Sunday update

It was a nice weekend. John made a big fuss over my book proof — he said little about the dedication (he’s very shy about any attention focused on him, unlike his girlfriend), but I know it pleased him greatly.

He had a surprise for me too!

Aren’t they gorgeous? He put his hands over my eyes when I was walking into his living room, and there they were on the dining table. I carefully brought them home tonight. Whatta guy, huh? 🙂

OK, so I’m up to page 85 of my final read. So far, I’ve seen one missing closed quote. If that’s the only typo, I will be surprised. But of course, I’m seeing other bits that I want to tweak. I promise, this will be the last time. I promise. Once I do these last-minute tweaks, I will resubmit the proof; they have to approve it again (rolling eyes). And when they do, I am not going to request another proof. I’m going to say “finito” and put it on sale.

After that, I’ll have to do some reformatting and so forth to make a version for the Kindle. First things first. Fingers crossed that I’ll be able to figure that part out myself. But in the meantime, the paperback version will be available.

I won’t be seeing New Guy tomorrow (sniff), but I’ll use the found time to get this thing read and fixed already. I’m hoping to have it finalized before the week is out. Then I can celebrate once again with him next Monday. Can’t have too much celebrating, can I?

This afternoon, I showed John a couple of the clips from Spanking Court. He watched closely. Too closely. Gave him ideas. Damn that Court Disciplinarian anyway. 🙂 

Hope everyone had a nice weekend, particularly you Crimson Moonies in Chicago!

An amazing end to a great week

First, a bit of news. There’s a brand-new blog in the neighborhood. If you go here, you can read the “He said” version of what I wrote about yesterday.

Last night when I came home from the gym, there was a box on my doorstep. Small, rectangular. I picked it up and saw the CreateSpace return address. Oh my… it was the proof copy of my book. For the first time, I was going to see it in book form.

Did I rush inside and fall all over myself in my eagerness to tear it open? No.

I laid it on the table, stared at it, then walked away from it. I was afraid to open it. No lie.

How ridiculous was that? But I so wanted it to be perfect. And yet I knew there were a lot of things that could go wrong, and that it might not be. So I wanted to preserve the perfect image in my head for a while before I actually braced myself to look at it.

I know, that makes no sense. I felt like an idiot.

John called. We talked for a while, and then I sheepishly told him that I’d gotten my proof and I couldn’t bring myself to open it. He didn’t laugh at me.

“Do you want to wait until tomorrow night, and open it at my house?”

I told him I didn’t think I could wait that long.

“OK, how about this,” he said. “Want to open it now, on the phone with me? That way, if something’s wrong, you can tell me about it. And if there isn’t, then you can share that with me as well.”

I liked that idea. Carrying the phone, I went to the kitchen drawer, got my scissors and cut the tape on the package. Unfolding the carton carefully, I uncovered my book. I scanned the cover, looked at the picture, the spine, the positioning of the text on the back.

It looked fan-@#$%ing-tastic.

“Oh, John,” I breathed. “Oh, honey. It looks so good. It looks so, so good.”

We talked for a while after that, but I don’t remember any of the conversation. I was too busy staring at the cover, at Zelle’s beautiful work.

I now have to thoroughly check the interior, read through, look for dropped lines and all kinds of other weirdness. I can already see that the gutter (the margin space) is a little too big. But if I were to decrease that, it would change all the line breaks, all the page breaks, the page count… ugh. Forget it. I’ll live with a big margin.

So tonight, I’ll bring it to John’s. He’ll get to see the surprise I have for him.

Last year when I was in the middle of working on the book, he and I were talking about it one night and he asked me to whom I was going to dedicate it.

I thought it was a trick question. “You, of course!”

He shook his head. “No. You have to dedicate it to your dad.”

I hadn’t considered that, but as we discussed it, I agreed that it made sense. My writing talent and my sarcastic humor are straight from his genetic makeup. Whenever someone compliments my writing or says they think I’m funny, I think, “Thanks, Dad.” I was very proud of his accomplishments and despite our extremely rocky years, we worked it all out at the end. Of course I had to dedicate the book to him.

So I did. But what John doesn’t know yet is that underneath the dedication to my father, there is also one to John. Tonight, he’ll know. I can’t wait.

It’s been a very good week. The only thing that made some of my happy bubbles go flat was hearing that NG can’t make it this Monday. (sigh) I will miss him. But he’ll be back. I suppose this is life’s checks and balances — I had an abundance of riches this week, so next week will be a bit of a letdown. I know this about myself. So my goal for the following week is to keep busy, focus on getting my book wrapped up and putting it up for sale. On Monday night, I’ll think about the previous Monday and smile. Look forward to the next Monday and smile.

I can’t believe I’m one mouse click away from publishing my book. I just can’t believe it.

Have a great weekend, y’all.

The Tease

It’s easy to tease,
But hard to get release

Those lyrics from Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” are relentlessly running through my mind at the moment.

