INSTITUTIONALISED Volume 2 Now on LULU (at last!)... I'm Knackered!

I've still got the 'sniffles' but I have managed to get INSTITUTIONALISED Volume 2 up on LULU (Click cover to link). In the end I had to take out a chunk which I couldn't really do justice to in the time I had available but that will still work as a flashback in volume 3 wherein I will have more space to include all of the unfinished sections of writing (some parts dating back over two years) that I would otherwise have had to leave out. As it was, volume 2 was getting unwieldy (over 300 pages at one point) and I have loads of fresh ideas that I would like to pursue and to do so requires a change of scene - as much as I like the whole institutional - reform school - asylum thing.

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For the time being volume 2 will only be on LULU for download - there are bound to be some typos that have gotten through (I am dyslexic, don't forget) and the cover is up for a redesign (I no longer like the present effort and consider it a temporary stopgap). The thing is; it is difficult and expensive to make revisions after an ISBN has been assigned so for the time being I'm holding back from making it available through Amazon, Waterstones et al until such a time as I'm absolutely satisfied with it (volume 1 had 11 revisions in the end). In fact I found a typo just a few moments ago but it is only a misplaced hyphen so although I have corrected my copy I have not bothered to upload the correction to LULU - it's daybreak here in Londinium and I haven't been to bed yet. I have also yet to post up a proper book description on LULU (I've just recycled the one from volume 1 for the time being) and I haven't had time yet to create a proper preview (because I'm going to bed). It is actually really quite hard to find on LULU via a straight forward search at the moment - but then, I have only just this minute (quite literally) uploaded the thing and it probably takes LULU's search-engine a while to get going. Obviously it will not appear in a google search at all at present - a situation that will remain until I am totally happy and have registered the ISBN (but it is hugely cheaper to electronically download these things anyway rather than buy a physical copy through a bookshop, because of their enormous markup).

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One other thing - I have used an illuminated letter at the start of each chapter (in the hope of creating something of a Gothic feel - just a little bit of fun and frivolity) but it pushes up the file size so if anyone has any difficulty downloading please let me know and I'll upload the plain version. I am also think of quite quickly (for me that is) putting out a shortish followup / adendum to fill in the gaps and tie up loose ends before working on volume 3 per se - that would allow me to change scene entirely to a more domestic setting without having to worry over flashback scenes (at least in terms of flashbacks to the institution). What do you think? I actually really feel quite nervous at the moment to be honest with you, despite the positive response I got from volume 1 - volume 2 is a different beast in some ways and I'm a little worried that it all got a bit too ambitious (so please be gentle with me - I don't feel well).

Night - night...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Yet More Proofreading, a Cough and a Spanking (blog)

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Induced Image Dysmorphism and Other Wonders

Sorry for sparsity of updates of late but 'yours truly' is buried deep in final proofreading at present. But I am still in connect by email with various folk who have contributed their ideas and what have you in the past and one of these kind people recently sent me a link to a story that I found so intriguing that I damn near lost a whole days proofreading due to the fact that I just couldn't 'put it down' so to speak. And of course I then went on to work my way through a lot of the other tales presented on the same site. Not all turned out to be my thing but I have to urge you to read the tale that got the ball rolling “Rest and Relaxation” (click to go to the story page and then look for the story title. the author is definitely ‘evil’ and is herself the inspiration for the dominant character: Dr Evelyn Benedict. There story touches on many of my favorites: Leg-braces (the use of which you will encounter in the upcoming INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2), humiliation, mind control, corsets, catheters, sensory deprivation, dependence, immobilization. The use of a drug similar to botox and in a way that has been discussed on this site in the past is featured at one point and I have to say that the writing is excellent, give or take the odd typo - even though I generally don't go for first person accounts, I loved this one. The site is called Evil Dolly.com and you can find a link to the main page in the sidebar 'useful resources' list over on the right some place. If you like psychological manipulation I can also recommend you read 'Workout Girl' on the same site, wherein a girl is deliberately addicted to exercising to a pathological extent and encouraged to develop what amounts to a body dysmorphism condition - whereby no matter how slim and toned she becomes she is convinced that she still looks fat and becomes more and more obsessed with exercise regimes and diet to the exclusion of all else (very, debilitating)... see y'all soon with a proper post.

