PrivateTim

Since you are a beta reader and I am sure Mark will post the next story in the next week I assume you know who the next narrators are. But you can't really compare Will to JP & Stef as narrators since their stories jumped several years, Millennium, PMS and Paternity is like one long story, maybe even Bloodlines. We are barely 14 months of CAP time from the START of Millennium and exactly 36 months from the start of Bloodlines. The other stories jumped at much bigger time chunks,5-6 years at a crack. If we had followed the pattern, this new story would be starting in 2018 or so and Mark would be adding SciFi to his repertoire,

I think Wade will be back to narrate, but not the next story. I am going to bet on Jeff and Will as our protagonists, partly because I think Mark really likes Will as a character and Jeff lets more action shift back to LA with Will moving to the Bay Area. To lend some perspective on Will, which is easy to forget, is that in CAP time it hasn't even been 6 months yet since his kidnapping, his naked pole dance, his love affair/heartbreak with Berto, the raft trip, the meltdown and running away, the skating competition, the emancipation, board meeting and the rest...... just because it has been two years in human time, in the magical world of CAP, it has been a very short time and Will has come a long ways in a very short time, maybe unnaturally short, but that is the authors prerogative and probably the only way it could have been written to where Mark wants to get. I assume he knows where he wants to go in general with these characters down the road, the details need to be filled in and fleshed out, but he has to the characters to a certain place before he can move them to the next level and I think that is part of what we saw as Paternity ended....

Saying thank you seems so woefully inadequate for the 18 months of effort you've put into this story, let alone the entire CAP series. That you do this and are writing Odyssey as well while being a father and husband and holding a real job is astounding. I know guys living two doors down from the Schluter-Hayes household in the Colony who would kill for writing talent like you have and they are making obscene livings as is. So thanks and I look forward to the next book in the CAP series. I won't advise on who should narrate in the next book because if I know you, you have 5 chapters of the next book with the team already.

This is lucky #3 for the good captain. The first lasted 34 years almost, #2 just 3.....

Hmmmm, or not. Here is one of Jon's early works. ,<media>

Doesn't anyone read the stories??? Sir Ian is the officiant at Stewart's wedding to Sunny Ozell.

"but he can't be the one to make that decision" That was kind of the point of my post, by the way the character has been presented, I would say Will thinks he qualified or entitled to make that decision and by himself if he has to. If he disagrees with Brad who says they shouldn't tell Jeff to protect Scott/Lark then he will go ahead and tell Jeff in defiance of someone more mature with more experience. I do think they will tell Jeff, but they may ask Lark first or tell Lark first. That wasn't the point of the musings, the point was will Will mature to a point where he recognizes that with age does come wisdom and knowledge. And we don't need anecdotal ramblings from everyone on the immature, stupid 50 year olds they know, nor the incredibly sage 23 year olds they know. I know I am wiser now than when I was 18, wiser than when I was 22, wiser than when I was 30 and I recognize I will be wiser still when I am old like Arbour I think you are responsible for how people who are friends/lovers treat you. If Tony only comes to you when he is horned up for sex, but treats you like a pariah in public, you are the one who is responsible to either force Tony to change his behavior or stop having sex with him, no matter how much you enjoy it. That is the mature, responsible way to act. Ditto for Kyle who likes sex with you better than his ostensible boyfriend. If you don't like that he treats you like that famous Midwest convenience store, Kum & Go, then you have to let Kyle know you won't be the other woman. Either you accept sex on Kyle's terms or you change the terms, those are your options. Again, the mature, responsible way to handle things.

So here is the interesting angle right now. Will suspects that Scott Slater is Lark. Does Will have the right to tell Jeff he thinks his father is alive? What if he talks to his father and Brad tells him, "you can't tell Jeff". I think a lot of people think that would be an easy answer. But what if JP and Stef ask him to not tell Jeff? Is it Will's call to make? (at 14 years old) I get that Will is mature for 14.... looks acts like 18 yada yada, but even at 18 you really don't have all the answers in life yet. When will Will figure out what the Rolling Stone's already knew, "You Can't Always Get (Do) What Ya Want"?

One more of piece of the Paternity puzzle falls into place. Now all we need is for the chick from the rafting trip to announce she is preggers to close the loop I am bummed at the loss of the Shane character because I thought he'd be a good partner for Will in a future story. And to be clear, Shane's suicide wasn't a "gay teen" suicide, but a "molested teen" suicide. Interesting turn on Jeff's paternity and who is taking bets on how long it takes for Will to hook up with the new assistant? I'll makes my comments in the Forum on what Will should/will do thinking Lark is Scott Slater. I see Kyle and Tony as completely different types of guys. Kyle is someone just coming out and is a kid just turned loose the candy store. Tony is someone struggling with the identity at all, not just coming out, but the orientation itself.

I feel like we won't see much of Wade & Matt next story..... I feel like it was a goodbye until a future CAP story where Wade is 35....

