formspring.me

Any new years resolutions?

Yes! To blog post more often (I'm working on one now!), to put out CDs more than twice a year, to go to the gym (especially to yoga), to get my move accomplished with a minimum of fuss.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Are you curious? Ask. I might tell. ;) http://formspring.me/LadyRuetha

Just random thoughts!

Bit.ly says a lot of you got the vampire files while they were available, which makes me happy - but I really want feedback! Please post a comment if you downloaded it and listened and haven't already commented.

Speaking of comments, please leave Jukebox some comment love. I commanded him to talk about comments and feedback, he did, and NOT ONE COMMENT SINCE. Really, people. :)

In other news, Fetish Fair Flea Market planning continues apace! I'll be getting in February 11 and leaving February 16. I'm already planning with some other hypnotists to do some dual inductions, and for those who just want to get together and do lunch, we can do that too. The party promises to have more people staring blankly into space than... you know what, I'm getting too excited about this to even be funny. :) Just join me. You really, really want to.

Tomorrow I'll be posting an email I got with a fun story about a surprise induction. Lots of fun!

Final gift: Merchant's Daughter MF/FF mp3s

The final gift of this Yuletide season: The Merchant's Daughter vampire fantasy mp3. This one is available now, on the longest night, and until sunset North Carolina US Eastern time tomorrow. (I plan on releasing this one on CD, so I don't plan to leave it up long.)

Male-Female Female-Female

Edited to add: If you're not sure, here's thrall's review of the Ff version.

It's dark here, now. The candles are lit. The Longest Night has begun. I will be taking calls - watch for my availability.

They say that which you do on Yuletide Eve you will be doing all year long. In that spirit, I extend my heartfelt wish that whatever you do, you enjoy it with all of your heart.

May your dreams on the Longest Night grant you insight, and may the Return of the Light bring with it joy.

Dona nobis pacem.

Today's present: Imagine.mp3

Today's link is available only until December 24, so make sure to download it soon if you want it! It's "Imagine," previously available only to those calling the recording on Niteflirt. Until Thursday at midnight US eastern, it's available for free!

The text of this recording is, of course, by Jukebox. I'd asked him to write me an induction, and this was his first effort. ("Winter Wonderland" was the second, and the later ones you can find on my CDs.) I really like the positive tone of this one.

Enjoy!

Today's present: A NEW PODCAST!!!

No, no, don't faint! But it's true.

There is a new Realm of Bliss podcast up!

The subject of this one is something that should come naturally on the Longest Night: Vampires!

Enjoy. I'm going to go pass out from recording and editing strain. Those brain muscles hurt now!

The next holiday gift: Winter Wonderland, the original recording!

Back in 2008, I recorded Jukebox's gorgeous induction piece "Winter Wonderland." I made a few minor edits, but it's by and large as he wrote it. I set it up as one of the podcasts, and happily posted away.

Within a week, I was being more or less accused of being unethical because of some of the obedience suggestions in the file. (Note that I don't have any probems with grey_shadow's concerns - he was right to question if that induction was suitable for a general, possibly non-D/s oriented audience.) I took it down, edited it, and re-released an edited version. That edited version can be found here, but many people missed the original.

Here it is. Jukebox has again given consent for it to be posted. It will be available for at least a month unless DropBox shuts down my link for bandwidth... so go gentle, but do enjoy!

New Jukebox anthology out!

Because I love my pets, and I know people might enjoy this, I thought I'd let you know that Jukebox's latest anthology is out! It's called Past, Present and Future, and by simply clicking that link you can find out more about it - including a full list of the stories within.

All obligatory plugs aside, I have to say some of my very favorite stories are in this volume. I love "Soft and Wet," I deeply enjoyed "Just Can't Get Enough," "Suicide Blonde" made me sniffle, and "God Save The Queen" gave me shivers. But it also includes "Enter Sandman," which remains hands down one of the most inspired pieces of MC fiction I've ever read.

It's available in dead tree and electronic formats. The cover is by Sue-Chan. It's Jukebox. What more needs to be said?

Joy To The World!

Really. I mean it. "Joy To The World," the latest post from my keyboard and Jukebox's, is up on Blisstrance! This marks the first of a few little gifts I'll be posting for all of you, as thanks for your support in a year that really had more than its share of stress and strain. I appreciate you!

Tags: MC, MF, FD, Freeze

Need to post a happy.

Lots of Bad Shit in the community today, pissing me off... so here's something that might make me happy: My Amazon Wishlist is up! In case you want to send me a present. Because a token of your esteem can be a lot of fun.

Bwahahaha.

Sooper-sekret project in the works. Muahahah.

**pause**

Nope, can't pull off evil, no matter how hard I try... Just trust me.

You want to trust me, don't you?

Stuff going on

I'm playing with Google Wave today, and I have a few invites to spare. If you're not on there yet and you want to be, let me know.

In other news, CDbaby still doesn't have stuff straight on my Weight Management CD. I decided to see how long it would take them if I stopped bothering them daily about it round about October 15. Guess what? They haven't done anything in two months. The last time I called, they said it would be less than two days. Grr. Please continue to alert me to any issues with the files!

I'll be on Talksugar and Niteflirt for about three hours tomorrow afternoon - that's afternoon US eastern time - tomorrow and next Thursday as well. If you're only day-available and would like to talk, it's a rare opportunity to do so! Don't be shy... I like new callers.

I hope the ramp-up to the holidays is as fun for everyone as it is for me!

Thoughts after a night of NF/TS calls

1. Subjects with British accents are hot.
2. I'm really glad I waited till I was feeling better to get back on the phones, because I needed to be at my best.
   
3. Mmmmmm. Just mmm.

It was a good night!

OK, maybe not today...

I wrote that before the cold meds kicked in and I started losing focus. :)

More news: Today I registered for Dark Odyssey in DC again. I don't yet know if I'll be presenting, but I do know I'm going to go and enjoy myself at the very least!

On the health issues front, I always think it's so cute and endearing when submissives get all fretful about me and try to tell me how to get better in the most respectful way they can think of. I've gotten a ton of private messages along the lines of "Eat something healthy! Er. Pretty please. Um. If it pleases you" and "You need to rest! Not that you didn't know that. I'm sure you know that, because you're a goddess." These both appeal to my sense of humor (which helps me feel better) and make me feel warmfuzzy (which also helps me feel better.) Thanks! I promise I'm trying!

If I haven't gotten back to your email, hang in there!

H1N1 *sucks.* And lots better news!

It's kept me from writing what I want to write, the past few days. Luckily, I'm on the mend and can put some energy into the blog today! But first, this PSA: Flu is not good in any season. It's getting more attention this year, but: if you start getting upper respiratory symptoms (runny nose, coughing, sinus pressure headache) accompanied by fever, get it checked out because trying to buff your way through this one might not work. At the very least, take a hell of a lot of cold medicine. I did a lot of hypnotic visualizing of my system winning sweeping battles against the Evil Viral Invaders, and that did help, but allopathic medicine is Not The Enemy here.

New England folks: Valentine's Day Weekend at Fetish Fair Flea is a for-sure go. I've booked my hotel room and I'm looking at plane tickets now. And I'm very happy to have the highly unexpected bonus that my beloved Copper is coming with me! Right now, I'm doing Hypnosis 101, since there are going to be a lot of people there who have never heard of hypnoplay. We need to fill the room, though, so even if you're an experienced hypnoplayer, come out and say hi!

(This is a great place to put in a plug once again for the New England Hypnosis Meetup/Munch crowd. I cannot express how delighted I am to see how well this group is doing!)

Non-New England folks in hypnokinky relationships: This will be one hell of a Valentine's Day getaway! Be daring! Be brave! Come on out!

More later today, now that I'm actually feeling better, but I wanted to go on and get that out there!

OK, long overdue on posting...

