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A Narcoleptic’s Guide to Romance by Vivian Darkbloom

Take it from the beginning … and again …. try that passage once more…. yes that it! Noo perhaps not … try it again and this time be sure to hang on to the last node, let the tone play itself out.

Even if this isn’t a music score the story plays out like a classical tune of love and angst, sadness and joy, a battle against upbringing, religion and inner beliefs and all the time the question hovers above “Do love conquer all?”

This isn’t the easy reading we are usually served in the world of Uber-fiction it’s catching and moving because it’s very well written, different, demanding and not following the usual standard storyline of online lesfic. And yet again it’s just a short story of a relationship between two woman. One out-and-proud with a “damn you all” kind of attitude, the other with strict religious upbringing that creates a solid barrier against pursuing the love of a woman.

“A Narcoleptic’s Guide to Romance” is the first part in a series of three short stories of Danny and Kate. This first part of the series is by far the best with a storyline that give an intriguing insight into the past and present of Danny and Kate’s relationship. The sequel “A Lexicon for the Sunday Morning Sleeper” is detached bits and pieces of information on this and that from Kate’s point of view. This part is a smart tie-over to the third and last part of the series “Partita” that plays out as the overture – an opening even if it’s really the end of the story of Danny and Kate.

This review is posted in answer to a request for a review of “A Narcoleptic’s Guide to Romance” – please feel free to correct me if I didn’t do the story justice 😉

http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/vivian_darkbloom_angtr.html

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Until Soon by Indigal

I promised … I know I did and I bet You thought that I forgot all about it … the list of basketball fic’s that is. I didn’t forget, I just haven’t felt anything like running around on a basketball court shooting ball’s through a little hoop – why did they have to make the hoop so small or leave it so far of the ground ??

I guess that the challenge of shooting baskets is a bit less demanding if you are 6 ft tall like CJ, so I’ll leave it to her to do the actual ball playing and just concentrate on watching out for Andy.

You’ll find Andy in her grad assistants office in the English Department, in the hall’s on campus or perhaps you – like CJ – will meet her for the first time in the Banquet Hall while you get douched with Seltzer!

If you like Andy’s blue eyes and ebony-hair you might take her up on her offer to help you with your studies – anyway that’s what CJ did. She did after all need a bit of help with her thesis, and I guess that it’s only natural that she would slip Andy a ticket for the basketball team’s next home game …. isn’t it?

And there you go the twenty-something women move slowly forward from chance acquaintances, to friends and perhaps … hey no running ahead and dunking the ball, now sit tight and wait for the story to unfold!

If you are here for the sports I might throw in a bit of competitive swimming and sledge riding for fun with the – not too dominant – ball playing theme, and if you are looking for bumps in the road towards “a living happily ever after” look out! Don’t you know here are rules and regulation against a student / teacher relationships!

This is a classic lesfic romance and one of the more long winded at that. As you might know I like for the women to get to know each other a bit before they fall into love and heat, and Indigal will treat us to a lot of “getting to know” each other before the heat is turned up – so if this is your game you could pick up the ball and shoot some hoops with CJ and Andy.

The story is at places a little too forthright as to the thought process of the protagonists – like quoting internal conversations or letting us – the readers – join Andy for her diary writing sessions, but it’s easy to identify those bits in the text as it’s done in the italic format – so hmm – you can do a bit of fast scrolling if it getting on your nerves.

I promise that I’ll get back with a real basketball fic ….. at a later date!

http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/i/indigal_untilsoon1.html

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Tick,Tock by Karin Kallmaker

I’m not really fond of the autumn as everything starts to points towards a dark, cold and windy winter season that will last for months, luckily enough there are a few things that lighten up the bleak autumn days – The Halloween Invitational at The Royal Academy of Bards and The Autumn Romance writing contest at The Athenaeum!

Yes you’ve got it right a lot of new fic’s to lighten up your life – follow the links and go look at the new stories for your self.

The Halloween Invitational gives us a number of fic’s from the pen of well-known writers from the (fan) fiction world. I can’t say that I have read them all, but I did take a look at the ones penned by the writers that I like the most.

