What do I think?

January 19, 2016

What YOU think about the characters in the Mona Bendarova Adventures?

What do I think about these characters? I love these characters. I think that they are wonderful, deep characters. Just as an onion is built on layer upon layer, Mona and Honey especially have many layers to them. Each of them were born and raised in a time when the odds of living past their mid-twenties are low. These two women have something about them that allows them to survive and excel.

My first book, ‘The Taste of Honey’, deals with Honey’s strong desire to do what is right for her family and her Master. She deals with being kidnapped by her sister housemate who attempts to murder her.

Honey’s resolve to give back to her family is what allows her to survive against all odds. She has a deep spirituality that she draws upon to find the strength and will to overcome her ordeal. Her convictions are to do what she believes is the right thing to benefit her loved ones and the man in her life.

Mona, on the other hand, is a smart, confident and intelligent woman who knows what she wants and has the talents and skill sets to see beyond the obvious. When facts point to the obvious, her community accepts them as truth and judge accordingly. Mona figures out that there are holes in the story and relentlessly pursues the truth. She figures out that there is something wrong and resolves the mystery. She also knows what she needs to be happy and what the Master of her House needs. She delivers and accepts his attentions for the benefit of all.

The other characters were created to make these two women real and believable. Lee and Charles, the Masters of their own houses, are flawed yet strong men. Their responsibilities are beyond what men of today have to deal with. Yet, while they both rose to their positions they would each say that are not powerful men, just influential. They both know the real power in the community resides in the whole, the men and women of their community.

The villain in the story is a naïve character. She is self-centric, self-absorbed and very arrogant. She mistakenly believes she can get what she wants regardless of the hurt she inflicts upon her own family. She gets what is coming to her in the end. However, her story doesn’t end in the first book but continues in subsequent books.

As for the rest, I like them. Some are wishy-washy. Some are strong and some are weak. They provide interest with the stories. When I think of them as a whole, I think of them as the frame around a painting, enhancing the primary subject centered inside the frame.

Let me know what you think. More importantly, write a review and post it. I would enjoy reading your viewpoints. Please, do it today.

Free Pass

December 19, 2015

Free Pass

What would you do if you had a free pass?

Can you just be with one person or if you have the chance to have a free pass, would you take it? Most of our contemporaries are comfortable being in a monogamous relationship. Our culture dictates that as the norm but could it be different in another world? What if it was acceptable in that culture?

My partner and I have had discussions about this and we have given each other a free pass. It appears unlikely either will be used yet that is why we have a mind to fantasize, to ask ourselves, what if?

For me, it’s Bette Midler. I find her fun, bawdy and an interesting free spirit. Bette however, as free-spirited she is, has been in a committed monogamous relationship far longer than I have been.

Ah, it’s fun to dream and fantasize.

In the books, ‘The Taste of Honey’ and ‘Broken Steele’ , Mona has no such constraints. She lives in an environment that is open-minded and sexual activity is about enjoying each others bodies and desires. The community believes in a culture of no restrictions when it comes to enjoying the joys of life.

Open liaisons are common in Mona’s world and it’s not unusual for such activity to occur during a business meeting or a social gathering. Her family and community are people who know how to enjoy sex and may use it for more than simple fun. They see it as a fantastic way to ease stress and tension or to cure illness and similar maladies.

I do think about the differences in the two worlds. I enjoy and love being in a committed relationship yet I do admit the thought of a free pass makes me think more of Mona’s world. I would love to live in a world of open sexuality where it is considered normal without judgement. Both cultures have their pluses and minuses.

What do you think? I encourage you to chime in on the discussion.

Why does Honey want to be live roasted?

December 10, 2015

Why does Honey want to be live roasted?

I can only document some of her reasons. Honey explains it best in her first biography ‘The Taste of Honey’. I can tell you from what the author Richard Verry wrote that she firmly believes she will live on in the lives and bodies of those that consume her meat. But to do so requires much more than a simple conversion and consumption. For the author, who wrote her words, it has to be done in the proper way.

