Carlos Hazday

May 2020 No rain had fallen yet, but it was coming. The previous day’s sunshine yielded to skies filled with angry, graphite clouds. Becoming darker as the day progressed, they promised a deluge by nightfall. “I hope the downpour waits until I’m back in the City.” Cristina had offered to drive Brad back to Heroes Haven on Sunday. It meant taking US 50 to Delaware before joining I 95 for the remainder of the trip. A little longer than the direct route, but she insisted it did no

Has GA been quieter than normal the last few days? I was expecting the opposite.

Mostly nice people in line. One ass tried to cut in, so I had to call him out.

Thanks, Chief! Hope you enjoy the spinoffs I've been posting. CJ will return as the main character of a story sometime next year.

Thanks, Def. I wanted to involve Paddy to show how even when there are basic differences, brothers can get along. Mine? We're all three nutsy.

I feel you, Steve. I drove down to Miami yesterday to see Dad at the retirement home. Had to take him his meds for the next two weeks and threw in a box of cigars to keep him entertained. Met him outside since I'm not allowed in and kept my distance. He kept asking me why I couldn't stay and have lunch with him. He's aware of the pandemic but doesn't realize how serious it is. Not sure I want to make it to 90.

@dughlas I've been trying to involve Squad members who didn't get a lot of airtime in the series. Ethan's had a big chunk so far, and Carson features prominently in this one. Harley will show up in Rithie's Ritch's story. When I wrote Hail, I had to outline the lives of a bunch of characters trying to imagine what they would do over the intervening 20 years. That has been my guide for the spinoffs. We found out Chipper was a big music star, and Singer showed us how he started down his road. We found out Brad's a Secret Service agent, and Ranger starts him off on the path. With both of these characters, and others in the future, I'll include updates on their lives in future stories. Chipper has a nice little role in Malibu. As for Brad, I've beaten up on the poor guy more than anyone else. I want him to succeed and reclaim the joie de vivre he often exhibited. Even though this story deals with a more serious issue and has a more somber tone. I wanted to include fun activities and chapters along the way. Those instances will hopefully hint at Brad's recovery mentally.

@Parker Owens A musical reference for you even if it's pop music. I think it was in "Party at the End of the World" Jimmy Buffett said he was stealing from himself when he mentions changes in latitude. In case you're not familiar with his work, he refers to "Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude" It wasn't all cut and paste, I had to ensure the POV changed from CJ to Brad. I did the same thing in a previous chapter with the car conversation after leaving Heroes Haven. Both instances gave me the opportunity to insert some of Brad's thoughts about the events.

I was ready to involve more of the guys! In Singer, it was only Chipper and Ethan with any real interaction. Ripper Christmas was CJ and Owen. I think I included them all in this story. Can't recall if Harley and Tank had any significant airtime, though.

Wild Brad's had to accept external changes and is making some internal ones. War sobered him up as we saw in conversations he had with friend at a couple of events. His new reality without legs I have to assume will lead to more changes. If he's going to come out the other side sane and succeed, he has to evolve. One small aspect Mann's helped me is Brad's vocabulary; we've tried to expand it as time went on. Except when he's around CJ and the Squad, of course. I'm glad you noticed the change.

@Anton_Cloche LOL - I've had Lincoln pay attention to Silas and Paddy. I think our FBI agent likes them younger. We know Patrick ends up married, and I gave a hint about his husband in Hail to the Chief, that's all you get from me. The story clocks in at just over 37k words and 13 chapters including the prologue.

Can you imagine the conversations with his dads and with CJ & Owen? We already saw some of those during the first visit to Heroes Haven. If Brad doesn't focus on the future, there's a battalion of people ready to kick his ass. Oh to have support like that.

LOL People used to complain about long chapters because I included too much. People complained about 1k word chapters even though they knew it was an experiment and what I was doing. People complained about chapters between 1 and 2 thousand words and the length of the last two stories even though I announced the word count and number of chapters. The shortest chapter in this one was the prologue; every other one's over 2k words. Somebody throw me a life line, I'm drowning here.

At this point in the story, Brad's been using his artificial legs for about six months. There's room for improvement but according to amputees I talked through prior to writing the story, phantom pain, itching, and discomfort will be with him for the rest of his life.

I wrote the story in the same order as it's being posted. I too had a little trouble with the back and forth. It's why I added the month and year at the beginning of each chapter. Keep in mind that date, and it might help clear the confusion. The next one takes place soon after this one.

I enjoyed using an event previously described, seeing through a different character's POV. I actually plagiarized a couple of paragraphs.

May 2020 A little over a month after moving to Heroes Haven, Brad was on his way back to Washington. He asked that someone pick him up in Delaware, so he could attend CJ Abelló’s and Carson Sawyer’s graduation from Georgetown University. CJ’s younger brother volunteered to play chauffer. “Thanks for picking me up, Ritchie.” Brad climbed aboard the teen’s bright yellow Jeep, Defiant, a hand-me-down named by his older brother. It brought back memories of tooling around while stil

Some things will never change. It's good to see you around, Def.

High praise coming from a teacher! Hey, it looks like the Liebe story may not make it to a class plan 😕 I liked your idea of using it on Earth Day, so that's when I'm going to post it.

Wonderful news first thing in the morning. Congratulations to my anthology buddy!

@wildone LMAO Really, Steve? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

I laughed so hard, I started coughing and in the process swallowed my gum. You mean the Native American Warriors? Not a chance. If there's even a season. Then again, CJ's talking about the 2022 World Series LOL I think there's a line after which PC speech becomes ridiculous. By the same token, I wouldn't scream out Legless unless the individual was a real good friend and I knew he wouldn't be upset. I also wouldn't call anyone Pocahontas unless that was her name.

Evil Empire? When I followed baseball, I despised both teams equally. I wanted a 'safe' celebrity for them to interact with on the page, and Alex seemed a good choice. Plus I liked the unexpected detail of using baseball player at the Oscars instead of a movie celebrity

Thanks, Tony. I try to show my characters as multidimensional individuals. To me, that means sharing details about their life that may not directly impact the plot, but they might help us see the individual as a complete being. With that out of the way, I will generally try to keep the main storyline moving along in every chapter.

I knew you'd appreciate my baseball reference. One of the reasons I chose to use Alex. And that gave me the chance to bring up the Sox-Yankees rivalry too. Major League Rugby added a franchise in Washington this year. OLD Glory RC played it's first game ever last month. We KNOW Owen dragged CJ to it. Unfortunately, I cant include that in the series until I write another spin off. I figure either Tank or Tom and JP will need a story just so I can mention DC's pro rugby team.