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At the rate they're going, this is going to end up in the nfic folder.
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Hee! Not likely. This is where I can tell you what DJ's request was. She wanted a Vegas wedding that doesn't get consummated but had lots of unresolved sexual tension.
Did anyone read
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt? It's about a poor Irish family where the children, all boys, get raised on a diet of tea and bread, bread and tea. And, occasionally and if they are lucky, they'll get some sugar with their tea.
There is a lot of hunger in Frank McCourt's book. The main character, the oldest son, gets so weakened by hunger that he comes down with some sort of dangerous sickness, and he has to go to hospital. In the hospital, the sick kids are going to get a special Christmas treat, some delicious Christmas food. When this poor boy gets his food, he is so thrilled by the sight of the heavenly dessert that he eats that first. A nurse finds out that the boy has eaten his dessert before he even touched the main course, and she is so scandalized that she takes the rest of the food away from the half-starving boy to punish him. You bet I groaned when I read it!
Angela's Ashes is a brilliantly written, hugely entertaining book. It is also a story of absolutely painful frustrations and deprivations. It is, to some extent, a book about food fantasies that never get, excuse me for using that word here, "consummated".
Anyone who wants to indulge in sinful food fantasies is strongly advised to remember that in Frank McCourt's book, the fantasies never get fulfilled. I quickly realized, when reading McCourt's book, that I must never let myself be carried away by my wish to see the poor boy get to indulge in a real pig-out, because it wasn't going to happen. I realized I had to look for other things in the book instead, such as enjoying the black humour of McCourt's writing and seeing the boy grow up in spite of horrible circumstances and learn to fend for himself and make a new start in life.
Similarly, Sue, when you tell me that this is a story deliberately written so that Lois and Clark will
not get to consummate their wedding, then I must read it as something else than a story that is going to be irresistibly sexy. After all, I know that the sex is going to remain as elusive for Lois and Clark as the delicious food did for the hungry boy in Angela's Ashes. Yes, of course your story is adorably sexy anyway, but I know there is an impenetrable glass barrier separating Lois and Clark in it. I'm going to have to look for other things than sexual fulfillment in your story, just like I had to look for other things than heavenly food orgies in Frank McCourt's book. Fortunately, you, like Frank McCourt, are a brilliant writer who know how to write extremely well-crafted, hugely entertaining stories for your readers.
Ann
