For a writer, I sure don’t read all that much I guess.

For anyone who still wants to read new bits for the time being, I’m still uploading at https://inkbunny.net/BenRiote of course! I’ll have to catch up on my Ao3 uploads at https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ben_Riote as well. Good excuse for it anyway! And I’ll throw everything new on Furaffinity when it’ll allow it.

Postybirb will not post my latest piece of Drenan's Folly since the site went down and came back up. I'm glad it's back, but I'm gonna have to not be lazy to keep updating here I'd guess.

I've got some troubleshooting to do.

Hey all, Ben here, just doing a little personal reflection for the year. I think I've posted more this year than literally any other year I've been doing this. 111 posts since April from the look of it, and the last post on Tauren Tuesday will make 112. A few of those were art pieces, but the first post was extra long, so that's easily over 112k words I've posted this year.

On one hand, I'm proud of myself for keeping a streak for this damn long. Consistency and motivation have been longtime struggles for me.

On the other hand... is it worth it? What makes it worth it?

I guess it goes back to the start. Why did I start posting my writing? I dunno... validation? Isn't that why most folks share their work? Sure, some might claim it's just to make other people happy, and honestly that is very much a factor in it too, but, like, my personal stories don't make me any money. Many of them aren't even all that well-received. I think on average, one part is lucky enough to get a hundred views, and many don't even quite hit that. Plus, my highest viewed/favorited pieces are... art that I didn't even make. Did I do it just to boost my ego? Did I want people to tell me my writing is good? I actually very recently got probably the nastiest comment I've ever received before. It was on Ao3, but honestly I just laughed at it. It was probably a troll because it was very nonspecific, and I know Dearly Devoted Draenei isn't my best work, but I told myself that "I post for me more than anyone else, so why should it bother me what others think?" So, does that rule out me doing it for validation? Do I just do it because I like it? If I like it, why do I feel distressed and disappointed when I run out of material to post?

I suppose that ultimately, you get out of it what you put into it. Just posting thrice a week might not be enough when it comes to writing, but I don't think I have the fire or time in me to write more than that. If I start pushing myself too hard, I burn out, and then the silence settles over my pages. Ironically, I swear I pull in more new watchers and favorites when I'm on a break, which I very much don't understand. I think there's a part of me that wants to be on par with all the freaking amazing smut artists that are out there. I have all these characters that I've made up stories for that it'd be amazing to see them all on paper if I could. I've tried taking up drawing since I got my tablet, but I haven't really committed to it and it's such a difficult skill to manage without constant diligence. I wish I could just post one thing that the average person can consume with a few-second glance, rather than post several chunks of hours-long work that can't be understood without each other, and take significantly more time to consume.

Alright, I wrote that upper part during a late night where I was questioning everything, but normally I feel much better than that.

Honestly, to everyone who's read any of my work: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I've still got plenty of material to keep me going for quite a while, and I'm still writing and trying to keep up with commissions in the background, which I will eventually post.

That being said: I haven't heard from you all in forever it feels like! I'm gonna throw survey out into the world for my lovely readers just to see what your thoughts are. Most of the answers allow multiple picks, and it's just to give me an idea of what piques your guys' interest! I do mostly write for myself, but I've tried to take readers into consideration when I write certain pieces, and at the end of the day it's fun to make people happy in some way from my writing. I'll be linking the survey under some of my next posts for a few weeks as well. I haven't used this site before, so fingers crossed it works out.

SURVEY HERE -> https://take.supersurvey.com/QWI990EAK

What's in store for next year? Definitely more Drenan's Folly. Maybe I'll even finish it before year's end. I'll be posting a couple new(ish) stories for Thursdays and Saturdays at first, but whatever the survey yields might influence my later decisions.

And hey, if you would prefer to decide something for yourself, I do take commissions at $8/1,000 words! I gotta update my usual terms and find someplace to stick that too. I'm honestly not very fast at commission turnaround though, so I don't really promote it a ton.

So I guess that covers my bases as far as the usuals. I sincerely hope everyone has as happy of a new year as you can! Stay horny and happy out there!

Cheers, Benjamin W. Riote

Hey all, so I kinda messed up. I thought it’d be smart to completely shut my computer down before going on vacation. Unfortunately that also means my queue hasn’t posted since Thursday, and won’t post again until this coming Saturday when I get back T.T

So I guess on Saturday you’ll see, like, four posts flood in all at once. Sorry all, I promise I’m still writing. D: On the bright side, Seattle’s pretty nice so far, and I’ve even had a little downtime to work. I got a big commission I’m plugging away on that I need to finish, and after that I should honestly post a few that I’ve finished before. I can’t believe I haven’t yet, honestly.

