tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17613143532507135962024-03-04T20:00:43.580-08:00Dreams of ControlThe blog of Marc Cabot, author of the Dreams of Control erotic mind control series. Topics: Writing, e-publishing, hypnosis, hypnoerotica, erotic mind control, sex, general geekery.Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-66805810609303393132014-09-19T19:40:00.000-07:002014-09-19T19:40:12.366-07:00Free Story on Wattpad!I signed up for WattPad, just for fun. I've put up <i>His Lucky Break,</i> which is always free, and I might post story snippets there from time to time. Have a look!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="http://embed.wattpad.com/story/23586077" width="500"></iframe>Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-30979085946095488202014-09-03T19:35:00.002-07:002014-09-03T19:35:29.966-07:00New Erotic Mind Control Book: "In His Kiss"I'm pleased to announce my latest Erotic Mind Control short story, <i><b>In His Kiss</b></i>. Now available for $1.99 at major e-tailers!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQn3X2PWXHv-y5a2w1_bLdY03bDq0IspMaGayOXjAc2XHoCctuB7OnGlF0HBIO-PGXnUPPeLw8cmlQj7H-yZYpEpGJXnfX745BJQoTVbzcUJ94WsdF_E4G5lJS8Mq3wdWwKXQuGNYcGT6/s1600/inhiskiss_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQn3X2PWXHv-y5a2w1_bLdY03bDq0IspMaGayOXjAc2XHoCctuB7OnGlF0HBIO-PGXnUPPeLw8cmlQj7H-yZYpEpGJXnfX745BJQoTVbzcUJ94WsdF_E4G5lJS8Mq3wdWwKXQuGNYcGT6/s1600/inhiskiss_600.jpg" /></a></div>
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Click the links to buy at: <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/472134" target="_blank">Smashwords</a> / <a href="http://www.amazon.com/His-Kiss-Kissing-Bandit-Book-ebook/dp/B00N7TP0WE/" target="_blank">Amazon</a> / <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-his-kiss-marc-cabot/1120256933" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a> / <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/in-his-kiss" target="_blank">Kobo</a><br />
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Veronica Washington, gorgeous geek and canny cosplayer, is at MiCon, having a wonderful time. Then she meets Steve, the “Kissing Bandit,” whose simple costume and nerdy but handsome exterior conceal a dark secret. By the time Veronica figures out what’s happening, it’s too late… and the Kissing Bandit has stolen far more than a kiss. He’s stolen her very <i>mind</i>.<br />
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The question is, will she ever want it back? Or will she become the Bandit’s new partner in crimes of the heart?<br />
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<i>Erotic Mind Control, Maledom, Geek Erotica, Cosplay Erotica</i>Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-71382619451911060512014-08-23T09:49:00.001-07:002014-08-23T09:49:40.326-07:00New Website!Inspired by the fact that every time I went to my writer-crush Chuck Wendig's site, I thought, "I wish I had a real website that looked nice and worked well and made people want to buy my books and/or lavish me with money and affection," I have revamped both the Dreams of Control website (my personal site) and the Unspeakable Publications website (which has links to some books by other authors I work with as well.)<br />
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They look great, they work well, and there are easy-to-use buy links on all of the book pages. Please check them out!<br />
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<a href="http://www.unspeakablepublications.com/" target="_blank">http://www.unspeakablepublications.com </a><br />
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<a href="http://www.dreamsofcontrol.com/" target="_blank"> http://www.dreamsofcontrol.com</a><br />
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Thanks and enjoy!<br />
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MarcMarc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-59960259761217364532014-08-20T08:31:00.000-07:002014-08-20T08:33:15.019-07:00Imagination SteroidsFor your Amusement, a comment I made on Terribleminds.com, wherein I invent the concept of Imagination Steroids and detail their advantages over the regular kind.<br />
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Original poster "Ed:"<br />
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Isn't a key component of writing imagination? You can read a whole variety of novels and types, but if your brain can’t create a world to place the story you are burning to write, you are pretty much stuffed.<br />
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Blog Host "Terribleminds:"<br />
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It is, indeed. Though that’s a bit separate from instinct, I think. One has to cultivate imagination too — perhaps the focus of a future post!
– c.<br />
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Me, Marc Cabot:<br />
<br />
Just so.<br />
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Imagination is something we are all born with. Period fucking dot. All children have it.<br />
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It’s just that a lot of them get it beaten out of them or fail to exercise it and they end up like Susan Pevensie from the Narnia books… “Oh, isn’t it funny you still remember those make-believe games we played as silly children now bugger off while I snort heroin off this fashion model’s ass and <i>PRETEND I’M NOT ALREADY <b>DEAD INSIDE.</b></i>"<br />
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And, granted, some people have more imagination or some natural gift for letting it flow easier that other people. And that’s fine. It’d be a funny old world if we were all alike, wouldn’t it?
But don’t ever think that a) you don’t have it or b) that you can’t make it stronger by exercising it.<br />
<br />
And reading, widely, is like Imagination Steroids for writers.<br />
<br />
You can mainline steroids but if you never get up off the couch you’ll still be a pile of blubber with a couch-shaped ass. And you can exercise without steroids and with hard work you can reach the peak of your body’s potential. But if you exercise AND take steroids you turn into Mark Fucking McGuire and you start hitting shit so hard it flies out of the park and DENTS THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE.
And the nice part is, Imagination Steroids are perfectly legal and you won’t have an asterisk next to your name on the bestseller lists for using them. SO GO GET SOME.
Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-4680925749933194682014-07-06T12:40:00.000-07:002014-07-06T12:41:31.015-07:00Reviewer Incentive Contest - READ ON!Now that I've released my first audiobook and am well on my way to becoming the new King of All Media (watch your hiney, Howard) I'm offering the following Reviewer Incentive Program and Contest* for all my readers. It's pretty simple:<br />
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1) Buy one of my books, including my audiobook version of <i>Dream a Little Dream</i>. You can do that now, or you can already have done it. Or you can write a review of a book you bought from me at a con. (Amazon and Barnes and Noble will allow you to write reviews of books you bought somewhere else. iTunes and Smashwords will not.) Or you can review one of my FREE stories. This program does not require a new purchase or proof of purchase. Purchase links are over on the right there if you need them. Just click on the one corresponding to your favorite e-tailer.<br />
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2) Write a review of the book and post it online. This is the new part. Reviews must be dated July 6th, 2014, or later.<br />
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3) Email me a link to your review and your email address. It can be a throwaway email address from gmail or whatever, but you <i>must</i> provide a working email address. If you ask me to, I will add the email address to my mailing list. <b>I will not add it unless you ask.</b> Email it to my Reviews at Dreams of Control email address (<a href="mailto:reviews@dreamsofcontrol.com">click here to see it.</a>)<br />
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4) For every review you post and email me a link to, I will give you a free copy of the e-book of your choice through Smashwords. (You heard me. Review a free or .99 book and you can choose ANY BOOK YOU WANT, including the more expensive ones. or vice versa.)<br />
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You will need to sign into Smashwords with the email address you give me, but you don't have to put in payment information if all you do is download free books. Just put the name of the book you want in the email. Note that you cannot get a copy of the audiobook this way, sorry.<br />
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5) On the first of every month, I'll randomly select one review submitter to receive a $10.00 Amazon, Smashwords, B&N, or iTunes e-gift certificate (winner's choice.)<br />
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It's that simple. So what are you waiting for? GO WRITE SOME REVIEWS!<br />
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This program is subject to change or termination without notice, but any eligible review submitted will receive the incentive listed and be entered to win if submitted before such change or termination occurs. Must have a valid email address to enter. Void where prohibited. Prohibited where void. No purchase necessary, but very much appreciated. Odds of winning do not change based upon products purchased. Once you've reviewed all my books you don't get any more free ones until I write some more. You may give your free books away to others by providing me with their email. Stop reading this like it was a real sweepstakes or something and go read a book!<br />
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<i>*With that many capital letters, It Has To Be Good.</i>Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-15585411471819628662014-07-04T17:01:00.003-07:002014-07-05T06:09:47.897-07:00"Dream A Little Dream" tonight on Descent Hypnosis Radio!UPDATE: the book will also be performed tonight (7/5) at 11PM EDT!<br />
