Andrew Q Gordon

Okay while this is not a video and it is not contemporanious to the story, any chance the boys knew any of these kids? Harvard-Westlake (Calif.) High is expected to be one of the best baseball programs in the nation, if not the best altogether. I just happened on this article while reading about dkstories's obsession [one of mine too, but a distant second to Soccer.]

Dave, Thanks for stopping by to leave a review/comment here. Glad you liked it. I think in someways I might have made Jordan too cliched. I was going for stupid rich kid who always got his way as opposed to just flat out evil. In my mind, Jordan blamed Peter for Jason 'turning gay'. He didn't want to attack Jason directly because they'd been friends forever, but also in his mind, getting rid of Peter would 'force' Jason back to his old friends. Maybe that was too cliched as well. But it worked for the story if you hated him, that was my goal, especially for this story. Thanks for reading this too. Andy

Nah, being a dad has left me with a new sense of serenity - - - --- yeah forget that shit, Method, didn't ever hear the bit about not poking the caged lion with a stick? Once you rile it up, watch out. Not that I'm into steel cage death matches mind you. I'll leave those to Mel Gibson.

Chapter 28 is posted. Have a look see if you care. I will warn you, I might leave you on a wee bit of a cliff, just a little, really Good thing I waited until after y'all could nominate me for King of Cliffs

Thanks B-Man

K.C. Sorry didn't see this before now, many congrats, well deserved. So are you going to use a real photo on the book jacket or are you gonna stick with the muppet?

Thanks for the comments, some chapters were harder to write than others, mainly because trying to get the emotions right is sometimes difficult for me. Glad to hear I got it right in this chapter

Dave, Winning the Reader's Choice Award is what motivates me to try to write more. But unless and until writing starts funding the baby's college or wedding fund, I've been asked to scale it back a bit. I think that might chance in a month or so when Mike goes back to work and we hire a nanny, but even then, I think the top of my 'need to do' list is spending time with Baby Q. Another thing I learned from Purpose is that I don't want to post until the story is done. Second Shot was mostly done when I started writing so I was able to post that without many periods of inactivity. Purpose had several lengthy pauses along the way. At times I felt I lost momentum and readers. I've also found that there are a few stories on here that authors started, got me hooked and have abandoned them or more to the point completely disappeared leaving stories only partially finished. It's one of the reasons I rarely start something that isn't finished. Some authors I exempt from that Mark A, Cia, Renee, Comic, Nephy come to mind as authors who always finish what they start posting. Most if not all of them only post stories that are already completed. That is what I aspire to. That said, I have nothing ready to post right now, so I envision a long lull before I'm ready to post another story just by necessity of not having anything to post Whew, that was rambling. Got the day off to run errands so I better go before Mike has to go run his. Thanks as always and fear not, I'm not going anywhere Andy

Can I debate this with you as a reader who only has what you've written to go by? Chartley - I got a very different take from him. My sense was/is that he is reserved and loyal and will only give his 'heart' or feelings to those he expects to return the affection. I didn't get the sense that this was 'just' a friendship. Maybe that is a bad perception. Maybe he only has a very select few friends and thus any friendship with 'benefits' would by necessity be one where he 'loved' that person. I just took from his character that his feelings for George were way beyond just friends. I'm not saying his feelings for George were out of character, though I don't know that I accept there isn't a bit of Bridie displacement here. He clearly loved Berdie and George must remind him terribly of Albert. Given George's personality and nature, it's easy to see why Chartley would love him already. George - I don't think he rushes into infatuation and calls it love. I say this because you've written numerous times where he's done soul searching about his feelings for Travers, Calvert, Cavendish etc. To me, St. Vincent, has been a bit of a change for him, an evolution of sorts, not good or bad, just an evolution. Where before he was quick to have fun then realize he'd developed strong feeling for someone, here he seems to lurch from 'love' to 'love'. I also see that he was very lonely this trip. Before he always had someone 'special' to have time with. Then Kerry shows up and he's been lonely. Not without sex, just without a significant person to be emotionally connected to. I never got the sense Kerry was his type or that he 'loved' Kerry, but then when Kerry shows up, he filled a void. When he 'left' to fuck Sommers, that brought a return of the void and that pissed him off. My take was when they returned to 'civilization' George would realize he wasn't 'in love' with Kerry. He was just sort of a place holder. Now Chartley is a return to the Travers type figure for George. A steady, mature, handsome, (fat dicked top - since this is an Arbour story, that is important ) man. Someone who isn't younger, subordinate, under his command etc. After Travers, George was the mature, older. wiser. more experienced half of every love pairing he had. Chartley gives him a chance to let go of being in charge for for a change. I think that's a common trait among those who are in command outwardly and always taking care of others they sometimes desire someone to take care of them in their personal/romance/sexual lives. SO here too, George's action are easy to understand. Your comment on shortened lifespan is interesting as is periodically accurate. In current times, even people in the closet are 'out' and about. The internet makes it much easier for those in the closet to find others they're attracted to. I imagine before the net, it must have been harder for those not out enough to go the bars etc. They'd cruise known areas now and then and probably end up 'settling' for whomever they 'found' That is probably similar to this period. Men were not 'out.' How could they be when being a sodimite meant being hung - as Ramsey would have been if he didn't do it to himself. So the idea of finding someone, especially someone like George, would be something you didn't toss aside lightly. Okay rambled on enough. Take that Protagonist of the Year Congrats Mark- well deserved.

