AFriendlyFace

LOL! Me too, Jamie! I wonder what's up with that!?

Well said, Tim! Yes, in my experience, as an out young gay guy with out young gay friends most of us have the sense to use condoms or at least none of us have the stupidity to admit to not doing so. The very youngest gay teens first coming out, and gay males who are alienated from gay society definitely seem to be at the greatest risk.

That's sort of exactly what I mean. Someone who knows they are a violent drunk would be more culpable for the actions that getting drunk would lead to (because they are to be expected) than someone who had hitherto only been a pleasant drunk. I think people who do something while drunk are still culpable, but I think the level of culpability is slightly different depending on the circumstances.

Thanks for the comments, Celia! I'll definitely continue to explore these issues in the future! Excellent points, CR! I want Aaron to be believable and to resonate with the reader as a generally decent individual, but he's certainly no angel himself! His 'fish out of water' thing and his jobless/mooching thing will also come up again in future chapters. I think you touched on a great point too; it's difficult to say at this point whether it's Giorgio and Daisy or Aaron himself who are 'in the wrong' in a lot of these early skirmishes. Hmm, well I wanted to do the dinner party scene for Daisy's birthday and that pretty much ensured a minimum of eight people given the four in the core group (Daisy, Ben, Giorgio, and Cosmo) and their respective dates. I also wanted to keep everyone in character and that sort of meant Aaron continuing the nickname thing. Would you have any suggestions about how I might have maintained the same number of people and general style but made the scene less confusing? Hmm, Thanks for addressing this, you two! As a little background, BMAD was written in about three days late last April. WAS has been a more on-going work in progress since then. So, both because the current chapters I'm writing now are indeed written several months later, and because BMAD itself was practically written in one marathon session, I suppose it is indeed quite possible that the voice is a little different. However, one of the reasons for the second Coffee is because it briefly discusses what was happening during a period of time not covered by either story. Aaron himself is in a different period of his life, and for Aaron the changes have probably been more extreme than a typical few months would bring. Aaron has entered a whole new world. So I also imagine that he too would sound and act a bit different as a result. Also, apart from both these points, as a writer I want the tone of WAS to be much different than BMAD. As CR said in her comment, this really isn't the same feel-good story and things are heating up. However, I certainly want the story to continue to be enjoyable to read, so I'll definitely look into this and I really appreciate you guys bringing it up Well, I think you're definitely correct about Aaron having lost a little bit of his 'underdog' element and he does indeed have a different perspective now. Actually I'm not trying to keep Aaron 'innocent'. As I said I want him to remain believable and I want him to seem like he's generally a decent person, but without giving away too many spoilers Aaron's 'innocence' is definitely going to take a few hits in this story. On a separate note, you bring up an interesting point in general. Do you feel that it's better to keep mean, sarcastic thoughts to yourself or do you feel that it's better to be honest and vocalize them? Can you be 'rude' if you don't say anything rude but merely think them (well Aaron did say some rude things, but not with regards to the inner thoughts)? Actually, this all goes back a bit to one of the initial things BMAD was exploring. Basically the fact that sometimes people think one thing and say quite another. I really think this is a very universal part of the human experience and I think it's especially common in people who aren't generally purposely rude and blunt but who are fairly clever and thoughtful individuals. I thin it's amusing to ponder a 'sweet old lady', grandma type of person who bakes people cookies and listens to their problems and then hear her 'inner dialogue' as she's telling them what she really thinks I don't know about you, but I think such people exist. Well, as the story and Aaron evolve I intend for Aaron's inner thoughts to gradually taper off, but not disappear. So maybe you'll get your wish As I said, I really appreciate the constructive criticism This scene was par for the course for how Daisy and Giorgio have been treating him the last couple of months. I agree that I wouldn't have wanted to go to the party either, and unlike Aaron if I had I probably wouldn't have held my tongue. Thanks about Juan; I'm not saying either way whether he'll be back (in all honesty because I'm not quite sure myself ), but I definitely wanted to give him a strong ending. Giorgio and Cosmo did go out. So did Giorgio and Ronnie. The next two chapters touch lightly on both these facts and I'll definitely go into them further as the story progresses. Ohhh, thanks for telling me! LOL, not to make you do extra work - so don't bother if it isn't convenient I'll just check it out myself - but where? Anyway, thanks very much for the comments and feedback guys! I'm very interested in hearing more thoughts on these points! -Kevin

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it and I hope to put it to good use. Well, in my head what I was trying to express was that situation in which you 'know' something, but it doesn't quite make sense so you ask again for confirmation. Plus Ben had told him that before the party. I think Aaron wanted to hear it directly from Cosmo and/or Juan and also see if he could dig up anymore details by broaching the subject. LOL, thanks Tim Thanks Steve! Yeah, this chapter does bring up a lot of issues which need resolving. Hmm, well I can't really answer that either way, but I can say that if, at this point in the story, Aaron had acted in that way toward Ben while Giorgio was around it probably would have resulted in similar behavoiur. Giorgio was more direct in getting rid of Juan but by the same token Juan was more direct in dealing with the aspects of Cosmo's behaviour that he thought were destructive. Well, I think that Aaron is largely afraid of them. He's definitely afraid of Giorgio and I think he's also afraid to call them out on their behaviour because Ben seems to mostly ignore it and he's not completely sure whose side Ben would be on if he did. Well, I will say that we definitely haven't heard the last of Cosmo's drinking or his health status. In fact, even though it's a slight spoiler I'll mention that he and Aaron discuss it a little bit in the next chapter One of my biggest regrets was that there was no natural, easy, and purposeful way to fit Mick into these early chapters. If this were a third person story I could easily do it, but since this is first person Mick's just not going to make an appearance unless Aaron sees him, and he just didn't have any plans or reason to see him over the span of time that these first two chapters covered. LOL, believe me I tried to figure out a way to sneak him in too, but I thought it would have felt forced. Regarding the Spanish, nope actually I don't speak Spanish. I can pick up a few words or phrases here and there in conversation and I know a few basic words and phrases, but I'm definitely not able to carry on conversations. A friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, helped me out. I do hope to learn Spanish eventually though. The main I'm including a 'Spanish element' in the story is because it wouldn't have been all that realistic to have a story set in Houston in today's times in a climate as diverse as the gay community without including at least one or two Spanish speakers. Among my own friends there are quite a few bilingual individuals, either people of Hispanic origin or people of Caucasian/African origin who have learned (often as a result of dating or being close to Hispanics).

