I saw a kid at work with a shirt proclaiming he was from a school for young writers. Stopped to talk to him, saying "You're a creative writer? Good for you. Go for it, and more power to you!" Afterwards, I felt that I should have given him some bit of advice or something, but didn't have anything to say at the time. So, here's what I should have said...

If you want to be a writer, then write what you want to read. Write what inspires or excites you; take inspiration from your life, your interests, and anything that pulls at your heartstrings. Write what transforms you and makes you a better person.
There may be some times when you have to work at a boring job so you can pay the bills. This can be a great source of inspiration by exposing you to other people and experiences, and giving time to let your ideas percolate and mature.
Your artistic time will come. Keep writing, don't give up on that dream. The more you practice, the more your personal touch will shine out of your work.
These days, a lot of people are worried about computers that can make a semi-decent chunk of text in seconds; no matter how good computers may get, they will never be able to copy the events, emotional connections, and personal choices of your life. Use your unique perspective and viewpoint on the world; those are your stories to tell.

And, I think that this may well be applicable for other forms of art as well, just swap "drawing" or similar in place of "writing" as necessary. Best wishes, wherever your creativity may take you!

Coronavirus, AKA COVID-19, is out there, and spreading around the globe. So, these are a few health and safety reminders, to hopefully help slow the spread of disease, and to help keep you, your families, and everyone you come in contact with, safe and healthy. Share this around!

* WASH YOUR HANDS!! Hot water and antibacterial/antiseptic handsoap can go a LONG way in curtailing the spread of disease. You should wash your hands any time you return home, before eating anything, after using the bathroom, Etc. Another big point is to wash your hands after touching money, door handles, and anything else that other people touch frequently. Money is one of the best vectors for disease transmission that people encounter every day, and same goes for credit card terminals, ATMs, and similar.
* Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze. This helps prevent the spread of disease. Cough or sneeze into your elbow, a handkerchief, or anything else that will stop your saliva, mucus, and similar from getting around. DON'T cough or sneeze into your hands--that will just spread disease to whatever you touch.
* Make sure your food is well washed and-or cooked as needed. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.
* If you are feeling at all sick, or showing symptoms, stay home from work and public places wherever possible. Even if you're feeling fine and dandy, stay away from optional public spaces (sports events, the gym, eating out, Etc.).
* Eat healthy, exercise, and keep your body in good shape. This won't prevent you from getting or spreading diseases, but it can help you live through them and fight them off.
* Pay attention to government-issued warnings, guidelines, and other health and safety directions.

None of those are really specific to COVID-19, and they should all be common knowledge. However, just as a reminder, have a good look at the above. I've been looking at a lot of stuff about Flat Earthers, Anti-Vaxxers, and other people who don't believe in science, the germ theory of disease, and so on and so forth. From that, I don't have a very high opinion of the intelligence of human society as a whole.

Let me be clear:
* when it comes to disease, the shape of the Earth doesn't matter (It's a sphere).
* Science is real, vaccines and medicine are meant to prevent and treat disease
* It doesn't matter that you can't see viruses or bacteria with your human eyeballs, they exist, they cause disease, they are everywhere, and washing your hands and covering your coughs and sneezes can help stop them from getting around.
* I don't care what your religious beliefs are, as long as you and they aren't hurting others. However, denying the existence of viruses and bacteria, denying modern science and medicine, or ignoring good sanitary practices because "God/Allah/Flying Spaghetti Monster/Cthulhu/Essential oils and homeopathy/Etc. will protect!"--That is hurting you, and others. STOP IT.
* Same goes for if you believe that "disease is natural, we should just let things happen". WRONG. Modern technology has granted us access to clean drinking water, soap and other disease-busting substances, and other weapons in the age-old fight against disease; USE THEM. Or, if you really believe that we shouldn't fight disease because it's "natural", then please give your share of modern sanitation, medicine, vaccination, and similar to someone in the third world who will appreciate it every day of their now-longer life.
* If you believe that we should roll over and let disease devastate the world population because 7+ Billion people is "too many" or "death is natural", one, wrong again, every human life is precious. And two, please get off the internet and instead get first in line for "adjusting" the world's population downwards (again, by trading your clean drinking water, modern medicine, and so forth, for unsanitary, unhealthy, primitive conditions. Give the clean drinking water and life-saving modern amenities to someone who needs and values them if you don't).
* COVID-19 and other diseases aren't a conspiracy by "Big Pharma" and world government(s ). They are real, they are a threat, take them seriously. Preventative medicine (including hand washing and vaccination) costs less than curing and treating a disease, and is more effective at beating that disease back. Therefore, someone who wanted to curb global population and bring back diseases that were on the verge of being eradicated would find the best way would be to fan the flames of the Anti-Vax movement, spreading baseless arguments on the internet to get people to stop believing in germs, medicine, and science. Don't be a tool--vaccinate, wash your hands, Etc.

Sorry for ranting a bit. Please share this around, along with any other safety suggestions that I may have missed.

