Imagination leads to creativity

August 13, 2016

Vivid Imagination

I read this quote on imagination the other day on social media. Though I’m sure I don’t have it exact, word for word, I know that this is the sentiment.

“I don’t subscribe to the stuff I write about. I just have a vivid imagination.”

This statement rings clearly in my psyche. The sentiment allows me to explain to people about the stories I capture in my writings and in my artwork. In short, it describes me in a very succinct way. I believe it fits me to a tee.

When you read the books I write, you feel the anguish my characters feel. Sit inside the minds of the perpetrators as they deliver their punishments to their unwilling victims. Follow along inside the minds of the victims and feel their pain. Identify with the characters and cringe as they do as they suffer their unwanted brutal attacks. Cheer for the sufferer even time they achieve a victory against their attacker.

While I wrote these stories, that is true, picturing myself as the perpetrator is disturbing to me. Violence against any living being, human or otherwise, I find as abhorrent. I cannot imagine me actually doing the violence I write about. Frankly, it turns my stomach. I can’t imagine myself forcibly raping another person, man or woman. It is unimaginable to view myself as a boxer, fighter, soldier or whatever. I just can’t see it. I don’t consider myself a pacifist, I simply abhor the notion of violence against another.

Why is it then that I enjoy movies that portray acts of violence? Why are my favorite video games fraught with hunting down, attacking and killing other characters? I saw a movie the other day, entitled ‘Vice’ starring Bruce Willis. I had never heard of it before. I never saw trailers or other promotions for it. I simply saw it on my online guide and watched it.

While I enjoyed it, I cursed it at the same time. The premise of the movie was one I have been developing on my own to wrap many of my storylines into a single volume. Shit! So now, I can’t use that one anymore. It would have been perfect. But, I digress.

Other people have trouble seeing the conflict in my mind. Most say, “If I can write it, I must be able to do it.” It’s also been suggested that “If I can write it, I must be a misogynist.” While I understand how people make that leap, I don’t agree with it. I simply have an active imagination which I choose to document.

Besides, not all of my imaginative visions are violent. Many are loving, touching scenes of people who are deeply into each other. Others are sexy, usually graphic scenes of the greatest gift Mother Nature could have given the human race. That, of course, is SEX. In case you haven’t noticed. I love sex. I love the beauty I see in mature adult women’s bodies. It doesn’t matter how old they are, how big or small, or whether they are tall or short. The mature, naked female body, in my opinion, is the best gift God or Mother Nature gave us.

Unfortunately, these other scenes running through my imagination are already being written by thousands of other authors. From what I can tell, they sell well enough. If I want my writings to support my lifestyle, perhaps I should write my own.

Sorry but I don’t want to regurgitate the same thing that others are already doing. I want to write unique stories that no one else is writing. Just as I love seeing women who are different from most, who wear asymmetrical clothing, custom jewelry, interesting piercings, gorgeous tattoos and other adornments that are uncommon and individual, I like the idea of writing fresh stories that are unique and different.

What I find most fascinating is the more violent the story, the more graphic and brutal it is, the better it sells. WTF? I recognize that either you like the stories or you don’t. There is no middle ground. I’m okay with that. I’m just thankful for the thousands out there that do like and buy the stories.

Whether you believe me or not, I don’t subscribe, support and live this behavior. It is the product of my vivid imagination. Those closest to me, my friends, family, and lover know the truth. In reality, I’m a pussy. Just don’t try to stop me. That’s when my fangs come out.

In the meantime, as long as people buy it, I’ll continue to write it.

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Care to comment? Please do. I always love reading what others have to say.

Cultural Changes of The ‘Purge Plague’ (Part 5)

August 12, 2016

Cultural Changes caused by The Purge Plague

Over the last four segments, I wrote about the roots of the plague and the causal effects on Mona’s community. In this segment, I cover the cultural effects which resulted.

It should be noted that while the plague was halted, it was not eradicated. Over centuries, people made many attempts to revive the extinct species. Huge stores of seeds were set aside on the chance that one day, they could be replanted. Attempts to germinate these seeds failed. A millennium later, survivors made little progress finding an alternate source of high protein food stores.

In the early days, societal controls fell apart as starving people sought ways to find the nutrition they needed. Populations started to diminish once more. On the verge of succumbing to extinction, the survivors banded together to deal with the stresses of trying to live. Through trial and error, often violent, they eventually settled on a systemized process to select candidates for conversion through random selection. Over centuries, everyone accepted that one day, they would help feed the future generations.

Population Disparity

Due to the disparity of numbers between men to women, it became commonplace for sterile women to supply the bulk of those converted for food. Afterall, they represented more than three quarters of the population. Still though, everyone submitted to conversion processing at some point in their lives. There were no exceptions. From birth to conversion, people lived their life based upon this eventual fate. In between, everything they learned, did and produced was focused meeting the needs of society. They became the primary producers, workers and sex toys. In short, each person lived to serve and contribute.

In summary, due to the inability to satisfy basic nutritional needs, they turned to each other. To manage the conversion process, a complex society arose to fairly deal with the new reality. No one was immune from this fate but a culture developed to de-horrify the practice. In time, the stigma of consuming themselves disappeared. It became a simple fact and accepted as a part of life.

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Excerpts

Excerpts from an interview I gave some months ago. The question explored dealt with the ‘Purge Plague’, a vehicle I invented to explain how Mona’s culture came to be. This is the final installment in a five-part series published over the past several days. Feel free to comment on the link at the bottom. I welcome your insights and opinions.

The ‘Purge Plague’ (Part 4): Physical Changes

August 11, 2016

Physical Changes caused by The Purge Plague

Besides high male mortality rates and a shift in a woman’s difficulty in carrying children, there were other changes to human physiology. The last-ditch gene splicing efforts manifested itself in significant physical changes to the human body.

Woman tended to have longer legs, shorter torso, wider hips and fuller breasts. Fertile women were constantly pregnant, averaging several dozen multiple birth deliveries. Besides feeding their young, they also became the world’s milk and dairy producer. Expressed milk was turned into yogurt, cheese, and other dairy products.

Emotionally, all women became extremely submissive, exchanging power for security. At the same time, most lost their maternal instincts. They were easily sexually aroused, eager to find opportunities to enjoy frequent sexual relations.

Men tended to grow taller and stronger, especially in the shoulders and legs. They picked up the nurturing gene that women lost. They cared for the women and progeny within in their homes. Like women, men were eager for sexual release. Testicles grew larger, tripling daily semen production. Prostates grew in size and strength, producing larger volumes of seminal fluid and stronger ejaculations. As a result, men were more easily able to attain and maintain an erection, capable of delivering vast quantities of viable semen on a daily basis.

For both men and women, lack of regular sexual orgasms resulted in a diminished quality of life. As a consequence, lack of sex lead to irritability, discomfort, anguish, and physical suffering. For men and women, sexual releases several times a day became the norm. Quite literally, life became painful without regular sexual contact among all members of the community.

In my next post

I will summarize the changes to the human race as a result of the ‘Purge Plague’.

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Excerpts from an interview I gave some months ago. The question explored has to do with the ‘Purge Plague’, a vehicle I invented to explain how Mona’s culture came to be. This is the fourth installment in a five-part series that I will publish over the next several days. Feel free to comment on the link at the bottom. I welcome your insights and opinions.

Consequences: The ‘Purge Plague’ (Part 3)

August 10, 2016

The Purge Plague: Consequences

Solving the human extinction event wasn’t without its consequences. Besides finding an alternate food source, other changes occurred. The new genome made significant changes to human physiology. Sickness had been wiped out. The common cold, cancer, infections, and the various maladies associated in pre-plague days were nonexistent. Within one hundred years, no one ever got sick.

Life expectancy shortened. Three out of four women were born sterile. The rest became prolific baby factories, capable of delivering multiple babies in each pregnancy. As such, the terms ‘bitches’, ‘litters’, and ‘sows’ came into common everyday language. Cycles shortened from 28 days to 23 days. Gestation periods dropped to under 30 weeks. Over time, those that could bear children were highly sought after. Those that could not bear offspring, eventually contribute their meat.

Over time, sterility became defined as either not being able to conceive or conception was difficult and rarely came to term. For example, despite having been pregnant, since her offspring weren’t viable, Mona is considered sterile. Over time, population censuses implied that women of this class were evolving into a third sex. However, in Mona’s time, this was not yet the case. Women in this class became the workers and playmates to their masters. They were also the primary livestock for the community.

Men weren’t immune to change

The single most significant physiological change occurred in men. Mortality rates for men skyrocketed, resulting in near 100% mortality by age 1. Of those that did survive past age 1, matured slowly, enfeebled and frail. With 30% dying each subsequent year, not until nearing the age of 20, did surviving males began to thrive, grow and mature. By 25, they were virtually assured of a long and prolific life, one among 10,000 women.

Within a century, a man’s primary role was to impregnate as many women as possible. Women became the producers of all other necessities of life. In short, women had all the power in their society but due to their submissive nature, exchanged it to satisfy their own needs.

In my next post, I will explore further physical and psychological changes as a result of the “fix” to the ‘Purge Plague’.

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Excerpts from an interview I gave some months ago. The question explored has to do with the ‘Purge Plague’, a vehicle I invented to explain how Mona’s culture came to be. This is the third installment in a five-part series that I will publish over the next several days. Feel free to comment on the link at the bottom. I welcome your insights and opinions.

The ‘Purge Plague’ (Part 2) : Extinction?

August 9, 2016

Extinction – The Purge Plague initiates an unstoppable event

Resolving the runaway genome infection among human populations was not without its perils. The plague had already caused the extinction of almost all life on the planet. While it was too late to save the other species, scientists at the time saved what they could. It became a race to find an answer before the total extinction of human race.

Desperate to find a solution, scientists took chances and spliced genes they might not have otherwise done. With human population under a million and declining rapidly, they tried one more daring and dangerous splice. Unsure of what would happen, they tested it directly on human subjects and crossed their fingers.

Success?

Surprisingly, they found success. Test subjects recovered and began to recover. Buoyed with success, they deployed the new genome on a massive scale. Within a generation, they had turned the tide.

Unfortunately, it was too late for other species on the planet. Every high protein plant had already died out. Every animal, fish, and insect perished. Wiped out forever, were dolphins and whales, halibut and flounder, trout and bass, crab and lobster, and fish of all kinds. Extinct were dogs and cats, horses and mules, cattle and sheep, insects including beetles, bees, and mosquitos (no loss there). Gone too were soybean, legumes and beans, broccoli, lentils, and asparagus. The list went on and on.

Except for humans, nothing survived. Everything high in consumible protein became extinct. What survived could barely be considered a viable food source. Attempts to repopulate species from seed stock failed.

Humans were effectively … alone … rulers of a decimated planet.

Plus, they were hungry. Without significant sources of food high in protein, humans had little choice. They could either wither or turn to the only source available to them … themselves.

In my next post

I will explore the changes to human physiology that occurred as a result of the “fix” to the Purge Plague.

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Excerpts from an interview I gave some months ago. The question explored has to do with the ‘Purge Plague’, a vehicle I invented to explain how Mona’s culture came to be and how it survived a near-extinction event. This is the second installment in a five-part series that I will publish over the next several days. Feel free to comment on the link at the bottom. I welcome your insights and opinions.

The ‘Purge Plague’ (Part 1), What brought it about?

August 8, 2016

The Purge Plague, can you elaborate on that?

The Purge Plague is a speculation that I came up with to justify the culture of Mona’s world. However, it is a speculation that I firmly believe is possible, if not likely, to occur. Most of all, it is The Purge Plague that causes the near extinction of the human race.

Let’s compare the post plague era with today’s world as we know it today. For centuries, we’ve been cross-breeding plants and animals to create new subspecies. Most fail and the subspecies dies out. Some, however, become a new species and reproduce, creating copies of themselves.

Over the last sixty years, scientists and corporations are doing more than that. They are slicing genes at the genetic level. Sometimes, they do it to see if they can. More often than not, there is a specific goal they are trying to attain.

Be it crops or animal stock, gene splicing is happening today. Farmers, big and small, are trying to develop hardier crops, resistant to insect and disease. Another goal is to produce more usable product per acre, regardless of the species. More product for less cost means higher profits.

Consequences

The Purge Plague speculates what would happen to life should a gene splice replicate on a massive scale with undesirable results. As a result, the resultant genome is so hardy, so resistant to eradication, that it spreads across the planet, modifying the DNA of every living plant, animal, and insect. The genome rapidly invades every organism on the planet, humans included.

Consequently, species fail to reproduce or are without critical biological systems to process nutrients from the foods they ingest. Specifically, consumable proteins that are nutritional in nature and necessary for life. Without being able to ingest consumable proteins; plants, animals, and people wither and die. Even today, vegans ingest proteins in the form of legumes, beans, nuts, and similar plant sources.

Think what would happen if all of these species died out suddenly, all at once. Mass extinction.

In my next post

I will explore the extraordinary lengths taken to halt the plague.

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Excerpts from an interview I gave some months ago. The question explored has to do with the ‘Purge Plague’, a vehicle I invented to explain how Mona’s culture came to be. It is a five-part series that I will publish over the next several days. Feel free to comment on the link at the bottom. I welcome your insights and opinions.

Do you really know him?

August 6, 2016

Do you really know him? I have asked myself that question many of times when I was dating, engaged, hearing about my daughter’s’ date(s) and more recently playing a jurist from my couch as I watch Dateline and 48 hours!

This topic came back to the forefront of my mind as I read Richard Verry’s new novella, ‘The Breakup’.

Ginny is presented to us as she leaves work and goes home to get ready for a date with Doug. She is hoping and even expecting a marriage proposal. She is so way off as he has other ideas.

He engages her and surprises her with his detail of brutality. His desire to add her to his “trophies” scares her enough to beg for her life and the reader begins to question his lack of compassion as it relates to her. He is so consumed by his own sexual needs and fantasies, that this escapade has the reader thinking that Doug is heartless and questions how he could do this to Ginny. There are sexual needs fulfilled on both sides yet the story brings me back to my original question.

I know life and choosing a life partner is a risk. Yet aren’t there some signals that one may see that are ‘red flags’? Is he a loner? Is he too good to be true? If the answer is yes, than you are warned that it must be and to keep your guard up.

Ginny fell hard for Doug and she was rewarded in such a brutal, horrific way. Her pleasure was short-lived and the end was unexpected. The reader, meaning me, hoped that had she won his heart and he would change his plans accordingly. I was surprised that his own needs won out and that his feelings for Ginny were part of a game. It’s not a game I want to be part of and yet I know it happens.

If you liked Richard Verry’s novella, ‘Her Client’, this is a must read for you. Sit back and enjoy the roller coaster ride and ask yourself the same question, ‘Do you really know him’?

What do you think?

Janet M.

Available on his website, Amazon, Smashwords and your favorite eBook retailer.
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Tell me about Mona’s culture (part 5)

August 5, 2016

What follows are excerpts from an interview I gave some months ago. I’ve condensed it to a five-part series, published over the past week. This is the final segment. I hope it will provide insight into the world I created with the ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’. Feel free to comment on the link at the bottom. I welcome your insights and opinions.

In many ways, Mona’s culture seems like a utopia. I mean, what’s not to like? Everyone has access to unlimited sex, unlimited partners, and unlimited pleasure. Your wants and needs are completely satisfied. You wake up in the morning, alone or with company sharing your bed, picking up from where you left off last night.

At breakfast, some lovely naked wait staff serves you, delivering food and drink right to the table. Man or a woman, it doesn’t matter. You are attended too.

What’s not to like?

After breakfast, you do your chores, whether it is cutting the grass, preparing the next meal of the day, or attending to and serving your household members. The workload is pretty easy.

You spend quality time in the playroom and get fucked on a regular basis. You have a roof over your head and three squares a day.

What’s not to like?

Except that thing about feeding upon one another in order to survive. That’s a bummer, right?

What if you knew and accepted from birth that one day, you would feed your companions, just as you are feeding upon them now? Does it then become an acceptable and moral practice? Maybe.

What if by converting and feeding your companions, you knew that you would live forever? What then?

I submit to you that Honey, the title character of Book 1, believes she will. She firmly believes that she will live on in Mona and the rest of her family. By living in them, she will have the power to help them successfully navigate through their trials. Besides, she loves them. This way, she will be forever bonded to them.

If you knew that, without a shadow of a doubt, you will live forever. Simply by others consuming your meat, would you? I think I might.

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Tell me about Mona’s culture (part 4)

August 4, 2016

What follows are excerpts from an interview I gave some months ago. I’ve condensed it to a five-part series, which I intend to published over the next week. I hope it will provide insight into the world I created with the ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’. Feel free to comment on the link at the bottom. I welcome your insights and opinions.

With hundreds of female submissives within each house, women serve in roles best suited for their talents. Outside of delivering offspring, they maintain the house, care for offspring, work the slaughterhouse and prepare the meals. They serve as maids and valets, greeters and waitstaff, landscapers, drivers, and trainers. They serve their Master and house guests, satisfying both carnal and nutritional needs as necessary.

Many are also playmates to their masters, be it in bed or the playspace, each serves and submits, each according to their talents. From birth to maturity, regardless of sex, everyone is trained on attitude and techniques in pleasuring sexual partners. By the time they are attached to a house, members have the necessary training to attend to required duties.

Take Mona for example. She is an extreme masochist. As a pain slut, she relishes torment delivered by the hands of her Master, her body building to climax and orgasm. To her, it’s a good kind of pain that her body desires and demands. Submitting to Master Charles is an event she eagerly looks forward to and deeply misses when withheld. The same eagerness resides in each of the submissive women, though their desires may differ from one to another.

Unfortunately, attachment to a house is not a foregone conclusion. Assuming they survive to puberty, they are subjected to a battery of training and testing. Despite excelling in their training, if they are not selected to a house, their usefulness diminishes. Without the security of a house, conversion is usually the next step in their journey. Nothing is wasted and their contribution to society is complete.

In my next post, I’ll finish up my description of her culture.

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Tell me about Mona’s culture (Part 3)

August 3, 2016

As I wrote the last time, women are genetically born to be naturally submissive to their Masters. It’s in their genes. Membership of a house brings residents security and protection at the expense of becoming the property of the house.

Residents bound to the house, serve the needs of the house. They can be traded, transferred, and converted. Males are not immune to this practice either. They too are bound to their estates and are routinely converted when their usefulness to the house and community comes to an end.

Masters are charged with the care, feeding, and nurturing of everyone within their house. They must take care of basic necessities. They must give them an opportunity to grow as a person and rise above their eventual fate. Take Mona for example. As revealed in Book 1, she is already holding a senior rank within her house. She is a Senior Lead Investigator within her Master’s security business. She has a private office and staff to support her. Over the course of the series, she grows and matures, and in Book 3, ‘Lucky Bitch’ becomes the Master of her own house.

The primary responsibility within a house is the birthing new members. The sex of the offspring is less important as the need to keep up with live births. Birthing a male child is a rare event, inducing a time for caution as well as celebration. Hopefully, it will survive to maturity though the odds are greatly against it.

Men are encouraged to have sex with as many fertile women within their house to minimize inbreeding. Frequent community celebrations encourage diverse carnal liaisons among attendees to further diminish inbreeding. Certainly Mona, as Master of her own house, has a problem when it comes to this responsibility. However, she has a plan.

Out of responsibility rather than desire, men also make monthly rounds of the breeding centers, naturally depositing their seed in ovulating women, impregnating as many as possible. Over time, males tend to tire of this arduous duty and can fall behind in their duties. However, few fail to perform their duty for fear of increasing the risk of their own conversion.

In my next post, I’ll continue my description of the culture Mona lives in.

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Tell me about Mona’s culture (Part 2)

August 2, 2016

Following the ‘Purge Plague’ and over hundreds of years, societal rules changed to accommodate the new reality. War, religion, and social injustices fell by the wayside. Gone also was the concept of money, love, marriage, and monogamy. In Mona’s contemporary time, they simply have no comprehension of these concepts. Survival of the species became paramount.

The last-ditch effort to save the human race through gene manipulation caused other consequences and society continued to adapt. People perished by the billions. Genetic changes within females caused them to become extremely submissive to males while males suffered extremely high mortality rates. Within two generations, population disparities between men and women became extremely unbalanced. Within a century, only one male in 10,000 survived to adulthood, leaving about 66 men for every million women.

To compensate, a system arose to regulate and deal with progeny and food supply. Live births surviving to maturity are graded and categorized for the quality of their meat. Meat that one day will feed their community. To ensure fairness, an elaborate system developed to secure equitable conversion processing among everyone. Out of necessity, progeny remained unnamed until maturity and bound to a house.

With the dissimilar distribution of men to women, society accommodated the shift by distributing a single male and master per estate.

The Master became ‘the dominant and the deciding authority’ in all things related to their house. The rest of the residents of a house were generally women. While women could rise to become the Master of a house, admittedly, this was a rare event. Otherwise, women submitted to the needs of their house and Master.

In my next post, I’ll expand upon the consequences of past decisions.

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Tell me about Mona’s culture (part 1)

August 1, 2016

Mona’s Culture? What an interesting question.

