"Afternoon" by Deirdre (an65862@anon.penet.fi). Three college girls go for a ride on a beautiful afternoon. They pick up a female hitchhiker, who invites them to her cabin and introduces them to her female roommate. Two out of the three change their sexual preferences during the ensuing 24 hours. The other watches, listens, and narrates the story. I found this story to be full of hot sex, although most of it was implied rather than explicit.

Several of the Deirdre stories are being reposted on a.s.s., and I have managed to acquire copies of all these stories plus advance notice of when they'll be posted. I'll try to post the reviews at a time when you can easily find the stories. Actually, I don't know why anyone would need my reviews. Since Deirdre's stories depend on surprising twists, I really can't tell you much about the plot in my reviews; and her stories are invariably well written. If I were you, I would simply download any story that has her name in the title line.

As you may know, I have a theory that Deirdre is the reincarnation of Sherwood Anderson. It has come to my attention that the only people outside Clyde, Ohio, who know about Sherwood Anderson are English teachers. So I'll take a moment to tell you about him. Like Deirdre, Anderson was a prolific short-story writer. {Unlike Deirdre, he was also a novelist and critic.} He is best known for his sensitive portrayals of the lives of small-town midwesterners. {Deidre is best known for her portrayals of people with mild sexual quirks.} In 1919 he achieved fame with "Winesburg, Ohio", a group of interconnected short stories about small-town people whose frustrations and shattered dreams turn them into what he called "grotesques." {Deirdre is too polite to use a term like that.}

Anderson's primary focus was the effects of industrialization on the life of the individual. {Deirdre's primary focus is slightly unusual sexual behavior.} His characters were often bizarre; and this aroused the resentment of the citizens of Clyde, who understandably got the feeling he was writing about them. {Deirdre's characters are not exactly run-of-the-mill, church-going, PTA members. It is my understanding that Deirdre is not allowed to visit Clyde, Ohio, except on Halloween.}

Anderson strongly and permanently influenced the short story, concentrating on mood and psychological insight rather than on plot. For you foreigners out there, he's sort of an American Chekov. {Deirdre has pursued a similar emphasis and has exerted a similar influence on a.s.s. } Anderson's most famous collections of short stories are The Triumph of the Egg (1921), Horses and Men (1923), and Death in the Woods (1933). Some of his finest writing appears in his autobiographical works: A Story Teller's Story (1924); Tar: A Midwest Childhood (1926); and Sherwood Anderson's Memoirs (1942). His writings influenced Edwin Arlington Robinson, whose poems were popularized in the late 1960's and early 1970's by Simon and Garfunkel (e.g., "Richard Cory" and "A Most Peculiar Man.")

In short, Anderson has been reincarnated as Deirdre in the late 20th Century and is writing short stories for a.s.s., focusing on sex rather than industrialization, but retaining his emphasis on moods and psychology rather than explicit events. College students in literature courses who follow this newsgroup should take an offbeat story by Deirdre and begin their term paper thus: "If Sherwood Anderson were alive today, I think he would write about the effects of sex rather than industrialization on the lives of men and women in contemporary society. For example, a typical Sherwood Anderson plot would... {and then summarize in concise but vivid detail your favorite Deirdre story. As you do so, follow the rules of the Little Brown Handbook rather than Celestial Grammar, since you'll want to throw your prof off the track.} If anyone does this, please let me know what happens.

Now where else on the 'Net can you get this kind of fascinating information while you're looking for a sexual release? For all you know, this might come up on Jeopardy next week!