Celestial Reviews 215 - September 10, 1997

Note: Remember: even though someone else may be posting my reviews 
for me, my e-mail address is still Celeste801@aol.com.

- Celeste

      "Three's Company" by Damya (threesome) 9, 8, 7
      "Description of Woman Masturbating" by Damya 
            (Masturbation) 10, 8, 8
      "Old Friends" by Damya (ff quickie) 9, 8, 8
      "I Want You So Bad" by Unknown Author (sleepy sex)
            9, 5, 5
      "Closer" by Unknown Author (exhibitionism & voyeurism)
            10, 9, 9
      "Adventures on Gilligans Island" by Erneym (sitcom 
            parody) 6, 5, 5
      "Our Private Island" by Unknown Author (romance) 
            10, 9, 9

Guest Reviews:

      "The Neighbor's Pool" by DevoSpudC (poolside romance)
            9, 10, 10
      "Writer's Block" by MC Woodsmoke (mind control & sex 
            slavery) 9, 9.5, 9
      "Dana's Weekend" by Unknown Author (threesome)
            9.5, 9, 8
      "Ursula" by Friar Dave (emerging adolescence) 10, 10, 10
      "Higher Education" by Stephen Parker (sex with teacher)
            6, 7, 5

Reposted Reviews:

    * "The Surprise" by Charles Kessler (bdsm) 9.5, 8, 6
    * "Surprise" by Damya (spouse watching) 9, 5, 5
    * "Rain" by Damya (romance) 10, 10, 10
    * "In the Middle of the Night" by Damya (romantic interlude) 
            10, 8, 8
    * "Victoria" by Unknown Author (quickie) 10, 8, 9
    * "Sex in the Great Outdoors" by Unknown Author 
            (voyeurism & outdoor sex).9.5, 9, 9
    * "Gilligan's Island" by Shelby Bush (sitcom parody)
            10, 10, 10
    * "Alt.Gilligan's Island" by Leo Sanderson (sitcom parody)
            8, 10, 10
    * "Gilligan Mashukah" by Richard Dunstan (sitcom parody)
            10, 10, 10

"Three's Company" by Damya (Repost by Bookman Archives 
<readebks@wolfenet.COM>).  Someone has reposted several of Damya's 
stories, and so I'll repost my old reviews and write new reviews 
for as many as possible of the ones I missed.  Damya was one of 
the best authors on this newsgroup when I started reviewing.  I 
suspect that her stories currently will not make the Top 20 list 
for this month.  I say that merely to suggest how many good 
stories have appeared within the past couple of years.

In spite of its title, this story has nothing to do with the TV 
show of the same name.  Raven's two closest friends are men, and 
on her 21st birthday they surprise her with an emboinkment.  This 
threesome is a little different from most that we see on this 
newsgroup: the two guys are obviously hot for each other as well 
as for Raven.

Ratings for "Three's Company"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

"Description of Woman Masturbating" by Damya (Repost by Bookman 
Archives <readebks@wolfenet.COM>).  The only thing wrong with this 
story is that it is extremely short.  If I write much more, this 
review will be as long as the story.  I'll let you guess what it's 
about.

Ratings for "Description of Woman Masturbating"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

"Old Friends" by Damya (Repost by Bookman Archives 
<readebks@wolfenet.COM>).  The narrator is awakened in the early morning 
by her distraught friend, whose lover has left her.  What can the 
narrator do?  Well, she can make love to the distraught friend.  This 
story seemed to be a lot better when I first saw it a couple of years 
ago, before there were so many stories with better character development 
available on this newsgroup.

Ratings for "Old Friends"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

"I Want You So Bad" by Unknown Author (Repost by Bookman Archives 
<readebks@wolfenet.COM>).  I think there's another part of this 
story entitled "Later That Night."  One of the problems of posting 
stories in parts is that sometimes they become separated, 
especially when the titles show no relationship.  I suspect that 
the ratings for this story would be much higher if I weren't left 
hanging at the end.

