The 10th Annual Rochester Erotic Arts Festival, or REAF, came to town this past weekend. Of course, I went. This is a big event for the conservative region in which I live.
Open to the public, it’s a festival on all things related to eroticism. REAF is a weekend thing, opening Friday night and concluding on Sunday. However, it’s Friday and Saturday where all the fun stuff happens.
Good day, all of my followers and fans. You know how much I love and appreciate you.
I discovered something interesting a little while ago. I was updating my two websites, richardverry.com and maggicalexpressions when I uncovered a fact. On my main website, I have approximately 13,500 followers, and on my art gallery site, I have over 15,000 followers. WTF? I didn’t know this. more “Followers”…
Yesterday, I received this intriguing comment from one of my readers. My life partner girlfriend also wants to know the answer to this question. She cringes at many of my stories. As many times as I try to satisfy her with a reply, sooner or later, she brings it up once again. I figure everyone of my readers is thinking the same thing. So I thought I would give it a stab and try to answer the question.
The reader asked the following question.
“Just finished the 2nd book. [‘Her Overseer,’ book 2 in the ‘Her Client’ trilogy] and I need time to think about this one? Guess my question is how do you think of these things in such detail? It was pretty gruesome. Are there things you write about that you’ve done or want to do? Just wondering.”
The book, ‘Her Overseer’ is gruesome. It is brutal and graphic. It is the second part of a three-part story within the ‘Her Client’ trilogy. There is a twist in book 3, ‘Her Essentia’ which I think readers will enjoy. My girlfriend cringed reading the first two books, but by hanging in there, she found redemption in the third book.
Frankly, I don’t know how I think up these scenes and describe them in such detail. They just appear in my head as I write them. To me, it is a natural progression of the story that seems obvious as I write.
I’ve been an avid reader all my life. From a young age, I’ve always been interested in mystery/suspense and true crime novels. Later I added science fiction to the list. The more fantastic the story, the more out there the characters behaved, the more I liked it. However, I’m not referring to fantasy stories such as depicted in today’s graphic novels and the like. I like realistic stories that are plausible and could happen in real life. Some of my favorite books from my early years included the true crimes of the FBI, which depicted the thoughts and reasonings of characters on both sides of the law.
Today’s Challenge
My paintings and drawings reflect a naturalistic world. I love realism in my creative works. I don’t do abstract or fantastical creatures, such as depicted in much of today’s art. The one exception would be my love of mermaids.
But fantastic creatures that nature could not possibly develop on this planet through natural selection … no.
I also believe in monsters. Not the kind thought up by the creative minds of scary movie, no, I mean the human kind of monster. The kind that actually exists.
I write what I believe could naturally occur, here on earth, by humans. Nature is uncaring and brutal. Sharks and other predators don’t care about the feelings of their prey. They kill and eat what they want and move on. Orca whales have been observed playing with and tormenting their prey before killing them. From the lowliest of life on earth to the king of the jungle, this is how nature developed life on our planet.
All humans have this drive built into our DNA. Societal norms try to adjust us to not act upon our baser instincts but we all let it out, at some time or another. A husband beating his wife to belting a misbehaving child when a simple spank of the hand would do, are just two examples of human instincts struggling for release. I could list thousands of examples supporting my belief. Fortunately, most of us suppress this impulse as best as we can.
My stories delve into the realm of humans who drop their shields and let out their baser instincts. My monsters are real, and I have little doubt that the monsters depicted in the ‘Her Client’ trilogy, are real and they exist. They hide and stay out of the limelight, but they exist. In the real world, a rare few are discovered and make the news, but I believe that the known monsters are a small percentage of the total out there. No one can convince me otherwise. My scenes are gruesome and describe a realistic interpretation of the human monster hiding in all of us.
As to the reader’s follow-up question, no I don’t write about what I’ve done, nor what I want to do. Like 99.99999% of the population, I suppress my inner instincts in everyday life. However, I will grant you, that perhaps it is possible, that as I write, I allow a tiny fraction of my basic human suppressed instinct out, enabling me to write in such detail.
I’ve been told that writers write what they know. I don’t believe this. Look at Stephen King’s novels. Do you really think he did all that he wrote about? Do you think he thinks about really doing it? I doubt it. Do I wish I could actually do what I write about in my scenes? Definitely not. I’m a pacifist at heart. It’s all in my imagination, knowing full well that these monsters do exist.
On thing I discovered in my writing journey is that I like to write from the character’s point of view, rather than a third party, observers point of view. I like to write what the characters think and feel. At times I will bounce from the protagonist’s point of view to the antagonist’s point of view and back again. I find it interesting to reveal their thoughts and ideas. I like to expose their emotions of surprise, love, lust, anger, fear, rage, bloodthirst, relief and revenge as the scene develops.
In ‘The Taste of Honey,’ I wrote a scene where one of my main characters goes through an ordeal of her own choice. She is offered many opportunities to avoid the tribulation. Yet, she chose to go through the ordeal, knowing she would die in the end. All because she loves her family more than she loves herself.
