Really Windy Here in Crazeysburg!!!

First, some really good news:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2020 – The Department of Education released new, final regulations today providing crucial free speech and religious liberty protections for students at our nation’s public college campuses. Institutions that violate those core rights will risk losing access to federal education grants. Put simply, the regulations require public institutions of higher education to do what they are already obligated to do: protect the First Amendment rights of their students.

Yay. (This doesn’t mean that Courts, and Colleges accused of violating First Amendment rights, won’t try to come up with new ways to define the First Amendment, but it is still a really meaningful step in a good direction. Plus, it is just better to debate about the Constitution rather than simply ignore and defy it.)

All righty. Well. My life, gang. I do not want to go into it on the blog because I would rather just face forward and look at the positive things, but I will say that every morning when I wake up these days, there is another little fire of hell burning that I somehow have to figure out how to put out, but honestly, I just don’t know how. I can only have faith that things will work out in some miraculous way, all on their own, without me trying to solve things that are unsolvable.

Here is just one of the key people, hard at work behind the scenes, trying to help me solve my problems:

Pin on Vintage Christmas

WAIT!! NO!! I meant:

The meaning of Byzantine Orthodox iconography.

All righty!!

So I’m only going to post two things for now. One is that I think I may have figured out how to fix one of the formatting issues of the printed text for The Guitar Hero Goes Home. (The eBook edition is fine. I’m still just having issues with how the printed edition’s text is formatted and how the cover looks.)

The other good thing is that I am still making really great progress with the new erotic short story, “1954 Powder Blue Pickup.” So that is making me really, really happy.

So that is really all I can say today.  Except for the fact that it is really windy here today! (Hopefully, this means that all my troubles will blow away!)

I’m gonna go get this day started. Thanks for visiting, gang. If you commemorate 9/11 where you live, I hope you have a meaningful day. If you don’t, well, I still hope you have a meaningful day. Meanwhile, Bruce Springsteen has a new album coming out; it’s ready for pre-order wherever you buy your music. Here is the official video for his new single, “Letter to You.”  (New album has the same name.) (Lyrics are in the video.) Okay. Enjoy. I love you guys. See ya.

Sorry for the Delay!

I’ve been working on the new short story all day here, gang. Still toying with the idea of pushing it to the length of a novella.  We shall see. For right now, I’m just happy that it keeps wanting to come out.

So. Tom Petty Official released another new single today from the upcoming Wildflowers & All the Rest. (Release date Oct. 16th). This new one is called “Confusion Wheel.” It’s posted below.

The lyrics sort of fit where my life is at these days. For the most part. I guess you can give it a spin and see if you concur!

There is not really much to report on here because, once again, I am  trying to get this new story completed. I’m guessing it’ll be another four or five days.  Until then my life consists of yoga, taking care of the flowers, eating a few times, writing for 8 to 10 hours at a stretch, then collapsing in bed into a deep sleep until about 4am.

Oh, except that yesterday, I had to make a trip into town and guess who was riding right behind me the entire way?? And wearing a helmet??

Yes!! The boy from down the street — on his blue motorcycle. I could not believe it.  And he basically went the speed limit the whole way, which was why he was behind me, I guess. Because god knows I go way more than the speed limit.  (Well, he started out in front me, on the freeway ramp, but I soon pulled way out ahead of him, because I don’t understand what it means to go the speed limit.)

But it was so strange. A relief to see him in that helmet, but strange to see him out on the highway, heading somewhere unknown — miles and miles from Crazeysburg.

And in the car, I was streaming Brian Hyland singing “Sealed With A Kiss” on repeat again (see Monday’s post) and it just made for such a wistful trip to town.  Because both that song and that boy make me really melancholy for days long gone.

Oh, and my lawn care guy showed up yesterday. His back is really in bad shape and he needs surgery. But at least I finally got the grass cut, so I really appreciated that.

Nick Cave sent out a really great Red Hand File yesterday, after I posted to the blog. You can read it here. (He addresses the purpose of an anchor once it has been cut loose from the ship.) For me, it was perfectly timed.

Other than that, life goes on. And I have nothing else to say!! I gotta get back to work here on the story.

I hope Thursday was good for you, wherever you are in the world. the new Tom Petty tune is below. No lyrics are available yet. Thanks for visiting, gang. I love you guys. See ya.

Putting On My “Happy Guy” Face!!!

I won’t bog you down with the details, I’ll only say that I’m really happy to be making some story sales here AND even getting some editing work again. Here’s hoping things are slowly but surely getting back on track…

I need it to. That’s all I will say. Because we’re going to be positive around here and look forward!!

Today, in addition to working some more on the new erotic short story (“1954 Powder Blue Pickup”), I think Valerie and I are going to try to figure out why the heck the cover art for The Guitar Hero Goes Home is not doing what it is supposed to be doing — we had a long chat about it yesterday, and it gets mindboggling –why it keeps skewing the way it does, when, in the template, it keeps matching up perfectly.

It is disheartening. But we’ll get it figured out.

Meanwhile, every time I look at the cover of the proof copy that arrived yesterday, I just sort of sigh with a heavy heart…

I’m actually toying with the idea of trying to make the new short story a novella. If you’ve read last evening’s excerpt from the new story, you can probably tell that there are actual characters in the story and a story arc is underway. Unlike “Half-Moon Bride,” which basically had neither. So the groundwork is set if I want to actually extend it into something more significant.

