Jack's House

The final chapter of Dkellis’ “A Family Saga” has been posted, appropriately titled “The End.”

The first installment was posted on May 1, 2022. It went on hiatus in June 2024 but resumed in November 2025. Now it is complete, after 52 wonderful chapters.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough. A couple of weeks ago I spent two days reading the 49 chapters that had been published at that point. I quickly grew to love these characters (see below for the author’s own summary). I’m happy to say that Dkellis stuck the landing. Life will go on for these characters, but he tied up the major narrative strands beautifully and found a lovely if bittersweet note on which to end the series.

The following is from two of the chapters containing introductory material:

This is a particularly long series I began writing for a friend during the second wave of the pandemic. I’ve hemmed and hawed about posting it, but it is very much a spanking series so here goes. It started as a bit of a joke, but it’s not at all funny; more like how much angst you can fit in one story. I don’t think many of the chapters will stand alone, it just goes on and on and on, but for anyone who likes that sort of thing, here it is.

Characters:

The Allens
Uncle Ed 31
Harry 17
Gordy 15
Jim 13
Percy 10

The Butlers
Annie – their mum 30
Tom 14
Toby 11

In his reply, WD made the interesting point that the story is told from the boy’s perspective, who assumes his father is swinging as hard as possible, when it’s likely likely that dad held back a little. Still, not a fun experience, to be sure!

My feeling was that it was a pretty harsh start for the boy's first time, but now that you say that, I guess it seemed much harsher than it was BECAUSE it was his first time.

Adric,

The part about cultural norms and differences did not exist until beta reading and editing.  My editor strongly suggested that info be added.  I wasn't so sure and, originally, was going to ignore his suggestion.  I am glad now that it stayed in.

Thanks for the kind words.

Great story, very realistic and well-written!

Totally agree.  A bit harsher than I prefer, but realistic and very well written.