Discipline Governess or Strict Nurse Uniform Art Project Stage 2: Stand Removed

Now I've removed the stand and repaired the background.  

It doesn't matter at this stage that there is no rear to the inside of the collar where it was obscured by the stand, nor that there is a bit of 'fringing', particularly in that area inside the neck -these are issues that can and will be dealt with later.  

Next: The colour change.  Any preferences?  Let me know - SOON!  

I'm gonna have a cuppa and bite to eat before continuing, so you DO have time!







So now I've dealt with the fringing (see right), though you have to look carefully, and have refined the area around the inside neck and collar and hopefully it looks better.  How, is a trade secret, but it is enough to say it involves three layers! 

So... The colour change is coming up - easy enough - THEN I've got to put a woman in it (NOT so easy).

Inspiration for A One-Day Discipline Art Project: Follow Step by Step as it Grows and Flowers (I hope!) Stage One: The Raw Source Material

This is a new and hopefully innovative project idea I have literally just this moment come up with.  The sun is shining outside - fairly blazing down, here in North London - and I am trying to distract myself from going to the pub, particularly important since I am due to start a part-time gym instructor / personal trainer course this coming Thursday.  Now, this is due to run every Thursday and Friday for the next two months or so, but should not impact overly on my writing since Monday and Tuesday are my best writing days since I have the place to myself those days (and a half-day or so Friday, but it's rare there is really time to get into it / settle down sufficiently anyway).  

I know what you're probably thinking: 'Why the hell is he Effing about with this stuff then when, by his own admission, he should be scribbling away?'  And you'd be right of course - I DO have several pieces of work languishing unfinished.  But I just know that today the lure of the pub would be too great (AND I'd have to borrow the money - the great thing about this gym course thingy is that it is 100% government funded); already, first thing, I'd started convincing myself I'd get a whole lot done down at the pub; but an art project as I propose to undertake today (if you can call it that) can NOT be done down at the pub (although if I get it finished in time... hmmm...); and if it encourages some who have yet to read my existing stuff to read my stuff (better still, to write their own stuff or contribute their ideas here!) so much the better!

But don't get TOO excited.  What I propose to do today is really only an extension of those photo manipulation things I have been doing for ages, which have been inspired either by my book plots or based on one or more images which I have come across and which have inspired new ideas or suggested things or events for inclusion in my new work or new plot directions worthy of exploration, but not sufficiently so as to tell the WHOLE story in the way I would like them to. 

So often an image on its own may be perfectly innocent, or at most open to re-interpretation, given the right mindset.  But when combined with certain other images - some everyday, some less so - of varying degrees of innocence or potential for re-interpretation, those same perfectly everyday images may well tell an entirely different story.  And that is the subject of today's project - I don't know whether it will succeed or not, nor how far it will get in the time allotted, nor if the resulting image or its part-completed intermediate will gel with any of you out there; I've no way of knowing at this juncture; and that is partly what is exciting about it.  Well, for better or worse, however it ends up, here is the starting point - something I blundered into quite by accident while looking for something else entirely, in connection with an email I'd received first thing this morning.  

I found this on Ebay and the reason my interest was piqued was that it is not unlike (although not perfectly the same - thought it shares stylistic similarities) the sort of work dress or frock-style overall described as a kind of prison uniform dress within the pages of the original INSTITUTIONALISED series.  But what occurred to me for some reason was that it could so easily represent the other side of the equation with a few modifications (something I have played about with before, to be honest).  Now you HAVE to admit that in its present incarnation the imagery really IS perfectly innocent - just a 1950s or 60s work dress on a display dummy / stand, not even a manikin.  

Well what I propose - and what I think is innovative about today's project - is to work on it as the day progresses, publishing the intermediate stages here in a stepwise manner as I go along - and we can see where it leads together.  

Probably the first thing I am going to do - once I get rid of the stand and repair the background - is change the colour.  I tend to like that sort of 'hospital blue' colour (I think that is actually a real shade).  What do YOU think? At this stage the colour is fairly easy to manipulate, so let me know.  Perhaps some of you could even write in with other suggestions / themes - and if I receive them soon enough perhaps I might be able to accommodate some of them in the final image; who knows?  A sort of shared interactive design process.  Let's give it a try anyway!

Incidentally, in glorious (and I'd imagine, almost unwearable) Bri-nylon, this vintage creation sold on Ebay for a stunning £100.  Back in the day - the 1980s to 90s at least - this type of thing along with all manner of matching or at least teamable aprons, tabards and so on would have been available down the local charity shop for a pittance (before disappearing completely) - a source my wife of the time and I exploited many a time in kitting out our young house guest, a girl we had staying with us at the time. 

