AFriendlyFace

I bruise easily - Natasha Bedingfield

Haha, well I've kinda sorta fit that description before. I've been dreadfully 'respectable' looking lately though Oh my gosh! I LOVE it Sharon! Wonderful pic, Zilar!

Thanks all around, Tiff! I agree, I think friendship is very important and a convincing friendship in a story can definitely make a huge difference! Wow! Thanks, Rada! I really appreciate you taking the time to review the story, especially with your first post! LOL, regarding the questions, comments, and requests, well I promise I definitely will address each of these points in either BMAD or its sequel! Thanks, Steph! Those comments definitely helped a lot! So maybe something like:

Hey everyone! I actually had originally thought that the rereading your work thread in this forum might be about this particular topic. When it wasn't I briefly considered starting this topic...forgot, but here it is now So I've found that in order for me to be comfortable writing a new chapter of any story I'm working on, I pretty much have to go back and read all the last chapters. Given how long this can take I usually don't bother...and then don't feel as comfortable writing the new chapters. I'm sure most of you skim through your most recent chapter or read the end to pick up where you left off (or maybe I'm being crazy, presumptuous and you guys don't do that at all), but I seriously want to re-read the whole the thing! I thought simply taking notes might helps, and it does, but it's not really that either. I just like to re-read everything to get back into the right 'voice' to write the story. I also find that ideally I write a lot at once. I'm not the sort of person who'll work on a chapter a little bit every day until it's complete. I'm the sort who'll not look at the thing for awhile then pick it up and write the whole thing. I suppose this sorta makes sense given how much preparation it takes for me to get into a 'writing frame of mind'. Does anyone else feel the need to do this too? Does anyone have any suggestions about ways around this? (I really don't like doing it, but when I don't I feel like a lazy, cruddy writer who isn't keeping with the tone of the story) Just a random question, Kevin

Oh I like that one! "No Air" - Jordan Sparks and Chris Brown

Well said, Tiff! I quite agree! Perhaps he's singing dark and brooding songs?

Thanks for telling me Steph! If you could pinpoint the problem with the conversation between Aaron and Cosmo I would really appreciate it (no problem if you can't though, I'll go back and review it myself and see if I can figure out any problems). I actually felt like that dialogue went pretty well, and as I said it's one of my favourite scenes, so I'm definitely eager to make it better if I can, and brush up on future dialogue. If you don't mind my asking, what did you think of the dialogue between Aaron and Jake? Did that seem to flow naturally? Thanks! Regarding chapter 2 not being as good as chapter 1...well it's the last thing an author should say about his chapter, especially while it's the 'current' chapter, but despite the fact that it had some of my favourite interaction (Cosmo/Aaron, Jake/Aaron), have to admit that if I had to pick a regular chapter in all of BMAD to identify as my least favourite...it would probably be that one. Like I said, I felt like it was a very important chapter and I thought it did have some good scenes, but yeah, overall I think I like the others better myself. My favourite chapters are actually the last four of the series. Anyway, hopefully you'll like the next chapter better. Personally I do like it much better. Apart from all that there's a new kid in town who ought to shake things up a bit By the way, now seems like a good enough time to announce the name of the next chapter: Make Over Madness Any speculation about the name (LOL, I suppose it shouldn't be THAT hard to figure out)? Also, what did everyone else think about the Aaron/Cosmo and Aaron/Jake interaction? I definitely want to address any dialogue problems I'm having before anymore chapters go online! Thanks again, Steph! Take care all, Kevin

LOL, yes that's right, along with the next chapter of BMAD to beta I'll send you a dirty note about what I think of gender roles! No, I mostly agree with you, none of the circumstances preclude gender roles nor they make them inevitable. It all just depends on the couple.

For talking about boyfriends...yes, I definitely think you could talk about boyfriends comfortably with straight women. Could you talk about them with straight men? Depends on the guy (well of course it would also depend on the girl, but I think overall fewer guys would be comfortable), but would certainly think that there are some you could discuss such things with.