As it is, the guy wakes his lover up, telling her how much he 
wants her.  He's already pretty hot, and then he gets her really 
going.  Then he takes a break and goes to the bathroom.  And then 
the story ends.  See what I mean?

Ratings for "I Want You So Bad"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5

"Closer" by Unknown Author (Repost by Bookman Archives 
<readebks@wolfenet.COM>).  A closer is a pitcher on a baseball 
team who comes in to pitch the last inning or so when his team is 
ahead.  He replaces either the starter or the set-up man.  For his 
services, he gets credit for a save.  That has nothing to do with 
this story (in which the title is the comparative form of an 
adjective), but I thought I should convince you jocks out there 
that I know something about baseball.

In this story the man comes home and catches his wife 
masturbating.  She encourages him to watch and then to join the 
fun. A good time is had by both.

Ratings for "Closer"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5

"Adventures on Gilligans Island" by Erneym (erneym@cvn.net).  This is 
the weakest Gilligan parody I have seen.  The problem is that it reads 
like a summary rather than a story.  My advice to this author would be 
to go into more detail and plot development surrounding a smaller number 
of sexual escapades.  To cover the present number of sexual events, it 
would be necessary to have a much longer story.

Three better Gilligan stories are "Gilligan's Island" by Shelby Bush, 
"Gilligan Mashukah" by Richard Dunstan, and "Alt.Gilligan's.Island" by 
Leo Sanderson.  I'll repost all three reviews, and perhaps someone will 
repost the stories.

Ratings for "Adventures on Gilligans Island"
Athena (technical quality): 6
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5

"Our Private Island" by Unknown Author (Repost by Bookman Archives 
<readebks@wolfenet.COM>).  If those people who advertise island 
vacations were allowed to promote their R&R holidays with sexually 
explicit material, they could use this story.  It describes the 
way any sexually vibrant couple would like things to go during 
their week in paradise.  The sex is really very romantic and very 
hot.  The main thing I would do to improve this story would be to 
replace the second person (you) frame of reference with a simple 
third person narrative.

Ratings for "Our Private Island"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

"The Neighbor's Pool" by DevoSpudC (cwilson9@ix.netcom.com).  Guest 
review by BluePencil.

It's always nice to have good neighbors.

Home from college for the summer, Adam volunteered to house sit for his 
parents while they are gone on vacation.  As nice as the peace and quiet 
were after finals week, Adam was getting a little bored.  And, thanks to 
a heat wave and a rather anemic cooler, a bit too hot.  Since new 
neighbors, with a daughter his age,  had moved into the house next door 
- the one with a pool - it seems that introducing himself might be the 
answer to both problems.

How do you introduce yourself to your next door neighbor when she is 
beautiful, naked, and masturbating beside the pool?  After some initial 
fumbles, Adam comes up with an answer.

This story didn't go where I expected.  A setup like this just screams 
"hot mindless sex!", but the plot and characterization developed at a 
much more leisurely pace.  The sex, though hot, was far from mindless, 
and worked quite well with the oddly sweet conclusion.  A very likable 
story.

Ratings for "The Neighbor's Pool"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot and character): 10
BluePencil (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Writer's Block" by MC Woodsmoke (woodsmok@gte.net). Guest review by 
Piper.

If you recall, in my last review ("The Art Critic"), I talked about a 
man who made a life-altering mistake by accepting an invitation to a 
woman's place for a cup of tea.  This time, it's a woman who makes the 
same mistake.  Only, she goes with a man to a public coffee house.  The 
invitor is one of her "heroes" - an author of many (at least 16) romance 
novels.  Ruth (the woman) has been reading them since she was 14 years 
old.  According to the story, she is now a 19 year old college student - 
a beautiful peach of a woman, ripe for the fall harvest.  

