"Retiring"*

 For the past few years, about three or four times a year, I have debated quitting doing erotica for good. I never really took those feelings too seriously no matter how strongly I felt it at the time, because my mood on the subject flips back and forth regularly, and it was just part of my creative cycle to have down times in order to recuperate the energy for the up times. Every time I thought I was honest to god, for real, absolutely done with it, within a month or three, my muse would come back around to throw her empty booze bottles at my brain, and all of a sudden, a bunch of stories would burst forth, and I wondered why I ever thought I would actually quit.

By contrast, there’s been several times where I also came to the conclusion that erotica is clearly my destiny, that it’s what I’ll be writing forever, nothing else I try to do ever goes anywhere anyway, and I should just embrace it with full abandon. These are the times I had sudden big bursts of inspiration, did a lot of work over an extended time period, and really tried to push myself to take the “content creator” mindset. And every time, of course, I eventually flamed out, going back on hiatus and thinking that that was the last ride.
 
Rinse, repeat, year after year. But this time feels different.
 
It’s telling to me that a lot of my projects in the last couple years have been me wrapping up various series and finally knocking some long-overdue stories off the backlog. That I find myself more often than not in these recent stories including sex scenes more out of obligation than out of passion. That the biggest project I’ve worked on in this time became a vessel to help me process some sort of Writer’s Midlife Crisis.
 
I think something fundamental has faded within me, and as someone whose drive has primarily come from within, keeping going is like trying to force an engine to run without gas. Sometimes, a little trickle of fuel condenses in the tank just enough to spark the ignition, and allow me to sputter the car along for another few miles, but that’s as far as I seem to get before the engine dies again. I do feel like a few of my best stories have come out of these past couple years, and that I’ve been able to make some truly interesting work, even if it wasn’t very well polished. But I also have to admit that some of that work I really had to force myself to get out, to a level I’ve not had to before.
 
A variety of factors have contributed to this: repeated mental and physical health setbacks, general decline in libido as I get older, tapping the well dry after being at this for going on fifteen years (over twenty, actually, counting the stories I wrote before I took the Salamando name), my interests shifting over time, getting back into art as a creative outlet recently, having to relearn time and again that I’m not a “content creator” type, my attitudes on certain things shifting over time. It’s all really come to head this year, and I think, despite past experiences with the up-and-down cycle, I have crossed a threshold this time that I’m not coming back from.
 
Truthfully, I’ve been ready to move on for a while. I’ve just been afraid to. Afraid to let go of the one creative endeavor of mine that’s ever seen any real success. Afraid of letting go of the one truly “original” idea I ever came up with, when novelty is a dragon I’ve chased my entire creative life. I’m afraid of losing my audience. I’m afraid of losing the supplemental income (however small) that I could theoretically gain from potentially making more ebooks and games and art set in my worlds, some day, eventually, maybe. I said in my last announcement that I still had some erotica left in me, but while that isn’t untrue, part of that was me trying to forcibly hype myself back up, and it didn’t really work. No matter how much I wish I could keep it running, no amount of kicking and pushing and whipping the car is going to make up for an empty tank.
 
Some creators can genuinely work on one project their entire lives and never lose the passion for it, even if they suffer an occasional slump. The majority of creators tend to work in phases, where they might spend several years dedicated to a project, but eventually, they hit a stopping point, and it’s time to move on. I’m definitely in this latter camp. It’s been the same with my genre fiction projects; no matter how much they meant to me at the time, going by past measures, I think most of my creative projects have about a maximum ten year life span, usually far shorter, before I move onto something else. My erotica as a whole has lasted me much longer, but even within that, I did a lot of different series and settings and shifted across different mediums to keep things fresh. But starting new projects isn’t enough anymore.
 
So I think it’s time. I’m officially tendering my “Retirement”* from erotica.
 
