Help! Seriously, I really could do with a favour - and theres something in it for you all.

I'm on a platform called steemit.com and I know some of you are also there too.

Here's what you can do for me:

1) If you are on steemit because of my recommendation, could you please write one post (about anything you like) but put it in the tag michellegent, and please mention that you're there because I recommended you.

2) If you are not on steemit, would you please, please, please join and make one post with the tag michellegent and please mention you're there because I asked you to join.

3) If you're on steemit but I didn't recommend you, but you're interested in my writing, would you please post under the tag michellegent saying you've read my work (or something, even if it's that you loathe me lol)

I want to show those on the platform that I do actually have outside-of-steemit influence.

To show you how very much this means to me, if you post to steemit with the tag michellegent, I will GIFT you one of my books on kindle - ANY of my titles. All you need to do is post on steemit and I'll send you the code to download from smashwords.www.steemit.com

​The morning arrived dull, grey and cold. Red didn’t notice because she was more in tune to her ancient intuitions at this moment. As an Ancient, she was in her role as Sentinel and had been for a few days. Luke was not overjoyed at the transformation that had occurred since her return from Elizabeth’s dungeon, especially as she had banished him – not just from her bed, but also from the house - and Steve had been begrudging in his offer of a bed at his house until after the trial and end-proceedings.
 
http://i.imgur.com/gb1IjNK.jpg
 
In this most austere proceeding, the assembled dignitaries were sat in silence at the head of the hall. The tribunal was the most exceptional in recent times. No Wolf younger than four hundred years sat on this conclave, waiting for the proceedings to begin. Twelve jurors had been chosen but that is where the similarity to a human court ended. These Wolves were not sitting to determine the accused guilty – because as it was the Sentinel that had accused them - they were guilty until they could prove themselves innocent – the Jurors were there, as tradition dictated, to witness that the procedure was held in the proper manner.
 
Above the awaiting assemblage, in galleries on three sides of the hall, other Wolves were gathered. The younger or less influential Wolves – those not invited to participate in this most historic event - spoke in muted tones, creating an indistinct murmur that hung almost tangible in the air. Most had to stand as seats had been removed in order that more Wolves could attend. Many of the discussions ran into one another, one Wolf overhearing his neighbours’ conversation and giving his input and then passing the information he had gleaned onto his group. Most were discussing the forthcoming trial, but what was also catching everyone’s attention – congregation and Jury alike - was the fact that the three sat at the Head of the hall were Victoria – the Lycaeon herself - and the two Wolves flanking her, both of whom had not been seen since the Middle Ages and had almost passed into legend.
 
Jakob – former ruler of his own pack in Bavaria before swearing allegiance to the Lycaeon sat at her right hand, as fierce a protectorate of the legacy he had once opposed as any.
 
http://i.imgur.com/tU5Ujgb.jpg?1
 
And Niall – the ancient Celt and staunch supporter of Victoria - as he was with Anton before her - sat at her left hand.
 
Questions were asked amongst the audience as to who these two Wolves could be. Not many knew either by sight, but some knew of them and these Wolves were not slow at passing on the information.
 
Victoria and her advocates were studying reams of documents, maps and scrolls. They had each received copies of all documentation on agreeing to stand as arbiter and had been studying them for weeks. Red – or Hazel as she had to be referred to in her official capacity - had made comprehensive reports on all the accusations she had made, citing not a few Wolves as willing witness and others not-so-willing – all were compelled to attend, even though their written statement was enough. They looked up as the Custodian’s Runner approached and awaited acknowledgement. Victoria nodded to him and he bowed in the proper manner, then he leaned forward to inform the trio: “The Custodian wishes to advise our Lycaeon and Elders that the Sentinel Exemplar is here and she is fully prepared.”
 
Victoria answered, “Very well, our thanks to the Custodian. Are the accused assembled?”
 
“Yes Lycaeon, they arrived a short time ago.”
 
Victoria nodded and the Runner left to return to the Custodian’s side. Victoria nodded to the Custodian.
 
It seemed uncanny how the incessant drone that had been present, all at once was silenced in favour of an apprehensive stillness.
 
From a door in the only wall that did not have a gallery above it, a lone figure stepped out onto the floor and the hush detonated into derisive jeers and heckling.
 
