******Author’s Afterthoughts (Part 2)******

12/13/24 - chapters 9 to 11

So, we come to the spicy chapters then. Well, as spicy as I was willing to make this story. Truth be told, I’m not opposed to writing spicy material. But I feel that if I am going to write something spicy, I might as well publish the spicy tale and make some earning off of it.

Writing spicy stuff for my free blog stories does not feel right to me. I really don’t know what the etiquette is for spicy material, since I myself do not read romance with spicy. I rarely read romance at all, actually. I’ve been thinking of picking something up and finding out how far an author is willing to go.

This is all new territory for me and as many of you probably have recognized, I love comedy. I have been watching a lot of anime with comedy in it or straight up comedy. And I’ve seen so much comedy with bath house mishaps and hot spring misadventures that anything that starts out spicy always ends with a few laughs.

So, yeah, I’m trying but spicy is clearly not my thing, not now anyway.

Right, let's talk about the chapters individually then.

So chapter 9 is the duet scene. Most Victorian nobility stories I have seen always have the young nobles have a musical instrument as a hobby. And it only made sense for Gothia and Lurkson to be string instrument players. The violin and cello have been associated with a lot of Goth movies and series I have seen. String instruments go with Goth like bats go with Dark Knights.

And those song titles really cement Gothia’s obsession with Greek Mythology. I think the whole mythology referencing thing started as me deciding that Gothia saying hell or heck was too cliche and it would be more interesting if she said Hades. And with that single thought, a whole characteristic of Gothia’s is established.

Let's actually look up those song titles again:

“Pasiphae Romances the Cretan Bull”

“Athena Births From Zeus’ Skull”

“Persephones’ Departure Brings Forth Eternal Winter”

These songs really do not exist and I just fabricated them for the scene. And I have zero musical talent or knowhow to really picture how they would play out. But like with Lady Longroper’s paintings, I would love to hear someone create these string instrumentals. I’m not sure if I put enough description there for someone to make them but I welcome any who would like to give it a shot.

Anyone good at any instrument is cool in my book.

Oh, I would like to talk about that purple fire next. I was in a grocery store and saw powders to make fire a rainbow color. Now, I know some small things about chemistry. I know that if certain elements are exposed to a fire, the fire glows different colors. Copper makes fire green, for instance. So, I wanted to look up purple since purple fire sounds cool for a Gothic romance.

And apparently, potassium makes fire purple. Hence why I added the smell of bananas. Although, I will admit, I have no clue if wood treated with a potassium chemical would smell like bananas when set on fire. It just makes sense to me.

Now, chapter 10, the chapter many of you likely want to hear my thoughts on.

Well, if it was not obvious, I like breasts. I think a lot of people do and it really is not something we should be ashamed about. But, it is something that some breast lovers do feel conscientious about. And I am very self aware of my admiration for breasts.

So self aware that at times I like to make fun of myself for liking boobs.

That being said, I also love comedy and this scene really harkens back to those 90s comedies. You know which ones, those road trips and frat boy parties movies that promise sexual hijinks in the trailer but are raunchy and down right stupid. I watched a lot of those kinds of comedies as a teen because they always featured breasts. But then something hilarious or some gross out humor happens and the boobs are put away after only minutes being on the screen.

Those kinds of comedic scenes featuring breasts are seared into my brain and I am not surprised at all a scene like that ended up in a romance story I’m trying to write. And it’s not even that funny of a scene. It's more awkward and it's as if the plump maid is bullying Miss Easter with her big boobs.

I like Miss Easter as a character and I roll my eyes when a lesbian character is made into a predator or villain. I like the idea that she is more bashful and timid than she lets on. She had a tragic love life and with Lurkson’s help, she pretends to be a lesbian playgirl to hang onto that confidence and pride. But that all comes crashing down when a voluptuous maid whips out her giant guns.

Honestly, I chuckled and turned red a little from reading this. It is a little embarrassing to go over but I’m still glad I wrote it. An author should get out of their comfort zone sometimes and really challenge themselves. And writing anything with bare breasts is a challenge for a breast lover like myself.

But I believe it’s a needed scene to establish that Miss Easter is not the playgirl she pretends to be. And it also establishes how much Miss Easter respects her brother Lurkson by not taking Gothia away from him.

And since Miss Easter is virtuous in not taking Gothia away from Lurkson, she is reward with the prospect of finding happiness with the Vineharth maid, Kathryn. Now, I thought about establishing Kathryn more in past chapters but there really was no room for that. Plus, I like to leave this open ended at the end of chapter 10 so the reader wonders if Miss Easter will find happiness with Kathryn.

Spoiler alert, it works out between them. Unlike . . .

Chapter 11! Oh man, it was an interesting challenge to be spicy but not really spicy. To be artificial spicy, as it were. Oak tree. Chasm. Yes, I used those words and my god, that build up to the bed was so hilarious to write.

Having Lurkson be the one to get sentimental and Gothia being the one who is all horny and whatnot is way too funny to me. Usually, the girl wants to establish a deeper relationship and the guy wants to just get down and dirty. I like subversion, subversion can be hilarious, and this scene between two Goths who have different perspectives of love is just too good.

I laughed and laughed hard.

And they don’t even have sex. Even with his emotions all pining for something more, Lurkson is still a man with a woman who wants to have sex with him. A woman he connects with and wants him badly. Yeah, most guys would just cave and Lurkson was ready to make Gothia’s night.

