So What Is Michael C. Laney Up To?

A blast from the past, something old to Me and new to you!  Huh?

Well for everyone that's been following Me I am sure knows that the past year was a pretty big year for Me.  In March 2010 I posted My first two stories online, Descent To Venus and Older Is Bedder.  Then between March and October I wrote several new short stories and a few dozen poems, became a Twitter tweeter, and finished a novel I had been working on for almost four years Heather's Journey: The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE.  At the very beginning of January 2011 I discovered I had been plagiarized, and set out to deal with that problem with help from fellow victims and with success.  In February an unabridged edition of The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE was published for download and eReaders, in a way bringing to close what was quite a year.

Afterward I went to work on several projects, starting a new story collection and working on getting a good start on the first novel of Shadows Of The Night.  I know, because people ask, they're wanting to know when they're going to see what they know I have in the works, but the problem is it's hard to answer.  Writing is one of those funny things.  Sometimes you will be so inspired to work on a particular project, and then poof, you get stuck, or suddenly you have another idea for a project you want to work on, but I'm thinking, always thinking, about whatever I put on hold or on the back burner.  I've actually begun to think that,especially with longer projects, that I need to work on them a little at a time while working on shorter works in between.

Of course life is something else that tends to get in the way.  I can tell you I really miss the days when it seemed like nothing was ever holding me back as I wrote.  When I was in high school I churned out story after story, assigned and on my own, between going to school full time, working practically full time (35 hours a week) and keeping a full "social" life.  Now I pretty much work, and that's it, or at least all I intend, but usually something is always coming up.  And that's just the basic stuff.

This year the lady vyle has faced several health concerns, and in the past 365 days or so she has been under and in surgery four times.  She is well now, but when you're dealing with the love of your life I think you know that you will put everything on the back burner to attend to their comfort and  to let them know that you're there.

Then there are all those other things that come along.  Boy scouts, "volunteering" at the middle school, yard work, etc.  You know, all those things that come along with being a parent and an adult.  One thing at a time doesn't seem like much, but add it all together and you wonder where all the time when, or how the hell did I write more when I was young with either just as much, if not less, time.

So, I've had life.  Ideas have come and went, some to simmer on the back burner and others stuffed into the freezer to grow cold.  Yet I'm at least always working on them in My head.  And then, there's always what I'm working on now.

Currently I am working on revising My 1994 short story, A Day In The Life Of  Abagail King into a novel.  The story was one I had chosen to quickly convert from a 3.5 inch mini-disk file and put onto My Kindle so I could look it over and have something to read when I was in Missouri for My oldest son's graduation, and as I read over it before I even left I had come to the decision that the story itself didn't need all that much work.  In fact I was surprised at the BDSM themes that had ended up in several of the scenes, and which still stood up pretty well, despite the fact that at the time I had only been living in the lifestyle for a little over a year.

So what's A Day In The Life Of Abagail King (the novel) going to be about?  Well the story is the tale of a southern prostitute, told in her own words.  I know I do My best to try to make each story I write very different from one another, but those familiar with My other works will find it quite a departure from My other works.  Abagail tells her story with her own person moxie and sometimes cutting her words down, dropping the G's off her words when she gets on a roll to reflect her own vocal accent.  She a product of her upbringing and at odds within herself over southern values and modern ideas.  With little apology or shame she relates the events of one of her work days from $50 quickies to a lesbian BDSM scene to a party where she entertains a large group of men with the help of only one other woman.

Is Abagail King going to be for everyone?  Probably not, but then again I would be hard pressed to name anything I've written that had Universal appeal.  However I am pleased with what I have, having just reached the halfway point, and I have as always striven to tell a true to life story with true to life characters.  I have a date in mind I would like to have it done and published, but whenever I actually name a date it seems I never get it done by then, and I hate to give a date and continually push it back, so for now I'm keeping the projected publication date under My hat.

Next?

Well, work continues on on My Fungi collection, slowly but  surely.  Plus I have been reading over The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE.  The story of the second novel in the Heather's Journey Trilogy is slowly starting to build itself in My head.  I have already worked on cover and interior art for the novel and I can assure you that work will probably begin on Heather's Journey: The Manual Of Discipline before the end of the summer.

Until then, I'll keep you posted.  But look out for A Day In The Life Of Abagail King, coming soon!

Master Vyle

The Horrors Of Editing Part II

 

They say the first is the worst and I have to agree.  Especially in the past year I have learned that each time you have to go through and set up a file under a different format, or according to a different set of rules, the first time you try it is always the worst.  It's through that first time you learn, at least most of, the ins and outs.  Plus you figure out about 92% of what is causing you grief.  Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I started off with the longest work I have on hand on My PC, a story I have edited, re-edited and reformatted more times that I am willing to contemplate.  Once again and even though it has only taken a little over three weeks, it has been a nightmare, the kind of self torture that anyone with OCD hates to deal with, yet endures because we want so much to strive for perfection.

