For the first time, I say before Simon!

So my loyal fans, what is it, you ask, that makes the subject line of this post true?

Well, I was sick last week, and therefore was quite a bit behind writing schedule. Instead of making you all wait, and since Simon's new formatting makes it so we can't steal his source code anyway (yeah, we'd been doing that for awhiiiile) I personally took the time to update the site. Val stayed up late marking up Nebula, and I woke up, finished my edits on it, and then coded it up, put it up, added descriptions to fan art . . . voila.

It's not a lot of fun to go through putting

tags and

tags everywhere, but a chickies gotta do what a chickie's gotta do! You, my fans, deserved this on-time update.

Also, last night I found my long lost word count document and brought it up to date. I had to show off the results.

Silververse:
The Adventures of Silver Girl: 86,702
Silver Eclipse: 72,444
Nocturnal Interlude: 4,808
The Memory Remains: 66,797
Wherever I May Roam: 14,784
Dust High: 15,701
Misted Facets: 13,297
Informant: 4,560
The Argentum Project: 100,763
(Arc: 153,913)
Poetic License: 11,068
Ballpoint to the brain: 7,035
Ink Blots: 6,583
Blotted Lace: 5,794
Sealed With A Kiss: 5,512
Ink Bot: 9,176
Prequill: 7,814
Ink Soaked Penumbra: 74,818
(Arc: 127,800)
Obedience Over Matter: 2,299
Silver Gray Starlight: 11,844
Pink Candy: 4,493
To Serve and Obey: 58,605
(Arc: 77,241)
Red Moon Rising: 88,751
Scribe and Shadow: 15,519

Total: 689,167

Electrum:
Volume 1: Electrum Impulses: 19,478
Volume 2: Roadside Justice: 5,432
Volume 3: The Spiral: 3,204
Volume 4: Hope: 3,920
Volume 5: Hope and Family: 7,424
Volume 6: Spiraling Forward: 6,990
Volume 7: Unraveling Transmutation and Hopeful Tethering: 5,898
Volume 8: Company Loyalty: 13,286
Volume 9: Floral Engagement: 12,729
Volume 10: A Magical Evening: 11,979
Volume 11: Out of Time: 14,954

Total: 105,294

Nebula:
Volume I: The Soaring Phoenix: 19,337
Volume II: Free Will's Fermata: 5,452
Volume III: Song and Storm: 4,474
Volume IV: Nebulous Struggle: 3,739
Volume V: Obedience's Refrain: 2,838
Volume VI: Phoenix Coda: 4,313
Volume VII: Ballad of Justice: 7,484
Volume VIII: Galvanized Melody: 7,233
Volume IX: Searing White Siren Song of Glory: 4,773
Volume X: Symphony of Falling Glass: 5,994

Total: 65,637

Rose
Rose Petals: 6,490
Rose Miracles: 11,070
Rose Rejuvination: 5,301

Total: 22,861

Mariana
The Day After: 4,843
The Fourth: 2,979

Total: 7,822

One Shots
Never Far Away: 2,041
Coping Mechanism: 10,434
Landing On Her Feet: 7,182
I've Got a Fever . . .: 2,233
Unit 9: 7,043
Paradise: 3,503
Exvolensation: 1,705

Total: 34,141

Grand Total: 924,922

This of course neglects the latest tale that I have to add in after I'm done with this post, but am too lazy to do now. This means since I've been writing for the archive (Unit 9 and Coping Mechanism by the way only use the rewritten values) I have only 75,078 polished words, not counting Nebula Volume XI, until I break one million.

I don't know what to say.

I want to thank all of you that read the blot, that contributed fanart, that well, tolerated my sometimes sporadic updates. I want to thank everyone who was happy when I created the Argent Garden forum, and then everyone who kept reading my work after I left once, then twice. I know I'm a rather thorny person, attempting to be warm but then storming off and locking doors, but some few of you have tolerated it at least for the sake of my writing - and honestly that's what I care about most.

Events in the Silververse are heating up. Darksong, another contributor to the greater Midasverse as I call it, has another story going up that may lead to an actual Silververse-Omegaverse crossover. New technologies introduced in Electrum Volume 11 lead well to a crossover with Once and Future Kim's Wires.

I only wish Decker were still about for some fun Psyche and Fractal fun.

That said, I admit it would be fun to have a more expanded Midasverse. I've attempted to do that through varying my style between Electrum and Nebula, but that only provides a little bit more. More unique, distinct voices could be fun. Oh well, right?

