Categories I've never read, and what I should read in them...

[Belegon]

I've been a registered member here since 2003, so 22 years of opportunity. Despite that, I have one big hole in my resume and a couple of similarly shaped but smaller ones.

In 22 years {granted, I took a very long leave of absence in the center of that time} I don't believe I have ever read a single story in the Loving Wives category. There are a couple other categories I'm not sure if I've entirely skipped, either because I had a friend write one story in them or something of that nature, but I am sure I've never ventured into the fabled den of evil known as Loving Wives. Erotic Horror is not necessarily of great appeal to me, so I know that I have limited experience there, perhaps none... and incest is not appealing to me but I know I have read a few out of there for friends.

So....

Given that knowledge and the little you may have discovered about me in the limited time since my return, does anyone have any recommendations for me to end my LW virginity? Feel perfectly free to use this as an advertising opportunity.

 

[WCSGarland]

Are you looking for stand-alone stories, or series?

 

[StillStunned]

If you want to ease into Erotic Horror, The Countesses of Tannensdal (19.2k words, rated 4.8) is my attempt at recreating 19th century Gothic.

 

[Belegon]

Are you looking for stand-alone stories, or series?

probably start with stand alone. I'll be more ready for a series once I latch onto an author I like. Stillstunned, I'll be more than happy to give The Countess some of my limited attention.

 

[WCSGarland]

probably start with stand alone. I'll be more ready for a series once I latch onto an author I like. Stillstunned, I'll be more than happy to give The Countess some of my limited attention.

Okay, all I've done in LW so far is a series.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think the best way to answer this kind of question is to do some research rather than rely on the advice of others. You can use the search tool, or look at the score toplists or favorites toplists for every category. You will be in a much better position to know whether a story looks appealing to you than anyone else will.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

None of those are my natural home - but I have produced one story in each of those categories, the LW one being short and fun, I/T being quite realistic and sweet, and the EH one being again quite short, from the perspective of an immortal hellbeing.

EH is the only one I'm at all likely to do again. I rather liked the protagonist.

So, assuming the usual tropes of the genres don't do it for you or you'd have dived in already, you might enjoy those sort of sideways looks on the categories.

 

[StillStunned]

You might also want to check out this Vampire Chain Story. It's in Chain stories, but it's actually Erotic Horror.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I would recommend that you check out You Can Go Home Again by blackrandl1958. It is one of the best stories in the LW category, for a reason.

 

[Belegon]

You might also want to check out this Vampire Chain Story. It's in Chain stories, but it's actually Erotic Horror.

Might avoid that just to avoid contaminating my thought process. Once I get my "Sch-wingg" and my mojo back, a sequel to Real Vampires Don't Surf is probably the next direction I should go... and the vampire urban fantasy genre is so crowded I don't want to be influenced by other contemporary writers.

 

[NotWise]

For EH you could read Oscar's Place. Yeah, yeah. It's my story, but I don't read in EH so it's the only one I can recommend. I'm told it should really be in Non-Human. It's a ghost story, and the ghosts (especially Trixie) aren't very scary.

 

[yowser]

My latest LW is short, almost sweet, off-beat and only lightly trashed.

Too Good to be True

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I've been a registered member here since 2003, so 22 years of opportunity. Despite that, I have one big hole in my resume and a couple of similarly shaped but smaller ones.

In 22 years {granted, I took a very long leave of absence in the center of that time} I don't believe I have ever read a single story in the Loving Wives category. There are a couple other categories I'm not sure if I've entirely skipped, either because I had a friend write one story in them or something of that nature, but I am sure I've never ventured into the fabled den of evil known as Loving Wives. Erotic Horror is not necessarily of great appeal to me, so I know that I have limited experience there, perhaps none... and incest is not appealing to me but I know I have read a few out of there for friends.

So....

Given that knowledge and the little you may have discovered about me in the limited time since my return, does anyone have any recommendations for me to end my LW virginity? Feel perfectly free to use this as an advertising opportunity.

Erotic Horror can technically be anything, that's not really horror. I've done three, and they aren't Hellraiser horrible, or Grindhouse gorey, and more like that sex scene with Chucky and Tiffany.

One of my Amorous Goods submissions has the only male employer sexually assaulted by a manequin.

And I have one where two people explore a haunted mansion, and find out one of them is the decendant to the ghost boyfriend, who died before they could be together. He sends her off this mortal realm with sex.

 

[Belegon]

And I have one where two people explore a haunted mansion, and find out one of them is the decendant to the ghost boyfriend, who died before they could be together. He sends her off this mortal realm with sex.

There are some parallels there to an unfinished novel of mine. I have a Work In Process that involves a descendant of Wyatt Earp and a ghost that gets involved with the descendant and his wife. The ghost knew the original Wyatt and that connection is a very important part of the story.

 

[NoTalentHack]

First, to pimp my own work: 3BR, 2BA, 1 Story - a divorced couple take a final walk through their old house before selling.

In terms of Loving Wives, I'm most knowledgeable about the "marital drama" sub-genre, which is more about personal conflict than smut. In my essay on the category, I included 25+ recommendations (mostly at the end) for stories in that mold, with heat levels from "maybe a couple of paragraphs of not particularly descriptive sex" (Scenes From a Marriage) to "every chapter has a lot of sex" (Poly at the Poly, technically a Group Sex story, but a LW one at heart).

If you're looking something that's less about conflict and more about heat, vhskitten's An Evening at Crystal Lake is fun, while DonSilver does some of the best NTR (sleazy guy slowly worms his way between husband and wife) stuff on the site. For a more "pure" cuckolding story, A Cuckold Made is a solid choice, as it comes off as less abusive than a lot of the others of its kind.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I second Simon's advice. It's unrealistic to expect that your taste will align with what other people like. Not to mention that most people will simply pitch their own stories to you, which you can see for yourself in this thread already. I would advise a search by tags that interest you. In the search process, you can select only the categories you want to explore.

 

[Belegon]

I'm fine with people pitching their stories to me. As an old AH scion, I'm probably biased, but I find that stories written by AH'ers tend to be better crafted than stuff I just find randomly. I will occassionqaly just "cruise" for a title that sounds interesting or maybe story tags, but the number one way I find something to read on the site is through forum posts, whether it be things people have in their sig line or something they've actively talked bout in a post.