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From: LadyCyrrh@aol.com
Subject: The Annex Reviews, 10/27/97
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This n' that:

Talk about authors not receiving credit for their work. Susan White's 
bondage story "Master SExxx" (reviewed 9/13/97) turned up as the "My 
Master" in the Articera story archives 
(http://www.arcticera.com/stories), with no author credit given. If I was 
the author, I'd complain. And if any archivers habitually delete author 
bylines and preface material from stories, shame on you.

The new newsgroup alt.gay.sex.moderated has a posting guidelines/FAQ 
available at: http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/8885. In 
the words of an ASSGM subscriber: "Hopefully jacking off is healthy.  If 
not, I'll die soon."

I myself have a FAQ of sorts on my website listed under "About this Site." 
One of the things I would like to reiterate from it is the three-month 
rule. Some of you, upon receiving a good write-up, immediately send me 
another story for 
review. I dearly appreciate this, as I read more than I review and have 
limited time to wade through all the spam-flooded newsgroups, but, as I 
am limited to the amount of stories I can get through each month and 
want to give a broad selection of what's out there, I have decided to rotate 
authors on a three month-basis. That is, if I review a story by you in 
March, your "turn" for review will come again in June. The three-month 
turnaround may change as I become more familiar with the authors out 
there. But I do like to receive the stories, because I read them even if I 
don't review them to keep on top of an author's recent work and how 
they're developing.

Finally, I am seriously considering moving my website off AOL and onto 
a friendlier, faster server. If there is anyone out there who would like to 
sponsor this worthy site, or knows of an adult friendly server which is 
fast and has minimal downtime, please let me know. I have also ordered a 
US Robotics 56.6 modem, so I can finally visit all the web sites I've been 
asked to without twiddling my thumbs in front of the console for hours. 
Surf City, here I come!


Java [A+]
When posted: 10/4/97
Where posted: ASS, ASSM
Author: Mandible
Address: mandible@deaths.door

The last story I read by Mandible was one of the first I reviewed ("The 
Evil Queen" 5/5/97) so I figure he or she is due up for another round.

Like "The Evil Queen," "Java" interwove elements of fantasy fiction and 
fandom into the main story line. A hep cat in a Dave Matthews Band T-
shirt sits down in a cyber espresso bar to fool around on one of the bar's 
computers. He notices a nearby woman banging away on her keyboard 
with great enthusiasm (not that kind of banging) and sneaks a peek at 
what she's doing. She's in an adult chat room, so he follows, and dialogue 
between the two ensues, which is at once amusing, banal, touching, and 
ridiculous. 

Other writers have tackled the chat-room scenario before, but what made 
this one special was the realistic nature of it, complete with misspellings 
and abbreviations. The author also successfully captured the fast pace of 
the exchanges and their silly fantasy underpinnings, as both characters 
took on cliched personas (a warrior woman and a barbarian) as they try 
to convey an idealized image of what they think a potential lover would 
find appealing...for example, the sculpted amazon wants to immediately 
suck the barbarian's cock, while the barbarian would rather have a 
romantic romp in a mountain meadow. (Alternately, the role-reversed 
desires could be read as the genuine, hidden desires of a typical male or 
female released from straightlaced sex roles.)

At any rate, the dialogue boils along at a fast pace as each character tries 
to wrest control of the fantasy from the other, and it ends as the 
"barbarian" introduces himself in real life to the mortified "amazon" 
behind him in the cafe, who then runs out of the room in 
embarrassment. I would have liked the story to end right there (oh the 
irony of it all) but as it turns out, the bearded, nerdy guy (actually 
nothing at all like his barbarian later ego) dashes after her to apologize, 
and they stroll arm and arm into the sunset, or the more likely the 
apartment of whoever lives the closest, to enact some of the fantasies 
they wrote.

I gave "The Evil Queen" an A- for the author's successful spoof of a genre 
fantasy novel as the real-world sequences were only average, but "Java" 
is a winner all around, and shows a writer coming into greater mastery 
of their craft.


Bondage at the Office [B+/B]
When posted: 10/19/97
Where posted: ASSB
Author: Chris Barrish
Address: diamond@en.com (Chris Barrish)

This was one of those twisted reality tales where an everyday situation or 
scenario becomes sexualized. In this case, it's your typical 9 to 5 office 
job.