1) Austria-Hungary 2) Rhodesia 3) Belgium Congo 4) Burma 5) دَوْلَتِ عَلِيّهٔ عُثمَانِیّه

It isn't men commenting on "women's games", John McEnroe can comment very knowledgeably and credibly on the Ladies' Singles Championship, just as Martina Navratilova could on the Gentleman' Singles Championship. It is sports that are exclusive to one gender. Michael Phelps would have zero credibility with me in commenting on Synchronized Swimming (which isn't a sport to begin with). Sports are not pretty straight forward, especially at the highest levels. There are all kinds subtleties and nuances and unwritten rules that the uninitiated, those who have not played at that highest level, just don't understand no matter how much you read books or watch tapes or talk to those who have played it, they just will not get. It is why all the NFL broadcast teams pair the play by play (someone who doesn't need any special or insides knowledge) with a former NFL player.

Gee maybe it was standing on a chair and screaming at the top of your lungs until your face turned red and the muscles in your neck bulged: Or maybe this: You act as if the "thirst for knowledge" can only be exhibited and accomplished in a formal university setting or that the thirst for knowledge has to be pursued in that setting. Then there was this. Okay now granted I don't know what that word esoteric means, I think it is one of those fancy foreign words, but I was always told to use context to decipher meaning so I am going to guess "esoteric" means "completely useless" because when I substitute "completely useless" for esoteric in the sentence above, it makes a lot of sense. Will is a 14 year old and all I've really seen him pursue is cock, alcohol and drugs. He does his homework and wants to do well on it, but so far we have no idea why. He has never, ever that I remember mentioned any kind of interest in anything career wise. I don't recall him wanting to be a "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, or a cowboy, policeman, jailer, engine driver, or a pirate chief". Maybe he once mused on being a psychologist, but I don't remember. What exact field of study has Will exhibited this "thirst for knowledge" in? And what is an "academic", the noun? Here is what Webster has to say. I think #2 does describe Brad because it is his background and his outlook and I think it effects his methods. One characteristic I see in people who like to be in control is never looking stupid; it might be okay to be ignorant for a while, but not long. So when Brad went from being a mere investor in a defense contractor who looked at financials to actually being responsible for running the company I think based on all we've seen about him he does have a thirst for knowledge, but now it is about manufacturing processes, research & development and other aspects now related to his job. When Brad was strictly an investor he still had to have the thirst for knowledge exhibited by his pouring over company research and financials from Hoover, Russell, Mercer, etc in addition to his in-house research staff. He wasn't going to read the esoteric (remember the definition) Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis on how Russell, Mercer, et al get to their numbers, but he does need the information to form judgements. CEO's don't read esoteric journals to get knowledge, but they have to acquire knowledge in a great many areas to be successful.

Are you a student still? Maybe you just don't get it? Do you think the only place you grow as an "academic" is in school? That in a college is the only place that knowledge expands? Most people who work hard in high school and then college are doing so so they can get a great job and make something of themselves. Do you have any idea how much reading a CEO has to do to stay on top of what is going on? How many subjects he needs to an expert on? Any idea how much new knowledge Brad had to acquire to run a large defense contractor? JP knows a shitload about French Imperialism, but do think he knows dank about production lines, supply chains, labor negotiations, resource allocation, right sizing a company, long term strategic planning and all they myriad things a CEO is responsible for? In the safe world of academia you can be a complete f-up and last for ever in your job. In the business world if you are complete f-up you might fool people for a while, but you can't fool them forever. Not even being a huge success in one business doesn't mean you'll be successful in another. Don't forget Apple fired Steve Jobs. It took him a while to figure it out.

Canadian fields have to be larger in case moose wander onto the field during a game.

I don't mind women commenting on sports they played, especially they played at a high level. Cheryl Miller is great at basketball commentary, Brandi Chastain is great on soccer, but women in American football just sound unnatural because they don't have the credibility of a Troy Aikman, Tony Boselli or Phil Simms et al..

Okay serious now. I think sometimes you forget that it is Mr. Arbour who is writing this story and that he chooses to emphasize in his stories what is important to him and moves his story forward. We have been following Brad for 39 years now, but we only see 10 and 15 minute vignettes of him and not always through his POV, but often someone else's POV that Mr. Arbour has created. Mr. Arbour does a marvelous job in telling his story they way he wants to tell it. That Mr. Phillips choose to emphasize different points is his stylistic and artistic choice.

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The best part of the commercial was its lack of punch. The very matter of fact way he dismissed her implication that he was hitting on her was so smooth.

