An Update on Family Honor
Well, I'm still overwhelmed by all the positive e-mails I've been receiving for "Family Honor", my latest short story. Seriously, I've never had such an overwhelmingly positive response for anything I've ever written; it's really shocking, to tell the truth!
Until a few minutes ago the story was only posted to storiesonline.net. I took the time just now to add it to ASSTR. You can read it here, in my stories collection.
There's one thing I want to address about this story, btw. Although the dozens of e-mails I've been getting about this story are 99% positive (89 e-mails so far, can you believe it?!) the 1% that aren't explain why the story has such a low score on SOL.net (6.29 out of 10 as of this post), I think. One e-mailer, JD_Seller, summed it up well:
I want to explain why I didn't code the story properly. It wasn't an accident and it wasn't an attempt to trick the reader, either. It was a concious decision.
...but to those who haven't had a chance to read the story yet I don't want to ruin anything. My explanation will be a definite spoiler. That's why, to read the rest of this post, you're going to have to highlight the text after this sentence. I'll be writing black-on-black, :P!
**SPOILERS BELOW! HIGHLIGHT TEXT TO READ! READER BEWARE! ETC! :P**
The reason I didn't use many codes for my short story, "Family Honor", and instead chose to give a generic warning in the story synopsis, is simple: I didn't want to ruin the story. If I had included a story code mentioning "rough sex" or anything close to that then the reader would have been tipped off beforehand that rough sex would be included. This would have ruined the surprise in the scene where it's revealed Kaylee is actually a slut. That wouldn't have been fair to the reader and would have sort of ruined the premise of the story.
Likewise, had I used a code mentioning incest, the reader would have known from the get-go that Cole would end up fucking his sister, again ruining the surprise. I felt, and still feel, that would have ruined the story for a great many people. So I left that code out, too.
It was a hard decision to make. In the end, however, I felt it would do more harm to the story than good to include these "spoiler" codes.
I know that some readers were annoyed and even angred by encountering such "taboo" sex scenes without warning, and to them I ask their forgiveness. Still, I stand by my decision.
To those who wonder why I've never failed to accurately code my longer stories before, the reason is simple. TTT, ATSS, and SG are all long stories! If you see the code "incest" in ATSS, for instance, you don't know when or where the incest will occur since there are 20 chapters. In a short story it's different.
I'm sorry to anyone who feels betrayed by the lack of codes. I can only ask you to see things from my point of view and agree that keeping a story fresh and surprising is more important than revealing beforehand every sex-act that will occur in a short, erotic story.
Again, sorry! Please don't hate me; there was nothing malicious in my intent when I left out the codes. I wasn't trying to "trick" anyone. I promise!
Until a few minutes ago the story was only posted to storiesonline.net. I took the time just now to add it to ASSTR. You can read it here, in my stories collection.
There's one thing I want to address about this story, btw. Although the dozens of e-mails I've been getting about this story are 99% positive (89 e-mails so far, can you believe it?!) the 1% that aren't explain why the story has such a low score on SOL.net (6.29 out of 10 as of this post), I think. One e-mailer, JD_Seller, summed it up well:
you suckered many of us on this one... Please include [accurate story] codesMore than a few people have written me similar e-mails. They felt "tricked" into reading "Family Honor" because, and I readily admit this, I didn't provide accurate story codes for this short story.
in the future. I don't enjoy these type of stories and will not read
them... I felt very mislead by this story. I reflected it in my voting.
I want to explain why I didn't code the story properly. It wasn't an accident and it wasn't an attempt to trick the reader, either. It was a concious decision.
...but to those who haven't had a chance to read the story yet I don't want to ruin anything. My explanation will be a definite spoiler. That's why, to read the rest of this post, you're going to have to highlight the text after this sentence. I'll be writing black-on-black, :P!
**SPOILERS BELOW! HIGHLIGHT TEXT TO READ! READER BEWARE! ETC! :P**
The reason I didn't use many codes for my short story, "Family Honor", and instead chose to give a generic warning in the story synopsis, is simple: I didn't want to ruin the story. If I had included a story code mentioning "rough sex" or anything close to that then the reader would have been tipped off beforehand that rough sex would be included. This would have ruined the surprise in the scene where it's revealed Kaylee is actually a slut. That wouldn't have been fair to the reader and would have sort of ruined the premise of the story.
Likewise, had I used a code mentioning incest, the reader would have known from the get-go that Cole would end up fucking his sister, again ruining the surprise. I felt, and still feel, that would have ruined the story for a great many people. So I left that code out, too.
It was a hard decision to make. In the end, however, I felt it would do more harm to the story than good to include these "spoiler" codes.
I know that some readers were annoyed and even angred by encountering such "taboo" sex scenes without warning, and to them I ask their forgiveness. Still, I stand by my decision.
To those who wonder why I've never failed to accurately code my longer stories before, the reason is simple. TTT, ATSS, and SG are all long stories! If you see the code "incest" in ATSS, for instance, you don't know when or where the incest will occur since there are 20 chapters. In a short story it's different.
I'm sorry to anyone who feels betrayed by the lack of codes. I can only ask you to see things from my point of view and agree that keeping a story fresh and surprising is more important than revealing beforehand every sex-act that will occur in a short, erotic story.
Again, sorry! Please don't hate me; there was nothing malicious in my intent when I left out the codes. I wasn't trying to "trick" anyone. I promise!
posted by Shannon at 12:43 AM
7 Comments:
The reviewer on storiesonline suggested the "caution" tag. I suppose you could use that when you don't want to spoil something?
Good story, though.
It was a great story glad you didn't give away the story with the codes.
It was fun not to know
I understand your decision to keep it a "surprise," but the fact remains that readers who are not familiar with your other stories had no idea what to expect with this one.
Unfortunately - I'm going to be brutally honest - it wasn't much of a surprise. As a reader of your other stories, I had a pretty good idea of where the story was going. Because the surprise wasn't much of a surprise, adding the codes, I think, would not have been much of a disservice. The sex scenes are still hot, the taboo elements are still there, and the story goes as it normally would. Frankly, I was more surprised by the brother's relatively calm and quick acceptance of his sister's proclivities (another twist may have been a burgeoning dislike/resentment towards his sibling and the upheaval of his way of thinking).
All said and done, I can understand why you wanted to hide the codes, but including them wouldn't have hurt, and it certainly would have prevented less enthusiastic readers from diving in.
All other comments aside, that was a great story! There's very little erotic literature that can keep me engaged from beginning to end, but this one did!
You captured the moods perfectly! Brilliantly written! Unfortunately, now I can't stop thinking about my s.....
I thought the story was very good. It is definitely a slight departure from your typical stories, especially being as short as it is. For me, I spent more time wondering, "how far will Shannon take this?" While none of what happened truly surprised me, I did spend a fair bit of time wondering if you were going to REALLY delve into the taboo.
Anyways, I liked it and look forward to reading more of your work.
I would like to thank you for a very good story. I don't think that all the codes should have been given.
hope tp see other stories of yours.
Thanks for posting FH, it's a great story. The "caution" tag would have been nice, agreed, but I fully understand why you didn't put the other tags.
Originally I only wanted to start reading and finish later, as it was already pretty late/early. However, no way to stop! The storyline was fascinating, the characters interesting, in general (like with your other stories) the writing style is so good and professional, smooth, round and catching ... And (again like most of your other stories) it sounds so personal, that the teasing question comes to mind how much of Shannon is in Kaylee ;-)
Thanks for all the work you have to share your thoughts and fantasies with us, for no other reward than (hopefully many) kind and encouraging words :-)
Peter
Post a Comment
<< Home