If you want a taste of the possibilities of new love you can look up Artemis Callaghan’s “Light up the sky with Standard fireworks” it’s not exactly Halloween, but it’s a celebration and it holds a promise of a new loving relationship. If you can live suspended in time in the memory of shared love you might want to look up Karin Kallmaker’s “Tick, Tock” – it’s touching but sad, and if you are ok with a visit from beyond – you can look up Lois Cloarec Harts “Midnight Message”. Finally if you want a bit of a scare – and it is a Halloween Invitational after all – you can try out the short fic (!) from S X Meagher “Stormy Weather”.

The Autumn Romance writing contest at The Athenaeum is quit different – this is a contest! We – the readers – get a month to read the 9 stories entered in the contest and vote for the two titles that each of us like best. While the voting is on the stories is posted without information on who penned each story. As long as the contest run I don’t think that I should tell you which stories that I like the best, but I guess that it would be ok to say that I do have a couple of favourites.

The stories entered present a mix of storylines – you’ll find a story with a bit of a supernatural soul mate theme in an ancient Chinese setting in “Forbidden History”, a short modern-day romance in “Still Standing”, and a story of mature love that lasts a lifetime in “An October Romance” – and a number of other themes. I urge you to go read and cast your vote.

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An Innocent Heart by Heike Freudenmann and G. S. Binkley

A fire has to be feed to keep burning, if you stop the input of fuel or remove the oxygen, the fire will burn itself out, flames will disappear and not even an ember will remain. One would think that the same would be the case when it comes to love, but if we are to trust Heike Freudenmann and G. S. Binkley you can go on loving someone forever, even if that love is never nourished even by a look or just an innocent touch.

“An Innocent Love” is one of those “First Love that Last for Ever” kind of stories that makes you wonder just how a never recognized teenage love can live on for years without nourishment, but I guess it really doesn’t matter it’s fiction and it’s kind of romantic, so who cares?

So let me introduce you to the women central to the storyline. The youngest is Kim, she was born in Greece but lives in Germany with her family, she works at a local bookstore and when she’s not working or writing her stories, she spends time with her boyfriend Sandro or fights off the none too subtle questions by her parents if perhaps it might be time that she and Sandro got married. The big question is if Sandro is really the love of her life or if perhaps she has someone else in mind.

If Sandro isn’t really the one that Kim wants then you might ask who is? If you tag along you’ll be able to get a glance at who she had in mind when she was a young girl hanging out with her cousin Yasmin and Yasmin’s friend Robin with whom she has lost touch years ago.

A chance meeting and a break up with Sandro at the local movie theater put’s Kim in touch with Robin again, and soon they a not just catching up on old times but breaking grounds for a renewed friendship.

Robin Hart is an American living in Germany, she’s 28 years old and a bit of a loner, working two jobs, just for the fun of it, missing her deceased parents and keeping a lock on her broken heart, but meeting Kim and seeing her old friend Yasmin again do put a bit of smile on Robins face. The question is who is really putting that smile there?

You might have guessed that we got a bit of a triangle love story on our hands here, but there is no reason to worry it’s really all kind of innocent so even the tender-hearted can enjoy it.

If you are very picky as to the quality of the stories that you spend your reading time on you probably shouldn’t read this one as I’m not too impressed with the writing style, but if you can overlook this the story is catching enough and it does have a number of scenes that I found to be well put together.

I’ll also point out that this is the only online romance, apart from “Campus” by Anik LaChev, that I’ve come across that takes place in Germany.

http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/gs_binkley_aih1.html

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Drifter by D

I will not dress in buckskin clothing or sleep in a tipi, I’m not too keen on horses, I haven’t been on a vision quest and I’m not particularly thrilled by the thought of leaving my well equipped kitchen to go cook on an open campfire. All in all – I’m not a wildlife person and I don’t harbour a romantic dream of living my life as a member of an Indian tribe! But I guess that my lack of enthusiasm for a life in balance with nature shouldn’t get in the way of my pointing you in the direction of a couple of romantic fic’s that fits this theme.

The two stories that I’ve come across are both based on the classic western theme of a white girl living with an Indian tribe back before the world turned into a civilized place with modern housing and amenities, but unlike the classic westerns the young white women don’t wait around to be rescued from the savages by a fair, blue-eyed young man. They fall in love and choose to make a life with an Indian woman of the tribe – surprise!