Cheers, Ben

I promise I didn't fall off the wagon! Between Furaffinity's crash and being sick, I just hadn't gotten to keep filling my queue. I've got a few weeks ready though, so there shouldn't be any more late posts. Hoping Saturday's will post despite being out of town.

Me and my Boyo are currently ill, and I didn't get the queue refilled for posting so I missed Drenan's Folly tonight. I'll do my best to get it up in the morning.

I ache so damn bad, and my nose won't stop running. Can't catch it to save my life.

So, I'm gonna lead into this by admitting that I probably shouldn't ever say I'm *back*, because between time constraints, parenting, work, family, and muse, I may just never be consistent. I *want* to be, I really do. I'd love to be another artist/writer who engages with everyone and posts on a weekly or bi-weekly basis all the time. I'm just not sure if I'm capable of it, no matter how many times I've tried it.

That being said, hello again! Hope everyone's well. Despite how quiet I've been since my boyo's birth, I actually *have* been writing. My time is minimal and my muse has been sketchy at best, but most recently things have changed for the better. Eliza got a new job, so she's down to working one instead of two, got a pay bump, and drastically changed her schedule, and by extension, mine. If I swing things right, I can get in a little time both in the morning and in the evening, and since I was able to put down the new FFVII after beating the main plot (I still gotta plat it) I've had a burst of creative energy to write with. I'm working on some corrections and changes for some commissions that I hadn't gotten to yet, but my actual commission backlog is empty otherwise, for the moment. I'll have some more work coming up, but not immediately, so in the meantime I'm trying to recombobulate my collection a little.

I have SO MANY GOT-DANG UNFINISHED STORIES.

It makes me sick to see, and I feel especially bad about some of them that have been pretty well-received and relatively popular. And the sucky part is, as much as I *want* to finish them, I just banged out an entirely new story that ended up around 11k words, and started another one that will be extremely relevant to some of the others later. Muses are fickle goddesses.

As far as commissions too, I have more finished ones than I've let on that are part of an overarching canon. I *want* to post them too, but my commissioner started me halfway through, and I can't justify posting them until I can go back and do the original ones first. Whenever that happens... I'll have enough weekly posts to last me over a year. No joke.

So in short... I haven't done much more on Quela yet, or Blood Isn't Everything, I have some more on Drenan's Folly I can post... I'm just all over the damn place. My end goal will be to complete ALL of them someday, but there are some that I don't even know how they're gonna end yet. I don't do the outline thing, it just doesn't work for me. I think I did it for The Shadowclaw Urge, and I threw it out about four parts in.

The other crappy part is I can write like mad, but actual posting is trickier. The formatting won't be right if I just copy and paste my google doc text onto a notepad doc, unless I put in [i] brackets as I write, or go back and add them later. *Then* I gotta make thumbnails, separate the writing parts into individual docs, throw them into postybirb, get all my tags in a row, and it's just... a lot. It's a lot that I can't do unless I'm at my desktop, and I can't be at the desktop unless my kiddo is asleep or at daycare. I do most of my writing on a tablet nowadays, which is nice 'cause it lets me write from the living room while being with my family, but it's too limited to be able to post much as far as I know.



TL;DR: Technical difficulties and motivational issues make Ben a dull writer.

That being said, I promise I am *trying*. I wanna get some new stuff out to you all as soon as I'm capable. I miss watching the views go up and getting to reply to comments. It's so nice to have validation for what I do in this tiny, niche corner of the internet. I also wanna see how Drenan's Folly ends. That story still means a lot to me. You guys are the best.

Cheers,
Ben

I have a kiddo now! Bye-bye free time!

But seriously, it's awesome. Kiddo came about three weeks earlier than he was supposed to, and I've spent the last couple weeks helping get him and Eliza settled before I gotta go back to work tomorrow. So that's mostly why I haven't gotten to update lately, and for those who I'm working on commissions for, I promise I'm still working on them when I can. D: I'm hoping things will get even calmer once I'm back to work regularly, so I can bank out proper time to write and nap. Fingers crossed! Either way, we love the little guy to pieces, even if he's chopped our sleep to bits. XD

And speaking of commissions, I've actually got a few on my queue, unexpectedly! I'm actually finding a lot of joy in taking commissions, but for the time being I probably won't take on any new ones until I finish up the big ones I've got right now. Once I do though, I'll probably make another, more formal journal/announcement with my pricing info and whatnot. Even before *that*, I plan on posting a bunch of the commissions I've written already. I was cranking out a buttload of work back in September/October, and I'm very pleased with how it's all turned out. It's part of a much bigger project that I can only really tease at right now, 'cause I don't wanna put the cart before the horse or anything. Actually *posting* the stuff has just been rough to get around to, and it doesn't help that I haven't been able to get any office time to do it either. I'll get there though. I ain't bowing out! Writing's in me blood!

