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Tenormin is another name for atenolol, a beta-blocker for social anxiety. I think I would know what my own medicine is called.

Thanks everyone! and of course, I only see the error I left in there, lol. Next week is the usual format, not a special ed.

Aw, thank you everyone! I've indeed had a good day. And thanks but no thanks, Carlos, we're plenty warm here in Alaska for October. Bring on the snow!

it's interesting that lesbian relationships are so much more widely accepted than gay ones, no matter the genre. What's up with that? is it that hetero men find it arousing and hetero women are more accepting? I've heard that, but it's likewise interesting how many gay men have horrible relationships with their mothers while maintaining ok ones with their fathers. I wonder if there are any statistics on that...

Want to see a particular person in the Ask an Author segment? Simply pose a question! Easy as pie. The hardest part for me is fitting them all in!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks! I have a few more of these in my back pocket, but I haven't stopped accepting questions and would especially like some directed toward our newer authors.

Cassie and i are the same age and I recall things like she mentions. I have two younger brothers and they're both Millenials. I never felt like the traits of Gen X or Millennials fit me, so I find the articles interesting. I loved the Oregon Trail! My 6th grade classroom was the first one to have a computer in the room. We had a long-term project that year, involving role-playing that all of us students were part of a wagon train. We got placed into groups that were our wagon "families" and had to write journal entries about the challenges our teacher would set for us. Like, your wagon lost a wheel, what do you do? Or so-and-so broke his ankle, how do you react. Our teacher was super-short, just like me, and this project was only one reason I idolized her. I was super-disappointed when she got married at the end of the school year.

I think I might have a reason to visit Texas now!

For most of us, you just have to try it out. Have two windows open, one to the help article and one to your personal 'add story' page and work through it. It really is straight-forward once you get started.

Oops, Addy, my apologies. Thought I'd figured out your birthday properly!

Oh, sad! It's the end of an era .... I may not have been alive when they aired, but my mother collected all the seasons on VHS back when Next Gen was big and we watched them until the tapes wore out. So great!

LOL. Nice.

A repeat read is a great compliment indeed. Thank you. I did have a brief snippet about these two at one time, but the story didn't speak to me. Perhaps one day.

I'm glad the story was able to stir some emotions. Thanks for reading.

Talking to some folks today ... Fairbanks dipped below $4 a gallon this past week. Here in rural Alaska, I filled up the school's six-wheeler side-by-side ATV for $6.50, which is pretty cheap by the standards here. Almost makes me nostalgic for the days I spent an hour and a half one-way commuting to work via bus and metro.... Almost.

no 80's nostalgia? What do you call all the Brat Pack movies being released as special editions? Or the remake of Red Dawn (which was totally lame).

While in Anchorage over Christmas, the price for gas dipped below $3/gal, the lowest it's been in longer than I remember. My mom used her gas points at a Fred Meyer's and paid just over $2/gal, which she bragged about for days. The state of Alaska is in a financial crisis, because they agreed to a state budget when oil was going for $150/barrel and now with it plummeting past $50/barrel, they don't know how they're going to pay for that budget. it's all anyone can talk about at the moment. Funny when I think back and remember paying 99 cents/gallon in college and now $3/gal seems cheap.

Thanks! I try to make them fun and interesting.

Yes, the 'joe' is referring to what Ben called Rick at the bar: "G.I. Joe." I'm so glad you enjoyed the story; being ranked up there with Second Shot gives me a happy feeling.

Man, after a crappy weekend, this is just what I needed! Thank you everyone.

This story incorporates a lot of cliches. And it was totally fun to do. I like that you mentioned the hand; it was one of my favorite bits of imagery, reminded me of those etch-a-sketches from childhood, but I was really going for a Matrix reference...

I love that saying! Thanks for brightening up my evening!

My advice is to do the one thing I'm failing at doing right now: make the time. Find some time during the day to write and just write, even if you throw it out the next day. It's like I have to tell my struggling readers: if you don't practice reading, you'll never get better. Great athletes don't get good at their sport without practicing; likewise, writers can't improve if we don't write.

I have always loved to write dialogue and I really got to play with this in the Phantom. Painting a picture of a character through their words or actions is something I feel like I do well. I've done the 'looking-in-a-mirror-describing-myself thing and felt horrible awkward doing it. I'm like that in person, too. Like, I describe my friends and family by who they are, not what they look like, and it comes out this way in my writing as well. I have often found myself lost for words (however briefly) when asked, "yeah, but what does he(she) look like?" To me, I guess that part doesn't matter so much, unless it's an unusual feature that sticks out. It's both a blessing and a curse, because I've had readers do both, on one hand thanking me for leaving room to imagine what somebody looks like and on the other complaining that they never know what anyone looks like. I dunno, it just feels foreign to me to say, "he's 6 ft 2 in and 200 lbs with brown hair and eyes and a mustache." It's way more comfortable to say "he's about the most laid-back person I know, smiling and throwing jokes around, playing like someone half his age." So, that's the way I write.