DICKHEAD MODERATOR

I could click a button and publish chapter one of White Wedding at any time. I could have done it when I wrote my bitchy "What Would Joe Do? " rant. The early chapters were ready.

When I stopped my reconstruction work on WW, I had reworked half the book. I got frustrated right before the actual wedding chapters, which there are several of. Since my last blog, I fixed the wedding and final chapters. White Wedding is 100% ready to rock. 

Now, I'm just being the dickhead moderator I told you about, not taking the two seconds it requires to click on that button. I'm just not willing to make that extra effort of moving my finger a few inches at this time, but I promise it's coming.

When I wrote the last blog, the exercise of getting shit off my mind created room in my head to get back to work. Let me tell you what I've got cooking.

As you may recall, Tina screwed the pooch by procrastinating and putting her fashion start-up ahead of wedding planning, only to learn that her dream venue and the band she coveted were off the market. The wedding must happen before Joe flies to Hawaii to play for the troops at Pearl Harbor, Labor Day week. They have 23 weeks to get married, and it's no small wedding. The September deadline is like the summer of 1984 all over again.

While that's happening, Joe is opening his new Hangar X music venue, financed by his Kraut friends. Some great bands will come through town, like The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Foo Fighters, and Joe gets to meet some of his favorite people in the business. 

When Joe promises to find his fiancée a wedding band, he then screws the pooch so hard that he must scramble to fix his fuck up, all while keeping it a secret from Tina. Joe will eat crow, and then someone he once saved will return the favor.

I have so much packed into 30 chapters, as I always do; you might want to skip parts if my writing requires too much brain bandwidth or bores you with wedding details.  

There will be no email blast. I'll post a White Wedding blog here, and chapter one will be live. Let's see how many punk readers stumble across it on their own. Then, maybe five or six chapters in, I'll send the last email using that reader's list.

Chapter one could be tomorrow, except it won't be. Maybe Sunday? Doubtful. My publishing finger is so tired from writing that it needs a break. Maybe it'll start next week, I don't know. You'll have to check in. Once I publish chapter one, there is something you can do to expedite the next part.

WHAT WOULD JOE DO?

This is part two of my writing crisis, and it has taken a dark turn. To catch up, scroll down to my previous post. It might make sense.

My White Wedding reduction and reconstruction is not going well. There's nothing wrong with the story, as far as I can see, but the writer is rarely the best judge of their own work. As I scrutinize scenes, storylines, and chapters, I'm at a loss on what to cut and what to keep. It's frustrating and demotivating. When that happens, I must step away.

It's not a lack of desire to write. It's the reading and writing the same shit over and over. I begin to doubt myself and wonder if readers have the same experience. This is just more of the same crap, and it's getting old. Or, maybe I'm being too self-critical, always a problem for me. I am my harshest critic. Maybe there's nothing wrong, and it's all in my head, but I don't believe that.

As far as my issues with Wattpad stats and lack of reader disengagement go, your inability to offer the tiniest, effortless clicks, I asked myself: What would Joe do?

He'd probably be dick about it and choose a path that amuses him and vexes the reader. One of the traits I gave Joe is his tendency to annoy his audience, only to win them back with his performance. That's my plan. I'm going to play through my crisis in confidence like Joe would, with middle-finger defiance, but still getting the job done.

Remember when Lit mods annoyed me by not publishing chapters? I had to resubmit after a week of no approval. I couldn't stay on my schedule because I didn't have publishing power. Wattpad gave me that power, and now I'm going to use it differently. Before, I used it to be consistent, but not anymore.

Do you remember opening your laptop in the morning while your coffee or tea brewed, hopeful that a new chapter would land on Literotica? Readers had no clue what was coming or when. This blog did not exist to update readers. There was no schedule you could depend on. I tried to post a new part every other day, but the mods would throw a wrench into my plan. Days passed without chapters, and readers were disappointed many mornings.

That's my new publishing plan, to meter chapters with no rhyme or reason. I'm the new dickhead moderator, and I don't give a damn. I give you thousands of hours of writing, millions of words, and you can't even click on a button? I don't owe you a damn thing. That would be Joe's attitude.

