Canuk

i just wonder if there will be any skullduggery around the cooking competition????

you are a blooody good story teller Mr Arbour Grainger has certainly picked the right wife. I always imagined you would engineer Grainger to succeed to the Earldom, but at the rate things are going I have a feeling he'll get his own peerage. And as your desription of Sir Kerry closely matches that of my beloved, their activities have a certain verisimilitude! looking forward to the continuing saga......

I can agree that George and JP have certain similarities, but where as I feel I could have a good time with George (socially, sexually he's a little polyamorous for me), JP's "uptightness" would not endear him to me. So I see George as more like Steph, taking into account the different eras and social millieu.

Mr James, you are to quote another, " mad, bad and dangerous to know"! I have never read such extraordinary poppycock as that para above.... Just because you live in a hemisphere that decided for reasons known only to itself to define "up" is no reason to torture those of us with the accurate version.. as far as the latest chapter of Circum... - it did take two readings to fully comprehend. And I still worry about.. well, so much that you have left us worrying about....

back between the sheets with Grainger - Bliss!! Tho' I am a leeeeetle concerned about the nes from Caroline. I wonder if it's about the wicked older brother????

I think Mark is capable of giving out whatever vibe is appropriate for the situation!! speaking of vibe... ow about more grainger??? pls Mr Arbour.....

Bitch! (plus that bit just like Ricky added )

sorry as the only true and healthy sport is Aussie Rules, and this being a majority north American site I can't imagine my beloved Collingwood getting much traction.... Alternatively we could talk cricket????

Just read the article - which gives more context to the video. If you read the comments to the article and you get to one by a person called "Brando" don't stop reading in a rage, many comments after that one tell "Brando" exactly where to get off.... The article is intriguing; I can imagine the shock and, on the part of the more intelligent and sympathetic players, the guilt at being a part of a group that innocuously, passively and in all ignorance contributed to a bloke doing this to himself ...for years!

have to agree with you Graeme; there's no accent there!! an obviously most heartfelt and difficult story to tell. I can only imagine what it must have been like, my experience was just so different. I hope that this does help those that do have this "in a closet" feeling.

CJ, I don't know how you do it ; you even turn solutions into cliffhangers!! the name on the piece of paper, his "deceased" wife????? Basingstoke is still a worry; I am not sure why he went to the trouble to setting tacking devices when his brief is to get Trev into the next world asap..... Great writing as ever.....

I cannot imagine writing a story so that it neatly slides into 9/11. I suppose there could be reruns of Kristin-and-the-Concorde, but with a larger cast of charaters having to line them all up before 9/11 does take the tension out of it, all this IMHO being the unimaginative non-writer that I am....... I did recently read a better-than-average story on another site where the author rounded his story off some weeks before 9/11 setting up some tension as to what happened to his cast of characters. The next chapter to this story was a epilogue looking back after several years of how 9/11 had affected the characters that we'd followed for (from memory) 30+ chapters. It produced a really successfull ending. Definitely not tying up all loose ends, but filling out the story so that it was complete.

May I whole-heartedly agree "Basingstoke ...smiled" are THE most chilling words written in this drama to date. yet again more bloody questions raised than answered..... I am sure my blood pressure rises every time I read a chapter.... roll on All Hallows Eve

I sort -of reviewed this in your blog, but I felt I had to make a comment here too. Lisa's pain as she slowly discovers that yet another "mother figure" has used and dumped her is palpable. I think us readers really feel for her. I loved the snad-in-the-eys of the Cessna/Debonair remark. My heart raced when the plane is mentioned, then I realised that it was th wrong plane, then having some idea of your non-use of cliffhangers I wondered the significance of the remark. great read SO looking forward to 98/99 and beyond.....

