New stories on The Masque

Scamp's Lady by Bleu Mushroom 2 - Provocative
When you're a Colonial rebel, even going to the market place can be dangerous. Detained by the British, Deborah Morgan's healing skills bring her to the attention of Col. Kit Marshall. He wants those skills almost as much as he wants Deborah. She fights him almost as much as she fights her growing feelings for him. A murder that both of them feel compelled to solve complicates their private war, set against the historical events of the Revolutionary War in the South. Scamp's Lady finds that, even with peace, jealousy and greed provoke battles that could cost her her life.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1369
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Deluxe Glory Hole - Chapter 1 by Lover 4 - Wanton
Sometime popularity is a problem but Chuck may have foung a fun solution.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1368
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Men Are Like Cars by xpurrteez 4 - Wanton
A visitor gives lessons in sex to her neighbours. Beautiful Pia, an Internet sex star plans a 'sex free' holiday and ends up helping a virgin couple discover their sexual partnership and finds herself falling in love with an older man.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1367
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Strange Companion by Rajah Dodger 2 - Provocative
A couple having a lakeside tete-a-tete find their erotic endeavors observed and encouraged by an out-of-this-world observer
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1366
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Deja-Vu by patricia51 4 - Wanton
A murdered policewoman battles a demonic serial killer. Again. And again. And... Story contains serious violence and both M/F and F/F sex.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1365
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Bettyboop on webcam by Mag58 3 - Risqué
A woman gets hooked on exposing herself on webcam then an admirer from close to home enters her life.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1355
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Death of a Master by dweaver999 4 - Wanton
Death leaves a hole in all of us, a pain that never goes away. What happens, however, when a Master dies, leaving his slaves bereft of his control and guidance. Valerie Burbon and her friends come face to face with such trauma when death interupts the normal flow of their lives. How will the contend with the loss and pain that come? How will the slave herself, alone for the first time in years, deal with her unintended freedom? The death of a Master will touch all their lives.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1271
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The Burning Cross by bednhead69 1 - Conservative
Bothorn had known a fragile peace for the last thirty years under Crassious Thorn VI. But the warlord mage Aremen is building an army to reclaim his lands. It is up to Crassious three children to meet this threat and eleminate it once and for all, unless they kill each other first. But is Aremen the real threat, or just a prelude of things to come?
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1332
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Mistress of the Deep by WolfPupsSubmission 2 - Provocative
The leather burns
I gasp, twisting.
As it caresses,
Down my chest, and between my legs...
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1364
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Sweet Sin by WolfPupsSubmission 3 - Risqué
Dressed up in the clothes layed out, she is waiting, kneeling, when he walks through the door. She shivers when he circles her like a wolf and teaches her that the public isn't always a bad audience.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1363
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Sweet Agony by WolfPupsSubmission 3 - Risqué
Beyond the blindfold there is him...beyond him there is nothing, because his is my everything, as my body belongs to him.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1362&warning=3
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Angie's First Time by Saguaro 4 - Wanton
Angie does her best friend a last minute favor and ends up having a night she'll never forget.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1361
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Lunch by 1star 2 - Provocative
a girl takes lunch to her Master
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1360
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Grab Bag by Wystan Ephraim 2 - Provocative
Candy gives a special man a Valentine's treat.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1359&warning=6
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Aladdin and the Magic Lamp by Clvfan 4 - Wanton
An adult version of Disney's Aladdin. Contains the sex that Disney couldn't put in the kids movie, also extends beyond the marriage of Jasmine and Aladdin. Lets just say the Genie gets lucky.
http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1358&warning=4

oh, look, a blog

I'm not dead, just quiet. I still tweet - just thought o' the moment stuff, though folks were subjected to a small meltdown last week. Dane and I had to let our gal greyhound, Stelle, go. She broke her leg walking in the back yard in the morning. We took her home that night after a day at the vet - the preliminary diagnosis wasn't good. I spent the night with her - it was just horrible. he was in so much agony. The next day, Dane took her to a specialty vet on the other side of town who gave the same diagnosis - bone cancer. Instead of prolonging her agony, Dane and I decided not to bring her out of the sleep she had to be put in for her xrays. It was a sad decision but it was the right one.

The blonde is driving me crazy with her scattered brain and forgetfulness. I am not sure what to do anymore. I know she's ADD but I just don't want to medicate her. She is, in all ways, a silly little girl that I adore - well, without the pms.

