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Subject: {ASSM} Glen Wiseman 11 (mf mmf ffm ff mm slow)
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 09:10:09 -0500
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<1st attachment, "GW11.txt" begin>

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. If you are offended by 
sexually explicit material or are under the age of 18, stop reading 
now. This material cannot be reproduced for commercial purposes 
without the consent of the author.

Glen Wiseman
By
Lazlo Zalezak
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezak, 2003

Chapter 11

Sitting in his new office, Glen looked over the material that Wanda 
had brought over for him edit. It was the next edition of their e-
zine and what he had read so far was actually quite good. He 
couldn't believe what the trio had done in just a couple of months. 
They had actually arranged to have family councilors contribute 
articles on alternative marriages, readers to contribute letters 
describing their experiences, and a large number of advertisers. 

He had just finished an article by a well known psychologist who 
wrote about five basic alternative marriage schemes that he had 
studied. This particular article described the most common 
alternative; the marriage that included swinging. The author had 
described how these were often fraught with political desires with 
one member of the couple pushing for it more than the other. Glen 
was intrigued by what the author had to say. He hadn't realized that 
there were so many varieties of swinging lifestyles. In his opinion, 
it was an extremely balanced presentation of the pros and cons of 
such a life style. After reading it, he looked forward to the next 
installment which was to cover the one man and two women type 
of marriage.

He went through the articles one at a time, making minor edits to 
the language but not changing the meaning. Most of them were 
well written and he didn't have to make too many changes. Some 
of the authors employed technical terms, so he added footnotes that 
would explain them. Sandra had explained to him that they would 
change his footnotes to links that would popup a small window 
with his comments.

As he read the articles, he also jotted down some notes that could 
serve as subjects for future articles. While reading the article on 
swinging for example, he jotted down a note that a good future 
article would be on how to start a swinging relationship. 

He started on the letters and realized that he now had his work cut 
out for him. Most of the letters were poorly organized and had 
significant grammatical problems. Cliff had stressed that all 
submitters had acknowledged that their submissions would be 
edited for language and other technical problems. 

Some of the letters were so bad that he had to basically rewrite the 
entire thing. However, most of them were so heartfelt that he had 
to basically leave them alone, correcting only the grammar and 
spelling. None of them were pornographic, but dealt with the truly 
trying issues of living in an alternative marriage. There was one, 
rather large letter than was not so well written, but the topic was 
interesting and the subject matter was treated with significant 
delicacy. He set the letter aside to recommend that they invite the 
person to expand it into an article and get paid for it.

Everything was going okay until Glen started to read Cliff's 
editorial. It was titled, "Is HE Watching?" It was a very balanced 
presentation about alternative marriages and religion. He hadn't 
realized that Cliff was such a good writer. Cliff's conclusion was 
that if God was watching, then as long as love was involved then 
God would be happy. Glen's stomach felt uneasy as he read the 
article. He was tempted to ask Cliff to delay publishing this 
particular article. He wasn't worried about the reaction of people 
who believed in a loving God. He was more concerned with those 
who viewed God as a vengeful deity that would just love to catch 
humans in the smallest sin. 

Glen finished his first pass at editing. He would take another pass 
tomorrow and then give the material back to them. It was a nice 
little part-time job for him. He basically took two days a month to 
edit their journal and make recommendations. They did most of the 
work and kept most of the money.  However, they paid for all of 
the lead articles and gave subscriptions to folks that submitted 
letters that were published. 

He went to the page that presented information about the e-zine 
staff. He crossed out his name as editor and decided to change it to 
a pseudonym. He thought about a name, considering several until 
he decided on 'Mark Strawman.' It was as good a name as any. He 
read the other names presented there. Cliff was the president, 
Wanda was listed as the webmistress, Sandra was in charge of 
advertising, Edward Long was the photographer, and Lesley 
Wright was the art director. He had no idea who the last two 
people were, but he assumed they were people that the Metchettes 
knew from Atlanta. Whoever they were, they were very good. The 
photographs complemented the articles very well.

There was a knock on the front door and he got up to answer it. 
Before he got out of his office, he heard Sandra shout, "It's me."

He shouted back, "Come in, Sandra."

She came in the cabin and headed to the kitchen. He came out of 
the office and heard her rattling around in the kitchen. There was 
another knock on the back door and Glen went to it. He opened the 
door and was surprised to see Oliver standing there with a couple 
of very nice trout. Oliver had been coming over about every other 
week to fish since his first visit before the Metchettes left. Glen 
had enjoyed his visits tremendously. 

Oliver said, "Hello, Glen. I've got a couple of fish here. You need 
any?"