There is a lot of personal life upheaval going on right now. I am definitely going to be relocating to live with Jukebox, though.

In the meantime, I had the unmitigated joy of getting to meet thrall. It's always a joy to play with someone new. It's even more fun when that person is intelligent, sexy, and decidedly hypnokinky as well. It's indescribably more fun when that person has basically laid out their hot buttons for all the world to see.

I always have trouble writing these posts. Play is so intimate, so private in many ways. It's even more important to be careful when someone is both as open and as guarded as thrall is, as she has reason to be. But here's a quick synopsis:

Jukebox has always and openly had something of a recruitment kink... he loves serving me, and he adores the thought of bringing others to kneel at my feet. When thrall and I first started flirting around with playing, the two of them connected and started talking. It became obvious they were very comfortable with one another. (Jukebox is one of the least threatening people I've ever met, seriously. He's so clearly a nice guy, as opposed to a Nice Guy.) Before long, it also became obvious that if we were going to meet up with thrall, Dragon*Con (the original proposed venue) was not going to work. We made arrangements for the meetup to happen during Jukebox's vacation here.

Boundaries were negotiated in advance. Nevertheless, I'm used to taking it easy with new play partners, leading them into the water as opposed to throwing them in the deep end. My style tends to be more seductive than throw-down-and-deepkiss. I was taking my time, demonstrating some gentler fun on Kitty and on Reth, and more in-depth fun with Jukebox. Winterrose dropped by to be a fanboy at her, and she was happy to be a fangirl at him.

As thrall's blog post shows, she was squirming in her seat pretty quickly. Once the extra folks left, things moved from demonstration to experience. Apparently not quite as quickly as she'd have liked, but the good news was that Jukebox was very seriously fractionated by the time I put them both into trance at once.

There's a lot to be said for the classics, and I found the pocketwatch-and-metronome worked their magic on her as surely as they have on others. Since it was her first in-person session, I wasn't sure how she'd react. Some people drop instantly, and others tend to want to draw it out and enjoy the ride more.

thrall was an instant-dropper. Her eyes started to flicker and drift closed immediately. It only took a minute for her to be completely limp and relaxed, her head pillowed on Jukebox's lap. (Because they like one another and he's comfy, that's why.) I installed her power switch, and a couple of other, personal programs. I also connected the two of them with a cable from the back of his neck to the back of her neck. One of them trancing led to the other being drawn toward trance, and before long they had a nice feedback loop going. And then I had them both in and out of trance for most of the rest of the night. At one point, I called Copper and everyone chatted together before I put him to bed.

We were all too keyed up to sleep well. Actually, I should say thrall and I were... Jukebox was seriously fractionated and exhausted, and he slept like a rock. Morning brought more trancing. We brought out the light and sound machine and she discovered how much fun relentless and inexorable trance can be. I put a thrall's collar on her and made her blog post. And yes, as she mentions in her blog, there exists video and photographic evidence of the morning's session. Poor Jukebox had to try to video and photograph the session while in deep trance himself. I think he did a great job, though! (And no, you can't see. Just use your imagination. It's the strongest part of your mind, after all.) Then I took the images while they hypnotized each other... at least, at first. I wonder if either of them realized when my reinforcing comments began to guide the session?

At the end, I installed a neural programming net under her skin. No one could see it, but it's there... with several nodes nesting in interesting places. It pulses and carries my will into her body and her mind. And she accepted it blissfully and eagerly.

She is such a fun toy. I can't wait to play with her again! (And yes. I plan to call her back to my side again.)

Still around! Trying to sort things out with CDbaby and having a great visit with Jukebox. I'm looking forward to blogging some of our adventures tonight!

Chakra Capture goes live!

They're here! The first of my new CDs is up on Cdbaby, and I can't wait to share! "Chakra Capture: A Taste of Submission" is finally available in versions for both men and women!

Today and tomorrow only, the price of these CDs (or downloadable mp3s) is $30. Saturday, they go up to $35. Also, this is the final two days you can get my original three CDs (Robotization 1.01, Kittenfur, and Mountain Lake for Men) at their current prices. Saturday their prices go up as well!

More CDs coming, and I have other exciting news on the horizon!

Go to http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LadyRuetha and have a look!

Con and Consent

I have a big, philosphical post coming up about some things that got brought up on Twitter, and as I write the printer is churning out CD labels and cover art! But first, some more stuff from Dragon*Con.

One of the most entertaining things about going to events - whether on the scale of Dragon*Con or not - is meeting new people who are interested in hypnosis but uncertain about it. One of the downsides of Dragon*con in specific is a specific cosplayer. There's no point in naming her or her character. The locals all know who she is and are already nodding. Everyone else can just take our word for it, seriously... she really takes character a bit too far. Bear in mind that this is coming from a woman who thinks that roleplay within hypnosis is one of the most entertaining and even fulfilling things one can do with it recreationally.

One of the points I make repeatedly when speaking about hypnotic roleplay is that scenes need to have a firmly defined beginning and ending. Another is the use of safewords to make sure that every scene is consensual. This becomes even more important when dealing with people who may not be involved with or aware that roleplay is taking place - and that applies to all roleplay, whether hypnotic or not. Billions of electrons have been used to make posts on this topic when it comes to LARPs (live-action roleplays), and there's a lot of discussion in the D/s community about public play and whether it is safe, sane, and consensual if people unaware of the scene are involved.

Into this comes this cosplayer. She comes to the panel which is essentially a Hypno 101 panel, meant to dispel myths and falsehoods about hypnosis for a general audience. Right off the bat, she starts in on the panelists about her vulnerability to hypnosis and how it affects her crimefighting superpowers. She was shut down pretty darn quickly, but when one of the panelists asked the assembled group to close their eyes and take a deep breath, she promptly went into trance and stayed there for the whole rest of the panel. Everyone else in the room understood this to be a demonstration of how trance sometimes feels so normal because we experience it so much. She just stayed that way. (The guy with her, who I assume is either her boyfriend or her caretaker, asked some good questions and contributed a lot.)

Now, as a Domme I'm very used to people IMing me and promptly talking about how my words are putting them into hypnosis. I ask if they've ever listened to my word, even my free stuff. No. Have I ever talked to them under another ID? No. I'm a HypnoDomme, and so therefore every word I say is by definition hypnotic. While there are some people who are probably that easy, for the vast majority of these people I'm really a sentient sex toy. They want to go into hypnosis, therefore they're going to do it... whether I take any real action or not. Most of the time, this is amusing. Sometimes, it's annoying. I know very well people like this are not going to contribute to my well-being in any meaningful way, be it by buying session time, buying CDs, or even admitting "I'm broke, let's just be friends and talk." I'm a masturbatory object, and I really wish they'd just whack off and go away. I did not consent to hypnotizing them, therefore it's not really D/s.

(Note this is not applicable to the whole giant class of people who approach me for honest conversation and friendship. Bless you. You keep right on messaging!)

The people at the panel, panelists and audience alike, did not consent to be in on this woman's roleplay. They did not consent to her game. Watching the audience's reaction, it became clear that most of them considered her at best clueless, most likely rude, and at worst actually possibly mentally ill. It was also evident, given that she chose to sit in the front row right on the aisle ("front and center"), that she was coming in with the intention of being noticed.

I don't know whether the cosplayer enjoyed her "fun." What fun there may have been, though, was at the expense of other people who didn't ask or give their OK to be props in her game or even just bystanders. My friends, that just isn't cool at all. Please, when you roleplay or cosplay, consider the people around you. That panel room emptied a lot faster than it normally did, and people didn't get to ask questions of one of the panelists because of this. As I left, a total stranger was commenting on how creepy the woman in the front row had been. That's just sad.

