Renee Stevens

I call it a critique

I'm back! Thank you to Steve and Cia for taking care of the blog while I was gone. What a better way to celebrate being back than by starting a new blog feature called Improve & Encourage. It's similar to a review, in that the person doing the critique tells you what they liked about the story, but it differs in that they also provide constructive criticism. Each author signed up to participate, and sign up's are still open! These will post once a month until we no longer have content. Once that happens, I will critique the last author that posted. If you'd like to provide a critique for the blog, sign up in the thread. I'm hoping to have a lot more authors sign up, and just remember, by signing up, you are also volunteering to have your story critiqued and featured. Sparkle Aditus Critique By: Hudson Bartholomew Please give us a short summary of the story you chose. Sparkle is a 3-part historical vampire anthology, with each part told from the perspective of a different main character. The first tells the story of Zaidu and how he was abandoned by his mother as a child, eventually to become a vampire with a mission. The second is about Adam and his resilience and love of life, despite the hatred and intolerance he's endured. The third focuses on Adam's lover, Oliver, and how his nobility is inspired by the love he and Adam shared. Zaidu, Adam and Oliver come together at the end of part three, which feels more like a beginning than an end, with hints that many great adventures lie ahead. What do you see as the strengths of the story/poem? Aditus packs a lot of world building into each of the three short parts, bringing the reader directly into the action without any drawn out data dumps. The characters' personalities are immediately established, as are their motivations and desires. At the outset, the reader almost expects each part to stand completely independent from the others, but Aditus weaves the stories of the three characters together seamlessly, with each connection feeling natural and logical. By the time you get into the middle of part two, it becomes clear how each character compliments the others, so that by the end of part three, the stage is set for some epic quest (full disclosure: I have no idea if such epic quest exists, but I would certainly like to read it if Aditus writes it!). What do you see as the weaknesses of the story/poem? Much of the story is told in flashback, which was a little confusing until I caught on to what was happening. In parts two and three, Aditus uses italics to indicate a flashback, which helps to differentiate between what is happening now and what is a memory. As each part reads like a short vignette, I often found myself eager for more background or development of certain plot points. For example, Zaidu sounds like he has a long and rich history as a vampire, which is difficult to do justice to in a short vignette; and Zaidu and Adam develop a relationship off-page that I would love to read more about. There are only a few references to the specifics of vampire-hood within this universe (for example, their origin story, the effects of daylight, etc.), which could be expanded upon for more world building; to be fair, though, those details are not central to the story thus far. How do you think the story/poem could be improved? With more installments to the anthology! The first three parts really do feel like a set up for a much longer story, and I feel that there are many nuances to the characters that have been introduced, but not fully explored. I am quite confident that if Aditus chooses to continue writing Sparkle, many of my unanswered questions will be more than adequately addressed in future installments. What was your favorite part? (scene/sentence/etc) I loved the last scene of part three where Zaidu and Adam exchange some brief dialogue loaded with subtext. It hints at a deep relationship they've developed and leaves the reader wanting more. Also, even though he is supposed to be a mighty warhorse, Riah sounds adorable.

