A Little Comeback?

I haven't posted in a long time. I haven't written in a long time. And I haven't published anything in nearly two years. I'm not that far away from being able to publish, but the creative juices for balloon-fetish fiction have been running a little dry lately.

Part of this is, no doubt, due to the lack of actual balloon activity in my life recently, just because of circumstances and life getting in the way, and not for any sinister reasons.

But another part is that I'm running low on ideas. I know that there are lots of permutations on this fetish of ours, but the problem is that only a limited number of them turn me on. And while I supposed it shouldn't be too hard to write on a subject that isn't in my sexual comfort zone, I'm not sure if the end product will be of interest to anyone who doesn't share my narrow interests.

That said, I'm giving it a go anyway. I'm writing some stories involving popping methods that are actually a turn-off for me, while trying to imagine how they might be a turn-on for someone else. Not that I'm really trying to get in the head of the character in this case (these are quick fantasies, not full-blown—sorry—short stories); but I'm hoping that I've framed the events so that they are a turn-on for a reader so inclined.

So I'm taking a risk, just to get past the writer's block, and maybe it will stimulate some ideas for the other book, the one that will actually contain short stories, with richer characters and, yes, some non-popping stories.

It will still take awhile, and I'm grateful to those of you who have stuck with me this long.

Shaping Up

It's been a long time coming, I know. I released my last book in October of 2015. I started writing a new collection of stories almost immediately. But 2016 brought a lot of family health issues, and (on the happier side) a lot of other, non-balloon-related writing assignments, and so the stories came in bits and pieces.

But recently I've been able to pick up the pace. I could say that I have enough material for another collection. But I'm not ready to publish yet. Why?

Because, as I said when I started the new stories, I'm actually assembling two different books. And now that I've been doing it, off and on, for more than a year, I can tell you that they are, indeed, two very different books.

One collection, I had originally said, was much like the first. But I no longer think that's true. Yes, I have realistic people whose characters I'm exploring. Yes, the situations are plausible. But I haven't limited myself to chasing after erotic satisfaction in these stories. I find myself exploring more about the emotions and tribulations involved with having an unusual fetish, and some of the emotional issues that aren't even really fetish-related; some of the stories don't even have happy endings.

Some readers might not feel comfortable with these stories. Some may be looking for a quick thrill, stroke material, to be quite honest.

And that's where the other book comes in. It's pure "I wish this had happened to me in real life" fiction, without much character development, without necessarily spending a lot of effort at being realistic, without a lot of set-up or denouement. This is a book for someone who just wants to get his rocks off.

Yes, his, because these fantasies are most likely to appeal to a male balloon fetishist, since that's what I am, and that's what I most like to write. And I have to warn you that there are no non-popping stories in the book. My apologies to the non-poppers. I know how you feel, honestly, but my mind just didn't go there this time.

When I had collected enough stories for each of the two collections, I will publish them, but after that I think I may be taking a break from the anthologies for awhile. For other non-balloon-related projects, of course. But, just maybe, to also concentrate some attention on the sequel to Blowing It!

No promises on that one, but some ideas have finally been coming to me, after a recent re-reading of the original, and so I'm certainly considering it. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy my new stories when they come up, sometime this year, likely before summer is done.

Welcome the New Year

Another year underway. Of course, I'm hoping that it will include more balloons than last year, and more chances for some erotic play with balloons.

I know that I have a good head start on my other balloon-related goal for the year: to publish two new books of short stories. I've already mentioned what they are, so I'm not giving away any surprises. I just wanted to let you know that I am making progress.

On the stories. On the erotic play? We'll see how that works out.

Collected

Well, I've finally got it done. The collected balloon fetish short stories of Tim Popper are now available as a single volume, and I've got to say, it's a great deal. The Kindle version is only six dollars, and you can get a printed copy for only $11 (and it's eligible for free shipping for orders over $35).

If you want to get a good preview. the "look inside" feature on Amazon (only working for the Kindle edition as of this writing, but the print preview will come along soon) will give you a good taste of the collection. The book is long enough that you can read the entire first story, a flash fiction piece called Trust, in the preview, and see a good portion of my new story Popping In.

Right now the print and Kindle editions are showing up in search listings separately, but I've contacted customer service and it should be resolved very soon (CreateSpace has great customer service). Once that happens, I'll include links to the new book on the sidebar of this blog.

Because I now have all of these stories available as a collection, which is definitely the most economical way to get them, I will probably stop promoting the individual short stories here and on Twitter, and concentrate on trying to tell people about the book. But I'll still keep them available separately as Kindle books for those who want them ala carte.

I've got lots of housekeeping work to do on the publishing side, so I won't be that visible on social media for a little while. But I'll be back.

Meanwhile, enjoy the stories, and many happy balloons.

Consolidating

Electronic publishing is definitely overtaking publishing on paper, at least according to my sales figures, and so I will soon be retiring the paperback versions of my short stories. Blowing It! will still be available in print, but nothing shorter than around 20,000 words will be published in any format but Kindle.