My lovely erislave and I might work on a webcomic together, and it MIGHT be Midasthemed. Since she'll be doing the hard part, I want her to make the call on that. If it happens, I'll let you all know here.

Hrm, lets see, what else is there to tell . . . Holidays are approaching, and I'll be doing damn near everything I possibly can to get Nebula Volume XII done by the end of the year. The event to follow is one I don't want to push back, even if there's no way in hell I can finish it by the end of the year. Then, I see another set of stories panning before us, finishing out the Sisters' stories by the end of 2010.

I'm tempted to go about commissioning some art of Sarah, Lacie, Jacqui, and Leona all posing together, or all mind fried together. I think I just might.

Good writing does two things. It makes you want to read, or it makes you want to write. I've done both, and while after I finish my tales in Midas I intend to withdraw from posting actively on the archive, I hope my writing is still able to have the same effect.

Again, thank you all, and I hope you're having a lovely holiday season.

~Madam Kistulot

Still not dead!

You know how you remember to do things right after you save them/send them? There's no "next week!" Teaser. Bah. Oh well! Electrum Volume 5 will be out next week even if I'm a space case.

Speaking of space casery, the first two stories of my comeback have no editing but my own. Honestly. Stresses caused me to want to do it on my own, and Valencia along with several others lead me to well . . . take that thought under advisement, and I ended up deciding I could use an editor after all, even if just type editing, which honestly is very very important.

Very.

So, I have my new computer. Atma. Pictures will surface soon. she's dual core, and has a very double theme to her case design, so I am calling her Atma, with the last name genji. If you know why you're awesome.

So, more will come. Realize it. Accept it. Embrace it. Eventually it may become something you don't want, but I hope not. Their stories are honestly going differently than I intended, though the moment of reentwinement remains the same. I figure somewhere around their collective volume 12s is where I'll bring them back together agfter a single story from neither of their perspectives.

It all depends on how things go, I guess!

Thank you everyone who has shown your support. I'm exhausted, and still setting up my new computer, so I'm going to leave you all now to your own ends, and wish you a wonderful week!

New Blog and New Content

Welcome to the new and improved Kistublot!

My fellow contributors have already posted, and I've meant to several times, but oh well right? We all know I can take a little extra time time to time, but that when it comes down to it I . . . sometimes get things done . . . Oh wait, none of you actually knew me in high school. I can lie about that? Hooray!

One random factoid: The first novel length story I completed was originally written starting in the summer of my freshman year of high school. It would grow, expand, be given in total about five drafts, and the final of which to current date was written mostly at the end of my senior year. The school I went to had slowly become more and more strict since it was built, canceling upper classperson off campus privileges the year before I began attending...

However?

Once you were 18, you were able to sign yourself out with no scrutiny. So a few times I signed myself out of my last class, Graphic Design (the other block day's class, Creative Writing, was the class I looked forward to all day to get through the other crap) and would go to a park to write. Excuses included medical, dental, familial, and once I think I might have slipped and mentioned the truth in a not to clever way.

But I didn't really care anyway by that point. Not that I didn't care about graduating - I did - but freshman year alone had ruined my GPA to the point where having some absences at the very end didn't really matter to me much. Some of those park-writing-sessions took place at the park where - listening to The Servant's song "Cells" I wrote the introduction to "The Adventures of Silver Girl."

One thing I miss about writing Silver Girl, and the stuff before, was that I would often write it in wordpad so I couldn't see how long it was getting. Now a days, even if I were to do that due to well... experience... I'd know. I can't go back to the things I miss about the beginning of this era of my writing, which makes me wax nostalgically for them.

Oh well, huh? It happens!

That brings another thing to mind: tAoSG is horrifically well . . . not up to par with the writing of the later stories. Have I talked about that here on the blog before? I'm honestly not sure. So much comes up. and I don't pay nearly enough attention to me own blog. Mostly, honestly, because I didn't foresee this writing slump... and its a little depressing.

So anyway, have I asked this here? How would people feel if Silver Girl got a THX makeover? The original would remain, fully intact, this would be sort of... a digital remastering, a director's cut... the story we all know and love upgraded to suit the fact that I no longer suck.

How does that sound to everyone?

Not because I wont do it if you dislike it, but well, some support would help me get off my ass about it. The original will still exist and be distributed, just not on the EMCSA. It would be kept on me sitey. For people's benefit, I would even zip file it and be like "Tada!" or I could steal the HTML from the way back machine . . . and be like "as it originally looked!"