Being the start of a new week, Monday's are also a good time to take a look at some of the different stories that can be found on Gay Authors. With so many great works, it can be easy to overlook one and Monday's provide an opportunity for us to help make one of them stand out and maybe catch your interest. Today, we're bringing you a review by spikey582 of LitLover's story Unforgivable. Enjoy! Unforgivable LitLover Reviewer: spikey582 Status: Complete Word Count: 80,157 For my first official review for the site, I decided to go easy on myself and pick a favorite GA story from the last year: Unforgivable by LitLover. I discovered this just as Lit started posting in April of last year, and it was actually quite fun to experience a bite at a time, and see how fellow readers reacted to each new chapter. However, if you’re just discovering this story now, you’re in luck as you can experience the whole thing without those agonizing 7 day waits. In Unforgivable, we are introduced to two characters, Corey and Jason, and they have a long history together. Corey is the best friend of Jason’s younger brother Drew, and they all grew up together. Very early on in the tale, Jason commits the titular unforgivable act, and cheats on Corey and Drew’s other best friend when they’re all teenagers. This is where the crux of the conflict is driven from. You see, Corey’s father has a long history of cheating on his mother, and repeatedly being forgiven. The lesson Corey has learned from the long years of his father’s serial philandering is simple. Once a cheater always a cheater. Can someone like Jason, a known cheater himself, be forgiven? What I particularly enjoyed about this story was that each chapter is told through either Corey or Jason’s perspective. We get a good idea of what each character is about, what they’re going through. So even Jason, who seems like a jerk at first glance, actually becomes sympathetic and likable as we get to know him. Interestingly enough, LitLover, the very “Cliffie Queen” herself, didn’t leave us poor readers hanging from nearly as many cliffs during this story. However, there are still a few that will definitely propel a reader forward to find out what happens next. As I said before, if you’re just now finding this story for the first time, you’re lucky because you can now just plow right ahead and find out. This is definitely a “binge-worthy” story. So hopefully I’ve piqued your interest with Unforgivable. It’s filled to the brim with drama, romance, and even a touch of angst. Seriously, go check this story out and get to know Corey and Jason. Once you’re finished with Unforgivable, you can start in on the spin off tale, Choices, that LitLover is in the process of posting right now. Category: Fiction Genres: Romance Tags: Adult, gay, anal, oral, friendship Rating: Mature

Oh, and in case I forget. I'll be on vacation for two weeks starting the first of the week, so if you message me, I won't be able to get back to you until the end of the month.

It's that time of the week again! In case you missed any of what's been going on this week, never fear, because we'll take a quick peek at everything that we looked at from Monday on. Are you worried you might have missed a story update from one of your favorite authors? We'll help you out there too with the story updates from all of GA's promoted authors. And don't forget to check out the 2017 Spring Anthology and leave comments for the author! Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017 Premium Updates: Dreams of a Father by dkstories; Book 2 of Dreams of Humanity *Premium* Negative Splits by Cia *Premium* Classic Updates: A Different Road by Ronyx Signature Updates: A Diamond in the Rough by comicfan *2017 Spring Anthology* A prompt a week by comicfan Dalkhu (Demons) by aditus; Book 4 of Sparkle *2017 Spring Anthology* Looking Glass by Cole Matthews *2017 Spring Anthology* Mine! by Cia The Best Year by Krista The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel Impatient by CassieQ *2017 Spring Anthology* Rule #3 by CassieQ *2017 Spring Anthology* April's Fool by Valkyrie *2017 Spring Anthology* Promising Updates: Cozy Contemplations by Headstall Hold the elevator by Puppilull *2017 Spring Anthology* I Will Find You by Caz Pedroso Joined by Sasha Distan *2017 Spring Anthology* Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall Ripped by craftingmom Rounded Rocks by AC Benus *2017 Spring Anthology* Street Words by Mikiesboy timmy's poetry by Mikiesboy Walls by Carlos Hazday; Book 6 of CJ

They've been fixed. You are right, Dark had the links to where the "profiles" were located before the upgrade.

Yes, this is normal. Editing is locked on anthology stories because any time you open the story info to edit, the system kicks it out of the anthology.

Oops!!!! Yeah, that should be comments, not reviews.

Attention all GA Members! Put your pen and paper down and put on those reading glasses, if you have them. It's time to do some reading, as the 2017 Spring Anthology is now live for your enjoyment! We had twelve authors take up the challenge of the Jagged Edges/Unintended Consequences themes and there are fourteen new stories and poems for you to go through. Don't forget, if you like a story, leave the author a comment to show them your appreciation. All authors who participated in the anthology were entered into a drawing as part of the author incentives. The winner gets to choose which prize they would like: 1 Month Premium Membership 1 Month Ad Space - This can be used for a GA story, a published story, or your story collection $5 Credit to the GA ebook store And the winner is CassieQ (Pm me with your prize choice) On top of author incentives, we want to encourage readers to read and comment on the anthology entries. For each story a reader comments on, they will get one entry into the drawing. Comments need to be more than just a "great story" or "I liked this". Share your thoughts with the author and you could win one of the following prizes: 1 Month Premium Membership $5 Credit to the GA ebook store If you'd like to better your chances, write me a blog review (200-500 words) on your favorite story from the anthology and I'll give you an extra 2 entries! Readers will have until June 1st to review stories and/or write a blog review. The winner will be announced in the Weekly Wrap Up on June 4th. Now, let's see what the authors came up with! Can't A Guy Visit A Friend thecalimack Hold the Elevator Puppilull Angel and Imp: Thrice is Enemy Action Timothy M. April's Fool Valkyrie Dalkhu (Demons) aditus The Bard's Tale northie Impatient CassieQ Rule #3 CassieQ Looking Glass Cole Matthews Jagged Edges Sounds Parker Owens Joined Sasha Distan A Diamond in the Rough Comicfan Companionship Can Be Many Things Timothy M. Rounded Rocks AC Benus Anthology Support Team Anthology Coordinator Renee Stevens Tech Support Myr Proof Team Rec Valkyrie craftingmom Parker Owens Anthology Banner Creation Mann Ramblings

