Message-ID: <4292eli$9709221136@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Archived-At: <URL:http://www.netusa.net/~eli/erotica/assm/Year97/4292.txt> From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com Subject: The Annex Reviews, 9/22/97 Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.d,alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d Path: qz!not-for-mail Organization: The Committee To Thwart Spam Approved: <usenet-approval@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Moderator-Contact: Eli the Bearded <story-admin@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Story-Submission: <story-submit@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Original-Message-ID: <970922000154_779170847@emout03.mail.aol.com> X-Is-Review: yes Random Notes: I received some interesting feedback about the randomly selected stories I posted in the 9/15/97 Reviews. Some thought it was funny, others weren't so amused. A quote from one of the former: "Please, please spare the readers from random reviews." I would much rather review A stories, as it makes my job more pleasant, but I also want to give everyone a general idea of the kind of stuff that's available, and also to acknowledge the writers who may be pushed out of getting reviewed because of their subject matter or simply because they're a new writer and get lost in the shuffle. These stories can be good, awful, or average, depending on the luck of the draw. I probably won't be repeating this experiment in the future, but there will always be an occasional random selection in what I review. It makes life interesting. Second, for those who don't know already know it, there is a newsgroup called soc.sexuality.spanking that is SPAM-FREE and contains lots of high quality fiction relating to you-know-what. They've had a big contest over the summer, sort of like Celeste's recent short-short (500 word or less) story competition, but with hundreds more entries. These entries are all still available for voting and/or viewing at http://www.geh.com, so load up your shopping cart. Thirdly, I am still collecting website addresses of writers, archivers, or collectors, so if you have one you'd like me to list, please drop me a line. It will stay in the "It's New!" section of my website (http://users.aol.com/ladycyrrh) for approximately one month, after which it will go to the Links page. I'm also looking for the *current* website addresses for the following writers and archivers: Ole Joe, Eli the Bearded, Mike Hunt, Taria, SlowHand Luke, BronwenSM, red dragon, Ann Douglas, Seurat, Anne018bi. Now that all that is out of the way, I'd like to say that the 9/22/97 Reviews is devoted to gay fiction. It didn't choose to be that way. It was born that way. :-) I will also be doing a dyke issue in the future, probably sometime in October, so if anyone has any lesbian or bi women fiction they would like me to review send it along to -- ladycyrrh@aol.com. Next week I'll return to "regular" reviews. A Story for Jack [A] When received: 9/19/97 Author: Mark jo342 Address: Markjo342@aol.com Website: http://members.aol.com/markjo342/mark.htm The story was sent to me by the author, described by him as a M/M mind control story. He says, "This story contains episodes of homosexual sex...barely. Just like me, all characterization and plot and almost zero cocksucking." A guy cruising the bar scene notices a nondescript leatherman. His friend tries to warn him away--seems Mr. Leather has a strange effect on his dates--but the guy leaves with the leatherman anyway. Later that night he discovers, belatedly, what his pickup's secret power is. He can hypnotize gay men without their knowledge or consent, turning them into the smoothest, best cut, most obedient slave boy studmuffins you've ever seen...and the next day he parades his latest conquest around the same bar on a leash. As a gay mc fantasy this was hot. It bore a distant relationship to Dierdre's "House" which I reviewed a few issues back, dwelling less on the sex and mind control mechanics and more on the otherwordly master/slave aspect of the situation. Like the former story, it had a distinct Twilight Zone flavor...just enough to give you the willies without detracting from the overall turn-on nature of the story. You should post more often, Mark. The only problem I had was that the point of view wasn't consistent, switching between the leatherman and his victim at will, but being as this is easily fixed, I didn't let it drag the grade down. I also visited the writer's website, and a review follows. Site Name: Markjo's Home Page Address: http://members.aol.com/markjo342/mark.htm Owner: Markjo342 Reviewed: 9/21/97 This site was comparatively small and specialized, but fairly interesting. In addition to "A Story for Jack," which I reviewed above, it contains about a dozen other stories involving M/M mind control. "Little Tales for Masturbation, #1" is about a victim of gay phone sex who is hypnotized by the 1-800 service into getting dressed up and going out for the night to meet his "Master" while "Little Tales for Masturbation, #2" concerns a hustler/masseur who hypnotizes a wealthy businessman into being his sugar daddy. Kinda one-note, you might think, but the material was very effective and about as good as the story above, with that same spooky feel. The stories are also interesting -- a plus in my book -- for what they say about the gay community and the nature of its relationships. "The Fall and Rise of the Evil Princess" was even better, concerning an opera company's production of Turandot, the gay director and rising star of the company, and an episode of hypnosis. It's an incomplete work, having been begun and abandoned a few years ago, and I say finish it. It's A+ work. Visually, the site was very plain. There were no graphics, but on the plus side the nature of the site was clear and it was easy to find your way around with a few clicks of the mouse. The download time was pretty quick. Markjo also gives us some interesting commentary on why he's chosen to write about this particular theme: "Hey, my eros has no sense of style. It likes power exchange and mental coercion, and if you can tell me a really dirty story, I'm pretty content with everything else