Hazel ignored the insults and contempt, even the ‘bitch’ comments. Today she would hold herself in consummate superiority. Today the Prophesy came to another fork and it was of ultimate significance that the correct path was taken, the proper ceremonies conducted and appropriate respect to traditions and elders afforded. She had no way of knowing if any of her actions or reactions to particular circumstances could influence the outcome – of either this trial or the prophecy – and so she had decided to take whichever path was directed by using her knowledge and power as Sentinel and take the consequences for good or bad.
 
Hazel approached the Lycaeon’s bench from the back; she skirted around, turned to face the table and halted a few feet from it to give a deep bow as mark of respect to Victoria, then turned to each of her colleagues and bowed to them, as she had to the Lycaeon. Victoria looked up, past Hazel at the howling mob and as one, they became silent once more. Then Hazel turned to the awaiting dozen jurors and faced them square on. The Custodian stood central between the Jury and the Lycaeon.
 
http://i.imgur.com/MOnci6N.jpg?1
 
“Sentinel, as representative of our ruling classes and emissary to our society we charge you to produce evidence and substantiation in order that our First Laws and bloodlines remain consistent, unimpaired and irrevocable. Can you?”
 
Hazel nodded once and said: “Yes.” Then she held out the bulging folder of documents, copies of which, Victoria, Jakob and Niall already had. With a slight bow, the Custodian’s Runner took the folder and placed it on the desk to the left of the Lycaeon where the Custodian would sit. Hazel took her place at a table to the right of the Lycaeon; the small table was bare except for a jug of water and a glass.
 
A gasp from the audience was heard and it seemed all but Hazel and the Lycaeon’s table contributed to the sound. The three Wolves that had entered via the same doorway as Hazel were recognised by all attending.
 
Phillipe took the front, as youngest Wolf, then Darius.
 
With a deliberate and obvious measure of putting a greater distance between himself and the previous two, Emilio the Elder strode onto the floor, wielding his stick more like a weapon than a walking aid. His presence was what had elicited the gasp of surprise.
 
The three were directed to sit opposite the Jury. Four chairs had been placed and Darius and Phillipe sat alongside each other. Emilio, again with due consideration, sat apart from them and Hazel got the feeling that he would have moved his chair further if he could. Emilio looked at Hazel with a neutral stare, neither venomous, nor affable. Phillipe did not look at the Jury, Hazel, or his Lycaeon. He did see who the two flanking her were and could not prevent the disbelief from showing on his face. Darius glared at every one in turn, leaving his most malevolent stare until last – for Hazel. She saw him from the corner of her eye, but pretended not to notice.
 
The Custodian stepped to the centre of the room, facing the collected Wolves. His voice rang out clearly. “This trial will begin immediately. It will not cease until verdicts have been given on all three Wolves. Once the trail is ended, any judgements will be decided forthwith according to the crime - and be it execution, ostracism or acquittal - that too will be expeditious.” Then he turned to the accused: “Phillipe Marchand, Darius Mauvoisin, Emilio Lovari the Elder: You are charged with Traitorous acts against Wolfkind. Poisoning. Murder. The manufacture of Throwbacks and most serious: Amassing an army in order to overthrow the Lycaeon and her Bloodline.”
 
The watching Wolves were abuzz with excitement at the announcement of the charges.
 
Hazel was watching the accused, she saw the look on Emilio’s face, it was a mask of absolute fury and he turned slowly to Darius and Phillipe. As the phrase goes: ‘If looks could kill’, there would have been no further need for the trial.

​For completing a full week of the Challenge30 project, I looked back on ‘me’.
 
‘Life is like a toilet roll, the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.’ How true is that?
 
When I was a young child, Christmas took fourteen years to get here. Now, it feels like there’s perhaps 14 weeks between each Christmas, time flies when you’re having fun. Apparently, you get to have LOADS more fun the older you become.
 
A little-known fact of life is: People who celebrate more birthdays live longer.
 
Think on that one…
 
I look in the bathroom mirror each morning and wonder what the hell happened. Surely it was only last year that I was care-free, just moving in to our new house… no kids… Ha! We bought this house 31 years ago.
 
Time is the thief of youthfulness.
 
Anyway.
 
I WAS 16 once and here’s proof!

​I also did some modelling…

I'm a biker...

I like snakes...

And playing dress-up

​Act your age?
 
Grow up?
 
Not if I can help it!

Hey Facebook people - especially those who have been connected to me for a LOOOOONG time because of a certain game we used to play... Remember this? I bet a certain CEO does...

I was reminiscing this evening... I wonder, if my name - or Game-name is uttered in Marc Pincus's office, does he still go pale?