Welcome back to another quirky question and answer session with your favorite authors! In AtA #48, we heard from authors JackBinimbul, Mikiesboy, Palantir, and WolfM. Today in AtA #49 we hear from authors Parker Owens, HinderToyBL, and Milos. We saw Author Parker Owens just recently in AtA #46. Like me, Parker lives in the North and, like AC Benus, is not one of our young twenty-somethings. He has a rich background he shares with us in his stories and poetry. Most people know Parker from his story A to Z. It’s certainly a dark tale; it gets darker and darker and every time you think things couldn’t possibly get worse, something even more awful happens. But eventually rock-bottom is reached and things start to look up for our main character. It’s fascinating to see how Andy views the world and finds his own way to happiness. He is continuing with Predator Prey, a story that I think is even darker than A to Z. Parker keeps a lively discussion going in the forums, so if you have a burning question for him, that’s where you should look first. He’s one of those people who just electrifies the forums, so look him up and see. To Parker Owens: You have graced us with some wonderful stories. But in a few, there have been brutally long and brutally describe periods before the protagonist is saved or redeemed. 'AtoZ' and 'Predator' immediately come to mind. My question is, how does such depth of depravity even get into your thinking? This is a terribly hard question. I teach, I counsel, and I volunteer at homeless shelters. I hear some heart-stopping stories. And if that isn't enough, there is the news. In so many cases, the darkness encountered in reality makes pale anything I can conceive in fiction. I fear that these things got into my brain from actual news and stories told to me. All I did was fit them to the story lines. In the case of A to Z, I felt the stories of children ignored, neglected and abused, needs to be told. It really is that bad for some, and yet the survivors often hold themselves as nothing special. In A to Z, I felt the need to write a story in which we can recognize such a survivor as an average someone who is nonetheless immensely significant. The depths of dark agony in the first few chapters were meant to be offset by the strengthening, brilliant light of the latter chapters. When I began Predator, it started as a single chapter piece, but grew in response to an anecdote about what had happened to a campus dealer when his customers turned on him. There were no good guys: I wondered if it were even possible for even one of these characters to find some redemption. There are real horror stories out there; these two stories explore what happens after the horror occurs . We don’t see this too much, but Author HinderToyBL is actually a joint pseudonym for two different authors: Thirdly & Rambling Robin. These two lovely ladies have come together three times over the past few years to collaborate on a story. Robin is an avid animal lover and has an interesting sense of humor. Thirdly is a fantastic artist who absolutely loves video games, especially Pokemon. (If you visit their profiles you can find stories they’ve written as themselves, on GA and elsewhere.) Together, they make HinderToyBL and have brought us such amazing things as Kidnapping is Always an Option. If the title doesn’t give it away, Robin’s humor comes out to play in the absurd situations main character Caspin finds himself in. Also Thirdly puts a dash of cute in there just to keep you on the edge. They do write about animal-shaped characters, and there’s usually a menage at some point, so read those blurbs so you know what you’re getting into. I guarantee that even if you think you’re prepared, you’re really not! Turn your common sense off and enjoy the show. To HinderToyBL: How do you work together? Robin: We met through reading each other's stories online. I think we realized that we were both giving each other cooing reviews and so we started talking. It blossomed from there. Thirdly: Yep, what Robin said. Somehow we ended up from writing long reviews to each other to writing e-mails to each other, and finally, to skype messaging. So, it's only a virtual partnership for now. I consider us distant sisters until I can pay her family a visit. "Do you write individually and compare or is it a joint effort from the start? Do you write the characters first or the plot?" Robin: We seem to start with a character and then branch off from there. Usually, one of us messages the other in a tizzy about it. Some of the ideas get further than others. Our first attempt at writing a Unicorn/Nightmare story fizzled out, but then it eventually led to Lust and Chastity, which is chugging along nicely. We have so many ideas for it, sometimes it's hard to fit everything in. Once we have one character figured out, we then