I don't usually care for stories that stop short. I think it's usually the easy or cowards way out. This time I agree with the author, anything further would simply cheapen the story as a whole.
This worked for me. Too many authors who I shall not name make the wife a caricature of idiocy and debauchery. Most women aren't like that. They might be open to a bit of playing, but they generally don't suddenly don SS uniforms and start kicking puppies.
I didn't mind the dangling participle. Frankly, IMO, either way the man wins. He gets a Stepford Wife, because Original Sweetie KNOWS she is a gnat's hair from being history...and will be for the rest of her life. That adds a certain...incentive to her actions.
Or he gets the amazon. She doesn't like her life and sees him as a gateway to a better one.
So, while it may irritate the BTB crowd, how does he lose in all of this? It's like with my kids: they do the crime, they get their ass whipped...and the crime is DONE! When you've been punished, the board is cleared. She's been punished with pain, humiliation and divorce. The board is clear.
I like the coin and the reason he flipped. It made sense to me. 5*'s
by
Anonymous07/27/13
final flip
the last coin flip by gina is a good ending. he will get the divorce but stay with his exwife because she has learned her lesson and will be his perfect shadow now. gina has not lost out. being single he will have the best that both women have to offer.
I know I thought it was a very good effort. New use of plot devices, well written, the characters had depth and drew you in. Tx created empathy for all 3. I felt it was worthy of a 5. But Hue?? WOW!!! Great work, Tx!!!
Seriously, how could any man consider forgiving a woman who did what she did to him for months and months. Blackmail is no excuse for her conduct. Further, with the ending as is, who's to say the blackmail material doesn't get sent. An excuse by any name is still an excuse.
I know why you didn't finish the story. You bitch writers just can't stand to see the man move on with his balls intact.
At least you didn't go with your usual emasculation, wimp ending, and it sounds like you don't plan on finishing the story, which in this case is a good thing.
I suspect that you are getting tired of low scores and disrespecting the great state of Texas (not that Texas needs any help in disrespect).
So hang in there, you may even get a three one of these years.
I fear he could be in trouble over the fire in the bedroom, but it's a story. I liked the three main characters. It was a good job of making a cheating wife human and sympathetic. Few writers spin a tale as well as TTT. It ended where it should. Thanks.
This was a great story, and you're right, it's done! Just the right amount of tension and "what it" at the end to keep us wondering without beating a dead horse.
by
Anonymous07/27/13
Wow that was different and pretty cool actually if you can get past the frustrating coin flips and references to purgatory. 4*
A great and very smartly written story. I hope hubby ends up with the bartender as the wife even tho she being was blackmailed just can't be trusted.
by
Anonymous07/27/13
Strangly enough
Im rooting for both of them .The bartender and the wife.
by
Anonymous07/27/13
5*
You're still one of the best. LW is lucky to have you writing for it.
The only comments I've seen so far are the 2 or 3 right below the end. Haven't read the others, don't plan to. I enjoy life better as a hit-and-run commenter:throw the dart and don't stick around or come back unlike the sick fuckers who keep convulsively & obsessively logging on like crazed gerbils pawing the feed button in a lab experiment.
Since the wife is not dead, the BTB crowd will be disappointed.
Since the husband did not get a hard-on & eat the cream pie, the cucks will be disappointed.
Since we don't know if there's reconciliation or not, the idiots that scream RAAC! RAAC! Like the fucking AFLAC duck will not know what to do until one of their sad little exemplars says something they can copy.
As for me, I liked it. Your stories are superior. Keep writing. You bring enjoyment to the cognoscenti (smart people).
The story is told...you're wise to leave it right there. Anything that happens after this is another story, and there should be no expectation that we will know it. Just like real life.
Just wanted to thank y'all for the (mostly) kind comments.
I really didn't know how this one was going to go over. I figured it might just piss off EVERYONE. No sympathy for the woman who got in over her head, and cheated but truly loved her husband, and had no malice in her actions. The hero didn't put a bullet in her head, and drag her through the streets naked for being a cheating slut. No overt actions were taken directly toward the bastard who caused the problem (which I seriously considered adding, but wanted to keep the story short and to the point). The Odd little coin-flip plot device. The possibility of reconciliation after divorce. So many ways to piss of so many readers...
If it did irritate you, all I can is que sera sera. It's gonna happen. Not my intention, but I'm not gonna let those concerns drive my writing. Thank you for the feedback, nonetheless.
