jvaughn

Thanks for the feedback. The chapter seems a bit slow to me, but I'm an adrenalin junkie.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

Something was buzzing around in Kim’s belly and he wasn’t sure why. They were out of danger—at least immediate danger. Who knew what the future would hold, but they had an entire ten days to themselves before they were due back at CorpSci headquarters for more questions and testing. He should be happy, excited, and starting to relax now, but his mind was a blur of scary images and memories from the past several days. His body was still on high alert and he couldn’t identify the source of his anx

Chapter Sixteen Specialist Casey McNeil raised his eyebrows as he saw the name emblazoned on the building where their wayward pickup was hiding: “Corporate Science Headquarters.” He had been astonished to discover that this morning’s pickup, who lived in Zonei and only had clearance through Zonee, was somehow in Zonesee. Now he stared in awe at the gleaming silver monolith that was the home of the Corporation’s science department. This morning’s job had seemed routine at first. Easy. The subjec

Chapter Fifteen Kim stifled a groan as he stretched his aching limbs and rubbed circulation back into his hands and feet. His jailors had finally released him from electronic paralysis. He had never been so terrified in his life as when he’d woken up unable to move and hooked to a machine. If it hadn’t been for his mindlink with Raeden, he might have gone insane. Now, however, although he was still worried about their future, he was too physically uncomfortable and emotionally exhausted to be t

Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, and I am particularly fascinated by dystopian worlds. It wasn't difficult to imagine the bleakness of the post-apocalyptic world. It is a bit daunting to do all that world-building. I haven't spent much time on politics or history or any of the other things that make for a rich dystopia. Although, as a reader, if political discussions go on for more than I couple paragraphs I find myself skimming, so maybe that's for the best. I was not planning on having Christmas in Zonei be centrally about the dystopia. It is mainly a love story in a dystopian setting. I have ideas for a followup to Pierced that I think would be fun to write. I have not decided where it fits in queue though. So many plots ... so little time. Thanks for the questions and for reading.

Not the act of getting pierced. One of the scavenger hunt items to be added to the story was piercing of a specific body part other than ears. Having them go in to get pierced was just inspiration and allowed me to slip in a few more scavenger hunt items: cross-dressing, flavored lube, and a urethral sound. The main scavenger hunt item that started the story was the theme of non-con/dub-con, which obviously ended up a central focus of the story. Thanks for the fun question.

I'm delighted you like what I've written and I'm definitely enjoying posting on Gayauthors. Thanks for your kind comments.

The blogging starts now *grin*. I just went with my gut when I came to Kyle's reactions to the rape. I didn't do any specific research for this story, although I have read accounts in the past of peoples reactions to rape and the general symptoms of PTSD. I get to know my characters pretty well while I'm writing a story. I usually make up a fairly extensive back story even if it never comes out in the text, so I knew that Kyle came from a stable, loving home where he got lots of support. That held him in good stead in dealing with the aftermath of the brutal attack, but I knew there would still be tons of emotional upheaval. For Kyle that manifested itself in withdrawal and depression. So, yeah, mainly just my gut. Thanks for the thought-provoking question.

Yes, I probably did take the writing a bit more seriously with the non-con subject matter than I would have with a more frivolous topic. However, most of the stuff I write is pretty gritty. I do try to write characters with realistic emotions and motivations, which is not always easy to do. And one of my favorite themes to explore is the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity -- so to set that up I need to put my characters into tough situations. Thanks for your question and comments.

It did not have a max word-count limit, but the call was for short stories, so I was trying to keep the word count below 16,000. I didn't quite make that . It also had a very tight deadline, which probably added to the abruptness of the ending. I do have some ideas for a sequel. I'd like to explore Paul and Kyle's relationship more. I doubt I would get into any courtroom drama. I was thinking of having the central story line be about Paul coming out to his conservative, religious parents at Thanksgiving and their extreme reaction to it. I'm not sure how soon I will write the sequel though. I've got other competing stories in mind. Thanks for some great questions.

That's funny. I happen to be reading In the Company of Shadows right now (Evenfall, Vol 1, Director's Cut -- I just finished chapter 7). I'm enjoying it immensely, but never fear. I don't think I could ever write anything quite that involved, even though I admire the heck out of anyone who can. I'll get back to the romance part of the story very soon. I'll also be wrapping things up in another 10 or 15 thousand words. This will not be an epic novel, although if there's enough interest I may do a sequel.

