All Comments on 'Hitting the Bottom Ch. 02'

As I am sure you know by now, I am a huge fan of your work and this was top-class stuff as always. Thank you, five stars and please bring us more.

I've read all of your stories so far and am really excited to see you branching into Dan's story as I too was curious about what happened to him after Jon left to beat him up. I really enjoy seeing him have to deal with being in more vulnerable and submissive positions at the hospital and how he's handling everything. Can't wait to see the relationship between him and his sexy nurse blossom though it should be interesting to see how she reacts to the truth of what Dan did. Kudos on another fascinating story line!!

A really good story so far. I think Dan is going to have to open up to Sandra

Awesome as usual, STG!!

So love this story.

Thank you and 5 stars from me!!

While I enjoyed the first two stories in this "series", this one has been amazing. The last chapter, letting us see inside Dan's head, was incredible. This one, how you have seamlessly started weaving his Dom personality back into the mix, is very well done. It's a pleasure to read and I can't wait to see where it goes next.... Love your writing.

You really get inside Dan's head from his despair over losing Naomi and his job, to his excitement starting his new career as a handyman, to his acting like an insecure teenage boy in front of Sandra, to his dominant side emerging again when finding out that Sandra is looking for a man to dominate her. This is not easy for a female to get inside a male character's head but you did it so well! Sorry for the 2. I meant to give you a 5. Will file a trouble ticket to get this fixed.

I've been waiting for a free moment to read this story, and finally, at 2.00 in the morning, though I should go to sleep, I decided that I couldn't wait another few hours. Totally the right decision - this was absolutely lovely. And of course, I can't wait for the next chapter!

As ever you have hit the nail on the head with this chapter, so glad you resisted the temptation to have Dan confess; so pleased that you brought them both back from that raw moment of hope.

Looking forward to seeing how this unravels, keep going.......

STG - you're a brave woman to tackle such a complex tale, and doing so with such compassion and insight as Dan begins to pull himself back from the brink. I love this story on so many levels, and am excited to see how his story unfolds!

Oh, man, I was loving this chapter long before there was any hint of sex! His introspection, his excitement at making plans, his turmoil over what had happened....

Please, please, though... let him heal a bit before he gets involved with Sandra. He has a lot of internal shit to take care of, and it can be off-camera, so to speak, but if he jumps right back into bed with someone it's hard to see him as a changed man, and somehow, by god, you've made us all want to root for him!

Great writting as usual. Hope to see more soon!

thanks so much for the continuing story. I love your writing and look forward to more!

hey y'all, thank you so much for your comments - you just made my weekend!

(that and the fact that for once the story has been up for more than 24 hours before being pushed off the 'new' list. praise the Lit Gods!)

@mel_pomene - LOL the title of your comment threw me off until i realized you were simply answering my question... :)

@Anon 'wonderful' - thanks! yes i felt putting him in a more humbling position would be good for his soul... not to mention give him a chance to meet said sexy nurse ;-)

@Phil_Patsfan - yes, he should. but will he?

@eaglejet1 - thank you my dear, both for the comment and the little red heart!

@AlessandraMari - thank you so much for that lovely comment! i love that you've read the other two stories too as i do believe having that background in your head makes this story better. gotta admit it's fun getting inside a depressed mdom's head. like playing dress-up! (plus, i do have my Brit wirte some of these inside-the-male-head scenes... when it sounds 'really' like a man's internal dialogue - it's probably his! LOL)

@Inspector123 - thanks! and again, i awe much of those "insights into the male head" to my co-writer. as for the 2 - thank you so much for telling me! and for filing that issue report. i did notice my ratings dropped in the span of one vote and simply assumed the 'Unabomber' had struck early this time around... don't worry about it. i'm sure it would be fixed at some point :)

(more responses to comments to come soon - some RL stuff to take care of... xoxo)

@fungirl - aww, i know the feeling! having said that i've been trying to be better with my sleeping time (i am very unpleasant when sleep-deprived, or so my kids tell me...) which is one of the reasons i have yet to read your latest story... which i hear is superb! promise to give it a read and comment soon :)

@plusher - hehe so you're on the 'don't have Dan confess too soon' side of the fence, are you? we'll see what happens... hmmm... and btw - thank you too for the little red heart! i love those!

@justahole - thank you my dear! though frankly i don't feel any special bravery in doing it since it's not about 'tackling the issue' for me. rather it's simply an exploration of what might be going on inside this person's head... it's fun. i enjoy it. and i don't particularly care about getting it 'right' so much as i do about getting it to feel realistic, i.e. that it *could* be like i wrote it, regardless of whether or not it's the 'correct' way to go / thing to do. so, a slightly less daunting task in my mind... :)

@jennyb - i'll deal with this one on a separate comment because i feel it deserve a bit more thought and space. in the meantime - thank you!

