Christine Casteel- Erotica Writer

Getting back on track... again :D

2009-02-27T09:38:00.002-05:00

Okay lol I know I've said it before, but I'm endeavoring again to make weekly posting here a reality.
New developments on Vala's story: I've been working on the second book of her series, getting it formatted and such. I promise... before December of this year, I will get the second book out. On the first book, I'm going to retire the printed version currently available on Lulu.com and realize another edition after I do some stuff.
While I admit that I haven't gone looking yet, I'd be really appreciative if someone can point me in the direction of Marilyn Manson's manager, if such a person exists. I really want to give him a copy of Vala's story because I think he's one person who can definitely appreciate my writing style. Tnx

love & light
Christine

Ackkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-12T11:26:00.002-05:00

I really gotta make posting a regular part of my days :D. Well here I am again, after quite awhile of note posting. Tons of things have been happening in my life, both writing and non-writing related. I just finished the first draft of a story related to Vala's story. I spent a few minutes feeling lost, not sure what to work on, when I remembered that the second book needs work, minor editing, then formatting for publishing on Lulu. I then realized I'd made a major detail mistake that's going to require a major rewriting. Hopefully my beta reader is up for some reading when she gets back from vacation :D

love & light
Christine

Hey there

2007-07-25T12:57:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been awhile. I promise to post in more length shortly, and get Vala to do so as well on her blog. This morning I hit 50500 words, surpassing the J-WAT challenge. I'm trying catch up on some reading & cleaning now
love & light
christine

It's time for J-WAT!

2007-07-02T06:48:00.000-04:00

Yeah! I love J-WAT. Even though I can't post my erotica on the iVillage boards, I still do love to talk with the other writers there. Well in July, we do the J-WAT writing challenge. Like NaNoWriMo, our goal is to write 50000 words. If I remember right, we started doing J-WAT because so maybe members had stuff going on in their lives that made NaNoWriMo impossible. I'll be taking part of both of course lol. I figured out I need to write a minimum of 1613 words a day to make it to 50000 before August 1. Last night, I thought I'd made it then I added my numbers and found I was 22 words short. I went back to the scene, even though I was tired, and wrote another 109 words :). Hoping to do even better today.
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-bcafter/ If you're interested in J-WAT, here's the link to the board. If you're not an iVillage member, it takes only a minute to join. It is a "women's channel" however a handful of men are members.
love & light
christine

woohoo!!!

2007-06-25T10:06:00.001-04:00

Writing's going again :). After the stress, the upset over thinking I'd lost everything I'd written in week 11 and everything getting fixed, I'm really writing again. Since finding box.net, AbiWord, & editgrid.com the words have been pouring. I've written 7641 words since the 14th, although I haven't been managing to write every day. It was real nice just now being able to go over to editgrid.com and look at my spreadsheet. I don't think I'll be looking at my writing files from box.net :D on the computer's library though :D
love & light
christine

I'm really still here

2007-06-22T14:19:00.000-04:00

Wow! It has been a long, long time since I posted. Sorry about that. Things around the apartment have been rather stressful. June 6th, my computer crashed and I'd been a naughty girl, not backing up my writing like I should. First thing I found out was that I hadn't backed up the 48+ pages I'd written in "11th week.rtf"... to say the least I was majorly freaking out and not useful for much. Well a friend's fiancee was able to get all my writing and a bunch of other things off my hard drives for me and said that, in the future when I get a new computer, both of the hard drives are working just fine so I'll be able to get anything he didn't get for me then. I've gotten used to a mixture of youtube and yahoo launchcast radio so I'm not missing my mp3s too much. On the writing front I've found/was recommended to 3 different things: AbiWord is what I'm using for a wordprocessor as it's an open source program and my Master's computer only has Word/Notepads ack!, Editgrid for my daily word count spreadsheet since His old pc is also without Excel, and Box.net for back up storage as His pc has just 26% free space. I'm still looking for a free online or open source program for making organizational diagrams of the stable. MS Paint works, but it's too clumsy and takes forever. I had been using MS Powerpoint to construct them, but alas, His pc also doesn't have that program.
Nothing new on the Lulu.com publishing end. Out of the Night: Book One of Vala's Story is available in ebook but not yet paperback. I hope to change that soon, but I can't give a prospective date on that or when the second book will come out. Remember, to buy the ebook you must be logged in with your access level set to mature to even see the book's page, let alone to buy it. As irritating as it may seem, that's the most protection I can give myself to prevent minors from buying my book online.
Well I need to be off. More writing to do and I'm sure Vala has something to say :D
love & light
christine

ACK!!!