Unlike the man in my last review, Ruth was chosen because of her 
intelligence and imagination, as well as for her beauty.  You see, Alan, 
(the author in the story, not the author of the story) has a problem.  
Or rather, he says he has a problem.  A slight case of writer's block.  
(Slight?  Hah!  That's like being slightly pregnant!)  He wants Ruth to 
help him.  Of course she's more than willing to help in any way she can.  
In his house.  In his private study.  With the door locked.  With her 
sitting in a chair, mesmerized by the afternoon sunshine coming through 
some trees, then through a louvered window, to spotlight her in the 
middle of the room.  That's where the story more-or-less starts and 
where the fun begins.  Alan has written the outline of a new book.  Now 
he needs to flesh it out and bring the characters to life and make the 
sex scenes hot, realistic, and believable.

Like most mind control stories involving drugs, hypnotism, special mind 
powers, or whatever, this one requires the reader to suspend their 
disbelief somewhat, or the story remains nothing but a far fetched bit 
of unrealistic fantasy.  In this case, I had a hard time believing that 
Ruth had been allowed to read his stories when she was 14.  After all, 
the censors, do-gooders, and morality police, not to mention her 
parents, would probably get most upset about romance novels that 
actually contained real sex.  Children read them.  Young, impressionable 
girls read them.  They might learn something, or get "ideas".  Horrors!  
According to them, XXX-rated stories are NOT the kind of thing young 
girls should be allowed access to.  Of course, we all know that young 
boys are already corrupt because they read science fiction and heroic 
fantasy novels, and those are already liberally laced with the stuff.  
It's too late to "save" them (us) from eternal damnation.  Right?

Back to the story.  Alan outlines the basic plot of his newest story to 
Ruth (Ruth Ann Sawyer), and asks her to assume the role of Roxanne 
Starling, a young woman whom the hero (Dan Dawson) has just saved from a 
horrible life of sex slavery to an African tribal chief.  Only, he 
wasn't quite in time since she had already been forced to drink the 
potion which would turn her into a sex-starved nymphomaniac.  Ruth Ann 
gets into character as Roxanne quite quickly and easily, and comes up 
with a wonderfully realistic portrayal of a young girl, all alone in a 
tent, who is burning up with sexual passion.  She describes the action 
in fine, hot, erotic detail, while he bangs away -- at his computer 
keyboard.  Myself, I wondered whether she was just talking, or whether 
she was acting out the action as she spoke.  I got my answer in the 
second chapter when Tracie Gault, acting as the character Trace Gelt, 
joins in.  Ruth isn't the first woman to visit Alan's den.  

About half way through the second chapter, I knew where the stories 
(both the story and the story-in-the-story) were going.  It was obvious.  
Why did I keep reading?  (I mean besides finishing the story so I could 
review it.)  Because the action was hot, and the writing was pretty 
good.  Details.  Details.  They make all the difference.

The mind control portion of this story was pretty lame.  Nobody outside 
of the KGB or CIA has access to the kind of drugs this guy is supposed 
to be using (secret drug from New Guinea?  Groan!).  Lame, though, is 
relative.  This plot makes at least as much sense as 80% of the other MC 
stories I've read.  The rest of the story was pretty interesting, the 
way the story blended in with the story-within-the-story, and the way 
the protagonists took on the roles of the characters they were 
supposedly pretending to be.  And the language usage was also fairly 
good, although there were places where the word selection, in my 
opinion, was inappropriate for a young, fairly innocent, woman (this 
applies to Ruth Ann and Roxanne equally).

Technically (hey, technical marks are a requirement, aren't they?) there 
are a few problems.  A couple of wrong or missing words here and there.  
Some bad punctuation.  "Her self" rather than herself in a few places.  
Nothing major.  Plus a .5 deduction for making me try to make sense of 
some nonsense sentences.

All in all, this is a story I could recommend for the MC crowd as well 
as for anyone who likes a fairly imaginative story.

Rating for "Writer's Block"
   Technical merit    9
   Plot & character   9.5
   Appeal to reviewer 9

"Dana's Weekend" by Unknown Author (Natm5p@aol.com). Guest review by 
Anne747.

