Ron

Happy Birthday Greg! Many happy returns.

As per usual, I get great enjoyment from your writing, Don. Kevin did wax on and on and on, however eloquently and heart felt, about his love and admiration for Cam though. Still, it was an enjoyable experience and one that is frequently missed until each new chapter arrives. Thanks.

Yes, Trebs you have been missed. I've been wondering when you were going to show up. It's been a busy week with many great new things to read and to read about. Cheers! Everyone.

So...reviews make you happy? What a wretched little fisher you are! I agree with Miles about these first couple of chapters. Also, too often with second books, authors spend too much time rehashing the old to establish the new and I find it boring. That's not to say that some backtracking is not acceptable, but it is often the mundane that is reused, so to speak, and when I see that it makes me think that the author couldn't think of anything interesting to write. You have done that most judiciously, the focus has been on moving forward, and for that alone I could applaud. But additionally, your writing is a joy to read.

This chapter had such a charming beginning only to end with knowledge of rotten machinations. I guess I should accept the bad with the good if I must.

Nice first chapter. I like when you do nice as you do it so well. Then there was that last line - '...and for a little while, all was right with the world.' Ahem. I suspect some not so nice ahead.

I reread all of the earlier Nemesis and related writing and I am refreshered up and ready to sally forth. Bring it on Mr. Wilde. Good times!

In today's 12/21 NYT OP-ED section, Charles M. Blow writes: The article continues and then focuses on Robertson's comments as concerns the 'happy' black folks comments that were included in the GQ interview.

That was a fun and entertaining twenty minutes. I am not a fan of rap music either but Jimmy & Justin work well together for sure.

The ostrich pillow seems to be strangely, oddly attractive to people for some reason. I don't get it.

I think the worst gift was the phone sweater. It doesn't even qualify as kitsch.

I hope the spitting was figurative.

Ha ha, Stephen. Me too - branches, many branches. Codey's poem was lovely but I had to do a little search to find who he was. So young! That was a very touching chapter, Graeme. The writing makes it easy to feel sympathy for the characters. Just how long ago did you write this? And did you make any changes when you ported it over to GA?

Son of gun. It doesn't seem like a violation of the spirit of the rule. The reaction and suspension does seem overblown. How would they even know what he was reading?

Can't find that gift for your special someone? Running out of time? Last minute decisions driving you nuts? Here is a humorous "Don't Gift This List" Feel free to 'List' your own favorite gifts not to give this holiday season. Don't forget to report those spectacular 'Fail' gifts, "Oh no, you shouldn't have!", that you did get later. We know that you will want to show your appreciation. I know I will.

Welcome to having registered and public acknowledgement, Gypseytails. Cheers!

According to wiki, the extent of aid to India, excluding military aid, is a little over 3.2 billion in US dollars this year. The current population is 1,270,272,105 people, half are under 25 yrs old. Seriously, 1 out of every 6 persons lives in India and there are more men than women. The aid is a drop in the bucket. The numbers are staggering for lack of education, the poor, infant mortality, and so on. Some of the wealthy may be trying to make change and even there they run into resistance it seems. That doesn't mean a trickle down to the poorer populace. In fact, it is something to cling to because at least that is somewhere that they have control of the outcome. No one wants to have no control in their lives and it will be hard to convince folks of another way of doing things without widespread education and the ability to move upwards out of poverty.

Amusing. Who is next?

Education and birth control have been known to work at reducing population numbers.

This thread most definitely got hijacked. If anyone would like to begin a thread for beers, I would happily chime in with my own choices. But if you start one on trucks, forget it.

It looks like yours and Nosty's hard work on this chapter paid off, it reads well with a nice mix of show and tell. Writing, making changes, rewriting and doing it some more works for getting the best possible outcome out of yourself. The first draft is more than likely, never the best version. The boy's first day is bit of a mixed bag. There were a few unexpected side effects (so to speak) of the switch. Jacob had an incredibly, unaccounted for, boring day at school it seems and Josh handled his day well enough with help. But Josh, well that one is going to be sore tomorrow from working muscles he's not used to working. Let's see how much longer they can keep it up. Good work, Sammy.

Yeah, but dang! She could have fell beside the bush and looking up at that perfect rose. Death isn't generally dignified but come on man...a little grace for the death of the old Heart of The Tree. All caught now. Great piece of work.

Finally, I've been waiting for a kookaburra to show up!

Wow! The bells are clanging. Impressive and deftly done. I had forgotten how it all began what with Vince taking off like that and all the hoopla involved. Cool.

Ha ha, I've bought into the idea of the tree and am curiously trying to figure out the tree's next victim. I have a choice sacrifice in mind, but we'll see. This is really good, Graeme.