Broken Promises

I take my word very seriously. It's my opinion that honor is something we don't value highly enough anymore. I suppose it's a throwback to my incessant participation in roleplaying games and the amount of time I've spent pretending to be a member of societies many centuries older than the one I actually live in, but that whole "my word is my bond" thing really appeals to me. I do believe that when somebody gives their word or makes a promise, it's important to keep it. Empty promises or broken promises are vile, rotten things that tear down the foundations of relationships of all kinds.

That said, there are - seldomly - legitimate reasons to break a promise. Sometimes it's simply just not possible to follow through on something. When the consequences of keeping your word are injury or damage to your spirit, or harm to other people, it's far better to face the stigma of breaking your word. Loyalty is never worth being stupid.

And this is where I find myself with Literotica. Nearly a year ago when the site experienced copyright violations and story thefts, I pulled the majority of my work to protect myself. I left the Dust & Ash series up, first because I own the copyright and could sue anybody who attempted to profit from its theft and sale, and second, because it wasn't finished. I figured it was way too much work for the losers who were plagiarizing Literotica to go to the bother of stealing an incomplete series. I promised when I pulled my work that I would complete that series on Lit.

At this time, I find myself unable to keep that promise.

Please understand that none of this is easy for me to admit, and I'm not blogging about this in a bid for sympathy or comments or anything more than explanation to my readers, most of whom will no doubt not read this until I direct them to it. However the last year of chapter postings on Lit has been awful. Every single time I've posted a new chapter I've been email bombed with hate mail. I don't know what I did to garner such devoted attention from a Dolores Claiborne, but I have at least one, who has at least a dozen email accounts. My devoted partner R filters my email and deletes the hate mail so that I don't have to deal with it. But it's happened every single time I post. I've posted less than six times this entire year, but that's six too many for my devoted fan.

The latest indiscretion on the site involves a posting problem with my most recent chapter. Literotica inserted a nonconsent scene from another author - a heterosexual, anal noncon scene, complete with terrible grammar I might add - at the beginning of my chapter. Then they screwed up my page views when they pulled it to fix it.

I didn't even get a message apologizing for the error.

Literotica is impersonal. The site is unwieldy. The wait between submission & posting (usually at least 5 days) is ridiculous. The readers - save for a precious few - are rude, and fickle.

Because of all of that, I won't be posting any further chapters of Dust & Ash to the site.

The re-edits ofo the series are still being posted every Monday on Gay Authors under my name, TMcCallahan.

Assuming my publisher has no objection, the final chapters will be previewed here on my blog. I'll send out notifications letting people know when they're going up, with teasers so that they still get a 24 hr jump on the story.

I truly hate breaking my word - I know I said I'd put the full story on Lit. But I simply can't continue to do it. It's putting too much strain on me, and if anybody's read my poor partner's comment on chapter 12, then you know it's putting a strain now on the people I love and live with as well.

That's all. Thanks to all my readers and fans who've followed the story dilligently. If' you'd like to receive notifications you can email wickedwendydru@aol.com to be placed on the list.