Leslie Lofton

PART III A year or so earlier Lights switched off around Associate Counsel Josh Carter, He heard the air conditioner switch off, a harbinger that its overnight cycle would soon take effect. He knew the early June heat of El Paso would soon start soaking into the office, but he still had one task that demanded his personal attention. It lay in the two folders before him on the desk and kept him glued to his seat while the office emptied around him. In a few months, Stetson Logisti

About the Western and Atlantic Railroad, speaking of The General (note the W&ARR on the locomotive's tender): A defining feature of the middle latitudes of North American, dominated by the USA is the massive, nearly flat Mississippi River valley, whose navigable waterways penetrate deep into the country's interior. It's a perfect situation for the bulk transportation of raw materials, with which the USA is loaded. However, all those rivers go drain into the ocean in only one place: New Orleans. Another defining feature is the Appalachian mountain range, which separates the colonial ports on the Atlantic from the Mississippi valley. Masses of capital were expended trying to get canals and later railroads through the rugged folds to take shipping away from New Orleans and enrich the eastern states. The state of New York just happens to have natural passes that connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. Projects like the Erie Canal were the first successful passages, fueling New York City's modern commercial dominance. The state of Georgia took up the challenge of connecting its ports -- Macon, Savannah, and Augusta -- to the Tennessee River at Chattanooga, once they got the Creek and Cherokee evicted and shipped off to Oklahoma. The state chose a site by the upper Chattahoochee River to connect up all the railroads before routing them north through the mountains on the Western and Atlantic Railroad. The site was called "Terminus", then to emphasize the cross-continental nature of the new city, it was renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, later shortened to Atlanta. (If you read "Gone with the Wind" you knew this already) It's still a massive transportation hub, and the biggest city in the southeast USA.

This gif is from the movie "The General", starring Buster Keaton, a silent comedy loosely based on the Andrews Raid of 1862. US military spies hijacked a northbound locomotive -- The General -- in Big Shanty (present-day Kennesaw) Georgia, and drove it toward Chattanooga, destroying tracks and telegraph lines along the way, while Confederate troops gave chase on foot and aboard other locomotives. Watch the movie.

In case anyone's interested, coyote brown is the color for uniform accessories (belts, boots, undershirts) that by 2016 had won out in the interservice game of uniform one-upmanship that dominated my US military career (2000-2020). There might have been a couple of wars going on, too, but I mainly remember having to continually change out uniforms, as if we were on Star Trek.

"All My Dreams Pass Before My Eyes" follows the lives of a wide-ranging ensemble of characters. Each person is spaghettified through a wormhole of sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, ranging from the relatably accessible to the extravagantly bizarre. The settings are vivid and so incredibly hyperlocal that I shudder to think how much of it is based on the author's personal experience. The "action" sequences are lucidly depicted. It's always helpful to know who's going where and how many knuckles are involved; if you appreciate that kind clarity, you will not be disappointed. Such a diverse array of "-ities", "-ations", and "-isms" are depicted that you may find yourself intrigued by something you hadn't suspected would pique your freak or sync with your kink. While a few characters do make it from one end of the ride to the other in basically one piece, the majority of them enter the stream obliquely and are flung off tangentially. For me, this was a disappointing aspect of the story. There were several points at which a few interesting characters and plot threads seemed poised to combine and make some narrative leap, only to be smashed apart, the leads swept away to another boudoir, sex island, or harem, and the supporting cast scattered. What is undeniable is that @JLynch has an enviable and indefatigable talent for descriptive writing, and I look forward to seeing what further delights will come from that pen!

Quoting from Tom Lehrer's song "Smut", which is about 60s era obscenity laws Who needs a hobby like tennis or philately? / I've got a hobby: re-reading 'Lady Chatterley'

Etymology: the words phantom and monster, i.e. visions of horror, are derived from words phanein in Greek and monstrare in Latin, both verbs that mean to see or to show. If you're Catholic, you may remember that the gold and glass case for ceremonially displaying the communion wafer is called a monstrance, from the same root. When I first learned about monstrances as a teenager, the priest who was teaching us picked it up and marched around roaring like a monster to engrain the word in our heads

I had heretofore only known the word effluvium to mean a foul liquid discharge, but there it is right in the Webster's Eleventh, definition one: invisible emanation, especially a foul exhalation or smell. I'll switch to effluent, since that definitely implies liquid.

“Sorry, what?” Ashlee started at the abrupt, inscrutable declaration, and peered at Felicity through a sudden sandy gust. She stood stiff and tall like piling in the shore, eyes set beyond the horizon. Feet planted lest she topple over with a step, she twisted to the other Davises. Yaidali was fifty yards away already, dodging waves as she washed off the shells she was collecting. Marisol was clearly annoyed, suffering her husband’s demands out of marital obligation, if just barely. At her

Mmmmm. Finest kind

I came expecting a verb.

