In light of the recent craziness here on FA, I'm posting this just to give some idea to where I post stuff. Not leaving here, just posting a few alternatives. I'm relatively new to most of them, so I'm still playing catch-up on most of the other sites. But it's coming along.

SoFurry: https://r3ynard09.sofurry.com
Furry Network beta: https://beta.furrynetwork.com/r3ynard/
Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~r3ynard

I have decided to spread my, ah, sphere of creative influence, so to speak beyond just FA to other sites for sharing art and that sort of thing. I would call it a conquest, but it's been quite slow and not terribly aggressive, to say the least. Namely, I have opened an account over on Weasyl which can be found here. I'm interested in sharing my works in different ways with folks, and this seemed like a unique opportunity to do that. Perhaps I'm late to the party, or the party has ended. Dunno. Guess I'll find out.

My handle over there is r3ynard because I fucking hate the 'kbob' username. It was originally intended as more of a placeholder over here when I didn't intend to contribute all that much. Guess that didn't turn out as expected.

To celebrate opening this new account, I have posted a new, 'preferred' edition of Tabitha Crane, my first long-form story over on my Weasyl account. It'll be exclusive over there, at least for the time being. See this journal for more particulars on the whole 'preferred edition' bit. It's a bit long-winded, but it's all there.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy, and like my status or retweet my thing or whateverthefuck.
Cheers!

Here is some general framework for how I will go about accepting commissions from interested folks.

The “Rules”

I have written predominantly in the macro/micro end of things, and that is what I am most known for, but commissioned works do not need to fall under that category. Stories commissioned can be erotic or not, though overtly erotic subject matter will cost a bit extra—think potentially sensual versus overtly sexual.

I reserve the right to refuse any commission, whether for reasons of personal taste or because I feel I would not be able to adequately complete the piece. Some hard limits include scat, underaged characters (within a sexualized context), necrophilia, or things of that ilk.

Commission Organization Structure

While I strive to work quickly and efficiently, I value quality. Writing inherently takes a bit more time than, say, a sketch. However, I understand that commissioners will want their piece in a timely manner.

In keeping with this, after a commission is accepted, I will send the commissioner an outline within the following few days, up to a week. Once this has been approved, we will be good to move ahead in more earnest. Depending upon the length of the commission, I will send either one rough draft or a few draft “chunks” to show my progress and get any feedback before publishing a finalized piece.

This structure can be discussed on a case by case basis as well.

An exception to the above will be with flash fiction; with things that short, an outline seems a bit overkill. I will provide a quick synopsis/proposal rather than a full-on outline.

After completion, the commissioner will receive a .docx and a PDF of the story (or some other format, depending upon preference). If the commissioner doesn’t have a problem with it, I will publish the story to my feed with credit to the commissioner a week or so after completion.

Pricing
I’ll handle payments through PayPal, as that tends to be the easiest for both parties. I trade in USD via email/invoice.

Price points and breakdown will be by word count. It seems the easiest and fairest way to break things down, as dialogue and things like that can easily bloat page counts given the formatting I often use.

I tend to be a little long-winded, so if my word count strays a little north of whatever the initial agreement is, the extra stuff won’t be upcharged, that’s just a little “bonus” for me not knowing when to shut up.

In general, here are my break points for works, along with examples whenever possible:

Flash Fiction (100-1,000 words) -- $10 ($12 for erotic) Star of Wonder, Terraforming
Mini Story (1,000-3,000 words) -- $15 ($18 for erotic) Length-wise, pretty much any individual chapter from one of my longer stories is a good reference.
Short Story (3,000-6,000 words) -- $30 ($40 for erotic) Bad Moon Rising
“Long” Story (6,000-10,000 words) -- $50 ($65 for erotic) In a Time of Giants

Payment for projects under $20 will be due upon completion of the work. For projects over that price point, half of the payment will be due after the initial outline, and the other half due after completion and delivery of the piece.

What I Need from a Potential Commissioner

-- A reliable contact method (email works best for me)
-- A description of what you would like, generally speaking or more specific
-- Source material for the story, such as a back-story, character descriptions, etc
-- Desired story length (falling under one of the above categories)

If you made it through this wall 'o' text, congratulations! If you’re still awake, still more congratulations!

I'm always looking for new possibilities to explore as a writer, and one thing I haven't yet considered is commissioned works. This has been in part due to time constraints and various other conflicts of time. But now I find myself with a fair bit more free time than I've had in recent years.

Commissions are interesting to me: I like seeing the stuff--art, writing, or otherwise--that others have produced on commission. If I were to take it on, it would be an interesting challenge, and something that I would hope would be rewarding for both myself and the commissioner.

However, at this stage, there are a lot of things to consider. I was wondering a couple of things. First off, if anyone who writes and has done commissions has any pointers or advice, I'm all ears. I have some ideas as to how to work the logistics based on looking around, but hearing from folks with more experience is always nice. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I'm trying to gauge interest in this if I were to go ahead and open a couple of slots. Feel free to shoot me a PM if commenting isn't comfortable or whatnot. Just testing the waters at this point.

Cheers, and a belated happy new year to all.

It's been a little while since my last submission, and unfortunately it will be a little while longer (in all likelihood) before that changes. I just thought I would give a little bit of a status update, if only for shits and giggles.

