I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Paul left for the UK just before I left to go to my family of origin’s house for the holiday. Being around them is always difficult, but it’s a topic that I don’t really want to delve into here. Suffice to say, it was a very long week with very bland food, family stress and the sadness of being separated from Paul. He’s gone until the spring time, doing very important stuff that I’m very glad he’s doing, but it’s still hard on me.
I came home feeling fairly down, but being at home has brightened me, honestly. My family of origin’s house is so dreary that all the comforts and coziness of my little place here have been really highlighted to me in the past couple of days. My days have been quiet but good, and cat cuddles make the house not feel really lonely.
Soon, I’ll be heading out of town again, on a long-session trip that will include some very exciting adventures. Then I’ll be home for a bit, I’ll get to watch Star Wars (I planned all my travel for the month around this) and then I’ll head back to the F.O.O’s for Christmas. It’s funny, I was *so* enthusiastic about Christmas this year while Paul was here. I was doing early shopping and we watched the holiday parade at Disneyland, which is something I’ve wanted to see ever since I was a little kid and I had a VHS tape with a recording of it on it (this is how I experienced a lot of the world as a small child). Both that parade and the special holiday World of Color water show were just amazing, and I couldn’t stop being excited. We went to The Grove one day for me to see the giant Christmas tree there, too. I mean, technically we went to go to stores, but I was all about the Christmas tree.
After Thanksgiving, my enthusiasm has…dwindled. The F.O.O has a way of doing that to me, I guess. I’m hoping that my next trip will perk me back up in that department.
Well, now that I’m done being a bummer, onto some exciting news. We’re got The Spanking Awards going on now! It’s voting time already, and the first category is Best Creative Blog. Alex in Spankingland has been nominated once again. I want to thank everyone who listed me as their choice, since there were several of you! You guys’ loyalty to my blog means a lot to me, and it reminds me that I need to attend to you regularly!
There are some other excellent choices on the list, too. Fellow spanking romance author Casey McKay was nominated, and if you haven’t read your blog, it’s one you should definitely check out. She shares her favorite fiction work as well as really intriguing snippits from her personal life.
The blog Consensual Spanking was also nominated, which is a blog that makes caption and stories based around spanking photos.
There’s also Wolfie Toons, where you can always count on seeing cute and funny spanking cartoons. I’m sure you guys must be familiar with this blog, but if you’re not, definitely go take a look and enjoy what he has to offer there.
Erica Scott has, of course, been nominated again! Erica is one of my best friends and a part of my chosen family (you know, the family that *doesn’t* drive me batty!). Erica is a truly exceptional blogger, especially in her perfect balance of fun spanking stuff and real, honest sharing about her and her life. And she’s a remarkable women. I just adore her.
Hermione’s Heart is another blog that I’ve enjoyed reading for a long time, and it’s the host of the Spanko Brunch every Sunday (which I really should get back to participating in). It’s another truly great blog.
Ludwig and Kaelah’s blog was also nominated, which is another that I’ve enjoyed for a long time. The stories and pictures that they share are always both exciting and reaffirming to me.
Bonnie’s My Bottom Smarts is nominated, as well. Bonnie’s blog is such a good resource for those looking to find other blogs, as she has the world’s greatest collection of blog links. Plus, her posts are so thoughtful and informative. I hadn’t visited Bonnie’s blog in a while and when I went back to grab the link I regretted that I hadn’t. It’s definitely quality stuff.
Pandora Blake’s blog is on the list, too. I think that everyone knows just how much I adore Pandora and how much I support her. Her blog has always been an inspiration to me, and she continues to challenge my held beliefs and open my mind to this day. Pandora is really a treasure in the spanking scene. We’re so lucky to have her.
Finally, there’s Tim the Tum, whose blog includes really great spanking stories and some of the most thoughtful and interesting writing about spanking videos that I’ve seen in a while.
So, all in all, it’s a great list of candidates. Checking out each of the blogs that have been listed made me feel really enthusiastic about the blogging scene again, too, which is something I’d been needing. After I left blogger, I stopped feeling a certain sense of blogging community. I want to get back to commenting on others blogs and engaging with other bloggers more. Especially should do if I’m whining to get more comments myself, huh?