To Honey, this means that in order for her spirit to be transferred properly, it has to be sealed inside her meat and then consumed as quickly as possible after roasting. In order for that to happen, she has to be roasted alive.

Spinning and roasting on a rotisserie spit from Honey’s perspective happens all the time. This is a hard concept for a reader to grasp, yet the author conveys Honey’s thoughts and feelings so eloquently that the reader ends up rooting for her.

Honey’s deep rooted spiritualism takes it a step further. She not only wants to live on forever in her family, she believes she needs to. She believes it so deeply that she has spent years convincing her Master and even Mona that this is something she wants to do.

So, in order to achieve her goals, she arranges to be spitted and live roasted at a celebration celebrating her contribution to her house and community. It’s a special occasion and many of those in attendance do not understand the significance of what Honey wants to do. In fact, many just think it’s just another one of the monthly barbecue roasts where several sows are roasted and served to the gathered.

To Honey though, the affair and her roasting is everything. Determined to succeed, it is her love for Master Lee, her family and close friends that drives her to her final destiny.

What was YOUR favorite part of ‘The Taste of Honey’?

December 9, 2015

What was YOUR favorite part of the book?

There are many favorite parts. They include among many, Mona’s dungeon play with Master Charles, the execution scene of Honey’s perpetrator, Mona’s investigation into Honey’s disappearance, Mona’s budding relationship with Renée and Honey’s final scene as she is preparing for her live roasting.

As I look back at each scene and how I felt when I wrote them, I realized that it was Honey’s roasting scene that was my favorite part. While the sex and her spitting is graphic, it was the love story that developed out of it that really captured my interest.

I wrote it from the first person perspective so that the reader would connect with Honey and accept her decision for a live roasting.

What I really liked about the scene is that you’re inside her head, experiencing what she experiences. You feel her final hours as she has her final sex with her Master, loving him as he discovers that he, in fact, loves her also. You, as the reader, experience the spit pushing into her sex, traveling through her body and exiting out her mouth. Ewe! You are right there with Honey as they gut her insides. You see what she sees as she is carried over to the fire pit and begins to roast. Through her eyes, you see her family and friends looking on, before she succumbs to the heat of the fire.

What I really liked about this scene is how I felt as I wrote it. When I started the writing the scene, my mind seemed to divorce itself from my body. My fingers flew over the keyboard. As the scene developed, I got wrapped up in her character. I felt for her. For awhile, I became her.

Ultimately, the scene defines the love relationship between Honey, her Master, her family and her closest friends, including Mona. Her spirituality is so strong that no one can divert her from this course. Even her own Master has told her over and over again that she did not need to do this. In this moment, he realizes that he loves and needs her. He needs her in his life and doesn’t want her to roast.

Honey, however, believes that she has a higher calling. Honey believes that her actions will help save them. She believes that her decision will allow her to live forever in him and her loved ones. As a result, they will live healthier and happier lives.

So, for those and for many other reasons, that is my favorite part of the book. What’s yours?

How I came to write ‘The Taste of Honey’ (part 2)

December 1, 2015

With a title, I had a really rough idea of how I wanted the story to go. At the time, I wasn’t thinking I would publish it but I want to write a fresh and new story. As I researched the story idea, I found little that someone else hadn’t already written about my idea. Great! Time to get writing in earnest.

So, with a title and a rough, and I mean really rough, concept, I began writing. No outline, no framework that existed except in my head. As the stories developed, I wrote draft after draft refining it as I went along. I wrote a future history and an encyclopedia of the rules and concepts of the universe I was creating. Over the years, the drafts and the supporting material got more and more refined.

This process went on for two years. During that time, I didn’t tell anyone that I was writing a full length novel. As the months went by, I would pick it up and work on it. At other times, weeks would go by without even thinking about it. Six months before I finished it, I resolved myself to work harder at it. Diligently, I would write a chapter a day or so. Then, a funny thing happened.

I started waking up at four in the morning with awesome dialog running through my head of this scene or that one. Like the imagery that invades my thoughts, the dialog my half asleep mind developed was perfect. Instead of trying to fall back asleep, I would get up and write for a couple of hours. On weekends, I would write well into mid-morning.

