Come and Get It: MFRW Book Hooks 22 January 2020 + Tidbit Tuesday



The story is free from January 21 thru January 25, 2020. Click the preview link to check it out! After the 25th, the price returns to 99 cents.


Blurb:
Geeky Gandy Stafford's lifelong fantasy comes true when he meets the otherworldly Dorma and Desyra. These last remnants of a botched extraterrestrial invasion discover that they require a great deal of energy to maintain their human forms.

The easiest way to obtain essential power?

Sex, and lots of it.

Snippet:
Gandy watched as sparks blipped in the forms of the two jelly-like aliens. He realized they must be communicating with each other. Suddenly, the pair extended pseudopods from their gelatinous forms and reached into the brush, dragging the terrified groundskeeper to them.

“No, please, please, don’t eat me!” Gandy begged. “I won’t tell anyone what I saw, I swear!”

The aliens pressed their pseudopods to Gandy’s temples. He could suddenly understand their thoughts.

“Fear not, Terran. We have no intention of consuming you.”




Boycott Aaron Carter: Art Thief and Asshole

So, dumpster fire and talentless hack Aaron Carter is ripping off the work of an actual artist to promote his shitty merchandise.



Here is the location of the tweet in case you’d like to respond to Aaron’s entitled temper tantrum. https://t.co/MG78rgCwZr

Here is the article on Forbes where I first learned of this incident. It includes a picture of Jonas’ art.

I added the following sentiment to my retweet of Aaron’s cosmically shitty response to Jonas Jodicke’s classy request that Aaron stop using his art without his permission.

It's probably too much to ask for @aaroncarter to not behave like a complete trash fire for once in his arrogant, entitled life. Aaron is ripping off @JoJoesArt because he doesn't have an original bone in his entire body. Don't buy his overpriced merch, he doesn't deserve a cent.

I wouldn’t wipe my ass with Aaron’s overpriced clothes. Please share this so everyone knows what a colossal douchebag Aaron the Art Thief is.

Weekend Writing Warriors 19 January 2020 (PA, RO, SF)



Diane dried her dark eyes and put on her glasses. She made her way to the kitchen to put the kettle on the stove.

“I’d another one of those dreams, Dain.”

“The ones frae the future?”

“Cer. I’m an Arab girl, adopted by a dreadful churl of a man and his weak wife. I’ve two brothers, wee twins, six years younger than me. Their names are Gerry and Paul.”

“Di, do ye not suppose ye might be projecting yer emotions over Gerry’s troubles into yer dreams, Love? And, after all, you yerself were adopted.”

~Cie for Naughty Netherworld Press~

This snippet comes from Team Netherworld's current WIP, The Ballad of Gerry Clifford. It is the first book in the "Fetch" series and is part of The Yadira Chronicles.

Diane Clifford Savage is Gerry Clifford's elder sister by fourteen years. Dain Savage is her husband. Dain and Diane have been married for 48 years.




Coming to Earth Again: MFRW Book Hooks 15 January 2020 + Tidbit Tuesday



Click the preview link to check out the story. I uploaded the second edition and lowered the price to 99 cents. I am planning to have a few free promo days for this book, but I have to wait for Amazon to finish approving my changes before I can create a promo. This book is the first in the Carnal Invasion series and was originally published on June 20, 2018.

Blurb:

Geeky Gandy Stafford's lifelong fantasy comes true when he meets the otherworldly Dorma and Desyra. These last remnants of a botched extraterrestrial invasion discover that they require a great deal of energy to maintain their human forms.

The easiest way to obtain essential power?

Sex, and lots of it.

Snippet:


When the Earth invasion fleet from Gamma Iridon was wiped out by irradiated space junk, there were only two survivors. 110X1 was the spawn of the vice-admiral and 1X0X1 was the spawn of the lead wing commander. The pair were notorious for being exceptionally lazy; when space junk devastated the fleet, they were napping in an escape pod, which detached from the doomed flagship and fell to Earth, landing in a sand trap at Big Putt Golf Haven at the stroke of midnight.

The pod dematerialized ninety seconds after the surprised occupants evacuated. No-one witnessed the event except for countless mosquitoes, several hundred fireflies, approximately 108 mice, one screech owl, and a young groundskeeper named Gandolph Stafford, known to his gaming friends as Gandy.

“Holy chimera crap!” Gandy gasped.

The evacuees of the pod initially appeared to be amorphous, transparent blobs. Gandy attempted to stay hidden from them. He was just twenty-five years old, and he had every intention of celebrating his twenty-sixth birthday in 172 days. The invaders, however, had far more advanced senses than humans.







