What I Read and Wrote in October (and September)

 

Photo by andrey zvyagintsev via Unsplash

 

Yeah, I'm kind of a mess right now. If you're a regular reader of these missives, you'll have noted that I didn't publish one for September. I didn't have enough time and I frankly didn't have much to write about.

I retired from corporate life at the end of August and the first couple of weeks were pretty much what I'd hoped they would be. I took the paddleboard out, I played disc golf, I went for long motorcycle rides, I increased my gym time - and I wrote. Glorious.

But our long-planned vacation to the Outer Banks got cut a few days short due to my 96 year old MIL's health scare (she's ok now).  That plus a bunch of healthcare-related stuff for my wife (she's getting better as well) and the weeks of frustrating bureaucracy of getting us both signed up for Medicare and Part D and Medigap and... like I said, I've been a mess.

But! I think we're getting into a good place again, although with my wife's busy season in November and then the holidays, I don't expect things to really calm down until January. But that's okay. I got a little overwhelmed feeling like I was EVERYbody's answer to whatever problem they were having, but it's all good. 

So let's talk about funner stuff.

What I Read in October (and September)

Paul Garland and Kenny Wright are by far two of my most favorite erotica authors. Hell, they're both just good writers, regardless of genre! So when I saw that they were doing a collab, of course I jumped right on it! 

No - no, I didn't. I've read enough of both to know that the story was going to take quite a while to unwind on Medium. So I kept an eye on it as the first and then the second arc wrapped up and Paul started publishing the third one. And NOW I'm reading from the beginning and it's just as good as I expected. They make me care. They make my heart race. They make me frantic to find out what happens next. Go read "The Sugar Club" on Medium or on Kenny's Patreon or buy it on Amazon. The 2nd and 3rd books of the trilogy are out there as well.

B. E. Wolf has a fantastic story on Medium that just wrapped up – Accidentally On Purpose. A young woman falls hard for her best friend's dad but isn't about to act until he finds out that his wife has been cheating on him for years and gets a divorce. It's a slow burn as our heroine tries to take care of him in his grief while also trying to get him to see her as a woman and not the young friend of his daughter. It's very well written, it's funny, it's heartwarming, it's romantic and it's super hot!

There are a ton of stories on Medium like My Husband Sent Me to a Resort With One Rule: Tell Him Everything. Guy hanging out with friends finds out that one of his buddies is married to a hotwife and he's intrigued. And he sends his wife off to get fucked. The differentiator is how well they are written and Sadie Lane wrote the hell out of this one. She gets the anticipation, the doubt, the jealousy, the ecstasy, and the aftermath just right. I keep saying I'm going to lay off the hotwife stuff for awhile, but authors like Sadie keep pulling me back.

As does P.T. Brown. Her story – Unforgettable - was another great read from her. Sadly, it's gone from Medium as are almost 600 other stories she's written, after she found a number of her works pirated on other platforms under other author names - a way too common occurrence. She's not completely gone from Medium, but if you like her work (and I absolutely do) you should go find her stuff on books2read and on her Substack.

What I Wrote in October (and September)

The combination of AI slop competing for eyeballs while others can and will easily steal your work and pass it off as their own makes one wonder why we bother. I think we bother because we have stories to tell and it feels good to tell them and it feels good to get feedback. It sure as hell ain't for the money for most of us.

"Welcome to Hidden Hills" is wrapping up the second arc with Chapter 19 dropping on Medium next Wednesday. Tons of great heat, fun dives into a lot of characters, and some Thanksgiving and Christmas family time. I'm really enjoying this tale! Hope to finish it and put a novel out before the end of the year.

Because shorter chapters seem to work better on Medium and longer ones on Literotica, you can find what were Chapters 9-14 on Medium together as Chapter 3 on Literotica. Check it out here - free on Lit as always!

I'm hopefully only a couple of weeks away from submitting "The Women Next Door" to Absolute Erotica on Medium. It's got everything - voyeurism/exhibitionism, hotwife/stag, age gap, group sex, you name it! It's a little more serious than Hidden Hills, but still a lot of fun - and smoking hot!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends! Everyone have a safe and fun Halloween and go read erotica!