The story wasn't really a story; it was more like a description of the 
kinky ways female workers can be trained on the job. For example, one 
gal is outfitted as a coffee table, and another, a receptionist, has a device

strapped in her pussy which vibrates in lieu of that annoying telephone 
ring. The story was told in a patter reminiscent of a female narrator at a 
fashion show or one of those 1940s newsreels, and I'm not sure if it added 
to the piece or detracted from it. I personally got a kick out of it, but my 
editorial side thinks there should be more story to it.


Bren, Merman  [A-/B+]
When posted: 10/22/97
Where posted: ASSGM
Author: dickgladden@hotmail.com
Address: Dick Gladden

Where else but on the alt.sex.newsgroups can you find a story about a 
masturbating gay merman, by an author named Dick Gladden, no less? 

This story was very short, and very much of a mood piece about a young 
merman who flees from the responsibilities of his kingdom and longs to 
reach an ecstatic union with the currents of the sea. It read something 
like the Disney erotica about Ariel the mermaid, save the main character 
was male; there was some lovely poetic language in here and I could 
easily see this story being the basis for a longer piece. There also seemed 
to be an in-joke about it, given the popularity of swimmers and 
swimmer's bodies in contemporary gay sexual fantasies.


Eruption  [A-/B+]
When posted: 10/14/97
Author: Lord Malinov
Address: malinov@mindless.com

Mick Jagger. David Bowie. Morissey. Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil. (Just 
kidding.) These are the sexy men of rock and roll. Surprisingly, for as 
hormone-laden and honeydripping as the rock and roll world is, there 
have been comparatively few ASS stories about it--only a few execrable 
Spice Girls stories, and that's it. (Note posted later: In 
soc.sexuality.spanking, Mr. Spraycan has posted some stories about 
spanking in the rock world, featuring cameos by a Stones roadie, Sid 
Vicious and Nancy Spungeon, and the Beatles.)

In this story, a rock guitarist goes to visit the girlfriend of his 
songwriting partner. He's stuck at the beginning stages of a new song. 
The girlfriend describes the partner's wild sexual behavior, which gets 
him going and inspires him to finish. Seems the partner likes to act like 
a werewolf. Well, aren't all rock stars crazy?

I liked this story for its background, which as I said, is something 
you don't see too often, and the drama of the inter-band incest that seems 
to be playing out. The writer used some awkward language, like 
"absorbing the steady drone and splay of Brian's incited guitar"  "cupidic 
lips"  and some nice language, like "the rattle of glass bottles and the 
slight pop of the caps as her footsteps brought her back" and "by tasting, 
by devouring the fruit of his best friend's woman." Overall, the story 
brings to mind an author who is beginning to pay serious attention to 
his craft.


So HOTT to See You!  [A]
When received: 10/15/97
Author: Michael Smith
Address: msmith1@mediaone.net
Web page: http://www.se.mediaone.net/~msmith1

This story was sent to me by the author: it is available on the author's 
web page.

In a lot of ways this story reminded me of a cross between Joe Parson's 
"When Morning Comes" (9/6/97 Reviews) and a Dulcinea short. A man 
and a woman slowly, lovingly masturbate in front of each other, 
becoming more and more turned on, until finally he ejaculates, and she 
comes. The style was more overladen than Parson's, and a little more 
formal and distanced; I found it amounted to more of a visual treat than a 
sensorial one. Like the Parson piece, it was female in tone. By that I 
mean it was tuned into more of the traditional female responses to sex 
and sensuality. If there was no byline, I might have assumed it was 
written by a woman.

Except for one thing, which brings up an interesting discussion of 
romance vs. porn. In the middle of all this creamy, steamy soft-core 
furry domains and rising nubs comes the exclamation: "Stroke it, Baby! 
Jack that cock while I fuck myself."

Now, I know that many loving couples (and not so loving couples) speak 
like this in the throes of sexual passion; everyone knows the power of 
dirty talk. But somehow, it deflates the mood here, like a crusty brown 
stain on a silky Victoria's Secret teddy. I'm a fan of dirty talk, myself 
(why else would I write the things I do?) but I also think certain 
illusions have to maintained for successful fiction. For a romance, more 
neutral language like "Stroke harder. I want to see you come," might 
have been more appropriate, as the romance elements of this story 
overshadowed the porn ones.

Comments to: ladycyrrh@aol.com
Website--->  http://members.aol.com/ladycyrrh



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