The title of this blog has nothing to do with the topic.
Today, I have a new chapter of Twatmas ready to post up. I am just finalizing the editing. It only has one image. I think there is only one more chapter before the ending - which should include not only the Caroling, the Feasting, the Fucking, the Christmas Gifts from Santa, The Tree Decorating but some of the next day. We'll see if I can do all that in one chapter or I need another after.
I also started up a fun Girl Scout story. I am enjoying making the images almost as much as writing it. It's an alternate reality inspired by ideas such as "Naked in School". The ERA/Women's Suffrage never happened, and women's lives are pretty much as they've been for the last 2,000 years.
I included a fable in the second chapter - which is a bit of a controversial thing for a writer to do. A story within a story, so to speak. It has to something to do with the overall story, but it's a standalone "Prodigal Daughter" story.
I wrote it in the style of legends and myths. It draws inspiration from the Whore of Babylon (a real thing) and actual fairy tales from prior to the Disney-fication of those fairy tales. I based the image on a Skubalon on a combination of Kim Kardashian and Lisa Shutkever (a professional eater). Lisa often stares at the camera angrily as she stuffs something down her throat.
The angry eyes leave a subtext of "I can't believe you won the bet -fine, I'll do it," and she proceeds to easily stuff 12 inches of fat Gummy Worm down her throat and pull it back out and leave it wobbling.
Skubalon gets her comeuppance at the end of her tale. Skubalon is the Ancient Greek word for excrement. The subtext is the word got it's name FROM this woman. Her father's household Makalos was once a mighty trading house, and it too is an Ancient Greek word that basically means morally weak people who allow people like Skubalon to do what they want.
People sometimes get angry that a writer takes a chance and does something different. I could have just continued the story without including it and the story would work just fine. However, it was fun to write and I shared it with my readers. if you don't like it, just skip over it.
I drew inspiration from Grimm's Fairy Tales (the original ones). Hansel and Gretal used to explicitly give the reason the parents abandoned their children as starvation, based on a real famine from the 1300s. The witch was a straight up cannibal, no euphemisms for it. They throw her in an oven and burn her alive to escape.
The Disneyfication of that story makes it much different in context. All of the old Fairy Tales were that way. Those of you who know Krampus was taught as dark Christmas tradition that originated in Alpine folklore. Krampus is a half-demon, half-goat creature who punishes children who misbehave. That fits perfectly in the world of Girl Scout Cookies.
What if instead of coming up with Jolly Old Saint Nick, they just kept Krampus? Krampus is said to visit children on the evening of December 5, known as Krampusnacht. He accompanies Saint Nicholas, who rewards well-behaved children with gifts.
Krampus punishes children who misbehave by beating them with birch rods, stuffing them into a sack, or taking them to hell.
That's a real thing they taught kids. It's hard for some people to imagine, but it wasn't that long ago they used to make it so women couldn't even open a credit card without a husband's signature. The Madmen television series shows a world where the best a woman could hope for in a world dominated by men was to rise up in the typing pool and land an executive to marry her.
I enjoy exploring "What if" and mixing it into some of my stories.
If you do not enjoy that, there are thousands of other stories, and I need to learn not to give so many shits about it.