The latter sounds cooler . . .

Lastnight I wrote a story just over the length of Exvolensation. I think it's a better idea, and story, overall. I think I'll write another two stories of about equal length, and include them as an anthology.

Also have a new idea about a psychic detective. Its not lame as it might sound, promise. Its actually very, very cool. You'll all have to wait to see how that turns out, because I like the idea I'm working on currently. I'll preview the first story soon as I have them all written and give them twice overs.

I end this post with a little bonus: here.

Enjoy!

~Madam Kistulot

Style Sheets and Ethics and Buggy Code, OH MY!

Scroll down for Eri’s post about her aspects. I know some of you have waited a long time for that.

My post turned into a bit of a ramble concerning the ethics and misconceptions of slave life, albeit a ramble in gloss. Also, I’ve had little sleep. You have been warned.

* * *

Before realizing I didn’t want to fight with IE to get CSS and JavaScript to work cross-browser, I made a few fancy layouts that looked wonderful in Firefox. Pulling them up in IE nixed my enthusiasm in short order. A blog doesn’t require something nearly so pretentious, anyway! So, I tweaked the default layout a bit and cobbled together a banner with some inky fonts along with the eye and pendant from Madam’s main site.

Before coding, I started working on an editorial style sheet for Madam’s spin-off series. Stylistic grammar won’t change between chapters anymore, and no one will experience a random dye job! Madam was genuinely perplexed and a hair disturbed that I got so excited over the idea of making one. I’m a nerd: I joyously admit this. What’s not to adore about niggling over the tinniest facets of stylistic grammar while arranging in definition-list form the less flexible aspects? This isn’t only about grammar, of course; there will be character notes, too.

Slave life? I’m working on my own post, but it’s going to take a while. I’m not sure how much I want to detail. Some of this is fairly private, and I don’t always realize how much is private to me until I’ve blanched upon rereading it the next day. Also, I don’t want to give the impression that I have no mind of my own. I’m owned, but I very much think for myself! Eri does, too, even though she enjoys getting lost in what we like to call magic. Even the darkest-sounding things she wrote about in her last post had layers of safety programming interlaced to ensure nothing contradictory to her genuine wants would be able to work. Madam gave me the same programming. If I don’t like something, or I can’t handle something, nothing short of her literally robotizing and rewriting me is going to make it happen!

I know I’m not really a robot, and Eri knows she can think for herself just fine when she wants to. The thrill is knowing Madam could do whatever she wanted, that we love and crave and trust her enough to open ourselves this deeply . . . but knowing all the while that we’re safe because she would never abuse that trust. Sure, I sometimes find myself singing the Folgers song and literally orgasming at the end (I ABHOR Folgers "coffee" and I find the jingle equally repulsive), but that’s hardly mindwiping me and turning me against my nature.

My point? I want to write about my experiences, but I don’t want to scare people or give the impression that Madam is doing unethical things when she’s actually being meticulous and frequently double-checks to make sure I’m happy with this.

I cringe and sometimes feel physically ill when I read the experiences of other slaves who sound, well . . . like they really couldn’t give a damn if they tried. So many HypnoDominants really are doing questionable things without checking, or they check while the submissive is under (which is a rant post all by itself). Often submissives don’t bother to look at their fetishy surroundings to see what’s going on because they blindly trust their dominants. Blind trust in this sense is a bad thing since they haven't taken the time to see what they're trusting. Really, it’s not disobedient to ask questions or even to firmly say “no!” It’s not disobedient to say something might happen later but that it’s not comfortable right now. It’s not disobedient to expect privacy, mentally and physically. Madam encourages me to do that. I find it incredibly offensive when others say she needs to keep me on a tighter leash or that I am merely an extension of her name (or, in one case, that she owns my words). Madam doesn’t want drones; she wants complex personalities she can explore and savor and play with beyond merely rewriting or giving commands.

But those reading might interpret my anecdotes as yet another weak hypnoslave with an egregious Mistress who toys with and controls every aspect of her slave without a passing thought (or allowing her slave a passing thought). Even a close real-life friend sometimes gets needlessly worried about what goes on between us. He called Madam’s playful “time travel!” explanation of how I was built “Voodoo doming.” That made no sense. Madam isn’t allowed to be playful? I know that’s not really what happened! In fact, I know I was born human and am human right now. But I like getting lost in the magic, too, and Madam is good at making it thick and exquisite so that one gets lost to the point of forgetting reality. Even so, I never forget reality in ways that could be harmful. I always revert easily to normal at the slightest provocation.

