Ron

I thought it was site work that was causing the brief periods of inaccessibility. I have experienced the outage 3-4 times over the last couple of weeks. I'm using Comcast cable in Boston.

I jumped over to refresh my memory of the story and ended up re-reading the whole thing. It was worth the time spent on the second go-round. That ought to tell you something. Premium Access - Go for it!

Happy Birthday Mark

Hello Jebekah. Old-ish - New-ish, comme ci comme ca, read to your hearts content.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you THORN wishing you many and more happy returns!

It will work smashingly until someone comes along, opens the door, and seeing nothing but the forest, locks the door and takes the silver key to the pawnshop. I liked the story, Louis.

Valkyrie71 has already offered up a nice, short story for P-323. I don't want to be that young again.

It's a shame these earlier stories aren't getting the attention they deserve from new readers. I found this sad and moving as could be. My heart, it aches after reading your words; it's all too plausible, too . . . horrendous. Every soul is diminished in this story in some way. Every. One.

Lots of young men have been in Oliver's shoes. You captured the nervous behavior well, Valkyrie. A believable snippet.

I thought you captured the loss of pride and self well. The refusal of recovery and self-redemption--quite possibly, love--was not unexpected, but it was poignantly written.

Your story is thought provoking; as the subject matter should be.

Wonderful writer, indeed. I read A Measure of Love as well, and it is shockingly insightful. You have gained a new reader of your words, sir.

I don't know, this was a really big - "Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you . . ." - no matter that it is well written. The font and formatting is different from the previous chapters, that's kind-of-a big change. What prompted it?

We knew hearing about Daniel's past relationship wasn't going to be pretty.

Like butter on warm toast. — That's how well this chapter flows seamlessly into the previous chapters, K.C. I began to re-read the story from the beginning yesterday and I am glad to note that despite serious health issues this past year you have not changed in your style, or the voice of your characters. We still have the Michael and Asher we have come to love, through you, and their relationship continues to deepen and evolve. How nice is that.

Hello, rituraj. Welcome to GA. There is a great bunch of people here and I'm sure you'll have no problem making friends.

Oh my, coining a new word. And a cat-loving, crotch-watching gay man . . . You do like to write scary things into your stories, don't you. After a day like that, the poor MC was definitely in need of a pick me up.

Value vs. Price is an other wholly different argument hh5, and possibly another topic.

There are examples of people using the ipad as for more than just a toy. David Hockney, the British artist, is just one. Here is a New York Times article dated Jan. 10th: the-ipad-is-an-artists-canvas-for-david-hockney The iPad and other touch-pads may not be perfected yet, but it hasn't stopped many, and varied, artist from exploring its uses. If one is willing to pay the annual fee to use Microsoft's Office application, it is very possible to write on the iPad and on Window's touch screen computers. I used Apple's bluetooth keyboard and wrote parts of several stories on my iPad (when waking in the middle of the night with an idea) and no waiting for the boot of the PC, just start typing. I used the Notability app at the time because its set to back up to Google docs. I probably won't pay for MS's annual fee but it is a viable option nonetheless.

Welcome to GA, pennywise.

Happy Birthday to you, Sasha and many, many, many Happy Returns

Now you've done it, you have gone and scared the smilies! In a creepy, thrilling manner, this chapter ended fantastically. I am very much looking forward to the next chapter.

As crushes go, this is a damn good one. He really does something for me too.

The title is correct, I'm afraid, and this timeline takes place a few years before the event in Prompt 303 - chapter 1 of this years prompt stories. I hope you will read it as well. Thanks, Valkyrie.

After reading every word my likes are exhausted. Kudos to you all.