Dunno, haven't seen it. I hear it's entertaining but is indeed historically inaccurate.

He left it in his drawers while he was at work?! Reminds me of a story told to me by a friend of mine about a discovery she made in her girlfriend's drawers

Wooo HOOO! Happy 3,000, Benji!!!

Happy Birthday, Jason I hope it's a great and happy one

Actually despite liking Jason and deMarco and having promoted the song a bit around here, I have to generally agree with Kit about its actual quality. Some of the lyrics are almost comically bad and the melody itself manages to be a bit cheesy. Still, there's a lot of good songs out there so for now I support gay media of all kinds more or less on the principal of the matter. Now if you want a good gay/bi song, you should check out by Keo Nazari. It's hot and infectious (much like the people in it ). -Kevin

Hmmm As someone who grew up in Louisiana, who has the majority of his family there, and many old friends, I can attest to the fact that this is good advice in general. However, I'm afraid it's also a sort of 'perfect world' situation. Attitudes are such that a great many people simply aren't going to leave. There's no one more stubborn and territorial than a Cajun who feels threatened by someone/something. I was chatting with my mom on the phone a few hours ago. The medium sized town in which she resides is unlikely to take the brunt of the damage and is probably mostly safe. However, it's still out of gasoline and other 'essentials'. If that's the case what do you think the towns predicted to directly take the worst of it are like? Getting supplies isn't always easy. Neither is evacuating for that matter. I live in Houston now and nearly everyone I know has a horror story from the Katrina/Rita days about how they sat in traffic for 5 or 6 hours and never even made it outside of the city limits! It's tough to evacuate if you live in a large city unless you do it very early, and frankly except for people who can easily afford the disruption in terms of work, school, and their economic situation AND who are also just plain willing to do it when things are still a bit iffy, folks aren't likely to leave early. Anyway, it's great advice and I hope people take it. However, it really isn't easy to take, for one reason or another, in many situations. Good luck to all who are potentially impacted! -Kevin

Awww you poor thing! LOL, it seems like being confused over whether it's a kiss or a hug is an almost universal part of the human experience! (at least in this thread anyway) What ashame that people didn't also develop the custom of saying what they are about to do. "I'm going to hug you now." "I'm going to kiss you on the cheek" "I'm going to kiss you on the mouth" We'd all be ready! No more embarrassing fumbles with two different expectations! Of course it would sound silly to us as is, but if it were standard to just casually narrate the action while performing it maybe we wouldn't think anything of it

LOL, I think I myself started a thread for this song (and blogged about it) right after it'd first come out. It is really adorable! I totally love it! Thanks for the reminder, Captain Rick! BTW, they were featured in Houston's GLBT magazine last month. They recently became engaged

Awwww That's just so adorable!

Hi all! Chapter 2: A Cosmo Mixer is now up! This is one of my favourite chapters of the series thus far so I really hope you guys like it! Please let me know what you thought! -Kevin

Well since the voting is unanimous ( ) it'll be up in a few minutes!

LOL! Good guess! Thanks very much Tim! I've been waiting to hear people's reactions to this chapter for quite awhile now! LOL! Well don't worry, I never said it explicitly and it's easy to miss. Naming the chapters and stories is usually one of my favourite parts of the whole writing process and I usually at least try to sneak in a couple of extra layers of meaning. Anyway, I think you're embodying the whole spirit of the title with your pride shots The next chapter should be soon (anywhere from between the next couple of hours till possibly tomorrow night) I hope you folks enjoy it! -Kevin

I'm just happy you made it at all, Jess! I would agree with all your points except perhaps for the last one. I did mean to show that James was leaving hints. The letter he hastily shoved into the drawer, his general nervousness and surprise at seeing James unexpectedly, his turned off cell phone, his evasive answer to what he had planned (which he did briefly register anger and sadness over), and lastly of course the note Kenny almost saw at the end of the story, the locked bedroom door, and the sad song. Of course Kenny would have had to have been looking in order to see those things. The fact that he wasn't can indeed be attributed to his own situation. It's just hard to know where all the blame lies. I would tend to echo the opinion of most of the readers who said that James should have tangibly and explicitly vocalized his feelings and asked for help. And thank you very much for reading and commenting! -Kevin

Thanks! You know to be honest, when I was writing it I was envisioning a sort of over-the-top, SNL style sketch.

I just wanted to thank Dion for making me an awesome new banner! Check it out!

Thanks Rose ...Actually, it's not too late to take your suggestion. I have got a lovely bottle of Shiraz that's taking up far too much room

Thank you very much, Sharon

Cool pics, Dan! I've just checked them out.

Oh my gosh! I hadn't heard about this at all This is very sad