ColumbusGuy

Metaphysics on a weekend when I read this? What's that term I hear a lot in British stories--gobsmacked?--yeah, that's it. I'm just going to say I loved it and let it go before I start thinking I'm Schroedinger's Cat! :) --meow-- What was that? Wait, somebody close the lid on this box...where's Senor Wencas when you need him!

I'm wondering how far you'll go in this one--I'd like to see the writing of the Questioning Song, or at least some hints of it...and yay to Zalna for beginning to think of T'san as a new friend at the very least!

I'm already hooked Mawgrim! It's great to see this from the perspective of Benden, but having Zalna tell it is a wonderful surprise. Refresh me a bit please: the visual Lessa used was from a tapestry of Ruatha Hold...was that the same one as Moreta in D'gar and J'rud's weyr? I thought that ride was a lot earlier in the timeline so Ruatha must have changed by D'gar's time....

Before you go moseyin' off into the sunset, I'm raisin' my hat to ya and rather than sayin' "Who was that Masked Man?", I'll holler out: "Y'all come back now, y'hear!" Gotta be a goldarn sequel to this here yarn, pardner, no doubt about that at all. Maybe Will's land is magical enough for him to find Mr. Tree and wake him up...just so long as he's wary of blondes in pinafores...For the curious, look up Mr. Tree and Lucy's Toyshop on the internet. I loved singing his song along with the audience as a little nipper back in the day. :)

Man, glad I don't live in some remote English village! I've seen some episodes on cable of a British show where people examine buying a house in the country, and I'd wonder if there was some local rituals in the offing... I grew up in a small rural town surrounded by farms, and loved the quiet, but that lent a whole new perspective on watching late night horror movies as a kid! I'd go from the living, down the hall to my bedroom, turning lights on ahead of me and then off as I went by hoping to get under the covers in one piece....

I don't have a Kindle device, just a download thing from Amazon that was free, and with that I can read ebooks from various sites via my pc. One site I found was the Internet Archive which has music, books and some episodes of tv shows like Sagwas The Chinese Siamese Cat which I love...I've found a few books there and you can choose the format to download them in, and they're all free. I don't know if there are any limitations on searching because I've not had much experience with the site, but I was pointed to it by one of my eye doctors as a source of reading material and she gave me a form to send in which I have yet to do. I may have unlimited access if I sent it, but perhaps others can check it out and let us know? I did find a favorite book by Norman Spinrad called 'Song of The Stars' that I'd had in paperback but could no longer reread.

Farewell Eighth Pass and Fort Weyr as we've come to love it. When the weyr opens again, it will be to recalcitrant Holders and pitiless Falls...I just wish D'gar would allow himself the necessary risk of letting J'rud into his heart once more. An intriguing title, Mawgrim--images are already forming in my head, no doubt mostly wrong going on your talent and craftiness. Ever thought of trying for a post in the Harper Hall?

Daniele is right, Giaco won't be safe at home, not until Ettore is arrested at the least. Time for the whole sordid affair to be revealed to an adult.... I only know of the carabinieri from movies, and tales of their corruption are legendary, particularly when it comes to being paid off by organized crime, so I'm not sure where relief will come from here.

I feel sorry for Marco too, but I hope he hasn't gotten dragged into Ettore's gang... If Mr. Neri in Naples is truly in the underworld, I'd think he'd take a lot of notice if things in Ravello could draw attention to his larger activities...perhaps he'll take care of Ettore and the wanna-be gang? Gotta admit his son sounds like a hopeless idiot who is just begging to be caught....