So here we go with stage one...  

The Mental Hospital Discipline Dress or Gown: As Excellent Around the House as in Institutional Incarceration

This is one in a range of institution-issue female patient dresses with prominently printed diagnosis labels. The latter is an innovation aimed at informing and thus influencing the attitude and responses to her and of those she may come in contact with, in addition to her care-givers themselves, ensuring she encounter consistent reactions and constant reinforcement of her mindset as a mental patient while at the same time acting as a constant reminder to the patient herself of her psychological shortcomings and limitations thus helping to overcome denial and quell rebellion before it has a chance to develop.      

 

This female patient dress is inspired by the INSTITUTIONALISED trilogy by yours truly. Garth P. Toyntanen, (click author’s name / book title to visit / see)

I'm presently uploading more stuff like this to my Pinterest account incedently 'Institutional Discipline, Uniforms & Strict, No-nonsense Nurses' (click to visit) The dress or gown features an internal molded latex phallus based on a mold taken from an actual penis, elastic  nappy (diaper) positioning and restraining straps in the gusset area and prominently printed diagnosis label on the frontage.  This particular version with the internal phallus or dildo is intended for domestic use prior to - and in preparation for - long term care home or mental hospital incarceration and requires an especially adapted nappy featuring an aperture to accommodate the aforementioned appendage.  The latter, incidentally, can be formed from a mold taken from the man of the house if required.  The appendage can be rear mounted for continual anal penetration or front mounted for vaginal penetration or indeed the outfit can be supplied with two, mounted fore and aft to allow both orifices to be simultaneously filled, although since the dress is primarily designed to accommodate a nappy (diaper) and for enforced nappy use within a care home or other institution the rear penetrating version is not necessarily recommendable.  In addition, in a domestic environment worn around the home, the man of the house may well prefer the nappy be left off during her waking hours, partly to allow for easy and continual visual inspection / supervision but also to allow for the slaking of his masculine needs when the desire so awakens within him and two versions possessing a rear opening for this purpose are available, one with a zip fastener strategically positioned over the bottom area and one with an elasticated circular opening.  

 

Also, now that I am no longer doing work for Roger Benson - don't ask, it wasn't pretty (anyone wanna see the email?  Hands up at the back there!) - I'm open to commissions (you know the sort of thing - you see a picture and it's GOOD but it's not quite 'there' (with me it's usually the surroundings but often it's silly stuff like a wristwatch where no wristwatch has a right to be (God!  That sounds WEIRD! ) or a tattoo (I HATE tattoos - although...  Hey, didn't I feature tattooing in one of my books?)  For example on the new revamped cover I recently created for INSTITUTIONALISED VOL 2 I features a nurse photo someone sent me years ago - but I had to remove her nail varnish first... it's these little things sometimes - don't you think?). 

 

One last thought - I'm quite getting into Pinterest; so if you have a Pinterest account let me know and I'll feature a link here over in the left hand sidebar (there IS only one, so quite why I insist on keeping saying 'left hand' I don't know - perhaps I just like the sound of my own voice!  Hang on! I'm writing, not talking; ok strictly speaking I'm typing; my voice recognition stuff has died on me, principally coz one of my kids has trashed the microphone, but you get my drift I'm sure; and did you know - I mainly think in pictures...  I thought everybody did... no, really!  God, it must be really naff not to be able to walk in a room, look around for a bit, then visualize it from any angle - I thought everyone could do that, or at least I did until I studied organic chemistry and the subject of chirality came up and the same people asked the same question week after bloody week...  err... you just turn the molecule around in your head - don't you?  Sometimes it pays to be dyslexic!)  Well, the sun is out - and so am I... Well, I'm going out at least...  See Ya!

A Stinging Bottom - and a Full Tummy: OR: Burning (Her) Ambitions

Sometimes a young woman - especially one in her late teens -may possess ideas and ambitions above her station, hopes dreams and aspirations which - if she should be allowed to continue to entertain them - could conspire to make her headstrong and intransigent and encourage her to take on airs and graces incompatible with her coming to terms with having been placed in care and impede her in her adjustment to the necessary curtailment of certain personal freedoms and previously enjoyed privileges and status which institutional life inevitably brings with it.