branch out from there. Where does he live? What's his conflict? What's his personality? Who is his love interest? We flesh all of those things out and then have excited little flurries of conversations about ideas for scenes. At some point in there we decide who will be in charge of which character. Then we take turns writing from our character's perspective. When we finish a chapter, we usually both edit it. Although lately I've been failing on that and Thirdly has been doing a lot of the editing, bless her. When we agree it's good, we post the chapter. As we go along, we save what we've written in a word file. Thirdly: I digress (only a little bit!). First, there is a thought, theme, or idea. For Kidnapping is Always an Option, Robin really wanted to write a story with a kemonomimi/semi-anthro character in it (which eventually became Caspin). For Lust and Chastity, I stuck to that Unicorn/Nightmare theme, which is something that I have always, ALWAYS, wanted to write. Like Robin said, our first attempt flopped (mostly because I wanted to cling to a very old idea that never took flight...ever [but, I will keep trying because I don't know when to quit!]). I was persistent on writing a story with that theme, though, and I am glad we tried again because Lust and Chastity is more than what I could have ever hoped for (one has to try and try again!). After the idea/theme is set in place, then we dig deep into the characters and the cast keeps expanding as the characters are more fully developed and interwoven into the plot (most of the time the plot requires the characters to exist and not the other way around). So, in order, it would be: 1. Idea/Theme/Whimsy 2. Character Development 3. Plot Pow-wows and Squealings OH! And regardless of whose idea or character it is to start with, we both have each other's input in just about everything. Therefore, yes, it is a joint effort from start to finish. The two of us try our best to compromise with one another and, though sometimes it's not fully possible (which has happened on more than one ocasion, but we quickly move on from dead ideas and form even better ones later on), it has worked out tremendously for the majority of the time. Partnerships (and projects, for that matter) require patience, prudence, and preparation. Robin has more patience than I do, we both have very little prudence, and I try to make sure that we're both pretty prepared. Whoever came up with the 3 P's never did say how much of each was needed, now did they? Note from Site Administrators: While site members are allowed one account on GA, under certain circumstances we can understand the need for a second pen name. If you find yourself in the position of requiring a second pen name, please contact the Administrators via a support request so that we can review your request. Author Milos finishes things off today! Also from the USA, Milos has been with GA for about six years now. He’s the author of Die Catfish Die a story that begins with one of life’s more somber moments, when you lose a good friend to suicide. The later chapters are just as powerful as the beginning. And then there’s the cover art. If you don’t know what cat-fishing is (in the story context), you can let Milos tell you about it from the perspective of his struggling teen characters. He won’t let you down. There’s a lot of serious content in this story, but I find it’s handled with respect while not minimizing what any of the characters are going through. Just, if you’ve got something in your past, read with caution. Some of these characters and situations can really get to you. To Milos: What inspired you to write Die Catfish Die? I really wanted to explore more mystery in my writing, and I wanted to write something that totally ended in a way that nobody expected. I'd been featured in an anthology that did really well (under a different pen name), and I felt that I could have done better with my story. Even though the stories have nothing to do with each other, it gave me inspiration for Milos to pick up and start writing again. Mystery and psych-thriller are two genres that I've never really tried, and I really want to develop in these areas. With Die Catfish, Die, the idea came from several news stories I'd seen, and the trend of teen suicide by way of cyber-bullying. This is a phenomena that we're only beginning to understand, and the cat-fishing is only one small aspect of something greater in the plot. I can't really say more about the inspiration aspect because it may ruin the ending if I do. That’s it for now! For more info on these authors, go check out their stories, post in their forums, and/or catch them in chat! I’ll see you next time, with repeats from Mann Ramblings, mikiesboy, Parker Owens, and WL! I’m always in the market for new questions! Simply PM me (Dark). Until next time! Dark

