from severe injuries received in a car crash navigating her recovery and maybe a new romance or two. I have her best friend coming out, so that's one possible romance right there. And then there's her ex who could come back, though I've painted him in a rather bad light so far, and another male friend, a guy she knew when she was younger who returns into her life. Non-erotic, though there will be some mild sexual content once I decide where to go with her relationships. And there's also her father who was widowed by the crash so maybe get some story built around his recovery from his grief as well. We'll see.

Outside competition stories, I'm working through my "Cash in Hand 2" stories. I planned to be doing just that until deep into 2027, when the series will come to an end. Note: In this series, every chapter is a self-contained story within the longer, overall story. It's designed to be that way, so members here could read just a chapter, though it seems many read way more than one chapter. 😊

Now the real reason I have posted here. The latest published story part has my all-time favourite cover.

Here is the link. "Cash In Hand 2" - Chapter 3 - "Rose Cottage" - Part 2 of 3

Upped the erotica in a story I wrote over a year ago, and going to submit here. It was a story I’ve always liked, tying nature to a witch’s emotions. Always had an erotic feel to it, to me anyway. I wrote the sex scene a little differently. Not what I’d call hot, but hopefully you’ll like it, and find it beautifully sensual.

Started drafting last night for the first time in over a year, and it felt so strange. So unnatural. Then I started to feel myself in the crowd of the concert arena and realized this, or rather remembered:

I always feel awkward when beginning a draft. But it's been so long since last I did it, I forgot how unnatural it feels in the beginning before I start flowing with the characters and universe.

The second draft I started suffered from that when I started getting bored drafting the first. 1272 words typed lady night. Not bad.

My drafts usually start with a short scene, as if I were a voyeur watching and listening. Then I hit the hard part - what happened before that scene? What do the people in it do next? I hear you about awkward.

But 1272 words last night? Way to go!

Quote by rdodger

My drafts usually start with a short scene, as if I were a voyeur watching and listening. Then I hit the hard part - what happened before that scene? What do the people in it do next? I hear you about awkward.

But 1272 words last night? Way to go!

Thank you. Once I really get pulled into it, I could churn out even more. Where I am going to have issues is writing the sex scenes.

Quote by CarltonStJames

Thank you. Once I really get pulled into it, I could churn out even more. Where I am going to have issues is writing the sex scenes.

Same here. I wrote 1500 words last night and this morning about a married couple hiring a wild child female friend to work at their new laundromat. Then I got to the sex part and quit writing for the day.

“Oh, I blew him once last year. He’s got a thing for redheads, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“I mean, who doesn’t?” Jimmy grinned. “I’d probably sell my soul for a Wanda Clough Special.”

Wanda arched one eyebrow before she made up her mind. “I’ll settle for twenty bucks. Go lock the doors and put up the CLOSED sign.”

Casual prostitution in small-town New England, no big deal. (Update: this takes place in 1988, if you’re thinking twenty bucks is pretty cheap.)

Quote by Chet_Morton

Casual prostitution in small-town New England, no big deal. (Update: this takes place in 1988, if you’re thinking twenty bucks is pretty cheap.)

Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore!

Just finished the first draft of my Monster story! Now, the hard part: sitting on it until October. I can't even disclose the title yet, because it will give the story away. All I can reveal now is that it will be very juicy.

Next to dig into my other two Halloween-themed stories, Daphne's Halloween and Persis-tent Terror, the latter a Horror thriller that I hope to make absolutely harrowing. And then I'll have to sit on those until October too.

Quote by joe71

Daphne's Halloween

I love the funny coincidences that happen here in Lush land! 😄
Chapter 19: October 31st, 1926

I've an early draft story with a guy whose girlfriend is frustrated that he won't talk about their relationship. He doesn't want to lose her, so he vents to the female work colleague who he tends to unload with. She sends him a recommendation for a psychologist. He doesn't really believe in shrinks, but he doesn't want to lose his girlfriend, so there he goes.

I got the first session finished a couple of days ago. My character surprised me, first by having an anger outburst in the session, then by asking for a second appointment earlier than the one week later that the psychologist suggested. Then today it hit me - the colleague who gave him the recommendation, the woman I'd considered a throwaway plot moving device - she wasn't going to go away. I think she's Chekov's gun.

I still have so many partially finished stories on my flash drive (which I think I will need to have buried with me some day...LOL), but I'm getting close to being ready to edit a fun story called Three Bourbon Slushies and a Beached Mule.

What's it about? Well... A redhead walks into a bar...

Can I do another competition entry? I just had an idea about the lengths a producer might go to to get a certain performance out of a singer. 😲.

Well, this heatwave is costing me a fortune in lost work. It will hit 38C/101F in Paris next week. Even with the feeble little AC we bought, the oil paints are too runny. I cannot remember a summer like it. Although our balcony is a fabulous place to get a tan - all over. 🤐 If I cannot paint, I am using my creative energy to write. I am deep into Part 3 of my Postcards series of true stories. Part 2, "The Widow of the Camargue", is finished, and as always, I am reticent to let it go...

Hot sunny weather has an unusual effect on me. 😜 It is definitely coming through in my writing. 😘