I’m hoping that my lateness in posting this month’s chapters will be overlooked given, at time of writing, not just one but two chapters are available to read right now! Both Final Answer Chapter Three and Follow the Leader Chapter One are now available to read! This blog will just talk about the latter since it’s a new story. I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts about the former in time.

As always, spoilers below! Read Follow the Leader first.

I think first chapters are very difficult for me. I would imagine I’m not great at beginning a story. I remember that the first chapter of both Consequences and Mutual Benefits were met with middling tepid receptions, and largely agreed upon to have gotten better as they built momentum. Even Being More Social begins in a weird way until Nicole is introduced, but I think I got away with it back then because in 2014 they were hungry for a sex story that had any actual story to it. I worry that Follow the Leader is the same way, but that won’t be up to me to judge.

I did have a lot of fun writing its first chapter, both as a standalone piece and a piece that, if you’re very clever, already ties a lot into other storylines. At this point I’m incredibly grateful that people care about that stuff, because it’s one aspect I’m not even doing explicitly for fan service – I’m doing it because I enjoy how everything connects together. I’m doing it for me. This isn’t to say I’m not happy to hear that others enjoy it too, but I want to make it clear I’m not adding all these details in some desperate way to go, “Hey reader, remember this other story?!” I’ve seen other erotica authors do that and one has even complained to me privately that they “have” to do it. When I asked “why,” they basically said they want to keep their readers happy and it’s what they like. And honestly, it’s sweet of them to like their readers that much, but it’s a shame that the author himself didn’t enjoy it.

I hope it’s coming across, but Follow the Leader is not going to have… hopefully any “very special episode” themes. I just want it to be wacky hijinks and fun sex along the way. I noticed that I’m finding it more and more difficult to write “just sex” at this point – two characters going “we wanna boink, let’s do it.” No, I have to write minor miscommunications and judgments and clumsy awkwardness, but honestly, maybe that’s just a byproduct of me writing this first chapter and having to get into the mindset of said hijicks. Either way, the story is going to be intense in a different way, and maybe it won’t be perfect since this is, rather deliberately, a departure from my usual style. Most importantly, this is going to be a bit of a learning experience for me too, and I’m pretty excited for that.

It’s a comfortable return to a lot of goofily high-stakes tropes too. Maybe a good remedy to me not being able to write “just sex” is to return to and embrace tropey and (said lovingly) trashy writing. High stakes out of nowhere, unrealistic plotlines, cheesy cliffhangers at the end of chapters. It’s a lot of fun, isn’t it? I sure hope you think so. If not, hey, hopefully Final Answer is more your speed. I’m going to enjoy continuing both. I’ll talk to you all next week.

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