On Saturday, February 19, 2022 at 5:01:08 AM UTC-6, Numbau wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Feb 2022 05:56:19 -0500, Gary <
g.ma...@att.net> wrote:
>
> >On 2/18/2022 8:33 PM, Brown Water Python wrote:
> >> On Fri, 18 Feb 2022 17:31:16 -0800 (PST), John Kuthe <
jwk...@bjc.org>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Your book is a projection of your Narcissistic Personality Disorder!
> >>
> >> And the way he's peddling it as well. Nobody wants to read it. He
> >> should get over it. Not everybody's a writer.
> >
> >In all fairness, I found his writing style very good. There just wasn't
> >any story that linked all those conversations together so it was a
> >boring book.
>
There was a story, and while it did move slowly because
the focus was primarily on the emotional states of the
characters, and their interpersonal relationships, a lot
happens to all three main characters in less than 13
months.
Winter, the title character, gets a job at a strip club
because a classmate has convinced her that she
could earn a lot of money. Before her first round on
the stage, she meets Ian, a still grieving widower who
had won a very large lottery jackpot. She spends the
rest of the evening with him, and before they leave, he
hands her a money clip, which she later realizes not
only has "almost three hundred more dollars, and
something else, a personal check for another
thousand."
The check has his name and address on it, and
Winter is pretty certain that he'd hoped she would
pay him a visit. A few days later, she does, and
agrees to become his very well paid "courtesan."
Winter is very close to her family, and she concocts
a story to explain her new job, saying that she has
become his personal assistant, and his helping him
write a memoir.
Winter had never been in love before, but she had
noticed a pretty girl at school, and seen her more
than once seeming to be emotionally abused by
another girl, and she became totally infatuated.
She finally got up her nerve to approach the girl,
Ann, and within a day, had decided to move into
her dorm room. There was only one problem.
Winter felt that she had to reveal her situation
with Ian.
When she did, Ann was OK with her keeping her
job. Winter introduces Ann to her family, loving,
fun loving people who are polar opposite her
harsh, unloving father. Ann wants to meet Ian,
and when they meet, they instantly click, and
while they have to share Winter, there's no
jealousy, but instead a strong emotional bond.
Ann thinks of Ian as the only man who ever
actually loved her.
The three take the train to Chicago for Ann to
confront her parents, one last chance to make
peace, but her father rejects her, and she snaps.
She falsely accuses her father of sexually
abusing her, and accuses her mother of knowing
about it. On the trip, the relationship between
Ian and Ann becomes physically sexual, with
Winter helping facilitate. The bond between Ian
and Ann is now stronger than every.
Not long after they return to St. Louis, Winter
asks Ann to marry her, and Ann tells her that
she will, but she insists on still living with Ian.
Ian doesn't know about Ann's bargain, and when
she and Winter fly to another state where same
sex marriage is legal, Ian believes that they will
go their separate ways, and he arranges to have
the outstanding portion of the three million
dollars deposited into Winter's account.
When Winter sees what he has done, something
changes. She now knows that the three of them
are an inseparable family unit. Now, it's time to
reveal to her parents, who in the mean time have
themselves gotten to be friends with Ian, about
what actually happened, and that they are now
essentially in a three person marriage, and that
Ian would very likely be the father of their
grandchildren. Her parents accept the new
reality, and everything is fine, but Winter realizes
that because she isn't legally married to Ian,
that when he dies, which will be long before the
other two, that there would be massive
inheritance taxes, so she devises a plan to
marry Ian, even though she's still married to
Ann, because in Missouri, the state does not
recognize her marriage to Ann.
Ann is fine with the idea, but again, she has a
condition. Winter has had a secret about her
past, and she had told Ian from the beginning
that she would never share her past with him.
She had, however, told Ann, and now Ann
insisted that she would only give the marriage
her blessing if Winter told Ian everything she,
Ann, knew. The way that Ann saw it, secrets
between only two of them was a lack of trust,
and made them unequal partners. Winter
agreed, but asked if she could tell him after
the holidays, because with the wedding, and
Christmas with the family, there was already
so much going on. Ann agrees.
Winter and Ian are married before the end
of the year, and several days later Winter
reveals her secret to Ian, but not to the
reader.
____________________
...............................Anniversary.................................
.
"Ian, I have something I need to speak with you about."
.
"What?"
.
"You know the thing about my past? The things I told you were private?"
.
"I know enough not to ask because it makes you uncomfortable."
.
"It doesn't really. I just made a promise, but Ann made me realize that I
shouldn't have secrets from you. I'm going to tell you everything,
because Ian, I trust you. I trust you with anything and everything because
you've never hurt me, and because you trust me."
.
"I do."
.
"This is the last thing I've kept from you, and Ann says that today will be
the day that she'll celebrate as our real anniversary, the one for the three
of us. She's so sweet, and it really is the three of us." Winter paused, and
took the traditional deep breath before saying, "Here goes."
.
She got to the central point without delay, then gave him the time line,
before circling back to fill in details. Ian listened, wide-eyed, without
interruption; he waited until she had announced, "That's it," before
responding.
.
He didn't actually speak, but just laughed, and Winter asked, "You know
how married people can sometimes read each others' minds?"
.
Ian continued to laugh, as he said, "Yeah."
.
"I think I know what you're thinking."
.
"Winter."
.
She smiled at him more sweetly than he could ever recall, then made her
bunny face, before asking, "Four words, right?"
.
Winter noticed Ian's mouth open slowly, the tip of his tongue extending so
slightly as Winter touched his lips, squelching the words that didn't need
to be said. Instead, he merely ran his tongue up her middle finger, and
added a tiny kiss.
.
"And now," said Winter, "I'm yours."
____________________
>
I broke the worst rule of all. I introduced a mystery early
in the book, and never revealed the secret.
> >
> >First Bryan should read many books.
> I've probably read a couple of thousand books and I'm still not a
> writer. Except in RFC, of course.
>
> Bryan's problem is also that he would only read books about... Bryan.
> And there ain't any.
>
You know, I have read a lot of books. What I don't read is newly
published adult fiction, at least not more than little snippets
while I'm at work. Starting with *Prisoner of Azkaban* (book 3),
I was a BN at midnight for every street date. One could also say
that I don't watch movies, because I almost never watch the type
of movies that I put on the shelves, but we do pay for a
subscription to
https://www.criterionchannel.com/
In the past couple of weeks we've watched:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot_le_Fou
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_on_the_Nile_(1978_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fools
and others. We're planning on watching another one this
afternoon.
The suggestion was made upthread that I should read
books and pattern my work after them. Heck, if I did
that I could tell folks, "Hey you should read my book.
It's a lot like most other books."
--Bryan