Of course, I say that with quotation marks and an asterisk for a reason. Even now, when I’m feeling confident enough in my decision to actually post this announcement after letting it sit in my drafts folder for over a year, I still don’t want to claim that I will never write another erotica work ever again. Someday, I might get in the mood to write down another Little Scene or make another Comic. I might get an idea for another ebook that I decide is worth doing. I still have ideas every once in a while, it’s just that at this point, everything feels like tired retreads of what came before, or it’s ideas I actively dislike, and I don’t have the interest, energy, or enthusiasm to pursue them anymore.
 
Someday the spark might come back and burn just hot enough to get something new out, but all I can say is, don’t hold your breath, and don’t set your expectations too high. I’m saying “Retirement”* instead of “indefinite hiatus” for a reason, because I don’t want to leave the impression that I’m just biding time to build up to another comeback. I’m considering myself done, as far as my own expectations for myself go, and part of me genuinely wants to be done. But if down the road, the muse swings by and slips some fuel into my tank, I won’t be opposed to taking another spin for old time’s sake. Are you sick of the car metaphor yet? Good. If I have to suffer it, so do you! :V
 
Before I go, I want to thank all of you who’ve taken the time to read my work. I want to thank everyone who left a comment, whether it be praise, criticisms, questions, or suggestions. I want to thank everyone who bought a book or game or donated to my Patreon when it was active. I want to thank everyone who spread the word of my work and linked people back to my stories. I want to thank all the writers, artists, image captioners, voice actors, and roleplayers who ran with their own ideas on Sex Mages and spread the concept even further. Even if my primary motivator for writing is my own internal drivers, all of your support has made all this worth it, and helped me keep these stories coming for as long as they have. It feels a little silly to say that out of all my projects, my erotica has turned out to be my life’s work, but it’s true. It’s been a fun ride.
 
I have a few more decisions left to mull over regarding my work, but Sex Mages and Other Strangeness will stay online for as long as I’m able to facilitate it. In the still-non-zero chance Blogspot follows through on a future NSFW purge, I’ll find some other place to re-upload my stories, but I think we’ll be good for a while yet. My Smashwords and Itch.io pages will remain up as well, and as always, I very much appreciate your support. If you wish to contact me, you can always e-mail me at salamando_flames@yahoo.com.
 
Thanks again and take care of yourselves!

Bench Tales Intro

Author's Note: I recently had an idea to do another "mosaic" style anthology ebook, focusing on various shenanigans revolving around the concept of the Bench, the wicked public punishment facility for wayward men. Despite feeling like I've already done as much with the Bench concept as I was likely going to, I outlined a whole fifteen chapter sequence, and started working on the sections here and there. I got partway through and fell off, and to be honest, I find I don't really want to work on it. I could always come back to it another time, but I'm really not feeling it with this one right now.

Nonetheless, you know I hate wasted effort, and I thought I'd go ahead and post the first couple of chapters. The first chapter is a prose version of the comic of the same name, the second picks up right after it.

======================

Triad Patrol (Pilot Chapter Continued)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: My intent was to not continue this until I got more suggestions, and had more time to decide what I was actually doing with the characters. But the muse throws her psychic beer cans at my brain whether I want her to or not, and I ended up picking up where I left off just to get a few more scenes down anyway. I don't expect I'll go further than this without a plan, and I'm still not sure this will actually become something. Go figure, right as I decide to start working on this, the Omnys start tapping on my brain, too, so I'm chronicling their shenanigans again.

==============

It was technically Nemo’s turn to resume the nightly patrol once Alice’s turn was up, but given the fight she’d just had, the third member of their Triad unit decided to substitute in. Dorothy sounded a little grumpy to have to wake up early, but it would hardly be the first time any of them had pulled an all-nighter, either for duty or for fun!
 
Lust Energy’s healing and refreshing effects meant women could go a week or two without real sleep if they really had to, though it wasn’t recommended to go that long. At some point, even with the Magic’s recovery power, the brain got frazzled from being awake so long, making a woman loopy and clumsy, and eventually, fatigued enough to just pass out even if they were fully juiced up. Sex Mages still didn’t need as much sleep as normal if there was Energy to absorb, but even military-trained Sex Mages made sure they got at least two or three hours most nights just to be safe.

