J.T.

I'm reading The Script by Carl... about half way through

Yeah from what I've seen he generally gives Premium users the incomplete story while he's writing so people who pay are hooked on to the story and gets grumpy first, and then when it's done it gets moved over to his public site where the rest of us may enjoy the full story without waiting. In some ways I'd thought it'd be the other way around considering you're now getting a free final product instead of paying for partial work and delays, but I understand why it's done that way. It's just best to let Dan get his own pace in writing and then wait for the whole thing to come out Or else we might have another Dawn of Tears ending when he gets pissed. don't kill me Dan.

I read You and Me in 5 hours... It was really warming.

I lied, in an effort to sneak myself a preview of what Frosty recommended to me, I decided to read the first chapter of You and Me by Carl DaVinci and then by the time 6AM rolled around I had finished the last chapter and I saw the sun peaking out as it started to burn off the overcast and fog from overnight. As I sit here typing, I feel groggy, yet comforted at yet another author surprises me with a super short but super powerful story. to Frosty for recommending yet another amazing story to me. You are now the cause of many sleepless nights, and I am thankful. Anyways, back to the story: You and Me by Carl DaVinci ~ https://www.gayauthors.org/story/carl-davinci/youandme I was very glad that the identical twins didn't get involved with each other... especially since I just finished with Working It Out. I just felt I needed a break from sibling relationships for a while, even if they were adoptive siblings. The story showed distinctly how a child's upbringing made it possible to take different paths in sexual orientation, even if they are biologically identical. The home situation was especially heart breaking in the beginning, while the cynicism around Jeremy was a focus for the story ~ how to refine his cynical personality to a more neutral more happy outward person by letting love in. In some respects, I kind of wanted to see if Jack would make an attempt to not only mend ways with Nathan, but develop a deeper relationship as old times, perhaps even more. While that would cause a identical twin love triangle, it would definitely bring out an age-old question of whether to choose the twin Nathan fell in love with in the beginning or the one he settled with instead. While I agree the ending to the story brought out a hopeful wrap-up to the plot, the short story had definite wiggle room to expand to the future. And I sincerely hope that Carl will be able to take the plot further down the road. This has been the shortest series I've read on GA, mainly because I don't read short stories too often, but this was the perfect evening reading to get myself tied up before I let myself go to sleep. While I will regret not sleeping last night, I sincerely enjoyed this heart moving story and only hope that my story writing skills will be even 10-20% of what these authors are capable of writing. In time, I hope to develop my story writing skills to a relatively respectable level (above 5th grade adjectives I hope lol) and be able to publish more polished works in the future.

Next up on my reading list is: http://www.gayauthors.org/story/carl-davinci/youandme

Again, thanks Frosty for this wonderful recommendation

So, I finally got a chance to finish the entire Working It Out saga. I really enjoy the last novel, as a shift from the main characters began to occur starting from Book 2, and extended even more so in Book 3. A lot more emphasis was placed on the extended family members, even pursuing the majority of some of the chapters on these side characters instead of just focusing on Mike and Matt. This was an interesting approach since I've always commented on some of the other works I've read here on GA that the minor characters did not have enough plot development for my tastes. While I enjoyed the general progression of the plot, by Book 3 it seemed like Don had somewhat lost a sense of direction of where the story should go. A quick revival of an nemesis from a previous book decidedly became the main plot and a twist that did not finish until the very last chapter. Don Hanratty had a great plot which he could most likely extend the book another 3 chapters, but he decided to wrap the entire story, all of the characters, and randomly fast forwarded the timeline by a couple decades in the span of a few paragraphs. It felt like the ending was quite forced, but at least DH did a good job wrapping everything up. I sincerely hope that the story can continue, because it definitely can, as Book 4 can just take the last chapter and somewhat expand on the details a bit more. Just how Matt and Mike raises the kids, how Josh and Chris get along, etc etc can go a long way. Thank you Don for another wonderful story, and I look forward to reading Beloved after I begin writing my own story. I encourage you to spend the time to read Working It Out. It is a long story, but the story pace goes so fast you won't even realize it by the time you finish reading the first book, and by then you're hooked http://donh.gayauthors.org/working-it-out/index.php

Indeed I can't wait to get started on Book 3. I am sure I'm not going to sleep much tonight because I'll be reading Book 3 on my phone until I doze off... then reread all of the sections I missed over in the morning for effect. Yes, Book 2 was that good.

Working It Out Book 2 was a great read - and excitingly picks up right off from where Book 1 ended, which some authors sometimes decide to move the timeline forward quite a bit to introduce enough uncertainty to introduce new characters, new settings, and new conflicts without opening up questions to why the conflicts did not occur in the previous novel. Don did a spectacular job in making sure that the plot progressed just as quickly as Book 1. I loved the plot, and it gave me the long awaited "ending" I have been looking forward to reading in a long, long time. One relationship I would have hoped that Don pursue before was to pursue what happened between Arnie and Sean, if there were any developments or how they grew apart. While keeping up with the novel, I like the contrast that not everybody in the character list somehow find inseparable love, but I would have liked to see why they were or were not meant to be. I can't wait to get started with Book 3. I'm guessing since DonH hasn't released more books to this novel that this will unfortunately be the last novel I will read for this Saga, which is extremely unfortunate. I hope there's a good reason for it, and I sincerely hope that I can enjoy the rest of this saga soon. Again, if you didn't read the first post, Don Hanratty's Working It Out can be found at: http://donh.gayauthors.org/working-it-out/index.php And yes, I will read Beloved next. I read the first line in of Beloved, and I found it is not a plot continuation of Working It Out, so I know I need to prepare myself for this.