For those who enjoyed it and commented, my sincere thanks. It's always nice to hear that your effort to entertain yields positive results.
Like the Idea of the Coin Flip and the fact he left it on the Bar. and left Gina wondering. I would like to see how everything ends up with everyone and how he gets back at Don the A-Hole. who Blackmailed his wife to begin with it was comical envisioning him jumping out the window and landing in the Rose bush have one just like it ^' tall and really wide.
Dang! Wish you'd add to this. I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
by
Anonymous07/27/13
Like the shift in PoV, taking the focus off the husband. The story's not bad, but it's been done before, over and over.
He can't do shit to stop her blackmailer from destroying her life the way the blackmailer did to her friend Debbie, because the only thing he CAN do to stop Doug is murder the man or commit some other violent crime that makes him no better than the man. Because his second chance woman is a dumb bitch, she will of course not realize that he completely lied to his "ex" and committed her to Hell, not only making a farce out of his coin-flipping but a lie out of his claims of standing by her as Doug destroyed her life?
On a side note, what kind of stupid cunt of a guy admits he got married based on a coin flip rather than love and admits that's all it was after simpering and whining about how he loved her and she destroyed him?
Personally, and perhaps as a challenge to authors reading this - I'd like to see a story that takes this tired old plotline and turns it around - a wife that gets blackmailed and DOES tell her husband and see exactly how steadfast and willing to stand by her the husband is, how clever her husband is. Note: Murder and violent crimes are not cleverness, and there is exactly jackshit you can do to stop someone from sending out such material in under ten minutes.
I saw one story like this, and you know what happened when the wife told her husband a man was attempting to blackmail her? He stabbed her in the back by telling her that she should have confessed what she'd done before she married him so that he had the choice not to marry her, allowed the blackmailer to destroy his wife, and promptly divorced her. Even though she did not cheat on him.
It was insanely original, but it really makes you ask the question of why this tired old plot is still around. What can a man do to defend his wife in those circumstances that doesn't involve becoming a criminal far worse than a blackmailer?
In short, creative execution, dull concept, and the only half-way likeable character is the bartender.
Yes, it's a revenge fantasy. But your protagonist realizes there at the last that utterly destroying his soon-to-be-ex-wife is not what he thought he wanted. Or something like that.
I liked the open-endedness of the story. And it does sort of scream for a sequel. I could see where I might take it, but there are several other plausible scenarios that come to mind fairly quickly. Overall, VERY nicely done.
Sometime the Author can be wrong about his own story
@ Dear Author It may be you wanted to annoying everybody, but the plot was a good Modern Figaro Type Revenge Story. If Dear Author does not beleive me I recommend to read Papatoad's "Telephone Blitz" gem story.
Telephone Blitz is a shit story and then some. Yes the revenge is very smart but talk about a cucky WACC ending. Im not trying to shit up TX's comments just trying to warn other readers what to expect from Duna's fucked up recommendation.
First, yes Duna, I'm very familiar with PapaToad's work. And I agree that his telephone blitz is easily a top 10 story in this category. Friggin' beautiful. Too bad he doesn't write for Literotica any more.
If anyone would like to craft their own ending, to this, and pretty much any other story of my mine, I have no problems with that. None at all. Feel free, I think I'd even like to see how someone might take it. Lord_Gro, or anyone else who might want to give it a go. Hell, it might even drive me to write a sequel, although I still believe this is the proper place to end it. Although destroying blackmailer/loverboy would be fun, in spite of what Anonymous says.
@ Jounar I am REVENGE STORY FAN and not a FOUNDEMENTALIST BTB!!!!! If somebody likes revenge stories and like me he(she) is not foundementalist BTB I recommend Papatoad's story "Telephone Blitz".
@ Jounar - I tend to agree I didn't like the ending to Telephone Blitz. Especially the attitude. However, from a writer's perspective, it was close to brilliant. Very clever, well thought out, short and to the point. Extremely memorable. I can read 100 titles and not remember the story, but every time I see 'telephone blitz' I smile. It's a unique solution to a sticky problem, and PapaToad owns it.
The only way it could have been better was to stop after 3 pages, once he'd dealt with both of them, and moved on.
I believe there's a place for reconciliation in some cases. The way PapaToad painted the wife wasn't one of them. Total annihilation for an adulterous spouse isn't always required. There are different levels of betrayal, and if we paint all with the same brush of revenge, the worst are getting off too easy. I consider purpose, intent, malice, response after exposure and the extent of the cheating all elements in how badly the spouse should pay.