Mona lives in a feudal world set thousands of years in our future. She lives in a world without a central power or government. Instead, her community consists of loosely linked estates, commonly called houses, each named after the owner of their estate. Residents who live on the estate refer to the owner as ‘Master’. Loosely tying the estates together, is Club Lothario. The club acts as a central meeting-house, civic center, and relaxed governing body. The club acts to ensure each house meets their quota to the community.

Their culture evolved to deal with a near extinction event more than a millennium in the past. Cultural roots go back to a time when gene manipulation of the food-producing animals and plants was common place. Eventually, larger profits were sought, mistakes were made and aggressive genome manipulation ran out of control. Unsurprisingly, the plague nearly wiped out all life on Earth.

The ‘Purge Plague’, as it was later called, caused in the extinction of every insect, animal and most of the edible plant life, leaving the planet devoid of any and all sources of consumable protein. As the plague ran on over decades, the world was quickly stripped of life. Humans were about to follow suit.

Through extraordinary and expensive measures, scientists at the time were able to halt the extinction of the human species. In one massive, last-ditch effort of gene manipulation, the human race was saved.

Despite halting the extinction, the stigma of genetic manipulation survived. Over time, the idea of gene splicing was abhorrent to the population. It didn’t take long before all gene manipulation was banned all around the world.

As with all actions, there are consequences. The most significant consequence was, in order for humans to survive, they learned to consume the only source of protein available … themselves.

In my next post, I’ll expand upon how their culture evolved.

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling

July 30, 2016

This week, Hillary Rodham Clinton crashed through the glass ceiling to become the first ever female candidate from a major political party in the United States of America. I am very proud to be a citizen of the U.S.A.

It was a long time coming, 240 years after the Declaration of Independence was conceived and signed by all thirteen colonies in the Americas. In my opinion, it took too long. But then again, it took too long to abolish slavery, give women the vote, enact civil rights laws, and recently, legalizing same-sex marriage.

In my mind, our country should have started 240 years ago with all of these rights guaranteed to all Americans, citizen or not. The country was founded on the concept of freedom from oppression, free speech, the right to carry arms, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and a host of other rights guaranteed by our constitution.

Yet, in my mind, we still have a lot of growing to do. Equal pay for equal work, the right to do with our own bodies without outside interference, be it abortion, smoking weed, or self-euthanasia. Each of these actions does not affect or injure others walking this Earth. Further growth would be accomplished by eradicating the mindset of society that violent crime, terrorism, forcible assertion of one’s beliefs upon another.

I for one will never force my morals or beliefs on someone else. It’s not my place to tell someone what to believe, nor is it someone else’s place to tell me what I should believe. No one, and I mean no one, should suffer atrocities upon their bodies or mind, simply because they are man or woman, gay or straight, religious or not, one nationality or another, liberal, progressive, or conservative, or even indifferent to the suffering of their fellow-man.

You and I may not like it but I will not try to force you to think and believe the way I do. I hope you will do the same for me.

Congratulations Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton. Here’s hoping that I can one day refer to you as Madam President Hillary Clinton.

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On the Mona Bendarova Adventures

July 29, 2016

Do you like the genre of science fiction? I am not a fan yet if a story has character development, conflict and some resolution, I am interested. That is what I have found reading Richard Verry’s ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’.

I guess I have to wait for the third book in the series, ’ Lucky Bitch’, hoping there is some resolution for the main character, Mona. I am hoping the author will introduce new characters and more conflict. I truly enjoyed his first two books where I met and immersed myself into the characters he introduced. All you had to do was mention a character name and I could tell you how the character relates to the story. That is a credit to the author, Mr. Verry, who vividly created the characters and the story.

In the midst of these stories, Mr. Verry describes a future world where his characters come alive and live. Again, I can understand his vision knowing I have been drawn in by the characters and the world they occupy. Like ‘Star Wars’ and most recently, ‘Independence Day’, we need to see these types of movies soon after they are released. I am okay with it since I can identify with the characters even if the setting is in the future.

So for those that love character development no matter what genre it is in, take a leap of faith in reading ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’ and enjoy the world that the author created. I can affirm to you that you will embrace these characters and the books. Start with a ‘Taste of Honey’ and follow it up with ‘Broken Steele’. ‘Lucky Bitch’ will soon follow.

I honestly can tell you that I am looking forward to reading it.

Janet M.

Rest assured, I’m still with you.

July 27, 2016

Just a quick note to let you know, I’m still here. I’m recovering nicely. As I am able, I am working on a five-part post that I hope to publish next week.

In this five-part post, I will be exploring the culture that Mona Bendarova lives in. For most of you, you know that Mona is the lead character in my series of novels called ‘The Mona Bendarova Adventures‘.

In the first two books, ‘The Taste of Honey‘ and ‘Broken Steele‘, I tell a story of a woman in another time and culture. She lives in a world very different from the one we live in today. Yet, it is plausible on so many levels. The third book in the series, ‘Lucky Bitch‘, continues to explore this culture, and I hopefully will have it out this fall. Be sure to look for it.

When you read the stories, you’ll wonder, could the world she lives in, really happen?

Check it out and let me know what you think.

In the meantime, dinner’s on the table. Time to eat.

Which banner to you prefer?

July 26, 2016

I am looking to update my branding. I’m starting with a new banner and I’d like your opinion.

Please click the option that appeals to you? “#1: Magic Book” or “#2: Fire Wormhole”. Thanks.

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One Week Left

July 25, 2016

Less Than One Week Left in the 50% off Summer/Winter Sale for ‘The Taste of Honey‘. Don’t miss out. Sales ends midnight, July 31, 2016. 50 %off only at RichardVerry.com and Smashwords.com.

When you read this story, you’ll ask yourself this question. “Could this really happen to us?”

Classifying my books

July 23, 2016

The last couple of days, I have been writing about how different my books are. I also wrote that I intentionally wanted to write books that were different from others. I wanted them to stand out from the rest out there.

To me, this is a good thing. I didn’t want to write something that stood out. That’s the thing about me. I don’t consider me as being ‘vanilla’. There are aspects to me that don’t fit the mold that society likes to fit each of us into.

The same goes for my books. As best as I can tell, they don’t fit into the nice and neat classifications that the publishing industry established.

And that’s a problem.

What do I classify my books so that you, the reader, can find them.

Certainly, they are fiction. After that, what?

I can tag them as erotica but are they really? I tag the Mona Bendarova books as mystery/suspense. They are … and yet not, at least in the traditional sense. Some people have told me that they think they are SciFi. I never thought of them that way but I can see how they do think of them they way. I sometimes think of them as a utopia but it could also be a dystopia.

My other books reflect stories of criminal acts but are they really crime novels? Since they also include sexual acts are they erotica? I don’t think so and from everyone I’ve contacted, they agree. Maybe ‘Dark Erotica’ but not everyone allows that classification.

So, what are they?

Any help would be appreciated. Write me and tell me your opinion. I appreciate your opinion.

Which to you prefer?

July 23, 2016

I am looking to update my branding and I’m starting with a new banner. I’d like your opinion. Please click the option that appeals to you? “#1: Magic Book” or “#2: Fire Wormhole”.

[socialpoll id=”2376350″]

I Capitulate

July 22, 2016

I capitulate.

That’s right. I capitulate.

To what?

To my continuous headache I’ve been dealing with since I suffered my concussion injury last week. Just when I think I’m feeling better, despite continuous rest, my activity levels to extremely low levels, my head simply hurts.

I am beginning to understand that it’s not the mild concussion that I thought it was. It’s more than that. Yesterday, a nurse practitioner told me that she it was a severe concussion. Huh?

Now I believe it. I don’t wish this on anyone. Thank the powers above for my girlfriend, nurse, and sympathetic ear. May tomorrow be better than today.

Since my books are different and other musings

July 22, 2016

First off, thank you to the fine folks who purchased my books, ‘The Taste of Honey’ and ‘Broken Steele’ in the past week. They were purchased right after I saw stars and suffered a significant concussion. I’ve been offline a lot since then, so I missed it. Thank you. I hope you are enjoying them. Be sure to look for the third book in the series ‘Lucky Bitch’ due out very soon.

Speaking of seeing stars (details will be found in a post I did earlier in the week), I resting as I recover. Frankly, it’s driving me crazy, sitting around being so inactive. Normally, I have lots to do, my day filled with activity. Until a day or so ago, even sitting at this computer and writing was problematic. But, just so you know, I’m on the mend and I’m looking forward to getting back to a normal life.

What I really want to write about today is how my books are different. In my last post, I wrote how I hoped my books were different from others on the market. That was my intention when I wrote them. I wanted to find my niche in the market. I believe I have succeeded.

However, being different and unique is a blessing and a curse. While I love writing these stories, marketing them is another story. First, though, let me give you a little background as I understand it. I could be mistaken in some of my understandings so I welcome comments correcting me.

The publishing industry is going through significant changes, just as the music industry did. The jury is still out on how it will shake out. For me, and thousands like me, this is a good thing. We authors are not dependent upon a relative few to publish our work. We can publish them ourselves, market them ourselves, and earn royalties on our creative works.

I find the indie-publishing aspect relatively easy. It took a while to figure it all out but with six unique selling published works, I’ve figured out the formula for getting them published.

I can write a book, I can publish a book. Two down, one to go. Marketing a book.

This I find is the hardest of all. Even though I am a college grad with a Master’s Degree, I did not learn much about marketing. I suck at it and I know it. Which is why I depend on others to help me.

The biggest problem I need to figure out how to overcome focuses on targeting a specific audience. That means, how do I find you? If you are reading this post, I’m ecstatic. It means I have already found you. But how do I find more like you?

Word of mouth is ‘the’ thing that everyone agrees with. So, I ask you. Will you help me? Will you spread the word, talk to your friends, neighbors, coworkers, the waiter who pours your coffee, and every man or woman on the street you come into contact with? Can you get people to like my website and my facebook page? Ask them to follow me on facebook (richardverryauthorartist), or twitter (@richverry), or my blog (richardverry.com/#subscribe). Thank you.

Next time, I hope to write about how I think my books are different and how to categorize them into the slots the publishing industry places them in. It’s a murky road, fret with thorns and brambles. Perhaps you can help me there too.

Feel free to write me and share your opinions.

Spread the word.

How are my books different from other books on the market?

July 20, 2016

Are they different? I certainly hope so. I spent a long time trying to find storylines that others hadn’t already written about. So, yes, they are.

First, a little background. I am an avid reader. I’ve been reading since I can remember, somewhere about the age of six. By the time I was in 4th grade, I had read every ‘Hardy Boys’ books, every ‘Nancy Drew’, ‘Tom Swift’ and hundreds of others. I’ll never remember them all. I just remember having a voracious appetite for books.

I lived in worlds that others had envisioned. Worlds that either exists or could exist. I found ‘Star Trek’ when it first aired. I was reading all sorts of Science Fiction by then. ‘Star Wars’, ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Firefly’, ‘Dr. Who’ and a host of others was easy to love. SciFi isn’t the only genre I like to read. I like to read historical dramas, erotica … well … let’s just say, fiction of all sorts.

Why am I telling you this? It’s because when I decided I wanted to write a novel, I didn’t want to redo what others had done. I knew I could write something in those worlds that was plagiarizing someone else’s work. I just didn’t want to write something remotely similar to everything I’ve ever read. I wanted something new, fresh and even controversial.

I came up with at least two different genres. One is brutal, graphically depicting the depravity of the human race. The other is a world where people respect, honor and support each other … well, most of the time. What’s a story without conflict? Both are paranormal fantasies.

I particularly like Mona Bendarova’s world. There is no war, no religion, no self-righteous do-gooders who push their agenda on others. People live in harmony, enjoying life to the fullest and sacrificing when necessary to ensure the continuation of the species.

What makes them different? I try to tell it real. I don’t like dancing around a scene. I’ve read a lot where the author paints a grand scene leading up to ‘the’ moment, only to fast-forward to the next scene. I hate that. I am left wanting and unfulfilled. I can be angry that the author chose to dance over the real action.

As in my paintings, I try to depict realistic scenes; be it sex, violence, love, or simple conversation. My scenes can be raw. They can be soft and sweet. What makes them different is that they are complete, uncensored depictions of human nature. It’s the real deal.

If you like realism, if you like the complete story, if you like the uncensored version, you’ll like my books. Enjoy and let me know what you think. I’m always interested in hearing what you, the reader, has to say.

I Saw Stars

July 18, 2016

Good morning world. I’m looking forward to a new week that ends better than the last.

Why? Let me tell you.

Reflective in the title of this post, last Friday, I literally saw stars. No, they weren’t a bunch of five-star reviews of my books. One can hope. No, I didn’t see the stars of the night, sweeping across the sky. I wish it was just this.

Nope, I saw stars when I banged my head against a very large, low hanging pipe designed to carry conditioned air. I was straightening a set of small boxes that I was stacking, knowing that there four hundred similar boxes arriving in moments. Yup! I was at work, doing my job. Mind you, I knew the pipe was there. However, in that moment, bent over focused on my goal, I had forgotten it was there.

21193608 - starry sky in the village and orange sunset — Source: 123rf.com

Then I stood up and saw a galaxy of stars.

I wacked my head hard. The room around me went dark and I saw untold stars flashing behind my eyes. Think of a lot of mass against an immovable object. In that split second, as pain walloped my head, my brain bounced around inside my head. Expletives galore rang out as I fell to the ground, supported on all fours.

It was several minutes before I could stand up again. Bent over, recovering, I could only think, “Stupid, I knew it was there. Why the fuck didn’t I move first. ‘Stunad!’ (Italian slang for moron)”

Eventually, I seemed to recover and finished stacking the boxes. An hour later, sitting at my desk, my headache grew, despite the overdose of Tylenol I took to combat what I knew was coming. An hour after that, my thoughts stopped focusing and I knew I was in trouble. I went home early and called my doctor.

A short time after that, I’m in the Emergency Department at the local hospital being treated for a concussion. Oh, how can athletes play their sport with a concussion? It must be the millions they make doing it.

Me, I’ve been suffering everyday since. The headache hasn’t gone away, and I get nauseous getting driven to the pharmacy for meds. I’ve been planted in my recliner, getting up to use the bathroom or getting a bite to eat.

The treatment? Seven to ten days of rest and I can return to work when I am no longer symptomatic. Three days later, and I still am. It’s hard to concentrate just writing this post. Imagine what it would be like at work where my job is to sit at a computer and write code, et. all. Before I lose it, I’ll sign off and find my favorite chair and rest, doing mindless, brainless stuff.

All I can say is thank you to all my fans for reading this. I appreciate you.

Good books are friends

July 15, 2016

My girlfriend and I had chinese food for dinner the other night. I’d like to share with you what my fortune cookie had hidden inside.

“Good books are friends who are always ready to talk to us.”

For the readers out there, I think you will agree. Good or bad, they talk to us, reach into our souls and stimulate emotions. I don’t know about you, but I have conversations with my books. Yes, the books themselves. I talk to them and they respond.

I also have conversations with other readers about books, either mine or someone else’s. We can debate whether it was a good read or a bad read. We can argue about the elements of the characters, the plot or the outcome.

My favorite books are those that I cannot predict where the story is taking me. Not just the ending either. I want to be surprised and jolted all along the way. Just when I think I figured out ‘who done it’ or whether the couple will final get together, the best stories for me those that change direction. By the time the last page is turned, I want the story wrapped up. I want all of the pieces to fit, like a jigsaw puzzle.

So far, from what people tell me, my books fit that criteria. However, I would be interested in what you, the reader of this blog, thinks. Write me. Fill out the comment field below and lay it on me. Tell me whether your favorite books talk to you and what it is about them that makes the book one of your favorites.

Till next time, have a great day and a better tomorrow.

Your’s in reading and writing, Rich.

Mid-Summer Musings

July 11, 2016

I know it’s been a week since I’ve last posted a note. Sorry about that. I took the time to revise my website, RichardVerry.com, getting it to load faster, and remove some of the bloat that time inevitably creates. If you haven’t been to the site lately, please stop by.

One reason to stop by is that I am running a sale on some of my books. Check out the webpage for details. I can say this, some of the books are either free or 50% off.

I want to thank everyone who has been buying my ‘Her Client’ books. I did an analysis of sales for the past month. It appears that I am selling a decent quantity of these books each day. However, I did note some interesting facts.

Fact 1: Book 1, ‘Her Client’ sells twice as many as Books 2 & 3, and Book 2 ‘Her Overseer’ sells twice as many as Book 3 ‘Her Essentia’.

Fact 2: Sales on Books 2 & 3 follow that same curve as book 1, only a day or two later. That tells me this. If I captured your interest in Book 1, you are sure to buy books 2 & 3 a day or two later.

Fact3: Sales are the best reviews. I heartily believe that. However, I would love to hear from the readers on what you thought about the books. Write me, I welcome your comments. In the long run, your comments will help me write better and better books.

Be on the lookout for other books in the ‘Her Client’ genre. I have one already published on my site called ‘The Breakup’. It is also available on many other sites. I hope to get it available soon on Amazon. Frankly, I’ve been holding off on publishing it to Amazon as I am running an experiment. I’ll tell you more about the experiment in the future, but for now, the best place to get the book, ‘The Breakup’ is from my site.

Stop by and check out the site and read the reviews by readers like you. You might be surprised at mind boggling and enthralling the stories are.

Till next time, I hope you are have a great day and a better tomorrow.

Lucky Bitch is a reality

July 1, 2016

After months of hard work, plenty of interruptions and numerous diversions, last night I finished the first draft of ‘Lucky Bitch’, the third book in the ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’. Whoo hoo! ‘Lucky Bitch’ picks of about three months after the end of ‘Broken Steele’, which ended with Mona making the biggest decision in her life. A decision that will forever change the life she has ever known.
Of course, the book is not ready for prime time. Now comes the part where I reread it, edit it, cut and cut, and rewrite segments. I have a lot of work ahead of me but you know what? It’s a labor of love and I expect the work to go easily. After that, it goes to the editor and somewhere by then, I need a book cover prototype developed. Stay tuned!

To celebrate, I’m offering the first two books for 50% off for the month of July. Use the discount code: SSW50.

Mona Bendarova Adventures

Book 1: The Taste of Honey
Book 2: Broken Steele
Book 3: Lucky Bitch (coming soon)

In preparation of the release of ‘Lucky Bitch’ download and read your own copies for 50% off. That’s just a $1.50 a copy.

This discount is available only from and .

This discount is not available from Amazon but you can buy the book at discount for your Kindle or Kindle Reader. Use the discount code : SSW50 to get your discount from either site.

Don’t delay. This discount expires at midnight, July 31, 2016.

Be sure to enter your discount code SSW50 at checkout. Your 50% savings will be applied then. SSW50

Mona Bendarova Adventures Reviews

Still not sure? Well, read what others have said after reading them. Then read the books for yourself. Remember, use the discount code: SSW50

[good-reviews category=the_taste_of_honey]

Use the discount code : SSW50

[good-reviews category=broken_steele]

Use the discount code : SSW50

Okay, if you have read this far, thank you. As a way of saying thanks, I will also share with you another one of my books, for FREE.

Get it and read it at https://richardverry.com/books/her-client-trilogy/#herclient.
No discount code required.

Working Hard

June 28, 2016

All my life I have strived to do better, improve myself, help the community, love my family, and cherish my significant other. It’s hard work but it’s easy work as well. Seems like a contradiction, doesn’t it? I don’t see it that way. Take for example, the quote I just found.

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.”

When I read this, I didn’t need to study it. My mind instantly went to points in my life where I felt each of these emotions. I’ve had my stresses in my life but once I’m past them, I tend to forget about them. The feelings remain but the facts fade. I guess I do that as a way of protecting myself and staying healthy.

Most poignantly are the passions in my life. Building a shelf, lashing a complicated structure to protect life and limb, painting a portrait to get it just right, writing and rewriting a piece of dialog for a story; these are all passions I love.

I pour my heart and soul into my passions. My girlfriend and significant other is the most important passion in my life. I tend to put aside other passions in order to do for her. Helping others, even the little things, is also important to me. Whether it’s offering a drink to a house guest, helping someone find their lost keys, or helping someone in distress, I do with the love of passion.

When I put aside time to work on my creative works, my passions really come alive. I recall and relive those feelings. I get lost in the creative process. Even now, as I write this entry, my body and soul are coming alive as these feelings flood every nook and cranny.

Time seems to slow or even stop. Adrenaline floods my body, my mind focuses on the work and everything else disappears. It’s a wonderful feeling. In my mind, I go somewhere else. Just ask anyone who has observed me in this state. I’m gone from this world and I’m in another world. I’m so far gone, that it frustrates my girlfriend to no end. Whether she wants to make dinner, spend time with me, or just ask my opinion, she finds it hard to break in. When I finally acknowledge the interruption, I can get upset, even angry. I lose my train of thought. I lose my mojo.

I don’t mean it. I would prefer to not snap and get upset. She doesn’t deserve the response and she tries to be patient but at times, not. Sorry honey. Together, we work it out, make adjustments and move forward.

