Carlos Hazday

@Hellsheild Sorry about the tears. Need a tissue? I'm not sure if you've heard but I don't write romance so I was uncertain how readers would react. CJ sort of took over and wrote the section for me. You can blame him for the waterworks.

This is where it all happened exactly a year ago today...

@tor200534 Glad you liked the chapter, bud. I hope I put a smile on your face this morning.

Yeah, but did you like it? LOL Glad I could surprise you. I knew CJ would bend a knee from the beginning and over time the way he did it came together. When I first mentioned The Proposal Booth a long time ago I thought someone would figure it out and ruin the surprise but I'm happy with how it all worked out.

CJ, Owen, and Ritchie returned to Washington on the first day of 2017 to an empty house. César and Brett had flown to England and spent New Year’s Eve in London with their old friend Rashid Khan and his partner. When planning the trips, the fathers insisted their sons arrive home in time for Ritchie to have a full day settling in before going back to school. The older couple flew home a day after the others did. CJ spent subsequent days relaxing, waiting for the new semester at Georgetown

Since I'm on a Gus kick...

@Defiance19 Re: stories set in your hometown. You had me chuckling when you mentioned a story set in places you recognized. I kept thinking about you walking around Chelsea trying to find PRIME!

I'm big on using real settings. But unless I create a location, I want it all to be as accurate as possible. I just took a day trip somewhere last week so I could better describe a placeI'd not visited in over 10 years. I'm doing the same next month and then again the following one. Miami has been featured in many a book. Not so much romance stories as crime and mystery ones. Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiassen, and Edna Buchanan may be the best-known ones. I love to read about the place I grew up in but as with most others commenting, I hate it when authors mess things up and it's clear they were not creating their own spaces. I've had a few Australian readers praise my descriptions of places my characters visit in Oz, but I've also been told my use of Oztrayan isn't always the best.

I'm willing to help you out. I've lived in DC, visited multiple times (will be there in April again) and my long-running series uses Washington as the characters' home base. A couple of readers have told me they've used my story as a guide when visiting the city.

Well written story that leaves the readers with enough questions to want more. Based on another author's work, you can tell there's much about the fictional world waiting to be explored. For some that's sufficient but a few readers like me may feel like something's missing.

I've always wondered why a relationship like the one you described is looked at as wrong. Two adults should be able to do as they wish. I can see the opposition when procreation is involved but in this case anyone opposed to it is just trying to force heterosexual modes onto people different from themselves. Well written. Dialogue sounded somewhat stilted but it could be attributed to the way people speak in your kingdom.

Good story. It does stand alone but I could tell I'm missing something. It's the reason I avoid fan fic unless it's about something I've read. It did strike my fancy, wish I had time to read the books it's based on.

You should have posted this as a stand alone story. You would have been able to mark it comple and I would have raved about it in a review.

Abso-fricking-lutely lovely. I loved Iggy taking charge, showing he is a man and not a confused kid. I'm not surprised at the quality of the story, you've proven often enough you have chops.

A great love story set in the world of sports with athletic completion viewed in a geopolitical context. Two brave character willing to risk it all in order to be together. Well worth the read.

That last sentence was perfection. I love topical stories and this one hits the nail on the head for me. Great job, Dodger.

I just read this! How the heck did I miss it. Come on, Parker, it'll be easy. You know I'm a pussycat willing to take criticism. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to cleaning the shotgun.

I am amazed at how much the author packed into 1,500 words. Bless Me, Father is a good example of what a talented author can accomplish by stripping back adornments and excess. A simple, sad story of loss and missed opportunity with streaks of misguided religious fervor woven through it. Regrets are a horrible thing to live with. I choose to believe the open ending allows a ray of hope to shine through. Best thing I've read so far this year.

Such a sad and wonderful story. Magnificent writing, Parker. Your descriptions were so subtle yet complete. I had a clear image of a town in the northeast, were everyone knew each other, and life moved at a slower pace. Mid-American morals the guiding principle. So well layered too. There were so many spots it felt if I could peek under the sentence I'd find an entire new paragraph.

@Potterslashfan Interesting how the sections you liked least was the one another reader liked. LOL Goes to prove we all focus on different aspects. Another interesting thing hong is the reception a modification in style receives. The first four books could be considered one with four sections and was written with dated daily entries. Walls changed the approach with each chapter covering a month. Some disliked the approach at first claiming it seemed rushed. I've compressed time again and I'm hoping by the time the book's over readers will forget about my experimentation and remember all that was included instead of what they felt was left out.

A flash piece with a delightful recapping of a wedding through photos in an album. However there's one inconsistency which ruined the entire thing for me. One of the characters spent five years in a coma but the other one mentions it's their third wedding anniversary. Maybe I didn't understand something but if that's the case I have a feeling I won't be the only one.

Interesting approach. Dialogue accounts for a hundred percent of it and although witty at times, I missed a few descriptions here and there. It felt like listening to a radio show without the narrator setting the scene. In the end, it didn't work for me. I lost interest halfway through and ended up skimming the rest.

@Defiance19 Very perceptive, Def. On both counts. I channeled Cesar giving CJ a beer the first day the kid was in Washington and distilled it into CJ getting Ritchie drunk. Not the same circumstances so not the same action, but the same approach. The dads are permissive and have no problem bending the rules when they deem it necessary. Having Geoff tell CJ "Down, tiger" was one of the lines of dialogue I enjoyed writing most. CJ's ready to take on anyone to defend his boyfriend even if it's the man's family. There's that loyalty he talks about in action. Harley and other Squad members shall return sometime soon. But these first few chapters feature the immediate family on purpose since most of the other guys are away from DC.

@Potterslashfan One of the first things I learned when I joined GA was info dumps are not ideal. Same for character introductions. Since I have so many characters, I do try and remind readers who they are when they first show up after a while. But all it takes is using their full name in narration and a word or two. It's usually enough to for example say Rodney Abello is CJ's cousin and that usually sparks a memory of who the man is. Fro the remainder of the chapter he would be Rod and readers would still know who he was. Welcome back to you, too