Dane is still out of work *sighs*. It's been 9 months. Yeah. And that's all I have to say about that.

I read and saw the Twilight stuff. Yanno, it has it's suck but it also has many good things. Most of them revolve around Cedric Diggory, but, yanno. It isn't Potter, but it'll do until something better wanders along. *smirk*

I do promise to pay more attention to blogging. I, too, get forgetful, then, of course, guilty for being forgetful, inspiring self-loathing and dread to come in and admit to my shame and inattentiveness.

Featured Stories on The Masque and The WIKTT Archives

This month's Featured Stories on The Masque and The WIKTT Archives were all uploaded during the October contest for April Grey's book Northern Haunts. Enjoy them!

Hunter's Moon by mjbarbag Becky has a surprise one night at a friends house.

Exhibitionism, Heterosexual, Masturbation, Voyeurism

http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1351&ageconsent=ok&warning=6

Bettyboop on webcam by Mag58

A woman gets hooked on exposing herself on webcamExhibitionism

http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1355

Pizza Please by LoverParent's restrictions some time back fire.

Romance

http://www.themasque.net/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1188&warning=4

Veneratio Piscatoris by juniperus Rated: Restricted

From legend we know mermaids enchant men - sometimes causing shipwreck; other times taking them down to the depths, where they forget that humans cannot breathe underwater. *Most* humans, that is...

The Potions Book Ficlet, Plot? What Plot?http://www.themasque.net/wiktt/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1989&ageconsent=ok&warning=4

Stolen Moments by luvsev

Hermione is abducted by a dangerous man and brought to Malfoy Manor.

BDSM, D/s, DH Spoilers, Ménage à trois, Oral Sex, S&M, Spanking

http://www.themasque.net/wiktt/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1975

Another dark star shineth by Alabaster Princess

A young Auror is invited to Grimmauld place to join the Order. there she finds the father she thought was dead and the lover she left behind. How will she cope with both men in her life and the complications they bring?

Abuse, BDSM, Bisexuality, Body Modification, D/s, DH Spoilers, Drug Abuse, Exhibitionism, Foul Language, Handjob/fingering, HBP Spoilers, Heterosexual, OFC, Pregnant, Spanking, Voyeurism, WIPEstablished Relationship, Humor, Romance

http://www.themasque.net/wiktt/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=1967

Prompted to Write Photo Challenge

It had been a month and I don't think I'd seen my mother smile since he died. I worried about asking but, I'm selfish, I wanted to know.

"Oh my stars," my mother said as she took the photo from me. She sighed softly and shook her head. "Sally. Haven't thought about her in years." I watched my mother's eye mist over and saw her take a trip back in time, a vague smile playing at her lips.

"Mom?"

"Hm? Oh...never you mind, child. Your father never had an affair with Sally, if that's what you're thinking."

She didn't say any else but she did tuck the photo into the pocket of her housedress, a soft smile on her lips.

Think That'll Do It

CNQ

Congrats, juni!

I’m happy to announce the winner of The Masque/The WIKtT Archives’s winner of our October contest. Our winner is the new owner of copy of Northern Haunts, autographed by one of the writers of the anthology, April Grey.

Our winner is juniperus !

juni, please IM, DM, PM, or email me with your snail mail address and I’ll get this book out to you asap!

Blogging For Kids With Disabilities

juniperus asked, thus, I did.

The blonde is my 11 year old daughter. For my sanity, she is known only by that moniker online. Actually, we call her that at home, too. She's not actually blonde anymore, but it still works.

Vicki and The BlondeVicki was weird.

I’d only heard about her from my daughter’s rambling tales of summer day care, but with the blonde girl’s stories, I figured that Vicki was an odd bird. Vicki got to day care late and left early and from what the blonde said, the other kids weren’t very nice to Vicki. Sometimes Vicki wasn’t very nice to them. The blonde and I chatted in the vaguest of terms about treating one’s friends with love and respect – and what to do if one’s friends weren’t respectful back. The rule in our house is that if someone’s mean, talk about it and if the situation doesn’t change, end the friendship.

Except that the blonde never would end that friendship. The blonde said she couldn’t end the friendship, because if she did, “Vicki didn’t always get it and if I wasn’t her friend she wouldn’t have any more friends.” Man, that annoyed the hell out of me. My thought was to teach the little brat a lesson in manners but the blonde was insistent. Thus, we worked on problem solving and communication skills. Vicki would always apologize when a teacher forced her to and the blonde, being that kind of kid, always kept at the friendship. I talked to the teachers about it and Vicki’s mom was always told about what happened. She still kept at it, though, and so did the blonde.

