Dodger

Wow, I never even thought about something like that. I may need more than one sheet.

This is a strange coincidence because I've started using some of this quarantine time to re-work The Church and the Tradesman. The singer needed to be more American!

Yikes! I don't like the sound of either of those. Maybe even worse! Don't expect a huge surprise, but I think the ending will not be what most people are expecting.

I suppose it's fair to say he has plenty of experience. Probably more than most kids his age and I'm not just talking about sex. His good judgement is somewhat subjective to the reader. It depends on where you would like to see him at the end of the story. Decisions that look like they are leading him away from the direction a reader wants him to go in, will naturally be perceived as poor judgement. I realize how frustrating Robbie can be to the reader. Many of his problems are self-inflicted and could easily have been avoided. He also has an eye for mischief and a natural attraction to bad boys like Alex and non-conformists like Nathan, which most readers don't quite understand. I often get the impression that many of the readers would like to see him ditch his personality, become ultra-mature, meet mister sensible, and settle down to live happy ever after, aged sixteen! It's fiction but I like to keep at least some semblance of reality, and in real life, I've never heard of a mature sixteen-year-old, especially one with Robbie's personality and background. Whatever Robbie does is going to be criticized by a selection of the readers, but without those mistakes, I doubt if most of them would have bothered to read this far. A sensible, level-headed Robbie who always makes the right choices, and never puts a foot wrong would have made a pretty bland story. I believe it's his obvious flaws and predicaments that endear him to the reader. The bigger the blunder the more interest he creates, the more comments, and the more readers he seems to pick up. The proof is in the statistics. The chapters with the lowest reads are the ones where he's being sensible. The chapters with the highest reads are the ones where he's in trouble, having sex with someone, or doing something that everyone knows he shouldn't. It's therefore been in my interest to keep him stupid, naughty, and making bad judgements.

Hello Albert. Hope you're well.

I thought it was already in a remote part of the world.

Either one really. I added the hockey bit because I didn't want to sound too morose. Feeling better now though.

They've been showing re-runs of classic games. It's a kind of methadone for the hockey addicts to keep us from climbing the walls, but ultimately ineffective. When CBC decide to show a movie at 7pm on a Saturday night, you know you're living at the end of the world.

Hey Page. Yeah, I've been a bit of a hermit recently, which has done me no favors whatsoever, but at least I'm physically healthy.

Is anybody else around here totally fed up with everything? I've reached a new low. When I say low, I mean lower than I ever imagined was even possible before now and the outlook gives me no reason for optimism. I've come to realize how pointless and fragile this world is without hockey.

I've heard of this practice and I definitely don't agree with it. While it's perfectly legitimate for an author to want to be paid for their work, this is an underhand way of doing it. They should be honest and explain this before you start reading, or put the story in a members only section of the site like they do here. I can understand your frustration; I would be annoyed too.

Had he been more in tune with his boyfriend's potential embarrassment, Deme could have easily solved the problem by politely asking Sarah not to post it on YouTube. She wouldn't risk upsetting her crush. Great chapter by the way.

We live in crazy times. Nothing much happens in NS. There will be the usual debates on gun ownership but little will be done. Not as many guns here as in the States but still way more than in most civilized countries.

Funny thing is, I've always considered this story to be a soap opera, but I was thinking more along the lines of Coronation Street (sixty years). Hang on in there, buddy. The end is closer than you think. I was putting the finishing touches to the epilogue over the weekend. I don't want to give too much away but it won't surpass 150.

The final part of the chapter does imply that the boys had some kind of discussion which resulted in Conner making some concessions. Maybe I should have made this clearer because it seems like a lot of people missed this. It's quite relevant to the story because it shows that Conner is willing to try new things and why shouldn't he, it makes sense. Robbie is continually making references about how Conner will need to change but it would have been pointless discussing this at a party. What's less clear is how Robbie will act when it comes to dealing with Alex. Maybe he would have been better off insisting that Alex meets him at the house.

I didn't know there was such a thing as a nice stay in a detention facility, and I can't think of anything Robbie's done that would warrant it either. Unless I'm missing something, the only law he's broken is underage drinking, which is unlikely to lead to a custodial sentence, unless he was robbing the beer store to do it. Now Alex, of course, is no stranger to breaking the law, although he would see it not so much as a choice, but as a necessity, for his and his brother's survival. Despite what Alex did to him, Robbie still sees him as a victim and wants to help him, which should be commended. Although he shouldn't try to do this on his own. If anyone should be serving time, it's probably Alex's parents. I think it's worth remembering also that Robbie's only sixteen and these are only high school romances. Whoever he dates, it's unlikely to last forever. He's not choosing a husband here or a lifetime partner, even Robbie wouldn't be dumb enough to think that. He's only choosing a boyfriend to have some fun with. They don't really need to be mature, I certainly wasn't at their age and I didn't have the benefit of Robbie's considerable wealth. It's fair to say, no matter who he hooks up with, or what decisions he makes, Robbie's money will give him a better than average chance in today's world.

Robbie didn't do himself any favours in the beginning by allowing Conner to have things all his own way. Nathan flirts with everyone but you're right because he does care about Robbie and Daniel. We don't know what's going on with Ginny's cousin, but Nathan didn't arrive with him, he was just a guest at the party. We only know about him through Robbie's jealous eyes and wild imagination.

Of course, it's entirely possible the poor girl just ate something that disagreed with her. This has kept me amused for hours. One dodgy sandwich and next thing she's being carted off for an abortion or a shotgun marriage to her best friend's gay brother!

Robbie will see things a little different, of course. He thinks he was just having fun with those guys, although flirting with them was obviously pretty dumb. He may need to make a better decision when it comes to dealing with Alex.

Haha, you're right. Robbie doesn't need alcohol to get him in the mood for sex, but deliberately trying to get himself grounded to avoid sleeping with his boyfriend is not a good sign either.

Finding the right chapter title that doesn't give too much away but still has some relevance has always been difficult for me. This was potentially a very dangerous game for Robbie to be playing, although he did recognize it at the end. He wasn't quite stupid enough to accept the drugs, more tequila, or to leave the party with them, but he shouldn't have put himself in that position in the first place. Perhaps he wanted to get one over on Conner by flirting with older guys, but in this case it could have badly backfired on him. Alcohol affects people's judgement and a sober Daniel seemed more aware of the potential danger than Robbie, but perhaps I'm being kind. Robbie's immediate problem is whether he should trust Alex enough to meet him somewhere without telling anyone.

My boyfriend relaxed his grip on my waist just enough for me to turn around. At least we could kiss in the open without having to worry about upsetting anyone. There was a lot of it going on around us, and a high percentage of the couples were male. “Happy New Year, Conner.” I considered it a good start. It was, after all, a big improvement from the year before when I wasn’t even sure of my sexuality. Now I was able to kiss a boy in the open without anyone batting an eyelid. ‘I gotta

Is that California State or California Nation?

When I was living in the UK they found a dead body in our local reservoir and there were concerns about lead in the drinking water. Not saying it's any better here though. Canada has more fresh water lakes than the rest of the world put together. Clean water is one thing that should not be a problem here, but they still mess around with it, adding fluoride and crap, then charge you for the pleasure.

This is very true. I did a lot of research a couple of years ago for my story "A Soldier's Guide to Single Parenting." This was set in 1978, ten years after the main character was supposed to be in the Vietnam war. That was the reason I chose that year, but when I started researching and asking people I knew about the late seventies, I was surprised by how different things were. I did a lot more research than was needed because I became interested. I don't think we appreciate just how much attitudes have changed for the better since the sixties and seventies. Maybe it's because the changes have been gradual.