For The Many

In a particularly bleak corner of the Sex Mage Multiverse, a weary woman confronted an inevitable fate.
 
Hovering high above the clouds, Queen Rose could see the domes of shadow had already increased since the night before. The entire horizon was riddled with them. The Barriers of her Queendom did nothing to hold them back anymore. Refugees kept pouring into the capital, and her soldiers could do no more than provide a safe passage to get them there. She and her strongest Archmages had erected a full force field around the city and it’s immediate suburbs, but she knew by now that it wouldn’t hold. Sooner or later, the Terror Zones would subsume them.

Triad Patrol (Pilot Chapter)

Alice was just about to finish her shift of the night patrol, when her mystic senses picked up the piercing signal of a man’s erection going into overdrive! The psychic ringing that only Sex Mages could “hear” pinged off her senses like a little air siren in her mind’s ear. From the sheer intensity of the signal, the boy was so painfully hard, it was as though every drop of blood in his body was trying to cram itself into his cock! His penis was calling out to every magically awakened woman in sensing range, in a desperate plea to please, please, PLEASE, touch it, and make it cum! As if the boy attached to that keening cock was going to die if he wasn’t touched!
 
Sex Magic, of course, was not going to let him die, nor was it really going to let him get physically hurt, no matter how much blood tried to enter his organ. But at the same time, the Magic was also forcing him to experience a torturously high surge of sheer lust, beyond the tolerance of any mortal man! Given the intensity, and the direction the signal was coming from, she knew at once the source of this extreme penile distress. Another boy was trying to run away from town!
 
Alice clucked her tongue in amusement. One would think the males would have learned better by now. She paged the dispatch, made a u-turn in her patrol car, and headed down one of the main roads that lead out of Birchton. She followed the winding path for a couple of miles, until she was as close to the signal as she could get before ditching the car became necessary. Had he really tried to escape through the woods? How foolish!

World of Sensual Powers

This variation of the Sex Mage World still grants almost all women sexual-based powers over men, but unlike the standard Sex Magic package, most women gain very specific, discrete powers of sensual influence. All women fall into one of three categories of powers: the Senses, the Espers, and the Morphs.

Sex Mage World: Rough Rides and Wild Rides!

 

Two more ebook collections for your consideration! These books bundle together more of my larger stories from over the years, from my most recent to some of my earliest! As always, an extra pass for editing was applied, but otherwise, the material here is still all free on this blog. Once again, if you've enjoyed my work and wish to support me, please consider purchasing a copy!

Rough Rides collects the stories Punishment Party, Sally Goes Sadistic, Sandy and the Boy Next Door, and A Simple Job. It can be downloaded here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1146789

Wild Rides collects the stories The Lemurian, Racing Hearts, Stan's Strange Encounter, Sucking Her, Escape the Dark (formerly "Flee the Terror Zone"), and The Folder. It can be downloaded here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1146791

Sex Mage World: Quickies! 2

 

A new collection of my short scenes and mini-stories! Over twenty more pieces collected from across the years, mostly shorts and flash fics written since publishing the original Quickies! collection, as well as few older ones that didn't get included in that one.

As with the first book, all of the material here is already free on this blog, albeit the ebook editions have been given an extra round of editing. As always, if you enjoy my work and wish to support me, please consider purchasing a copy!

You can acquire the book here at my Smashwords page: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1146267

A Simple Job

ONE
“But I don’t want to be a Test Boy!” nineteen-year-old Dylan couldn’t keep the whine out of his voice as he gave his step-mother a helpless look.
 
Janet just rolled her eyes at her step-son. “And exactly what else do you plan on doing with your summer, hmmm? You’re nineteen. You should at least try to find some seasonal work, even if it’s volunteer.”
 
“No one’s hiring around here!” said Dylan. “All the stores are staffed up with older guys, so they aren’t even hiring for the summer. I can’t do delivery jobs, since it’s still too dangerous for guys to drive if they don’t have Shielded cars. And I don’t have a car anyway! And there’s already enough guys doing yard work.”
 
