Carlos Hazday

LMAO - I'll work that in sooner or later. I'm thinking the DJ booth at Ibiza's Club Cocoon right now, but that may change. I like Senator Duckworth. Glad you approve of how I handled her. I dislike being unable to use real people easily now that I'm writing in the future. And the further into it I go, the opportunities diminish. I was hoping Joe Kennedy could become a regular, but his primary loss screwed that up. Brian Sims' running for Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor, if he wins, I may write another cameo for him.

Whenever someone binge reads the series and comments, I end up re-reading chapters and readers' reactions. This one struck me as appropriate as we near the end of Ritchie's spinoff. I hope his growth has been satisfying.

Nah, Owen's not that radical. CJ was meant to be a moderate from the beginning. Both his fathers lean conservative and I wanted Owen to be a bit more liberal. Although he comes from wealth, I tried to infuse a bit of the European Socialist approach to certain things. I chose the Nature Conservancy for him because of their approach to private/public partnerships. Instead of demanding, they work to find compromise. I felt if Owen had a similar attitude, he could smooth out some of CJ's rough edges. I'm rambling. Owen's not a radical environmentalist. I have notes all over the place with things I want characters to do or say. When I started writing, I used to pump everything into the story right away. Hopefully, I've learned to slow things down and dribble details over time. Fudgepacker line's one of those things. LOL I posted my reply and had to immediately edit it. I used the proper pronoun for the kid and had to change it so as not to give away THEIR gender.

I was close to sending out a search party. Let me guess, you object to killing and eating baby cows. Wait until their kid decides that's its favorite food. Because you would have jumped all over Brad's shit? Pretty sure I've mentioned these guys are not very PC at times. Never tried the stuff myself. That one was pure research looking for a decent Aussie bubbly. I have tried Two Buck Chuck. Trust me, once I'm done, CJ and Owen will have plenty of their own to repay anything. Interestingly, I outlined a conversation at a dinner party in XXXX (CJ's initial posting) An older British couple, a mid 30s New Zealand one, CJ & Owen and a single Aussie and German the Kiwis are trying to set up. Owen's the only one not shocked when CJ claims he agreed with a lot of what He Who Shall Not Be Named tried to do. LMAO Unfortunately, I never wrote the entire letter out. I did that when CJ wrote Owen, and I dislike repeating distinctive events within such a short period of time. Maybe when their kids are old enough, they'll read it to them.

@dughlas if @WolfM doesn't bite, I may have to FanFic the shit out of that idea. Yes, yes, yes. I know. After Mexico.

I realize it's beyond the scope of this story since it's focused on the Australian events. However, a short story set in California after his return could be fun. Brandon's Alpha: "How was it, Brandon?" Brandon: "It was a bloody bitch. But let me show you something, I found out I can shift into this..."

I come late to the party but rereading this chapter first thing in the morning, after a challenging couple of days, was inspired. The little altercation got my blood flowing. Not sure if it was on this chapter or another one, but I did mention something about dwarf tossing and midget wrestling to Wolf. LOL I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

I tried doing squats the other day for the first time in ages. My knees suggested I take my time and forget the weights.

The conversation in aisle 8 had me grinning. Nice.

Me and my double entendres I'm surprised nobody said anything about Ritch working with Major Wood. Joel had some fun in Cancun, he'll get laid again during senior year spring break. He's a slut! LOL

Tell that to my achy knees!

Thank you, my friend.

If I recall correctly, Miller has a large brewery in North Carolina too. All these beer companies have gone through so many mergers I forget where they brew their product. I drank a lot of Schlitz while in college. The price was right and a couple of Michigan guys in my freshman dorm swore by it.

Get ready to learn a bit about how the diplomatic world works in the next story. Did you think of Chipper while watching The Voice?

Security Assistance Forces? LOL I think Kitt was suggesting Ritch could become Secretary of the Air Force when his brother becomes president.

CJ was underage during most of his visits to Milwaukee, so he may not have done a lot of drinking then. But I'm certain whenever he went to a Brewers game, Miller would have been his choice. At a Pirates or Phillies game it'd be Rolling Rock I missed my chance to feature PBR when Ritch worked in Wyoming at the dig, but once again he was underage. I'll get to it and Schlitz at some point.

An issue that arose when writing HTTC was the need to figure out what had transpired in the 20 years between graduation and inauguration. I've had to do more of that while writing the spinoffs. We're in 2024 right now, but the Mexico story starts in 2021. I'll end up revisiting some Cadet events from CJ POV. (think Christmas in Vail and cadets running wild in Cancun.) Any post HTTC tales will have to wait a bit. My brain's complaining about the convoluted timelines.

LMAO We're talking about riding a bull here, get your mind out of the gutter. I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't want to be the one trying to put a condom on a 1500 pound critter.

Not in Colorado. That's Coors country since it's brewed in Golden. Most events and location would feature the local brew. In this case even more since the brewery would be a sponsor.

An eighteen-year-old football player hot? Who would have thought it? LOL

Intriguing premise. The chapter could use a thorough editorial scrubbing. The sudden shifts in tense and point of view were particularly bothersome.

I really want to write and share Flying Circus. It takes place in 2027 and we'll get to see CJ and Ritch interact as adults. There's a bit of that coming up in a Cadet chapter.

Ritch still complaining about flying a desk. LOL

Yes. I'm pretty sure he'll still be able to fly but air time would be reduced. Thankfully I don't see me having to deal with that issue. LOL I have ideas for 2 post-inauguration stories, but both would focus on all the damn kids. I've already created 2 more than the named ones in HTTC.

Thanks, Mr. B!