Well since I'm talking to myself, let me tell myself that I've finished Purpose. The last 4 chapters are with Anyta for Beta reading then off to Jian and Frosty for editing. Final count: Chapter 30 basically ends the story. Chapter 31 is a journal entry - Epilogue wraps things up. My posting plan is now set: March 1 Chapter 28 March 8 Chapter 29 March 15 Chapter 30 March 18 Chapter 31 March 22 Epilogue. I suppose I could post 31 and the Epilogue together on March 22, but I figured I'd keep them separate for a bit of dramatic effect Purpose will be the last story I post on GA for some time. Sadly, I don't have the time to write like I used to so let me say it's been fun and I hope to come back with something sooner than later. Andy

Thanks Jan

ACK !!! CJ, the next Queen has spoken, all bow to her glorious cliffyness.

As the co-chair of Cia for Queen of Cliffs, I can say the answer is no CJ did NOT want to win. I've learned in my time that there is a tradition at GA that no one wants to be King(or Queen) of Cliffs. And that authors campaign for someone else. Alas CJ and I failed in our campaign, but we are resolute in our quest to see this award go to the most deserving member of this community. Cia. This despite the dirty tricks of someone who change poor CJ's banner against his wishes earlier today. With such a stacked deck, it's no wonder we didn't win, but there is always next year.

I'm with Rilbur on this. Ravi seems like a douche, who thinks he needs to 'prove' he's cool - that was my take reading an indepth article on both him and Tyler - but I don't think he was being malicious, I think he was doing this to prove how 'fun' or 'cool' or 'smart' or whatever in being ableto catch his roommate having sex on film, ala American Pie - "Look at me. See, I recreated that funny shit from American Pie with my roommate." That's what I see from this. That Tyler was gay, was just what he was working with. Even though he made tweets and posts etc about Tyler being gay, there wasn't anything presented that shows he was hating on him. I still believe this was just a college prank motivated by a need to draw attention to himself, not to attack Tyler for being gay. Maybe the fact that Ravi was going to be showing 'two dudes' kissing might have made the footage more unique or interesting to others, but that wasn't a product of hate as much as drumming up interest in the prank he was doing. IDK, maybe I'm totally off base on this, wouldn't be the first time, that's for sure.

