The Visitor to Incel World Is Now Free On Amazon Through May 15

Get It For Free At This Link

It's an alternate world science fiction novel, I'm making it a free promo for a few days, hopefully it will draw readers to the sequel, "The Love Invasion" in which one alternate world attempts to stave off war with another. Here's da blurb on "The Visitor From Incel World:"

Ariana Heppelwhite was a promising Gender Studies grad student at Lacy Swanson College for Women in Bayport, Massachusetts. She had actually written a paper describing three hitherto unknown forms of nanoaggression! She was on track for getting a professorship and a actual job with a real salary and all the perks, maybe even tenure eventually.

Ariana had even met an unexpectedly charming incel (a phrase she had never expected to think, much less say) while doing research on incels for a grant she had. Sure, she'd done some nasty academic infighting that had an athletic department coach looking for her scalp over a transmale gaze incident, but overall, things were coming up roses for Ariana.

Then it happened. Ariana got caught in a freak physics accident while running from the gym coach, and was transported to an alternate world. And it was the exact WRONG world for a Gender Studies feminist to be transported to. It was full of women who walked around naked in public and wore collars engraved with “Property of (their significant other)” and who LOVED their collars -- and who seemed to think Ariana was a barbarian from a violent place.

And the thing was, they were all nice people, and calm people, and they just might be right about Ariana. Even more of a thing was that some not-so-nice Collar Land people thought Ariana's world represented such a threat that they should kill her for security reasons.

Will Ariana ever make it back to good old Earth from Collar Land? Will she learn to adjust to these very strange people or will she subvert their entire society? Will the not-nice people kill her? And what about that unexpectedly charming incel?

All these questions and more will be answered -- all you have to do is read this topnotch science fiction comedy!

Two Great Books About Feminists On Alternate Worlds

So, I noticed that Annalee Newitz, one of the founders of IO9, has written a science fiction novel about feminists engaged in a war with misogynists over control of their timeline. Feminists on alternate worlds, gee, sounds familiar ... wonder where I've encountered that before? Oh, right, I just wrote a book with the exact same theme (though a very different approach).

Of course, Annalee Newitz is someone with a little name recognition, and her book is being published by a traditional publisher with all sorts of marketing clout, whereas I am an unknown outside a circle of deeply disturbed fans (Go, fans!) an indie publisher whose only marketing clout is his wits, which is to say, virtually none.

So I decided to emulate traditional publishers and hitch my wagon to a star! (I mean, really, I don't know HOW many publishers announced that THEIR darling's latest magnum opus romance with just barely enough kink to it to even be noticeable was "The Next Fifty Shades of Gray." But I know it was practically all of them.)

So here's my latest publicity effort for my books. Note that I am promoting Newitz's book, too. Just bein' a stand-up guy:

Have you read The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz? (Sadly, not available on KU) It's about a group of brave feminists at war misognyists to control their timeline, protecting womankind from a future that makes “The Handmaid's Tale” look like a picnic.

Want another book about feminists on alternate worlds? Try The Visitor From Incel World by Barry Anderson, which is totally available on KU!

Thanks to Barry Anderson, you don't have to wait for Ms. Newitz to get around to writing a sequel. In “The Visitor From Incel World,” Ariana Heppelwhite, a gender studies grad student at Lacy Swanson Women's College, is caught in the aftermath of a physics experiment gone wrong and catapulted into another world, which she names Collar World because all the women in it run around naked except for their collars. And their cuffs. And their shackles.

Ariana finds this an alarming sort of world, and a confusing world. And the inhabitants feel the same way about her, with her tales of crazed incel rapist wannabes everywhere and child armies and constant warfare and sex and money being intertwined. Earth, which they named Incel World in honor of its bizarre sexual practices, frightens them. They fear invasion by the barbaric hordes of Incel World, and some of them, being very logical, decide that they should kill Ariana so she can't return to Incel World and tell them about Collar World!

