Big Ed's Place

At last the Holiday Series is done. At least until I write a bonus story for the ebook collection. I’ve enjoyed writing the story of Dave and his friends, and this last story was simply the sweet denouement. I hope you enjoyed the series.

Somehow, Chris Coulter calls to me. Maybe it’s because I enjoy characters who struggle with morally grey areas. Maybe it’s because once I got inside his head, it turned out to be an intriguing place to be. Nonetheless, I’ve found myself often wondering, “what would Chris think about this?”

When Nick wrote the Hot Tub scene in Book 4 Chapter 18 of Summer Camp, I realized that Chris’s point of view really needed to be heard. We’ve got Leah’s from the story, but based on Bent, I figured he’d have a rather different perspective than she did. Hence, Broken came into existence. I think it fits well, though it does open the door for more Chris Coulter stories. We’ll have to see…

The core of this story evolved pretty directly from the previous Holiday Series stories. I knew our foursome had to get past their tension and challenges so they could get back to having fun. At least if I wanted a happy ending to the series. I’d also known for some time that Halloween had to be a big holiday for exhibitionists. I quickly realized that our foursome needed to go to either an erotic ball or a swingers’ costume party. The latter turned out to be easier to write, simply due to it being easier to research. A friend who’s gotten into swinging was happy to consult. (thanks, A!). Finding people with good stories about erotic balls was a tad more difficult.

I also decided to do something different for this story. I told Tzratzk to create the art before I wrote the story. Of course, I gave him some general guidelines, but then I had to adapt what I’d written to match his work. It was fun and I’m happy with the result.

So, eight down, one more to go.

TMI came to me just after Nick released Chapter 18 of Summer Camp. The phone sex scene within that chapter triggered some ‘what if’ thoughts that quickly took bloom into the story herein. I realized that, between Bent and the Chapter 18 Coulter hot tub scene, that there was more to tell from Chris’s point of view (and may be additional stories in the future). I’d also been toying the idea of writing a strap-on scene for some time, as I almost included it in Bent, but decided it went a little too far for the characters at the time. Erin wouldn’t introduce one, but Regan already had one…

After that, it was mostly a matter of getting Nick’s blessing for some of the other ‘nuggets’ dropped in this quick story. As a result, they’re canon and should add to the overall main storyline.

Regardless, it was fun to write.

I once heard that Robin would caress his subjects before beginning a sculpture. That idea bounced around in my head for a while. Then a few months ago, I saw a Call for Submissions for artistic flash stories that were designed to accompany erotic paintings.

Well, by the time I finished the story, the Call for Submissions had been changed so it accepted work only from women (more on that here). As a result, I’ve released it here.

Sometimes life throws things at you that just have to be turned into stories.

Babe in the Night was inspired by an actual evening with my son when he was only a few months old. Like the beginning of the story, he was colicky and I was up late trying to comfort him. When I finally got him quieted, I heard my neighbors out in their hot tub. It didn’t take more than a moment to realize I could see them as well.

Now my neighbors were in their suits and nothing sexual happened that evening, at least in the short time I watched, but it got me thinking… what if?

And this story was the result.

(note: This story was originally published at Clean Sheets)

This one (found here) started with the airport scene. Many years ago, the inspiration for “Jennifer” picked me up in the airport, dressed as a sexy chauffeur. I realized I had to fold it into a story someday, appropriately embellished, and it wasn’t too hard to find a business in Denver that actually rents classic cars.

Once I knew the opening scene, I knew that I wanted to focus on the fallout from Fireworks. In my experience, life isn’t like the TV shows, where things wrap up at the end of an episode and everyone’s happy in the next. Issues burble on. They stretch out. People come back and say “yes, but….” I didn’t think there was any way that Will and Jen would be ‘fine’ solely from how Fireworks ended.

That said, I knew they’d talk, so the story that evolved is one that fit the characters well. The only major addition was the character of Austin, who is a shout-out to my logo designer. He and I discussed polyamory a bit, and I realized that his character was the perfect person to introduce the concept to my foursome. What they do with those thoughts will be left to the remaining two stories…

As I mentioned elsewhere, I’m on Nick Scipio’s reality team. What that means is that I see and comment on his drafts before they are released.

When Nick sent me the draft for Chapter 11 of Book 4, I argued that it didn’t make sense for Paul and Leah to be excluded from swinging with their parents completely—that there would be times when Sean wasn’t around. Nick disagreed, but we continued to discuss the idea. In particular, I felt that the adults wouldn’t cut Leah and Paul off unless something had happened. I suggested a ‘something’ to Nick and he told me to go write the story. It became Bent.

This one was a challenge because, while the plot was minimal and it was reasonably short, I was playing with many more of Nick’s characters than I did in Dealing with the Devil and I had to make them seem like the same people. Fortunately, Nick helped out and I’m reasonably satisfied with the result.

I also wanted to tackle the incest taboo in a slightly more realistic manner than most of the stories on the internet. Nick’s universe is one of the few on storiesonline where characters engaged in incestual encounters actually have second thoughts about them. I believe the struggle between the lure of the taboo and the recognition that it’s fraught will peril is important to capture. While I didn’t spend a long time with those internal struggles (Chris isn’t David, after all), I hope I did realistically show how the slippery slope of allowing rules to be bent can lead to them being bent more than ultimately desired.

Okay, A Mall Tale has echoes of A Good Christmas. Sometimes the theme is just irresistable. At least this one is for me.

Nick Scipio forwarded me a Call for Submissions for an anthology on exhibitionism. This story popped into my mind and I loved the fact that the narrator was not your typical “young stud.” When I finished it, I realized it wasn’t suitable for the original Call, and so submitted it to Ruthie’s Club, where it was published in March 2009. With Ruthie’s closing, I thought I should republish it here.

I like the surprise in this story, and the audacity of the unnamed female lead. It also contributes to my hope that some day, if I’m really lucky, I too can see unexpected things at the mall…

The Price was a queue jumper that I just couldn’t resist. The central quote about how death is the price of sex is one that a friend told me over fifteen years ago and has stuck with me since. I imagined Sherri saying it and realized there had to be a story there.

Of course, there’s a little bit more than that. I wanted a story set slightly before The Ugly One with Sherri in it, as a bit of a link between it and Friends and Benefits. I also loved the idea of writing something “tight” that showed a battle of wits. I also enjoyed seeing what stories Sherri could tell that would sound outrageous and plausible at the same time.

This one took a long time to write. It was originally published at Ruthie’s Club in late May 2009 and is here now for your enjoyment.