Obviously Madam will do things with me that she wouldn’t do with others. She didn’t do some of what she does with me now until I moved here. Madam is my life partner first, my Madam equal to that—but my life partner above everything else. If I felt like I could no longer submit, she’d still be my partner. So I feel comfortable with things a slave who is only a slave probably wouldn’t, and she feels comfortable trying things with me she wouldn’t try with others. We know each other well enough for that to be safe. Also, she submits to me sometimes. I find it easier to trust her since I’ve been in her head and have experienced her in the same vulnerable, sublime, tenderly trusting way she experiences me.

I would get lost in the magic while writing about my experiences. I would sound like I don’t know reality from fantasy. I would sound like I’m controlled to the point where I really don’t have a choice about what happens to me. None of that is true, but my writing would convey that impression. So this post is a mini-rant on slave life and ethics, and a preface to my next post, which will be my slave life post: I am indeed self-aware and in control of what happens to me, and it is this self-awareness and control that allows me to safely get lost in Madam’s magic.

Perhaps I didn't need to ramble about this, but I felt the need to make my situation clear before writing about my experiences. Given some of my visceral reactions to others I've read, I wouldn't blame anyone who read mine for making the same judgment. D/s experiences, especially hypnotic D/s, can appear scary when observed from the outside. I'm not judging anyone with this post, though I do think anyone writing about this sort of thing should detail the precautions they've taken and provide some context as to the relationship they have beyond D/s. Such details make these things much easier to enjoy and understand. Few things make me feel worse than reading what could be a yummy experience if it didn't lack that context. There are quite a few people in this community I don't respect because they can't provide this context honestly and they try to dress up what they're doing while making the rest of us look awful. But I know most people are not like that. Most of us just want to enjoy ourselves, and we're ethical about it.

~Valbot

Where was I going with this?

Madam is finally going to rewrite the first three Silververse stories! Don't worry, the originals—typos, waffle continuity errors, and grammatical mishaps—will be preserved on her site. She is only rewriting for polish and clarity, not to change the plot. I remember reading The Adventures as she wrote it; she posted it on DeviantART before sending it to the Archive months later. I think I mentioned proofreading would be a good idea. But, Madam being Madam, she took a while to break that write-and-hit-send habit.

I had no clue I would eventually fall in love with her (let alone that I would move from Florida to OREGON to live with her), and that I would get to edit these stories. She didn't know there would be stories after the original. I'm astonished by how elaborate and lengthy this series ended up and, speaking honestly, I'm surprised this series got so popular given how muddled the first story is on a technical level. Let alone how LONG it is. Those who suggest new authors should post shorter stories as their debuts raise a very good point! Perhaps people were less scared of new authors two years ago. Either way, I'm proud of Madam for creating something so gorgeous and elaborate, and I'm overjoyed that she's finally going back to apply the polish these earlier stories deserve. I think her series deserves to be popular, but I'm just a bit surprised some of her more intelligent fans were willing to read through it when she was a new author and they had no basis upon which to have faith in her storytelling ability. Apparently these are good stories, and I'm not the only one who saw that!

Our relationship is only slightly older than the Silver series (we met on May 22nd, 2005; she sent the first three chapters to the Archive in November of that year). I'm still trying to get my head around that, and around the reality that I'll be editing what was my first exposure to the world of MC fiction. As much as I bitch about the community, it really has changed my life in unexpected ways. Meeting and bonding with Carin; Doublefine moving here and becoming a wonderfully close in-person friend; another woman I truly hope will become a close friend if only for how much I enjoy geeking out with her; Erika meeting Madam through her podcast post; the various people I've been able to explore hypnosis with from the hypnotist side. Even my earlier time in the Garden was mostly positive. I wouldn't have discovered some of my MC sub-kinks or so quickly grown comfortable talking about this with anyone but Carin had it not been for my encounters there.

Whoops. I didn't mean to get sentimental! Our third anniversary is close, and the Silververse is closely laced with it. Carin is what drew me to this community, and she is what helped me to branch out reading-wise beyond her work while helping me to get over so many of the squicks being sheltered had given me regarding fetishes and sexuality. She is what inspires my life overall.

