Trancemaker Update V2

I thought I'd jot down a quick note now that I know how things are shaping up with Trancemaker. I originally thought that this would be a novella, but the muse does what it wants, and now it's at about 67K words/162 pages.

In theory, this is where I'd stop, as I've just finished writing the epilogue, but a few days ago I had an exciting/hot idea for a post epilogue sequence, and since I'm so close to novel length, I don't see any reason not to include it.

Besides, I think it will round out the book and give it that extra oomph it so much deserves to have.

At any rate, that means this 'novella' has now been promoted to novel length. As a result, that means the next story will be pushed out a bit while I work through the final ending for this piece. The release for 'Trancemaker' will likely be late September at the soonest.

Additionally, I've decided I don't like the font I selected for the cover, so I'm going to have to go through that process again until I find something I like better. That shouldn't slow down the release any, but it's yet another thing on the TO-DO list!

After taking an informal poll (of the two people who responded to me) on the mind control story literature discord, I'm currently thinking my next project will be 'Doll Factory,' a delightful little tale of mind controlled women being turned into rubber drones so that they can be altered enough to fit into HAPPY society. I just hope this one doesn't sprout legs and turn into a novel, too!

The good news there is that I have enough left over stock photos from DepositPhotos that I should be set for the near future. I thoroughly dislike the requirement that you either pay monthly, or buy 100 photos which need to be downloaded in the span of a year before the download license expires.

There was also the hard sell about half way into the subscription where they try to get you to upgrade to a more expensive plan, which really stuck in my craw. Fortunately, that forced me to go find a set of interesting photos to use at the beginning of the year, so I should have plenty for the near future.

I must confess I far more enjoy the process of isolating and blending photos together than I do trying to find them. I always find it a drag to search through pages and pages of dreck to find that one diamond in the rough. Ah well, that's one of the perils of doing it all yourself, I suppose!

Trancemaker Update

There isn't a significant amount to report at the moment, but I figured I'd jot out something quick so that everyone will know that I'm still making progress!!

Trancemaker has made it to around ~58,000 words now, which means it's flirting with novel length. However, I am very close to finishing up the last scene, which leaves only an epilogue to complete.

That means I should be done with the first draft by the end of next week, and then it will go into editing. I know by now not to promise any timelines in particular for editing, but I tend to do more than I intend once I get into a groove, so it seems likely the novella will be released mid-September.

Once that has been completed, I have two stories fully plotted, and I haven't decided which one to work on next - 'The Rubber Order: Sanctification,' which has been on the back burner longer than I'd like and involves rubber nuns, or 'Doll Factory,' which involves a large amount of latex dolls/dollification.

Yes, both stories are going to have heavy rubber this go around. Maybe I'm rubber banding back to old habits after trying to write something a bit more tame? (Joke intended!)

At any rate, those are the two ideas on my pile. If anyone has a preference, feel free to comment below!

These things are always subject to change, of course, in case I get an even better idea between now and then, but there's no way to predict that! And I'm starting to run out of time... !

Containment Restrospective, and future plans!

It's been a week since I've released 'Containment,' so this seems like a good time to do a short retrospective based on the reception it's gotten so far, as well as to talk about my future plans.

In general, 'Containment' has been doing quite good in sales, but 'Sky Trained' has exceeded my expectations. Of course, 'Sky Trained' has been released for longer, so that doesn't really mean much.

I haven't gotten any feedback on either novel, so pretty much all I have to go on is sales to tell me what people are enjoying. If anybody has anything they really like in particular, do let me know, as it's the only way I have of knowing what part people enjoyed the most! Otherwise, I'm just muddling around in the dark here.

Pricing

After seeing how it's been going for my new novels, I'm confident in saying that I'll be pricing my stories in this way going forward:

$2.99 - Shorts, anything less than 30K words

$3.99 - Novellas, anything between 30K-70Kish words

$4.99 - Novels, anything longer than 70K words

That seems fair, given the relative amount of work I have to put in to get these released.

If I had to make a time estimate, it takes a minimum of an hour to produce 1K words, and to be more realistic, on most days, I would say it's about two.

