Lucy Kemnitzer

I do like the leisurely parts of the story, because you're packing them with information.

No worries. What's really happening here is that you've drawn us in, so we're itching to know. That's good! Also, you are posting really often, so it's not like we're waiting months or anything.

I don't usually whine about an installment being too short, but. . . I really want to see what happens when Joe comes downstairs (or meets Chris and Steve upstairs).

I think I'm even gonna enjoy the rewrite. I like revising and rewriting much better than the original writing where I don't know what 'm doing.

Toby and Chris do suffer from the same condition, whatever it is, so there's no ruling anything out.

so, Joe gets to be oridinary manly guy and a damsel in distress?

How to eat healthy and cheap: Just buy basics, nothing super prepared (ie, low-sodium canned tomatoes and beans, yes, frozen dinner, no). Stick to in-season things when possible (there's always something in season where I live, but I understand this is different in places where there's less rational weather) How to do this without taking a lot of time over it: stir-fried veggies and cut-up chicken or lean red meat or even seafood (which I've pretty much stopped eating so that my unborn grandchildren will have a chance of eating it) or tofu (which tastes good if you get it exquisitely fresh and cook it with strong-flavored yummy things, but I'd never want it more than once a week, and nutritionists are beginning to agree with me since it has estrogen-like compounds which are good for you in small amounts and not in large amounts). Or: braised veggies and protein sources. That's like stir-frying except you add liquid after a couple of minutes and turn the heat down low until everything's quite soft. If you want to use almost no oil while stir-frying and you're suspicious of no-stick spray (like I am), skimp on the oil. Then after the food is stirring along add a few (!!!) drops of water. When that boils off drop wait for the pan to get really really hot again and then do it again, off and on until the food is done enough. By the way, it's allowed to eat the veggies either crisp or soft, depending on how you like them. How to do this without lots of sodium: cultivate a taste for more garlic, ginger, chiles, onions, spices . . . and what salt you do use, put it on at the last minute so it hits your tongue first. That's how Kix tastes like a sweet cereal when it actually has a fraction of the sugars that for example "Kashi GoLean Crunch" has: they put a tiny amount of sugar on the outside of the little balls so less is more effective. Also, it turns out it's a good idea to eat fruit before meals, rather than (or as well as)after -- it helps you eat less. Another thing to do: coat any kind of meat quite thickly with something thick like hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, or anything alse like that and cook it medium hot in the oven. It will form a skin-like layer which is a little salty but since you've been not salting anything else, it will be okay. I have had a blood pressure condition all my life, though nobody knew it till I had my first child (I know I always did because when I went to the Planned Parenthood teen clinic I got a couple of high readings). I controlled my blood pressure for twenty-some years entirely by eating this way and intermittently exercizing and doing relaxation -- never consistently. I still managed to gain a lot of weight. Now I take two blood pressure drugs and I forget to eat right and my blood pressure is good. It was bad for a while last year because my doctor, having eliminated five or six other factors, figured out that one of my drugs was causing my chronic cough (the other factors contributed heavily, but it didn't go away entirely until I got rid of the drug). Experimenting to get the right blood pressure drug was a miserable experience!

Don't take it seriously. The tests are just playthings. For one thing, people's personalities do change over time. There are consistencies, but real differences in how they are from one age to another. Also, there are a bunch of these personality classification systems, and some of them look very accurate if what you're looking at is how well a particular person fits into the description you give them. But there's a question they never ask: is this meaningful? You can classify people in all sorts of ways. You can classify them by the kind of shoes they're wearing. Is that meaningful? Maybe. Maybe it is this day, and not the next day. Maybe it is if they are in one place and not another. All you've learned is that if you look at the world through the enneagram lens, you can find a category you fit into well enough. Some people will find the discussions of personality connected with these tests to be interesting, or maybe even inspiring. Others won't. I prefer to look at people without such classifications. Especially when writing. I like to figure out a person's personality from scratch, to see what the internal consistencies are, to see how their behavior arises from their nature and their conditions, and not depend on someone else's structure for viewing them.

It wasn't filler -- it was important character information. Alex has long hair. If Alex was no more than a personality of Chris's, he could only have long hair if he wore a wig. And seeing the way these guys rumble around the dance floor and the bed -- not to mention the couch and the apartment floor -- I think Joe would know if Chris was wearing a wig. I've got guesses, but they aren't nearly as interesting as watching this story unfold.

Oh, yes, I wasn't saying it was out of line, just over the top, and therefore, maybe, information. I like that Joe responds to things so quickly and deeply. He's definitely not a malaise kind of guy. When he puts himself into the middle of all this mess, it won't be accidental or out of a desperate need for stimulation. I like, too, that he's a Joe. Not enough stories written about Joes (and I don't just mean the name, and you do know what I mean).