Hi everyone, So I read a lot of 'gay literature', and I'm not just talking about stories here on GA. Right now I'm casually reading this big book of random GLBT facts called, aptly enough "Queer Facts" It's by Michelle Baker and Stephen Tropiano, and here's a link to the book on Amazon (though I'm obviously not encouraging anyone to buy it, just citing it). Anyway one section gives facts about lesbianism in Chinese history. The following is the passage I thought it would be fun to discuss: So I found that passage rife with things I wanted to discuss. -First off, it gives no indication either way whether or not a similar institution/ceremony existed for men. By the way the book is set up and in this section, it probably wouldn't do so anyway. However, I would hazzard a guess that no such option did exist for men. Just a guess though. -Second, I found it irritating that one of the women had to take on the role of the man and be the 'husband'. -Third, why did only the couple's female friends go? What about family in general and male friends? -Fourth, why were they only allowed to adopt girls. -Fifth, based on the wording it seems likely that the couple themselves would not inherit family property. That it instead had to go to these adopted daughters. -Lastly, I do think that overall this was a good thing given the time and context! At least it gave lesbians another option! However, I still think it's a bit unfortunate (though certainly not surprising) that a regular single life - devoid of marriage to man, woman, or religion - was still not an option for these women. I was interested so I did a bit more research and found the following link: The Tradition of female-female unions That seems to be the most informative link I could find and it still didn't give that much useful, new information (except that evidently sometimes non-lesbians entered into these arrangements as well). Anyone else heard about this at all? What do you folks think about the above points? Just curious Kevin

I would definitely agree with that.

That's wonderfully put and I completely agree and can relate! That's a wonderful point, Drew! I think being gay gives me the freedom to say, do, and discuss things I couldn't/wouldn't say, do, and discuss as a straight person. I guess in many ways it goes back to the whole going outside of gender lines thing, but as a gay person I'm comfortable blending and taking the best of both traditional 'male' and traditional 'female' activities and ways of relating. For example I know I wouldn't have as close a relationship with my friends if I were a straight guy. We might still really care about each other, but I doubt we'd be as emotionally open or as affectionate. And yeah, there simply are things I can discuss with people (of any particular gender or persuasion) as a result of being gay that I probably wouldn't be comfortable discussing as a straight guy. Of course I know straight guys could do these things, but there's more social pressure not to, and even if the straight guy himself is comfortable with them it's harder to find other people who are comfortable with him behaving that way and who can/will behave in kind. I think it goes even further to 'alone stuff' too. There's a lot of activities or thoughts or things that I do by myself that I enjoy but probably wouldn't be comfortable doing as a straight guy, or would at least feel the need to hide to some extent. For example lighting candles, putting on some soothing music, taking a hot bubble bath, and sipping a glass of wine. I love doing that, it's a really pleasurable, sensual experience (I know it's not for everyone!), and I could it as a straight guy, but I'd probably be a little embarrassed about it if people found out. I think that's an excellent point too. To some extent I definitely agree that there's greater potential for you to be in tune with each other's feelings and mindset and also the whole stereotype about the relationship being more sexually satisfying because both people 'know what it's like'. My personal 'big thing' about gay relationships has always been the greater potential for true egalitarianism and a lack of sex/gender roles and expectations. On the other hand that only goes so far. Some of my feelings and thoughts ARE very different from many other guys (of course I think everyone has unique feelings and thoughts). Sometimes it's still very easy to misinterpret what someone is thinking or what their motivation is. It's also possible to be completely out of sync 'physically' in terms of what you each like and want. So I agree with you for the most part, and I definitely agree with you from a 'potential' point of view, but I think good and effective communication still trumps everything else in this regard. Just my thoughts Kevin

