A Hostage of Discipline?

I spotted this photo someplace and couldn't resist it - or rather I couldn't resist playing about with it.

This could so easily be a scene from the new book, but I’m saying no more than that, for now!

A Provisional Cover

So...  I couldn't get my head around writing much today - too little sleep; the storm last night woke me up and then I couldn't get back off.  But I did have had enough residual get-up-and-go to have completed a quick and easy item for Roger Benson (just adding a 'think' bubble to one of his sketches - though I had to do a little work on the bubble itself first).  And having booted up my photoshop-style software package I felt sufficiently inspired to have a go at some sort of first-draft book cover.  See what you think?  I'd value your opinion.  It's not even the correct aspect ratio at the moment, so it has a long way to go yet.  I'm thinking at the moment that the lower paragraph ('Money was not sufficient...') may be unnecessary, and may even lessen the impact.  Any opinions / ideas?

A New Governess

Today's offering has very little to do with the story arc of the new book, but it might well form part of the basis of the cover design, with certain adaptations to reflect the story.  This is an amalgam of several elements, including no less than three layers, taken from two separate sources, just to build up the woman's cleavage.  And of course the can you will have seen before - it is something I created long ago.  Many thanks to all those who have made a donation thus far to help fund the new work, by the way!

Disciplinary Graduation Day

This has nothing to do with the new book I’m afraid, simply something I cooked up harking back to - and inspired by - the good ol’ INSTITUTIONALISED series, particularly VOLUME 1: BEYOND THE STANFORD EXPERIMENT which some of you, if not most, will doubtless remember.  It is actualy an improved - I think, I hope - revamp of something I created for Tumblr.  The nurse is from an old medical catalogue, the straitjacket girls from a Yahoo Group, the background wall is several repeats of a copy taken from a background image used on THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTE website pasted together.  The barred window is of course something of a repeating motif of mine and is a de novo creation of my own hand (of which there are several versions - originally intended for a comic book project, which might still go ahead now that I’ve had a couple of donations, given sufficient funding).  This is probably not my finest bit of PhotoShop work (actually The Gimp), but I had great fun doing it.  And I hope you gain equal pleasure from viewing it.  
 

I have to admit to having always been fascinated by the idea of blameless captivity, yet legitimised in some manner.  The trap, which, once sprung, proves increasingly more difficult for the young (invariably – although always post-adolescent) woman or girl to extradite herself from.  And the experimental behavioural psychology study gone awry seems to fit the bill nicely, the hapless residential participants being bullied and pressurised into perpetual renewal of their candidacy.  On the other hand, there is more than one way a pretty, nubile young thing might find herself deprived of her freedom and subject to disciplinary zeal; and one such alternative scenario will be examined and explored in the upcoming new book, which by the way is provisionally titled (you have to have SOME sort of working title) ‘HOSTAGE OF DISCIPLINE’ or ‘THE DISCIPLINARIAN’S HOSTAGE’.      

Talking of donations: I have received a couple already for which I am MOST appreciative and cannot thank you enough, particularly one person in particular who has been MORE than generous – I wish I could name names, but that wouldn’t be fair, as I have to respect the donors anonymity; unless he or she wishes otherwise of course. 

Meanwhile, the wrting continues (see my comments on my last posting - in comments section) 

Domestication, Dress and Other Related Issues

   

The domestication process had begun day one, immediately after the ceremony, with the presentation by her spouse of her 'housework outfit'. The chores are pinned upon the kitchen door, and woe betide her if they are not completed. She feels put upon, that she shouldn't submit. And if she wasn't dressed the way she is, perhaps she wouldn't. But the way she is dressed makes her feel 'kept in her place', makes it harder to argue back.

Arranged marriages are nothing new of course, even in Western society. Same-sex marriages are increasingly becoming accepted. How long then before an arranged same-sex marriage? Consider: She has been a hell-cat, a tearaway – no longer! Those days are gone! She is married now – to a woman! A stern, hard-faced older woman hell-bent on domesticating her in a manner no man ever could. Just a year in and already she is a very changed girl, all defiance being lovingly squeezed from her like pips from a lemon. She'd been a reluctant bride of course, a committed boy-chaser beforehand. But her guardian had known what she was doing when she'd placed her future spouse over her a year previous to the ceremony as her governess. “If you can tame her, you can claim her”. 

Well, as you can see I managed to get a 'donate' button in the sidebar.  But it took half the day; it was WELL hidden on Paypal, I must say.  Almost everything I tried ended with me being directed to 'upgrade', which doubtless would have cost money I don't have.  I just hope people don't take its presence wrong.

Feedback on the Buton

Oh lord! WHAT a lot of comments the last posting produced – the most feedback I have received in such a short time since I don't know when! And all for the donate button bar two – the comment received from 'Ben J. Amen' (yes, I do know who you are. But I cant find your email address, so please email me.) and one which arrived via email. Several others which arrived through email were also largely positive, with one or two minor reservations. The consensus seems to be, then, in favour of the inclusion of a donation button and a willingness to make a small donation from time to time. So unless I hear otherwise in the next few hours or so I will go ahead with the idea – at least on a trial period. Saying all that, though, I'm not even sure it can be done on this kind of blog, nor have I looked into it thoroughly. At this moment in time I have no idea how to go about it!

