Q: I’d love to have a printed copy of Summer Camp. Can I buy one? Have you ever thought about publishing it?
A: No and yes, in that order. Sorry, you can’t buy a printed copy of Summer Camp. I’ve thought about publishing it, but I probably never will. Why not? For a variety of reasons, but two of them are “deal breakers.” Because of the political climate in the U.S. (where I live), no publisher will go near underage written erotica. It’s legal to write it, but they still won’t publish it. That’s just a fact of life. I don’t like it any more than you do, but we’ve got to deal with it. Write your Congress-critter. But why not self-publish it, with a vanity publisher? I could, but then I couldn’t sell it. Underage written erotica is legal in the U.S., but what about other countries? For instance, it’s not legal in Canada. I’m no lawyer, nor do I want to become one. So I could only sell the book in the U.S., where I know it’s legal. Even then, I don’t want some self-righteous podunk district attorney deciding to prosecute me on child pornography charges in Nowhereville, just to get his name in the paper and to “prove” that he’s a God-fearing Christian. That bugs me too, but once again, it’s just a fact of life. And I’m no Lenny Bruce. Sorry.

Q: I sent you e-mail/feedback, but you didn’t respond. Did you get it?
A: Yes. I read all the e-mail and feedback I receive. However, the volume is often overwhelming. An average day is 60+ messages, including Forum posts. But when I’m posting new Summer Camp chapters, I sometimes get 120+ messages a day. I have a limited number of hours devoted to writing, and I can either respond to e-mail or write the stories themselves. I truly regret that I can’t respond to e-mail as often as I want to, but there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. So if you sent me e-mail, rest assured that I read it, and I definitely appreciated it. If you have questions about the stories, plots, characters, or anything else, you’ll probably find the answers here in my FAQ, or on my Forum. The members of the Forum are very friendly, incredibly helpful, and an all-around great group of people. Additionally, I respond to questions on the Forum more often than in e-mail, simply because the answers reach so many more people. So be sure to check out the Forum. (Is that enough links to the Forum? ;-)

Q: Can you post chapters more often? Can you post more than one at a time?
A: No. Sorry. Writing is an asymmetrical process: what takes you an hour to read took more than 30 hours to create. Don’t believe me? Let me take you inside the process… I can write about 1,000 words an hour. But that’s usually not possible, since I rarely get large blocks of uninterrupted time to write. So an average chapter of Summer Camp is about 16 hours of writing, spread out over days or even weeks. Once I have a chapter more or less complete, I spend about 6 hours doing revisions, rewriting, and editing. Next, I send the chapter off to my reality checkers (a group of people whose opinions I trust). We discuss the chapter and then I make any revisions: add 2-4 hours. After that, I send the chapter off to my editor, MizPattay. When I receive the edited chapter from her, I take about an hour to make all the changes. Then I send the chapter to my proofreaders. After they e-mail me a list of corrections, I do another editing and proofreading pass, which takes an hour. Finally, I take an hour to convert to HTML and text, and post to all the usual locations. By the time you read each chapter, I’ve spent more than 24 hours creating it, and the team—six people, not including me—has spent 10-12 hours polishing it. That’s a lot of our spare time. Writing is fun, but it’s also work. We do this work for free, for your enjoyment as well as our own. It’s very flattering that you want more—faster and sooner—but I have a life and so do my team members. Summer Camp is supposed to be fun; it’s not a second job.

Q: If you’re working on Chapter Y, but you just posted Chapter T, why don’t you post Chapters U, V, W, and X?
A: I like to have several chapters waiting for publication. First, it makes my life easier, since I’m not rushing to stay one step ahead of my posting schedule (I’ve done that before, and it’s not worth it). Second, a multiple-chapter buffer allows me to go back and revise/add things in unpublished chapters if I need to. I understand that you’d like to read everything you can, as soon as you can (and it’s flattering), but the buffer is for my own sanity. I’m sure you’ll survive until I release the next chapter. I do appreciate your enthusiasm, though.

Q: When do you post your stories?
A: I post whenever I feel like it. I used to post on a regular schedule, but that led to two problems: 1) I got burned out, and 2) a minority of readers developed a vocal sense of entitlement. I don’t need the stress (this is supposed to be fun, right?) and I don’t need fuckwits sending me e-mail when their free erotica isn’t available the instant they want it. So these days, I post on an irregular schedule. I usually post a new chapter about every three weeks. But that’s not guaranteed. So please don’t ask me when I’m going to post the next chapter. I won’t tell you, and it just adds to my stress. If you’d like to receive e-mail when I post a new chapter, sign up for my mailing list.

Q: Will you e-mail me pre-release chapters?
A: No. I take a lot of care and attention when I edit and proofread my stories. I hope it shows. You wouldn’t want to see your favorite TV show before it had been edited and polished, would you? (Even if your answer is yes, my answer is still no. Sorry.)

Q: When will Book 4 come out?
A: Probably mid-2005. But please don’t ask. When I know what the release date is going to be, I’ll post an announcement.

Q: Summer Camp - Book 4? Does this mean even more Summer Camp?
A: Yes and no. For reasons of titling, pacing, and flow, I decided to split what used to be Book 3 into two parts. I was in a minor quandary about when to reveal the title of pre-split-B3, mostly because of story flow reasons. So I talked it over with my editor and a few close online friends. After several rounds of discussion, I made the decision to split the book into two smaller books, neatly eliminating most of the “problems.” The new SC-B3 should be 20-22 chapters long, while SC-B4 should be about the same length. Don’t worry, the story hasn’t changed. This does mean that you’ll get to read an additional prologue (for SC-B4) and an additional afterword (for SC-B3). So you’ve got that going for you. ;-)

Q: How many Summer Camp books are you going to write?
A: I have four books planned. I’ll probably write some Summer Camp short stories as well, though. We’ll see how much energy I have when I’m done with the four main books.