 

What I Read and Wrote in August

 

Photo by Joel Muniz via Unsplash

 

It’s a brand new day here at Casa Pierce. My last day working in Corporate America was August 21 (although to be honest, there was no work done that day after I held my last meeting at 9am to say goodbye to my teams).

You see all the big retirement parties portrayed in media — yeah, it wasn’t like that for me. My job the previous four years was completely remote, so there was no office to have a party in and no one local to throw one. My boss did something that I’ve done for my peers in the past and scheduled a virtual happy hour/retirement party on Thursday, which was absolutely nice of him to do! And then I sort of faded away…

But I did throw myself a party that Friday at one of the local brewpubs, with a number of folks that I’ve worked with over the years coming out to catch up. It was awesome and so good to see folks that I haven’t seen in years! Never hesitate to throw yourself a party.

Then that Sunday Ms. Pierce and I saw Squeeze, Adam Ant and Haircut 100 on an absolutely perfect day at a nearby amphitheater to cap off the end of my own little retirement weekend. I’m afraid Mr. Ant has lost most of his voice, but Haircut 100 was fun as hell and Squeeze was fantastic as always.

While it is certainly possible that I’ll find myself in need of employment again at some point in the future, it won’t be in IT. After 44 years of working in the field, all of it on the platform side (in other words, supporting the infrastructure, not coding new stuff), I’m done. I worked through a number of seismic changes in the industry, but I have zero interest in the AI stuff that is being forced on everyone so the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

What I Read in August

I’m still behind in my reading but I do have a couple of things that I read that I’m happy to recommend.

I’m kind of off reading hotwife stuff for a bit. My Medium recommendations have little else so I have to search a bit for other subgenres. That being said, I’m glad I read “My Husband Asked Me to Sleep With Another Man” by Liana Pryce. So many of these stories either don’t deal with the emotional aftermath, or they make it too easy. The husband in question here doesn’t get off so easily (no pun intended). He’s filled with remorse even though he pushed his wife into it and it takes a lot for them to reconcile. It felt real, and that’s high praise. I’m looking forward to reading more of Liana’s stuff.

Riverboy has been publishing stories on Literotica since long before I started reading the site, and after almost 250 stories, nearly every one is rated 4.5 or higher. He’d taken a bit of a hiatus but is back with several new stories. I highly recommend “Sagittarius Rising”, about a widow rediscovering her sexuality at a lake house with the help of her adult stepson and a stranger in a kayak. It is beautifully told, hot as fuck, and very sweet. I’ll want to read his other new ones as well — he definitely didn’t get rusty during his time away from Lit.

I’d hoped to get to new stories by favorites Ian Snow and Emily Miller and get back to Lacey Cross’ “Using Them All”, but now they’re queued up for September.

What I Wrote in August

Happy to say that despite all of the stuff that goes into retiring, like getting Social Security and Medicare in place, etc, I’ve actually made time to get back to writing! The first new chapter of “Welcome to Hidden Hills” dropped last Wednesday, with more chapters planned weekly for the next few. In the end, the story is likely to be three arcs of 8–9 chapters each, so there may be another break coming later this fall.

If you haven’t been reading it, you can find the story so far on both Medium (by Anton J Pierce) and on Literotica (under my ‘flipnmelonfarmer’ Lit name). Rick inherits a trailer park in the middle of nowhere in NC from his father (plus a fuck-ton of money), and has an eye-opening first visit. There’s something delightfully odd about the place, emphasis on delight.

I’ve got a ton of stories outlines in my files, but I’m working on a couple of the most recent ideas — both concerning women next door, but each very different in nature. One is very much an exhibitionist/voyeur story with a side helping of hotwife, and the other falls more into the “older guy with a huge… package” trope. Big dick stories have so much potential to fall flat, but if they’re told with humor (and sometimes a willing suspension of disbelief) they can be fun. That’s what I’m telling myself, at least! You should start seeing one or the other of these before the end of September!

And, of course, if you haven’t picked it up yet, go buy “Wicked Little Miracles”! One of the things that’s so cool about it is the variety of stories and storytellers — there’s love, passion and lust in so many different types of tales. You’ll love it!

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If all goes well, my next monthly installment will be posted from a beach house in Corolla (not the one from my “Neighbors: The Beach Trip”, sadly!) as Ms Pierce and I start a two week stay to celebrate my birthday, my retirement, and just being at the beach! I love off-season at the Outer Banks — the water’s still warm enough to wade in and the sound side should be fine for puttering about on my paddleboard. Can’t wait!

