Are dime-store novels really known for romantic perfection, by the way?

(helpless laughter)

Are dime-store novels really known for romantic perfection, by the way?

Compared to the fic writer under discussion? Yes.

Usually they do have The Perfect Sex. Because when you're in love, you always come together.

Dean Koontz wrote a book (I'm blanking on the title) about a town where people had been genetically altered by a Bill Gates type person. The altering made it so people didn't sleep, healed fast, and some devolved into animal type things and others evolved to interact with their computers in wrong wrong ways.

The devolving people ran around, had an orgy, and then melded together into a giant blob that tried to eat everything into the town by luring people to it (the blob) with some kind of mind rays.

Which, except for the town eating, sounds exactly like what the writer described. NikitaNMicheal...Blob o' Doom.

forevah!1!

Because when you're in love, you always come together.

Heh. One of the best NC-17 fics I ever read (from the Ranma 1/2 fandom, of all places) was about a first-time (for both partners) that was hella awkward, more than a little scary, and only marginally pleasant for the female half of the couple. Also, the couple in question wasn't entirely sold on the whole relationship, and having sex just complicated things all over the place. Even so, the tone of the story was light and left little doubt that there'd be some sort of happily-ever-after later on down the line.

Basically, I like the occasional fic where the writer acknowledges that sex isn't always great, and sometimes just barely qualifies as "good." When this happens in a fic that isn't an angst-fest, even better. Also, it sets things up for the really great, toe-curling, mind-blowing sex that happens later.

"...and the third time you do it, it's actually good, instead of just saying it is...how could it not be good, it's sex..." Detective Munch. (I have mentioned he got divorced a bunch of times, right?)

Good GOD -- there's RPS slash in the New Yorker:

[link]

July 21, 2004--I had to tell Laura. It was the right thing, the only decent thing, to do. I knew there'd be tears, and I knew she'd need Entenmann's. But I sat her down and I said, "Babe, we've had a good, long run. You made me quit boozing, you've watched me jog, you've shown me what books are for. But we can't live a lie-I love John Kerry." She took a deep, sharp breath. Could she ever forgive me? Could she make any sort of life for herself? "That bitch," she finally hissed. "I knew it. I knew he wanted you. I'm just a small-town Texas librarian; how am I supposed to compete with that?" She called out to the twins, "Jenna! Barbara! Get in here! Your dad's in love with Kerry!" "Duh,? said Barbara. "Double duh,? echoed Jenna. "Should we call him Uncle John, or just Other Dad?" "Everyone in this family is a drunken pig," Laura seethed, lunging for another box of Munchkins.

The funny thing about that is that as soon as I read the bit about him amending the Constitution so they could get married, I was all "oh my God! It's Stargate Jack/Daniel badfic!"