What is the best story you have read that was published in 2025 by someone who frequents the Authors’ Hangout?

[Cagivagurl]

Gah! Too late to this already, as Wake me up inside and Mothman is real, he's my boyfriend have already been nominated! Those would definitely have been front-runners for me.

In fact, I could just join the chorus an namecheck any story @PennyThompson or @redgarters has published this year.

So in the spirit of widening the selection, Could a cookbook be a new beginning by @Cagivagurl is one I adored at the time and have been back to re-read. Complex, moving and immersive.

Thank you for saying that.
I appreciate it far more than words can portray.

Cagivagurl

 

[Bazzle]

I'll read just about anything Penny or Actingup write, so I have to add on the praise for all of their stories mentioned here already. They just write good, thoughtful smut.

Wanda rightfully gets a ton of accolades and Damselfly regularly fights to the top of my favorite list of hers.

In the same category, @redgarters does some fantastic work and I can certainly recommend "Wake Me Up Inside" because it made me feel so seen. It's heavy, but so worth the read and deserves more love.

Veering back into my own chosen genre of E/V, @Bazzle wrote "Spick and Span With Only a Fan" and I absolutely loved it. Definitely the kind of stuff I look for when reading E/V as it's smartly written and just plausible enough to imagine it happening in reality.

Thank you ever so much for your positive response here!!!

I wanted realism! Glad it came across

 

[Bamagan]

*pokes cane at floor to test viscosity*

*retreats*

 

[lovecraft68]

This thread is a great idea, but it also speaks to the fact that many here write but don't tend to read very much.

Bit of a one way street but I think a lot of it comes down to time, and also, at least for me, its hard to read something while I'm in the middle of my own work. Its like the author's voice gets into mine and screws with me. This is the same reason I watch little to no TV these days.

It does make me want to fix that though and I think we should all make an effort to be a little more supportive of our fellow forum dwellers.

Also reminds me I need to drop something soon, I haven't put anything out in months.

 

[redgarters]

Oh, wow, thank you for the mentions. Honestly, I truly appreciate it, and all from people who's work I've read, enjoyed and admired. This doesn't inflate my ego one bit. Na-ah.

I agree with @lovecraft68 about either reading or writing. I tend to fall into the rabbit hole when I have a story on the drawing board and not read very much, other than beta reads for others. Then I take reading spurts in between.
It's an impossible task to single out one story, but if I have to it has to be @onehitwanda 's Damselfly. It's an absolute gem of storytelling and worldbuilding.
Close seconds are @SugarStorm's Chasing You, Finding Me. The narrative flows beautifully and it reads like a movie, and @THBGato 's Clara and the Solar System, because it didn't leave my head for days. I had to digest it and then come back to it, and then again.

There are so many more! The Chevalier of Lorraine, Side By Side, Desire and Duende.

For sheer heat, I'll put down The More Mom by @WendyTrilby ... that was just... oh my.

 

[MelissaBaby]

This thread is a great idea, but it also speaks to the fact that many here write but don't tend to read very much.

Bit of a one way street but I think a lot of it comes down to time, and also, at least for me, its hard to read something while I'm in the middle of my own work. Its like the author's voice gets into mine and screws with me. This is the same reason I watch little to no TV these days.

It does make me want to fix that though and I think we should all make an effort to be a little more supportive of our fellow forum dwellers.

Also reminds me I need to drop something soon, I haven't put anything out in months.

Yes, this. Any time I spend reading here (and posting, of course) is time then away from writing, so I don't read much except stories from a few favorite authors.

But since I haven't published anything since December, I don't have to keep coming back anxiously to this thread to see if my name came up...

 

[lovecraft68]

But since I haven't published anything since December, I don't have to keep coming back anxiously to this thread to see if my name came up...

I never worry about that. I do well on the reader side but the only person I know of here that's read a few of my stories is @Euphony because he's left comments.

I'm not the go to here. Probably because I write like a hack who just likes writing. I'm the lit version of meatloaf compared to some of the gourmet types here.

 

[THBGato]

I do well on the reader side but the only person I know of here that's read a few of my stories is @Euphony because he's left comments.

I've read and enjoyed some of your lesbian stories. I'm sure I commented. But as you said on another thread, you don't always read the comments!

 

[lovecraft68]

I've read and enjoyed some of your lesbian stories. I'm sure I commented. But as you said on another thread, you don't always read the comments!

Really? I think my lesbian stories read like a guy writing lesbian stories but thank you. I haven't written one in a long time. I'll have to check the comments because I usually look at them. Its the old goofy taboo story comments I tend not to bother with these days.

ETA I found the one you left on Her Best Friend for Christmas. I agree, the story was romantic, the sex didn't quite match.

 

[yowser]

Thoughtful thread idea, always hard to pick 'just one.' Many worthy writers already mentioned here, but I'll offer two names from my 'Buried Treasure' list, which includes some of the hidden gems on Lit in the eddies of the main river, remarkable in both quality and underratedness.

Try the tales from @nice90sguy and @Kumquatqueen for some off-beat excellence.

 

[FrancesScott]

It sort of feels that there are a few closed loops of authors who like each others’ work and so you get X recommends Y who recommends Z who recommends X and Y. Probably tough to break into such rings. Though @PennyThompson seems to have done just that, good luck to her. There are probably other such examples where a new author is dazzlingly good and people incorporate them quickly.

There are also some ‘obvious’ answers, authors who are viewed as being among the best here and will always be mentioned in response to this question.