Will Ariana survive? Can she change Collar World by teaching the women of Collar World how great it is to be equals with men in all things? And what about the surprisingly appealing incel (a phrase she ever expected to use) she met back in Bayport?

Only one way to find out: get the book … it's free on Kindle Unlimited. And if you haven't read “The Future of Another Timeline by Newitz, get it, too. You can't have too much mind-bending SF.

The Temple of the Collar

People who have done kinky RP on Second Life will recognize the term “Temple of the Collar.” Second Life is a virtual reality game, virtually all of whose objects and programming and  A group of Second Life builders got together and created collars and other bondage toys that share common Open Source scripts that allows people to cheaply and easily share their skills and toys for kinky RP, chief among which would be collars. Designers created all kinds of designs for collars, scripters created all kinds of scripts for collars and as a result they were able to offer them cheaply, and in some cases for free, to Second Life Rpers, making kinky RP a lot more user-friendly if you know what I mean, wink-wink nudge-nudge.

I didn't need the objects and scripts for Collar World, but I did borrow the name and the sense of generosity and inclusion for the Temple of the Collar. On Collar World, the Temple of the Collar serves as a social safety valve for those whose collars do not rest comfortably on their necks.

Some people will be misfits and will have a hard time in a relationship and feel the need to run away or “break a collar” which is the term for ending a personal collar relationship. At the Temple of the Collar, slaves without collars can get food, a place to sleep, safety and counseling, even a new collar of they want one. The Temple of the Collar collar allows a slave to recover until they want a new collar. Some slaves even take on a Temple collar permanently, finding it very comfortable.

The Temple shows up prominently in two of my stories, Collar Dread about a slavegirl who is fearful of the psychological changes created by collaring, and “The Visitor From Incel World” about a woman from Earth transported to Collar World by a physics experiment gone awry (which is still in editing).

Oh, did I mention the psychological aspects of collaring? Well, I did go into a lot of science fiction thinking there, too. Yet another blog post coming on that one.

The Visitor From Incel World: Questions for Beta Readers

I've had The Visitor from Incel World posted to Wattpad for about a week and I've had almost 50 reads. Yay!

And 0 feedback from beta readers. Boo!

In thinking about why this might be so, it occurred to me that it would be intelligent of me to have some specific questions for beta readers to answer. So I made up a list of eight questions. Well, each question has sub-questions, but I don't expect every beta reader to answer every question, they're mostly just to jog readers' memories and to let them know what information I'll find useful, and change the story for.

Here are those questions, and here's the link to "The Visitor from Incel World" in case you want to give it a read.

1. General impression -- was the book a fast read? Was it a slog? Did you like it? Was it a fun read or did it bore you? That kind of thing.
2. Pacing. Did some sections just zip along, while others were a slog? If so, which sections were a slog?
3. Plot: do you feel the story resolved itself nicely? Were any major plot points left hanging other than those that were obviously intentionally left hanging? (Writing the sequel right now!) Were there any cases of idiot plot, where the plot will only work if someone does something really stupid?
4. Characters -- were the characters appealing and interesting? Were they realistic? Did they do some things that were obviously stupid and/or out of character?
5. Setting -- Was Collar World interesting? Did you wind up wanting to know more about it? Did everything seem consistent?
6. Craftsmanship -- Were there enough spelling or grammar errors to annoy you or make some passages difficult to read? Were there any particularities of style, such as using “slavegirl” instead of “slave girl” that were an issue for you?
7. Humor -- were the parts that were supposed to be funny actually funny? Did the humor make you laugh or at least smile? Was it out of place in some scenes? Did it detract from the dramatic tension of the story?
8. Sex -- Collar World is a very different place, sexually, where everyone is kinky and has no problem with public nudity or public sex. I tried to keep it from being too “in your face” but I also wanted to give Ariana something to react to. I also wanted it to give an otherworldly feel to Collar World. Did you generally find this successful? Or unsuccessful? Were there any aspects of the sexiness that you liked/disliked?