In a D/s situation, whether you practice RACK (Risk-Aware Consensual Kink) or SSC (Safe, Sane, and Consensual), the word consensual is in there. Please apply consent, not simply or only to your partners, but to others who might be involved - whether it's D/s or not.

Back from Con...

Back from Con, and everyone is begging me for stories about the whole thing. Jukebox posted a quick story on his blog, so I won't cover that one. I'll just say that I got too little sleep and had too much fun for words...

OK, one quick story.

Saturday night during the hypnosis demo a lovely raver girl in a corset came in and pretty much begged to be hypnotized. She was the essence of hot... not too slender, easy to trance, and generally enthusiastic. She brought some friends with her, and one of them also wanted to be hypnotized over and over.

It was delicious watching them let go first to the rapids I was doing, then to the pocket watch. The raver girl was easy enough that when I was doing rapids on other people, she was going into medium depth trance just watching. And sure enough, they were geeky enough that giving them power buttons on the backs of their necks served as an easy way to shut down and reboot them. Note that I didn't have to do this as a formal posthypnotic trigger - "When I do this, you will respond this way." I simply mentioned "A lot of geeks power down when I..." and then demonstrated on my pets. From there, their unconscious minds did the rest.

I love Con.

I also made a few new friends, met some people from online I hadn't previously encountered, got to play with some old friends, and hypnotized someone with a turkey sandwich.

More later, but I wanted people to know I'm still out there!

Dragon*Con: The Story So Far

Crazy hectic busy. Driving and driving and I hate Atlanta traffic. Very patient Reth and my pet kitty. Get to hotel, and Jukebox and Copper show up. Pizza and riding elevators and recouping from travel. Trancing and bedtime.

Day two: Waking up, working out with Copper, showering with Copper, Georgia Aquarium. Whale sharks, beautiful sea creatures, meeting a person I knew from the Yahoo hypno chat rooms. Walking back to the hotel, Seran arriving, trancing him and programming him. New microphone as a present!! (More yay than I can express.) Registration, dinner, putting Jukebox to bed, out trancing with Copper, bed.

Day three: showering, Nimoy and Shatner panel, sciencey stuff, buying stuff, lunch, and now happy sciencey stuff again. Tonight: music and MST3K. And trancing.

This has been my vacation so far in thirty seconds. Upcoming: hypnosis meetup Saturday and Sunday! (Please repost these times to hypno sites... I don't have goods web access.)

More later!

Sometimes I get mail that makes it all worth it.

I had a new toy call me last night. Said toy is very into robotization - I've had a few of those the last few days, which I love. Last night's toy sent me an email today, and I quote it with permission. Names have been purged to protect the not-so-guilty! All spelling errors and grammar tics are in the original, and my address has been munged to save me from spammers.

---

Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009
To: <ladyr@xblisstrancex.com>
Subject: analysis of self-diagnositc marks
robot has noticed a substantial increase in work-place productivity. humanoid form when left to [gender] own devices usually finishes work and can move on to other work-related items at 10:00. today, motivated by robot, [gender] is nearly finished with a good portion of [gender] duties at 8:00. robot shows improvement in both focus (82%) and drive (90%) and something that humanoid form calls "stick-to-it-iveness" (100%). robot is sure that humanoid form will thank you for this, and robot says that further testing may be needed before [gender] deems that this self-diagnostic may be something to look into.

robot

---

Yep. Some days, it pays to totally mindfuck someone.

Niteflirt tonight! Plus Dragon*Con update

I'm going to be on this evening. That energy-vamp fic I wrote yesterday inspired me, and after I posted that I had a simply wonderful robotization call! Nothing helps with wanting to program someone like getting to program someone. :)

I am waiting for the Dragon*Con pocket program to announce the Hypnosis Meetup there. Watch this space and my Twitter feed for info on this.

That's all for the moment... Maybe more flashfic tonight!

Flashfic: The Woman in Red

Just a piece of short vampire fiction which has been perking in my brain for the last little bit. It's set in Dreamfire's "Colors" universe, with her kind permission. Enjoy!

---

I always use the line on them. Even if they don't immediately surrender, even if they're naturally resistant, by the time they get over the "oh, please" moment my teeth are on their wrists or their throats. At that point, they're mine. The shock lasts just long enough for me to alter their prana. At that point, the pleasure I give them shorts out the desire to do anything and they open up to my control.

It sounds so mechanistic when I put it that way. Step by step, logical. It pins down the process far too much. Harvesting prana is much more of an art than that.

My Line was the first to realize that the Blessings could actually be used to read minds. Some of the other lines have picked up on it since then - or, more likely, been given the secrets by a traitor to the Line. In any event, it's important to look the part. It makes access to their minds so much easier when I do.

So when I go out into the night, I wear red. I have since... well, it's been a long time. Waistcoats and hats have given way to t-shirts and jeans in the places I like to hunt. Naive young men and women are the same in other ways, though. The ones with genuine street smarts, I leave to those who like to bribe and cajole or overpower their way into the prana. They have a different flavor, one I don't prefer.

No, for me, give me the bravado of the youth or maiden who has never really been challenged in this world, who doesn't know what awaits them out there, who thinks he or she knows all. Those are the ones stupid enough to directly meet my eyes instead of simply watching them to see if I telegraph my next motion. Those are the ones foolish enough to come with me off the beaten path.

Like this sweet young thing. She's twenty, she informed me at the coffee shop. Her colors showed truth, so I know she's of age. And she's not a law enforcement officer, and she's definitely not a prostitute. Not in this part of town. Just a college girl who thinks she has a good grasp on the world. And who makes smartass remarks about someone who would wear a red pair of jeans. Once, it was a red choker or a red blouse. The effect is the same.

She doesn't fear me, because she doesn't think I'm a threat. She thinks I'm lower class, tackier, stupider than she is. And it's so simple to slide into her mind. I have more than enough prana within me to work this simple Blessing. Once there, I can nudge a bit... here... there... not for me the crass spellwork of other Lines. It taints the prana. Just a little bit of a push. Make her willing to talk to me. I'm harmless, after all. Change her mind on a point or two, make her a bit more careless, a bit more open.

A bit more vulnerable.

When I take her outside, it only takes a moment for me to get her to look at me. "Is my eye makeup smeared?" And she looks, and I say the words:

"Look into my eyes. You are getting sleepy."

And her eyes glaze, and her knees buckle, and the prana flows from her to me... and she is mine.

Overdue posting...

So much to say, and so much of it disappointing to me right now. Every time I went to update the last couple of weeks, I thought "No, I'll have better news tomorrow! I'll update then!" It just didn't quite happen that way.

First, the good:
Niteflirt has been better the last few days. I've gotten some really wonderful calls with fantastic experiences. Want to have one yourself? Check over on the right there to see if I'm available. If not, just click on the button anyway and work with me to schedule an appointment. I love to meet new people.
Second, I have recordings in the can for Voice, Chakra Capture F/m and F/f. I have scripts in the works for a few other things. I'm very happy about this. I know next time I go to record, I'll have a lot to offer.
Third, Dragon*Con is coming up. This is always a happy for me.
Fourth, Jukebox came up for my 20th class reunion a couple of weeks ago. It was surprisingly fun. He said he felt like he was walking around all night with a "Ru'etha's brainwashed pet" sign glowing in bright neon over his head. He did look pretty subby! I did some programming on him, and it was lovely.

Now for the not-so-good:
CDbaby changed their policy and stopped uploads of digital content. What that means is that it shoves the release date on my new stuff back until I can send them the CDs and they digitize them. I am Not Happy about this. This pushes the release of my new stuff back Yet Farther.

I'm thinking of just having a huge, mammoth release of content on September 15th. This might end up being possible. We'll see. If that happens, there'll be seven CDs: Chakra times two, Voice, two Jukebox volumes, Robot 1.02, Mountain Lake FF, and By Her Command: Weight. Thoughts?