2007-05-17T08:43:00.000-04:00

I wish I could say I'm getting all sorts of writing/editing done on the story and that's why I haven't been posting, but I've been all over. Life stresses that had nothing to do with writing have been pillling up, distracting me from my writing. It looks like I may be able to get the paperback version of "Out of the Night: Book 1 of Vala's Story" out within 2 to 3 months, I'm hoping. It's been a bit surprising, disappointing that there haven't been any sales of the ebook so far. At least I didn't expect anything to happen overnight. Maybe I can get to a sci-fi con soon :D
love & light
christine

Why can't they stay on task???

2007-05-08T18:29:00.000-04:00

I swear my characters are driving me insane! They keep prattling at me about future weeks of training that I'm not working on, but when I sit to work on week 11, they go silent. grrrrr!

love & light
christine

Burn out?

2007-04-28T08:14:00.000-04:00

Ugh, one friend keeps reminding me I can takes breaks lol and another said maybe I'm burnt out and that's why I keep running into scenes that need to be written (based on the plot) but that I'm really not interested in writing otherwise. I don't know. Maybe it's that I'm really getting to a point where I can see Vala's story coming to a climax (pun intended lol). My daily word counts aren't quite speaking to burn out (4/21/2007- 2082, for instance) blech. I guess I'm back to toy shopping on JT's Stockroom lol
love & light
Christine

When to start

2007-04-20T06:58:00.000-04:00

Ugh, I'm so debating again. I'm just waiting to get my sample copy of "Out of the Night: Book One of Vala's Story" and then the paperback will be coming out. So now I'm debating: when should "Into The Queen's Stable: Book Two of Vala's Story" come out and when should I start piecing together the as-yet-unnamed 3rd book? I'm working concurrently on weeks 8-10 in various stages of draft right now. Not too very long and I'll be at the end of Vala's training. I just don't know what to do, other than keep writing lol
love
christine

Writing, writing

2007-04-04T08:17:00.000-04:00

I'm still forging ahead. In the next few weeks, I will publish the paperback of "Out of the Night: Book One of Vala's Story" on Lulu.com. Then I'll start formatting "Into The Queen's Stable: Book Two of Vala's Story" for Lulu.com. I plan to release it as an ebook first. BTW- I did decide to use the same cover art for "Out of the night: Book One of Vala's Story" paperback as the ebook. I will be putting pencil to paper for "Into The Queen's Stable: Book Two of Vala's Story."
Going to the family Easter thing, but I'll be taking portions of current work on my alphasmart.
love
christine

Cover Art???

2007-03-29T19:16:00.000-04:00

Urgh I'm getting so irritated. I can't draw hands, can't find silk evening primrose flowers. I'm so at the point of just using the stock art from Lulu.com that I used on the ebook for the paper back. If only I knew anyone was reading :D I'd do a poll or something lol
love
christine

Join "Vala's Story Info" Yahoo Group!

2007-03-18T19:16:00.001-04:00

If you'd like to receive regular updates of when the books are coming out at Lulu, join the "Vala's Story Info" Yahoo group. I'll send out email notifications of all publication through there. I've made it "moderator approval" to join (so hopefully I can catch and prevent minors from joining) so please give me a little time on approving your membership. You can also use the button to the right
love christine

New New Update hehe

2007-03-17T23:47:00.000-04:00

Well the ebook version of "Out of the Night: Book One of Vala's Story" is available at Lulu now. You can buy the ebook for $5 or you can wait for the paperback, which will come out as soon as I figure out my cover art conundrum. I haven't started considering a price for it yet. I'll post as soon as I do
Just wanted to add a mention: You have to be a Lulu member and have your access set to mature to buy my book. Parents, please make sure you know what your child is doing online.
It might not be much in the way of keeping minors from reading, but it's the best I have.
love
christine