However, this is another one of those situations, where I have no real clue what’s coming up next while I’m writing it — the story just comes out.  So we’ll see how it goes. Basically, everyday I simply sit down at the desk and I write…

Even though the writing has been going really great lately, I have been battling the urge to get rather melancholy. So far, I am winning the battle, but it is just constantly there, in the background. I guess mostly because summer is waning. And that storm the other night really took a toll on my incredibly beautiful hydrangea bush. I don’t think it’s going to be able to get back to how it looked before the storm because it is already so late in the season. It makes me so sad. The blossoms had gotten so huge, and the storm filled the blossoms with water, so now they’re bent way down to the sidewalk — and they had been 8-feet tall. That’s a lot of weight keeping it bent over.

I keep wishing there was something I could do, but the blossoms are getting old now and I need to accept that I can’t solve all of Nature’s “problems” — and it could be that Nature doesn’t think it has any problem at all. And I should just keep out of it, right?

And my lawn care guy has had a bad back issue so he hasn’t been here to cut the grass in 3 weeks. My yard now has that look of complete and utter abandonment. Which is not the overall look I prefer.

I hate feeling like I have no control, you know? Like I have to just stand back and allow everything. Let everything just be what it is. Sometimes it’s very frustrating for me.

So, the more I can sit at my desk and write and not focus on the things that make me sad, the better the day goes.

And on that little note… I’m gonna get the day underway here.  I hope you’re having a nice Wednesday, wherever you are in the world!  I think I mentioned the other day that Nick Cave’s solo concert is going to be released as an album in November. I’m going to leave you with a video they released from that concert — Nick Cave at  the piano, singing “Galleon Ship” from Ghosteen (2019). This is what I was listening to last night, as the whole world was trying really, really hard not to go flying off into a million pieces.  Okay, thanks for visiting, gang. I love you guys. See ya!!

“Galleon Ship”

If I could sail a galleon ship
A long, lonely rider across the sky
Seek out mysteries while you sleep
And treasures money cannot buy
For you know I see you everywhere
A servant girl, an empress
My galleon ship will fly and fall
Fall and fly and fly and fall deep into your loveliness

And if we rise my love
Before the daylight comes
A thousand galleon ships will sail
Ghostly around the morning sun

As the city rises up
As the city rises up
As the city rises up
As the city rises up

For we are not alone, it seems
So many riders in the sky
The winds of longing in their sails
Searching for the other side

And if we rise my love
Oh my darling, precious one
We’ll stand and watch the galleon ships
Circle around the morning sun

© 2019 Nick Cave, Warren Ellis

Excerpt from “1954 Powder Blue Pickup”

My proof copy of the print edition of The Guitar Hero Goes Home, arrived this morning, and while I love being able to hold it in my hands, the cover art is skewed by about 1/4 of an inch on three of the borders, front & back.

It has been such a pain in the butt. Valerie keeps making the art work fit perfectly into the template, and then it keeps not printing correctly. So she’s going to try again…

Meanwhile, the book is actually already for sale, and so is the eBook. (Linked at the drop down menu above.) You might not notice the cover art being off, but we both sure did.

Well, I spent all of today on the new erotic short story, “1954 Powder Blue Pickup”. I am really , really happy with how it’s going, gang. It will probably run close to 20 pages when it’s done.

And while it’s intense and seriously skirts the boundary of “questionable consent” throughout, it is nowhere near as extreme as “Half-Moon Bride” was, so I’m going to go ahead and post a short excerpt here on the blog. I’ve tried to pick a segment that wasn’t too extreme.

However.

Please keep in mind that it is sexually explicit, it deals with subject matter that some readers could find offensive and it won’t be suitable for everybody. Thanks, gang!

Approx. 3 pages

************************************************

Excerpt from “1954 Powder Blue Pickup”
© 2020 Marilyn Jaye Lewis

When he was finished with her, she sat up, and grabbed a fresh Kleenex from her purse. She cleaned up her face as best she could, while he pulled up his trousers and zipped his cock back in.

Her skirt was still bunched around her waist and her panties were still down in back, revealing her ass, but first she reached for her blouse and put it back on.

“Wait,” he said. “Don’t button it up yet. Don’t hide those beauties!”

She smiled at him as he reached for her and pulled her breasts right up to his mouth. He licked her nipples and nipped at them and sucked on them. And while he did that, he reached a hand down her ass, feeling inside her underpants. “You’re soaking wet down there, you know that?”

She smiled, getting shy again. “I know,” she said. “I don’t know why.”

“It’s okay to like it,” he assured her. “Lots of girls like that.”

“They do? Are you sure? Because I’ve never heard about anything like this before.”

“Lots of girls do it – and like it. They just don’t admit it. It’s a secret.”

She gave it some thought “I guess it would have to be. Who’d ever talk about doing something like this?”

“Sure. Girls do all kinds of things that they don’t talk about.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” He took out a cigarette, lit it with his lighter and then passed it to her. Then he lit another one for himself.

They smoked in silence as she sat there with her blouse still unbuttoned and her naked ass hanging out of her soaking panties. Then she spoke. “Can you show me something else that girls like that they don’t mention?”

He gave it some serious thought. He knew he wasn’t going to get it up again; his dick was spent for the night. What could he do that would still suit his agenda – keep her focused on her asshole, this new thrill?