To the very few who make that small effort of clicking buttons or even commenting, I'm sorry you'll be unfairly subjected to my sudden bad disposition. I know who you are. I appreciate your effort.

Also, I'm phasing out the emails I send announcing books. There are more than sixty readers on that list; fewer than half read what I publish to Wattpad. I will soon delete those emails from my contacts. You know where I am. If you can't make the minimum effort to check in at this blog or Wattpad, I don't care if you miss out on my free shit. 

Yeah, it's shit, but it's my shit, and I will do what I want with my work. I have always written for personal entertainment. Because of that, my writing is self-indulgent. After struggling with the WW rework, an IDGAF feeling came over me. I'm not chasing in vain what readers might want. For a decade, I didn't publish, no one read my stories, and I didn't care. I need to go back to not caring. 

Coming soon, shorter chapters, erratic publishing, and fewer fucks given. If my new shitty attitude offends you. Go buy a book. 

UNDER RECONSTRUCTION

I'm not sure whether this is a Wattpad issue or a problem with my writing. I'm an amatuer. Of course, my writing is flawed. 

Throughout Sunset, readers skipped chapters as the reads yo-yoed up and down. As of early this morning, five of the 23 chapters had 15 or fewer reads. Excluding the two anomalous first and final chapters, around 40 reads, only seven have 20 or more views. The sample size is small, but I can only work with the data I have, and the numbers speak for themselves. If you look at it as a percentage, several chapters have 30% fewer views.

And why have 38 people read the final chapter when the chapters leading up to it have half as many, including the climactic Chapter 21? That shit baffles me. What's the point of reading only the final chapter? Are these people or AI bots? 

I saw this trend in Sacred Heart as well. If you go back and look at VIP and AA, it's the same. The reads are up and down, and the likes are few. I think four readers actually take the two seconds required to vote on chapters they like, and I appreciate their effort.

I've hit pause on publishing while I work on my writing problem. Since so few people vote or comment, only eyeballs can be counted. Readers are either skipping chapters or bailing out before Wattpad counts them as reads. I don't know the threshold for registering as a read. Regardless, this fact troubles me, and I'm trying to figure out why some chapters underperform.

My first theory is that my chapters are too long. Chapter length is an easy fix, and I'm already on it. 

White Wedding was complete. I had 14 chapters unloaded to Wattpad, ready to publish, when I hit the pause button. On my profile, I had WW listed as coming in May. That's not happening. The next punk book is undergoing a significant reconstruction. I've gone back to chapter one, slashing scenes, rearranging, and making the chapters shorter, which will result in more chapters.

I'm also considering that maybe I have too many characters and storylines. I tend to get into the weeds and provide details that some readers may find boring. Maybe people don't want to know the ins and outs of the international diamond trade or how major record labels screw artists. So, I have deleted a new character and an entire storyline built around them. That also helps in word reduction.

This is not easy work. I must be careful of what I cut, and be sure all subsequent references are scrubbed. Reduction is by far the hardest edit for me. This will take time.

The worst part of this process is the demotivation that creeps in when going over the same chapters, work I recently considered complete, and not really knowing what the problem actually is. 

Is my problem the chapter length? I guess we'll see whether 4500-5500-word chapters do better than 6000-7000. What if the problem isn't long chapters? If it's simply structure, style, and the quality of my writing. I'm fucked. At my age, I'm not relearning how to write.

Once I figure this out, there will be two books, over 50 chapters total. I'm 12 chapters into punk book #8, the one that follows on White Wedding's heels. Now that's on hold while I reconstruct WW. I do not know how long this will take.

SUNSET PRIVATE EYES

 

Sunset Private Eyes is now live on Wattpad. There's a link over there somewhere >>>>>

Kat and Vivian are fresh off the Tinseltown busts, dealing with sudden celebrity and eager to cash that publicity in for their first paycheck as private eyes. There's no shortage of cases. The phone is ringing off the hook.

The lady detectives are building a business and a reputation, bringing on new help and investigatory capabilities. In Sunset '77, Vivian played the pivotal role in taking down the predators and bringing Crystal home. In Private Eyes, it's Kat's turn to work undercover.

