Thorn Wilde

Thank you. That means a lot, and I'm glad you've enjoyed the stories so far. I enjoy writing them, too. Thanks for sticking with my boys! They are among my favourite creations.

It's not that she's done anything bad. It's just that he knows the law like the back of his hand and has all the resources of a fully fledged law firm at his back, and if she tries to take Meg away because of Marcus's sexual orientation, he'll get her on discrimination charges. No one wants to look like they're hating on gays, while hating on Catholics is entirely PC. And yes. Yes, they are terribly stubborn. I think you'll like the next instalment, though. I may have it up later today, or tomorrow at the latest, I think.

I actually do have a couple of ideas for future stories with these guys. We'll see what will happen. Thanks for reviewing!

Thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying them! Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Well, they're in their thirties now. It's about time they realise they need each other. They still have a few more stories left to tell, though. Thanks for reviewing!

It’s amazing that she still picks up when he calls. ‘Hello?’ ‘Jen.’ There’s a pause, in which his ex-wife makes a sharp intake of breath. He can see her purse her lips in his mind’s eye. ‘Marcus.’ ‘Er, I was wondering . . . Do you think we could switch weekends? First weekend of November . . . Something’s come up.’ ‘What kind of something?’ Even after everything, she knows him a bit too fucking well. ‘A friend is coming to visit.’ ‘Is this a friend or a friend?’ Her disapproving tone is u

After meeting again after ten years, Jacob comes to visit Marcus, and, in their thirties now, both men are forced to examine their feelings and consider what their futures will hold. Contains gratuitous swearing, and some domestic fluff.

Thank you. I do have a clear plan, though, it's just the actual writing that requires some effort. Thanks for reading, and reviewing, and I'm glad you're enjoying it.

I feel sorry for Oliver, too. I started out thinking, like Jacob, that Oliver's a little bit useless and silly, but of course he isn't. He's intelligent, ambitious and loving. Jacob, for all his other excellent qualities, is severely lacking in ambition, and has not yet really learnt how to love. That's going to take a good long while, and learning how to let himself be loved will take even longer. Thank you so much for reviewing. Your comments are always appreciated!

I agree with aditus (assuming I interpreted his comment correctly). Why should our form of censorship be more okay than anyone else's? And if anything, Banned Books Week also serves to make us aware of the harmful censorship that goes on all over the world and highlight authors who have been driven from their homeland for writing something that their government considered offensive or dangerous. I find it particularly ironic when people suggest banning Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451 (which is one of my favourite books, btw). Yeah, let's ban a book that shows a dystopic future in which all books are banned.

Welcome to Bushy, Ian and Suvitar!

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you've enjoyed it so far. I will get round to finishing it soon, I've just not been very inspired lately. There's two chapters or so to go, I believe. Thanks for reviewing, though, it makes me really happy to hear from readers and it's very motivating!

I did that last week, and scored 4. I'd like to do it again on my other computer, though, which has a bigger screen and better colours. Haven't got round to it yet. My 'issues' were in the transition from yellow to green, which is a little odd because I appear to have slightly yellow-biased vision most of the time (colours that some people might refer to as a shade of blue or turquoise, I'll often see as green).

Oh, definitely. If a work promotes hate speech or hateful actions, then its author and anyone who uses its content that way should definitely be held responsible. See, I don't think that series is considered especially controversial this side of the pond. Like, at all. I think the US is the only Western nation in which a book will be challenged or suggested banned simply for containing ('unconventional', according to Wikipedia) sexual practices.

Stop talking about Europe as if it's one country, we are not all governed by the same laws. Mein Kampf is banned in several European countries, and most of those have laws such as possession of the book being legal, but not selling or trading. I think that even books such as that one should be available for study. Because books should not be banned. I can, however, agree that it should perhaps be kept out of the hands of young and impressionable kids, and its content should certainly not be glorified. Once someone quotes from it in order to promote antisemitic views, that's clearly hate speech and should definitely be opposed. I have a distinct feeling that if we keep talking about this particular book, a moderator might feel the need to come shut us down for political discussion, however.

I'd say that even those things shouldn't be banned. I mean, where do you draw the line? A piece of fiction written from a murderer or rapist's point of view can give powerful and painful insight into the human psyche and force people to face up to what goes on inside the mind of such a person. At first glance, such a work might seem to glorify violence, but that might not be the intent, and that might not be what people take away from it. We need to be allowed to explore dark themes in literature, because how else will we be allowed to, if not through art?