I hope that you all go vote. I obviously hope that you’ll want to vote for me, but there are so many other blogs on this list that deserve recognition, so go pick your favorite, whatever it is!
In other exciting news, I have a trip to the UK coming up in January. I’m flying out on New Year’s Eve, which will be a bit of a strange experience, since I won’t know when the date has actually changed since I’ll be changing time zones. Maybe I’ll re-enter the new year more than once? In my mind, 2016 will start when I land, I suppose. I’ve had a long history of weird or lame New Year’s Eve celebrations, so I think that getting off the plane, going through customs and then being greeted with a kiss from Paul will certainly be a good change of pace! I hope the flight isn’t too full of drunk people, though. Could be interesting.
I’ll be in England from the 1st thru the 20th of January, and Paul and I will be doing a location shoot in a big, Victorian house for four days, with a handful of brand new spankees plus a couple of English models I’ve never had a chance to meet before but that I’m very excited to meet and work with. So that should be a great adventure.
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to see some friends while I’m there, too, and do some exploring. And maybe I’ll tell you the stories from my last trip before this one starts, we’ll see.
I’m also finishing up my fourth spanking book! I’ve been keeping it kind of under lock and key and not posting any Works in Progress type snippits, but it’s my first historical piece, set in Victorian England. It’s called The Doctor’s School for Naughty Girls and it combines a lot of my core fantasies, as the title pretty much suggests. It’s a bit edgier than my other books in certain ways (or, for some it may seem to be less so, as it’s my least age-play oriented book to date) and I’m very excited about it. I need to finish a few more scenes and then send it to my editor to begin that whole process, but I’m hoping that it will be out for you guys soon. In the mean time, if you haven’t read The Doctor’s Little Girl, Daddy’s Little Angela (or the entire Little Haven collection) and The Sheriff’s Little Girl, now would be a great chance to grab one of those to tide yourself over until my new book comes out.
So, lots of exciting things going on right now and in the near future. In the immediate future, I need to get some food. I have an empty fridge and there’s no point in shopping right before I leave again. So, I’m going to go grab myself something before I head home to try to get a few more things done. I’m having late night snacks (which I assume means pie, since that’s our go-to) with Princess Kelley later, but I need energy before that.
Remember to vote for your favorite spanking blog! The contest is no fun if no one votes. :3
Hey everyone!
Thank you so much for voting for my blog for the “Best Creative Spanking Blog” Category in The Spanking Awards! They announced last night that I won! It’s my second awards in a row winning (there weren’t any awards given last year) and it makes me feel pretty darn special. Despite all my difficulties keeping this blog up in the past year, it’s refreshing to hear that you guys still enjoy it!
I’m not the kind of person who has won many medals in my life, so this one really means a lot to me, even if it’s just a graphic!
I found out about the fact that I had won when Erica tweeted at me: I was in the grocery store with my mom running around getting stuff for Christmas dinner at the last minute. It turns out that I took first, Pandora got second and Erica got third. Pandora and Erica are two of my all time favorite people, so I’m happy to share the rankings with them. I certainly don’t think I’m a better blogger than either one, though, and I wouldn’t even HAVE a blog if it wasn’t for those two! They were two of my biggest influences in starting this little corner of the internet.
I want to extend my gratitude to everyone who reads my blog, whether you voted or not! I wouldn’t have a blog if I didn’t have people to read it. It means so much to me that you guys think what I have to say is worth your time!
I’d also like to thank Paul for helping me in my struggle to keep posting regularly, for giving me lots of sexy things to write about, and above all else, for being the most loving and encouraging partner I could ask for. I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have him.
On the same note, I’d like to thank Rafa and Z, my wonderful vanilla boyfriend and girlfriend. It means so much to me that two non-kinky people have so wholeheartedly embraced my lifestyle. They support me in everything that I do and never make me feel like my life is any weirder or than their own. I’m so lucky to have such an awesome trifecta of wonderful people supporting me, cheering me on in the good times and supporting me when things are harder.