Wishing you cooler temperatures and the hottest sex!

 

What I (Didn’t) Read and Write in July

 

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In which I talk in great detail about why I have nothing to talk about this month…

Yeah, so this is the time of the month that I always recap my writing and publishing to try to entice you to read some of it and maybe even give me some feedback, and when I talk about the cool stuff that I read so that maybe you’ll recognize my wonderful taste in smut (and maybe find some new authors to read).

That ain’t happening this month. Feel free to close this now if you so desire, as I’m going to be talking about stuff other than erotica.

July started off with a health scare for my beloved bride of 40+ years. I’m not going into detail but it involved a day in ER and a number of doctor visits afterwards. She’s doing okay! But it’s been difficult to focus on writing, for obvious reasons.

I’ve also been counting down the weeks, and now days, until I retire from my day job. That has been distracting as well, partly as I try to get all of our Social Security and Medicare stuff set up (more on that in a bit) and partly trying to bring my lieutenants and my boss up to speed on what I actually do all day, as they are not (at least not immediately) bringing in a replacement.

Ask me how I feel about not being replaced. Yeah, probably about what you’d imagine. I’ve got around 150 people under me in my organization, I’m front and center with our sales guys and potential customers as they always want to talk to the people that actually deliver our services (me), and I’m their one-stop contact for all of the things that my team does. It’s going to be a mess, they KNOW it’s going to be a mess, but they’re happy to take the cost savings and try to live without me at least through the end of the year. Good luck to them.

The other big distraction has been getting all of our Social Security and medical coverage in place. I’m a fairly smart cookie, adept at technology, and it is insanely hard to get all of this done. I would have preferred to do it in person at the nearby SS office, but it has proven almost impossible to actually talk to someone in the office, much less get an appointment.

Despite all of the roadblocks, though, we’re almost there. Still tying up some loose ends on Medigap plans but we’ve still got work-provided coverage through almost the end of August, with the fed plans kicking in for September.

So now I’m down to 13 more working days! I realized that I had some unused floating holidays that I wasn’t going to get paid for, so I’m taking a couple of damn days off between now and my last working day. And honestly, I’m starting to reject meetings and push them to the next tier down the hierarchy while I’m still there to advise them. I’m spending the days in my home office and I’m still involved in a few new business pursuits, but other than that I’m going back and replaying Dungeon Siege and putting together Spotify playlists.

Not really writing much though — not yet. My days are still too interrupt-driven and my evenings too filled with forms and emails and planning. The ideas are there! I’ve got no shortage of stories I want to write. And I’m hoping that soon my head will be clear enough to get back to it.

My slightly-supernatural trailer park story “Welcome to Hidden Hills” is still a work in progress and I expect to start posting more chapters before the month is out. It will eventually be novel-length, I have no doubt. And I’ve been working on a new story in my head, one that includes exhibitionism/voyeurism, age gap, hotwife/cuckold dynamics and more! I think it’s going to be a good one — it’s sure going to be fun to write.

And don’t forget that I have a story in the new anthology “Wicked Little Miracles” edited by JK Mill! It’s a terrific collection with a number of amazing, award-winning authors and a little something for every taste (as long as you have a taste for erotica)! Do check it out.

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So enjoy your last weeks of summer! Next time I write one of these, I’ll be a retiree from the tech world and focused on writing, and living life. It’s gonna be great!

 

What I Wrote and Read in June

 

Graphics by Megan Landon

I’d been looking forward to a four-day weekend for the 4th of July, but with temperatures every day nearing 100F, I may be spending much more time inside than anticipated! I’m sure I’ll still make time to crank up the grill but I might do it after dark.

What I Wrote in June

Let me start with the big news — the anthology of stories from Medium’s Exceptional Erotica publication is out as of June 30! As excited as I get when I publish something new, being in this collection with so many writers that I admire and love to read makes my heart go all funny. I highly recommend that you pick this puppy up (hell, buy the ebook AND the paperback, so you always have it with you!). My story — Rock and Roll All Nite — is a throwback to the 80s, informed by the brief period of time when my then-new wife and I owned a night club in a Southern college town. I can still smell the smoke, the stale beer and the cologne. So many thanks to JK Mill and Megan Landon for all the work they’ve done to assemble, publish and promote this book. You’re going to love it! You can find “Wicked Little Miracles” (I love that title!) at Amazon and other booksellers.

