Hooked6!

I’m delighted you found Jessa (and her somewhat transparent match, Cathers)! I’ve been having so much fun with these two. It’s been a few years for me (writing enf). It feels great to be back. This story has been a reunion of sorts — especially gratifying now that you’re here. Writer’s from the old site, many of them are here — ReaderMan, Molly, Dormouse, others. Cave is here — she’s crossing over (from reader to writer). You’ll want to check out her story, “Discovering Melanie.” ‘Discover’ it for yourself. ReaderMan too — he’s writing (as you surely know). His story, “The Resort Ambassador” is here. Initially on ASN, continuing here.

My older stories. Not lost, but not currently available. That wasn’t the plan. I didn’t expect for ASN to go dark. But I’ll make it happen somehow. Nate and Dale. Jill, David and Ryan. They are too important to me to leave in ghost status. Somewhere, someday, I’ll bring them back to life.

I sure hope you enjoy this story and I love to see you again writing sometime soon.

Your friend and colleague,

Blair

Hooked6

Ha-ha.  By the way, thank you for your kind words at the beginning of that post.  That was a fun time when we were both posting.  And I have to credit you and RM for inspiring me to finish What a Girl Will Do for Love.  I had let it go dormant, but then you read it and commented and I went back to look at it again and found I had a partial chapter that had never been posted. 

 
It was the scene of Betsy jumping on Dean in the rain and his new phone gets squished between them and starts vibrating, etc.  You and RM gave me just the response I needed to go back to it — and there turned out to be a whole lot of story left to tell.  That scene in the rain ended up being only about 25% into the finished story. 

 
So thank  you for that.

To me it seemed like Blair was prepping for a potential part 2. But yes, if he decided to nix that idea, then Helen’s suggestion has some merit.

What about a revised version of a novel by the author himself?

Le marquis de Sade re-wrote three times the same novel about Justine’s story: (Sorry, it’s in French language: “Les infortunes de la vertu”, “Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu” and “La nouvelle Justine”).

I’m an absolute fan of “Summer at Cache-Lake” and, as I told him earlier, in my opinion, Blair should have ended his novel just before his heroine Jill left home to her new life at the University.

Then, if he would agree, Blair wouldn’t have to rewrite his novel, just review some parts, but with his actual style. Would it change really the plot?

Helen.

I’m so glad that worked. Welcome! In all, I sent out 35 emails to former readers this week (with a link to this site). My list was primarily composed of people who had asked to be kept informed. I suggested that readers do that (send me their email), if they wanted to hear of future stories on different sites (at the time that ASN was about to disappear forever). So far, I’ve received replies from eight individuals, but you’re the first to comment!

I hope you enjoy Jessa’s story! It’s headed in a different direction than my past efforts, as you’ve surely noticed, but I’m really enjoying writing it. I hope it is a fun read. I expect to put up another chapter later today. It looks as if it will be entitled, The Stairway.

Best Regards,

Blair

When The Exhibitionist Next Door came out I was strangely fortunate to be busy traveling and with other things to only read shorter stories and let the bulk of the posts pile up. That wonderfully allowed me to read most straight through in fact I paced myself so I wouldn’t have to wait, but in the end couldn’t hold myself off to not end up waiting for the last few posts.

That isn’t going to happen with this story. Thanks to an invitation, I got to start at the beginning. I will therfore be eagerly waiting for each installment. But it will at least let me be a part of the conversation as I mostly missed that earlier.

I enjoyed this intro with a very interesting main character and a wonderfully intriguing mystery to solve.It is telling that much of the concerns are the obscurity of references and the advisability of bangs. Fully involved readers. I am sure this will be “appointment television.”

Speaking from experience, $#?!^*$& and *>$#@*&+^ didn’t work. I tried all of those. Fortunately, I no longer have children living at home.

Thanks, guys.  Yes, I’m familiar with the nonbreaking space HTML tag, but it didn’t occur to me to try that.  Hmm, makes one wonder if <p> or <br> would also work.

Yes, you certainly DO qualify as a writer now! Your input was always thoughtful (in the days before Emi), but I imagine that, as a writer, you now see story writing in a different light.

Thanks. Yes, things are much different now. Before it was simply emotional engagement that I cared about. Now it’s all about the mechanics that cause such emotional reactions as well.

So, my writing style is different — next level? I expect that I have become a better writer. I’d really like to think so — because it is something that I have been working at. That said, it’s probably not that different.

Yes, the first person is a factor. But also you are much stronger now and this chapter has more emotional range than any first piece you have ever written before. We got boredom, surprise, freak out, fear, emotional, excited, exposed, embarrassed, curious, touching, irritated, disgust, angry, denial, doubt, drunk, nausea, hung over, life saving gratitude, and fierce determination. Wow… and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another dozen (or more) feelings that I missed mentioning.

I thought this was a pretty good line:

There were too MANY good lines. Way too many to count. I think you were brilliant picking a young, defiant, emotional young lady. It makes for very lively reading!

It’s my goal to write a story that is enjoyable and satisfying on a number of levels.

Indeed. That’s the joy of writing. You can make it as rich as you please.

I’m imagining a lot of fun ahead, especially now that we are both posting stories. You and I can trade barbs (and hopefully praise) much as Molly and I did back when she and I were posting simultaneously.

I know, right! This is so cool and don’t worry, I’m not going to side with Molly about that Mayberry RFD stuff that had me also scratching my head. The rest was was too amazing to even notice that minor blip in your opening sentence. (Regardless, the attitude of it carried though, that’s the important piece.)

Your friend and colleague,

ReaderMan