That said, I am going to offer a "box set" collection of my three short stories, which will include at least two new stories, sometime in the month of September. One of the new stories will also be available separately on Kindle, but there will be at least one flash fiction story, and maybe one or two others, exclusive to the collection.

And for those few of you who prefer something you can hold in your hand, annotate, dog-ear, and easily lend, the collection will also be available in paperback.

As an aside, I have not forgotten about the Tilly balloons, which are coaxing me from my bedside drawer; I just have had zero time alone all summer, and I'm just waiting for the chance to give one a try.

Pulling Back

As I mentioned in an earlier post, writing balloon fetish stories is not what I do for a living. And what I do to put food on the table is now taking much more of my time. And so compromises are in order.

I will still be writing balloon stories; I love them too much to let that go. But my social media presence is about to get much smaller.

Before the month of July is out, I will have deleted my Facebook account, and with it the mostly-inactive page for Blowing It!

I am not leaving Facebook because of any mistreatment; it's just taking too much time and attention. I will also be bowing out of Pinterest and my practically non-existent presence on Goodreads and Library Thing.

So, where can you continue to find out about my new stories as they appear? Twitter is still a good bet, and this blog will still be around. You can also check my Amazon author page from time to time. And I check my email every day.

I want to thank everyone who's friended and followed me over the last few years since the publication of Blowing It! And I hope that you'll keep up with me.

And, of course, I wish you many lovely balloons in the years to come, in whatever ways you most enjoy them.

The New Year

On New Year's Eve, of course, many a balloon fetishist's attention was focused on balloon fun. But that's only one night, and there's a whole new year coming up, and while I'd like to dream about it being a year filled with latex fun, the fact is that it will mostly be taken up by the day-to-day things I have to do to try and fulfill my goals.

In other words, this is a reminder, to my readers and perhaps to myself, that I am not just an author of balloon fetish stories. Like other fetishists, I'm just a regular guy with bills to pay and things I need to do to keep my family happy. And while I'd like to say that the balloon fantasies keep body and soul together (okay, maybe they help a little with the soul part), the fact is that balloon fetish stories will never put me on the bestseller list.

This is not to say that you won't be seeing any stories from me this year. In fact, I've outlined and entire book of them, as I've said before. It's just that this is not what I do for a living, and so, try as I might to keep a schedule for balloon fetish stories, those projects get bumped for paying work.

As you well know, there's more to life than balloons, and just as you can't spend all your waking hours playing with them, I can't spend all my time writing about them, even if I want to (and even writing about them is not much fun if I don't get time to play with them myself).

But the stories will come, and I'll be most appreciative when some of you out there care enough to spend a little of your time and money to read them.

“I Don’t Get It”

It seems that the most frequent comment I see about balloon fetishes from people who don’t have one is: “I don’t get it.”

I don’t know why balloon fetishes are any harder to “get” than any other fetish, but that’s not really the point. The point is that we shouldn’t expect anyone to “get” our fetish, or indeed any fetish, if they don’t have it.

Okay, maybe someone with a good imagination, or another fetish, might be able to see how we might relate to balloons. But really understanding how we feel? How could they?

We don’t even get each other sometimes. It’s not just the poppers not getting the non-poppers, either. I don’t get how anyone can be turned on by watching someone mass pop balloons with a pin. It’s a total turn-off for me, a waste of balloons I could pop in more intimate ways, and a lot of noise for nothing. I can intellectually understand how this could be a turn-on for someone else, but it will never make sense to me on an emotional level.

I also don’t get other fetishes. I accept them, at least those where no one gets hurt and everyone consents. But I don’t connect with them emotionally.

So, any effort on the part of us, the actual balloon fetishists, to get people to understand our feelings, much less share them, is probably a waste of time. Oh, I know, I’m guilty of it myself to a certain extent. I try to explain for the curious in my blog, and I’ve even been known to correct some misapprehensions among Twitter folk, but only if I think they actually give a damn.

But it’s an impulse thing, really. When I write my stories, I write them for people who have a balloon fetish, and perhaps for people who love someone who has a balloon fetish, for entertainment, and also to portray balloon fetishists as real people who have a life and feelings outside the fetish.

And, to be honest, in the tradition of writing what one knows, I write stories that reflect my fetish. Even my non-popping story (only one, but there might be another coming up) involves feelings I have about balloons despite the fact that I get sexual pleasure (and no other pleasure, really) from popping them. I’m not sure if I will even attempt a story featuring someone who’s into pin popping, or cigarettes, or stomping on balloons. By the same token, I’m unlikely to write a story about homosexual balloons fetishists. I just don’t know enough about it to do it justice.

Because although I can observe people whose fetishism, or sexual orientation, is different from my own and be accepting, understanding, friendly, and even loving, the truth is that I just don’t get it.

And I can be perfectly comfortable with that. Maybe it’s time we all were.