I do not have a high opinion of web-based publishing sites. In my experience, most of the stories found on them are far below the quality of even the worst supermarket paperback you may pick up. I stumbled across a link a few days ago however which lead to two particular stories, Of Heroes and Villains and the sequel The Ties That Bind (both by the relatively new author Minikisa), which are fairly impressive.
I would say they are easily on par with your average paperback romance/paranormal romance novel and are indeed actually of a notably higher quality. I know, I know; low bar. Still, it’s something worth noting. Anyway you should judge for yourself. A few preliminary words of warning however:
The first of these stories is heavily focused on a Male-to-Female transgender, and so if you find that uncomfortable for whatever reason I do not think it would be a good idea to read it. While the setting and characters are very good, the gender identity conflict is rather central and so dislike of that aspect will probably result in dislike of the entire thing. The second story however just has some temporary body-swapping and so should be more or less fine for anyone. Oh, and yeah, there are a few sexual scenes scattered about (more in the first, though neither story makes them the focus).
Of Heroes And Villains
The Ties That Bind
Just now remembered that our city’s Department of Motor Vehicles has ‘a Male-to-Female transgender’ front desk employee who is over six feet tall, who looks pretty much like a long-haired man in a dress, and who rivals Christopher Walken in terms of being comfortable in her own skin.
They are arresting more for their level of self-acceptance than for any other characteristic.
I plan to read the first story at least, but have got to finish _The Right Stuff_ first.
Of Heroes And Villains is DAMN GOOD!!! So far, Jake’s batting 1000 with his recommendations. Reading this story is something I did *not* want to do, and would *never* have done without his having recommended it. There’s deep pain here, and real tension, although touched on so briefly as to feel almost like an afterthought. These aren’t cliche issues, and the story would have ‘tasted’ better had these darker flavors simmered longer, to balance the standard white sugar and flour. The comic book characters and supermarket paperback sex scenes are neither as funny nor as intriguing as I would have… Read more »