Thanks for reading “The Visitor from Incel World.” I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for any input you can provide. We all want better books out there, you might be the one whose comment makes a difference in this case.

Beta Readers Wanted for "The Visitor From Incel World"

Or, “Stop me before I fuck up again!” *The Visitor from Incel World* is completed and is now ready for beta readers. A beta reader is somebody who reads an author's book before it is published and lets them know about any problems they find.

Generally it's something more specific than “This book sucks!” more like, “The section was kinda dull” or “Why the fuck did the hero do THAT?” Or, “I completely lost my suspension of disbelief when X happened” or “that bit that was supposed to be funny was not really funny.”

I'm sure you've read a book or watched a movie or TV show and had these kinds of thoughts – well, here's your chance to make them count, to actually help the author to solve the problem before it goes to print.

If you are interested in beta reading, it's very easy: I have the current version of “Visitor from Incel World” published here on Wattpad. Just go there, read the story, and tell me what you think, either commenting here on this subreddit or via direct message, however works for you.

And don't worry about hurting my feelers with any comments or criticisms. I worked as an editor for over a decade. I'm not thin-skinned. Thick and leathery would probably be a better description.

Dodging Pitfalls On The Road To Aquibonya

I have finished the cover art for my erotic gamelit harem fantasy adventure, “The Road to Aquibonya.” It was initially conceived as a fantasy about a slavegirl who could give any owner who fucked her immortal youth by returning him to age 26. (That's roughly the point at which your brain stops developing, generally considered the attainment of full physical maturity. Mental maturity is a different matter – demonstrably, many never attain it.)

I eventually decided it would be more interesting and fun to have an entire race of slavegirls who could bestow this benefit on their owners. A single slavegirl who can do this is just a MacGuffun. A whole race of slavegirls who can do this are a commodity! I play with this idea a bit and also introduce a potential penalty clause for owning such girls into the story. You can read it to find out what it is. Let's just say it keeps our male protagonist busy.

The male protagonist is another bit of characterization where I play off a favorite character. In this case, it's the typical Roger Zelazny protagonist – very capable, very powerful, sometimes an actual god, but male but also very human and very much a worldly-wise smartass. He was a refreshing change from the usual windbags you got in fantasy stories back in the day.

The real challenge with writing a Zelazny style protagonist is capturing the combination of power and smartassitude without creating a Marty Stu. I'm not saying Zelazny's protagonists are Marty Stus, Zelazny had a way of making them relatable without nerfing them, but for us mere mortal writers, it's difficult. I gave it a shot, with some surprises about the character as the story develops.

I guess you'll have to read it to discover those surprises. I plan to have it out early this week, mid-week at the latest. Meanwhile, it's full charge on finishing “Conquest of Incel World” and marketing “The Visitor from Incel World.”

"Conquest of Incel World" Goes Nero Wolfe!

 I'm getting back on the track of “Conquest of Incel World” the exciting sequel to “The Visitor From Incel World.” I'm enjoying this one a lot because I had some fun with the main characters.

I've long been a fan of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novels, you see. Stout was an incredible writer. His prose style was smooth as silk. He got away with a lot of flaws in plotting because his books were a pleasure to read and his characters were some of the most engaging people in fiction.

Chief among those is Archie Goodwin, assistant and chief flunkie to the great detective Nero Wolfe. It's an open secret that Archie is the real appeal of the Nero Wolfe novels. He's the everyman through which we see Wolfe and the parade of familiar and fantastic characters that move through Wolfe's office in the course of a story. Goodwin is smart, sharp and would undoubtedly be a successful detective on his own if he wasn't in thrall to Wolfe's genius. He also has a cynical appreciation of Wolfe's flaws, because in addition to being a genius, Wolfe is lazy. Really fucking lazy, like “won't work until he's about to get thrown out of his comfy New York City brownstone” lazy. And Archie understands that perhaps his most important job is prodding Wolfe into working when he needs to. Goodwin understand that he's definitely a second banana intellectually to Wolfe (along with practically everyone else) but that he has qualities that Wolfe needs to be successful.

