Quote by techgoddess

So much for 2026 being a better year. 🙁

Technically, it’s early. We’ve got 357 days to turn this ship around. Maybe. Hopefully.

Morning, Rumps. It’s been a week. And yesterday's ICE shooting here in Minneapolis… Yeah, fucked up. I am spinning a little. Or a lot.

Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, it should NEVER go this far.

Grabbing a to-go cup of the Lumberjack coffee blend and heading out to start my day. Extra cream today, please, to hopefully cut down on my bitter mood.

Happy Birthday, Kis!

Quote by wxt55uk

For me, it took about 2 years, but things can change quickly. I wrote a short I/F series and picked up 268 followers in a month... So, I went from something like 30 to around 300 followers in one month based on those 4 stories. I always wondered if that was a monthly Lush follower record. 😳

That’s crazy! It seems like are certain categories - I/F stories being one of them - that get a lot of reads, which I assume translates to followers.

I just realized that I hit 100 followers over the weekend! Started looking at my story stats. I joined Lush 67 days ago. I’ve published 8 stories (well, four “real” stories, one of which was spread across five chapters). And I’ve had almost 25,000 reads. I know that doesn’t sound like much. But I am feeling very humbled right now. 😊

Quote by Seeker4

Here's the band I am currently obsessing over. Very talented young ladies from Argentina.

Thanks for sharing, Ape. I like it. I will have to check out their other material.

Quote by fuzzy1954

Dropping off 6 full racks of Kansas City BBQ ribs & Cole slaw; can't have BBQ without Kansas City Boulevard Wheat beer as we all enjoy football.

🏉

I’ve got friends and family in the KC area. Love me some good KC BBQ and Boulevard. Granted, I went gluten free several years ago, which makes Boulevard and corn bread a no-go now. 😢

Watching the Packers right now. Nothing to play for this weekend. We have the 7th seed locked up. They are playing mostly 2nd and 3rd string players. Feels like August. Meh.

Quote by Seeker4

Good luck. I have some of my team going for AI development training later this month for a major project we've kicked off. I'm just project manager, not doing any dev work myself, so I am not taking it. Leaving it to the pros, so to speak. 😋

Small world. I spent a good chunk of my career in the PM space. Now I straddle that and digital product management.

Before I became a project manager, I was developer (20-30 years ago). I will always be a bit of a tech nerd and am fascinated by emerging technologies. My company doesn’t pay for any “technical” AI training, so I just do on my own.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

I’m so jealous! My cat Butters would never let me sleep anywhere close to 10am.

My dog is up at 6am every day! She will lay there, patiently waiting, until 8am on weekends. But then the “I am bored” whimpering starts. She doesn’t necessarily need to go outside, she’s not a breakfast/food motivated dog. She just gets bored being locked in a room with her people.

My wife got up earlier than me this morning and took care of her, so I was free to be lazy. It was wonderful!

Quote by Seeker4

Trying to write but I just don't seem to be engaged at the moment. Kind of poking around, learning stuff about Linux instead of actually writing. Oh well. The mood will hit me sooner or later.

I am in the reverse boat. I really need to focus on some AI certifications I’ve been pursuing and maybe dive deeper Peyton. But I keep coming up with new story ideas and I feel like I need to put words on paper. Sigh.

Quote by wxt55uk

I wasn't going to drop by Rumpee's today, but I got something to celebrate: 500 Lush followers. 😊

Congratulations, David! That is awesome!!

Quote by techgoddess

Three of us enjoyed the movie “Song Sung Blue” last night. I knew that Hugh Jackman could sing, but I didn’t know that Kate Hudson had such an incredible voice.

I have heard good things about the move.

The funny thing is that I had friends who went to college at UW Milwaukee in the early 90s. I’ve seen Thunder and Lightning several times, including when they performed with Eddie Vedder during a Pearl Jam concert at Summerfest in 1995.

Quote by fuzzy1954

This here's the question is three sets enough or does everyone's souls ask for more??

More. The answers is always ‘more’. ❤️🎶

Oh, and Happy 2026 everyone!!!!

