ColumbusGuy

Thanks, Geron! I can't tell you how many times I've seen Death Race 2000, and Rollerball too. Every time 2001 comes on, I watch it, but fade out before it ends, though I have sat through it several times. A classic, maybe, but no one claims it's rivetting. THX-1138 was another of those movies you watch once, maybe twice, then tend to tune out the next time you see it...not even a Monolith to maintain interest. The Ross brothers...an idyllic relationship...maybe Lee will calm Finn down a bit? As for Kevin, I'll give him a happier ending than mine had--it can't hurt that he's living at a relative's house now rather than with his parents. As for him and Bill--

This is gonna be great--just when I was looking around for more great stuff, you post this! It sucks I can't go back and re-read 'Running', because it would all come back to me in the first chapter...damn, where's senility when you want it?

My house had some memories stored in it, but not of any children I know of...curtain rods, an old double-breasted suit from the '30s in the attic which fit me perfectly...and in the basement, tacked to the wall by the stairs, a family tree of one of the later families who lived here, the last of whom I believe was a priest. When my mom died in 2007, among her things I found she'd saved an old handwriting book I'd used in second grade, a mother's day card from fist, a pair of glasses when I was probably a year old...and a couple of my earliest (terrible) sci-fi stories. Among her pictures were ones of me I barely remember, the earliest of a nurse holding me in one hand in the hospital hooked up to tubes because I was two months premature....Nothing ever spoke clearer to me of her love than these keepsakes from my childhood. Thank you for bringing those memories back with your reminiscences.

If you don't mind a little advice? You can get rid of the wide spacing between paragraphs by not having any in the text you upload into the editor--it seems like the default is to put in one space between paragraphs without us needing to. I figured that out by looking at the text of some of my other chapters, and correcting it on my oldest ones. They now all appear with just the right amounts...and I don't know what all the fuss is some people say about inserting line breaks--I've never had to do that, in either system unless it was a poem. Liking this, by the way, and eager for more.

I'm sure Fendral came back because of the fact that Kellar is his only remaining family, and now that it looks like he will recover the ability to shift back...we will find out more of Kellar's mother, and hopefully his father. It doesn't sound like Gisla ran off to marry, so I've got my fingers crossed. Perhaps there's enough human left inside Fendral to fully recover, but his wasn't a physical injury like it was with Logan and Arthur. Another question raises its head now: if Fendral recovers, will he become Alpha again? And will he agree that Kellar has the right to refuse that position? Once more, we see Tobyn is more than just a pretty face and hunky body.

Thanks Myr, for asking us not to edit our chapters yet. I spent a week restoring my picture links, and was afraid I'd have to do it again. Since this is part of the problem mentioned above, I hope we'll find out when it's fixed. I did notice Saturday that song links in my chapters don't work either...and I've never had a problem with those before. It's strange what things will crop up when you fix one thing...

Dodger, I've been reading right along, and skimming through the Fran bits...and I was so happy when Robbie and Nathan started to work things out. I think this Jake character, or one of his goons pushed Robbie, not Daniel. I wonder if Daniel is acting oddly because Robbie hasn't confided in him, or Nathan...not because of jealousy, but lack of trust. It does bother me that Don and Sue don't show up...and my only thought is that the visits have slowed due to the time involved--I certainly hope it isn't because they now know Robbie is gay...but if Daniel and Amy aren't there, then I can only think that they aren't allowed to by Don. Come on Robbie, fight your way back--you have a boyfriend who needs you!

Thanks, sanmariano--now that I can access page 2, I can reply! A lot of this is fiction, but based on the locales and situations of my high school years. I turned down the opportunity to meet 'my Jay' that night...so this makes up for that I hope. I found out that he died about thirty years after these events, so my hopes of getting into contact again were dashed.