The tall, curvy blonde gave him a bemused smirk. “And no one’s letting you near a lawn mower since you ran yours into Mrs. Gladly’s pool.”
 
“I was being Teased!” Dylan whined.
 
God, he still sounded like such a bratty child. “You’re always going to get Teased. It’s what happens to boys.”

Asserting His Place

 
A soft moan escaped Addy’s lips, as the nineteen-year-old blonde squirmed in a bit her sleep. Ever since she awakened to her Sex Mage powers, her dreams turned frequently to sensual visions, imagining handsome studs taking her, attempting to use her body for their pleasure, only for her new powers to quickly turn the tables! In her dream, she asserted control, radiating her Arousal Aura upon her lovers until they were swooning in helpless heat, then casting Tease Spells upon their achingly hard cocks, until they were howling for mercy! Then she would take them for her own pleasure, as a Sex Mage should! The dreams were sometimes vague and fleeting, and sometimes they seemed to last for hours. Without even realizing it, she would experience mini-orgasms in her sleep, and wake up feeling flushed with heat!
 
***
 
And in the very next room, her eighteen year old brother had to also deal with his sister’s dreams! Rick came awake as his cock grew so hard, it almost hurt! He whipped his sheets off with a frustrated grunt, and almost gawked at this cock as it sprang up high, eager as a hyper-active puppy for action! Then he gasped as he felt a tight, hot, wet sheath envelop him, giving him one solid down-stroke, before it vanished!
 
He grit his teeth and gripped his sheets, as he thrust his head back down on the pillow. “Addy!” he hissed into the air. “Goddamn it!”

Cascade

Warning: death and destruction

PROLOGUE

 

“Have a little too much fun last night?”

 

Claire rolled her eyes at the slightly stocky guardswoman as she swiped her ID card. “Alarm didn’t go off.” She leaned forward to peer into the retina scanner as it extended from the side of the booth.

 

“Lucky you, getting to sleep in.” The guardswoman held out her hand past the window, and Claire took it. She allowed her innate mystic defenses to lower, so the other woman could use her telepathy to scan Claire’s mind for any obvious deceptions. Claire was not a fan of the procedure, but she’d grown accustomed to it over the past year; with the things Magic allowed some women to do, it would not be too difficult for exceptionally gifted saboteurs to steal a staff member’s identity, down to altering their own body to match the appearance. Supplementing the checks with psychic scans was the closest they could get to fool-proofing the system.

 

The guardswoman gave Claire a sly smile, and the Researcher’s Assistant jumped in her seat as she felt the impression of a female tongue give her a deep, sensual lick between the legs. Claire flushed and pouted as the guardswoman gave her a little wink. Claire let out a little breath and shivered as the magic tongue left a sensual tingle that coaxed her sex to moisten. After a few more seconds, the guard released her hand, and Claire let out a little huff as she retracted her arm. She resisted the instinct to reach between her legs.

Letting Off Some Steam

It was a perfect spring morning, with a warm sun, but just-cool-enough air to make it great day to sit outside or go for a walk. Unfortunately, the pleasant atmosphere did little to calm the sour mood of a young woman whose day had been accosted by several petty inconveniences.
 
Carine flicked a finger across her phone in irritation. This was just not one of her days. Her car was still in the shop, after another part shipment got delayed. The grocery store had been out of avocados, when she wanted to make some guacamole for a party this weekend. And Brenda had just canceled their lunch date due to being “indisposed”.
 
Carine could very well sense how “indisposed” her friend was. Her friend’s boyfriend’s cock was like a siren in the distance from how hard he was. That little slut just couldn’t go a day without slobbing her new boytoy’s knob! Okay, so he was nine inches long and thick as a beer can when hard, and but so what?