I'm never sure that I like stories that start in the middle of a sex 
scene.  To some extent this story at least has a good reason.  I still 
find it hard though to get into it that quickly.  After a couple of 
orgasms the husband makes a joke about `bringing in help'.  After 
another round, this time with some fantasizing, they begin to actually 
discuss making it a reality. A weekend is arranged with a single male 
friend, and a fairly hot threesome ensues.

The discussion and planning of the upcoming threesome is fairly 
realistic.  I can identify with some of the conversations I've had 
myself.  At times the language could use a little watching.  It can be a 
hard trap to avoid; but for example, there are 9 occurrences of the word 
naughty.  Possibly changing a few might be a better choice.  My 
thesaurus came up with 15 choices, 3 or 4 which would have been good 
alternatives.

This also brings up a problem I first had when spell-checking a story.  
It is very important to add some of the more common words to your word 
processor's dictionary.  If you are constantly picking `skip' it can be 
easy to miss one or two.  There were only a couple of misspelled words 
in this piece, so I would guess that a spell-check was done, but perhaps 
a few were just missed.  Or the writer is an amazing typist!

Overall a pretty realistic piece about a hot threesome.  A slight 
difference in the `positions' would have made it a better read for me, 
but that's because I have my own ideas of the perfect threesome. ;)

Ratings for "Dana's Weekend"
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 9
Anne747 (appeal to reviewer): 8

"Ursula" by Friar Dave (friar_dave@mhbbs.com).  Guest review by Mike 
Hunt.

Well, in a.s.s. there are writers and there are writers, and if you want 
a big long list go get Ole Joe's compendium. Then there are GOOD writers 
and there are a few GREAT writers, and Friar Dave would have to be on 
that short list. As Ole Joe sez, Friar Dave tends to write long stories 
mostly about very young experiences, and "Ursula" is no exception. It's 
a multi-chapter story that ran 70 pages with the topic as predicted.

"Ursula" is the story of a 12-year-old just discovering her sexuality, 
and we are led through episodes in which she experiences her first 
masturbation, first blowjob, first cunnilingus, first sex, and first 
anal entry. It's a tour-de-force of "firsts" and they're all erotic, 
stimulating, and downright lewd. Friar Dave connects the dots with 
believable characters and realistic settings, and the words flow and 
chapters link and draw the reader eagerly through the action, of which 
there is plentymucho.

Normally I'm a little uncomfortable with stories about 12 year olds, but 
having written a "first sex" story or two myself, it would be a quibble 
to complain. I will pick a nit about Ursula's multiple orgasms in 
multiple settings, and about the over-rapid development of her breasts 
in a one-year span of the story, but as I say, it's a nit.

This is not a new story; in fact it carries a 1986 copyright. It's been 
reposted by Ole Joe, apparently, and he shows exceptional taste in 
bringing it back for your entertainment. Enjoy.

I REALLY liked it. Or maybe it's just because I woke up at 3:00 this 
morning with an erection. Dunno.

Ratings for "Ursula"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10 
Mikeus (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Higher Education" by Stephen Parker (hitemp@blast.net). Guest review by 
Wherryman.

Mary is a college student, and since this story is in a.s.s.m it doesn't 
take a genius to work out what she's going to be learning.

Having done badly in a test, Mary needs to persuade her teacher to allow 
a makeover exam.  He suggests that they discuss it further, she agrees, 
and the professor books a motel room.  He also tells a colleague about 
the arrangement.

At the motel Mary is soon getting a lesson in oral sex.  She blows her 
teacher, and while he is reciprocating in walks the colleague. Together 
they give Mary more tuition; in fact they're soon giving it to her in 
both ends at once.  Her makeover exam is more of the same, but it seems 
Mary is not a fast learner.  The professor is only going to give her a D 
but offers an extra-credit question.  This involves some lesbian action 
with the maid; and although Mary is reluctant at first, she soon gets 
into the subject while both professors get into her.

Not exactly an original plot, but it has potential.  Unfortunately that 
potential is not delivered.  The story reads like an outline for a story 
rather the finished article.  The characters are one dimensional, the 
action mechanical, and the situations seem contrived.  The maid, for 
instance, seems to be written in to satisfy some formula; perhaps the 
author feels that all stories need some FF action.