First to the topic, being gay does not being promiscuous, being a male means being promiscuous. The difference between straight men and gay men is that straight men have to work much harder to get laid. I don't know if straight men have apps like Grindr and Jac'd, but I am pretty sure they don't use them the same way gay men do because I spend a lot of time in both communities. At some point most straight men get married and that slows downs their promiscuousness even more. Gay men traditionally have had no such stop point in their lives. I know a lot guys in their 40's & 50's who go out on the prowl every weekend and even if guys are not at a bar or club they are always on the make, whether it is at church or a Gay Pride committee meeting or a volleyball tournament, they are looking for opportunities and I am not talking a few guys, but probably more than 50%. And most of them are normal, well adjusted guys with good jobs. Maybe it is different in Mississippi where you don't have the same culture that you do in LA and San Francisco, but this is my observation in those cities and WDC, ATL and NYC, the other cities I've spent considerable time in. And therein lies the tragedy. I know two guys, 23 and 25, who've become positive in the last 6 months because they felt the same way. Since they didn't (don't) see it, they assume it is gone or no longer an issue. The drugs today are so much better that you can mask the disease easily. Everyone under 30 ought to read the link KC posted. Here it is again HIV Incidence - CDC Here is a sobering quote from that Fact Sheet.

Another good chapter. Will is making friends, building a base and that is nice too, but I think he had good friends at H-W, but maybe he didn't recognize it. There was a point after the raft trip when Will kind of shut himself down and out. I don't know if you changed the direction of the story mid-stream or if you had always planned on Will transferring to Menlo, but after the raft trip, even with getting busted Ryan and Will were kind of the King Shits of their class. It was Will that caused the separation not his friends. We also never saw any of Will's Malibu friends. He had to have them, he is an affable kid and even if it were only the neighborhood kids or the surf crew, these would have been guys and girls he'd known his whole life.

This review covers the last three or so chapters. The story is interesting and taken a turn. I can't quite say I get the introduction of the Cody character or how he'll tie into the rest of the story. As to Det. Fleming and pushing a Commonwealth Attorney to do anything.... ain't gonna happen, Commonwealth Attorneys don't listen to detectives on how to present cases or what charges to bring given how far the grade of a detective is below that of a Commonwealth Attorney. Commonwealth Attorneys look at the evidence and don't file anything until they are sure they have a solid case, otherwise they have very short careers in the state as they hold elective office and bad publicity never helps. Given that a lot of other detectives were at the crime scene and Fleming wouldn't have the opportunity to alter it, even if he wanted to, the physical evidence would pretty quickly eliminate JT as a suspect. Even if someone had attempted to clean up the scene, it would be obvious that such a clean up had been attempted. As to an article of clothing being found at a crime scene, that would be a laugher to crime scene investigator in the absence of any other evidence (fingerprints, fluids, hair, etc). All that aside, the story is still fresh and interesting and I appreciate the effort, writing is never easy.

So I am way behind here because when the story took a break for a couple of months it lost my attention, I am used to the fast pace posting of Mr. Arbour and I am easily distracted. So I haven't read the following on chapters yet, but continue to think letting the boys go on a camping trip when they still have enemies isn't necessarily the greatest idea..... but I guess I'll find out shortly. As to the adoption of Joey, before that can be contemplated a judge would need to revoke Joey's parent's parental rights, not just custodial rights. I gather you weren't too happy with auswombats review, but the comments were meant to be helpful. It is hard to grow and learn as an artist if you only have people blowing smoke in your keester. I appreciate the effort and look forward to the next chapters so I can catch up.

I'm a little bummed that Noah isn't gay, but I like the idea of Will having a straight friend and the idea of kids being friends with lots of people and not hanging in cliques, the gays in one group, the band kids in another, the jocks, the soc's (as in 'socials') and so on. I do hope there is a little drama left

Fatherhood and parenting are interesting things. When you are a kid your parents are your whole world, they are this omniscient presence and you assume they are these special people who know everything and how to do everything and how to handle every situation. When you grow up and get kids of your own you come to realize that your parents are just people, they might be special to you still, but it in the big global scheme, they are just ordinary people with fears and insecurities and hopes and dreams who muddled through raising you as best they could. They didn't always do things right, but they did what they thought was right at the time given the circumstances and based on their beliefs and experience. When you get kids of your own and you need to do some parenting you look for a book on your bookshelf and there isn't one, you go to Wikipedia and it doesn't have any answers, you might talk to other parents who are peers or ask your parents, but that is when you have time. When you are there in the situation and you need to make a decision right now and there are no resources to help you, no one to ask, you just have to do what you think the right thing is and hope it is the right thing. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. The hard part of being the kid on the other end is, if you think your parents don't understand you, you really don't understand them. They've been in your shoes before, they get a little bit of where you are coming from, but you don't have any empathy for them because you have no idea what it is like to be a parent, to love your kid so much, but be so frustrated with them. As the kid at some point you shift from 'your parents know everything' to 'your parents don't know anything'. It is hard being the parent when that transformation happens. You just hope that at some point they come back around and figure out you are just a person like them. I think that is what Paternity has been about.