Don't get me wrong -- I value constructive criticism. But a couple of emails were especially welcome, as they were reader confirmation of what I was trying to accomplish. In all my SOL writing so far, I try for a sense of plausibility, even in science fiction. That means that I want them to have context beyond that of the characters.
It was great, then, to get an email that pointed out a typo problem, but also addressed the context of Green Berets for the Sexual Revolution: "I like the contrast between the academic, the erotic, and the
war-flavors."
It was also great to get a reader's confirmation, for the first chapter of I left my heart, and her vibrator, in San Francisco, that his cat also ate cantaloupe. It's good to feel that we've connected in something of a shared reality.
While I'll continue to consult with my characters, I'll probably take Green Berets a few chapters more, and then establish it as the first of a series to take place in a mildly alternate reality of a sexual and cultural underground in Washington, DC. It's nice not to have a budget in cleaning up a real venue! Nevertheless, the private erotic theater will have much nicer facilities, drawing on imagination but also memory, such as a very nicely staged theater in Amsterdam's Red Light District.
Apropos of the latter, I am a military historian, but I never understood a Marine chant until I had it shown on that Amsterdam stage:
This is my rifle
This is my gun
One is for fighting
One is for fun.
Use of the gun was thoroughly demonstrated.