I admit, I like to tease. Verbally, certainly. But physically as well. Let’s be honest here… I don’t post a bazillion pictures of my bottom and my half-dressed body because I’m overly fascinated with them. I see them all the time. I do so because I am an exhibitionist and I love the attention. I do it because I can.

Today, I got a bit of comeuppance, and deliciously so. Today, I was teased.

By the Villain.

He hasn’t visited me for a while; we’ve had our fun at Spanking Court, and he’s very busy. I half expected him to regretfully cancel today, but he didn’t.

I thought, wow. Two spankings in one week, how did I get so lucky? Such a greedy girl. I got whaled but good by NG on Monday, and here it was Thursday and I was itching for more.

But I just got a taste. Tease and denial, tease and small taste, tease and a flurry of swats that would stop as soon as I got into them.

Sooooo mean. And so, so freaking hot.

Once again, he was a gentleman. No boundaries crossed, my thong stayed up. But he had every nerve cell from my head to my toes screaming for that sweet, painful pounding, that impact. He enjoyed watching me squirm, hearing me moan in frustration. He knew I’d get all I wanted very soon. But not now.

He drew it out for over an hour. I swear to you all, by the time he was done, I was ready to go get a paddle, offer it up to him and beg him to use it. But no… just a brief but hard hand spanking, and he was done. “You tease a lot,” he whispered, “but I’ll bet you don’t get teased very often. We men aren’t good at that.” Oh, the hell he wasn’t.

A warm hug, and then off he went. I was ready to jump out of my skin. But since I couldn’t do that, I did the next best thing.

Perhaps if he listened carefully as he drove away, he could hear me screaming.

Thank you, you villainous man. And to Dana — thank you for letting me borrow your man this afternoon. 🙂

And now, if you’ll excuse me, there is a very strenuous class at my gym at 4:30, that I need desperately.

My book reviewed!

No, not the new one, the old one. 🙂  Katerina, of the new site Bottoms Up Book Review, just made “What Happens to Naughty Girls?” her review #21. She wrote up a lovely, complimentary piece on it, which you can check out here.

I really like the style in which she reviews. She gives a synopsis, then shares what she likes (or doesn’t like) about the book. Following that is an excerpt of decent enough length to pique interest, and then she concludes with a few more of her thoughts.

This book was pretty much an indulgence for me. I knew it wouldn’t have mass appeal, because it was too limited — it was M/F only, and I put myself in nearly every story. So, even though the situations were varied, there was a certain sameness about it, I think. You either liked my style or you didn’t. It didn’t sell much, and I didn’t expect it to. But perhaps this review will finally nudge it over the 200 mark! (It’s sold 198 to date.)

Thank you, Katerina! ♥

Celebration time!

We have everything we need, right?

An awesome top with a hard hand and a bagful of toys — check!

A cheeky brat girl — check!

And champagne — check!

What are we celebrating, you ask. CreateSpace finally accepted my @#$%ing book cover, that’s what!! 😀  Those numbnuts — gawd, the aggravation they put Zelle and me through!

They rejected the first version with a generic message about “live elements” being outside the image area. No details. Zelle took great pains to make damn sure the second version was even more perfect than the first one… and they rejected it with the same generic message. This time, I was pissed. I knew they were jacking me around, trying to wear me down so I’d order their premium services. Not gonna happen, guys. You’re messing with the wrong woman.

I wrote to them and called their 800 number, saying I needed more information, needed them to tell me exactly what needed fixing. This morning, they wrote back to me, and hallelujah, they gave me a precise direction. Itty bitty minor thing. Nitpickers.

Zelle was leaving for vacation tonight, so I didn’t want to bug her with this. I figured I’d wait until she was back home. But she wrote to me, asking if they’d OKd it, and I couldn’t lie. I told her what was going on and said she should forget about it for now, go have fun and we’d deal with it later. Bless her heart, she insisted that if they did tell me what to fix, I should send it to her immediately.

So I forwarded her their instructions this morning, and within a half-hour, she had it back to me. I not only resubmitted the cover a third time, I called the 800 number again. Told them it was coming and I didn’t want another rejection. The guy hemmed and hawed, said they check it thoroughly each time, because Point A could be fixed but in the process, throw Point B off. Fine, whatever… I said OK, but if there IS something wrong with this one, I want specifics right off the bat, no generics. And could they process this faster?

He said he didn’t think that could be done, but I’d get my answer within 24-48 hours. But then after our conversation, he wrote to me to follow up (they’d never done that before) and said he’d spoken with the techs. I heard from them in four hours, telling me Congratulations, all looks good and it’s time for me to order a proof.

YAHOO!!

I got that message about an hour before New Guy showed up — how perfect! No fun celebrating alone, is there?

As it happened, a dear friend had given me a bottle of pink champagne a while back, but I rarely drink, so it sat in my fridge waiting for a special occasion. This was it! But first things first, of course.

