Thorn Wilde

Absolutely, entirely believable!

Even though it's a relatively short story, your characters experience so much personal growth and development. I think it's remarkable and wonderful.

I think people whose sole criterion for sexual attraction is genitalia should abandon labels like gay and straight and just call themselves phallosexual or vaginosexual. Would save us a whole lot of grief. I love this story. I want to thank you for contributing to more trans and non-binary representation in the stories on this site. ❤️

Thank you. I certainly think it is.

I can imagine. Writing in first is very different from writing in third, there are certain narrative tools that don't work in both. Specifically here, what I noticed was a lot of actions performed that weren't tied to the main character by 'my' or 'I', and that seemed a bit odd and distracted me somewhat. Describing things independently of the characters doing them can work in third person, but can feel jarring in first. Like I said, though, it's a good story, and that's just a minor thing.

This was a really interesting story. Put me in mind of some episodes of Black Mirror. And also of the completely unrelated game by the same name, for the ghost stuff. A well crafted story, though the writing style tended to pull me out of the action a bit for some reason.

Aww, such a cute pup! ❤️ And a great piece. I'm a simple soul, though. My favourite Gershwin piece, which was also my first, will always remain Rhapsody in Blue.

Thanks, Gary! I'm glad it's got you interested. Many intriguing thoughts and questions there... I guess you'll just have to wait and see.

You are most welcome.

Well, you'll just have to wait and see when the next part goes up. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

Oh! That's one of the ones I missed because my health was blah. Thanks for linking, I'd been meaning to read them all.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it even if it's not your style. It's really different from anything else I've written, that's for sure.

Congratulations, Carlos!

Mine appear to have come unstuck now, at least.

I just noticed this myself. Seemed very odd. EDIT: My anthology story, Before the Fall, also appears to have had no new views since sometime this weekend, neither the chapter or the story itself. It is possible, of course, that there simply haven’t been any readers, but it’s highly unusual for a recently published story to not be gaining any views. Could that also be related to this?

Sometimes, it’s exactly what we need.

Thank you. I appreciate your words. Thanks for taking the time.

Thanks, tim. I try to be. And I try not to let despair take me. It’s hard when I’m having an episode, which seems to be what’s going on right now. Thank you for taking the time to read, comment, and offer support and advice. I appreciate it and I appreciate you.

Happy birthday, @Lisa!! ❤️🎂🥳🎉

I’m eighteen years old, with four months left of my secondary education. I’ll be nineteen soon. Everyone asks me, ‘Aren’t you going to apply to the opera academy? Or the classical music academy?’ And I, in spite of having spent the past three years wanting to be an opera singer, say, ‘Nah. I’m gonna be a rock musician instead.’ They look at me like I’m crazy. I don’t apply for either of those schools. I apply for The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, but I don’t get in, and I spend

Back in my classical soprano days, I sang a bit of Purcell, including Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, and I Attempt from Love's Sickness (a great example of a rondo) from The Indian Queen. I loved singing Dido's Lament in particular. Such a wonderful, dramatic piece, lol!

The confusion when it comes to these two words is understandable. A lot of people write 'lay' when they should write 'lie' (as in lying down) and, however more rarely, vice versa. So here's a quick guide to how they are different and how they work. 'To lie' is an intransitive verb. That means that it's something you do, but not to something; it's an action without a direct object. You lie down. 'To lie' is conjugated: lie, lies, lying, lay, has/have lain. As you see, the past tense of 'lie' is 'lay', which is likely where the confusion begins. More on this later. Examples: He lies on the ground. (Present tense) She is lying still. (Present participle) They lay there together. (Past tense) I have lain here for a long time. (Past participle) 'To lay' is a transitive verb. It's something you do to something; an action with a direct object. You lay something down. To lay is conjugated: lay, lays, laying, laid, has/have laid. Examples: She lays the pen on the table. (Present tense) He is laying the bag on the ground. (Present participle) I laid the book down. (Past tense) You have laid the blanket on the armrest. (Past participle) So, let's look closer at the usage of these words, in present tense. First, intransitive 'lie': I lie down. I (subject) lie (verb) down (adverb). This clause has no object. That's how you can be sure that you should use the intransitive 'lie'; I'm not doing anything to anything else. For comparison, another intransitive verb is 'to think'. It also functions without a direct object. I (subject) think (verb), no object required. Now, transitive 'lay': I lay you down. I (subject) lay (verb) you (object) down (adverb). This clause has an object. I am laying you down, you in this case being the object (in the grammatical sense; I'm not objectifying you). Since I'm doing something to you, you know to use the transitive verb. For comparison, another transitive verb is 'put' (which is sometimes interchangeable with 'lay'). It is a verb that requires an object. I (subject) put (verb) the knife (object) down (adverb). 'But!' you shout. 'What about "now I lay me down to sleep"??' Well, as strange as it may seem if you're not accustomed to grammatical terms, in that sentence you are both subject and object. That is to say, 'I' is the subject and 'me' is the object. So that sentence is perfectly correct. 'I lie down to sleep', but 'I lay me down to sleep'. I hope this has been informative and edifying. A lot of writers (and people in general) seem to struggle with these particular words—I used to get it wrong all the time—but it's really very easy. You just have to know the difference. Happy writing!

Aww, what a sweet story! I love it. ❤️

Stay safe and warm! We've had snow on the ground since Thursday. Temperatures around -5°C, which I believe is about 23°F. Wind chill at -9°C. It's supposed to get warmer on Tuesday, but I almost wish it wouldn't. Snow's gonna melt, then it'll get cold again, and you'd be safer wearing skates than walking out there.

Happy Birthday, Gary! I hope you have a wonderful day! ❤️