Dabeagle

That first line was so vivid and relatable. It's a theme for us, wondering if there is an afterlife and if so what form it may take. Very entertaining, though I won't hazard a guess. Our history is littered with the stories of loved ones seen miles away at the hour of their passing or the feeling of someone close watching over us.

Whether this was well written or not, I'm profoundly disappointed. The man is drugging a child and then creating porn of him. I find it disingenuous that the adult is written in such a way - in one line that he wasn't pressuring the child. It's further disturbing that the child is aroused and that this is written as a natural event. Some sort of healthy awakening while a man who drugs and photographs nude children is somehow seen as something of a mentor. This feels almost like a gaslighting, propaganda piece that makes me feel like I need a shower - too bad I can't get soap inside my skull.

It isn't me; hope that helps to narrow things down!

@ReaderPaul I appreciate your mention, and while I don't comment on each comment - unless there is something to address - I do appreciate and read each of them and try to react to each of them. Sometimes I note later on that I didn't see some and react very late, but I appreciate hearing from the readers. Thanks for your reading support over the years.

I think it's just because I have so many characters. Noah, from Desperado, was a runner and I have a character in Sanitaria Springs named Carlo.

It was great to see you - and as a bonus, so educational! I never knew a Tor was a thing, and I think you should use that picture (you know the one) for your avatar everywhere. With a German caption. LOL Happy birthday, enjoy your (re)scheduled celebration!

The snow was flying flat across my bumper after dinner! It was reasonable when we went in, but jeez.

Not me.

Excellent twist!

The Lady or the Tiger? I can see you doing a lot with this idea - who are the caretakers of the property and what are their motives? This fellow can't be the first, etc. So, lady, it's a good start...you know what you have to do now? 🙂

What a cute story. Jeff is very clever and it's cute Matt thinks he's not making things too easy for his boyfriend, but...methinks Matt will be outsmarted.

I remember sitting with friends. The junior high cafeteria was enormous and chaotic, so I think there was less possibility for some cliques to form along traditional lines. High school was different. Oh, and the bog thing about junior high lunch was the huge chocolate chip cookies - but they had to be soft to be any good.

As a collector/restorer of Telechron Clocks, I love how you capture the feeling of hope from each run down antique spot that suddenly appears while driving. The anticipation of the unknown that you might find on a dusty shelf, looking for the right person to claim it.

Funny you should mention, @JamesSavik. I had only seen parts of some of the final three. The first three I found...tolerable, if not as good as the original set. But the final three? Bantha poo-doo. To be clear, I didn't mind the female lead, though she wasn't a strong character, imo. The light saber fights were very poor - perhaps indicating the lack of true training. But the way they handled Luke...trash. The ship going into hyperspace into the fleet...nice idea, problematic at best. Lea using the force while knocked out to float through space back tot he ship? I mean you have to suspend belief a bit, but...so much left out. Jumped way too far ahead. Did anyone get a chance to care that Ben Solo fell to the dark side? No. We didn't see him grow with Lea as a mom and Han as a dad. Can you imagine? 'Don't let your mom know I let you make the Kessel run!' Missed opportunities.

Thank you, Myr!

I've had a few confusing moments, but after using it for a while I wonder if anyone has a small workaround they could suggest. When I want to add a chapter I used to click on create and then add chapter/story to get started. Now I have to click Stories->my stories->whatever it is I want to do. This new method seems to increase the steps required, so what am I missing? Also if I screw up clicking the two sliders at the bottom of a chapter to post immediately, I struggle to get back to set it to post right away versus whatever the system defaulted to. Is there a simple way to go back and say 'no, post this now instead of at whatever future date?' Thank you in advance 🙂

You make some interesting observations about the equivalency of penetrative sex across hetero/gay sexual relations. Heteros aren't completely unaware of the pleasures that they can have via anal sex either, though, so while that may be a facet of the behavior, I'm not sure it can be styled simply as a replacement or equivalent. Heteros can gave anal sex, of course, and many choose to. Males can be pegged or there is digital stimulation while oral sex occurs, but I take your point in terms of what some may consider to be sex - as in not sex if it's not penetrative. Perhaps one of the more well-known instances of that being the 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman' statement. I recall someone on TV at the time talking about how a man like him may not consider non-penetrative sex to be actual sex. It seemed flimsy to me then and still does, yet it goes to your point. I think perhaps I think as you do in some ways. I do consider oral to be sex, however I also see some sexual behavior as a progression - akin to first base, second, so on with penetrative sex as the final step. Of course you're right that people can stop anywhere along that path and be fulfilled, which doesn't address the folks who have no desire to run those bases at all. It's an interesting idea to explore.

Well, I think you should note the actual article is from 2010-2011. Second Lynn Flewelling is a woman writing about this topic from a woman's perspective and understanding across the sexes isn't a bad thing. I don't care who writes it if it's written well, but I thought what she had to say was interesting and I loved her books.

I've long been a fan of Lynn Flewelling and her Nightrunner series. She recently shared an older post of hers that concerns, in part, how gay sex scenes differ from hetero scenes and how it may feel as a writer to write such scenes. It's a very interesting short read. https://varkat.livejournal.com/177248.html

That was really powerful. I'll have to think on that for a bit.

Very entertaining! I'm glad you went with a happier ending; the others are such a bummer.

What a neat twist for a story. The idea of past lives is very interesting, and on some levels appealing. I'm not at all sure I believe in it, but sometimes you just have to wonder.

This was really intriguing and so nicely drawn! I'm left wondering if Rowan will be able to switch between his 'Ent' form and his human form, if The Green Man's history is etched in the forest like rings on a tree, how Ent/Human sex works because hey, The Green Man did it so it must work somehow (Ouch) and of course I wonder if the Hansen's are all fire faeries of a sort and will come for vengeance? Seems unlikely since he was adopted. Really imaginative and entertaining!

Cathy reminds me of a movie synopsis for something I didn't watch. Bobby's Story or something with Sigourny Weaver? It has to be a weight every day to know what a person inflicted on their child, the amount of pain caused for something that was no fault of the child's. She may be offering a helping hand to atone for a stain that can never be washed clean, and that's applaudable, but saying he has a Mom now is really, really presumptuous. Nice short, Val, made me think and feel 🙂

The first thing that drew me was the title because i like baseball, but I stayed for the amazingly well drawn characters who were finely detailed with their own idiosyncrasies and a tangled web that was delightfully silly. The author took two main characters and filled out the story with an ensemble of a supporting cast that doesn't feel like they were there just to fill a space, but as though they had purpose and a life outside the bits you read about. Even though this is a romance at heart, and one of my favorite tropes - people who initially don't like each other but have to learn and grow over time to find out they were wrong - it is also larger than that. It's about masculinity and the wide range of things that can be included in that term. One's self expression is always difficult to come to terms with, and some of us are never comfortable past a certain point - but some are comfortable, and this reminds us that someone can moisturize and play baseball - that they aren't mutually exclusive parts of being a human male. I could never see myself doing what Donny does - I would never be comfortable and I can't envision pushing some of the boundaries that he revels in - but it's a great reminder that we shouldn't hinder those who find other things comfortable that we do not. Thoroughly recommend.