 If she is to be helped and freed from forever hankering after life outside the care home and aided in refraining from perpetually struggling against the routine, stipulations, restrictions and discipline that are a necessary part of the smooth running of any such residential institution it is necessary that  the subject be brought to heel in the first instance by way of an intervention having the goal of illustrating and demonstrating to her the self-deluding futility of these fancies and fantasies.

       

Roger Benson's Greystone Reformatory - An Introduction and Poll by the Man Himself

!!!POLL NOW OPEN: SCROLL DOWN FOR QUESTIONS!!!! 

LUSCIOUS LORNA LEARNS HER LESSONS

The Greystone Reformatory for Naughty Girls was, in effect, an elite correctional facility for the pretty, shapely curvaceous teener daughters of rich personages living in the Pleasantown area.

The Reformatory was located in a Gothic building in a scenic but very secluded area some 40 miles north of Pleasantown.  It’s interior, however, had been completely updated in keeping with the spirit of the modern minded 1950s.  The girls’ cells and the Reformatory’s many Punishment Rooms were models of efficiency and perfect hygiene.  In fact, at Greystone, no expense had been spared to make it the blueprint for an institution dedicated to the correction of naughty teener girls!

The Punishment Rooms were where the girls were made to undergo many beneficial “correctional ordeals”, many of them inspired by the bizarre and exotic devices and procedures found in Irving Klaw’s famous “Bondage Serials”, drawn by such masters as Eneg (Gene Bildrew), Eric Stanton, Ruiz, Mory, and many others.  (Mr. Klaw’s products are available from his Nutrix Company, located at 35 Montgomery Street inJersey City, New Jersey).

The inmate “enrolment” at Greystone seldom exceeded more than 10 teener girls and only the prettiest, most shapely girls were accepted.  The girls’ parents paid very high fees to have their darling but naughty daughters corrected at Greystone so the girls wouldn’t be exposed to the undesirable “riff raff” at the State Reformatory.  Greystone also received large donations from certain personages who favored strict discipline for naughty girls and enjoyed receiving certain exclusive 8 mm films , photographs, and tape recordings from Greystone. 

Greystone was directed by Superintendent Ella Baines, a handsome, athletically built woman in her late forties.  Miss Baines held advanced degrees in psychology and adolescent correction.  She was ably assisted by a large staff of professionally trained, discipline-minded Matrons, and Greystone’s lesbian sadistic medico, Dr. Elaine Fenton, an attractive, strongly built blonde much feared by the hapless teener inmates!

Girls incarcerated at Greystone were never allowed to have visitors but they were permitted – in a very controlled way – to correspond with their parents and their boyfriends.  Needless to say, this correspondence was very carefully monitored and managed by each girl’s Senior Supervisory Matron!

We’ll soon return to “Adorable April’s Introduction to Greystone” but, for a slight change of pace, let’s explore and express our opinions on some very interesting correspondence!

....................................................................................

THE GREYSTONE REFORMATORY FOR NAUGHTY GIRLS

August 3, 1959

Mr. Rodney Long,

4000 Ridge Road,

Pleasantown

Dear Rodney,

I’m afraid your darling girlfriend, Lorna Jane, didn’t do very well in  Deportment Class yesterday.  Her essay on “Ten Ways to be a Good Girl” received an “F” grade from the instructor, Teaching Matron Curtly!

That means dear Lorna Jane is going to have a “hot date” this coming Saturday night –involving my glossy black, oval shaped, hard backed wooden hairbrush and her girlishly plump, succulently shapely bare buttocks and the ripely rounded backs of her thighs where they are bare above her stocking tops.  I expect she really enjoyed it when you felt them up!

But I digress!  After she has had her sixty smacks and is blubbering like a naughty six year old instead of a big 18 in tautly-suspendered, ultra-sheer nylon stockings and tight fitting, glossy black patent leather pumps with high spike heels, should I give her a nice 30 ounce, warm, soapy enema?  Naturally, the Vaseline slimed, hard rubber retention plug will be put in her afterward so she can enjoy lying face down on the hard, white metal enema tableand feel the enema solution working inside her. It must be somewhat uncomfortable, judging from the way the girls sob, gasp, and whimper during the 30 minutes they are plugged.  Teaching Matron Curtly said it would give her a good opportunity to think about her deficient essay and ways of doing better next time!

It’s up to you, Rodney, dear.  I’m sure a big, accomplished boy like you can decide what’s best for darling Lorna Jane’s “inner bottom”.  Naturally, I’ll require her to read your letter in which you make your decision.  And, of course, if you decide Lorna Jane’s for the enema tube, I’ll require her to write a nice, long, newsy letter telling you all about what it was like!!

