Cia

As an adult, I do see the point of having kids pay teachers the respect to pay attention in class. The question comes down to IF the kid was learning his coursework or not. How would the teacher know that if he had an assignment to be writing an essay and wasn't doing so? This wasn't after he came up with the idea completely and that was known, this was when he FIRST got the idea in his head, acccording to that video, and it wasn't during a lecture on material he already 'knew' and was bored listening to. Maybe writing that esssay gave him a bit more understanding of the cells he needed to further that idea. As a teenager, I had the same attitude as the kid. I'd rather have been reading anything else when I had already read the subject matter the teacher was lecturing about AND understood it. It was like getting beaten over the head with a boring stick. So, if I could listen and read, I'd do that. They didn't often let me get away with it though, so I ended up doing a lot of doodling and writing instead. I still didn't pay attention to the lecture, though, so their reasoning was faulty. The problem isn't just with the teachers, or with the students, the problem lies imo with the school system that isn't adequately recognizing the minds of students that need to be challenged and either providing that challenge or encouraging the student to enter a program that will do so. He did it on his own though, so good for him.

Mmm... men in cowboy hats! Yum! This really resonated with me, I just went to the fair. I also love stories with older characters, which can be harder to find here on GA. Can't wait to see where you go from here.

I think the challenge for every parent that truly wants to be there for their kids is to accept them for who they are, not who we want them to be. Every good parents has expectations and goals and dreams for their kids. That's just how it is. We hope for the best for them, but that's OUR mindset. Sometimes... kids don't do things the way a parent would wish them to be done, or become who we wish they would be. That's reality. In this, the dad was saying that his goal has always been to want to know who the kid IS not who the parent wishes him to be. It's a lot more difficult than it sounds. Ashi: I don't think the waiter was the point, the point was the moment... the inopportune moment to be asked a question. Haven't you ever had the waiter/tress come up to you the moment you take a bite and ask you a question and you struggle to swallow what is in your mouth so you can answer and there is that awkward pause? Well, imagine if you were a child telling a parent something important about yourself and that parent doesn't speak right away? Imagine the anxiety of that moment. The dad was saying 'it wasn't because of what you told me, the silence was because of when you told me'. I thought it was a really good little aside, actually. I also don't get the hypothetically gay part though. The son says he's gay... so he's gay. There's no hypothetical about it. That one word does put in a vibe of 'okay, you could be, but we don't know' that I don't like.

Happy Birthday!!

My stepmom's ex-husband used to call us kids that when we'd spend weekends at his house. Considering I was the daughter of his ex-wife's new husband... it could have been worse, I guess. (Yes, my family is VERY odd)

Thanks Bee, WL, Cassie, and Mark. It's been a good day, but tiring. Sleep... oh blessed sleep! (Okay, now I know I'm old, it's only 8:30 pm) LOL

Actually, Notnonever, most of the time the authors I work with are pretty accepting of my comments. I don't work with too many shrinking violets, though, and right on my profile I warn anyone that asking me for an opinion means I will share exactly what I think, no holds barred. I try not to send unsolicited comments that often, but even those I've done that for tend to be okay with them. How you phrase something is vital. I've worked with all sorts of authors on this site from newbies to Hosted. I've not always stayed with the person's writing, but I don't think I've had too many people completely offended by my comments. (I won't say never, I have had to apologize a time or two). Carrie, thanks so much for reading and the compliment. I really grew as a writer after I started using a beta/editor and when I found someone I really meshed with, I couldn't believe how much more I enjoyed writing as well. My best advice to any new author is to always find someone, or several someones to work with, it really makes for a much better story.

Thanks Warrior1, Dolores, Bleu! I have a had a good day so far. Lannister I'm only 31, I'm sure I have more birthdays to come! I don't think I'll keel over yet, no matter what Andy's post says You're not too late, Bob! It's only 2:30 pm here Saved by the time zone, lol! Thanks everyone!!

Thanks Wayne for getting this rolling and for the colorful and beautiful poem. *shakes head* at Yang, and at Hamen for encouraging him!! Renee... I do live in a zoo! But thank you. Mark, Mark, Mark... are you still running through the trees? You better be! (I might leave a few inches unbruised for you, Stu ... maybe!) I like preservatives Houdinii, all the best foods have em! LOL, Zombie, I don't exchange things. But I put a ban on gifts so those people I've yet to convince to stop buying me things usually do gift cards of some sort. One day I'll get them all to stop wasting money! My girl was up til 11:30 making me something last night. Those are the kinds of things you keep forever! I hope I don't forget anyone but thank you to Daddydavek, Greg, Bill, Ashi, KC, Benji, Andy, Sam, Myr, lilansui, Krista, Talonrider, raydeayon, Iarwain, Sid, Naptowngirl, AJ, and Breeze!

