A new story of mine (one that was long enough to break into pieces and call a series) has just gone up, but I'm not plugging it so much as drawing attention to an older one. The new story is "Looping Across the County Line" and the older story is "Christmas Across the County Line".
Nope, it's not just a coincidence that they both end with "Across the County Line". Both are set in the same world. Explaining how that world came to be took up a huge amount of text is "Christmas Across the County Line" and I couldn't justify giving it all again. While there is some explanation in the second series the bulk of it was only given in the first story.
Which you might want to read before you read the new story.
The basics of the setting:
There's a worldwide collapse of governments and societies (the reasons are left vague). Decades later the US slowly pulls itself together, but rather than having a common set of laws various jurisdictions have different laws. The collapse and rebuilding all happened 70+ years ago, but the patchwork of laws and attitudes still remain. In some places you'll face life in prison for having half a joint in your pocket and in others you can walk into a store and legally buy heroin, cocaine, or any other drug you want. Some places banned tobacco, other encourage smoking. And so on.
More to the point, most areas have late 20th century views on spanking while some have different views. Wellington County has more or less normal views while neighbouring Hazard County has extreme views. Both stories are basically told from the point of view of college age girls from Wellington County who get to cross over the county line.
Wow - even writing the basics took a bit of text and I didn't mention the King or the dirigibles or the mix of advanced science with "we have to make things locally because fuel costs so much" mentally producing almost low tech stuff. Anyway, since most of "how the world works" is in the first story while the second story just covers the basics you might want to read the older story first.
Or not.
I tried to leave in enough "this is how the world works" in the second story so that newcomers wouldn't be lost. I like to think that it stands on its own, but if you want a better view of that world (and to read a nice Christmas story) then you might want to read to "Christmas Across the County Line" after you've read "Looping Across the County Line". While the same setting is used no characters carry over between those stories so it shouldn't matter which you read first.
Goodgulf | 
