Celestial Reviews 61 - Feb 14, 1996

Note:  After I posted my heartwarming anecdote about the kid in CR 59, 
I received several more stories from readers.  Here's one of the best: 
A young gay man had finally decided to tell his widowed mother that he 
was gay. She took the news well, but she asked "Does this mean you suck 
men's penises?" He was a little taken aback, but answered "Uh...yes 
Mother...I do." "Well, ok.." she said "...but don't you *ever* complain 
about my cooking again."

Second Note:  The proofreading service is in full operation, and people 
are reporting successful use of it.  At least one of the stories posted 
today has benefited from that process.  If you want someone to read and 
comment on your story before you post it, contact me.  Do NOT send me 
the entire story; I'll assign one or two proofreaders to your story, 
and you can communicate directly with them.

Final Note: Please do not ask me to send you copies of the stories I 
review.  I cannot do it, and I do not have time to respond to everyone 
who makes this request.

- Celeste

      "Idea" by Deirdre (brokered sex) 9
      "Mouth" by Deirdre (oral sex) 7
      "Camp" by Deirdre (seduction & sex slavery) 7 
      "Marsha" by The English Mouse (hot sex) 8
      "Body and Soul" by Stephanie (TG sci fi) 10
      "Disrobing Mother" by Dafney Cecil Dewitt (voyeurism &
            blackmail) 10
      "Pat Comes of Age" by by Mark Aster (orgy) 10
      "In the Middle of the Night" by Damya (romantic interlude) 
            8

"Idea" by Deirdre.  Eventually Deirdre will have to run out of weird 
ideas for stories.  In this one, a female friend asks a man if he'd 
like to do it with Nancy Jenson.  He replies that it's a moot question, 
because he's a married man.  The friend replies that that's the same 
thing his wife said - that *she* wouldn't do it with Nancy because of 
her prior commitment to her husband.  The implication is that they both 
would like to do it with Nancy Jenson, and so the friend offers to 
broker the arrangement.  So far everything was as I had expected; but 
then came a sudden and interesting twist in the plot.  (Rating: 9)

"Mouth" by Deirdre.  "Wow! You have the perfect mouth for giving blow 
jobs."   Now, this happens to be true of myself; but never has a 
stranger mentioned this fact upon first meeting me.  I'm not sure how I 
would react; but I decided to read the rest of this story to learn how 
Deirdre's heroine would handle it.  By finding out what she would do, I 
figured I could plan to do the opposite and thereby avoid becoming the 
sex slave of my new admirer.  After reading the story, I have decided 
to take the safe way out and say, "Thank you!  And a person who looks 
like you is to be commended for appearing in public."  The lady in this 
story, of course, takes a different course of action.  (Rating: 7)

"Camp" by Deirdre.  A woman goes camping with a friend and her 
daughters.  She finds herself attracted to one of the teenage daughters 
when she undresses in the tent; but she controls her feelings, until 
the mother starts coming on to her.  One really does have to be careful 
with whom one hangs out in Deirdre's stories.  (Rating: 7)

"Marsha" by The English Mouse (an18137@anon.penet.fi).  The guy has 
been getting horny because of lack of sex, and so he places a personal 
ad on the computer.  He finds a friendly lady and they fuck 
prodigiously.  One thing that I liked about this story was that it 
contained interracial sex without making a big deal over it.  Race was 
mentioned in the context of describing the fact that their skin looked 
nice together; I think that's a better reason than because people of 
one race are hornier or want to be dominated by the other race or 
something like that.  What I didn't like was the fact that the story 
seemed to lack a real plot.  The only interesting thing about the story 
was that they had a lot of sex that they both enjoyed. The actual 
description of the sexual activity was rather dispassionate - even 
though the two participants kept reaching climaxes.  The story would 
have been enriched if there were some interesting angle besides the 
abundance of activity.  (Rating: 8)

"Body and Soul" by Stephanie (an266891@anon.penet.fi).  Many TG 
(transgender) stories pursue the theme of a man changing from his own 
body and personality into that of a woman.  This one has several  new 
twists: the man has died in an automobile accident but is given an 
opportunity to return to earth to take part in a special project that 
involves rehabilitating a man who has started to go bad.  To 
participate, he must allow his soul to return in the body and 
personality of a woman.  A final complication is that there are two 
agents actively opposing the rehab process: the devil himself and a man 
who has sold his soul to the devil in return for being permitted to 
live in the body of a voluptuous young woman.  Both of these evil 
agents possess the power to hypnotize others and make them engage in 
activities they would normally resist; however, this power is not 
absolute, and one of the interesting aspects of the story is 
determining how the protagonists can deal with and overcome this 
influence.  With so many competing forces at work it would seem likely 
that either the story would get crazily complex or that it would get 
lost on a non-sexy sidetrack.  Neither predicament occurs: I found this 
to be a highly imaginative and very erotic story.

Readers who are knowledgeable about the TG tradition will respond to 
this story differently than "outsiders" who pick this up and simply 
read it as a story that they expect to contain sex.  The latter will 
perhaps find novelty in the idea of a man beginning to understand 
himself anew after being thrust into the body and personality of a 
woman.  Actually, that's one of the most common themes in TG 
literature; and people who read TG stories regularly will automatically 
compare this story to others that examine this problem of sexual 
identity.  Both types of readers will enjoy this story.