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Starting in a few minutes you can listen to the full audiobook version of "Dream A Little Dream" on Descent Hypnosis Radio, the Internet's most awesome hypnosis radio station!<br />
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Tune in at <a href="http://www.descenthypnosis.com/">http://www.descenthypnosis.com</a> !<br />
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Thanks and enjoy!<br />
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<br />Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-18271157512623453982014-06-24T15:30:00.001-07:002014-06-24T15:39:27.384-07:00Audiobooketizing Your Prosebook: A Brief Guide<div class="MsoNormal">
So. I submitted my first audiobook to ACX, aka Audible
Creation Exchange (an Amazon company – basically KDP for audiobooks) last
night. It took, like everything else in this fallen world, a lot more time and
effort than it seemed like it should. But I love you (No, really, I do.) and
I’m here to help you avoid some of the pitfalls, pratfalls and wrong turns I
encountered. Herein, Unka Marc’s Guide To Audiobooketizing Your Prosebook.<o:p></o:p></div>
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###<o:p></o:p></div>
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Where to begin?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, there are neither beginnings nor endings to the
turning of the Wheel of Indiepub. But this is <i>a </i>beginning.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I signed up with ACX (<a href="http://www.acx.com/">http://www.acx.com</a> if
you hadn’t guessed) which is free, and will link you directly into your KDP
account if you sign up with the same email. This also automatically makes all
your Author Page books available for instant integration as rights-available or
DIY projects, which is VERY cool. If you do things in the right order, your
audiobook should appear as a format choice on the book’s page when it goes
live, which is SUPER cool. If you want to do it some other way, knock yourself
out. You might still find some of the technical stuff below helpful, but
obviously the ACX specifics, not so much.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So you sign up and you put in your information (bank stuff
to get paid, tax information, legal status, stuff like that.) It’s very similar
to signing up for KDP or any other self-publishing platform. Then you go
through all the help pages and try to figure out what the Hell to <i>do</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Note: ACX’s “How To” pages are <i>monumentally</i> badly
organized. It’s not <i>that</i> hard to find any given thing you
might want to know about, especially since Google has them thoroughly mapped.
But trying to develop a workflow just from reading them is nigh-impossible.
Even watching all the tutorial videos all the way through, in order, which you
should do, will not help much with the nuts-and-bolts of the process. Read
through this ALL THE WAY TO THE END and you should have a grip on the thing. A
tenuous, three-finger grip on the side of some Godforsaken alp, but a grip
never-the-less. Also here are some useful web pages:<o:p></o:p></div>
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The ACX tutorial videos: <a href="https://www.acx.com/help/video-lessons-resources/200672590">https://www.acx.com/help/video-lessons-resources/200672590</a> (You
have to watch each one and then the next will appear for viewing.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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The ACX “Do It Yourself Author/Narrator” page: <a href="https://www.acx.com/help/authors-as-narrators/200626860">https://www.acx.com/help/authors-as-narrators/200626860</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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The ACX page that actually tells you what your submitted
file has to <i>look</i> like: <a href="https://www.acx.com/help/acx-audio-submission-requirements/201456300">https://www.acx.com/help/acx-audio-submission-requirements/201456300</a> (Spoiler:
it should be a 44Khz 192Kb constant sample rate mono/NOT joint stereo MP3. The
specs are near the bottom.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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So once I was sure I was all set up, I had to decide which
of my books to audiobooketize, and how I was going to do it. I started with one
of my short stories, <i>Dream a Little Dream</i>, which is about 6700
words long, and which the rough math said should be about 45 minutes of audio.
(It came in at 44 minutes. Damn, I’m good at rough math.) Please note that
“being too short” is grounds for rejection, but “too short” is not defined.
There are approved books online which are less than half an hour long: I don’t
know if there’s a bright-line rule or not. I picked this one because it a) is
reasonably short so I wouldn’t invest too much time if there was some problem
with my books, B) is one of my tamer books (the protagonist is married to the
only person he has sex with, everything that happens is arguably consensual,)
and C) contains a realistic hypnotic induction scene. This last is a bit of a
gamble: that might turn some people off, but OTOH people who are into
hypno-erotica might be <i>really</i> into this. Time will tell.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Okay, I was all set to sell audiobooks. I just needed a, you
know, audiobook. To sell.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I decided to record my book myself. I’m a trained
hypnotherapist and I REALLY like to talk so I was confident that I could manage
the recording. I have a reasonably acceptable voice, very clear diction and
boundless ego, so I wasn’t worried it wouldn’t sound good enough. If you don’t
have any of these properties, or just want a “real” narrator, you have a couple
of options.<o:p></o:p></div>
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1) Put your book in as
“OPEN FOR AUDITION.” This will let ACX show your proposed book to the narrators
who are signed up to receive such offers, and let them make offers to record
it. You can either pay a flat fee, or split the royalties with the narrator.
The latter requires less money up front but of course if your book sells well
means less money in your pocket. Which to choose is an individual business
decision. I didn’t do this, so I can’t comment on it, but it seems simple
enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
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2) Hire a narrator to
record your book for you outside ACX. You could do this any way you’d find any
other kind of talent, including Craigslist. If you do this, be sure to have a
good solid work-for-hire agreement, vetted by a lawyer licensed in your
jurisdiction, so that the rights you have and the obligations you have to the
narrator are clear to all parties up front. If you do this, you’ll probably get
a “finished audio” file from the narrator, and then you can proceed like I did
with it as if you had recorded it yourself. GET A WAV FILE OR OTHER UNCOMPRESSED
MASTER FILE. Do not just take an MP3. If you ever need to edit it you’ll be a
lot better off with a real audio master file format. If you don’t want to do
any audio editing, be sure they put the opening credits, closing credits,
content file(s) and sample file in separate MP3 files (see the “Upload” section
below.) But get BOTH the uncompressed masters and the MP3 conversion, or
you’ll have to do it yourself or find somebody else to do it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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3) Have your dulcet-toned
significant other, Cousin Pat, or bored friend record it for you. I’m not
saying this is a bad idea <i>per se</i>, but see all the stuff in #2.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I already had a nice computer and was familiar with the
basics of digital recording from experience as a systems administrator at a
design studio, but it isn’t hard. I’ll hit the highlights of my preparation and
setup.<o:p></o:p></div>
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1) I have a basement
office where I do my writing and work at home for my day job. It already had a
nice curtain backdrop set up for my video conferences. I just extended it a bit
so that I was surrounded by free-hanging fabric on three sides, which dampened
ambient echo very well. I put up a fuzzy blanket on the one large flat surface
still present (the door) and I was all set.<o:p></o:p></div>
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2) I only recorded late
at night or when nobody was home. A microphone good enough to get good audio
will pick up a lot of background noise, even a cardioid or supercardioid. (Ask
me about how the dog laid down on the floor above my head and chewed on her
bone for forty-five minutes straight when I wanted to record that one time. I
DARE YOU.) Also, I turned off all my external hard drives and made sure I had
no fan noise from my computer picked up by the mike. I bought a small solid
state external drive to record onto, they’re very fast and make no sound at
all. That minimized the chance that my internal HD would spin up. It’s not very
loud, but every little bit helps.<o:p></o:p></div>
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3) I got a nice USB
microphone (a Blue Snowball iCE) from TigerDirect and an inexpensive pop filter
(those embroidery-hoop-with-pantyhose looking things) from Guitar Center. The
pop filter not only lowers the chances of plosives making your recording, well,
pop, but it gives you a fixed reference point so when you do more than one
session, you know how far to put your face from the mike.<o:p></o:p></div>
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4) I already had some
nice headphones. You don’t need umpty-hundred dollar ones, but do get ones
which are “closed back,” i.e. they completely seal off your ears. It makes
reviewing a lot easier.<o:p></o:p></div>
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5) I downloaded the free
Open Source program “Audacity” from the internet. I’d used it before, many
years ago, and it’s gotten even better since. And you can’t beat the price or
the availability of plugins for it, including a free MP3 converter. If you have
a Mac, you could use GarageBand, which has a voice-recording channel, and there
are lots of other audio programs out there. The fanciest consumer-grade one is
