Dan's Party

Back in 2011, I wrote a trio of books (not a trilogy, exactly) around a fictitious olde worlde village in England called Maybourne. They were erotic romances, entitled A Close Match, Village Accounts and Kate's Return. I had an idea to write a longer string on stories in this series, but my Muse - bless her! - decided that I should produce other stuff.

I'd like to return to write more about the kinky goings-on in Maybourne one day soon; I wrote a couple of chapters for a fourth in the series, but it opened with a fight at Paula's wedding reception - and there were so many characters involved that I was worried that any reader who was new to the series would get hopelessly confused. Maybe I'll revisit the story and see if we can improve it.  Anyway, I decided instead to turn my attention to Dan's stag party (bachelor party in the U.S.).  I wrote a short story which was offered as a freebie... but it had a mixed reception, and I withdrew it after a few months. Here's why.

One major part of the plot involved an amateur stripper entertaining a bunch of young guys who were hopelessly drunk. I wasn't happy with my initial draft - for those of you who don't know, I've been on this planet quite a long time and seen a lot of things, but I'd never been in a roomful of men watching a stripper.  So I was out of my depth when describing everything and it all came out too "girlie". I asked a male friend (not a relation, I hasten to add!) to have a look at it and suggest some revisions. When it was finally published, some people reacted very positively to it and I had some good reviews.

But one influential reviewer, noted for her incisive perception, wrote something on the lines of "If I didn't know better, I'd say this was written by a guy, and not by Rachel Cray". I didn't want my readers to start thinking that I was routinely getting a ghost writer in to write all my work and then claim the credit entirely for myself, so I pulled it. As a result of this, I shall never ask anyone to rewrite my stuff for me. Certainly my editor can suggest changes to me, but I'll rewrite them all myself.

I'm offering this story - Dan's Party - to you on this site today. Here's the outline, short and simple : Tony is to be best man at Dan's wedding to Paula, and hires Samantha as a stripper at Dan's drinks party. There's a surprise waiting for Samantha....

And whilst I have your attention, I am just putting the finishing touches to my next story, A Face from the Past, which I hope to have published next week.

Thank you all for your continued support,
Best wishes,
Rachel