April’s Writing To-Do List
I don't know what anyone else thinks, but I like creating these Author Check List graphics. I operate with to-do lists, yellow stickies and checklists galore. It’s the easiest way for me to keep on track and focus on what’s happening right in front of me. Even at work, there’s so much swirl, but my stickies keep me focused. If I write it on a sticky and make a little box to check off later, it’ll get done.
In our last episode, so to speak, I was headed to India. And so, for two weeks, there were a few posts that I lined up ahead of time, but otherwise I was too busy with traveling halfway around the globe, a massive time shift, a three-day wedding celebration and some amazing fun in the middle of it all. If you follow me on Instagram, you surely saw some pictures. For Substack’s purposes, all my pictures are made with words.
Now, let’s get right to the list because there’s a lot!
I’ve got 28 episodes of Dorothy: Locked & Loaded (out of 150) on the website now, and we’re 21 episodes into DLL on Substack. It’s time to crank up the pace a bit, so I’ll be adding 4-5 episodes per week here on Substack (as well as trying to keep up on my website). We’re getting into the meat of the story now. Dot and the Scarecrow are in danger and about to meet. The Lion is about to show you who he really is. The Tin Man is heading toward Kiamo Ko, as is Glinda’s TikTok army — lots of implications there. And all around them, there are extra characters swirling in and out of the story. One thing I really enjoyed as a side or backstory was this idea of revolution brewing against Glinda, and we’ll see that start to take shape soon. Stay tuned!
Gulliver’s Travels: The Broligarchy — if you missed it, I’m posting this on another Substack, but I did post a teaser and the first episode here. This is a political satire, and I got the idea from reading not the actual Gulliver’s Travels, although I did conduct some research on it, but from reading Mili Manara’s version, “Gullivera”. (See illustration below) Regardless, the premise here is that a crafty journalist from a foreign nation washes ashore in Gigaland, the globe’s most advanced and insidious technostate (draw your own conclusions), and she decides to infiltrate the ruling broligarchy, investigate it and expose it. This is not erotica; it’s pure political satire told in a whimsical way with a variety of social media-like plug-ins. Episode 3 will hit the streets today.
New things coming this week and later in April!
The first episode of P.U.G.H. will come on The Fictional: After Dark on Tuesday (1 April), as promised. The PUGH Society is something I developed before I went to India, and I refined many aspects of the idea while I was there. Picture a shadow criminal element underpinning society, a la John Wick’s world, and somewhere in the mix is the PUGH Society vying for dominance. But unlike John Wick’s world full of death and mayhem and gun-fu, the PUGH Society operates with guile and deception, allure and deviancy to gain power and overcome its enemies. It starts with this first chapter, a hint of things to come and an introduction to the most pivotal characters in the series. You can find an excerpt here and an audio teaser here.
The River is back after a couple of weeks, and I’ve decided to take this one-week-at-a-time quite literally. I added Chapter 7 to this steamy erotic story set in New Orleans on Friday. Caroline is trying to find her place in the world since her husband was murdered. Those same elements are coming after her, so she seeks solace and safety in the arms of Ethan Kingfisher, a dashing and maybe not so upstanding member of the Big Easy elite. I’ve decided to write this one on the fly each week using a loose outline and a reasonably clear idea of how I want it to end, but I’ll leave it up the creative juices to get the job done, and you can find a new chapter of The River on The Fictional: After Dark on Fridays.
This week, out of the blue, I began writing 'Pledge Night,' an erotic horror short story about a young woman who joins the sorority her sister and mother joined years before her. It’s my first foray into erotic horror, but the images you see below have been waiting on me to write about them. I posted a teaser yesterday, and the rest of the story should be done soon. This specific tale is part of a longer short story anthology I’ve been putting together than will be called “Instructions for Strange Desires.”
And finally, besides “go to bed early” on my checklist, which I’m doing more of (and add in “go to the gym” — we just joined the gym again), there’s one more story that I’ve started playing with. It’s called Circuit Breakers.
Circuit Breakers is a short story for “Instruction for Strange Desires” that revolves around a map-cap race in a future New York City. Think Death Race meets Escape from New York. Every year, the city of New York erupts without warning. A secret, untelevised death race crashes into everyday life — a chaotic, five-lap circuit through civilian traffic where racers earn points for speed, style, and high-speed crimes in the dead of night. The event isn’t announced. The streets aren’t cleared. Regular citizens are collateral. Vega Sine was born here. She was orphaned here. And years ago, she lost her sister to this race — not in flames, but in silence. No wreckage. No explanation. Just erased. Now, Vega is behind the wheel of a ghost-black car with no sponsors, no cameras, and one mission: find the racer who made her sister disappear...and make sure they never finish another lap.
And that, as they say, is a wrap. I’m having a fucking good time writing all this shit, so I hope you’re having a fucking good time reading it. Peace!