Forum: Story Recommendations

Anything that old should be off copyright, so the OP can try looking on Project Gutenberg.

I think he was looking for more modern stories, especially those with an erotic twist on SOL.

However, if he's interested, I trust he'd love the works by P. G. Wodehouse, as they're essentially a mix of Agatha Christie and "Upstairs, Downstairs".

I'm attending a thriller-writing seminar at the (SF) Bay Area Book Fair next weekend where I will learn all the secrets. I'll pass them on.

If you get any notes, resources or 'how to' links, copy me. I can use it in my upcoming (as yet-unwritten) book, "A Memorial to Die For".

Since the last "public" action on the account was in 2009 those stories may soon be available only to premier members, so read quickly or subscribe.

The author is still around.

I take that to mean the Wine Maker is still visiting the site (to read) but is no longer posting updates? Has anyone checked his newest updates on Amazon (i.e. has he soured on SOL, or stopped writing)?

I take that to mean the Wine Maker is still visiting the site (to read) but is no longer posting updates? Has anyone checked his newest updates on Amazon (i.e. has he soured on SOL, or stopped writing)?

I somehow lost a posting here somewhere. I was confused, because WM is still around, and (as far as I know) still writing and publishing on Amazon, but while he IS visiting SOL, he's no longer posting anything here. I'm wondering why not.

If anyone knows whether he's still revising his stories or not, or posting to SOL under a different name, I'd appreciate a heads up.

The Winemaker stories are all entertaining and well worth the read. And "A touch of Death" may fit the bill of a murder mystery more than some of the others.

Since the last "public" action on the account was in 2009 those stories may soon be available only to premier members, so read quickly or subscribe.

Wine Maker fairly recently revised many of his stories for publication, whether the stories on SOL are new or the ones that I remember, I'm not sure. If they haven't been updated recently, you may have to search Amazon for the newest versions, but I suspect he's been posting new newer versions. However, your reference that WM hasn't been heard from worries me, as it means he's given up on SOL and is now only posting to Amazon. (He removed several stories, years ago, and relisted them after they'd been on Amazon for a while, so I assumed he'd posted the newest ones.)

Wine Maker fairly recently revised many of his stories for publication, whether the stories on SOL are new or the ones that I remember, I'm not sure.

I checked a few of the stories and they showed the latest update date of only a few weeks after their original posting - so I'd say if he revised them since then he hasn't posted them.

edit to add: can't find any of his stories on Amazon, either.

I checked a few of the stories and they showed the latest update date of only a few weeks after their original posting - so I'd say if he revised them since then he hasn't posted them.

can't find any of his stories on Amazon, either.

In that case, it's clear he was turned off of writing from his unsuccessful publishing attempts. He originally pulled his stories from SOL after an unnamed publisher expressed interest in publishing his stories, but nothing ever came of it. Afterwards, he self-published to Amazon, and then later his stories 'reappeared' on SOL (after 2009).

If he'd talked to us, we could have told him how unlikely it is to earn a kazillion bucks from publishing (or even ten-thousand). I'm sad to see him disappear from writing, as I've always loved his stories.

P.S. WM, if you're reading this, drop me a note and I'll buy whatever books you have just so I can read the latest versions. The only reason I didn't before was because I assumed they were 'sanitized' to remove all the 'naughty bit' which made them so compelling to begin with.

P.P.S. The only reason his stories wouldn't remain on Amazon is if he yanked them. If left alone, Amazon will continue selling them, and pocketing the profits, long after the author has died, making no attempts to contact any surviving relatives. :(

Afterwards, he self-published to Amazon

I checked the titles of the stories as they appear on SoL and also the name Wine Maker but couldn't find anything - if he had different titles or a different name, I doubt I'd find them.

The dates for publication on SoL varied from 2007 to 2009.

I checked the titles of the stories as they appear on SoL and also the name Wine Maker but couldn't find anything - if he had different titles or a different name, I doubt I'd find them.

He did both. His actions were documented previously in the forum, from a couple years ago, but it may have been in the Old forums, rather than the newer SOL one.

Seems like I am discussing the topic just with myself, but then again maybe we're all figments of someone's imagination and none of this is real anyway.

No, you're not all alone, as many of us wish to see the author's original wishes preserved, but since it's Lazeez's site, and he needs to keep it running, we see little reason to quibble over it.

There's our personal preferences, but then there's reality. When you start discussing what's 'legal', you always land in the 'reality' side of the discussion. :(

According to the change if the author has not been active on SOL in some manner either as a writer or just as a reader, their stories can and probably will be archived as premium access only. In which case if you enjoy the writer's work. You might want to read them again while they are available or do a copy/paste of each story and pasting it to a new document or text file on your computer (I know a very awkward process). I have no idea how long it will take for the new policy to take affect.

It's quite easy to become a premium member and simply download the entire story with one click. Remember, there are no ads, the site is completely driven by membership. I suppose it's quite possible these days to forget that, ad-blockers being the rule instead of the exception, but SOL never had them.

To get the thread back on track I'll add the following:

Judging by the vast amount of police procedurals there are on TV media seems to have moved away from the basic "whodunnit" to a rather different way of story-telling.

No, the stories have shifted from "who-done it" mysteries to "police procedural/investigation" stories. In the first, you follow the cops around as they go about their investigations, in the second they're investigating specific crimes (the various 'serial' criminal stories all fit into this category).

While the 'who-done-it' still seems popular in Britain (check out the shows on PBS), they don't transfer over to the colonies (or at least this one).

The technical aspects of these newer story types are, for the procedural stories, you need to focus on the intercharacter conflicts, which require a fairly detailed knowledge how police departments and how cops think. For the investigative stories, you usually need a 'twist' (like yet another serial killer/rapist, who's worse than any other serial killer/rapist who's ever existed before!). That's why many stories end up with the 'unbelievable' final resolutions, because instead of the traditional 'stupid criminal' these are all super-intelligent master criminals who only slip-up by making incredibly stupid moves where the investigator escapes by the hair of his teeth (a terribly way to end a story!).

another monkey wrench gets thrown into the mix

What do you expect when you let a monkey play with your tool kit? Take it off him.

These are paranormal mysteries, though not Whodunit

More often, they're 'cross genre' stories, where one story mixes science fiction with a mystery or 'police procedural' element. That doesn't mean it doesn't fit a particular definition, only that it's not exclusively a "mystery" story.

They are a pair of normal stories.

Never mind, then! < blushes>