Sometimes the blonde would mention that it was hard to understand what Vicki wanted. It frustrated the blonde so we talked about how to find different ways to communicate. We talked about needing to use different words that mean the same thing, so we can get our friends to understand. That led to talking about how some people use different languages – and some people not using words like we did at all. That, in the way of conversations I have with the blonde, led to a long discussion on sign language and why people couldn’t hear and why some kids sounded kinda funny when they talked. The blonde got it and mentioned the book her class read about Helen Keller. I, of course, broke down into tears when we talked about her amazing teacher and how it can be so difficult to be patient and loving and how some people just never did understand that Helen Keller was still a person who deserved to BE. The blonde’s reply was, “Yeah, like some people don’t get Vicki.”

Oh.

Wait.

The blonde mind makes connections where I didn’t see them. Using the always beloved cop-out euphemism, I asked if Vicki was “special”. My answer was a hearty, “duh”. Of course Vicki was special; she was the blonde’s friend and all of the blonde’s friends were special. Determined, I asked if there was anything that made Vicki different than the other kids at day care. There was. Vicki used arm braces and she talked kinda funny.

Oh.

Vicki wasn’t weird, she was different. The other kids didn’t play with her because she was different. Trying to be delicate and a touch unsure of how to address Vicki’s differences, I asked the blonde what she thought of it all. She just shrugged. “Nothing,” was her answer. “I still like her but I have to listen a little better to understand what she says. I still like playing with her."
Well okie dokie. Since our family philosophy is “kids are kids – go play”, the blonde’s decision to keep hanging out with her friend was fine with us. We worked even harder at problem solving and communication skills – and patience. Lots of patience.

I never really addressed the specific subject of Vicki anymore and we soon moved, but those talks we had always made me think about how we as adults handle folks who weren’t put together quite the same way that I was.

My friend Deb Smith pointed out that if children are exposed to kids that have disabilities, they don’t care later on but if it’s, “at an older age, it's ‘different’, and who wants to be seen with ‘different’? The possibility of being ostracized along with the weird kid,” is just huge and grows as kids get older.

Isn’t it a parent’s responsibility to teach their kids about understanding and patience and to just BE? I kind of thought it was, but apparently, I’m in the minority. From what I understand, there are some parents who think that having a kid with disabilities in class or as a friend is going to somehow be contagious or slow their own child down. Really? Last time I looked, arm braces aren’t catching. Stupidity sure is, though. Aversion is darned contagious. Discomfort is worse than the common cold.

Not to my kid, though. Her friendship with Vicki was more important than my growlings about not letting someone be mean to her. As a young child, the blonde understood that she had to make a stand and be a friend, even if it was sometimes hard – even if she had to learn new ways of being a friend to do so.

For more information and links to other blogs about kids, living with kids with disabilities, juniperus is your gal.

New contest on The Masque

The Masque has something exquisite and unique and, well, quite awesome to offer its members this month. We have an autographed copy of an anthology of scary stories, featuring our own friend, member, and published author, April Gray. April is a long time author of Harry Potter fanfic.

Northern Haunts is a compilation of what has been said to be the best of the best for scary stories. Set in New England, this anthology has 100 short stories filled with campfire tales that are sure to send a chill or two up and down your spine.

Now, here’s the easy part, all you have to do is upload your photos, drawings, stories, poems, recipes in any and all parts of the site, including The Masque, The WIKtT Archives and associated galleries. New chapters to existing stories, new stories and added chapters, a new poem and a drawing, everything and anything counts. You absolutely can’t beat that. Now there is one catch. All work has to be uploaded BY Midnight on All Hallows’ Eve- so that’s 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time so there’s no confusion.

Story validation will be turned on for the duration of this contest for counting purposes only; all works will be validated as soon as the counts are made (this means that your story will not show up until an admin lets it through). Counts/validation will be done several times per day at the discretion of the admins. Several of the newly uploaded stories will be Featured.

Odds of winning are completely and entirely dependent upon the number of works uploaded. The Masque, all volunteers, and authors are not responsible for any works not uploaded, but claimed to be. If you’re having trouble, contact the administrator.

Good Luck!