I'm bashing away on a long-term collab.

I wrote a story for the Punked competition a couple of years ago, and scrapped it days before the closing date. Sat the comp out because the story had transmogrified into a complex, boring mess of wiffle that had no real heart.

Codenamed CTRL-Z, it lay dormant for ages until I reread it one day. It was still shit. But there was an interesting idea about regret lurking deep inside it. About how choices affect those around us, and how people make decisions for what they think are the right reasons but turn out they're not. And yes, it had some hot lesbian sex scenes.

It was set in Australia and I'd sprinkled loads of Aussie slang in and a few half-decent lines, but it needed local knowledge to bring all the elements together and give it a sense of time and space. So I contacted CuriousAnnie and begged to see if she would be willing to rip it apart and make it good.

Gracefully, she did. And has.

It bears little resemblance to the original draft, and is shaping up wonderfully.

Our busy schedules have meant it's sat around idling for months between editing sessions, but I feel it's nearing something great. Well, when we fix the ending, settle on a title and add a decent cover image.

The original pic of a hot girl on a cool motorbike (which Sprite reliably tells me looks like a Street Triple), that inspired the idea of someone in a Mad Max kind of world at a crossroads, deciding whether to undo their mistakes—try again or carry on running—is shown here.

Really looking forward to publishing this.

Yes, FireFox desktop behaves like that for me too. My mobile browser (not FireFox) clears the notifications on click through to the post. No idea why FF doesn't.

Quote by RowanThorn
rolling around the bed, going line by line in a scene and doing what the character was as it was written to make sure it all worked

Method acting, ftw 🤣

Pulling people out of the story is a pet peeve of mine too. It includes plot and character inconsistencies, like someone repeating an action because the author was copying and pasting chunks around and left old parts in. And articles of clothing being removed twice, as mentioned above.

But more than that, inconsistencies in character voice can destroy a piece for me. That comes down to word choice in the prose or, especially, dialogue . You don't get many mid-fifties peeps saying they're glazing on Taylor Swift cos she's goated, for example.

I work hard to try and make sure my characters feel real, don't have eternal energy or do impossible things, and give readers an immersive experience. I don't always get it right.

Maybe a couple of deleted authors and it hasn't updated yet. Think it only refreshes at the start of each month. Not sure.

Quote by Piquet
didn't we also receive coins in the past for making it into the top ten? Is this still a thing?

That was a one- or two-off event recently because a kind benefactor sponsored the top 10.

Off-topic, but a cashless society also affects the homeless, widening the social divide. Donations to people begging will have to be in terms of "stuff" as they won't have a card reader. Charities too, like volunteers who sell poppies for war veterans, have to pay bank charges for taking donations.

A cashless society only plays into the hands of the rich, and the banks who charge per transaction. In their first month of trading, our new local greengrocer store had to fork out around £800 in bank charges for digital/tap transactions. They put an appeal out for people to please pay cash if they can (there's an ATM at the bank next door, for as long as that remains open). Thankfully, most have done so, meaning the grocers aren't frittering away takings to the bank, which keeps overheads and prices low.

Back on topic, as Susie says, the relative anonymity of cash is one of its major strengths. The day we lose that, one more power is stripped from the people.

Huge congratulations to the top 3 and everyone who bared their soul or in some way honoured Elliot by embracing their short-form creativity.

I managed to work my way up over half of them (some I haven't reached are in the top 10, d'oh) and there are some real gems in there.

That there was no shortlist demonstrates how much talent there is on this site, so everyone who entered should pat themselves on the back. And special thanks to the judges who had to read and rank every one.

Usual shouts out to Jen and the mods for keeping up with the deluge of entries, and everyone behind the scenes for keeping the site running. A superb competition.

Hmmm, I didn't realize the workflow was different depending on where you edited the story.

I was under the impression that as soon as you edit a story, a warning box pops up that it will be unpublished. At that point, it goes into your Drafts folder and needs resubmitting, as OF says.

If the popup box isn't showing when you choose Add a Cover, that should probably be addressed in some way to make it clear it will be unpublished and returned to your Drafts for you to resubmit.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
if there’s a top 100 list, there’s probably the entire author list ranked already, but just the top 100 displayed.

Absolutely. The number of authors to show is purely arbitrary. The decision to change that rests with the dev team and site owners.

What is far more taxing programmatically is calculating your rank compared to some other segment of authors to show on your profile.