Glen smiled and answered, "No, take them to your uncle. I know 
how much he enjoys a nice trout."

Oliver shrugged and set his creel down on the porch. Straightening, 
he said, "Well, I thought I would offer just in case. I really 
appreciate you letting me come out here so often."

Glen stepped aside as he said, "Come on in. There's someone here 
that you might want to see."

Oliver came in the house and looked around. He spotted Sandra in 
the kitchen and burst out in a smile. He called to her, "Hey lovely 
lady. I'm glad to see that you came back to keep Glen happy."

Sandra heard him and came out of the kitchen beaming. She came 
over to him and gave him a big hug. Stepping back, she said, 
"Oliver! What are you doing here?"

"I've been fishing. Glen lets me come over and fish. Even though 
we own a restaurant that serves fish, you just can't beat the taste of 
a fresh trout. "

Sandra grinned and asked, "Well, it's nice to know that you have 
been coming by to take care of this old grump while we were 
gone."

"It's been my pleasure. It's a lot of fun to have a fishing buddy and 
a private stream where you aren't fighting off a dozen other 
fishermen."

Glen led his guest to the dining room table and pulled out a chair 
for him. They all sat down. Glen asked, "So how is business 
going?"

Oliver beamed, "Amazing. We keep one or two tables free all the 
time, but the wait for reservations is almost ten days now. We 
make more off of tips than we ever did working on our old jobs. 
The restaurant is making a great profit and we are putting that right 
back into the business. We went out and bought real crystal glasses 
and serving glassware. We are upgrading the tables and chairs 
next."

Glen appreciated the level of work that Oliver and his family were 
putting into this enterprise. He asked the question that he had 
always wondered about, "How did you ever decide on the old 
south theme with the slavery era costumes?"

Oliver laughed aloud at the question. He answered, "You know, 
being black we considered what we could do that no one else 
would even consider. We realized that no business would ask its 
black employees to dress up like antebellum house slaves. When 
we researched it, we realized that the costumes that we had picked 
out were not the outfits worn by slaves, but the kind of garb that 
freemen wore."

Glen nodded at the reasoning. Sandra looked puzzled and asked, 
"So why the theme?"

Oliver laughed and answered, "While that time was not very good 
for blacks, it was a time of great grace and beauty. In a funny way, 
it was a romantic time and very few people can resist the charm of 
it. Having it as a theme probably accounts for half of our 
business."

Glen knew that Oliver was far smarter than most people would 
credit him. He was glad to know that his impression had not been 
mistaken. He asked, "So do you get much negative talk from your 
customers?"

"Not really. I think that the antebellum theme has a tendency to 
make people a little more aware. We also try very hard to provide 
service without being noticed. You see us moving around the room 
and going from table to table, but you don't really notice us at your 
table. We don't hear much that is negative. The very few times that 
someone is really loud and says obviously obnoxious things, other 
customers have complained to them directly."

Glen stated, "Well, I was amazed at the quality of service you 
provide. I was in the business when my wife was still alive. I've 
never seen such care taken in providing good service and excellent 
food."

Oliver basked in the complement. He liked Glen and his down to 
earth honest ways. He said, "I'm really pleased that you said that. 
We try very hard."

Wanda listened in surprise as Glen stated, "Well, at the end of the 
month the next issue of the Metchettes Internet magazine is getting 
published. I would like to take them out to dinner that night. Could 
we make reservations for that night?"

Oliver answered, "Glen, you never have to make reservations. All 
you have to do is show up and we'll find a place for you to sit."

Glen shook his head and stated emphatically, "No need to do that. 
We are just regular customers that you happen to know. I would 
hate for something unfortunate to happen to your business because 
you were making an exception for us."

Oliver laughed and said, "Nonsense. You four are our best friends. 
Cliff helped me at the grocery store and made sure that we got the 
best items for the restaurant. He also talked the manager into 
extending us credit at a time when we really needed it."

He turned to Sandra and said, "You and your sister are delightful at 
worst and a credit to womankind everywhere. Without a doubt, 
seeing you and her always cheer us up. My sisters will be so happy 
to know that you are back."

Sandra laughed and replied, "Flattery will get you everywhere."

Glen returned to the original request and said, "We will need 
reservations for five."

Sandra looked at Glen in puzzlement and asked, "Five?"

Glen smiled and nodded his head. He repeated, "Five."

Oliver answered, "I'll add it to the books. What time?"

"Can we make it eight?"

Oliver laughed and replied, "Sure, party of five at eight. I'll let my 
sister know to put you down for a table. End of the month."

Glen looked over at Sandra and could see that she was still trying 
to figure out who would be the fifth person. He winked at her and 
turned back to Oliver and said, "Right."