“I tell you what,” he finally replied. “Lie back on the seat there. Just lie down and lift your legs.”

“Can I keep my cigarette going?”

“Sure.” But he rested his own in the ashtray. Then he pulled her panties all the way off and spread her legs wide apart.

She laughed in delight. “I already know all about this,” she said. “Not that I don’t like it…”

“This’ll be a little different.”

She lay there and smoked her cigarette, and watched him get the little tub of Vaseline from out of the open glove compartment. “Is that what that was,” she said. “Vaseline?”

“Pull your knees up high,” he instructed her. “Up there close to your tits.”

She did as she was told. And she watched him scoop a big smear of Vaseline from the little tub and then felt it rubbing all around her asshole, and even up inside it.

She moaned as she sucked intently on her cigarette. “I think I might know what’s coming next,” she said.

“Maybe you do,” he said, tossing the tub of Vaseline back into the glove compartment. “But maybe you don’t.”

He got down between her legs and began licking her. She was already a sopping mess, but he didn’t care. His tongue went straight for that little spot she loved so much, and then he pushed two of his fingers right up her greasy ass.

“Oh god!” she cried out. “That’s too much! Just use one! Please!”

He licked her clit and he wiggled it with his tongue and he sucked it, while his two fingers kept a steady pace, fucking in and out of her asshole.

Oh god – ow – no! It hurt but he wouldn’t stop, so she sucked like crazy on her cigarette, quickly smoking it all the way down, because what he was doing to her clit at the same time felt so good, so good. She wasn’t sure what to do. Oh god, she groaned again, because her asshole had opened now and was bearing down on the steady fingers that were actually fucking her. And her captive clit got stiffer and stiffer in his sucking mouth.

“Shit!” she screamed out, her body shuddering. “Shit! Oh shit.”

She was actually coming – already. “Shit!” she sputtered again, because he wouldn’t let up on her; he sucked her clit so intensely now – like maybe it was a tiny thumb, or a little nipple that milk might explode from if he only sucked on it hard enough. And his two fingers fucked her so deep now and so fast, that she knew for sure her asshole had opened way too much for any girl anywhere to ever be proud of – to ever, ever speak about, to anyone.

When her body collapsed from the orgasm, he pulled his fingers out of her, then leaned up to her face. He took her spent cigarette from her and then said, “Lick my lips.”

“What?” She was panting, delirious.

“I said lick my lips. Go on, do it.”

She pushed her tongue out of her mouth and licked his lips, just like he told her to do.

“What do they taste like?” he challenged her.

She wouldn’t answer.

“They taste like pussy,” he said. “Your pussy. See? Dirty girls like you like all kinds of dirty things,” he said, kissing her full on the mouth then, knowing her own pussy smell would go right up her nose.

*     *     *

He pulled up to the curb outside of her apartment building, but before letting her get out of the truck, he said, “Give me a Kleenex. You can’t go inside looking like that.”

When she gave him a fresh Kleenex, he spit into it and rubbed every last trace of mascara from around her eyes – from where it had run and smeared. And then he said, “Put a little more lipstick on. You don’t wanna look like you’ve had your mouth anywhere where it shouldn’t have been, do you?”

She smiled at him, and fished her tube of lipstick from her handbag. “No,” she said. Then she took out her little pocket mirror and freshened her Wildberry Lipslicker.

He loved watching her do that to her mouth. He could feel it down in his balls.

“When can I see you again?” he said. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“Well, I have to work…”

“I know, but what about after?”

“So soon? Do you think we should? Two nights in a row – my girlfriends are going to start asking me what’s up with you and me.”

“All right, then. Thursday – how’s Thursday sound?”

“That’ll be good,” she said. And as she opened the door to let herself out of the truck, he stopped her.

He pulled her face up close to his, kissing her cheek so as not to disturb her lipstick. “You be good,” he said quietly, “You hear?”

“I will,” she said.

“I mean it – don’t you go giving it away to anybody else. You need something, you get it from me. Right?”

“Right.”

He gently rubbed one of her breasts through her blouse. “Anything. You hear me? Anything your little mind can conjure up; we can do together. So you call me first.”

“There’s nobody else,” she said shyly.

“Okay, then. You have a goodnight. And I’ll see you Thursday. Unless you want me to stop by the store before that and just say hi?”

“Sure. That’ll be nice.”

“All right, then. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she said.

She let herself out of the truck and he watched her ass in that tight skirt walk away from him; watched her walk up to the front door of her building and go inside. Then he put his truck in gear and started down the road.

Thursday, he thought to himself. How the hell am I gonna wait ‘til Thursday?

*     *     *

The following night, he drove by the drugstore, slowed down just enough to make sure he could see her there inside, working. He just wanted to know for sure.

His mind at ease, he drove across town – to where the street was better lit, where the people filled the sidewalks and the occasional girl leaned against a traffic sign or a parking meter. When he saw Shelley, he cruised to a stop.

He reached over and rolled down the passenger window and Shelley leaned in.

“Hey, stranger,” she said. “Long time, no see.”

“Get in,” he said,

“How much you got?”

“Enough to work it out. Come on, get in.” So she got in.

As he drove out to the edge of town, where it was dark and quiet and private, Shelley chattered up a storm, like they were old friends. But when he pulled the truck to a stop and parked it, she was all business.

“Really, hon – how much you got? I know what you want, but you gotta pay.”

“I’ve got enough,” he assured her.