*snickers*

Uhh... Hawaii was made into a state back in 1959. That's pretty damn sad. Didn't they learn the State song? C'mon peoples, sing it with me: The United States, The United States. I love my country, the United States. There's Alabama, ALASKA, Arizona, Arkansas... You know they forced you to learn that crap too! Propaganda in song form, YES! Sorry Edward, btw, your job must suck!

I'm a woman and I prefer a woman doctor. She has been 'my doc' since I was 19.Mostly because I'm highly uncomfortable around men I don't know and having one touch me? Bad jujus. Women have appointments where we have to have more *ahem* personal handling, more frequently than men, so that's my rule. However, my hubby and both my kids, the boy and girl, see the same female FNP that I do. It makes it nice whenever we have to go in for anything, she knows all of us.

Thanks so much! That's definitely always my goal.

Thanks John! That's quite the compliment, I am, above all, a romance writer imo. Not quite in the old bodice ripper style, but I do enjoy letting my characters emerge from their problems healthier and happier in the end. I'm glad you liked the revamp on this. I had so many comments saying they wish I'd shown more of their relationship that I decided to re-work it a bit. Above all, thanks for the review!

Welcome Danno. If you click the 'title' option under browse you can go through and customize all your seach options including status (complete) and teen as the tag. That should give you a great list of stories. Look at the amount of times a story has been reviewed/followed/favorited to tell if it is something that is popular with readers. There is no guarantee that they have HEA's in them, but maybe you can find a frequent reviewer of a story you do like and ask them for recommendations via pm. Hi JohnC. So... mentioning what you do and your website here is okay... but advertising for sales is considering soliciting and would get you 'yellow carded' in a major way so don't go overboard. There is a field in your profile information for you to share your website link in a bit more of a permanent way, which you can reach through the 'edit my profile' option. Your profile image is hilarious, btw! The Lounge is a good place to discuss many things, but we have the story cafe to talk about stories off-site, and writers and editors corner forums for discussions about different facets of writing. You can post stories here, but only if they are free. Posting a few chapters of a story and then promoting it for sale elsewhere with the option to purchase the whole story will get your posting privileges removed. Posting a topic/ad solely for stories that are on sale elsewhere without permission from an administrator will get your warn points increased and a site suspension. We truly enjoy getting new and established authors on the site. There is a lot here beyond writing, editing, and reading but that is still a major facet of GA, of course. Anyone who wants to contribute is welcomed with open arms. If you ever have any question about if something is, or is not appropriate to post, you can pm me or another staff member. There is a list in the Administration Communication forum with an explanation of all our roles, and links to contact us. You can also do so through our profiles.

I have a bow, a rather nice one and I do hunt when I can. The last few years have been hard, with the tendonitis in my thumbs and wrists plus young kids both in school. Archery season usually starts the same week as school and someone has to stay in town with the kids. Guess who? Oh yeah me! I'm pretty good, though I don't target shoot in competitions. I do have a set of robin hooded arrows, but that's most a fluke though I do a tight 20 yard group, if I do say so myself.We consider it a success if you can make a clean kill shot and that's always the goal when we practice. My PSE is freaking deadly. We've been having nothing but trouble for the last year with my husband's bows from Martin though, to ridiculous extremes (we had a new alien z for 4 days before the limbs began to delaminate just 2 weeks ago, just 4 weeks before the start hunting season. BAD jujus!). We both have shot Hoyts before and my hubby had a custom made Black Widow recurve for a few years that he used to hunt too. This last spring we got both of our children Genesis bows. They don't have a set draw length so they're really versatile. They're both too young to go through hunter's safety properly but in a few years they'll be inducted into the hunting experience too!

