This week is a lovely chapter filled with positive things for Lily including increasing the services she can to offer, kissing Mindil, and learning more about herself. At the same time, we find out Mindil has to go away for a few days to retrieve her children; this triggered a brief conversation about children in polygamous relationships.

Hair Color

You can see the beginning of how I'm integrating the anime-style hair colors into the chapter, in specific for those entering High Society from the lower classes where hair color isn't as important for appearance.

Selling

While the Tarsan society highly discourages women from working (investments are okay), that doesn't mean they don't know how to sell things. Mindil's selling in this chapter seemed like a logical progression of her own forward personality. She knows what she wants (to take care of Lily) and how to get it.

She also has a better business sense than Lily. I feel that much of this comes from her innate ability to include and exclude people from conversations. With that control, she has learned what works and doesn't work at a far earlier age than most.

Children with Parents in Polygamous Relationships

As I've mention before, Mindil and Hasan are both part of Lily's “happy every after” ending. For me, this means a stable and loving relationship but not necessarily marriage. As part of that, it was important that the couple have children because I feel that many poly relationships in book happen before children are involved, not after.

This is important to me because a lot of poly relationships I know do have children involved. The children are aware that their parents are involved with someone (maybe not details but they know when “mommy has a date”) and it doesn't cause conflict. Being part of a stable triad or quad doesn't mean the children are ignored or abused, it is just one aspect of a more complicated relationship.

Likewise, I like people who are mature and confident in their relationships, that is the point they may be comfortable integrating a third or fourth into their romantic life. I didn't want everyone in the novel to be beautiful, twenty-somethings looking for a hot fuck and a bit of drama. The story means more to me when there are ones who have had time to work out the kinks (Mindil, Hasan) verses ones who are just learning who they are (Lily) or struggling with inner demons (Kendrick).

I know Mindil is younger than Lily, but she's had eight years of marriage under her dress whereas Lily is working on two months of living alone. The maturity and independence is simply different despite the age. Mindil is also lucky because her husband, though a complete ass about certain things, is also open to understanding and is rather compassionate in his own right.

NaNoGenMo

News on the prepation for NaNoGenMo hasn't changed much. I posted quite a few chapters for my patrons which will ensure I'll have a steady stream of chapters to get me through November. It also moves contains a few naughty scenes if you want a preview. Opinions and feedback is always appreciated.

I have a minimum of 20k words that need to be written to handle my obligations. Ideally 30k to handle another one, but I still have a chance of getting everything ready in time.

Second-Hand Dresses 20: Cross Sell

Hours later, Lily is fitting a dress for a young lady when Mindil interrupts to offer services Lily had never considered before. What started as a simple comment quickly turns into an entire menu of options for Lily's customers.

(This chapter has some light petting, so I'm not adding the NSFW tag.)

Read the chapter at https://fedran.com/second-hand-dresses/chapter-20/.

Patrons

My completed works and various works-in-progress are available for free on my fantasy website. If you like what you've read and want to see more, consider becoming a patron.