Find it RIGHT HERE!

Sorry about the preorder stuff, but it's live now and available for a measly three bucks! Dive into the world of Sathron where a pair of royal siblings, Thera and Kane, find out a surprising secret from the sexy, but stern, Queen Chastinivia XXXIV. Will the secret divide the two forever, or perhaps teach them more about themselves, and each other, than they'd ever imagined?

Nearly 88k words and over 300 pages of romance, intrigue, steamy sex, and some downright silliness!

Also, if you bought the book and liked it enough to give it a nice review, lemme know about it! If you have an OC (preferably Warcraft-based), I'll make sure to include it in one of my pieces in cameo form, if you'd like!

And thanks again to everyone who's supported and read my works over the years. Publishing this was a big leap for me, and this definitely will be the first book in a proper series, 'cause I just can't seem to let characters go! Also keep an eye out in the future for some short stories and supplemental material involving the world of Sathron, 'cause I plan to develop the crap outta this world!

Oh, and there's a map in the front! Bonus pig!

Cheers, Ben

Holy shit, holy shit guys, gals, and everyone in between! Introducing...

The Royal Rift!

Available for purchase HERE!

This is the first in a series I've dubbed The Salacious Stories of Sathron!

In the world of Sathron, sex is a natural part of life. Everything from the power of the queendom to the magic of the fairies comes from salacious acts. The people of Adelrein are ruled by their sultry but stern Queen Chastinivia XXXIV, who is grooming her daughter, Thera, to inherit her throne. Meanwhile, Thera's brother, Kane, feels shackled by his role as a second-class citizen in the matriarchal queendom. A shocking secret about Thera's lineage threatens to throw the entire continent into war. Thera and Kane travel the continent in search of answers, and discover much more about themselves, and each other, than they'd ever imagined.

This is so freaking huge to me. I've wanted to publish for so long, but I never felt I had something worth it until now. I wrote the bulk of this book over the course of NaNoWriMo in 2021, and after seven months of editing and revising, it's done! Right now it's set at preorder status, but if I modified things correctly it should be available this coming Saturday the 4th, instead of the 10th. Either way, it's only $2.99, so if you're interested in an epic fantasy with a budding romance, some silly humor, and tons of sex, this is your book! I'd very, very much appreciate any and all mentions of the book (to adults only, please!) as this is my first time going at it, and the buzz would mean so much to me!

And of course, I'd like to thank each and every reader who's even bother to read a fraction of the works I've posted for the last six years. Without you guys, I don't think I would've had the courage to take a stab at actual publishing.

And hey, I can call myself an author now! Holy shit!

Check it out here!

I missed polls. I don't always have the wherewithal to keep making them, but I adore reader interaction, and polls seem like a great, simple way to manage a little engagement! I added a reply to clarify some of the options since I could only use 25 characters per choice, but more questions are welcome on them! None of them are *completely* finished, but each one has a fair few parts that I can get them going for a few weeks while I finish them. Vote, vote, vote!

Cheers, Ben

Well damn, as crummy as 2021 felt initially, the year was actually relatively kind to me. Eighty new parts got posted to the pages last year, but sadly I petered out around August from my twice-weekly schedule. It was fun to stick with, but I'm not sure if I'll be getting back to that stringent schedule or not. I'm not sure if I even have time with the house and all. The Inkbunny page has also breached 23k views, which is also mind-blowing to think about, and for which I'm thankful as well. To the thirty new watchers on FA and the thirty-four on Inkbunny: Welcome! And sincerely, thank you so much. I apologize that my updating frequency is shit, but it does mean a lot to me that you all simply keep a weather eye out for my stuff to pop up. And I'm still blown away that I got my very first tip this year, and I still feel incredibly grateful that someone thought my work was worth more than just a few bucks.

As for downsides... well, I made a post about the personal stuff Eliza and I went through. We're gonna tempt fate and give it one more go this year, but if it ends in heartbreak for the third time, I don't think we'll be trying again. We were also a bit disappointed in some family over the holiday season, but that was relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. Still sucks that I had to walk away from Warcraft, but all the free time on my hands almost makes me feel... bored. Oh, and screw CuriousCat for just blinking out of existence. That had quickly become one of my favorite outlets for impromptu pieces, and now they're all fucking gone. I'm more upset about those than I thought I would be. I adore reader interaction, and that was such a fun avenue for it. I have gotten into the habit of perusing twitter frequently though. I'd tweet more if I had more to say, but it's nice to be able to communicate without having to make a full journal (even if 90% of my 'followers' are really just bots -.-).

