h_k, I knew you would enjoy binging on Fyre’s Fight Journal.
For anyone new to fcf and not familiar with the Journal, it’s definitely worth a look. Don’t be put off by the five pages. Each chapter is unique, fairly short and involves a different opponent and setting.
In case you’re wondering, the Journal is about a “typical” Texas suburban couple with the focus on wife and soccer mom, Kelli, taking up catfighting as a hobby. The stories are very well written, imaginative, creative, and sexy. For me, the charm is the blend of fantasy with characters and everyday settings that seem so familiar to many of us. Check it out.
I used to skip stories written from the woman's point of view - partly because I could usually tell they were written by men who hadn't a clue what really goes on in women's heads, partly because the (female) narrator nearly always seemed to lose which was a) unrealistic (I've lost count of the number of times a woman - without my asking or even expressing any interest in the subject - has told me about a fight she's won; never about one she's lost. No one discusses their defeats) and b) a bit of a turn-off because it smacks of masochism (and if the loser's enjoying losing, it's not really a fight or even a competition, is it? It's as absurd as a game of soccer in which both teams are attacking the same goal).
I also used to skip fights with silly rules (time limits, 'pins only' etc.) but "If I should fall behind" cured me of that particular prejudice - specifically the paragraph that begins:
"Holly and Shaun had three prior couples matches...". The image of a woman defeating another only yards from the latter's husband wasn't new to me because I'd encountered it in a Spanish story by a male author, but the same image as painted by you was so much sexier - even though yours ended with a pin and his with a submission. (When I adapted the Spanish story for FCF, I spun the whole fight out to 15 times the original length to try to remedy the defect but I still find your 5 sentences far sexier than my 5 pages
).
But also very important to the story, because they prove incontrovertibly that Holly is a 'killer' - I mean someone who comes to fight and loves to win - yet, even though you show her us her defeat through her eyes, (you switch to the first person: "I can no longer see Shaun...") somehow you manage to make that sexy as well (what Kelly does with her foot
)
But you and Fyre seem to be the only ones who can do it. Fyre’s
Chapter 9: The Test at the Tower and your
The Better Woman are both written in the first person by the fighter who eventually loses and both really sexy. I can’t think of anyone else who’s pulled it off.
I do have to say though that my favourite fight so far is one of the ones she won (Chapter 7 - when she beats the big blonde bully on the cardboard mat in the basement and makes her submit) but I’m enjoying them all.
