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From: artie <artie@netgate.net>
Subject: {ASSM} "Tales of the Golden Mule - Prologue" (MF, ROM) (artie)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 04:10:00 -0500
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<1st attachment, "TGMPrologue.txt" begin>
Tales of the Golden Mule - Prologue
(c) Copyright 1999 by artie@netgate.net
This work may not be reposted or redistributed without the prior
express written permission of the author.
Just what is "Tales of the Golden Mule" anyway?
At 145 thousand words, it's not a stroke story. As I thought
about how to describe it, a story that's grown so much, with
characters that have taken on lives of their own, it struck me --
it's a fucking soap opera.
A fucking soap opera -- that's the best summary I can give.
It's got plenty of erotic moments (except for Part 1, which is sex
free, but sets the stage for everything else). Besides exploring
what goes on between the legs, it explores what goes on between the
ears -- and that to me is just as interesting.
I'll give you a short review -- it was the best of times; it
was the worst of times. Nah -- that's been used. It's a romantic
story, although two characters get killed off in the beginning. The
sex is there, hot at times, and mildly kinky. As a writer, I know I
have trouble building and maintaining tension. The middle part is a
lot of sex without a lot of tension. The action picks up near the
end. There are plenty of loose ends left for future tales. I think
it's well written, although readers are encoraged to think some times.
Tales of the Golden Mule currently comprises 19 parts, about
145 thousand words. If you want to read the whole thing, it's
available in HTML format on my web site
(/~artie/TGM.html). It's also availabe as a
single LARGE (about 800kb!) text file on the asstr ftp site
(ftp://ftp.asstr.org//pub/Authors/artie/text/tgm.txt). I'll post a
few sections at a time to a.s.s.m. starting December 21, 1999.
Where is The Golden Mule going from here? I've got plans,
and more outlines. But, I've also got a problem. I started writing
TGM in July. I've had it posted to my web site since late July. In
that time, I've had over 30,000 hits on the TGM web page. Since I
started posting the single (large) file to the asstr ftp site in
September, it's been downloaded over 600 times. It was downloaded 81
times in the second week of December alone. I don't want to know how
many hours I've put into this story.
Know how many comments I've gotten? Over 30,000 hits -- the
whole thing downloaded over 600 times? I've heard from 47 different
people. That's it. Of course some of those people, such as Wiseguy,
MC Writer, and Melody have provided a lot of help. They, and the
others, have found problems, helped me fix errors, and have made
suggestions that have improved the story greatly. Comments from
readers have helped the characters grow. Questions from readers have
helped me develop the characters, and understand them better.
But, how many short stories could I have written in that
time? That's a whole lot of 3 to 5 thousand word stories! That's
even a few 20,000 word stories! During this time I have completed
and posted six stories -- including Life Cycle of the Kaelen, which
is around 70,000 words. All those received reviews from Celeste of
10, 9, 9, or better. I've also added 6 stories to the Workbench --
still works in progress.
So what's next for The Golden Mule? Well, the characters are
on vacation for a while. They need a rest. So do I. They'll
probably be back. While they're on vacation, I'll finish up some
things from the Workbench. Maybe I'll catch up on my reading.
Got an opinion? Let me know!
Namaste-
artie
December 16, 1999
Tales of the Golden Mule
by artie@netgate.net
/~artie
<1st attachment end>
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