Blimey! Is Alex Chris, or isn't he? Can an old knife wound appear like stigmata?

Will Chris or won't he? And who is Joe? Loads of questions...

"Coke with a shot of orange and lime syrup." Yelch ... sounds revolting.

Blimey! Is Alex Chris, or isn't he? Can an old knife wound appear like stigmata?

Will Chris or won't he? And who is Joe? Loads of questions...

And what the hell's up with Chris anyway? (I didn't realize Joe was up in the air, but I guess he has revealed some of his past that you might not necessarily have guessed from his present)

This is actually a big issue that I really need to rework in the first draft. While Chris does have some issues with being gay, his bigger problem is one of intimacy. His early family life, as we've already kind of established, wasn't a stellar example of how couples work, and he was burned viciously by his ex. As such he's very twitchy about relationships.

I'm sure this hasn't come across well. His two issues with Joe are the fact that Joe's involved with Alex (old issues) and he's very hurt still because of his divorce.

Joe's got his own issues, of course. We've already seen he very much doesn't want to be his family and has worked hard to distance himself from his past. He's feeling really conflicted with Chris in part because of how he feels about Chris and his own expectations of how he should feel.

The fact that they both get kind of combative when dealing with stuff they don't like to acknowledge is very much getting in the way. Also very guy-like, and they're both definitely guys.

"Coke with a shot of orange and lime syrup." Yelch ... sounds revolting.

It's not bad, actually. Coke is a spicy cola, and it works well with citrus fruits. Coke with a squeeze of lime is quite good.

I'd say that Chris and Joe's respective hangups are coming through quite well. It's refreshingly modern to have the sexual identity not be the primary conflict. I mean, Steve and Mike barely turned a hair when they figured that Chris was bisexual. Their response was, "Ohthat's it," and "This Joe looks like the real deal."

The question of what is Chris-and-Alex is maddening but interesting. I've been speculating all along so I won't repeat all those speculations here.

I'm having a visualization issue: Chris-and-Alex are kind of big guys, right? Is Joe short, or just smaller than Chris-and-Alex?

I'd say that Chris and Joe's respective hangups are coming through quite well. It's refreshingly modern to have the sexual identity not be the primary conflict. I mean, Steve and Mike barely turned a hair when they figured that Chris was bisexual. Their response was, "Ohthat's it," and "This Joe looks like the real deal."

Yeah. "Gayness as major angst point" has been done to death. Doesn't mean it's not a problem for people, but at this point I find it uninteresting to write about, so I don't. That it's been entirely an intellectual issue for me personally does make it tougher to really get into as a subject to write about.

Which is nice, because then it gives me some other things to explore that it'd otherwise get in the way with. (Which, granted, I could mostly do with a hetero couple, but I'm not all that interested in writing about that at the moment. Maybe another book) It does make keeping things realistic a little tough in some situations, but since we're not in them it isn't a big deal. Dunno how things will work if Chris ends up visiting his mom's side of the family, but that's a story for a different time.

I'm having a visualization issue: Chris-and-Alex are kind of big guys, right? Is Joe short, or just smaller than Chris-and-Alex?

Chris and Steve are both a touch over 6 foot tall. They're both big guys, pretty muscular, though Steve has more padding than Chris does. (Which his wife sometimes gives him a hard time about) They both lifted weights and suchlike things, and are built accordingly.

Joe is smaller, somewhere in the 5'9" or 5'10" range. He's slender and tends towards jogging as an exercise, and it shows.