An Appreciative message, Some News and Some Blogs to Visit

Many thanks go out to all of you that had been kind enough to e-mail me with congratulatory messages, feedback, encouragement and such kind comments. In many ways I have been more nervous about publishing volume 2 than I was over publishing volume 1 and so the positive feedback I've received so far has come as quite a relief, particularly as it differs in style to some degree. In particular my thanks go out to the kind soul that rated it six stars out of a possible six on Lulu -seeing that meant so much to me I can't tell you and particularly so soon after its release.

There is still a bit of work to be done before I put it on general release as it were ie get an ISBN assigned to it and release it through Amazon etc. For starters I'm going to include certain groups of keywords as footnotes on the chapter title pages to help Google find it. If any of you were wondering; the reason for the ridiculously long title and subtitle as it appears on Lulu is for the same reason, to make it more visible to Lulu’s search engine which looks for keywords within book titles rather than within their pages. The reason for all of this is that volume 1 is damn near invisible on Amazon and Google. Even I find difficulty in finding it - and I know what I'm looking for! I guess what really needs to happen is for someone to review it or for it to get noticed and for folks to chat about it on some of the message boards.

Then there is the cover; as I said before, I'm not happy with it as it stands. The present cover is purely temporary but I intend to redesign it by removing the female figure and perhaps having a straitjacket suggestively draped over the bed with the cane laid across it.

I still and suffering from a rather tiresome and protracted chest infection but it didn't stop me from enjoying a day out in Cambridge on Saturday with the significant other and having a good few pints too many at the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead, yesterday afternoon. Today I shall be, in a moment, be nipping off down to Camden Town to meet up with an old school friend for a celebratory pint or two by the Regent's canal (A pub called The Ice House). But despite my celebratory mood nevertheless I have decided that today shall at least in part be the first working day dedicated to developing the upcoming volume 3 and also the small volume that will link volume 2 with volume 3 and that I have spoken about before. In the pub this afternoon I'm hoping to get composed the book description for volume 2 to go on the Lulu Page. At the moment it consists of a very slightly altered version of the book description I wrote for volume 1, copied and pasted in as a stopgap. This is not quite the trivial task it sounds as it has to put over a something of the storyline and of the spirit of the book but within a very few words - ie it has to be concise and to the point and that is something of an art in itself.

By publishing a short volume that fits between volumes 2 and 3 - and that both ties up and embellish is some loose ends from volume 2 and details more of the events that led up to the storyline presented in volume 1, particularly as pertaining to how Lavinia Vitesse came to find herself incarcerated in the institution - I will be able to approach the storytelling element of volume 3 in a more traditional linear manner rather than incorporating the flashbacks and back stories that run throughout volumes 1 and two. I will also be able to lavish more detail on such things as the uniform that Lavinia was made to wear at home before coming to the experimental psychology unit and the therapy she had been undergoing at the hands of her aunt’s psychotherapist acquaintance. To do have really have done these areas the justice they deserve in the present work would have meant volume 2 ballooning well past 300 pages in length, and possibly closer to 400.

As for volume 3, well there is obviously going to be a complete change of scene - a far more domestic backdrop. You have to imagine a sheltered little private world embedded within an isolated country home, existing in today's world but totally steeped to the tiniest degree in the Victorian world - a world of strict governesses and children's nannies; of stifling regimes, petty rules, drab, stiff-collared, confining childish school uniforms, and spirit crushing discipline; of drills and forced exercise and PE in tight leotards urged on by the cane, the switch, the tawse and even the birch. To this end I have made a modest start this morning in researching some sources of inspiration - and in so doing, as always it seems, I became somewhat sidetracked, but even that has been worthwhile as I have uncovered a few more interesting blogs that the more exploratory minded of you might wish to visit.

The first is a French language blog and then a sort of pictures called ‘jpcolorgallery’ (as always just click to visit or see the blog list in the sidebar)

Another nice spanking / discipline blog can be found at ‘MARQE'S Study’ (well worth a visit - again, just click the title or look for the blog in the sidebar blog list).

Fighting the corner on behalf of the more consensual approach to discipline we have ‘The Art of Authority’

Then there is ‘About Spanking’ (click on either of the pictures above to visit)

Finally, I came across ‘Výprasky, prísna výchova a disciplína’ I have absolutely no idea what language this is in (please someone let me know) but with inspiring pics like the one on the right here it can’t be bad! I think I would have little doubt about placing her in my employ if I was the owner of some private institution for young ladies and looking for a suitable governess or schoolmistress to curb the livelier spirits amongst them. With her smartly cut high coloured starched blouse, no-nonsense tie and tight skirt can you just imagine what would happen if she were placed in control and given free rein over a small group of teenage girls, kept under lock and key and safely beyond the prying gaze of the general public and free from any possibility of interference from government officials and busybody social workers and the like?