The first arc of my slightly-supernatural trailer park story “Welcome to Hidden Hills” is out (in 8 parts on Medium and in 2 on Literotica where I write as “flipnmelonfarmer”). It started out as a fun look at trailer park tropes but the story has grown and grown (like the breasts of the female inhabitants). It’s got heart and there’s much more to come! See last month’s post for a longer description.

I’m also really pleased with my story “The House Guest”, published by Absolute Erotica on Medium. It’s my take on a hotwife/hotpast story, so of course it’s got some different angles than some of them. It’s gotten some great feedback and I quite like it myself. A young couple seems to have it all — a great marriage, professional success, a perfect life. But sometimes it only takes a little change to knock that train off the tracks. In this case, it’s an old college friend with an agenda, and memories of wild college days.

I’m also (bravely, stupidly, whatever) posting it on Literotica in the Loving Wives category — part 1 is out and part 2 should be out early next week. Naturally I’m already getting comments from guys (yes, there’s no doubt they’re guys) that really have no business even reading Loving Wives stories. I worry they’re going to have strokes. 😊

I’m currently working on more of “Welcome to Hidden Hills” as I have time, but as I get closer to the end of my IT career, I’m consumed with work and with things like applying for Social Security and Medicare and trying to get healthcare appointments in before I’m done. But I will definitely start posting the second arc before the end of July!

What I Read in June

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I was enjoying PT Brown’s “Freeing Her Inner Hotwife” on Medium — well, I enjoyed the rest of it as well! Denise’s husband and their new friends are planning the gangbang of all gangbangs for her, but she isn’t going to wait until all the arrangements are made to get her fun on. I’ve said before that I prefer hotwife stories with a willing and supportive husband and Gary is definitely that! 

Sophie-Louise Clarke’s new Medium series “First Time Shared At The Campsite” is such a slow burn that we’re four chapters in and nothing beyond a kiss has happened. At least physically. But the build-up is fucking hot as hell. I’ll just share what I told her in the comments of the first one:

The dialog between Evan and Reese along with Reese’s internal monologue are just so fucking perfect. I want to sit on a log by their campfire and watch this unfold. This is just so perfect.

I guess it’s perfect, if I said it twice!

If a story doesn’t have to get right to the sex for you to enjoy it, if you are down with dialog that sounds real (if maybe a little cleverer than most of us are), if you like a story about a loving husband who maybe realizes before his wife does that she needs something… additional, and one who is encouraging that part of her despite the jealousy that it brings up, this one’s for you. Really looking forward to the continuation of the story!

I’ve also just gotten started on Lacey Cross' “Using Them All” (available on Amazon) subtitled “10 Filthy Freeuse Hotwife Stories”. I gave a quick read to the first couple of stories and I’m going to have to go back and read them a little more closely. I’ll have a full report next month!

I keep saying that Rabblelaid over on Literotica is not my thing, yet I keep going over and reading his stuff. He’s a terrific writer and holds my interest, despite the fact that non-con subject matter is not something I generally read. The latest is a crime lord holding an investigative reporter on his private island and slowly breaking her down — but not with drugs or some other method that speeds the plot along. No, this is primarily via isolation (and occasional sex) and he’s getting there, bit by bit. You can read “Cookie” on Literotica.

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That’s it for June! Seven more weeks of work before I retire — that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m immediately going to start churning stories out but I do hope to increase my output this fall! Y’all stay cool — happy Canada Day to my friend from/in Canadia and happy 4th of July to my American friends and family!

 

What I Wrote and Read in May

 

Sharing some reading recommendations, an update on my own writing and some really cool news!

Counting down the weeks until my retirement from my day job — only 12 weeks to go now. Still no idea who is replacing me or when (or even if), so I’m just focused on bringing my lieutenants up to speed with stuff they don't already know, and trying to do no harm. I promise I’ll stop talking about that soon! But I may also stop trying to keep my meatspace persona and my smutty writer persona quite so separate. You might actually start seeing pictures of me and not just 1/3 of my face.

