Yesterday, I published the revised edition of ‘The Taste of Honey.’ I love this new version. I completely rewrote it from the ground up. It’s the same story but revised and updated to fall in line with the later books in the series.
Why might you ask? more “The Taste of Honey”
Announcing my new novelI am proud and excited to announce the release of my new novel,
available exclusively at
www.richardverry.com/books/the-trafficking-consortium/
Click on the book cover to take you right to my web page for the book.
You can read the first chapter for free before you decide to get your own copy and read the story. It’s available in all eBook formats as well as in pdf. If you’re not comfortable with eBooks, early next year, I will make available a printed version of the book.
If you liked my ‘Her Client’ series and ‘The Breakup,’ you will love this story. Pure fiction, this story follows the development of a young, intelligent woman in her mid-twenties, who is caught up in an unexpected life of love, happiness, sadness, anger, pain, and anguish.
It’s the gritty, gripping, disturbing, and even terrifying tale of a woman who unintentionally catches the eye of an international human trafficking ring. After being snatched off the streets, she is auctioned off to the highest bidder where she learns to live a life as a slave, suffering torment at the hands of her master, while still finding peace, joy, happiness and possibly finding the love of her life.
The question is, can she survive long enough to escape, assuming she still wants to?
You can only get a copy from my site. I’m experimenting with this book, seeing if I can raise interest in my works without paying exorbitant royalties to the various retailers.
Suitable for adult readers 18+.
We’ve just closed out the month of August and the unofficial end to summer is this weekend. At least in the northern hemisphere. Those down under are about to move from winter to spring. As far as I’m concerned, all good times of years.
I have mixed feelings about the month of August 2016. It’s been one of the hottest on record. Not that I am complaining but it would have been nice to have had a bit more rain. Though, the south-west U.S. could use it more. I just wish I could have enjoyed the warm (hot) weather more. It just wasn’t to be.
Why? Well, as you may recall, I suffered a severe concussion in mid July. (See my post ‘I saw Stars‘.) Since then, I’ve been out of work much of the time, while I deal with the after effects. They include a constant headache ranging from 1 – 6 on the pain scale. I’ve also had to deal with a diminished ability to formulate several sentences together into a cognitive thought. When I write, I often fat fingered my typing or misspell words that I know how to spell. Then there are the times when I can’t think of the word I want to say, even though it is sitting right there on the tip of my tongue. I still have trouble maintaining my balance when standing still.
All of this sucks. I am so tired of the headache. My love tells me that she’d rather deal with the pain of childbirth rather than have the headache I have had for the past seven weeks. I can get irritable, and I’m restless — anxious to get back to a normal life. Most certainly, my quality of life has diminished. All I can do is follow my doctor’s instructions and continue to rest.
“Hey Doc, do you know what it’s like for a writer to deal with growing headaches simply because he’s writing?” Let me tell you all, it sucks. Guess how long it took me to write these short paragraphs. Too long, I tell you. Almost an hour. F*&K.
On a good note, I was looking at my sales figures for the month of August. Pretty decent. Amazon alone posted nearly 300 copies of my books, mostly in the Her Client trilogy. That’s 9.7 books per day. My other outlets also showed good sales figures. I guess word is getting around. Not bad for a new author, considering I published my very first book June 2015. Who knows what will happen in the next couple of years. So …
THANK YOU for reading my stories. It means a lot to me.
Next on my agenda, I plan on posting about my novellas. I haven’t quite figured out what I am going to write about but since they are selling well, I’m thinking you may be interested in how I came to write them, plus I may write about my character development, and so forth.
Until next time, have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you soon. Feel free to write me by clicking on the comment button. I look forward to reading them.
What follows is the continuation of an interview I conducted with one of my readers. I captured their notes and turned it into this update to my blog. This is Interview Mona’s Stories part 4.
A: Of course he does. His name is Doctor.
A: In Mona’s society, they are the same. He is the Doctor and his name is Doctor.