I am taking something of a mini-hiatus from Maelstrom. A new idea or two has popped into my head and I am roughing those out to give myself a bit of a break from that long story. I would rather complete something that I feel decently happy with and take a bit longer doing so than quickly slop out something that's half-assed. Whether that gets completed before or after the conclusion of Maelstrom is up in the air, but I will likely hold onto it until the final part of Maelstrom is out there on the inter webs (we're shooting for 15 parts in total, for those keeping score at home). I've got an assload of weekends that I'm either working or on call for work through November, so I guess we'll just see how it all goes, though.

Just thought folks might be interested.

I'm not terribly vocal on this site, but I think this merits some sort of musing. If only for the purpose of unpacking my own baggage for myself.

Writing about the escapades of Roger, et al. has been a long endeavor, and it's one that I'm not certain I can, or want to, finish. This story arc is, and has always been intended to be, the final one. The latest episode has been a labor, as they all have been to one extent or another. That's writing, for better or worse. It's what makes writing rewarding in the long haul. But this episode has been especially bloody, undergoing pointless revision after pointless revision, drunk and listening to Sufjan Stevens. It's all a mess, going nowhere, more an idiotic navel-gazing diary entry than anything meaningful or interesting. In the past, the area of drunken existential crisis has led to writing that I can be variably proud of. But that well has dried up.

I'll be leaving Seattle and all that is familiar soon, for a night position at a large medical center elsewhere in the Northwest. And as everything familiar in my life starts to fall apart, I'm not certain I have the energy or the drive to continue these stupid stories.

I started to write this story arc with the pretentious and lofty goal of saying something profound about the futility of life. But I realize that doesn't matter. You can't take bullshit fetish material and transform that into Art. Writing about awful relationships and a sense f purposeless emptiness is all well and good, but why look at any of that when you can stare at the umpteenth picture of an anthropomorphic animal fucking the planet. So I might continue. But I might not. I really don't know.

If I do, it will be at a slow pace, as I'm certain the three people who give two shits about what I write know. If I stop, I'm terribly sorry, but that's how it will have to be. I would rather end prematurely than gasp out a resigned and half-assed conclusion out of some bullshit sense of obligation. Should I stop, I will publish all of my extant material, writing, notes, or otherwise, so that anyone who is interested may have some idea as to the conclusion of this silly arc.

Thank you.

So I finally decided to bite the bullet and get a Twitter account. So if that's something you're into, you can follow me-- SaaduutsWriter.

Hi all!

First off, a bit of an update: I've started to outline my next large story arc, so that should be coming along at some point.

Anywho. I've been working on a side project that I would love to share with you all. Some of you may be familiar with the interactive stories on Writing.com. While the site itself has gone a little by the wayside, the format of an interactive story presents some interesting opportunities for a more free-form story. The other fun aspect is, of course, the ability to have multiple people working on it. So the more the merrier: if you're interested, don't hesitate to add on a chapter or two! Below is the link for the writing.com story:

http://www.writing.com/main/interac.....82-Big-Biotech

To quote the blurb from the beginning of the story: Genex Biotechnologies is a hot up-and-coming biotech firm. It's gotten recognition for being on the forefront of progress in the field, earning grudging respect from its competitors for the genius of its technologies and ruthless business strategy of its leadership. But what the rest of the tech world doesn't know is that Genex is developing a top-secret device capable of dramatically changing the size of objects. With this sort of tech in the wrong hands, anything is possible.

I have also begun working on this story on interactive story software called Twine. It is IMHO a freer and more aesthetically pleasing format, but it's a bit of a pain in the ass for a bunch of people to use. So, if you add to the writing.com version, I will transfer it to the Twine so we can have a "pretty version" developing alongside the working draft. Twine also allows for essentially limitless options in terms of branching story lines, so if you encounter a limitation in the Writing.com version you want to pursue, just let me know and we can work things out.

I'm thinking about doing some sort of livestream-y thing at some point(s) in the near future. I figure it'll be a fun, new thing to do, and a nice change from the norm. Plus, it might help kick the writing blasé I've been having of late. Anyway, that prompts two questions:

(1) Folks who do/have done this sort of thing: is Livestream good, or is there some other service that's better that I just haven't heard of before?

(2) Would anyone actually be interested in this if I did it? I figure there's no point doing it if I'll just be typing away by myself.

I've been going through the files on my account and doing a bit of tidying up, moving all of my pre-Tabitha Crane stories and files into the Scraps folder. I've done this because those stories just don't line up with the new angle and aesthetic to my writing and I'd rather have a clean slate moving forward. Besides, most of them are pretty much crap, to be perfectly honest. They're still there in the Scraps folder if, for whatever reason you were suddenly struck with the desire to read them.

In other news, I am starting work on a follow-up short story to Tabitha Crane. It will probably be a little while yet, as I leave this Saturday to go visit friends and family in the UK for a couple of weeks and then term begins shortly thereafter. But it's on the way.

I got bored with the preset thumbnails for stories and decided to take it upon myself to come up with some new, chapter-specific thingies for the various Tabitha chapters. A bit more difficult than it should have been, given my limited photoshop and drawing skills, but there you go...