I hope you enjoyed International Masturbation Month as much as I did!

As I mentioned last month, I volunteered to be a judge in a national contest for hot romance and erotica (I’m not sure I’m at liberty to mention the org, so I won’t). It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like that and it’s been an interesting experience! I absolutely loved some of what I read, other stuff didn’t resonate with me at all (but I tried to judge it on its own merits and not my tastes in smut), and another had potential but needed some work. I’ll definitely consider doing something like that again!

But the big news is that I have a story included in the upcoming anthology “Wicked Little Miracles”! The cover will be revealed in just a couple of days and the book will be available end of June — so excited! So much work from so many people to get this out — big kudos to the editor JK Mill and to Megan Landon for her tireless effort to promote this thing. More to come!

What I Wrote in May

The first 5 chapters of “Welcome to Hidden Hills” are up on Medium! It’s a story that’s been rattling around in my head for a couple of years and I’m really happy with the way it’s going. Rick inherits a trailer park in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina and finds that there is a lot going on there that isn’t readily explained. All of the women are large-breasted and beautiful, everyone is horny ALL the time, and let’s say the endurance is not a big problem. It’s a light-hearted look at standard trailer park tropes and I think it’s a hoot. I’ve got another three chapters queued up and then a little break before I come back to it. It has potential to eventually become novel length.

I’m also hard at work on a much more heart-grabbing story that I hope to start posting in the next couple of weeks with Absolute Erotica on Medium. A very successful, very happy couple in Chicago allows the sorority sister of the wife to stay with them while she looks for a job and a place to live, and let’s say that things get out of hand. I’m not quite decided on a title yet but if all goes well, I’ll get at least three chapters out in June.

What I Read in May

I’ve been reading Ian Snow’s stuff for a few years now — first on Literotica, but I’ve also bought a number of his books as well. His “Dads Project” trilogy was right up my alley — sweet age-gap stories with heart and romance (and of course hot sex). They’re the sort of thing that I love to write myself, and certainly enjoy reading his, as I’ve told him. They got me through a number of business flights a couple of years ago. Highly recommended!

Then there’s the one I read in May — “MILFs in Pigtails” (available on Amazon). Talk about truth in advertising! It is exactly what it should be — three hot, silly, fun-as-hell stories (did I say hot?) about sexy women in their early 40s playing with much, much younger men. Good dirty fun with zero angst!

I’ve written a number of times about my views on hotwife erotica. Sophie-Louise Clarke's “He Watched Me Seduce Another Man” — a 3-parter on Medium — is the kind I like best. The husband is encouraging, even commanding — definitely a stag, not a cuckold. He participates but he also enjoys watching. And our hotwife, well, she gets the best of both. It’s a very hot, very loving story — check it out!

I also enjoyed Coco Lust’s “Stretched For My Husband” for the same reason. A loving husband directs his wife’s liaison long-distance during her trip to Miami for her friend’s pre-wedding bridal party. The sex with a handsome stranger is hot. The “welcome home” reclaiming sex with her husband is pure fire!

On a MUCH different part of the spectrum, I read some more of Rabblelaid’s work on Literotica. He specializes in noncon/reluctant relationships, usually with someone using psychological means to corrupt their target. I pretty much caught up on his story “The Bet” that I mentioned in a previous post, and enjoyed the somewhat lighter 2-parter (so far) “The Deep End”, about a bored, sexually-frustrated wife falling to the manipulations of her step-daughter’s dangerous boyfriend. Honestly, in this case he didn’t have to manipulate her all that much! It’s light now, but there is every possibility that our author may push her into darker territory.

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That’s it for this month! Stay tuned for the cover reveal and I hope you enjoy “Welcome to Hidden Hills” and my next one! As always, my novels and my own anthology are available on Amazon in both ebook and paperback format. If you don’t have a sub to Medium, much of my output from the past couple of years is available in the anthology “Filthy Bedtime Stories”. 

 

What I Wrote and Read in April (2026)

 

Photo by Ahtziri Lagarde via Unsplash

 

I’m happy to say that I started off the month with a flurry of both reading and writing to share with you! Then things went off the rails after the first couple of weeks. A drive up to Richmond for work (which enabled me to have dinner with two of our best friends!), a weekend in Greensboro for the NC Writer’s Network Spring Conference (and brunch with my best bud), and then a few days later we were off to the NC mountains for a long weekend at Biltmore Estate to celebrate Ms. Pierce’s birthday. It was a whirlwind but it was all great fun (and no travel issues) but it didn’t leave much time for writing. But that’s ok, as you’ll see – read on, MacDuff!