Fondly,

Bessie Stockwell (Miss)

Senior Supervisory Matron 

....................................................................................

4000 RIDGE ROAD

PLEASANTOWN

August 5, 1959

Senior Supervisory Matron Bessie Stockwell

The Greystone Reformatory for Naughty Girls

Dear Matron Stockwell.

Gosh, Matron Stockwell – thanks ever so much for your letter of August 3^rd.

I’m really sorry to learn that Lorna Jane did so badly on her essay for Deportment Class but I understand the importance of high standards and Teaching Matron Curtly’s concern that her professional standards are met!  Personally, I think we do best when we are really challenged!  I really admire Teaching Matron Curtly’s high standards!

I’m so sorry that dearest Lorna Jane’s pretty, girlishly big bottom is going to have to get spanked but poor work has to be corrected!   I’m sure she’ll do better on her next essay! I have really thought a lot about your suggestion that darling Lorna Jane also be given a nice warm, soapy enema!  I guess it will be a bit uncomfortable for her but, as Teaching Matron Curtly wisely says, it will give her a chance to think about her poor essay work and finding ways of doing better in the future.  So I think for these beneficial reasons, darling Lorna Jane would really benefit from a nice long enema session! 

I know Matron Stockwell will make you read this letter, Lorna Jane, dearest, and I want you know how much I adore you and how I only want what is best for you.   I know that the enema will cause you some discomfort but I know it will help you get the most benefit from what is going to happen to you if you really concentrate your thoughts on your essay work while you are getting it! (Both the spanking and the enema!)  And I will be thinking about you, dearest, and how the Matrons at the Greystone Reformatory are only doing what is best for you!

I really look forward, dear Matron Stockwell, to the next letter you make Lorna Jane write to me!  I hope it will be really newsy and contains all the details and I can’t wait to read how darling Lorna Jane felt while she was being spanked and then getting an enema!! I’m

sure the corrective measures will help her to learn her lessons and produce good work that will please you all, including Teaching Matron Curtly!!

Yours most respectfully,

Rodney Young III

 ....................................................................................

THE GREYSTONE REFORMATORY FOR NAUGHTY GIRLS

August 10, 1959

Dearest Rod,

Thank you so much, dearest, for writing to Madam Matron Stockwell and recommending that I get a nice soapy enema as well as a spanking for my poor work in Madam Teaching Matron Curtly’s class on Deportment.  They were both awful (although in very different ways!) but I just have to admit that I was a naughty girl to write such a poor essay and that I deserved strict punishment for my shortcomings.

Madam Matron Stockwell is with me right now helping me to write this letter and I am ever so grateful to her for all the interest she takes in me and the things she does to me to help me atone for my naughtiness and become a good girl who has paid her debt to society.

Madam Matron Stockwell came to my cell at exactly 8:00 PM on Saturday night and when I heard the key turning in the lock of my cell door, I immediately got to my feet and stood with my arms at my sides and my head bowed in contrition. 

I just couldn’t help gulping when I saw that Madam Matron Stockwell was carrying her glossy black, oval shaped, hard backed wooded hairbrush – the very hairbrush Madam Matron Stockwell had promised me a date with!

And, golly, Rod dearest, just as Madam Matron Stockwell promised, it surely did turn out to be a “hot date”!!

I had to take my tight, short sleeved sweater off (the one with my Reformatory number humiliatingly stenciled on its back) and also take off my tight skirt and then hang both garments up carefully in my little closet.  This left me bare except for my skimpy, black and white striped cotton bra and panties, off-white, elastic garter belt, tautly-suspendered, ultra-sheer Teen Queen “Tan Temptation” nylon stockings, and tight fitting, glossy black patent leather pumps with 4 and ¼ inch spike heels.

Madam Matron Stockwell then seated herself on my hard, narrow, pillowless Reformatory cot and ordered me to go over her knee!  Then she took my panties down until they were below my stocking tops, firmly gripped me around my curvaceous waist, and warned me that she was about to commence my Execution – words which I surely dreaded!

I got 50 slowly spaced hairbrush smacks on my girlishly plump, succulently shapely bare bottom and 10 on the backs of my ripely rounded thighs where they were bare above the tops of my stockings!  Golly, Rod dearest, did that awful  hairbrush ever sting and burn – just like it always does!  Did I ever sob, shriek, plead, and promise but Madam Matron Stockwell just calmly continued administering the strict discipline a naughty teener girl needs!!

