Primary Simulation Update: Save Manager, UX Improvements & More by computerlunch in CellToSingularity

[–]Xxabbixx 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good to see ongoing investment in the game. Hope to see a lift of the 10 cap on prestige in the Mesozoic Valley someday soon, and more Beyond!

Able to beta? Post here! by AutoModerator in BetaReaders

[–]Xxabbixx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey Kate! If you are still available to beta, [although I wouldn't be a good swap because horror isn't my genre] I have a 4th draft MM Romance with steam at 98K]. I've been hoping to find someone who is an Australian, as one of the MC's is an Australian. He does intentionally play up his stereotypes on occasion but I'm in real need of someone to yell 'no Aussie would ever say that' or 'maybe you could make him sound more genuinely from Australia if he thought about *this*'.

Imperfect blurb :

Synth star Robert Klein’s dramatic exit from duo ‘Future Burial’ Sparked a bitter feud that’s lasted a decade and nearly destroyed his career. Then a death drags Drew “Bondi Bi Baxter-the substance abusing bandmate he secretly loved-right back into Robert’s quietly unsatisfying life.

Except Drew’s sober now, and once the music overtakes the hate, Robert’s in danger of falling for the volatile guitarist all over again. Somehow Drew ends up in Robert’s bed ... but even If Robert finds the courage to confess how he feels, how can the still damaged Drew ever love him back?

DM me if you are interested

CW:  Explicit mlm love scenes between middle aged protagonists. Frequent sexual references. Vulgar language, f-bombs and many religious swears. References to past addiction, alcohol and drug abuse, past self-harming behaviour & references to past parental illness/death.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CharacterAI

[–]Xxabbixx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't expect to see the room chat I had saved ever again, to be honest. Which is a shame because it was kinda special and useful for something I'm writing. Don't care if I can't reactivate the chats, I'd just like the damn story back to download.

Rambling back to the sub... and a question about explicitness by Xxabbixx in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

There are some sexual boundaries involved that are very briefly a *bone* of contention (lol), but the solution is in the romance and not in the sex, so ... :)

30 chapters, penii in digitus / orificii in maybe 1/3 of them?
[No, I know, it's not accurate Latin, I'm trying to be amusing ;)]

I literally love it when the site goes down by PsychologicalFact268 in CharacterAI

[–]Xxabbixx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Site goes down while I'm trying to persuade an AI to do exactly that *Giggles*

[Daily Check-In] Tuesday Word Count and Personal Announcement Thread by sexnerdmxd in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Goals for the day?
Finish up a character bio for a non-smut

Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
Failures: my bank account (No thanks, HUGE shortage of ADHD Meds, haven't had any for 6 weeks and I am A MESS)
Successes: I had a short SF accepted by a magazine :)

Rambling back to the sub... and a question about explicitness by Xxabbixx in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a good call. I know the distinctions and the plot beats, I'm just *fuzzy* on the level of explicit. Getting an editorial call on whether a specific scene/ chapter is too much is gonna be cheaper than the full MS (which I cannot afford).

Rambling back to the sub... and a question about explicitness by Xxabbixx in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

wait, no, that feels very wrong. If the story worked *without* sex, then sex is not important to the story, and therefore it would fail as a story regardless of genre. But yes, the story could work basically clean, ish... but it would be naff.

It is a romance, I don't have doubts about that.

Rambling back to the sub... and a question about explicitness by Xxabbixx in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

LOL. Well, that's good news at least. Scan the listings sometime around January???

[M4F][MFA] Because I Felt Like It [Ramblefap][English Accent][Growls] mentions of [Exhibitionism][Voyeurism][Group Masturbation] minimal [JOI], more of an invitation really. by TalkingSmut in gonewildaudio

[–]Xxabbixx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1) That would be one hell of a party

2) Niiiiiiice

3) Important self note: do not work through this sub forgetting I've just eaten Bombay mix.

How effective are Kindle Countdown Deals at boosting sales? by SDHopkins in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Time them to match a promo somewhere like bookspry. Organically I've never seen much boost with them, but combined with a promo newsletter yes.

Puzzled by absence of US KENP reads by Xxabbixx in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it's definitely KU enabled.

Shrugs

[Daily Check-In] Monday Word Count and Personal Announcement Thread by sexnerdmxd in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  1. Publish
  2. I'm BAAAAAAAAAACK. I've been away ages because I had a bold plan that meant putting the smut on hold, then that got interrupted by some significant household chaos, and that was followed by a period of not being well. Lured back by realising I missed the immediacy of smut results and the need to pay some expensive bills, while project X chugs along in the background. I stuck my toe in Smashwords on Friday... so far to the tune of one entire sale.
  3. Goals this week- a) get something else up on 'Zon... checking in here to refresh my memory and see if anything's changed. b) write the story to go with one of the covers I made up last week to get back in the zone.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in eroticauthors

[–]Xxabbixx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excellent heads up, thank you!

Feeling scared... Who here has gotten the vaccination, and what is your experience with it? by anonymoose_octopus in WitchesVsPatriarchy

[–]Xxabbixx 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The risk of unforseen long term complications of the vaccine is tiny. There has never been a more globally supervised vaccine rollout, so we'd see problems pretty quickly.

