Unexpected Reader Reactions

[Bazzle]

Lots(*) of readers contact me via email to either ask me if I'm really at Bishop Rock Lighthouse, or else to tell me in graphic detail precisely how much I made them cry.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/bc/91/b5bc9132fa7bcf41c7ae8ad248ffe5d1.gif

* more than 2

I'm guessing you day don't be so (isles) of Scilly?

 

[Trionyx]

We have this saying in Finnish, joskus sokeakin kana löytää jyvän. It means even the blind chicken finds a grain every now and then

We say: Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn sometimes.

 

[Britva415]

I'd probably adjust the title to Moms On A Plane

Milves On A Plane

 

[gunhilltrain]

Lots(*) of readers contact me via email to either ask me if I'm really at Bishop Rock Lighthouse, or else to tell me in graphic detail precisely how much I made them cry.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/bc/91/b5bc9132fa7bcf41c7ae8ad248ffe5d1.gif

* more than 2

Bishop Rock lighthouse is more, ah, "symbolic" looking than some others. The ancient Egyptians knew that when they invented the obelisk. See, e.g., the Washington Monument.

Some guy wrote in that he used to go to Garret Mountain in New Jersey, which I picked for a setting merely because I used to work nearby. The views from up there are pretty good.

The lighthouse:

https://www.visitislesofscilly.com/dbimgs/A Trip to Bishop Rock.jpg

View from the mountain looking east (I'd call in a big hill):

https://i0.wp.com/fueledbylolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IMG_3741.jpg?ssl=1

 

[gunhilltrain]

We have this saying in Finnish, joskus sokeakin kana löytää jyvän. It means even the blind chicken finds a grain every now and then

Seriously though, I don’t think aiming to cater to my personal preferences is a very good strategy, at least it seems very few people are doing it which makes me think very few people are wired the way I am. Which makes it all the sweeter when it happens.

As we've said here before, you can't try to guess a strategy for pleasing readers. If they don't like what you wrote, it's their loss.

The Finns have a reputation for being, introverted I guess you'd call it, or just taciturn. Probably they also think, but don't say, "Even a dead Russian finds a grain every now and then." They are not introverted about fighting a war, even if they have to ski there.

https://media.iwm.org.uk/cantaloupe/iiif/2/31||414||super_000000.jpg/full/865,/0/default.jpg

 

[Omenainen]

As we've said here before, you can't try to guess a strategy for pleasing readers. If they don't like what you wrote, it's their loss.

The Finns have a reputation for being, introverted I guess you'd call it. Probably they also think, but don't say, "Even a dead Russian finds a grain every now and then." They are not introverted about fighting a war, even if they have to ski there.

https://media.iwm.org.uk/cantaloupe/iiif/2/31||414||super_000000.jpg/full/865,/0/default.jpg

We do say, “yksi suomalainen vastaa kymmentä ryssää”, which translates to “one Finn is worth ten Russians”, so there’s that.

 

[gunhilltrain]

We do say, “yksi suomalainen vastaa kymmentä ryssää”, which translates to “one Finn is worth ten Russians”, so there’s that.

Yeah, some NATO observer, I forgot who it was, visited there and was impressed. Does this link work?

https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images...-joins-nato-040323.jpg?q=w_1110,c_fill/f_webp

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

My favorite out of left field was a comment from a guy who said he wasn't sure if he wanted to read the story because there was male/male sex in it, but he did, and it caused him to want to seek out a bisexual experience of his own. So I'm chalking that up as a win.

The other comment I got comes from a guy who has clearly read every chapter, and consistently complains that there's too much sex, that the sex is just prurient and that it takes away from the business oriented focus of the story that's he's interested in. He has said multiple times that some of the sex is just gratuitous and "would never happen like that in a real business setting" - and that the characters' business would be doing better if they'd just stop fucking all the time.

That one made me laugh.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I have readers of my incest fantasy stories from time to time tell me they enjoy the stories because they bring back happy memories of their own saucy experiences with mom, and I'm not quite sure how to respond.

A little too much sharing there.

 

[PennyThompson]

The other comment I got comes from a guy who has clearly read every chapter, and consistently complains that there's too much sex, that the sex is just prurient and that it takes away from the business oriented focus of the story that's he's interested in. He has said multiple times that some of the sex is just gratuitous and "would never happen like that in a real business setting" - and that the characters' business would be doing better if they'd just stop fucking all the time.

Have you considered writing an alternate version with zero sex and lots more business logistics and posting it in Non-Erotic? Apparently you'd have an audience

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

Have you considered writing an alternate version with zero sex and lots more business logistics and posting it in Non-Erotic? Apparently you'd have an audience

The funny thing is that I found myself making the business part of things more obvious in the second part because of this comment. And I figure, while most people reading it are going to be enjoying the threesomes, the multiple orgy scenes, the part where the MCs blow a hockey team and the like, but there's one guy out there stroking it to the business deal one of the main characters cuts with his former boss that doubles the size of the company.

This site is weird.

 

[SimonDoom]

The other comment I got comes from a guy who has clearly read every chapter, and consistently complains that there's too much sex, that the sex is just prurient and that it takes away from the business oriented focus of the story that's he's interested in. He has said multiple times that some of the sex is just gratuitous and "would never happen like that in a real business setting" - and that the characters' business would be doing better if they'd just stop fucking all the time.

