Black Star Cross

[Young Sage]

I thought the whole point of my story was to be as realistic as possible? If the whole thing is in Shawn's head, then it is either the longest dream ever or he's in a coma. Also, what do you make of the dream sequences in the story? If he's dreaming, then is he dreaming about him dreaming? I JUST INVENTED INCEPTION YEARS BEFORE NOLAN!

[Timmy]

No update. -__- lol

[Young Sage]

I just checked the Peer Review section. Both chapters 50 and 51 are up. The story should be accessible to all.

[Timmy]

I can't find your updates anywhere..lol..

 

Last chapter I read was chapter 48.

[Red_A]

I can't find your updates anywhere..lol..

 

Last chapter I read was chapter 48.

 

Go back up to Young Sage Post

Click on Young Sage name

Click on Stories (on line below Name Header)

Click on Black Star Header Name

Move down to required chapter and click on chapter header

 

Further help is available in FAQ

Go to GA.Stories and click help

 

Do not forget to add to reputation in bottom right hand of page if appropiate

[doesnt know jack]

Go back up to Young Sage Post

Click on Young Sage name

Click on Stories (on line below Name Header)

Click on Black Star Header Name

Move down to required chapter and click on chapter header

 

Further help is available in FAQ

Go to GA.Stories and click help

 

Do not forget to add to reputation in bottom right hand of page if appropiate

 

I did that and nothing comes up under Stories. I'm having trouble finding stories for anyone at this point...any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Thanks!

[Red_A]

I did that and nothing comes up under Stories. I'm having trouble finding stories for anyone at this point...any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Thanks!

 

My apologise as it always difficult to trouble shoot remotely.

The FAQ with very good information is under GA,Stories (top of page blue tool bar) then click Help in Red tool bar

So theses are the standard solutions

 

At top of page in the general header. click GA.Stories

In left hand browse side bar click "Title"

In centre of page find "Include Peer Review" ticked (check) box and click Update

This should enable Peer Review stories to be visible.

at this point you can either go back to Forums or find Young Sage by clicking Author on red tool bar and find Black Star Cross Story.

 

Make a additional post in the forums (not games and Humor)

 

Logout of Gay Authors and clear cache and try again

 

Hope this helps

[DavyReader]

Are Anthony, Keith and Shawn still around so that they can be asked questions? The question would be: Can you imagine Anthony and Shawn being a young married couple?

[Young Sage]

Yep, S/A/K can still be asked questions!

 

Shawn: H*** no! I've got college and s*** to worry about. Besides, we all know that young married couples are all poor white trash.

 

Anthony: F*** no, dude! S***, you think I wanna settle down when I'm 18? Why not just chop my balls off now and let Shawn ties the ole ball and chain around my ankle?

 

Keith: Hahahahahahaha!!! Oh man, I can just see it now! Shawn in a white bridal dress! Anthony wearing a pink tie! Hahaha! *starts coughing from laughing so hard*

 

Young Sage: Umm...yeah, the dudes are right about that one. Shawn and Anthony just aren't the type to marry young (or at all). If they DID get married, ever, then it'd be a quiet affair, without all the fancy girly stuff.

 

SO GUESS WHAT?! The Readers' Choice Polls are coming up, and I think YOU (*points to all of you*) should totally nominate me for stuff! Obviously I can't be nominated for everything (and even though I can technically nominate myself, it'd seem selfish if I did), so here's what you should nominate me for (remember, Shawn knows where you live and has beaten up TWO jocks before):

 

Best eFiction/GA Stories (fairly obvious)

Best Antagonist/Villain (Does Anthony count as an antagonist? Does Shawn? This is just a thrown out there suggestion, really)

Best Protagonist/Hero (for lolz)

Best eFiction/GA Stories by a New Author (I joined last February)

The King of Cliffhangers (did we all forget Chapter 17 already?)

 

I guess if you want to nominate Slash Work or either of my anthology entries for stuff as well, you can go ahead and do that, but let's be honest. BSC is what I did best in 2010.

[Remijay]

Wow, i guess this story is really over,

 

Oh well i guess i will read whatever you come up with next time...! Hugz--Kizzes Remijay <3

[Young Sage]

JUST so that there's no confusion, my reputation finally spilled over 100, so all my stories are now out of Peer Review. You should be able to just click "Title" and walk the labyrinth that is GA.Stories until you find BSC (that's what I did; I had yarn). Thanks everybody !

[Young Sage]

So this is where I do more explaining of my thought processes for when I was writing BSC, and for 12salut's review. Please read his review first so that this makes a little more sense.