After yesterday I am sure that I am about as close to perfection as I am going to get working to have Heather's Journey: The Sound Of her MASTER"S VOICE ready for e-book publication.  Sure there are a dozen or so little "dashes" in there that I have no idea where they came from or how to get rid of them.  Sure it does not have a program created Table Of Contents, but since anyone giving advice on the subject seems to be under the impression that "Everyone" is computer savy when it comes to dealing with HTML, and when I followed all their exact instructions none of  the codes worked, One can only assume there are probably 1,000's of e-books without a program driven Table Of Contents, and instead one listing the line location numbers like I painstakingly set up Myself.  Again, probably not perfect, but I think most readers can get past the flaws considering how flawed the text was during the sligltly abridged and chapter by chapter publication the novel had initially online.

So for all intents and purposed The Sound Of her MASTER'S VOICE is done, so it's all over but the screaming.  It all comes down to getting the funds to copyright and secure an ISBN number, which will hopefully be taken care of this week.  Aside from that I need to take care of cover art and a new picture of Myself to go in the about the About The Author blurb at the end.  The pictures are a couple of simple (yeah right!) things to deal with, and I should have them done and the cover edited by the weekend as well.  So if everything goes without a snag (and I am sure there will probably be some snags) the best case scenario would be that the novel will be available sometime within the next two weeks.  (I bet you thought I was going to say next week, and I was until my pessimism won out.)


So what comes next?  Well I am already beginning to get together My next project, a short story collection themed around Fungi.  I decided in the beginning that this was something I just had to do, because if someone was going to steal it and make a single dime off having it in "their" collection, then it stood to reason it would fare well in a collection of stories that were all by Me.  Again the process is made easier by the fact that I have already perhaps worked out most of the kinks of getting the first e-book ready for publication, so as with other things when it comes to the second time, I now pretty much know what to do and what not to do, hopefully saving Myself a few headaches.  Fungi will be in this collection along with three other stories and a poem, all so far unpublished.  Unpublished?  Hell, the truth is I haven't written a single one yet.  Yes, I know.  It's pretty ambitious, so for the moment I am not sure how long it will take Me to have the collection available.

 

 

Plus still to come... My BBW story collection to be made up of both previously published and original erotic BBW short stories and poetry.  After several weeks I have to admit that the title Rubenesque & Ravishing has begun to grow on Me a little less.  I will be coming up with another title, but I think I have one in mind unless someone can throw Me a very good suggestion.  This will be another work that is going to be built as it progresses, so at this time as with the Fungi collection I do not have a specific time frame.

So just stay tuned kiddies, there's still more to come!




Master Vyle



Alex Severin Responds! My Letter From Plagiarism Whistle Blower!

Earlier today I sent an e-mail to plagiarism whistle blower Alex Severin.  Below is Alex's response, and I think it is a further eye opener in regards to the problem and the lack of response from those who claim to want to protect the works of independent authors:

Hi there, Michael,

I've been following your ranty tweets!  LOL

I've got all her aliases and other details on Google Alerts, so I found
out about your friends blog and subsequently, your blog and Twitter.

Amazon are assholes. They don't give a shit. I can't even believe they've
not removed the remaining content after 5 have been subject to DMCA
notices and I told them the other two were also 100% plagiarized. They
don't remove anything without a formal DMCA notice and it has to be EXACT,
has to have certain lines in it; I knew that and this is why I put a
sample DMCA notice on my site and linked to it in the alert.

It took me days to compile all the stories. But kept on at it - I had
complete conviction that every story in every book belonged to somebody
else. When I get that feeling about something, I ignore it to my peril.

I'm sure Mistress Klepto is going to start up again under a new ID
somewhere else. Since none of us actually hold legal copyright
registrations for any of the works, there's no legal standing to file a
lawsuit. That's not to say that we can't go ahead and and actually do that
- it would only take ONE story to be registered to have grounds to file a
suit if needs be.

I'm really dissapointed at the response I've had. At first, I thought,
great, half of ASSTR's members are e-mailing me - they acted very quickly,
within hours of me sending out the alert. But, alas, none of the e-mails
were from any of the writers involved. It would seem none of them are
still using either the e-mails on file at ASSTR and Literotica, nor
logging into their accounts.  After the first batch of e-mails I sent out
like that (through the Lit interface and gathered e-mails,) I had no
responses whatsoever.  So, I decided to contact both sites directly and
disseminate the info throught my own blogs etc.