Mark, I'm a few reviews behind, I'll catch up later, but you've been posted fast and furious. I wondered about Berdie since the oil baths in India, so this sort of confirms my suspicions. Seems he isn't opposed to it for political gain and now he's not opposed to it with his BFF if he can write it off as a drunken rut. Chartley is interesting in many ways. My sense from how you've written him is that he is a much more loyal person - lover wise - than George, or at least Goerge at this time in his life. He is also going to be a bit dangerous for George if George doesn't change his ways. Meaning, Peter isn't Travers or Calvert or Cavendish men in the Navy who understand separation and subcribe to the 'sailor in every port' life - not to say any of them had near as many 'loves' as George, but they were/are able to compartmentialize their feelings. George is at sea, so I diddle with the Duke of Clarences son. George is on another ship so I'm going to sleep with one of my officers, etc. Chartley seems to be more reserved and less oportunistic. Now, here's something I'm sort of scratching my head over - people seem to fall in 'love' a lot at the drop of a hat. Chartley barely knew George and only 'knew' him once, before the last chapter and is now in love with George. I'd have a hard time believing there is a lot of Berdie displacement if I were George. But back to the love issue. Three days ago, George loved Kerry and was upset that Kerry was now in 'love' with Sommers. He's loved a lot of people very fast, but Chartley is the quickest I think. Just seems that for a group of Sodimites who were trying to keep things on the DL, they are falling in love awful fast. But that could just be me.

Day after Christmas and you're out with no coat on and you're bitchin about the wind? Nice picture, Matt - though my thought was your cousin was covering his nose because of something you did, not him, but Y_B knows more than me I suppose.

Happy Birthday - andmany more to come!

Way to go Billy!!!!! Congrats on the Award!! Of course now we expect great things for you now - no pressure

Thanks Steve, too bad my campaign to save poor CJ failed

So I've bee trying to post these pictures in the story, but I didn't figure it out in time. The building in Chapter 27 is real, I remember passing it thinking how it would work well in the story. So here they are, except these are in day light: The second picture shows the Park Regency Hotel that 'Will' used to get away.

Second Dave's congrats - this was truly deserving on many levels. Good to see you get recognized for your good writing KC

Dave, Thank you and everyone else who voted for me. I appreciate all the support and encouragement along the way. I hope that if I ever get published, they give me enough space to write a proper dedication to you and everyone else. Thanks again. Andy

Aw Matt, there you go stirring things up again Actually I find this hard to label a hate crime, but probably not for the reasons expressed here. Basically the viewing party, the video taping what was criminal and he deserves to be punished, and yeah, his life might be messed up for a dumb prank, but guess what, he still has his life, Tyler doesn't. But calling this a hate crime sort of flies in the face of things for me. The connection between the two is he committed a criminal act that had at it's root a bias issue - Tyler being gay. But when we look at these things, you also have to intend the consequences, that is what we call general vs specific intent. Did Ravi intend for the harm that happened. So, sure he intended for people to see two dudes making out or whatever, and yeah he intended or had to know it would happen that Tyler would be embarrassed by it, but did he intend those consequences because Tyler was gay. It was very American Pie and there they filmed a straight couple. My take and of course I didn't/haven't heard all the evidence, is that this was a prank as others have said, but it was a crime of opportunity, not bias/hate. Ravi's only roommate was gay, who else was he going to do this to? If it had been a straight roommate, he probably would have done the same thing cause he's a dumbass and thought it would make him seem cooler. Basically he did this to his roommate and his roommate was gay, but the that alone doesn't make it a hate crime. As for an out of control prosecutor, Matt this was indicted by the Grand Jury, not a direct file by the prosecutor. he put this before the jurors and made his argument. Yes I know the saying is you can indict Ice for melting in the summer before a grand jury, but I suspect that isn't the case here. Yes this is high profile, but he could also lose and then what? Not really a good thing to lose the only big case you have had in a decade or more. My guess is he used the grand jury to vet his idea. If the G.J. bought it and returned an indictment, he went forward. Yes there is a bit of grand standing here, but if he was SOO good at getting what he wanted from the G.J. why not charge him with murder or manslaughter or complicit in the death of Tyler. My point being, it had to pass the smell test and the Jurors bought it. But let's also not lose sight of the fact that this incident DID have an impact on Tyler's decision. Maybe not the only reason, but there was a connection. Sweeping it under the rug would be a disserve as well. At least that would be my take if I were the D.A.

Dude how is this? Funny as hell, but totally Self appointed guardian ad litem of the show yourself thread

Thank you for that. This started out as something for a different anthology, then it morphed into something too long for an anthology entry, then it got shelved for a bit and then this part got plucked out. I hope to have time to get to this one sooner than later, but we'll see. I have a real affinity for these two and this 'world' now I need to get it down. Thanks again and happy reading. Andy