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This month's Number One Story: "A Certain Circle in New York" by Marc Proust (proust@scsn.net).
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This was another tough month. When I read "Anniversary Party" early in the month, I thought I had already found the winner. Then Green Onions sent me "Accepting Gina," and I KNEW I had found June's winner. But then I came across "A Certain Circle in New York."

I finally gave the nod to "A Certain Circle in New York." The author's sexual imagery is very vivid. As the original reviewer said, the author uses words as an artist uses a paintbrush. {But then "Accepting Gina" wasn't written by a literary hack either!}

I found the story to be nostalgic, even though the setting is before my time and even though things like this had never really happened to me. Like last month's winner, this story describes sexual events that are both stimulating and easy to relate to real-life experiences.

I encountered some formatting problems with this story, but they probably were not the author's fault. I suggest that you take a look at the original review and follow Bitbard's advice for cleaning the story up before you read it.

"A Certain Circle in New York" By Marc Proust (proust@scsn.net). Guest Review by Bitbard (Formerly Sandman -- bitbard@newsguy.com). http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=354649425

This story is set back in the 1950s when nobody knew anything at all about sex and kinky positions. I mean that would imply our parents knew about these things, which obviously they don't; not any more than what's minimally necessary to produce us anyway.

This is a *VERY* erotic story about a man who discovers to his surprise (and pleasure) that his new maid has been instructing his wife in the art of sex. When I say very erotic, I mean it. The sex is very, very well described and the author uses words as an artist uses a paintbrush. The imagery is so vivid it leaps off the page and right into your imagination.

Two things to watch out for before you begin. There are no blank lines between paragraphs. I keep harping on this because on a screen the lack of lines tends to make the text run together and it's harder to keep your place within the story. For stories like this I usually print them out. On paper, the effect is not distracting. A second thing to watch out for is that for some reason apostrophes show up as 1's -- something easily fixed by a mass search and replace. There's no point deduction for these problems, I'm just giving you a fair warning so it won't be distracting to you.

This one's definitely a must read.