I also contacted a couple of writing site like WRITER BEWARE run by the
SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America,) but I've not had a response
from them either. Needles to say, Literotica did not respond to me, nor
did they post it on their forum. That was done by somebody on Lit who had
an ASSTR account also and got the messege from them. Just reading their
forum over the last few days, it would seem the Literotica owner doesn't
respond to anything at all.

The only reason word has started to get out is because a few people have
been incensed enough to repost my alert of blogs and forums. I'm so glad
that there are a few people who care. This has been pretty stressful! I
know nobody is gonna die or anything like that and it's not the end of the
world, but damnnit, it means something to me. And I felt obligated to do
everything I could to get this info out.

Actually, just before the word got out, I was considering doing another
round-up of e-mails and trying again. If the last two books don't
disappear in the next few days, I will do that. She needs to be shut down.

Sorry this is so long!  LOL

All the best...

- Alex Severin.

www.AlexSeverin.com
www.MySpace.com/Vampire_Erotica_Stories
www.Facebook.com/SeverinVampireErotica

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again, Alex, from Myself on behalf of everyone you have made aware of this problem.



Master Vyle



PLAGIARISM UPDATE! And Then There Was One!

Here's the lastest update on the plagiarist everyone loves to hate, one "Misstress" Ana Phylaxis.  I just checked Amazon.com and only one of her "works" remains.  We will see if it gets taken off within the next few days, and if not then I will go over Alex Severin's initial e-mail and make an effort to contact all Literotica authors whos works were used to create this final rip-off story collection.

On a personal note I am giving My typist ten lashes for each time plagiarism and its various forms have been spelled wrong over the past few days.

LOL

Master Vyle

First Battle Won, Plagerizer Ana Phylaxis Is One Work Down

This morning I received an e-mail response from Amazon.com reguarding the plagerism of My short story Fungi by "Misstress" Ana Phylaxis, that she used as part of one of many short story collections she was selling through Amazon.com's Kindle device:

Dear Mr. Laney:

Thank you for your message.  Please be advised that we are in the process of removing the following Kindle titles from Amazon.com:

"D... E... F... (The A,B,C's of Discipline and Horror) [Kindle Edition]" ASIN: B004G5Z3C0

It typically takes 2-3 days for a listing to disappear once it has been removed from our catalog. We trust this will bring this matter to a close.

Garth Skovgard

Copyright/Trademark Agent
Amazon.com

Well that's nice and short and to the point.  I won My first battle against "Misstesss" Ana Phylaxis.  I should be all warm and fuzzy and happy happy right?

Nope.

That last little line I found a little burny: We trust this will bring this matter to a close.

Oh, so what am I dismissed?  Hey Amazon, I'm an old fashioned kind of guy.  Why don't you kiss Me before you fuck Me?  It goes a lot better that way.

I sent a response to their response:

Dear Amazon.com Copyright Agent Garth Skovgard,

Thank you for your response.  It is good to see that you are removing this work form your site, but what about the other works in this "author's" catalogue.  I am not sure what your policy is on dealing with plagerism, but on the story sites that I submit to if someone is caught plagerizing another work, whether in part or in its entirety, that member has all their works removed from the site and is banned, not just their username but their IP address as well. (No questions asked, no if ands or butts, whether that person has 1000 original stories and 1 instance of plagerism or not).  I and the other authors who this person has plagerized stories from to create "her" works want some kind of assurance that Amazon.com would never willingly do business with this person again.  So if you would be so kind, just what are the consequnces for plagerism on Amazon?  I am sure there must be consequences as both the "author" and Amazon profit from the sales of these works while the real author only gets an e-mail that says, "Oh, sorry about that", and actually it more like, "Oopsie, our bad," because this notice does not even say that.

Sincerely,
Michael C. Laney

Okay, I know what you think.  The story collection using your story is being taken down, you should be happy.  Yes I am happy.  It's a battle won, but to admit you've just won a battle only means that you're fighting a bigger war.  I mean is this how you deal with someone who has told you that someone else is making a profit off their work, especially when it is a profit that you're sharing in?  Let's face it, Amazon is not publishing books to Kindle out of the goodness of their hearts.  They get their precentage from books sold through their Kindle devices, of course, and it makes sense because that's good business.

What isn't good business is brushing off the messenger without anything like an apology.  Hello, guess what Amazon, writers like to read.  And, despite the fact that bookstores are closing left and right there are still plenty of sources to acquire reading material other than Amazon.com.

I'm proud of the fact that I am a writer.  Despite the fact that I am a true starving artist who has never made a single dime off anything I've written.  I've put hours upon hours writing stories, spent months and years working on stories to get them just right.  I love and cherish each and every one that I have written, and in My book there's no fucking such thing as a throwaway story that its okay from some unimaginative thief to come along and sell for profit.  I would rather be obscure and totally unknown, posting stories on free sites, than to steal someone else's lifeblood to be just as equally unknown and make a few quick bucks.