The work in progress feel also applies to some of the phrasing - the 
author writes about 'scum stained tits' (perhaps Mary bathes in stagnant 
water?) - and to the punctuation.  If this story was an assignment, the 
mark would be a D, with the comment 'needs more work'.

Ratings for "Higher Education"
   Technical merit    6
   Plot & character   7
   Appeal to reviewer 5

* "The Surprise" by Charles Kessler (kessler@net-market.com).  
This is a story about a man who has been helping his wife expand 
her limits by inflicting pain on her to teach her to be 
submissive.  She loves this, and she is gratified when she buys 
him some new toys that enable him to punish and thrill her more 
effectively.  She is also happy to be able to help him expand his 
own horizons by fucking him in the ass with a dildo that she gives 
him as a present.

Near the beginning of the story Charles says to RoxAnne, "I am 
going to spank you now for my pleasure. I want you to be aware of 
my desire for you all through dinner. I want to know that some of 
your attention is on your bottom to remind you of what awaits you 
when return."  Now, omitting the first sentence, my husband has 
probably said just about this same thing to me.  However, instead 
of beating me with a large paddle ("within my limits," of course), 
he has focused my attention and has managed to preoccupy our 
mutual minds by doing other things: sometimes he gives me flowers 
or perfume; sometimes I find his unshod foot moving up my leg 
while we eat at a restaurant; sometimes he makes double entendre 
remarks to the waitress so that only I know what's really on his 
mind.  He also loves it when I lean across the table and notify 
him that I'm not wearing any panties or when I lick my lips and 
describe what I hope to do to him when we get home.  My point is 
that to get the benefits that Charles describes to RoxAnne the 
paddle and the pain are unnecessary.

I think pain COULD remind me of sexual pleasure - but not if it's 
deliberately inflicted by the person who says he loves me.  Years 
ago my husband and I were playing racquetball together and he 
accidentally drilled me with a killshot.  Later that evening he 
told me he was sorry; I told him to kiss it to make it better; and 
we had a good ole time.  For the next few days, that pain DID 
remind me of his love for me.  But if he would have asked me to go 
and stand by the front wall so that he could hit me with a 
killshot to prove his love for me, I would have told him to fuck 
himself - in the bad sense of that expression.

My husband has also made love to me with so much vigor that I was 
sore afterwards.  While that was happening, I screamed for more, 
even though I probably knew I'd be sore.  Being sore for the next 
couple of days actually did turn me on.  This is analogous to 
feeling good when my stomach growls from hunger at night (because 
I know I am winning the battle of the bulge) or when my muscles 
and lungs hurt during a physical workout.  There's significant 
pain involved, but the pain has been inflicted as a side effect - 
not to give capricious pleasure to the person inflicting the pain.

I CAN understand how pain can be sexy in a cultural context 
different from my own.  For example, in a slave-owning society a 
woman might be a lot better off with a man who would beat her and 
screw her and love her than with one who would beat her and screw 
her and not love her.  But the best thing to do with a slave-
owning society is to abolish it.

I may be missing something.  There are people whom I suspect to be 
normal who enjoy deliberately inflicting and receiving fairly 
extreme forms of pain.  What I have tried to explain in the 
preceding paragraphs is the perspective of a "friendly outsider" 
who simply cannot understand this.  To be perfectly honest, I had 
a friend once who was in a relationship that sounded like the one 
described in this story; and I suggested that she a counselor.  
She saw a shrink; then she confronted her boyfriend; he changed 
his pattern of behavior; and they have been together now for 
nearly ten years.  He now gives her flowers and plays footsie with 
her.  As I understand it, they do a lot of bondage, but he never 
intentionally inflicts pain on her.

