The Start of a Novel I Have Read That I Find Pretty Good - Except the Incest...

The Early Years

by Michael K. Smith

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[Note to the original posting in 1993:  I've posted seven more or less complete sections (seldom complete chapters) from this novel so far, under individual titles.  Some readers have gotten interested in the background of the main characters -- how they came to be who they are and so on -- and have asked enough questions to prompt me to post the following, which are key excerpts from the first five chapters.

There are no sex scenes as such, but you'll find plenty of romance, a dollop of amateur psychology, . . . and plenty of more subtle eroticism.  SIBLINGS is a full-dress novel and I've gone to some effort to make the people and the situations four-dimensional, to provide motivation and logical results, and to avoid 'deus ex machina' contrivances of the sort that are rife in many of the stories posted in a.s.s.  Comments, criticism, and discussion are welcome, . . . but PLEASE post them in a.s.s.D!

If you haven't read the previously posted sections, please be aware that the overriding theme throughout the novel is consensual sibling incest, about which my basic feelings should be obvious by now.  If the very idea turns your stomach, you're more bent than most of the readers hereabouts, and you should change the channel NOW. . . .]

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 [. . . from Chapter 1 . . .]

My sister, Alexandra, and I had (and have) an unusual relationship, and it was the direct result of birth order and our closeness in age.  At least, that's what I prefer to think -- that it was circumstances beyond our control.

I was born in Mendocino County, California, at 3:45 a.m. on January 6, 1955.  Alex was born at 3:52 a.m. on the same day in 1956.  One year and seven minutes difference.  We looked very much alike: dark auburn hair, gray-green eyes, lots of freckles, a certain sharp narrowness in the nose.  We were about the same size, too, especially as teenagers.

People frequently assumed we were twins, we were so...