A Blog Update

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Amelia: A Girl Transported Back in Time: Victorian Schoolroom Discipline in the Twenty-First Century

Outside, the London traffic thundered, horns honked, taxis bobbed and weaved, police sirens wailed and screeched past and buses waited impatiently for passengers to board at their stops.  Inside, it was 1889 from dawn to dusk, night and day, right down to the typically severe Victorian schoolroom discipline.  It was a world in microcosm in which Victoria was on the throne,  corporal punishment was the norm, authority was unquestionable and a girl like this, even one of marriageable age, could - and would - be returned to childhood: and if you were to as much as show the young honourable Amelia Fotheringale-Sloane, heiress to the famed Fotheringale-Sloane estate, a mobile phone she'd turn her pretty head away in terror.

Nothing to do with the NEW book, but inspired by a sequel to one of my earlier works (one of the INSTITUTIONALISED series - some of you may remember it) which never got much further than a hint at the end of a story and a few words on my hard drive - oh well!  Something about this image just brought my mind back to it - I'm not entirely sure what, but that's often the way.  The cane resting on the desk is of course something I created and later added; you have to imagine the metronome is positioned somehere close to the viewer's position.

By the way:  I'm still hard at work on the new book, even though also still working with the artist, Roger Benson, and working on a book on Mad Cows Disease / CJD and other protein conformation disorders in the background.  

I'm also very soon going to reinstate direct, non-moderated, commenting on this blog, since it has been some while since there has been any attempt to post spam - perhaps as early as this very afternoon.  So there will no longer be that annoying delay between you writing in and you seeing your lovingly composed comment up in lights...  Nice, eh!

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.