Carlos Hazday

I've noticed your increased presence recently and it's been welcome. I do enjoy your posts and look forward to more writing from you. I like your stories!

@Potterslashfan Owen's moving to the United States at the end of summer 2014 to attend law school. He'll be living with his cousin JP and Tom. What? You thought I'd not keep a hunky, blonde, Aussie, surfer as a permanent cast member?

@Potterslashfan LMAO - Poor Brett, he'll get better in future chapters.

@Potterslashfan Many a link got lost when GA upgraded. Chapter added to the list of those needing an edit. Sometime this week, I hope. CJ's already a nickname so I don't want any others to stick. He'll be called a lot of things but we'll always return to the initials.

@Potterslashfan Merry Christmas 2017~! Don't you love getting so caught up in reading a story time seems to vanish? Brett and Cesar are new at being full-time parents. They'll need to adjust as much as CJ will. Neither's a helicopter parent, but both will falter along the way. I don't want to have a good and a bad father, I'd rather have them take turns. In the past few chapters, I've tried to show Cesar setting rules and then accepting CJ's following them which leaves him no room to complain. Brett marches to his own beat.

By the time I wrote this chapter I'd grown to think of CJ as my kid. I think I was feeling squeamish about writing a graphic, first-person encounter. I'd also started to view CJ's story in a different way, realizing sex was not as important to the story once we established it happened. I can write smut with the best of them, my mind can take a scenario and whip up a wank story easily. Just doesn't feel right to write smut about my guys. LOL

@Potterslashfan I must have screwed up the formatting at some point. I most likely went in to fix a typo and who knows what my fingers and the keyboard did behind my back. I'll add this chapter to the list of those needing a little TLC. We'd already discussed CJ looking for a date and the event so I didn't think I needed to repeat the info. The way José-María had been flirting with CJ we can assume he accepted.

Hmmm. just did a quick count from memory. I've written six or seven deaths so far, even if some haven't been posted yet. You know us bloody authors, we like to tease our readers LOL

@Potterslashfan My response to your comment a couple of chapters ago about reader reactions to CJ is also applicable to Autumn. No matter how much we may research and inform ourselves about others, our experience is what counts most in the end. You'll find CJ becomes a traveler and I do fairly detailed accounts of his trips. Writing about places I've been to was so much easier than those locations based strictly on research. Even if I've had to go back and read on places I visited a long time ago. You're gonna love it when CJ becomes involved in politics. The liberal/conservative spectrum of views was fun to write. CJ manages to piss both sides off at times.

@Potterslashfan Harley's become a favorite of readers. It's gonna take a lot more reading to figure out his sexuality. That was done on purpose LOL The series is meant to be an upbeat one, yes there's drama, sadness, and pain but I try not to dwell on them. This was the first death in the story but won't be the last one, I've tried to deal with all of them the same way: show mourners in pain but don't turn it into a tearjerker. I'd rather have someone shed one or two tears than become so sad they have to pause in their reading.

@Potterslashfan I've mentioned in several responses to comments that CJ's actions are not to be thought of as common for every gay teen. He's a product of a liberal household in an urban environment and how he deals with his sexuality won't track with what straight people or rural gay people experience. However, I think he's pretty typical of a gay teen in a large metropolitan area. Readers' comments are often based on what they did at that age or in the case of straight people what they've heard or read. You have the advantage of reading without having to wait a week for the next chapter and I had the advantage of having the book entirely written before I began posting. Readers comments have on a few rare occasions influenced future the story, but they couldn't change what was already written. So I don't mind if people disagree with me.

What a huge compliment! Thank you. Been there a few times: One more chapter and then I'll go to sleep/go eat/go shower. An hour later I still haven't moved. You should have heard the screams when I ended Summer with a couple of open items. It takes more than one chapter to deal with all of them.