A: The ‘BLOODLINE’ is still a work in progress. I haven’t yet worked out all of the details related to them. Right now, they are an unknown to Mona and her supporters. They have a personal agenda that seems contrary to the society Mona lives in. They have been working on this agenda for at least three generations and frankly, she’s scared.
A: No, she doesn’t. And neither do I? The ‘BLOODLINE’ was an invention developed in my second book in the series, ‘Broken Steele’ to explain tainted meat and the widespread the effects it had on a significant portion of the society.
A: Could be. I don’t know at this point. But they are a good source for conflict in Mona’s society. For tens of generations, Mona’s community has lived in peace and harmony, everyone knowing their place and everyone contributing to support the whole. Mona was born to a time when this harmony is about to falter, where stress and conflict are being felt for the first time in centuries.
A: Again, they could be. They don’t have to be the power-hungry, arrogant subculture that most of our books and movies assume. They could be advancing their own agenda in attempt to reverse the need to consume their own to stay alive. It remains to be seen as I work out the next couple of books.
A: Yes, I have outlines for at least two more books as well as a possible sixth book.
A: Thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy them.
Feel free to comment and agree or dispute my opinions. I love a challenge. Till next time, have a great day!
What follows is the continuation of an interview I conducted with one of my readers. I captured their notes and turned it into this update to my blog. This is Interview Mona’s Stories part 3.
A: Yes, I do.
A: I hope not, after all you are a beautiful woman. However, in the society that I have dreamed up, yes you are. In fact, so am I. Everyone is destined to become food and nourishment for others. From the moment of your birth, you will know without a shadow of a doubt, that one day, others will consume your flesh, produce products to stay warm, enjoy life, and fertilize crops with what’s left.
Q: That’s a particularly horrific view of the future.A: It is, isn’t it. I’m not saying that it will happen. I’m just speculating of what could happen. It probably won’t but it is not impossible. Nature has a way of reorganizing beings to deal with environmental conditions. In Mona’s world, nature is still trying to find a way to circumvent the constraints that man of the past imposed upon it. It may take tens of thousands or even millions of years to settle down. One thing I know, without a shadow of a doubt, nature will always find a way. Biology is a wonderful thing.
A: I’m still writing her story. The one thing about Mona, she is determined to find an alternate food source. She hates the idea of sending off her human stock to the conversion processing to be turned into steaks, roasts, etc. just so that others can live another day. In ‘Lucky Bitch’ she actively stopped the practice within her own household until she found out that her family was slowly starving to death, despite the fact that they were expecting to feed their household. Finding an ally in the Doctor, together they are trying. They may not solve the problem in their lifetime but that won’t stop Mona from trying. She has suburb investigative skills and working with a scientist like the Doctor, there is a chance that something will come out of it.
Feel free to comment and agree or dispute my opinions. I love a challenge. Till next time, have a great day!
What follows is the continuation of an interview I conducted with one of my readers. I captured their notes and turned it into this update to my blog. This is Interview Mona’s Stories part 2.
A: I’m not an activist. In fact, I’m not an activist about anything. I just write stories based upon my passions. If anything, I subscribe to facts science reveals. Take for example, obesity rates in the U.S. My country has been modifying our food sources for nearly a century in order to increase profits. In the 1940’s, obesity was a rarity. Today, it is the norm.
Check the statistics. For example, in the 1950’s,
the widespread use of corn syrup was added to our food supply as a cheaper way to produce food. Compare the graphs of the introduction of corn syrup to the obesity rates in this country. You will find a near perfect duplication of the charts, separated by only a decade. For every change in the production of our food supply, an exact change in the obesity rate occurs a decade later. 70 years later, corn syrup is now a staple in our diets. I try to avoid it but it is virtually impossible.
A: To me, human arrogance is the relate. We presume to know better than what Mother Nature and millions of years of natural selection has produced. I believe we are digging a hole that the human race will find difficult to get out of. It may not happen in our lifetime or our children’s lifetime but I believe it is coming. We ourselves are going to cause a massive extinction event. Assuming our species survives, will be radically changed forever.