probably Adobe Audition, and then you go up into the pro-level stuff. I know
nothing about any of them. J<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here’s a link to download Audacity: <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">http://audacity.sourceforge.net/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Here’s a link to the MP3 converter, which you have to
install separately (it’s easy:) <a href="http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame">http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Here’s a link to a page for a compressor plugin that a lot
of people find very useful for making audiobook MP3’s: <a href="http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/chriss-dynamic-compressor-plugin-for-audacity/">http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/chriss-dynamic-compressor-plugin-for-audacity/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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6) I got a nicer
microphone stand than the one the mike came with, too, and a flexible gooseneck
adapter for it, at Sam Ash. I also bought a few sheets of soft closed-cell
craft foam at Joann’s, and set that on my desk and then the microphone stand on
that. That was a lot cheaper than a shock mount, and it provides quite a bit of
acoustical decoupling of the microphone from the desk I sat it on. I kinda want
a shock mount (which is basically a web of bungee cords you suspend the
microphone from to dampen external vibration) but a) my office isn’t that noisy
and my equipment doesn’t vibrate much and b) I am a notorious gearhead and I
have to draw lines somewhere. If you want one, especially if you have a
noisier/vibrate-ier environment, by all means get one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Once I had all my stuff, I set up my chair and the
stand so I was on-axis (my mouth was lined up with the mike) and I could stop
and start recording with a minimum of noise. One nice feature of Audacity is
that Shift-R will append to your existing track, so if you get into the whole
stop-and-start thing, it’s really simple to do. I did some sampling of “room
tone,” which is just the noise when nothing is apparently making noise, and
found it was pretty quiet, so I was all set. Protip: if you want to insert
pauses in your recording, copy/paste room tone. DON’T insert silence with the
program’s Generate Silence feature. Dead silence sounds different from room
tone and is disconcerting for listeners.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then, I actually prepared the prose book for recording. I
did this by turning it into a script I could scroll through. Lots of people
like to read from paper but I live in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century and
besides, my desk is cluttered enough, so I scrolled through it on my second
monitor while watching the recording on the first monitor. (Oh, did I mention I
have two monitors? This probably wouldn’t be so handy if you only had one and
the paper thing would probably be much more efficient at that point.) I put in
some stage direction (e.g., when the protagonist snaps his fingers, I actually
snapped mine, and I put a big <b>SNAP</b> in the script where the
snap was to happen) and I also added a few “he thought,” “a little voice in his
head whispered,” etc. I write in third person limited omniscient and I often
reveal a character’s thoughts. These are always in italics in my books, so it’s
easy to see when it’s happening, but in an audiobook you have to make sure the
context is clear. You don’t have to overdo it, but if it’s not instantly
apparent who’s talking, identify them. I also added the required opening and
closing credits (they’re listed on the submission requirements page I linked
above) and a disclaimer about hypnosis because paranoid hypnotherapist lawyer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Once I was happy with the script, it was time to *<b>gulp</b>*
record.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This took several sessions: the rule of thumb is that you
will spend five to ten minutes recording for each minute of recorded audio. I
found I did a little better than this but it was still more than I could do in
one sitting. Before each recording session, I drank a lot of water or some nice
tea, starting a while before I was ready to record. (Then I went potty so I
wouldn’t have to stop while I was in the groove.) I turned off my hard drives,
got everything set, and spent a few minutes reading lines or just talking
randomly into the mike while watching the signal meter to get warmed up and my
voice profile back where it had been previously. Then I started recording.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I did this via a method called “roll and punch.” Google it
for specifics, but basically, you hit record, wait a beat, and start reading.
You read for several sentences or until you screw up, then stop the recording.
If you screwed up, delete the screwup and then start recording again with the
screwed-up line. In either event, go back and look at what you did. If anything
looks iffy, rerecord it. You can record onto a new track by hitting R instead
of Shift-R, and then copy-paste repaired phrases. You can also spot amplify
words which are too soft or too loud (if you put a negative number in the
amplification box, it will make the selection quieter.) And if any pauses are
too long or too short, delete some interval or paste in a little room tone
until it flows.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you’ve set up your space right, the only ambient noise
should be noises YOU make – breathing, clothing rustle, keyclicks, mouth
noises, the occasional keen of existential despair. It’s easier if you edit
that stuff out as you go, and try not to get it in the first place if you can.
Adjust your clothing between rolls. :) As far as breathing, you can
take that out (either with editing or by deleting it after the fact) or leave
it in. There is a lot of debate about this. I usually didn’t have it in – I
took my breaths between rolls. If I did, I didn’t worry about it unless it was
obvious and distracting. Even if you take out the breaths, DON’T make the
reading “breathless.” People expect pauses in speech. Making the whole book one
long run-on sentence will not contribute to a quality listening experience.
Leave yourself little gaps between sentences (or linked sentences) and you can
edit them to fit until you get your tempo just right.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For another example, I have a habit of moistening my lips
when I start talking, which is fine – it reduces lip-smacking noise. But it
makes a very distinctive poppy-click sort of sound which I soon learned to
recognize on the histogram. When I saw it, I deleted it. They only last about
.07 seconds so it didn’t affect my inter-word or inter-sentences pauses or
anything. If you have a similar habit of some kind, edit out the noise as you
go, so you don’t have to take out hundreds of them when you review your
mastering file. The mike will probably pick up your clicking “stop,” so get
those as you go too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Note also that you will probably want to slow down your
speech a bit from conversational tempo: although it doesn’t really mean much,
the usual figure one sees is to read “about 10%” slower than you talk. ACX says
the optimum speed is about 9600 words per hour. Don’t feel like you have to
check a stopwatch, but give the listener time to enjoy the story and don’t
rush. Stop your roll often, rinse your mouth with a little water, take a few
breaths, and keep your speed and tone nice and even when you start recording
again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Every time I had to stop a session, I marked the script with
where I left off, and my warmup the next time was to read the paragraph or so
before that a few times. I hit save on the script only when I made a change or
stopped for the day, but I hit save on my Audacity project every other punch or
so. I mean, <i>constantly</i>. It took four sessions (some longer than
others, one cut very short by the aforementioned dog going for the North
American Bone-Chewing Noise Record) to finish the book, roughly four to five
hours in all.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once I was done, I saved the file, then saved a copy of it
for mastering. NEVER MUCK WITH YOUR RAW AUDIO FILE. Save it and back it up,
preferably immediately. I have Time Machine so my file got backed up
automatically, but if you don’t have a similar automatic backup, copy it onto
another disk or something every so often. I went through the mastering file and
decided that I wasn’t going to use a compressor/gate/etc on it because it
looked fairly clean, and I wanted to see what ACX thought of it. Had I been
going to use such a filter, I would have done it to the mastering file.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I waited a day and then did a final quality pass through the
mastering file. I found one session join which I hadn’t fixed (embarrassing)
and some pauses I decided in hindsight were too long. I also did a little (I
never went above +2dB or below -2db relative amplification) work in amplifying
words I thought were still a bit faint or a smidge too loud. Then I got ready
to upload that mamma-jamma.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I knew that ACX requires you to submit a separate sample
file between one and five minutes in length: I selected a portion of the
recording which I thought captured the flavor of it without providing any
spoilers (and wasn’t graphic) and copy-pasted it into a separate Audacity
project file. After a little tweaking and making sure I had 1.5 seconds of room
tone on either end of the sample, I converted it to an MP3 file with the
correct settings (see above) and listened to it with iTunes. It sounded fine so
I went back to the main project file, did the conversion, and spot checked it
as well. Again, fine. To the ACX upload page, me hearties!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hadn’t actually created the project yet, so I did a New
Project and it showed me a list of my KDP books. I selected the right one, and
it filled in the blanks on the book information page. I did some tweaking, and
then went on to the “upload data” portion. The part before uploading your data