“Let me see.”

He retrieved his wallet from the back pocket of his trousers, opened it and let her take out a twenty-dollar bill.

“Okay,” she said. Then she waited as he let himself out of the truck and then came around to the passenger door and opened it. He left it open so that the little overhead light stayed on. When he helped her get out of the truck, she turned around, leaned back in and bent over the seat.

“Let me just look for a minute, okay?” he asked.

“Okay,” she said, “but I don’t have all night.”

“I know,” he said, lifting her dress up high in back and then pulling her panties down. There was enough light coming from inside the truck for him to see her just fine. Then he squatted down and planted light kisses all over her ass.

“Well, this is new,” she said.

Then he spread open her ass cheeks and began licking her hole.

“This is real new,” she said, softly now. “What is up with you?”

But he didn’t reply. He went about his business, licking her asshole. Licking and licking, occasionally poking his tongue in, letting his cock get good and hard.

Shelley moaned and sighed deeply and lost herself for a while – forgot all about working.

And as he licked her hole and caught the scent of her there – the scent of aroused pussy and asshole and soap – he thought of another time he’d smelled aroused pussy and asshole and soap. Another girl who charged by the trick and not by the hour, and how she’d sat her asshole right down on his mouth, riding his tongue, while she leaned over at the same time and sucked his dick. That one had gotten filthy dirty with him, getting into the back of the truck with him, where he’d lain on his back on an old tarp and she’d straddled him, taking his cock straight up her ass and then grinding down on it, taking him in deep while leaning back on her outstretched arms and keeping her thighs spread wide so that he could look at her spread-open pussy while she ground her asshole down on his cock…

There’d been moonlight that night and she’d agreed to get completely naked. Out in the middle of nowhere. He’d seen everything there was to see. And he came in her ass. No condom needed.

“Let me cum in your ass,” he said now to Shelley.

“No chance,” she said. “My night’s just getting started. No man in this town wants to pay for sloppy seconds – you know that.”

“Come on, Shelley,” he urged her, getting up and reaching into the glove compartment for the little tub of Vaseline. “I gotta cum in there. Come on.”

“No.”

“How about an extra ten – will that help?”

She gave it some thought. “Twenty. Another twenty and you can cum in my ass.”

“Will you hold yourself open while I fuck you?”

She sighed in disbelief. “Okay,” she finally agreed. “For another twenty – that you hand to me right now – you can cum in my ass and I’ll hold it open for you.”

*     *     *

For some reason, he liked it better when the woman’s panties were halfway down her thighs and not all the way down to her ankles. He thought it looked dirtier that way. Like they were getting away with something and might get caught at any moment.

That’s how it had been his first time – because the first time that he’d gotten his cock up a girl’s ass, it had been his cousin’s ass. One summer at a family reunion, when she’d flirted with him until his cock had gotten so hard they’d snuck into an upstairs bathroom together – where she’d known there would be Vaseline.

She was a year older than him and she was the first girl to clue him in about how fucking a girl in her ass kept her a virgin so there’d be nothing at stake. You could both have fun and just walk away.

His cousin had bent over the edge of the tub, still in her high-heels, with her skirt pulled up high and her panties halfway down. She’d been the one to smear Vaseline on her own hole and also on the tip of his cock. They were both so slippery that he’d gone right up her asshole, even though his cock was thick and rock-hard. He’d held her cheeks open and watched his cock push in and out of that impossibly tight hole, while she gripped the edge of the tub and tried not to fall head-first into it – he was pounding her that hard.

How he had loved looking at that – his cock stuck up that snug hole, her panties down her thighs, until he saw a strand of that gooey wet stuff drip out of her hairy pussy and land right in the crotch of her panties. That was all it took. He came. He gripped her hips tight and pounded her asshole so hard that she’d started to cry, she’d even tried to pry his hands off of her to try to get away, but he held her and he fucked her good and then he jerked his load right up his cousin’s ass.

The last time he’d seen her was at her wedding. The whole evening, she barely looked at him…

Excerpt from “1954 Powder Blue Pickup”
© 2020 Marilyn Jaye Lewis

Wow, What A Night

We had such a bad thunderstorm here last night.

When I woke-up around 4am, a huge tree branch, covered in maple leaves, was sitting on the roof ledge right outside my bedroom window.

Nothing like that had ever happened before.

And then when I went downstairs and opened the kitchen door and glanced out at the porch — my 4-ft.-high palm tree had blown over and was wedged under the hydrangea bush. And the poinsettia had blown over and the underliner pan had blown clear over by my car.

I hadn’t realized it had gotten that windy because I’d closed all the windows before going to bed and then slept like a little clam for 6 straight hours. So that was probably the weirder part — that I’d slept right through all that noisy wind.

But today is, of course, peaceful and calm. Like nothing ever happened.

The good news is that –YES — I started writing another new erotic short story yesterday. Just out of the blue, this whole idea was ready and waiting to hit the page.

I mean, I knew I wanted to write another short story, but I had no clue that another full-blown idea was just sitting there, waiting,  I actually had thought I was going to write about something else, but then here came this other story. And then I was at it for 8 hours.  Almost 4000 words already. And — yes — yet again, it is filthy as hell. And I can tell it’s going to be another long one.

It is titled “1954 Powder Blue Pickup,” and it mostly takes place in the front seat of a pickup truck, about 70 years ago.