1. When I was 16 years old we learnt from the World Literature the Italian mediavel Trias (Dante, Petrarca and Bocaccio). In my High School class we boys almost everybody read Bocaccio "Decameron" with dumb husbands and smart cheaters.
After 40 years it was a revelation to meet stories, where smart husbands do revenge on cheaters, and this revenge stories are better than Bocaccio's Decameron.............
2. I have a little inclination to Ramantic, so I like those stories when somebody can stand up from a family catastropha, as a cheating means. I like those stories, where the betrayed ex husbands find the happiness and success again with a new mate............against the cheating ex wives..........
3. Against not being foundamentalist BTB, I do not like cheaters........................
I agree with you 100% that not all stories require a BTB nuclear response ending and personally I prefer a life lived well ending. The problem I have and from what I'v read in comments, lots of other readers have as well with most reconciliation type stories, is that the plot becomes way to unbelievable or the character's mindset suddenly change so much it's like they are completely different people, all just to get the happy ending.
@ Tx Tall Tales and Duna
Telephone Blitz is a very well written story containing some very clever revenge antics on the husband's part but as a reader I want the start, middle and end of the story to be good and Papatoad's story is ruined by a very weak WACC ending imho.
I am glad you left it open at the end,it seems obvious he will reconcile with his wife,the phone call told him she was telling the truth and that he had enough compassion to understand her situation.
Btw there are ways to deal with blackmail,it is a major crime plus even now if they went to the cops it would be blackmail and rape,coerced sex is rape,pure and simple,because she didn't give consent freely.Depending how long ago those videos were made (the blackmail ones) slime could be charged with suppressing evide.ce of a crime,if she was out of it when having sex that is rape as well,he would.be in deep doo doo if the statute of limitations hadnt run out.
Sadly a lot if hubbies if she told him eould walk away,husbands blame the wife when these things,happen irl,husbands abandon wives who have been raped,seeing them as dirty or somehow wanted it,so saying 'why didnt you tell me' isnt so cut and dried.
Of all the reasons for cheating, blackmail is the most understandable and, therefore, forgiveable. Add the phone call to save his ass, under the circumstances, and she gets a little more of an opening. The coin flip idea added a little humor, but didn't really change his plans. I like the ending. This little story didn't warrant more detail or a final conclusion.
You know what I love, Jounar and Duna both? A good discussion, no personal attacks, and an ability to try to see things someone else's way. Even if unsuccessful, a clear open exchange of opinions is a good thing.
I appreciate everything both of you wrote, even if it's not so much about this particular story, but about the genre in general.
One dimensional, brain dead women in these stories drive me crazy. I need character, some understanding of why things happen. I can even respect HarryInVA's complaints about my reply to Nici's Something we have to talk about, when he states rightly, I finally asked the question 'Why?' without having the wife deliver a response.
Jounar, you are absolutely correct that in many Reconciliation stories, there is a drastic personality change, many times unbelievable. More often, the characters are so shallow, I don't even care. It's what makes a good reconciliation story so damn difficult to write.
Strangely, the disagreement between you and Duna is almost laughable, since you both enjoy the same type of endings, as Duna likes to put it, 'the second chance woman.' Living life well is often the best revenge.
For extreme betrayal, I lean more towards Radke's nuclear option. For moderate adultery, I believe that some type of emotional pain is warranted (if not physical) and the Living Well revenge is most appropriate.
The Romantic in me, and I readily confess it's there, wants to see a chance for reconciliation, under the right terms, when the issue between the two is least disturbing. But you damn well better have made me believe the offender is repentant and worthy of at least the chance.
It's the only reason I'm thinking of adding a third chapter in reply to "Something We Have to Talk About," and see if it's even possible to create that possibility with Susan, even if not totally successful. I consider that a hell of a challenge. And maybe I can even give HarryInVA his answer about 'why?'. It's a daunting task, and I'm not sure I'm up to it, but you've got to stretch yourself, if you want to improve, and that would be a hell of a stretch.
To finish this ridiculously long response, I want to thank you both, for the comments, taking the time to express your opinion (which only happens about one in 1000 readers), and for being reasonable and clear in your opinions, respectful in how you presented them, with no ad hominem attacks. I really appreciate it. As I appreciate every comment, of every flavor, each giving me a little tiny window into my audience.