What I Wrote In April

I spent a couple of years living in a trailer park after college – it had low rent that I could afford without a roommate, and it wasn’t too far from work. Trailer parks get a bad rap, much of it deserved. But the place I lived was really just a nice little neighborhood, with foundation plantings, nicely mown lawns and kids playing on the playground.

I’ve had an idea for a story going through my head for the past couple of years that throws out the typical “trailer trash” trope, except for one – horny women with short shorts and over-sized chests. There is a reason for that, and it’s a bit supernatural. I’ve got eight chapters (20K words) of “Welcome to Hidden Hills” queued up on Medium – the first one dropped on April 29^th. That’s just the first arc – I think I’ve got at least 50K words before I’m done with it. I’ll likely recombine the 8 chapters into 2 to publish on Literotica as well. And then write the rest.

Coming soon - I’ve written a lot of age gap, group sex, couple sex and even a couple of tentacle stories, but I’ve written very few hot wife stories. When I have, they’ve generally been from the viewpoint of the “bull”, whereas most everyone else writes from the vantage of the cuck/stag or the hot wife herself.

I’ve got one (mostly in my head so far) that I hope to get out in late May. It will be a much more emotionally wrenching story than I’m used to writing – you can thank Vivian White and Lizzette Monroe for inspiring me to write a little more heartache and trauma. I try to learn from the best.

What I Read in April

Last month I talked about the first few stories in Best Hotwife Erotica III: Empty Nesters that I read in March (available on Amazon). I read the rest of them the first week of April and then had to take a break to cool off. Phew!! They brought the heat! But more than that, the thing I love about the whole volume is the love within each couple. These are mature people, with years together, and while emotions run hot, and guys get appropriately torn between jealousy and desire to see their ladies enjoy themselves, these folks are together. They’re not going to be torn apart by this. They’ve weathered the storms of married life and come out strong – strong enough to take a risk on cutting loose. Max Sebastian, Dolores Swallows, Kenny Wright and Kirsten McCurran, along with their collaborators in this volume that I mentioned last month, are simply the best around at writing in this subgenre. I highly recommend it!

Fitting very much into the same vein is P. T. Brown’s 4-part “Freeing My Inner Hotwife” on Medium. A hot 50 year old’s husband comes home early and discovers his wife’s hotwife porn and masturbation habit and makes it clear he’s okay if she wants to make it a reality. He gets nicely rewarded by the end – it’s a terrific story by another great author.

My surprise for the month was a story in Literotica titled “Justine” from the author Hot_Sister. Most of her other stuff is in the Taboo/Incest category but this one isn’t. It’s got age gap elements, cheating, babysitter tropes – and I won’t say any more because there are surprises along the way that I don’t want to give away. As I commented on Lit, “We're not all angels nor are we devils - we're human beings with love and lust and flaws.” She captures that very well – go check it out! I loved it!

I have no trouble recommending any of the stories above. But from time to time I’ll admit that I read things that are a little more… over the top. I’m not apologizing for that and I’ll mention them here if I really liked them, but I won’t necessarily recommend them because taste might be subjective but a lot of these are objectively tasteless. And nuts.

Case in point – some years ago I ran across a story on Literotica by an author called “nicequip” titled “Cooper Family Pride”. It was a “high school nerd gains powers of some kind and takes revenge on his tormentors” story – you might be surprised at how many of them are out there. I didn’t finish it then but I ran across it again a few weeks ago and read it through – it’s two looong parts on Lit.

Writing humor and smut is hard – I know as I’ve tried. This one is crazy, sophomoric, silly – think Mike Judge writing this while working on Beavis and Butthead. Ridiculous scenarios, crazy sex, humiliation – ya really have to be in the mood for it for it to work. I was and it did.

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That’s it for this month! A little more news – I’m a volunteer judge for a writing contest so I’ll be focused on reading (and critiquing) the entries for that contest (which clearly I won’t be able to discuss with you guys). So I may not have a ton to report for May. But what a fun thing to do!