is very similar to uploading KDP – it asks about rights, territories and so
forth, nothing complicated. It does NOT ask about pricing. (Why in a minute.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Upon arrival to the upload page, it wanted the following:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1) Cover art. Which must
be SQUARE. Not book-shaped. Square. They will make you a text-on-colored
background cover if you want, but I had a nice cover from the book, so I just
made it square in Photoshop.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2) Opening credits file.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*<b>record scratch noise</b>*<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Say what, now? The opening credits are in the project file,
like I thought I was supposeta!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Uh-uh. They go in a separate file. As do the closing
credits. Fortunately, I had left a nice space between the credits and the book
content, so I just copy/pasted both the opening credits and the closing credits
into their own separate projects, converted, and resaved the master without
them. To be honest, I’ll probably do this EVERY time, as I put the credits in
the script anyway. Leave a nice pause, lead in and lead out, and you can do
this just like I did it here. (Do NOT leave them in the master. That’s just
tacky and would probably get you rejected for unprofessional conduct or
roughing the kicker or something.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3) Closing credits file
(see #2.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4) Content file(s.) No
file can be larger than 170 MB, which at the settings they prefer is about two
hours of recording <i>más-o-ménos</i> - my 45 minute book came in at
about 63 MB. You can break the files up any way you want if your chapters are
shorter than 2 hours: you should break each file into chapters, as that makes
it easier for the listener to skip to where they want to go if they’re not
starting at the beginning. My book is only one chapter (it has a few scene
breaks, but I just left a slightly longer pause between them as they’re pretty
clear from context.) So I uploaded it in a single file.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>5)</i> Sample file – 1
to five minutes, should not include credits, SHOULD be a mostly complete scene
or at least a complete sequence of event or dialogue which interests the
reader. I picked the part where my protagonist comes up with his Evil Plan. Be
sure to leave a little room tone on each end so it doesn’t pop in. POPS ARE
BAD. Also, note that iTunes (of COURSE you’ll be in iTunes, this isn’t the
STONE AGE) just uses the first five minutes of the main content as the sample,
so make sure that if you have any disclaimers or anything, they’re in the main
content file, and that somewhere in the first five minutes there’s at least a
sentence or two that is actually, you know, <i>entertaining.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I uploaded all that, after going through the rigmarole
described in #1 and #2. When everything was uploaded, the “I’m Done” button on
the upper right corner of the screen lit up. I pressed it, and got an “Are you
sure?” dialog. I clicked on “You’re Damn Skippy,” and was put back out into the
“Projects” page, with “Dream a Little Dream” now showing as a completed project
with a status of “Awaiting Audio Review.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, if you recall, I said I’d talk about pricing in a
minute. You probably don’t read that fast, you slacker, but here we are anyway.
Here is how pricing for ACX audiobooks works:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1) Audible decides what
the book’s price will be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2) Audible sells the book
at that price.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yeah. I was surprised too. But that’s how it works. There is
a little list of “typical prices” on one of the help pages that ties price
roughly to length, but the bottom line is, Audible decides how much to charge
for the book, and if you don’t like it, door’s to your left. You get a royalty
rate based on whether the audiobook is exclusive to Audible and whether you
hired a narrator (ACX calls narrators “producers,” but that’s who they mean)
and agreed to give them part of the take. The most you will get is 40% for an
Audible exclusive with no shared royalty. Note, however, that “Audible
Exclusive” means that no other audiobook <i>publisher</i> can sell
the book – it’ll be available on Amazon, iTunes, and <a href="http://audible.com/">Audible.com</a>, at the very least, even if you go
“exclusive.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, once it’s uploaded, you just wait for review and
go-live, just like a KDP e-book. So at that point it’s out of your hands. I
read a lot of forum posts about problems trying to learn what not to do and I
found that ACX’s initial rejection message, if you get one, can be sketchy, but
they <i>will</i> provide specifics (“It’s too quiet,” “The volume
level is too inconsistent,” “There’s too much background noise,” “You sound
like somebody trying to simulate English speech using only tones generated by gently
caressing amorous bullfrogs,” etc.) if you ask.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Probably THE single most common complaint I heard others say
they’d gotten was uneven volume. You MUST keep your volume levels consistent:
if the listener has to keep adjusting the volume to hear you/avoid being
deafened, they will not enjoy the experience, sayeth ACX. (And I think they
have a point.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So you want to watch for things like your P’s and T’s being
really loud (those are what are called “plosives,”) your S’s being too drawn
out, or the beginning of your sentences being a lot louder than the ends. (You
could be running out of breath, you could be overemphasizing the first words,
you could be moving toward/away from the mike as you speak.) Watch the
histogram (that funky graph that looks like something out of an
earthquake-based disaster movie.) It should stay <i>relatively </i>consistent.
There shouldn’t be huge spikes (unless at some point you yelled, on purpose,
and even then don’t get carried away some of us have sensitive hearing you
scene-chewing <i>hack</i>.) There shouldn’t be places where there’s speech
but the graph is really small (unless you whispered, and even then don’t make
people strain to understand what was said.) If you have issues like that, look
into that Craig’s Compressor program I linked to way up above yonder. It can
help smooth stuff out if you don’t want to re-record it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So there you have it. I was going to end this blog post
here, but while I was writing it, the status of my audiobook went from
“Awaiting Audio Review” to “Headed for Retail.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS IT WENT THROUGH IN ONE PASS. ONE. <i>PASS.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It took just over fourteen hours to go from upload to
“Headed for Retail.” Wow, that was fast. Granted, it’s short, but I’ve had KDP
books take more time than that! So now I guess I just wait for it to hit the
(virtual) shelves. Once it does, or if there are more steps in between, I’ll
blog about that too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because, like I said, <i>I love you.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanks for reading: if you have questions, please post them
in the comments! Keep coming back, because I’ll have free copies to give away
when the audiobook goes live!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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MC<o:p></o:p></div>
Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-74941896087488681282014-06-04T17:00:00.000-07:002014-06-16T16:36:40.090-07:00New EMC Book: Simon and Lily are back in "Carnival of Lust!"Simon Marshall and Lily the Succubus are back! The third installment in the <i>Hell to Pay</i> series, like <i>Halloween Dreams </i>before it, takes place during the events of <i>Hell to Pay.</i> This time, Simon and Lily are off to Carnival in New Orleans. Happy Mardi Gras, everybody!<br />
<br />
Click the picture to buy on Amazon.com or use these links to find it at other fine e-tailers:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444081">Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/444081</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hell-to-pay-marc-cabot/1119640080">Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hell-to-pay-marc-cabot/1119640080</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hell-to-pay-carnival-of-lust">Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hell-to-pay-carnival-of-lust</a><br />
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Pay-Carnival-Marc-Cabot-ebook/dp/B00KR26OBU/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9J6yHj5jAtyLtuUqhhGEunwcVg7QyGssFYqQum6ejmLiwJGNgA2toLS5SF71_v4HBRQuDnJ7foEr8orkWwxOTMbyH0wJx1h78RW1lyT0kQeXY_YyO5kQ1uNaFH2PJ9lOjsS9eo_kJ3oRV/s1600/carnival_of_lust_cover600px.jpg" height="320" width="195" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Pay-Carnival-Marc-Cabot-ebook/dp/B00KR26OBU/">Click Here to buy on Amazon.com!</a></div>
<br />
<u>Back Cover Text:</u><br />
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Simon Marshall and Lily the Succubus are in New Orleans
for Mardi Gras, and the French Quarter will never be the same. The first night
of Carnival is easy - just a little trip to the Quarter's hottest strip club,
where the stage show gets a lot wilder than even old New Orleans would expect. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But after that, things get dangerous. <o:p></o:p></div>
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First Lily becomes an unlikely heroine by helping Simon
save a pretty damsel in distress - and punishing the villain distressing her in
ways he'll never forget. Simon, meanwhile, enjoys the hero's reward he deserves
when gorgeous blonde Brittany expresses her thanks with Lily's help.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And finally, on Mardi Gras itself, Simon has to face
Angelique, a voodoo priestess who's after Lily's power and Simon's spirit.