That one made me laugh.

That's one I haven't heard before. That would be like somebody commenting to me, "Tell me less about Mom fucking in the back seat and more about the car seat upholstery."

 

[PennyThompson]

The moment Marla slammed the bedroom door behind her, her sex toys sprang to life like Red Bull-drunk zombies in a midnight graveyard, ben wa balls bouncing like kangaroo rats, suction cup dildo swaying like a drunk mime, and the cute little lavender vibrator breaking out into yet another off-pitch rendition of "You've got a friend in me."

Oh no, Bulwer-Lytton is leaking out into other threads

 

[SimonDoom]

Oh no, Bulwer-Lytton is leaking out into other threads

Whoops. Wrong location. I'll correct that.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The other comment I got comes from a guy who has clearly read every chapter, and consistently complains that there's too much sex, that the sex is just prurient and that it takes away from the business oriented focus of the story that's he's interested in. He has said multiple times that some of the sex is just gratuitous and "would never happen like that in a real business setting" - and that the characters' business would be doing better if they'd just stop fucking all the time.

Yeah, I've had one or two "I like this story, it doesn't need so much sex in it" comments. (Along with "this story is boring, get to the sex" from another reader.)

 

[Cagivagurl]

Lots(*) of readers contact me via email to either ask me if I'm really at Bishop Rock Lighthouse, or else to tell me in graphic detail precisely how much I made them cry.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/bc/91/b5bc9132fa7bcf41c7ae8ad248ffe5d1.gif

* more than 2

Please do not destroy my illusion...
I picture you late at night, candlelight softly covering you in it's dewy light. The sound of the waves crashing over the horrendous rocks below...
Your pen moving swiftly cross the soggy parchment as you write, the prose flowing effortlessly.
Another tear dripping onto the already uliginous paper.
Alone, isolated, the candlelight exceeded only by your beauty... The pen slowly losing it's vigour, as the candle burns to a dampened wick. The melted wax, extinguishing the flickering light.
The darkness embracing you as you wander off to bed, to dream.

 

[onehitwanda]

Please do not destroy my illusion...
I picture you late at night, candlelight softly covering you in it's dewy light. The sound of the waves crashing over the horrendous rocks below...
Your pen moving swiftly cross the soggy parchment as you write, the prose flowing effortlessly.
Another tear dripping onto the already uliginous paper.
Alone, isolated, the candlelight exceeded only by your beauty... The pen slowly losing it's vigour, as the candle burns to a dampened wick. The melted wax, extinguishing the flickering light.
The darkness embracing you as you wander off to bed, to dream.

And so was spawned "Memoirs of a Gusher"

P.S you're evil and I'm blushing

 

[StillStunned]

"Memoirs of a Gusher"

This has to be your worst pun yet. I tip my hat to you.

 

[Cagivagurl]

And so was spawned "Memoirs of a Gusher"

P.S you're evil and I'm blushing

Ah, the glorious blush of innocence lost...
Think not of the Loss, think more of the thousand sailor lives saved by the luminous glow of your beautiful blush
The warm glow alerting the imperilled souls afloat in the fierce tempestuous waters. The jagged rocks, the thunderous pounding swell smashing on the rocks...
Your beauty, your alarming blush.
How many souls breathe again this night because of your innocence lost...
I shall dream myself this evenings embrace.
Scaling the precipitous walls of Bishops rock...
The knocking on your door, be quick you perilous purveyor of tears yet lost...
I have shed many on your tales told...
Tissue companies must queue at your door. "Write another." They cry... Whimsically. "My roller needs a replacing."
My dreams this night shall be heroic... Epic, a young elfin witch, with nothing but a sputtering broomstick tried to scale the lofty walls of Bishops rock.

Cagivagurl

 

[Zootonius]

Lots(*) of readers contact me via email to either ask me if I'm really at Bishop Rock Lighthouse, or else to tell me in graphic detail precisely how much I made them cry.

I'm guessing you day don't be so (isles) of Scilly?

I still haven't ruled out that @onehitwanda is the ghost of Admiral Shovell.

 

[alohadave]

I had a recent commenter say how a couple stories were comedic, which isn't what I go for.

 

[Actingup]

It'd be a good name for a '50s rock group or maybe a funk act, too -- Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Sly and the Family Stone, Penny Thompson and the Potent Strokers.

If it was a genuine group from the 50s still playing now, we might have to adjust them to the 'impotent strokers'...

(with apologies to any 90 year old members who are still banging away!)

And yes, to answer the question, I get lots of unexpected comments that remind me that once you hit 'submit', your story does not belong to you any more...

 

[MrHereWriting]

Do you ever get reader feedback that really surprises you?

Not the usual-drive by hate, or a negative reaction to a story you thought was good, but something you didn't see coming. Maybe readers reacting outside of the stereotypes we tend to ascribe them.

Share it!

It's not me vs my readers, which makes the negative reactions the surprise, not the norm.

 

[ElectricBlue]

That's one I haven't heard before. That would be like somebody commenting to me, "Tell me less about Mom fucking in the back seat and more about the car seat upholstery."

Leather versus cloth versus vinyl. It's an important detail. Readers need to know.

 

[Actingup]

Leather versus cloth versus vinyl. It's an important detail. Readers need to know.

Well, the post-coitus cleaning strategy depends on it. And don't tell me that isn't on Mum's mind during the act.