It was a dark and stormy night…

It's been quite a while since my last post and today is my first one on blogger. I decided to move over from goodreads. The old stuff is here:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7235273.Richard_X_Ellison/blogAnd if you've only discovered me today :) - Here's my stuff:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/rxellison

Anyway, I had some personal stuff to deal with but I'm back at the computer doing what I love doing most…making my fingers bleed for you! 

I've got a lot to talk about today…first…

As a good friend told me yesterday - "Misery. Best Friend of Le Artiste." I was really depressed about some stuff, I mean more depressed than I remember being in a long, long time. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep…I really had no idea what to do with myself. After pacing back and forth around my dining room table I suddenly got this image of a coin. It was a Roman denarii. I started writing and about twelve hours later I had a story - "The Price Of Metal".

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/375462

As soon as I put it up I was greeted with an avalanche of positive feedback. Thanks to everyone for that! I needed the pick me up. I think that the good reviews came from the fact that for the first time I may have actually written something that was relevant…pertinent to the world at large. It's not a happy story but I feel great for having written it. So…yeah…being miserable can sometimes be a constructive thing. I doubt I'd be feeling positive about myself right now if I hadn't written that. 

Next…

I just read some erotic fiction on smash words for the first time…I'll tell you about it in a second. There are a ton of talentless hacks out there that are stringing together explicitives - slapping on some kind of salacious cover to it and then calling the crap literature...with a price tag of $3.99.

These things are barely 2,000 words in length. Who the F!@# is paying to read this garbage? It's the internet - you can get this kind of thing for free in any dark cyber alley you want to crawl in to. 

The way the HD-DVD and Bluray war was settled was with the porn industry. Porn dictates the direction of technology. Hell, the internet only exists today because of porn. I think tablet sales increased so people could have their naughty stories and nobody would see it on their bookshelves at home. That's fine…in fact, I don't even know why I'm complaining about it…I think it's probably because I'm putting stuff up for free to build a following and get my name out there…while people who can't write worth a damn are actually making money out of this. 

And you know what? I might've even gone down that road - but I can't see myself actually being able to put one sentence like that together without laughing myself to death. "Oooh…" she moaned as his yadda yadda with the thing and the stuff and the whatever…hahahahahaha! Come on!

How can you keep a straight face? But erotic literature is far outselling everything out there right now…which brings me to why I started this little conversation. Today on the new releases of Smash was a short story - 2000 words - free - and it was erotic. I was curious. It was this author's first listing…so I read it. I was pleasantly surprised. This was an actual writer who was telling a story and he told it pretty damn well. I was forced to conclude that this was a serious writer who'd been kicked to the curb so many times that he's just decided to pimp himself out to the system. Make a name for himself and then sell word porn to the world. 

I'm of two minds about this. 

1. Yeah bro - work the system - if you got it - flaunt it. 

2. Lame bro - don't sell out - don't let them stop you from making art!

But I guess option one tends to win more of the time when putting food on the table and beer in the belly starts to become a factor. 

I've only been on Smash for a few months now but it still kind of grates me when I see people putting up shitty drafts of their work and trying to charge the earth for it. You're either trying to scam people or have some serious delusions of grandeur. Start charging when you have a real audience and you've actually bothered to hone your craft. 

Lastly - Jane8086 - this was another pleasant surprise. The numbers jumped incredibly when I put up episode 2. The original idea was a book…then I decided to turn it into a series…but I must admit that I'm having some trouble deciding on what exactly the direction of this whole thing should take. If anyone has any ideas…let me know. 

I've started on episode 3 - but I really don't know when it's going to be ready so I can't give anyone a time frame at the moment. 

I keep wondering if maybe I should try to let the tone of the material evolve…like maybe take a different narrative style to it or something. Maybe make it grow up a little. But…then again - it's working the way it is right now and everybody seems to like that so maybe I should stick with what works?

I've also been thinking about a sequel to Demonicus and full novel for Xyggy. There's so much to do and so little time. I also don't know if I've come up with that one thing that's my signature character or series. So…maybe a new idea…? Anybody….anybody?

Well…I could nag for a little while longer or get back to work :) I'm going to get back to work - stay cool!

R.X.E.

P.S. Here…read some stuff!

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/rxellison