Oliver looked at the two of them and stated, "Well, I better get 
back to the house and put the fish up. I have a restaurant to run."

Glen took him to the door and let him out. Oliver turned and 
waved as he left with his creel of fish. Glen waved back and 
watched him go. He had hoped to talk with Oliver a little more, but 
he understood that the man had to go to work. He turned to Sandra 
and asked, "Tell me about you and them."

Sandra asked, "What? Are you jealous?"

Glen laughed and answered, "Jealous? No. I'm just curious when 
you could have met them. You were around here all of the time."

Sandra laughed and said, "Silly, they used to get their stuff from 
the grocery store where I worked."

Glen sat there and looked flustered for a moment. Then said, "Isn't 
it a long way from the restaurant?"

Sandra laughed, "They don't live that far from here. They would 
stop at the store on their way to the restaurant. Cliff would set 
aside the freshest vegetables for them."

Glen understood that Cliff was a very generous individual that had 
a good heart, but he had not realized the extent to which the young 
man had gone to help out another. Oliver was a good man and Cliff 
had seen fit to help him. He still had to wonder how Cliff had 
talked the manager of the store into extending credit to Oliver. He 
would ask Cliff about that some time. Undoubtedly, Cliff had 
promised to cover the debt.

Sandra returned to the kitchen and started preparing dinner. She 
was cooking for four tonight. Wanda and Cliff would be over in 
just a little while, but would return home after dinner. She would 
spend the night with Glen. He didn't know it yet, but he was going 
to have company from now on.

Glen went out the backdoor to the porch and looked at his place. 
The paths for cross-country skiing had been cut and marked for 
their winter use. Glen was rather proud of them. There were four 
trails now and each had a different nature to it. One trail was nice 
and level. Another went up and down a few little hills. The third 
trail went around the hills making in curved. The last one was the 
longest and went around the property. They were going to have a 
lot of fun this winter. 

There were two cords of wood stacked by the back of the house. 
He had acquired it by cutting down a few trees to make the cross-
country skiing paths. The trio did not know about the trails yet. Of 
course, the fact that their property abutted his meant that they 
could expand the trials over both pieces of property. He was 
looking forward to that.

He heard the truck enter his driveway and walked around the house 
to greet Cliff and Wanda. Wanda got out and ran over to him 
smiling. She said, "Hey big fella. How are you doing with the 
manuscript?"

Glen laughed and answered, "So now that you've been my boss for 
half a day, you're checking up on me already?" 

Wanda started to react and then noticed the smile he was giving 
her. She stamped her foot and said, "With that kind of attitude you 
probably won't last the rest of the day!"

Cliff smiled and said, "I'm sure he'll appeal to upper management."

The three of them went into the cabin. Sandra had been busy 
cooking. The scent of spaghetti sauce filled the air. It was her 
recipe and was made from scratch. It would be another couple of 
hours before it would be ready. Sandra smiled at her sister and 
brother. She said, "You won't believe what this guy did today."

Wanda looked at Glen and said, "What ever it was, I bet it was 
nice."

Sandra laughed and said, "He made reservations at the Southern 
Kitchen."

Cliff thought about his friend Oliver. He had been planning on 
stopping by one day just to say hello, but hadn't quite made it over 
there yet. He asked, "That's great. I would like to see Oliver again."

Glen laughed and said, "Well, I don't know if you'll see him or 
not."

Sandra looked at Glen with a funny expression. She told Cliff, "He 
made reservations for five."

"Five?"

"Yes, five."

Cliff looked blank and then turned to Glen. He asked, "Did you 
forget how to count?"

With a very serious look on his face, Glen acted like he was 
thinking really hard. Finally, he answered, "No. I counted 
correctly."

"So who is number five?"

Glen went over and put an arm around Cliff. He answered, "Well, 
there is this certain young lady that has that night off. She's coming 
with us. I happen to know for a fact that she's infatuated with a 
certain young man by the name of Cliff."

"Who?"

Glen turned to the twins and asked, "Should I put him out of his 
misery by answering or should I keep it a secret?"

"Keep it a secret," replied Wanda. In what was a real surprise to 
both twins, Sandra said, "Answer him."

They looked at each other and then burst out in laughter. Cliff 
stared at the two of them. Glen laughed and said, "Well, I already 
invited her."

Cliff's curiosity got the best of him. Frustrated he asked, "Who in 
the hell is it?"

"CJ."