There are numerous interesting situations that emerge as this complex plot 
evolves, and I am going to make no attempt to summarize all of them in this 
review.  For example, Dan (the guy who became the wife) is required to 
rehabilitate Simon, who is a chronic drinker, gambler, and womanizer; but Dan 
initially does not want to engage in sexual activity with Simon, because Dan 
himself still has a male personality within his new body and has strong 
inhibitions against homosexual activity. As a way to resolve the dilemma of 
changing Simon's behavior without having sex with a man, Dan blackmails Simon 
into wearing panties, stockings, and a bra every day.  This should keep Simon 
out of trouble, because he will be embarrassed to fool around with bimbos, and 
getting drunk could cause him to reveal his little secret.  However, an 
unexpected result of this cross-dressing is that Dan becomes turned on to 
Simon.  This story is full of numerous situations like this - intricate but 
interesting dilemmas that occur as a result of the structure of the story.

I especially liked the way the author combined the protagonist's 
knowledge and ignorance about the feelings and emotions of the woman 
whose body he inhabited.

The story ended somewhat abruptly - almost as if the author were 
saying, “Well, I’ve carried this plot about as far as it will go, and 
so I had better stop now.”

A slight problem with the story is that it really did need a final 
proofreading.  It is full of minor but distracting errors - especially 
comma splices, Stephanie combines two sentences into one by simply 
putting a comma between them (like this one, which I did on purpose to 
offer an example).  One of you who enjoys this story should write to 
Stephanie and tell her that you would be happy to proofread her future 
stories for her.  Stephanie is a very creative person, and I understand 
(1) that it's difficult to find one's own grammar errors, especially 
when one is wrapt up in the more interesting process of composing a 
creative tale; and (2) that an author often has an irresistible urge to 
rush a story to press, so that millions of eager readers can share the 
story without unnecessary delay.  Write to Stephanie and tell her 
Celeste sent you.  Tell her that you love her stories and promise to 
read them overnight, and agree to return the stories with so little 
delay and with such careful attention to detail that she'll be glad to 
have waited the extra day or so.  How could she resist such an offer?  
(Rating: 10)

"Disrobing Mother" by Dafney Cecil Dewitt (dafneyd@ix.netcom.com). 
Tommy is angry over the impending divorce of his parents.  The teenager 
focuses his anger on his mother, who has decided to get him out of her 
way by sending him to a military academy.  He plans a clever sexual 
revenge that goes out-of-control.  Except for the sexual nature of the 
revenge, we would have here a plot for a classic Judy Blume teenage 
novel or for an ABC After School Special.  As it is, we have a very 
clever blackmail story for a.s.s. (Rating: 10)

"Pat Comes of Age" by by Mark Aster (an479991@anon.penet.fi).  This is 
the fourth in the "My Friends the Allens" series. Familiarity with 
previous stories is helpful but not essential to understand this one.  
Pat is the older Allen sister, who discloses to her younger sister and 
her boyfriend the details of her first orgy.  One of the attractions of 
this story is that while Pat tells two very arousing stories, her 
sister and boyfriend are making love on the couch, becoming aroused as 
they listen to the details.  Another feature that I liked is that one 
of the hot relationships is apparently interracial, without the 
degrading aspects that are so often inserted into such descriptions and 
about which I complained in a previous issue of CR.  This was another 
very hot and enjoyable story.  (Rating: 10)

"In the Middle of the Night" by Damya (an128788@anon.penet.fi).  This 
isn't really a complete story - just a very hot romantic interlude - a 
snippet describing what a horny woman does to wake up and thrill her 
man in the middle of the night.  (Rating: 8)


GRAMMAR TIP OF THE WEEK:  Several readers have objected to the careless use of 
the A-word on a.s.s  Hence this disucssion of ALOT, AWHILE, ALRIGHT, ALREADY, 
and ALTOGETHER.

ALOT does not exist.  Use "a lot" instead.  

      We had anal intercourse a lot last summer.
      I'd like to fuck you a lot.

In most cases it is better to use a more specific word or phrase , such as 
"often" or "very much."

ALREADY means "previously."  It is to be distinguished from ALL READY, which 
means "entirely ready" (or possibly "everyone ready.").

      We have copulated six times tonight already.
      We had already finished the orgy by the time she arrived,
            but we were all ready to make the additional effort to
            accommodate her needs.
      She was all ready to acquiesce to my sinister wishes,
            but her period started that day.

ALRIGHT has arisen as an informal version of ALL RIGHT.  It is generally 
accepted in any informal context, except when the two words should clearly be 
distinguished (as in, "He answered the ten questions and got them all right.")  
When writing formal or edited text, it is always proper to use ALL RIGHT.  In 
fact, it's safest and simpler never to use ALRIGHT.

      Since his wife wasn't home, she thought it would be
           all right (or alright) to fuck his brains out.

ALTOGETHER means "wholly, entirely, completely" or "with everything included 
or considered."  ALL TOGETHER means "in a group."  We also have the quaint 
phrase "in the altogether," meaning
naked.

      She felt he was having altogether too much pleasure while
            she sucked his cock.
      The three women fucked him all together for about three
            hours (altogether)

AWHILE is a perfectly legitimate word that means "for a short time."  It is 
also acceptable in most cases to spell the two words separetely ("a while"). 
If the writer uses the preposition "for," the correct spelling is "for a 
while."

     We fucked awhile before dinner.
     I licked her cunt for a while before I entered her.

What this all means is that it is altogether correct (grammatically) to give 
the following toast on New Years' Eve:  "Alright already, let's all together 
fuck our brains out awhile!"