Yet, I can’t get away from this alternate reality I go to in my mind when I’m creating, painting or writing. It’s fun. It’s addicting. It’s a far better alternative to prefering alcohol, drugs or just being a dickwad.

I can’t wait to re-enter the zone of my passions. What about you? What are your passions that you love.

Leave a trail

June 27, 2016

Good morning all you readers out there. I had a long and tiring weekend but today I’m refreshed and happy. I spent Friday night with friends who cooked us a fine meal and engaged me with spirited conversation well into the night. Saturday, I went to a wedding at the ball park. After the wedding, the reception was held in one of the ball park suites where a battle raged on the field. After the game, I were treated to fireworks. I’ll bet that there aren’t too many people who can honestly say that they had fireworks on their wedding night.

Not that kind! Well, that too but I am referring to the kind where gun powder is fired into the air which explodes into a multitude of light and sonic boomers. I had a wonderful time. Sunday was recovery day. I was wiped out and I needed to rest and recover.

But I digress. I read a cool quote this morning which I’d like to share with you.

“Do no go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Reading this quote, I was hit with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, following the path is easy. It’s what is expected. Fall in line, conform, and do as your told. I know that my girlfriend would welcome this from me, at least, some of the time. Yet, one of the reasons she loves me is that I do blaze my own trail. I go my own way. I forage ahead and damn the consequences.

Admittedly, I’ve gotten into trouble on a number of occasions and paid a price for my independence. Yet, it is who I am. One thing I’ve learned in life is that to be happy with myself, I have to be who I am. If I’m not happy with me and who I am, how the f**k can I make someone else happy.

So, I walk where there is no path. I am enjoying this period of discovery. It’s filled with wonder and joy. True, I make a wrong turn now and then and I need to back track a bit. So what. It’s a learning experience. What I still need to figure out is how to leave a trail. I do so in my professional life. Yet, I need to figure out how to leave a more lasting trail in my personal life.

I have talent for doing things. Whether it is hanging a TV on the wall so it won’t fall off or grilling a steak to perfection, I manage to do things in creative ways that people appreciate, or so they tell me. Yet, it is not enough. I want to more. I want to blaze a trail for others to enjoy.

Which is why I write and paint. I can express myself in ways that is impossible to do in real life. Perhaps some of my creative works will survive my life. Wouldn’t that be cool? Can you imagine? What if a hundred years from now, some picks up one of my books and reads it, or stumbles across one of my paintings and says, “Wow!”

What would Mona think? Would she enjoy someone reading her story well after her author moved on? I think she would. There is a lot of me in Mona.

What about you? What do you think?

Followup to Goals without a Plan

June 23, 2016

Yesterday, I wrote about goals without a plan is nothing more than a wish. In fact, I believe it’s more than that. It’s wishful thinking.

However, once you have the plan, you are already on the road to meeting your goals. For me, that’s the fun part. Taking the first step, then the next and then, the next one again. I’ve always believed that to reach the summit, you must put one foot in front of the other. Step over over the pebbles and eventually you’ll step over the stone, and eventually the mountain.

Earlier, I stumbled upon this followup quote.

“There’s no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.”

Makes sense to me, despite that I wish that it were possible to jump ahead of the line and go right to the top.

The image I’ve displayed shows the quote surrounded by a spiraling stair case. I can’t imagine how many steps it would take to climb that stair case and reach the top. Hundreds? Thousands?

However many there are, in real life, it takes much more to achieve our goals. My goals. I’ve spent decades learning, experiencing, and experimentation before deciding upon my goals. Some of my goals have fallen to the wayside in favor of newer, more interesting goals.

Do you know what I find if fun? Working on my goals, figuring them out and taking the steps to achieve them. For me, it’s sitting down in front of my computer and transcribing the dialog running through my head. It’s picking up a pencil or paint brush and putting it to paper or canvas. Adrenaline begins racing throughout my body. I’m excited and the imagery in my mind feeds off the adrenaline and suddenly, my fingers can’t move fast enough. Whether it’s typing on a keyboard or stroke after stroke of my pencil or brush, I pour my heart and soul into each creative work.

Years later, I can look at a painting I did, notice one of my books on the shelves and the excitement returns in an immeasurable instant. Every so often, I review Honey’s story in my book, ‘The Taste of Honey‘, and I’m filled with joy, wonderment and concern. I want her to be saved. I want her to thrive. I know that she has a goal in mind and that goal will survive death. She’ll make it happen. She has a plan. You’ll see as you delve into her world along with her best friend, Mona Bendarova.

Damn, I love what I do. I hope you do and if you don’t, well that’s okay too. You’re welcome to your opinion. Who am I to tell you what to think. So, to conclude, I hope I can instill this one thought and it’s a motto I’ve lived with my entire life. As far as I can tell, no one else has said this and I’ve repeated the mantra in my head every day of my adult life, and I’ve been around a while. I would be interested in your comments and responses. Please send me a note. I’ll be happy to read them.

My personal motto is this.

“Nothing is impossible. Everything is possible. It’s all in the attitude.” – Richard Verry

Goal without a Plan

June 22, 2016

I was poking around this morning, wondering what I might write about and I stumbled across this quote.

“A goal without a plan is simply a wish.” CalamusWorks

I can’t think of a day in my life where I hadn’t chosen a goal without establishing a plan. It seems natural to me. I make plans almost without conscious thought.

Take for example my recent move from my old home to my new one. Once the decision was made, I started developing the plan to make it happen and as efficiently as possible. It took months to make it happen but it did. Whenever I leave the house to do a number of errands, I don’t just get in my car and go. Instead, as I’m buckling in, I plan my route to be as efficient as possible. That means, go from one destination to another without crossing my path. Some people say I’m being ridiculous. Though I can see their point, I don’t agree. Gasoline is expensive and I don’t want to waste it by retracing my route.

When it comes to writing and painting, I also have a plan but those seem to be much more fluid in nature. It drives me crazy but I have to keep adjusting the plan as each day goes by. I know what my end goal is and I have plan to get there. However, I keep coming across so many unknowns and interruptions that I find it hard to stay on the path (plan).

Sometimes, it is simple fatigue. Sometimes someone needs my assistance and I’m glad to help. Sometimes obligations get in the way. Not that I don’t want to live up to my obligations. I do, though sometimes I wish they didn’t exist. I accepted them so I will make sure I deliver.

These and many more tend to pull me away from following the plan to writing success.

Which raises the question. With any goal and the plan that makes it happen, what is the measure of success in reaching that goal? Buying and house and moving, seems easy enough. Sign the closing papers and move in. Run an errand?

What is my measure of success in reaching my goal of becoming a well-known and successful author and painter? I have to give that some more thought. That too seems to be fluid. I want to be successful, I need to define what it means to be a successful author and painter.

Stay tuned. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Sales are the best review but are they really?

June 15, 2016

Hello friends and fans. Yesterday afternoon I got a pleasant surprise. Someone bought a copy of my book, ‘Broken Steele‘ from Smashwords. Thank you.

However, that one little revelation got me poking around all of my sales outlets. To my surprise, over the past three months, unbeknownst to me, hundreds of copies of all of my books have been downloaded from various sites. Many are free copies of my book ‘Her Client’ but many of you out there bought your own copies of my other books from various sources. I noted sales on iBooks for the Apple platform, B&N for the Nook platform and even Kobo for who knows what eBook reader.

I’m ecstatic.

Thanks to all who have purchased and downloaded one of my books. I hope you enjoy them. Please, I would be interested in a review or two from you. Of course sales are the best review so I must be doing something right.

Read what others have said about my books. Many are summarized right here. Feel free to read them and decide for yourself. Thank you for giving me a slice of your valuable time. I appreciate it.

[good-reviews]

Someone just purchased Broken Steele, thank you.

June 14, 2016

I just received notice that someone purchased a copy of my book ‘Broken Steele‘. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It would be fantastic if you would post a review of the book. I’ll give you a gold star should you do. This book, as well as all of my books, are available on my website, RichardVerry.com and at book retailers such as Amazon, Smashwords, iBooks, B&N and a host of ebook retailers all over the world.

When you read this erotic, kinky, and captivating, tale, you will wonder who your friends are and can they be trusted.

For those of you who might not be aware, ‘Broken Steele‘ is the gripping sequel to ‘The Taste of Honey‘ and is the second book in the Mona Bendarova Adventures. It picks up after Honey is rescued and before she delivers her first male child. It is another mystery for Mona to solve when she is called upon to find out who brutally murdered the master of another estate in her community. Along the way, she uncovers a plot that is threatening the entire community. A community who for years has experienced peace and tranquility which is now shattered with fear, angst, and unrest.

She solves the mystery but now her own life is in great peril as many in her community are ignorant of the growing threat and simply can’t deal with the consequences. Mona’s own life is now in jeopardy as well as those who are close to her.

Good luck Mona. It appears you have a long and perilous journey ahead of you. Book three in the series, ‘Lucky Bitch’ is in the works. Be sure to look for it.

Suitable for readers 18+.

What does going through ‘hell’ mean to you?

June 11, 2016

What does going through hell mean to you? To some, it’s missing your morning coffee. To others, it could be going through cigarette withdrawal or even a drug addiction. Still, to others, it could mean a bad day at school or work, being fired from your job, or being sent to prison for possession of pot intended for personal use. Everyone has their definition of going through hell and it can change from day-to-day, depending upon a multitude of nudges from the cosmos.

To Jolene in ‘Her Client‘, it means having a rough day at work, coming home expecting to wind down with a glass of wine and a hot soak in the tub, only to be assaulted in her home, bound and raped before being sold into human bondage. She finds herself stolen from her home and thrown in the middle of sadistic tormentors whose happy time is defined with inflicting unspeakable torments on their victims. They live to hear others scream as they have their way with them, abuse and assault them. Success is measured in how much pleasure they feel as their victims scream, cry, and beg for their lives. The flames of their lives that are eventually snuffed out as their tormentors reach their climax.

Suffering through her ordeal, Jolene discovers the existence of an under current of sadists hell-bent on hurting her, inflicting unimaginable pain and agony upon her body, while keeping her alive for as long as possible before ending her existence in a sadistic sexual orgasm. Her discovery reveals a circle of sadists who do to others, what they are doing to her, and will do it again and again to other helpless souls. They trade their victims back and forth as market commodities and share their experiences with each other. Jolene suffers terribly, goes through hell, and is forever changed.

Read this gripping, agonizing tale. As you flip page after page, hoping against all hope that she finds her way through the onslaught of her tormentors, you pray that she lives to tell the story.

Live to tell?

If she does, will she return to being the trusting and consulate woman she was or does she become a monster herself, enjoying the screams as once delivered to the monsters who stole her life from her.

Find out for yourself and read the ‘Her Client‘ trilogy available at www.richardverry.com/books/her-client-trilogy, or on Amazon at www.amazon.com/richard-verry/e/B00YQLXU2E, or in paperback at www.createspace.com/6052481.

Thank you Her Client purchasers

June 10, 2016

Over the past 48 hours, the number of people buying and downloading my ‘Her Client‘ trilogy jumped significantly. Thank you to all that purchased a copy. I appreciate your support. I can only attribute this turn of events to the recent review on Amazon for the books written by Bibs. I’ve noticed significant jumps in interest and I can’t thank you all enough. You’re the best Bibs. Thank you again.

As a result, I am rejuvenated to continue my writing. The day I found the review, I ran home, kissed my girlfriend and went to my office. For several hours, I worked on my writing. In this case, I’m working a significant redesign of my website. I have come to realize that the landing page (home page) has gotten bloated, which forces the site to load more and more slowly. Plus, my analytics are showing a high bounce rate. Having everything on the home page doesn’t encourage a viewer to click links and drill down. It’s a delicate balance and while I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I’m still a ways off to being happy with it.

In the meantime, between a full-time job, responsibilities after work, and a loving partner and girlfriend; I find that I time slice between them. What I would love to be able to do is write long into the night and be up for a new day at the crack of dawn. I used to do this years ago during my stints in drawing and painting. Unfortunately, my body doesn’t allow me this luxury any more. Crap! I have so many ideas and stories, not to mention images floating around in my head that need to get out. Can I get another life? How about clone myself and send the clone to my day job while I write or paint. Could that even work?

Wish me luck. I plan on doing significant work this weekend on all aspect of my books. Website work, several chapters in ‘Lucky Bitch‘, book three in my Mona Bendarova series, and work on another book that I started last month in the ‘Her Client‘ genre.

You’ll find my Mona Bendarova books, ‘The Taste of Honey‘ and ‘Broken Steele‘ on Amazon. You will also find ‘Her Client‘, ‘Her Overseer‘ and ‘Her Essentia‘, the three books that make up for the trilogy. They are also available as a single paperback volume from https://www.createspace.com/6052481. My sixth book ‘The Breakup‘ is available exclusively on my website for just 99 cents.

You’ll find my books on my author’s link on Amazon. www.amazon.com/richard-verry/e/B00YQLXU2E. In fact, you’ll find most of my books on all sorts of eBook platforms, including iBooks, B&N and a host of other sites.

I hope you’ll check these gripping tales out for yourself.

A Big Thank You

June 8, 2016

Her Client Trilogy book cover 3D — Her Client Trilogy

I wish to express my gratitude for the fantastic 5 star reviews that Bibs left on Amazon for my trilogy, ‘Her Client’. You brought a big smile to my face. Thank you, I really appreciate the reviews. A paper back version is also available at .

Bibs is correct. These books are not for everyone. Yet, I wrote them because I saw a market and people are responding. If you liked ‘Her Client’ you may enjoy reading ‘The Breakup’, currently only available off my website, RichardVerry.com. Just $0.99.

In the review, Bibs wanted to know if I would continue Jolene’s story? I have considered it. If you are, sent me your comments, including ideas on how you think Jolene should carry on. If there is enough interest, I will see what I can come up with.

Do you know what the trouble is? I have outlined over thirty stories in the same genre and I really want to bring them all to life. I’m working on two more right now, in addition to finishing up the third book in my “Mona Bendarova” series entitled ‘Lucky Bitch’.

Her Client Book 1 cover 3D — Her Client, Book 1 in the Her Client Trilogy

Her Overseer Book 2 cover 3D — Her Overseer, Book 2 in the Her Client Trilogy

Her Essentia Book 3 cover 3D — Her Essentia, Book 3 in the Her Client Trilogy

Thank you for the reviews.

I am Richard Verry and I appreciate the support.

Need help? Need to relax? Be Massage & Wellness

June 3, 2016

Do you need to relax and repair your body? Do you want to pamper yourself, giving your body a treat? You can’t go wrong trying out Be Massage & Wellness.

‘Be relaxed, Be renewed, Be restored’

Tammy, is a Licensed Massage Therapist owning and operating her own successful business. Be Massage & Wellness is a local studio right here in the Rochester NY region. Her tagline perfectly describes her talent. She renewed and restored me, and that’s no small feat.

As I have written in the past, I severely damaged my body over the past couple of months, pushing it to change my place of residence. In packing up, moving, and unpacking, I did some significant hurt to all parts of my body.

Tammy and Be Massage & Wellness fixed me up right well enough. The first couple of sessions after moving were quite intensive. She found and fixed issues in my muscles and joints that surprised me. The damage had me wondering how I could function at all. Between daily soaks in my hot tub and Tammy’s magical hands working on me, I am nearly back to tip-top shape.

I’ve known Tammy for many years now, seeing her for various issues related to my body. Recently, I tried her hot-stone therapy. Oh my god, was that ever sweet. As I guy, I don’t often pamper myself with spa time. Her treatment was one of those exceptions. By the end, my body felt utterly relaxed and malleable. I didn’t want to get up from the table. I might have stayed there for the rest of the day. Alas, she needed it for another client.

If you are in need of help to relax, renew or restoration, you won’t go wrong in using her services. Check out her website at: BeMassageAndWellness.com. She will gladly book an appointment. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed.

Try her out and tell her Rich sent you.

Holiday weekend with Charles Bendarova

May 28, 2016

It’s 97 degrees Fahrenheit or 36 degrees Celsius. It’s hot. Really hot. Stifling hot on a cloudless day, the hot sun beating down on everyone and everything. Going outside is something I don’t relish. Yet, I had the opportunity to invite Charles Bendarova over to share a beer and catch up.

Charles is a good friend of mine. Of course he’s a fictional characters in my Mona Bendarova Adventure series. Yet, he is a dear friend. Tomorrow, he will be going to his communities Summer Start festivities but today, he could give me a couple of hours to kibitz, shoot the breeze and share stories.

Together, we sat on the porch and shared a beer. Well, several as it turned out. As the afternoon wore on, we talked about a lot of things. Take tomorrow for example. He told me the barbecue tomorrow was going to be a big affair. Several competitions were planned and he intended to win the dance competition. He had once again entered Jewel, his latest personal sub in training, to compete and this time, he had high expectations of her winning. Of course, I wished the two of them luck.

Soon enough, we got on to the talk of sex. I felt bad that I couldn’t offer him an attendant. Especially knowing that if the tables were turned and he had been hosting my visit to his home, we would be sharing beers while any number of gorgeous women attended to our desires. A big part of me wanted to go with him to his barbecue on the morrow but then again, who would then write the stories that come out of it. Yes, Charles knows full well that we are a team. Without me, his stories could not be told and without him, I wouldn’t have stories to tell.

Eventually, we got to talking about Mona. Charles is really worried about her. He’s worried because she’s on her own and no longer under his protection. Officially, that is. He confessed that he still looks after her, watches out for her, and does his best to protect her ass. Still, she’s on her own and he’s very worried. I am too. Mona has challenges to overcome just learning how to run her own estate. Yet, Charles and I know different. Many segments of the community don’t like the fact that a woman is now in charge of her own estate. She is the boss. She is the master of the house and mistress to hundreds of people under her. She must figure out how to feed everyone, take care of their needs, and care of the welfare of her housemates.

I feel for Charles, I do. Yet, I don’t know how to help him. He needs to figure it out for himself. I can only report the stories as it unfolds. I agreed with him, Mona has much to learn and she doesn’t need obstructive behaviors of members of her house and community working against her and making it even harder for everyone.

What I didn’t know until recently, Mona has had to deal with acts of terrorism within her own house. I was surprised, to say the least. Mona’s community hasn’t known behaviors like this for centuries. Charles is dumbfounded, to say the least. He reported to me that he suspects that several of Mona’s household have been assaulted and killed. He was shocked and nearly powerless to help.

I felt for him but I didn’t know what to say. Except to say, I tilted my glass of beer towards him, clinked the together and we each drained them. After draining a few more beers, he bade me goodbye. I wished him well.

Tomorrow, while Charles is partying it up at the barbecue, I’ll be writing more of his stories. Stay tuned.

Thank you, one and all

May 27, 2016

Thank you, one and all

A big thank you to David who gave me a pair of reviews for The Taste of Honey and Broken Steele. You’re awesome man. A big thank you also to everyone who bought my books these last couple of weeks. Apparently, the ‘Her Client Series’ is quite popular and a lot of you around the world are reading them.

My books and more, including another free one, are available on my website, RichardVerry.com as well as on Amazon for your Kindle, Smashwords, B&N, or at your favorite eBook retailer for your iPhone, iPad, Nook or what have you. You can even purchase paperback copies from these sites.

To get a taste of my stories, feel free to read the opening chapter from ‘The Taste of Honey‘.

As one reader wrote:

I’ve been under the comforter most nights, reading Richard Verry’s title, “The Taste of Honey” and calling out from under there, saying “go ask Daddy” and returning promptly to my hot and steamy read.

Hot and steamy? I couldn’t agree more and I’m confident you’ll agree. Right now, I’m working on the third book in the series, ‘Lucky Bitch’ which promises to be just as hot and steamy. All three books have intrigue, suspense, mystery, kink, and lots of sex with a healthy dose of romance.

As another review wrote:

The plot is intriguing and kept me spell-bound throughout the book. I found it to be well-written & the author draws you in with not only his clever storyline but also his complex characters. The more I read, the more I understood the emotional turmoil the various characters were going thru. I am excited to see where this author takes us in the next adventure!

So, if you are looking for a good book to read this weekend, download a copy of ‘The Taste of Honey’ and it’s sequel, ‘Broken Steele’. You’ll be sucked-in and captivated all weekend long. Then, be sure to look for ‘Lucky Bitch’ which is in the works.

Thanks again for your support and drop me a line with your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you.

Suitable for readers 18+.

Unofficial start of summer in America

May 25, 2016

Unofficial Start of Summer

In the United States, we are about to celebrate the start of summer. The unofficial start of summer that is. Memorial Day is an official national holiday created to commemorate our fallen soldiers in past and present military actions. Unofficially, it is our unofficial start of summer.

But I wonder, the same occasion remembers our fallen dead while we celebrate the coming of summer. Interesting, isn’t it?

Mona Bendarova’s Community Holidays

Celebrating the unofficial start of summer — Find out how the human race survives

I can’t help wonder what Mona Bendarova and her community would do to celebrate the coming of summer. I refer to of course to my books, ‘The Taste of Honey’, ‘Broken Steele’, and the soon to be released ‘Lucky Bitch’.