I wrote the scene from her viewpoint. I tried to capture her every thought, fear, and desire she experiences. I tried to capture everything she endures, moment by moment, from her point of view. I attempted to convey all of her senses; taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell; as she lived and died throughout her ordeal. I believe I was successful and again, all from the characters point of view.
Just know that not all of my books are gruesome. My free short story, ‘A Mermaid’s Irresistible Curiosity’ is a love story with a twist. It’s not gruesome nor brutal. It’s a story about a misguided mermaid who lives a life of instant gratification who falls in love with a fisherman. You can find the short story on my website, RichardVerry.com. It free and you can download it and read it at any time.
I hope that this explains the question and alleviates any concerns about my writing. More importantly, I hope this explains things to the love of my life, my girlfriend, and committed partner in love and life.
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
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?
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.
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.
When I write or paint, I tend to put on music so that I can stay focused on what I’m doing. The other day I was discussing music with a friend of mine. It got me thinking.
I play ‘Gold Dust Woman’ by Fleetwood Mac on endless repeat for hours while I write or paint. While I like this song, it is not my favorite. It’s only when I sit in my studio and work that I will put this one on endless repeat. It’s my go to song to play when I want to get lost in my project. Perhaps it is the catchy tune, the driving beat or just something that soothes my thoughts. I just like it. Therefore the CD is always nearby and ready to play.
It really doesn’t matter what the project is either. I could be sketching a rough draft, drawing a final composition, painting in oils and watercolors or writing chapter after chapter of my new book. The song somehow allows me to disappear into my project. Lost in the realm I’m creating, the words seem to flow effortlessly to the keyboard, the paint flows from my brush to the canvas and the pencils and pastels blend smoothly across the paper. I’m in Heaven, Valhalla or any place one associates with a perfect alternate reality.
Hours later, I will emerge pleased with the progress I’ve made. After consuming food and drink, I come back and review my progress. I rarely find something that I want to touch up or change. I can only think that the trance I’m in somehow enhances the quality of my work.
After emerging, I am often surprised by how long I was gone, disappeared in this trance. And yes, I am in a trance. I recognize and welcome it. I am most annoyed when I am forced out of it by some external influence. “Sorry honey if I snapped at you. You’ll forgive me. Right?”
Time to get back to work. Now, where did that CD go now?
So, I’ve been on social media for a while now, and the more I learn about it, the more I realize that it is an important part of marketing my books and artwork. The folks who I now following have lots of great ideas and thoughts that make a whole lot of sense to me. I hope that my posts do the same for you.
What bothers me is that it seems that I have to pay attention to the feeds throughout the day, everyday. Don’t get me wrong, it can be fun but it can be tedious as well.
I struggle with the idea that I have to post multiple times a day. I don’t believe that I would do justice to my followers. The ones I’ve been in direct contact with, tell me that my thoughts and insights are interesting. They want to read them. Makes me smile. Thanks to all who get this far in my essay.
So, back to struggling with this whole new venture involving social media. I find that I seem to be spending more time marketing than writing or painting. I also have a real full-time job. I don’t want that to be jeopardized by what I do here.
So, how do I balance everything? I presume that in the years to come, I’ll figure it out and it won’t be so intrusive on my time. Yet, I have a driving need to promote my creative works. It’s not so much selling my books or my fine art. It’s more that I love the idea of people appreciating my work enough that they want their very own copy of it, or the original for that matter when it comes to my art.
I’m not saying that I am a world class author or artist. Time will tell in that front. But, I believe I’m good and I’ll only get better by doing what I love to do.
Writing and painting. Right now, writing has the nod. But how do I do that while promoting, marketing and supporting myself on a shoestring budget.
Your thoughts and ideas are most welcome. Please send me your thoughts. I really want to hear from you.
Thanks for reading and have a cup of coffee or tea; a glass of wine or the taste of a good woman or man. Till next time, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, which isn’t much.
I’m not sure that this is a good thing or not but I have to protect my brand before someone steals it. Will it be addicting, or will I be able to manage it just fine. Time will tell. Oh My!
Feel free to share your comments to me on the pluses and minuses. Thx.
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?
Endless Repeat
It really doesn’t matter what the project is either. I could be sketching a rough draft, drawing a final composition, painting in oils and watercolors or writing chapter after chapter of my new book. The song somehow allows me to disappear into my project. Lost in the realm I’m creating, the words seem to flow effortlessly to the keyboard, the paint flows from my brush to the canvas and the pencils and pastels blend smoothly across the paper. I’m in Heaven, Valhalla or any place one associates with a perfect alternate reality.
Hours later, I will emerge pleased with the progress I’ve made. After consuming food and drink, I come back and review my progress. I rarely find something that I want to touch up or change. I can only think that the trance I’m in somehow enhances the quality of my work.