Category: Blog

The Nightmare Week

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Jaycee

So the last two days have been… hellish. WARNING: this is a non-sexy story, so if you were looking for some light one-handed reading, that post probably isn’t for you.

Two days ago (feels like a week, now that it’s over), we had this very intense project that needed to be delivered to the printer. My little team was handling the editing part and it was coming down to the wire–the kind of wire that is measured in hours, sometimes minutes, and requires go/no-go calls around midnight (it involved some international partners). My group was to do some last-minute reviews of the final copies and, if we found anything, send the edits immediately. Turns out we found some edits that had been marked but not pushed to the layout people for 16 hours, which jeopardized our place in the printing queue. I’ll spare you the details, but as the lead of my group, I had to take the flak for it. It was an amateurish mistake and it’s the kind of stuff that could have jeopardized our street date (and led to some job terminations).

Welcome to the publishing world…

So that was Wednesday night. I got home around 1:30AM, didn’t fall asleep until 2AM. I get up yesterday morning and head out to work. Just as I step out of my apartment, I notice my bike wasn’t in its usual place. Heck, it wasn’t in its place at all–it had been stolen. The wire was right there, on the ground, my bike gone. And the previous night had been so bad that my reaction was just… “Meh. Whatever.” I head out to the bus stop. It starts raining. I don’t have my umbrella, so I get soaking wet. I get to the office. My access card is busted, so I can’t get in. To make matters worse, there’s no one at the reception. I look for my phone–I don’t have it. Turns out I forgot it at work the night before. In desperation, I send an email to the IT group, hoping that someone will come get me. (My iPad saved my life! Yay Steve Jobs! 🙂 )

You’d think that alone would be enough, but noOOoo… Last night, I go out for dinner and drinks with some friends. I hear the ping of an email come in and check–just in case something else went wrong. And yeah, sure enough, something did: my site is down and the notice is from the advertisement system telling me my ad has been deactivated because the site is broken. I can’t deal with that during dinner, so I have to wait late at night (stressed out) until I can come home and contact the hosting service. I’m answered (through chat) by a nice enough IT technician located in India (yeah, you know where this is going, right?). I explain that I’ve done nothing to the site, it just stopped working without warning. He gives me a ticket number and says he’ll escalate the issue. He also says it will take at LEAST 60 minutes before someone handles this.

I wait and wait, and around midnight, I get an email from the hosting service–signed by the exact same person I chatted with a few hours earlier. Did he escalate the issue to… himself?! He asks me the exact same questions as before and I give him the exact same answers. Another 2 hours later, someone else tells me this is being further escalated, and this morning, there was an email saying they had identified the problem and were working on it. And just now, it finally got resolved. Everything is now back to normal, everyone, sorry for the downtime.

As a side note, if I didn’t know better, I would think this is faerie mischief…

–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”

Wot? More Sir Thane?

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Jaycee

Starting this Thursday, at midnight (Eastern Time), and every Thursday for 10 weeks, there’s going to be a new page of a Sir Thane mini-story I worked on with a very talented fellow (TirNaNog Industries).

That’s right: every WEEK for 10 weeks. And if the story is popular enough, I’ll be sure to add more chapters to it.

Want to see the art style? Sure:

BF0004-Thane-sampleThat’s right: there be dragons…

Note: It’s for members only.

–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”

Side Story: I Dream of Patience

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Jaycee

Overheard at the Pub (yes, the one where Baby works). Three guards (Lucky, Sam and Axel) are having a pint. They’re a bit loud, but that’s how they like it at the Pub.

LUCKY: So the other day, I was standing guard with Patience–you guys know Patience, right?

SAM: Right. Chick with the knockers, I know her. Ball buster!

AXEL: Oh yeah, her! Yeah, what ’bout her?

LUCKY: Well, you know, before I tell the story, I got to tap that, right? Did I tell you guys about this?