Mona and her community would celebrate one of the biggest parties of the year. While roasting meats over a number of barbecue pits, they would prepare tables of delicacies, and imbibe on all sorts of hard and soft beverages.

Competitions abound as cheering audiences root for their favorite contestants and betting flows freely celebrating both winners and losers. Capping the holiday off everyone enjoys wild group sex among a number of partners well into the next day.

Reading her stories, you will get a sense of what I am referring to. It’s a time everyone looks forward too. Sounds like a fun time. Eat, drink, fornicate, and be merry.

I’m looking forward to my celebration of the coming summer in a completely different way. There will be many similarities yet, there will be significant differences, especially when it comes to the menu. As I eat my share this weekend, I can promise you that I will think about Mona and her housemates, friends and acquaintances.

FrankenFood, are we playing with fire?

May 18, 2016

USAToday published an article entitled “Genetic ‘frankenfood’ found not harmful to human health”. The article goes on to state that a committee of 50+ experts compared disease reports from North America where Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are commonly used in food sources with disease reports from UK and Western Europe. According to these experts, there is no significant difference or increases in the incidence of specific health problems.

Good news, right?

Not so fast. I do understand that GMOs are being used with good intentions. They are being introduced to promote greater yield per acre, more drought & insect resistant, and other similar reasons. All good on the face of it.

For me, the problem is more to do with those behind the modifications being made to the genomes of our food supply. They are run and paid for by major corporations. Their motives are not to benefit the human race (or their customers). Rather, they are profit motivated. The stockholders in these corporations want bigger and bigger profits so they can increase their overall wealth.

I’m sorry but that is not a reason to mess with our food supply. I disagree with the practice. I would prefer that it stop but I know it won’t. I can only hope and pray that nothing goes wrong.

While I am not a fanatic on a cause, I can’t believe this report. Why you may ask?

Taste of Honey book cover small — Find out how the human race survives

Something going wrong is the underlying basis of my ‘Mona Bendarova’ series of books which opens with the ‘Taste of Honey’. Granted this is fiction but I based the books on the very concept that something goes wrong with playing with the genomes of our food supply.

To me, there are too many unknowns. My books are set a millennium in the future where we lose control of GMO’s and they wreak havoc on the food supply. We lose control of how the organisms replicate and they destroy our food sources ability to provide the proteins we need to survive. The ‘Purge Plague’ as it became known in the stories, caused the extinction of every consumable protein source on the planet. Every insect, plant, and animal died out within 100 years. Towards the end, humans managed to survive with a last-ditch effort to prevent their own extinction by radically changing their genome. However, to survive and move forward, a major sacrifice was required. A thousand years later, a social system arose to ensure the long-term survival of their species. Read ‘The Taste of Honey’ and it’s sequel, ‘Broken Steele’ to find out more.

In the meantime, I am a staunch believer that playing with our food sources and their genomes is akin to playing with fire. One day, we will get burned. I believe we will suffer a major catastrophe related to this practice. I only hope that we or our children never see the day.

Read “Broken Steele” if you liked “The Taste of Honey”

May 18, 2016

If you liked “The Taste of Honey”, be sure to read “Broken Steele”. Why?

“The Taste of Honey” is actually the first in a series of 3 books whose main characters include Mona, Honey, and Renee. “Broken Steele” picks up the action after Mona solves the mystery of Honey’s disappearance and before Honey’s significant contribution to her community. In “Broken Steele”, the saucy details you come to expect play out as you learn more about the community the characters live in. You’ll find out what drives them and how they enjoy life to the fullest. Don’t miss out on the juicy sexy action as Mona, Renee and all the others enjoy their lusty passions while Mona works on solving yet another shocking mystery.

If you start reading “Broken Steele” before “The Taste of Honey”, don’t!. Read them in sequence or you’ll miss out on the saucy details the first book sets the stage for the rest of the stories. Then, be sure to look for the third book in the series, “Lucky Bitch” due out soon. Plus, I’m told that the lusty action won’t stop there. Sign up for my blog and you could win a free copy of ‘The Taste of Honey”. Winners are selected randomly from each weeks new subscribers.

Look over what others have said about the stories posted right on Amazon. I’m confident that if you like saucy, racy, and risque excitement, mystery and suspense with a healthy dose of kink and sadomasochism, you’ll agree with these readers.

Whirlwind nearly over, part 9

May 15, 2016

Good morning all my fans and followers. I appreciate you taking the time to read my ramblings and thoughts of the day. With this post, I will be closing this thread on what a whirlwind this last month has been. Whew! I really thought I was going to close it down several days ago but then my lady’s job vaporized.

Speaking about her job et. all, she is doing fine. In many ways, she seems relieved and calm about everything. Her job, while stressful only some of the time, has taken a great weight off her shoulders. She is much more animated and lively. She is sleeping better and living life to the fullest. I like this new lady that I have committed to.

Thanks to all of you out there that sent me well wishes, concerns and offered advice on moving forward. I am taking them all to heart and will definitely use them to help me. In turn, that will allow me to help her as needed.

As I reflected upon the past week, I couldn’t help but compare this experience to Mona Bendarova’s world. Just to recap, Mona is the main character in my books in the Mona Bendarova Adventure series. In the first book, ‘The Taste of Honey’, she solves the mysterious disappearance of a woman, only to find out that she was kidnapped and imprisoned against her will by a jealous competitor.

In the second book, ‘Broken Steele’, she solves the mystery of the brutal and violent murder. In turn, she is rewarded with her own estate and in the third book ‘Lucky Bitch’ currently in development, she moves out of the only home she has known her entire adult life to take the helm of mastery of her own home. She is out of her depth here, struggling to figure out her new environment while caring for and feeding her large estate.

Early in this thread, I wrote that I will incorporate my experiences with Mona’s move to her her estate. I can’t help compare Mona’s struggles with her new home with my new home and the household’s sudden job loss. Throughout the third book, she deals with passive aggression, acts of terrorism, and emotional and physical fatigue of her new situation.

A core group of friends and lovers are there to help but it’s obvious that the community around her are split on whether to support her or aggressively work against her. Mona feels the pressure of many who want to oust her from her new position. She is unprepared to deal with it. Their community prides themselves on collaborative support, in both work and play. This growing conflict is an unknown and she struggles with how to deal with it.

Even members of her own estate, people she would do anything for, even defend them to the death if necessary, seem to be against her. Yet, she may have to defend her house to the death. She is attacked, assaulted, suffered the brutal killing of supportive friends with their bodies put on public display as a warning message to others. The message being of course, “This is what could happen to you should you side with Mona.”

The main issue here is that she is a woman occupying what has become thought of as a man’s entitlement. For almost two hundred years, no woman has become the Master of an estate. She was granted the estate for her guiding work on a job well done, benefiting the entire community around her. Yet, much of the community hates the idea of a ‘woman’ in charge of an estate. What’s next? Will she rise to the ‘Head of State’ of the entire community? It could happen. The current character who holds the title is nearing the end of his tenure and people are looking for a change.

Sound familiar? What will happen if my own country elects a woman president this coming November? What will happen if they don’t and instead, elect her opponent? I have my own opinions which I will not write about. What I do know is that my country, USA, is going through some interesting times. It remains to be seen whether these are good times or bad.

Mona, what would you do? What will you do?

Crossing my fingers.

Whirlwind nearly over, part 8

May 13, 2016

Things seem to be settling down since the shock of the change in employment status by my girlfriend and committed partner. The last 48 hours have been less stressful, we’re sleeping normally again, and I am not as worried about her as I was. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still worried about her but I’ve got it under control. Fortunately, she recognizes my paranoia. It’s there, no doubt. It’s an issue I will deal with. I worry but it’s my job to worry about her.

Does that mean I’ve gotten over my worrying for her emotional state? No, but I’ve learned that I can keep that to myself. She has enough on her plate. Speaking of, she dropped the line on me that shook me. She told me “I might just take the entire summer off.” I had not expected that but upon reflection it makes sense. What she was insistent on was that I had better “not tell her what to do”. Even better, never … ever say “we lost thousands of dollars this summer by you not working”.

No problem. If she even wants to take the fall off, by all means, go for it. If she wants to completely retire, then I’m okay with that as well. It’ll be a few years earlier than we had originally planned but so what. If it makes her happy, then I’m happy.

What does concern me were all of the future plans we had set up, which assumed her continuing to work full-time for the next couple of years. We had planned on buying a second home to winter at. Is that plan now in jeopardy? I really don’t know but I really want to spend my winters in the warm sun, drinking beers on the beach and write my books.

So, it is apparent to me that I will need to reevaluate the plan and adjust accordingly.

Don’t worry honey. I have your back.

Whirlwind nearly over, part 7

May 11, 2016

Well, I knew it was too good to be true. Nearly over? Not quite.

Sure enough, Murphy’s Law kicked in. Mid-afternoon yesterday, our household was kicked in the gut. The love of my life, my girlfriend and partner in the house we purchased together, lost her job.

Granted, we knew it was a possibility. Under new management, the home health care agency she worked for was going through a transition. Not only is her entire department being retired, so are many of the community programs they maintained. By years end, hundreds of citizens who depend upon their services will have to find a new agency to get the needs they need and their respective doctors prescribe.

I was well aware of the transitioning but I never fathomed the scope it would take on. My GF knew that she needed to justify her job and she worked hard at making her immediate supervisor look good. Her efforts were for naught.

The first indication came yesterday when she received a text from her supervisor that she had been canned. Minutes later, the managers under the supervisor received an email to attend a mandatory meeting within the hour. Within minutes, it was announced that due to budgetary reasons, she was being let go and she was immediately walked out of the office, unable to collect her personal effects. Not that she did anything wrong, that’s just their policy.

Now, I know what it’s like to be involuntarily terminated. It’s happened twice in my career. She has never had the pleasure. I feel for her. She’s maintaining a great front, already networking etc. I know different.

She laid awake much of the night, staring at the ceiling. Normally, when up in the middle of the night, she’ll pull out her tablet and browse the web and social sites. Not last night. I could feel the turmoil boiling in her brain.

The crappy thing is that I know from personal experience, there is nothing I can do to help except be there when she needs me. When she does, I’ll hold her, hug her, let her cry on my shoulder, whatever she needs. I will help her as she has done for me. There is no advice in the world that will help her deal with her feelings. Together, we will get through this.

One thing I know, she’ll process the feelings, transition from stage to stage and come out on the other side a stronger woman. She’ll put it behind her and look forward to the next chapter in her life. Opportunities for her abound and she’ll make the best of them. Word is spreading fast and she has already received a suggestion to come work for another agency. She is holding off and taking the time to figure out just what she wants to do.

She’ll grow from the experience and be a better person for it.

Sorry hun and have a margarita. I love you.

Whirlwind nearly over, part 6

May 10, 2016

Woke up this morning, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head ….

Thank you Beatles for the inspirational song ‘A Day in The Life’ to start my day off right. All of the above was true, except for the last statement. I haven’t needed to drag a comb across my head in decades. I used to have hair like that but it’s been gone since my early twenties. I did shave though, so maybe I should modify the line to “dragged a razor across my face”. Nah!

The point is, in getting up, I realized that there is nothing I have to do this afternoon and evening. I have a free night off. There’s no vendor I need to meet with, no deliveries I have to be home for, and my hot tub is slowly doing its magic on my ravaged body. Even my living room, dining room, and kitchen are starting to shape up. My office is getting there. I’m still getting used to my new writing desk.

Whoo hoo! I have nothing I have to do tonight. The very thought is wonderful in of itself.

So, what is the plan when I go home today after work? I have no fucking idea. Isn’t that great!

I might open a box or two, I’m in the market for a couple of storage cabinets so maybe I’ll shop for them. Online of course from the comfort of my easy chair. I could just sit behind my computer screen and write. ‘Lucky Bitch’ is begging for attention. I really should do that and maybe I will. Maybe I’ll just lean back, close my eyes, do nothing, and vegetate.

What I suppose I’ll do is whatever fancy’s me. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll decide when I get home and strip off my work clothes. I might even take an air bath.

Life is slowly returning to normal.

Whirlwind is almost over, part 5

May 9, 2016

As I reflect upon the last few weeks, I can’t help think about what I can do to incorporate my experiences into a book. Granted, I’ve barely written 2500 words these past weeks and I haven’t given much thought to the story-lines I’m working on. However, now that I am in the short rows of the move, my mind is beginning to return to the scene of the crimes.

The good news is, I can apply my experience to the new book that I am writing, called ‘Lucky Bitch’. Mona Bendarova’s third book is the perfect opportunity to incorporate my experience. At the end of the second book in the series, ‘Broken Steele’, Mona is given the opportunity to become the Mistress of her own House. ‘Lucky Bitch’ opens with her move to her new home and the struggles she faces in taking over the care and management of her home and their occupants.

She is excited and nervous now that she is responsible for the care and feeding of hundreds of people. Think of the medieval age of feudalism in Europe and you’ll get a sense of what she is up against. While she has access to technological advances we enjoy now, they are just a resource. People don’t live their lives in their devices, preferring to interact with each other directly, face to face.

Her new responsibilities aside, she faces challenges of moving in, organizing the house, and setting up her private personal spaces. Her dedication to her house is so great that she puts off her own personal comforts in favor of meeting the needs of the people living under her roof. Sure, she has help and many of them do their best to help her. However, Mona is uncomfortable with delegating responsibilities. Until now, her only responsibilities were to her own Master, Master Charles. She looked to him for guidance and performed to his expectations. Now, Mona is the one her house is looking to for direction and guidance and Mona feels like a fish out of water, not that she knows what a fish is, being they have all been extinct for over a millennium.

Mona works tirelessly, barely getting 3 hours of sleep each day. Her world is exploding in storm and fire. She is working so hard to take care of her home that she is failing to take care of herself. Her staff and household members see this but their pleas fall upon deaf ears.

Additionally, there are many in her community as well as within her own house that do not accept that a woman now has ownership and Mastery of her own estate. They resent her and try to discredit her. She’s earned her position but like the sexual disparity of today’s workforce, she’s broken through the glass ceiling, only find that she fights prejudice and resentment. Both emotions are something foreign to her. The nice and friendly community she grew up in is quickly becoming a community of distrust. Factions are lining up on either side of the blurred issues. Things will only get worse before they get better.

How does this relate to my recent move, you ask?

My own fatigue and abuse I’ve done to my body gives me a frame of reference that I can apply to Mona. I’ve ravaged my body in coordinating my move. I suspect it will take many months before I recover. In the meantime, I can write into ‘Lucky Bitch’ much of my own experiences. I can feel for Mona and in turn, include those feelings into Mona so that you, the reader, can feel the aches and pains that we each go through.

Time to get back to work and finish the book. My initial draft is still not finished, though it is close. As I rewrite the draft, I plan to insert my aching back into her experiences and hopefully make it more real. Wish me luck.

Whirlwind nearly over, part 4

May 8, 2016

They say one’s home is their castle. I can’t help wonder about the truth in the statement.

The home I used to live in, the one I recently sold and moved from, used to be my castle. I loved my home. I did not envision leaving it any time soon. In fact, I was sure I would still be living there at least six more years. Instead, it’s now sold to new owners. Someone else is living with all of the upgrades I did along the way as well as with its issues that all homes have. It’s their castle now.

What I don’t understand is why I have moved on as I have. I have no interest in driving by to see what the new owners are doing. I heard from my moving company that the very same crew I used to move out was contract to move the new owners in. Small world? No, I don’t think so. I suspect how that happened and I don’t think it was a coincidence. It’s a local firm, not a national chain with a very good reputation in the area. http://sheridanbrothersmoving.com/ If you are moving, local or not and live in my area, check them out.

My new home is my castle now. It’s a nice home and I’m sure one day, I’ll come to love it as I did the old one. Sure, I love this home but as in all relationships, its different. I still don’t understand all its subtleties, all the things that make it unique and different from another house. Like a lover. You love your current partner, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever. You love them deeply and would do anything for them. They are the best part of your life and complete you in ways that you want and desire. Yet, that does mean you didn’t love your previous lover any less. Just differently. Regardless of how or why you have a new lover, your love for them was just as deep. It was just different. At least, this is how I see the world. Perhaps you do to.

So, I have a new home. It’s my castle. I love it now and as time goes by, I’m confident that I will love it more. For better or worse, it’s my castle and I’ve pleased to be sharing it with my lover, partner and best friend. Love you maggical.

Now, for those of you that know my perversion for Halloween, whatever am I going to do to celebrate Halloween?

Whirlwind nearly over, part 3

May 7, 2016

Last time, I wrote about springing the surprise of my move on a dear friend and his wife. Though the move is officially over and I am living in my new home for a couple of weeks, it’s not really over. There are too many boxes left to be unpacked, window treatment to hang, furniture to deal with, and a plethora of other things to do. Most of my friends, (that being my books and artwork), are still packed away. Very little is hanging on the walls and there is still much to do.

The worst part?

I can’t find a damn thing. Well, that’s not completely true but it feels that way. Take for example, my favorite keyboard for this computer I’m writing on. I CAN’T F’ing FIND IT! So, I’m using a spare which I don’t like but I normally have attached to another computer I keep hooked up in the basement that handles my backups. Which BTW, that computer is not hooked up either. Other than lights and one utility outlet next to the circuit breaker box, there are no outlets to give it life. I need to get an electrician in to wire up the place.

But I can’t do that either right now! I don’t know how I want to utilize the space. There are still boxes galore to sort, organize and empty. It’s a problem for sure but a good problem. I foresee me being happy in this new home for many years to come.

There was one bit of good news which happened yesterday. My hot tub is now hooked up, filled with water, and today I’m going hot tubing. My body feels ravaged from this whirlwind of a move. Every bone and muscle in my body feels like I’ve been working out at the gym for hour after hour all day, everyday for over a month. My back is sore, my shoulders ache and even my ass hurts. Not from sitting mind you. Sitting doesn’t help that either. Rather, it’s aches and pain that radiate out from my ass down the back of my legs. My hamstrings and calves feel the brunt of the aches but every now and then, a shooting pain jumps from my ass and shoots right down the back of my left leg. Yeow!

To help restore my body, I went to my favorite masseuse and got a full body, deep tissue massage. I knew I screwed my body up something fierce during the heyday of the move. Was I ever right. Tammy, my masseuse whom I highly recommend, runs her own business BeMassageAndWellness.com. She found damage that I didn’t even know about. She found a problem in my right shoulder that was so bad, she worked on it for much of the session. She found the same issue on my left shoulder as well, only not as bad. When she was working on my left hamstring, it felt like she was digging a hole deep into the earth, even though she was barely pressing with her magic fingers.

I routinely see her but I must admit, I skipped a couple of months due to the move. I guess I should have listened to her. What I like best about her, is that she follows up the following day, asking me, how do I feel. Such service is rare and extremely appreciated. So, if I may. If you are in need of a talented, caring, and professional masseuse, you can’t go wrong with booking a session with Tammy. She’s a hero in my book.

Till next time when I expect to wrap up this little experience, I hope you have a great day and a better tomorrow.

Whirlwind nearly over, part 2

May 6, 2016

The other day, I wrote about why I had been pretty quiet of late. I moved from one home to another. The big question is … why did I not write about the move before now?

It all has to do with a dear friend of mine. He and his wife have been bugging me for years to sell my home and move to one near them. I love them dearly and yet, I loved the house I used to live in. Frankly, I resisted the urge to up and move. They are also snow birds. For those of you who don’t know the term, it means that they fly to their winter home in Florida and return in the spring. Yup, they roost in the warm sunshine of Florida while I live and work in the North East snows and cold weather.

Since the decision to sell and move occurred while they were in Florida, I decided I wanted to surprise them. Since they read this blog, I couldn’t write about it till now. The more I thought about it, the more the evil in me wanted to surprise them.

Yes, you guessed it. The surprise has been sprung. Last week as a matter of fact. They returned a week ago Monday and we all met up for dinner at my place. The old place and were they ever in for a surprise. The sold sign on the front lawn and closing happening the following day. They were shocked and speechless.

Together, we all went out from dinner, saying goodbye for the last time to the old house, ate a fabulous meal while we spilled the beans on everything we had hidden from them. After dinner, we all went to the new house and introduced them to it.

Can you feel the evil grin on my face throughout all this?

They also surprised us by showing up with a new car, which they bought while still in Florida. I am looking forward to entertaining and playing domino’s with them and the lady in my life long into the evening. Their closing comment to the two of us was ‘You done good.’

I couldn’t be happier.

Whew! Whirlwind nearly over

May 4, 2016

Apologies to all my followers. I know I have been quiet of late, posting updates on an irregular schedule. It’s been a whirlwind during the last month or so. You see, I’ve moved my home.

Not that my home is on wheels and I can just drive it down the road. No, I sold my old house and bought a new one. I thought the whole thing would happen over a number of months. That was not to be. Instead, it all happened within the space of under a single month.

Last January, I put in an offer on a new home which was accepted. So far, so good. The house closed at the end of March and I was free to begin moving in. Figuring I had time enough, I planned the move to happen over six weeks, taking my time, staging the old one and being out of my old one long before I needed to be when the new owners took possession.