She better not, Vic! I don't like the stepwitch. Dad... I doubt he'd join, lol. Though since my dad did feel it was perfectly okay to ask me earlier in the trip if my hubby and I were 'fixed' or how we were avoiding having more kids, including specific detail requests about such methods being used... maybe I should be worried he will join to find out more, LOL! Andrea! Sorry about that. I do Joann Considering my dad's favorite insult for windsurfers, the people he hates above all others in the world, included a gay slur, it wasn't unreasonable for me to think he'd not be okay with it. I didn't go into my own sexuality, but I'll get there eventually. I feel so much for everyone who does this whole hog, you know? HIs opinions on it wouldn't have really affected me, I don't depend on my dad for anything anymore, but strangely I was still worried about how he'd react and felt the need to hide it. Thanks to everyone else for the comments! I thought a little anti-drama sharing would be good. I don't think telling them as a teen would have been as well received though, so I won't consider my years of hiding as anything but smart self-preservation. OH and Bill, Yang lives in the gutter. I'd be more afraid if he was trying to climb out of it publicly! At least we always know where he is this way, can you imagine if he had the capabilities of sneaking up on us by pretending to be anything else?

There was when we discussed it Dolores, but I think Renee has the exact numbers. I'll have her message you and remind her to put more info up in the anthology forum!

So, during the insanely long car ride with my dad and stepwitch to her family get-together, it just came out. Oh, well this bi kid (14) in the town they live in is just a normal guy, huh? That attitude made me grab what little bit of courage I had and mention that I admin here on GA, what the site really is... and oh, btw, I wrote a mm romance that is being e-published next month. Now, I didn't go into details and mention that it has erotic scenes, and I didn't mention that I'm personally bi. I wasn't going into that with the kids in the car, including my 9 year old nephew. Turns out the stepwitch had 'liked' or favorited GA on facebook apparently. Craziness. They didn't care. They asked about making money writing, and we talked about writing in general. Talk about anti-climatic! Oh well, we learn new things all the time. At almost 31 I learned my dad isn't as big of a redneck as I'd always assumed.

Pacific Northwest. We've had a cool year again, getting all the way to August before we hit 90 degrees. Of course the day we finally broke that barrier it went all the way to 103, but hey, that's what we do here. Bounce all over the place with weather that the only real predictable thing about it is that it will rain 9 months of the year.

It's hard, but I have to dig at the parents there. I know that teenagers and kids are brutal. I was a red-headed freckle face glasses wearing pre-teen/teen that was top of my class with an unfortunate last name. I know how brutal kids can be. My parents didn't give us the best of support for that sort of thing, but as Method said, as I grew older I learned how to deal with it. I've passed that lesson on to my kids. One of my favorite phrases is 'We don't comment on a person's personal appearance in a bad way', as an extension of the 'if you don't have anything nice to say, then zip it!' LOL My kids haven't been the victim of any real bullying, they are still young enough that it isn't too vicious yet. But, boosting their self-esteem and teaching them to deal with the hate that people face frequently in the world is better than teaching them that 'we'll fix it by altering your appearance in a major way'. I mean, contacts and/or hair dye (leery on the latter at 14 still), which are things that many teens use to change their appearance, is a vast cry from actual surgery.

I'm a firm believer that everyone can find someone to talk to, but it doesn't always have to be the recommended person like a counselor. And it's something that comes in its own time. There was a lot of pain in this, yes, but I wanted a lot of the story to leave the reader focused on the recovery that can happen afterward. It's not easy, but that glimmer of hope is there for everyone. Thanks for reading and reviewing, heljustme.

Going out on a limb here, but might it have something to do with his generation? Not to make you feel old or anything but each generation is becoming more and more tolerant on the issue of homosexuality. I can understand you being cautious and waiting. I've known as far back as I can remember that I'm bi but my dad, who is a few years younger than you, is one person I'm extremely leery of telling. He is a casual bigot and I've had no real reason to ever tell him. Oddly enough, my mother in law who is in her 60s was okay with it, and a few of my siblings/my friends/hubby know, but my own parents ... no way. Telling people your sexuality is one of those things that comes to every person in its own time. You should feel good that you did it, no matter how long you waited, when the time was right for you. Benji.

I'm really glad you enjoyed it. This was the beginning of my alien phase, and I'm still going strong with the ET's! Thanks for reading.

Thanks TommyZ. I was writing a very mild story focusing on the connection two people, who didn't seem at all alike, could have. Not everyone who meets someone in college jumps into bed right away. This is one of my favorite stories as well, not just because I really enjoyed the characters but because I was inspired by one of my own photos and I added some real life details of things I'd been through. I'm really glad you enjoyed it, and I especially appreciate the very detailed review!