I’d like to thank John over at Spanking Blogg for resurrecting the Spanking Awards this year! I know it’s a lot of work to do, but it’s very appreciated!
Finally, I’d like to thank my amazing assortment of friends, play partners and lovers for filling my life with happiness and adventures. This makes for a very contented Alex as well as a lot of great stuff to share with everyone here!
I hope to make 2015 another wonderful year of blogging, and to have lots of exciting spanking tales to share with all of you.
❤︎
(Don’t forget that the Spankee of the Year voting is still going on!)
The frequency with which I post to this blog has changed drastically in the past year.
I miss it. I miss sharing with people. I miss connecting with people. I miss having a place to organize my thoughts.
But it’s become extremely hard for me.
Part of it is time. When I lived in South Dakota, my days were filled with nothingness, and I looked for things to fill them with. Now, I’m usually busy. I work a lot, and I spend a lot of time doing “behind the scenes” type work. Furthermore, for the first time in years, I have an active, vibrant local social life. With Paul in England until mid-August, I tend to keep myself busy with lots of socializing when I have downtime. This means that many nights, I come home and go directly to bed, without having a chance to sit down and blog. I’m a slow writer. I have a short attention span and I’m very fussy about making sure that I get things the way that I want them before publishing something to the internet, so blogging is time consuming for me.
There’s another big issue, one which is difficult for me to talk about. Probably 80% of the archive of this blog is about my relationship with Malignus. I don’t like to be negative, and I’m private about the things in my life which are so. Therefore, I only wrote about the positive aspects of my relationship with him. There were many positive things there. During that relationship, I learned, grew and discovered things. We had lots of intense and wonderful scenes. The things which I wrote about were true. They were real experiences, real emotions, real understandings which I reached. There were also parts of it which happened out of the public eye which were extremely negative. Ultimately, the sum of my relationship with Malignus was destructive towards me and my emotional wellbeing. Because of this, it feels weird to sit and write in the same place but have such drastically different feelings. I need to make this clear before I can really relax into my blog again. The things I wrote about Malignus were true. I loved him. We had amazing scenes. He took me to places that I never thought I’d go. He also did things that were bad to me, and I do not condone his behavior, support him or encourage others to be involved with him. I know that the time in my life when Malignus and I broke up was poorly documented and that the transition from what was going on then to what’s going on now was clunky. That’s how it had to be, though.
The final reason is because my computer is ancient. I got it seven years ago. It’s been an amazing machine. It visited six countries with me, and was probably on at least a hundred flights total. It’s been assaulted by cats, covered in stickers and drizzled with tears. It’s seen WAY more pornography than is probably recommended. Now, it’s pretty crippled. The battery doesn’t work, so I can only use it while plugged into the wall. The power cable doesn’t connect too well anymore, though, so a quick movement or the nuzzle of a cat can unplug it and instantly make me lose everything I was doing. The wireless card no longer works, so I’m also tethered to an ethernet cable, reminding me of life back in 2005. The disc drive doesn’t work anymore. The keyboard is missing so many keys that I have to use an external keyboard and sit this on top of the one which is built in. It overheats frequently. The hardware is too old to accept anymore software updates, which means that I don’t even know how to use the most recent versions of Mac OS. The past year has been expensive: there was a time when I was going to get a new laptop last year, but I ended up spending that money to move to Los Angeles (which was definitely the right thing to do). Since then, I haven’t been able to save much. My computer is still working, though, which is a very good thing, but because it’s become such a hassle to use, I’m less likely to want to spend more time on it than I have to.
Despite all this, I really do miss blogging. For a long time, I’ve wanted to get motivated to get back to it. Recently, I met someone for the first time at a spanking event and he said “I didn’t realize you were actually into spanking.”
I found this really upsetting. I know that not everyone is going to read my blog (obviously) but I miss having that line of communication with the spanking community. I’m looking forward to having it back.
I’m not going to make any promises about an update schedule or anything like that, but I am really going to try.
Because I miss you guys. ♥