But then Maggy storms in with a sword. She has a freaking sword and with the Earl behind her armed with a shield. I really don’t know how the conversation between the Earl and Maggy went after Gothia was not eavesdropping. But man, the build up to just drinking some wine, sharing stories of heartache, then breaking down the door to Lurkson’s room must have been one hell of a ride for the Earl.

Seriously, imagine being the clueless guy with a hot and sexy woman, getting drunk with her, then her getting paranoid out of the blue and grabbing a sword? Then breaking down your bro’s bedroom door and cock blocking him, armed with a shield and following orders from this drunken, crazy hot woman. A woman that your Duke of a dad was trying to set you up with. Yeah, I feel bad for the Earl but only a little.

And spoilers for the chapters to come, Maggy got pregnant by Deacon Gloombright and she stopped Gothia from having sex because she does not want her sister to end up pregnant too. Of course, Gothia had not figured that out yet but she will soon find out.

So, yeah, besides the upcoming spider-morph hallucination with Gothia, attacking Maggy and sucking on her pregnant boobs, things don’t get any more spicy from here. Which I’m okay with. This story was meant to be more fun than romantic, in hindsight. Sure, I set out to write a romance and I ended up writing an off kilter comedy with some subversive romance instead.

And there are still four more chapters to go over. The spider morphing scene is coming up and I cannot wait to read that again, it’s by far my favorite chapter. Spider Gothia, spider Gothia, loses her mind because she’s on datura! Ha!

12/14/24 - chapter 12

So I only have time for one chapter today. And so, one entry for the afterthoughts!

And boy oh boy, what a chapter. Chapter 12 has to be my favorite chapter for the morphing scene and the sheer WTF of Gothia attacking Maggy as a giant spider. Body horror is a thing that makes me squeamish but I still find it fascinating. “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka comes to mind. I remember reading that story back in high school and it deserves its place as a classic.

And here I am writing a spicy scene with a woman mutating into a giant spider. I kind of wonder if this is how erotic fan-fiction with a mutated Spider-Man would play out? It was a blast to write the transformation and Gothia’s actions of becoming a giant black widow.

Originally, Maggy had not drank any wine and was not hallucinating. I vaguely wrote about her being pissed off at Gothia for goofing off but then I decided it was more fun to have her hallucinate too. And yes, she got drunk while pregnant and I do not approve of such activity. Pregnant women should not be drinking alcohol. But this story takes place during Victorian era times and people thought crap like mercury was good for hats and lead was ideal to put in makeup.

The health codes back then were subpar, at best.

And to have both Gothia tripping balls and Maggy hallucinating her lover, Deacon Gloombright, is way too fun to avoid. And yes, not avoiding the elephant in the room, Gothia does not suck Maggy’s “life essence” but instead milk from her breasts. Another moment where I could make it super sexy and erotic, since it involves boobs, but I made it a comedic farce instead.

And lucky for Maggy, oxytocin is a thing and Gothia’s brain, hopped up on datura and wine, gets a good helping of oxytocin and she passes out before she could do any real harm. I saw an anime called “Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It” and the show talks a lot about the science and biochemistry behind romance. And oxytocin becomes a key focus of the leads since it's considered the love hormone. It helps relax the body and mind and makes people feel super good.

Wine + Datura + Oxytocin = Naptime!

I say all of this, trying to act all logical about why Gothia passes out while feasting on Maggy but truth be told, I think anyone would pass out after two bottles of wine laced with a hallucinogen. Now, I have never done hallucinogens before so I have no idea if being on datura makes you think you are with your super sexy partner or becoming a giant arachnid. Or both at the same time.

I heard datura is no joke and makes you dream about being dead or dying over and over again. Seriously, I make fun of datura and its use as a hallucinogen but I don’t think I would ever try it. Maybe edibles like gummies and such? I don’t know. My imagination is wild enough as is and I don’t need a drug to find out how much more wild it could get.

I wrote a story featuring a woman tripping balls, imagining herself turning into a giant spider, attacking her pregnant step-sister, who is tripping balls too, and thinks the giant spider woman is her lover who got her pregnant. I think I got imagination to spare for stories to come and could avoid doing recreational gummies, for now.

Now, the real question is . . . what genre does this scene fall under? Is it erotica? Is it horror? Is it a comedy? I’m honestly thinking it could be all of the above and more. It's such a weird scene but I incorporated spider imagery and used a spider symbol as a scene break throughout the whole story. So I was determined to have things come full circle with spiders at some point.

Or maybe I was just writing super late one night and my brain was on overdrive and I wrote whatever wild and weird stuff came to me. Actually, let me look at my journal . . . according to my writing journal, I wrote the first drafts of chapters 10, 11, 12, and 13 in one day. So, yeah, my brain could have been overworked and just went with the flow.

Whatever, I enjoyed reading this scene again. It gave me some good laughs. Though I am disturbed by the excessive amount of vore in this chapter. We have spider-Gothia eating Maggy and bat-Lurkson eating spider-Gothia and all the om-nom-nom!

Well, only three chapters to go and I’m sure I can finish them in one sitting . . . I mean standing, since I’m still healing. At least the itchy bees have finally stopped . . . for now.

******END of PART TWO******