How it all began to go wrong...The day Zynga kicked it’s Vampire Wars customers (players) in the Fangs!

I think everyone on Vampire Wars remembers the day in question: February 13th 2009.

I remember it because I was an active member of the Vampire Wars Group forum on FB and I remember joining in on quite a lot of the threads.

One particular subject springs to mind was the ‘Valentines Day Massacre’ that was planned for the weekend. The previous ‘themed weekend’ had gone really well and had really perked up the interest in the game so we had no reason to imagine that this weekend would be any different...


Oh how wrong can you be?


Most were used to the game being screwed about with on Thursdays – that was the day that all/any changes had to be finished and put into the game because (my opinion) it gave everyone at Zynga time to jump ship for the weekend and avoid the influx of angry emails and Forum Postings because they had messed up yet again.

This particular weekend was different... oh so very different...

The Self-Claim Hitlist had gone!

Zynga had de-fanged their game.

A game which when I joined was already well-established and had a number of Legends up on the Leader Boards.

A game which was billed as being bloodthirsty, violent and which had no rules... not even a rule which prevented you from attacking mercilessly until your opponent was dead!

A game which was rated as 5 out of 5!

What made this all the more of a stake to the heart of the game was that we know the Devs were reading our forums, even if they didn’t post. They KNEW about the plans! The plans that we were implementing to make THEIR game even more appealing to us - the players!

If Zynga thought that they could wriggle out of this one unscathed, then they had another think coming. The Forums were up in arms! Some went visiting MySpace to see how they fared with the game...

What a revelation THAT was!

MySpace had replies from the Developers of Vampire Wars! The Devs actually answered questions there!

Everything FB Vampires Fans learned from then on was another kick in the already bloodied fangs for us.

Still, some of us were determined to keep the game as true to the dark, violent and vicious game we had spent time (and money) on for all these months. Some of us worked around the loss of the self-claim Hitlist. We posted our ways around it and the Devs used those hints and tips to further ‘improve’ those hints out.
The opportunity of staying on the Hitlist and ‘Riding’ it for Exp Points went. Then they forced a time-limit on the ‘ride’ - 12 hours max!
Next thing, you couldn’t even gain Exp from Vampires attacking and losing to you after a certain amount of Exp gained! Where was the reward for spending all that time getting to close to the top of the tree?
It was theorised that Zynga had gone all ‘sparkly’ and caved in to the demands of the romanticised ‘Twilight’ Vampire film and the ‘Twilight Tweenies’ that followed it.
What happened to ‘No Rules’?
What happened to ‘Most Violent and Bloodthirsty game on the net’?
It has turned into a Disney cartoon version!
We now have The Little Mermaid when all we wanted was Nightmare before Christmas! Bring in Tim Burton! Bring in Gary Oldman! Give us Helena Bonham-Carter from Sweeny Todd!
For goodness sake Zynga! Grow a pair and give us back the game that we ask for! The game that a lot of us started playing before you screwed about with it and screwed it up!
Don’t even get me started on the ‘Official Zynga Forums’, their ‘Moderators’ and the bannings that have taken place!
That is of course, not to mention the other Blog that I started when I couldn’t get into the game and nothing was being done to correct the fault that prevented me from gaining access to the game – the one that was removed by request of a third party – mentioning no names...

The irony that is left is the quote from their game blurb:

Cast away your mortal chains and enter the night! Immerse yourself in a world of darkness as you form a clan of deadly disciples, wage war against your rivals, and hunt for blood to become the most infamous beast the world has ever known!
The hottest horror game on Facebook!
DESTROY!
Learn devastating supernatural abilities to tear your foes limb from limb!
CONQUER!
Carry out dark missions on your quest for blood and strength!
UNITE!
Create a clan with your friends to conquer and rule the vampire realm!
DOMINATE!
Control innocent minds and form an army of minions!

Who can type such rubbish with a straight face? Apparently Zynga can... and do.

The mind boggles...

More soon...

Including:

Interviews with banned Players.

Updates of Zynga 'support emails'.

Updates of replies and responses from the others that pay into the game - the sponsors.

How Zynga get around the '120 hour response time' and their 'Resolved' stats - Fiction doesn't come into it.

Replies and responses from others that are annoyed at the lack of notice Zynga take from it's customers - the Players. After all, without the players, it would be just a pretty picture on screen, wearing pretty clothes... oh, hang on...


Erzebet

As promised, an excerpt from Deadlier Than The Male.


