By:
In: Lion's Journal, Writing

Maybe I’m losing it. Or, perhaps my attention span is tiny. I have no memory of Mrs. Lion telling me that my eye drops were done. She puts a series of drops in my eyes when we get up and before we go to sleep. We have to wait five minutes between drops. She does it because it’s easier for me. What a lioness! Anyway, I don’t always remember her setting the timer–we use Alexa. When she told me we were done, I was focused on watching an episode of “Law and Order, SVU” and didn’t remember our exchange. At least I hope that’s the reason.

Mrs. Lion often forgets that I don’t know or remember the context of a conversation. I think that’s why I struggle with pronouns. I use a product called “Grammarly” to copy-edit my writing. It uses artificial intelligence to catch things like unclear references. That’s what sometimes happens with Mrs. Lion. I think she forgets that when she uses a pronoun, the noun it refers to isn’t clear to me. I get it.

I’m very sensitive to this because I’m now a writer. I know. We are both writers. Each of us has over a million words of blogging. That’s writing. Somehow, becoming a novelist, albeit barely published, makes being a writer official, at least in my mind. I am approaching it as my new career. It’s very hard work, by the way. I’ve also decided to learn what I can about the profession from others. I’m reading books on writing fiction.

You know a lot about me. At least you do if you’ve been following the blog for a while. I tend to charge full-speed into things. I did with my first book, Fan Mail. I self-published it on Amazon. Sales suck. What’s worse, no agent will consider representing me since it is already published. Shit! What a mess.

It may well be that my second book won’t do any better at getting me represented. That’s a depressing thought. Most of the rejections I’ve gotten are from emails. One agent took the time to tell me that Fan Mail is an interesting idea, but no publisher will touch it since I put it on Amazon. Naturally, I think the premise is good. A successful TV actress decides to email a guy who sent a fan letter and asked for her picture. The story includes the actual emails. Within hours, she decides to invite him to join her on a week-long vacation in Maui. I think it is a nice start.

The rest of the story is hot sex and intrigue. The few people who have reviewed it gave it four stars. Thank you! Mrs. Lion says she likes it too. It’s hard to tell with her. She loves me and wants to encourage me. No, this isn’t a commercial for the book. However, for a few days starting Monday, you can get the book for free! I set the deal up on Amazon. Enjoy! Please review it too.

Usually, I’m not too fond of it when writers blog about their work. Here I am, guilty of the same thing. There is a point to this post. In his book, How to Write a Damn Good Novel, James Frey, writes that novels are about characters with lots of sex. It’s more complicated than that, but it reminded me of something I was told a long time ago: Write what you know about. Cool! My sexual adventures are numerous and varied. Finally, something I am qualified to do! I think the jump from sex blogger to novelist is pretty small. Wish me luck.

By:
In: Lion's Journal
Mrs. Lion found this online. It has nothing to do with this post. We think it’s funny. (We like lion cartoons)

We are in our eighth year of blogging. Almost every day, both of us have shared our thoughts and feelings. Since this is a sex blog, we write about our kinks and sexual activities. In one sense, this is revealing the most intimate part of our lives. In another, it’s an anonymous diary of our adventures. That makes it safe for us.

The blog isn’t totally anonymous. My most loyal reader sleeps next to me. She reads about my feelings and experiences with her. Sometimes, it upsets her. When I write about things I might want to try, she often interprets that as dissatisfaction with what she is doing with me. Often, she will make an effort to make real what I share here. The result is that my dreams come true. Some of those dreams result in a wish I never wrote what I was thinking–disciplinary spankings.

All these words written about sex reveal little about the rest of our lives. You probably aren’t interested in that anyway. One thing about us has nothing to do with sex that I want to share with you. We are a very unusual couple. We both come from stressful past relationships; Mine left me desperately wanting peace and comfort. I decided that I would give up BDSM in favor of hugs and sweet love. Mrs. Lion also craved love and acceptance.

We had no way of knowing this about each other when we met. Even after we had been together a while and knew about each other’s past, we didn’t directly address this most important need. We didn’t have to. Even though we are very different in many important ways, we just fit with each other. Since this is a sex blog, let me give you a sexual example of how this works.

When we met, Mrs. Lion had no experience with anything sexual beyond the most vanilla activities. We found each other online at a dating site. We were looking for sex. The painful issues in our recent past made us reluctant to look for anything more. We fit right from the start. We met within a week of the first online contact. Our first meeting was anal sex in a motel located halfway between our homes. I can’t remember why it was anal sex. I probably suggested it. I am very sure she wouldn’t. Women don’t request butt stuff.