I need to kick my ass back into writing habits, but now I'm also torn between some Rioteverse stuff (which I hesitate to do much of until I can continue on my second NaNo draft) and Warcraft stuff that I'm trying hard not to feel *obligated* to write. If I start feeling obligated, it's gonna lose its fun, and that's the last thing I want.

Yet here I am, writing a journal in my quiet morning time instead of writing new pieces.

Cheers, Ben

November has come and gone, and, oddly enough, I was pretty much silent everywhere but Twitter. Why? Well, I promised myself I was gonna do NaNoWriMo this year, which is something that folks apparently don't seem to care much about anymore. For those who aren't aware: National Novel-Writing Month is exactly what it sounds like. The "challenge" is to write a 50,000 word novel over the course of the 30-day month.

I say "challenge" as a bit of a gloat, admittedly, 'cause I met the word count requirement twenty days in.

Numbers give me motivation, for whatever reason. I made up a whole spreadsheet and everything to keep track of my daily word count. There were only four days where I didn't hit my requisite 1,667 words for the day, but there were six days where I wrote double my quota, and two days where I tripled it. I'm thankful I hit it when I did, honestly, 'cause the story wasn't nearly done with by then. I *did* finish the story before yesterday's end though, with a total word count of 82,797 words!

Next step: Don't touch it at all until next year.

I'm gonna try out this editing trick that Eliza told me about, so for December I'm not gonna look at my draft at all while she reads it and tears it to shreds (politely critiques it). In the meantime, I'm gonna get a subscription to Inkarnate so I can git gud and make up some super cool maps of the world the book takes place in. It's a fantasy, medieval-esque world that I haven't thought of a name for yet, but ultimately it'll be a form of original Rioteverse stuff, if that term isn't too cringy.

So yeah, I have grand plans of publishing it on Amazon... which I dearly hope doesn't get pinged for being absolutely filthy. I mean, you guys read what I write, right? Sure, I write smut, but incest aside I think it's mostly pretty tame and lovey stuff. That's pretty much most of the story. And that's where I zip my lips. I'm fighting hard against the urge to divulge tons of stuff about it, but I wanna keep most of it under wraps until it's actually on the market. I will definitely update pretty much everywhere when it comes out, and I'll probably advertise it quite a bit (so apologies ahead of time if it sounds obnoxious) but I'm already super proud of it, and I can't wait for it to get an audience... after another draft or two.

And that's pretty much why I've been radio silent to all but my two human twitter followers this past month. I haven't decided whether to take it easy for this month and focus on holiday stuff, or try to keep the ball rolling by finally writing a damn Winter's Veil piece. Still thinking on it. I promise I haven't forgotten about my other stories though. Things have still been a bit rough the past couple months, but I'm more hopeful for next year. Only time will tell.

Cheers, Ben

I wanna try and keep this one a bit short, but I really feel like I should address this. I've seen a few folks who have Warcraft-based characters lately who are denouncing the Azeroth setting. Not a ton, but a few, which has definitely brought forth a slew of conflicting feelings as a Warcraft-based smut writer.

Frankly, I don't blame them, and I support the effort to distance themselves from Blizzard.

That being said, I... I honestly don't wanna do that myself. I had a ragebaiter on CuriousCat who was spouting angry statements about Blizzard and its CEO, and while I didn't wanna feed into the hatred, I can't deny that I'm not fond of how this whole debacle is being handled either. I mentioned before that I quit Warcraft a few months back, but to satiate the urge I still touch some free bootlegish, older versions of Warcraft from time to time.

I invested over a decade into Warcraft. My main had over 400 days of /played time on him. I still love the setting and the good lore. But I do think it's feasible to separate the creator from the artistry. I think similar arguments can be made for Harry Potter fans despite Rowling's transphobia, but I think it's also just as fitting to be critical of said author while still enjoying the world they created. Maybe I'm wrong, but I guess I'm just not ready to shun the fandom yet, even with the stigma that Blizzard has surrounded it with.

Sorry if this seems a bit pointless. I guess I wanted to at least acknowledge the seemingly-growing distaste for Blizzard and try to sorta defend my continuing use of the lore and setting.

Cheers, Ben

Hey all you lovely readers! Some of the more perceptive ones may have noticed a sudden stall in content, which I supremely apologize for considering I haven't missed an upload since the first of the year, or at least made up for any missed ones. I haven't exactly run out of material to upload, but my stockpile from earlier this year has grown thin, and a mixture of lacking motivation and even less time to write have regrettably stalled out the creative juices. I do feel I owe some explanations for that, too, or at least some justification as to why I'm taking a little break.