LOL, I know how you love that line! I was wondering if you were going to comment on it! LOL, now here's the sort of discussions I was expecting about Cosmo! I don't want to give away too many spoilers, but I will say that Gary's interpretation of Cosmo's reasoning for going home without playmates is exactly what I intended for the readers to assume at this point (LOL, it sounds like I'm saying there's some secret, other possibility, which isn't really my intent, but I do want to leave room for further layers build on this). Regarding the part about being ticked off because I gave him HIV...well, it was always my intention to write him that way, and it was also always my intention to let the readers know early on (wouldn't you hate this revelation more 20 or 30 chapters in? ). However, I have to say I hated to do it too. When I got to the scene in which Aaron found out, I was having so much fun writing Cosmo, and he was so likable that there was definitely an "awww man!" moment for me as well. Finally, about the alcohol, you're definitely right about your info, Jamie, and I have taken that into consideration. Unfortunately, much of Cosmo's character is based on someone I actually know, in terms of how I physically imagine him, his personality, his status, his age, and yes, unfortunately to a lesser degree his drinking habits. The guy I have in mind doesn't actually drink Cosmos but a variety of other drinks, and fortunately at least he doesn't drink quite as much as Cosmo does, but still far more than he should given his condition. Aww thanks, Jamie Good points I'll concede. On the other hand those things wouldn't be impossible in general, but they might be harder for Aaron specifically to determine quickly. The cologne thing for example: I've had people identify my cologne before on several occasions. On a few occasions it's been a much less popular, well-known cologne than Giorgio Armani, and in one instance IT WAS Giorgio Armani. So I know a lot of guys can do it, and I'm pretty sure that in any given gay club at least a handful of the guys would be able to pick this out. I agree that it doesn't seem all that likely that Aaron or Jake would be able to, and that's definitely a slight failing of the story. I had originally written Aaron slightly different, and my first version of Aaron would have been able to pick it out. The "2.0 version" probably wouldn't. I still don't think it's that far fetched though, let's imagine for instance that after Giorgio walks by Aaron and/or Jake says "did you smell him!?" at which point random cologne queen by the bar says, "you mean 'Giorgio'? Yeahhh *dreamy look*". LOL, of course I didn't write that, but it or anything similar could easily have happened. Regarding the accents, I absolutely know "Gringos" who could pick out a Columbian accent, and one of the characters is the story would definitely be able to. Houston has a huge and diverse Hispanic influence and I personally know Columbians, and I can tell that there's a difference between that and the more common Mexican accent, I probably wouldn't pick it out as "Columbian", but a lot of people could, and I don't think it's completely unreasonable to think that Aaron could. Ohh! That's interesting! On the one hand Aaron himself is defensive, but on the other it's definitely possible that I'm doing that purely as a writer. I love to debate and discuss, and very often when I write forum posts, or simply enter into a discourse, I try to anticipate any objections or arguments and deflate them before the other person can make them...so while I definitely wasn't trying to do that with the story, it may indeed have seeped through as a result of force of habit or something. Fascinating comment! I'm definitely going to be on the look out for this! Thanks for the wonderful, interesting, and insightful review, Jamie! -Kevin

