I want to thank everybody for their feedback, I always try to read and respond to everything that somebody sends me. As with most authors, I write not only for my own enjoyment, but so I can bring enjoyment for others. And it is the feedback that often helps to fuel our writing.
And "Country Boy, City Girl" is not only the longest story I have ever written (320k and growing), it is getting me even more feedback than even Okinawa (which I wrote almost 20 years ago - wow), it is also in a way a form of "protest" of many of the types stories I now read in here.
And that is simply that far to often now the stories seem to have a list of "tags" that is almost as long as the story itself. Boy meets girl, boy boinks girl on second date, boy boinks his sister, boy boinks his girlfriend's mom and sister in a 3 way, boy boinks Cheerleader squad and makes them into his harem, boy turns Asian female school Principal into his sex slave, etc. And the character development is so shallow that they are essentially cardboard cutouts. All within 25k characters and generally leaving you forgetting it under the 20,000+ other stories that are almost all the same.
To me, in this story I am mostly trying to recapture a more innocent time in the early 1980's. This is very much a period piece where the kids are not so desensitized to sex being everywhere like today, where Playboy and Penthouse is now seen as no different than the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. Where catching a movie on HBO that showed boobs and butts was the dirtiest thing we saw, not watching the Houston 500 gangbang on a streaming video service as kids can today. Where most of us would even go as far as looking in the Sears catalogs just so we could see a picture of a girl or woman in their bra and panties.
A time before ASSTR (where I first started publishing my stories over 2 decades ago), Nifty, SOL and other sites where stories of almost any kind can be brought up on your phone anywhere for free. When if we had an urge to read a "dirty story" it was either a 10k letter Penthouse Forum posting (where everything starts and ends in 6 paragraphs), or in an often badly written novel like those published by Bee Line.
That is the era I am trying to recapture, but I admit it is still sped up quite a bit. Yea, most of us in that era would have dated girls that were still "saving themselves", and would do almost anything BUT that last step. And with birth control often hard to acquire we boys often accepted it (I had to buy my first condoms from the bathroom at a truck stop). Not to say we did not have sex, but generally after months of dating.
And no, in most ways I have added pretty much all of the "tags" that will describe this story from start to finish. There will be a few more added, but not many. So do not expect Pete and Holly to get it on, nor Linda and Keith. Yes I had Linda and Holly in my latest chapter hold hands as they climaxed, because I find that image very erotic and sensual. But do not expect them to "get it on". There will likely be a few more "lesbian undertones", but that is likely about as far as this story will go.
And yes, I had considered having swapping, and much more explicit lesbian action. I even went as far as to try writing some but ultimately rejected it because I did not think it would fit the characters at all. Pete is very much a "small town boy", from a fairly conservative part of the country. His being involved in swapping or sharing outside of "first base" type activities is about as likely as Denzel Washington and Mel Gibson making a gay hard core porn movie together. And with the changes I have had Linda go through, it is about as likely for her as well.
In many ways, I guess I am attempting to write the longest story I can about foreplay, where the couples can and are trying to go as far as they can WITHOUT taking that final step. They are having "sex", no question about it. They are giving each other orgasms, but as of yet no penis has entered a vagina.
But yes, before the story of Pete and Linda ends, I will be writing about Pete's big hard throbbing member pushing into Linda's quivering wet quim like it was going into a sleeve filled with honey (sorry, could not resist). It is just not going to happen quite yet.
And to be honest, I am still not sure how I want this story to end. Do I take the trite way out and have them go to college, then get married and live happily ever after? With 2.5 kids, 2 cars and a travel trailer?
Or do I take a more real-life approach to how most of our first loves end, where it eventually spirals into a lot of heartache and pain? To be looked back upon with fondness but ultimately used as a learning step for our later more adult relationships. I am aware that I am over half way through this story now, and I could only take this tension build-up so far. Now it is only finding the right way to end it and build up to that part.
And no, I am not protesting against the other authors at all. We are all artists in our own way. Write stories however you want to write them, so long as the author enjoys them that is all that ever really matters. And for the readers, the same thing goes. If you like stories that have every tag under the sun in a single story, more power to you. Myself, I always preferred the longer ones myself with real characters I can really care about.
And if people like the longer stories as I do, check out Nick Scipio. He has an awesome long story that is over 10,000k long he has been writing for more than 15 years. And still keeps us coming back for more.