Carpe Diem New Beginnings: Ornery Senryu: First Sunray


first rays of sunshine
after working the night shift
felt like a vampire

~The Ornery Old Night Owl~



Image Copyright Open Clipart Vectors

Ornery Notes:
I haven't had to work the night shift in close to three years now. But I'm still a night owl!
The night shift was always fine for me until about three or four in the morning. The last three or four hours were horrible.



Ghost Town Grover Sez:
"I gotta tell y'all, on Halloween night in Telluride in 1880, I was whoopin' it up with some of the other miners, and when I went out behind the saloon to drain the ole rattlesnake, this pale feller with slick black hair wearin' a fancy cape come floatin' up beside me. I asked him if he wanted to come into the saloon and join me and the fellers fer a swig of Amos Fine's Famous Shine. 

That high-fallutin' feller said in a hoity-toity way that he didn't never drink Shine. Now, maybe he was jest eccentric or somethin', but when Father O'Malley come outta the saloon wearin' his big ole silver cross on a chain, that feller hissed like an angry tomcat, hollered "BLUH!", pulled his cape over his face, and turned tail and run. 

Maybe he'd bin slippin' outta the church after Sunday meetin's without tithin' proper, but there shore was somethin' weird about that fancy-pants stranger, and he shore didn't take a shine to the good Father and his shiny cross.


Cactus Clem Sez:
"Well, Grover, I bet y'all didn't know it, but Ornery actually is a vamper. I done heard her tellin' someone all about how she got hammered on cactus juice on Saint Patrick's Day in 1992 an' ended up sleepin' on someone's bathroom floor! She ain't tried to drink the juice from my veins yet, but I'm gonna have to sleep with one eye open on St. Patrick's Day!"


Further Ornery Notes:
Cactus Clem doesn't have anything to worry about. I really can't drink more than a few sips of beer or wine these days. But if you're feeling daring, you can click the link above and try the drink that the cute little buffalo is serving up!

About Me Monday: Ornery and Sly: Stop the Bullying and Stigma

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Today isn't FOAD Thursday, but "The Biggest Dickweed" and anyone who supports it can FOAD every day. Please read about and sign the petition to stop this horrible, hateful garbage from being resurrected.

If you're one of these people who are so indoctrinated into diet culture (I was one of those people for 33 years, and it never made me thin, it just made me miserable) that you believe that shaming and bullying large people "for their own good" is a great idea, here are some key points refuting that belief.

This show caused so much harm to the health of contestants and viewers alike by perpetuating weight stigma. Since the show went off the air, we have research related to how weight stigma and yo-yo dieting actually harms people in larger bodies. Additionally, there is research from prior Biggest Loser contestants indicating long term negative effects:

Participants not only gained the weight back due to a slowing of the metabolism but that participants had increased leptin levels that cause extreme hunger: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html

From The National Association of Eating Disorders:
“Weight stigma, also known as weight bias or weight-based discrimination, is discrimination or stereotyping based on a person's weight. Weight stigma can increase body dissatisfaction, a leading risk factor in the development of eating disorders.” 
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/weight-stigma

From Abby's Kitchen:
DANGEROUS SECRETS FROM THE BIGGEST LOSER & MY PETITION TO MAKE IT STOP
“A study published in the Journal of Obesity suggested that watching even one episode of the Biggest Loser increased hateful weight bias among viewers! This is particularly concerning to me when there are children watching, as it’s easy to sense and duplicate the disgust for fatness when they see it in their peers or even themselves."
https://www.abbeyskitchen.com/nutrition-dangerous-secrets-biggest-loser-my-petition-make-i/

From Today’s Dietitian:
January 2018 Issue

The Health Impact of Weight Stigma
By Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN, CD
Today's Dietitian
Vol. 20, No. 1, P. 24

“The health risks of weight discrimination are consistent with the observed effects of racial discrimination.”

Being the target of weight stigma increases the risk of poor mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and eating disorders. These associations happen regardless of BMI, so it's unlikely that body weight itself is a cause.”

“Harrison says. "The majority of the clients I've treated for disordered eating cite bullying or shaming for their weight by parents, peers, coaches, or health care professionals as the initial trigger for their issues with food."
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0118p24.shtml

My reason for signing the petition is this.

Promotion of size shaming and eating disorders does not equate with "health."

I have had an eating disorder since I was twelve years old. I was not fat at twelve, but I was so terrified of becoming fat that I became bulimic. 

I never felt direct hatred for fat people, but I saw the way that they were bullied and shamed. I was already the target of bullying. I couldn't bear the idea of the bullying being stepped up if I got fat. 