"45" - Shinedown

First my editor and now my beta reader come under attack! LOL, fortunately it seems they're both more than capable of handling the situation What did you think of Cosmo's revelation? Were you guys surprised or did you see it coming at all? Yay! Glad to help out, Tiff! I'm really glad you liked that! Some of my favourite scenes are between Aaron and Jake. He's a fun character to write for. Thanks, the scene between Cosmo and Aaron at the beginning is my favourite in these first two chapters. I think it goes a long toward revealing a great deal about both of them directly and indirectly about Ben and Giorgio. It was also a lot of fun to write! What did you guys think of Cosmo and Aaron's interaction? Well, my goal is to get it online no later than Wednesday evening, but in all likelihood it may indeed work out to Tuesday night LOL! Well it's good to know there's a post about it out there somewhere Thanks, Steve! I was indeed going for that comfortable dynamic between friends, as well as infusing a slice of 'gay life' and 'the scene' into the story. In all honesty I wasn't really thinking of Cheers when I created the characters. In many ways they're sort of like extreme versions and mixtures of various people that I know, but I also confess I had a little Queer As Folk and a little Friends in mind when I created them as well. So it's sort of like a combination of the three plus ALOT of creative license lol. Thanks Regarding that last bit, I'll comment a bit more on it as the story progresses. I'm glad it wasn't too confusing then. I tried to make it as straightforward as possible, by trying to include the two names, obviously in reference to the same character, within a pretty short space. That way no matter which name the read 'knew' he/she would be able to figure it out pretty quickly. Here's a little list if it helps: -Aaron is just Aaron and Mick is just Mick -Bmad/Ben - I'll go so far as to say that the 'Bmad' days are over for this character. Hence forth he'll pretty much exclusively be referred to as simply 'Ben'. -Jake/Marcus - It'll be 'Jake' the overwhelming majority of the time, just don't be surprised if you occasionally hear him referred to as 'Marcus'. Marcus is his real name, he just took 'Jake' because he liked it better for a bartender. -Cosmo/Dave - It'll be a good split, with this one, depending on who is referencing/addressing him -Daisy/___ - Haha, almost gave away his real name! So far in the story it hasn't been given. During the 'introductions' he was 'the bitch', and none of the others addressed him in front of Aaron so he still doesn't know. Like Cosmo once his real name is revealed it'll be used pretty evenly depending on who is referencing/addressing him. -Giorgio/Jose - Same as the other two. We've also had a mention of a "Ronnie", "Amanda", and "John". Again I don't want to give away any plot, but suffice to say that those are their only names as well. In general I tend to call the characters by the same names that Aaron uses since I'm used to writing in Aaron's voice, so I'll probably say Jake, Cosmo, Daisy, and Giorgio the majority of the times as well. Thanks Steve! I remember when I wrote this chapter Aaron really surprised me! I wasn't expecting him to be so cocky and smooth, in fact I pretty much WAS expecting him to chicken out, but he proved me wrong! I think this was an important chapter for Aaron as a character. In the last chapter we saw hints of his assertiveness when he told off Daisy, and of course we've also heard some of the things that goes on in his head. Up until this chapter though I didn't think he'd have the nerve to act that way toward Ben. What did you all think of this? As I said, it felt in character for him (which is why I wrote it that way I suppose), but it surprised me. Take care all Kevin

Save Me - Shinedown

I'm sure that in this context you don't mean "Role Playing Game" by RPG...but I don't know what it is then. That thought hadn't occurred to me! I was most surprised that the General didn't take them all to a secure location.

