Carlos Hazday

Happy Halloween! Even though @Daddydavekclaims teasing's not nice, I can't help myself. Right now, Dia de los Muertos celebrations are in full swing in Mexico. Starting at midnight tonight, the deceased come for their annual visit and the living welcome them with displays designed to honor them. Here's a glimpse into what CJ and Owen are doing today.

This is the picture Wayne posted. The blurring is mine done to fit my cover.

I have the photo in my laptop. I'll post it tomorrow. I know it was his picture because I asked for permission to use it for a cover. I just looked and the story has no cove ror banner. Must have been lost at some point. I'm on the couch watching a ball game and I'm too lazy to move. 😁

@Reader1810 One of Wayne's prompts was a photo of an old car he took outside Walgreens, I think. Anyway, you know that was the inspiration for "Melvyn Ford," but it also inspired a bunch of other cool stories. I think Mann's turned it something about a race or road trip and there were others. All wonderfully different.

I did that a lot! Some of my responses were pretty wild. I also remember Promising Authors battling against Signatures to see which group posted the most replies in a single week. Can't believe I'm being nostalgic.

Fascinating info, Myr. As a CPA, numbers and statistics are in my wheelhouse. You make me want to go check all my stories for how I categorized them, but I'll wait until you roll out the new ones. I better have tagged my last story as military though! I mean something set at the Air Force Academy with a bunch of cadets... I think Soap Opera would work for my CJ series LOL The president of the Washington Scandals Rugby Team once compared my series to Tales of the City, and that's the ultimate gay soap. I just wish I could write as well as Maupin. Thanks for the effort to present the data in an easy to understand format.

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Aside from my were-creature silliness which would be fantasy, I'm stumped. I sure as heck don't write romances and that's what most others post. I know you and I stand outside the lines on that one. How do you categorize some 25 stories all following one character's life starting at 15 and progressing through middle age?

Hope there's help tagging stories. I have no idea what most of mine would fall under other than DRAMA.

In all likelihood. After all, @northie and I have been sharing Fridays for a while. Since she's currently posting the third story in her Too Late series, I think I should keep her company.

One of my beta readers delights in pointing out when I quote Billy Joel lyrics too. Along with Springsteen and Joel, Jimmy Buffet and Elton John are my favorite artists. I like storytellers and that's what they write and sing. Like you, I grew up with parental music that sticks with me, and I wanted to show CJ doing the same before branching out on his own. Cesar loves Springsteen, Brett Motown and the Beach Boys, and CJ grew up listening to Jimmy due to his frequent forays into the Florida Keys. I'd tell you what I have in store with music, but I don't want to spoil the story for you. Let's just say music moves me and inspires me.

Imagine what other readers have gone through. I needed a break from CJ himself, so I wrote a bunch of side stories. Once I'm done with the epilogue, I need to do some cleaning g and ill start posting. 35 chapters plus meaty prologue and epilogue.

First saw him in concert @ Georgetown's gym my freshman year in college. Had no idea who he was beforehand and it was love. Not the type to follow an artist around, but I've been to a few of his shows. I celebrated my 60th by seeing Springsteen on Broadway. I stop using his songs as titles with this book.

What? You scared a moderator will jump all over you if you use the title of Thiago's story first chapter? At least you recognized the Boystown house as one of the ones I referenced. There's also Rico and Lynne's suburban home in Chicago.

That's one. I think so far I've mentioned 12 different houses/apartments. Not all have names. 😁

I write about a couple of real estate transactions involving family in CDMX and Flying Circus. Of course, I tried to figure out if CJ or Ritch would give them names. Who knows what each of the houses the family owns is called?

@chris191070 LMAO If I don't start posting on Jan 1, there are plenty of holidays before on which I could make a splash. We'll see. Since my regular editor's unavailable, I'm leaning towards going without one, so there may be lots of typos and punctuation errors in what I post.

You might be interested in knowing I finished writing the main part of the story yesterday. I have an epilogue left to deal with. About two thirds of the chapters have already been beta read and self edited. There's this one chapter that takes place at the end of October/beginning of November 2021 in Mexico City. I'd like to preview a snippet from that one on the actual day the events I wrote about supposedly happen. Let's see where I am by then. The pandemic has made many of us reevaluate how we do certain things, changes have at times been momentous (lots more people realizing it's better to work to live than to live to work.) Other changes are plain silly. My penchant for sharing a new story on the first day of the year is something I'm reconsidering. Maybe it's time to let that little tradition slip. One aspect of my stories will not change; my cast of characters is multi-national and diverse as ever. Heck, I even have someone admit they hail from Missouri!

I would add Man vs Nature Characters on a boat/ship watch dark clouds form and the wind increase. Whether it's a hurricane approaching or not, dread of what may happen should be palpable. We don't always need human antagonists. Neither as individuals or as a society.

I sure as hell can't keep him out of my head. No matter what I may be reading, watching, or doing, I'm always on the lookout for interesting situations in which to place CJ. Or one of his acolytes. Most Squad members have cameos in the story, and those who've had their own stories posted, get a bit more attention.

For a variety of reasons, I've unfortunately done it myself. I find myself browsing through the site without signing in on a regular basis.

I think the new character introduced here, Calum, may be a tad more likeable than the one in the previous excerpt, Stephen Northman. I felt the need for another Aussie.

Although reaction to previous teasers has been limited, I'm hoping a large number of readers have seen them and simply failed to react. I'm really trying to ensure y'all don't forget about CJ and Owen. Here's a little bit from chapter 3 of CDMX.

Hey Alexander, here's hoping you manage to reach the end or get closer this time e around. 😁 Glad you're enjoying my work.

Thank you, Bre. The ending was definitely controversial, but I tried to set it up by having Chipper explain why he thought not winning might be a good idea. Interestingly, today my goal is to write a Chipper concert taking place in Mexico City. I'll continue charting his progress in other stories even if he doesn't get a second solo story.