When the spanking was finally over (and there were times when I thought it never would be!), Madam Matron Stockwell let me remain over her knee for five minutes while I did my best to get my girlish blubbering at least a bit under control.  Then Madam Matron Stockwell, in a pleasant but no-nonsense tone of voice – ordered me to get up and take my panties right off and put my sweater back on. Then Madam Matron Stockwell handcuffed my wrists behind my back and announced, “You’re for The Enema Chamber, young lady!”

As Madam Matron Stockwell  marched me to my dreaded destination, my poor b..bottom throbbed and burned so much that I could only take those tiny “Oww, I can barely walk!” steps a freshly-spanked girl in high spike heels always takes!  My spike heels really clicked on The Reformatory’s concrete floors and I could just tell that my girlishly big, well-reddened bottom was wiggling shamefully.   Madam Matron Stockwell said you’d probably enjoying watching me!  I just about died of humiliation when I heard that!!  Then I blushed as red as my b..bottom when Madam Matron Stockwell went on to say, “But it’s probably just as well the dear boy isn’t here.  He’d likely have a very embarrassing accident in his pants.”

Golly, Rod, dearest – not only did I blush scarlet when I heard that, I gasped out loud.  Madam Matron Stockwell just smil

....................................................................................
POLL QUESTIONS

Q1. Do you think Lorna Jane deserved strict discipline for poor essay work?

Q2. Which aspect of her discipline do you think Lorna Jane found most distressing?

Q3. From the correspondence, what is your impression of Matron Stockwell?

Q4. Do you think Rod remained faithful to Lorna Jane while she was in Gresytone?

Option 1: Yes

Option 2: I think he quickly found another pretty, shapely girl to keep him                        entertained during Lorna Jane’s absence.


 

Q5.  Do you think Rod felt deeply sorry for poor Lorna Jane or actually sexually enjoyed

        reading about what was happening to her at Greystone (including the exclusive

        photographs kindly sold to him by Matron Stockwell)?

Question 5

Q6.  When Rod casually mentioned to his Father that Lorna Jane had written him

        about being so worried about her second impending strapping and begged that

        he might speak with Magistrate Meecher about giving her a reprieve, what do

        think his reaction was?

Question 6

Option 1:  “Yes, son.  I’ll do everything I can.”

Option 2:  “The little bitch needs regular correction strappings on that girlishly big ass of hers!”

Q7. Do you think Lorna Jane’s second strapping was reprieved by Magistrate Meecher?

Q8.  If you think Lorna Jane got her second strapping do you think Rod told

        her – when they were back together again – a long story about how he pleaded

        with his Father to help so Lorna Jane would use her mouth on him as an

        act of deep gratitude?

Question 8

Q9. In this situation who would most like to be?

At Last: A New Cover For INSTITUTIONALISED Vol 2 - and a New Version of the CORPORATE RAIDER Roll-Playing Game

NOTE: SCROLL DOWN OR CLICK HERE FOR NEW CORPORATE RAIDER LINK

Hi Folks!  The sun’s out here in North London so I’m in a more positive mood today – in the mood to get things done.  And I’ve done a lot in the last few days anyway - despite the overcast conditions that have been prevalent and the shortening days, which always gets to me – especially in terms of the new book, for which I’ve had many inspired new ideas (although a fair few of these may find themselves in a separate work). 

One of the issues I have begun to address is the collapsing sales via LULU. In order to try to get around whatever problem it is which LULU has introduced while ‘improving’ their service I have decided to re-publish some of my volumes (since this has done the trick in the past – dunno why), starting with re-uploading the text file for INSTITUTIONALISED Vol 2. 

I decided to take the opportunity to update the cover of this volume, specifically in an attempt to improve the depiction of the strict dominant nurse with her cane, since I have always been dissatisfied with the somewhat ragged appearance of this element (though I love the image itself) and my skills in photo manipulation have improved so much since the original publication date of 2009 (yes it WAS that long ago!), no doubt due in no little measure to all the work I put in on the, presently sidelined, comic book project, but also the captioned and manipulated images I have created for Tumblr and the work I have been doing collaborating with Roger Benson on his new book over the last couple of years (new poll coming soon, by the way – probably tomorrow!). 

I’d really, REALLY like to know your opinion on this, so please let me have your feedback.  Also – should I redesign any of the other covers?  And if so, which ones – and what elements should be included / excluded?