And yes, that includes you, zed0 and karan9876. I understand your views probably represent a large part of the target audience, and I like to hear them, seeing what works and doesn't work for you. I gotta admit, sometimes it confuses me, but I'll keep trying.
I would be remiss, after such a lengthy treatise, not to mention how very much I appreciate the appropriate and insightful comments from many of the regulars around here, including FD45, njlauren, Vulcan_in_Ohio, cantbuymy, Harddaysknight, betrayedbylove, and so many others, who take the time to help me write better.
In my reply to Agena's A Joke, I made my own little 'joke' at the end. I made Roger 'Anonymous'. I mentioned it wasn't about MY anonymous commenters. Let me make it abundantly clear. I've read literally thousands of stories on this site (I have had 12 years in which to do it.) I can honestly say the vast majority of my Anonymous reviewers are insightful, respectful, and deeply appreciated. If you have any doubts, read their comments here. I'm lucky, and I know it.
Thanks again. I'm gonna stop typing now before the comment becomes longer than the story.
There was the one detail that may sink the revenge boat. Very fine discussion of the reactions of the commentators by the author. You are quite correct in all that you say. One thing is that while JPB and MM ignore the audience reaction it sounds as if you are doing a fine job of listening.
English
This one has me chuckling
Random. What an idea. I freaking love it.
Excellent
Great tale. No matter what, the cheating skank wife has no chance. That's all that counts. The story is perfect as it is. Great job.
I don't usually care for stories that stop short. I think it's usually the easy or cowards way out. This time I agree with the author, anything further would simply cheapen the story as a whole.
Honestly
This worked for me. Too many authors who I shall not name make the wife a caricature of idiocy and debauchery. Most women aren't like that. They might be open to a bit of playing, but they generally don't suddenly don SS uniforms and start kicking puppies.
I didn't mind the dangling participle. Frankly, IMO, either way the man wins. He gets a Stepford Wife, because Original Sweetie KNOWS she is a gnat's hair from being history...and will be for the rest of her life. That adds a certain...incentive to her actions.
Or he gets the amazon. She doesn't like her life and sees him as a gateway to a better one.
So, while it may irritate the BTB crowd, how does he lose in all of this? It's like with my kids: they do the crime, they get their ass whipped...and the crime is DONE! When you've been punished, the board is cleared. She's been punished with pain, humiliation and divorce. The board is clear.
HEADS OR TAILS
a contest that can be played solo. TK U MLJ LV NV
this wasn't bad at all
I like the coin and the reason he flipped. It made sense to me. 5*'s
final flip
the last coin flip by gina is a good ending. he will get the divorce but stay with his exwife because she has learned her lesson and will be his perfect shadow now. gina has not lost out. being single he will have the best that both women have to offer.
Hue scored it a 5???
I know I thought it was a very good effort. New use of plot devices, well written, the characters had depth and drew you in. Tx created empathy for all 3. I felt it was worthy of a 5. But Hue?? WOW!!! Great work, Tx!!!
Enjoyed this one
Original, fairly plausible, reads smoothly, feel good at the end. What's not to like? Please keep writing.
Wow! What a 5* read for a Sunday lunchtime!
This reads like it should be a TV movie.
Wait Saturday lunch time!
Even.
3 stars
Seriously, how could any man consider forgiving a woman who did what she did to him for months and months. Blackmail is no excuse for her conduct. Further, with the ending as is, who's to say the blackmail material doesn't get sent. An excuse by any name is still an excuse.
When You Gonna grow some Ball?
I know why you didn't finish the story. You bitch writers just can't stand to see the man move on with his balls intact.
At least you didn't go with your usual emasculation, wimp ending, and it sounds like you don't plan on finishing the story, which in this case is a good thing.
I suspect that you are getting tired of low scores and disrespecting the great state of Texas (not that Texas needs any help in disrespect).
So hang in there, you may even get a three one of these years.
Great story!!
Thanks for sharing.
Wimp with a capital W.
What a wimp. Cant believe cantbuymy gave it a 5. I guess he is softening up.
Well written, nicely plotted.
I fear he could be in trouble over the fire in the bedroom, but it's a story. I liked the three main characters. It was a good job of making a cheating wife human and sympathetic. Few writers spin a tale as well as TTT. It ended where it should. Thanks.
Yes
TTT, congrats! Well crafted, well told, and well, a good story! Thanks.