For editing, I can get through about 10 pages per hour, if I'm not working quickly. During editing, I read everything aloud to ensure that it sounds more or less natural, and to ensure that I catch as many mistakes as possible.

Assuming a 70K word novel, that's about 140 hours for writing, and about 18 hours for editing. Once you calculate out how much a novel of that length can make, you're definitely not hitting minimum wage.

Of course, I'm not doing this to get rich, but it's getting more and more obvious that I won't be able to quit my day job to concentrate solely on this.

I will say that the advice 'release often' is definitely the way to go, and I suspect that I would generally do better if I could release more shorts. It's unfortunate that I tend to be so wordy, but my stories simply tend to spiral out of control when I'm working on them. I can't help it!

Oh well. But I'll definitely produce a short at some point, see if I don't!

Trancemaker

My next story is titled 'Trancemaker,' which I'm packing full of gothic goodness.

Cybergoths, leather, neon lights, lipstick, nail polish, the whole shebang.

Never mind the fact that I've never belonged to a gothic subculture or dressed as one. I simply find the work that goes into it and the end product to be super hot.

Because I'm writing for fetish purposes, I'm sure to get everything wrong about these subcultures, but I do hope I'll at least produce an entertaining story!

Mixed into this stew is a good jolt of paranormal romance and fae lords etc, with a lot of slavery and fun brainwashing. I'm fairly pleased with some of the hot scenes I've written so far, and there's quite a few more to go.

This currently sits at 25K words, and I'm estimating there's at least 4 large scenes left to write. If I had to guess, that will make this novella length, almost certainly coming in around 40-50K. I doubt it will be a novel, as the plot simply isn't that intricate. Unless something very cool occurs to me, I suspect this guesstimate will be fairly accurate.

Here's the cover for this novella, which I've already finished:

I also just made an attempt at putting together a synopsis, which of course is subject to change between now and release:

"Kai quit her high powered job as a lawyer to become a full time live-in slave for her Master. However, she doesn’t remember how she acquired this Master, and she still isn’t sure what the purpose of the tattoo being inscribed on her belly is for.

Her cybergothic friend might help her to discover these answers, but there’s a cost - she’ll be required to visit her club and be dressed as a goth herself. That is the only way she’ll be accepted by the Pathwalker and shown her possible futures.

The difficult path does not guarantee success, but failure will ensure that she becomes a jewel slave to one of the fae.

Embracing her new gothic style might be the only way for her to navigate the shadowy paranormal world which mirrors our own."

The Future

After Trancemaker is edited and released (likely late August or sometime in September), there are a couple of options. I'd really like to fit in another short before I start something else, but I currently only have vague ideas on that front. If nothing comes to me, I'll likely start work on 'The Rubber Order: Sanctification,' as I've finally jotted down an outline for that story.

With what I have plotted, it will be significantly darker than the first novella, and it's likely to turn into a novel on me, but we shall see. I'm sure there's some fans out there that wouldn't mind if I wrote more rubbery goodness, and believe me, it will happen. It's only a matter of when.

See you next time! Half Shim, signing off!

'Containment' is now live!

I'm pleased to announce that my newest novel, 'Containment,' has just been released on Amazon!

Rubbery gas mask wearing smoke demons and silvery hive drones abound in this latest outing, with loads of sex and fun transformation scenes. If that's your cup of tea, why not check it out?

Containment - Kindle edition by Waters, Caroline. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

I've been very hard at work on getting this put together lately, and I finished the editing far faster than I  had thought possible!

Please enjoy, and I'll post again another time with news about my next project... but don't expect a month between releases on that one - it just happened to line up that way this time! Cheers!

Raven’s rock band is down on its luck, and seemingly about to split up, until she discovers the extra dimensional entity hiding in her father’s bass guitar. Now, she’s having fun rocking out with her bandmates, but they’ve all been turned into IT’s glossy black rubber smoke demons!

Wendy works for an organization trying to keep IT's transformed Things out of our dimension, but she’s run into a bit of a snag - they’ve recently captured an AI core, which is dead set on converting her and her coworkers into sex starved Hive drones!

In a brutal battle for control of the city and each other’s hearts and minds, if either of them wins, everyone loses!

