What makes a novel "gay"?
A Rainbow binding? Tiny feather Boas? Magic twinkie dust? Leather on the HARD back?
What percent of gay sex, campyness, kitchy slang, innuendo or gossip does it take?
I have a strange idea that no novels are gay. They may have gay content, they may have sex, they may even have gay characters but the novel itself isn't gay.
It should stand alone on its own merits. Like a person, a novel should have its own character, integrity and ideals. It should define
New story for winter anthology.
Sneaky Peek:
___________
It’s funny how life can change in an instant. One event can change everything that follows.
That moment arrived for Randy Austin Taylor, affectionately known as “Rat” by his many friends at Denton Academy, on a sunny Tuesday afternoon during his fifth period Geometry class on May 16, 1978.
He was summoned to the office by one of the girls who worked there. His anxiety was heightened by the way she spoke quietly to his t
They do exist but almost everything you know about them is wrong.
Every myth has its beginning in some truth.
About 35,000 years ago and alien expedition was marooned here on earth. They were faced with an impossible dilemma: die out or mix with the locals.
They changed humanity and themselves. Neanderthals died out almost over night and modern man suddenly appeared. It was as if the Neanderthal had a complete upgrade that made them much more intelligent and with language skills.
Did I mention that I Hate the Dentist?
With all of the fear and loathing and the insane panic that small animals in critter carriers get when they smell that antiseptic smell of the veterinarians office.
I want to flee. Run away, very fast with heart racing, sweating, rapid breathing.
I'm not an easily frightened person. I just have a phobia of men with sharp objects poking around in my mouth.
The gas is fun but it is but a cruel, cruel lie. The gas makes you just a little high.
We are oft to blame in this,
'Tis too much proved -
that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.
-Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1
What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio, seen on every television... I want *everyone* to *remember*, why they *need* us!
-Chairman Sutler, V for Vendetta
Nuclear power is meaningless in a world where a virus can kill an entire
What's keeping me up till 3am?
I know too much.
I did a job back in the old days and I learned a lot more about biological warfare than any sane person wants to know.
Every serious biowarfare program in the world has looked at the viruses that cause hemorrhagic fevers. There are some very scary ones but Ebola is the one that has gotten the most press coverage and even exposure in popular culture.
Ebola starred in the big Dustin Hoffman thriller
OutBreak
and was
One of the enduring mysteries of evolution is how species make the change into a completely new creature.
Such a process is often called mutation or a change in the genetic characteristics of an organism which makes it essentially different from the base species.
Exactly how this works has long been a point of speculation and debate. One of my professors said, "there's a flash, some magic happens and you have the new improved trilobite". In matters scientific, we tend to frown on magical
Sometimes words are wasted when music is the correct language for a mood.
Sit back, turn it up and burn one if you feel like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi3OnJT4Qjw
Out on the road today, I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back"
I thought I knew what love was
What did I know?
Those days are gone forever
I should just let them go but-
I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You
One of our newer members was discussing coming out.
I put together a post that I think addresses the topic rationally and succinctly.
This is my response:
______________________________
Coming out is a very much an individual thing. It can be very tricky but it is something that you get to decide for yourself.
You owe it to YOURSELF to do it right.
You DO NOT owe it to the mythological "gay community" to come out at all costs and injure yourself and your future in the
We had a Let's Predict the Near Future thread. It was killed because unless your were joking, you couldn't help address political issues.
Politics comes from a Greek root word that means "of, for, or relating to citizens".
It's everywhere and it's difficult to have a substantial conversation without touching on it to some extent.
I find it very, very disquieting that politics has such a dirty, divisive word that we have to censor any tangential mention of it. That is something we nee
Are you tired of everybody's shit?
Can you just not be bothered with your friends infantile drama?
Are you sick of turning on the TV and seeing idiotic bickering politicians pandering to the worst sort of thugs and the country going up in flames?
Then you might be ready for Fuckitall!