Or maybe this'll just sound like a bunch of excuses. I dunno.

So, firstly, got a new pet in the house. One dog was lovely, but we'd forgotten how much work a puppy was, and she pretty much requires a constant eye. So there went a ton of free time, including time needed to work on this work-in-progress house we're in. Probably the biggest time-suck right there, but goddammit if she isn't adorable and 110% worth it.

Secondly, any meager free time that occurs tends to be poured into... *breathes deep*... Final Fantasy XIV. I know, I know... that leads me to my third point: I canceled my Warcraft subscription for the first time since I started playing in 2008. I truly hope it doesn't feel as if I'm betraying anyone by mentioning that. I still love the game and the world it's based in, but it's... really, truly not *fun* right now. Why pay money for something I'm not enjoying? TO BE CLEAR: THIS DOES NOT MEAN I AM STOPPING MY WRITING EFFORTS. Drenan and Lyrah, along with all of my other characters, are quite dear to me, and they will continue to have their stories told. I don't need to hop ingame to recall the finer details of Azuremyst Isle or the Hillsbrad Foothills, and I still love Azeroth enough to keep writing about it aplenty. It's a setting I have so much knowledge of that it makes it really easy to write within that realm. (Small update to this, I wrote this post a few weeks ago and never submitted it. Since then, I have discovered the wonders of Ascension, which has been wonderful in satisfying my Warcraft itch.)

Point 3-B: I noticed on my latest poll so far that the bulk of folks want me to stick with Warcraft writing, which I'm honestly quite flattered by. That being said, it's possible I may crop up with a secondary account in the future for works in other areas, or I may just throw them in on the side if I'm pleased enough by a piece IF I do write something else. There was a Star Wars piece I was super pleased with a while back that I didn't finish, and I'd like to post that sometime. They may get a bit more love on non-furry sites, but my love of the furred kind will ever-keep me here, don't you doubt.

Fourth... this is perhaps the most personal difficulty I've had to deal with. I can't recall if I've mentioned this before, but this has been a big reason why I haven't progressed Drenan and Lyrah to their next big step....

My wonderful wife and I have been dealing with the aftermath of a miscarriage for the past two months.

Unfortunately, it's not the first one either. The first was heartbreaking enough, but it passed relatively quickly. This one required her to undergo surgery because it wouldn't pass naturally. She's thankfully mostly recovered by now, and whatever sadness and pain I may be feeling, I know she's plagued by it tenfold at least. It's a terrible feeling to think that something so many people can manage naturally has caused her such physical pain, despite being something we both truly and dearly desire. There's nothing anyone can say to make it better. Mentions of 'trying again' and all only cause more pain. There isn't much of a bright side, aside being thankful that she's still alive and well after her procedure. She's my everything, my muse, the love of my life (and while a heavy influence on Lyrah, she is NOT my biological daughter in any form. We met online, and it's just a kink we share), and I've struggled a lot with the thought of losing her in our pursuit of a child. What started Drenan's Folly is one of my biggest fears, and I can't bring Lyrah anywhere near that until my wife and I, hopefully, someday have our rainbow baby.

Sorry, I know that got a bit too personal toward the end there. Truth be told, I'm a little short on friends to chat with nowadays, and it's taken more than a little courage for me to dare to confide in my reader base about this sort of thing, regardless of how many, or few, see it. But yeah, all of that has pretty much culminated into a soft depression and no desire to write, which pains me greatly.

Over the past week though, I'm feeling a little more inspired again. My office is actually progressing to the point where I might be able to set up my main writing computer in it in another week or two if I'm lucky, and there's a voice in the back of my mind that crops up sometimes that just urges me to write. I took another look at the Shadowclaw pack and decided to write up some character sheets for our four protagonists, and I'm thinking about doing some more for some of my other characters, for shits and giggles. Realistically I'm probably opening my canon up to numerous contradictions by doing this, but part of me is trying to keep things straight, and the other part thinks more like 'fuck it, this is fun', so that's what I'm doing.

So... I guess I dunno how to end this... oh! Well, like always, thank you all so much for reading! Even during my absence I've seen a couple new watchers and some rare favorites, and I actually finally reached 100 watchers on Inkbunny after almost exactly five years of uploads. I still haven't reached the 110 I had on tumblr before they banned porn, but I'm no less thankful to see people who have taken a genuine interest in what I have to write. Without some sort of numerical affirmation, I doubt I'd still be uploading nowadays. Thank you, all of you.