Together the magician and his demon lover can easily overcome her. But at what
cost to Simon's one hope for escaping the Pact that will doom him to Hell? The
only weapon that can save him… is lust. And for once, it isn't Lily who has to
fan the flames.<o:p></o:p></div>
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(Erotic Mind Control, Maledom, Femdom, Menage /
Threesomes, Paranormal)<o:p></o:p></div>
Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-74139555826597498042014-05-12T17:38:00.001-07:002014-05-12T17:39:58.617-07:00New Dreams of Control Story - "Kawaii!"My newest Dreams of Control story is now available for purchase! HiddenDepths is back, and this time he's got Junko Tachibana, one of the world's best (and hottest) cosplayers in his sights:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kawaii-HiddenDepths-Marc-Cabot-ebook/dp/B00KA0A7OE/"><img alt=" Click the picture to buy "Kawaii!"" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNspyWiv5sVvT7qb0IijediIXInNMtuHIiShw_44RL-pWzO0MlEjhOAtSsksuSm5htuxhc7F9qyIi6pdhf4nChn4EuPG_93eMMwMPwz-NYpmylqzyvBpaQML8gf7U3Bj-mEihb3N2alNLE/s1600/kawaii_cover600.jpg" height="320" width="195" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
It's a 7,000 word short story and it can be yours for the low, low price of only ninety-nine cents!<br />
<br />
Interestingly, the costume Junko is wearing is from an anime… that I made up. I even wrote part of a theme song! I also reference two other anime - including "Magical Love Gentleman," which if you get it at all should Amuse you, and "Fencer of Minerva," which is one of my real-life favorites.<br />
<br />
Back cover text:<br />
<br />
<i>Junko Tachibana - "JT" to her legions of fans - is one of the world's
best cosplayers. Her amazing replicas of costumes from Japanese
animation, movies, video games and pop culture have made her an
up-and-coming star on the convention circuit, and tonight one of her
sponsors has given away a one-hour chat as first prize in the "JT's
Biggest Fan!" contest.
<br />
<br />But the man who's won isn't what she's expecting at all. He calls
himself Hiddendepths, and JT soon learns that his chat handle is
completely accurate. Before she knows what's happening, she's become a
real-life anime girl, and even when her costume comes off, she stays in
character. No matter how sexy the story gets!
<br />
<br />(Erotic Mind Control, Maledom, Hypnosis / Erotic Hypnosis, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Cosplay)</i><br />
<br />
You can see it at the following etailers:<br />
<br />
Amazon.com: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kawaii-HiddenDepths-Marc-Cabot-ebook/dp/B00KA0A7OE/">http://www.amazon.com/Kawaii-HiddenDepths-Marc-Cabot-ebook/dp/B00KA0A7OE/</a><br />
<br />
Barnes and Noble/BN.com: <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kawaii-marc-cabot/1119469889">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kawaii-marc-cabot/1119469889</a><br />
<br />
Smashwords: <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/437230">http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/437230</a><br />
<br />
Thanks and enjoy!Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-47839551543538717722014-03-25T07:03:00.001-07:002014-03-25T07:06:54.729-07:00On Toy Traps, High Heels, and The Nature of The UniverseI haven't been blogging much but to offer you a small sliver, a morsel short but sweet, of entertainment, here's a comment I made on Chuck Wendig's blog. He wrote <a href="http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/03/24/25-things-you-should-know-about-life-with-a-toddler/">a list of things you should know about life with toddlers</a> which was dead on, really. One of the things he mentioned was "toy traps," e.g. stepping on a Duplo block in the dark. My response:<br />
<br />
True about the toy traps. But take comfort, gentle host, in that while if your son wants to play with dolls that's totally cool, it is unlikely that anyone will give him any Barbie dolls. I say that not because boys shouldn't have Barbie dolls, but rather because <i>NO ONE SHOULD HAVE BARBIE DOLLS.</i>
Not just because in most of her incarnations she is a mindless dweeb, but because of the...<br />
<br />
<i>Shoes</i>.<br />
<br />
Oh, God, the shoes. The tiny little shoes which, if ninjas were real, would feature prominently in their arsenals. Duplos? Legos? I laugh. Ha, ha, I laugh. I have three sisters, one of whom was into Barbies and the other two of whom were actual Barbie <i>addicts</i>, if you removed their stash and didn't allow the plastic to leach into their skin for more than eight hours they were cursing and puking all over the place, you feel me? And every Barbie doll comes with at least one pair of shoes and a small hidden matter-condenser that causes her to randomly <i>create</i> shoes on the floor in her vicinity.<br />
<br />
And dear God in Heaven, you step on a Barbie shoe heel-up in the dark - which you will, that is the only way that quantum mechanics allows Barbie shoes to be oriented in the dark - you will wish the ninjas had merely unleashed their poisoned caltrops on your sorry soles. SWEET MOTHER OF MATTEL THAT SHIT HURTS. Especially since you are half-asleep and not expecting it (no matter how many times it happens, nobody expects the Barbie Night-Shanking.) You're just trying to get to bed without tripping on the Barbie Dream-House, Dream-Car, Dream-Kitchen, Dream-Pornoporium, or whatever else the effing grandmothers have bought that day, and a tiny little sliver of plastic hell-stuff inserts itself into your heel and heads for your circulatory system.<br />
<br />
But that is NOT the worst part.<br />
<br />
Oh, no.<br />
<br />
The worst part is that when you manage to remove the thing, and toss it into the night with a vicious curse as it so richly deserves, it will immediately vanish, and the next morn, some angel-eyed little girl with adorable sleep-tousled hair will say, "Where's Barbie's other shoe?"<br />
<br />
"There are fourteen thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight Barbie shoes in that bin over there, conveniently sorted by color and lethality."<br />
<br />
"No, her other <i>blue</i> shoe. I want her to wear <i>these</i> shoes."<br />
<br />
"I don't kn..."<br />
<br />
"FIND ME BARBIE'S OTHER SHOE OR I WILL TELL MOM YOU TOOK IT AND THEN I WILL CONSUME YOUR <i>SOUL,</i> PUNY MORTAL."<br />
<br />
And since the things have quantum-filament heels that don't cause much bleeding - or perhaps just directly leeches your blood into another, even darker dimension - you can't even use a blood trail to find it but you must spend an hour uprooting the family room trying to find the shoe <i>which tried to kill you the night before</i>, and you learn what the phrase "adding insult to injury" really means.<br />
<br />
So. As I said. Be grateful.Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-70471951093654149852014-02-17T08:21:00.003-08:002014-02-17T08:21:28.711-08:00Pacing Yourself - Or At Least, Your CharactersSomeone asked a question on the MCForum (which is the discussion site for the Erotic Mind Control Story Archive) about pacing. I started to answer, it got out of hand, and I if I'm writing that much, darn it, I'm getting a blog post out of it. Below, my screed:<br /><br />The most common pacing problem I see is breathlessness. "And then... and then... and then... and then..." Sometimes the characters need a break, so the reader can relax a second and feel like something has happened and is now over before they move on. Build up, resolve, segue, repeat.<br /><br />Here's a fairly simple and obvious way to see if you think your pacing is on. Compare how fast the story is progressing with how excited the characters are. (If the characters are excited all the time, either you're writing flash fiction and pacing isn't really a big deal, or see "breathlessness" above.) If the characters are excited but nothing seems to be happening very fast, you're progressing too slow. If the characters aren't excited but all kinds of stuff is going on, either you're writing Sherlock Holmes or you're progressing too fast. If the story is running, the characters should be too! If the story is moving slowly, the characters should be doing more thinking than acting.<br /><br />A <i>not</i>-so-obvious thing that can indicate pacing problems is the need for infodumps. If you get your characters into a situation where they are having some kind of confrontation or major plot development is happening and you have to pause for a page to explain a bunch of background stuff, you didn't build up the story enough before you initiated the event. Go back and spread it out in the lead-up to the big scene. Once a major scene starts, we should know all we have to know to follow the events. (Although critical revelations at the crux or after the fight ends are perfectly respectable writing technique.)