I don’t know, I must be making up for lost time or something.  Because here they all are — all these stories so suddenly, when I thought I was working on another novel…

But I couldn’t be happier, gang. I find all of it so exciting.

Okay, well, I’ve done the yoga and the laundry is almost done. There is not much to post about today, since I spent most of yesterday in front of the laptop, writing the new story. Then collapsing and sleeping through a terrible storm…

(Oh, I do want to mention here that it looks like more and more and more moderate Democrats — Black, White & Latino — are now going over to the Republican side of the fence — I’m guessing a lot of it has to do with all this unchecked violence that is still raging in cities where Democrats are the Mayors and/or Governors. Portland OR is off-the-charts violent now, with Antifa members shooting Trump supporters in cold blood — for the sole reason that they support Trump. That seems fair and rational, right?  Are you people out of your fucking minds? And the Governor of NY is now on tape  threatening Trump’s life if he ever comes back to NYC again. Yes — threatening the President’s life if he ever goes back to the city where he was born. On tape. In what world is that guy living?  Can you imagine any Governor threatening Obama’s life while he was President and then getting away with it? These Democrat politicians have lost their minds. And 50 more shootings in Chicago over the weekend — in Black communities, where, allegedly, Black Lives are supposed to MATTER (!!) Come on, people — they DO matter. These are human lives — not just inconvenient statistics to ignore because you don’t want Trump to win…)

Anyway, it is indeed interesting.  I am now firmly in the Independent Party and will likely remain there forever, whatever that yields.

All righty!! I’m gonna get started here! Have a terrific Tuesday, wherever it leads you. Today, I’m leaving you with one of my most favorite Leonard Cohen songs ever, “I’m Your Man.” (From the amazing album of the same name — circa 1988.) (I have a delightful history with that album, which maybe I’ll regale you with some other time –involving  a well-known folksinger with whom I had quite a fling, who bought me that CD, back when I was still living on E.12th Street and CDs were still sort of a brand new thing.) Anyway.  It was years ago. Enjoy, gang. And thanks for visiting! I love you guys. See ya.

“I’m Your Man”

If you want a lover
I’ll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I’ll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner
Take my hand
Or if you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I’m your man
If you want a boxer
I will step into the ring for you
And if you want a doctor
I’ll examine every inch of you
If you want a driver
Climb inside
Or if you want to take me for a ride
You know you can
I’m your man

Ah, the moon’s too bright
The chain’s too tight
The beast won’t go to sleep
I’ve been running through these promises to you
That I made and I could not keep
Ah but a man never got a woman back
Not by begging on his knees
Or I’d crawl to you baby
And I’d fall at your feet
And I’d howl at your beauty
Like a dog in heat
And I’d claw at your heart
And I’d tear at your sheet
I’d say please, please
I’m your man

And if you’ve got to sleep
A moment on the road
I will steer for you
And if you want to work the street alone
I’ll disappear for you
If you want a father for your child
Or only want to walk with me a while
Across the sand
I’m your man

If you want a lover
I’ll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I’ll wear a mask for you

© 1988 Leonard Cohen

Happy End of Summer, Gang!!

As much as I absolutely cannot believe it — it is time to drive back into town and get more groceries. The week just flew. Again.

I hate shopping on holidays, mostly because I think people shouldn’t have to work on holidays and if we go in and patronize their places of business, they’ll just keep finding reasons to make people work on holidays.

Especially Labor Day! Which, in and of itself means that people who work are supposed to have the day off! Labor Day is supposed to be about picnics, going to the lake, having cookouts in your own backyard.

I won’t get totally on my soapbox about it…  However — when I was a wee bonny lass growing up in Cleveland (a notoriously blue-collar, union town) no one worked on Labor Day. No one worked on any holidays unless it was emergency service-related. No one worked on Sundays — except a handful of gas stations (Sundays were considered the Sabbath ). A few places, like bakeries, would open for a few hours in the morning only.  Usually only Chinese restaurants were open on Sundays and a few Jewish delicatessens, because for them Saturday was the Sabbath, not Sunday.  But most people saw a clear difference back then between working and having a life, a family, a home.

It’s not like that anymore. It took a pandemic to get businesses to close in America… of course, I realize that’s going from one extreme to another. But life actually was a lot nicer when most people still believed in God, and did not have so much invested in commerce.

Anyway! That said!! I’ll probably be working today!! Either editing Volume 4 of The Muse Revisited, or writing a new erotic short story. Or maybe even working some more on Thug Luckless? Who can say! I’ll see how I feel after I get back from town with the groceries.

I did notice that while writing the new short story over the past couple weeks, I was re-thinking my approach to Thug Luckless. So maybe I’ll take a look at that today. We’ll see. I’m kind of feeling like writing another new short story, though. Not plunging back into the novel.

I’m sort of sad that summer is now officially over. I just can’t believe it flew by so quickly. Just at warp speed. Even though the weather stays nice for a few more weeks, and the flowers are still blooming, it’s a mindset: Labor Day is here and so summer is over.

I try to remind myself that summer will come again next year, and that all sorts of amazing things will likely be happening in my life by then. Things I can’t even imagine now — with the play, in particular. Both plays, actually. The play being produced in Toronto will pick up steam again in 2021. It’s already on the books there. So that will be really exciting. But meanwhile, the time I love best around here in Crazeysburg has come and gone. Again.

