Like Strawberries in December Answers

Answers to October 17's puzzle below.

Like Strawberries in December

My very first variety cryptic. Variety cryptics are cryptic crosswords with a twist unique to each puzzle. Instructions for this particular grid follow.

This was supposed to be done in time for Monday's update, but I completely underestimated how much more difficult these were to make than normal cryptic crosswords. Took me easily twice as long to build, and I even copped out a little; it's not my most elegant grid by any means, with a few entries with two unchecked squares in a row, though all words have at least half their letters checked as per cryptic guidelines. Also it's typical for varieties similar to this one to have eight "special" entries, but this puzzle has only six. Anyone who has successful built a variety with eight is free to mock me.

P.S.: I had a wonderful clue that I had to scrap just because it may have been mildly pornographic. Pornogrammic? Anyway, I'm posting it here for posterity, because the surface sense just worked so well. 

ALTERNATIVE CLUE FOR 53-ACROSS

Nonchalantly covered hard-on with necktie's corners, seized firmly

Like Strawberries in December

Six answers in this variety cryptic need to be altered before they'll fit into the grid. The unclued entry at 33 across describes what's wrong with the six modified answers. All other answers are entered normally.

Tautology Excerpt

This is an excerpt from a finished story I wrote about relatively normal stupid highschoolish tragic romance things. If nothing else, it's at least far more accessible than a lot of what I write. It is presently half in a very embarrassing form, but eventually it should be polished enough to do something with. This bit is actually around the 2/3rds mark of the story, but I don't think it needs too much of an introduction; most things can be intuited. I'll say that Lauren is Matt's girlfriend, Carl has a boyfriend away on a long trip, and Matt's family is going through difficult times financially.

I wrote this whole thing during a John Updike phase, and as a result one thing I've had to do is pull out some unnecessary metaphors. Bits of the story are still drowning in them, sometimes in a good way, but I think this section is mostly under control.

Oz Bedroom (Answer)

Have been away in the internetless depths of upstate New York this past week, so posting has not happened, as you may or may not have noticed. Answers to the puzzle posted 9/24/12 below. Here's a hint for those who don't want the answer yet: At one point I'd considered naming this puzzle "Against All Odds."