<br /><br />As regards pacing and the actual mind control content, a couple of thoughts:<br /><br />1) Show, don't tell. I know, I know. People always say that and it's just irritating. But seriously. "X's mind control machine works by doing A, B, and C." is not as good as, "X hooked up the mind control machine and threw the first switch, which caused A to happen, making the victim squirm helplessly*. When the A cycle was complete, she turned the B dial all the way up..." etc, etc. You're still telling, but you're telling <i>in the context of actually doing it.</i><br /><br />2) Try to have a mechanism and method in mind when you develop your mind control means, and be consistent about it. Keep in mind that the mechanism and method will dictate your pacing and exposition. Be consistent, and keep in mind the limitations of the method. It is perfectly okay to use magic or ultratech (in fact, unless you're Wiseguy and you can write amazingly convincing conventional hypnosis stories, you kinda have to.) But however it works, be consistent and allocate the amount of time and thought (and corresponding plot development) to it that it reasonably requires.<br /><br />For instance, in my novel "Maestro," the Pitchpipe (the mind control machine) requires fairly extensive preparation/execution time. (A significant portion of the book is just the Maestro inventing the thing.) Time to let it work and the opportunity to get the subject into it and not be interrupted are sort of secondary antagonists to the Maestro. It adds tension to hear the description of it working knowing it could be interrupted or discovered. And I knew all along that the Pitchpipe would lend itself to long descriptions of its function which people who like that kind of thing, um, like. :) <br /><br />On the other hand, my novella "Sorority Saturday" involves a MC machine which is literally a Little Black Box that goes "Flash!" and the subject is enthralled. It too has limitations, some of which are obvious in the story (it has limited range, the effects don't last long) and some of which aren't (what a subject can and can't be told to do are never explained, but there are restrictions, and I know what they are.) That was me getting down and rolling around in it, so to speak. He goes in, he takes what he wants. Over half the book is basically an extended orgy scene. But even then, there are build-ups and resolutions, pauses and breaks. <br /><br />Incidentally, if ultratech and/or intricate method development aren't your thing, this latter is the way to go. The Pitchpipe appeals to the sort of reader who demands believability. It's totally consistent with the known laws of nature, and wouldn't require the suspension of disbelief other than to assume that one man could make the kind of breakthrough it requires to actually build. The Little Black Box is nonsensical. It runs on what one might call "handwavium," and any illusionist will tell you that the key to success in sleight of hand, or sleight of mind, is not letting people think too hard about what you're actually doing. Extensive development exposition would bore people who don't care and turn off people who do.<br /><br />It helps to know going in which basic sort of MC you're going to have. If the MC is fast-acting, try to pace your whole story fast, because you're trying to appeal to the sort of reader who wants to get right to it. If the MC is slow and elaborate, try to write it into a longer story so that the non-MC content doesn't feel tacked on. (Incidentally, while many people do seem to have strong preferences, these are not mutually exclusive categories. I like both kinds and will happily read either so long as they are well-written.)<br /><br />Man, that got long. Sorry. :) I hope it's helpful.<br /><br />*When in doubt, make someone squirm helplessly. To paraphrase Admiral Nelson, "No mind controller can do very wrong by making someone squirm helplessly."Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-77420781826050033062014-01-19T13:32:00.001-08:002014-01-19T13:32:09.762-08:00Appearances Are Deceiving.I'm working on the second "tweenquel" to <i>Hell to Pay.</i> It's called <i>"Carnival of Lust."</i> As you might guess Simon and Lily are at Mardi Gras. :)<br />
<br />
I was writing some dialogue for Lily (if you haven't read <i>Hell to Pay</i>, Lily is a succubus) and remembered a comment somebody made about her one time which I thought was funny.<br />
<br />
Reader: "Lily is a sophisticated, sexy woman. Why does she keep calling men 'sweet boy*?'" Isn't that a little girly?"<br />
<br />
Me: "No. She calls them that because she thinks of them as <i>food**</i>. Anyway, to her all men are boys. She's thousands of years old. It amuses her."<br />
<br />
So obviously it doesn't always click, but there <i>are</i> other reasons than lack of imagination for a character to have a particular habit. :)<br />
<br />
_______________<br />
<br />
<br />
*At some point Lily refers to every man she talks to, with one exception, as "sweet boy." Including her master. The exception is for a very good reason: she's on her best behavior as the man she's talking to is extremely dangerous.<br />
<br />
**Not literally. Succubi (and incubi) eat human <i>souls</i>. They can carve them up and eat part and trade part, too. They're demons, which you sometimes forget because Lily doesn't usually <i>act </i>all that evil. She is, though. She's just not cruel or vicious, unless she has to be. Her schtick is seduction. Her jokes about flies aside, she knows you catch more of 'em with honey than with vinegar.<br />
<br />
<br />Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-27192645007233694372014-01-16T07:58:00.000-08:002014-01-16T08:21:07.210-08:00Ah, The Life of an Independent Author-Publisher.For your Amusement, percentage contributions to my writing income for 2013, by payor:<br />
<br />
Amazon 81%<br />
<br />
B&N 3%<br />
<br />
Smashwords (incl Apple) 16%<br />
<br />
(Apple is approximately 15% of this, the rest is Smashwords direct with an insignificant number of cash sales through Diesel and Sony. I sell direct through Kobo and B&N, so these are not in my Smashwords numbers.)<br />
<br />
It should be noted that Kobo owes me money, but I have sold so few books there that I have not yet crossed the payment threshold. Likewise Createspace (the arm of Amazon that sells indiepub books in paper form.) The two <i>combined </i>would not be an additional 1% of revenues.<br />
<br />
Other somewhat applicable trivia:<br />
<br />
1) I do not use Kindle Select. (I do now, but only for a book I published in January 2014 as an experiment.)<br />
<br />
2) I do not discuss actual dollar amounts: it's a personal quirk. However, to give you a rough idea, my average monthly income could make a reasonable car payment, but not a reasonable mortgage payment. (Reasonable, in both cases, being defined by me.)<br />
<br />
3) I have one novel published, which has been published for more than two years. The rest are novellas, two collections of novellas, and short stories. I publish, on average, one novella or short story every six weeks or so. When I started the year I had one novel, nine novellas, two collections, and four short stories up. When I finished the year I had one novel, two collections, fourteen novellas, and nine short stories up.<br />
<br />
4) I have another "collection," which is just two short stories in one book: I made it so I could print free books to give away at cons. (They aren't free to me: I print them for author's cost, which isn't much, and I like to think the goodwill is worth something.) As both stories are available for free, it boggles me that people actually buy a copy from time to time. Thanks!<br />
<br />
4) I always have one short story up for free (It's the first book in a series of short stories collectively called <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008QQM0FS">His Lucky Break</a></i>.) I usually have at least one other one up. Whenever I set a monthly volume sales record, I publish a new short story and put it up for free. When that happens the previous free one becomes a regular price story.<br />
<br />
5) Only about 2/3 of my books are available on iTunes. Part of this is probably cover rejections and the rest is a weird technical glitch that is hard to know if you've fixed since it has to go back through Smashwords, up to Apple, be rejected, come back down, and then you get a notice many weeks or a few months later. The novel and both collections of novellas <i>are</i> on there.<br />