Cliff blushed as he thought about CJ. As far as he was concerned, 
CJ was the prettiest woman he had ever seen. Despite the fact that 
the infatuation ran both ways, there was so much that she didn't 
know about him and that worried him. He wondered how she 
would react when she learned about his bisexuality. Glen noticed 
the worried expression on Cliff's face and said, "Hey, don't worry. 
I bet she'll understand things a whole lot better than you can 
imagine."

Cliff stepped away from Glen and angrily said, "How would you 
know? Have you ever had a woman walk out of your life because 
she found that you liked men?"

Glen answered, "No, I never have had that happen to me. 
However, I happen to know CJ's uncle."

Sandra stated, "So what. We all know the Sheriff."

Glen answered, "You might not know that his son is gay. CJ was 
the one that defended him to his family."

The trio all relaxed at the revelation. Each realized that they should 
have trusted Glen a little more. He might have been grumpy and 
silent when they first moved in with him, but he had never really 
done anything bad to them. Glen sat down in his recliner and 
watched the trio as they were lost in their thoughts.

Cliff came out of his moment of introspection first. He asked, 
"Well, what did you think of the magazine?"

Glen smiled and answered, "Well, I went through the whole thing 
and made some editorial changes. Nothing too significant for most 
of them."

Wanda looked surprised. She asked, "So are you done already?"

Glen shook his head and answered, "No. That was just the first 
pass. I'll look over it again tomorrow and give it back to you 
tomorrow night."

"Wow, that was fast."

"Not really. You forget that I have lots of experience about editing 
the written word. I can easily do a hundred pages a day when I get 
into the swing of things. With my own work, I usually do it four 
times before I send it in. It is a lot easier to review other peoples 
writing. I'm not married to the words."

Sandra was impressed and said, "I sometimes forget that you made 
your living writing books."

"Well, romance novels aren't exactly high fiction. They tend to be 
easy to write if you've figured out the basic structure and pattern 
the reader expects."

Wanda looked over at Glen and asked the question they all had 
about his occupation. "So how did you become a romance 
novelists?"

Sandra added, "It is a rather unlikely career for such a manly man 
as yourself."

Glen's eyes misted as the pain of those early days came back to 
him. He said, "Well, it started when my wife was diagnosed with 
breast cancer. After she had the mastectomy and was in the 
hospital, she asked me to read her a book. She loved romance 
novels, so I went out and bought one. I read it to her. I read book 
after book to her. Sometimes I read two of them a day. I didn't 
really care for the books, but I recognized a pattern to them. I 
continued to read them to her."

Sandra got misty eyed and said, "That's so sweet."

Wanda, with a tremor in her voice, said, "I bet she loved that."

Glen nodded and continued, "Well, after a while it was getting 
harder to find new books. One day, I couldn't find one. Rather than 
read one to her, I made it up. She liked that story  more than any of 
the ones that I had bought. For the next few days, I continued to 
make them up."

"Wow, that's amazing. You just started to make them up, just like 
that?"

 Glen got a far off look in his eye. He continued his story. "Well, 
one day she said that I should write down my story. She was 
getting pretty weak by this time, so she couldn't listen to the whole 
story in one sitting. So we started to work on it. I started typing it 
up and reading the chapters as I finished them.  I finally finished it 
and sent it in to a publisher of romance novels. In the mean time, 
we started another one. She was really weak by then. It broke my 
heart, but every time she came round she wanted to hear about the 
story. "

"It was a way for us to avoid talking about our pains. We could 
express our feelings through the story. I would write something 
and she would say that I had captured the way that she had felt 
about me. Sometimes I would say that this passage described how I 
felt about her. It was the easiest way we could express our 
feelings."

"After she died, I found out that the first manuscript had been 
accepted for publication. The contract that I signed for it was pretty 
bad. The first book sold over a million copies and I didn't get much 
for it. However, I was able to renegotiate a pretty good contract for 
the rest. Every time I wrote a book though, I was telling my wife 
that I loved her."

The twins were crying by the time that Glen finished his story. He 
had never really told the whole tale to anyone before. He was near 
tears himself. Cliff sat to the side thinking about how Glen must 
have gone through hell. He had never read one of Glen's books and 
didn't think he could now. It would be too depressing to read it in 
light of the story. Every time a character told another that they 
loved them, he would picture Glen and his sick wife talking.

He stood up from the couch and went into the kitchen. He came 
back with cokes for everyone. It provided everyone a chance to 
break out of their down mood. He sat back on the couch and asked, 
"What did you think of my editorial?"

Glen, with a sudden tightening of his stomach, answered, "I 
wanted to talk to you about that."

Cliff sat up concerned and ready to be hurt. "Break it too me 
gently."

Glen, noticing the look on Cliff's face, said, "Don't worry. I 
thought it was great. However, I thought that you might not want 
to publish it yet."

