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Date Posted: 15:10:39 10/23/24 Wed
Author: Curious
Author Host/IP: 49.196.177.167
Subject: (SFFR) Written Of Smoke 1: Beginnings (Daniel Gary Leon) - A Review

Written Of Smoke 1: Beginnings (Daniel Gary Leon) - A Review

Warning: This Review Contains Spoilers

Part One: The Author

The author was active on Amazon between 2015 and 2018 and released four anthologies in the 'Written of Smoke' series during that time. Unlike Linzi Dixon or Kaitlyn Bringhurst no attempt was made to provide an author bio. The writing of the stories I've read is competent and stylistically they would have fitted in well with the kinds of authors who submitted to Loring while they were active.

Part Two: Written Of Smoke 1: Beginnings

The anthology under review is built around the broad theme of starting smoking, the first and second stories are both what might be termed 'classic' narratives as they involve girls in their early teens starting. The last story steps into less well travelled territory in that it's built around a mature woman starting smoking.

Part Three: Comments

As noted in the author bio, and also in the one written review apparently by the same Sharon Parsons(1) who commented on the 'Deanna Starts' series(2) the writer is competent and the plotting is good. But it's not perfect. The author also has a number of plot elements that recur though each of the three stories in the collection.

All three stories feature divorce situations, in the first two stories, these form part of the 'distant background'. In the third story, the divorce is the main driver behind the protagonists actions, and a second divorce is behind the arrival of another character into the story towards the end of it. This was a feature of 'Loring Era' author An3's fiction, all four of their stories used divorce situations in their backstory.(3)

The first two stories feature unplanned teenage pregnancies, in the first story what happens is purely a background element, in the second it forms a key plot element that sets up the finale.

What ultimately matters is that despite common plot elements, the three stories are different from each other, it's not like the situation with SStoryman's late fiction where things started to become predictable in regards what would appear in each story.

One other literary misstep occurs, both the first and third stories feature flashbacks that kill plot momentum, but all three stories feature strong scenes and the last story is an example of the kind of 'positive' story that SStoryman wrote early in their career.(4)

Recommended.

Part Four: Chapters/Episodes

1. Julie and Ruth: Sisters and Friends
2. Tara and Sally: Understanding
3. Olivia: Starting Late

Notes

1. Intriguingly they signed their comment 'Sharon Parsons/slimv'. The latter portion being the name of a smoking fetish author active in the late 1990s/early 2000s and heavily involved in the Dark Side Fetish community. On Amazon this reviewer seems to be covering smoking fetish and transgender fiction stories.
2. This four part, but clearly incomplete series is available on Amazon, a review can be found in the 27th volume of the Consolidated Smoking Fetish Fiction Review series.
3. This author was active between May and September of 1996. Their four stories were entitled 'Like Mother, Like Daughter', 'Lara', 'Lanie' & 'Dani', all of which can be found in the Noble Leaf Library. Reviews of three of the stories can be found in the 21st and 24th volumes of the Consolidated Smoking Fetish Fiction Review series. 'Lara' and 'Dani' are probably the best of them.
4. Specifically 'How Could She Say No?' and 'Converted', these stories can be found in the 1st volume of the SStoryman Anthology in the Noble Leaf Library. Reviews can be found in the 4th and 22nd volumes of the Consolidated Smoking Fetish Fiction Review series.

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