"The Same Time Next Year" by Tom (laddie@anon.nymserver.com). The idea for this story came from the movie starring Ellen Burstyn and Alan Alda, in which the two main characters arranged to meet each other for an annual romantic tryst at a remote Northern California coast resort between the years 1955 and 1977.

The author's storytelling technique is excellent. He plunges us into a sexy scene in the middle of the story, then fills us in on the background details, and then moves to the end of the story. Of course, one should not dangle one's modifiers: "Even without cleavage, I realized that I was sexually attracted to her." That sentence says that the speaker (Tom) is the one sans cleavage, but the deficiency actually describes Cinda. That lapse aside, this is an excellent story: lots of character development, a well-structured plot, and hot sex.

As the author points out, this story begs the question of the potential harm to others caused by marital affairs. In this story, he says, the infidelity of the main characters is not a betrayal of a spouse, but is rather an act of self expression. Yeah, right! Look that one up in The Sophist's Dictionary. I think what he means is that this sounds like fun, but real life is sometimes less idyllic.

It's been about a year since Tom posted his other two stories: "Birthday Surprise" and "Thanksgiving." I hope we don't have to wait until the same time next year for another story!