Quote by pinkysurprise
there are ways to present ranking information beyond just the straight number to avoid the demoralizing effect you mention...

Nice ideas there. If this has any kind of future, the trick will be in computing and comparing it in such a way that it doesn't bring the site to its knees.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of the best way to convert some score value snapshot into a rank text for displaying on your profile (and how often to update it) without slowing things down. It would have to compare your current score with the value from all other users, and slice/order them into tranches.

I can point the developers to this thread and see if anybody has any bright ideas.

Quote by CarltonStJames
I created a spreadsheet and update it with my scores every once in a while to see how far below I am number 100.

Didn't realize this was a thing.

If it's something that interests a lot of writers then we should look at increasing its visibility or perhaps give some indication if you're getting close to the list, to spur you on. Maybe extend the top list a bit (250?). Or introduce a "rank" to show on people's profile, though it might be quite demoralising for a newish author to be shown as Rank: 16,384 or something!

Dunno.

Quote by AvidlyCurious

Here https://www.lushstories.com/top/authors?duration=all
(can find it at the bottom of the home page, under Useful Links)

... and on pages that don't auto-load endless content, thus never allowing you to reach the site footer 🙄

It is downplayed at the moment, tucked away in the footer there. Perhaps there's a way to give it more prominence as a link from the trending stories in each genre or something? Can't see any obvious place to add it, but there might be a way somehow with a little content rejig, perhaps...

Anything's possible but I don't know how much enthusiasm there'll be for extending it. I could ask.

Besides, keeping it at 100 gives those not on the list something to strive for and those on the list something to fight for 😃

(I'm currently only 75th so there's plenty of room for improvement)

Quote by Ensorceled

This link doesn't work?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Serious-Moonlight-Collection-J-Cain-ebook/dp/B0DV5RNN5X

Intriguing. Thank you. Swear I tried that and it didn't come up earlier. Fat fingers, sorry.

I definitely tried using the search on amazon.co.uk for "serious moonlight jg cain" and the full collection didn't show up, only (most of) the individual stories did, except chapters 11 and 14, before the list was exhausted.

Quote by Ensorceled
Must be a victim of that new 25% tariff on porn.

In England?! I hope not, but I wouldn't put it past the government. I suspect this is Amazon being all territorial, as they treat countries as silos.

.com != .co.uk

This title is not currently available in your area

😭

I often spend a considerable amount of time on cover art for my stories, so I appreciate when others do the same. And a good cover can influence, along with the title / strapline, whether I click through. But ultimately, I'm here for the words so any visuals should emphasize what I'm about to read.

Quote by Piquet

As end date approaches,

The poems keep flowing;

Full of fucking and sucking,

Cunts cumming and blowing,

Tales of Dommes, sluts and subs

And those tasty wet nubs,

Bi-curious and straight folks,

Daddy's girls and breeders,

But what we authors love most

Are our horny old readers.

Haha. Very nice. Can't say that mine fits into any of the above, but I think Hallmark might be giving me a call at some point!

https://www.lushstories.com/stories/love-poems/small-riches

Quote by Seeker4
Wonder what the justification for that is

No idea. But at the committee meeting, I suspect it will go along the lines of "anyone using a VPN must be conducting illegal business so let's block that traffic. All in favour, raise your hands... Good. Motion passed."

A big thumbs up from a NordVPN user. They usually offer multi-year deals if you time it right. But annoyingly, and stupidly, some services such as free wifi access points in public spaces block their servers now. Which is ironic because the whole point of me having the damn thing is so I can conduct business more securely with web dev clients than over a free-to-air network entry point.

sigh

YouTube force you to sign in to watch anything via a browser with the VPN enabled ("to protect the community" haha, yeah right) but if you use the app, it's fine.

If there's a place I can't get onto the web over NordVPN I also have one of the freebie ones installed that do in a pinch. Otherwise NordVPN is a solid choice.

I read this shortly after it was published and agree it's a fantastic piece of writing. A well-deserved award indeed.

It also spurred me into publish a piece at the end of last year that had been rattling around my head for ages. So thank you doubly, for this wonderful example of BDSM and denial, and the kickstart to penning my own.

Quote by pinkysurprise
I just submitted all my ebooks

Awesome news. All linked for you (the counter will catch up eventually).

Quote by deviantsusie

Surely masturbation fits into the DIY category? 😊

Teehee

Quote by simplyjohn

...caravanning. If I bundle those articles into a sort of ebook am I ok adding that please?