Alan B (yes I know who you are, too), Ben J. Amen (see comments) and two others via email have suggested I put out some of the unfinished fragmentary stuff I have written over the years which might not otherwise see the light of day at some small nominal charge, perhaps with some words of explanation fore and aft to “set the scene”, place it in context and describe where I had intended it to have gone next, had I finished it. And as an email correspondent pointed out, it is true I tend to write the action and event-laden stuff first, as the ideas occur to me (although I already know the premise and context) and then later add in the basic scaffolding which surrounds those events – the story leading up to them, the character development and descriptive stuff / scene setting and so on.

So there is probably much there some of you would find interesting or exciting. However some of it would need editing, even as fragments and action scenes, spell checking and so on. And of course there are those “few paragraphs of explanation” it has been suggested such an undertaking would require. The idea would be to pay some sort of fee via Paypal and I would then email the PDF (as a correspondent points out – LULU, through whom I publish in addition to via my publisher, Andrews UK LTD, charge a minimum fee which would preclude my charging the suggested 50p - £1 a shot (about 1$ or a bit less I think – I'm not sure).

But at the moment I'm not certain I'd like to go down that latter route, if nothing else than for the reason that I don't know I would have the time to do the editing, spelling correction and the introductory text, without which the reader might wonder, not so much what is going on, as the events would largely be self-explanatory I would imagine, but how it all came about in the first place and perhaps who the protagonists are and their relationship and so on. Remember, this is stuff I have not looked at in a long while – one piece I wrote while down in Eastbourne two years ago I have not even looked at since, and I wont have spell-corrected it as I went along either (and my spelling can be SO atrocious, without correction you would have no idea what I was talking about.

But on the other hand, if enough folk feel strongly enough about it – and there is enough interest out there - I might give it a go in my spare time or when the ideas for the new book dry up from time to time.

So for now it's the donation button, if I can make it work / find out how to do it. I don't know how long I'll need it for, nor whether it will bring in enough to make a difference, but if it will just pay for my internet connection it would help. The work I'm doing with Roger Benson will undoubtedly prove lucrative and my new book, should I get it finished MAY prove lucrative (a bit – it's mainly a labour of love! And the work on the website wont be lucrative at all) but the problem is: they are not being lucrative right now! Oh well! And the banners you see round you don't work: the links will lead you to the relevant sites but in the most part those sites have changed their revenue collection companies and so I don't get a penny (my fault – I haven't kept up to date!).

If and when the button appears it will, I imagine, be found at the top of the right hand side bar.

Bye for now. And thanks for your feedback and to all those who have shown their support. Sometimes words are all it takes to gladden the heart! (The fact that it is a sunny day helps too!)

An embarrassing – Nay, Humiliating – Innovation: A Request for Feedback / Your Opinion

(And I don't mean for one of my characters either)

Hi folks!

A request for feedback:

Today you find your scribe VERY much in the doldrums... Errr... Basically I'm penniless – or nearly so! At present I am putting all my energies (or nearly so) in to the new book (which is coming along nicely – or would be if I wasn't being afflicted by bouts of debilitating panic) while simultaneously working on a project alongside Roger Benson and the 3D artist, Angela Fox (which, I think is nowhere near completion and from which I am unlikely to derive much in the way of monetary reward). I'm also embroiled in rebuilding the website – The Original Institute – in which the Beyond the Barred Window site resides from the ground up (Yes, it's true I've done little with it for a year, but partly that was because of medical reasons – and all that is about to change. In the meantime, in the absence of any new publication, the income (as small as it was) from my existing titles has all but dried up – as tends to happen.

The thing is: Ordinarily - and up to now - none of this would have mattered much; I was living on savings, it was never expected to generate a living wage (and never will) and was a hobby as much as anything, albeit one I wanted to share – and enjoy sharing - with others. And then the bombshell: Yesterday, at the bank, it emerged I have nothing like the cash left I thought I had. The only way I can understand / explain the situation is that when I walked in to a branch just before Christmas and they told me the balance of my current account, it was in error. What they were referring to was another account I have which holds the remains of my life savings and which, based on the figure they told me, I hadn't expected to have to resort to until mid-way through next year. Consequently I'm in big trouble if I'm to get these various projects, which are VERY dear to my heart - to the point, with no exaggeration, they literally keep me going, psychologically speaking - finished before I am reduced to abandoning everything to run around seeking social benefit and so on (I presently do not claim income support and so on – and work is unlikely).

Sorry if all this sounds rambling but what all this is about is that as much as anything I am seeking your collective opinion: I am considering adding some kind of donation button to the right hand sidebar here and on the websites saying something like “If you have enjoyed the content here and wish to support this blog / website / the author's next outpourings please make a small donation – thank you!”.... I have seen similar elsewhere, but never really liked the concept myself (it sounds a little too much like those characters who bother me in coffee bars and so on), but things are getting truly desperate if I am to finish this and continue writing (I expect loads of folks will now pitch up and say, well why bother then – you're bloody awful! But I know SOME folks like my stuff – and it IS getting better (I hope).

Anyway... What do you think? Should I add a 'please donate' button? Or is that just TOO distasteful for words? At this stage I am asking for nothing but your opinion – and that just costs a little time and effort.... 

Either post a comment or you can email me direct:

toyntanen@googlemail.com

 Ta!