I'm casting. I often have thoughts of actors when I imagine new characters. Who would play this role in my fantasy film adaptation? When I first wrote Watching The Detectives, she was too young, but I saw Scarlett Johannsen as the best fit to play Kat Price. I also liked Christina Hendricks for the role, when she goes blonde, but she's way too voluptuous, while ScarJo isn't enough. Now in her forties, maybe Johannsen has aged into it.

In chapter 4, you'll meet a sketchy character I became so fond of that I gave him a bigger role. Actor DJ Qualls is precisely who I had in mind to play Rich, a fixer-upper project Kat takes a chance on. 

I have a crusty old, ball-breaking bartender modeled after Don Rickles, and a new cop I created for one reason: a tribute to one of my favorite character actors.

Detective Michael Madsen. There's no doubt who plays that role. Madsen passed away in July 2025. He was always perfect in the role of outsiders, ne'er-do-wells, and men with anti-social tendencies. Detective Mads is all that, a character designed around the actor's persona. I'm also a fan of his sister, actress Virginia Madsen. She could play the role of  Kat. (shrugs)

I have not cast Vivian, and it's bugging me.

This story has many cases, from bang-bang get-it-done-and-get-paid jobs to a single-chapter case to a long sting operation covering most of the book. In research, I learned more about the international diamond trade than any layman needs to know. I get into the weeds.

I mentioned in my long and rambling Sunset Teaser blog from two weeks ago (since deleted) that a sequel was born within this novel. The truth is, I already had a synopsis and outline for a sequel. Now, I have two ideas for Sunset sequels, roughed out and ready to write. Those are far down the road.

You get three chapters this weekend, and then my STTS schedule. 

I'm currently in the middle of the final rewrite of White Wedding. That will follow Sunset. After that, I don't know.

THREE ENDINGS

The crime and mayhem will continue with Sunset Private Eyes, but not nearly as much violence as in my vigilante tale. I have some words about that book before I turn the page.

Back in 2020, I challenged myself to write an action novel, and now it's done. Not many people read it, but I'm proud of Sacred Heart because I know the process of doubt I went through. I'm sure the politics turned some readers away, but that first draft in 2020 was born in political chaos, and I could not remove the root cause of the city's problems.

A lot of people say you should avoid politics so you don't lose half your audience. I find that dishonest and spineless. I don't lean on politics, except for this one novel, but there's always social commentary in the mouths of my characters. So I guess I checked off three boxes: an action story, a political piece, and writing in the 21st century.

Before I put Sacred Heart to bed, I wanted to tell you about how the ending changed over time. In the first draft, the crusader is in that armor, deceased, when the L train rolls into the station. The good guy dies. Initiate Endgame.

Last year, in a light rewrite, I changed one big thing. There was a body in the suit, but not ET. He put a Russian in the suit. It was a horrible idea, logistically stupid, so I went back to the drawing board. With the crusader dead, there was no underworld chapter, the story in the tunnel, and the catacombs of Con Ed. That was created while you were reading the early chapters, the late, furious rewrite when all the Blue Sky stuff was added.

The third ending is what we have. I even made changes to that chapter after it was published, fixing one dumb error of continuity and adding information like the fact that Mustapha and Mozorov both bugged out of town before the raids. I failed to mention that. Now, with Eric Turner still alive and the bad guys not brought to justice, maybe he can recruit some army vets to avenge the murders of their mates killed by the gangs. Maybe.

--- 18TH CENTURY ---

 I have not been writing much this year. I bought a new bike. I'm getting out for exercise four days a week. I've always had bikes, and I've rebuilt a few, but I'm sick of always having to fix them. I just want to ride, so I bought a Trek hybrid, and I'm getting rid of my 1993 ten-speed. 

My PBS documentary binge continues. I have now watched the entire American Revolution series four times in under two months. Hi. My name is Don, and I have a Ken Burns addiction. I watched The West for the second time and Lewis & Clark twice. That two-parter is fantastic. Bike rides, PBS history, and space exploration docs have taken a bite out of my writing time.

I did find time to write a few rough chapters and character backstories, as filling my brain with 18th-century tales sparked an idea for a period piece. The main character, a frontiersman from Quebec, born in 1740, gets caught up in two wars, the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The Frenchman's hatred of the English alters the direction of his life. He goes wherever they're fighting the red devils.