Drip, Drip, Drip - Just an Idea

I'd been working hard, of course, on proofreading volume 2 and it is coming on in leaps and bounds now, although I must admit that I spent the majority of yesterday in a pub in Enfield working on an idea I came up with some time ago for INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2 . I just thought it would be fun to share it with you and see what feedback I get. Basically it is a scene in which a girl has been repeatedly refusing to fully take part in her one-to-one sessions with the psychotherapist. While she insists on this policy of non-compliance she is being kept in an isolated room in between sessions. As, for reasons I won't go into here, she is in plaster casts, she is generally confined to bed and is on a drip-feed. She is thoroughly restrained while in her hospital bed, the worry being that she might twist her back and neck (which may or may not have been injured in an accident previously) a broad webbing strap runs across her forehead to restrain her head and protect her neck while she sleeps (there is also a neck brace involved). The strap has a three centimetre diameter circular hole in its centre - nothing that sinister so far you may think.
The tube from her drip feed hangs across the head of her bed and of course naturally sags in the centre at the point where a coupling connects together two lengths of tubing to extend the run over to the cannula in her wrist on the opposite side. It is in the centre of that deeply sagging section, just above her forehead where the drip first begins to form, the liquid dribbling along the tubing from one of the joints, the golden, viscous heavy oily fluid gathering and growing and stretching until…until…it falls, icy stabbing cold and splashing down dead centre on her pretty little forehead, straight through that conveniently placed opening in the head restraint strap…over and over again.
Of course talking without permission is not allowed and complaining of the fault, having been finally driven to distraction, to one of the nurses that share shifts and sit silently reading by her bed side, only gets her bent across the bed for a few strokes of the cane…then the drip feed is refilled and it all starts again…deprived of sleep she is taken once every 24 hrs to the therapists office and if not yet convinced to co operate? well, then its straight back to bed…drip, drip, drip…

Another Blog to Check - While I Get on With Volume 2 / 3

Hi peeps: If you always enjoyed the stories they used to have in those old classic Janus magazines of the past (as I did) and gloried in the artwork of Lynn Paula Russell (Paula Meadows, as was then) you could do far worse than visit Uncle Peter's Spanking Stories ( click, or see the sidebar blog list). By the way, the marvelous little Paula Russell drawing on the left I just couldn't resist - even though it didn't actually come from that particular site. it evokes a question that was broached in volume 1, is visited from an institutional perspective in volume 2 and will be dealt with in more detail in volume 3 - wherein a strict governess, steeped in Victorian mores to the point at which to her and her charges the modern world might as well not exist, brings to bear her own unique approach to the subject. That question is of course: within a strict disciplinary framework, should masturbation ever be allowed - and if not how should it be controlled or curtailed? Indeed, under certain circumstances, is there a case one could make for masturbation to be not only allowed but actively encouraged, perhaps seven enforced under strict supervision? Of course there are chastity belts and other such physically restrictive measures that could be applied (and were, historically). But with in a hospital / institution environment or even under the guidance of a suitably qualified and skilled governess, as I envisage, there is much scope to think about approaches to aversive tactics or the subtle use of association (perhaps through the provision of suitable books, magazines and images - the perusal of which might be enforced or left up to the young lady herself - or indeed, through psychologically therapeutic means such as guided imagery) to mould and sculpt her ideas and predilections. Well, what do you think? Any ideas out there?

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See y'all later when I've got a bit more done - Wicked Uncle Garth.

A New and Intriguing Story to Check Out

A very short posting today, no pics I'm afraid - not enough time to source 'em. I'm hard at work - chained to my desk (not literally - I'm the master here. That's why my significant other has her nice new white satin pinny to wear)....and no drinkies!. I just wanted to take this opportunity (I've awarded myself a tea break) to point you in the direction of an interesting straitjacket / asylum story presently unfolding and developing on http://greggerbits.tripod.com/stories.html (click to read chapter 1 ) the basic premise being that a young college woman who fails a psychiatric exam [is then] committed to a mental hospital for further testing. I love this idea and the avenues it opens up - especially if in truth there is little wrong with the subject to start with! I have always enjoyed mulling over the possibilities for exploitation of vulnerable young things inherent in the asylum / mental health system - particularly as pertains to those often less-than-entirely-ethical days of old when wives, awkward stepdaughters and heiresses could find they had stepped out of society based on little more than the word of a disgruntled stepmother or guardian or even a slighted suitor (And a greasing of a palm or two by silver). Anyway, why not explore the entire site while you are there - a lot of interesting links (very straitjacket / asylum orientated) and a lot of material regarding straitjackets in various media (films, TV etc). Incidentally, yours truly has been kindly thanked by the writer (thanks, for the mention) for having helped but in all honesty I can claim only to have read through, made one or two comments and offered-up a couple of ideas for the story's future development and direction.