I Won't Dance - Frank Sinatra

Happy Birthday, Dude

First off, I wanted to let everyone know that Buy Me A Drink Chapter 2: One for Later is now up. Thanks to everyone who read and commented on chapter 1 (and thanks to everyone who only read and didn't comment, but if you get a chance please feel free to! ). If you haven't checked the story out please give it a look! Anyway, I had that second date with Ryan. It was really nice, we had coffee, went for a walk in the rain (the 'in the rain' part wasn't exactly intentional ), then we had some dinner. I still just really don't know what I want where he's concerned, but things got a little more complicated after that... After the date as I was on my way home I got a call from a friend of mine asking me to go out with them that evening. I politely declined...then changed my mind and called back. Mostly, I wasn't in the mood to go anywhere but home, but I hadn't hung out with these three friends in a while and I really like spending time with them so I thought I'd better. We had a great time too. The three of them are all good friends and we all got drunk and they started telling me how much they liked hanging out with me, and I was telling them how nifty I thought they were, and we made a bunch of other plans and they started joking how they wanted me to be the fourth member of their little group Which is quite nice, since as I said I do really like them. I felt a bit like a character out of my story actually, since we were in a gay club, I was drinking Cosmos, and people were buying me drinks. And no, I wasn't flirting with other guys or anything, I wouldn't do that even with the undefined relationship Ryan and I have, but one of my friends had a tab and was insisting, on top of which this random guy was hitting on one of them and insisted on buying us ALL drinks in an effort to impress him. Ohh, I also ran into an old friend of mine from one of my former jobs! She's a straight girl so I was a little surprised to see her, but not THAT much because of course I already knew she was gay friendly. What did confuse me was the guy she was on top of. Literally, she was riding around the place on his shoulders He obviously seemed like a boyfriend (straight guys are uncommon but not unheard of in this particular establishment), the only thing was he was NOT the boyfriend she should have had...what I mean is when we worked together several months back it was with her boyfriend too. He was a really nice guy and they had been together for along time and were really serious (engaged I thought), so I was pretty surprised to see her with someone else, but despite the general catching up we were doing it wasn't really appropriate (especially given the fact that the other guy was under her at the time) to say, "So what happened to Alex?" Even though that was the question I most WANTED to ask. Anyway, next time I run into a different former co-worker (I run into them all the time), I'll see if I can get the scoop! So fast-forward a few hours and I'm sitting in an all night diner...talking to my ex on the phone. See I was drunk like I said, and I have a tendency to send people nice texts when I'm drunk (well I do that sober sometimes too, but even more so when I'm drunk), so I sent him something to the effect of, "You're a great guy and I really hope you're happy"...if I weren't so lazy I'd just open my phone and see what it said exactly, but yeah my phone is out of arms reach Anyway, he called me as soon as I sent it and we ended up talking for a long time. It was really nice, but uhhh....I think I might have told him I still had feelings for him....and I think he might have told me the same thing...and I think we both meant it.... So now I feel like the biggest jerk on the planet. I mean it's not like we're going to get back together or anything. All the reasons we didn't work out in the first place (him still being in the closet, and us living a good 45 minutes apart) are still there...but he plans to eventually move to Houston (versus the outer metropolitan area) and I think we've both always kinda thought, "we'll try again then." ...and I think we said that last night too. Only, thankfully for my conscious I specifically remember saying, "but obviously not if stuff works out with me and Ryan". And I mean that too. There's no way I would just dump Ryan (or anyone else) to be with him if he moved. I still feel like a crap-weasel though. Anyway, Ryan and I were supposed to go bowling tonight (read be bowling right now), only I cancelled because 1) I'm really tired, and 2) I'm really overwhelmed and I need to get my head together. It didn't help that while we were talking he decided now was the ideal time to try to define our relationship. So he asked, "Are we dating?" After some consideration I responded something to the effect of, "Well we're definitely going on dates, and I'm having fun, and I like you, but I don't want to rush into anything, and I think we should just keep seeing each other for a few more weeks and see where we stand and what we want then." And he seemed pretty happy and satisfied with that answer, which is a major relief. He's going away tomorrow for a long-weekend trip with some friends, so - and I know this sounds TERRIBLE but - I won't really have to worry about it till Sunday or Monday. And now Scott and William are trying to convince me I need to go out with them tonight (they've been calling/texting the whole time I was writing this)...and I guess I will because I feel like I kinda have to...even though I really just want to stay home and goof around. Take care all and have a great night.

Thanks Sharon! You probably know Aaron as well or better than me anyway, so if you think it's inline with how he would react that's a great relief!

LOL well on the bright side you guys only have to wait about 6 more weeks to find out what the title to chapter 8 is! If anyone's interested in reading Chapter 2, please check it out and let me know what you think!

Well I guess I could...but I sorta feel like now that it's online it is how it is. I mean I would change any typos, or grammatical errors, or misstated facts, but it doesn't seem right to change the plot of the story itself. BTW, many of the 'errors' in the story with regards to grammar and punctuation are more or less intention and deal with Aaron's style and tone, BUT any typos or obvious errors I very much want to correct, so if anyone sees any of those please do let me know!! Eugh...I didn't get a chance to post as early as I hoped I would. However, I'm going to go and post the new chapter right now, so I hope you guys like it! Woo hoo!! Thanks, dude! And welcome to the forum! I feel incredibly honoured that your first post was in a discussion thread for BMAD I'll let you guys know when I've finished posting the new chapter, Take care all and have an awesome day! Kevin

Dangerous Muse - "The Rejection"