Well I think that with just a LITTLE bit of tweaking, Archie would make an EXCELLENT bratty slavegirl. His gender would have to change, but that attitude: perfect! Respect combined with cynical knowledge of the Master's flaws. Or in this case, Mistresses' flaws. Because of course Wolfe's gender has to change, too.

Except that I thought I'd make Wolfe asexual. In the Rex Stout novels, Wolfe is heterosexual but celibate by choice, fearing the effects that sexual passion has on him. (Wolfe's got a bit of a control dysfunction, too, I kept that for my version.)

At this point you may think my approach to characterization may be very similar to Jerry Lewis' approach to sculpture in The Bellboy. And I can't blame you. But I had fun with it, and I created a couple of interesting characters in Moxie Maven (aka Archie Goodwin) and Nitro Wilde (Nero Wolfe). Moxie is Nitro's slavegirl, but it's strictly a business collar, as Nitro is asexual. Moxie would fuck Nitro in a heartbeat, but she's not dying to have sex with Nitro, she's just a free use girl at heart, hence will do anyone she can hook up with. Just like Archie Goodwin, she's promiscuous, but she's got good taste.

Oh, there's also a plot about the invasion and conquest of Incel World, as it's known on Collar World (or Earth as we call it) mixed in there. And Moxie and Nitro will be squaring off with a team of agents from the CIA's Exceptional Cases Department, Felix Munger and Diana Stark. They do mostly paranormal casework, and they get called in on the Collar World (as Moxie and Nitro's timeline is called on our Earth) because although it's not strictly speaking paranormal, it is WEIRD, and Munger and Stark know their weird.

(And if you are thinking that Munger and Stark sound a lot like a certain Mulder and Scully … bingo!)

So, yes, I'm having great fun with my characters. Hopefully, readers will, too.

"Incel World" Explained

Cover for "The Visitor to Incel World." Barry Anderson is a psedonym. Explanation forthcoming soon.

“Road to Aquibonya” is finished and will be working on editing it today. This may seem amazing to you, but I proofread my stories three times before I publish them. Yes, and still mistakes get through. Sigh. But not nearly as many as used to get through.

Once I get through with editing “Road to Aquibonya in a day or two, it will be time to return to writing “Conquest of Incel World,” the non-awaited sequel to “Visitor from Incel World.” “Conquest of Incel World,” is non-awaited because I haven't published “Visitor” yet, so how could people be waiting for the sequel when they haven't read the original?

I'm eager to get cranking on “Conquest” though, but more about that later. I should probably explain what “Incel World” is. “Incel World” is what the inhabitants of Collar World call Earth … us, in short. They call Earth “Incel World” because their only contact with Earth has been through a feminist graduate student from a New England women's college, and so their understanding of Earth is filtered through her biases and perceptions.

You see, the Collar World books were the product of a thought experiment, which was initiated after some online discussions in the Sex Positive discussion group on Reddit, where I observed that real sex positivism was hard to even conceive of, because being raised in our current sex-negative culture, we all feel that strain of sex-negativism even when we strive to be sex-positive. It's like a constant cold wind blowing in from offshore, that you constantly have to lean against whenever you go outside. You get used to it, maybe you don't really feel it, but it's there, always.

So I thought about what it might be like to live in a world where everyone was kinky and sex-positive, and thus was born Collar World. I've got four stories published set in Collar World, an alternate world where everyone is kinky and sex positive and having a very good time, thankyewverymuch.

But after writing four stories set in Collar World, all of them erotica with strong science fiction themes, it occurred to me that much of the effect of Collar World was being lost because everyone took all the very strange goings-on for granted. If I wanted to get the contrast between Collar World and Earth as we know it to the max, I needed to bring in a character who could see Collar World through Earth eyes.

And thus was born “The Visitor from Incel World.” But when I wrote the story, something strange happened. I'll save that for tomorrow, though. Enough blathering for today.