@cloudyemerald & @Anon "good story" - thanks! :)

@redirish69 and @bartman84 - i ~heart~ you guys, ,too!

xoxo

Just letting you know that I've submitted LU Ch.5 AND a one page brain itch, so if the Lit gods are kind they should be up by the weekend.

As for Dan, I think he needs to demonstrate his Dom side to Sandra before confessing. For me it would be a great plot mechanic for her to think she's finally found her perfect man to then discover his feet of clay. Can she deal with that? Can either of them? It's going to be one hell of a ride.....

@jennyb - as for giving Dan time to heal and work thru his stuff before getting involved with Sandra: yes, he has much healing to do within himself and he realizes that. having said that i don't necessarily think Sandra should be purely off-limits till then... i do agree if he goes back to his old Dom self as if nothing happened it may hinder the process he needs to do within himself.

So what will it be? Hmmm...

;-)

hey @plusher :)

i gotta admit i don't quite approach it like that.

i mean yeah, sure, i do think about "if i make them do this would it add to the story/to the drama?" but my main motivation is to ask "what is this person likely to do?"

now since Dan is far from perfect it means that he may not always do the right thing... like when he feels telling Sandra the truth would curtail the first budding connection he's had in years. so he holds back, knowing it's wrong, but still.

anyways. funny how you and jennyb are on two opposite side of the fence on this one! i like that! :D

thanks for the updates about your stories coming up - i'll be on the lookout :)

xoxo

Sorry I'm late to the party, again, and as usual have been beaten to all the good comments and points.

This is shaping up to be a cracker and I can't wait until he gets down and dirty with the nurse...I remember you promising to write a nurse bit for me so xxxxxx and more xxxxxxx's to you.

Now....if you need a hand writing the bit where he takes her temperature and they play doctors and nurses, then I just happen to know someone with the practical experience lol

5/5 lovely lady and roll on ch3

@MJ - you're right, i did indeed promise that, didn't i?

well at least now you see i am a girl of my word..

as for their playing together - so i gather you're with @plusher on this one, huh? :)

would luv ta hear yer hot tales of naughty nurses... for inspiration, of course.

;-)

I'd hoped that Dan might question his makeup a little more, after the total car crash that was him and Naomi, to seem to start again so quickly in a dominant role with another. I know that he stopped himself at the end of the chapter, but even so. He was so out of order and then tried to commit suicide and is not mentally back together again, I'm just finding it a little difficult to believe. .

@Anon 'a little disappointed' - yeah, i'd find it hard to believe (and be more than a little disappointed, too) if Dan was wielding his whip over a bound and gagged Sandra at this point. i hope it's obvious that he's very, very far from being there.

all he did here was very gently lead Sandra in their conversation, and he did it not because he set out to dominate her, but because he sensed it would help her open up. he does recognize it as he does it, and is honest enough with himself to acknowledge that it feels good - in my mind, mostly because it feels like the 'old Dan' - the one from before the divorce and the mental breakdown and the attack...

anyways - thank you for the read and for taking the time to comment - i love comments, even when they're not enthusiastic! - and i hope you stick with it long enough to find out if i/Dan have redeemed ourselves... :)

xoxo

Such a good job of letting us see the depth of the break that happened with Dan and the abject despair he still feels. He needs to heal, and it seems that Sandra is going to be the key to getting him back to some semblance of reality. It seems that all of us like to have characters that seem very despicable, but always have the tiny spark of goodness that can be developed into the redeeming qualities that we all know are there. I am very much enjoying this journey down the path of hopeful redemption and very much look forward to the next installment.

I joined the series at Whiskey and Rye, then went back and read the previous set of stories as you suggested, and continued with Hitting The Bottom. I've spent every spare moment reading. Losing precious hours of sleep, returning late from every break at work, and enjoying every minute of your wonderful talent of weaving your tale. I'm excitedly and impatiently awaiting the next installment. Soon please, STG! :-)<3 try to register if I get it to work... I am: lioness_at_heart

@Anon "my dear" - thank you so much! I tend to get the same way when i find a writer i love reading so i know exactly what you mean... :)

I am about half-way into ch. 03 though writing is slower these days due to real-life demands. I hope to submit it within a week or so. hope you get a few good nights of sleep until then! ;-)

xoxo

STG, I am sleeping better but still impatiently awaiting the next installment!! Have been focusing on my own RL most of it is making me crazy but...recently I have found a Rye of my own. Too soon to tell where we're going and if he's the one. But your stories have given me hope & inspiration. Thank you for that. Still trying to register lioness_at_heart :-)

STG - You are writing about my life with some changes. Your writing caused the welling up with tears and the sniffles, along with a the laughs and memories - almost like you were there when they happened. The helping people as a cop was dead on, the knowledge when you stop doing that lifestyle, friends keep moving on without you, the phone calls and invites stop and its awkward seeing them at the grocery store. etc. Soon you are alone and you have to motivate yourself or just "shoot the last bullet" as you were writing about at the beginning. I already think your shrink is way better than mine ever was. :-)

The only thing to contribute is when the Dom in me died , my life compass never settled in a direction as fast as Dan's did. afterwards life is not quite depression, not quite dejection, my life was just sucked right out of me. I don't give a damn applied to everything.

