KETRIN LIVES! FOR R(E)AL!!! It’s been far too long, but PART 16 has arrived, and that means it can’t be long before Part 17! (Wow, I can’t believe I was able to type that last part with a straight face.) Ketrindex   Prologue   Part One   Part Two Part Three   Part Four Part Five   Part Six Part Seven   Part Eight Part Nine   Part Ten Part Eleven   Part Twelve Part Thirteen   Part Fourteen Part Fifteen   Part Sixteen Major Players Kipling and Ketrin and Mowgli and Me Jaskri and the Maiden Jaskri’s Child The Sculptor’s Model Adrift Listed on Web Fiction Guide (online novels, reviews) to enormous not quite total critical indifference All original contents are copyright © 1999 - 2023 by Leem, with the exception of commissioned artwork, which is copyright © the respective creators for the respective years of creation. All rights reserved. Use the quick links at left, or scroll below this box or click for descriptive links. NEWS: 1 May 2023: Belated Happy Easter, and God Save the King. Part Sixteen is finally complete, and although it’s a fairly short instalment, especially given how long it took to arrive, it does set things up for the grand finale... which as this rate, should be online sometime around the year 2073. Till then... 10 September 2017: Part 16 is still in (very slow) progress. Sigh. I have, however, completed a short “Other Story” entitled Adrift, which is about a young woman cursed by another sorceress to a terrible fate she wonders if she’ll ever escape. Please read and comment. You’ll also have noticed the new banner, and I’ve revised the site design so that it will hopefully look better on widescreen monitors. Any comments on the changes would be welcome. 24 December 2015: Part Fifteen  is posted. Merry Christmas to all my readers. Part Sixteen may be the last, and I’ll try to take less than 15 months next time. I’m sure you know how well my promises can be trusted by now...! 13 September 2014: Part Fourteen is posted... on the 15th anniversary of my typing the first words of the story (and the moon getting blasted out of orbit). Just what that says about me as an author and a person I will leave to your imagination. (Pause) All right, that’s enough. Back to your own beds. And yes, I did mislead you about Part Fourteen being the last. If it’s any consolation, I misled myself as well. If it’s any greater consolation, I have finally figured out the definitive ending. Which you might just be seeing in Part Fifteen. Then again, based on past experience, maybe you shouldn’t hold your breath. 3 June 2014: Thanks to Eric for expressing his interest in the story, and I’m just sorry I couldn’t give a more optimistic report on my progress... as the rest of you are about to discover. However, as I mentioned on the Homepage, I’ve tweaked the site design by adding borders. This is intended to reduce reader eyestrain by constraining the text width, while hopefully making the overall appearance slightly less monotonous. Any thoughts on the design would be appreciated. Once again I’m months past my self-imposed deadline, and yes, It’s possible I may have lied again when I said Part Fourteen would be the last. I’m only slowly overcoming yet another bout of writer’s block, and in the process discovering potential new plot threads that will take a while to unfold. And in the face of all this I still continue to insist that the story has a definite and hopefully satisfying ending...... 4 March 2013. Part Thirteen is complete, about six weeks sooner than I’d expected. The grand finale looms large in my thoughts, and since I’ve been working on this story for an insane amount of time, the thought of actually completing it in my lifetime is both exhilarating and scary. Nevertheless it’s true: by hook or by crook, PART FOURTEEN WILL BE THE FINAL INSTALMENT. Hopefully if I can keep up the pace, it’ll be done by autumn 2013. And then I’ll probably enter a monastery. Or not. 26 December 2012: Belated Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. There’s no snow in Ketrin’s jungle, but there must be some kind of plant that resembles mistletoe somewhere in there, so... Suvanji and Nipper by IdarkshadowI on deviantART, rainforest photo courtesy Wikimedia Foundation ex Flickr, custom (rough) colours and photo manipulation by Leem. If you’re very good, I might let you view the text-free big version some day. 23 October 2012: Part Twelve posted. Given my previous track record, I guess six months between instalments isn’t bad. I’d like to have Part Thirteen completed before next April, and I’d really like to wrap up the story with Part Fourteen... assuming, of course, that the world doesn’t end in December 2012. But then, if that happens it’ll invalidate the story which assumes the human race will survive for at least another 1500 years. 4 April 2012: Unbelievably, just five weeks after I posted the revised and completed Part Ten, you can now read Part Eleven! Admittedly it’s shorter, but no less significant. I’m afraid you will have to wait a little longer for Part Twelve, but I do have a much clearer idea of the plot and I’m much more motivated to write now, so it definitely won’t be another year or three before you can read it! 28 February 2012: In case anyone’s still reading this... assuming anyone was in the first place...! As I recall, it was Douglas Adams who said something like: “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they hurtle past.” Well, that’s exactly what happened to my self-imposed completion deadline of September 2011, but after fifteen months I’ve finally added all the missing chapters to Part Ten and I’m well on the way to completing Part Eleven by now. 8 January 2011: Sorry for another horrendous delay. I’m determined to get back on track this year, and with any luck complete this crazy story by the autumn. Wish me luck... 20 November 2009: I was hoping to complete Part Ten by the end of this month. The current Part Ten is a preview, more or less self-contained but with lots of chapters to be added, and I was hoping those chapters would be done by December 1 at the latest. Unfortunately a combination of family crises and other web commitments have prevented me from doing so. If I can get back on track Christmas would be a good deadline to aim for, but please don’t put money on it. 27 September 2009: Ketrin receives a full review on Web Fiction Guide: you can read it here. It’s far from the glowing praise I might have hoped for - it finds multiple issues with the writing and site design. Unfortunately I can’t argue with some of the criticisms, though I might quibble a bit. I do appreciate the reviewer’s willingness to read the entire 100-odd thousand