Cia

Working It Out by Don Hanratty's a great, fast paced novel that took me through a series of roller coasters along the ride. I just finished Book 1 (of 3) and I must say it was a great novel. I have to admit that the novel's speed was a bit too quick for me, as in before I could get any time to really realize what's going in the surroundings, the scene changes and you're shocked by the next series of events that happen in the plot. There is no "plateau" where things just randomly settle down for some time and then *boom* - it's just a constant chain and waves of *boom boom boom* you can't slow down, you can't react, you just keep reading. There were typos... some more major than minor, such as in Chapter 11 when uh... wait.... that threw me off quite a bit until I kept rereading the paragraph until it made sense. Other than some of the more liberties that the author took to somehow many every single one of his plot twists believable because every single one of them are just as unbelievable as the previous one, it has an interesting take to how the author forces the reader to consistently twist their brains in such a way that the plot twists are never "expected" or "storybook". However, the foreshadowing of "not being able to have kids via conventional methods" definitely came to mind especially at the end of Book 1. I'm starting Book 2 now. I can definitely get used to this Great job Don H. http://donh.gayauthors.org/ ---- In other news, I have a few ideas for a novel of my own, which are spread out from a weird "40 year old virgin" story for a gay guy... a high school gay romance that forces both to take on fake straight lives... a city boy/country cowboy romance... I just hope that when the time comes I don't get too much writer's block - and it doesn't read like a messy third grader's scribbled text.

Yeah that's what I figured. I think what I'll end up doing is that I'll first work on my own writing style by writing my own story and see where/how it takes me. Once I have a style I want to do work with, I'll work on permission and the rest afterwards. The ideas are there, I just don't know what I want to do in terms of "living up to expectations"... Thanks for the info and I'm definitely going to work on getting my first story's ideas down first before I post again

Viv, Thanks for a great story. The ending was just perfect and I can say that I have enjoyed every single second reading this series - and worth the sleepless nights I spent reading instead of sleeping on my bed reading on my phone. Thank you thank you thank you thank you! I saw that the likelihood of a sequel is unlikely, but I would enjoy some sort of spin-off if that's possible within the realm of characters in FBTE. I think it's doable and could provide an even deeper back-story for FBTE and give a bit more insight. Please keep writing, this has been a wonderful few days and I wish I can read more of your work in the future! ~Jay

But I want to start writing some alternative endings to certain stories I've read - not anyone in particular... just go along and see what I can come up with. Anyone got pointers on where I should go to start posting chapters when I'm ready?

I wanted to wait until the novel was finished before I started reading, but I couldn't resist... and now I wait as well. I want to see how this story progresses and I really hope that it's got many more chapters to go. Thanks for 18 great chapters so far, I can't wait for more Duncan, in your description you said that if you are able to move someone... well consider me waaaaaaaaaaaaaay moved ever since Chapter 1 of EW. Please keep up the good work!

Next up: http://donh.gayauthors.org/working-it-out/index.php

heh and they told me i read too slow

Everybody's Wounded, by Duncan Ryder, is an award winning story here on GA. Link: http://duncanryder.g...org/stories.php This story was a very complicated yet refreshing love story - yet to describe the story with mere words like intimate, intense, shocking... all just sounds too bland to properly give a description as to the powerfulness of how DR presented the novel. I think Duncan Ryder has brought me outside of the realm of dkstories finally and I think I'm going to begin moving towards other hosted authors here on GA. I can't wait until How the Light Gets In is finished so I can begin reading it. I want to thank Frostina for recommending me to read Duncan Ryder... and I wanted to thank Duncan Ryder for writing the story... he made me want to live in Canada even though I don't like the cold sometimes... props to him.

You stole the post content right out of my mouth. I was recommended to read this story after going into GA chat yesterday and I managed to finish the story this morning at 4am. I can't wait until HTLGI is done so I can read it. (I can't bear waiting by the chapter, so I'll wait until it's done) Thank you for a great novel, I loved it.

Why would he die if he can regrow body parts? What happened to their respective circles? Why or how was James Jacobs killed by a nuclear bomb? Who initiated Rebuilder if Jacobs Sr was killed? What went wrong in the government that warranted it to be thrown over? Why was Dylan secluded off from the public? Why the ending?! I'm pissed, but this isn't a gripe, these are more like questions for Dan so he could perhaps get an idea and work on a better Chapter 33 or start a sequel altogether. Thanks for another series, Dan!

OH WHAT?!?! You call /that/ an ending?! oh come on... Okay I'm done with Dawn of Tears now... grrrrr

I actually understood what was posted... and find it awkward

I've read 28 chapters of Dawn of Tears and so far I've loved it as much as I've loved the first Do Over novel. Although I really would have liked the specifics to be a little more consistent along the storyline, from simple things like calling Dylan's jet first a 797 and then a 787 to more important details along the plot, I really would had a better time reading if the story text was better edited and reviewed. I wonder if people could help Dan edit these stories and republish them? There are five chapters left and I'm not sure if I'll like the ending, but at least /so far/ there weren't as many plot holes or flaws with the delivery of the plotline to justify an ending quite yet. I really hope I enjoy the last few chapters. As a musical compliment: last time when I read Do Over I said that Inception Soundtrack played over a loop syncs up perfectly... For Dawn of Tears, although it doesn't sync up perfectly, I've found that the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 soundtrack also does a pretty good job with getting the story synced up sometimes (All 10.7 hours worth of game soundtrack ) Dawn of Tears, by dkstories, may be found here: http://dkstories.gayauthors.org/dawn/

Thanks Myr, I'll keep that in mind

I was going to see if I could help Dan fix some of the typos in his various stories... but I think that'd be almost like putting down a god