And yet, here I am, one of few voices yelling at this literary giant, and I'm being told it's going to be taken care of without any sort of apology and pretty much dismissed like I'm their bitch.  Most people expect that from the people they work for, but it just so happens that I am not on Amazon.com's payroll.  It doesn't seem to Me that they care all that much for, or take seriously, the implications of plagerism.

So I suppose for the next few days we can just watch and wait to see whether the "works" of the Great "Misstress" Ana Phylaxis a.k.a Rebecca Geissler a.k.a Rebecca Bick a.k.a. BizzareBettyXXX a.k.a. Thieving Cum Belching Crack Whore Douchenog Condom Recycler, are removed from Amazon.com and their Kindle Store.  I am sure in that time anyone who has ever written anything they do not want stolen and sold to line someone else's pockets will have time to think and wonder what Amazon cares about more: Writers or Profits?

I Ain't Scared Of Plagerizers Or Amazon.Com!

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Neither A Dominant, Nor A Writer

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Fungi, My First Erotic Horror Story Posted!

Today My short story Fungi was posted on Literotica.com as part of their 2010 Halloween Story Contest.  I have to admit that I am more than a little excited.  For those of you who do not know I have always considered horror to be My genre of choice.  In fact almost everyone I went to school with knew I was the creepy horror guy, and if there was ever an assignment that required writing chances were good that I would write a horror story in some way shape or form.  I have been waiting with somewhat baited breath for the story to post, especially since it has been listing as pending with 10/01/10 beside it since the day after it was submitted.

A few weeks ago I submitted As Seen Through The Eyes Of The Young to Lit, and it was rejected due to some content concerns, despite the fact it was a non-erotic story being submitted to a predominantly erotic site.  I understood their reasoning, and could tell from the wording of the rejection they were at real pains with having to reject the story, and even admitted they had spent a lot of extra time looking over the story and debating what to do.  Those in the know are aware that the moderators at Literotica and I do not see eye to eye on the way they allow commenters to bash certain genres and lifestyle with no worry of retaliation from the site.  However they are about the best place for horror erotica, which is where most of My horror stories are going to lean to being.

I submitted A Letter To Doctor Freudstein to Lit this afternoon, and I have no doubt it will be the first choice for the horror novel I am working on.

I originally wrote Fungi in 1995, and it has, until three weeks ago, been stored on a 3.5 inch DSHD mini-disk.  It was more of a straight forward horror story, but I had the idea for more juicy elements from the beginning, so the transition from horror to erotic horror was quite easy.  Before today the story had been read by two people.  When I last checked it had been viewed over 2,000 times.  Yay!  Thanks Al Gore for inventing the internet!

The story initially came about because I was living in Missouri at the time, and one afternoon someone brought this huge morel mushroom they had found in the woods to show us.  It was sitting in the bottom of a 50 pound paper grocery bag which had been cut in half.  I thought it looked like a big orange brain, and immediately it reminded Me of the Fungoids, a cheap creature of the month from the 1973 (and I am pretty sure the year is right) Doctor Who serial Planet Of The Daleks.  After seeing the thing I could not stop thinking about it, and it also reminded Me of a Japanese movie called Attack Of The Mushroom People that I had seen on Dr. Paul Bearer's Creature Feature at least a few dozen times growing up.  The movie is actually a Toho film originally named Matango and unfortunately I have yet to see a subbed and uncut version of the film.

So in the dead of night, as I often had to while living in Missouri with my ex and her mother, I began writing.  I incorporated the fact I was aware of My two inspirations into the dialogue of the story.  The killer puffballs near the end were also slightly inspired by the "killer tumbleweeds" in a later Doctor Who serial The Creature From The Pit.  Probably the biggest departure from the original version of the story was that it was set in the spring and not in October.

Fungi was actually the first of two stories I wrote about the fictional town of Dead End Junction, Nebraska.  The other story was a novel titled The Creeper, which was actually in itself mined from a story of the same title I wrote My junior year of high school.  The events of that story took place a few weeks after the events of Fungi, and the characters from that story are mentioned.  I really wanted to get a Dead End Junction Series started (and maybe now finally will).  I wrote a few hundered pages of another intended novel The History Of  Dead End Junction, which explains how the town came to exist, founded by the Graysons as mentioned in Fungi, and a couple of other novels set in the town before and after the events of The Creeper.

Either way, after a 15 year wait the first Dead End Junction story is online, and I have to say that there will be more to come in time.  Please be sure to check it out, and I do hope you enjoy.