Fuckitall is an industrial strength happy drug. Your life may suck but you won't care anymore. With Fuckitall your life will be strawberry fields forever... at least as long as you can afford the prescrip
Monday I go back to skool after all these years.
I got my computer science degree in 1986. There have been a few developments since then that I need to brush up on.
I'll be learning about the finer points of next generation fiber optics, ip/pbx systems and other new hardware.
I have plans and the certifications on the new gadgets will help.
Imagine that- an old geezer like me in school again.
I wonder if the freshmen are as dumb as they used to be...
See this little guy? He's a trilobite. His family of marine arthropods first appeared in the early Cambrian era (520 My). They formed the class Trilobita and flourished in all the worlds oceans. They flourished for millions and millions of years in all the worlds oceans. There were a dizzying variety of trilobites- numerous species and sub-species that adapted and specialized in their local environments.
Suddenly at the Permian extinctions, they were gone. One of the most successful marine a
As a geology geek, I've always wanted to see it.
There something really unique about the color blue of Crater Lake.
View from the South rim.
Phantom Ship Rock.
Waterfall fed by Crater Lake
In Northern California, Lava Beds is a rugged beauty created by the Medicine Lake Shield volcano.
The landscape is covered in basalt- a thick, dark lava and many features like hundreds of lava tubes and vents.
If you ever get a chance, it is well worth a look.
One of the places you must see before you die is a highway in Oregon and Northern California called the Redwood Highway.
US 199 runs from Grant's Pass Oregon to Crescent City, CA and points south. It's a frikkin magic ride that takes you past crystal clear rivers running to the sea through canyons that they have cut over the eons. Those valleys are filled with redwoods and sequoias.
That's just for starters. Those woods are full of wildlife. I pulled off the road to an Elk Viewing Area.
This tree could be upwards of 2500 years old.
When it was a seedling, the Spartans and the Persians met at Marathon.
When Christ walked the earth, it was alive.
When it was an adult swaying in the cool winds of the Pacific Northwest, Europe was dying of the Black Death.
It was already a giant when Columbus blundered into Sab Salvador.
The two hundred-forty something years of the existence of the United States are as nothing to the giant.
It is timeless and a world apart;
My friendly mosquitoes gave me something fun. It's called Chikungunya and it really sucks balls ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikungunya ).
In addition to an astonishing fever, you get arthritis affecting multiple joints and insomnia. There's other fun that I missed out on.
The fever part lasts a couple of weeks but the joint inflammation is only just beginning to subside. It's been a couple of months and I am feeling a lot better. Just never thought I would catch something that comes
What is it?
A rather longish short story... just for fun.
You haven't abandoned your other stuff?
No. I got stuck on both of them and am writing something fun to get back in the habit.
Where is Case: Black?
It's happening but I bit off a lot more with that project than I though. I'm having to do some research and some other stuff to keep it real.
How about Operation Hammerhead?
The next installment of that will be several chapters at once. It's coming to a climax and
One of my favorite authors used my name for a character in his latest book!
Jack Cambell, author of the Lost Fleet and Beyond the Frontier series, used my name as a minor character in his latest book Steadfast.
Jamie Savik is the captain of the battle cruiser Formidable.
To me this is more fun than a birthday because I don't get any older.
In the late seventies the new wave landed on our shores. God knows what it meant but we weren't into philosophy.
lost and frantic
new age romantic
checking out the race
never cared about what it meant
We were wanted something cool to listen to and the Cars delivered.
"Misfit Kid"
i dream frequently
sometimes they come out funny
i go through insanity
all they want is money
all these parties get so habitual
the same sea of faces
always pushing,
If you've never seen the movie V for Vendetta, you should. You really should. There are lessons enough for everyone in it but very specific lessons for us.
In the course of the movie, the protagonist finds herself in a concentration camp awaiting execution and she finds a letter from one of the former residents.
Valerie's Letter
I don't know who you are. Please believe. There is no way I can convince you that this is not one of their tricks. But I don't care. I am me, and I don'
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- And maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more tha