LOL- My writing style? I have a distinctive style? WOW!!!!! I'm not sure I've figured it out yet. I'm still confused... There will be an HIV+ individual joining the supporting cast, not one of those extras with a line or two but a real cast member.

I had a small smile during most of the story until it was slapped right off my face. Wow! Talk about a twist at the end. Such a bucolic setting with such a malevolent??? force. I don't know what to think. So many questions. Great job!

Thanks for the memory. An old friend and her husband used to have a large Christmas dinner every year. One couple always there brought crackers every year, one of the guys was British. We wore the hats for the rest of the day. Loved the story. Ingenious way of combining prose and poetry.

That's my kind of love story! Funny, natural, relaxed... And, buddy, can you write. Perfect pacing and technically flawless. I'm in awe of your talent. Thank you for sharing it. Okay, one issue... Robert. Can I make my own assumptions or do I need to wait for something from you?

@Potterslashfan 24-hour rule, eh. I don't think I ever heard it put quite that way but it works for me. If you've read any further you know what happens by now. Tough to choose side sometimes but in this case, Brett and Cesar will most definitely do.

@Potterslashfan Being in the gym lifting weights will automatically establish a bond between men, gay or straight. Chatri being a member of a minority community and from a somewhat liberal community would predispose him to being more accepting so I felt he wouldn't have a problem with CJ being gay. And for him, being in medical school and having a girlfriend, making friends at the gym appeared realistic. I've expressed my opinion on stories where every character is gay or gets turned out often enough and I refuse to do the same. CJ's friends will be a good mix of GLBT and straight people.

@Potterslashfan Interesting point about gay men sometimes acting like teens even when much older. I so agree with your analysis. It's something I've often thought about. For those of my generation who never dated a man in high school, we missed on the development our straight counterparts went through. We tend to jump into relationships a bit too fast because we never went through the dating experience. I think younger gay men have an advantage over us older ones. PrEP will be a recurring theme. Maybe someone who's never heard of it will take the time to research and maybe, just maybe, it'll help prevent an infection or two. I doubt Representative Sims has ever read this story and I'm not sure I want to share Summer with him. Although I like what I wrote, it's easy to tell it was my first story ever. My writing has improved significantly thanks to guidance by more seasoned authors and a lot of hard work.

@Potterslashfan LOL- By now you figure out it wasn't CJ future ex who came on board! Thank you for the kind words. I try to keep the dialogue as realistic as possible and base much of the 'banter' on personal experience. Nobody spoke so clearly to me at that age but I wish someone had. It might have saved me some grief later on in life. I've had friends gay and straight who I've flirted with but never had the intention of pursuing. It's always been fun and someone who looks and acts like CJ will attract attention. You got that so right in your comments.

Liking this feature a lot. There's so much older stuff most of us never see and should. Thanks, boss man.

I'm gonna have to tweak an outline a bit. A couple of things are too close. Didnt get to finish it in time for this year but maybe I'll post in the middle of summer. The thing I like most about your writing is it always includes some sort of social commentary. Sometimes it's so subtle most readers miss it. This one was loud

@bbonnett3 Glad you liked the way I handled the end of the book. As for Ritchie, he'll be a bit more visible starting with the next chapter. However, please remember two things: 1. The title of the series is CJ so he'll be the one in the forefront most of the time. It's his story. 2. With the size cast I have, it's tough to give a lot of time to any one character after the protagonist. Even Owen isn't in every scene like CJ is these days. On another note, trading comments with my editor recently, I mentioned I had a few characters interesting enough to headline their own short story. I even mentioned one about Ritchie. BUT don't hold your breath. IF I go there, it won't be for a long time. I have to finish what I want to do with CJ first. Ritchie's story would take place while he was in college.

Damn the cliffies...

Following in the long tradition of the LA Lakers and the Utah Jazz. Names don't have to make sense. The NFL did okay with the Browns and the Oilers. Why do e bother to discuss this? It's all about the Benjamins. A pro team can have a positive impact on a community but that's not their reason for existing.