word concoction in a single sitting. That’s what I call dedication. Fixing the design problems may be fairly straightforward, but improving the writing may be a bit trickier, unless I were to hire somebody to rewrite the whole thing from scratch, and that isn’t very likely. One thing that did rankle a bit was the reviewer’s complaint that there’s too much sex. Admittedly Ketrin was conceived as a work of soft porn literary erotica, but the story has grown beyond that: there’s actually a lot less sex in the most recent instalments. (Sorry if that disappoints anyone.) It’s true that due to the length of composition and the fact that I’ve been making huge chunks of it up as I went along Ketrin has something of a Frankenstein’s monster of a plot. Someday I hope to go back to the beginning and re-edit the entire story into something leaner, meaner and hopefully a lot better, or at least more conducive to critical approval. For the moment, however, my top priority is to complete the story, and I’ve only set myself 23 months in which to do so. Meanwhile, if anybody would like to comment on the review, or Ketrin, or this site, or the weather, then please write, making sure to include “Ketrin” in the subject line to avoid deletion as spam. 26 September 2009: Ketrin is one of ten webfiction heroes showcased on the Quills and Zebras blog, following an earlier post about villains. Check it out - Ketrin’s in some fascinating and varied company there. * * * * * Ketrin is my attempt to combine my interest in The Jungle Books with my fetish for erotic immobility (agalmatophilia). I discuss some of my influences in the article Kipling and Ketrin and Mowgli and Me. I began writing in September 1999 and I’m not finished yet.... Ketrin resembles a grown-up version of Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli (not Disney’s!), except that he’s about 70% gay, and his enemy wants to turn him into a helpless sex doll. Apart from that, it’s more or less a case of spotting which bits of the plot I’ve stolen from Kipling, and which I’ve stolen from other people...! Prologue Secure within his furry mother’s den, the naked cub dreams of a time long ago when strange two-legged beings visited the world. What significance can the dream have? As the cub grows he must not only find his place in the pack but also try to discover his true relationship to the furless ones. Part One When the long lost son of a village woman walks naked out of the jungle, his reappearance is greeted with rejoicing by some, but with lust and greed by others. Part Two Will Borvinn, the sadistic chief hunter, succeed in his evil plan to paralyse Ketrin forever and rape him at leisure? Part Three Borvinn discusses his plans with the old sorcerer, and Ketrin is attacked by something small and unpleasant. Meanwhile, unknown to them all, one little bird holds all of their futures in its talons! Part Four Mavrida makes her bid for freedom, Borvinn’s hunt begins, Sherinel faces his worst nightmare and Borvinn prepares to freeze Ketrin forever. Will he succeed? Well...yes! But that’s not the whole story... Part Five Ketrin is worshipped as a god by hungry villagers. But how will their “omnipotent” deity save them from starvation when he can’t actually do anything? Part Six Sherinel is about to set off to search for Ketrin along with Silverpaw, Shadow and the Twins. Ketrin is a long way from home, still naked, paralysed and horny, but the villagers will be happy to worship him with their bodies if only he can save them. Part Seven Ketrin is still being worshipped by the villagers, but there is another major crisis that he has to try and resolve without being able to move. Meanwhile Sherinel and the four lupinoids face a hazardous journey to reach the far side of the river. If you thought “cliffhanger” was just an expression, think again. Part Eight Sherinel is rescued by a pair of naked strangers and realises that Ketrin may not be completely unique. Meanwhile Mavrida sets off on a quest of her own and meets some remarkable people, and as the drought finally shows signs of breaking the paralysed Ketrin spends some time talking to the voices in his head. Part Nine As the rainy season sets in both Sherinel and Mavrida face challenges and opportunities on their respective quests to find Ketrin, while the object of their search learns something of the lupinoids’ origin. But what really hapened to Ruthyar, and what dangers await all of our heroes? Dum dum dummm... Part Ten Major cliffhangers resolved. New problems and opportunities. A fight for survival. A relationship threatened. A monster attacks. A friend is found. Another is lost. Sanctuary beckons and faith is shaken. Part Eleven Mavrida’s and Sherinel’s parties continue to make their separate ways southward against constant hazards and obstacles, with very little help from the Maiden. Meanwhile Suvanji begins adjusting to life in Third Hill, and sees a vision of the tragic circumstances surrounding her own birth. Part Twelve Sherinel and his friends find help at a price, though it may be a price they don’t mind paying. Meanwhile, Mavrida’s party come under attack but subsequently make an unexpected discovery. Part Thirteen Rescues, reunions, discoveries, conflict, anticipation... oh, and by the way, it’s still raining. Part Fourteen Major characters and plot threads are brought together, visions of the departed bring new hope and inspiration, those who came together part anew, instruction is sought, and an astonishing discovery is made. Part Fifteen Suvanji meets a group of people with whom she hadn’t previously known she had a connection, and all of their lives are changed forever. Meanwhile Pyrri persuades the reluctant Kemmet to give her archery lessons. Part Sixteen Pyrri and Kemmet make plans to defeat the sorcerer, but their friends discover that his final onslaught has already begun. Major Players A quick rundown of the most important people in Ketrin’s life. And yes, lupinoids are people too. Kipling and Ketrin and Mowgli and Me A background article to the Ketrin series, in which Leem reveals some of his influences, including Rudyard Kipling, John Eyton, Olaf Baker, Regis Loisel and Philippe Sternis.... The Pygmalion Syndrome Leem’s statuephile site, where you’ll find you’ll find his erotic stories about men and women who find themselves turning motionless as mannequins or statues, and links to lots of like-minded sites. wild at heart Inspired by Kipling’s Jungle Books, among others, this site celebrates the tales of feral children - those fascinating creatures that are not quite human and yet not entirely animal.... 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