A: Yes, exactly. I don’t wish it to happen to anyone but I do feel powerless to prevent it. I believe an extinction event is inevitable and we will have caused it. How our extinction manifests itself is the question. All I know is, and I am firm in my belief, we will be causing our own extinction.
Feel free to comment and agree or dispute my opinions. I love a challenge. Till next time, have a great day!
What follows is the continuation of an interview I conducted with one of my readers. I captured their notes and turned it into this update to my blog. This is Interview Mona’s Stories part 1.
A: Yes, I am. I’ve been dreaming up this society for years now. I have picked at it, revised it, poked holes in it, reworked it, revised it and re-examined it for a very long time. I tend to compare Mona’s culture to the world I see around me in my everyday life. Even in my sleep, my dreams compare the two. Frankly, it scares me. This really could happen.
Take, for example, my new book ‘Lucky Bitch’. In this story, Mona, the submissive property of Charles, breaks through the glass ceiling to become the Mistress of her own estate. As Master and Mistress, she is no one’s property. She is her own person, responsible to no one but her house and all it contains. She is eager to do well and break the cycle developed hundreds of years before her time. A cycle developed due the arrogance of her ancestors.
A: Yes, I do. The society Mona lives in is a direct result of what we are doing to our planet today. People talk about global warming. Some believe it, just as I do. Those that do not are fools.
I think we should be just as concerned with what our food-producing industry is doing to ever increase profit. They are playing with the genomes of every living organism on the planet. Grafting plants are one thing. Mother Nature will either integrate the graft or it won’t. However, we are splicing genes at the genetic level, extracting one gene sequence and replacing it with another.
They believe they know what they are doing. But really? Do they?
How many mistakes have been made that the public are not aware of? Take for example the news surfacing over the past couple of years. Deadly substances such as Anthrax, plague, and Ebola are accidentally transported from high secure facilities around the world in unsecured and vulnerable containers.
In my mind, it’s not a matter of if something goes wrong but rather when. What will we do when a wildfire genetic maelström is released upon the planet. Will we be powerless to undo its damage?
A: And when it happens, all life on this planet will be affected. My stories of Mona’s culture is simply one possible result of the extinction event that we are building towards all on our own.
Feel free to comment and agree or dispute my opinions. I love a challenge. Till next time, have a great day!
Yesterday, Saturday, did in fact turn out fantastic. Except for my ongoing, continuous headache, I couldn’t be more pleased. I am trusting that today will be more of the same, regardless of the weather, sun and heat. Whatever it turns out to be, I’m ready for a glorious day. Perhaps I’ll go see a movie?
Over the past month, I have been posting portions of an interview I gave several months back. Frankly, I was happy to transcribe portions into my blog. It not only helps my readers to more fully understand the basis of the books I write but it’s been helping me get back into sync with these stories. I have many more planned and I need ways to keep them fresh in my mind.
Starting tomorrow, I will be posting a number of smaller snippets from the interview. Generally, they are short answers to individual questions that move from topic to topic. I hope you enjoy them. Look forward to them starting Monday.
As always, I look forward to your comments. Please feel free to write me and let me know what you think. I always enjoy reading them.
Feel free to comment and agree or dispute my opinions. I love a challenge. Till next time, have a great day!
Have you had enough of the Olympics? After more than two weeks of competition, the last medal has been awarded, the last anthem played and the venues sit empty.
If you’re tired of the games or simply anxious to replace them with something else, might I suggest reading a book. Perhaps, one of my mine or someone else’s. Anything that cuts your fancy. For a few hours, you’ll find yourself lost in a story that will captivate you, intrigue you, or take you to another world.
Mine are available right here on my site RichardVerry.com, at Amazon or Smashwords, or your favorite eBook retailer. Don’t like eBooks? Most of them are available in paperback. Check them out and write a review. I would love to read it.
No matter what you do, enjoy a good story, one that you can see yourself as one of the characters, feel what they feel, smile, cry, laugh or scream. It doesn’t matter. It’s the journey that counts. The journey to the podium and the party.
