LJH

Thank you so much guys. Your greetings are like candles lighting up my life. I would not change that for the world. Hugs all.

Dreams are good friends Mark. They reveal only what is necessary and even nightmates are revealing, telling us things that we need to hear. Showing us things we need to see. Dreams are our own virtual play-ground where we can do things we cannot do in real time. I think this dream released some pent up emotion in you. This dream has given you the ability to be free to explore and has released the child in you. At last. Dreams are truly amazing. Hugs

Rest In Peace Ms Lessing.

Enjoyed. Read twice. Enjoyed again. A surprising end always makes it worth reading. More please.

Hmmm, as seen through the eyes of a straight guy. Different. As in all stories, something must change. Can't wait to find out what that change will be.

I really feel for you in this situation. But it's time for you to move on. You're still young and you can do it. (Well, 47 in my book is young). There is really no way to know exactly what your friend is thinking. `he might be trying to process his own feelings. Stop obsessing over him and stay busy, hang out with other friends. At the moment it might be a little hard but taking a little time out and space could be good for you. This could even lead you guys back to a friendship later. A one sided love affair is not the same as being in love and your love for him is not gonna change his sexual orientation. I suggest you connect with people who give you mental stability. Another way to get over him is to find his faults. In your post there are quite a few already, I mean, no one is perfect and let's be honest, this isn't the movies, it's real life. It may take some time, but in the long run, moving on will serve you well. Hope you find this helpful. Hugs

Mann, you are dead on about finding happiness in bittersweet moments. The great thing about being a writer is that one can be in those moments as and when they occur. I look at your current story and I feel for your protagonist. The pain and the suffering is not so different to death and war. Where do we go from here, well, there are several things that need to be developed. I'm just wondering how Richard will react when he finds out that Colton had the diary. But that's all I'm saying. lol hugs

Wow, you are observant. Is nothing sacred around here? I'm not gonna give anything away except that you should expect a huge suprise in a couple of chapters. There are so many loose ends in this story and all of them need tying up. Glad you are enjoying it, Terry. Hugs

I hope his grief will turn into something good. And yes, peter Hunt needs to be dealt with. And Sue also needs to come clean with Richard. Like, who is his father? Glad you are still with me on this. Hugs

Colton swooned beneath that first kiss. They say that the first kiss is heaven without having magic involved. This was different. It oozed magic. It oozed feeling. It came from the heart. From kiss heaven. Richard’s full lips trembled with each touch. Colton stroked his face and ran his fingers through his hair. Richard's dark eyes remained open for a few seconds before closing. And as they closed, his mouth opened to welcome Colton's searching tongue. Colton pulled away several times

If only there was a ghost taunting every bully. If only. It was an engrossing tale. I liked that you get into the story, and get out of it just as easily. Poetic justice and all. It was a mirror image of the original murder. New people move into the house, son is gay, in the first one there is a bully, and so in the second one who just happens to be the child of the murderer, justice on halloween. I think the only saving grace is that, although Dirk's family is destroyed by this, nothing really happens to Dirk. And you say very little about what happened to him. Or you might think that the story is not about him, but to me he plays a very important role in the going on. Did he leave town? Did his mother become a lesbian? lol. Wait, let me go back and read the ending again. I'll come back, don't go anywhere now Bill.

Shamrock grew in bushels and rustic pots beside the straw-roofed cottage, crept beneath rocks and pebbles, and dotted the landscape. Instead of a wall, hedgerows of feirdhris produced delicate orange and red flowers along the boundary of the property. Wild grass waved in the warm breeze of that first afternoon. A rag-tag broken fence, bent in places, hid in the grass and hedgerow breaks. The path, made from broken slate, curved and meandered like an ox-bow lake through the wild garden. It l

RIP Mr Clancy

Stephanie is a rare talent. She is an explorer. A weaver. An artist. What else can I say about this amazing writer. Lord, so much. I am so glad that I have come to know her, albeit fleetingly. I am addicted to her work. Her recipe for writing brilliantly comes through in her passion for the craft and the story. She is a creator of moods. Like the score of a movie - mood plays in the background, deepening the feelings of the reader. Her work leaves the writer with pertinent messages. In all, she is one of the greatest writers in her field I have ever come across, and that's saying something.