The other not-so-good thing is that real life stress has really cropped up again. I've been rather ill the last week and if it doesn't clear up by Monday, I'll be back at the surgeon asking what gives. Energy and prayers welcome, scheduling an appointment for a phone session helps more concretely.

I really wish I had better news. Sadly, I'm at the mercy of the publishing!

Happy Birthday, Jukebox!

I usually don't make happy birthday posts to my pets, since they might want to keep that information private. Still, he noted it himself on the MC Forum, so...

Happy birthday, Chosen! I love you dearly, and I can't wait to see what the coming year brings for us. You are and have always been special to me. I am so glad you're my lover, and I couldn't be prouder to call you Mine.

Give Jukebox some love in the comments, folks. Also, write him fan mail! His ***100th*** story for the EMCSA drops this weekend. That's a lot of giving to the community!

Happy things!

Recording of the next three tracks is finished! "Lady Ru'etha's Voice," "Chakra Capture for Men," and "Chakra Capture for Women" have the rough recordings done. It was slightly delayed by a thunderstorm coming through while I was recording. "Voice" is a long file, and we had to pause for thunder periodically. Then the rain got too loud and we needed to stop for the night. But last night, we got everything done.

I'm taking a two or three day break from scripting, and then going back to Vampire and Foot Fantasy and 1.03 Skins. So far, this particuar vampire script is looking like it'll be almost steampunky. I know I'm going to end up doing a whole vampire line, though, because the genre is so very flexible.

Speaking of, some of the lines are starting to take shape in my brain. Of course I've got the Robot Line, and the line I'm starting to call TransFurMation (at least in my head), and the Fantasy line, and the By Her Command line. I think the Fantasy line is going to have some offshoots, like the Vampire line and the Cast a Spell line and the Sleepy. There's also going to be the Foot line, I think. Kind of mulling this all over in my head still... what do you think? What am I forgetting?

Today Jukebox and I agreed that we want to work on another story together. This one is for this month's MC Forum contest, "The Story of Our Lives." The problem with doing this contest is that J has already put so much autobiographically-inspired stuff in his stories, it's hard to come up with a memorable and not-TOO-personal story. (I'll have to work on giving him more memories to work from.) I think we've come up with which experience to use, but it'll end up highly fictionalized. Probably. Or maybe not...

A couple of new developments!

First of all, the CD cover proofs for By Her Command: Weight Management and Mountain Lake for Women came back. I had some minor copy edit concerns, but the graphics look awesome. Wait till you see BHC:WM. It is absolutely cool. The Jukebox CD design is coming up in the next couple of days.

Second, I'm going to be in Niteflirt today and tomorrow in the afternoons and probably evenings. If you wanted a session but didn't know when to schedule one, now's a good time to check in! Tuesday evening is also a likely time. Start looking for me around two or three this afternoon eastern US time.

Finally, I have the scripts done for the revised Voice and the rough draft of Chakra Capture. There are a couple of minor wrinkles in the latter that I'm trying to iron out, but I feel very good about the basic concept. Recording got pushed back to Monday night, so I have some room to maneuver on getting it all together.

I've goofed around long enough... time to get my day started!

Mmmm, yummy.

Yesterday Copper got Skyperec set up on his computer and we recorded a session. What was so special about it? It was a seed. The plant growing from that seed is a transcript, and once that transcript is edited (pruned? fertilized?) the fruit will be Chakra Capture. (And that's about as far as I'm going to overextend that metaphor! Hee.)

This file will be available in MF and FF versions. Note that this file will contain posthypnotics and minor submissive elements that extend beyond the file listening time. If you're looking for that kind of thing, you should really enjoy this one. I know Copper did. Look for this to come out in October.

While I'm on the subject of upcoming releases, here's the rough timeline of releases I have planned:

August:
By Her Command: Weight Management
Mountain Lake for Women
Jukebox: Volume One (for experienced hypnotic subjects)

September:
Robotics 1.02: Antivirus
The Voice (this one by popular demand!)
Jukebox: Volume Two (again, for experienced players)

October:
Puppyfur: Canine Transformation Part One
Vampire fantasy number one
Chakra Capture

November:
Robotics 1.03: Skins
Foot Fantasy
Sleep and Dreams

December:
Robotics 1.04: Activation
Robotics X: Security Backdoor
Something else, as yet undetermined!

There may be other releases in this time frame, but this is what I'm shooting for. There will be a minimum of three releases each month. If I get inspired, there will be more. With the feedback I get, inspiration is always possible!

Mmmm, so many yummy ideas.

Just a quick post...

Surgery went OK, and I'm recovering. Kitty came by and gave me a long footrub, which really helped.

I got a bunch done on one of the scripts... it's about 85% complete as I write, and I expect to finish it and possibly a second today. All of this makes me highly optimistic that Good Things Are Coming.

Still have those slots open, and I'm thinking of being on Niteflirt tonight as well. We'll see!

As I write...

...Seran is editing CDs, and the scripting is going well. I got a lot written tonight.

When I'm working with someone, either as a therapeutic client or in the erotic sense, I stay away from scripts. But I find they really help me when I record. The thing is, I have so many ideas right now that it's hard to stay on one script for any period of time. I keep wanting to jump from one to another as I get ideas. I think that's a manifestation of my ADD. It's also a real solid pain in the ass.

So today I made myself sit down and focus on just. One. Script. For more than an hour. By the end of it, I felt like my brain was exploding... not from pain, but from sheer focused energy Oh My Gods I Have To Move!!!one. That kind of thing. I told Copper and Jukebox I felt like I wanted to get up and run around the room like a toddler trying to sit through a movie.

But I got work done, and more will happen tomorrow. However, it won't happen tomorrow night. Tomorrow afternoon I have some minor surgery, and I know from past experience that the pain meds will have me poured into bed by eight eastern. I'll be back in the swing of things by Wednesday morning, though, with adequate sleep. Kitty will be coming over to take care of me, so don't worry. I'll be just fine.

I have slots still open for phone hypnosis early Thursday and Friday morning. Thursday I have 0800-0900 US Eastern, and Friday I have 1000-1100. I'm delighted that I'm getting to play with some new people those mornings! Also, I have some time Friday night after 2100 US Eastern. I can also do times Saturday and Sunday, but those need to be by appointment unless you hear otherwise! People keep asking me for daytime slots, so don't let these go by!

Dragon*Con planning is going on apace. I got the rental car reserved today.

And I just got this message on my Yahoo! messenger:

LadyRuetha: While you edit, I'm blogging.
Seran: Mmm your voice goes right into my mind M'Lady. I get sleepy a lot when I listen to the files I'm editing.

That's my good boy. Hee.

Available sessions this week

I'm hammering out details, but I'll be available Wednesday through Friday mornings, and evenings by appointment. I'm eager to get going on this!

Also, the CD cover info went off to the graphic designer today.

Just got back from swimming...

...and the water was warm, warm, warm from sun. And it reminded me of the hot tub at CONvergence, and the fun we had there.

It was after the Adult Hypnosis panel. One am, and I really, really wanted to soak. Jukebox had been in and out of trance all day and was completely fried. Copper was keeping an eye on an older guy who looked disturbingly like Alan Moore with totally white hair who kept asking me if I believed that aliens are hypnotically brainwashing humans. My sweet Seran was talking to people about the Virtual Hypnotist software. I got asked to speak at two different groups up in the Twin Cities area, and then people started to drift away to their rooms and parties and so on.

I informed my pets that I really wanted to soak. The hot tub at the con hotel is large and comfortable, with benches down both sides and a nice stair in. Of course I didn't want to bring any of my watches into the water, but I had a small Swarovski crystal ball that would work very well. It doesn't matter if one of those gets wet.