Sky Trained Retrospective, Looking Ahead to 'Containment'

Sky Trained

The rush of releasing something new is already starting to fade, as it does, though so far I am quite pleased with how 'Sky Trained' has done. It has more or less matched 'The Rubber Order' in terms of sales, making it one of my best sellers (which doesn't say much, as to be quite honest, I'm not exactly going to show up on the New York Time's bestseller list).

Be that as it may, I'm quite pleased with the small niche it has found. It's not wildly successful to the point that I'd try to run out and write a sequel, but at least it's helping me to get a better feel for what sort of thing people are interested in reading in this little niche of ours.

For those who have picked it up, I do hope that you are enjoying it!

Containment

Work has quietly continued on my next story, which currently weights in at 69K words. I am writing the final chapter, after which I have a short epilogue to tack on (and author notes, of course), and then it will be done. I fully expect that to happen within the next week, after which it will go into editing.

Since it's a shorter novel than Sky Trained, a super rough estimate is that it will be released at some point in August.

I don't have any plans for the next writing project yet, though it's likely to either be a short, or a sequel of some kind to 'The Rubber Order.' I'm not planning on using the same characters again, per se, but I will be writing in the same universe.

In the meantime, to whet your appetite, here's a synopsis I recently finished writing for Containment:

"Raven’s rock band is down on its luck, and seemingly about to split up, until she discovers the extra dimensional entity hiding in her father’s bass guitar. Now, she’s having fun rocking out with her bandmates, but they’ve all been turned into a matching set of IT’s glossy black rubber smoke demons!

Wendy works for an organization trying to keep IT’s transformed Things out of our dimension, but she’s run into a bit of a snag - they’ve recently captured an AI core, which is dead set on converting her and everyone around her into sex starved Hive drones.

In a brutal battle for control of the city and each other’s hearts and minds, if either of them wins, everyone loses!"

'Sky Trained' is now live!

 It's been a long time coming, but finally my extensive novel about hucows, ponygirls, and superheroes and villains has been released!

You can find it on Amazon here: Amazon.com: Sky Trained eBook : Waters, Caroline

I've raised the price for this book by a dollar since it's so freaking... long, but there is a possibly I will reduce it at some unspecified point in the future. I'm pretty pleased with this one, so I believe it merits the price increase - especially since it isn't a novella.

I've poured far too many hours into bringing this to life, and I do hope it scratches the itch for some of you!

"Allison thought that she had won the trip of a lifetime when her and her college friends were handed sweepstakes tickets to a tropical island. Her impression soured immediately upon arrival when she discovered that all the visitors were being trained to become latex clad cow women and ponygirls. Worse, her best friend knew this, and was already well on her way towards becoming a prime milker!

Rebecca traveled to the island for a far different purpose. Belonging to the hero agency Blue Stars, she is gathering intel to shut down Mistress Moon's villainous milking operation.

Neither of them know how their special powers will react when faced with Mistress' creamy delights. If they are not careful, they may both end up becoming happy cows in the island’s dairy!"

End Of May Update: Sky Trained + Containment

May is almost over, with summer fast approaching. I think that this is an excellent time to discuss where I'm at with my current projects, though I have no covers to reveal this time, sadly.

I do hope the small number of people who have read 'Transference' have enjoyed themselves. I've heard nothing so far about that release, one way or the other, so it's quite difficult to know what the market is looking for. I suppose I shall have to keep writing stories with different plots to get a sense of what people want in their longer form smut.

Sky Trained

I'm still in the middle of editing Sky Trained, almost literally, at 156/321 pages. At an average rate of 5 pages/day, this process should be complete at the end of June, giving this novel a release date somewhere near the beginning of July.

Depending on how well how the process goes, this may be done a little sooner.

I will say the story is turning out to be fairly fun, and I do hope to get it into everyone's hands as soon as possible. There's a lot of cow milking that's going to happen.

Containment

This story, at 43 K+ words, is starting to turn into a novel. I have a vague idea of where I'm going with it, and I'd like to keep it under 80K words if I can. If that's possible, I might be able to start the editing process for it at the end of June, at about the same time I release Sky Trained.

Just in time to start a new editing cycle! Oh joy!