And, of course, now I can’t help but think about “mortality” (reaching 60, I mean) — so many people I knew, worked with, loved, have passed on. Have been gone for years now, some of them.  And they were not that much older than I am now when they left. And then I also think of someone like Tom Petty, gone suddenly at age 66. It makes me think, for real — what would I like to get done in the next 6 years? Right? Although most of my blood relations lived to be quite old — mid-90s and into their 100s, even in eras where that kind of age was really uncommon.  So I don’t have any real reason to think I’m leaving anytime soon, it’s just something I think about now. Especially as the summer wanes and fall begins its approach (the dogwood tree in my backyard is starting to get its fall colors already).

I won’t really mind going, actually, as long as all the cats have already passed on. But there is so much writing here on my desk that I would like to complete, if I had my “druthers,” as they say!

Okay. I guess I will get going here. I haven’t done yoga yet.  Then I will make that drive into town. Have a really wonderful holiday if you live Stateside, and have a wonderful Monday, wherever you are in the world!

I leave you with something that actually speaks of the beginning of summer, and of how happy they’ll be when September finally comes… still, it’s such a wonderful song, sort of wistful, all these decades later — the original “Sealed With A Kiss,” by Brian Hyland (1962).  Enjoy it. Fall in love. And thanks for visiting, gang! I love you, guys. See ya.

Sealed With A Kiss

Though we gotta say goodbye for the summer
Darling I promise you this
I’ll send you all my love every day in a letter
Sealed with a kiss

Yes it’s gonna be a cold lonely summer
But I’ll fill the emptiness
I’ll send you all my dreams every day in a letter
Sealed with a kiss

I’ll see you in the sunlight
I’ll hear your voice everywhere
I’ll run to tenderly hold you
But darling you won’t be there

I don’t want to say goodbye for the summer
Knowing the love we’ll miss
Oh let us make a pledge to meet in September
And seal it with a kiss

Yes it’s gonna be a cold lonely summer
But I’ll fill the emptiness
I’ll send you all my love every day in a letter
Sealed with a kiss
Sealed with a kiss
Sealed with a kiss

© 1962 Peter Udell, Gary Geld

Yay! Finished!!

Okay, I’m back!! And my new erotic short story, “Half-Moon Bride” is indeed done!!

Yay!!

I’m very, very happy with it. I will keep you posted on when it will become available, and in what way and from where.

I want to post some sort of excerpt here on the blog, but the story is just so intense, and told in such an extreme way, that posting just a section of it would be too out of context and probably seem too extreme. (Most of the story pushes the boundary of “questionable consent,” but reading it from page one, you do sort of get the underlying audacity of it — it is sort of rapturous and even a little humorous.)

Anyway, I have to give it some thought.

Meanwhile, today I am doing a final read-through to check for typos, etc., then I’m sending it off to the potential publisher.

Then, I’m going to get started on another new erotic short story, as well as try to make some headway in editing the upcoming The Muse Revisited Volume 4, Selected Erotic Fiction, 1994-2012. (If you have read any of the other volumes in the series, you have perhaps noted that some of that stuff needs some conscientious editing — I should have realized that before letting those other volumes go to press.)

Anyway. I wouldn’t want Valerie to have to go too long without having another book cover design to tear her hair out over!

So, it is indeed a glorious holiday weekend around here! Just unbelievably perfect weather. You have no idea. And our teenage motorcycle boy has indeed been out and about, zoom-zooming all over the tiny town and seeming happy as the proverbial clam.

Now that I know which house he lives in, I have noticed that an older guy (brother maybe?) seems to fix up old cars. Whether this is for a living or is a hobby, I have no clue. I don’t actually spend all day staring at their house, much as I would like to. (Much as I would like to actually go over there and hang out!!) But it fascinates me. So much life in that boy and he is in the teeny-tiniest place on Earth — practically. And the odds are high that he’ll hook-up with some girl from the high school, start raising babies and stay here in Muskingum County for the rest of his life.

And knowing what I know about most of the rest of the world — it does not seem like a bad idea at all. It takes a long time for the garbage in the world to permeate Muskingum County. It really does.

Okay, well, I guess I’ll get started here. Not much going on but writing and beautiful weather!! Please don’t forget that my newest novel, The Guitar Hero Goes Home, is now on sale! In trade paperback and Kindle eBooks. (For now. It will branch out to other outlets later this fall.) In the meantime, have a wonderful Sunday, wherever you are in the world!!

I leave you once again with Nick Cave’s version of “Cosmic Dancer”, from the (finally) just-released Marc Bolan tribute album, Angel-Headed Hipster. The song was going through my head all night and when I woke-up first thing this morning, so I played it all through breakfast. Enjoy, and thanks for visiting, gang!! I love you guys. See ya.

Best Laid Plans of Mice, Men, Cats, etc.

Well, today did not go anywhere near as planned, so I am posting this tonight, and it will serve as tomorrow morning’s post, gang.

I really want to be able to get started first thing tomorrow morning on “Half-Moon Bride” and see if there’ s any chance whatsoever that I can get it completed tomorrow, or at least very close to completed. Mainly, I just want to be able to get this story off to that new publisher and see if my upcoming erotic stories are going to be a good fit for them or not, so that I can re-direct my publishing focus, if possible.

Today was intense. It started out seeming like a perfect day — everything seemed perfectly suited for just sitting at my desk and writing — including the amazing weather.  Loyal readers of this lofty blog are no doubt intensely aware that I’m trying to write the final “anal sex scene extravaganza” and then the (rather long) short story will finally be done.