Complete as is
You made the right call. The story is whole and a "5". Thank you again.
All class!
Good story and we get to make our own ending with no acrimony!
Great Job
Very nice.
I would have liked to have been there to see them trying to get out of the window.
Thanks.
Thanks!
This was a great story, and you're right, it's done! Just the right amount of tension and "what it" at the end to keep us wondering without beating a dead horse.
Wow that was different and pretty cool actually if you can get past the frustrating coin flips and references to purgatory. 4*
5*
A great and very smartly written story. I hope hubby ends up with the bartender as the wife even tho she being was blackmailed just can't be trusted.
Strangly enough
Im rooting for both of them .The bartender and the wife.
5*
You're still one of the best. LW is lucky to have you writing for it.
The only comments I've seen so far are the 2 or 3 right below the end. Haven't read the others, don't plan to. I enjoy life better as a hit-and-run commenter:throw the dart and don't stick around or come back unlike the sick fuckers who keep convulsively & obsessively logging on like crazed gerbils pawing the feed button in a lab experiment.
Since the wife is not dead, the BTB crowd will be disappointed.
Since the husband did not get a hard-on & eat the cream pie, the cucks will be disappointed.
Since we don't know if there's reconciliation or not, the idiots that scream RAAC! RAAC! Like the fucking AFLAC duck will not know what to do until one of their sad little exemplars says something they can copy.
As for me, I liked it. Your stories are superior. Keep writing. You bring enjoyment to the cognoscenti (smart people).
The story is told...
The story is told...you're wise to leave it right there. Anything that happens after this is another story, and there should be no expectation that we will know it. Just like real life.
Good work!
Very nicely written, well thought out plot.
Thanks***
For the read.
Thanks!
Just wanted to thank y'all for the (mostly) kind comments.
I really didn't know how this one was going to go over. I figured it might just piss off EVERYONE. No sympathy for the woman who got in over her head, and cheated but truly loved her husband, and had no malice in her actions. The hero didn't put a bullet in her head, and drag her through the streets naked for being a cheating slut. No overt actions were taken directly toward the bastard who caused the problem (which I seriously considered adding, but wanted to keep the story short and to the point). The Odd little coin-flip plot device. The possibility of reconciliation after divorce. So many ways to piss of so many readers...
If it did irritate you, all I can is que sera sera. It's gonna happen. Not my intention, but I'm not gonna let those concerns drive my writing. Thank you for the feedback, nonetheless.
For those who enjoyed it and commented, my sincere thanks. It's always nice to hear that your effort to entertain yields positive results.
TTT
Thanks for the offering.
4 *
Gave it that score because you left me wanting more !
However, the author is right.
Nice to see you back in LW.
A Merry Man
P. S. Still dislike the ending Of that free- pass story. I know, I gotta let it go. lol
Damn Good
Like the Idea of the Coin Flip and the fact he left it on the Bar. and left Gina wondering. I would like to see how everything ends up with everyone and how he gets back at Don the A-Hole. who Blackmailed his wife to begin with it was comical envisioning him jumping out the window and landing in the Rose bush have one just like it ^' tall and really wide.
Excellent story
very compelling
great read wanting more
Dang! Wish you'd add to this. I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
Like the shift in PoV, taking the focus off the husband. The story's not bad, but it's been done before, over and over.
He can't do shit to stop her blackmailer from destroying her life the way the blackmailer did to her friend Debbie, because the only thing he CAN do to stop Doug is murder the man or commit some other violent crime that makes him no better than the man. Because his second chance woman is a dumb bitch, she will of course not realize that he completely lied to his "ex" and committed her to Hell, not only making a farce out of his coin-flipping but a lie out of his claims of standing by her as Doug destroyed her life?
On a side note, what kind of stupid cunt of a guy admits he got married based on a coin flip rather than love and admits that's all it was after simpering and whining about how he loved her and she destroyed him?
Personally, and perhaps as a challenge to authors reading this - I'd like to see a story that takes this tired old plotline and turns it around - a wife that gets blackmailed and DOES tell her husband and see exactly how steadfast and willing to stand by her the husband is, how clever her husband is. Note: Murder and violent crimes are not cleverness, and there is exactly jackshit you can do to stop someone from sending out such material in under ten minutes.
I saw one story like this, and you know what happened when the wife told her husband a man was attempting to blackmail her? He stabbed her in the back by telling her that she should have confessed what she'd done before she married him so that he had the choice not to marry her, allowed the blackmailer to destroy his wife, and promptly divorced her. Even though she did not cheat on him.
