GeorgeGlass

Thank you! This was by far the most challenging Phineas and Ferb fic I've ever written, so I'm glad that you find so much to like about it. I'm planning to revisit the dream theme again in a future story, albeit in a very different way.

Re: "A Beach Like No Other" Thank you! Yes, there's definitely a bit of mystery to this beach. Hope you'll stay tuned!

Even though I was here long before the HF exodus, I really appreciate this gesture, DG.

Hey, GrayNeko! As a fellow "citizen" of both AFF and HF, I wanted to say, Welcome!

Thank you! Although the description of why Suzy loves thunderstorms was meant in part to illustrate her psycho mindset, given that she loves them for their power and frightfulness. In the episode "Canderemy," it looked like Jeremy was capable of sleeping through just about anything, so that seemed like something Suzy could exploit. I found it a little disturbing just how much I enjoyed writing Suzy's fantasies. I suppose I should concede that, just as Suzy projects her sick sexual desires onto Jeremy, perhaps I'm projecting my own onto Suzy. The more evil they are, the more fun it is to watch them fall. Suzy's defeat was actually one of the first parts of this story that I thought up. Then it was all about how we get from point A to point B and see all the twisted sights along the way. I had been thinking of the episode in which Suzy uncharacteristically tried to help Candace control her brothers, and Candace failed anyway. Thanks! Pants are an illusion! (Bonus points if you get the reference.)

A reader recently asked me whether I had a Twitter account through which I could notify readers about my new stories or chapters. I do not, but I'm thinking about getting one. Before I do, though, I'm wondering what the other options are. What do you all do when you want to let your readers know about new stories or chapters you've posted?

If you're saying that writing in an obscure fandom means that you attract fewer reviewers of the type that KH is talking about, I'm inclined to agree. When I write fanfic, I mainly write for fandoms that are either somewhat obscure (the original ThunderCats) or that don't have a lot of "adult" fic written for them (Phineas and Ferb), and my experience with reviewers of these fics has been extremely positive. By and large, they are appreciative of my efforts, they often go into significant detail regarding what they liked or didn't like, and while they sometimes express disappointment that I didn't include some element they wanted to see, they don't harp on that or make it central to their reviews. Certainly, there are exceptions, but usually those people just leave one-line reviews, not paragraph-long diatribes, so they don't really bother me. I feel very fortunate that my fanfic has attracted such a good readership here. My original stuff, not so much, but I've still had several well-written reviews even there. Besides, this isn't OriginalFiction.org. Thank you, super-reviewers. (You know who you are.)

Thanks, BW. That is very reassuring.

This morning, the administrator of Hentai Foundry announced that sexually suggestive artwork and stories about characters that are less than 18 years old (or appear to be so) will no longer be allowed. Apparently, someone complained to the site's host, which required HF to make this change. This is really disappointing to me, because maybe 70% of my stories involve under-eighteen characters. AFF is now the only site where I have any such stories posted. And not to diss AFF, but those stories tend not to get as much traction here as they do on HF. (AFF readers seem to be more into either fanfics or adult incest, d/s, and rapey stuff.) I guess I'll be using the "exclusively on AFF" tag more often now. Although I have to wonder whether the same thing will happen here.

It would be nice if there were something in the Forum FAQs about what effect this control has. Do "friends" have access to anything of yours that other users don't? Or does clicking the button simply add that person to your list of friends?

This is complete speculation, but what the heck: I'd say that unlike Gaelic and Elvish, Japanese is a language to which a lot of your readers--that is, anime fans--have had at least some exposure but in which most of them probably lack substantial expertise. And fans of anything have a tendency to argue vehemently over things that they have just a little bit of knowledge about.

Wow--I remember watching The Secrets of Isis, but I had forgotten its name. What a reference! Love the commissioned pics. Padoga draws GF characters really well; I've got him on my watch list, too. Seems like Evil Fairy is worth listening to (despite the evil--or maybe because of it). Her "Riley's Replacement" has been on my list of stories I've been meaning to read for like a year now. As for Ark II...I thought we as a generation had mutually agreed never to speak of it again.

I saw #1 more than 20 years ago at an SF convention. I don't remember the name of it, but I can provide a couple more details (which I'm hoping I remember accurately) that may help you in your search. --There were 3 guys with bomb collars. They were all convicted criminals who were being forced to stop a criminal or terrorist plot as a sort of "community service." The collars were to prevent them from trying to escape. --The story involved a tower that was so tall, it needed a kind of gyroscope-like system on one of its upper floors to keep it stable. Also, I second Muhabba's speculation that #4 is AKIRA.

Thanks! I know, I disappointed some folks by leaving that out. See my response to Jomahawk and SWK's reviews (above) for an explanation.

