20th Anniversary of iomfats.org - 20 January 2017

We celebrate this milestone by drawing attention back to some old favourites, and also highlighting some specially written new material. The old favourites have been sourced, in part, from this forum thread. Not being entirely sure of the actual date, and the Site History being no huge help, we have settled on 20th January 1997 as the date of the site's first outing online, all those years ago on Geocities.

Old Favourites

The following tales have been selected and requested by our Forum readers. At first we thought of presenting them in ever changing random order, then we thought you might find that confusing. Then we remembered that links you are yet to visit are a different colour from links you have not yet visited. So the order will change randomly each time the page is refreshed.

Each tale opens in the same new tab or window, which will either make your life easier or confuse the bejasus out of you, probably in equal measure! These tales are just a sprinkle of what is here for you to read. Some are sexy as heck, others romantic and cute as a basket of kittens, one is a tough read, perhaps more than one.

Because new stories are devoured voraciously as soon as they come online the decision has been taken to highlight a few(!) tales from 2014 and beforehand. We are celebrating our back catalogue, and by no means all of it! There has been a conscious decision not to feature those tales from 2015 or 2016. We want you to see items selected by readers from our back catalogue.

There's a lot of reading in that list, and that's apart from the specially written new material. Bookmark this page and come back to it often! As you read and enjoy the tales compare them with tales of that era elsewhere. That's not entirely a fair comparison, because the selection criteria for being published here are tough to meet. Even so, the quality of authorship in even the oldest tale here is excellent.

The choice isn't just democratic. We haven't voted on it. It's not a beauty pageant, nor a popularity contest. There are tales that will be in your favourites list and the webmaster's favourites list that just are not here. And some of the tales listed will surprise you, in a 'why is this in the list?' way. The final choice does our best to 'represent' the site over the years. To those absent from the list it is not lack of merit. To those present, it is not that you have particular merit over the others. This is just a pride parade to represent the site. Thank you for being part of it.

New Material

We have two stories submitted specially for our 20th anniversary. Each is particularly appropriate. Geron Kees joined us in March 2016. He has penned a tale that he tells me embodies what he views as the spirit of the site. It is beguiling, and does. Rick Beck was the first internet author I ever wrote to and who replied to me, all those years ago. He has forgotten this, though remembers it when prodded, perhaps as a received memory. He has sent me a tale almost exactly 20 years old, gritty, and unvarnished, the start of a three book tale. We feature the first chapter on this page, and the tale continues through three books, all released as part of the 20th Anniversary Celebrations.

Both these new stories were posted on 20 January 2017, and each marks our 20th anniversary in a particular manner.