Suz

A great story with excellent characters and story concept with a lot of emotion - loss, grief, love, self hatred. It's interesting how you used a symbiont being to represent a person's destiny, mission or, as your title states, purpose. How some may not understand or misinterpret how they should achieve it and how some could lose themselves completely in their task to the detriment of those around them. And the ending. What wicked thing to do to those of us who like everything wrapped up with a nice bow. But at the same time it sure makes you speculate. Maybe David didn't really die. Maybe it was Jake. Could it be someone we don't even know about? Very well done!

A wonderful story dealing with loss and rememberance of a member from a loving family. Well done. Loved the tie between your title, the father's medal achievement and the man he became.

What a sweet story of love, friendship and loss from the very interesting perspective of both human and animal. Well done.

That's so cool.

Oh my yes..... *huge sigh with smile* Don't get me wrong. Other combinations can be striking too, but there is just something about dark hair and blue eyes. *another sigh* Gee, I can't imagine why Colin (I've seen a picture of your cutie. Nice.)

What an intriguing story that leaves such wide opening for more story. Oh, so many questions and avenues to explore. Talk about titillating the imagination. Well done.

A wonderful sweet and emotionally intense story. I really began to doubt that the wedding would happen, especially when Mike asked, "you didn't send everyone home?" Thanks for the happy ending. I definitely agree with Cia. It would be harder to forgive the lying and for waiting to tell his partner on the very day that should only have happiness over the infidelity.

Thanks for taking the time to do this and allowing us a peek into your head. It's always interesting to hear an author's perspective on their writing career.

I didn't expect that ending. In your reply to Lisa, "...But if you look closely at a few things in the story, there is a definite way Jeremy decided. I think it's subtle, but it's there..." you weren't kidding that the clues were subtle because I really thought that they'd end up together, destiny and all that. Great story though and I enjoyed the ride. I got a kick out of how you handled hateful people. Too bad it doesn't happen in real life.

I agree with everyone that some sort of external attraction is necessary but I don't think it has to be the whole outside packaging. It could just be a feature - beautiful eyes, enticing smile, yummy smell, a smile producing laugh. It's just human nature to observe first, then interact to find out the rest. I'm going with 20 external, 80 internal.

Oh my, only one - The Color Purple.

And this is why I continue to live in western Washington. Even though I can't sympathize, I can empathize. It would be awful trying to survive soaring temps and dry, arid conditions. Thanks to MikeL and Graeme for the, excuse the word, cool maps. They're fascinating. The 1934 map really shows how bad the drought was during the Depression causing the agricultural downfall - a major contributing factor of the times. Sadly, I agree with Bill W about food prices. We'll be feeling the effects in ways other than the actual weather conditions throughout the year. And Mark Arbour's question about how it can be dry and humid is a good one. Does not compute in my brain.

Well, doesn't that just make you tear up and miss your mom. I'm sending you lots of 'cause I've been there and know how hard it is, especially when you have a good relationship with her. I know this is cliche, but it does get easier but I have to admit it takes time. On Nov 21. 2006 my grandma (age 84) died from pneumonia complications. Nineteen days later (the weekend of my g'ma's service), my mother (age 69) lost her battle with with lung cancer. They both were the best. My g'ma was like another mother because she took care of me (and my brother) a lot during our younger years. Mom was a best friend and was always there for me, even when I made stupid choices. Both were loving and caring people that would do most anything for you. I still feel the loss and it's been almost 7 years. But every once in a while my subconcious pops them into my dreams and I get to "interact" with them again. I guess I'll never lose them 'cause they'll always be in my heart and mind.