But now it turns out that my 90-year-old father is having severe prostate problems again and has to go into the hospital next week for more tests and to see if he needs more surgery. And suddenly, this intense anal sex scene between two hermaphrodites that was in front of me on my laptop is blown right out of the water and all I can think about for the remainder of the day is my 90-year-old dad’s prostate.

Try as I did, I could not get that vision out of my darn head. I could not write anything anally erotic at all.

I even tried looking at pornhub and motherless.com, to see if maybe I could you know, get in the mood or something, and everything suddenly looked absolutely disgusting to me. Not a feeling I generally have regarding porn.

So I went outside and took a walk. I tended to my petunias. I vacuumed the house again. I finally watched the end of Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears on Acorn TV.  Nothing could re-direct my focus. So I finally gave up.

I’m hoping that by tomorrow, my thoughts will be my own again and I can get back on track here.

But it is indeed a truly lovely evening here tonight. I sat out on my kitchen porch for quite awhile and I thought, well, maybe the blond boy will drive by on his motorcycle, and I can see him sort of up close rather than just from my upstairs window — and the very moment I thought that, he walked right past me! Right past my porch. He wasn’t on his motorcycle.

And I figured that since it’s a Friday night on a holiday weekend and he’s a teenager, he’s probably heading to some sort of party/gathering where everyone is drinking beer and smoking weed around a bonfire — and he doesn’t want to risk fucking up his motorcycle. So I thought that was pretty cool. (And I also thought it was pretty cool that the very moment I thought of him, he was suddenly standing right in front of me…)

So that was my big entertaining event here in Crazeysburg this evening!

Now I’m going to find an old movie to watch (Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief is looming large in my queue, even though I’ve seen it many, many times. I just love it! The French Riviera, the fashions, the sexy rapport between Grant & Kelly…) (If that doesn’t make me stop thinking about my dad’s prostate I’m guessing that nothing will!)

to-catch-a-thief-grace-kelly-cary-grant-1 - Reel Life With Jane

Okay, well, I hope that you have a great Friday night if you’re reading this early — or a terrific Saturday if you’re reading this tomorrow! I was thinking some more about that new Nick Cave tee shirt on Cave Things (see my post from earlier today) and it struck me as really cute that the tee shirt says “don’t touch me” but the spider on the tee shirt is made of felt and sort of calling out to be touched. And apparently, the drawing of the spider is based on an actual tarantula trapped in amber that he owns, and of course the line “don’t touch me” is a lyric from his song “Girl in Amber.” So, well, that’s one of the many things I was thinking about while trying to not think about other things that I was thinking about today!

And that’s a round about way of saying that I’m leaving you with “Girl in Amber” from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Skeleton Tree album from 2016. I think I’ve posted it here before, but this is the version from the Live in Copenhagen movie, not the official video. It’s a really beautiful song, and even while I don’t completely understand it, I identify with it very intensely, for some reason. Okay, so enjoy! And have a great Saturday. Thanks for visiting. I love you guys! See ya.

“Girl In Amber”

Some go and some stay behind
Some never move at all
Girl in amber trapped forever, spinning down the hall
Let no part of her go unremembered, clothes across the floor
Girl in amber, long to slumber, shuts the bathroom door
The phone, the phone, the phone it rings, it rings, it rings no more
The song, the song, the song it spins since nineteen eighty-four
The phone, the phone, the phone, it rings, the phone, it rings no more
The song, the song it’s been spinning now since nineteen

And if you want to bleed, just bleed
And if you want to bleed, just bleed
And if you want to bleed, don’t breathe a word
Just step away and let the world spin

And now in turn, you turn
You kneel, lace up his shoes, your little blue-eyed boy
Take him by his hand, go move and spin him down the hall
I get lucky, I get lucky cause I tried again
I knew the world it would stop spinning now since you’ve been gone
I used to think that when you died you kind of wandered the world
In a slumber til your crumble were absorbed into the earth
Well, I don’t think that any more the phone it rings no more
The song, the song it spins now since nineteen eighty-four
The song, the song, the song it spins, it’s been a spinning now
And if you’ll hold me I will tell you that you know that

And if you want to leave, don’t breathe
And if you want to leave, don’t breathe
And if you want to leave, don’t breathe a word
And let the world turn

The song, the song it spins, the song, it spins, it spins no more
The phone, it rings, it rings and you won’t stay

Don’t touch me
Don’t touch me
Don’t touch me
Don’t touch me

© 2016 Nick Cave, Warren Ellis

Pornographers Hard at Work!!

I am of course just kidding ! Clearly, those are cats having tea at the club!

These are, in fact, pornographers hard at work:

Lighting Department stenographers, 1935 | Item 9929, Enginee… | Flickr

Anyway!!!!!

Yes, well, I hate to label what I write as “pornography,” try as most people have done, over the decades, to get me to see it that way.  I still call it “literary erotica.”

However, that said,  “Half-Moon Bride,” my new erotic short story that is inching ever closer to completion,  is probably leaning way over to the pornographic side of any “erotica” I’ve ever written.

I just cracks me up, gang. The story is just so intensely intense. And there is just no story arc whatsoever — unless you consider going from “being a virgin to being absolutely in no way whatsoever a virgin” a story “arc”…

However, even if I say so myself, it is very well written!