Update 24 March 2024 Since I've got all the main characters on an Atlantic beach, I am considering just having an asteroid smash into the ocean in front of them like at the end of Deep Impact. That should also take care of the characters still in Washington. I have loved all the feedback on what has been a rolling first draft since chapter 6. You all have forced me to write the characters deeper than their original design specifications, and my team of tiny literary engineers are scampering about the base of the superstructure attempting to avert an implosion of the matrix. For this to reach its full potential I may have to get all the characters to evacuate the story and put them up in hotels while I demolish it and rebuild. Thanks to all the internet people out there for: a) reading this thing in the first place; and b) playing Simon Cowell to all the Paula Abduls who'd looked at it before. I am going to be a much stronger writer thanks to you. I am going to go ahead and close out the main plot of part two in the next chapter, which I should get to around Easter. I'll probably do something about the sub-plot as well. It might be a bit long. Part three (the conclusion) exists only in rudimentary form, and a lot of it is irrelevant after what these girls have been through. Maybe I'll just pull an Arthur C. Clarke: "Due to scientific advances, the sequels will be inconsistent with previous books. Deal with it."

This "Robert" idea has been floating around since the story's first version. When working on the current revision, I was asked to emphasize that transgender people are not generally dissociative or delusional, and that Felicity is displaying an individual defense mechanism that has been addressed by professionals. She's already been told to knock it off once by therapists, and Dad tried to handle it on his own. Why's Robert back this time? I really wish I had explored this more in earlier chapters. It would have opened a whole new set of motivations and flaws for Felicity; I feel like God is telling me, "Go build for yourself an arc." Get it? Aw, never mind. I need to find a buyer if I rewrite this thing again. Did you ever try eating peanuts whole? It doesn't taste that bad. My dad used to do it. Before he dies I need to find out if he did it for shock value or because he liked it.

The previous summer “Ugh!” This interjection was cast, sotto voce, at the two men ambling hand-in-hand down Assateague Beach. Their unsteady gait in the dry brown sand, a mere six feet distant from Ashlee Vance and her mother, Cathy, had precipitated a clumsy stumble. The men had taken advantage of the resulting stoppage to exchange a kiss before resuming their journey. “They should at least try to keep it private,” grumbled Cathy. “You never used to have to look at that kind of

Four years earlier Whack, whack, whack! Whack-whack! “It’s open, Sarah!” Ashlee looked up from her laptop long enough to see a figure bedecked in pink plaid pajamas moping into her apartment at Jefferson Lofts, blond curls bouncing grumpily with each stomp. A limp brown paper bag hung from Sarah’s right hand. Refocusing on her Political Theory essay, Ashlee heard her few dishes rattle in the cupboard as Sarah clomped into the kitchenette, followed by the crumple of kraft paper and

Binged Letterkenny and Shoresy in Hulu. They played this whenever they drove over the border from Ontario into Quebec. Now I've listened to all her music three times

Well, I'll tell you what. Harper came in as the fetishist's dream. There are entire websites devoted to big girl stuff, with some of the girls being upwards of 100 feet tall, but we don't need to go into that right here. So great, someone's about to get dominated and slapped around, and we're off to the races. However, now that we are being exposed more to Harper's adult thoughts, and her jealousy of Bell is surpassing "boilerplate" sibling rivalry, I hope that she will be the first to emerge from the dissipated orgiastic soup of her circle. I want this new chick to help her escape so they can run off and go in together on a riding stable in Wyoming. I expect, however, that she will come face to face with a few more genitals before that happens. Doubles-entendres absolutely intended.

D'accord. Good inner monologue.

"Dirk was apparently some kind of minor celebrity at this party." I should say so! How did you get all those people to appear It must have cost a fortune! Can you get me Sarah Jessica Parker's number (although I'd only use her to get to Kim Catrall) Concur with @drsawzall Very Gatsby.

"fa-a-bulous!" I kept going back and trying to imagine how this is pronounced. Reading one chapter at a time, I suspect there is more here than meets the eye, to coin a phrase. Then again, there may not be. Reading on.

Another Army saying? The acronym BOHICA "Bend over. Here it comes again!"

Jeff inspired her not to kiss and tell. That's something, at least.

You know, I was thinking about you when I was putting the pieces together for this edition: "What can I do to make CIncyKris like her, while keeping her in character?" In the next chapter, maybe I'll have her found an orphanage. Yeah, I'm sorry it was 60% Sarah, I promise more A+F in the next one. Should be two chapters to go in this part.

Suggestive photos of rockets: this is my favorite example from the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Army veterans will be familiar with the concept of the Big Green Dick: sooner or later, everyone gets fucked. So majestic, though.

12 years earlier “Don’t touch me, bitch!” Sarah Dawes gave chase, deaf to the screams and cheers of twenty-six bloodthirsty eighth graders. Andre Barks skidded while cornering the back row of desks, granting Sarah the needed edge. She horse-collared Andre just before he reached the door, toppling him forward. Sarah fell atop him, straddling the boy, and hammered his shoulder blades. One, two, then three licks thudded home. The fourth grazed his spine as Mr. Sperry, the math teacher, ha