Well, I got some good news today! The content evaluator for iUniverse has passed my book. They didn't find it too hot to handle. I guess part of me is secretly disappointed. Having been writing for six (count 'em) decades without ever getting published I've come to nurture a love for the writer that nobody wants to read which has enabled me to write more and more whatever the hell I want (although I always have written pretty much whatever the hell I wanted), and to enjoy more than ever my own work. Fortunately I have a job that pays me money and also allows me enough time to continue writing. If I had to rely on my writing to survive financially I would not have, nor I suppose would my wife and kids.
BUT -- you pay people enough money they get interested I guess. Am I really going to have something published? I'm still not counting my chickens. Maybe the content evaluator will suddenly wake up and realize he or she made a mistake. I mean, this is pornography! It's not ALL pornography. And if I have to say it myself, it's wonderfully written pornography. But still . . . . I'm pretty surprised they're going forward with it.
So the next phase is editorial evaluation. God only knows what response that will produce. "This is one of the best books I ever read!" would be nice. "Change this, change this, change this, tone down the sex," is probably more likely. Weird. What if they ask me to make a lot of changes? I mean I'm $1500 into this already. I really don't want to make any important changes. Typos. Plot inconsistencies. You know, "Over here you've got Mindu giving Jod a blowjob and over here it's Riane . . . ." That sort of thing. But, "You've got too many blowjobs, (anal, cunnilingus, whatever) you gotta cut half of them . . . ." That I'm certain I would have a problem with.
I've always been a pretty sexually repressed person. One thing this experience has done for me is it's given me a little more confidence in my sexuality, less shame (always a good thing).
Anyway, on to the next hurdle. (I actually tried the hurdles in track in ninth grade. Man is that a hard race! I switched to the half mile. It turns out I'm not the fastest guy at solving hurdles, but I'm good at going the distance. Ha ha!
Witch me lug . . . .
(I hate it when I don't have a picture, but -- I don't have a picture.)