Yesterday, as I sort of paved the literary way for the grand “anal sex” finale of the story, I spent no less than 8 hours writing and re-writing and re-writing yet again, the 2 pages that lead up to the beginning of the anal sex stuff. It’s just unreal. It’s like this story is never going to end. Everything is so tightly focused.  (I’m already at 22 pages, 13,000 words, and except for some plot set-up on the first page, the entire thing is sex.  The entire thing. There’s next to no dialogue. No exposition. Very little to explain the setting — of course we know that there’s a full moon. And it’s their wedding night. But the rest is just endless, really tightly focused sex.)

Still, I am really having a blast writing this.  I will give up saying that I
“think I am going to finish it today,” because it’s clear that I have absolutely no idea anymore. All I know is that I want to finish as soon as I can because I want to send it off to the new publisher to see if it’s a good fit for them. And then go on to the next story, which is already tumbling around in my head.

On a related note… You might have seen my update last evening regarding The Guitar Hero Goes Home.

It is no longer for sale as an eBook on Smashwords. For now, it is only in Kindle Select, so that means it is part of Kindle Unlimited right now, so you can get it for free as an eBook on Kindle. (Or get it in trade paperback for $9.95.)

Once the 90-day restriction of Kindle Select expires, I will publish it as a global eBook through Lulu.com. The Windows 10 platform is not formatting the ePub file the way Smashwords wants it (they need it based on the 2007 model of Word docs.) And I already tore my hair out trying to learn the Windows 10 platform, and it works just fine on Kindle. So, since I no longer have 2007, which I need in order to format it for Smashwords, I had to simply remove it from there.

All of my other self-published titles are still available as eBooks on Smashwords, but I guess that, until they update their style guide for formatting ePubs with Windows 10, I won’t be publishing any new eBooks on Smashwords .

And you probably also saw by now the photo I took of the boy on his motorcycle zooming past my house yesterday afternoon, on his way home from school.

Well, as luck would have it, after I finally finished working on the short story last evening, I got up from my desk, and was standing in front of the window in my bedroom that faces east, and I saw the boy backing his motorcycle into the garage for the night. So now I know where he lives!  His house is across the street from mine, 5 houses down the street. Which means that the train basically runs through his backyard!

His house is one of those modular homes, which means it’s basically a really big mobile home. No basement, no attic, one-story. But it’s a nice one, and really well maintained. (And this morning, when I got out of bed at 5am, I noticed an incredibly bright star over his house. I’m not kidding. I’m guessing it was a planet or something, it was shining so bright.  I’m not sure which star would have been in the eastern sky and shining so brightly at that hour. Anyway, I thought that was kind of interesting.)

So here’s this teenage boy, just really good-looking, long straight blond hair, growing up in the tiniest town you can imagine, in a trailer home, with a freight train running through his backyard about 5 times a day , and he drives a motorcycle, and he smokes cigarettes, and he seems like just the happiest boy I have ever seen — he is always smiling. I can only imagine that every girl at that high school is in love with him.

And it makes me think that his parents have probably just been really, really good to him.  He just looks to me like somebody who is so loved.

Okay, so, Nick Cave’s Cave Things has a new tee shirt on pre-order. This one seems to be referencing his song “Girl in Amber” (the lyric “don’t touch me”), but with a nice felt spider as a cool accent! You can pre-order it here.

Okay, then!

Well, I guess I’m going to get started here today and see if we can’t move these happy hermaphrodites into some sort of anal sex extravaganza today!! And bring this short story to a close. We shall see. I at least managed to get them out onto the terrace before I quit writing last night. (Yes, they went from the enormous marriage bed, back out to the enormous stone terrace, overlooking the mountainside in the moonlight to have their anal sex — because I’m thinking that’s just how it is, right? We go outside to the terrace to have anal sex on our wedding nights…)

My god. Anyway. So I’m leaving you with a Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds song again today, this one from 1997, “Come into My Sleep,” which is on B-Sides & Rarities (2005). Enjoy it! I hope you have a great Friday, wherever you are in the world — and if you live Stateside, I hope you are gearing up for a great holiday weekend — officially, the last weekend of “summer.” (I’m guessing that a certain boy on his motorcycle will be zooming past my house all weekend long, with it being a holiday and the weather is expected to be absolutely perfect.) Okay. Thanks for visiting, gang. I love you guys. See ya!

“Come Into My Sleep”

Now that mountains of meaningless words
and oceans divide us
And we each have our own set of stars
to comfort and guide us
Come into my sleep
Come into my sleep, oh yeah
Dry your eyes and do not weep
Come into my sleep

Swim to me through the deep blue sea
upon the scattered stars set sail
Fly to me through this love-lit night
from one thousand miles away
And come into my sleep
Come into my sleep oh yeah
As midnight nears and shadows creep
Come into my sleep

Bind my dreams up in your tangled hair
For I am sick at heart, my dear
Bind my dreams up in your tangled hair
For all the sorrow it will pass, my dear

Take your accusation, your recriminations
and toss them into the ocean blue
Leave your regrets and impossible longings
and scatter them across the sky behind you
And come into my sleep
Come into my sleep
For my soul to comfort and keep
Come into my sleep

For my soul to comfort and keep – my sleep

Come on,
Come on,
Come on,
[repeat and fade]<

© 1997 Nick Cave

The world of author Marilyn Jaye Lewis