Q: How many chapters of Summer Camp are you going to write?
A: Book 1 is 26 chapters. Book 2 is 38 chapters. Books 3 & 4 should be 20-22 chapters each.

Q: In Summer Camp, who died? Who is Paul’s wife?
A: With each Book, you get a little more of the puzzle, another clue to the answers to those two questions. By the end of Book 4, you will know who Paul’s wife is going to be. And the Epilogue for the entire story (which I’ll publish after Book 4) will let you know who died. It’s coming folks. Trust me. After all, if I told you everything at once, would you still have as much fun actually reading the story? (Even if your answer is yes, I’m still not gonna tell you. Sorry.)

Q: In Summer Camp, we never found out when Gina really lost her virginity. So, what’s the story?
A: I get asked this question a lot. In Chapter 17 of SC-B2, when Paul and Gina first have sex, he doesn’t encounter any resistance when he enters her. Many readers think this means Gina wasn’t a virgin. Women’s bodies are all different, and people have a lot of colloquial notions about virginity. So I’ve excerpted an article from The-Clitoris.com that will hopefully clear things up:

… many girls and teens tear or otherwise dilate their hymen while engaging in physical activities such as sports, horseback riding, inserting and removing tampons, and while masturbating. A girl may not know this has occurred, since there may be little or no blood loss or pain experienced during this event. It may also occur when she is too young to remember or understand what has occurred.

The presence or absence of a hymen in no way indicates a girl’s virginal state. No one can determine by physical examination alone whether a woman or teen has engaged in vaginal intercourse. Only about 50% of teens and women experience bleeding the first time they have intercourse, so blood stained bed sheets are not a reliable indicator of prior virginity. The hymen of some women tear on more than one occasion. There are even hymen that are elastic enough to permit a penis to enter without tearing, or tear only partially. This is usually true only if the dilation first occurs very gradually with fingers or other objects over an extended period of time. Virginity is a spiritual attribute, not a physical one.

(Read the entire article.)

Add that to the fact that Gina had been playing with a vibrator for several months, and you’ve got a recipe for no resistance when she and Paul first had sex. Trust me, folks, I do a lot of research before I write this stuff. I may not always be correct, but it’s not for lack of trying.

Q: Why don’t you have pictures of the mature women?
A: I’d love to post some, but I haven’t found any good ones yet. There are thousands of sites with pictures of nubile, nude, twenty-something girls, but there aren’t many good sites with pictures of mature women. The source for my pictures, DOMAI, meets several important criteria: they grant me permission to display the pictures, they have a wide variety of models to choose from, and there are at least twenty pictures of each model. I haven’t found a similar site for attractive, nude, mature women. Trust me, I’ve looked. So if you find a site that meets the following criteria, please contact me.

A legitimate site/photographer. (Not an amateur post-your-own-picture site.)
A variety of attractive women. (No beach-ball-sized silicon breasts, no obnoxious tattoos, no leathery skin, etc.)
A selection of pictures for each woman. (More than ten apiece—sites with one or two pictures of each women do me no good.)
Classy pictures. (I’m not looking for brassy-haired skanks doing the “two-finger spread” with a slack-jawed expression of pseudo-lust.)
In short, a site like DOMAI for thirty- and forty-something women.

Q: May I write a story set in the Summer Camp universe?
A: Yes, of course, with some minor restrictions. Paul, Susan, Gina, and Kendall are “off limits” as main (POV) characters. You can write them as supporting characters, however. Also, I retain copyright on the Summer Camp universe and the characters within it. If you write a fan fiction story, you must include my one-line copyright notice within your story (contact me for details). If you’re interested in writing fan fiction, contact me and I’ll gladly help you with character background and plot details. If you’d like me to post your story on my site, or post a link to it, I’ll be more than happy to do so.

Q: I’m also a nudist/naturist, and Susan wouldn’t have to worry about hiding her shaved pubic area. You see that all the time these days.
A: If you’re a nudist, you know I know what I’m talking about; my descriptions of the camp and camp life are realistic. From my personal, real-world experience, shaved pubic hair was very uncommon in 1978-79. My mother and one of her close friends were both shaved, and they both wore bikini bottoms while at camp. That wouldn’t be the case in a modern camp, but it certainly was the case in the mid- to late-’70s. Trust me, I was there.

Q: I spotted a problem. Would you like me to e-mail it to you?
A: Yes. Thank you very much. I work very hard to find and eliminate problems in my writing. I am, however, only human. I would very much appreciate a little friendly error-spotting.

Q: Would you like to hear any constructive criticism or ideas I have?
A: Certainly. Much of the Summer Camp story is already outlined, but I’m always willing to listen to a creative idea. I’ll even try to respond, time allowing.

Q: How do you pronounce your last name?
A: I’m a history nut, and I use the Classical Latin pronunciation. So it’s “skippy-o.”

Q: Wasn’t Scipio some Roman guy?
A: Scipio Africanus Major was the Roman general who defeated Hannibal (yeah, the guy who took the elephants over the Alps), ending the Second Punic War, c.202 BC.