I do not mean this as a moral lecture, but rather as literary 
advice.  A very large number of people who follow this newsgroup 
think the way I do regarding this issue.  If authors of bdsm 
stories want to make sense to this broad audience of relatively 
tolerant readers, they should develop the plot in such a way as to 
make the story believable to a wider audience, not just to people 
who already buy into the idea that it is a great idea to inflict 
pain on somebody in order to make him/her love the person giving 
the punishment.  To put it another way - a major problem with this 
story is that an ordinary reader like myself does not receive 
enough information to distinguish the people in this story from 
real sickos who ought to get their act together.

Aside from the groundless bdsm, I enjoyed other elements of the 
story that some people might consider to be kinky.  For example, 
the man has a secret longing to have his ass stimulated during 
sexual intercourse; and so his lover approaches him with a strap-
on dildo and with Ben Wa balls inserted into her own pussy.  If 
you think spanking a woman to climax is sexy, you'll find this 
story to be even more enjoyable than I did.

Ratings for "The Surprise"
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 6

* "Surprise" by Damya (Repost by Bookman Archives 
<readebks@wolfenet.COM>). This is one of the first stories I ever 
reviewed - back in CR 1.  I am reposting the review here with 
updated ratings.  I never used to get high on the idea of watching 
my husband fuck somebody else, nor did I like the idea of doing it 
while he watched.  But we talked it over several years ago, and we 
agreed that it would actually be stimulating to watch the other 
make it with someone else - as long as the possibility of disease 
could be avoided (which, of course, is possible, in imaginary 
worlds).  It would be stimulating for us, but impossible in 
reality, since we see so much value in our monogamous 
relationship.  (To me, the fact that I share this wonderful 
experience with my husband and with him alone makes it by 
definition impossible to invite another party into the 
relationship.)  So we've settled for an active fantasy life, where 
he sometimes talks to me about what he'd like to do to a woman in 
a movie or on the street, and I do the same for him.  

Now back to the story - I guess I'm making the point that I see 
problems inherent in the plot; but if I weren't so fortunate as to 
have this really great bargain relationship, I have to admit that 
the basic idea behind this plot sounds good.  There are lots of 
good spouse watching stories, but this one doesn't quite make it 
for me.  The author says she's writing it for her boyfriend; and 
it might have served that purpose really well.  If so, I hope they 
get their bang for their buck.  But there are better wife watching 
stories this one.  The reasons to read this story are (1) to find 
enjoyment in hearing about an interesting situation or (2) to get 
really turned on while reading it.  I don't think either outcome 
is really all that likely.  On the other hand, the story is not 
awful either.  It just somehow failed to give me as a woman the 
vicarious experience of driving my husband into sexual heaven by 
letting him watch me do exciting things to someone else.  I hope 
Damya herself had better luck.

Ratings for "Surprise"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5

* "Rain" by Damya (Repost by Bookman Archives 
<readebks@wolfenet.COM>). I was disappointed with this story, 
because the couple came in from the rain before making love.  But 
that was the only source of disappointment that this story gave 
me.  This is an exceptionally good tale of warm and gentle passion 
between two persons who have been lovers for a long time.  I have 
reviewed several of Damya's stories and have often commented that 
they were good *partial* stories; but this one is an excellent 
*complete* story.  Damya shows exceptional strength at developing 
a mood and at integrating every element of the story with that 
mood.  An excellent story!

Ratings for "Rain"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* "In the Middle of the Night" by Damya (Repost by Bookman 
Archives <readebks@wolfenet.COM>). This isn't really a complete 
story - just a very hot romantic interlude - a snippet describing 
what a horny woman does to wake up and thrill her man in the 
middle of the night.

Ratings for "In the Middle of the Night"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

* "Victoria" by Unknown Author (Repost by Bookman Archives 
<readebks@wolfenet.COM>). I originally saw this posted as 
"Victoria's Secrets+". In this story Victoria is driving along the 
highway and suddenly realizes that her stick shift on the floor 
resembles something else she would prefer to be caressing.  She 
reverses direction and heads for home, practically cumming in her 
panties while she continues to fondle the gearshift.  When she 
gets home, she finds her significant other reading the morning 
paper and fondling his dick.  She replaces his hand with her own 
body, and a good time is had by both.