What I'm working on now

2007-03-17T22:28:00.000-04:00

I know I should be working on Vala's story, but I got really into working on another, although related project. You see, there's a series of short stories (which I plan to publish in one book after Vala's story is all published) that I'm working on as well. You'll get to see more of the characters from Vala's Story. The events in the short stories take place before story time of Vala's story, some by well over a decade :) Just a little something to whet your appetites :D

New Update :):)

2007-03-17T22:22:00.000-04:00

Well I don't know what happened exactly lol, but after venting at a friend in a writers' chat about my page number problem, I suddenly was just able to make the page numbers work in "Out of the Night". Don't think I'll try for the headers lmao. Now I'm just waiting on realizing my idea for cover art for the novel. I may come out with the ebook version without the art tho sooner
love
christine

Another "me" on Nobilis' podcast

2007-03-16T08:28:00.000-04:00

Remember a few weeks ago when I posted the link to Nobilis' Podcast and told you that I'd read a chapter of his story? Well in addition to me reading that chapter, he now has me reciting an erotic poem of mine. Not related to Vala's Story, but still bdsm. It's title is "Prettiness and Darkness Surround"
love
christine

Updates :)

2007-03-16T08:19:00.000-04:00

Well I'm still struggling to figure out how to do page numbers, title, author's name in the headers & footers urgh. I may have found someone who can realize my idea for cover art for "Out of the Night: Book One of Vala's Story." I wish I could give you something more concrete, but really in the next few months, I should be able to fix both those issues and get the book going. I still plan to realize an ebook version first (at a reduced price, but I haven't thought more specifically than that) and then the paperback version. I'm really not considering a hard cover version, unless someone tells me they'd like to see one.
love
christine

Look to the right.....

2007-03-08T07:38:00.000-05:00

I've been busy collecting URLs for blogs and websites of writing friends and acquaintances. Take a moment to visit the links I've shared. Lots of good erotica there. Where the person has put a gateway page, that is what I have linked to, but if I remember right no links lead to pages that can't be viewed with children in the room.
love & light
christine

GRRRRR

2007-03-03T19:52:00.000-05:00

Well I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with my ideas for cover art. How I wish I could draw lol.
The story continues steadily forward. The past few days have found me researching weird and vastly different things. At one point today, I was looking for pictures of male cats lmao.
I'm thoroughly frustrated with using "Insert page number" in MS Word and am leaning towards just doing each page myself.
love & light
christine

Tax stuff

2007-02-26T07:52:00.000-05:00

ugh, I plan to go over to Lulu and read all I can on the tax, financial side of selling the book. I hope I'm prepared for this, as I don't really feel I am lol. I've been searching for help on my page numbering issue in "Out of the Night". That and figuring out how to get my cover art done and the book'll be ready.
Speaking of cover art, this is the picture I have in my mind--
a masculine hand gently plucking a bunch of golden yellow evening primrose flowers from the ground against a midnight blue background
Not having any money to pay a freelance artist and having no drawing talent myself, I'm unsure what I'll do with that picture I see. urgh... if only the cover art could be words :D
love & light
Christine

"This is Everclear to my Samuel Adams."

2007-02-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

Nobilis is taking a look at the pdf I've made of the first novel. I asked him to since he has more technical knowledge than I do. That's what he said in an email when he started reading... "This is Everclear to my Samuel Adams." Wow, lol I had a warm fuzzy moment reading his comment. It has been such a long struggle for me to see this story realized in book form.
So coming soon, once my page numbering struggle is over, "Out of the Night: Book One of Vala's Story" will be available for purchase on Lulu.com
love & light
christine

Vala has her own blog!!

2007-02-24T07:41:00.000-05:00

Well I just *helped* Vala set up her own blog. She hasn't gotten to post yet since I'm monopolizing the computer, but she will soon :)

News on the book front... I almost have the first novel ready for Lulu.com. I'm still struggling with the page numbering and whether or not the ebook (which is coming out before the paperback) should have mirror margins or not (which the paperback does need)
love & light
chrisine

Nobilis' Podcast

2007-02-21T15:44:00.000-05:00

Hey! Here's a fun podcast to take a listen to. Nobilis' podcast
I'm on there, reading one of his chapters of his book... chapter 4 of "Our Robot" by Nobilis from eXtasy books. I hope some day I'm able to buy the book. I really enjoyed the chapter I read & recorded.
love & light
christine

Checking in...

