A gift exclusively for my blog readers

This is a thanks and a sort of semi-Easter egg for those of you who've bought What Do You Give the Alien Who Has Everything? It's a map of the Imperators' complex to help you orient yourself and show you at least some of what's in store for you on Mahé (I've quite intentionally left a few things out of the image).

But first, at right is someone else's more official map of Mahé. It's the capital island of a chain that lies in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar.  Like the story says, the Seychelles is the most exclusive resort area on the planet, and the Glacis District (where my story is set) contains some of the most exclusive hotels in the Seychelles.

Now on to my map. Yes, it's the cartographic equivalent of a ransom note cut from different magazines, but I didn't try to make it look real. That would have taken weeks. Instead I tried to give you a good idea of what's where, to aid you in navigating the story. The only other place to find a map like this is on your own notepad - if you choose to draw one of your own.

Helpful hint: if you right click and open the map in a new tab, it gets helpfully huge.

What Do You Give the Alien Who Has Everything? - Now on Sale!

At long last, What Do You Give the Alien Who Has Everything? is now available for purchase. I've had to make it exclusive to Amazon because Smashwords just refuses to accept my file*, so unfortunately that means I won't be able to offer 25% coupons. However, if you purchase the book between October 22 and October 23 PST, you'll get 25% off during the Kindle Countdown Deal I've set up. But even if you miss that special, the e-book is still only $3.99 at full price - for a book that was over 1200 pages single-spaced in Word. So however you buy the book, you're getting a great deal.

Here's the whole blurb. I hope you'll check out the book and enjoy it to the full:

Imagine yourself as a reporter on a radically altered planet. After a disastrous mission to Europa, two astronauts have returned to Earth with strange powers and a newfound lust for world domination. No one can stand before them. Now they've invited you and several dozen other telegenic young reporters to a press conference in their island lair.

You know they’re up to something more, but what? And what can you do about it anyway? The Imperators have the power to warp everything around them – plants, animals, and humans – and so far no one has been able to stop them. They seem unkillable, and the pacification fields they send out periodically reduce earth’s populace zombies. How can you possibly resist them?

You can't...at first. But this is a story in which you chart the course of your own adventure. If you set out on this journey, you will encounter the Imperators – but how and when you encounter them, and what happens next, are all up to you. Perhaps you’ll choose to surrender blissfully, or perhaps you’ll choose to fight. You might try joining forces with the enemy. Or if you’re especially clever, you might find a game-changing hidden plot line that turns the whole story on its head.

Meanwhile, you can also search the Imperators’ complex for clues: What happened to them on Europa? Why are they so alike in some ways and so different in others? What do they have in store for you and your fellow reporters – and, indeed, for the world? Are they really as unstoppable as they seem?
 
"What Do You Give the Alien Who Has Everything?" is all about choices. The first two are your character's gender and (very loosely defined) orientation. After that, you'll have your pick of 1862 more story paths: enough to keep you exploring the Imperators' world for days or weeks to come.

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Thanks once again to my beta readers K, Lady K (no relation) and anemone. I couldn't have done it without you! You'll be getting your free copies soon.

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*But only after accepting a slightly faulty version that three people bought before I removed it. Sorry about that, folks!

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Next weekend, my "Choose Your Own Adventure" goes to print

Pretty nearly all the kinks are worked out (thanks to K, Lady K, and anemone), I have a cover and a blurb I'm happy with, and all that's left are a few small additions/corrections.

Here's a bit of what to expect from the story:

• It's a very widely expanded version of my EMCSA story, "What Do You Give the Man Who Has Everything?". Almost every scene from that story makes it into the new one, yet that's only about 10% of the content. This e-book is huge: in my single-spaced Word document, it's over 1200 pages.
• There is a mind controller of each sex for you to submit to, resist, or...well, there are other options, but I'll let you find them on your own.
• You can choose your protagonist's gender and (very loosely defined) sexual orientation.
• There's a mysterious location at the top of the mountain where you'll find lots of answers (as well as a few lies), but it's not easy to get to.
• There's a game-changing secret plot line that really does kind of turn the story into a game.
• There are over 1860 individual story segments to choose from.
• You are allowed to make stupid choices. If you do, 95% of the time you'll end up getting what you deserve. 5% of the time, you'll get something better than you deserve.

Writing this story has been occasionally frustrating but frequently exhilarating. I hope it will exhilarate you when you read it. Stay tuned for next weekend's announcement - and the usual 25% off coupon. :-)

A word from the *fourth* beta reader

As you know, I asked for volunteers to beta read my upcoming "Choose Your Own Adventure" story, and the winners were K, Busty Brenda, and Anemone. But there's a fourth beta as well: a longtime friend who's been helping me proof my stories almost ever since I started e-publishing. That's Lady K. While she was helping me with Sleepwalkers, she offered to write an early review for my blog, and I was happy to accept. Now she's offering to do the same for "What Do You Give the Alien Who Has Everything?"

I'll paste in her words below, but before I do, here are a few quick words about the story's progress. My beta readers have been hugely helpful, the story is in great shape and getting greater, I plan to publish it on September 20, and yesterday I created the final (or maybe almost-final) version of the cover. Take a look at it and tell me if you think there's anything else I need to do to it.

And now I'll pass the mic to Lady K.

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Greetings and salutations, readers of thrall's blog!

This is thrall's friend Lady K with another guest blog post. I, along with three other lucky people, am a beta reader for thrall's latest work, a Choose Your Own Adventure tale called What Do You Give the Alien Who Has Everything? Since that's a bit of a finger-twister to type I'll be calling it WDYGtAWHE for the rest of this post. Hmmn. That's really not much easier to type. Ah well, onward!

So, what can you expect from WDYGtAWHE? This is thrall's fiction at its turbo-charged best. thrall has a gift for coming up with different ways to describe the experience of entrallment. As a writer of MC erotica myself, I can tell you that is not easy.

So what can I tell you about WDYGtAWHE? Without giving any spoilers, I'll answer the question this way. Does the story have:

• Squick? Check.
• Latex? Check.
• Blank, staring eyes? Check.
• Blissed-out thralls of multiple varieties, including a few I'd not thought of myself? Check.
• Fetishes thrall hasn't explored/included in her fiction before? Check.
• Smoking hot MC induction scenes? Duh, this is thrall we're talking about! Check!

The coolest element by far is the Choose Your Own Adventure format. Trust me, thrall is using the features of this format brilliantly. There are multiple plot lines, twists and turns and a mcguffin or two.

There's something for everyone in WDYGtAWHE. You can follow plot lines that conform to your fetish, then go back and follow other plot lines that are just as hot. This is a tale of multiple delights.

You're going to love this story. Trust me.