Enoch

Almost anything would be better than living with that type of parents. Thanks for the review!

Preacher yes, man of God, no.

Thanks Daithi!

Nothing ever goes as planned, uh? Thanks for leaving a review!

Thanks!

Thank you Lisa! Amazing how a character we once hated or disliked has become someone we feel sorry for and actually pulling for. Kind like life. It all depends on life and what she throws at me on the timing of the next few chapters. Hopefully it will come a lot faster than the last one.

One must let one shoe fall, so everyone will be looking for the second shoe to fall. Monday will be Cody's foster parents funeral. The boys will be in for a long three days. Thanks Benji for leaving a review!

I'm like Andy, I don't know how he did it. Hopefully, we'll find out. Thanks for leaving a review Stephen!

Thanks Wayne!

Chapter 26 Family Roger lightly poked me in the ribs with his elbow. “I didn't push it at lunch today, but how did your appointment go this morning?” I glanced at Roger and couldn't help myself. “They made me get naked in front of everyone,” I made my saddest and most painful expression I could as I slowed my speech down, dropping my voice to a soft whisper. “And a nurse made fun of me. And then... and then, they stuck a foot-long needle into my hip without knocking me out.” Joey busted o

Trials and Tribulations is my first attempt at writing a story. Needless to say, I had a lot to learn and I was lucky enough to come across two people, Wayne and Louis, that were willing to help. Wayne has been teaching me how to make the story flow better and Louis has been teaching me the laws of writing. I have also sought other sources to improve my writing skill to better my telling of Trials and Tribulations. One of the awesome sources I found was Editor-Proof Your Writing: 21 Steps To The Clear Prose Publishers And Agents Crave by Don McNair. The following is some of the information I've found to be very useful. "You have two choices. Write in the "here and now" or dump information. I'll tell you right now that editors and agents want you to write in the "here and now." Unpublished writers often present information dumps, sometimes in the form of back-stories, in their manuscripts. How do you recognize one? Generally, in the midst of an information dump, your character don't do, they think. They think as they drive a car. As they sit in their office. As the ride an elevator. Nothing of interest happens in real time. The dump includes information you think the reader needs in order to understand your character, but the way it's organized makes the reading process a dull experience." If you have a good beta or editor, I know you have heard the statement a time or two, show, instead of tell. I know I have, but for the longest time, I really didn't know what I was being advised to do. "When writers tell instead of show, they're generally make the mistake of writing the story from the author's POV, and not the characters'. Let me give you a before-and-after example from my own work years ago. The first version, written in the author's POV, read like this: But the site itself had been inhabited for much longer. The previous day she and Mike had jogged along an old path which edged the Knob, and she spotted the stark, vertical rock chimney of a burned-out cabin. It jutted from a weather rock foundation which was now covered with thick vines and forest debris. The cabin had been built near the Knob's edge, which plummeted almost two thousand feet to the valley floor. When that one-room cabin was built, its owner had probably cleared trees away to open the valley up for a spectacular view. Notice that the author is telling about the discovery, just as one tells ghost stories around a family campfire. There is no action. There was action yesterday, but that doesn't count as action today. I thought that excerpt was fine writing until an old writing pro pointed out the problem. I read it again, and--by gosh, she was right. What follows is the passage as I re-wrote it to put the scene into a character's POV and show the action, instead of leaving it in the author's POV and telling about it: Mike stepped aside and she saw a clearing. Grass, kept at bay in the deep woods they'd passed through, covered an area the size of an average yard. "This it it?" she asked. "Yep. The original cabin site. See if you can find it." She saw nothing but the trees and grass. Blue sky appeared over a huge, waist-high stone outcropping at her left. "Why, we're right at the bluff's edge," she said. "That's right. Jump off that rock, and you'll fall almost two thousand feet." And then she saw the vertical stone chimney. She's overlooked it before, since it resembled the surrounding tall trees. She stepped tentatively towards it. As her eyes adjusted, she saw the stone foundation of a long-gone, one-room cabin. Its chimney rose from one corner, its hearth opening toward the center. Slanting rays filtering through the treetops brought the chimney and foundation to life. She turned to Mike, "Look at that--it's just like a shrine. Why, I feel like I've just stepped out of a time machine." The secret is to always write in real time. Use back-story information only as needed, where needed, and in context. Don't tell what happened in the past, but show it as part of the action. You'll find that. although it can be useful research for the writer, most of the back-story information is not needed in the final story." I hope this little bit of information is useful for you as a writer, editor, or beta reader. I will continued to post more along these lines in the future, if I receive some good feedback. Good luck in all your endeavors, especially in writing, editing, and beta'ing. Billy

No, you wasn't wrong. I think I would have felt the same and I hope acted as you did. However, I do hold strong views on immigration, but since I feel that is more of a political topic I will not post them here.

An update concerning the family: The family called into question the future of the show. "We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right. We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm. We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty," the statement said. I felt sure the family would back Phil. What surprises me is that everyone outside of the south is surprised that a southern christian hick would believe any differently. Notice that I didn't say "white" southern christian? While the south is becoming more tolerant than it was 50 years ago, there is still a different culture here in the south than the one enjoyed by our yankee and left coast brothers and sisters. Welcome to my world. Just remember, it isn't called the Bible Belt for nothing.

I believe it's best to always present both sides of an issue to students. If for no other reason then it's the right thing to do, it makes the students "think". There's no better a lesson for a teacher to share with a student than the ability to think for oneself. Awesome approach Sasha Distan! As for meat or no meat, for me personally, I didn't climb to the top of the food chain to eat grass Mark me down for yes, for meat.

I loved it. Well done indeed!

An awesome story and I really hope you have the time to make it into a full length novel, like 200,000 words or more Truly, an excellent story Wayne!

Outlawing love and the act of love is anti-religious in my opinion.

Hi to everyone new and welcome to an awesome web site! There's always someone around to help if you need any and they're opinions everywhere on the best stories on the site. Whatever you like, I'm sure you'll find it here

IF I have the time, I plan on a book 2 and maybe book 3 depending on how well book 2 is received.

I'll be wrapping up Trials and Tribulations with the next chapter. Will there be more to come? In a word, yes. However, the time frame on that is up in the air. The big mistake I made with this story was not having it written before I started posting. I won't make that mistake again. Whatever I write to continue this story will be completely written, beta read, and edited before I start posting it. I'll say more after the last chapter is written. Thanks everyone! Billy It's never too late to be what you might of been.

Thanks Renee, that does answer the question. Thanks to you too Kitt. I can see the pro and con of him doing what he did, but personally, I wouldn't have pulled it. Trust me, I totally understand life getting in the way. Sometimes we just have to take baby steps instead of sprinting for the finish line

I'm afraid that only links back to Gay Authors. Jeff are you saying that this story was on Nifty under a different title? Are you also saying that now neither differently titled stories can be found on either Nifty or GA? Maybe the story has been pulled to be published?

Or as Bobby Kennedy said, "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"

Thank you!