2007-02-21T08:12:00.000-05:00

lol, and I said I wasn't going to go too many days without posting to the blog, since I have a hard time keeping up on things and I thought posting on a blog about my writing at least once a week would be helpful. With no one commenting, I still feel like I'm shouting into the darkness. However, I've talked to Vala enough times that I shouldn't feel so bad about that.

"I leave you with your misery, the only friend you won't betray." "Adia" , by Sarah McLachlan
I've been listening to that song on repeat several minutes now, stopped to listen every time Sarah gets around to that line. Ugh. And I somehow want to write and/or clean today and I feel pms coming on grrrr. Maybe once my chest stops hurting, I'll turn on Eminem's "Cleanin' out my closest" and get to the rather intense scene I've been planning to write in week 9.

So I picked James Joyces' "a Portrait of an artist as a young man" back up, read some last night. Think I'll do that now, rather than trying to write lol.

In the last steps of getting the first book "Out of the Night: Book 1 of Vala's Story" ready for Lulu. I want to put together a page of influences... like songs, books I've mentioned etc I want to include a page of full titles, isbns on books so those interested can experience the thing for themselves. I'm really nervous about figuring out the tax, legal aspect of using Lulu, so I'll have to read more on that.

love & light
christine

Hating the time

2007-02-14T14:33:00.000-05:00

The part of the series I'm working on now is the training, the weeks and weeks of training. In a file in my note folder that will never make it into publishing, I watch that file that tells me the schedule. I've been on a week for weeks now and desperately hating that week. It makes me wonder, how can one come to hate a fictional stretch of time? Now that I am past the first draft of that week, I'm happily writing again, the words pouring forth from my shaking fingers. Just a stretch of fictional time—and I came to hate it.

Will I ever finish?

2007-02-09T02:11:00.000-05:00

Ugh, I can't get over this scary feeling that I will never finish week 8! I swear it's some sort of perverse groundhog's day where I can't figure out what this character would do and he's not fessing up. Waaaaa!!!! I wish I could just throw the characters in bed, but sex isn't the point of the scene I'm struggling with. If only I could just write for one of the big men's magazines and get those nice checks lol
love & light
christine

Getting comments as you write

2007-02-03T13:03:00.000-05:00

It strikes me as weird. Here I continue to forge ahead in my series as my main reader (thank you so much for your patience with me, Leah :D) reads just a week *in story time* behind me. I find it interesting how her comments in past weeks affect what I'm currently writing. Makes me wonder, what are the pros/cons of not sharing a manuscript with anyone until is completed, especially when dealing with a series like mine
love & light
christine

Going forward...

2007-01-30T19:56:00.000-05:00

Okay, Leto Atreides II has quieted down :D... but things are semi-improving since my "blech" post on my bday. Money problems still here, but I'm moving forward in Vala's Story. I'm somewhat struggling though. Still working on the scene I mentioned, the D/s scene. I think I may have to just preserve through the first draft then go back to add more description, more emotion in subsequent drafts.
Maybe "Jesus Christ Superstar" isn't the best music choice, but I'm really enjoying "I Don't Know How to Love Him". Somehow seems fitting hehe

Blech

2007-01-27T11:31:00.000-05:00

well happy freaking 29th birthday to me :( i guess i should be glad there's *just* a foot or two of snow on the ground, not several (like the blizzard i was born in)
i caught something odd last night. i was all upset last night, worries about money problems, relational things etc. i'm in the middle of a D/s scene, have been working on it a few days now. it's sitting at The Queen getting attention and i felt guilty for leaving him hanging that way lol... *he's just a character in my story, he's just a character in my story*
maybe i'll stop crying long enough to get back to The Queen sometime today
christine

"We go forward. We go back."

