Elliott, you've clearly read the first book, too. I haven't, and may be asking some questions later in Pam doesn't make it after all. I think Safe Word stands up on it's own quite well, but I'm a bit hazy on some concepts that were probably explained in Carrie's Story. less

I enjoyed both books thoroughly and wrote Pam several years ago when she asked for readers opinions on the endings....Pam uses Carrie's sense of irony to help us understand just how much she really understands about herself and her emotions...a really great Shakesperian concept..and I'v thought a lot about all the lit discussions that she has on the train with her new found friend...if you are interested..one of the greatest scholars of early english lit, Ros Ballasters an Oxford professor when writing about the great early English novelists developed the concepts of didatic and amatory love..she points out that Bronte and other were perceptive enough to see the while great passion burned brightly it was not ultimately sustainable and that didactic love, where emotions are shared on multiple levels is a more long tern and sustainable human relationship...Jonatha n wanted to see "if they liked the same movies" but couldn't bring himself to the comittment...too bad for him....

...its the wonderful and clever way that Pam has Carrie tell us how "amature" is really her safe word...

I'd love another story too and I gave Pam some ideas...but we'll just have to wait for the muse to strike...thanks for organizing this forum less

For me it was the relationship parts. I'm not into pony play, or pet play, or switching, but when Molly writes it, it's really hot. And for me, it's just because I'm 100% drawn into the relationship dynamics.

I will go on and on about Jonathan all night I'm sure. I just fell hard for that man, and he was a mystery I wanted to understand. Not to post any spoilers, but I cried at the end of Safe Word, I was so disappointed. Well, the ending was bittersweet.

I literally begged Molly to write another one. I wanted to know where Jonathan ended up after Safe Word ends. less

Since we discussing a sequel, here's Molly's take on that. (Molly gave me all these quotes ahead of time, so I don;t have to do much at all.)


On Sequels and Series: When I finished Carrie's Story, I was sure it was a total fluke. I'll never write another one, I remember proclaiming. And then, quite suddenly, there was Safe Word, my favorite of all my novels, like a child you despair of conceiving and then miraculously find yourself pregnant with.

Sequels and series are, of course, almost obligatory in my other genre, romance fiction, though there, perversely, I've never been able to pull one off. But with Carrie it was easy. I'd gotten her into such a mess of trouble in the first book, I figured I needed to get her out again. And then I found myself genuinely curious about the other characters I'd dreamed up. Jonathan was pretty much a mystery man in Carrie's Story; in Safe Word it was great to hear him speak from the depths of his moody, control freak self. And of course there's Kate, the other, older, woman; I love that she wins out by being true to herself even if it means risking losing Jonathan. less

Lauren, those were my favorite moments too. I remember one particular passage...I think it might have been in Carrie's Story though. And Carrie talks about how she had to run off and hide in the WC and masturbate because she was getting so hot over the idea of Jonathan's capricious orders, and the way he just demanded what he wanted of her.

oohhhh that resonated with me. I understood it completely. less

I haven't read Safe Word yet. I have read Carrie's Story. It was interesting. I'm not 100% sure if I plan to read the sequel.

So I'm asking all of you who have read it...Is it worth continuing the story? Did you like it more, less, the same? How so? less

Definately read Safe Word....it gives you closure on the story and helps your accept Carrie and her world as perhaps a reality......the book is written to follow the days of Jonathan and Carrie in Avignon when they reunite after Greece but Pam skillfully uses this back and forth to keep the story moving and the contrasts between the time lines is very effective.... less

Pony play is pretty widespread--there are magazines about it, and ranches (or maybe they're just fixed up for the magazines.) There's at least one "paddock" in the Boston/Providence area, and they have a room at the annual Fetish Fair Fleamarket where experienced human ponies show their training and conformation, and the curious can take the reins or have someone harness and drive them as well. I don't know whether there are actual races anywhere--Molly, how much of that was your world-building? Some of the horses I've seen at the Fetish Fair get themselves up like circus horses, with plumed headdresses, etc., which looks like a lot of fun, but not especially submissive. less