He fights alongside natives and against the tribes who side with the British. In his vast travels, using the lakes and rivers of the New World, where all the forts are built, he bonds with men of varied backgrounds. Their paths cross, they part ways, and then cross again. Each man has paid a heavy price in the wars. The pain of their losses and the savagery of war turn ordinary men into anti-heroes.

When the fighting is over, these men band together and go rogue, becoming privateers raiding English ships sailing between the forts in the great white north, disrupting the crown's commerce. After a particularly bloody crime, a bounty is put on the head of the Quebecois.

That's my synopsis. The rest is way down the road. I have a few chapters done, and several written as synopses, and now I must set my journey through history aside and get to work on the final rewrite of Sunset Private Eyes, back to the 20th Century.

After that, White Wedding. After that, who knows? Maybe Corsairs Des Lacs.

Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart is now live on Wattpad. There's a link to the right of this page. >>>>>>

WARNING: THIS NOVEL CONTAINS POLITICS.

That's a more critical warning than sex and violence these days. Politics is a great divider. As a life-long independent, I genuinely have a both sides suck attitude. I have never been a member of a political party, and yet I never miss an election. Both sides suck for different reasons. In Sacred Heart, I had to play the both-sides card hard to remain as on-the-fence as possible to not offend the snowflakes.

It's not just that I don't want to offend; realistically, it's essential to portray both sides when a nation is roughly divided down the middle. 

I don't know if I have sensitive snowflake readers who get triggered by strongly worded opinions they disagree with, but in this day and this political climate, it's highly likely. I don't always play it down the middle. The pendulum swings.  And because I am unaffiliated and have voted for and against the blue and red teams, I have the skills to piss off both sides.

I wrote Sacred Heart for NaNoWriMo 2020. That means I started the book on November 1st and completed my first draft before November 30th. This novel was born during a contested election. It was crazy, right?  My imagination took a dark turn.

As it turns out, I was not that far off. Then, in this rewrite, I wove in real events since 2020, tying my fictional urban crisis to the real world.

--- NEW YORK CITY 2035 ---

In one long opening scene and conversation, I dispense with much of the political upheaval and divisiveness of the 2020s and 2030s. It will feel all too familiar and may be annoying. After that scene, the story is not about politics, even as the events are shaped by politics.

My lead character, Aiden Regas, is a liberal do-gooder journalist, like most journalists. I mean journalists with credentials and an education in journalism, not cable TV talking heads and pretty-face newsreaders. Print reporters are mostly liberal.

Aiden's book publisher and the newspaper's owners are more conservative. The military men, cops, and prosecutors are all conservative. So, using this basic 'profession as a barometer' approach, I give both sides a voice.

This is the first book I've written with a body count, and it's a significant one. If you don't like violence in literature, you have been warned. I am not a military man, but I have decades of experience working in aerospace and defense, so I have an interest in the technology of war.  I had to do some research.

I try my best to be as accurate as possible. Sometimes I go so deep into a research rabbit hole that I learn more about the topic than I need for the writing I'm doing. In this story, that research was heavily technology and weapons-based. 

This is my first book not set in the 20th Century. I get to have cellphones! Yay! And because it's near-future, I can twist reality just a little. Writing in the modern world was a nice change of pace for me.

I am still working on this book as I release it. For that reason, the days you see chapters may be erratic. I won't guarantee a predictable Sun-Tue-Thu-Sat schedule.

I suspect this book will have far less traction than my punk writing, which barely gets 40 reads per chapter, but IDGAF.  First, I write for myself, what interests and entertains me as a writer. After that, if someone cares to read, great. If not. (shrugs) I'm always proud of my work, even when I beat myself up.

Rewrite Afterthoughts

 This is just me rambling about writing.

Pretend I'm using a typewriter for my punk rewrite. I had two stacks of pages. On the left, old chapters and scenes from the last publishing, T flying to LA, the divorce, three amigos, etc. On the right, new writing, like every Theroux family scene and storyline that did not exist in the Lit version. I had to stitch these together, throwing away many scenes, entire chapters, into my overflowing wastebasket of crumpled pages.