Hey Tim, I use image links to get my pictures in the chapters where they need to be--in the same box where the text itself goes. The problem I had recently was that the image galleries were moved, so I had to put the new location in for ones stored in my gallery here. I tried the insert other media thing in the same field, and had problems getting it to do what I wanted, so fell back on the 'old reliable'. You don't even need to say it's a link--if you copy the url in, it automatically shows up as the picture, then you CTRL right click to align it left right or center. I had a different problem restoring my cover pics for stories; I put it first in the area it said, and it showed up all squashed...so I put it via a url into the Chapter Note section. Shows up just fine there, so long as the url is the right one. To insure that, either in the gallery or a web search, I click on the image to view it by itself, then right click and choose 'Copy Image location'...then paste that where it needs to be. Hope this helps! Okay, this is new since I looked at a chapter with pics again. They were all showing up fne yesterday, and now aren't. So this is something we'll see fixed on Sunday? Is this meta data thing the dotted box below which says Insert other media?

Um, only thing comes to mind is: two heads are better than one....

Well, thanks to droughtquake, I now have a cure for my wood, morning or otherwise! Yikes!

Hmm, pitchforks? Bodyguards? G-Man isn't a monster to be hunted--there's something FUNDAMENTally wrong with that scenario. I'll be a torch-bearer lighting the way to a safe haven in my hay mow. Maybe Jay and Miles will give him some of their special blend of care to help him along?

Miles has lived in the 'forest' of his mind for so long that the few shafts of sunlight he can see don't do much to dispel the gloom...it's going to take more for him to realize what he's going to find in Jay.

I give up, my dear friend! (hehe) Just when I think I've got things sorted in my mind, you reveal another layer of this wonderful tale...I'm not even going to try second-guessing anymore. I find the fact that Kellar's wolf combines the colors distinctly of both his parents' fascinating--neither is recessive, which must mean that there's far more to his make-up than we know so far. And Fendral being his grandfather--that puts his need to find and help him in front of other issues...knowing he has a grandson could be just the key to make him want to resume human form. I'm so pleased that the Hunters who killed K's parents are gone--and taken out by their son to boot. It just gets better and better, Master. xoxoxoxo

Thank you BA...I hope you have read some of skinny's stories...but it takes reading his reviews to get the full picture of him, as much as we can online. I miss him daily, and know I'll never read a review by him again. Tusind tak, Tim. I tried putting normal words together to express my feelings, but couldn't do it...and we all know I suck at poetry...so this was the only way I could come close. I feel immense guilt that I left him with so many unanswered questions about my stories, but who could have know just how limited his days would be? I gotta stop now, I'm feeling tears coming again.

Greg, I loved Alex and Zach, and I knew this wasn't going to be a good ending...and I was crying for some time before the end. I read all your replies, and the comments which prompted them...I understand fully, but I'm not happy about it. It was more than jobs and locations, and maybe it was better to hold Tennyson's view...but I'm not happy about it. I am/was a hopeless romantic, who found that love only once in the most unlikely of sources, and it lasted for more than ten years--but I lost him even so...and it was in such a way that there could never be any reunion. He was a cousin of a good friend, and I was warned not to say much when he went out with our group of friends (mostly straight) as K just got out of the Army and was homophobic...so I barely talked to him. It was a complete and utter shock to hear from K six months later asking to meet up...and fairly soon, we became lovers. He was actually bi, and had trouble dealing with that sometimes...but after a few days or a week, he'd come back to me, reading his poetry to me, singing and doing some awfully romantic and sappy things when it was just us. I taught him to get comfortable with kissing, and he encouraged me to be a bit more aggressive in bed until we both became versatile. For more than ten years, we were together, but in the background were his troubles with his family (religious nuts who insisted he do what they wished in exactly the way they wished, or he was not to show his face). This was all without them suspecting he was bi--that would have been a nuclear bomb going off, even though he wasn't living with them at age 40. I say we ended in such a way that we would never be together again--he was better at concealing his mental turmoil than I suspected, and in the end he couldn't take his family's pressures anymore. He stopped by my house on a Friday, we hung out for some time, then he left early the next morning. That Sunday, he went over to his parents' house while they were out, got one of his dad's guns and killed himself in their back yard. The memorial service showed just how little they knew of him, and most of the attendees were his parents' cronies from their church. They had to put a good face on it for them...pretending to be loving concerned parents, which they weren't. Some of his friends and cousins who knew the story refused to go, as they'd blow up at his parents, but I had to...I needed some sort of closure. I think this is why I can't accept the outcome graciously with Tennyson's words--there is no circumstance save death which can prevent a resolution to any problem. So, in 2007 I lost my love finally and forever...and I feel his loss to this day and can find tears in a second when I think of him. I've never looked for another, as I'm over-the-hill so far as the gay community is concerned. So, while I can logically appreciate all your words and the story's ending...I can't do it emotionally. It was a severely heart-wrenching tale, and I thank you for sharing it. I'll have to check out the rest of your work--good job on pulling such emotion from your readers.