I haven't posted here as I tend to have added my comments at the "review" site, but this time I followed the link, and have had a greta time with peoples' speculations, some of which I had thought of others have not occured to me at all. I love the story for this reason; it does actually make you think and as for "no cliffhangers"....... I am glad you clarified the Cessna/Debonaire confusion. when I first read of the "cessna buzzing..." my heart lept, but then I recalled the spy was in a Deb (no I don't have an amazing memory; I used to fly Beach 36s and Debs, so it sort of stuck in my mind). Still knowing CJ's penchant for dropping in relevant facts at unexpected moments, I think this 172 has some deeper meaning (or we are being played......) Great read, thoroughly enjoying it......

as neither of the "Phillip Fusco" pictures showed on my screen I had to search for him..... Finding him on a website "Just beautiful men", he certainly has a magnificent body, however he is obviously not well off financially.... he seems to have no money for clothes.......

Interesting chapter. That had to be the WORST description of the game played in heaven (cricket for the great uninformed) I have ever heard. I once had to explain the rules to 6 blokes from the US Social Security Administration. I have never worked so hard!! There seems to be something about the NA psyche that just refuses to understand. Oh! well, that's the wicket we true believers have to bear.... Obviously from the hints the Mast is an issue.... ???? The photo worried me. But he hasn't dyed his hair yet so, perhaps not..... I so hope we get a chapter with ANSWERS instead of more bloody questions that simply add to the amount we don't know......

hmmmm there's a problem with this as one approaches the magic 56..... at 21, I can imagine saying yes - conquer the world and go out in a blaze of glory, but at my age, it would be the worlds fastest "conquer". but a drone until 100.... well I suppose I have not been a drone to date, but then I have not been Steve Jobs either. so can I choose "motivated drone with splashes of cleverness" and then shuffle of this mortal coil ~75????? Please ...... That said Steve Jobs was a one in a million, may he rest in peace satisfied that while he may not have achieved all he wanted, he did the rest of us mighty good.

the link to "Christwire" in the above site is the funniest site I have ever come across! the comments (at least half of which take the site seriously) are just as funny. The article "Is your husband gay" - if your husband was half those things he should be locked up in a psycho ward! and the comment that starts "I'm a Catholic and even I see holes in your argument..."!! and the article on tennis that includes a video of a ?czech? tennis player - very tasty!

basingstoke is a worry. and I can't imagine those dopes in Canarvon are so, well, dopey, not to realise the connection between this "security bloke" and the break in.... <sigh> well written - really great how you keep the tension up.

good god yes!! as if we could cope with any more of your "crap". Mark , dear dear Mark , I am not sure what "crap" you think you have written, but this little black duck ain't seen no "crap" written by your pen to date, OK? so While I fully understand your need to get your characters in hand (so to speak) Please, no more of this "crap" writing stuff'n'nonsense....

Nope, and, like you, I have tried!! There is some REALLY bad stuff out there that is a trial to read, but nothing even approaching what we have become addicted to!

I have no problem with gathan-as-straight-narrator; he seems to be doing fine. I am not sure I like Gathan as a character, but when I try and think why I don't like him it just comes down it a visceral dislike..... perhaps it is related to his sexuality, though when I think of him, his sexuality isn't what strikes me; it's perhaps his all-round gaucheness ( as in opposite of urbanity, which sounds bloody snobbish even as I write it)..... Mind you that I invest this much time and energy thinking and analyzing a character in a fictional story it does say something about the quality of the writing!!!

I just want good actors to do well at their given role. If a str8 actor plays "gay" well (vis-a-vis Graeme's comment about Gale Harold) I'm all for it. But str8 OR gay actor playing unintentionally/inappropariately stupid & campy, then he/she is not doing his her job and they can approapriately bugger off. I saw on some E!-type website that Ann Hathaway is to play Kurt's lesbian aunt in some future episodes of Glee. while I have no information on Ms Hathaway's sexuality I am sure as an actress she'll do ok, and as far as I am concerned that's all there is to it.....

One thing your writing has done has shown me how long I can hold my breath for! great tension, great description of complex boat handling!!