InvidiaRed

Tentacles are easy, they can go pretty much anywhere…

Yeah but if I ever did it I’d want a happy ending for everyone.

Tentacles are good for gripping, whatever needs to be gripped.  The suction can be applied as needed.  One or two per office.  So, yeah, any human involved could certainly get a happy ending.  Though, not sure how the tentacle monster would get a happy ending too.   Now, my smutty short (as a dream for the MC) implied that urine of adolescent teenage boys was an addictive substance to the alien kind (ie a hallucinogenic or an opioid etc) so “drinking” it was its own reward for the service.

True, But the fact remains evil exists. I would probably put at least a watch team on those who do evil for evil’s sake. Always a few who confuse mystery with the banality of what they espouse. Which I will always profess to be one of the great tragedies.

The true threats have always been those willing and able to ignore all moral and ethical boundaries to get what they want no matter the cost.

There are psychopaths with no remorse or sense of guilt, always trying to get away.  Some become harden criminals, others become CEOs and/or politicians.  Still, even they’re not doing evil for the sake of evil, they’re doing it for some reason.  Anyways, your story, write them as serving evil gods if you want

Here’s a secret I know from RPing Evil characters.

There’s always a reason to serve outright evil demons and or gods. Not a good reason, but a reason be it vengence, spite. Its even possible to serve an evil god out of nothing but genuine thanks because when you were at rock bottom, they were the only ones that listened.

You have to get something out of it. influence, power, wealth and or a fully stocked harem of your choice. All of the above etc… Even if it is nothing more than a reprieve from the eternal torture they promise.

The evil deities know very well how duplicitous and self-serving you are. They’re using you just as you are using them. They know very well well the moment you get a chance to taste great power. You’ll try to usurp them, and they’re counting on it. But in the mean time you poor dupe, there’s a nunnery in need of pillaging,that orphanage is oppressing you and the goody two shoes high priest isn’t going to ritually sacrifice himself in a rhapsody of torturous ecstasy.

Since the deal is a form of spiritual bribery. The more horrid and evil you are the less your assuredly damned afterlife is going to be. Because you got a ^{I did big bad} sticker and the evil spirits aren’t going to torment you as much.

There’s an interesting way to relatively date something.

Prior to the 19^th century Natural Philosophy was the word for what we’d call Science. It’s a nifty little signifer that adds more to story.

Progression Goes Natural Philosophy to Natural Science to Science. Scientist wasn’t really used until it was coined in 1833 by William Whewell 

So anything essentially prior industrial revolution. To be accurate you’d use Natural Philosopher

Miniature horseless clown carriage crashes into the cemetery – oh, all those bodies!

… You laugh but I already sorta used that joke

Calliope from the Nightmare Grotesquerie does crash into a cemetery.

If I go to my trusty IEEE754 compliant computer:
try infinity == nan (FALSE)
try infinity != nan (FALSE)

@Desiderius Price has a point. The editor needs to focus on the elements of the story, rather than act as a proofreader. If you don’t want to do an editing pass, have someone who’s good at it beta-read for you, and listen to them. 

I rely on my editor for things like making sure I haven’t screwed up the chronology between events and chapters, haven’t left some dangling threads or gaping plot holes, and that my characters won’t cause the average reader to think they’ve stumbled into the literary equivalent of Madame Tussaud’s. My editor also watches for repetitive phrasing, run-on sentences, and other abominations against the language. We both rely on the proofreader to catch any spelling or grammar mistakes we missed (damn those homophones!) and to keep an eye out for anything else that rings false on a clean read-through. But first and foremost, it’s my job to turn over a manuscript that I’ve read, re-read, proofread, spell-checked, grammar-checked, and cleaned up to the best of my ability. If I piss off my editor by being sloppy, or lazy, you can bet the publisher is going to be less willing to take another manuscript from me. Authors are a dime a dozen; good editors are rare, and therefore precious. 

I’m grossly simplifying of course, but at if you want to be an author you do need at lest a couple pair of eyes to catch what you can’t.

my editor was well compensated and tipped in gratitude.

I always try to respect the hired help, because they’re people too.  (Good plan in life, TBH.)

There is a copyright lawyer on youtube, by the name of Leonard French, if you want to watch about copyright and other cases.  Might be easier than reading through law, though few of his videos are short.

Ah the pitfalls of doing this thing solo^.

Maybe, but it’s also there to help dissuade people from ripping your stories off and claiming them as their own.

True, that said 70 years after my death if people would still like my stuff I’d like them not to ruin it with whatever bile that is the propaganda of the day.

Sounds like a perfect time to have a better-house-keeping course for witches, to help mitigate the possibilities.

Instructions unclear, Decided to found a school dedicated to Hansel and Gretal

The Hansel and Gretel Cookbook?

 Dark Lord Leo, The Black Lion That Stalks Unseen

-Slain Narcissa Malfoy on the crossroad to knockturn Alley after being provoked

-Subjugated The locket horcrux, Found Rowena’s Diadem.

- Plunged into the abyss and fought off the horcrux that infested him and ate it. Violating the fundamental law of magic on a level much worse than Voldermort did.

-Dark Lord finally matures. Leo has taken over. And is about to make a play for Azkaban.

@Desiderius Price Slowly catching up

Nice thing with where I branched off, I don’t have to mess around with horcruxes! 

Seeing the cover for the first time is just… well, there’s aren’t words for it. It’s just like nothing else in the world. 

Yeah. I’m trying not to be blubbering.

Didn’t know that. But for right now going to focus on Ebook first.

Before I try for print…

Print is usually much more expensive, and has a lower rate of return for a self-published author. You have to pay the costs of printing, and even when books are only printed after they are ordered. you need to price them in order to recover your costs. My novella doesn’t offer print copies, but my novel sells on Amazon for $5.99 for a Kindle ebook, and $15.95 for the paperback. I don’t sell a lot of print copies…  

Oh good I feel like I made a good decision by going for E first