In “Tiopa Ki Lakota” by Redhawk you’ll meet Anpo and Ketlin (Kathleen). Anpo is an Indian woman trained in the ways of a warrior and hunter, while Ketlin is a widowed white woman who is held captive by an Indian tribe later to be given to Anpo as a settlement in a dispute. As you might have guessed the meeting of Anpo and Ketlin are not a chance encounter, but the fulfilment of a vision Anpo has received that she shall kill a white buffalo and meet a striking blond woman whom she will unintentionally hurt.

If you look beyond the western setting “Tiopa Ki Lakota” is a classic romance with a hint of the standard uber soul mate theme, but you do have to be patient with the women as they are not only set to go through the usual bumps on the road to love and “living happily ever after”, they are also totally unaware of how to consummate their love.

The story is well written but a tad long for my taste and somehow not quite entertaining enough to keep me from doing a bit of fast scrolling at times, and I’m not particularly impressed by the emphasize on getting the reader acquainted with Lakota language and lifestyle – it’s too detailed, but if this is in your line of interest it might not bother you too much.

With a little help from a member of the forum at The Athenaeum site I’ve located another story with a similar theme that I read a while back – “Drifter” by D. In this story you’ll meet a young redblond, white girl by the name of Donoma who was raised as the daughter of an Indian shaman and his tribe, and the half-breed Koko Kanti who was taken in by Donoma’s tibe, when she was abandoned by her Indian father’s tribe.

As the story begins Donoma is following a vision to find and heal her soul mate, along the way we are told the story of how Donoma and Koko grew up together – one trained in the ways of a shaman and seer the other as a warrior, once best friends, but torn apart by feelings that none of them knew how to deal with. The women are thrown together again when Koko returns to the tribe after a five years separation with wounds serious enough to kill her, and Donoma takes on the task of healing her body.

Even though Donoma is well skilled in the healing of a warriors body it takes more than wisdom to heal the Koko’s soul and Donoma’s wounded heart – a bit of divine intervention from the Great Spirit is needed and … well as you can imagine – freely given.

“Drifter” has a much more compelling storyline than “Tiopa Ki Lakota” perhaps due to a more detailed and convincing drawing of the protagonists and a likable subcast of family and friends. The story it’s well written, with a touching storyline and entertaining writing style.

The story holds both a romance along the lines of a first love that will never die even when faced with dire misunderstandings and hurt feelings, and a drama involving the “white mans world” in which Koko chose to live as Reb Stone a bounty hunter during the years she spent apart from Donoma and the tribe.

If you like the western setting and want a catching romantic read with a bit of drama you could do a lot worse than spend a few hours on this story, and should you like to take a sneak preview of the story by looking up the “book cover” please use the link.

http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/d_drifter.html

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Strings Attached by Inyx

Kelly and Jessie are girlfriends – the friend kind of girlfriends – not the girl on girl kind. Confused ? Well then you share fate with a number of their acquaintances and family members, but I wouldn’t blame either of you. If two women in their thirties have been sharing an apartment for 6 years you can’t really blame anyone for thinking that they are more than just – you know – girlfriends.

Jessie will just laugh at the notion of her and Kelly being a gay couple, while Kelly will swear and yell at anyone who says so out loud, but I guess that you know that those who protest too much …… ok I’m getting ahead of myself here because the women that we will meet in “Strings Attached” really like boy’s. Well not enough to do real serious, looking for a relationship kind of dating, but rather the looking for good sex kind, but that can be a life changing experience too, if you are not careful!

It just happens that one night Jessie is too inebriated to be careful and a few weeks later she can show Kelly a blue stick to prove that their lives are going to change over the next nine months. This might not have been that much of a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that Jessie won’t give the child up or that Kelly – her “straight”, bike riding, scuffed boots, leather jacket wearing “butch” girlfriend and roommate is scared shitless when it comes to children.

I guess it doesn’t help that Jessie’s mother loathes Kelly and picks a fight with her whenever possible or that Jessie turn into a bit of a hormonal and needing friend along the way. So you see the ladies are in for a bit of a hard time coping with the changes in their live.

This is a nice story along the classical storyline of old friends slowly realising that their feelings for each other might just run a bit deeper than they used to think. The question is – will they act upon it? And if (when 😉 they do – will they be able to cross the bridge from friends to lovers? Go read the story if you want to know if this romance has a “happy ever after” kind of ending. I for one found it entertaining to follow how Kelly copes with her hormonal and needy friend, and how she holds up during The Lamaze classes, child-birth and bonding with the baby.

http://www.academyofbards.org/fanfic/i/inyx_strings1.html