It was insanely original, but it really makes you ask the question of why this tired old plot is still around. What can a man do to defend his wife in those circumstances that doesn't involve becoming a criminal far worse than a blackmailer?
In short, creative execution, dull concept, and the only half-way likeable character is the bartender.
I liked it.
Yes, it's a revenge fantasy. But your protagonist realizes there at the last that utterly destroying his soon-to-be-ex-wife is not what he thought he wanted. Or something like that.
I liked the open-endedness of the story. And it does sort of scream for a sequel. I could see where I might take it, but there are several other plausible scenarios that come to mind fairly quickly. Overall, VERY nicely done.
Sometime the Author can be wrong about his own story
@ Dear Author It may be you wanted to annoying everybody, but the plot was a good Modern Figaro Type Revenge Story. If Dear Author does not beleive me I recommend to read Papatoad's "Telephone Blitz" gem story.
5*****
BTW Papatoad's gem story "Telephone Blitz" is the 9th in my Revenge story bentchmark...............
@ Duna
Telephone Blitz is a shit story and then some. Yes the revenge is very smart but talk about a cucky WACC ending. Im not trying to shit up TX's comments just trying to warn other readers what to expect from Duna's fucked up recommendation.
Ending...
First, yes Duna, I'm very familiar with PapaToad's work. And I agree that his telephone blitz is easily a top 10 story in this category. Friggin' beautiful. Too bad he doesn't write for Literotica any more.
If anyone would like to craft their own ending, to this, and pretty much any other story of my mine, I have no problems with that. None at all. Feel free, I think I'd even like to see how someone might take it. Lord_Gro, or anyone else who might want to give it a go. Hell, it might even drive me to write a sequel, although I still believe this is the proper place to end it. Although destroying blackmailer/loverboy would be fun, in spite of what Anonymous says.
For not foundementalist BTB
@ Jounar I am REVENGE STORY FAN and not a FOUNDEMENTALIST BTB!!!!! If somebody likes revenge stories and like me he(she) is not foundementalist BTB I recommend Papatoad's story "Telephone Blitz".
Telephone Blitz
@ Jounar - I tend to agree I didn't like the ending to Telephone Blitz. Especially the attitude. However, from a writer's perspective, it was close to brilliant. Very clever, well thought out, short and to the point. Extremely memorable. I can read 100 titles and not remember the story, but every time I see 'telephone blitz' I smile. It's a unique solution to a sticky problem, and PapaToad owns it.
The only way it could have been better was to stop after 3 pages, once he'd dealt with both of them, and moved on.
I believe there's a place for reconciliation in some cases. The way PapaToad painted the wife wasn't one of them. Total annihilation for an adulterous spouse isn't always required. There are different levels of betrayal, and if we paint all with the same brush of revenge, the worst are getting off too easy. I consider purpose, intent, malice, response after exposure and the extent of the cheating all elements in how badly the spouse should pay.
A confession of a revenge story fan
1. When I was 16 years old we learnt from the World Literature the Italian mediavel Trias (Dante, Petrarca and Bocaccio). In my High School class we boys almost everybody read Bocaccio "Decameron" with dumb husbands and smart cheaters.
After 40 years it was a revelation to meet stories, where smart husbands do revenge on cheaters, and this revenge stories are better than Bocaccio's Decameron.............
2. I have a little inclination to Ramantic, so I like those stories when somebody can stand up from a family catastropha, as a cheating means. I like those stories, where the betrayed ex husbands find the happiness and success again with a new mate............against the cheating ex wives..........
3. Against not being foundamentalist BTB, I do not like cheaters........................
@ Tx Tall Tales
I agree with you 100% that not all stories require a BTB nuclear response ending and personally I prefer a life lived well ending. The problem I have and from what I'v read in comments, lots of other readers have as well with most reconciliation type stories, is that the plot becomes way to unbelievable or the character's mindset suddenly change so much it's like they are completely different people, all just to get the happy ending.
@ Tx Tall Tales and Duna
Telephone Blitz is a very well written story containing some very clever revenge antics on the husband's part but as a reader I want the start, middle and end of the story to be good and Papatoad's story is ruined by a very weak WACC ending imho.
Good tale
I am glad you left it open at the end,it seems obvious he will reconcile with his wife,the phone call told him she was telling the truth and that he had enough compassion to understand her situation.
