PrivateTim

My first thought on 'no girls aloud' was the amazing Welsh choir, Only Boys Aloud, which remains one of my favorite auditions ever on BGT. My other thoughts were about two things that always have bugged me about gay fiction, especially gay youth fiction. One was 'partying', 'getting trashed' and especially when drugs were involved. I can count on one hand the number of times I drank in high school, twice my freshman year, once as a junior and again the summer between my junior and senior years. I didn't even see marijuana until I was in college (Berkeley, so I saw a LOT) and still to this day have never seen coke, even though it was popular in my fraternity house in college. So I wasn't a partier and most of my friends weren't, but some were. The ones that did seemed miserable the day after, and the day after never seemed to quite balance the 'fun' of getting there. The other staple of gay youth literature is the fire-breathing preacher, delivering stem winding sermons on ho-mo-sex-you-al-a-tee. Now seriously, I've been going to church my whole life, 40+ years of sermons I can remember and I've never heard a single sermon where homosexuality was the sole topic. I've heard it mentioned, but it is always part of a list with things like slander, gossip, fornication, etc and homosexuality was never treated as a worse sin. In my moves I've made in my life I've been in a variety of denominations and non-denominational churches, some were even open and affirming churches, but not all. One of my best friends is even a lay reader in his Catholic church, which is probably 20% gay parishioners. I have a cousin who is a deacon in her Episcopal church and her wife has been an elder in the same church. My point is, churches and Christians are not uniformly against gay relationships and in my experience, even the churches that don't approve of gay relationships aren't hateful about it. There are also many shelters for gay youth run by Christian organizations. Okay.... off the Soapbox (even though the Soapbox is sadly gone from GA and turned into a Pit instead).

The format of GA was very different the first time I read this story. I am pretty sure there wasn't a comment section, otherwise I would have commented. We did have a Forum called Domaholics, of which I was a pretty active member. It's nice to see Owen having fun and getting over his shock of how he came to live with his brothers. He definitely has PTSD, I am surprised Chris & Tony didn't get him into therapy. It is also nice to see Owen developing real friendships, 'no man is an island'.

It Started With Brian, Lem, and The Best Little Boy In The World by Andrew Tobias were three big ones for me. They were the three that convinced me, You Are Not Alone.

The ironies of ironies is that in California, gays are victims partly of their own success in societal acceptance and partly because of the Internet. Not just Hillcrest, The Castro, WeHo, Palm Springs, but in Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara, Studio City etc, gay bars and clubs are going away. Guys don't need to drive 60 miles to WeHo or Laguna Beach anymore to meet a guy they can surf the Net from home and meet guys in their own area. They can go to local bars, get on Grindr (is that still a thing?) and find someone in Straightsville.

That was Camilo, as I recall? Sorry it didn't work out. I remember jealous at how cute you two were. I've been gone probably three years too, just because life is busy and I've had less time for pleasure reading. I think I found my way to GA because of Dom Luka, but it could have been because of Mark Arbour. I stumbled on an old work of his, maybe his first and I was led here. I liked the old chatroom. I liked reading stories with characters I could relate to and I liked reading stories with people who had more drama than me in their lives.

The Tower Treasure - I started reading The Hardy Boys when I was around 10 I guess. It me awhile to figure out I was in love with Joe Hardy.

I understand where Owen is coming from. He put himself out there with his best friend Nicky, and as Owen sees it, Nicky abandoned him because of it and his other best friend Anna, was the cause of Owen getting beaten by his father. I am sure Owen feels that because he is gay, that based on his experience, everyone is going to be negative and react badly. So why make friends (like Adam) if you think they will just hate you later. I found this line really interesting: A block away from the apartments I noticed that Aiden was tightening his seatbelt and looked a little nervous A person under 40 maybe wouldn't get that, because it seems like every seatbelt in a car today is the retractable type, there isn't a way to tighten or loosen it. It is a cultural detail they'd miss.

Dom's protagonists are always clueless, self-doubters in the beginning. Please, Rory? Quinn? And now Owen? It's been a very long time since I've read the Lo(n)g Way.... first it was the "Log Way", which really confused us... the Domaholics of the day. Then it was able to be edited somehow, but it came out as above, the Lo(n)g Way and it was finally able to be edited properly in the migration to this software package.

Tony & Chris are using the attack on Owen as leverage against their father. That is how Owen got to move in with them, how Owen got all his possessions and his truck.

Can I hang onto this fantasy I have that Dominic has spent the last 13 years he's been away writing furiously, He's written three sequels to Desert Dropping, finished With Trust and all is right with the world. Dom was so young when he wrote this story, I can only imagine how much better he'd be now, and it is scary because he is already great.