I am fat at this point. Not the "I feel fat" kind of fat. (By the way, "fat" is not a feeling.) I am really, genuinely, truly fat, and yes, I am "that" fat. My size, like everyone's size, results from a combination of factors. The first and most important factor in determining a person's body type is DNA. 

One of the waitresses I worked with at the job I had eighteen years ago was a tall, sturdy young woman. One time in the break room she ended up telling me about her sister, who was bulimic and anorexic. She told her sister: "we're big people. We come from a line of big people. It isn't natural for us to be skinny." 

So, which sister was the "healthier" of the two? The one who accepted the way she was built and went on with her life, or the one who was so obsessed with the idea of becoming thin that she was going to extremes to manipulate her body to a perceived point of acceptable slenderness?

By the way, health is not a measure of personal worth. I am not asking which of these sisters was more worthy of being treated with common decency. They are both worthy of that.

I had a very difficult time during this past holiday season. My feelings of self-worth plummeted to the depths. I ended up starving myself. I also ceased my daily walks. I didn't feel motivated to walk, and I felt as if everyone was staring at me and judging me. Also, walking can be painful for me. No, not because I'm fat. I was fat back when I was waitressing. I was fat when I was working as a nursing assistant and later as a nurse. These jobs contributed to the spinal problems I now have. So did engaging in behaviors consistent with orthorexia, such as spending five hours a day at the gym on my days off from work. My size did not.

I don't know how people can fathom that it's okay to say whatever they want to a big person. Okay, I actually know how it happens. It happens because larger people have been othered and dehumanized. One of our neighbors saw me having trouble shoveling the snow off the porch. He came over to help. In fairness, he wasn't trying to be cruel, and I think he is in the early stages of dementia. But this is what came to his mind, and what society has led him to think is perfectly okay to say.

"My wife was built like you. She was obese. But at least you're trying. She didn't try, so she died."

If you think that "obese" is a harmless word, think again. Obese is a shaming, othering, dehumanizing word which leads to people being denied proper health care and even basic respect. Obese is a word that kills people.

I'm fat. I'm not stupid. I know when I'm being condescended to. I know when I'm being looked down on. I know when I'm being othered.

Sometimes my bad attitude prevails and I let the middle finger fly and go on about my life.

Sometimes I get broken and relapse into unhealthy behaviors (starving myself) and self-loathing.

I got broken over this holiday season. I starved myself, and I stopped taking my walks because I felt like I was being watched and judged and the walks weren't bringing on the almighty WATE LOOZE!!11!!! Which, of course, is the only thing that matters.

I am getting back in the saddle and charging back into action on my very large horse.

So, if you're one of those people who thinks it's okay to behave badly towards me and others who look like me because we don't fit your criteria of beautiful or fuckable or because we don't fulfill your criteria of perfect "health"...

Let's face it. It's never really about health. 

You may expect that this is where I tell you to FOAD.

Actually, I'm going to ask you to read the words above mine again.

Then I'm going to ask you to go read these blogs.

Big Fat Science
Dances With Fat
Heavyweight Heart

If, after reading those blogs you still think it's fun to ridicule fat people or concern troll fat people or you still think The Biggest Dickweed is good wholesome entertainment for the family...

Then you can fuck off forever.


Fat and Ornery
Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors


Sly and Snarky
Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com






The last diet you will ever need.
 

Come As You Are Party + MFRW Blog Challenge: Catch-up: Week 1: Vacay or Staycay



I am playing catch-up with this prompt. I missed the first two weeks. If you are interested in joining in, visit this blog.

The question is, vacay or staycay.

Well...

I don't have enough money to consider vacay-ing, and even if I did, my disabilities limit what I can do. So, that's a big Staycay. Which at this stage of my life is probably what I'd prefer anyway. 

Road trips really aren't fun anymore. There are too many aggressive drivers and the speed limits are ridiculously high. The speed limit on I-80 heading to Cheyenne is 80 MPH. Personally, I think that's courting disaster. Whenever I have to drive to Cheyenne, I take the frontage road. 

Road trips aren't fun, and the airport sucks big hairy donkey balls.

Yeah, I'm staying home.

~Cie the Ornery Old Lady~


Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors
Will Work for Links and Tips




Blow Your Stack Saturday: Late to the Party (and nobody cares) Insecure Writers' Support Group 8 January 2020


I would completely have forgotten about doing this, except that someone I sometimes follow did it and I realized that I had once again dropped the ball and screwed the pooch. So I am late to the party and, lo and behold, no one gives a dead moose's last shit. 

This holiday season was the rat's ass. I ended up feeling bad about everything, but mostly about myself. Whatever, let's get on with it.

Here is this month's question.