And, most importantly of all: I will be praying against the spread of coronavirus, and for the recovery of those who've caught it. I ask you all to do the same. I am a Christian, I believe that God is real and that He is more powerful than any disease. I also believe that science works, and that God helps those who take common sense steps to help themselves and those around them, as outlined above.

Stay safe, stay healthy, God Bless.

Hey all! My awesome girlfriend, @Cassybabyfur, has been buying Christmas gifts for a lot of folks, and as such she is trying to build up some funds for that. So, she is offering flat colored headshot icons at half the usual price, and plenty of other commissions besides!

Go check out her pages https://www.deviantart.com/cassybabyfur/ https://www.furaffinity.net/user/cassybabyfur
and her commission info, https://www.deviantart.com/cassybab.....-off-823668897 https://www.furaffinity.net/view/33083225/
and get some great and cute art, maybe as a Christmas, Hannukkah, and-or New Year's present for someone you know!

She also does art streams fairly regularly, so be sure and keep an eye out for those. She will announce them on her pages when she's doing them, and you can find those streams at https://picarto.tv/cassysdoodles

Merry Christmas to all you folks, and go get yourself (or a friend or family member!) some cute art at great prices!!

Okay, so rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated. I'm fine. But, jeez it has been ages since I updated--anything. Sorry about that.

So! As things stand right now:

Hitchhiking Horses Ch. 31 and 32 are in the works...slowly. I had an idea for what I wanted to do on 31, wrote it, expanded it...and then it was only about 2500 words, which is about half what I usually try to do for a chapter. So...I don't know what to do about that. 32 and even a bit beyond is written, at least mostly, but I'm not happy with it either.

Life is chaotic, on account of my quitting a full-time job and trying to start a freelance writing job online which has been...slow and frustrating. Maybe I should have waited until I had that lined up before quitting my other job, but I was so sick and tired of said full time corporate nonsense job that I just needed to get the heck OUT of there. I don't regret it.

Other than trying not to melt in the summer heat, and trying to get my freelancing off the ground, I've also been doing a very extensive RP with a bro of mine from over on DeviantArt that I reconnected with after losing touch with him for a few years. Super cool guy, and in just a few months, he and I have pumped out more story than the ENTIRETY of Hitchhiking Horses that I've got written, including the stuff I haven't posted here yet because it's from WAY further ahead in the story and wouldn't make any sense without all the extra context.
(Said DeviantArt bro is also a big fan of Hitchhiking Horses, and has been giving me some helpful commentary to possibly put into earlier chapters)

So, I'm not dead. Hitchhiking Horses is still slowly crawling along, when I can find the time and creative energy. If you want to toss some suggestions my way, there's a https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8829152/ journal all about that. I'm also thinking about maybe taking Hitchhiking and my other stories to Patreon or similar, so I can start making money off them. Let me know what you think of that idea!

Cheers!

Okay, if you've read and enjoyed my Hitchhiking Horses series, this is a journal for you. I have a few ideas left in my current pile, but I'm also opening the floor to suggestions. So, what do you want to see next? Toss out a sentence or three, or even just a few words.

I could also really use title suggestions for these pieces, particularly 15 and 23 since those don't even have chapter titles. I am terrible at naming things and titles are the worst, so these are just something I can slap on there to be a little more distinct than numbers. Any posted piece is fully up for title revision if someone suggests something better than what I already put there.

I can't promise that I'll incorporate all suggestions. If your suggestion is outside the range of kinks I enjoy, or outside the nature of these characters (Sierra turning abusive, for instance, or Azimuth/Lorianne taking a dominant role), it's not going to happen. It's nothing personal if your suggestion doesn't get used.

Things that DEFINITELY won't fit in this story:
-Snuff
-Gore
-Abuse (Unless you have an idea for a flashback to the facility that might be worth exploring)
-Mutilation
-Scat/watersports
-Breathplay
-Probably a few others that I can't think of right now. "I'll know it when I see it" kind of thing.

Other than the above, suggest away! Your suggestions can be themes, scenes, maybe new characters to bump into (Or ways to bring back old favorites?), Etc.
It doesn't just have to be for upcoming parts of the story, either--suggest revisions, fixes, or retcons; point out artists I could commission to draw this crew on my meager budget, or favorite moments you want to see rather than just read about.

I look forwards to hearing from you folks about where you want this story, cast of characters, and world to go!

Okay, we are moving into the hottest months of the year (in the north hemisphere anyway), so I thought I would share some tips for staying cool and beating the heat. These can be lifesavers! Heat exhaustion and heatstroke are very real and very deadly; don't let you or your loved ones be a part of that statistic for how many people die due to overheating every year. Please share this around--everyone needs to see it, as a matter of safety.