Hey....you caught me by surprise!!!!! Happy Birthday Dave

After having read Stephanie's heartwarming novel about three men consistently intertwined in each other's lives, I paused to consider what I should say in the review. It took just on six hours to read the book. It could have taken four or maybe five hours without interruptions. To say that I was swept away by emotion would be an understatement. To say that Stephanie's characters engaged me in a three dimensional sense would be an understatement. I was transported into Phillip's world and yes, I will admit here and now, I too fell in love with him. I reflected on this beautiful story ahttp://www.gayauthors.org/forums/files/file/48-for-the-heart-of-phillip/nd it didn't take me long to know what I would write in my review. I wanted to write something that other reviewers miss. Now, we all are capable of writing a review. Many of us don't go further than: What a lovely story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't wait to read more. All good. But this is just a comment, not a review. To write a review we must dig deep. Come up with an eloquent discourse of how the story affected the reviewer, touch on characters - how did they make you feel? Settings. Scenes. Climax and anti- climax. Everyone will have a different way of expressing their thoughts and feelings about the story. Then I remember one simple truth: There are readers, and there are reviewers. I am both. But when a story as good, as rich, as fullfilling as For the Heart of Phillip, hooks me, i have no option but to praise the author in ways that other readers or reviewers have missed. I hope you will read the book. I hope you will be transported into the deep. For the full review please visit the eBook page, contemporary fiction. http://www.gayauthors.org/forums/files/file/48-for-the-heart-of-phillip/ I was. And it made my weekend.

Stellar THE FELLA Well done and grats

Please count me in: happy birthday Mr. C

Questions remain unanswered. But do they need to be answered? Is this a rich kid? Why was he kidnapped? Am I really interested in that? Yes, but in this story you need not delve into that. The short answer to my question is no, they don't need to be answered. You have taken a quick snapshot and given it the AD treatment, and I enjoyed the suspense. The way you begin it by using conflictive dialogue, the way the creepies crawled up my spine. Well done.

Just like HP showed up in Rowling's head in a bus and by the time she got home, the story had fully developed in her head and she began to write it. I love that writers can do that. From a reader's point of view this time, I have to say that I enjoyed the story. It left me with a good feeling. However, during the story, I had mixed feelings, from irritation, to laughter, to sadness. That's important. I like to feel for the characters and plot. The part where Colt finds out that Jarred is deaf, made me feel like crawling into my skin. The signing...some of it, was really funny but as Colt got used to the signing, it took on a whole new meaning for me. Jarred's girlfriend really irritated me at first but she grew on me. Her straightforward don't play a game you can't follow through with attitude floored me, in a good way. It's quite brave to follow through on a project like this. You really need to know what you are doing. I guess there was some research, as there should be. I went away from this story feeling satisfied. Thank you for brilliant characters and a sweet, romantic plot.

So these words do have meaning after all lol

Never ever attack the author. I agree 100 percent. Attack the work by all means, and never ever do it in a destructive way. It kills the ink.

Oh yeah. Succinct. You quote Aldous Huxley who wrote a lot of literary fiction dealing with the deep psyche. His novels are complex and deal with universal issues. I guess he would use complex words. A writer who uses complex words is no different from one who uses easy words, both must know how to construct a sentence. Word usage is paramount, because our society likes simplicity, the economy of words is important when writing. Economise by all means, but don't take shortcuts. By that I mean choosing a simple sentence over a complex sentence and ensure it means what you intend it to mean.

Hmm, i know of one body part, not a couple. LOL. Andy, i may have sounded aggressive in this post but no one has angered me at all. I guess i needed to make a point. Clarity and precision. LOL. Rustle, i agree with you. Redundancy is something we should all work on. This goes for any genre, although i am not too sure about redundancy in poetry. Mann, i have read your work and found very few cliches. I am not totally against using cliche, as long as it is original and in context with what is being written. There are enough cliches in pop songs to fill ten thousand written pages. An original cliche is always fun to read. But if the work is painted over with cliche after cliche, then i see a problem. And if the work in itself is a cliche, well, that's just too bad, the writer will need to adjust his thoughts. Jo Ann, in general, i am asking every writer to reconsider his story before sending it off to an editor or a publishing forum, on the net, or otherwise. These words are just the tip of an iceberg and there are thousands more. Thank you all for the fine comments folks

Thanks Cia. I found another Microsoft editing tool, it's called SmartEdit Lite and it is downloaded free of charge. Of course there is a comprehensive version that costs 59 dollars. But the Lite version works and I'm loving it.