Amanda's Reading Room: September updates

Hey, all.

There are four new (in the last month) vignettes in the Reading Room: "What Mother Wants," "Mother and Daughter," "The Addiction" and "Why Did You Leave Me?"

They all involve cross-dressing (one is magic), with twenty-something protagonists, and there is always an element of coercion or trickery involved. I won't try to sell them any more than that, but I guarantee that they're all well-written and well worth the time of anyone who has liked my work in the past.

Check them out at: http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/Amandas_Reading_R oom/

Amanda

P.S. I also regenerated the other PDF files from this year to improve the text quality.

Great stories, every one left me with an 'I wish' feeling, **sigh**
Helen

Helen Buckley

Thanks, Helen. That's exactly the way I approached this latest set of vignettes. Trying to get right down to the core of some of my personal flights of fancy. I'm always happy to hear that they tickle at least a few other people the same way. We're not alone. :-)

Amanda

While I'm less keen on the crossdressing and more into transformations (magic or science; makes no difference!), I nevertheless constantly check your group and greedily devour each new posting! Needless to say, of the four recent offerings, I liked "The Addiction" best! :)

Always looking forward to the next!!!!!

hi i loved the "auto-closet" story !! i wish you'd do more of those!

Thank you, commotion and kalel. I'm happy that you like my work.

Femur's recent plug really gave my group a kick in popularity. Membership is up by well over 700 in just a couple of days. And that's on top of the nearly 3400 I had before. Here I was thinking that the group might just reach 3400 this week and all of a sudden it's zooming past 4100! Here's hoping that the power femur wields never goes to her head....

Amanda

Of course it helps that you consistently post well-written, well-layed-out material, Luv.

A plug might bring you more members, but it's your talent that keeps them.

HUGS!

EGF

PS: Love the new vignettes. How about another round with ID theft as a theme? ;)

Thanks, Eva. You are too kind.

Hmm. ID theft. The first thing that occurs to me is this: A guy steals a woman's purse, finds her ID cards, and then decides (or is forced) to become that woman. Too obvious?

I have written the odd identity theft tale (e.g., "The Replacement"). They're interesting, but the trouble is that the main character is essentially the bad guy (and later, the bad girl). There's no getting around it: identity theft is not only stealing, it's often murder (either literally or effectively, by stealing the poor woman's entire life). I have a hard time with that. Most such stories either ignore this aspect or try to justify it by making the woman a bad person, but I can't bring myself to take the easy way out.

You may have noticed that I wrote an identify theft story earlier this year ("Being Emily") where the m2f character was obviously bad (totally self-centered and oblivious to the fact he was doing something wrong), the woman was a nice person, and the "hero" of the story is the one who took the bullet in the end. I'm not so sure that people want more of that kind of story; it's kind of a one-trick pony.

Anyway, I'll keep your request in mind. Maybe I'll come up with a fresh angle.

Amanda

I really should comment here, Amanda. Your stories and vignettes are well-written and very well produced.

Thanks, Andi.

Still not a lot of comments here, but I console myself by watching the masses vote with their feet (so to speak). Group membership is over 4200 now!

Luv --

I freely admit to a real weakness for evil twins. Blame on watching Eva Grubb try to steal Ginger Grant's identity as a child and wondering "What if Eva had been a man?"

I enjoyed both The Replacement and Being Emily (not to mention Sins of the Flesh) immensely which is why I'd love to read more of the same.

And remember a tale of imposture doesn't necessarily mean the impostor must be the protagonist or that the transformation is always central to the narrative. Your Emily story, for example, was written around a third party witnessing and reacting to the impostor.

What about a suspenseful narrative in which a man slowly realizes someone intends to replace his lover (wife, girlfriend, fiance) and is then in a race against time to prevent it. (With a perfect impostor could he even tell?)

Or a version of the Lady or the Tiger in which the protagonist must choose between two lookalikes for some reason?

Or a psychological piece in which an impostor either THINKS he is whom he's impersonating or strives to be a better person than the original he's replacing. Maybe he was asked to impersonate a bored or frustrated housewife (an in-law or close relative?) and falls in love with the unsuspecting husband and their children. Could he relinquish his new life to the original upon request?

And, of course, there's my favorite fantasy: That the most beautiful and desired actresses in Hollywood are all male actors who have replaced the originals out of greed, envy, or pride with the help of greedy agents and frustrated spouses.

Admittedly with Evil TG Twins I subscribe to the classic Horror/Suspense motif: Half the fun is seeing whether the victims perceive the menace looming over them and whether GOOD or EVIL wins in the end.

But whether you go with ID thefts or not, I still LOVE reading your work.

HUGS ALWAYS

EGF

Oh yes... Evil twins, identity thefts, usurpation... All fertile soil for fantasy.

Love your stories Amanda.

Trouble is I can not pick a favourite from what I've read.

Thanks, Maria. Truth is, neither can I. :-)

Luv the stories, especially with images, and the formatting is excellent. Had read some but not all until now.
Too many faves to list, but the journeys are wonderful.