I haven't given the next project too much thought yet, but it's likely to either be something shorter, or the next installment of the Rubber Order, which is very unlikely to be short.

I like the idea of writing a short, but none of the ideas I've had so far have turned out to be short. Oh dear.

So - nothing too much to report, really, except that I've been working diligently! Cheers!

Sky Trained Editing + Containment

Sky Trained

I've started the editing process for Sky Trained, and it's clear there's no way I'm going to be able to keep the pace I was using while editing Transference without horribly drying out my eyes. As such, I've halved the pace in an attempt to keep my sanity.

At the moment, that means I'm reading about 5 pages a day, which is a little unfortunate, because I expect that means I won't have this done being edited for at least two months. Bummer!

While that will push out my schedule quite a bit, at least it's happening, right? Currently, I'm 20 pages in out of 324, so it's definitely going to be a ride.

That said, there isn't much more to report here. I'll keep plugging away at it and hopefully I'll have good news to share about this (or a release!) eventually.

Containment

I've continued writing this tale, but it still doesn't really have an outline - just a rather vague idea of having two titanic forces clashing against each other. I think that actually is going to work, given the scope of this story is fairly small.

'Small' is a relative term for me, however, as I've already hit 20K words on this one, and I expect it to take at least around another 20 K more to finish it out. It's pretty likely that this will be another novella.

The good news is that I already have the cover done:

What do you think? I'm really quite proud of the result. This took quite a bit of editing, and I added the smoke effects myself with the help of some free paintbrushes in Gimp.

Anyway, there's going to be plenty more latex fun on this one when it's complete.

Of course, that means I'll have ANOTHER huge amount of text to edit before it can be released, but that's just the way it goes with authors, I suppose!

My updates from here on out might be a little sporadic, as I won't really have anything to share until I finish the first draft of Containment or I finish editing Sky Trained. I suspect Containment will be done first, but we shall see!

Rubberily yours, Half Shim

Sky Trained Update + The Future

I do hope that those of you who picked up Transference are enjoying it!

Now that it has been released, and the Robotic Restitution changes are in my rear mirror, it's time to look at what's next!

Sky Trained

As of Saturday, 4/23, I have the first draft of Sky Trained completed. It weighs in at a whopping 134,334 words, which I will have to read aloud to edit. (That seems like a bit of a daunting prospect!)

At 320 pages, reading 10 pages a day, that would take me a little over a solid month to do.

Yes, I'm planning on doing it at some point, but no, I'm not sure when I'm going to start that yet. At the moment, I'm in 'recovery' mode, trying to de-stress. This is my 'fun' hobby - it's not supposed to be a second job! (It definitely doesn't pay well enough to be a second job!)

I also know I don't have enough chapter breaks, so that will have to be fixed, too, before I can even consider getting it into an e-book format.

Worse, this is almost at the length where I should really consider splitting it into TWO novels... which leaves me with these options:

1. Do the split. Requires a good splitting location, and a second cover. Plus all the baloney that goes with creating two e-books.
1. Pros: The first half of the story can be released earlier while I'm working on editing the second half.
2. Cons: If I mess up in the first half while editing, that makes the second half more difficult to edit as I can't change details in the first half. Also, I would need to make a second cover and setup a series.
2. Raise the price, from the usual $3.99 to $4.99.
1. At double the content, in theory this is justifiable, but I suspect at that level, most people would simply give the book a miss. I'm currently in the solid 'NO' category with this idea.
3. Suck it up and release it as one, gigantic novel.
1. This seems like the most likely option at this point.

Ah, the fun parts of being an author. If anyone has an opinion on the above options, I'm willing to entertain them.

If I DO go with option three, I would expect the book to be released sometime in June. There's simply too much to get through to ask for anything sooner. I suppose this is on me for not writing and editing something shorter.

Containment

Since 'Sky Trained' has been finished, I've been scrounging around for another story to work on. I'm pleased to announce that I've started a new project, called 'Containment,' which involves latex clad rock band members, mind control via dark otherworldly smoke entities, an AI hive mind, and an organization tasked with keeping the world safe from interdimensional monsters.

I'm honestly not sure where this one is gonna go, because I started it without an outline (foolish me). I know how I want it to end, so I'm hoping that will be enough to get me working on a proper outline... eventually.