"She was afraid of a lot of things, Rory. Just like you are. But, the one thing she was most afraid of was leaving you. She made peace with that, though. She knew you’d be safe with Eddie. And happy. That’s what she wanted for you, and the only one fighting that is you, and quite frankly, I don’t see why. Do you really want to be on this plane, Rory? Right now, do you?" This was a gem from Alice. The conversations was the classic, you can't go home again. Home isn't where you've been. it is where you are.

34 chapters in and it puzzles you that Rory is stubborn? 😲 Home is "Nevada", but we don't know where. I'd say not Las Vegas since Vegas is pretty much a desert, just like Phoenix and Rory seemed to not understand the desert environment. Reno to Phoenix is a long drive, 11+ hours if you pay attention to the speed limit. Bottom line is, Rory belongs with his father. His grandmother knows it. I think Rory does too, but Rory is stubborn.

I think we all know Rory is staying. It is like a Hallmark movie, you know the guy and girl are going to wind up together, but you watch for two hours anyway to find out how. Who says Alice was uninvited? For all we know Dr. Jase invited her. And again, I can't believe no one talked about the incredibly hot love making session between Rory and Seth. I never even considered anal sex when I was a teen. It just wasn't on my radar; not until my senior year in college. I've always been amazed that there are guys who are 15, 16 or possibly even younger who either know they are bottoms and can't wait for it, or actually have not waited.

I am pretty sure every gay/bi boy falls for his straight best friend that he can't have. If you are lucky as a gay/bi boy you meet guys you CAN be with, but I had friends growing up who ONLY fell in love (lust) with who they couldn't have. They'd ignore the guy who liked them and obsess over the unobtainable.

Really? All anyone can talk about is Aaron, not the incredibly hot, sweet, sensual, erotic, boner producing sex between naked Seth and naked Rory? Completely naked sex is so hot and such a step up from erections sucked through a fly, or a hand job inside your pants. It is the ultimate intimacy and Dom wrote it beautifully.

Rory and Luke aren't cousins, maternal, paternal, anything. Jase and Rory aren't cousins, maternal, paternal, anything. That is one of the lies Rory, and frankly, Jase, were mad at. Since Eddie and Jase are partners, in the gay world of 2005, or so when this story was written and there was no gay marriage, Jase and Eddie considered each other their spouse. In that sense Jase would be Rory's uncle and step dad, and since Luke is the adopted son of both Jase & Eddie, Luke would Rory's brother.

A completely heart wrenching chapter. It was chapters like this that made all the other authors of gay fiction jealous. I know life gets busy and lives change and people move-on, but I so miss your writings Dom. Thank you for such great stories.

So many possible explanations. Maybe Alice, who had just lost her daughter, didn't want to lose her grandson too. Near as I can tell, Rory is all she has and "grandma" Alice can't be that old. If Gina was 16 when Rory was born, how old was Alice? 42? Younger? I like the subtly of Dom's sex scenes.... kind of. I also I'd like to get Mark Arbour to so a Seth-Rory fan fiction sex scene and a Luke-Rory fan fiction sex scene.

Of course Aaron's drama isn't over. But these gays boys in AZ move awfully slow. I'd had oral sex or hand jobs with a dozen guys before I kissed my first guy.

Seth and Rory can't break-up, they aren't dating. If Rory and Luke dated openly, Eddie & Jase would freak. Dom, oh Dom, wherefore art thou.

Because it is too early in the story..... Rory isn't hooked on Seth, there is a slow relationship developing. We are looking into Rory's inner monologue. He has been grievously emotionally wounded. He THOUGHT he reasons to hate Seth, we all experience hyperbole in our own minds. We usually moderate the thoughts when they come out of our mouths. OMG, Luke likes Rory. He's afraid if Rory and Seth start dating, he'll lose his chance with Rory.

Maybe if the people in Rory's life had been more open and honest with him his whole life, not just the last two months and maybe if his mother, hadn't died less than 8 months ago and maybe if it hadn't been a slow, painful cancer death, Rory could be cheerful enough to make you happy.

Seth isn't misunderstood, we really just don't know him. This is the first chapter where we've really seen him. The other chapters have been glimpses. Suffocating? Where has Eddie been suffocating? He has been permissive and lenient beyond belief. If anything, he's been too hands off. Welcome to the party.

Who should have decked whom? (yeah, yeah, I know you said that ten years ago, but gotta ask anyway) Seth is a really good guy, which Rory will figure out eventually.

"I’m serious, too. He’s not interested, trust me." Dun dun duh! Who could it be that Luke is interested in but THINKS he isn't interested in him back. 🤔