Some unused pages were set aside in a third stack. Maybe I can use them down the road. The glory hole material was set aside and then redeployed two years later than its original place in the timeline. Now that I'm done rewriting, I still have dozens of these orphan scenes that never got a call back.

The first ten chapters of VIP were heavy on the old story. In the teens, it shifted quickly to mostly new writing. In the last eight chapters, my piles were down to a few old scenes: lunch with Mila, Doc, and Martin, and Jenna's visit. And the new material: Hangar X, the BP sessions, the fashion chicks, and the final showdown with DB. 

As you were reading those final chapters, I was having doubts and rewrite afterthoughts. I don't know if I got it right. 

Jenna's Venice trip was the final chapter of Punks, and the narrative was written as such. It doesn't really fit where I placed it in VIP. The lunch at Flanny's was part of the epilogue. I liked that scene, so I kept it. In hindsight, maybe it didn't belong there. That conversation should have been used earlier, or thrown in the bin. Those are two examples where mistakes were made by blending the old pages with the new. 

If I were rating the final chapters, I couldn't give them 5 stars for author satisfaction, but I'm pleased with the overall VIP work, even though I did not get some things right.

The end of this book was all about closure on several fronts, first Mila, then Jackie. The mob hit chapter with Joe and Luke was fun to write and a nice break from all the legal crap. It served a purpose. After years of being at odds with her big brother, Jackie finally realizes that no matter what, Joe is there for them.

I had to dispose of David Benjamin once and for all. That scheme required chapters of setup and development before the payoff. I read the deposition and final chapter recently, before you did. I thought it was cheesy. I like how he torpedoes their legal proceeding, but Joe's dialogue was a little dumb in spots. 

In dispatching his nemesis, Joe also has closure with Laura. There's no doubt who is in charge at Guerilla Records, and she can shut up now. And now Joe has a mini empire to run. Is that what he wants?

I'm certain my rewrite project burned me out. The curse of the rewrite is that you get tired of your own story, working on the same scenes and chapters. I'm sure readers can relate. My dark moods of late disqualify me from using words like 'thrilled' or 'elated,' but I'm pleased to be done with 2025, this year, this project, and to turn the page. I'm back to writing productively after some rough patches.

--- SPRING OF 2026 ---

That's when Joe will return. I am currently writing the first draft of chapter 13 of White Wedding. I have scenes written for later chapters, and I also wrote a rough ending.  Having the ending figured out halfway through a book makes it so much easier to follow a path. There's my destination. I must write my way there. 

And because I wrote that ending to White Wedding, there will be another book following Joe and Tina's nuptials. I had planned on ending the chronological punk timeline after the honeymoon. Then I wrote the ending to WW, and a 1999 story was right there, too perfect to not write. The punk addicts will love it.

Because I wrapped up all Joe's hostilities, major and minor, at the end of VIP, I must create new adversaries and allies for Joe and his fiancée. And I bring back an old one. There will be more cross-pollination between punks and detectives, as Joe and Tina hire Kat to dig dirt on a new foe. 

I did what I set out to do with Tina. She is a costar with her own stories, but the fashion storyline will not be a major theme going forward, aside from a few fashion dramas that complement the bigger picture, like Joe introducing her to Kat and Vivian.

If you're a reader who finds Tina a little annoying, I nailed it. That's precisely what I want. Why? Because spouses can be annoying. I need to make this realistic. Joe and Tina are imperfect. For every smart move they make, they take a wrong turn. The battle for the pants is on.

You may have noticed that XXX scenes disappeared late in VIP. I just wanted to get to the finish line. There will always be naughty scenes, innuendo, sexual tension, and anxiety, but I can't predict how much erotic content there will be. That is decided in the moment, when writing, and it must serve the story. 

All of that is months away. I have other works ready to publish for 2026, the writing that got me through the darkness. I enjoy crime writing. It's a very different process.

I promise you'll never see 229 chapters in one year again, 16 of Sunset '77, and 213 chapters of punks. I added 81 chapters in the 2025 rewrite, mostly in Anxiety and VIP. Going forward, the books will be shorter and more focused on the main event.  WW is looking like 24-ish chapters.

Before you see any of that, it's crime and mayhem, coming soon.