Al Norris

I didn't want to bring that little race up! Now I'm half afraid that @kbois might start it, all over again!!!

Talo, unless you grew up in the US during the 50s and 60s, there is not much I can say to you. For us queers, it was extremely bad in the cities and suburbs. It was worse in the corn belt. I joined the Marine Corps in 1968, partly to prove I wasn't what I was. I got married in 1972 to prove to the family that I was like them. I was lucky. She left me after 19 years and 2 kids. That's just the way it was.

Ah... That's the sweetest thing anyone has said to me all day! Thank you.

I'm glad to have you aboard the ride!

We still have a few chapters left in this part of Pete's life. For the longest time, I've had a bit of writer's block. The characters wouldn't talk to me. That has recently changed. It may take a little while but the second book is being written.

Hmm, you might not be surprised at what Mitch says about this. And that is exactly what can and does often stop such thoughts from spiraling down to oblivion. I'd say it was a combination of things. However, you are not far from wrong. Turner does keep popping up. You'd think there was bad blood between him and George...

@Justin4Fun, I like this version so much better than the version I had read earlier!

I can see now that I should have put up a warning. I apologize for not doing that. He had another concern as well... Peter finally gets it later on. Maybe... A few more chapters to go, and then you can tell me if that still holds true!

I had to look the guy up! What's strange is that in my head, 'Officer Farley' looked like Granger in his 'Stranger On a Train' role. I find this observation very interesting! Exactly! If you realize that in another person, it is highly dangerous to intercede.

He has a trouble magnet? Hmm, maybe I should talk to him about that? I wonder if his school even has a team!

I don't ever say, but it was drug-induced gang rage in San Bernardino.

I had dinner ready for Unc when he got home that night. We briefly discussed how school went and how practice was. When he asked what time he should pick me up for the rehab session, I told him I had hit a slight snag for this first session. “So your session is at 4:00 pm, but you want to get there at 3:30? Why a half hour early? “You're not gonna like this, but I scheduled a full blood test for STDs. I found out that Mitch lied to me and he had been with at least two other guys before

Nope. Scrubber has it right. For those who haven't or don't follow The Kandric Saga, the back story is that it was the Red Dragons that destroyed Rovnar's homeland when he was still mortal. That's why Rovnar hates Red Dragons.

We think that the world is a better place, then this shit happens! Not just in stories but in real life. sigh. We like to think that our society has evolved beyond mere tribalism. It hasn't and we may never evolve beyond that. Someone is different, that makes them 'other.' Others are to be feared, they become enemies and must be irradicated.

We are living in a time wherein the Powers That Be like to dumb things down. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) apparently sounds less offensive than Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Oh, the doctors like to say that you contract HIV which untreated will evolve into AIDS. We see the same thing when we used to say STD but now it's STI. I can't say that for the general public, there is any difference. Unless what we are saying is that one seems to be less threatening than the other. Toe-may-toe / Toe-mah-toe. Regardless, I like the discussion of what Mitch may have lost or may lose over what Peter may gain with Bobby.

Only partially for the reasons you stated. There is the matter of AIDS. Something that too many no longer think about. There is no cure (yet). AIDS is still a death sentence. What we don't know is if Mitch uses protection. Hence Pete wanting to get tested. Because of the way Pete and Mitch had sex, we can conclude that Pete isn't all up-to-date on how AIDS is contracted.

I would rest my case but... Your case has always been at rest!

If it hadn't been for Carl and his gorillas, Mitch might very well have added another notch to his bedpost. I think we all did. Mitch was going to graduate a year before Pete and go on to university. I think we can all see what would have happened, after that. Will this experience make Pete hypervigilant? I suppose only time will tell.

Sometimes the grumps are right about not having sex so young.

It sure seems that way. I keep saying, the clues were there! But yeah, those life lessons can be hard.

'Upends' is one word, Roland.

The foreshadowing was there, back in chapter 4. Did I hide that too well? That's a given, isn't it? Even when we think with the big head, we think of the now and never what might happen later.

I woke up with the same thing on my mind that I went to bed with… Mitch. I know his mom well enough to know that she would have told him that I called. Why didn’t Mitch call me last night? Or text me? It didn’t take much, at the moment, to get me angry. I mean, he flat-out ditched me yesterday. Well, this isn’t getting my morning exercises done. So I headed to the bathroom to do my morning stuff. Predictably, my next destination was the kitchen to make some coffee and toast. While wait

Thank you. It is hard to resist but for some authors, that's what I do. Bill happens to be one of them.

Full disclosure: Over at Castle Roland, we are posting Bill's story. But we are only at chapter 8 over there. I do have chapters 11 through 25 that I will be processing shortly. So I am tempted to look ahead and see what this is about... But I won't. When I processed the first ten chapters, I just inserted the heading and tail, without reading them (as I usually do), so I could give a decent review here. So I don't have a clue as to who is at the door. I did like how the rescue went off. I was surprised that a deputy was waiting for them since I forgot that there might have been footprints! What I thought was inconsistent was that the deputy didn't find any footprints leading to the campsite, only leading away from it. It makes me wonder if the deputy noticed that but didn't say anything about it, for whatever reason...