It’s been a crazy year in Las Vegas. Of course, they all are.

The ginormous MSG/Venetian Sphere is complete, the world’s largest sphere and the world’s largest, most brilliant video screen in a single unprecedented construction. U2 will kick off the first residency a few weeks from now. It’s completely bonkers, which is to say it fits right into Sin City.

That’s on top of the Horseshoe and delay-plagued Fontainebleu casinos opening, Netflix’s hot new series Obliterated filming locally, Elon expanding his Boring Hyperloop, and a Grand Prix F1 race to roar through town.

And then there’s the heat. My God, the heat! Even hotter (but more boring Phoenix) stole the headlines with over a solid month of 110-plus temperatures, but Vegas has been insanely hot too.

Amid all the absurdity of Las Vegas, this threeway happened: Boss Vegas.

Find a cold drink in a place with some air conditioning and enjoy.

Echoing other comments so far, I think the sweet spot for most stories really is 2-4k words. That’s enough to develop a real story with details and desires that entice me as a reader. I will admit that when I see that a story is over 4000 words, or even much over 3000, my eyes sometimes glaze over or I try to find something shorter to read.

I think the current competition solidly anchored the low end (except maybe for chapters in multi-part stories). It’s just enough to tell a truly compelling story. But doing so within that constraint requires a lot of careful writing for clarity and economy, which may be why we are seeing such amazing entries in this round. Seems like a sweet spot, though there will always be a call for the occasional Flash competition or epic, as we had with the Noir one.

I should point out that although the Noir entries were fantastic, sadly months later these 10k-word masterpieces don’t seem to have racked up that many views. There’s a lot of value in balancing the need to fully and vividly tell a story with the need to do that in as few words as possible.

The fourth chapter, also published last summer, describes how we internalize our attraction:

• Friendship, internalized (MM): Internal Affair

Now I've picked up the story where it left off, in the middle of the night of the first encounter and then a blazing lunchtime encounter. I will continue Joe and Rick's ongoing adventures in further chapters that are in the works.

• Renewal renewed! Nocturnal Missions (MM): Dreaming and Creaming

• Sex on a dessert (?!) island (MM): Island Pleasures

I found a new best friend after suffering a divorce and moving to a new town.

The first three chapters, published last summer, describe the leadup and the tentative action as my best friend, in a loving but platonic marriage, makes himself available, and we start to fill the holes in each other's lives ... and bodies.

• Is my best friend flirting with me (MM)? Awareness

• Getting hands-on (MM):Handy Men

• Mouths where our hands were (MM): Blow Bi Blow

Yep, happening to me too, on both Apple mobile and laptop devices. Fortunately the site seems fully functional otherwise.

I have never gotten one either. And like Kistin, do not want an app for this on my phone. Happy with the browser experience.

I agree, the term is becoming widely misused by people who don’t really understand it, or being abused as a therapy-speak weapon.

By the way, I highly recommend the movie Gaslight, from which it originated. Includes an early performance by none other than Angela Lansbury.

Still gotta say, although I prefer full, I could live with nearly trimmed. But fully shaved still makes my subconscious scream “CHILD!”. No hair at all means no boner at all. Deal killer. Full stop.

Quote by Icarus4

Uninteresting.

I would love to learn that lesson through personal experience.

Got it! No code at all. See cleaner signature below. Thanks for the tip. Maybe I was just overthinking how to do it.

As you can see on my signature, all the links I have there, and in my Profile, and every forum post I’ve ever made, show the full text of the URL spelled out. I see lots of people whose links have shorter non-URL text displayed, which is a lot cleaner.

How do I do this? I’ve found a couple of threads in the search that talk about it, but since they’re working, I can’t see the link code that makes them work. I know some variation or combination of [ CODE ] and/or [ URL ] tags is needed, but I’m not getting it quite right. Can someone tell me what is wrong with this attempt:

[CODE][URL=“https://www.lushstories.com/stories/bisexual/buff-bluff-in-banff”]Buff Bluff in Banff[/URL][/CODE]

Quote by Icarus4

I have recently read that Lucifer and the Archangel Michael were brothers. What a curious story that would be but likely almost impossible to build sex into as per Lush requirements.

Well, you’d be confined to the category, but other than that …

So apparently knowing the people involved makes it not an orgy? That’s a new one on me. I thought it just meant group sex (meaning more than four or so people).

No, just adding text in MacOS’ Preview app, which is about as primitive as it gets. Will have to try the cover designer soon.

Lately, yes, because I’ve been writing a lot. Stimulates me even more than reading sexy stories.

I’m only just getting started using images, but I’ve been managing to find suitable clean images on creazilla.com, which gives you legal right to use them, or imagefap.com for the sexual ones. The latter can be a real black-hole waste of time looking for what you need, but I guess that’s why it is called that.