Thank you, William! It's been fixed.

I would prefer a complete story, partly because if it's not, you have no idea if the author already plans to address your criticisms.

Monday, Monday, Monday. What could we possibly have for you on a Monday? Oh yeah! We have a new featured story for you. This week, courtesy of Timothy M., we are taking a look at The Navigator by Cynus. Hopefully you'll like what you read and it will prompt you to go and read the story itself! The Navigator Cynus Reviewer: Timothy M. Status: Complete Word Count: 93,473 The title of this story is sheer genius, and I’ll never forget the person or the concept which prompted the name. As we begin the compelling journey mapped out by Cynus we meet Silas Drake, his dog, and the band who has given him a ride as they travel from one gig to another. Even though their ways soon part, Cynus keeps track of both parties. Drake as he stops over in a small village and encounters several people, both good and bad, who will change his life. The band as they struggle to find success and deal with missing the young man who helped them navigate from place to place. While some of the dramatic events and villains in the story may seem over the top, the important thing is how Drake reacts to each challenge. He is both intelligent and sensible, shaped but not destroyed by events in his past. He does what’s needed to survive, but his integrity keeps his choices honorable. Even though he has been hurt by other people, he tries to avoid harmful actions, and though his trust is hard to gain, his loyalty to friends is unshakable. He’s not perfect, but that makes him all the more believable and admirable. The way he cares for his dog, Adelaide, who is a faithful protector, will win many readers’ hearts, and she plays a crucial role in the story. In addition, the story is well-written, with good dialogue and plenty of interesting characters apart from the Navigator. There is also a discussion topic, where Cynus answered questions, and readers had heated discussions on various story details, including the importance of Cinnabons. At one point Cynus said: I'm glad there are people to analyze this for me. I never would have figured that out on my own. To which Puppilull answered: If you want analysis, you're in the right place! You will probably also get far out speculation, wild theorising and just nosy questions in general... Cynus has talked about a sequel, which his fans would love, but The Navigator is worth reading as a complete and wonderful tale by itself. Category: Fiction Genres: Adventure, Drama Tags: Teen, Serious, Crime, Music, Religion, Abuse Rating: Teen

Also, @northie I checked your anthology and you're right that the italics are gone. Send me the copy of your final story and I can see if I can update it.

If your story has huge gaps between paragraphs, it is the result of doing two carriage returns rather than one. In the new system, even if you have your formatting set to do the automatic spaces after paragraphs, the text editor will show all of the paragraphs without the spacing between them. Once you hit save though, there will be spacing between paragraphs. If you still want to be able to see the spacing between paragraphs as you're writing, you can go into paragraph settings and set the "after" spacing to Auto and it will automatically put extra spacing between paragraphs, but won't copy over into the GA editor. (at least this worked when I tested it)

Almost time to start a new week, but before we do that, we get to take a final look at what happened this past week! Before we do that though, Myr has been cleaning up around the site a bit, so make sure you check out the following threads on the forums: And now let's see what happened in the various GA news blogs! Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017 Premium Update: Negative Splits by Cia Classic Updates: A Different Road by Ronyx Signature Updates: April Musings by Valkyrie GFD 12: Blood Ties by Comicality; Book 12 of Gone From Daylight Mine! by Cia Poetry Book by Dolores Esteban Shelter by Comicality; Book 1 of Shelter The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel The Secret Life Of Billy Chase 9 by Comicality; Book 9 of The Secret Life Of Billy Chase Promising Updates: Buy One, Get Two and Three... by Caz Pedroso Choices by LitLover Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall NaPoWriMo 2017 by Mikiesboy Ripped by craftingmom Walls by Carlos Hazday; Book 6 of CJ

I hope everyone is having a great week! It's time for this weeks prompts, supplied by our prompt guru, Comicfan. Just a reminder, and for those who haven't worked with the prompts before: prompt responses under 1,000 words must be posted as part of a collection. Hopefully you'll find something in this weeks prompts to spark an idea and get you writing! Prompt 576 – Creative Tag – First Line How much longer do I have, doctor? Prompt 577 – Creative Tag – Mermaid You went for an early morning walk along the beach. Things have been a bit tense lately, and you were lost in thought. Suddenly, you hear someone call “look out!” You turn to see a giant wave heading at you. You have just enough time to get out of the way. Gratefully you begin to scan the beach to thank whoever it was that saved you, but the beach is empty. You turn back to the water only to see a fin slipping below the waves. Who saved you? Since I'm running a bit late with the prompts this week, I'm opening it up to authors sharing any of their prompt responses that they'd like to!