Thanks Terry! GA has a lot of helpful writers here, and I lucked into some wonderful friends over the years, many of whom comment on my every chapter. :) Just an idle thought: I have done a lot of delving into my own genealogy for this story and Jay & Miles; many first names appear in my paternal lineage, as do certain last names. Hartmann was a great uncle but that's all I know of him, and M. Derichs has the honor of being the name of my Greatgreatgrandfather's mother born some time in the late 1700 as he was born in 1813 and came to Ohio in 1841. I have a picture oh the house he built some years later in north central Ohio which can be found in my Gallery, but it is used as Jay's house in that story of my high school years. My father drove me past that house in the 70s, but it had passed out of the family, and the wrap-around porch was no longer there.... So, in some ways, real life infects even my most obscure science-fiction tale. :)

Though we knew it was coming, seeing it approaching quickly on the horizon makes it no less a shock... I guess I'll have to read Gone Away again to get my fixes until the new story begins. While that's no hardship I really don't want to deal with F'drun again. :) I suppose like I did with the 80s miniseries on the Last Days of Pompeii, I'll be cheering for the volcano's swift appearance once more.....I swear, that three parter was so slow and boring the eruption was a relief!

Sigh...too true. We became truly damned when Science gave up her pedestal to wallow in the mire of political opinion rather than champion reason and facts. Salvation is no longer possible while our institutions of higher education 'teach' consensus over reasoned investigation. Patriotism was the stalking horse used to undermine our society so idiotic ideas could take the place of sound thinking and thus render our society into those in power who are immune to rules and those subject to them as witless drones of the Sate--the true ideal of Marxist ideology. Let us put up 'important issues' like gender neutrality and critical race theory while we quietly erode those few rights and powers that the common man managed to retain...and create true problems by dismantling our economies and supply chains via fiat in the name of 'public health'. So, lets sign one more piece of paper to set unrealistic goals to impossible schedules while ignoring the fact that the worst offenders won't do anything to comply, and those who champion 'Green' policies fly in their hundreds via private jets and hundred car motorcades to tell the rest of us to cut our carbon footprint...I'd use one of my footprints to kick those hypocrites in their arses. :)

Thanks Raven! There will be more chapters of this and Jay coming up, though I have to admit to a bout of writer's block that I'm starting to work my way out of... This story had been percolating in my head for a decade before it began to be turned into pixels, and there are parts I'm researching a bit with some help from Geron Kees, who's a wiz at finding obscure things online now that my vision has limited my own searches. If I've missed a comment on anything, I'm sorry because for some reason my narrator won't read any more than the first line of notifications in the pop-up window...welcome to my Worlds. :)

Okay, the others have said how much this touched their hearts, and I can't add to that with my meager musings, so I'll only say this: No other poem I've read in my studies of English and American literature during college ever evoked so much emotion in me as this did. Sure, they'd create imagery that was beautiful and grand, but on an emotional level--not to the extent your words raised in me. Perhaps in my youth I was less sensitive? I can't say, so I'll just leave it as it stands: impeccable, my dear Gary.

I hope George decides to meet the boys as it may reassure him of their authenticity. Haha, I knew a spanky reference would work its way in somewhere.... :) In some ways I regret not learning to swim, but then my small town didn't have a pool until I was in college and too set in my ways to pick it up.

Two more chapters...sigh. Then it's a wait for more, but that's okay because you're continuing with this wonderful series. I have to say that I've enjoyed your Pern stories as much as those by Anne herself, and find them better than the later volumes put out by Todd who began with promise before cashing in on the franchise....A couple years ago I got an email from an old high school friend from 10th grade, and she attached a scan of a drawing I did for a Hold hall from my first reading of the original books...I'd given it to her because she liked it, and I could draw another if I wanted. As it turned out, I didn't, and she left school before the next year. Just after drawing that, my art teacher let me paint a green dragon on one of the classroom windows, and it remained there for several years. The year after I graduated in '77, that building became the middle school and the high school moved into the new building next door that looked like a prison with white facades and only very narrow vertical windows rather than the banks of horizontal ones of our late 50s home. Can someone email me a notice when a new Pern story begins? I often miss things in the queue with my vision problems now, and don't want to missany thing...actually, Mawgrim, pm me and I'll give you my email as the one on the profile may be wrong if it's not a hotmail one.