After a few minutes where everyone got ready, we entered the water. It was really warm, almost to the point of hot. Jukebox was so completely fried that just the idea that I might possibly maybe want him to go into trance at some point this year was enough to send him altered. (He's easy anyway. Fractionated and sleep-deprived... it's a good thing I didn't want a long, slow seduction there.) Copper has gone into hypnosis for me in hot water before, so after a moment he was very happy. Seran actually relaxed to the point that I had to put my fingers under his chin and tilt his head back up to keep him from having his face touch the water.

The best part of it was that they actually were floating in water while they floated on my voice. I love using that imagery, and even though they couldn't hear me well (there were party rooms ringing the pool area, including the Con Suite), they're so well-trained that their unconscious minds did as I wanted anyway.

The programming is pretty much private, since they're capital-M-mine, but none of them wanted to come up from hypnosis. I brought Copper up first, since he was going to be doing the driving, and then the other two a bit later. To be honest, I'm not sure if J ever really came up.

After that, of course, we were hungry. The hot tub closed at two, and we spent the last little bit cleaning up around the pool area. After all, one of the things that makes a hotel want to host a con again is a happy or at least not unhappy staff, and it wasn't fair to ask housekeeping to clean up all the cups and towels left around the pool. Then it was off to Denny's to have a late-night snack and watch MST3K.

When we finally got to bed, none of us were awake long.

Next time, I'm bringing a bigger crystal.

OK, testing!

Testing how well this works. Hopefully, this will come through all right. I couldn't find a better client, so I'm just going to use the post from email method and live with it.

Looking for a new blackberry blogging client

You know, I should check more to see if any of my blog posts are getting through. I think my blackberry blog client is not at all working, which irritates me.

I owe you all CONvergence reports, reports on CD status, and so on. I'm sorry, I didn't realize my admittedly sporadic posts weren't getting through... I wondered why there weren't any comment alerts! Mea maxima culpa.

So, here's the latest:

I will definitely be at Dragon*Con. There is a *possibility* for Atlanta area people of get-togethers Wednesday night. Again, do we want to have a meetup during the Con proper - Friday through Monday? I'd love to arrange one.

I just joined http://hypnotize.snappville.com - I'm reconnecting with some old friends there and making new ones. Chew Toy got me on there, and I don't know why I waited so long. I'd been invited there years ago. I have to say that while the interface is annoying, I really do love connecting with people.

New CDs: Waiting on editing to be done and art to be done. This month had a lot of unexpected wrinkles, which I won't detail because no excuses.

I had the joy of meeting Deliciously Naughty and Sexyhusband in person again. They're wonderful, warm people. I met them a few years back at Dark Odyssey and just loved them.

It's official: the move to the Twin Cities is on. Time up there for CONvergence made me fall in love with the area, although expect me to complain in winter 2010. A lot. The current game plan is to move in April 2010. I am hoping to have everything lined up to work fulltime as a hypnotic Dominant at that point, which will give me a lot more flexibility on my life as a whole. Working days I can't take care of my health the way I want to either, which... I've never been ashamed of being a big woman, but I want more stamina and I want to be able to take the time my body needs. It's really sad when I communicate with my body and it tells me it wants an hour at the gym, and I can only give it half that. Going fulltime as a Domme will give me the flexibility to do that.

The other thing it will do is give me time to sit down and write. I have some projects in the works that I really want to do, and I need the time to sit down and bang on the keyboard without being distracted. The way my current schedule goes, I don't have the time for that at all.

So once again, I apologize for the lack of updates. I'm off to search for a better client!

Survival

Seran is back from overseas, which means audio file editing can commence soon. I'm very happy and excited about this. I missed him deeply while he was away, and the CD work is just icing on a very sweet confection.

I'm also going to record again next week, and I'd love to get some feedback. I've had requests for vampires, for foot fetish, for latex, for sleepy/drugging fantasies... which of these most appeals? What would you like to hear?

Finally, I'm working on my CONvergence schedules. I may have a hypno meetup. This would most likely be Sunday evening... any takers? I'd like to post it to Fetlife.

Liveblog: Entrancement UK's "Emily"

Good evening, and welcome to this experiment in liveblogging! I'm excited about this, and I hope you are too.

I'd like to talk a bit about Entrancement UK, the people who produced "Emily." I've known Lex for several years, and he's hypnotized me before. He and Very Significant Other Liz have a blog, which I've mentioned on my podcast as one of my favorites. It's called Hypnofantastico and, like Lex and Liz, it's often very very funny in addition to being hot. You can find free excerpts from their videos here on YouTube. Lex is a really nice guy, for all he tries to play at being a bastard.

When I looked through the videos I had a chance to review, "Emily" was the clear choice. First of all, I like real women. Emily doesn't look like a skinny girlchild, for all she's a model. Second, Lex told me this was a less cohesive shoot than most. He also mentions this on the website. I wanted to take a video that he was *less* happy with, because then if I liked this one, I know I'd like the others. Finally, I liked her voice.

It's 21:00, the lights are low, and I have the lube. Let's get the video started!

21:00: Ooh, she has prior hypnosis experience. Excellent. Let the induction begin!

21:02: There are some chests I like to watch breathe. She has one.

21:04: Three minutes in, and she's just gone. For those who like watching peoples' eyes as they surrender? This is good.

21:06: I mentioned her breasts right? Yeah. She's following along with Lex very well. Lex is giving the basic safety guidelines - good to see this.

21:09: First convincer. The glued fingers one is good, and she's clearly enjoying herself being helpless and caught.

21:13: Clearly basking in the imagined sunshine, then accepting the posthypnotic reinduction trigger.

21:16: Emily does a wonderful blissfully entranced. Her voice in trance is very sweet. And the first freeze trigger! She's doing beautifully.

21:19: You know, the differences between British and American English make this so charming for me. My not-so-hidden Britophile is really enjoying the references to "hedgerow," "straightaway," and many other words that just don't get used enough in American English. Annnnd first posthypnotic: The shoot is just getting started and she doesn't think any hypnosis has happened yet.

21:20: Forgetting her name, she is so cute! I love her smile. You win, Lex, she is completely edible.

21:24: Hee! "Interesting parent." Well, yes, anyone naming their daughter She-ra, Princess of power... ooh! first freeze... and thank you for the cleavage shot, Lex!

21:26: HA, Liz being naughty! Go Liz! And back to Emily, who seems to be enjoying her freezing.

21:28: Thanks for the cleavage shot, Lex! (I've had to pause for a few off and on here, offline life happening too.)

21:29: This is the part where the sleepy fetishists need to tune in, about 20 minutes into the video. She is lovely.

21:30: 25 in... let the bimboization begin! This is not my thing, but I am absolutely sure that those with that kink will be blissfully horny.

21:31: I thought that sweater covered too much when this started. I have officially changed my mind. I really want to play with those breasts.

21:32: Watching posthypnotics kick in is fun, even when they're not my kink.

21:35: "Can you say smoke alarm?" "Um. Yeah." Hee! Also, four plus four is really hard to calculate. I'm getting flashbacks to Dragonlance here... "One and one and one and one and one. Two! No more than two!"

21:36: OK, she's adorable. Not sexy to me, but adorable... oh, wait. Back in trance. And the heat spikes!

21:38: Ha, Liz being naughty again!

21:41: She is so confused. Hee. It's funny to watch her be completely bamboozled by how her clothes she thought she was wearing, she's actually left in the other room... she was sure she had them a moment ago, I'm sure.

21:43: And Lex starts hitting all the hypnoslave buttons. Blank and mindless and obedient. Waiting to be commanded. Yes, this is very much yummy.

21:44: Nice bra. Bye, bra!

21:46: Lex is often at his best when he's being silly and goofy, and Emily seems to be willing to give as good as she gets. This part is a lot like a private stage show.

21:49: I'd like to recap this for you, but I'm giggling too hard and I don't want to spoil the jokes!