Darius still had not worked through his problems by the time darkness fell. He was brooding upon the summons to the High Council Court he had received.  He was alone in his office; his staff had left for home. He heard the front door open and close and footsteps approach his door. He was not worried, the footsteps were not stealthy.

He was rather surprised when Claudia opened the door and entered without a greeting or so much of a by-your-leave, but remained silent as she strutted over to his desk.

He sighed and sat up a little straighter in his chair, ready for her attack if there was to be one.

“I have a gift for you, Darius.”

“I have not had much time to think on your offer of partnership yet, Claudia, please be a little more patient.”

She waved her hand, dismissing the notion. “I have brought you a gift, a little something to cheer you up. My father received a summons to the Court and I assume that you have one too. Is that why you are brooding alone in your office?” She didn’t wait for an answer, but clicked her fingers. The door opened again and a handsome young Hume entered the room. He was holding a very delicate chain in his hand and he was followed by another Hume. The chain was attached to a black studded collar fastened around her neck.

Darius was not easily surprised, but the attire of the woman made him sit up and take notice. She wore a full-length fur coat which opened to tantalise as she walked, giving glimpses of the pure white underwear she was wearing under it. The blood-red stilettos and matching lips completed the scanty ensemble. The coat was draped over her shoulders and as the other Hume removed it, he could see the reason for that. The woman was wearing handcuffs, fastened behind her back.

Darius looked at Claudia in puzzlement but said nothing.

“I told you, it is to cheer you up a little, to distract you from your worries of the day.”

“A victim? Here?”

“No, a donor, you shall not kill her, she is precious, but you are welcome to use her for your amusement. You may use the other one too, if you wish, though I don’t imagine that he does anything for you, but I suppose you may like to watch them both together?” Claudia watched Darius as a smile appeared on his lips.

“Claudia, that is very thoughtful of you.”

“Is there going to be a ‘but’ in the statement, Darius?”

“No not at all. I am very pleased with the gift.” He walked over to the donor and stroked her shoulders, and then he turned her around in a full circle and back to face him again. Except that she did not face him as such, she cast her eyes downward at all times.

“Is she captured or volunteered?” He asked once he managed to tear his gaze from her.

“She is a volunteer, but do not worry my dear Darius. She has been in our family since she was born. She would like to become Wolf eventually, but she will always know her place. I thought that you would like the recreation for a few hours. We can enjoy the both of them together if you would like.”

“Claudia, I think I was wrong about you, I think that you are a woman after my own heart.”

“No Darius, you can keep that, what would I do with another heart as black and hard as my own?”

​Sorry I’ve been neglecting you guys. I found a new blogging site and I’ve been on there since August.
 
As you know, I sell my stories on Amazon, Smashwords, iPlay etc and on my publisher’s site direct – Gingernut Books.
 
I’ve been sharing those stories in serialisation form exclusively for that blogging site because that’s what the site prefers – exclusive and unique content whenever possible.
 
I found the site fun and I got back into writing because of it.
 
I shared Dusty’s 6th story in the series – as you know, THAT particular story has not been given away to any other site – not Smashwords, not shared on Facebook, nor on here, my personal blog.
 
I shared that story exclusively on Steemit.com where it’s out in the Blockchain forever, for anyone to read it. FOR FREE.
 
That’s a bit of a daft move on my part if you think about it. Now it’s there for anyone to read FOR FREE, I’m never going to be able to sell it again, am I?
 
So, knowing this, I used a tag of ‘steemit’ because, it was shared EXCLUSIVELY FOR Steemit.
 
There has been a little bit of a ‘back and forth’ with a photographer over there. He doesn’t think he’s getting enough attention and reward for his work and he was asked if he would make some of his work exclusive for Steemit – i.e. take it down from everywhere else, at least for a time. I’m not sure if the photographer did that, but I have, I always have – and without being asked.
 
Keep watching this blog.
 
My next few posts will be sharing the stories from Steemit so you can read them for free, the same as the members of Steemit.
 
As I said, apologies for neglecting you guys. It won’t happen again.
 
No more exclusive stuff for Steemit. 

This is the reply I got from @ steemcleaners

Tag Spam = Using irrelevant tags, especially popular tags. Using tags improperly makes it hard to find good and relevant content.

Please use relevant tags when posting! Abusing tags can potentially lead to people flagging you, even from dan himself.

Specific Tags

#steemit / #steem

​Please only use the steemit tag for articles distinctly related to steemit itself.