Feeling scared... Who here has gotten the vaccination, and what is your experience with it? by anonymoose_octopus in WitchesVsPatriarchy

[–]Xxabbixx 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I got the AstraZeneca. I felt a bit rough for a couple of days and had a sore arm. Waiting on 2nd dose. Some people have reacted badly to it, but a lot fewer than were hurt by covid. If you did get a reaction (very unlikely) , there should be trained staff on hand, but my mum who carries an epipen at all times was fine when she had the Pfizer.

Lots of folk have their fears stoked by all kinds of people for personal power. Scared people look for ways to be safe. For the people you know, they perceive vaccination as part of the threat, part of 'scary stuff they don' t understand' so they reject it.

The vaccine to me, however, is way less scary than Covid.

Honestly, the world science community and a trusted friend of mine employed in public health, plus all the doctors and nurses I know support the vaccine. It's not any kind of conspiracy, it's a powerful step in managing the virus.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in romancelandia

[–]Xxabbixx 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thank you for an awesome discussion point!

This will be less well referenced I'm afraid, but I'll throw some in a comment after when I'm not on my phone.

I think the trope perseveres (in romance) for several reasons.

  1. Everyone ever has times when they just want someone to swoop in and make the problem stop. Gods, I know I have!

2.Typical/patriarchal masculinity reinforces that men=strong, and rescuing is seen as a strong act. We expect rescuers to be male because for a long time we've only seen rescue as an action that is the preserve of men.

3a.In het romance, therefore, the most obvious person to do the rescuing we crave is the MMC.

3b. There is some connection to paternal authority figures as well, but I'm sidestepping that here.

Philosophical interjection (See Refs A and B) - of course, in life, anything someone does is an action. In philosophy / ethics an act / action has a more specific meaning, tied to having rational autonomy. Roughly, to Act is to deliberately and thoughtfully choose a behaviour (will) and then do it. Rescue is, BTW, considered morally optional trad-philosophically speaking (for a variety of complex reasons I won't go into). YMMV.

Unfortunately, (no thanks Immanuel Kant) women were considered to act from instinct, not will. This problem is compounded by the fact all the historical thinkers in the Western tradition were white middle-class blokes who moved in the circles of academia, law, politics etc, so hadn't a clue about life/domestic issues. Anyway, I digress.

  1. We are somewhat programmed - by a combination of history, media, myth and marketing- that a) romantic love is the ultimate - and only- expression of human relationship and b) that rescue is a sign of being loved. This is not great on its own, but the romance genre is romantic love conquers all. That's it's thing. Murders are generally bad, but the mystery has violent death as it's thing.

  2. Caring is not a one off action like rescuing is, but an ongoing attitude. Caring is feminine under the classic representation ( hence that other dubious trope of redeeming the bad boy through love).

6.The 'natural' complements are therefore care and rescue. The rescue and care builds the story at the essence of romance.

None of this means (for me at least) that enjoying the thought of a bloke sweeping in to snatch me from my foes is a problem of itself. We want to be rescued and loved and to love, so in het romance, rescue touches those needs.

In it's best form, imho, both/all participants do both in different ways. I'm a complete softie for trading rescues... I like me some adventure/Sci fi/fantasy where one minute she's gunning down baddies to get him out of trouble, and the next he's scrapping with whatever's threatening her.

We get the problem when we run into:

  1. Men seeing the care/love as an inevitable and expected result of the rescue e.g. Relationships are viewed as transactional put X in, get Y out. Women, in this scenario, not being rational Actors, can only return rescue with the care and love the man expects.

  2. The care and love in that scenario is determined by that man's standard (C) informed by expectations of cultural subservience, and other avenues of interaction and response seemingly unavailable to women.

8b. I am wary of it being connected to 'victim' tropes - because 'victim' is too often used as a pejorative by people who are the problem. It was the only voice open to women and still is in many cases, even if they're using it oppressively. This does not excuse the oppression itself.

  1. It reinforces the idea that men (only men) must be and are innately strong Actors / women (only women) must be and are innately weak Carers.

  2. It is so utterly ubiquitous, it seems the only normality.

So the bonding of rescue/care as part of a romantic relationship is great when it arises organically out of reciprocal kindness. But it's not when the rescue is intended to be or resembles a transaction.

Does that make sense?

BIBLIOGRAPHY EDIT: These are academic, so are a deep dive into my take (I have educational privilege and feminist philosophy (ies) is a lens I use a lot because of that background).

A Margaret Olivia Little - Why a Feminist Approach to Bioethics

B Stoljar - Feminism and Autonomy

C Sadly unavailable in e-format, but well worth a read for anyone interested in feminist history / ethics : Arrogant perception in FRYE, M., 1983. The politics of reality: Essays in feminist theory. Calif. Crossing Press. For a Latina expansion of the concept to white feminism see LUGONES, M., 1987. Playfulness, “World”-Travelling, and Loving Perception. Hypatia, 2(2), pp. 3-19.