21:52: Mmmmm... back to yummy trance. Also? She does a good zombie arms-up walk.

21:55: Mannequins get pleasure from what they do, unless they're possessed by Autons. And my geek is showing. Wait, does that make Lex an Auton?

21:58: I might have to change my mind about PVC too.

22:00: There's that smile again! And then frozen, no less. Now, this is interesting... she has carpetburn from where she hit the rug while kneeling, but she had no idea she had done so till he brought her out. If anyone thought she was acting... you need to see this part of the video, at about 55 minutes in.

22:04: Another pause to sip some water. I'm needing to fan myself for some reason.

22:05: Annnnd now we get to the orgasm trigger and sexual sensation relocation fun. I love this. It never gets old.

22:07: Such lovely breasts. It's a shame they're so confined right now... but the outfit does make the heaving more obvious.

22:08: Lex, you are not the good one.

22:10: It is so very, very, very hot when they go nonverbal.

22:11: OK, that freeze with her wrists in the air was delicious.

22:13: In point of fact, she IS a good girl. This is incredibly hot, watching her reaction to the helplessness and the posthypnotic.

22:15: I love how she didn't move her legs, even when she was allowed to move her hands. She really was a very good subject.

22:16: Someone needs to tell her that it's better if you breathe into an orgasm. Hee.

22:18: Another point where I just can't recap because it's too funny and I really can't spoil the humor.

22:21: Nice wide entranced eyes at 1:13.

22:24: And nice eye flutters there as she tries to regain her train of thought while getting aroused all over again.

22:26: Awww, that lovely smile is back again... so sweet.

Annnd that's the end of the video. I really enjoyed it... and this is coming from someone who doesn't care for visual porn and who has never bought a video. I'd buy this one.

Thanks, Lex and Liz and Emily! And Emily... my email's on the site. ;)

A couple of notable blog posts...

First of all, this one from thrall talking about Initialization. I'm really glad she enjoyed it. She's one of the great lights of the robokink crowd, and her opinion means a lot. (Plus it means I can get off on having her echo the Directives, and that's worth even more, IMNSHO.)

Furthermore, she also touches on 1.02 - Antivirus, 1.03 - Skins, 1.04 - Activation, and the optional but fun 1.05 - Security Backdoor. Yes, I know there'll be at least that many CDs in the Robotization thread. There'll probably be more, but those are the ones I definitely plan. Ideas are always welcome!

Second, this post from Sex Geek. Sex Geek always challenges me to think more and differently about WIITWD, and I really like the advice threads. The part of the post I most enjoyed was SG's advice to the 54-year-old submissive man.

I have always felt that sex is great, but for many people the submission is rewarding in and of itself. I've been blessed to have several of those people as playthings and pets over time. I agree one hundred percent with her advice to the letter writer. I would be more than happy to take on a service toy of either gender without any expectation of sexual obligation. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love having my Chosen mindlessly coming all over the place, but if there was a curious submissive of either gender or in between who was interested in experiencing hypnosubmission without sexuality involved, I'd happily take hir on.

I sincerely hope the letter writer finds someOne for him. Service-interested Dominants are definitely out there!

Liveblog event! Entrancement Video UK video

This Friday night, I'm going to liveblog as I watch Entrancement UK's Emily video. After that, I'm going to podcast a synopsis and my reactions for those who miss the liveblog. I think this is going to be a lot of fun, and it's a great way for me to get back into doing the podcasts. I've known Lex for some time, and I can't wait to see his work. He gave the go to this idea this morning, so we'll see how it goes.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with liveblogging: A liveblog is when the blogger "blogs along" with an event as it happens. The blogger starts an entry, publishes it, and then adds on to it by editing the entry as the event unfolds. The blogger usually timestamps her additions as she adds on. By refreshing the page, people reading the blog can get a "live account" of what's happening. I prefer to liveblog instead of Tweet because, well, I might have more than 140 characters in a given comment and don't want to break them up too much, at least the first time.

Those who know me know I'm not usually a visual person. Because of that, I'm going out of my normal comfort zone on erotica - my usual favorite work is all auditory. (It's hard to get kinesthetic porn without actually being involved.)

Emily looks like she'd feel just nummy, though. She may be a model, but she looks like a real person along the way. I like my women to be soft and lush and I think she'll do the trick beautifully. If this goes well and Lex approves, I may go on to liveblog (or even Tweet, who knows?) other videos in the future.

Survival, again

I'm recovering from the long weekend and the longer last two months, so I hope these next few weeks go better than the last have.

The good news:
1) I might be recording again tomorrow night. This is good, because I have a lot of good ideas that should have been released by now.
2) CONvergence is getting ever closer!
3) The family member having the health issues is recovering.
4) One of my pets is vacationing in London and sending me updates. I really love getting his hypnotized status reports.

Not-so-good news:
1) I still haven't had time to podcast or review the DVDs I've been sent.
2) Sales are down right now, largely because I've been too swamped to promote things. I suspect the robot sales have also dropped off for other reasons... we'll see when Antivirus premieres.
3) The vacationing pet is my editor, so the new releases will be mid-June. I'm looking into ways to set up preorders.

More news soon.

Survival

Wow, two posts in two days. It's like things are slightly improving!

I got the updated CONvergence schedule, and there are five, count 'em, FIVE hypnosis topics... including adult hypnosis and a group session. This is fantastic. I am really looking forward to the con now! Today is the last day for prereg, by the way, so if you're considering... do it!

Crossing my fingers, but I really hope to get a podcast done this weekend.

I'm happy this morning.

I had a really good night last night. What made it special? I recorded *four* new tracks with my new studio!

This brings the number of unreleased mp3/CD tracks to seven, for five CDs of material. (Two of the CDs will have two tracks each.) I can start to get closer to a release schedule. This Makes Me Happy.

As promised, one of the tracks is the FF Mountain Lake. Another is By Her Command: Weight Management. Four of Jukebox's short trances will be released two at a time. Finally, response to the robot release was good enough for me to put more energy into that, so AntiVirus will round out the releases I have done so far.

I'm actually feeling quite a bit inspired. The studio owner is very professional and laid back about the subject matter, and the studio itself is more comfortable. He is interested in doing more. I'm hoping to go in toward the end of the month.

Another thing making me feel good is that the Chew Toy flashfics are up on Blisstrance.com now. I have never made a secret of being a Raving Chew Toy fangirl - in fact, when I met him I was sincerely worried I'd come off as a stalker. (Apparently I didn't.) It's not too strong a statement for me to say that if "Dream Girl" had not been the first or second EMC story I ever read, I might not be here today. But it was, and I am, and I'm so very happy to be hosting his flash fics. To Chew Toy: Thanks, hon. I'm glad I get to use you.

I'm also going to be working with my Seran on a more "interactive" Virtual Hypnotist session. He's long had a dream of making it a more interactive session. After he comes back from vacation, we're going to start working seriously on that project. I'm curious where it'll lead.

So, yeah, good things happening. :) More news as I have it.

A Matter Of Trust

I haven't updated as much lately, because to be honest my thoughts haven't been all that blissful. I got word that the recording studio I was using is no longer going to be operational. It couldn't have happened at a worse time. I'm waiting on word on when I can get back the raw recordings I've already done.

Thank goodness for hypnosis, because without it I'd be a basket case!

One thing this has done, however, is point up once again the value and meaning of trust in the D/s relationship - and the truth that it has to go both ways. This is true for all D/s, of course, but I can't help but think it matters more for hypnotic D/s than for, say, protocol-based housecleaning servitude. (No, I have no evidence to back up this claim. Sue me. :) )

Right now, my pets have to trust that I will go back to being able to Dominate them at whim instead of having to work up to it. They have to trust that they still matter to me in this time where everything unnecessary is being burned away.