Cold Mercy

A crimson trail followed in his wake, the fresh snowfall stained with his rapidly dwindling life. Pieces of armor fell away bit by bit as his pained staggering jostled the tattered parts loose. He didn’t notice. It didn’t matter. The wound was fatal. If the enemy had sent out any forces to finish off survivors, no amount of armor was going to save him. If he was lucky, he might land one more hit on an attacker before they finished him. The sword was broken, the jagged metal shard on the handle barely larger than a pocket knife, but maybe he could jab an arrogant soldier in the neck right before his own head was lopped off.
 
Assuming said attacker actually came up to strike, and didn’t just shoot him with an arrow. Assuming they even bothered sending their men, and didn’t let that wizard’s loathsome creatures go hunting for them. Could he do more than give a papercut to those winged demons? Would he even chip a scale on those spined leviathans? Would those shaggy behemoths even notice he was there before they stepped on him?
 
He let out a choked laugh, tasting blood on his tongue. What had even been the point? The world was different now. Humans had no place on a battlefield where the monsters of legend were unleashed with a wave of a sorcerer’s hand. A man with a sword and a bow was a gnat on the battlefield. As this fight had proven, even those with enchanted weapons and armor had little chance in direct combat with a dragon or a demon or the endless variations of chimera.
 
The alternative, if one really wished to stand a chance, was to let the Alchemeters work their magic directly on your body. But he had seen the results, and that was no way to live. Nor even, in his humble opinion, a proper way to die.

The Omnymphotents, Book Three: Cosmic Affairs

 

Ladies and/or Gentlemen, I present to you my meatiest collection yet! Book Three of The Omnymphotents is a massive, throbbing Omnybus edition, collecting the final two "arcs" of the Omnymphotents Saga! You can purchase the book here on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1133398

As before, all the stories can still be found on the Omny blog, including the original forms of the comic segments, which I had to convert to script format for the eBook. Nonetheless, I always appreciate your support. I know the Omnymphotents has been a weird tangent compared to my usual work, but in the last year, it's really been the project that got me back to creating things again.

Although this is intended to bring the "core" series of the Omnys to a close, that just means I don't have further plans to do more stories following this side of the setting. I'm not done working in the Omnyverse, and there are several spin-off directions I can follow, be they more down to Earth adventures with the Empowered and Created, or a return to more erotically focused stand-alones featuring the Omnys in their Sex Goddess roles. I can't say for now what the future holds, but the door is still open.

From here, I may bundle up a couple more collections with the existing material as side-books, when I can get around to it. 

2022 Update

Well, that sure was a year wasn’t it. 2021 saw a successful clawback to the realm of writing, but I’m still no where near where I wanted to be by now, and a good amount of the writing I did do was almost certainly not what most readers were hoping for. Overall, this has been a year of experimentation and finally finishing off a few long-languished projects. In that regard, I’d consider this year to be fairly productive. Even if some of it was cringe-worthy, or makes me absolutely livid that it took me so long to get to, I’m glad I worked on what I did and was able to finally knock some stuff off the backlog.
 
As to the future, though, I have no idea what to do next at the time of this post. I have no real plans and no strong inspirations. I have vague notions of projects I’m still flirting with doing, such as another RPG or Visual Novel or full-scale 3D comic, and continuing to make ebooks, but I don’t have any solid ideas committed just yet.
 
What I can say is that, while I am still interested in making more erotic content, for the foreseeable future, my output will continue to be very sporadic and infrequent. There’s a variety of factors, but the long and short of it is my head just isn’t in it like it used to be. I’d like nothing more than to be a content machine cranking stories on the weekly, but I’ve had to face the harsh reminder that it’s something I’m just not capable of. I won’t declare anything definitively, as I can never predict my creative whims, of course. All I can say is I do intend to make more stuff this year, but don’t hold your breath. I’ll get to things when I’m capable of getting to things.
 
In the bigger picture, the 2020’s have been a ripe sack of ass for a lot of people so far, and things don’t look to be on the upswing any time soon. I hope all of you are doing well, and that the future sees you safe. Good luck out there, whatever your life’s endeavors.
 
Cheers.