Cheers, Ben

Well hey, hope everyone's staying warm out there! Snow's pretty bad in my area right now, but thankfully that's given me some nice quiet time to write in the meantime. So, it’s been a month and a half since the new year, and it would seem that my posting has remained pretty steady, and it’s looking like it should stay that way for months to come! Perhaps this is just me blowing my own horn here, but I’m not gonna lie, I’m pleased with my restraint, and I *did* get both my holiday pieces out despite the time crunch and everything else. I do worry that they weren’t my best works, but I thought they ended up pretty sweet anyway.

Ah! And to all of the new readers, watchers, followers, whatever you wanna be called… welcome! I sincerely appreciate everyone and anyone who so much as skims one of my pieces, and I do hope my content’s been enjoyable enough to keep an eye out for more. So far the reception to the Shadowclaw Urge has been quite lovely, which I’m very thankful for ‘cause I’ve still got a ton more of it to post. I’d also like to truly thank the readers who’ve kept an eye on my stuff since I started back on tumblr. You guys are all great, and those who comment have been wonderfully constructive and complimentary. I can’t thank you all enough. ^_^

With the recent influx of Drenan and Lyrah stuff, I’m starting to toy with the idea of a game again for the next steps in their story. I’ve got a hazy idea in mind for what I want that needs some solidifying, but I should also note that I’m in the middle of a process of moving that won’t end for a month or two, so we’ll see how far I tread on that. I dunno if I’ll get any responses, but for those who’ve played the first game, was it fun? Would it be worth anticipating a second one to keep moving on Drenan and Lyrah?

I’m slowly kinda trying to get more solid stories on the pages involving an assortment of Warcraft races, though I’m certain that the kinds with fur will likely be preferred on the sites I post most on. Part of me wants to do another poll, but I couldn’t say for what. I’m picturing that pandaren would probably be most desired for another story, but perhaps I should try and pick up Jade Adventure again then? I started it up a while back, but midway through writing the next piece the poll results changed and I backpedaled, then petered out. I should set a time limit for that I guess next time. On a side note, I've been trying my best to answer every comment in my radar at least once, which has actually been really nice. I've missed the readership interaction I used to have on tumblr, and it's wonderful to hear even just that folks enjoyed a piece for a moment. ^^

In regard to posts, what are the thoughts on how I post? It worked well on tumblr, but I did have a complaint on Inkbunny about the amount I post at a time. To be clear, I don’t call them ‘chapters’ -a full chapter generally consists of 3-5k words, whereas I post in thousand-word chunks- but if these parts are too small to be seen worth reading at a time, I could consider restructuring how I post my pieces with enough calls for it. I likely wouldn’t be posting *more* due to the amount of time and content I have available, but I could lower my number of weekly posts and increase the word count of what I post to offset things, if that’d make it more enjoyable for readers. Also, I’ve been toying with doing separate posts for some of the stories as well where I would post the story in its entirety in one entry after it’s been released in full in separate pieces. Would that be easier reading for folks?

Hmm, maybe I should bullet point my questions at the end, here:

- Would a second Drenan and Lyrah choose-your-own-adventure game be appreciated/desired?
- Should I restructure how I post story pieces?
- Should I re-release finished stories in single entries for easier reading?
- What other advice could be given to increase readership?

The last one’s a bit off the cuff, but if I’m being honest, there’s probably a somewhat selective draw for Warcraft smut that tends to focus on incest, ‘cause I know the kink isn’t for everyone by any means. Think I should branch out? I’ve found it’s tricky for me to invest myself in other writing at times, but I could consider floating some ideas of that nature from time to time, like I did with The Final Lesson.

Once again, thanks so much for reading, and I hope you all enjoy the coming posts!

Cheers, Ben

Apologies to one and all for my little fuck-up regarding Lunar Festival part four. I have my posts scheduled to drop at a particular time, but I'd forgotten to open my lappy this morning and it glitched out when I finally did open it tonight. Should be fixed now though, and I dearly hope it didn't come off as a bait and switch to anybody or anything who saw it early. -.-" I do appreciate the notices though. The comment increase is what alerted me to it.

Oh boy... part of me doesn't feel like I have much of a right to post an update after such a long span of silence, but I guess I'm feeling more hopeful about the upcoming year. I had a strong span back in March this year, but after that things just went to utter hell and back. I had... four different family members suffer a stroke, a life-altering injury, a tumor, and an arrest respectively over the span of eight months. An endeavor to get a second pet was dashed because of the stroke, and our efforts to either conceive (pre-pandemic) or buy a house have stalled out completely or hit utterly asinine roadblocks.