2007-01-22T10:59:00.000-05:00

Why is Leto Atreides II talking to me this morning lol? Somehow this speech (from "Children of Dune" I believe, although it's been a far longer time since I've read the books than watched the movie) just seems so fitting right now :D. I'm actively working on week 8 of Vala's official training period, however I now have notes of stuff a reader suggested I add in weeks 5 & 6... and she hasn't even finished reading 6. I wonder how many other writers move forward and backward in a way similar to this.
Thinks it's time to go put "Children of Dune" on the tv. BTW- any Frank Herbert fans, what book in the series came after "Children of Dune". Or is it "God Emperor of Dune"? While I love the movie, I did find it slightly irritating how they combined the two books together. First time I watched the movie, my mind ticked off where it moved from one book to the next. I don't really have time in my reading schedule for a Dune book, but it sounds so good lol.
Speaking of reading schedule, anyone want to compare notes? After finishing "Nietzsche's kisses," I've moved onto "Captivating" by John & Stasi Elderidge (for a homeschooling group), "One Hundred and One ways" by Mako Yoshikawa, "Am I a Hindu?" (sorry forget the author, the book's in the other room, and i picked the book based on the Indian-ness of the author's name, against all the fairly WASP-sounding names of the other Hindu book authors), and the Kama Sutra. I want to start adding in a daily Hindu text reading to my daily ACIM meditation. I'm not sure which text I want to start with. I have a character in the story who's Hindu. I threw in a quote from the Rig Veda in connection with her.

love
christine

Experimental fiction?

2007-01-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

Well I just finished reading Lance Olsen's "Nietzche's Kisses." Go to his site http://www.lanceolsen.com/ for excerpts. He's quite the prolific writer. Anyway, he writes very experimental fiction. I just loved how he slid from 1st to 2nd to 3rd person, from present to past tense, from longer chapter to short stream of consciousness passages... all this talking about Nietzsche's last days of madness and all the parts of his life that came to that point, including his love affair with Louisa Salome, a noted feminist.
Reading that book made me realize something- I write experimental erotica. Not that my sex, my bdsm is experimental, but the way in which I present it, the way in which I share it is experimental. My story doesn't work, doesn't move like straightforward fiction, even when it is relatively straightforward fiction. I've had countless friends in the bdsm community read all or parts of what I've written. Based on their responses, it seems I have been successful at the primary purpose of erotica, to be arousing. Just it seems that some people don't get what I'm doing. Thankfully I had a writer friend tell me (paraphrasing her comments in an email) "If some of us on the list aren't getting what you're trying to do, it doesn't really matter. You need to do what you need to do."
I'm glad I've decided to go with Lulu.com . Not sure there's any publishers who deal with experimental, hardcore bdsm erotica :D
love & light
christine

Wow!

2007-01-20T12:20:00.000-05:00

lol my head is just so many places. I'm as finished with the first book of Vala's Story "Out of the Night: Book 1 of Vala's Story" as I can be. Still getting some comments from readers, but I certainly won't be making any improvements unless they're based on comments.
I'm moving forward in Vala's training. Week 8. Funny, but I'm feeling the desire to just write some rampant, no-holds-barred sex that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the plot lmao.
Had a really powerful experience this morning. An online friend from the Erotica Readers and Writers Association erotica writers email list recorded a section of the story from the second book of the series (I'm playing around with the title of "Into The Queen's Stable: Book 2 of Vala's Story") and it is so incredibly powerful. I'm not sure if/what I'll do with the recording, but it is so amazing that I at least will have to listen to it more :D. Thanks again Nobilis. You can see his website here .
love & light
christine

My many projects

2007-01-10T18:12:00.000-05:00

Oh, my many projects lol. Well, truly I have only one. "Vala's Story." Such a simple working title and it's stuck... as a subtitle at least.
Let me share a little backstory with you. About seven years ago, I had a Dom and I wanted Him to want me as much as I wanted Him. It came to me that I, the erotica writer, should write Him a story as a birthday present. So I wrote. The main characters, a Dom and His sub, were rather close to He and I. I joked "she is me to the nth degree." I finished the story, used Kinkos to cut paper to novel size, used my word processor to print the story, went back to Kinkos to have them bind the book. He really enjoyed the book, but it didn't quite get me what I wanted. I got married, had a son, found a Master, got His collar around my neck, and got a divorce (not from Master, but the man I had a son with). Somewhere in there, my Master got me writing again and Vala took on her own life.
I've decided to publish through www.lulu.com . I find too many of the publishers of bdsm erotica want these (in my opinion) horribly formulaic plots, scenarios that just make me want to gag. I've had the novels going through various readers, although I continue to write and to receive critiques. The first book of the series (I said Vala's taken on her own life lmao) should be ready in the next month or so for uploading. At first, it will only be available at Lulu's market place, but it won't be long before it'll be available at bookstores as well.
love
christine