When I wrote the first book, ‘The Taste of Honey’, I did not have a name for the club. I simply referred to it as ‘The Club’. In the first book, it was simply a vehicle to support a couple of scenes I wanted to write outside of a house. For the second book, ‘Broken Steele’, I decided the club was going to take on a larger part in the stories. I needed a vehicle to foster conflict as well as resolution. I needed a place estate masters could go to argue issues, meet in private and coördinate effort for the community. I needed a champion for Mona, separate from Master Charles. The Club needed a name. more “Club Lothario”
Think of Club Lothario as a mix between a men’s social membership club, civic center, strip club, high-end restaurant, and private meeting-house. It supplies solitude from the stresses of maintaining an estate. It offers relaxation, socialization and nourishment to its members. Various calming services are offered, including sexual intimacy to solitude from the everyday responsibilities. This is my concept of Club Lothario. more “Club Lothario, what is that?”
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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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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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.
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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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.
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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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.
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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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.
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?”
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]
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+.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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 tubeBy 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.
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.
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!
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.
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 BreakupCheck 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.
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
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.
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.
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
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+.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yesterday, I reported that I had crossed the 10,000 Twitter followers mark. Thank you to all my followers.
As a thank you, I am offering you a free copy of my début novel ‘The Taste of Honey’.
Just click the book cover and you’ll be taken to a special page where you can download the full book, in the format of your choosing. You’ll be reading it in minutes.
Thank you for following me and my page. I would love to hear from you so please feel free to comment. I look forward to reading them. And again, THANK YOU!
Today, we were cleaning out the refrigerator. You know how some stuff tends to collect after months. Well sometime ago, a family member brought one of those small little bottles of hot sauce. You know the kind. A single drop goes a long, long way.
So far … so good.
That is until the bottle falls on its way to the garbage pail. Yup, that’s right, it falls on the floor in the kitchen and the top breaks off. A decent amount spills on to the floor. I picked up the bottle and since it was spilling all over the garbage pail I tried to contain it from getting all over.0
What I did next is what I normally would do in this situation. I dumped the balance of the bottle down the sink to flush it down the drain. Oops. Within seconds, the water mixed with the hot sauce, sending the main chemical in the pepper that makes it hot — air-borne.
Within seconds, it permeated the room. I was breathing it in. It clogged my sinuses, my air ways, my chest. As I tried to wash it down the drain, I touched it with my hands. Hours later, they are still tingling from the pepper sauce.
After sometime, coughing, sneezing and blowing my nose, I thought I was past it and I washed my hands thoroughly. That is until I needed to use the bathroom. Even after washing my hands beforehand, a minute afterwards, my junk started burning. Oh shit! What the fuck!
I’m trying to eat dinner and I can’t stand it. All I can think of is washing my dick. Jumping into the shower, only exasperates the problem. Holy shit. Even the water vapor from the shower is mixing with the remnants of the sauce embedded in my skin. I can’t stand it any long. I turn off the water and dry off. As I’m doing so, my girlfriend who was to this point not involved, runs into the bathroom complaining that it got into her eye.
Oh shit again. Apparently, she breathed in a little bit of the air permeated with the remnants of the smell of the sauce and had to blow her nose. As she blew, it backed up into her eyes and they’re burning. Again, washing doesn’t help but the watering in her eyes eventually settles her down. It took a while and now she’s resting. Now, as I look at her face, it looks like she’s got a black eye, almost as if someone punched her in the face.
An hour later, I’m finally able to think, though the skin that touched the sauce is still burning. The backs of my hands and fingers are still tingling. Her eyes are still sore but we’re progressing.
A word to the wise! Don’t ever … ever spill this fucking sauce. It’s murder.
One thing though. Compared to Jolene, my heroine in the ‘Her Client Trilogy’, I’d rather go through this incidence with the pepper sauce than what she had to endure. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out this trilogy. It’s brutal. It’s criminal. It’s savage. By all rights, Jolene should be dead and buried. Somehow, she survives. Read her story and find out how she does it.