The day after I closed on my new home, the old home was put on the market. Within 24 hours, a single showing and little time to breathe, I received a FULL CASH non-contingent offer with closing to happen in only a few weeks. If it wasn’t for the lawyers involved, it might have been done even sooner. Thank you lawyers, at least you gave me time to get everything in place.

So then I had a big problem. A good problem for sure, who wouldn’t want CASH up front. It’s a beautiful thing. Over the next two weeks, I had to pack up the rest of the house, get the hell out, and move all the stuff that goes with one’s domicile.

I’m pleased to report that I am now safely in my new home, still unpacking, and still settling in. Organizing the move has been the only thing on my mind for over a month now. I’ve barely written 2000 words in any of my stories in all that time. My internet service had been discounted for several days as well. By the end of each day, I was exhausted, worn out, and barely functional to eat a meal. Too many restaurants of late, nearly falling asleep in my dinner plate. Thank you all you restaurant workers and servers for taking care of me during this time.

I hope to get back to writing soon. I have the start of my new office in the works, a new writing desk, and a new coffee mug labeled ‘Go Away, I’m Writing’ which was a sweet gift from my girlfriend and life partner. I hope to get back to more consistent writing soon. I’ll take a picture of my new office soon. There are still so many boxes to unpack, finding homes for all the little things that make me feel warm and comfortable.

In the meantime, I’m going to try hard to resume more consistent blogging and keeping you updated. In my next blog, I hope to give you more insights into why I didn’t mention this move sooner. I had a wicked thought but you’ll have to wait to find out what that was.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow.

On Re-Reading Favorites

April 29, 2016

I’m curious. Do you re-read your favorite books? Would you ever even think of re-reading a book? Has the idea of re-reading a book ever crossed your mind?

I do. Over the years, I’ve re-read my favorites many times over. Books from my younger years are favorite re-reads. Many I’ve kept in my personal library, moving them from home to home over the decades. Others, I check out of the public library or lately, buy the eBook version even though I have the paperback or hard copy of the book.

They are my friends, my companions, and never once have they ever disappointed me. I’ve never regretted reading them. I’ve never regretted re-reading them. When I re-read a book, I realize a new innuendo to the story that I hadn’t realized before. It’s amazing. I still learn something from these books years after I last read them.

What are your favorite books or stories? Here are a few of mine.

As I wrote awhile back, I am a sci-fi, erotic, mystery & suspense, and paranormal aficionado. My all time favorite author in the genre is Robert Heinlein. Kim Harrison, the author of the ‘The Hollows’ series, is another favorite. Charlaine Harris, the author of the ‘Sookie Stackhouse’ books and later ported to HBO’s ‘True Blood’ is among my all-time favorites. An obscure favorite later made into a movie, is ‘The Harrad Experiment’ by Robert H. Rimmer. To this day, I wish I had been one of the students in that story.

Another favorite is ‘Logan’s Run’, a cheesy movie but the book was so much better. In fact, I remember writing a similar short story years before this book came out. Of course, I was still in primary school at the time. I’m sure it’s just a freak coincidence.

Tess Gerritsen is an author I enjoy reading again and again. So are John Grisham, ‘Along Came a Spider’, and the early works by Tom Clancy such as ‘Patriot Games’. There are many, many others.

However, I do have a problem. There are so many new books and authors that I enjoy following, that it’s getting harder to enjoy these older books again and again. Do you have the same problem? Or, do you just wing it and read the next thing that captures your fancy?

Then there is the problem of the books and stories that I write. I love them dearly. A bit of my soul is in each of them and again, I like to re-read them as well. What am I to do?

What’s your opinion?

Do you want to be entertained?

April 27, 2016

Same Old Stuff

Instead of watching the same old stuff on the boob tube, read a book, any book. It doesn’t have to be one of mine. Read any book that gives you pleasure, knowledge, or enjoyment.

Go ahead. I dare you. Pull the plug on the boob tube and read a book.

I don’t know about you, but I’m really tired of the same old stuff on the boob tube. I find it hard to become captivated by the story presented to me. All too often, I find that I am multitasking between what is on the screen, browsing the internet or just bored with the content. I could be shopping, catching up on the news, watching porn, or simply clicking link after link. Am I watching? Technically yes but in the end, do I even care? Usually not.

I know I’m not alone in this behavior. My girlfriend does the same thing. I suspect most of you out there do as well. My attention is split between the flat screen on the wall, the little screen on my lap and random thoughts.

In general, I read for the entertainment value. Picking up a good book allows me to focus my thoughts. For me, it takes a bit of effort to read. While I will read the occasional tutorial book, I most read novels, fiction or nonfiction. I like getting captivated into the universe the author created. I can’t multitask like I can do when watching the boob tube.

Boob tube

By the way, in case, you don’t know, the boob tube is an old slur meaning the television set. Back in the day when TV images were displayed on a CRT tube, that was shaped somewhat like a boob, the term was appropriate. Today’s flat screen televisions look nothing like the old but I still think of them as boob tubes.

If you want something different in your entertainment climate, may I recommend reading a book? They’re still inexpensive, especially when compared to a Cable TV or Satellite TV bill. The best part, like a TV, if you don’t like the story, change the channel, or in this case, choose another book. It’s a lesson I learned a long time ago. There are so many books out there, there is no reason to suffer through a book that you don’t like simply to get through it. Put it aside and pick up another.

And guess what? You can read a book almost anywhere and at any time. You don’t need electricity, batteries, or devices to read them. Just sit down and turn the page.

I read all the time, in bed, at the table, on the throne, anywhere. I read curled up next to a window, on the beach, in the park, on the deck, and just about anywhere.

Again, I dare you. Pull the plug on the boob tube and read a book.

What do you think? Where do you read? Do you read, other than this blog of course? 😉 Please feel free to comment. I really want to hear from you and your opinions, even if you don’t agree with me.

One final thought. Thanks for reading.

Her Client Trilogy

April 23, 2016

The Breakup

April 22, 2016

Essay on self marketing.

April 17, 2016

Instead of writing, I have been studying. My research includes a plethora of books, websites I’ve found, webinars, and social media threads. What am I studying?

By now, you know that I am an author, independently publishing my books on Amazon and all of various eBook outlets and distributors. I also have some of my books available as paperbacks. I created a website to promote my creative works. Yes, I am also an artist. I paint and draw for fun. I don’t actively sell my art.

I focus my attentions on my writings. I write creative fiction. My stories revolve around mystery and suspense stories of an erotic nature. Some tell me that one series of my books are akin to science fiction. Frankly, I was surprised by that comment. I never thought of them that way. They are set thousands of years in our future but does that make them sci-fi?My other series of books tend to focus on criminal acts of assault, torment, and murder. These books are not science fiction.

What I am not, is a marketer. In all of my education, I have never studied marketing. I don’t know how to market myself, my products nor even my career. I have a master’s degree in Information Technology. I never took even a single course on how to market myself. How is that even possible?

Today, I am studying marketing. More specifically, I am studying how to market myself and my books. Frankly, it’s a daunting task. I’ve encountered setbacks, mistakes, and minor successes. I’ve spent thousands of dollars hiring marketing people, test adverts, rebuilding my websites, and learning.

I’ll be the first to admit. I don’t know what I’m doing. I make mistakes, lots of mistakes. I am slowly learning. It’s frustrating. I listen to experts. I work hard to implement the lessons I’ve learned. I am intelligent. I know my mission. I found good people. I found people who don’t get me or my vision.

Taste of Honey book cover 3D — The Taste of Honey

I found people who tried to tell me to sell to a target audience that I instinctively knew was wrong. In one such lesson, I was advised to target the LGBT community because they were simply a smaller target group but big enough to make progress in new sales. Was this wrong?

No, I don’t think so. The problem? Since my stories include women kissing and having sex together, made the stories perfect in targeting the LGBT community.

The trouble was, these characters are heterosexual. In the universe I created, they simply don’t have any stigmas against same-sex intercourse. They don’t share today’s morality related to sex and relationships. This person didn’t get it. Fine. Move on. Lesson learned.

Today, I am studying. I am researching. I am learning. In short, I’m trying. I am determined. I’m opening a new chapter in my training. Come what may, it will work or not. I’ll keep on trying, working, and figuring it out. Wish me luck.

Happy at the coming of spring.

April 16, 2016

I am waking up today to what promises to be a warm spring day. Can this winter really be over? Or, does old man winter have one more surprise in store for me? Whatever the weather, I’ll deal with it. In the meantime, I’m loving the weather.

In the meantime, I have work and projects to do. Spring cleanup of the yard, thinking about cutting the grass again, open the windows and clean the house. Yet, I can’t get away from the urge to write.

I have lots of ideas, scenes and scenarios to write down. They flood my brain. Between a full-time job and the stuff I need to do around the house, there is just not enough time in a day. The bed begins calling me before nine o’clock. WTF? Nine? Really? What happened to the days when I could be up to all hours of the night and be up and about in the morning.

For me, this is the strangest thing going on with me. Frankly, I don’t understand it. I know the years are going by, seemingly faster and faster. What happened to the days when summer vacation seemed to last forever?

What about the rest of you out there? Do you worry that you’ll find your days shortened by an urge to sleep? Are you already feeling it? Or, are you the kind of person who can stay up late and sleep late? Personally, I wish I could do that. Waking at five a.m. without the benefit of an alarm clock really pisses me off.

Brunette drinking coffee outdoor cafe — Hmm, good coffee, honey!

Let me know. Write me or comment on this page. I would love to know what you do, what you fear, and what you do to postpone inevitable change.

In the meantime, it’s time to join my girlfriend (who looks every sexy lying in bed waiting for me) for a cup of coffee and start the day.

Happy Spring everyone!

Thank you!

April 14, 2016

A big thank you to the person who bought a copy of my book, ‘The Taste of Honey’ the other day. I really do appreciate it.

As you read it, you’ll find out just how to have an office meeting. You’ll never go to another meeting without thinking twice ever again.

I hope you will post a kind review.

Peanuts

April 9, 2016

What is your favorite Peanuts character?

I don’t know why, but I’ve been pondering this question for a couple of days. I compared each one to what I think is important in my life and decided that Snoopy was the best fit.

A dog you might ask. Look at it this way and take the species aspect out of it.

Snoopy has a very active imagination. He’s a fighter pilot flying in an open cockpit bi-wing fighter plane. He plays baseball. He knows enough to get enough sleep. He decorates his house for the holidays. He is a writer, a good friend, and a party animal. He tells it like it is and makes no bones about it. He questions idiocy and doesn’t take shit from anybody. Most importantly, he unconditionally loves his friends and family.

He is an independent soul and won’t be forced to conform. He believes what he believes and lives his life accordingly. You either take him as he is or you don’t. It’s not so much that he doesn’t care. Rather, it’s more akin to not being aware that some people may not appreciate him.

Snoopy and I are very much alike. That is why he is my favorite ‘Peanuts’ character. Who is yours and why? We could get into a very interesting dialog.

The Love of my Life

April 2, 2016

“Everyone makes mistakes in life, but that doesn’t mean they have to pay for them the rest of their life. Sometimes, good people make bad choices. It doesn’t mean they are bad. It means they are human.”
— author unknown

I read this quote on social media just now. It touched me. Does it touch you? Do you believe that mistakes are rectifiable? Is everyone who made a mistake a bad person? If you believe this, what does that say about you?

I will admit. I’ve made mistakes, many mistakes in my life. I do try harder, each and every day, to make better choices. However, it is important to me that I remain ‘me’. I spent too many years trying to be what others wanted me to be. All I got in return was pain and heartache. I grieved, I cried, I nearly died.

Today, I am a happier person. I love what I do and who I am. I make no bones about who I am. You are welcome to take me as I am or not. Do I care? Possibly. Yet, in the end, I cannot change who I am. I love who I am and what I love. Thankfully, the love of my life, maggical (my term of endearment for her), accepts me for who I am and what I love.

I love you maggical and I will forever.

Please Shut Up! Huh?

April 1, 2016

I read a blog post this morning by author Delilah S. Dawson. I found it quite interesting and I think you will too. I encourage you to read it. Here’s the link to the post.

http://www.whimsydark.com/blog/2015/4/13/please-shut-up-why-self-promotion-as-an-author-doesnt-work

She writes about the difference in pushing a book upon the audience and pulling them to the book. She makes a lot of sense. It’s a lesson I am slowly learning. In reading her commentary, I couldn’t help but smile and agree. My social media feeds are full of book covers, promotions and statements that boil down to one message. BUY ME. Sorry, but like Delilah, I skip right over them as I scroll across my feeds. About the only time I stop and look is to study the message and see if there is something in it to pull me in. I’m usually disappointed and move on.

For me, the single most important line in Delilah’s post is:

“The recipe seems to be GREAT BOOK + HARD WORK + TIME + LUCK.”

I can control three out of four of them and I hope I am lucky enough to rise enough to be truly noticed.

I will be the first to admit, that I’m not very good budgeting my time with my writing. I spend way too much time screwing around trying to make a name for myself, promoting my stories and I am not spending enough time writing the stories that I really love. I have outlines for more than a dozen waiting to be written. Argggghhhhh.

I must do something about that. I need to get back to creative writing.

Case in point.

Until recently, I promoted my ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’ much in the way Delilah hates. They didn’t sell. Watching their performance, I found that my efforts were wasted and might have even pushed my audience away from me. I pulled the promotions altogether.

Another series of books I wrote, ‘Her Client Trilogy’, sell well enough to make me smile. Sales are not fantastic, in fact, they are mediocre when compared to my favorite authors. Yet, to me, they make me happy. There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t seen multiple sales of the books. Whoo hoo!

The funny thing is, which surprises me to no end, I do no promotion of the books. They sell on many platforms, all over the world. What I know is that they are a product of ‘Hard Work’, a ‘Good Story’, and lots of ‘Time’ writing and polishing the stories.

I am still trying to figure out the formula. I suspect that as soon as I do, the formula will have already changed.

So, I’m going back to writing, creatively and writing what I love.

Inspiration from Mark Twain

March 30, 2016

I recently came across this quote from Mr. Clemens and it gave me pause to think. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he is so right.

“The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” — Mark Twain

However, I find it difficult to find the right word at times. The thesaurus is my best friend. I keep it handy and refer to it many times as I write. I scour on-line versions as well as a printed copy. I jump from word to word searching for the right one.

And yet, after racking my brain, time and time again, I sometimes can’t find just the right word to convey the meaning I want. When I get stuck, I’ll ask those around me. Otherwise, I’ll tag it and put it off until later.

Does this happen to you? If so, what do you do to get around it? I would love to read your comments on this topic. In the meantime, have a great day and keep on writing!

Do you really know him?

March 30, 2016

The New Novella from Author Richard Verry

March 27, 2016

The Breakup

The New Novella from Author Richard Verry

March 27, 2016

The Breakup

Memories inspired by song

March 23, 2016

I was just having my lunch and the song ‘Light My Fire’ by the Doors came on the radio. In a microsecond, my mind retreated to the day that I first heard this song. The moment is crystal clear in my head. I can’t remember much else about that day but hearing that song always brings me to that moment.

What moment am I referring to you may ask?

As a small child and with my family, we were visiting my cousins from my father’s side, Midge and Trudy. They were sisters living in a second-floor apartment in or near Poughkeepsie, NY. I can’t be sure of exactly where but I know it was somewhere around there. Anyway, I digress. We were having a good time and I remember having fond memories spending time with them. Where they are today, is anyone’s guess. I remember them being about fifteen years older than I was and I was a small kid. Through them, I was introduced to ‘The Doors’, a Christmas gift they gave me one year, and even the layout of their living room at the time. Out the front windows, I could see the urban street below and hear the occasional siren of emergency vehicles going by. I can remember wondering, how can they sleep at night with all that racket. Little did I know that one day, I too would learn how to do that.

After the song was over, I started thinking about other songs. Eric Clapton’s song ‘Layla’ brings back to me a fellow by the name Jerry Romeo. He was a modern day Fagan from the book Oliver’. One summer I was part of his crew selling door-to-door subscriptions to the NY Times. We would jump from his van, spread out and attack the neighborhood. Afterwards, he introduced me to the therapeutic wonders of a plant commonly called ‘weed’.

Santana’s 1969 album entitled ‘Santana’ was just fabulous. So many songs on there. It’s cover fascinated me. A sketch of a lion, mouth wide open and hidden within, is the image of a topless woman, her nipples covered by the fangs of the lion. I was barely entering my teen years and just discovering the wonderful value of female gender. My cousin on my mother’s side Michael introduced me to that album to . I bought my own copy, along with ‘Abraxas’ as soon as I was able.

There’s ‘Roundabout’ on the Yes album ‘Fragile’, was first introduced to me by my best friend in high school, John Nicholas. Now there’s a guy I would love to hook back up with. I have no idea where he is today. He lost a couple of toes one summer driving a town lawn mower when he accidentally rolled it. Every time ‘Roundabout’ plays, I have to crank up the volume, blow my ear drums out and think of him.

Then there’s ‘Crimson and Clover’ which was the favorite song of a school bully by the name of Phillip Domineci. I always felt that I was his prime target. Years later, I hated the song, solely because of him. In recent years, I have come to kinda like it. You can thank Joan Jett for that. Then there’s ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ by The Who. Damn, so many memories related to that song, I can’t list them all.

Oh, least I forget ‘Gold Dust Woman’ from Fleetwood Mac. I turn that on with endless repeat when I’m a creative spirit, whether it be writing or painting. Hours later and often, well into the night, I’m still playing the song over and over as I put the final touches on the piece I’m working on.

The list can go on and on. One thing that surprises me with so many songs of my childhood is that while I liked them, I had no clue that so many of them had strong sexual undertones to them. At the time, I had no idea what it meant. I do now! A line from ‘Brandy’ by Looking Glass, “She saw its ragin’ glory” caught my interest but took me years to figure it out. The double innuendo is great.

I love the idea of the line “Won’t you lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff” from Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Second Hand News’. So many of the songs of my early years have undertones that I missed and only decades later did I figure them out. I was young and stupid in those days. I wonder what my parents thought of me when they realized just how much I loved these songs.

What about you? Do you have memories such as the ones I describe? I look forward to reading them.

Newest Release coming soon

March 21, 2016

The Breakup

Check out the book cover for my latest novella, a dark erotic love story of misconceptions and misunderstandings.

Back from editing, publication formatting is in the works. Look for it soon on my website or at your favorite eBook site.

Her Client

March 18, 2016

I’ve spent my entire life doing my best to help others. Rarely have I done something just for myself. Sure, I have a body to die for and I use it to my advantage. It has helped me advance, but honestly, if I don’t, there’s always someone else who will take my place.

I don’t maintain long-term relationships, I simply don’t have time. I take care of the needs of my clients and if there is enough leftover, I’ll do something for myself. Who am I kidding? I have just enough left over for a bath, a glass of wine and the occasional one-night stand.

Then why was I assaulted, beaten, raped and sold into human bondage to be tortured and murdered? I have since learned that what happened to me could happen to anyone.

It could even happen to you.

~Jolene

Available at smashwords.com, or check out my website for more information. RichardVerry.com

Return to the Shelf

March 15, 2016

Back in mid-February, I posted an article regarding my books that comprise the ‘Her Client Trilogy’. Those books include ‘Her Client’, ‘Her Overseer’, and ‘Her Essentia’. In the article, I reported finding numerous editing mistakes missed by my editor. I was shocked to discover so many errors and inconsistencies. Therefore, I immediately pulled the entire series of books from the market so they could be re-edited.

Recently, I found a quote from an acquaintance of mine who uses it in her professional life. I love it and I subscribe to that sentiment with the works I produce. The quote reads as such.

“I strive for perfection, I’ll settle for excellence.” – Nichole Kellett.

Instinctively, I applied this concept to my artwork and when I began writing, I tried to apply the same meticulous attention to details. It’s unfortunate, in my zeal to move on to the next project, I allowed the release of a flawed product. Aghast, I pulled the books.

I’m happy to report that through numerous reviews, edits, and post edit reads, the flaws were corrected and many improvements to the flow and content of the stories were implemented.

The entire series was re-released as a new edition, along with new book covers. Those who purchased the original version will be able to download the second edition for free. If you purchased them directly from my website, I’ll be sending you and email with the revised version download instructions attached. For those who purchased them from Amazon or another retailer, please work with your retailer to get the revised edition. BTW, my experience with Amazon has taught me that when an author updates their book, they will attach a note to your list of books, allowing you to update the book. I encourage you to do so.

I’m also putting together a paperback bound edition of all three books in the trilogy. The paperback edition will soon be available on my website, Amazon.com, and Createspace.com.

As a service to the rest of you, I am making the first book, absolutely free. That should make your day!

What makes me happy is the actual writing, creating the scenes, imagining the dialog that my characters might think and say, and putting all together into a cohesive story. Post production is tedious, strenuous, and frankly, sucks. I will be using a new editor for my future writings so that I can concentrate on the fun part of my novels. The creation and development of the story.

This experience has taught me a lot. I will strive hard to prevent these mistakes from reoccurring. I feel I have learned from my mistakes and I will grow from them.