Hope it helps

@Anon 'can relate' - thank you so very much for this comment.

the credit for writing the part about becoming a cop and then the misery of losing that job as well as the identity and the lifestyle that goes along with it goes fully to my co-writer, the hugely talented Brit, who truly brought that part of the story to life for me, too.

as for Dan's 'losing his Dom' (love that phrase, btw! may i steal it?) - i think Dan lost it well before his attack on Naomi. he described a slow descent after the divorce where, in a way similar to your description - he just became numb, not quite suicidal but not really caring about anything in his life, either. his 'hitting the bottom' - attacking Naomi and then attempting suicide - is paradoxically what he needed to go thru to start healing - though whether or not he'd 'find his Dom' again is yet to be seen.

that is not to say the healing process would be quick or easy... thought i must admit to going a bit quicker than real-life; i'm not sure my readers would stick with me if i were THAT realistic... ;-)

Very, very late to the party - so I wont repeat all the comments...but I saw the story as you wrote it...he wasn't in Dom mode but more as someone make another person comfortable when they need to talk. In my humble opinion he seems very reflective and understands where he is and that he needs to get himself together prior to entering into another relationship. But we often know what's right in our heart and do the opposite without always thinking everything through.

I am looking forward to see what direction you will take it....either way he will be conflicted...tell her first or tell her after..can't wait for Chapter 3

hey @Findmyway, welcome aboard! :)

glad you enjoyed it and just wanted to let you (and everybody else) know that Ch. 03 is done and is currently at the hands of my editor, so i expect it to be subimtted within a couple of days and depending on current queues may be pop up on the 'new' list sometime around Wed/Thur... hope you enjoy it, too!

xoxo

dear readers - ch. 03 submitted just now; so should hopefully show up sometime over the weekend :)

Now, should I go straight to Ch. 3 or wait? Straight to it I think!

...did you go straight to ch. 03, that is?

(and btw i'm curious: how did you get to reading this story? i mean it's been off the 'new' list for a while now. did it show up on your 'random' list?)

anyways would love to hear your thoughts of ch. 03 once you've read it :)

xoxo

WHY are you making me like this douchebag?! Sigh! I love you, I do, and will keep reading because you are too fan-fucking-tastic for me to stop. ^_^

I love realism, and your ability to drive us through the thoughts and feelings is phenomenal!

Those small teases build perfect sex tension and I thank you for that.

I read all the comments and life showed us that everything is possible, whether people recover fast or slow has many factors. I'm sure Dan didn't expect to find a person like Sandra in the hospital staff and probably if she wasn't there things would have turned otherwise for him. Let's remember that we all tend to return our life to what it used to be, our life as we grown to know and love, so why not to assume that at the first opportunity Dan will pull the strings toward what he really want deep down.

Brits, brilliant writing and STG you are an amazing amazing writer!

@always - because you like it that i make you like it... :-P

@swrd - yes! exactly. and thank you - both from me and from the Brit.

I was right to look forward to read more after Ch. 01! Thankfully the next is waiting for me already...

Thx for your efforts, both of you!

s6

Ugh, Sandra has spoken the damn truth. Most dominating men are terrible partners. Then the good partners love you too much to want to hurt you. Girl, I sympathize.

Also, great story. I came for sex, but now I'm just reading for the pure enjoyment :)

I love the complex characters you are developing, their struggles, and trying for hope for the future. Not the usual wham bam affair, but the kind of story I love. Believable people that your readers start to boo and/or love as they read. Then I read to find out where your imagination and writing skills take me. Thank you for your work. Mike

hey there @Mike,

thank you so much! this story does take a bit of time to develop, and it's good to know you find it worth it :)

i love your comments as you read through it... thank you for sharing your thoughts and reactions. reader feedback is what keeps me writing! (well, sometimes. and sometimes it's the characters shouting loud enough in my head... ;-))

xoxo

Her response to being single so accurately copies mine it's frightening. Love the story STG. Thank you!

Very well done! I enjoy how you don't force things too quickly, and even when the ball gets rolling there are some Real causes to veer off course.

Learning more about Sandra should be very enjoyable, and, of course, learning to let go of my disgust for Dan will take a conveniently long time ;)

Jason

It's been a long time since I read this tale and I am hooked again. Thank you STG for writing this. I can't wait to read even more. It's a chapter a day for me right now as I sort out my own issues. Getting back I to the dating game makes me feel like Dan and being so rusty.

I should be in bed,work tomorrow but, one more chapter tonight! ;)

The slow, deliberate manner in which you build the characters is fascinating and almost hypnotic. I have given up trying to work out where I think you are taking me and just let the story unfold. You have a rare skill.