First and most importantly is to stay hydrated. I worked as staff at day camp in the summer, and the rule there was "drink water
-every time you change activities
-every time you walk further than you can throw something
-every time you feel thirsty, cranky, frustrated, tired, hungry, or your face is red
-every time you go to the bathroom, especially if you can't pee or your urine is dark colored rather than clear
-if you're sweaty
-if you aren't sweating but feel hot
-if you run out of spit
-if you can't remember the last time you had a drink
-if you aren't thinking clearly
-if you feel fine for no reason after being miserable and too hot (This is one of the signs of heatstroke--your brain is so fried it suddenly can't take it anymore and pumps out endorphins and other "I feel fine" chemicals. http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/962640-this-is-fine NO IT IS NOT FINE, YOU ARE DYING OF HEATSTROKE!!!)
-Etc.
-If you don't feel thirsty, it doesn't matter, drink a mouthful or two of water anyway. It's almost impossible to drink too much water."
It's a guideline meant for kids, but it works just as well for adults. Water is best for hydration, with electrolyte drinks on occasion to help replenish what you sweat out. Soda, coffee, energy drinks, and anything with added sugar is BAD. Metabolizing sugar costs your body more water than you get from a soda, and caffeine further depletes your body's reserves of fluid. Drink more water than anything else.

As a matter of safety, NEVER leave children or pets unattended in a parked car, unless it's somewhere that it will not get any sunshine like inside a parking garage. Even if you think you're only going to be a minute, DO NOT leave a living thing in a car that the sun can quickly turn into an oven. Leaving the windows on your car open partway (at least three finger widths) can help some, but it's not always enough. You don't want to come back to find your little one (human, canine, or otherwise) cooked. Wherever possible, bring them with you.

Look up the symptoms of heatstroke and heat exhaustion, and learn first aid for both. If you, or anyone you see, is suffering those symptoms, COOL OFF. Hydrate, get somewhere cooler, whatever it takes. Often, people suffering heatstroke, dehydration, and similar don't feel hot, or thirsty, and they'll be irritable when you suggest that they're not doing as well as they think they are. Too much heat makes the brain start to shut down--if you are even a little dehydrated or heat exhausted, you are not thinking at your best, and it will only get worse if you don't cool yourself down and get some fluids immediately.

Another way to stay cool is to soak cloths in water, stick them in your fridge or a cooler, then when you need them, you can wrap one around each wrist and one around your neck, touching the skin. When the side towards your skin warms up, flip them around so the other side is against your skin. Cooling the blood vessels at your wrists and neck will have a profound cooling effect throughout the body. If you really want to go all out, you can also wrap another soaked and chilled cloth around your waist, touching the skin and uncovered so that any stray breeze will help the evaporation process.

You can also take a bit of fabric (something thin and not too stretchy) and that water-absorbing gel used for potted plants (Sodium polyacrylate, also called water beads, potting beads, there's a bunch of names for them). Make a long, thin tube out of the fabric, and then stitch across it to divide it into a series of compartments, with just a few of the dry beads in each compartment. The beads absorb a lot of water and expand dramatically in size, so put only as much dry beads in each compartment as it takes to fill it when soaked. My family has a couple of these with about 10 inches of empty fabric on the end, then three sections, each about 6 inches long with water beads, then another ten inches of fabric. The empty ends act as ties, and the filled sections make a nice cooling scarf. The gel-filled sections are about 6 inches long and an inch and a half in diameter when soaked, and when dry there's only a spoonful worth of the beads. A little really goes a long way.

If my directions aren't clear, or you don't want to hassle with sewing, you can look up "cooling scarf" or "gel cooling scarf" on Google. There are ones you can buy, and instructions for making your own. They are life-savers when it comes to beating the heat!

If your house doesn't have air conditioning, try these handy tips to keep it cool:
-During the day, keep everything closed up; at night, open everything and set up fans to get a breeze going through. (Air in one side, out the other; don't try to have air going two ways through the same window, it doesn't work.) Work with your local weather, rather than trying to fight with those existing outdoor breezes
-Put up white or light-colored curtains in any windows that let sunshine in. If you can hang said curtains outside the windows, it's even better, since it will block the sun's heat before it gets through your windows.
-There are plenty of cheap, easy ways to put bug screen over your doorways, including bug curtains that keep insects outside where they belong, but easily part to let people or pets through.
-Look up a DIY swamp cooler or other improvised AC method. It's amazing what you can do with a slab of ice, a bucket, a fan, a drill or cutting tool, and some duct tape.
-To keep yourself cool, even if your house isn't, try going to the lower floors, which will hopefully be a little cooler since hot air rises. You can also create a "cloud bubble"--take a large bedsheet, tape one edge to the frame of a fan, and weigh down the other edges. When you turn on the fan, the sheet should inflate to a small den with a nice breeze blowing through, just big enough for you to lay down in and read a book. Combine this with a DIY swamp cooler for even more concentrated chill.

Have a safe, fun summer, and don't let the heat keep you inside. Please share this journal around--you may think it's just common sense, but there are far too many people who don't know these guidelines or don't follow them well.