Also, I have been contacted by the author of the roll-playing game – CORPORATE RAIDER –  about a new update.

Announcing a new updated, a massive third follow on to the previous game CORPORATE RAIDER 3…  And it gets even nastier, even darker. 

Click on either game name above to link and visit the new updated verson – and don’t forget to tell your friends!!!  I’ll be putting a permanent link in the sidebar soon, too – so there’ll be no excuse for not joining in, if roll-playing games are your ‘thing’!

Punished for the Entertainment of a Third Party?

‘Her future no longer lay in further education – she accepted that now.  She wasn’t up to it, psychologically speaking. She’d never been up to it from the perspective of her psychological make-up – nor from the standpoint of her native intelligence, either – she just hadn’t realised it before, hadn’t been able to face up to it, her limitations, had been trapped in… what was it the doctor called it?  Denial?  Delusion, denial – call it what you will; it was something the doctor had FORCED her to face up to, to come to grips with, and continued to.  Delusion and denial were dealt with by a firm hand these days – a firm hand and a wickedly pliant cane or well-oiled leather strap or sometimes a doubled-over leather belt or the thin black plastic belt the doctor wore threaded through the belt loops around the waistband of her skirt.  But one thing that truly terrified her, kept her in line if ever she fought back (as occasionally she still did) was that threat of having her ‘put away’.  And the woman could DO that, too – it was no idle threat!  She could pull strings, not only have her ‘put away’ but placed under the doctor’s own personal supervision too, even have her lobotomised!  THAT was always the threat if she refused to bend for the cane or the switch. 

She’d come straight from school, straight into this – and she wouldn’t be moving on, there’d be no further progress; she was here for keeps… unless… No, she didn’t want to think about it.’ 

................................................................

Right!  Enough of that! Hi again folks!

You may be wondering why you've heard so little from me for a while, other than for the Roger Benson polls and similar I have been pasting up.  Well, we had a death in the family - an uncle (I'm fast running out of uncles - actually I've just realised I'm now COMPLETELY out of uncles!  I hadn't though about that till now) - and also I have been forced to take on a gym personal trainer course to try to supplement my income from that route once qualified (I have a master's degree in human nutrition and food science, so that's one aspect already in place - and lord knows how many years of gym experience) and the course takes six weeks, so not too long. 

I'm still hoping to get the book out in the very near future - or some part of it, if it goes out in multi-part format - before embarking on the gym instructor course though (the book I started around this time - or a bit earlier, last year).  I have had to place the book on the back burner several times over the past twelve months or so in order to finish off the Roger Benson art project (and I have to admit to having become sidetracked on more than one occasion by other projects, including a couple of shared projects which are

languishing uncompleted on my hard drives), but I'm switching over now to giving the new book utmost priority, as my need to quickly generate some kind of income, however modest, grows ever more acute. Luckily my birthday didn't cost much, since I got treated to quite a few drinkies by pub friends (which was nice) and the Clacton, Essex coast cycle trip cost very little beyond food and a few coffees and the rail fare back (I was too knackered to face a return trip - and had to hurry back for the other half's birthday) since I was able to stay with the kids and their grand parents - but things have gone REALLY pear-shaped now.

One of the problems I have encountered (beyond my bank, about eighteen months ago, advising me I had more funds available than in fact I had, which I've moaned about before) has been with the publishing site LULU from which income has all but completely dried up.  This is a state of affairs which began when they 'improved' the way they categorise book titles and the manner in which their search engine operates.  Yes, I changed the categorisation of my books to suit, but to little avail.  Looking back over the months on PayPal I can pinpoint almost exactly the point at which these changes took effect.  Now, I wasn't exactly making a fortune even then - a little LESS than I would claiming unemployment benefit here in the UK in fact - but the revenue from that source immediately dropped to one third of what it was (it was actually down to ONE FIFTH at one point, before I re-categorised my titles).  This has happened several times in the past, and the trick seems to be to withdraw each title and then republish as if new - but what a chore to have to do!  And through no fault of my own either!  It is all very dispiriting!  I just wish they would leave things alone! Trouble is - while I'm fixing LULU (a day it would turn out - I know!) I'm not getting the new book done - and vice versa.  And I've left the new book a while now too - probably TOO long - and have lost the plot a bit and need to read through it all to get going again... but I'll try!  Trouble is, I'm in a panic!

Anyone else out there experienced similar problems with LULU?

Now I've made myself depressed, too! Oh well, by for now!