AXEL: Oh, only EVERY CHANCE YOU GET! Yeah, we know!

SAM: Lucky bastard. <punches Lucky in the arm>

LUCKY: That’s me! <laughs, drinks> So yeah, we were just standing guard the other night, and it was pretty boring. Gets like that, sometimes, y’know?

SAM: Don’t I know it! But I’m stuck with THIS asshole <points at AXEL>. You get Knockers.

LUCKY: Yeah, anyway, it was pretty boring, so I’m just there, with nothing to do but stare at the mountains, and my mind just, y’know, kinda drifts.

AXEL: <laughs> Oh, did it now?

LUCKY: Yeah, it did. And I start thinking, Patience, she’s a tough girl–wouldn’t it be cool if she kinda lost control a little? If, just for fun, if I thought something and it’d happen to her, and she couldn’t stop it?

SAM: Damn, man, you’re a perv!

AXEL: Shaddup, Sam! Around Knockers, everybody’s a perv.

SAM: <drinks> Yeah, true that.

AXEL: So what didja imagine? Her going down on you?

LUCKY: Oh HELL no! Wouldn’t want her to start using teeth or anything like that. No, I was just thinking… her having some fun with herself, if you catch my drift.

SAM: Oh yeah, I’ll drink to that. <drinks> Like her hands ripping that chestplate off and groping dem titties!

AXEL: Yeah, that’d be awesome. And she’d be all, “Oh no, what am I doing? This is SO embarrassing!” I dig that!

LUCKY: Yeah, except I didn’t think that, I was thinking her getting all hot and wet at first, and then her hands–just like that–would pull on her pants and rip them apart. But just at the crotch.

SAM: Oh man, that sounds pretty sexy.

LUCKY: But here’s the crazy thing. I was just looking straight ahead, minding my business, and then I heard her make a noise. And I looked, and she was doing just that!

AXEL: Ripping her pants off? Yer shittin’ me!

LUCKY: No, man, I swear!

SAM: <drinks> That’s some pretty heavy shit right there, man! You wuz probably pissing drunk…

LUCKY: You’re a fine one to talk. But no, I remember it, clear as now. She gave me a side glance, and her face was pretty red. That’s how I knew she wasn’t in control, y’know?

AXEL: No kiddin’. So what happened next? Did she frig herself? Got you to plug her sinkhole, if you catch my drift?

LUCKY: Yeah, your drift’s pretty easy to catch, man. But no, nothing like that happened. She just kept her hand between her legs for a bit, and she was whimpering a bit, and breathing heavy. But I know better than to stare at her, so I left her be. But then I got thinking…

SAM: Uh oh… That’s never good.

LUCKY: Moron! No, I just got thinking for a bit, maybe if I thought about her doing that one thing, maybe I could get her to do something else…

AXEL: Sounds logical… Whatcha think of next?

LUCKY: Well, seeing as she had one hand between her legs and was holding her spear with the other, maybe she could do something with both hands and the spear.

AXEL: Oooh, that’s getting pretty hot… So what happened?

LUCKY: I imagined her sliding the shaft of the spear between her legs and, holding it with one hand in front, one hand in back, she’d ride it back and forth like she’d be riding a man.

AXEL: Damn! She DID that? How’s that even POSSIBLE?

SAM: Don’t know, man, but that’s totally HAWT!

AXEL: Yeah, pretty hot…

Axel looks outside the window.

AXEL: S’getting pretty late. I gotta go… Need to get… something done, y’know?

SAM: <nodding> Yeah, yeah, me too… Got things to do… Things to do…

LUCKY: Don’t let me keep you, guys. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, right?

SAM: Yeah, yeah.

AXEL: Catch you tomorrow, man.

Sam and Axel leave. Lucky grabs the beers they’ve left on the table and pours what’s left in his own, mostly empty mug.

LUCKY: <shaking his head> Idiots! Like something like THAT would EVER happen.

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