7/7/24
On the Seventh Day…
This is number sixty-nine in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
I HAVE BEEN WRITING almost non-stop for the past ten+ years. In that time, I’ve averaged some 800,000 new words per year. Since 2013, I have published fifty-eight erotica novels and ten mainstream novels to join the three I had out prior to that time. Wow! Sixty-eight novels in eleven and a half years. And a variety of short stories and essays!
I have a new novel anticipated in August. But that marks a bit of a slow-down this year. I expect only three new novels to be released this year, rather than my average of six a year. If you are an old fan of the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew and read the massive number of volumes in those series, you know that several different authors wrote under those names over the years. Not so with me. I wrote and published sixty-eight novels under two different names, but the same author.
I’m only seventy-four years old and am not planning to retire anytime soon. But I might need a short vacation to recharge my batteries. Even God rested on the seventh day. So they say.
I believe I’ll take July to think and plan. I’m going to Alaska the last week of July and expect to breathe a lot of fresh sea air on the voyage. I want to see glaciers before they are gone. I want to visit the coastal towns. And I want to inhale inspiration.
When I started my current phase of life in 2013, I was on the road to see all I could see. I made it a point to follow the 2-2-2 rule of RVing. Never travel more than 200 miles in a day. Always arrive by 2:00 in the afternoon. Always stay at least 2 days. For several years, that remained my mantra.
During that time, I wrote a trilogy of books that entwined my actual travels with my fantasies so closely that even I couldn’t tell them apart!
Many times, I woke up in the morning, hooked up my trailer, and drove to the exit of the RV park where I was camped. I’d look up and down the road and make a decision on which direction to go. When someone mentioned the biggest loon in the world (Vergas, Minnesota), the largest statue of an egg (Mentone, Indiana), or the biggest pistachio (Alamogordo, New Mexico), I went there.
I made a childhood dream trip and traveled US Route 20 from Boston, Massachusetts to Newport, Oregon. I visited my three older sisters in Ohio, Virginia, and Texas before two passed away. I visited old friends in Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, Minnesota, Colorado, Missouri, and Oklahoma. I met up with fans of my books and went on adventures as they showed me a first-hand glimpse of places I’d written about.
And I did “research” for books set in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, California, Wyoming, Thailand, Germany, and Iceland. As I told my daughter when I started this trek on August 13, 2013, “It isn’t about the destination; it’s about the journey.”
While liberally laced with fantasy, the Wonders of My World trilogy does follow my footsteps as I visited forty-six states, two Canadian provinces, and sixteen other countries. You can buy the trilogy as single eBooks or a collection at Bookapy and other vendors.
I have to say that having heart problems starting back in 2019 changed my view of travel a bit. I found myself staying longer in one place and nearer to places where there was a good medical infrastructure if needed. Three years ago, I settled in Las Vegas for the winter and spent six, then eight, then nine months there before hitching up to wander for the summer.
This past December, I flew from Vegas to Seattle for a two week visit over the holidays. I ended up staying four months as the cardiologist installed a pacemaker and followed up with a couple of procedures that would help it keep time.
And this summer, I left the trailer parked in Vegas and just took off driving northward in my truck for the summer, staying in cheap motels (which are nowhere near as cheap as I remembered), and eating cheap meals. I’ve worked my way from Las Vegas, through California, Reno, California, Oregon, and Washington. From here I’ll board a ship bound for Alaska. (That will make forty-seven states.) Then, in August, I’ll drive down the coast from the Olympic Peninsula, through Oregon, and down the coast of California, before cutting across from LA to Las Vegas. The redwoods, the beaches, the beauties.
By that time, I expect I’ll have an idea for the next great book, whether it is a Nathan Everett literary book or a Devon Layne erotic tale.
Lest you become concerned, I want to say that my new pacemaker is working flawlessly, I’m now on fewer drugs of less potency, and I’m feeling great. This is not my farewell message!
I expect to return to writing this fall, stronger, more inspired, and I admit, a little poorer than I am today. As is usual, I have twenty-something half-baked ideas in my files and I’m sure one or more of them will finally jump up and declare it’s time to finish baking.
In the meantime, I want to direct you to the stories I have still running at StoriesOnline (authors aroslav and Wayzgoose), and the library of stories I have available on my personal author sites for Devon Layne and Nathan Everett. I’ll be doing some cleanup on those sites and updating with current information. Stay tuned!
My life story continues to be about appreciating the journey without thought for the destination. At the same time, I support marginalized people of all sorts—whether it be old men, the disabled, the homeless, veterans with PTSD, immigrants, gender queer persons, women, children, the abused, those racially discriminated against, or those threatened by the loss of fundamental rights—which probably includes you.
Though I have long since woken up from my time under indoctrination, I still recognize the personal wisdom in the New Testament verse: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” The rights of all suffer when the rights of the few are diminished. We cannot ‘give’ rights to one person at the expense of others. We can only give them power to ignore our rights.
I have made it to the Pacific Northwest where the temperature is significantly lower than the 116 expected in Las Vegas this week. I just hope my trailer doesn’t melt while I’m gone. Next week, I’m sure I’ll come up with some new meanderings of my mind to share with you. Until then…
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