Excellent analysis of Marcus. It's true, Julian was pretty much the worst thing that could have happened to him at that point in his life. Just imagine how much better Marcus's life could have been if his first had been someone sweet and kind who reciprocated his feelings. Then again, had that happened Marcus wouldn't have been half as fun to write. You're right that he didn't cut, but his eating compulsions do border on anorexia. Nothing to do with body image, but it's another thing he can control, what he puts in his body, and it ends up being very little. He eats the bare minimum of what he needs in order to make it through the day, and sometimes he doesn't even do that and compensates with caffeine. That, in its own way, is just as bad as cutting, even if it doesn't leave as visible marks, and is a habit he retains well into adulthood. Marcus and Jacob are very well suited to each other even if it may not seem that way at first glance. They just kind of work, as a unit. Based on that, it was remarkably easy to go back in time and look at their pasts. It just seemed very clear what their respective childhoods must have been like. Jacob, all in all quite blessed where family is concerned with parents who care about him and a friendly big sister, but ultimately just kind of screwed up. Marcus, who had such potential for becoming a loving, kind person, ruined by his father and the company he keeps growing up. Of the two, Marcus was always, underneath it all, the more romantic, even if Jacob is the more passionate. More of this explored in the upcoming sequel stories. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing and being awesome! <3

Nah, I'm not really like that. I mean, I've certainly got a temper, and I obviously know how to swear with the best of them, but I like to think I'm somewhat less damaged than Marcus. I'm happy that you're entertained!

*flails* I mean, literally, I just did the biggest flail ever, like a Kermit flail, because this review made me so insanely happy. I've been having a bitch of a week. Month. Few months, really, but it all kind of culminated yesterday and today I could barely get out of bed, but now it feels like all that hardly even matters anymore because you took the time to write me this and it's the best thing ever! I think you're a very pragmatic and reasonable mother. They really are just words. And sometimes it's appropriate to use them, and sometimes it's really not and the trick is knowing the difference. My mum had to have this talk with me when I was about fifteen and swore in front of her, and she said, 'You know, it's fine that you talk that way when you're with your friends, but when you're around adults you should try not to.' Of course, now we more or less compete over who can say the dirtiest words, especially after a few glasses of wine, and discuss the etymology of sexual slang in no less than three languages. I love my mother. Poor Ollie got the short end of the stick, definitely. Jacob was never very nice to him. But then again, Ollie could never keep up with Jacob either. They're just too different. Jacob and Ollie went on and off for a few years, until they both went off to uni (Ollie is dead brainy, so he went to some fancy, old university, possibly Cambridge, while Jacob had to make do with the local red brick, not cause he's not smart, but he was lazy in school), and Ollie is mentioned in Soft, as a one time on-off boyfriend Jacob has coffee with. Ollie tried to change Jacob's mind for a long time, but in the end he wised up and realised that they just weren't compatible and never really could be. Maybe I'll write Ollie's story, too, some day, for shits and giggles. Again, thank you so, so much for this, you've made my day in every day possible! You're wonderful!

Oh, I don't use any of these words much... Maybe sod and tosser, occasionally. I'm more likely to use their heavy-weight counterparts.

Attention! This post does contain some actual swearing. Posted this to Tumblr earlier, where it was well-received. Thought I'd share with the community as well. There are a lot of comparatively mild curse words that we just accept as being family friendly without much thought as to where they come from. Some are just milder versions of a word we consider unacceptable, such as saying 'crap' instead of 'shit' or 'darn' instead of 'damn'. Others have so completely lost their original meanings that no one even considers them anymore. Here are some fairly common British ones, with pop-culture examples for your enjoyment: tosser n. One who masturbates; same as wanker. 'Who's Harry Potter?' 'Oh, no one. Bit of a tosser, really.' —Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (seen by millions of children) bugger, sod v. To sodomise someone n. One who sodomises 'Bludgers. Nasty little buggers.' —Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Again, seen by millions of children) 'Sod this, you stay here if you want. On your own.' —Sherlock, S02E03: The Reichenbach Fall (prime time TV) berk n. Short for ‘Berkley Hunt’ or ‘Berkshire Hunt’, which is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘cunt’. 'Then what the hell did you tackle me for, you berk?' —Rupert Giles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer And there are so many more. Like, how many people who use the word 'douchebag' actually think about what that originally entailed?

Interestingly, the Icelandic gene pool is remarkably strong, and they're very attractive people, too. My best friend growing up was from Iceland and I've been there. Iceland is directly contradictory to everything we think we know about inbreeding, really... As for the rest of your post, I am completely comfortable with admitting that I had huge crushes on pretty much all my male cousins at one point or another growing up. A friend of mine was engaged to her cousin. They didn't end up getting married, thank God. I say 'Thank God' not because they were cousins but because he was a humongous douche bag.

Thank you, Timothy, that means a lot. Also means a lot that you kept reading even if you initially found the plots too depressing. Their story is not yet over, and I can promise that what remains (other than the prequels) will only get brighter.

Actually, that article doesn't say anything about for how many generations cousins have been marrying in those families. Since this is a cultural practice, it's probably safe to say that they have ancestors who have also been marrying their cousins. When first cousin inbreeding takes place for generation after generation, even if it skips a generation or two here and there, the result is that first cousins are as genetically close as siblings. It it happens just the once in a bloodline, the risks generally aren't significantly higher than normal.

Sweet and nice, huh? That's one way of putting it, I suppose. You'll just have to wait and see. The next instalment is with Sasha right now. I can promise that it'll be a lot less depressing than this, in any case. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing and being awesome!