Tranquil pool is perhaps wishful thinking...I believe I've seen more than one shark in it.

Thanks G-Man. It felt like I was hiding this from you, since I sent it off without your benediction. I'm glad it found 'favor' with you anyway. I cried when I heard of SD's plight, and it took me some time to find a way to celebrate him--I'm no poet, and a little tale seemed to fit what he'd have wanted to read. This just felt right to me.

Thanks Ivor! I hope SD likes this, wherever he is now, I'm sure they have some sort of celestial internet where he can still enjoy our community. His talent was pretty amazing, and sadly cut so short. He always had a witty but insightful comment to make on everything he read, and it was clear he enjoyed what he came across. I think he'd have liked the way I handled the loss of his presence in this realm...may he always fly through the skies with his Questor!

Dragon Quest Rumors came one Summer day—there was a dragon that moved into the area in the hills south of the castle. My father was the dragon-hunter par-excellence—which is why I decided to answer the call rather than wait for him to return from his hunt in the coastal kingdom to our west. I was just fifteen years old, and had been practicing the manly arts with him for eight years, so I had no doubt I was ready for the task. I went into the armoury to prepare my equipage: my

This was written as part of a tribute to Skinnydragon, a wonderful author, reviewer and friend. You can find it here: hic sunt dracones

Family drama, surely not in this advanced age of the 21st Century? How well I know it...having provided a little of it myself when my father found out my sexuality. My mother had said she was fine if I were gay, but when I finally met someone who I'd have introduced to her as my One, she'd met him at my house a year or so earlier, and disliked him on principle...so...you know how that goes. I dislike drama in my own life, and have been fairly good at not having it--now if only other people would do me the favor of not bringing their's into my tranquil pool. I just don't know how you capture my feelings in nearly every piece, my dearest friend--but keep on!

I liked this story a lot, Greg, and I am so glad Zach won his battle with his past. I know you meant well giving us a warning about the sequel--for half the story I was hoping there would be one--now I'm not sure I want to read it. I'm a hopeless romantic, and your words make me think all sorts of dire events could be in the second book. I'm going to have to think about it a bit...I can't picture Alex being the sort of person to hurt Zach after knowing what he went through--and I'd hate to think that Zach succumbed to his old, or new, demons in the next story. What's worse, is that mix of dread and curiosity to finish the story. My own story is based on my experiences, but in order to deal with the sad events, I opted to give my virtual self a little more courage, and a far happier ending than I received in real life. Is that fair? I can't answer that, but it could give solace to another person who reads my story Jay & Miles, so I'll live with my fictional life and wish my readers well. Got some thinking to do, but I think I'll carry on regardless of how much the sequel disturbs me, now that I've grown to love these two boys and their friends.

My money's on it being Jake or one of his friends. One error: the Summer Solstice is the longest daylight period of the year--the Spring Equinox is one of the two times of the year when day and night are equally long. More, please!

Wow--Elinor's gonna be a mom--and Tobyn gets to be a big brother....you can't ask for more than that to show how much the lot of the Morningstar community has improved. I'm almost hoping that Brian will come around when Hugh's at the farm...won't be much trouble from him after that surprise meeting. Finding out how he hurt Connor yet again when his injuries were nearly healed just makes him even lower on the scale of depravity. So we know the former location of Arthur's pack--I hope they are still there and willing to listen to our two emissaries.