No thanks necessary, but you're welcome. I was happy to do it Congratulations again, tim!

Please join the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Mikiesboy as GA's newest Promising Author! Mikiesboy, or tim as many know him, has been a member of GA for almost two years. During that time he has written a total of 21 stories, both prose and poetry, and has touched the hearts of many members. If you want to check out Mikiesboy's stories, and check out his new banner and author bio, you can visit his author page. Please join us in congratulating Mikiesboy on his well deserved promotion.

*hint hint* yes it would... the biggest problem is figuring a deadline so that it doesn't hinder participating in the fall anthology.

You're all welcome. I'm working on figuring out when our next contest is going to be

I hope everyone has had a great week. Before we get into the wrap up, I want to remind everyone that the deadline to get your anthology story to the proof team is TODAY! Don't miss your chance to enter a story in the 2017 Spring Anthology. Another reminder, Invision is discontinuing it's chat service after today and at this time we have no immediate plans to replace it. For the time being, we will be focusing on bug fixes, completing Stories 2.0, as well as development of Stories 2.1 and 2.2. With that being said, lets check out the staff blog posts for this week. (And make sure if you're an author that you check out the Author Blog Opportunities for your chance to be featured in the site blog!) You can also check out the updated bug information (as of April 28th) in Myr's updated blog post: Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team 2017 Spring Anthology: Jagged Edges / Unintended Consequences - Due April 30th, 2017 *TODAY* 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017 Premium Updates: Negative Splits by Cia *Premium* Classic Updates: A Different Road by Ronyx Signature Updates: Going to the Movies--NaPoWriMo 2017 by aditus Slice of Life by Renee Stevens The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel Promising Updates: Buy One, Get Two and Three... by Caz Pedroso Choices by LitLover Cozy Contemplations by Headstall Drifts by Puppilull; Book 3 of Hot and cold Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall One Hundred and Fifty-Five Sonnets by AC Benus; Book 5 of Verse Ripped by craftingmom Walls by Carlos Hazday; Book 6 of CJ

Well, April is nearly over and can you believe it's snowing outside! I hope y'all have much warmer weather than we do, but if you don't, why not stay inside with a nice hot drink and try your hand at one of the newest writing prompts! Don't forget to post links to your story in the appropriate thread for a chance to have it featured in the blog. Prompt 574 – Creative Tag – List of Words Use the following words in a story – an emerald, a concert ticket, a bowl of macaroni and cheese, a torn pair of shorts, a clown wig. Prompt 575 – Creative Tag – Spiders You woke up and were running last to work. As you run out the door, you hit the button on your key fob to unlock your car door and stop cold. Your car is covered in spider webs. Turning to run back into your house you see it is also covered in hundreds of webs and there are spiders everywhere you look. What happened? For this week, I decided to feature prompt responses from Prompt #573 Drifts by Puppilull ”How can a kid have so much stuff…” Joel was wading around in the mess in Mason’s room, trying to attain some sort of order so he could vacuum. He knew this was something Mason really should do himself, but with school and hockey Mason had a full plate. What little time the boy had left, Joel felt he deserved to relax. Especially now that he had a girlfriend. A smile crept over Joel’s face as he thought of the two teenagers, so adorable in their puppy love. As far as he could tell, they were “taking it slow” and seemed content to kiss and make out. But then again, what did he know? He went by his gut, hoping it worked not only on Swedish youngsters but the US variety too. Mason’s dad had talked to his son about being in a relationship, so that was one awkward conversation bullet Joel had dodged. Still, he tried to keep an eye on things, ready to give advice or simply be there for Mason should he need it.

Thank you, BlindAmbition! Numbness is a good description, and sometimes you just want to hold on to that numbness because you know that once you start feeling, it's going to be overwhelming.

Thank you, Gary. It definitely isn't an easy thing to deal with, and you're right. It is amazing how you can just "know" that something isn't the norm and is more than what it seems. I just knew, even if I didn't know what was wrong, I knew something wasn't right.