SpanishRed

If Trans People Were Lawyers

Hello, stranger. I heard you’ve been telling people you’re a lawyer.

That’s right.

I don’t agree with you using that label to describe yourself. I’d like you to call ...

Black Hippy Chick Day: When Punctuation is a Democracy

Last week we discussed the idea that commas are a democracy. You choose them on the basis of your pacing and clarity. Commas are often a matter of taste and of poetry. Periods can be a democracy, t...

It’s Ted Hughes Week <And We Shiver In Fear>

Ted Hughes hated the idea of religion in poetry. He said to include religion was to set limits on its relevance to readers. How universal is a piece of literature if it only appeals to Christians o...

My Favourite Dating Website Isn't a Dating Website

I’ve never used Tinder because I don’t have it in me to swipe through photographs as though I’m shopping for wall paper on eBay. I have a friend who’s harnessed the site for what it was fir...

Fuck Gary Chapman. Those Are Not My Languages

I don’t know which buttons got switched when they took me out the box, but I don’t interpret romance the same as most. Sadomasochism is starlight and roses on my planet. I’d rather be dragged...

Hemingway Week Day Two: The Modernistic Renaissance

Hemingway was the leader of the modernistic Renaissance when writers discovered the power of realism. I love the movement more than just about any other, so I’ve spent many years trying to learn ...

Hemingway Week: It's Not About What You Write, but What You Leave Out

“All you have to do is write one true sentence.” -Hemingway

This is probably Hemingway’s most famous quotation. The agony of his writing experience is wrapped u...

When Dominants Want to Help You Grow: An Adjunct to Today's Fetlife Post

Every long-term relationship I’ve had has helped me grow, especially the one with my first dom. By accepting all the shame I brought to his door, he helped me to get in touch with my...

Hemingway Week: Stop Writing Before Your Battery is Completely Discharged

If you discharge the entire battery in your car, it’s rendered useless. It will never hold a charge again. You always need to make sure you have a little life in there. So it is with writing. Wri...

Inspiration Day Two: Having New Adventures

Hemingway hunted, fought in wars, and spent time in bullrings, so his books were full of grand adventures.

Anne Sexton wrote about a different kind of war. Her struggle was against mental ill...

What If You See Your Dad At a Kink Event?

So you’re new to BDSM and when you hear the words “Kink Event,” Jaws music plays. What if you see your dad in a corner getting ball-punched by a leather man? What if your boss finds out you�...

Why You Can't Get Laid on Fetlife

The most popular search term for my blog is “How to get laid on Fetlife.” That leads the humble dudebro to a post I wrote about why Fet’s women hate being treated like products at a meat mark...

Personality Week Day Six: The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Writing About

Last week we covered the character traits required to write well. I’m not even close to covering everything crawling around in my brain, so I’m extending the theme for another week. We’re sta...

Just a Special Snowflake Sub

In my lifetime, I’ve floated from sub to bottom to slave to slut to brat. This has brought me to who I am today: a devolved knot of confusion unable to stick a single label on myself. I’ve eras...

Orlando and his sticks

Suicidal Ideation isn't a Lone Sniper From Up High

Suicide doesn’t sneak up on you like a sniper, alone and without warning from some secret place up high. If it did, it probably wouldn’t be one of the top three leading causes of death worldwid...

Black Hippy Chick Day: Abstractions

lake Once wrote:

“Pity would be no more,
If we did not make somebody Poor;
And Mercy no more could be,
If all were as happy as we;
And mutual fear brings peace;
Till the self...

Character Week: Pride is a giant wall keeping the bad writers out

I request feedback from a host of different critics. Some are writers themselves. Some are simply good readers. Others are aliterate and rarely interested in reading any damned thing, let alone my ...

Georgie learning recall!

Georgie boy bonus pic!

Georgie

A few months ago, Georgie couldn't be trusted in a small kennel. Here he's off-leash in a public dog park. He comes when called. He drops and waits when dogs approach him. He's come so far. Good bo...

Zoomies in the Tears park!

Motivation Week Day Four: Verse isn't Poetry. You Can Write It 24/7

My mentor used to tell me he wasn’t a poet. He just knew enough about poetry to fake it. I disagree. I think he achieved greatness many times in his life, but he defined the difference by teachin...

The Trouble with Self-Titled Mentorship

The scene has a playpen the size of a rugby field full of self-titled masters who have been involved in BDSM since they were yea high to a cricket. Yep, when you were in primary school, a fifth of ...

On Shuffling Off Floofy Coils

I was digging around my post archives and this surfaced from years ago. I thought it might be worth reposting.

Bobby Dog shuffled off his floofy coil on Saturday. He was the best doggo I'd ev...

Black Hippy Chick Day: Proofing Your Work

I have a friend who’s a maddeningly exceptional proofreader. She’s actually in IT, and yet she’s a better proofreader than I am. Even worse, she knows more than I do. This is an obvious injus...

How Smut Was Created: A Bible Story

This is the account of porn when it was created.

Now no decent porn had yet appeared on the earth, and no gangbangs had sprung up, for the lord god had forgotten to create smut directors. The...

Failure Week: Circumlocutions

Authenticity made my mentor who he was, and it was one of his most important lessons. He railed against overcomplicated words and prose constantly. He’d write rants to the newspaper every week. I...

It's Not Ink That Produces Writing. It's Thinking.

Christopher Hitchens used to say nobody could live a vibrant inner life without constantly inhaling books—a habit that he maintained his entire life. Writers must live vibrant inner lives if we�...

It's Motivation Week!

A blank page can be a heavy thing, especially if you’re as uninspired as a Mills and Boon novel. The sheer nothingness of it will stare you down until you hit that “X”. Maybe today isn’t th...