My lady-love would wake up and begin talking to me and I’d ask her to hang on until I finished my thought. At times she’d be okay and at other times, not. Oops! Not good. But the unwritten dialog was just too good to interrupt. I had to capture it and I beg forgiveness and kept on writing.

Then, while on a trip to Florida, I did a final push and finished the book. That’s when I involved my girlfriend and other friends, editing it again and again. They all told me, “Rich, you need to publish this. It’s too good not to.”

So, I published it and immediately began writing in earnest, driving myself to continue Mona and Honey’s story. Four months later, I released the sequel ‘Broken Steele’. I’ll tell you about how that came to be written in a future blog.

Who is Lee Marks?

November 29, 2015

Lee Marks is also a master of his own estate. In a feudal like community of large, sprawling estates, he oversees an average estate of sows and bitches, much smaller than the Bendarova estate.

Honey and Kristin have been his favorite bed-mates for the past year. He tends to supplement his favorites in bed with a regular rotation of several others from his stables. It is not unusual that he retires with three or more from his household at night. Frankly, he enjoys the competition from his bed-mates as they attempt to out do each other in pleasing him.

A younger man, he has still managed to make an impression upon the rest of the community. He has the distinct honor of being the youngest ever to have an executive seat on the council at Club Lothario. The pressure to do well is overwhelming at times yet he seems to be capable of handling the stress of the position.

He meets his obligations to the community. He supplies his quota of fresh meat and makes his rounds of the breeding centers as per custom within the community. He also enjoys spirited competition at the auctions, games and celebrations. He is an avid fan of the monthly barbecue roasts held at the Club.

He is generous in his sponsorship of the community celebrations. His constant variety of different entertainment segments are always a hit with the community members. There is never a shortage of food, beverage or attendants to offer the celebrants. It is not unheard of that celebrations last well into the next day when he sponsors them.

His passion though, is hunting. He has become a fervent hunter and has several times taken home the top prize. As Master of his own house, he proudly mounts and displays his trophies in his trophy room. He likes to share the display to his guests but rarely gloats over his accomplishments. He is mindful of comparing his wins against theirs. To other hunters around the community, he is the hunter to beat.

If you are curious and want to learn more about Lee, I invite you to read the book, ‘The Taste of Honey’. I look forward to reading your comments.

Mona and Honey give thanks

November 27, 2015

Yesterday, BFF’s Mona and Honey spent the day together, sharing memories and creating new ones. Since Honey is carrying, Mona took it upon herself to go visit her friend. A lot has happened since they first met six months ago.

They talk about everything, from the smallest little details of their daily life to the big ones involving their respective Masters. The one thing they do not talk about is how they came to meet. Honey was stalked, attacked, kidnapped and almost killed. Everyone else thought that she had simply run away from home, shirking her duties to her family and community.

Mona found her, rescued her and saved her from almost certain death. She discovered who the perpetrator, who was later punished. As a result of the events, the traumatized Honey and Mona became best friends. Neither would have it any other way.

In sharing time together yesterday, they relished the opportunity to be thankful for finding each other and their respective lives, their housemates and their Masters. Sharing a superb meal together, they talked, laughed and even cried long into the evening.

Not to be left out, they also included many of Honey’s housemates into their circle of fellowship. Till now, most of them would usually leave them alone, knowing that they needed their time together alone. Besides, most of them were in awe with a bit of hero-worship towards Mona. Their honor restored through Mona’s relentless search to discover the truth of Honey’s disappearance, they believed they owed a debt to Mona. Mona didn’t think so. She was just doing what she does what she does.

So, yesterday, the two women invited them into their circle, answered questions, posed some their own and enjoyed each others company well into the night.

As Mona drove home afterwards, she reflected upon the warm feelings, emotions and fellowship offered her that day. She couldn’t help but feel grateful by their attentions. After all, in her mind, what she did for that family was a very small thing indeed. She would have done it for anyone.

But one thing could be said for the day. She was very thankful that Honey was forever, a part of her life.

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Free Pass

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Why does Honey want to be live roasted?

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