Cliff asked, "Why not?"

Glen answered, "There are some folks that might not be too happy 
about what you say in the article."

"I didn't say anything bad about God. I said that he was loving and 
would appreciate people loving each other, regardless of the 
circumstances."

Sandra and Wanda looked just as puzzled as Cliff. They had both 
read the article and found it very comforting to think of God that 
way. Wanda asked, "He didn't say anything bad."

Glen frowned and bit his tongue to keep from saying his initial 
reaction. He didn't know how to express his concerns. Finally, he 
said, "There are some people that can't stand the idea of a loving 
God. They may read the article."

Cliff laughed at the idea of some religious nut reading their 
magazine and said, "Well, there are a lot more things in the 
magazine that one of those folks would react negatively too. The 
editorial is probably the least of our worries."

Glen shook his head and answered, "I don't know. I'll leave it to 
your best judgement."

Sandra went into the kitchen to check on her sauce. She tasted it 
and declared it ready to eat. Turning to call her sister, Wanda 
showed up before she had a chance to say a word and got out the 
large pot to boil the pasta. They went into their normal routine 
where each one's action complemented the other's actions.

Glen and Cliff talked a little more about the magazine and plans 
for the future. Glen decided that he was going to have the 
telephone line run out to his place and see what he could do about 
getting Internet access. He decided that if he was going to be in the 
business, that he should at least know something about it. Cliff 
continued to amaze Glen with his knowledge of running the 
business. Finally, he had to ask, "How did you learn so much about 
this stuff?"

Cliff laughed and answered, "Well, being bisexual is not easy. 
While I was in Atlanta we discovered the Internet. We spent hours 
looking at all kinds of sites. When the girls went to bed, I started 
looking at some of the sites dealing with bisexuality. I came across 
a number of sites that dealt with polymory, swinging, and open 
marriages. I got the idea for Sexual Liberation In Marriage. I put 
together a free issue with the help of Wanda and Sandra."

Glen asked, "How did you know it was successful?"

"Two ways. We were able to get a count of the number of times 
that my site was visited. It had over two thousand hits that first 
month. We also got e-mail feedback from people that had read it. It 
was overwhelmingly positive."

"When was that?"

Cliff thought about it and answered, "Well my first one went out at 
the end of the month in June. The second issue came out in July. 
Wanda had really studied up on creating web pages. This time, it 
was really a work of beauty.  We had so many visitors that our 
provider threatened to close us down. Instead, he upped our fee."

"For the third issue, which came out at the end of August, we 
charged a membership fee. We were shocked. We signed up 
almost three thousand people. We were only charging a dollar a 
month, but that was three thousand dollars."

Glen was really impressed. That wasn't a bad income for one 
month's worth of work. He asked, "Where there any problems?"

Cliff answered, "We found out that we could have gotten in trouble 
with the first two issues. We didn't put all of the proper disclaimers 
about minors and other legal disclaimers. Of course, there wasn't 
any sex in it, so the IP provider didn't press the issue."

"So what happened next?"

Cliff laughed as he considered his answer. He said, "Well, Sandra 
decided to get some advertisers. Next thing we knew, we had all 
kinds of groups advertising in the fourth issue. The advertising 
money exceeded the subscriber money. In fact, now the advertising 
comprises almost the majority of our income."

"I quit my job in construction and went to work on the next issue 
full time. This time, I contacted real professionals to write articles. 
We contacted a photographer to take pictures to illustrate the 
articles. A student in the classes that the twins were taking was an 
art major. She went over the site and suggested all kinds of artistic 
changes. We hired her as well."

"That issue came out at the end of September. We've gotten lots of 
feedback about that issue. We've even found that a number of 
family councilors are recommending our web site to married 
couples. People really like it. We got the issue ready for 
publication at the end of October and moved here. The only thing 
that you are editing that will go in that issue is my article."

Glen was surprised by that news. He had thought they were under 
a strict deadline to meet before the end of the month. He asked, 
"So what is going to happen with the material that I edited?"

"That material is for the issue after that. It will come out at the end 
of November."

Glen laughed and stated, "I thought I was under a strict deadline."

Cliff shook his head. He said, "You are. We need to get that issue 
put to rest as soon as possible so that we can start on the issue after 
that. It takes an amazing amount of time to get the authors to 
deliver their articles. Then the artist reads the articles and gets an 
artistic vision that she communicates to the photographer. He has 
to line up legal models for the pictures and then send them to us. 
We plan to have a very professional publication that is the best on 
the web."

Glen shook his head in amazement. Cliff had really matured a lot 
over the past few months. 
<1st attachment end>


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