Me, I’m glad that I nor any one of my loved ones don’t have to endure either of these assaults. And yes, I consider this episode with the pepper sauce an assault. Why the fuck would anyone want to intentionally want to eat this shit is beyond me.
Hopefully by tomorrow, we’ll be past this.
Oh, and … if anyone wants to come visit us as our house, do not and I mean it, DO NOT bring a bottle of this pepper sauce with you. You will not be allowed in my house. PERIOD.
Don’t even think about it. You hear me! I mean it. DON’T.
I’ve just noticed that I went over the 10,000 twitter follower’s mark. Thank you everyone. Thank you.
As a gift to my followers, I am making available a free copy of my book, ‘The Taste of Honey’. Just click this link, you’ll be taken to a special page on my site where you can download the full book, in the format of your choosing.
After you read it, I would appreciate a review on Amazon but it’s not required. Just click this link and you’ll be reading my début novel within minutes.
Thank you again. I love and appreciate you all.
Reporting from Rochester NY, this is a very appreciative Richard Verry.
What happened to Jolene could happen to anyone. It could even happen to you.
Woke up this morning with even more snow on the ground. Still not enough to justify having the snow plow clean out my driveway. I don’t know which is worse, having a lot of snow or just enough to make driving treacherous.
Don’t get me wrong, I like snow and I don’t worry about driving in it. I’ve driven a car or truck most of my life and I consider myself a good driver. Still, a thin layer of snow seems to me to be more dangerous than a significant snow fall.
Why? I don’t think most drivers understand just how dangerous it can be. That thin layer easily converts to ice or worse black ice. For those who don’t know, black ice is prevalent in western NY and consists of a slippery thin layer of frozen water that is impossible to see. It’s so thin that one does realize that they are on it until they spin-out. It’s slippery as hell.
So, what’s the best way to deal with it? Go slow or don’t go out at all. Me? I don’t care what you do, just don’t lose control and smash into me. Stay home had have a hot chocolate, a glass of wine or a stiff drink.
What would Mona do? Well, she would either stay home and have that drink, enjoy the company of her household members or enjoy a good romp in the bed. If she had to drive, she would keep her wits about her and allow the road conditions dictate her speed. Better yet, as a senior member of her house, she would have someone else do all the driving while she sat in the back, enjoying the ride.
I’ll be enjoying the snow from the comfort of my living room, a nice drink in my hand and a fire burning in the fireplace. Enjoy the evening everyone. And for those south of the equator, enjoy the summer sun.
Football and ‘Her Client Trilogy’
It is playoff weekend as the teams begin their hunt to the Super Bowl. Most of the teams are sitting on the sidelines watching and waiting for the big finale. This ritual got me thinking how this relates to Richard Verry’s, ‘Her Client Trilogy’.
The words that come to mind are: dominance, hunt, aggressor, tied, victim, surprise, tension, fumble, pass, fan, tackle, mind game, injured, winner, loser, touchdown, coach, snap, chilling, receive, tight end, shotgun, touchdown, first down, chill in the air, cold, hard, chains, knee, time-out, panic, suck, ball, screen pass, run, interception, squeeze play, clock winding down, fourth down, fourth and long, two-minute warning, goal, first and goal, broken play, sack, interference, holding, illegal contact, roughing, offense, defense, pocket, opportunity, fantasy, handed off, time out, bowls, bowl game, hall of fame, rout, blown opportunity, huddle, dropped, down and out, route, champ, mascot, 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? To me, the answer is simple. The majority of our culture has not accepted this as the norm. Will it ever? I don’t know. I hope not.
Overall, we have grown as a society yet there are still issues that we can’t accept or are willing to accept. Still, we hunt, torture and inflict brutal violence against one another. It is a game for some and a lifestyle for others. Yet for Jolene and I, we will fight to the bitter end. We will not lay down and give up.
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 a win.
See if you agree with my thoughts. Write me a comment and let me know, one way or the other.