Morning, Rumps!

Happy NYE to each and every one of you, including those who I have not met yet.

Just a quick fly by this morning. A little 454 Horse Power coffee blend with a dash or cream in my travel mug, and I am out the door to run some errands.

Quote by techgoddess

I realized that I skipped the number 28 in my Hot Wife Hotel series. Since 29 picks up right where 27 left off, I am working on a story that involves another hot wife taking on one of Olivia’s clients while she's on vacation for story 28. Still working on a title since it won't be Olivia. But I have some ideas. 😉

Funny, I would have just edited “29” to “28” and called it good. Adding a filler story, and one that doesn’t involve Olivia... I am impressed!

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Real football 🏈! Not that other football that some erroneously call soccer. ⚽️

I love both! Granted, my beloved Packers are self-destructing. It’s kinda embarrassing. However, my other “football” club, Arsenal, is still at the top of the table. Granted, they’ve got a brutal three matches coming up over the next 12 days.

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday! I feeling a little under the weather today, so I think I am going to pass on the Folgers and dive right into the green tea.

Quote by sprite

Just announce me the winner now. it'll save time

You can’t win if you don’t play, sprite.

But when I win, I will share some of my Skittles with you. 😉

Quote by Seeker4

Tea box is probably on a shelf under the bar. It keeps getting mislaid. There's actually a good selection. But here's some Buddha's Blend. It's a blend of white and green with jasmine and hibsicus. Favourite of mine from up here in the Great Slippery North.

Much appreciated, Ape! 😊

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Tea Kettle is refilled and ready. There are pots of Yorkshire and Earl Grey teas available on the sideboard, plus all the other fine teas in the box. Sachets of Swiss Miss are available, along with some multi-coloured mini marshmallows.

Digging around the tea kettle, looking for some white tea. Nothing. Green tea? Nada. Ugh, Bear… Your killing me. Fine, I guess it’s a Swiss Miss Saturday afternoon.

I went down a rabbit hole over the past day and a half. I’ve been staring at the second story that I ever wrote for a few weeks now. It was something I wrote over a year ago, shortly after writing the original draft of Open Secrets. Like Open Secrets, it was LONG, coming in at over 30,000 words. Well, 10+ hours later and I have something that feels brand new. Not only is it now a mere 8500 words, it feels like what I had envisioned when first wrote it. I am exhausted. But it feels good. Really fucking good.

Now I just need to wait for January 3. I have one other story that is also ready to go. I will probably submit the other story first, since that one is shorter and a little more mod-friendly. It sounds like some mods are apprehensive to dive into longer stories, so I want to give them some time with this one.

I appreciate the thoughtful responses.

It looks like each of you have written a LOT of stories, across multiple categories. I have seen several authors on Lush who are able to seamlessly write from very different perspectives - male vs female, straight vs. bi vs. gay/lesbian, 1st person vs. 3rd person.

I’ve dabbled in 1st person vs. 3rd. One of the stories I will be submitting after the mod break is told from a female perspective. So I am slowly branching out.

I am curious… I am guessing most of you started writing with a unique voice. Maybe you were naturally drawn to a certain category. You were probably happy what you were publishing. You were probably getting positive feedback from readers, which encouraged you to keep writing. But then you started thinking... What else? Eventually, you started to stretch. What triggered that? What was that moment like? If that happened to you, do you occasionally go back to your roots? Or have you moved on and are you more interested in continuing to push yourself as an author?

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

This poll might provide some context from a reader perspective.

Interesting. Thank you for sharing!

I am struggling with this right now, but for different reasons.

I am leaning on just going with close to the max 10,000 words. While I could break the story up, I am struggling to find good break points where I don’t lose momentum.

Part of my conundrum is the nature of my story. I am swerving outside of my comfort zone and going with a futa transformation story. My concern is that if a reader comes into the story in chapter two or three, they are going to be really confused and just walk away, even I start with a brief synopsis.

Worst case, the story is not well received and lesson learned.