January 8 question: What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

I suppose in a sense it was my late father, who was a professor of literature and the humanities. November 28 of last year marked the ninth year of his passing. I was a huge disappointment to him and am a huge disappointment to my remaining family members as well as to myself.

I knew how to read by the time I was four years old. I was a precocious little shit, which meant that my father believed I would have no problems making my way in the world. Turns out I received the wrong brain and body for thriving on this planet, so that wasn't the case. 

Anyway, my first exposure to the horror genre was through the writings of fellow depressive Edgar Allan Poe. My father also had a bunch of really cool horror comics. Uncle Creepy, Cousin Eerie, The Old Witch, The Crypt Keeper, The Vault Keeper, and Vampirella. These were my friends as a child. I loved them like they were real people. That's what started me on the path. Even though I started to write a lot of Lovecraftian horror later, I didn't discover HPL until I was fourteen.

I wish I could write for a living, but the stuff I write has no appeal to normal people. I've tried to write normal stuff, but I don't enjoy it. So I review books for a living, such as it is, and I publish things that no-one but me enjoys. HPL lived in poverty too during his lifetime, and sometimes there's cold comfort in that knowledge, but other times there's just cold drafts and suicide ideation. Most horror writers don't achieve Stephen King levels of renown. We just end up as rotten as the undead heebie jeebies we write about.

Anyway, I'm in a low place, and nobody needs to feel entitled to respond to this verbal vomit. I write because it's the only thing that I feel like I'm any damn good at, even if no-one else thinks I am.

~Cie the Ornery Old Resting Bipolar Bitch-Face~


Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors
Will work for Links and Tips

Image copyright The Latest Kate

The new novella from Team Netherworld. Only $3.99 on Kindle. We're keeping it Lovecraftian!
Samples available through the preview link and at the official Naughty Netherworld Press blog.

Weekend Writing Warriors + Snippet Sunday 12 January 2020 (PA, RO)



Diane Clifford Savage woke from a troubled sleep, crying out.

“My boys! My boys! I’ll save you, I will!”

“Di, wake up.”

The elderly woman’s husband shook her gently. Diane glanced about the darkened room and burst into tears.

“Oh, Gerry, me wee bairn!”

“Aw, Di, my hinny, please quiet yourself,” Dain Savage pleaded. “It does nae good to torture yourself this way.”

~Cie for Naughty Netherworld Press~

Notes:
This snippet is from Team Netherworld's current WIP, The Ballad of Gerry Clifford, which is the first book in the Fetch series and part of The Yadira Chronicles.

Our most recently published book, Ketil and Yitzy's Adventure in the Xura Dream House is part of The Yadira Chronicles and Nyarlathotep's Necropolis series and is tied into the Fetch Series. 


Tidbit Tuesday: The Disappearance of Sandra Vincent

Image from Wallpaperflare.com

Sandra departed the Round the End pub, walking quickly and not paying attention to where she was going. She wound up on a dead-end street.

“Well, this is a fine mess,” she muttered. “At least it’s quiet, though who knows what savage beast could be lurking in the shadows.”

“No more savage than some of those egotistical douchebags in the pub, am I right, Sandy?”

Sandra jumped and looked around. The speaker had a deep voice with an accent that she guessed was American or Canadian.

“Down here, Hon,” the voice said.

Sandra turned to see a red balloon rising from the grate in the street.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” she groaned. “Did one of those blighters slip me a roofie? Am I lying on a dirty bed in some creep’s flat being assaulted while dreaming I’m talking to the bloody Stephen King clown?”

“Pennywise, at your service,” the clown acknowledged. “You’re quite awake, Sandra. Remember what Miss Yadira said. Be on the lookout for red.”

“I doubt she meant a red balloon being held by a murderous clown down a storm drain,” Sandra countered.

“Am I a murderous clown, Sandra, or am I your ticket to your beloved world of dream? You’ll never know if you don’t take the chance. Usually, the Universe gives a seeker just one ticket to ride in a lifetime. I’ve got your ticket, my girl. Will you gratify your need for love and fulfillment of the kind you’ve only imagined to this point, or will you reject my offer and return to your dull life caring for those who are on their way out of this miserable mortal coil?”

“I…I’m sorry,” Sandra giggled nervously, taken aback by the ludicrous nature of the situation. “It’s only that…well, bloodthirsty clowns in storm drains don’t exactly conjure visions of love and everlasting happiness.”

“I’m not suggesting that I’m your true love, my dear. I’m suggesting that I’m the one who’s going to take you to him. The choice is yours. Walk away and go back to the life you have. You’ll be safe, but you’ll always know that you passed up your chance at happiness. Or, take the balloon from me and see what happens next.”