And I have to trust them as well - to be mature adults, to look after each other in small ways, to spoil me and pamper me without the prospect of immediate or indeed any reward. I have to trust them to have the best interests of our Family at heart, instead of just their own.

All of which is to say that daily, I am getting proof that I made the right Choices in my Chosen. Because they are doing that and more.

And I am so deeply grateful.

News! I have news!

I promised myself I would post as soon as I knew something worth posting, and here it is: the tentative schedule for the CONvergence panels!

For those of you not familiar with CONvergence, it's a SF/fantasy con located in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) of Minnesota, USA. It's over the Fourth of July weekend, and this year's con features a lot of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 alumni... which, of course, appeals to the silly part of me.

I am definitely going to be there. And when you look at the schedule, please note what's going on at 22:00 and 23:30 Friday night!

Hee Hee Hee.

I will be hanging out in the MinnPoly group room as well, and there may be some hypnosis going on in there. Who knows? ;)

Jukebox and Seran have already told me they're going, so it'll be good to have two of my pets there. I know I have readers from the Twin Cities area. The chance of meeting is quite high! Live outside the area? A con is a perfectly vanilla excuse to go somewhere, MSP is a Delta/Northwest hub, and the con itself will be a lot of fun.

In other good news, I have a verbal agreement with Chewtoy to put some of his flash fiction on Blisstrance.com. This makes me very, very happy. I have been a Chewtoy fan for a long, long time. I think his stories were the first that made me really think about finding out more about the MC community. (Shortly after, I discovered the Forum, and met artie, Wiseguy, and many more... and I'm glad I explored further!)

The flash fic is too short for the EMCSA standards, but it's really hot and fun. I'm hoping he gives me lots more!

Back to life!

My family member is finally home and recuperating! I can't express how glad I am and how grateful I am for all of the support I've been so blessed to get over the last few weeks. Yes, this sickness could have ended up lethal. Yes, the person has more surgery ahead and won't be able to work for months. But the danger is past.

I am going to ease back into things slowly over the next couple of weeks. I am overjoyed to report that yes, CONvergence and Dragon*Con are still on. Unless someone funds them, though, there will be no more trips this calendar year. I wish it was otherwise.

I intend to begin posting weekly updates to Blisstrance, and I do intend to record a podcast very soon. Keep watching both sites.

i appreciate everything. You folks are wonderful.

Apologies for the delay!

The medical situation turned out to be even more challenging than I thought. It's consumed the majority of my energy since 24-MAR. However, I do have to announce the following changes to the website:

1. "The Gift," an original short story, is now up on the Stories page.

2. The Virtual Hypnotist preset packs for "Robotic Transformation," "KittenFur," and "Mountain Lake for Men" are now up on the free stuff page. Grab the desired VHpack file, grab info.zip (which tells you how to install), and have fun! Don't have VH yet? Go here!

Hang in there. I'll be back as soon as I can.

Updates may be sparse...

Just a quick note to say updates may be sparse again this week. I'm writing from the ER, waiting for a family member to be seen.

In the meantime, do read http://thequeensthrall.blogspot.com - she's having a great time! (It almost goes without saying that I am too.) Also having a great time: Jukebox. After almost a decade of tranceplay, I've managed to surprise him. http://jukeboxemcsa.wordpress.com has the details. (And I apologize in advance if the links aren't clickable. Not sure how to do that on my Blackberry client. I'll edit later.)

Good wishes for my family are appreciated.

Hectic, sick week.

Wonderful and yucky things all at one this week.

Yucky:

I think I have the flu. Not a G-I bug, I've been able to keep food down. But headaches, fever, achy body, wanting to sleep a lot and not able to sleep because of the fever. And I still had to go to work for my day job. I actually called out from doing things I wanted to do, including a meeting I should have attended. I haven't been to the gym since Monday. No podcast, either.

The fantastic:

Thrall. My goodness, thrall. This is going to be so much fun. I don't expect to have another pet, since she's taken and monogamous, but the fun of training her and teaching her is beyond words. It doesn't hurt at all that I'm a huge fan of her writing. Some toys, you get to keep; some toys, you just borrow and give back. Don't worry, thrall fans: I'll take very good care of her!

My website launched! It's been a long, long time coming. I'm thrilled with the look and feel. Go have a look! (In a new window. I'll wait!)

My CDs launched! See link above. I plan to do one or two new CDs a month, so watch for that!

Jukebox is back from his trip, and he blog posted as well. This post amused and pleased the hell out of me, because I can imagine exactly how he looked at different points. Yummy.

More tomorrow. I have a lot of places I have to announce the launch!

Another 'cast topic...

I'm going to have to do a podcast on "The Mentalist," I guess. I was watching season 1 episode 2 today, and it was right there in the opening teaser.

Email on DO podcast

I got an interesting email today from a listener.

Without quoting exactly, largely because I don't have permission, the writer said that sie would really be interested in hearing about Dark Odyssey, no matter the squick factor. Sie went on to say that it was good to know about things like DO because it allows people who cannot (for whatever reason) attend to know what's going on and helps these people to more fully realize their kinks.

Thanks for the response, Gentle Listener. You've given me a lot to think about. What I might do is "special bonus" podcasts on the topic, and let people decide for themselves what they want to download and enjoy.

At the same time, there was a post on Fetlife from someone who had been unable to attend DO and wanted to hear stories. I suppose this is a good way to put that out there as well. I'll make sure to post links to the Fetlife DO board.

In the meantime, I still have time to think of the best way to present these.

Podcast this week will be on vampkink. I suppose I'll end up mentioning my hours and hours playing Vampire: The Masquerade and hope for minimal mocking! (Dominate is too easy and too limiting. Presence. You want to use Presence and hypnosis skill for hypnosis in V:TM.) Really, though, the issue with this 'cast will again be the surfeit of material.

Finally, I am starting into the books on Tantra I bought, two of which are by the wonderful folks at TantraPM. I have a feeling that the mediation and trancework will be easier. The balancing, perhaps not so much!

Busybusybusy!

Tonight so far, I have:

Gone to an hour and a half long yoga class;
Uploaded the latest podcast;
Worked on the webpage;
Set up NF appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday (I still have Thursday free, and each night this week after 10:30 pm eastern);
Worked on some scripting;
Had a really yummy shower;

And helped Copper realize how brainwashed he is.


I think we can call tonight in general a win.

Podcast recorded!

I ended up doing hypnotic mantras, though, instead of Dark Odyssey.

Why? Because of the amount of stuff I have on DO, and the fact that I really don't want to shortchange any of it. At the same time, I don't know how many people are really interested in hearing my personal stories. It's kind of a tough place to be in. I love to share, I love to hear others' stories... I also know other people don't necessarily want to listen to those.

We'll see.

So hypnotic mantras, instead, because of a request from Master Raven on the MC Forum. After that, I'll decide what I'm doing next.

I'm working on my NiteFlirt hours of availability for this week. So far, it looks like I've got some space nightly at 22:30 eastern time. Interested parties should let me know!

Sometimes it all comes together...

...and then sometimes it doesn't.

I started recording my About Dark Odyssey 2009 podcast tonight. I thought I'd have to stretch to get 25 non-personal minutes out of it, because a lot of what went on there was very personal. Not a surprise; it happens at any kind of convention. And I didn't do as much out-in-public hypnosis this year as last year.

Instead, I found that I'd need at least three podcasts to do it all justice.

I got thirty minutes in and I hadn't talked about trancing people Friday night, barely got to mention Wiseguy and Dani Fantom's wonderful dinner/hypno party, had to elide much of the hypnosis I observed during the rope bondage and flogging workshops... and didn't get anywhere close to the really interesting things I wanted to say about being in hypnosis and Domspace while having physical things done to you.

I'm re-recording tomorrow.