How can you pick a favorite movie or TV series or just a few. For those of us who've been around for awhile the list gets longer and longer because there's been some pretty good ones over the years (and really bad ones). I'm almost embarrased to post my lists because they're so long compared to everone else's. And there's no way my lists are anywhere near being complete, especially movies. To answer cathexis93 questions, I prefer to watch most movies at home unless I think (hope?) the visuals would be best suited to large screen. It doesn't matter if I'm with people or not, although it's fun to discuss the show afterwards with family and/or friends. My choices usually fall in the genres of sci-fi, mystery, action/adventure and romance. TV: Eureka (canceled), Once Upon A Time, Warehouse 13, Angel, Babylon 5, Buffy, Charmed, Dead Like Me, Dead Zone, Farscape, Firefly, The 4400, Heroes (at the start), Merlin, Quantum Leap, Sliders, Star Treks (except Enterprise), Terra Nova , Torchwood, The Twilight Zone Big Bang Theory, Addams Family, Ally McBeal, As Time Goes By, Barney Miller, Being Erica , Benson, Boston Legal, The Cosby Show, Designing Women, Early Edition, ER, Friends, Fantasy Island, Gilmore Girls, Golden Girls, Here Come The Brides, Home Improvement, Joan Of Arcadia, The Love Boat, M*A*S*H, Men In Trees, Moonlight, The Muppet Show, Murphy Brown, My So-Called Life, Night Court, The Pretender, Psych, Pushing Daisies, Queer As Folk, The Road To Avonlea, Sex In The City. Six Feet Under, True Blood, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Will & Grace Bones, Castle, The Closer , Rizzoli & Isles, NCIS, Awake , Body Of Proof, Burn Notice, Cadfael, Cagney & Lacey, Crossing Jordan, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Cold Case, Father Dowling Mysteries, The Finder , Hll Street Blues, In Plain Sight , Las Vegas, Northern Exposure, NYPD Blue, Prime Suspect , Matlock, Medium, Midsomer Murders, Moonlighting, Murder She Wrote, Numb3rs, Perry Mason, Scarecrow & Mrs King, Wake The Dead So You Think You Can Dance, The Chew, Who Do You Think You Are, Finding Your Roots-H.L. Gates, Planet Earth Movie: Addams Family (both), Arsenic & Old Lace, Beauty Shop, Beetlejuice, Benny & Joon, Clue, Continental Divide, Dave, Doc Hollywood, Draw!, Dune, Enemy Mine, Fantastic 4, Father Goose, Field Of Dreams, Finding Nemo, Frequency, Fried Green Tomatoes, Galaxy Qwest, The Ghost & Mrs Muir, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Groundhog Day, Guarding Tess, Harry Potter, Hatari, Hitch, Hocus Pocus, Hook, Jesse Stone (any), I Remember Mama, In & Out, Independence Day, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness, It's A Wonderful Life, The Lake House, A League Of Their Own, Legally Blonde, The Lord Of The Rings, Mary Poppins, Matrix (1st one), Men In Black, Miss Congeniality, Monsters Inc, Murphy's Romance, The Music Man, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Cousin Vinny, Notting Hill, Overboard, The Pirate Movie, Pollyanna, Pretty Woman, Real Genius, Regarding Henry, The Rescuers (both), Same Time Next Year, The Santa Clause (all), The Shawshank Redemption, Sherlock Holmes (Downey Jr), Shrek (any), A Simple Twist Of Fate, Sister Act, Sixth Sense, Sneakers, Speed, Toy Story (any), Star Wars, Steel Magnolias, Super Mario Brothers, Trading Places, Transformers, The Trouble With Harry, True Lies, Uncle Buck, Victor/Victoria, What The Deaf Man Heard, Willie Wonka (1971), While You Were Sleeping, White Christmas, The Whole Nine Yards, X-Men/Woverine Have I tickled anyone's memory and reminded you of shows you might have forgotten?

Holy crap! *Can I say that in the forums?* I could hardly wait for the Olympics as it was now I'm real antsy to see "all" aspects of The Games. *Is there still drool on my face?* Love the Olympics. Love, love, love them.

I loved how you handled the narrative and the flow of the story. It pulled me right through. Just an hour to write? Wow. Is this the first time you've written this type of narrative? It kind of sounded like it in your reply to Dannsar. I was concerned that it might bounce back and forth between types but it didn't. Sweet story with good emotional content and a happy ending. I agree with Cia. You want to hug the characters and make them feel better.

I've been a faithful Eureka fan from the first airing of the first show and was very sad when they announced last year that Summer of 2012 would be their last season. Considering that there is a larger fan base now than when it first aired and continually has good ratings, it is disheartening to find out that it's being cut because the profit margin isn't "big" enough. So many shows that I have enjoyed that were different from the cookie cutter shows that network and now cable companies tend to spit out, have gone by the wayside. I'm just glad that Eureka was able to last 5 seasons.

What a great world you created. Loved the characters and the plot twists. You've made me want more stories from this world and I was glad to read that you are planning to spin off some stores. I'm looking forward to reading them whenever they happen because I need to know what happens to several of the characters. Will Fieo and Nicklaus bond? How does Dade's live turn out? Will Witani and Polsh have children aor will Ryker and Seral have to take up the slack? Will there be other governmental issues? Gotta love fantasy/scifi.

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What an emotional rollercoaster you took us on. Fantastic job of describing inner turmoil whether it be about love, self identity, self doubt or loss. I had to drag out the tissue when reading several passages. I had a feeling Gordie was coming home in a coffin but hoped I was wrong throughout most of the story. John's outburst about all the lies was great. What would have happened if there had been more communication instead of silence and half truths? Loved the characters and their depth (was sorry to see the death of any of them) as well as the flow and pacing of the story. Bravo.