<br />
6) Sometimes I have dreams where Oprah finds one of my books and talks about what a hideous, misogynistic piece of filth it is on television. Once in a while I wake up still making swimming motions left over from being in my dreamland Scrooge-McDuck-style money pit.Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-52627489527239095582014-01-05T21:09:00.001-08:002014-01-05T21:09:05.290-08:00Ah, the Winter Holidays.Sorry, everybody. Between work, weather, and the holidays, writing has slipped behind. But I hope to have a new book out within the next few weeks. Hope you all had a great holiday and a happy and prosperous New Year!<br />
<br />
MMarc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-89742584033901617482013-12-05T11:54:00.000-08:002013-12-05T11:54:50.642-08:00OH. MY. GOD. Chuck Wendig.I have a total blogger-crush on Chuck Wendig at TerribleMinds.com right now. You should go look at his blog as well and maybe if he likes us we can all get married and live in his huge mansion together and have writer orgies.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/">http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/</a>Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-76413938546397902922013-11-30T08:32:00.001-08:002013-11-30T08:32:09.454-08:00Just In Time For Your post-Thanksgiving Blues… A New Book!I am pleased to announce that my latest book is now available for your reading enjoyment! <i>Sugar Babies</i> is the sequel to <i>Sugar Daddy</i>, and now Olivia's in twice the trouble she was before! Cover and teaser text below:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhajHEOQaWQ7Y05BxNhLCrMg5nSkgwF-WtJnMtITnQb1G9eVrKjV-7uXuI3AkinVD3KeZL0jUkcEpZLNvRXTh8hX3JPC5ek87ue3rILg3bu0_LxCenC6YIbEosUBiZBashNBSY-czyrQzLY/s1600/sugar_babies_cover_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhajHEOQaWQ7Y05BxNhLCrMg5nSkgwF-WtJnMtITnQb1G9eVrKjV-7uXuI3AkinVD3KeZL0jUkcEpZLNvRXTh8hX3JPC5ek87ue3rILg3bu0_LxCenC6YIbEosUBiZBashNBSY-czyrQzLY/s320/sugar_babies_cover_600.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>College dropout Olivia followed her friend Lena's advice and found a "sugar daddy" online to help her try to get her life together and have some fun. But before she knew it, one of his presents - some special candies - have made her the most compliant sugar baby ever.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Edwin finds out about Olivia's hot friend and decides he can fit another sugar baby into his busy schedule. This time it's Olivia's turn to use the candies on somebody… and she decides that Edwin's not the only one who's gong to have some fun with the beautiful redhead. Before Lena knows what's happening both Olivia and Edwin are using her body and her mind for their own pleasure - but they're giving her plenty in return!</i><br />
<br />
(Erotic mind control, maledom, femdom, lesbian sex, threesome)<br />
<br />
Thanks and enjoy!<br />
<br />
Smashwords: <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/382751">http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/382751</a><br />
<br />
Amazon: <a href="http://amzn.com/B00GZPFFGI">http://amzn.com/B00GZPFFGI</a><br />
<br />
Barnes and Noble: <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sugar-babies-marc-cabot/1117531411">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sugar-babies-marc-cabot/1117531411</a><br />
<br />
Coming soon to Kobo, Sony, and other etailers. :)Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-15572788046105007792013-10-17T16:43:00.000-07:002013-10-17T16:43:12.995-07:00New Erotic Mind Control Book: "Sorority Saturday"Hey, kids - three months with nothin' and now two in two weeks! Go me!<br />
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My new book is called "Sorority Saturday," and frankly, I decided to just go for broke. Cover and back cover blurb:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKdvT6wUnd_kxnYNLfLI6FGTssSzSLOQmp7druvdbEqQTf9S3Af3I74w5ATsPJ8yS_HaqeIilVV5Dav1budISAUmqzE1kIx80UZJsXrIu43KN2RrCqs_6Xz_pNP3miy6gkTfxM8D6NK_4/s1600/sorority_saturday_600px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKdvT6wUnd_kxnYNLfLI6FGTssSzSLOQmp7druvdbEqQTf9S3Af3I74w5ATsPJ8yS_HaqeIilVV5Dav1budISAUmqzE1kIx80UZJsXrIu43KN2RrCqs_6Xz_pNP3miy6gkTfxM8D6NK_4/s320/sorority_saturday_600px.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
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<i>Sandy Johnson was about to leave the Delta Gamma house for a Saturday morning run when a mysterious man shows up on their doorstep, with an even more mysterious little black box. When he uses it on Sandy, she goes from Chapter President to helpless accomplice in his quest to find out if Delta Gamma is the "best sorority on campus." </i><br />
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<i>Soon all the Delta girls are lined up for inspection, and want to or not, they'll do anything to show the man that they're the hottest, sexiest sorority around. Anything at all!</i><br />
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<i>(Erotic mind control, group sex, orgy, lesbian, bisexual, harem) </i><br />
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Some personal firsts in this one:<br />
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1) First orgy scene. *sniff* They grow up so fast.<br />
1a) First *lesbian* orgy scene. It still counts as a lesbian orgy if there's one guy so long as he just watches, right?<br />
2) First time in one of my books I haven't explained how the mind control actually <i>works</i>. There are rules to it, and he follows them, but neither the rules nor the technology are discussed.<br />
3) Longest sex scene <i>evar</i>. Depending on how you count - and there are interludes and breaks and if I do say so, the pacing is good - more than half the book is sex scene.<br />
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The book is up on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and Smashwords, with redistro to other stores as per usual.<br />
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Links:
Amazon: <a href="http://amzn.com/B00FYY24WO">http://amzn.com/B00FYY24WO </a><br />
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B&N: <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sorority-saturday-marc-cabot/1117169897">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sorority-saturday-marc-cabot/1117169897</a><br />
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Kobo: <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Search?query=Marc%20Cabot&fcsearchfield=Author">http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Search?query=Marc%20Cabot&fcsearchfield=Author</a> (It was up, but I had to fix a typo. Should be up soon.)<br />
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Smashwords: <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/368160">http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/368160 </a><br />
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As always, thanks and enjoy!Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-70733908775177283022013-10-08T17:33:00.003-07:002013-10-08T18:16:54.293-07:00"Best In Breed" Now Available!My newest erotic mind control story, <i>Best in Breed,</i> is now available for purchase on most major e-bookstores. (Coming soon to the rest!) Links at the bottom of this post.<br />
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Here's the cover and blurb:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5cY1FFN4DJCh329gT9dbFgmxTLYdGotNEXM2SwXT5NyVV4gLclRKWKd8iGrdt9RB8xHBiPOA_50wvjccif9xl3YUMsB4KUQRgz-agbzVyuIFM0VM35eODm-ZLjuGv7VMudZKY5ecksVM_/s1600/bestinbreed_600px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5cY1FFN4DJCh329gT9dbFgmxTLYdGotNEXM2SwXT5NyVV4gLclRKWKd8iGrdt9RB8xHBiPOA_50wvjccif9xl3YUMsB4KUQRgz-agbzVyuIFM0VM35eODm-ZLjuGv7VMudZKY5ecksVM_/s320/bestinbreed_600px.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><i>Angeline was just a catgirl in a human world, trying to make something of herself, when a mysterious stranger kidnapped her and revealed a long-lost secret about her kind. Now she's bonded to him body and soul and helping him seduce other catgirls as part of his dangerous quest for vengeance and redemption. </i></span></div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">An ancient and murderous conspiracy of shadows will do anything to keep the secret of the catgirls. Angeline and her master must move carefully as they lead more catgirls down the path to erotic, loving bliss with men who desperately desire them. Eventually, they will be found. And then the real struggle begins...</span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Yes, it's got catgirls! Alchemy! Multiple kinds of mind control and a dash of serial recruitment for your evil, evil pleasure. I'm very pleased with it and I hope you will be too. Thanks and enjoy!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Amazon: <a href="http://amzn.com/B00FP8QR0O">http://amzn.com/B00FP8QR0O</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Barnes and Noble: <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-in-breed-marc-cabot/1117055280">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-in-breed-marc-cabot/1117055280</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Smashwords: <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/365229">http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/365229</a></span>Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-50195688794267982452013-07-19T06:45:00.001-07:002013-07-19T06:47:26.806-07:00An Amusing Statistical HappenstanceI typed in "Erotic Mind Control" on the Amazon home-page search box yesterday.<br />
