I'm not entirely comfortable with it. I went there once and, like you, made it abundantly clear that she was a willing participant. Went there another time in a story about a woman going undercover as a sex worker. She knew what she was getting into but things got out of hand. Happy ending, of course.
Not really, categories can be tricky. Maybe half the stories in the NC/R section don't really involve either NC or R, often because the person who would possibly fill that role js explicitly framed as desiring their submission, often from stereotypical 'dom' types they'll even call "master" or "sir" or whatever in case anyone might miss the implication, but they don't go in the BDSM section because... I don't know, I never read that section, but I'm assuming there's a reason.
How did you get your story published? Mine has been pending for like 2 weeks!
From my limited experience and what I read in the forum it is entirely normal for new writer's stories to take a bit longer. I recently read 2 weeks is about the limit of the pending, though it happens that it goes over that time. It is very dependent on the moderators.
I started to read but wasn't in the mood, so skimmed a lot. For a first try I really appreciate the amount of story. No over the top wishful thinking with a godly stand in that they imagine is themselves. It is a more complex situation where sex isn't a given. I like that.
I had one that took four tries.
Sometimes a story can fit in more than one. My solution to that is to pick the one I think fits best, then use the other as a tag.
