With the novel coming out 5 years after the first version appeared, this blog is still receiving traffic referred from previous versions. If you are one of these readers, I want to say welcome.
A lot has changed from that first version:
WHAT GOT REMOVED.
12 Days got reduced to 11 Days. While it seems that I threw out a lot of content, I did. But that content really was repetitive or didn't advance the story. For example Officer Blakley's boy and his pajamas are gone. His character and subplot did nothing for the Dan/Tate story. I barely even remember what that was all about. In fact the two days at the rest area got condensed into one, with the key points remaining. Most of the rest area sex scenes also got a severe trimming; that original orgy scene was so tedious and very repetitious. It got trimmed, and the key points are still there. One of the benefits is that the pacing is very fluid, without compromising Dan's sexual exploration.
Excessive Raunchiness. About half way through writing the story, I switched the focus of the story from one sexual taboo after another to one where the focus is on Dan connecting with Tate through the sex. It was at this point, even in the original version that the story really took off. The problem is that there was all this pig raunchy extreme sex at the beginning that didn't connect with the second half. So, a fair portion of it (mostly the repetitive excessiveness) is gone. What is left has been enhanced. It's still raunchy, and the sex club scene has been expanded.
Poor Grammar. I hired someone to edit my story to help eliminate grammatical errors, and good lord, I needed that assistance.
WHAT GOT INCLUDED.
Tate gets his own flashback. I needed to show more of Tate's manipulation, so I added a flashback scene between Tate, a Dominatrix, and a Colonel. That was fun, as I has a dominatrix reader assisting me with keeping it authentic.
Joe's life story got swapped out. Joe's coming of age story was too similar to Tard's. Tard's was more important as it involved Tate. So Joe's had to change. I added a much darker backstory one that allows Joe to be a better mentor to Dan, while adding to the slow building dark undertone to the story.
The tentpole scenes got expanded. I always felt that the story was built around four scenes: The fire pit, the sex club, the office, and returning home. Each one of those four scenes were expanded to make them more intense to increase the excitement.
Finally, THERE IS AN EPILOGUE!
Basically I added to the areas that readers have inquired on.
While the essence of the story is the same, it has been trimmed in the excessive and irrelevant portions and expanded in the areas to provide more of what many readers want—more about Dan and Tate. That's what makes this novel stand apart from most S&M stories.
NET RESULTS.
With a bunch of cuts and new material included, the end result is about the same in word count, with a difference of approximately 5%. Considering that over 20% was changed, there's a lot of new material to enjoy.
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