Great to see they left Were World with a bang and can find their way back with no trouble...will this just be a private place for the group, or might it enter the Elvish Map Book? Ah the classic insularity of small towns...it's not as far out of reach in today's world as we may believe despite our ubiquitous use of phones. Go Kiernan--we'll see you on Engris or in Twombley soon I bet... :)

Hey, I like old cars! Chrome is awesome--my '55 Pontiac had a massive front bumper with two cone-shaped bits, and the hood ornament was shaped like a flying wing plane where the nose lit up to add to the headlights' glow.... Sounds almost like an old Airstream camper the Professor is using!

Gotta wonder about tags with Geron around; I noticed the 'alternate earth' one on the front page, and I guess now we know why. :) Just too stunned to come up with anything else right now....

Two things come to mind here as odd coincidences, one closely related and the other tangentially so... First, when I first moved to Columbus in May of '87, I had a long-haired black and white cat named 58 who was sixteen years old and didn't adapt to the move, so I lost her in the Spring of '88 and bought another black and white cat, this time short-short haired this time. I was seeking a name, and one of my first roomies voted for Pyewacket, though I chose Elspeth...he called her that until he graduated three years later. Second, one of my favorite pieces of modern music is a rock opera introduced to me by a Norwegian roomie, and it deals with a witch trial in Germany--it's called Which Witch and is by Dollie Deluxe, truly worth a listen and can be found in cd format. Small towns definitely hold secrets...see the Bette Davis movie Dark Secret of Harvest Home for a prime example!

I'll add my voice to the chorus urging you to continue this story. I read your other stories at other sites, and found the first part of this one at IOM, and checked here to see if there was more. Delighted to find a sequel, and also crushed to see the 'abandoned' tag. I know about blocks because I have had trouble continuing my own stories most of this year, so spend time reading others to get my mood back, and I think it might be working at last.

I'm just a tad confused on this one--experience tells me to mistrust the politician and trust the historian, but based on current observations I'm thinking of reversing that view. Is Rhea a 'rhea' herring tossed in to throw us off the scent of what's really going on?Not fair Geron, teaming up with one of the most imaginative of past authors to keep us on our toes! :)

I get it very well, my dear G-Man, and there's not much to add, except perhaps this: the longer we live, regrets seem to pile up and outweigh everything else...but there are also joys mixed in if we but remember them. It can be something as simple as the sun warming us walking in a wood or meadow, or the smile of a cherished friend when we meet again after a long parting, or the times shared with those we loved who are now only with us in spirit.... A good wallow serves the purpose of making us enjoy our joys more, but we mustn't let it drag us under. Here's my hand, dear Gary offered to pull you out into the light again... xoxoxoxo

A new thought has occurred to me with this chapter: they sense no malevolence from the phantom which manifests as darkness, so who or what is this Devil? It has long been a part of our lineage to fear the night and that which inhabits it because we cannot see into it like we can the day....it is not the darkness itself that causes the fear, but our own perceptions regarding it, so is this Devil something we bring along with us? Mind you, with the universe Geron has created for us, it could be anything from an inimical magical force to a truly unimaginable horror from the depths of space....

I can understand D'gar's not wanting to move on with any relationship after losing S'brin, particularly since J'rud was such a part of that bond before its tragic end. Time may help, and we may be seeing the first faint signs of him coming to terms with his new life... I get his reluctance because I felt the same when I lost my own s.o. in 2007, and while the circumstances were different, the emotions were the same. I was nearly 50, and wasn't one to indulge in the bar and party scene, and at that age most of the gay community consider us as associate members of the community at best rather than as ones to settle down with. Despite many claims, the culture is still one where youth reigns and others just have to accept that fact. My experience is with places outside the coasts, so perhaps things differ there with more options? Anyhow, I'd like for D'gar and J'rud to become a couple, but with the move ahead looming and a new round of Thread, there doesn't seem to be much time to rebuild anything....