fmerommel Well, now that mask mandates are being lifted (which I personally think is Not Smart) and businesses are moving somewhat back to normal, I ran with this idea. Which means that when I finally publish the story it's going to be a year out of date.
The hook that caught me wasn't masks (though everyone sensibly wears masks or uses other precautions - you'll understand when I publish it), it's being forced into close proximity. It will be called Quarantine.
It is going to be the absolute slowest-burn story I've ever written, though, and some are pretty damn slow. That's deliberate, but I've a feeling that it will lose most readers in the first third. I keep trying to find ways to shorten the time, but I like each hot-but-not-yet segment, and they won't work if they're rushed. I've been running out of creative energy just keeping it going, which is why it's likely to be several weeks still before it sees the light of day.
I think I'm going to have to break it up, but that's hard. Usually there's a little erotic justification for each chapter. For instance, Bonds, which is mostly restrained for probably 3/4 of the story, at least has the little vibrator "mistake" in chapter 1. This one's going to be chapter 1-N - no sex, chapter N+1 explosion, there is no chapter N+2. I'm afraid even my regular readers will skip to chapter N+1.
(On a different topic, I also worked on two new chapters of Step Something, but I didn't like the way either was working, so I've abandoned them. It's possible I'll rethink that or rework them.)