I sometimes see authors addressing the reader parenthetically as “gentle Reader” or “dear Reader,” which is far better than “you,” explicit or implied. But I think it’s usually best avoided. I usually will only break the Fourth Wall for humorous purposes, as I did twice in Dick Job, but otherwise I usually leave the reader out as a party to the narration. Author’s Notes are a better place to do it if you really have to.

Thanks. I can’t even imagine holding a candle to some of the amazingly imaginative stories entered so far. In comparison, mine is a fairly straightforward narrative around finding myself - and others. I’m trying to make up for my lack of originality by cramming a truckload of sex into it. 😀 Plus my trademark alliterations.

In my Free Spirit competition entry, I lose my job and decide to slash expenses by spending six months touring the Rockies from Mexico to Canada, meeting plenty of kindred spirits (and bodies!) along the way. This story is crammed with six sex scenes in just 2000 words, cu(l)minating in one final fateful farewell in Banff National Park.

https://www.lushstories.com/stories/bisexual/buff-bluff-in-banff

Whew! I don’t think there’s a single paragraph that hasn’t been rewritten ten times, but I got ‘er done. See Buff Bluff in Banff link in my signature.

Quote by joe71

Also got first and second drafts done on my competition entry, an idea for which I wrote the synopsis more than a decade ago, but only now started fleshing out. I’m also making it more epic … yes, I know it has to come in under 2000 words, but I think I just might pull it off.

I guess I did! See link in my signature.

Definitely not the specter of my eleventh grade English teacher, though. True story: said teacher accused me of plagiarism when I wrote a better paper than she thought I was capable of. Dronette has done nothing of the sort.

Hey, if I can do it, so can you guys!

As for my own story, I’ve been heavily rewriting, still hovering just around 2000 words, as I find branches here and there to pare, making room to return some of the hot dialogue and banter.

I do wish I could add back the two sex scenes I dropped, but they’re not as important to the story (yes, there is one!). One of those may someday become a separate story.

Quote by NishasWorld

It interests me if I’m faced with picking short and curlies out of my teeth all night. Just saying. 😙X

Most of that can be eliminated if your partner simply brushes beforehand. Having never had sex with anyone who was shaved down there, I know this well. Then again, I’ve always seen the occasional hair in the back of my throat as a tolerable occupational hazard.

Once I drunkenly took home a horny seventeen year old girl I met at a party. I was twenty-four and should have known better. That was legal in my state, but wouldn’t have been in some others.

The list of people I should have had sex with, but didn’t, is far, far longer. Those missed opportunities drive much of my writing.

Wow, congratulations! Impressive accomplishments, not least being forced to review several of my stories.

What am I not working on right now?

Having finally finished off the It’s a Date series the other day, I’m resuming my Midlife Renewal series after nearly a year’s pause, with the next two chapters nearly ready to go.

Also got first and second drafts done on my competition entry, an idea for which I wrote the synopsis more than a decade ago, but only now started fleshing out. I’m also making it more epic … yes, I know it has to come in under 2000 words, but I think I just might pull it off.

After that, I’ve got a threeway (FFM) superheated by the southwest heat dome whose first draft is almost done. A collaboration with another prolific Lush author still in outline-plus form. Possibly a second collab with another member, who hasn’t published yet. Then a summery Watersports flash story, and by October I want to finish the lesbian proxy story that I’ve also had in synopsis form for over a decade.

Those are the ones I consider to be in “actively working on” status, anyway.

Quote by krystalg

Lucky you! My final drafts are always like that.

I would beg to differ, but I understand feeling that way about one’s own writing.

Oh, and after some editing last night, I got mine down from 3400 to 2400. Wasn’t too difficult, but the next four hundred words are going to be more painful. What to cut? Sex scenes, exposition and explanation (always the low hanging fruit, but pared back fairly clean last night), or dialogue? I’ve got six sex scenes in there, but I consider then all important to the story.

And about the only dialogue left is the buildup to the final blowout scene. Don’t want to cut too much of that because those lines are good banter that heighten the tension, but I’ve avoided that so far and I’m afraid that’s where the next cuts will have to be. Decisions, decisions.

Saturday update: looks like this thing’s gonna fly! 1989 words, and I still have all six sex scenes, though I lost some playful dialogue. I’m far from done, of course, with lots of heavy wordsmithing to come,

First draft completed! Gonna be dripping with free love … er, sex. Just have to cut it down from 3400 words.

It will take some effort to economize my writing that much, but I just did the same earlier this week, trimming my newest story down from 2800 to 1600, and making it hotter in the process (sharpens machete). My first drafts are always rambling and repetitive.

My interest has definitely intensified in my fifties. More and more often dreaming about a hard, warm, throbbing pecker pumping a load down my throat.