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Showing results for tags 'camp refuge'.
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With all my free time (hahaha!) I've been going through a hard edit of Camp Refuge. It's sort of the story where I found my favorite subject matter. It was where I decided I was no longer a writer of "porn with plot", but rather "erotica with purpose". Head-hopping became my enemy after Camp Refuge. I realized that I did it a lot, and I felt I had to eliminate it in order to improve, and grow. So I did (mostly). Yet, as I edit and as more players are added to the mix in Camp Refuge, I have begun to realize that I cannot rid the story of it. Something would fundamentally change in the telling and not all for the better. Yes, I'd be able to replace a lot of proper names with pronouns if I head-hopped less. But... the reader wouldn't get to see the differences between what Jeremy and Mason are thinking, right in the same scene. They wouldn't get to want to choke Clay for diving down the dark hole of fear, while his son is happy as a lark and unaware of how much his father is hurting. Simply stated: the story would lose something vital. Right now I build scenes linearly, in a single character's perception. Sometimes it's the MC, sometimes it's a raccoon, but it's always a single perception. It's easy, structured, and simple to read. I'm rethinking it. Because, though Camp Refuge needs help in many ways, ridding it of head-hopping doesn't seem to be one.
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I started rereading a story I wrote a while back. Camp Refuge is such a keystone for me. It has so many good things going for it, embedded in a package of terrible mechanics. I'm going to try and explain what I mean. I began it to help a reader who had written while I was in the process of releasing Guarded on another site. He was recently diagnosed with HIV, and he was wrecked. I'll never forget the last two lines he ever wrote to me - "Who could love me now? Who could possibly love me now?" I was a chapter away from finishing Guarded when I got that email, and I started Camp Refuge immediately after Guarded was done. I had to. I had to show him that he deserved love, acceptance, and peace. He never wrote again, and as I released chapters, I wondered if he even saw them. But, something started to happen around that story. Other's wrote. People who were HIV+, demisexuals, gray asexuals, trans folks, people suffering from depression, those who had been abused... they all reached out. I got some of them to explore getting treatment locally, even had our HIV nurse and a case manager reach out directly to a few who consented to such. I began to realize that it was bigger than the beginning. It made me understand something scary, and thrilling, all at once. It was the very first time I realized that my words have power. Rereading it now, I know I can't put it on GA. Not yet. I head-hop soooo much; it's almost laughable. But, the bones are there. It has a good skeleton. In the words of the esteemed Stitch, the story is "Broken but Good". I think it deserves to simply be "good". Another project... urgh.
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A reader emailed an article written by a woman detailing her struggles finding acceptance for both herself and her partner. The story details them sort of falling into life in an RV, and making their own path. It's a great read, and she has wonderfully perceptive views. Take a look. Gay and Lesbian RV Living After I read it, I was curious; I followed the link in the article to the campground in Florida called The Sawmill. And there it is. A warmer, sunnier, more tanned, though less social-justice leaning version of the campground in my series, Camp Refuge. The Sawmill is a place to party. It's a place to go, have fun outdoors, eat good food, socialize with others. But that's not all it is, and I'll explain why. The simple fact remains, we have to be careful where we display affection. We have to have constant situational awareness, and assess if a peck on the cheek, or holding the hand of the person we love will cost too much moment to moment. But at a place like this campground, we can just be. We can have fun with people like us, and do so unafraid. Even though the focus of the place is "party and party hard" it still offers a respite. It makes me want to make Camp Refuge real. I mean, I've never stopped wanting that, but yeah ... this has poked that desire and whispered, "See? If they can do it, so can you." Someday.
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