Writing and editing of the spin-off series is going better than she makes it sound. Writing is slow, but she's broken a new tier of quality and nothing will be posted until November, anyway. Some of the arcs she has planned . . . One infuriatingly vague but yummy hint I can give is Massive's song "Dissolved Girl." I have a shivery, painfully erotic music video in my head of Sylvia and Aurora to that song, and it's definitely not just sex.

Anyway! Madam really does need to post more, preferably when she's awake. I keep bribing her with ice cream. At least make a review post? You did read and enjoy some things in the past few updates. Erika should post, too.

Madam keeps teasing me about having a fetish for semicolons. What can I say? They're cute.

~valbot

Reduced Editorial Staffing

So, this week, Madam finished chapter 3 and the epilogue for S&S pretty early, so i had my draft to edit Monday evening. I sorta figured hey, i've got plenty of time to edit. This can wait till Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon. So i kinda procrastinate until then. That, and it was very tempting to just read! After all, it's best to read over the material a couple times so you can better look at the structure rather than just the content.

Lo and behold, Wednesday evening rolls around and i have a 101.5 degree fever. By Thursday afternoon, it's not down very far. Given the circumstances, Madam recused me from this week's duties. x.x

Soooo, the gist of this is, if you've read the ending to S&S, it lacks my usual touch to it. Which very probably doesn't hurt the final result. Given that Madam is now doing her own proofreading pass before Val sees the story, most of the easy to find technical errors that i love so much are already fixed. *pout*

Sooo, if Madam's prose is particularly beautiful this week, that's because i didn't get my opportunity to screw it up. If you haven't read it, by the way, read it now, especially any Q.S. fans out there.

~eri

Scribe and Sickness

Well, I finished editing the second chapter of “Scribe and Shadow” before I realized I'd caught a stomach bug. I must have been sick yesterday, but I didn’t realize it until a frigid, rainy walk made it noticeable today. Most of this day was spent sleeping! No review post, in other words. “Humanity” (from the previous update) is the only non-MK story I intended to review, so you're not missing much. “Paradise” wasn’t entirely glowing, either, but MK is actually a decent writer with an editor who understands the difference between clauses and masturbation.

Small things like this, people. Small things like this.

Maybe some of the yellow and purple stories were good. I’ll glance at more colors in tomorrow’s update.

I realized while trying to fall asleep earlier that “Scribe and Shadow” has unusually slow pacing for an MK multi-chapter standalone. She isn't making an arc of this story. Chapter three must contain a cruelly sensible twist! I really hope so, at least, because the pacing really is slow and odd if things continue like this. Characters bonding and developing through well-written MC sessions is fine; characters doing that throughout the bulk of a story intended to relate their showdown with a major villainess is clunky.

She’ll probably finish chapter three before the middle of next week. I don't think she'll disappoint.

There were holes. Our lovely toddler of a Madam covered them up by constructing part of the shelf backwards.

~Valbot

Drowsy Snarking: Reviews, Polishing, and STANDARDS!

This post was written by a very sleepy valbot. I didn't bother to sleep last night. Apologies in advance for a post that doesn't look anything close to what an editor should write.

My problem with many reviews is not the reviewer's like or dislike of a story. My problem is the apparent lack of understanding regarding statements such as “brilliant,” “professionally written,” “a standard we all strive for,” and “I’m the best person to understand this story, because . . .”

A story muddled by appositive commas and faulty parallelism (especially one that has been "edited"), minimal creative tinkering with heavily derivative concepts, .05 dimensional characters, signposted plot twists, and cumbersome levels of blurriness throughout the narrative is NOT professionally written, brilliant, or a viable writing standard. This (well-educated, ironically) author has a chronic issue with all of the above in most of her work. Her earlier work, while not timeless, is noticeably clearer and more creative than her recent efforts. She also handled the technical aspects better before a certain proofreader got involved. This proofreader’s writing isn’t much better, but it garners the same level of glowing praise and is considered a standard.

“Professionally written” has lost much of its prestige as a compliment over the centuries. Publishers want the familiar, something they are certain will sell. Even the technical standard has loosened over recent decades. New territory, even brilliantly written new territory, is unlikely to get published by a new author. Publishing is a business, after all. Much of the groundbreaking things published these days come from authors who establish themselves with familiar, mainstream work. That is what gets an author in the door. Even so, there is a level of quality in (most) published work that is not even timidly hinted toward in this story.