A tear slid down Sandra’s cheek as she saw a vision of herself in the future. She was middle-aged, alone in the same dreary flat where she currently resided. Empty booze bottles were strewn about the place. A razor blade and several bottles of pills sat on the coffee table in front of her.

Sandra Vincent closed her eyes, reached out, and took the red balloon.

“We all float down here, my dear,” she heard the clown’s voice as she drifted away forever.

~Cie, Gem, and Rose~

Prompts Used




Today's word: Round

Today's word: Gratify

Notes:
This 455-word segment is part of a longer piece.

I am not an official participant on the Tuesday Tales blog. I occasionally get inspiration from their word of the day. Feel free to visit and read stories by the official participants.

Tidbit Tuesday is my own creation. If you'd like to participate, leave a link to your work in the comments. This is a very lax prompt. Your share can be pretty much anything.

Pennywise the Clown is the creation of Stephen King.




Ketil and Yitzy's Adventure in the Xura Dream House is FREE For Five Days!



Don't blink or you'll miss it!

In fact, don't blink until you've clicked the preview link and grabbed your FREE copy of Ketil and Yitzy's Adventure in the Xura Dream House. But hurry, this deal is only available between January 5 and January 9, 2020.

This unique novella is the first in a hopefully long-running series of New Cthulhu Mythos cliffhangers with that special blend of emotion, humor, and suspense that only Team Netherworld can provide.

In this snappy story, the spectral sorcerer Ketil Nagel sets out on a quest to save the cosmos from an ancient evil. During his short, miserable time on Earth in his most recent incarnation, Ketil was an underground metal musician who sacrificed himself to the vampire goddess Mormo on his twenty-fifth birthday, 6 June 1991. While searching for answers on the dead world Zetar 6, otherwise known as Zecor, Ketil encounters a renegade Yithian scientist. The pair decide that working together would benefit them both, and they set out for the cursed land of Xura, located in the storied Dreamlands of the Earth realm.

While preparing to enter the forboding Dream House, Ketil and Yitzy are approached by a pair of adventuring ghouls. "Little John" and "Robin Hood" are longtime chums who dabbled in the wrong magic for the right reasons and were transformed into ghouls following their demise during the influenza pandemic of 1918.

The four unlikely heroes join forces and step into the Dream House, where many perils and gateways to other worlds await them. Will they emerge triumphant, or will they wind up being just another group of desperate victims who go missing in the infamous structure?

If you enjoy suspenseful tales with a spine-tingling atmosphere and unexpected heroes, be sure to pick up your copy of this one-of-a-kind adventure today! Just click the preview link to check it out and make it yours.

~Cie for Naughty Netherworld Press~

Content Adviser
This book is rated R. It contains strong adult themes including suicide and torture. It includes frequent paranormal elements and contains scenes of gore and sci-fi terror. There is copious use of heavy profanity. The story contains no sex scenes, gratuitous or otherwise.

Friday Flashback + Snippet Sunday + Weekend Writing Warriors 5 January 2020

Weekend Writing Warriors

Also Sharing With:



This post was originally published on 3 January 2019. The text of the post has not been changed, the notes have been updated. 

The following is a snippet from Sanguine and Scandalous, the eighth installment in the Carnal Invasion series. Our previous snippet from this tale can be found here.

The journey to the material realm proved to be a bumpy ride. In choosing the most clandestine path, the magical reindeer ended up dodging asteroids and evading various extraterrestrial flotsam and jetsam before swooping in for a landing in the alley behind Xquenda Jewels Headquarters. Tinsel staggered forth from the sleigh and dropped to the ground in a faint.
Fortunately for the depleted elf, he was spotted by the benevolent Pythios, who at once recognized him as a mythical being. The genial security guard hurried to Tinsel’s side.
“Certainly, you must be of the same kind as my friend Teacake!” Pythios remarked as he helped Tinsel onto the seat of the sleigh. “Perhaps you are even this brother of whom he speaks so high. Ah, but we cannot allow the awful masters of this place to see you. Devils they are, and I come to think I mean this in a literal sense.”

Cie for Naughty Netherworld Press

Notes:
The book that this snippet is taken from contains explicit erotic material, none of it featuring Tinsel the Elf, Teacake the Elf, or Pythios the Security Guard. This book is part of the Carnal Invasion collection of erotic stories from Naughty Netherworld Press.

An Olive-Green Gown and Malachite Shoes #8Sunday #RainbowSnippets #SnipSun

    Genre: Poetry plus a supernatural coming-of-age story (vampires).  Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3vz8uXw   Publication Date: February 15, 20...