Recent Comments

9/12/20, 11:54 AM
@Hypnothrill I choose to believe that your second suggestion of what's happening IS what's happening, whether it's explained or not. The plants seemingly have one goal and they can pacify any man that seems to stand in their way. I assume that there must be a way to pacify the women too. Tully'd better be careful!
9/11/20, 3:16 PM
@absman420, I feel like in a story like this, you can handle the "But what about the women?" question one of two ways: 1) Ignore them completely, knowing that most of your readers only really care about what happens to the men and will be willing to suspend disbelief and write women out of this reality. 2) Create a pseudoscientific explanation for why the women don't notice or care what's happening. For instance, maybe when they breathe in a small amount of the plant's pollen, they start to believe that whatever's happening is perfectly normal. But having Mrs. Lenoldi come back, observe that her husband and son are now grotesquely well-endowed gay muscle freaks who are growing weird penis-shaped plants that seem to be taking over the town, and then not really care about that... (Like, did she get a lobotomy when she was away on that retreat?) I'm just giving you a hard time on that one detail because I love and admire your writing so much.
9/11/20, 3:01 PM
> Mr Mac’s three boys are a particularly hot touch. > The Variants are proving to be great fun to work with, too! They're easy to write.
9/11/20, 2:58 PM
> I was honestly a little worried when I read the first two sections, because it seemed to be starting off very slow. > Well, slow-er to be sure. If I'd started off at the breakneck pace that Book One ended on, I'd have no place to ramp up to -- we'd end up with single-sentence sections! I think the "establishing shots" of our cast after such a long break is forgivable. As you note, I pick it up by the end. > And I think I would have been happier if Mrs. Lenoldi had stayed off the canvas entirely; her presence in the household only messed with my suspension of disbelief > I'm legit sorry about that -- GOOD NEWS! We'll never see her again! > Maybe I’ll have to write that story someday :-) > ME: Fanboy drooling...
9/11/20, 2:47 PM
I'm so excited with this story 15 years in the making. Love some family fun time and I can't wait for the next chapter. Well, I guess we've waited years, so I can wait a bit longer. Thanks again for the brilliant chapter!
9/11/20, 2:43 PM
I was honestly a little worried when I read the first two sections, because it seemed to be starting off very slow. (And I think I would have been happier if Mrs. Lenoldi had stayed off the canvas entirely; her presence in the household only messed with my suspension of disbelief). But the pace started to pick up by the end of this installment, and some of the new developments, like the Variants, got me really excited to see what comes next. I'm just a little sad that the action is now shifting from the largely-transformed Indiana town where the Lenoldis and Mr. Mac live. I would have liked to have seen more vivid descriptions of what a community is like when nearly all the men have been transformed by Symbionts and they no longer need to hide their urge to fuck and repopulate. Maybe I'll have to write that story someday :-)
9/11/20, 2:43 PM
Great start to a new season! Mr Mac's three boys are a particularly hot touch. So glad to see this continue.
9/11/20, 10:09 AM
> I’ve gotta say, the fellow who borrowed the idea, the one where the gov stepped in and made the symbiots into rubber drones and killed off the great one with round up… he had a good story too. Kinda hoped he’d continue his version too. Like alternate universes… > That's my boy rubbrsome -- I love what he's been doing, too. (it's been a hot minute since we've heard from him -- I hope he's well.) He let me preview that story before he posted it and I loved it! (There's a cool argument to be made about why we assume the aliens would only pollinate humans -- rubbrsome ran w that.) Yes, I look at it as an alternate future... or maybe it's not.
9/11/20, 10:04 AM
> I’ve read long ago about programs that scriptwriters use to help plot outlines and keep a handle on what’s going on. > Plotting is one of my favorite parts of the writing process! I don't want AI doing it for me. Thing is, for me, the plot comes first, which it clearly did not in BOOK ONE. That's what complicated this. Fortunately, I figured it out!
9/11/20, 3:05 AM
You might have been making it up, but it became a cohesive story and one that many of us enjoyed reading. I always hoped there'd be a sequel, so many possibilities. I've gotta say, the fellow who borrowed the idea, the one where the gov stepped in and made the symbiots into rubber drones and killed off the great one with round up... he had a good story too. Kinda hoped he'd continue his version too. Like alternate universes...