Many stories garnering this compliment fall achingly short of real standards. “I loved this!” “I’d buy this if I saw it at the bookstore.” “Great work!” Aren’t those more reasonable things to say? They convey the same affection without the grating distortion or the unintended deception. Also, such statements need to be supported, even though the process is heavily subjective. WHY is a story brilliant? SHOW, using quotes and at least minimally elaborated points concerning flow and content, why a story is professionally written. EXPLAIN why a given story should be a writing standard. If you absolutely must assert yourself as the best person to understand a given work, explain why (preferably in enough detail to soften the aura of ignorance you will indelibly attach to yourself)!

No one is the “best person” to understand a story, not even the author. We all approach reading with our own backgrounds and expectations. A story may speak particularly clearly to a person if the content relates strongly to that person’s experience, but saying in a review that you are the best person to understand something is severely discrediting to the author, implies more ignorance than understanding, and is a level of arrogant I think few people wish to associate with themselves. Authors can‘t truly claim this, either: the story one intends to write and the story one actually writes often differ enough that the assessable result is more often an inkblot than a snapshot.

Internet porn is not subject to harsh criticism or to high standards, you say? Then don’t take yourself seriously as a writer. Don’t act as though you know something technical about writing. Don’t review a story of this type in the same manner as you would a novel in a literary criticism journal. So many people around here (myself included) fail to remember the difference between literature and porn. Much of what we read and enjoy within this community is porn. There are excellent writers, though, writers who craft literary erotica that is belittled when a work of porn is reviewed as a work of elegant literary art.

How insulting it must be for those who write literature to see their work adored in precisely the same terms as the work beside it that doesn’t so much as tentatively convey the same level of dedication, precision, technical skill, or creative effort! Few things piss me off more than seeing a work such as "Yellow" or "White Slavery" mewled over in the same review post as, say, something written by Lisa Teez. That is one name I have no reservations about clearly mentioning. She even acts as though she knows something about writing . . . literature. A narrative focusing on the testicular discomfort of a unicorn that a “premed” student (this student wanted to be a veterinarian!) at Fairy Tale Land University is inflicting for her own amusement is NOT literature! That is not even supermarket porn. Lisa's writing is often worse than her plots.

Those two stories and that author have never coincided in a review post, but similarly jarring juxtapositions happen in almost every update.

Many stories in the updates qualify as literature, but they are not good literature. They deserve praise for showing more effort than the pervasive, redundant porn, but that praise needs to be tempered! My grievances with the prevalent review style on the two MC forums apply also in reverse: rending a story needs to be done with support.

Hypothetically, as a technosexual, I should have squirmed with a compulsion to read one of this update's stories based on an absolutely dazzling review. I attempted to read that story. I sincerely tried to lose myself in the narrative, but I ended up getting a headache and feeling mentally drained from the boredom and irritation the experience inspired. That story is not professionally written or brilliant any more than my coffee mug is sentient! A little explication in this review might have either shown me it was a highly individualized perception not suitable as a general guide, or helped me to respect the framework of a genre I mostly dislike.

I dislike cyberpunk because most of it is startlingly horrible and clumsily derivative of itself in ways that don‘t even attempt to twist the concepts into something personal to the authors. What few good stories I’ve read have made me wish other competent writers would contribute to this genre. I am a lesbian who will read male/male cyberpunk stories that are well-written, which means I must actually adore this genre. Finding anything good is simply difficult! This is also a depressing trend for robot stories, transformation stories (robot and otherwise), and for just about any story including technophilia. What is good is glowing; what is awful—the bulk of the selection—makes me embarrassed to tell people I have these fetishes.

Privately, various people have said (even about this story): “fills a niche tolerably well.” This does fill the cyberpunk niche on the Archive tolerably well. This does not fill it brilliantly. Why don’t reviewers say these things in their actual reviews? Wouldn’t any serious writer appreciate feedback like this? Instead, the reviews are often unclear to the point of seeming to say things contradictory to what they intend. A work of “publishable quality” really meant “could fit the Fall line-up, mainstream,” not “This is such a good story!” (I asked for this reviewer’s permission to include these statements, by the way, and clarified with him that this is what he meant.)

Usually when I tell people about my mind control fetish I find myself quickly explaining that I am aware most of the stuff on the Archive is trash, even the stuff that gets glowingly praised.