Granted, my books are not for everyone. I never intended for them to be. In fact, if you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know that publishing my first book was done almost as an afterthought and after I was pressured by my beta readers to publish it.

For those who do like the genre I write in, I think you’ll appreciate the fine tuning that went into them.

‘Her Client Trilogy’ is suitable for those age 18 and above and contain scenes of graphic violence and criminal acts of assault, sexual abuse, and torture.

A concise, succinct view of my world

March 13, 2016

I read the following quote the other day on social media. Though I don’t have it as exact as it was written, I know that I’ve captured the sentiment.

“I don’t subscribe to the stuff I write about. I just have a vivid imagination.” – author unknown.

This quote rings clearly in my psyche. The sentiment allows me to explain to people about the stories I invent and capture in my writings and in my artwork. In short, it describes me in a very succinct way. It fits me to a tee.

When you read my books, you will feel the anguish my characters suffer, male and female alike. You will feel what they do as they are tormented, brutalized, sexually assaulted and even killed. You will also live inside the minds of the perpetrators as they deliver their horrendous punishments to their unwilling victims. You will follow along inside the minds of the victims and feel their pain. You will identify with the characters and cringe as they suffer.

While I wrote these stories, I find the behaviors of my perpetrators as disturbing. I strongly believe that the idea of an act of violence against any living being, human or otherwise, as abhorrent. I cannot imagine actually doing the violence I write about. The idea that I can be thought of as someone who does, turns my stomach. I can’t imagine myself forcibly raping another person, man or woman. I can’t imagine myself as a boxer, fighter, soldier or whatever. I just can’t see it. I don’t consider myself a pacifist, I simply abhor the notion of doing violence against another.

Other people have trouble accepting my explanation. Many have said to me “If I can write it, I must be able or willing to do it.” While I understand how they made that leap, I don’t agree with it. I simply have an active imagination and I choose to document the products of my imagination. I will never, ever, do any of these behaviors for real.

What I find most interesting is the more violent the story, the more graphic and brutal it is, the better it sells. Really? I also recognize that either you like the stories or you don’t. There is no middle ground with these stories. They are not for everyone. I’m okay with that.

Whether you believe me or not, I can’t help you. I don’t subscribe, support and live this behavior and that it is just my vivid imagination. If you can’t believe it, then I can’t help you. I can only reaffirm my beliefs and core values do not include this behavior. Those closest to me, my friends, family, and lover know the truth.

In the meantime, as long as people buy it, I’ll continue to write it.

Thank you fans

March 9, 2016

I’ve just noticed that two more people purchased my books. First, someone bought a copy of ‘Broken Steele’, the exciting sequel to ‘The Taste of Honey’, which someone also bought. Thank you all. I appreciate it. I hope you enjoy them.

The third book in the series, ‘Lucky Bitch’ is in the works. I hope to have it ready in a couple of months. It picks up a few months after ‘Broken Steele’ ends, providing new challenges for Mona to survive. Yes, that’s right. She’s got a target on her back. Fortunately, she has a close circle of friends who help watch her back. I can’t wait to find out how it will all turn out.

‘The Taste of Honey’ and ‘Broken Steele’ can be purchased on my website RichardVerry.com or at your favorite book retailer such as Amazon. They are available as ‘real’ paper books or for your favorite eBook reader.

Happy Birthday Lou

March 7, 2016

Yesterday, March 6, was the anniversary of the birth of Louis Francis Cristillo. If you don’t know who Mr. Cristillo is you will probably know him by his stage name, Lou Costello.

Lou Costello has always been a favorite actor of mine since I was a small boy. For my entire life, I’ve admired him, been entertained by him and his partner, Bud Abbott, in movies, television shows, and radio dramas. Throughout my childhood, I laughed at his antics, cringed when he seemed to be in danger, and rooted for him to get past his latest challenge. Growing up, I knew nothing about his background other than he was born in Paterson NJ, a town I’ve been to. As an adult, I discovered he was also an Italian American and veteran of vaudeville and burlesque. Who knew?

Realizing that his birthday was yesterday, I looked up his biography.
This is what I found on IMDB.COM.

“Lou Costello was born Louis Francis Cristillo in Paterson, New Jersey, to Helen (Rege) and Sebastiano Cristillo. His father was from Calabria, Italy, and his mother was an American of Italian, French, and Irish ancestry. Raised in Paterson, Costello dropped out of high school and headed west to break into the movies. He got a job as a carpenter at MGM and Warners. He went from there to stuntman and then to vaudeville as a comic. In 1931, while working in Brooklyn, his straight man became ill and the theater cashier, Bud Abbott, filled in for him. The two formed their famous comedy team and, through the 1930s, they worked burlesque, minstrel shows, vaudeville and movie houses. In 1938, they got national exposure through the Kate Smith Hour radio show and signed with Universal Pictures the next year. They debuted in One Night in the Tropics (1940). Their scene-stealing performances in that film landed them their own picture the next year, Buck Privates (1941), with The Andrews Sisters. It was a runaway hit, grossing what was then a company record $10 million on a $180,000 budget. In 1942, they topped a poll of Hollywood stars. They had their own radio show (ABC, 1941-46, NBC, 1946-49) and TV show (The Abbott and Costello Show (1952)). After the war, their movies shifted formula to one in which they met various monsters or found themselves in exotic locations. The team split up in 1957, with both winding up completely out of money after troubles with the Internal Revenue Service. After that Lou appeared in a few television shows and the movie The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959), released a few months after he died.”

My all time favorite movie, across all genres and the decades is one of his, “The Time of Their Lives“. Admittedly, it is not one of the more famous of his movies but to me, it’s priceless. He plays his usual comedic character set during the American Revolution. He played a poor tinker who, along with Melody Allen, was shot, killed, and erroneously branded as traitors. Each of them wakes up as ghosts, eternally bound to the estate they died on. Centuries later, they are freed from their torment and move on to their next lives. In between, though, is a story full of antics, comedic relief, and dual love affairs reunited. I absolutely love this movie and watch it frequently.

Lou Costello introduced me to the likes of the Andrew Sisters and other ‘A’ listers in the music and acting fields. His classic ‘Who’s On First‘ comedy routine he does with Bud Abbott is the absolute best. I have it on my regular playlist in my music player. I smile every time I hear it and if I’m having a bad day, it is my go to audio track to make me feel a better.

My only regret regarding Lou Costello is that he died long before I discovered and recognized his talent. In fact, I was still wearing diapers and my world revolved around my mother and father. My regret is offset by knowing that Lou’s middle name is the same as mine. Hey Mom and Dad, am I named after him?

If you know and appreciate Lou Costello the way I do, then I urge you to remember him with a nod of your head while recalling you favorite memory. If you don’t know who he is, please look him up. Though best known for his antics with his partner, Bud Abbott, he was a versatile actor, comedian, stuntman, athlete, and family man. There is much to this man than I can write here. Please, just take a moment and look him up.

Thank you

March 4, 2016

Someone bought a copy of ‘The Taste of Honey’ the other day. Thank you, thank you. I really appreciate it and hope you enjoy the book.

Buy your own copy here on Amazon. http://amzn.to/1JvpwjL

Sleep Loss Dumbs You Down

March 4, 2016

Lately, I’ve not been sleeping through the night. Try as I might, I wake up for good between 4 and 4:30 a.m. Over the past year, I’ve been doing okay, but this last week, not so good, and I’m at a loss. I have no significant stress in my life. Life is good. I have no worries to deal with or other such crap. In fact, up until this past weekend, I’ve been writing, reading, doing well at work and performing my annual winter cleaning of the house. As I wrote above, life is good.

So, why this week, can I only get four to five hours sleep? Beats me.

How is this effecting me?

I wake up, lie in bed trying to fall back. No good. I get up, shower and dress, go to work. I’m doing my job, albeit, I’m not firing on all cylinders. That is, I’m not up to my usual efficiency.

I get home and I can’t get my mindset in a creative mode. I can’t write, I can’t draw, I can’t even plan dinner. And oh, I have the munchies. This is new for me. I don’t understand it. I know that my stomach if fine, but my brain keeps telling my mouth to eat. What’s that all about anyway?

I did some more research on sleep deprivation. After reading about all of the usual stuff, I stumbled on this page from WebMD. #2 on the list refers to ‘Sleep Loss Dumbs You Down’.

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/10-results-sleep-loss

"Sleep plays a critical role in thinking and learning. Lack of sleep hurts these cognitive processes in many ways. First, it impairs attention <check>, alertness <√>, concentration <√>, reasoning <√>, and problem solving <√>. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently. During the night, various sleep cycles play a role in 'consolidating' memories in the mind. If you don't get enough sleep, you won't be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day <√>."

Everyone of these points is how I feel right now. The trick is, what to do about it.

Number 4 on the list is the worst. “Lack of Sleep Kills Sex Drive”. I don’t need to read that blurb to know exactly what they are about to report. I’m feeling it and for a writer and painter that dabbles in erotica, this is awful. How can I capture on paper or canvas a sex scene if I can ‘t feel it myself.

The rest of the article goes on with the other effects of lack of sleep. So, that to do about it?

Block out adequate nighttime sleep period? <√>
Keep distractions out of bed? (Reserve your bed for sleep and sex.) <√> (Hard but doable.)
Set a consistent wake-up time? <√>
Gradually move to an earlier bedtime? <√>
Set consistent, healthy mealtimes? <√>
Exercise? (ok, I need to work more on this despite the fact that I was sleeping better before this week.)
De-clutter your schedule? <√>
Don’t go to bed until you’re sleepy? <√> (Trouble is, I’m sleepy even now, first thing in the morning.)
Don’t nap late in the day? <√>
Create a relaxing bedtime ritual? <√>
Avoid “nightcaps”? <√> (Well, in desperation, I tried a glass of red wine to see if it would help. Not so much.)

Am I depressed? No. Sleep apnea? Yes but it’s been successfully treated for three years now. PTSD and Anxiety? No, at last I don’t believe so.

Maybe I need more than a single glass of wine. I’m also thinking about a new mattress. As nice as the one I have is, it is getting on in years and I’ve slept on hotel ones that are much better. What I will not do is use a pill.

If any one has any ideas, I would love to hear about them. Write me, comment on this post, whatever. I need to get back to creative writing. If I don’t, I’ll go nuts anyway.

What Inspires You

March 2, 2016

In the wee hours of the early morning, I laid in bed, my mind racing with non-contiguous thoughts. Trying as I might to fall back asleep, my thoughts kept coming back to the word ‘Inspiration’.

First, I kept thinking what inspires me. I also thought about the definition of the word. Jumping around, I landed on thoughts of topics in everyday life that might inspire me, inspire you or just inspire anybody. At times, I thought about those posters that companies put up to inspire and motivate their workforce.

As the night slowly moved to morning, I decided to write a blog on the subject. But what specific might I write about that would be of interest to you, the reader? As a result, I put off writing this blog until I could answer that question. Since I don’t know you, let me tell you about what inspires me and try to integrate that into what your inspirations might be. I don’t know any other way to say it. Therefore, here we go.

So, what does inspire me? Everyday life, events in the news, porn, family, friends, work, my career and everyday conversations with my people of all types and relationships. It can be an ad on television or a memory from my childhood.

I’ve written in the past that my mind is constantly filled with thousands of images that flies through my noggin, bounces around a bit before being replaced another. This happens on a daily basis. The ones I find interesting, I try to capture for later followup. Many of those never see the light of day. But those that do, become inspiration for follow-up study and potential implementation into a story or painting.

The problem is, with so many sources to draw from, I have to be careful to use that latest image is inspiration for something unique and creative. In other words, I have to very careful not to plagiarise the idea and duplicate someone else’s creative work. It’s hard but I strive hard to make it happen.

I’m also a perfectionist with my craft. In my paintings, I like realism. I like to make my compositions look as real as possible, even if the subjects are magical and mystical creatures or devices that could not exist in real life. In my stories, I spend a lot of time researching my idea and searching for other works to see if it has already been done. As I write, I keep careful notes to ensure that physical characteristics and experiences of my characters remain consistent. I don’t want to write that a character is tall in one chapter only to be short in a later chapter.

Then, be it a painting or a story, once the work is done, I review and scan and check to make sure that every detail is accounted for, every word is the right word to use in intended context. Is it the right color, perspective or composition. Do I need to rewrite this segment, repaint that corner or what have you.

Be it paintings or stories, it is this editing that important to me. I hate putting out inferior products. Even in my work, I write programs etc. The actual coding is only 30% of the software coding. The rest is planning and testing. The same goes for my painting or writing. I plan about 30% of the composition, I write or paint for another 30% or so and the rest is in the polishing.

In researching this blog, I came across the following quote by Johannes Brahms.

"Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."

I like that because I lean towards the craftsmanship. Every stroke of the brush, every letter of every word, is meticulously placed to achieve my desired goal. At some point, the project must end, mistakes and all otherwise nothing would ever be finished. I strive hard to be better at my craft. I strive to make a new work be better than the last. Most importantly, I’m not afraid to make a mistake. It is my mistakes that allow me to grow and improve.

So, how does all this relate to you, my reader. I honestly don’t know. I’m only trying to understand you through what is important to me. If what inspires you also inspires me, then we can make a connection. I feel that we already have something in common, else you wouldn’t be reading this. So, tell me, what inspires you? I really want to know.

Till next time, this is Richard Verry, spewing out thoughts that will hopefully help me understand what makes you tick. As I travel this road of inspiration, I hope I meet you and together, share ideas. Till next time, have a great day.

Perfection

February 25, 2016

I heard a quote last night when watching NCIS on TV. Special Agent Gibbs quoted Yogi Berra with the following.

"If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be."

Just to be clear, I never heard the quote before and I found it intriguing. I spent some quality time in reflecting upon it.

We’ve all wished the world was perfect. I know I have on many occasions. After all, who wouldn’t want to live in a perfect utopia, where all needs are met and want is nonexistent.

Yet, the more I thought about the quote, the more I realized, he may be correct. Analyzing the comment, I first applied the concept to myself. Then, I applied it to the lady in my life who happens to be the love of my life. After that, I expanded it out to my family, friends, acquaintances, people I don’t know and for that matter, everyone on the planet.

To keep it simple let’s look at it as it applies to myself. After that, just expand my rationale to everyone else.

If the world were perfect, I would have been raised by perfect parents. I would have great relationships with them as well as my siblings. I don’t now but I’ve often wished it. I would also live in a home filled with love. Well I do have that now but that was not always the case. I would have money enough to buy anything I wanted. Oh wait. There would be no want. I already have everything I ever wanted. So why do I need money?

In my career of choice, I’m a computer network technician and software engineer. I’ve enjoyed learning how to manage, program and maintain computer systems. In my personal life, I’ve pursued learning about the arts. I am a decent artist and writer. I learned a long time ago to deal with repair and maintenance on my house, my car and … well whatever I needed to figure out.

In case you’ve not guessed it, I enjoy solving problems and puzzles. However, in this perfect utopian world, there would be no problems in need of solving. There would be no puzzles to piece together. There would be no challenges to overcome. Extrapolating further and applying this to everyone else, we would all be in the same position. All of our wants are met and therefore, we would want for nothing.

How boring!

I can only conclude that if the world was perfect, I would not have a place in it where I was happy. Therefore, can I truly say it’s a perfect world since my world is not perfect. How about you?

I guess I don’t want to live in a perfect world after all. What the hell am I say? Please, someone slap me silly.

Facing Challenges

February 22, 2016

I read a quote on FB earlier today and it struck home as it relates to my blog post the other day on Chaos. The quote reads.

“We don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.” Author unknown.

I found the quote interesting. I’ve instinctively believed in this concept, I found the reminder to be welcomed. It’s one thing to keep trudging through life, working out challenges and over coming obstacles. We all do it.

It’s quite another to realize that individually and as a species, our growth only comes about when we ‘work the problem’ and find solutions to meet the need.

Of course, most solutions reveal other challenges but so what? More challenges = more opportunities for growth. I welcome any and all opportunity for growth.

Overcoming challenges and growing is a central theme to my ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’ novels. The characters in those books had to overcome a challenge so devastating to the human race, that they found a most ingenious if not difficult to accept solution. However, as a species, they embraced the solution and a thousand years later, the human race is still around. I’m not sure I would like to live in that environment but if I did, I would be well versed in the reasons why and would accept them.

However, that wouldn’t stop me from working towards over coming the new challenges that arose as a result. Mona and company are doing exactly that. She is determined to find a new solution to the new challenge. Overcoming it won’t be easy. In fact, it will be extremely hard, being there are social, moral and scientific obstacles in her way. Little by little, book after book, Mona is enlisting the help of those around her and perhaps, one day, they will find a solution and grow yet again.

This brings me back to our current lives. Mona’s are fictional. Ours are real. Today, we have plenty of obstacles which challenge us daily. Social disorder and chaos is happening right now, all around our planet. It is up to us, the current tenants of our world to come to terms with these challenges. Once we do, we will grow exponentially.

Can you imagine what we could do with that? Can you imagine where we could be in a thousand years. I can. How about you?

Chaos

February 19, 2016

I read a quote from Tom Barrett today. He wrote:

"Chaos in the world brings uneasiness, but it also allows the opportunity for creativity and growth."

This is similar to a concept I’ve lived my entire adult life which I believe comes from a Chinese philosopher millennia ago. I learned it of it in high school.

"Change plus Opportunity equals Growth".

For me, I live by these words. It seems that my life has always been a journey through chaos. Isn’t it for everyone? When I recognized that the chaos brought opportunity, I realized the opportunities were simply a means for growth.

Looking back at the last several decades, and in reviewing my life to date, I appreciate how much my life changed and how far I grew. Sometimes I say to myself “if only I knew then what I know now!” Again, I know everyone wishes that. I would like to think I would have made better choices along the way, kept my mouth shut and gotten laid instead of asking the question “Why are you doing this?” Yup, I asked that question right in the middle of the act where upon, she said “You’re right” and threw me off. Crap.

There were other decisions I made along the way that I’m glad I made them. Falling in love? Yup. Great. Marrying her. Bad decision. Buying my first new car? Awesome, I loved it. Selling same car to pay for the marriage? Awful.

My life is fraught with decisions like this, as most people I suspect enjoy. Earlier I wrote that at times I wished I had made different decisions. Yet, if I had made different decisions, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. And I like who I am. I LOVE who I am. I’m happy, even when chaos comes knocking.

There is a one thing I know and it will guide me in my decision-making process the rest of my life. I will never be afraid to make a decision nor fret over it when it turns out to be a bad decision. If I do nothing, I will stagnate and die.

So, throw me the chaos (small doses in you don’t mind). I will then find the opportunity and I will find inner growth and peace of mind.

It’s been a weekend, for sure.

February 16, 2016

Janet, my maggical, with love 11″ x 14″ charcoal on 80# matte paper

This being Valentine’s weekend, I made plans to spend it with my wonderful, delicious lady. She’s fantastic and to me, very beautiful. With Sunday being Valentines Day, I spent the entire day with her. Even though we live together and share time, meals, drinks and shopping together, Sunday we spent it hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.

Saturday, we also spent lots of time together, though not the full day. There is work to be done, shopping (done together) booze to buy (also done together) and other stuff (done together and separately).

Monday, I had the day off and she had to work. Bummer. We missed each other constantly and texted back and forth. We can’t wait for the day when we retire and share time together 24×7.

Now, to be honest, when we retire, I don’t know how I’ll deal with being with her 24×7. I’m sure she will struggle too but I trust we will figure it out. Each of us had years of alone time to do whatever we wanted, without kids, pets, etc. Mind you, some days being along sucked, big time. Now, I worry that I won’t have the private time my psyche requires. I’m sure I will figure it out. But I digress.

The real reason I am writing this is that I discovered something last Friday and I am working hard to correct it. Apparently, editing of my Trilogy missed a lot of problems with my writing. My editor explained it to me that she had a hard time editing this series. Apparently, the story rang too close to home. Since it deals with brutal, sexual assault and an eventual entry into the world of human trafficking, I am not surprised. I wrote it to be horrendous and disturbing.

Be that as it may, I’ve spent every working hour since Friday, working with a new editor to fix the problems. I hope it will be much better as a result.

In the meantime, I will be pulling all original versions of the books from the marketplace until I can get them revised. When re-released, I will make them free for anyone who has already purchased the books. I apologize to anyone who had to suffer with an inferior product. I only have to wait until Amazon releases these books from ‘review’ so I can do this. (See below as to why I am delayed.) It was not my intention to release an inferior product and I accept the responsibility.

The following is not as an excuse but as explanation of another issue that recently surfaced.

Recently I’ve lived with Amazon changing my product pages without authorization. This includes pricing and product descriptions. Pricing I have since figured out. It’s the inexplicit changing product descriptions which is most frustrating. It seems that I will fix the description, verify that it appears as I want hours later, only to find that the next day, the description has changed to something I did not authorize. ‘Arrggghhhhh’. They even mixed descriptions from one book to another. Double ‘Arrggghhhhh’.