NG got a brand new Smart Phone, so he was experimenting with taking video on his phone while spanking/strapping me. We got some cute stuff — it jumps all over the place, but still fun. I guess it takes some superhuman dexterity to hold a cell phone camera steady and whale on someone’s a$% at the same time! 😀

Oh, he was in good form tonight, let me tell you. He was strapping me so quickly, I couldn’t catch my breath, so I yelped, “Hey! What’s your hurry??” He then slowed waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy dowwwwwwwwwwwnnnnn. “Is that better?”

“No! Why does everything have to be so black or white with you tops?” I snapped.

WHACK!!!!!  “Everything is red with us.” (groan)

Once he decided I was well done, it was champagne time. Did I mention that I rarely drink? A few of you have seen me after I have a glass or so of alcohol. It is utterly ridiculous — I have the tolerance of a three-year-old. I start giggling and stumbling over my words and I get light-headed right away. As I did tonight. Not drunk… it’s not enough to get me drunk. Just with a little buzz. Just enough to have lots and lots of fun.

Well, until I laughed at NG and called him silly one too many times.

Wow. Round #2 was something else. It’s all a blur, but I know it hurt. I know it was measured and well paced and it went back and forth from tender to tough and back again. I know I took a very long time to come back down to earth.

I know it was completely wonderful.

“Am I still silly?”
“No…..”

Interesting… I don’t know if it was subspace, or alcohol space, or a combination of the two. It’s not something I would want to make a habit of, but for tonight, with my joy over the book cover, it felt just right.

So is my bottom as pink as the champagne? I’d already faded… phooey.

But I will definitely feel this one tomorrow. Lucky me.

So now, I have ordered a proof. They are shipping it to me this week. I need to review it thoroughly, check all the elements inside and out. And if (I hope I hope I hope, fingers and toes crossed) everything is OK, I let them know, and the book goes on sale.

I’m so close. Can’t believe it.

Thank you, Zelle. Thank you, everyone who has been so supportive and encouraging through all this. And thank you, NG. I’m over the moon that I got to celebrate with you. 🙂

As if it weren’t hot enough…

… no, this isn’t a post to complain about the heat again. I’ve already been told if I don’t knock that off, someone is coming over to cool my jets. 🙂

I’m talking about Weeds. I know, I’m way behind on this, since the scene I’m discussing was from Season 6, back in October 2010. But I’m renting the show on Netflix and just saw that episode, ironically titled “Gentle Puppies,” last night.

Obviously, if you haven’t watched the show, you won’t know what I’m talking about. But I will assume the show has a large enough fan base. Besides, even if you don’t follow it, no doubt you’ve heard about the spanking scene(s).

I’m about to commit scene sacrilege once again. Back in Season 4, there was an OTK spanking scene between Mary-Louise Parker’s character Nancy Botwin and the devastatingly sexy Demian Bichir’s character Esteban. The buildup to it was charming, I admit, and it was definitely not faked — good pullover, he pushed up her dress, you saw hand-to-bottom contact. But his technique was lame, lame, lame. His arm looked spastic and stiff and he landed in the same spot over and over. People were cheering about what a great spanking scene this was, how fabulous it is to see an OTK spanking on mainstream TV, etc. I guess I’m jaded. I give them an A for effort and intent. But is it all that great? IMO, no.

If there’s anyone left in the spanko world who hasn’t watched the Season 4 spanking, you can see it here.

However, the scene from Season 6 is what resonated with me. It was edgy. It was rough. And it was @#$%ing HOT.

Nancy, bored and frustrated, on the run and stuck in a podunk town, goes to a bar looking for trouble. She antagonizes the hunky bartender/owner, wandering behind the bar to help herself to a shot, taking the “No Ladies at the Bar” sign down from the wall and tossing it to the floor, lighting up a cigarette although no smoking is allowed.

Unfortunately, the scene in its entirety, once up on YouTube, has been taken down. I did some searching online and found the full scene, but it was on PornHub and one has to put up with in-your-face graphic photos and ads in order to view the clip, so I am not posting it here, sorry. However, a brief clip of the buildup is still on YouTube, and it’s plenty hot on its own.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I find this even hotter than the buildup with Nancy and Esteban. The hair grab. The look on her face when the lock on the door clicks into place. And while the clip ends before the action, I will tell you that what followed included his belt striking her bare bottom, and then his kissing and biting the red stripes. After that… well. :-)~~~~~

So, fellow Weeds lovers, what do you think? Which scene did you prefer? Why? Granted, the first scene was much more traditional, which is great. I just can’t get past his crappy technique. It’s too bad, because I love a spanking scene where both participants are equally attractive and sexy, and that certainly was the case here. But that second scene… something about it. You could feel the tension crackling in the air. The way he glared at her. His calm voice when he says, “You don’t listen.” Brrrrrrrr…..

Oh, and the actor in the bar scene is Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who used to be on Saved By the Bell. He certainly has grown up, hasn’t he?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take another cold shower.