Ratings for "Victoria"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

* "Sex in the Great Outdoors" by Unknown Author  (Repost by Bookman 
Archives <readebks@wolfenet.COM>).  The last time I reiewed this story 
it was entitled "Outdoors" by Planet Mojo (Mojo@bitsmart.com).  As I 
understand it, Planet Mojo is the name of a web site 
(http://www.planetmojo.com) at which this and other stories can be 
found.  This story is about a woman who has discovered that her 
husband's passion for her has cooled in the days since they tied the 
knot.  While she accompanies him on a birdwatching expedition, she comes 
upon <g> another couple making love in the woods.  This inspires her to 
think of ways to spice up her own love life.

Ratings for "Outdoors"
Athena (technical quality): 9.5
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

* "Gilligan's Island" by Shelby Bush (stbush@iglou.com).  The 
previous two sexual parodies of sitcoms were good, but this one is 
the quintessential sexual parody.  It is both humorous and erotic.  
As I read the story, I could easily imagine the actual characters 
on Gilligan's Island doing these things.  It was really an 
excellent story.  This makes it stand apart from some of the 
weaker parodies, in which the author simply takes the names of the 
characters and the general plot from the original story and has 
them do things that involve sex.

How does a person write an excellent parody?  I get the impression 
that Shelby Bush first of all enjoyed the shows he parodies.  He 
became thoroughly familiar with the characters and the types of 
plots that were typical of the shows, and then asked himself, 
"What would happen if people in these shows were allowed to have 
sex?"  The true genius lies in finding a creative plot and 
blending into that plot details that make the parody seem like a 
natural extension of the original show.  This author does this 
very effectively, both in the present story and in several others 
that I have read.  For example, I found it perfectly plausible to 
imagine Gilligan hiding in the bushes while Ginger took a bath 
under a waterfall. I could easily imagine Ginger being aware that 
Gilligan was there and doing subtle things to tease him.  What 
would happen next - probably right before the commercial?  Why, 
Ginger would bend over and display to the hidden observer the pink 
pucker of her asshole and the darkness of her nether lips below, 
and Gilligan would shoot his wad while falling backwards into a 
somersault, hitting his head on a tree and blacking out in 
preparation for the next scene.

Ratings for "Gilligan's Island"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* "Alt.Gilligan's Island" by Leo Sanderson (leonsan@rocketmail.com).  I 
guess I haven't given it all that much thought, but those people from 
the Three Hour Ride must have eventually been on that island for nearly 
10 years.  The author of this story assumes that clothing rots away over 
a period of 10 years and that a person who does all the shit work for 
everyone else might develop quite a physique as a result of the physical 
activity.  He also makes the perhaps tenuous assumption that Gilbert (!) 
Gilligan has a ten-inch penis.  Well, to make a short story even 
shorter, Mary Ann and Ginger decide to have fun with Gilligan and the 
Skipper. 'Nuff said.

Ratings for "Alt.Gilligan's Island"
Athena (technical quality): 8
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* "Gilligan Mashukah" by Richard Dunstan 
richard.dunstan@indiefilm.com).  Last week I reviewed Shelby 
Bush's parody of "Gilligan's Island."  I considered that to be one 
of the best sitcom parodies ever posted on alt.sex.stories.  This 
one is not yet finished; but from what I have seen, it promises to 
be very good.  I'll do a full review of this story as soon as the 
author finishes it.  As the author points out in his introduction, 
"Gilligan" displayed a surreal, nonsensical quality in that the 
three single men on the show never lost complete control of 
themselves while faced with the delectable feminine pulchritude of 
Ginger and Mary Ann.  For the show's audience, however, the 
predicament of Mary Ann and Ginger fueled many an adolescent 
sexual fantasy; and stories like this one will strike a resonant 
chord in the mind of many a reader.  

Ratings for "Gilligan Mashukah" 
Athena (technical quality):10 
Venus (plot & character): 9 
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10