WinterRose is right!

So, yeah. I live in a fun state. A state where people feel free to rally and say stupid things.

David Gibbs III, a lawyer who in 2005 fought to keep brain-damaged Terri Schiavo on life support, told rally participants gay marriage would "open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.

"Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots."

Now... I don't talk about politics often, nor should anyone expect me to. So I'm not really going to touch the irony of a guy who didn't respect a man's right to make medical decisions for his long-gone wife talking about the sanctity of marriage, except to mention it at all.

I'll simply note that the Alt-sex-fetish-robots people are probably saying "Well, OK!" and the polyfolk like me are saying "Now that you mention it..." But look out, because Gibbs Esquire is coming down a mighty slippery slope there. Can we just get gay marriage OK'd, or civil unions for all and marriage decided in various religious organizations first? Thanks!

(And while I love my Roombas, I don't love them That Way.)

Genderfluidity

I have a headache today, and nowhere really good to trance it away. In spite of that, chapter two of my book is done. I even got a little more scripting in. Go me!

I spent some time with Lyinar/Kitty last night. L/K is my genderfluid pet; I'm never quite sure how zie will express zirself energy-wise at any given time. Last night was really confusing, as I got a lot of both with rapid changing around. Sometimes I know I was talking to a boy. Ten seconds later I was equally certain I was talking to a girl. It made getting the right pronoun a bit of a challenge, and sometimes I just gave up and went with the equivalent of "hey you." Zie doesn't mind, so I'm not going to worry about it!

Slow joy

I got a bunch done on scripting today. I could have done more, but this nasty thing called a day job got in the way. Still, I'm feeling fairly productive.

Last night, I spent some time with Copper working on some programming. Copper is not just my pet, not just my love (though he is both of those things). His submission is a slow, joyful work in progress for me. Sometimes he gets impatient with his slow surrender, but for me he is and always has been worth waiting for.

Copper is a very analytical man, and he is also very private. I love to play in public; he was nervous to the point of safewording about playing anywhere outside of his room. But he longs to be controlled, longs to let go to me completely.

I've seen analytical people complain over and over they can't be hypnotized. Copper was the same way, but with time he's become incredibly good at going deep. it would have gone much faster were he not thousands of miles away.

And he is changing... flowering into my control. In a few weeks we'll attempt some things we haven't before. So far, the programming is going beautifully.

It's fun to brainwash someone, whether quickly or slowly. Programming Copper and binding him ever closer to My desires has been and is a deep, lasting joy.

Working on my book...

It's nonfiction, so of course it's going slowly. I am making progress, though!

In the meantime, here's a piece of flash fiction. Because I feel like it, that's why. :)

*****

She held the rope taut in her hands, right in front of his eyes. "Bound."

His gaze went straight through the rope, unfocused. "Bound," he whispered. Dazed, dreaming, deep.

She looped a knot through the length, swaying the rope back and forth in his field of vision. "Bound and blank."

He repeated her words in the same soft voice, eyes moving just enough to follow the knot. His eyelids lowered with each pass. Finally they drifted closed. He was ready.

She slipped the cord over his shoulders, leaving it hanging loose. "Your mind is bound as I bind your body. Chant it."

"My mind is bound as you bind my body..." There was a moan in each word, a begging that increased her heat. Around and back and forth and through, she caught each wrist in a loop and secured them together. He whimpered each time the soft cord slid across his skin. Goosebumps rose. She smiled, running her fingernails over his thighs. He was already hard, but at her touch his erection jumped. The tip glistened with moisture.

"Good boy..." she crooned in his ear. "Good boy, going so deep for me." The ends of the rope slipped through the loop she'd first made. She tugged, letting him feel how truly he was caught. "This is what you've always wanted. To be bound for me, mind and body. To be truly helpless. Now your body knows what it feels. And every time I tell you you are bound, you will remember this moment, and your deepest self will carry you back to right here, right now, helplessly in my thrall. You are my toy. Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes my Lady, your toy understands..." His hips pushed, feeling the tension of the rope on his skin, thrusting out into empty air. She could see that he was almost ready. "Every time, your bound and helpless and enthralled toy..."

She wrapped her arms around him from behind. "Good boy. Now my toy comes for me. Now."

She held him as he bucked and cried out. Her embrace kept him from injuring himself or pulling the ropes too tight. As he settled, loose and limp in her arms, the firm grasp turned into a slow side to side rocking motion. "Deeper and deeper. Remembering this pleasure, this bliss always. Mine."

"Yours..." he sighed. And they could both hear the joy in the sleepy affirmation.

Excellent.

The Blackberry posting is, indeed, working. That means I'm not tied to the laptop if something occurs to me while out and about. Which is great, because I tend to have fun ideas in the car.

Today in the car I was scripting in my head. When I'm working with someone live, I don't use scripts at all. I tailor the inductions to them. I find I have much better results that way. But when I'm recording, I find that it's far better to at least outline a script and read from it. I think I'm skilled enough to avoid the monotone "I'm reading this off a cue card" effect.

But before I can get to a final script, I end up going through a multistep process, and this is where I am deeply grateful for Copper and Kitty's patience. First, I record a freeform rough draft... what I would be doing if I was live with someone and they were reacting well. Then either Copper or Kitty transcribes that mp3. I polish up the script, record it rough, and get feedback. Then it's further polished, and then I go to the studio with it.

Right now I have scripts for several CDs and ideas for several more. I know I can put out a CD a month; I'm fairly sure I could even do two at this rate. Certainly I've got enough fantasy ideas to keep it going for a while.

I just wish there were more hours in the day!

Just a test!

Just testing blogging from the Blackberry. Indulge me!

Refining written inductions

Jukebox is one of my pets, and I adore him deeply. It took a while for him to get comfortable with certain kinds of play. Sometimes, I can still see shadows of old fears peeking out. I do try very hard to deal with those issues head-on and address them.

He's been writing inductions for me off and on. Some of them, like "Imagine" and "Winter Wonderland," have already been recorded. Some are going to go onto CDs - "Relax," "Zero," and a few others. There was one he'd written that I just couldn't get into as originally presented, though: "Here Comes the Rain Again."

Most of the induction is absolutely fantastic. But there was one section in the middle where I could tell that J was trying to deal with his own fears. It wasn't obvious to anyone who didn't know him, but the way some things were phrased just didn't feel right to me.

This morning, we began the editing process. It was difficult for me on many levels, because I don't like to second-guess his talents, but I couldn't do it as written. Thankfully, J is good at taking constructive criticism and understanding it's not personal. I pointed out the specific phrasing with which I had issues and made suggestions for substitutions. Once it was pointed out to him, he understood and fixed the issue, even expanding the induction and making it longer.

I am thrilled with it now, and think it'll make a good short induction for CD or NiteFlirt. I won't put it out on the podcast; the one time I did that I had someone complain that it was a bit strong for them. This, even though the text of the induction is available on the EMCSA for anyone to read and see what they're getting themselves into in advance.

The best part, though, was that I was able to use this to reinforce his training. Once he was done, it was a simple matter to drop him into the warmth and get him all worked up, thinking hazily about how his words were going to be used to hypnotize someone else.

I am absolutely sure that part of him is already writing the next induction, so he can experience that kind of pleasure again. I can't wait to see what that induction is.

New Podcast is up...

And I'm so glad that it is. It took a lot of effort to get back into the swing of things, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to record a few ahead on them.

This week's topic is social networking and the developments in it since last year. I hope I get some good feedback on it.

This week, the CDs should go live on CDBaby's site at some point. I'm deeply hopeful that the complete website will be live by halfway through the month. I have waited a very long time to get this going, and it's been a hard road getting it done.

Also, check out Jukebox's blog. He'll be writing in it by my Command sometimes. I'm very proud of him.

I should be updating this daily... so keep checking back!