Believe it or not, I don’t even like seeing my Madam’s work reviewed in this style, mewling or grumbling. A review simply mewling that her current story is glowing, well-written, or hot doesn’t really tell her anything about the story. A review saying one of her stories is better than another, or that it didn’t hit the mark, also doesn’t tell her much. Why is her story glowing? Why didn’t it hit the mark? I don’t appreciate those who delight in her work reviewing it vapidly. I would appreciate reviews even from those who dislike it if they explained why. I’d actually be grateful to them as a fan and as an editor. One review of "Coping Mechanism" (the original version, not the one linked here) did this negatively and I was glad to see the honesty. This actually helped to show the difference between the two versions and highlighted some writing weaknesses MK has since corrected.

"Unit 9" is a good example of how even negative reviews often say little about a story, to the author and to potential readers. I spent four hours tediously editing this heavily revised two-year-old story. Many of the things I found were obvious revision errors. There were immature sentence constructions and embarrassing grammatical blunders left over from her less cautious, less skilled days. That draft was a nightmare to edit but the edited version allowed the well-constructed, creepy story to shine through unencumbered. Erika also spent a while combing over this story. MK did an editing pass with my edits, then another with Erika’s.

Two passes should have been more than enough to make this story easily readable. I can’t even read the posted version because she edited it so pitifully. The massive revision errors, leftover bits of immaturity, self-indulgent lines she refused to cut, and general lack of caring (at least the posted version appears as though its author doesn’t respect it enough to clean it up) make her look ten times less skilled than she was two years ago! The STORY is intriguing, creepy, and meticulously done in some aspects. The writing severely disfigures this story.

Most of the reviews were positive; only one even lightly mentioned the decline in quality (not nearly in so much detail as might have been helpful). This is far from MK’s best work, but one would never be able to tell from most of the reviews. I suspect those who read this based on reviews, those with standards, were a bit miffed. Some solid feedback would have shown MK how this lovely story suffers from poor handling, as well as to what degree she succeeded in revising an older work into something reflecting her current writing and storytelling ability.

This incident did lead to a better editing procedure. Eri and I see each other’s edits, now, and I get a final pass after MK goes over our draft. Sometimes I get two passes after she goes over our draft if what should be my final pass reveals too many new niggles. This procedure came about mostly through my offline snarking. Some informative reviews would have done wonders to nullify the need for me to be the one to nip MK. I felt guilty for doing that even though I knew it was necessary. That story was written for me; being the one to come down so harshly about it was a bit uncouth. I was grateful for Grey's honest, even if not unquestionably clear, review. His reviews are brief. Others do lengthier reviews while failing to touch the blunt points he at least mentions.

Several people make the effort to review every story. If they would do this more clearly, and honestly, this could drastically improve the overall quality of the updates. Two reviewers do have a blunt style, but one is the unclear example from earlier and the other has a tendency to mewl if the name is one she relishes. I do admire both of them for sometimes cracking down on the Lisa Teez rung of authors, though!

Please respect your work enough to polish it. I’ve read some less-than-well-written stories I could still respect for the obvious amount of effort and passion the author invested (Omega Girl, for one). There is NO excuse for a skilled author who does have tools and experience to post something so unpolished as “Unit 9.“ A few honest, well-thought reviews would have served as a good lesson to MK, and to other writers, on the need for clarity and caution.

This really was going to be a review post!

My review of "Paradise" is mixed; I see my review of "Scribe and Shadow" being the same. I should try reading other colors. I can sometimes appreciate purple and, as previously mentioned, cyan. Cyan doesn’t seem appropriate to review in a lesbian HypnoDomme’s blog, though. I’ll save that for the next remarkably good cyan technofetish story. Maybe I should review the two that made me pay attention to that color in the updates. I mostly read red, but the recent red has been tepid.

I rant like this because I adore this fetish and the good writing devoted to its lavishing and exploration. Fiction is a medium in which these often dark and unethical concepts are safe to explore as fully as one can fantasize. I want to do in my own reviews what I feel the others lack. I want to provide detailed feedback, positive and negative, and I want to be honest!

My review style will likely be clumsy at first. I will start with MK’s work; I can use something familiar to me so that my focus can be on working out a good style while not having to worry so much about understanding the stories. I work with them enough to not have the need for rigid concentration reviewing other stories will demand. This is a service, I think, not a cop-out. MK knows how I feel about her work. Using it to form my style means other authors will get better feedback in a refined format instead of the awkward early format I’ll likely need to adjust.

