Just a friendly reminder and also something that new comers to EA might not know:

The Story Archive is for stories that feature a castration theme ONLY. If no one is getting castrated/penectomized/nullod/GRS'd/somehow losing male genital function in the story, either willingly or not, then the story is not suitable for posting at EA and will be deleted from the 'tank'.

Multi-chapter stories that insinuate said events are fine, as long as part 1 mentions it, or ends with something along the lines of "I'm going to cut off your ... <insert male genitalia here>" It doesn't really HAVE to happen in the first chapter - as long as it's hinted at and then happens later on.

In short, the 'hero' of the story has to lose something somehow ... we dont' care HOW, just as long as he does.

Female genital mutilation, in the respect that it IS rare to read about is also on-topic, as the emotions and aspects (at least to the woman) of the removal of certain areas of the female genitalia ARE also acceptable.

You can feel free to write a 2MB story if you want to, as long as someone in it gets his/her/its genitals lopped off!

After all, it's not called the EUNUCH Archive for nothin'!

:tongueout

Although your reminder may not have been directed specifically at me, it gave me pause to think about the story I recently posted.

In the first chapter of "The Cousins", I failed to comply with your criteria. I originally planned on including a hint of future castration. However, as I wrote the story, I realized that it just didn't fit into chapter one. It was too early and the story needed the gradual build up.

Just for the record, the story is based upon my experiences in reality and is about 95% true. I plan on submitting chapter two within the next few days. At this point, I'm fairly certain that some reference to castration will be included in the second chapter.

I apologize for not making the appropriate reference in chapter one, but I think that most readers assume that John's castration is inevitable.

Darn! I just realized that I gave the ending away. I hope I didn't ruin it for anybody. Not that anybody is actually planning on reading it.

I guess there could be some readers who are hoping that John will escape with his testicles intact. Not likely!

For those who prefer to be surprised, I apologize and remind you that he could still escape. (I haven't finished it yet.)

For those who are hoping that John turns out to be a nipple or clitoris remover, sorry, not my cup of tea.

Don't miss the final chapter when John miraculously grows a second set of balls, only to have them squished by Martha's new boyfriend. Just kidding!

Don't worry, WR, it wasn't directed at you personally. Your story contained enough subtle hints. As far as giving away the plot, well, it's a safe bet that when there's a male as a main character in a story that gets released here, that we normally assume that his genitals are endangered. (When it's written well enough, that is.)

Actually, this post wasn't 'aimed' at any of the regular Authors, nor even any regular message board posters that I can think of.

Also keep in mind that I'm not nearly as eloquent as our Fearless Leader!

What I mean by 'written well enough' is also not an insult to anyone. You can tell, usually, when the big cut is coming! Also, by saying 'written well enough', I am talking about readability. I also don't mean to offend any EA Authors / Readers for whom English is not their first language. Bboy has built a nice story editor now that can (on first run submissions) go in and allow us to correct a typo or insert a word missed before it gets out of the tank.

But, (There's that 'but' again), every so often we run into a story in the tank that is beyond help. I look at it this way - I went to college to be a teacher. My study program was for 7th grade to Seniors, with a Middle School endorsement which took me down to 4th grade. If I can't read it and make heads nor tails of it, then I figure NO ONE can and into the trash it goes.

It also makes sense that, even though this is a site 'owned' and run by Americans, there may be (and are) Readers / Authors who are not American nor speak fluent English. There are stories in French and German posted to the board, and this is fine. When I drop a French paragraph into an online translation program and it comes back saying something like "Castration at the Eifel Tower," well, that's fine. It's a safe bet if you can't understand the title right off, that's it's probably a story in a language that is not your own! However, if you have the time and ambition, since the story IS on-topic and the Author must be a Reader here, then it's alright for them to post it. The same with the German stories. While my German is not that good* and is what we always called "book German," I can read those without too much trouble and they are welcome as well.

In the end, what I'm getting at is that I'm not bitching at anyone specifically! I just thought that given circumstances of late, that there might be some confused new-comers here that required an explanation!

*Bestimmt, kann unsere Antonia mich nachprüfen!