Jomahawk and SWK: Your reviews touched on similar points, so I'm going to reply to them simultaneously. Thank you very much, guys. The ending is surprising in part because the story is told entirely from Suzy's extremely limited and distorted point of view. As I tried to illustrate through her thoughts and fantasies, her expectations are heavily colored by her twisted view of the world. One of the hallmark traits of a psychopath (or whatever they're called these days; I've lost track) is a lack of empathy. Although psychopaths can be great charmers and manipulators of people, they can't really see things from another person's perspective. Thus, Suzy assumes that everyone thinks more or less the way she does, and that any differences between their behavior and hers are merely the result of societal brainwashing, weakness, or stupidity. Suzy doesn't understand love or generosity, so she assumes that they doesn't really exist; love is just an attractive disguise for lust, and generosity always has strings attached. Thus, it never occurs to her that Candace might have feelings for Jeremy strong enough to overbalance Suzy's ability to intimidate her, or that Phineas and Ferb would help Candace simply because she asked. And Suzy's ideas about Jeremy's sexuality are largely a projection of her own savage erotic urges. As a result, Candace didn't even have to be that good an actress--she just had to play along with Suzy's expectations. The most effective lies are often those that the listener wants to believe. I gave a lot of thought to the point at which the story should end, and I seriously considered depicting some or all of Suzy's revenge-rape. And I will confess that the main reason why I denied you, the reader, that gratification is that I didn't know how to write that scene. Specifically, I didn't know what would be going through Suzy's mind, and because the whole story is written from Suzy's viewpoint, that was a dealbreaker. It wouldn't be satisfying if Suzy were in denial of the whole thing or had some sort of dissociative experience, and leaving her swearing horrible revenge against Candace would undermine Candace's victory. Besides, closing the door on the villain as they scream "NOOOOOO!" is such a classic story-ending device, I couldn't pass up the chance to use it. Again, the story is meant to be read entirely from Suzy's perspective, and she wouldn't know what Candace was up to after she left the shed. Besides, the shed is plenty soundproof thanks to Suzy's corrugated-cardboard "decorations" (which is meant to make Suzy's defeat all the sweeter, given that she is effectively caught in her own trap). I meant to imply (but didn't, really) that Candace and the dogs would be watching each other's backs from then on. Thanks again, guys. I am glad you both liked this one so much. Other P&F stories are in the works, of course, but I'm not sure yet which one will be sucking up valuable bandwidth next. And, of course, there's a mess of original stories in progress, too. (I generally have 10 to 20 stories--I kid you not--in various stages of development at any given time.) With respect and gratitude, George

Normally, the length of my response to a review is roughly proportional to the length of the review itself, because I generally respond to each point the reviewer makes. In this case, however, there's really no substantive response I can make to your comments that wouldn't constitute a massive spoiler. So I'll just say this: Thanks for the review, and stay tuned!

I don't love her! She kicked me in the face!

That's the most important thing, anyway. And its usefulness will be enhanced by the fact that AFF uses standardized tags instead of just having people type in their own, like some sites do (so that you get different results if you search "M/F," "male/female," or "male_female"). That was a wise move on someone's part.

Re: "F**k Perfect" Thanks! I was going to end the story a few lines earlier, but that ending seemed too predictable, and I didn't want the story to take itself too seriously. Thank you! This story was a little tough to write, because most of my stories are not about unrelated human adults having conventional, consensual sex in the privacy of their own homes. But maybe I'll try it again some time.

One thing I've learned from posting stories on AFF is that self-censorship is counterproductive, at least in terms of attracting readership. For every awful thing you include in a story, you lose one reader and gain three others.

I did say "the only famous female horror writer I can think of." And by "famous", I meant "famous enough that even I have heard of them." Truth is, I don't think I've read a horror novel in at least a decade. Becoming an editor killed much of my desire to read in my spare time. Why it didn't also kill my desire to write, I'm not sure, except that writing fiction feels a lot different from correcting grammatical errors and fixing awkwardly constructed tables in scientific papers.

That would be great. Making them searchable (and excludable, if there are certain tags people want to avoid) would be terrific, too, if it can be done.

No, I don't think so either. I think you mentioned that the plan for the revamp includes a one-click method of favoriting stories and authors. The number of faves might be a slightly more meaningful metric than the ratings, because people will mostly fave stories that they think they will want to read again. Will the number of faves appear somewhere?

I'm not sure there's a difference. It occurs to me that the only famous female horror writer I can think of is Mary Shelley. Maybe it's time for another one.

Re: "F**k Perfect" Thank you! It is indeed a one-shot, but I can't dismiss the possibility that I'll want to write about these characters some more in the future.