Kim came awake with a sense of deep dread and the feeling that he’d been asleep a long time. When he remembered that he was somewhere in the bowels of CorpSec the dread blossomed into heart-palpitating fear. Without opening his eyes, he reached out with his mind for Raeden but didn’t find him. As his panic escalated, he tried to calm himself. He’s probably just sleeping. Kim was pretty sure he’d be able to sense Raeden’s presence if he were just asleep, but the weird comatose state that the tec

Thanks for the comments and questions, Mann. I'm drawing a blank trying to come up with something I do while writing that is peculiar. (I've got writer's block on this, maybe?) I put myself to sleep at night dreaming up new plots, but my guess is that a lot of writers do that. Regarding writer's block, I haven't had true writer's block, where I just don't know what to write, since I was in school and was assigned some ridiculous topic to write about. Now that I decide what to write, I always have plenty of ideas and know where I want to go with my stories. However, that's not to say that I can always just sit down and write. Sometimes I don't feel like writing. Some days I'll pull up my current novel and it's like pulling teeth to get a few sentences down. In which case, I usually just give myself a break. I have a very consuming day job and sometimes I'm just tired. Luckily, I'm usually ready to write again within a few days. I do sometimes have trouble getting particular scenes right. I'll finish a scene and reread it and am just not happy with the result. One technique I've found that works for me in this situation is to rewrite the scene from another POV. I usually write in third person, but will tell the story from different characters' views, switching characters between scenes. (This was not the case with Pierced. Because it was so short, I stayed in Paul's head the entire time. If I write a sequel, I will do some scenes from Kyle's POV.) So, for example, in my latest chapter of Christmas in Zonei, I wrote the scene with the captain from Dr. Granger's POV and it seemed flat to me. I then rewrote it from the captain's POV and zowie! It came to life.

Thanks for your comment. They are in quite a predicament. Maybe it's time to intervene.

Chapter Thirteen Raeden woke up with a roar of anger coming from his throat. He was lying naked on a padded table. He also seemed to be completely paralyzed, except for his head. What the fuck? Even as he started to morf, he took in his surroundings. The room looked like an operating room: clinical and sterile, mostly white, with a multitude of gleaming equipment and machines. It smelled of antiseptic. Raeden had been in similar rooms before, but this was not one he recognized. There were a

Raeden could tell Kim was looking for him—calling him. He hurried in the direction from which the telepathic signal was coming, limping as fast and he could and cursing himself for causing Kim so much grief. Without warning, Kim’s anxiety became sheer terror. Raeden knew instantly that Kim was in physical danger. Without any direction from his brain, his body started to morf. When he was fully morfed, his mind was ruled mainly by instinct. Raeden knew he had just moments before he was no longe

Thank you so much! I really like this story too. Having a great time writing it. Can't wait to find out what happens. ;-)

Unread messages: 2,342. Dylan suppressed a groan. This frickin’ job is impossible! When he’d first been selected to train as an investigator for CorpSec, he’d been so excited. God, was I naïve back then! Every day more and more messages arrived. There was no way he could keep up; at the end of his shift, he always just deleted whatever messages he hadn’t gotten to—messages that he should have handled. He wondered how long it would be before his boss figured that out. He’d complained about t

There was a noise, persistent and irritating, that sought to drag Kim out of his deep sleep. He was more tired than he could remember ever being. He tried to shut his ears against it, to ignore it, but it was impossible. Then he became aware of a different noise, a deep soothing voice that slid over his senses, caressing him, hushing him. Abruptly he realized that the irritating noise he heard was himself, whimpering pitifully. As he fought to stifle his plaintive cries, he became aware that hi

Kim glanced up at the sky and quickened his pace. It was the eve of the solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the stars were already starting to come out. It would be a clear, bitterly cold night. The temperature was negative ten Celsius and dropping, and a stiff breeze added its bite to the chill. Kim clutched his bag of groceries more tightly to his chest. He usually tried to avoid going to the grocery store after work in the winter, or if he did go, he went to the one close to his hous

“He’s just unconscious,” the fat man said. “He’ll come around in a little while.” Kim could see Raeden’s chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm and that eased his fears more than the doctor’s words. Dr. Marcus was busy securing his machine for transport. Soon it would be time for Kim to make good on the other part of their agreement. His hands were clammy and his breath was coming too fast. Calm down, he told himself. It’s not a big deal. But it was. Sure enough, as soon as the doctor

It was well past dark and Kim wasn’t home yet. Raeden knew something was wrong. He felt it deep in his core. Kim was alive out there; he knew that too somehow. But Kim wasn’t happy—he was afraid. He wondered how he could possibly know these things. My imagination must be playing tricks on me. He’d had a connection with Lyzel. He’d known her location at all times. He’d known her state of mind, always, even if they were too far apart to form a mind link solid enough for conversation. Their ran

Raeden ran through the forest, his bare feet crunching softly on the leaf-strewn path. The woods were deeply shadowed, the air cool and fresh. Birds twittered in the trees, their song lifting his soul. Lyzel’s joyous laugh mingled with that of the birdsong, a beautiful counterpoint. She was so light he almost couldn’t feel her clinging to his back, but he was ever aware of her loving presence. “I would not have imagined a place so wild and beautiful still existed on this earth,” she said, using