In the mean time, I'm going to keep writing this thing and see where it goes!

In theory, that should be exciting, but after coming off Sky Trained, I'm just hoping that this isn't going to turn into another two novels that should really be one novel.

Anyway, cheers, and at this rate, my next update will probably be in a month! Hopefully I have gotten a lot done by then!

Drone Envy is now free to read!

I am pleased to announce that I have finished updating the covers for the books of my original 'Robotic Restitution' series on both Smashwords and Amazon: 'Drone Envy,' 'Drone Shuffle,' and 'Drone Circus.'

In celebration, I have reduced the price on Smashwords for 'Drone Envy' permanently to FREE and on Amazon to one dollar (Amazon doesn't allow you to reduce the price any lower - though I certainly will NOT complain if somebody price matches this to the Smashwords price of 'free').

Drone Envy

Smashwords: Smashwords – Drone Envy – a book by Caroline Waters

Amazon: Drone Envy: Robotic Restitution Book One - Kindle edition by Waters, Caroline. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

"Adele is sent to visit her Aunt Clara by her father, the ruthless Emperor of the Frysian empire, in order to remove her from the public eye while peace talks occur. Treachery is afoot, however, and she sails straight into danger.

She is captured along with three other unfortunate crew members and subjected to sinister manipulations by their robotic captors. Can she hold out without giving in to the demands of Hive, or will she become yet another Hive Drone? What other underhanded machinations of her father will she discover along the way?

Old memories, a long lost girlfriend, and strange experiments. Adele has much more to lose than just her heart."

If you are interested in the sequels, they are available as well!

Drone Shuffle

Smashwords: Smashwords – Drone Shuffle – a book by Caroline Waters

Amazon: Drone Shuffle: Robotic Restitution Book 2 - Kindle edition by Waters, Caroline. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

"Adele has been ransomed and sent back to her father. However, nothing is as it should be. Her memories locked away, she cannot remember the ordeal she has suffered at the hands of her captors or the blossoming romance she had only begun to understand.

Worse, a corrupting intelligence has been implanted into her mind, fracturing it into a desolate landscape with multiple warring personas. Which persona will come out on top? Will anything be left of her original personality after the dust has settled? And will she ever remember the Drone that she loves?"

Drone Circus

Smashwords: Smashwords – Drone Circus – a book by Caroline Waters

Amazon: Drone Circus: Robotic Restitution Book Three - Kindle edition by Waters, Caroline. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

"Now of one mind, Adele has the strength to face what is asked of her. Will she be able to satisfy Hive’s demands, or will her newly reconstructed persona crumble under the stress? With more Drones to deal with than ever before, how will she juggle each of her new companions to keep them all satisfied while fulfilling her duties as Director?

With Hive spreading, can anyone in the empire stop the invasion? Will anyone want to?"

Transference has been released!

I'm very pleased to announce that Transference has been accepted for release on Amazon's KDP and Kindle Unlimited:

Transference - Kindle edition by Waters, Caroline. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Synopsis

Chloe wakes to find that her consciousness has been downloaded into a rubbery, blue, synthetic body. Together, with her lover Sakura, who has also been turned into a gynoid, they try to discover why they have been dressed in glossy black latex and let loose among a population of identical robotic drones.

They discover, to their horror, that their new bodies have been built to be futanari sex bots in the image of their alien Mistress. Ruled by their desires, it seems increasingly unlikely that they will be able to escape Her machinations, or each other - if they can even remember how to do so.

Up Ahead

I should have more news on my other projects soonish, but I'm waiting for some things to be finalized first... stay tuned!

April Update: Transference, Sky Trained, and more!

Transference

Weighing in at around 42,000 words, my tale about sexy futa robot drones finally has a completed first draft. For a story I was intending to only be around 15K, this one certainly got away from me, as most of my works tend to!

I've just finished writing the author's notes, so the next big chore is the proofreading/editing.

I was able to churn through 'Vanished' in about a week, but I'm not certain I want to push that hard for this one. Certainly, though, I don't wish for it to take another month before I release.

I'm not sure what Amazon's policies are around sexy robots with metallic dicks, so we'll see whether or not my synopsis gets approved for publication.