Good morning, y’all! And Happy Boxing Day! I will take a cup of the Koffee Kult dark Roast, with a little extra cream. And not because I am hung over. I just dig a little cream in my java.

And great 2nd set, my fuzzy friend! Perfect music as my wife and get ready to start pulling down our Christmas decorations.

Thanks, Kimmi. I appreciate the well thought out response! Lots of things to think about.

I’ve published three stories on Lush. (Technically seven, but five are part of a series.) I am working on finalizing my next two stories and I realized something.

It dawned on me last weekend that several things in my stories feel redundant, at least to me. If you redacted my characters’ names across the stories, they could easily be the same people. While the backstories are unique, the banter often feels too similar. And the sex scenes… They feel very ‘rinse and repeat’, right down to me using the same words again and again, only in different ways.

With one of the stories, I am taking several steps back and trying to change my voice and my writing style. Here is the thing; it doesn’t feel natural. I am playing with new words, different phrasings, even different punctuation. Considering that I am a new author with no formal training, the fact that this is difficult should not be a surprise. It has been very challenging. And humbling. But even then, when I get to the sex - Déjà vu.

I am curious if other authors here started in a similar place. How did you move beyond feeling like a one trick pony?

Or am I overthinking this?

I’ve got a story I’ve been sitting on for over a year. Different category than most of my other stuff, much more complex story.

I was struggling to give it the ending it deserved. Last weekend, I had an idea and it worked! The perfect ending!

The one thing that was weighing on me was the length of the story. It was sitting at almost 35,000 words! After releasing my first story (Open Secrets - 25,000+ words) over five installments, I was hesitant to roll out another series. So I’ve been trying to knock the story down to under 10,000 words without losing the story or diminishing the characters. It’s been challenging, but I am close. I hope to get this out in wild shortly into the new year!

Quote by LYFBUZ

I've read all the Comp entries and there are some great stories including a whole bunch by Rumps regulars. Gonna be a tough one to judge I think.

How are comps judged? Purely subjective, based on a small group of mods? Are likes/favorites/comments taken into account? Just curious.

And yes, there are some amazing entries. Regardless of how the winners are picked, I am excited to see who wins!

Quick fly by this morning...

Merry Christmas Eve to all you here at Rumps! And for those that do not celebrate Christmas, I hope you and your loved ones are having a safe and joyous holiday season!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone here. You’ve all been super welcoming since I barged through the front door a few weeks ago, a half-used bag of coffee in hand, and threw an obscure alt-country song on the jukebox. Don’t get me wrong. The beans were high-end. And the song was pretty freakin’ awesome. 😎

The is an amazing place filled with special people. When I finally built up the confidence to start sharing some stories that had been percolating on my Mac, and I decided that Lush was the site I wanted to do that, I had no idea I would stumble across such an amazing group of people. So, again, thank you so much! ❤️

On top of that, you are all amazing writers. My view of what “erotica” can be has expanded so much over the past two months. And in a large part, that is due to several of you.

Gotta run. I will take a hot cup of those Trung Nguyen special "mountain beans” for the road. Need a little something for the final commute into the office for 2025.

Quote by techgoddess

Having a shitty day. I'd like a very large glass of Moscato.

I just spent time reporting that an author named Elaine Phillips stole and published Hot Wife Hotel and The Office Whore in October and November of 2020 on Amazon. I am so angry.

I am so sorry, Kat. That is horrible.

I never ever thought about people coming to sites like this, taking content, and then re-publishing it elsewhere.

I hope you are able to get it taken down.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Merry Christmas Eve Eve.

My plans are changing. Son was in hospital with Flu A. He’s recovering at his dad’s house.

Hope your son feels better soon, Kimmi! And good luck with your dad. Lots going on. Hugs.

Quote by fuzzy1954

Kansas City Chiefs are moving across the state border into Kansas City Kansas. The new stadium (with dome) is projected to top 4 billion $$ yes that's with a CAPITAL B, schedule to open in 2031 season.

Bummed everyone is going with domes. I grew up going to games at Lambaeu Field and there is something about football outside in the snow and the rain.