I'm not gonna lie, I feel like I've been absolutely drained of creativity and muse during this pandemic. I've written bits and pieces of things here and there, but most of them are sitting incomplete. I've *wanted* to write, but it's been such an immense struggle to actually do so...

... until last week, that is.

I hate to admit it, but we took a little vacation during the holidays to see some family that was having health issues. Had it not been for those issues, we wouldn't have done it. During that time, however, I had a lot of downtime to sit and keep up on my usual Warcraft things... and then I had a rather inspirational dream. The next morning, I started furiously modifying the dream and turned it into a twelve-page piece that I actually had finished by the end, and beyond that I found my inspiration to work on another piece that's ballooned into about fifteen parts, and it actually may have an end in sight. I wanted to post a piece tonight, but after just getting back home I've been too exhausted to do so, but I'm desperately hoping to get some regular posts set up again and revive viewership for the umpteenth time. It truly means a lot to me to see watch, favorite, and comment numbers ping one at a time, and I would once again like to sincerely thank everyone and anyone who's so much as glimpsed any of my posting pages. 2021 is here, and once again I wanna endeavor to return to posting... whatever that means. *shrug*

And, shit, happy new year to one and all! Stay safe and healthy out there, and above all keep hope. For better or for worse, hang in there. Even the small positives vastly outweigh the large negatives, and like all life, the pendulum between the good and the bad has to swing back the other way some time.

Cheers, Ben

So, it turns out that the one time the site decides to have problems with thumbnails, I happen to find a wonderful little secret to making much better-looking thumbnails. I ended up replacing all of my old ones (thank the Gods, I like Times New Roman, but it made me look like a shit-tier artist) and I hope to keep using it for new ones, at least while I'm using the free trial for it. Do let me know what you think! They actually show up at full resolution on Inkbunny, so I promise they look a little better and more read-able there, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about that here.

Cheers, Ben

Well! Exciting to post thrice in a week and a half, no? Well, it is for me anyway. My newly-purchased tech, coupled with a 'promotion' at my day job has really resparked my passion and motivation to write, for which I'm very thankful. I wanna see if I can get myself to drop *something* at least twice a week, be they stories, chapters, or maybe just journals from time to time. I've got a lot of started stories from during my downtime that I wanna slowly get back to and finish, and I definitely wanna see if I can pull Drenan and Lyrah through a short timeskip... maybe.

That being said, I did a little overhaul on my Furaffinity account in particular in regard to story and folder organization (which I'm rather anal about, hee hee) so it's leaving me some room to expand some stories that I've been meaning to work more on. Another little change I made involved being open to accepting trades and commissions. I don't see myself as a professional by any stretch of the imagination, and my day job has to come first (until the almost certainly oncoming quarantine... hooray for blue-collar work -.-) but truthfully I adore drawn art. I haven't quite gotten a feel as to what the equivalent value of writing to drawing is around these parts, but if anyone felt it a fitting trade, I *might* take them up on it if they have a story idea they'd like to see me write out. I do have a paypal and google pay if commissions come up on the table... but hell, what do I charge? I imagine I'll figure it out as I go, if I even get any bites, which I won't hold my breath for.

But hey, every penny helps nowadays.

On that note, I'd also like to ask my readers: Are there any other websites/mediums you might recommend I start posting to as well? Or perhaps, would there be any recommended sites for me to turn to for a bit of monetary gain? Ko-fi has yet to get any bites, and I *have* considered Patreon, but I fear demand for writing wouldn't be enough to draw any devoted interest. I suppose I could be wrong though, but I'd value any input at all at this point. Still, thank you all for bothering to read what I have to write! Every follower, watcher, and favorite are all well-monitored, and I truly appreciate each and every one who gives my stuff a shot. I do apologize for not returning every comment, note, or shout, but I promise they are seen, and perhaps I'll find a day to reply to them all at some point.

Cheers, Ben

Posted using PostyBirb

Alright! So, it would seem I'm starting to get the hang of ol' Postybirb here. Definitely not a perfect set up, but I'm working on smoothing things out to streamline the process as much as possible. Most importantly, a quick apology to those who got to the most recent story right after it dropped: I forgot to leave an extra line between each paragraph of my notepad document, and it all came out in one big block. This should be fixed now. On FA it was easy enough to just reupload the document, however IB required me to edit the submission and hit enter repeatedly until it looked nicer. Definitely gonna have to work on that, 'cause .txt files are the only ones FA seems able to register and allow people to read without downloading, which I personally find significantly more convenient.