Anyway, I'll post here when/if I get this novella released, which I expect will be in a few weeks.

Sky Trained

In the meantime, this behemoth of a novel has reached about 120K now. Fortunately, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I believe that there's only about 1 1/2 more scenes to write until the end. I expect that won't take more than 5 K, which puts the first draft within reach by the end of the week.

Unfortunately, that means I have an incredible amount of writing to edit, which is liable to take a LOT longer to get through. Imagine having about 170K words to read and edit ahead of you, and then you'll begin to understand my pain.

It must be done to get to release, however, so that's all there is to it. May-ish sounds like a good release time frame for this one at my current rate of progress.

Re-covers of Drone Shuffle/Drone Circus

Mid last month I also worked through new covers for Book 2/Book 3 of Robotic Restitution. Here they are:

Eventually, I'm planning on re-releasing these books with these new covers, at which point I'm planning on making book one completely free (on both Smashwords and Amazon).

At one point, I vaguely thought about putting them together into one big omnibus, but as time goes by that sounds less and less appealing. I think this will be a suitable place to put them permanently. As my first works, they're not good, but they're not bad either. I'm proud of what I've managed to accomplish so far.

The Future

I'm not going to completely stop my writing while I'm editing, so in the meantime I'll also have to come up with something else to work on. I don't have anything planned at the moment, but I figure what I'll do this time (for fun) is to trawl through my collection of stock photos and come up with a story that fits them. It could be fun! (And also a lot more work!)

I also want to get back to the Rubber Order universe this year, but I don't really have a plot put together yet. Plans are subject to change (TM).

I am committed to making this year a year of publishing multiple works, so stay tuned! There will be more to come!

Sky Trained & Transference - Plus Working on Updated Covers!

It's been over a month, so this seems like a good time for an update! I haven't been slacking off, I assure you!

Sky Trained

I'm up to ~90,000 words on this book now, and I suspect it will take another 20K to complete. That's almost TOO long, but I want to tell the story properly. I'm currently not planning on splitting this into two books, but let's see how I feel after I finish editing this beast.

I'm still putting in ~1,000 words a day on this novel, so I'm hoping the first draft might be finished around the end of this month. No promises!

Transference

A couple weeks back I had a great story idea. One which I thought I would start working on after I finished Sky Trained. Well, I'm a little crazy, so I decided that I'd start writing it concurrently with Sky Trained, at a goal of ~1,000 words a day, as well.

So far, it's been two weeks, and I'm keeping up. I really don't know how I'm doing it, but it's happening some how.

Unfortunately, this 'short' story has already bloomed into a 14,000 word behemoth, and I'm expecting it might need another 10K to finish.

That means it's likely I will release 'Transference' before Sky Trained, if I can keep up the current pace. Work on this story only happens if I feel like I can do it each day, so it's not a hard goal (but I'm just lying to myself, I'm totally going to do it).

Anyway, that means a new, weird story about robot drones is coming to Amazon, possibly by the end of the month. I already have a cover made up for it!

Does it look good to you?

Here's a preliminary synopsis. I'm probably going to rework it before release, but it should at least give a taste of what I'm trying to accomplish with this story:

"Chloe wakes up to discover that her consciousness has been implanted in a rubbery blue synthetic body. Together, with her lover Sakura, who has also been turned into a gynoid, they try to figure out why they have been dressed in black latex and let loose among a population of unintelligent drones.

Lost in a sea of androids, will their love survive the mysterious intelligence orchestrating these events? How real can love be when your entire existence has been programmed for you?"

Robotic Restitution Re-Covers

My original trilogy is more or less done in terms of sales, so I'm thinking I may want to do something with it to make it look more polished.

I won't call myself an artist by any means, but now that I've gotten confident with my editing skills, I'm working on putting together new covers for this series. I want my entire library to look as professional as I can accomplish, and my original cover attempts were amateurish at best.

Once I've finished, I may put together an omnibus, but at the very least, I'm planning on making the first book free.

Here's the first cover as a preview of what I'm trying to do!

I think it looks way better, but that's just me!

Sayonara for now, and maybe I'll put together another update next month with an actual announcement of a release!!!