Y’all stay safe and play nice and overthrow the patriarchy, y’hear?

 

Changes in Attitudes

 

Photo by Gaelle Marcel via Unsplash

 

This is not a post about erotica — reading it or writing it. Well, mostly not. It’s about changes, and getting older, and some weird things I’ve observed over the past few weeks. Tune out if you’re only interested in reading about what fuck stories I’m writing. Insert smiley face here.

After a 44 year career in IT, specifically IT infrastructure support, I let my boss know a few weeks ago that I’m planning to retire in August. That’s a couple of months before I turn 66, so it certainly isn’t “early”. And I’ve been very happy about the whole thing — certainly a little worried about the bad things that could happen that would cause us financial problems, but not at all about the being retired part.

I’ve never felt old. I joke about it, as pretty much everyone my age does. But I’m active, reasonably healthy, have tons of interests outside of work (including writing my smutty stories), and have a million things that I want to do that I’ve been putting off. So I know for a fact I’m not going to get bored.

The COO is using this as an opportunity to figure out if he wants to reorg, so he’s not announcing this yet, but I’ve been quietly letting people know. Some folks profess to be jealous, some have told me that they’re planning to do the same in a couple of years, but some have looked at me like I’ve grown an extra nose (my one nose takes up quite enough real estate, thank you) — and they’ve looked at me like I was suddenly something less.

And that made me think. These are not people that are decades younger than me. But I got the distinct impression that they suddenly thought of me as “old”. I had to sit with that for awhile. Can I not hack it anymore? Can I not keep up with the technology? Am I really getting “old”? I suddenly had doubts.

But I think I’m figuring it out. These are guys (and it was all guys) that have no identity outside of work. Their work persona is their persona. I suspect that they have no intention of ever retiring, because they have nothing to retire to. It was also interesting that the guys that gave me that look are all enamored in particular of Gen AI, Agentic AI, etc. I am so very not.

I started out in the mainframe days, right out of college. I didn’t just survive technology changes, I made them possible for the companies that I worked for. The PC revolution, the server vs. mainframe revolution, opening corporate systems to the Internet, virtualization, cloud services — I’ve been there for all of it and gladly helped implement every single one of those.

But I’ll admit that I have absolutely ZERO interest in learning AI in any meaningful way. Yes, I mucked around with some of the image generation systems a couple of years ago (you can see some of it in my early Medium stories — sorry). I don’t do that anymore. And I’ve used CoPilot to generate some quick and dirty answers on subjects that I already know as a shortcut, but knowing the material, I can tell whether the results are hallucinations or not.

But as a writer and a photographer, AI is not my friend. And as a thinking person, it is also not my friend. While waiting for a meeting to start recently, someone mentioned turning on the AI-fueled meeting facilitator/note taker. I was not the only person that maintained that I take meeting notes BY HAND in a notebook (eNotebook, but still). If I write it down, I remember it (this is common and has been borne out by numerous studies). I’ll guarantee that the folks that thought I was wasting my time ended up actually paying very little attention to the meeting and likely got very little out of it. Knowledge is funny — use it or lose it.

So anyway, after a few days I realized that no, I’m not getting old and those guys that think so are, maybe, kinda sad. I have always had a life outside of work — I owned a bar, I led an animal-rights non-profit, I sold original photographs, and now I write. I want the time to write more and take more pictures and ride my motorcycle more often and make improvements to the house and help my wife with her art studio and learn to play the guitars I’ve collected and get better at disc golf and go see some places I’ve never seen and revisit some that I love. Gimme twenty years of that and then maybe I’ll start feeling like I should slow down. Maybe.

Now my biggest issue is staying motivated for the next four months. That’s generally never a problem for me, and the combination of my drive to do anything I do well and my abject fear of being embarrassed will keep me working hard. But honestly, it’s hard to care. But hey, only four more months.

I don’t have a lot of role models for retirement. My dad had health problems that took him off the road and onto disability when he was younger than I am now. My mom never officially retired, although she hasn’t worked in a few years. I’ve got peers that retired early ’cause they worked their asses off and made a lot of good decisions, but it’s hard to compare since we’re going to need to be a lot more careful.

So I’m going to blaze a new trail (not for the first time) and we’ll figure it out as we go.