Well, actually, I guess, I have had a couple of times, and I wouldn't be surprised if Joe responded that way once or even twice. I just thought Joe's reactions were consistently over the top. I'm not objecting. For one thing, fiction is not reporting. Fiction has to be over the top now and then, just like it has to make more sense than real life. For another thing, it's really clear that Alex is, at least for Joe, not just ordinary sexy. So, I was just saying -- maybe that's a clue. About something. Not necessarily, now that I think about it, a clue about the nature of Alex -- maybe it's more of a clue about Joe's state of mind. Because his reactions aren't justg horndog: they're almost mystical.

The thing that's bugging Chris is the lack of struggle, isn't it? I've been struggling to figure out the gas in Stephanie's apartment. I don't think it's regular stove gas, because how could Stephanie not be affected by it, and wouldn't the cops have smelled it? If Stephanie heard or remembered some details wrong, which is only normal, the murderer could have been wearing a mask instead of "a hat."

Well, see, I'd always thought that it was possible that Alex had an independent existence to Chris in some way at some time, either having been a twin brother who died, or a magical projection, or a fully-blown dissociated personality. And it's really fun watching the clues accumulate and having my opinion be batted around like a paper ball tossed to a kitten. I also think that Joe's helplessly intense physical reaction to Alex's voice on the phone is a clue (no, don't tell me all guys get instant overwhelming dripping hardons the very second they know it's their lover on the phone, I know it's not true). Like, is Alex the essence of sexuality -- or maybe an id?

Not now, he isn't. But: you're forgetting that he's going to end up with Chris, who is already a father, and at that point he'd be a very good candidate for adopting his niece.

He better, that's all I can say.

Well, I'm so sensitive to this kind of thing that I normally won't go see action movies unless they're really political or something and then I usually send my children to see them first so they can tell me whether I can stand them. But this was not horrible to read, even though it described a horrible action. That's because 1) the telling was second-hand and more importantly 2) the emphasis is on the aftermath and the people who are left behind, not on the mechanics of the deed. Even though there are a lot of details. In other words, you did it right.

I have a young friend who is type 1. Lucky her, her father is a biotechnology entrepreneur who has made -- guess what? -- diabetes treatment his life's work. She has a pump. She also has had, for years, a program on her Palm to keep track of her insulin needs (I think it's been made obsolete by the pump). She's really cheerful about the pump. She says it's a tremendous improvement in her daily life.

That's a long story, and I have moved it to my livejournal because it's too long to take up somebody else's blog comments with. It is coming. Maybe even today.

Tight little island of a story, huh? I love it when the characters all turn out to have these connections. I also love how fast you're writing right now and I wish I could say the same for myself!

You know how in a video game most of the game is figuring out the rules? It looks like a big huge part of the game here is figuring out which genre (and therefore the rules). Are we getting ghosts? Demons? Split personalities? Hoaxes and sociopaths? All of those? Dom pulled it off with "The Other Side of Me," you can pull it off here too.

Keep drinking any kind of fluid at all (but not alcoholic unless you put a lot of water in it, because alcohol tends to dehydrate, which is how come people get hangovers), and if you have to, keep a throw-up bowl next to you and keep drinking. Don't worry about keeping down any food for the next few days -- eat if you feel like it, don't if you don't. But keep that fluid coming. You probably don't have cholera, which means that you're keeping some fraction of the fluid when you throw up. So much drama in those mountains. Keep cool, or is that a bad thing to say up there in the snowy clouds?

For now, though, I don't know if Alex is unreal like a projection of Chris's dreams or unreal like a dissociated part of Chris's personality, so the presence or absence of buttons is actually information.

I like that Joe is disturbed by quite different things than I would have expected him to be. I like that he's noticing in Chris things that he misses in Alex -- I'm eager to find out what they are. You have a little thing about ripping off buttons, don't you? I'd hate it if somebody did that to me. Particularly since if you undo the first couple buttons on most shirts you can yank them off over the head like a tshirt only more awkwardly. Eager for 18.

I'm still not sure there wasn't a real Alex at some point. By the way, here'ssomebody who is writing about a guy with a version of dissociative disorder. It's largely autobiographical, but it's definitely fiction and not memoir.

If you decide to shop it around for print media, check out Michael Nava and Joseph Hansen, if you don't know them already. (especially Nava, whose books are more recent). Weird: I was googling to check the spelling on the Brandstetter books, and foundthis article about both Hansen and Nava! I remembered the bit about Toby's illnesses. What I had trouble with -- very briefly -- was before that, when the three kids were all named in one paragraph. But it was all right in a moment, and I don't know if you can make that clearer. The other thing that was a little less than crystal clear was how long Chris's wife has been gone (I'm not sure it matters). I'm also anxious to know why she's gone.