A number of readers have provided me with feedback on my stories - Assassin in particular.
While "I like this" comments are appreciated, the "I like this, but..." comments can help improve the story. Even a sincere "I hate this" is acceptable if the reader explains why. I'm sure this applies to almost all the authors on Storiesonline and elsewhere.
As I replied to one reader, Assassin required a society with the scope both to need and to have the ability to provide a vigilante organisation. This screamed to be set in the US.
I can imagine other countries needing and perhaps wanting to have such an ability but as portrayed I don't think any really could get something as substantial as imagined together.
[If such an organisation does exist, please consider these to be senile ramblings that no-one is paying any attention to.]
Enter my own limited contact with the US. Spending a few weeks at a time there on a few occasions and having Yankee friends (no Southerners I'm afraid) means that I can appreciate the differences in our shared language without necessarily registering them when I wrote the story. I think this is compounded by the fact that there are enough regional differences in any country to make it hard for someone not brought up in a particular region to mimic those who were.
Hence the frequent admonition to write about what you know best.
I have re-edited the story to fix those problems pointed out and a few others and updated the chapters already posted. Hopefully that improves it for those who are from the US.
So, thanks for the interest shown and the advice given. The level of feedback given by readers here so far is yet another reason for me to appreciate SOL.