Something is going on that I don’t pretend to understand. I am working daily on figuring it out and I have working theory. I will admit. I am frustrated but I am working it through. My Amazon customer support requests seem to fix the description. Yet, a day or two later, the issue returns. I apologize again and all I can do is ask for your patience.

This really has been a challenge for someone who also works a full-time job, maintains a household and handles other day-to-day needs. I can’t dedicate a full day, every day, on this shit! So, please, I ask, can you be patient?

However, one piece of feedback has me confused. One commentator mentioned that I misspelled the word ‘Prolog’. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, this is a viable alternative spelling to ‘Prologue’ from which it is based. I chose ‘Prolog’ and ‘Epilog’ and will probably continue to do so as it has a special meaning to me after watching all those 70’s shows that prominently played a ‘Prolog’ and ‘Epilog’ with them. To me, ‘Prologue’ and ‘Epilogue’ are way too formal and not appropriate to my books. If I ever write a historical drama, textbook or other such book, I will be sure to use the spelling ‘Prologue’. In the meantime, I hope this person will learn to deal with it.

Enough for today and this weekend. I hope you will check out my other books, ‘The Taste of Honey’ and ‘Broken Steele’. Be sure to look for my third book in the series, ‘Lucky Bitch’, due out in the months to come.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow.

The other day

February 12, 2016

A few days ago, I posted that I had a terrific idea for scenes and dialog for my next book, ‘Lucky Bitch’. As a result, I decided to take a couple of days off from posting updates to this site and concentrate on writing these scenes.

I am pleased to report that, despite working a full-time job and other responsibilities at home, I was able to write 13,000 words over three days. For me, that’s an awesome accomplishment. Normally, I average about 2,000 words at a sitting and if I can get 7,000 in a week, that’s a good week. So, this is just another way to think that numbers count.

Not to be too self-absorbed but I’m patting myself on the back. After, congratulations for these mini-accomplishments are few and far between. Whoo hoo!

When you get to read these scenes, you’ll realize that Mona is in for some awesome fun instead of the strife and terrorism she’s been dealing with in this third book. I can’t wait to finish it so that you can all read it.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience. It’s been a good day and I hope it was a good one for you too. Till next time, this is Richard Verry, reporting from my desk with some tired but eager fingers on the keyboard.

You’ll forgive me

February 8, 2016

I woke up this morning at 4 am with scenes and dialog coursing throughout my brain. Ok, I was half asleep at the time but my mind was certainly active. Instead of rolling over, I got up and started writing.

And writing.

I’m not sure when I’ll get to writing decent reviews but I will. I am just asking for a bit of time, maybe a couple of days so that I can get it all down. Good thing the first thing I did was take voluminous notes. Man, is Mona gonna have some fun in these new scenes in my book ‘Lucky Bitch’ which is getting oh so close to finishing. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

In the meantime, have a great couple of days. I’ll touch base when I can. Thanks.

Skinning a cat!

February 7, 2016

They say that there are many ways of skinning a cat. Before I go on, let me just say this. I have no idea why or where this saying came from, nor do I care. However, I believe I understand what the saying is trying to convey. The imagery of the saying popped into my head the moment the following happened.

This morning, on my FB page, I saw an inspirational post that went something like this.

6 + 3 = 9

but so does 5 + 4 = 9

By extension, so does (8 + 1), (7 + 2), (9 + 0), (3 * 3), (9 * 1), (27 / 3) and so on.

They all equal 9.

So what?

Unless you’re in school and you are doing a test, it’s not the answer that is important. It’s how you got to the answer. It’s the journey. That’s all that matters. The journey starts with the first step.

It’s the journey.

This is Richard Verry, taking his first steps in rewriting a chapter or two for my new book ‘Lucky Bitch’ based upon an inspiration I had last night while I was half asleep.

Why does Mona love coffee so much?

February 6, 2016

First off, Mona just doesn’t love coffee, she adores it. She can never get enough of it, though there is nothing like the first cup of the day, prepared just right. For her, the first cup is more than a delicious drink. For her, it’s an experience. It’s sensual, even erotic. When that first few drops touch her tongue, all else around her disappears. She tends to leave the aphrodisiac liquid sit on her tongue, pressed against the roof of her mouth for as long as she can before allowing the coffee flow down her throat. Even then, the flavor is left behind, coating her tongue, her mouth, and her throat. There is nothing quite like it and only her lovers deposits rank higher on her pleasure scale.

But it’s not just any coffee either. Her preferred cup is a skinny free vanilla latte, which translates to a light blended coffee, topped off with steamed skim milk and dosed with a shot of sugar-free vanilla extract.

It’s a complicated recipe and it starts with the right kind of coffee bean. Not to dark or rich, it has just the right amount of flavor without assaulting the palette. To do it right takes a bit of time and generally, she likes to make it herself. However, being a senior member of her house, others have taken up the challenge to learn how to make it for her and generally they do a fine job of it.

What’s even more impressive, is watching her take that first cup of the day. Charles comments upon his impressions of her coffee experience many times throughout the books. He loves to watch her disappear inside herself, divorcing herself of everyone and everything around her as she savors the erotic experience. To him, it’s as if she is experiencing an orgasm in that moment. He should know, he has enticed many an orgasm from her in the years together. He knows exactly she expresses her pleasure. He would swear that they are too similar to be anything else than an orgasm.

Now, the question remains. Does she love coffee for the orgasmic experience, or does she love it for how it makes her feel or does she love it simply for what it really is, just coffee?

We each have our likes and dislikes. We each prefer some kinds of food and drink over another. We certainly like some people better than others. Mona prefers coffee over tea, red wine over white, bedmates who are male over female ones. The list can go on and on. The thing that makes her and her community special is that it is alright to prefer one over another. It’s a matter of preferred choices.

That doesn’t mean she won’t indulge in these other experiences. She regularly sleeps with female partners, drinks tea on occasion and drinks hard liquor over wine. The variety is what offers her the ‘spice of life’. Upon returning to her preferred tastes, the experience is enhanced and the love affair is renewed.

To Mona and her friends and community, there is no right nor wrong in any opinion or feeling. They just are and that is okay.

That my friends is a world I would love to live in.

What is your favorite aspect of Mona?

February 5, 2016

Mona is a fascinating character. I love her. There are many attributes that I could say about her but no matter how many I list, many will be missed. She’s smart, attractive, intelligent and loyal. She will do anything for her house and her Master. She loves coffee, high-heel shoes and red wine.

On top of all of her attributes, she is particularly skilled in giving pleasure as much as in receiving it. She excelled in her training during her formative years. She’d be thought of as a black belt in the sexual arts if there were such a ranking. She doesn’t even recognize it herself, but she can read the emotions and body language of her partner and respond accordingly. As a result, her talents both upright and horizontal are always in demand.

As a submissive, she defers to the wishes of her Master. She would do anything for him. He doesn’t even need to ask at times and she is there to answer his desire. However, she also expects to have her needs met by Charles. Just like the bulk of her community, she is a highly charged, sexual woman. She needs him to satisfy her just as she does for him.

But the question is: ‘what is my favorite aspect of Mona?’ For me, that has to be her masochism.

Mona is not just a masochist, she is an extreme masochist. She not only enjoys sessions in the dungeon getting her ass whipped, she craves it. She lives for it and can’t wait for the next session, even if she is still recovering from the last session.

She is what some might call a ‘pain slut’. Physical pain is an aphrodisiac and when tormented, the endorphins in her body flood her every cell with pleasure beyond compare. Fortunately for her, she has Master Charles, a skilled sadist who enjoys tormenting her almost as much as she enjoys being tormented.

And just to be clear, I’m not referring to abuse here. There is a concept of good pain versus bad pain. Snapped bones, twisted ankles, and sprained knees are examples of bad pain. Beaten to within an inch of your life, bloody and bruised could also be considered bad pain. Bad pain is not something Mona enjoys and she would be the first to say that this was abuse. However, being beaten because you enjoy it, ask for it and negotiate a power exchange would be an example of good pain and something to be desired.

Most people won’t be able to understand the difference but I hope you will trust me when I say that ‘yes’ there is a difference. I’m not sure I understand it either but I have met and played with ‘pain sluts’ before and I have come to appreciate them. They are real, feeling people too.

What makes her character even more complex is that she is more than a submissive. Throughout book two, she is learning that there is more to her than she understands. She is also learning that she is a dominant and at some level, a sadist. She understands just how pleasurable pain can be and is starting to realize that giving pain is just as satisfying as receiving it can be. She doesn’t understand it yet, but she really is a sadomasochist.

She begins exploring this new aspect of herself in the third book in the series, currently under development. When you read it, you’ll begin to see this other side of her psyche for yourself. Of course, I need to get off my ass and finish writing.

So, until next time, this is Richard Verry reporting to you from my computer keyboard.

Do I have fun writing about my characters?

February 4, 2016

I was asked recently “Do you have fun writing about the characters?” The very first thought that came to mind was an ’emphatic yes’. I did and I do.

Take Honey in ‘The Taste of Honey’ for example. I knew from the get-go how her story would turn out, especially when I had decided on a title for the novel. I wanted to get inside her head and relate to the reader exactly what it was like to go through what she wanted to do Sorry, I’m not going to reveal any spoilers.

I had to most fun writing her scenes and my fingers flew by as I recounted her story. When I had finished, I was so proud of myself and I remember years later how I felt when I had put the final period on her tale. I felt I had captured her feelings, her pain, and joys. Today as then, I can almost put myself into her situation and follow along with her as she embraces her plan and puts it into action.

Mona, although she is the focal point of my stories in the ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’, the stories are really about the entire community she lives in. It’s really about everyone else and Mona is the glue that holds it all together. However, I must admit, that I love writing about Mona’s story as well, especially her sex and play scenes. As I did with Honey, I put myself inside her head, feeling what she feels and expressing it as best as I can. Of course, there are some things I cannot feel since I don’t have the equipment to do so but I can imagine quite nicely.

With my villains, such as Kristin in ‘The Taste of Honey’, or Jeremy and Jon in the ‘Her Client Trilogy’, I find it kind of cool to go outside myself and pretend to be the villain. I just don’t have it in me to hurt someone the way they do but again, I can imagine pretty well what it is like to inflict pain and suffering upon another person.

Then, there are their victims. Thinking back, I really enjoy getting in their heads. Honey as well as Jolene in ‘Her Client Trilogy’, they each suffer in ways that make people cringe. Recounting their pain and suffering, imagining what it would be like, I find interesting and intriguing. Somehow, throughout the writing process, I find pleasure dreaming up ways to hurt them and at the same time, feel their pain. What am I? A sadist or a masochist? Both perhaps? Only my friends know for sure.

Then there are the characters that are both victim and villain. Braxton Steele in ‘Broken Steele’ is one of those. I had fun dreaming up both sides of his character. He was a flawed character beset with unknown forces encouraging him to become a greater villain only to be reduced to a victim, supposedly by one of his relatives but in reality, by many of his victims. Cover-ups and conspiracies are just so much fun to write about.

Do you want to know what is really fun? Dreaming up all these scenarios. Most just appear magically in my mind, often at really inconvenient times. That imagery I wrote about some weeks back describes that process. But, if I am able to right down just enough to recall the scene, then you can rest assured, it will be in a future book someday. I hope you will look for them.

So, that’s my story on stories. What is yours? Do you have fun dreaming up your characters, stories, music, canvases or other works of art? Do you get lost in the moment the way I do? Do you emerge minutes or hours later only to realize you’ve living outside yourself? I love that feeling and I love it whenever I enter it.

Fortunately, I have many avenues available to me to enter that state but that is a story for another day.

This is Richard Verry, recounting some of my pleasure at dreaming up my characters and what they will be doing.

Muses

February 3, 2016

Who is your muse?

As part of the series of interview questions, I was asked these questions. “Who is your muse?” and “Who do you turn to for ideas when you get stuck?”

The answer is complicated but isn’t it always? For me, it depends upon the time frame of my life. Overall, there have been three muses in my life. Two I still use today.

The first was Darlene or Dar for short. Everyone called her Dar. Over a decade ago, Dar helped me learn the techniques to express myself in the visual arts. She started out as a mentor, showing me how to properly put pencil to paper and to put paint to canvas. Over time, we became more than that and we shared much of ourselves with each other. We would bounce ideas off each other, share our artwork and spend other more relaxing activities together. We could communicate on many levels. Over time, I had yet another upheaval in my life and I lost touch with her. There are days when I miss her presence in my life and think of her.

For a long while, I didn’t really have a muse I could turn to ideas from. I did have a girlfriend who thought I did a really could job capturing the human form but in the end, she didn’t help inspire me. I got more ideas from the internet than I did from her. Need I say more?

Then I met my current girlfriend who is now my committed partner in life. We share everything, including honesty in our beliefs. I love that about her. I can tell her anything about me. I can tell her my deepest, sometimes darkest, thoughts and feelings. Sometimes she can’t stand to hear some of the stuff that bounces around in my head. However, she is a smart, intelligent lady who can deal with my shit. Most importantly, she allows me the freedom to share and I love that about her. Of course, she can share herself with me in the same way and I strive hard to give her the same satisfaction as she gives me.

The other person whom I look to as my muse is really a good friend. We’ve never shared a bed, nor been more than a good friend to each other. She is in a committed relationship with her husband and I am very happy for her. We have a lot in common. We are both trying to get our individual businesses off the ground. Our problems in that regard are similar but also different. Her business is mostly local and she can directly interact with her customers. Mine is global and I have no idea who most of my customers are.

Yet, when we need to confer, exchange ideas and ask opinions of each other, she is one I will look towards. She thinks like me and we share many of the same interests. My girlfriend is very vanilla and until she met me, had little knowledge of the lifestyle I am close to. My other muse is in the same lifestyle as I am. She appreciates the subtleties of my characters and their development. She understands my characters and what motivates them.

So, when I need to bounce ideas for an entire storyline, I turn to my girlfriend. When I need to confer the subtleties of my characters and their motivations, I turn to my other muse.

Last night, for example, we met for coffee just to catch up. As much as I tried to avoid talking about my next book we somehow migrated to it. I expressed that I thought my main character was too much of a wuss and that she was acting out of character. She helped me with ideas to strengthen her character and bring her back in line with what the storylines expect.

Between the two of them, I have found a happy place. Each have their own perspectives, each offers me great ideas and each stimulate me in ways that neither could image.

Who do you use as a muse as you exercise your talents? I’ve shared with you and I hope you’ll return the favor.

Have a great day and a better tomorrow!

When I was a child

February 2, 2016

When I was a child, I remember going to school, learning my “A, B, C’s”, reading, writing and arithmetic. I remember dinner with Mom, Dad, and my sisters. I remember Saturday mornings hanging out by myself. I remember coming home from school and playing, watching TV, hanging out and doing homework. How much I dreaded homework.

The other day, I had a revelation. I realized that what I learned back then, I’m applying each and every time I write an article posted on this blog. I realized I am writing a 300-600 word essay, each time I write a post.

This revelation brought me back to my childhood when I dreaded writing similar essays in school. I remember the basic structure and objective of the essay writing process. Back in those days, I had zero intention of doing this on a regular basis. Even after the internet came along followed by social media, I never intended on doing this, let alone every day.

Yet, here I am, writing a new essay each day, day after day. Huh? How did I ever get here. Well, if you will indulge me, let me tell you.

A couple of years ago, out of a desire to get this story idea I had in my head out of my head, I wrote a book. That book, ‘The Taste of Honey’, eventually got published. That started the ball rolling and now I have six published books, another in editing and another in development. I also have at least a dozen storylines written out waiting for free slices of time in my day to pump them out. I’ve hired a publicist to help me expand my exposure.

Whoa? A publicist? Yup, that’s right. I’ve hired a publicist and slowly, I’m going from being in the red to being in the black. Ink that is. To expand my brand. Oops, my brand? My ‘name’ is my brand? Apparently so but I digress. I’m told that if I am to expand my brand, I need to talk about it, my books and things that are of interest to me but more importantly, of interest to my followers. And yes, I now have followers. A lot in fact but she tells me that I need more. To get more, I need to blog, daily.

At first, when she told me that, I thought it would be easy. What’s 300 to 600 words? That’s nothing, compared to my novels which number in the tens or hundreds of thousands of words.

Now, after doing this for several months, it’s not so simple. To come up with a fresh thought or idea that would be of interest to others each and every day. That’s hard. This is work. Hard work and I have to think outside the box. I have to come up with original ideas and work them down to just a few hundred words.

I’m not composing an article of random thoughts, flushing incoherent crap from my brain. I’m composing an essay, focusing on a single subject with an objective supported by facts, informed opinion or data. Essays that I learned how to write in school decades ago are now articles posted on my blog. In some ways, I feel like I’m a reporter for a newspaper. Techniques that I learned a long time ago and went unused, unexercised and unpracticed for more than forty years are now being forced into use. Ouch.

I can tell I’m getting better at writing these articles. I’ve made mistakes and I’ll make more. They say ‘practice makes perfect’. Well, I’ll never be perfect but that doesn’t mean I won’t try. I’m more determined than ever to work hard and perfect my skills. My novels are what drive me and I want them to be successful.

As I finish this essay, I would like to close with this thought. Here I am, writing another one and I am very curious.

How am I doing? Am I meeting your needs or couldn’t you care less? I would love feedback and constructive criticism. I look forward to reading your comments. Thank you in advance for your precious time in reading this article.

This is Richard Verry, writing to you live from Rochester, NY. I trust you will have an awesome day.

Found a Great Plugin for WP

February 1, 2016

Found a great Word Press plugin. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP. When you this, you will easily see what your customers are doing when they come to your site and from where they come from.

I’ve had a Google Analytics Code for some time now. After getting my ducks in a row, so to speak, with getting the framework of my business up, I am now starting to focus on my overall web presence.

Google Analytics is a premier tool to research how your customers are getting to your site and what they do when they get there.

While I’ve had my code a long time, I’ve not been able to figure out how to use it effectively. Enter Google Analytics Dashboard for WP. This plug-in for my site allows me to look at the analytics data collects and displays it in a usable format. It effectively converts data into information.

This information has already opened my eyes to the patterns my visitors behaviors. Such as ‘Bounce Rate’. Mine is way too high over overtime, I can see that I must be doing something right. It’s coming down, slowly but noticeably. Google even offers suggestions on how to tweak my analytics settings to account for my heavy use of blogs etc. They also help with suggestions to reorganize my site to improve the bounce rate.

The plug-in inserts a panel on my admin page that allows me to reorganize the data in a number of different ways. Reviewing this data will take me weeks in order to figure out what I need to do. In between writing new stories, writing a chapter or two, or simply thinking up a new idea for down the road.

Try it out and let me know what you think. I look forward to reading your comments.

Do I have a fix for you.

January 31, 2016

So, what would you football fanatics do this weekend without a meaningful game to watch? Well, here is a suggestion! It’s the three R’s. Rest, Relax and Read. The last ‘R’ is where I can help.

When you read, Richard Verry’s, ‘Her Client Trilogy’ you will find just the right amount of brutality, torture and a winning outcome. You will shudder at the incredible and unimaginable anguish suffered as the story unfolds. A gripping tale, you will not be able to put it down until the final … final outcome.

So grab your favorite drink, put your feet up and start reading. I promise you that you will be at the edge of your seat, not knowing the ‘score’. You will care about the characters involved in this story yet this isn’t a game. The brutality is happening to a person not a team. If you can’t depend on your peers to help, who is left?

Will this give you the ‘fix’ you need this weekend?

Only you can answer that question yet as a person who can relate and will be going through the same ‘withdrawal’ as you are, I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed with your read!

Suitable for readers 18+.

Our Real Heros

January 30, 2016

Here in the U.S., we’re big on our sports and this time of year, it’s football. Next week, it all cumulates with the final contest of the year, ‘The Superbowl’. Throughout the season, teams have been fighting for the right to play in it. Last week, the final two contenders earned their bid to play in it. One will come out on top.

This week, however, is a lull between the playoff games ending last week to the final game next week. So, to fill the slot, the NFL schedules a no nothing game. An exhibition game that to them has one purpose. To make money for the league.

To the fans, though, it is a final opportunity to watch their heroes play one more time before the season ends. One more time? There’s still a game next week. The best of the best will be playing in it. Yes, that is true but this game, called ‘The ProBowl’, is a last chance for the fans to watch their heroes who play on teams who were not good enough to advance to the championship game. They all lost. One way or another, they all failed. None-the-less, these players are heroes to their fans.

People all around the world have their heroes, be it those who play in various sports leagues, tournaments or what have you. There are the superheroes such as Superman, Batman or Spiderman. They are fictional of course but fans around the world tend to ignore that fact.

Bigger heroes to me are those who, regardless of what country you live in, defend us from aggressors wishing to impose their ideals upon another or take from us what is rightfully ours. Bigger heroes are those that would stand in front to protect their loved ones and ‘take the bullet’ for them. You don’t have to be an officer of the law, you just have to be who you are.

But do you know who the biggest hero to me is?