I guess the combination of the usual suspects and self-recommending rings are inevitable, people have little time to read more than a few stories and probably go for authors they have read before and enjoy. I do just that, I suppose it’s human to do so. We often form small social groups and they can be closed groups. But it does feel a bit limiting.

People often say that writing is valuable if you reach just one person. This is probably true, but I doubt my well-meaning question is going to surface that sort of response. It’s a very small sample size here after all and there are many established co-reading relationships between authors here already. And there are established superstars.

Thanks anyway to those who have replied.

 

[THBGato]

Probably tough to break into such rings.

Probably not. It's nowhere near that organised.

There's also lots of overlap too. I'll recommend B, but I'm not in the same "ring" as J, even though J will comment on B's work for example and J's beta-reader is M, who I've had comments and feedback from, etc, etc.

 

[FrancesScott]

Probably not. It's nowhere near that organised.

There's also lots of overlap too. I'll recommend B, but I'm not in the same "ring" as J, even though J will comment on B's work for example and J's beta-reader is M, who I've had comments and feedback from, etc, etc.

I’m not saying it’s conscious, but it’s pretty obvious to an outsider. And this isn’t about me. I’ve written ten experimental short or micro stories here. I don’t expect to be on anyone’s lists, I’ve done nothing to merit that. But the circularity and reciprocity of recommendations is quite clear to see.

 

[FrancesScott]

I’m not saying it’s conscious, but it’s pretty obvious to an outsider. And this isn’t about me. I’ve written ten experimental short or micro stories here. I don’t expect to be on anyone’s lists, I’ve done nothing to merit that. But the circularity and reciprocity of recommendations is quite clear to see.

And inevitable I suppose as I limited the pool to people frequenting this forum. I probably should’ve anticipated the response.

 

[PennyThompson]

And inevitable I suppose as I limited the pool to people frequenting this forum. I probably should’ve anticipated the response.

AH is more incestuous than a mom riding in the back seat of the family hatchback

 

[Voboy]

And inevitable I suppose as I limited the pool to people frequenting this forum. I probably should’ve anticipated the response.

I wasn't going to comment the other day, but you've already discovered what I was going to say.

Similar (nay, identical) threads have been tried here. They always result in the "closed-loop" dynamic you've already seen. Stick around long enough and it'll happen again.

 

[FrancesScott]

I wasn't going to comment the other day, but you've already discovered what I was going to say.

Similar (nay, identical) threads have been tried here. They always result in the "closed-loop" dynamic you've already seen. Stick around long enough and it'll happen again.

Yeah. I feel kind of foolish. It’s obvious, right?

 

[Voboy]

Yeah. I feel kind of foolish. It’s obvious, right?

Not a problem. The AH has about five or ten stock threads that consistently get posted and reposted, all about the same topics and all ending the same way.

In the great scheme of things, at least this type of thread is positive and uplifting in its intent. That's not a bad thing.

 

[THBGato]

AH is more incestuous than a mom riding in the back seat of the family hatchback

Sis? Is that you? Does Dad know?

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

You guys can be cynical about it as much as you want, but the reality is that there are a handful of us new people (less than a year here) and dozens of people who have been here for a long time. The longer you’re here, the more likely it is you will get read by the folks who see your name a lot. I, for my part, usually follow everybody who is a regular k here because I figure if they’re willing to engage they are probably pretty good, even if they write in a topic I wouldn’t otherwise read.

Penny and I started about the same time. She broke into the ‘loop’ pretty quickly, and it’s because her stuff is good and it’s not 30k chapters in a million word series, so people go read it and enjoy it. Wanda gets pointed out not because she’s in the club or something, but because her story was legitimately one of the best written on here in a long time. And I say that as her story and mine were competing for best recent lesbian novella at the same time, and she won hands down. Her story is just great.

Don’t be disheartened because nobody mentioned your stuff. Just keep doing what you’re doing and if you’re doing it well, it will get noticed.

And also keep in mind that what lovecraft said is 100% true - at least in my experience, my consumption of stories has gone down dramatically since I started writing, and it’s almost nil when I’m on a self-imposed deadline. That’s probably why I’ve not gotten to read any of Frances’ stuff yet.

 

[Areala-chan]

Sis? Is that you? Does Dad know?

Shut up and get back here before he finds out. The road's only bumpy for another 33 kilometers.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

A while ago, I started this thread, and it barely went further than this one. I also didn't put any limits in the sense that it has to be something recent or that it has to belong to an AH author. The only thing I insisted on was people not linking their own stories, but some have found workarounds even about that.


https://forum.literotica.com/threads/lets-share-stories.1627882/

 

[SimonDoom]

I feel bad that I can't contribute more to this thread. The fact is that since the beginning of the year I've been a slug in both writing and reading stories here. I'll check out some of the suggestions people have made.

 

[Bazzle]

I really enjoyed @StillStunned

https://www.literotica.com/s/while-she-watches-them

The mystery and the pleasure gained by all parties.

Yes, I used it for inspiration for one of my own stories... but the original is scoring far better!

 

[TheLobster]

And inevitable I suppose as I limited the pool to people frequenting this forum. I probably should’ve anticipated the response.

It’s helpful, though, in a way, or at least it has been for me.

From the authors involved in the circlejerk that has surfaced here, I’ve read exactly one story and my response was a resounding “meh”. Now I know that trying to read others will likely result in a similar reaction, and thus I can choose to spend my limited reading time elsewhere.