If caravanning is like dogging, for people with towbars, then sure 😃

Although we have had the ability to upload and list ebooks for a little while now, it's not had much of a fanfare. If you now visit the Author ebooks link in the site footer, you can browse (by recently added / author / title) and search for ebooks by our talented authors on the site, as well as add your own Amazon or Smashwords ebooks so they show up on your profile.

Just supply:

• The title

• A description

• The cover image link

• The Amazon or Smashwords link (they're the only two supported at present)

• The (optional) Amazon ASIN

Hit Add. The moderation team will be notified that your submission is pending and will review it, then approve if it's a good fit for the site. So, please no links to your gardening tips or DIY ebooks (unless they end in nookie).

Please note, adding ebooks are only for authors who publish on lush too.

Hope this feature is useful. Enjoy!

stares

rubs eyes

stares again

Nope. Still not sunk in. Maybe it will tomorrow. The more stories I sat down and read in this fiercely contested competition, the more I felt my chances slipping away. I mean, Lyfbuz and Ensorceled absolutely nailed it. I laughed at the antics surrounding "Amy's Mom" and loved dronette56's take on flashing, and sprite's wacky goat, and people bonking wearing fairy lights, and was whisked away to many imaginative lands full of horny elves and Santas and Mrs Claus' and goodness know how many more well written stories. It's a wonder there was a shortlist of only 15 and I'm absolutely blown away to take 1st place.

Embarassingly, I haven't read some of the stories that made the shortlist so I'll try and make amends, plus catch up on some of the others I didn't reach.

Congratulations to my fellow podiumers, the remaining top 15, and everyone who set their imagination to 'fun and naughty' mode by entering. Lush comps always bring out the best in our talented community of writers here. Thanks to everyone who read, voted and commented on stories. And of course, behind the scenes, thank you to the judges, Jen and the moderators who kept up with the entries piling in daily on top of the already bulging moderation queue, and the team keeping the server plates spinning.

Thank you all.

Lumping them at the top of the page is probably not gonna work. Just because someone has bought Platinum doesn't make their stories any more or less important, or better written, than anyone else.

I'd honestly get rid of the highlight altogether. There are plenty of other Gold/Platinum perks like increased media and messaging limits, plus the little extra editing assistance from moderators.

Not my decision, though.

The highlight occurs in the moderation queue as an extra clue for us to know where the priority stories end and the rest begin. But they're mixed with the Golds anyway, in order of submission, so it doesn't really add anything useful there either. I think the same style rule bled over to the main site and it stuck.

I'd be happy if the highlight died. It looks amateurish, imo. And is patently ridiculous on your own Stories page with a sea of yellowish boxes.

If we were going to go with any highlighting at all, I'd approach it using something like the attached screenshot, with the header bar of each story matching the member ship status and a very very subtle off-white for basic members. That helps delimit the stories in lists and grids, and makes the page easier to visually scan too. Silver and platinum are still a bit too similar, but y'know, details...

Quote by dave5360
why do some stories have a light yellow background

As far as I'm aware, that horrible background is on stories written by anyone who is a Platinum account holder. I've no idea why someone chose to highlight stories based on who has bought that membership. There was probably a reason lost in the mists of time.

Pro tip: if you use dark mode, there's no differentiation at present.

Quote by centrum1000
If a character is drinking and conscious and not being coerced but acts a little more freely than they might normally even though it’s of their own free will is that problematic?

No, that's fine.

Quote by centrum1000
Let’s say a guy puts a woman under and while in trace he asks her to undress. Under normal circumstances if he had gone up to her and asked her to do that she would say no, but under trance she agrees. Is that problematic?

As long as she agrees to the hypnosis and agrees beforehand to whatever he does, it's fine.

The key is establishing consent. He could even say, "You realise I could make you do things you wouldn't normally do, like undress?" If she says that's fine, it's game on.

Edit: There are grey areas of course (reluctance) so if she half-heartedly says "no we shouldn't" but is into it and moaning... well, it may be okay. Just proceed with caution.

Quote by centrum1000
when does being drunk cross the line of consent?

When the person does something, or is coerced into doing something, out of character or they're uncomfortable with, because they're unable to make an informed decision due to being under the influence.

Same with mind control. Suggestion is fine, but the ultimate choice over whether to go through with any act must be taken by the individual, either at the time or prearranged.