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Of the sixteen titles on the first page, three of them are mine - more than any other author (although there were two who had two each.)<br />
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I'm sure this varies daily or even hourly. But that was really very gratifying to see. Thanks, everybody. Really. Thanks.Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-57261184984010472592013-07-16T17:54:00.001-07:002013-07-16T17:56:51.242-07:00A Small Hypnotic Diversion.I found a pretty nifty, very basic, yet really interesting animated spiral .gif. Thought I'd share it. Below the cut. (Warning: hypnospiral.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsAm7wTGBVZ1s0EG70PN0tR0vOQWBwFPnw86EWKbpVyzMOXAFF2tlXzTctRQ3Cg67gC_ve7GWvLcPvtD-pViJSlx90GGIZF4y35Vt8ZygmrgA3ZswxuWS_HKpH3WdFW7xGmp1593IOaIL0/s1600/spiralception.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsAm7wTGBVZ1s0EG70PN0tR0vOQWBwFPnw86EWKbpVyzMOXAFF2tlXzTctRQ3Cg67gC_ve7GWvLcPvtD-pViJSlx90GGIZF4y35Vt8ZygmrgA3ZswxuWS_HKpH3WdFW7xGmp1593IOaIL0/s320/spiralception.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Fun, huh? Click it to view full size.Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-14687357934020506542013-07-15T16:51:00.002-07:002013-07-15T16:52:43.635-07:00New Reader Reward Story - "Shooting On Location"As I said a few days ago, we broke our all-time sales record in June, and that means a new FREE Reader Reward story this month. It's called <i>Shooting On Location,</i> and it's live now on most major booksellers (the rest shortly.)<br />
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It's another adventure with everybody's favorite accidental mind controller, Sean Dunston, and his hypnotic photo flash unit! Cover and back cover text below. It's FREE on Smashwords right now, and will go free on Amazon, etc as soon as the price-matching bots catch on. :) However, if you want to buy it in the meantime, it's only $1.99. It's the longest and hottest Reader Reward yet, with two, count 'em two, sizzling sex scenes!<br />
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Of course when a new free book comes out, an old one becomes not-so-free. <i>Double Exposure</i> is now a .99 short story, but I hope you'll agree it's still cheap!<br />
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As always, thanks for buying our books, and enjoy!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_iNcpFY07E7Ud7jE6g957Di4-TT75aUViFSUKL7OC-4bCWmfn8_hbgO2KhhSr5AH28rqIl1y0hlyMpgiMGBfSP51-24dVDaOFe6HybQ3KuwjYFIGmTdULIJyeILDSM8FgMzhSvuAPxpj5/s1600/shooting_on_location_cover_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_iNcpFY07E7Ud7jE6g957Di4-TT75aUViFSUKL7OC-4bCWmfn8_hbgO2KhhSr5AH28rqIl1y0hlyMpgiMGBfSP51-24dVDaOFe6HybQ3KuwjYFIGmTdULIJyeILDSM8FgMzhSvuAPxpj5/s320/shooting_on_location_cover_600.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
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<i>An accident with one of his studio strobes has lead amateur photographer Sean Dunston to create a flash unit that can make models take his direction literally - so literally they start acting out his erotic instructions, with him as the star of the story!<br /><br />Now that he's got it working just right, it's time to take his photography out of the studio with tall, edgy Katrina, who's got a new latex catsuit she's just dying to show off in pictures. A science-fiction themed photo shoot soon has Katrina convinced that not only is Sean the hottest man alive, but that his every word is her command. Pushing harder than he ever has before, Sean finds the results even hotter than he could have imagined! </i>Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-35413804358570537032013-07-04T19:01:00.000-07:002013-07-04T19:02:31.205-07:00June Was A Good Month...My book <i>Sugar Daddy </i>had the best first month of <i>any</i> book I've ever written. I seem to have touched the zeitgeist! :) We did in fact break - actually, we <i>obliterated</i> - our all-time unit volume sales record, so there will be a new Reader Reward story, for free, this month. It's called <i>Shooting on Location</i> and it's yet another adventure featuring Sean Dunston, artist, photographer, and accidental mind controller. His home-built hypno-flash works like a charm... but what will happen when he takes the model out of the studio? Tune in and find out soon!<br />
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As always, thanks so much for buying my books. I really appreciate it. And don't forget to get your copy of <i>Double Exposure </i>- when <i>Shooting on Location </i>comes out, <i>Double Exposure</i> will revert to its usual price of 99 cents as a regular <i>Dreams of Control </i>short story.<br />
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Thanks and enjoy!Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-55810570022323074332013-06-25T17:05:00.002-07:002013-06-26T14:48:25.858-07:00Running Off the Rails On a Crazy Train!Okay, that's a little dramatic. But I'm pleased and grateful to report that Unspeakable Publications has <i>already</i> broken its monthly volume sales record this month and there's five days left to go! A lot of that - but not all by any means - is due to really amazing sales of my book <i>Sugar Daddy</i>. I'm glad you all liked it, and there <i>will </i>be a sequel - or more! In the meantime, if you liked <i>Sugar Daddy</i>, be sure to check out <i>At His Discretion</i>, which is about the man who invented the candy Edwin has in <i>Sugar Daddy. </i>The connection will become clearer as time goes on.<br />
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And, of course, that means that there will (absent a huge spate of returns) be a free Reader Rewards story next month, so you've got that to look forward to as well! Thanks and enjoy!<br />
<br />Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-55124474078850117852013-06-24T16:47:00.000-07:002013-06-24T16:50:45.036-07:00Today's Musical InterludeFirst of all, sales of my latest book are <i>insane</i>. Thank you so much. Don't worry, there's a sequel on the way. :)<br />
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Secondly, here's my current song obsession. It's called "Wake Me Up."<br />
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I hope you like it.<br />
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MMarc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1761314353250713596.post-25579071039259757202013-06-20T15:41:00.000-07:002013-06-20T15:41:00.151-07:00"Now You See Me..."<span class="feed_item_posted">Went and
saw "Now You See Me" last night. If you're not familiar with it, here's a trailer:</span><br />
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<span class="feed_item_posted">Woody Harrelson plays a stage hypnotist/mentalist - his opening scene is hypnotizing a very mom-next-door-looking woman and then making her husband give him money to make her forget that he made the husband admit something really embarrassing. :) He also does various other things, including hypnotizing a dozen people during one of the shows. The hypnosis scenes were fun (although the
power of hypnosis was somewhat exaggerated.) The magic scenes were <i>spectacular</i>. And the plot will keep you guessing until the second-to-last scene. (They could have left off the last scene, for all of me.)</span><br />
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<span class="feed_item_posted">Well worth seeing - or even just listening to, the score
is fantastic.</span>Marc Cabothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289064998224364909noreply@blogger.com0