It’s the single mother who cares for her children alone but without complaint. It the head of household who works two or three jobs to makes ends meet for the benefit of his or her’s family. It’s the child who will offer their ice cream to another child who has none. It’s the everyday guy who trudges through life, scratching out a meal when he can, determined to never give up, never to surrender. It’s the grandparent, aunt or uncle, the cousin who gives you the day off and babysits your children so that you can rest. It’s the person who makes you happy.

To me, these are the real heroes in our lives. It’s the everyday person you walk by every day, not knowing the gifts they have freely given, without need or want of compensation. They are the unsung heroes of our culture. I think these are the heroes we need to celebrate, to cheer for and praise across social media, the airwaves, or to the friendly neighborhood storekeeper.

I have many of those kinds of heroes in my life. Fortunately, none of them have had to stand in front of me to take a bullet. I would hope that should the day ever come to pass, I would be the one to stand in front of them. I would be devastated if one of my heroes took the bullet for me.

This is my opinion of course. What’s yours? Do you share my thinking or do you think otherwise. I’d like to know. Write me and share your thoughts. I’d love to read them.

This is Richard Verry, reporting to you live from Rochester, NY.

p.s. Is winter going to be over soon? Pennsatawky Phil, what do you say?

Creativity and Life

January 29, 2016

The Return of the Archons — Star Trek (c) Paramount Studios

"Without Freedom of Choice, there is no Creativity. Without Creativity, there is No Life." 
Captain James T. Kirk in 'The Return of the Archons'.

I recently saw this quote and it got me thinking. Yes, thinking can hurt and it’s a favorite tease in my house. As I reflect on the quote, I can’t help wonder about the accuracy of the words.

I’ve known my entire self-aware life that humans only grow and thrive because of the challenges we face and overcome. What I had never considered before was just how we figure out what we need to do to overcome and grow.

Just how did we advance our species from a caveman to the technological society we enjoy today? Assuming we don’t destroy ourselves, I presume our species will grow exponentially. Who knows where we’ll be a thousand years from now. Just look how far we’ve come in the last thousand years.

As I considered the question, it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps the answer to the question was our capacity to be creative. Not just in the arts but also in the sciences. As a whole, our species have a tremendous talent to think outside the box. We can consider a question and instead of looking for the immediate answer, we also look at both relevant and unrelated concepts to determine whether there is something there that can advance the answer.

If this quote is true and I have no reason to believe otherwise, it’s our creativity that allows us to grow and thrive. It’s our creativity that advances us one after the other.

Consider if you will what would we, as a species, be like if we did not have any sort of creativity. Take any example in the history of the human race. Keeping it simple, let’s postulate this scenario. You live on an island and you eat the fruit of the tree to live on. There’s plenty of fruit and you eat readily. It’s all you’ve ever eaten, It’s all you have ever needed to eat. Year after year, you eat the fruit and nothing else. After all, there’s plenty to go around and you’ve never wanted for anything else.

Then one day, a storm comes through and wipes out every single fruit tree and the crop you’ve come to depend on is suddenly gone. A few days later, you’re hungry. You’ve never been so hungry in you entire life. You’re starving and on the verge of dying. Yet, living right along with you are chickens, ducks, and other small animals.

If you had never eaten a chicken before, without creativity to solve the problem, would you? Would you eat a chicken? Would you even think to try it? Without the concept of creative thinking, to think beyond your experiences and teachings, I contend that you would not. You would starve to death. If you represent the entire human species, then our species would be extinct.

I contend and believe that our capacity for creative thought is what allows us to grow, thrive, and advance.

What do you think? Could we do so? Can the human race grow and continue to advance without our capacity for creative thinking?

I look forward to reading your comments. Please, feel free to add to the discussion in the field below.

This is Richard Verry, pondering yet another aspect of life on this planet we all share. Until next time, have a great day!

Yesterday’s post and today’s reality

January 28, 2016

Yesterday, I wrote a post about learning how to fish. I had lots of great feedback on the post. I trust I get better with each one. I wish I could duplicate it for today’s commentary but for the moment, that’s not possible.

I apologize but right now, I can’t. Sorry but I’ll pick up as soon as possible. Right now, I’m under the weather and definitely not feeling well. This past Monday, I received a vaccination. Normally, people have minimal reaction to this particular vaccination. But, oh no, not me!

My arm has been ballooning up at the injection site. It is red and sore. All day yesterday and last night, I’ve felt like I’ve had a fever even though I haven’t. I realize my body is fighting the live form of the virus the vaccination injected into me on Monday. It doesn’t make me feel better.

Logic in this case is of no help at all. The analogy I can make is this. Just as I have been learning to fish in writing blurbs and other marketing material, my body is learning how to fish in fighting this bug coursing through my blood stream. I just hope that when I’m feeling better, I can return to my blogging and maintain the quality that Leah and others have been teaching me.

For now, I hope I can make it through the day. Be well everyone and be safe.

This is Richard Verry, signing off and yearning for my bed so that I can sleep it off.

Teaching me to Fish

January 27, 2016

For the last couple of days, someone who many of you know, alright, my friend Leah Hart, has been teaching me to write story blurbs. At first, I didn’t understand the term ‘blurb’ in the context of my books. Even that, she had to drill into me.

It’s been a hard road for me and fraught with stress and frustration. I woke up this morning feeling like I was back in grammar school and earning a failing grade on my assignments. Crap! I even went into work this morning telling the story and describing my feelings. Normally, a ‘B+’ or ‘A’ student, I felt I had earned nothing more that a ‘D’. It was agonizing.

Part of me kept saying to myself, “Just write the damn thing for me. I’ll then use it as a model for the future.” And yet, she held back, probably shaking her head in her own frustration over my lack of progress.

I believe I’m good at writing stories and plot concepts. I also know that I suck at marketing, selling and that talent one has in getting someone to buy. I’ve met a lot of people over the years who could sell snow to a polar bear. Me? I’ve never had that talent. Which is why I hire people to help me.

Yet, I am aware enough that until I can get a major publisher to pick up my contract or get a movie producer to buy the movie rights to my stories, I have to do much of it myself. As much as I struggle in learning this talent, I know I need to do it.

I need to fish rather than have the fish handed to me. I can’t help wishing it could be different but for now, that is not to be.

So, I’m back to school and studying the techniques Leah and others have been trying to pound into my head.

OUCH! That hurts. I jest as I rub the back of my head. It does hurt and I’m not too shy to say it. It does and I appreciate those that help me fish. Thank you Leah. Thank you to all of my mentors, whether I know you personally or whether you’re one of the hundreds of articles I have read on the topic.

This is Richard Verry, reporting to you live from the single room school house all alone and with lots of homework to do.

Lost Opportunities

January 26, 2016

This morning, I read a post on Facebook by my friend Leah Hart about an experience she recently had. In that post she revealed that two days ago, she had a terrific idea for a new novel. At the time, it was crystal clear in her head and she knew exactly what to do to write it.

However, she’s also a terrific wife and mother. At the time, her young children were ill and needed her mothering, which she gladly supplied. Family first. I get it and I agree completely. After tending to her children, helping them get through their discomfort, she took a moment for herself to write down her ideas.

Oh sh!#.

Those ideas are now what I call ‘vaporware’. In tending to her children, the story idea didn’t get a chance to imprint itself onto her brain, and the brain did what normally does. It cleaned house.

Our brains are wonderful organs. They capture and store significant amounts of information. Information that we use each and every day. It also stores memories, experiences and all sorts of stuff so that we can learn from our mistakes and improve our every day lives.

The trouble is, our brains also have only so much capacity. Granted, some brains have more than others. Still, it’s a fact that if we don’t use those thoughts and apply them to our lives when they first bounce around in our noggins, then our brains are trained to clear them away to make room for new stuff.

It sucks. I know all too well. I have been a victim of this phenomena many times over.

I used to keep a notepad on me all the time to write these notes down for followup later. The result as you might guess, page after page, notebook after notebook of ideas that clutter up my home and rarely get referred to. So, then I tried using a white board. I have it prominently mounted in my home office where I do the bulk of my creative work. As I walk by, I can glance at it and recall at an instance, just what that idea was. ‘Better’. That board is so full of notes that it’s hard to see the white behind the black of the dry erase marker. Now, it’s almost a chore to keep it up to date and if anyone knows me, I hate doing chores. I do them, but I hate it.

With the advent of the smart phone, ‘Siri and Ok Google’ where speech to text has evolved to be practical, I began using the ‘speech to text’ features of my smart phone to capture and write down ideas. Much better and almost doable. I have my phone set up so that as I dictate my notes, those notes are written down and uploaded to my cloud account.

It works though I do have a funny story to go with it. One day, I was sitting in a café eating lunch, when an idea flashed through my brain. Great. A perfect opportunity to write down my idea. I whipped out my phone and tapped the icon. Who doesn’t keep their phone with them at all times? As soon as I did, I opened my mouth to begin speaking when lo and behold, I saw words appearing on my screen. And I wasn’t talking. Huh? Turns out the microphone was so sensitive that it was picking up the conversation of the people at the next table over. Wow! I thought. How cool is that. I was reading on my phone what they were talking about. All the personal details of their lives were being captured, converted to text and uploaded to my cloud account. I erased them but still ….

Since that day, I am careful to watch what I say, not just to the people whom I am sitting with but also to the strangers at the tables nearby. Word to the wise!

What have I concluded from these experiences my brain captures every second of every day? I get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and write. Many of my best ideas, dialog and scenes appear in my mind while I am in that half awake / half asleep state. I’ve trained my mind that if those ideas are good enough, to get the hell out of bed and write it down.

The scene, dialog, whatever won’t be perfect and will need editing. But, I’ve captured the idea and I can use it productively.

So, in the evening and right after dinner, when I seem to be checking out, my eyes drooping and it’s obvious I am looking for my bed, just know this. My day started at 4am and it’s been very productive. By 8pm, I’m tired, run down and ready to shutdown for the night. It sucks some days but that’s the way it is.

And oh, btw way. I started writing this about 5am, about a half hour after I woke up with an idea and I saw Leah’s post. Oh, shit. What was that idea that I had at 4am anyway?

Free!

January 25, 2016

‘The Taste of Honey’

Click the link https://wp.me/P6UOUi-tN to get your free copy of ‘The Taste of Honey’.

I’m making this offer to celebrate reaching my goal of 10,000 Twitter followers. Be sure to get your free copy today.

It’s a tale of suspense and mystery for mature audiences. When Honey disappears, apparently shirking her duty to family and community, Mona is charged to find her and bring her back home. Only she discovers all is not right and someone else is orchestrating events to their personal agenda.

Read ‘The Taste of Honey’ and find out how Mona solves this mystery.

Football as it relates to Her Client Trilogy

January 24, 2016

Football and Her Client Trilogy

It’s conference championship weekend as the remaining four teams battle it out for the honor to represent their conference in the Super Bowl. Just four teams remain in contention while the rest are sitting on the sidelines. This ritual got me thinking how this relates to Richard Verry’s, ‘Her Client Trilogy’.

When I think about the game, the words that come to mind include: dominance, hunt, aggressor, tied, victim, surprise, tension, hard, chains, panic, goal, interference, holding, illegal contact, roughing, fantasy, rout and shit!

I am sure you can add more yet the point is all this is acceptable in the game of football. Culturally, it has become the norm to read, watch and/or participate in this activity.

How is this different from what the author is conveying in his books and novellas?

Overall, I believe we have grown as a society yet there are still issues that we can’t accept or are willing to accept. We still hunt, torture and inflict brutal violence against each another. It is a game for some and a lifestyle for others. Yet like myself, the main character and victim Jolene will fight to survive to the bitter end.

We may have fourth and long to go, time is running out and we are out of time-outs and yet we will keep our wits and fight to the bitter end. We will not be the victim to be hunted and tackled to the ground. We may be injured and on the verge of being routed. Yet, while there are still seconds on the clock, we will not take a knee. We’ll run the screen pass and make a play for the end zone and come out on top.

We will not lay down and give up. We will overcome our trials, we will vanquish those to try to push us down and send us packing. We will do everything we can to rise to the top and hold the trophy high.

See if you agree with my thoughts. Write me a comment and let me know, one way or the other.

What constitutes being lesbian?

January 23, 2016

The other day, I was deep in conversation with a friend of mine regarding sexual orientation.

My friend, who will remain nameless, is of the contention that if two women sometimes sleep together, are lesbian. This despite the fact that they prefer relationships with men.

My opinion is that if two women occasionally have sex together, that does not make them lesbian. Since they prefer men in general, they are really heterosexual or bisexual at best.

My reasoning is that if they really do prefer sex and relationships with men, they cannot by definition be lesbian. What’s wrong with being open to the pleasures of sex, regardless of from where one finds it. I grant you, they may be bisexual but that this does not make them lesbian or gay for that matter.

Personally, I hate tags, such as gay, lesbian, straight or whatever. We humans are who we are and we like what we like. In my opinion in this situation, being a lesbian means that you’re a woman who prefers relationships with other women and not men.

My friend thinks that any girl-on-girl scene makes them lesbian, at least to the general public. I say, lesbian is a way of life and a sexual orientation, not just a scene here or there. Perhaps they have seen to many porn movies. I don’t know.

Help me out here. Am I wrong? Is my friend wrong? Are we both wrong?

I feel that there is no clean-cut answer but I’m willing to accept public opinion. Share your thoughts with me and help me out. No, wait. Help us both out, my friend and I. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I really appreciate it.

Insights in ‘The Revenant’

January 22, 2016

Yesterday, I went to see the movie, ‘The Revenant’ starring Leonardo Di Caprio. Now that I understand the word revenant to mean, ‘a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead’, I couldn’t help think of the similarities between that movie and Richard Verry’s trilogy, ‘Her Client’.

Both characters survive brutal, gruesome and violent attacks. Both Jolene, the heroine in the ‘Her Client Trilogy’ and DiCaprio’s character Hugh Glass in ‘The Revenant’, sustain continued physical and emotional breakdowns. Jolene has her past best friend’s voice playing in her mind while Glass has his dead wife doing the same for him. They are motivated not to give up and both fake their death to fool their attacker.

For both stories, the ending outcome is satisfying to the reader as well as the moviegoer.

The audience of one, me, is cheering for ‘the’ main character in both of these genré. It just takes reading the three novellas and sitting through two hours and thirty-six minutes to come to a satisfying climax. I admit it was agonizing at times, yet getting to the end where the heroes come up on top was fulfilling.

In short, the two creative works had many more similarities than I had expected. What grabs the viewer and the reader is having each main character overcoming certain obstacles and barriers. You follow their struggles through crisis after crisis. You root for them to succeed and cheer when they do.

If you liked ‘The Revenant’, you’ll like ‘Her Client ’.

What do you think? Do you see the similarities I saw or do you disagree? Write a note below and tell me your thoughts.

Where did your characters for ‘Her Client’ come from?

January 21, 2016

The characters in ‘Her Client’ developed differently from the ‘Mona Bendarova Adventures’. In ‘Her Client’, I had an idea for the story-line and I started writing the first lines of the story without naming the main character. When it came time for a name, the name Jolene just popped into my head. Great, I thought, and kept on writing.

Jolene’s character was somewhat well-defined in my head as I wrote the story. I wanted her to be up and coming in the business world. She was to be intelligent, beautiful and sexy. When I thought about what careers she might be involved in, I shied away from the media related professions. More ideas like pharmaceuticals, legal, Wall Street et. all came to mind. I decided to make her an account executive in charge of handling people’s money. I also wanted her to be overburdened, trying to make a name for herself in her chosen industry. Just as doctors, lawyers and stock brokers work long and late hours to rise above the rest, so would Jolene.

Unfortunately, it also gets her into trouble as she attracts the wrong kind of interest. Enter Jeremy.

When I started writing about her adversary, I asked myself, “Hmmm, what name could I use here?” I didn’t want to choose a name of anyone I was familiar with and after thinking about it for a few minutes, I stumbled upon the name Jeremy. And no, before you ask, this character is not based upon anyone at all. He is purely fictional and he’s pure evil. He can be your best friend and a snake in the grass waiting to pounce.

Both characters have many layers to them. Jeremy has several businesses but the one he is most proud of and makes the most money from is his illicit business … human trafficking. The phrase is never used yet the reader knows it at the end of the first book. Jolene’s starts out as a naïve woman, intent only on doing what is right for her clients. She is a giver and a cheerleader. Yet, she is also damaged and has spent the last ten years working out a past tragedy that in her mind feels was her fault. It’s not but the human mind is not logical or reasonable.

After she is sold off into bondage, she encounters her next nemesis, Jon in ‘Her Overseer’. Originally, I had not intended to write a follow-up book to Jolene. However, as the first book ended, it seemed logical to continue her story with what happens after she unwillingly enters the world as a trafficked victim. Jon’s name just happened to appear in my head as I wrote the second story. I liked it and it stuck.

Again, as in the first book, when I finished this story, I asked myself “What might happen if Jolene survives and returns for a third story?” Enter Jules in ‘Her Essentia’. Jules is Jolene’s childhood best friend who was killed in a tragic traffic accident. Jules convinces Jolene not to give into death but to return to earth and finish the vow she made in the first two books. You’ll need to read the books to find out how it turns out. Suffice to say, all three are gruesome, violent and graphic.

It wasn’t until the books were in the editing stages that I realized that all of the characters names began with the letter ‘J’. How about that? I’m not sure how or why that happened. It just did. Since then, I’ve been taking pains to avoid use of the letter ‘J’ in defining new characters, though I almost fell into that trap with another story, ‘The Breakup’ which is due out soon.

I hope you enjoy reading my answers to these interview questions. It’s been fun to remind myself of the processes I went through to create these characters.

For those of you who are writers, how do you come up with your characters. Or, if you are an artist, how do you come up with your vision? If you’re a musician, what process do you use to come up with your next song, composition or symphony?

I’m curious. Please, share your thought processes. I’d love to read them.

Where do my Characters come from?

January 20, 2016

Q: Where did your characters come from? In your head?

A: Thin air. That’s right, I came up with them from thin air. The process that I followed what makes this interesting.

The beginning was coming up with the concept of the story that I had rolling around in my head for months. I knew what I wanted to write yet I didn’t know how to write it. I reflected over weeks that turned into months before I came up with the basis of the books as they exist today.

One day, I had a flash of inspiration and I came up with the title, ‘The Taste of Honey’. Once I had that, the character ‘Honey’ was obvious. Her attributes, mindsets and beliefs hadn’t been worked out yet but I had her name.

How I came up with ‘Mona’ happened completely differently. I knew I was writing an adult themed story that would be full of sex and kink. I also wanted this character to be a strong, confident woman who is more than capable in thriving in her world.

First and foremost, she was a sexual woman who enjoys all forms of sex and intercourse. After reflecting upon her fundamental characteristics, I decided that she would be vocal in her sexual play. She would be a moaner. Ergo? ‘Mona’. Her last name was a bit more of a challenge but eventually I decided on a play of words. Think of, ‘bend her over and screw her’. ‘Bend her over’ became ‘Bendarova’.

Charles, as Mona’s owner and Master, had to become ‘Charles Bendarova’ by rule. Honey’s master came about from the adverb masterly, as in Master Lee. His last name Marks was just a name I liked a lot and it sounded good.*

In ‘Broken Steele’, the new characters I introduced came about very differently. Due to a disaster of working with two different bankers in my real life, I took their names and reworked them into Braxton Steele and Ryder Moro. I consider them villains and their characters definitely reflect that.

The rest of the characters come from a list of names I keep in my notes for the books. They get on the list because I like the names and I choose them as necessary. Since women outnumber men thousands to one, the list of possible women’s name is huge and I burn through them by the dozens in each book. Some are recurring characters, such as Renée. Others don’t survive a single book. To avoid confusion for the reader, I don’t reuse a name though I know that it does happen in real life. Certainly, there are enough names in our languages to avoid duplication.

None of these characters are based upon real people, though I reserve the right to do so in the future. There is a lot of me in Mona and Charles. I split my likes between them. Mona, loves coffee and Kamikaze cocktails. Charles, loves a good steak and a single malt scotch. Of course, both love sex and kinky play, just as I do. For the others, no one character is based upon anyone in particular but I reserve the right to inject attributes from those in my life who have left an impression on me. Good or bad, these attributes help make the characters believable.

The characters in ‘Her Client Trilogy’ came about completely different from what I wrote about above. I’ll write about those characters in a future blog.

So, that’s my story. That’s how I came up with my characters. For those of you who are writers, how do you come up with your characters. Or, if you are an artist, how do you come up with your vision? If you’re a musician, what process do you use to come up with your next song, composition or symphony?

I’m curious. Please, share your thought processes. I’d love to read them.

Dark & Disturbing

January 19, 2016

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Latest News, Updates, Random Thoughts and Releases

Vivid Imagination

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Cultural Changes caused by The Purge Plague

Population Disparity

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Physical Changes caused by The Purge Plague

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The Purge Plague: Consequences

Men weren’t immune to change

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Extinction – The Purge Plague initiates an unstoppable event

Success?

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The Purge Plague, can you elaborate on that?

Consequences

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‘Be relaxed, Be renewed, Be restored’

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Thank you, one and all

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Unofficial Start of Summer

Mona Bendarova’s Community Holidays

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Same Old Stuff

Boob tube

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