 

Firstly, I’m glad that you at least read to the end before passing judgment on it. Please remember that the story is told through Shawn’s (an average high schooler) eyes. Any sort of “justification” for his actions are ones he made up for himself. Based on previous responses I’ve had from readers concerning Shawn, readers don’t seem comfortable with the idea that the main character of a story can be less than perfect, if not downright mean and wrong. I specifically wrote Shawn to be a whiny, self-absorbent, spiteful, stubborn, inconsiderate a**hole, and that seems to have shocked some people. One of the things I was going for in writing BSC was realism. When was the last time you had a complete turnaround in personality in roughly the span of 6 months? Without a major event to serve as the catalyst, most people don’t radically change from “childish brat” to “upstanding citizen” in half a year. Some characters are going to be background characters. A lot of characters weren’t as important to the story (again, I can only do so much with 1st person POV through Shawn’s eyes and thought process), so they didn’t get fleshed out. Shawn’s dismissal of Emmy is within character and shows his reluctance to accept help or listen to his elders. He IS self-centered. Shawn’s mom, again, is painted solely by Shawn’s depiction of her, not as who she might actually be as a person. I had hoped that readers would eventually sniff out that she’s trying so desperately hard to connect with her son only to have him lash out at her every time she tries. She’s doing no wrong, but Shawn’s depiction of her makes it sound like she is (turning to alcohol aside). Shawn doesn’t WANT to expand his view of the world because he thinks he’s right about his current views (i.e. everybody’s wrong and stupid, he’s right and superior).

 

Now for the high school social structure bit. Again, realism. I invite you to tell me of a real public high school with no jocks, nerds, Goths, preps, etc. I’m not sure if you went to high school (I know readers who were home schooled), and I based most of the high school scenes on my experiences at my own high school (I was a “drifter” who was on good terms with the jocks), but here’s some harsh words for you: social structures are still alive and well in this day and age (you think the “It Gets Better” project was made for s***s and giggles?). Jocks hang out with jocks, nerds hang out with nerds, cheerleaders with cheerleaders (and sometimes jocks), art geeks with art geeks, etc., and there’s typically little mixing between them all. Teens are still trying to find themselves during this period in their lives and if that means conforming to a certain group, hey, at least you belong SOMEWHERE. Also, if you’re at the top of the food chain (aka jocks), why risk falling into infamy (considered worse than obscurity to some) by hanging out with the local gay kid? In Brett’s case, he couldn’t just “stop” being popular and hope to become a nobody, and the only other way to stop being popular for him was to basically do something that would make him such a loser that he’d be just as miserable a loser as he was when popular. So he had no choice (or so he thought) but to accept his fate. The world ain’t a nice place (especially high school), and I aimed to show that to you, the reader.

 

Now for the “near extreme homophobia” bit. Shawn and Anthony don’t like feminine guys. A lot of gay people (and whatever Anthony is) are like that. Wikipedia even has a short entry on the topic called “sissyphobia” (not an actual phobia recognized by psychologists). As a side note, biphobia and transphobia also exist among the gay community. Again, it’s not I who has the notion of what a gay person should be, but Shawn (and, at least in my high school, swear words were used like verbs; teens don’t care about political correctness). I agree that the more stereotypical gay people have every right to live as they are, but Shawn doesn’t. His belief is that if you act weird, expect to be made fun of for it, and don’t act surprised when you are made fun of. Also, I do feel bad about using the “homophobic bully is secretly gay” cliché, but I at least tried to make it as original as possible.

 

To summarize, thanks for giving me your opinions and I hope I conveyed my thought process clearly. Shawn is meant to be less-than-perfect, everything you read was colored by his interpretation, the social stratification of high school is more real (and complex) than you think, and just because Shawn and Anthony don’t like feminine guys doesn’t mean I don’t. Please don’t make the mistake of assuming that I am Shawn. It gets very tiring of having to say that (and I have had to say it quite a few times to various people across the internet).

 

Anybody else can chime in if they want !

[Former Member]

So this is where I do more explaining of my thought processes for when I was writing BSC, and for 12salut's review. Please read his review first so that this makes a little more sense.

 

I read 12salut's review as well and thought it to be partially unfair yet unflatteringly honest. I think what happens a lot in gay fiction is that the reader(s) expect happy endings, political correctness, and sap all too often. It's kinda like a place to come when the world is too horrible or homophobic or condescending. And I think when a story comes around that is very REAL in it's depiction of the average high schooler's life, it causes uproar. I read BSC from start to finish and loved every chapter. Shawn changed, yet he didn't: and that is what a typical high school kid will do. He did just enough to survive.

 

But I can, as well, understand the other point of view. The dreaded F* word and it's usage which is similar to the dreaded N* word and it's usage. It won't go away especially when we GLBT people use it to describe ourselves or others in our community. But I don't think that's an argument/debate to have here in a review or discussion forum of your story.

 

And I used to be a terrible sissyphobe (growing up in the west indies) and sometimes I have to check myself and remember that I, too, have issues and am in no way able to pass judgment on others. But I'm a 27yr old man, and when I was 17 I was just as big of an asshole as the other kids.

 

Overall, GREAT story. It was real and it was well-done.

[Young Sage]

Seems this is your first post. Thanks for wasting your first time on me (I kid)! The problem I had constructing my reply is that I also purposely made several parts of BSC vague so that the audience themselves had to fill in the blanks. I wanted to make sure that I didn't accidentally invalidate any of 12salut's points that I couldn't validate myself. You raise good points about escapism. I think it was my inner cynicism that caused me to write BSC (that, and reading way too much bad gay fiction and thinking "I can do better!"). Thanks again for the input.