After we met at our motel a few times, I decided to break my self-imposed no-kink rule and asked if she would spank me. She agreed. She almost always says yes. Even now, eighteen years later, it’s the same. That’s one reason we can blog about kink. I have a good imagination, and Mrs. Lion is happy to indulge it.

I can’t fully articulate why we work so well. We both do things the other doesn’t like. So what? Maybe that’s the key. I want her to be happy. I want to become the best partner I can be. I can’t imagine being without her.

By:
In: Punishment, Spanking

Back to revising for me. Sadly, I still haven’t found my fiction voice. I’m trying yet another approach, this time writing in the first person. I always considered this writing to be an easy out for bad writers. Third-person writing seemed to be a higher calling. Maybe it is too high for me. For the record, I am much happier in the third person. Descriptions are easier, and the plot seems to move better. This is just a test. Leave no stoned unturned.

I just read a headline on my Alexa. It said, “Broadway shows are first to open in Australia. Wouldn’t you say that was off-Broadway? Way, way off-Broadway. What do I know?

Mrs. Lion has been sending mixed messages. She posted that she forgives me for my conversational faux pas. Yet, she also said spanking me would help her feel better. [Mrs. Lion — I didn’t say it would make me feel better. I said I forgave him because spanking him was too much pressure given everything else. He said spanking would be a sort of pressure relief.] I suppose it doesn’t matter whether or not she has a reason. For the sake of lioness training, it makes sense for her to paddle me for pissing her off the other day. Then we can both make the connection between upsetting her and punishing me.

I’ve been thinking about my part in our disciplinary relationship. While it may be modeled on the way mothers punish children, it’s different in several important ways. Obviously, it’s a lot harsher. An adult male needs much stronger educational messages. There’s another, a more significant difference: I am an active participant.

A child is punished for breaking a rule that an adult creates. The child doesn’t create rules or help with enforcement. An adult partner has a lot more responsibility. The main one for us is that I help Mrs. Lion become a consistent enforcer of rules supporting my growth and well-being.  She has no problem consistently enforcing rules that teach me better behavior, like waiting for her to eat first, setting up the coffeepot (when we get another), and not spilling food on my clothes.

The challenge comes when my behavior upsets her. She hates it when I interrupt her. As she wrote in a very recent post, it is very upsetting when I don’t give her a chance to express a complete thought. Yet, she doesn’t punish me for those offenses. That’s when I have to behave maturely and help her. We both know that when she can consistently punish me for my annoying behavior, we will be happier. That won’t happen unless I help her.

Believe me; I wouldn’t say I like being spanked. The idea may turn me on, and being spanked may provide sexual fuel once the pain subsides, but it isn’t something I actively want. Ten or fifteen minutes of paddling is endlessly painful. It hurts to sit for days afterward. It may be fun to read about, but it is absolutely no fun to get. Yet, I have to ask for spankings when I become aware I have pissed off Mrs. Lion. Of course, once she develops the disciplinary habit of punishing me when I do those things, it will be better. In the meantime, it is my obligation to ask her to hurt me when I deserve it.

By:
In: Lion's Journal

I still have a couple of sore spots. Based on Mrs. Lion’s post the other day, I appear to be in for another spanking. The consensus is that I am not listening properly. I am not patient enough. I get it, or I will get it. Mrs. Lion has her own communication style, and by now, I should have figured it out. Most of the time, I can. My internal copy editor has a hard time with unclear references, especially now that I am writing almost full time. I have a wonderful grammar checker. It’s called Grammarly. There is a free version that helps with glaring errors. The paid version is like having a live copy editor sitting next to me.

Another program I use a lot is LightRoom by Adobe. It lets me organize my images. I have a lot, over 7,000. Many of them got lost when I switched from a version that stores my computer images to one that uses the Adobe cloud. I learned this yesterday when I got a warning that I needed more cloud space. Going up to 1TB would raise my monthly bill to $59.95. I can’t afford that. So, I decided to go back to the version that lets me store images on my computer (I put them in the Microsoft cloud). When I opened that version (LightRoom Classic), I found many images, not in the cloud. After a long process, I managed to combine the images. Now I am classifying the ones that weren’t included (2,500).

I’m finding lots of wonderful pictures that I had no idea that I had in the process. A bunch of years ago, I scanned many slides. Many of the oldest ones didn’t get classified. Fortunately, they survive in the cloud. It’s fun rediscovering them. I even found one black-and-white paper print I scanned in of me sitting on Santa’s lap in a department store. I couldn’t have been more than 7 years old. I wonder if Santa remembers.

The second book is moving much slower than the first. Based on my recent research, my plot is still too weak in the beginning. My confidence as an author is not very high. Sorting photos has given me a bit of a break. Now, before I do more sorting, I will do more writing. This isn’t my sexiest post. Sorry.