I would love feedback on what types of reviews authors would find helpful. I am a snarky bitch, I can’t tame that, but I will be honest in a constructive way. Tell me if you don't want me to review your work. You probably don't need to worry if you don't write red or anything related to science fiction or robots. I will niggle a bit over technicality—I'm always in editor mode, I can't help it!—but not as the focus.

I’ll make a post at some point following the general format of the Readers' Picks section on the Archive. Some of the stories I crave to praise in detail are obscure.

My introduction post did note my proclivity for rambling.

A real review post will come this Saturday. Madam can spark what little remains of my mind into oblivion if not! Bedtime for valbot.

~Valbot

Another new face

Hi! I'm Erika, aubade, "Or erislave, or any number of names you can conjugate with eri", as Madam puts it. I've been her slave for almost five months, and a member of a lovely mutually commited trisk with her, and Val for almost one month, and am the assistant editor for Kistulotican Industries.

I'm relentlessly quiet by nature, and neither gifted with writing nor linguistic talent, so i very likely won't be posting all that often. But i will be here to say hi and make silly comments and to try and be as enjoyable presence, as much as i'm present!

I have distressingly little background in hypnosis, beyond a life-long love of meditation and relaxation exercises. I've read the EMCSA for the better part of three years. Otherwise, my background is largely more... vanilla D/s. But as the song goes, "Now i'm a believer; i couldn't leave her if i tried". In a good way! Further details of my current activities can be found in Madam's podcasts. Which is kinda strange. But i don't mind!

Anyhow, please feel free to say hi, tell me to shush up, or ask me to write more and/or suggest things i should write about. Take care, have fun, and mind the broken step on the back porch.

*peeks shyly out of her mug*

I am valbot, Madam’s girlfriend of nearly three years and the head of the editorial department here at Kistulotican Industries. (Since when did tech companies have publishing divisions dedicated to erotic mind control...? Let alone ones that literally build their editorial staff!) I have a painfully deserved reputation of being viciously snarky, a tendency I‘m learning to soften into something curious rather than caustic. My delight is the exquisite: gloss is for hair, not for stories and trancing! But I won’t split infinitives over the issue.

I will likely post less frequently than Madam. I’ll try to post story reviews each Saturday. I might post other things during the week: commentary elaborating on the podcasts, rants concerning the MC genre, and my thoughts on hypnosis, mind control, and all else erotically piquant.

Linguistics is one of my geeky obsessions. I’d make a career of it if medicine weren’t my lifelong passion. Speaking of medicine, I can read searing lesbian sex with the same clinical detachment with which I’d read an EKG. I’m not sure if this makes me a better editor, a terrible writer, or closer to the humanoid robot typing this post. I am a linguist, not a grammarian. I respect grammar as the clarifying framework of any language, but languages are supposed to evolve with their speakers rather than constrict them. Rigid teaching squelches so many delicious idiomatic facets of language! Fiction in particular demands linguistic fortitude.

Hypnosis is another of my passions, one which pairs splendidly with whimsy and detachment alike. My first induction attempt, an embarrassing, kacky bit of fluff I refuse to transcribe, was seven years ago. Vanilla was the nature of my interest until I was about twenty. Madam is to blame for my erotic twisting. I’ll never be half the sizzling hypnotist she is even though she has fewer years of experience. Granted, she has much more practice! My trances were sparse for quite a few years. Her ethereal writing talent no doubt predisposes her to hypnotic badassery. I’m as much a writer as she is sane.

I am also her slave. I’ve been questioning my D/s orientation, lately: am I really a Domme that found the one person on the face of the earth to whom I can submit, am I a S/switch, or am I a pure submissive prone to occasional Domme urges a quick scene can soothe? I thought I was the first, but I’ve only been experiencing this lifestyle for two years. I have enough experience to guide those new to this type of exchange while still having an overwhelming amount to explore and work out for myself. I’ll probably post about this exploration, time to time.

I am also prone to rambling. You've now sampled a notably convoluted corner of the Kistublot. Is the ink bitter, thick, pleasing? Let me know! I won't post much, if at all, if my perspective detracts from or spoils Madam's.

Finally, as a disclaimer: Madam will not see these posts prior to publication. She will not censor me. What I write is entirely my opinion. Madam is not responsible for the content of my posts and she may virulently disagree with them at times. An unpleasant trend of certain people within the MC community treating us as interchangeable prompts me to state the obvious.

~Valbot