being vanilla." Interface: B Content: A Will I visit again: Maybe. The Strong, Silent Type [A-/B+] When posted: 9/14/97 Where posted: ASSG Author: Textboy Address: textboy@aol.com Website: http://members.aol.com/textboy/ This story gets double affirmative action rights: as a gay story AND as one featuring someone who is hearing-impaired (deaf.) The tone of this one was very sweet. Sorry for being sentimental, but that's what it was. Sweet. A young man at college is attracted to a new student in his English class. It turns out the blonde, blue-eyed stud is deaf. He volunteers to take notes for the guy and reads an essay he's written about how he lost his hearing. Touched by his response, the guy invites him to lift weights with him. In the locker room afterward, they have an erotic encounter. Though the staples of gay fiction were here--young men, locker rooms, showers, etc. -- the author got a lot of mileage from them. There was an element of friendship and caring here you see only rarely in M/F sex stories. I don't know if it's because the participants are gay, or young, or what. I suspect it's because no one's wearing those old, tired masks of male/female sex roles. The only thing I could say to the author is watch your spelling...particularly one of the characters having a "Mt. Dew" soda. Blues Brothers [A-/B+] When posted: 9/21/97 Where posted: ASSG Author: Mazer114 Address: mazer114@aol.com The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers seem to be a popular target for amateur erotica writers. HypnoTV has tackled them, and so has Cheryl Roberts. Now comes this one, which is part of a series of gay Power Rangers stories by the same author. I remember skimming the first ones when they came out, and there has definitely been an improvement in writing on the part of this author. It's nice to track an upward curve. I have only a basic understanding of the show, so I don't know for sure the various incarnations of the Rangers and their friends in cute little Angel Grove, California. But the story concerns the new 13-year-old Blue Ranger, Justin (this seems to be the most popular name for young boys in ASSG fiction) who realizes his attraction to Nico, a Hispanic friend of his. Not a Ranger, but someone who I guess fulfills the role of Nell in the Dudley Do-right cartoons...someone who gets kidnapped, then rescued, week after week. After one such week, Justin goes home with Nico, and they act on their attraction to each other with mutual blowjobs. The sex here was pretty good, and seemed true to life; the writing here was much stronger than the beginning (non-sex) section, which was only average at best. The author also had something very interesting to say in the preface: "...my major regret in life is that I wasn't sexually active earlier in life. Know all that stuff Adults tell you about waiting till you're old enough? Bullshit, go with your heart. Don't do anything that makes you uncomfortable, But if you don't act out of fear, I can virtually guarantee you'll regret it later in life." Well said. The affair between the two boys was, I hate to use these words again, very sweet, with a level of caring I haven't seen a lot of in straight fiction. Leather [B+/B] When posted: 9/18/97 Where posted: ASSG Author: Ziggy Address: ziggy001@btinternet.com Posted by: Rock Address: rock@stephenj.demon.co.uk A gay man in the UK joins a motorcycling club (club, not gang) that is traveling to France. Dressed in leathers, he shares a tent with another cyclist...who turns out to be gay, too. They go to a nude beach, which also turns out to be gay...and then the whole motorcycle club turns out to be gay. Coincedance, eh? That said, this was an interesting slice-of-life about a seductive hobby usually seen as the province of straight men. Some problems here with spelling, but nothing major. Deductible [A] When posted: 9/14/97 Where posted: ASSG Author: Felix Lance Falkon Posted by: WooF Address: owlswick@netaxs.com A gay porn writer hires a straight young accountant to do his taxes one year. He finds a number of business account write-offs from a guy named Jake. When questioned about it, the writer vaguely explains they are connected to his "research." The accountant soon finds out for himself what line of work the very gay, very built Jake is in when he pays a personal visit to the house. Hint: It's the world's oldest profession. This was a humorous, plausible, rape fantasy, and the dialogue was snappy, too. Actually, "rape" is too severe a term for what happens here, so perhaps "enjoyably overpowered" is better. That's just what happens to the accountant, and of course he comes to like it. The story ends with the writer hinting he'd like in on the scene. With a change in the sex acts and genders, the story could also work very well as a het fantasy. Afternoon [A-/B+] When received: 9/17/97 Author: Starwalkin Address: starwalkin@aol.com This story was bi in orientation rather than gay, but the sex act in it was gay. The author sent me this one, so hopefully he'll repost it. An otherwise happily married man meets a co-worker of his wife's one day as he's working on his yard. They have sex, and it later transpires that his wife suggested the encounter to the co-worker as a "surprise gift" for her husband. This is a pretty rare scenario for an ASS story; most of the time, it's the husband that gives license to his wife's extramarital affairs (as long as he can watch, that is.) The sex here was raunchier than the previous stories...of course the participants are older...and it even had the feel of a fur story in some places. For the record, Lady Cyrrh won't mind if her future husband has some cock every once in while...as long as he takes the proper precautions. Comments to: ladycyrrh@aol.com Please note that previous Reviews dating from May 97 on are archived at my website: http://users.aol.com/ladycyrrh. Each review also has links to the stories' authors and their websites, if they have one. -- +--------------' Story submission `-+-' Moderator contact `------------+ | story-submit@qz.little-neck.ny.us | story-admin@qz.little-neck.ny.us | | Archive site +--------------------+------------------+ Newsgroup FAQ | \ <URL:http://www.netusa.net/~eli/erotica/assm/> .../assm/faq.html> /