While we are on the subject - inspired by the story mentioned above, I did a little searching around and came up with a couple of other little gems: A nice selection of free straitjacket photographs on http://www.straitjacketed.com/freepics.html (click site name - highlighted in blue - to view or see sidebar resource list) and a continuing story that I am sure you (and the writer I have just mentioned above) will just love. Entitled; The Job j and posted on the same site's free section, just click on the title to read the first chapter, then just follow the links to the subsequent sections...enjoy!

As for me? Its back to proofreading / editing INSTITUTIONALISED volume 2 / 3 (At this point, I'm still uncertain whether to split it into two volumes or not).

A New Art Link (Bondage) by Coco & a Little Bit of Stranger than Fiction Inspiration

Hi folks; Its a so called 'Bank Holiday' here in the UK which basically means a few folk get Monday off of work (those lucky enough to still have jobs that is - unlike yours truly). It used to mean practically every one got the day off but nowadays a lot of folk still have to work - just as they now do on Sundays and every other day of the week (and year, before long, I'd wager!). Mind you; if that means the pubs are kept open, then I'm all for it! (but pubs are going down like flies too - crushed beneath the heel of the credit crunch). I was hoping to go to an antiques fair at Alexandra Palace today, but got dragged instead to help run a stool at a car-boot sale in Hertfordshire - a sort of casually arranged bric-a-brac sale usually held in a field wherein folk sell their old junk brought in their car's boot (automobile trunk - for all you State-side people). Now I'm back to the final stages of proofreading, while still considering whether to split volume 2 into two books - and if so - how much extra work, and thus time, that would entail. If I can do so, sensibly, inside one week, then I may still do so - as long as the split ends the first and begins the second part in a sensible way; and a way that makes the story enjoyable to follow on without confusion.

Meanwhile; I have just been sent a new link (for which, much gratitude) to the excelent bondage art of Coco (click on artwork above or on the title highlighted in blue to link - or check out the sidebar resource list over on the right). And on the subject of 'truth stranger than fiction' (and something that should come as a source of inspiration for 'Judith's Aunt' - a contributor from a while ago now and from whom we have heard little of late...hint, hint... as regards the disciplining of her niece) no sooner did I add a little descriptive work to a section of volume 2 dealing with a form of shame-dress discipline (you will see what I mean if and when you read it) then I came across the following text...And I thought I was being so imaginative!

"We sometimes wore itchy woollen combinations, which were really uncomfortable, with sleeves down to the wrist, and our Liberty bodices were fastened with buttons to our knickers, so that meant unfastening them every time we went to the lavatory! On top of the petticoats we wore cotton frocks in summer, or kilts in winter, and sometimes these long shapeless jersey dresses. I had a navy coloured reefer coat and we had to wear laced ankle boots because my mother believed they helped to strengthen the ankle. But my older sister made such a fuss about them, we stopped wearing them in the end. I had a straw hat for summer and a velour winter hat." "Many young teenage girls were still [kept in] corsets [then]: "[That] was before roll-ons and corselets became popular, and [teenage girls had corsets that hooked up at the side. We wore two pairs of knickers, with navy blue bloomers on the outside and a white cotton 'liner' on the inside and at school we wore a black alpaca tabard pinafore over our uniform dress. We had house shoes for indoors, and lace-up shoes outdoors and on Sunday we wore patent leather house shoes. {A tabard seems an interesting idea - lots of possibilities there! But I'm not sure about alpaca, though - Garth}

"At home we wore these ghastly knitted dresses, they were absolute horrors with a belt threaded through round the hips, just where we were fattest, at a time when we were at our least shapely anyway. These dresses were knitted for us by somebody, and they had absolutely no shape whatsoever, and we hated them." Quoted and adapted from http://www.aohg.org.uk/twww/clothes1.html).