Btw there are ways to deal with blackmail,it is a major crime plus even now if they went to the cops it would be blackmail and rape,coerced sex is rape,pure and simple,because she didn't give consent freely.Depending how long ago those videos were made (the blackmail ones) slime could be charged with suppressing evide.ce of a crime,if she was out of it when having sex that is rape as well,he would.be in deep doo doo if the statute of limitations hadnt run out.
Sadly a lot if hubbies if she told him eould walk away,husbands blame the wife when these things,happen irl,husbands abandon wives who have been raped,seeing them as dirty or somehow wanted it,so saying 'why didnt you tell me' isnt so cut and dried.
Great story,tex,another good one.
Good Little Story
Of all the reasons for cheating, blackmail is the most understandable and, therefore, forgiveable. Add the phone call to save his ass, under the circumstances, and she gets a little more of an opening. The coin flip idea added a little humor, but didn't really change his plans. I like the ending. This little story didn't warrant more detail or a final conclusion.
Can't help myself
You know what I love, Jounar and Duna both? A good discussion, no personal attacks, and an ability to try to see things someone else's way. Even if unsuccessful, a clear open exchange of opinions is a good thing.
I appreciate everything both of you wrote, even if it's not so much about this particular story, but about the genre in general.
One dimensional, brain dead women in these stories drive me crazy. I need character, some understanding of why things happen. I can even respect HarryInVA's complaints about my reply to Nici's Something we have to talk about, when he states rightly, I finally asked the question 'Why?' without having the wife deliver a response.
Jounar, you are absolutely correct that in many Reconciliation stories, there is a drastic personality change, many times unbelievable. More often, the characters are so shallow, I don't even care. It's what makes a good reconciliation story so damn difficult to write.
Strangely, the disagreement between you and Duna is almost laughable, since you both enjoy the same type of endings, as Duna likes to put it, 'the second chance woman.' Living life well is often the best revenge.
For extreme betrayal, I lean more towards Radke's nuclear option. For moderate adultery, I believe that some type of emotional pain is warranted (if not physical) and the Living Well revenge is most appropriate.
The Romantic in me, and I readily confess it's there, wants to see a chance for reconciliation, under the right terms, when the issue between the two is least disturbing. But you damn well better have made me believe the offender is repentant and worthy of at least the chance.
It's the only reason I'm thinking of adding a third chapter in reply to "Something We Have to Talk About," and see if it's even possible to create that possibility with Susan, even if not totally successful. I consider that a hell of a challenge. And maybe I can even give HarryInVA his answer about 'why?'. It's a daunting task, and I'm not sure I'm up to it, but you've got to stretch yourself, if you want to improve, and that would be a hell of a stretch.
To finish this ridiculously long response, I want to thank you both, for the comments, taking the time to express your opinion (which only happens about one in 1000 readers), and for being reasonable and clear in your opinions, respectful in how you presented them, with no ad hominem attacks. I really appreciate it. As I appreciate every comment, of every flavor, each giving me a little tiny window into my audience.
And yes, that includes you, zed0 and karan9876. I understand your views probably represent a large part of the target audience, and I like to hear them, seeing what works and doesn't work for you. I gotta admit, sometimes it confuses me, but I'll keep trying.
I would be remiss, after such a lengthy treatise, not to mention how very much I appreciate the appropriate and insightful comments from many of the regulars around here, including FD45, njlauren, Vulcan_in_Ohio, cantbuymy, Harddaysknight, betrayedbylove, and so many others, who take the time to help me write better.
In my reply to Agena's A Joke, I made my own little 'joke' at the end. I made Roger 'Anonymous'. I mentioned it wasn't about MY anonymous commenters. Let me make it abundantly clear. I've read literally thousands of stories on this site (I have had 12 years in which to do it.) I can honestly say the vast majority of my Anonymous reviewers are insightful, respectful, and deeply appreciated. If you have any doubts, read their comments here. I'm lucky, and I know it.
Thanks again. I'm gonna stop typing now before the comment becomes longer than the story.
Excellent Story
There was the one detail that may sink the revenge boat. Very fine discussion of the reactions of the commentators by the author. You are quite correct in all that you say. One thing is that while JPB and MM ignore the audience reaction it sounds as if you are doing a fine job of listening.
Perfect short story.
Easiest 5 star vote ever.
Really fine story
3T, a very, very fine story. Thanks.
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