As for HF (which this journal should go to, but for whatever reason I'll have to manually upload this to IB) Postybirb can't put the .txt file there, so I'll have to go and copy-paste it manually as well. Part of me wonders if PB makes this worth it when all three places require some form of manual intervention (though FA seems to suffer the least) but I like fiddling with the program, so I'll probably stick with it.

Not much of an update I guess. Personal stuff got really good, then really, really crummy as of Friday, but with this new lappy (a two-in-one, so maybe I'll try and pick up some drawing when the pen arrives for it) I hope to bring myself to finish up some of the small pieces I wrote in my absence. I'm sorry if I always sound so hopeful and then just die again in these. I swear I don't mean to. Anyway, here's hoping other folks out there are doing better than I am, and another sincere thanks for taking the time to read my things. It still means a lot to me, and it keeps me wanting to write through all the crumminess.

Cheers, Ben

Posted using PostyBirb

Happy 2020, all! Best wishes that the next year will be even better than last year was for all of ya! Myself included. I hadn't had a bad year in a while, but overall 2019 didn't go well. Lotta stuff happened off screen that consumed way more of my time than I wanted, and I'm really sorry that I haven't gotten to post much at all this year. I've been wanting to write, but my day job has required some exceptional study time, though hopefully by the end of this month I'll have that out of the way and get some free time back.

I've especially wanted to keep up with Drenan and Lyrah. I've gotten more written on them through part/chapter 75, but I've been dilly-dallying posting it due to time and general disdain for the posting process. I much preferred Tumblr before it went to crap, though I've been toying with posting there again as my page was never removed or anything. Apparently art gets way more attention than the written word, which... eh. It is what it is. Count my blessings and all that. Frustration aside, I've got some ideas for transitioning them into a newer overarching chapter of their lives as well, which I've gotten more excited for in recent times. I can't wait to get back to it, and I do hope folks enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoy writing about them.

I do also have a smattering of shorter side-stories that I've either half-started or written out a couple pieces worth on, though I can't say for sure how many of them are post-worthy until I look them over again. I've always liked interaction between reader and writer, personally, so to end this little piece, what would folks like to see? I tend to find a lot of enjoyment on Warcraft-based, same-race, and incest stories of course, and I admit I'm fairly vanilla otherwise, but if anyone would like to chime in any general writing ideas/concepts or somesuch, I'd at least take them into consideration. I also did a small Star Wars-based one not too long ago as well, and as much as I've enjoyed the concept, I hesitate to tread too far in other... worlds I guess? Star Wars in particular is rather dense, and I don't wanna throw out misinformation based on different cultures and such in there, where in contrast I feel like I have a rather good grasp of Warcraftian lore, and... and... and... *rambling and mumbling ensues*

Anyway.

Thank you for reading, and thanks for putting up with my silence. Again, here's to a fantastic 2020 for one and all!

-Ben

Hey folks! First time attempting a blog post on both new sites! Just wanted to wish all my lovely readers a happy set of holidays, and hopefully I'll be able to start getting some new content up after all the old's been reposted. I've had a hell of a time getting myself to do it, but thankfully the process is starting to get a bit quicker. It'll be easier when I don't have to post tons of things at once anymore.

Also, on a side note, I've always liked hearing what you guys have to say. I'm sad that Tumblr's dead considering how good it was for direct communication between writer and reader, but I still wanna at least try and keep up the dialog. In that vein, I'm very curious as to whether anyone would be interested if I opened up the chance to commission me for written work. It's something I've been toying with more and more lately (always need a few extra bucks during the holidays) and ko-fi has been a bust so far (no one should ever feel obligated to donate, I should mention) but I think my work's got enough kick to it that folks might wanna hear me lay some writing to their ideas, yes? I'm not 100% certain about it, and I'm still toying with how I'd price it, but I'd like to know if it'd be worth throwing on the table or not.

Either way, I doubt I'll have a Drenan and Lyrah Winter Veil post... again. I have attempted for three years in a row now to get in a holiday story about them, and I have utterly failed to complete one. I have no idea why. I'm not -that- busy -hell, I got a four day weekend out of Christmas- but I just... haven't managed it yet. It always feels too late after Christmas to do it too. Maybe I'll have better luck with Lunar Festival or Love is in the Air again. *shrug*

Anyway! Thank you all once again for taking the time to read my works. It means a lot to see followers on these new sites after Tumblr's crash, some of which I even recognize from their usernames. I apologize if I haven't responded to shouts and the like, but I'm still sort of getting a feel for the new sites yet, and I get nervous about public responses at times, sorry! Still, the coming new year might mean better for the... works if I can get back into the swing of things. I want 2019 to be an exceptionally productive year, if I can manage it.

Cheers, Ben Riote