Topher Lydon

"What are we becoming?" Alex asked quietly, he was holding Tom in the back of Tom's old station wagon, parked away from the road at a pull off somewhere up by the highway. A quiet place that was slowly becoming still and quiet at the hours crept later and later. "Does it matter?" Tom replied as he shifted in Alex's arms. "Are you having fun, I mean I know I am, but are you really enjoying this..." He waggled his hand between them and the fact that they were tangled together, their clothes all over the back of the Wagon. "Yeah," Alex confided as he huffed his hair out of his eyes where it fell in a sweaty mess. "Becoming used to it now, hah, would never had said that if it weren't for you and your jumper cables..." "That was weeks ago," Tom chuckled. "There I was, mindin' my own business outside the arena, and what do I see, the most becoming moron in South Dakota, sitting in his dead car, trying to flood an engine that wouldn't start..." "You seduced me!" Alex accused, with a smile. "Becoming a pattern, ain't it?" Tom grinned back. "You seen my boot? I gotta get back before Pap notices the Wagon's missin'." "Hey," Alex murmured, shifting and pulling the cowboy boot out from underneath him. "I know the whole spare a horse, ride a..." "I just wear the boots, I ain't a cowboy Al," Tom warned, with a smirk. "I'm just saying, wears the boots, the jeans, the plaid... and then there's the belt buckle," Alex shrugged. "You kinda just need the hat and you'd be one hundred percent a Cowboy." "You just want a ride again," Tom shook his head and sighed. "You know what we're becoming..." He said after a pause. "We're becoming a thing... and things are complicated." Alex nodded, suddenly drawing quiet as he glanced out of the window at the snowy landscape outside their warm little haven off of the highway. "So it's going to end then?" "Hell no!" Tom slapped his boyfriend's behind. "I like complicated, beside yer the prettiest moron that I know. Just, my pa's gonna take some time becoming used to the idea that I've got a beau now. I think he's had his heart set on being a grandpa... well be prepared, he's gonna start expecting you to help out on the farm." "I don't know nothing about Cows," Alex warned. "I ain't a cowboy, we raise sheep y' moron. Now help me find my pants, I think you threw 'em in the front."

I am always terrible at sex scenes, I just can't write them comfortably and it shows.

I endeavor to write no judgement in the writing itself. I just present the case quietly, allowing you, the reader to think on it. I will not explain Mike Fraser's motivations because I feel that distracts from what the consequences are. If I were to say, tell you his reason was xyz then the focus of the Neglect shifts to Why, and what grounds... as opposed to what the affect is on those three boys is. It diminishes Axl's sacrifice for them, and Ollie's putting aside his life of comfort to be a decent boyfriend to Axl.

I really wanted to show two different forms of Neglect, and the impact upon the souls that are abandoned and left behind by it. Your observations are quite correct. Where is the money going, and why did Mrs. Fraser leave, because Mike Fraser sounds like he is buried in guilt. As for Mrs. Slater, I get that grief, I do. I've been through it as some of you know... but I had to pull myself out of it (with help from friends) and get back up. But there are some who simply cannot do it. They don't get better, a mental health failing. Depression is insidious, a mind killer... a soul killer. The point I make with her is that she too, has died, she's just taking longer to lay down. Aiden can't fix her, and Axl is making sure that boy isn't forgotten. Axl is very much the parent of these two boys, far too early, but after some time, he's got a little help from someone that cares about him.

A new Label appears: OXL's ROOM - (they think we don't know what they're doing in there)

He has also witnessed the transactional nature of his Father and Tarquin. He knows you can't buy love, and Orel and Finn prove that to him. I enjoy the Axl/Ollie dynamic, it just works so easily. Which is funny given how HARD it was to get Finn/Axl to work in the first five drafts of Lost and the Damned. They just didn't work together. When I am done my chapter's for the day I will post a scene here from that dynamic to show what I mean.

Stage 3, integration. Orel's plan moves to it's final phase. Gerald is amused

Chapter 7: The Logistics of Staying The Honda died on a Friday night. Not dramatically—no explosions, no clouds of smoke, no final heroic stand. It just... stopped. Mid-intersection, right as Axl was turning onto Mill Road, the engine coughed once and went silent. The dashboard lights flickered. The steering wheel locked. Axl had exactly three seconds to think *oh no* before the car behind him laid on the horn. He wrestled the dead wheel, coasting on whatever momentum

Plus it is pretty hard to hurl abuse at the men who just led the town to victory over an invasion. Heck even Henry's earned a whole lot of good will for his part in defending the town.

I kept things subtle, I didn't want race to be a thing in these two books. While it is 1885, and there were great problems, I wanted to show that if Merrickville could support gay marriage, it certainly could accept one of it's leading citizens being black.

Well the railway does, to this day, go around Merrickville

His is a Creole Gentleman from the fine state of Louisiana, the same as his wife, Mrs. Lauralai Levesque.

Two chapters remain. Time to get the Deeds back. You know Jean Levesque is going to enjoy this.

Jack deserved his moment, and Kieren needed redemption, seemed a good fit.

good morning...

Chapter 11: The Iron Cavalry The Bridge at Merrickville. 3:18 AM. Merrickville refused to end with a whimper; it ended with the rhythmic, mechanical clack-clack-clack of a canvas belt feeding into a brass breech, and the hiss of water boiling inside a steel jacket. When Bobby Grady pulled the spade-handle triggers of the Maxim gun, he didn't just fire a weapon. He opened a door to a new century of warfare, and hell stepped through. The sound was a continuous, tearing rip—BRRRRRR

MARSHALL'S CHILDREN (drop off at the pool) The toilet: THE POOL

REALLY BAD WATER BALLOONS(use with caution)

AXL'S LUV DUNGEON (please ignore the giggles)

I wanted to get a right fit for Ollie. Originally Axl was the love interest for Finn instead of Orel... but he just didn't fit... so he's actually an older character than Ollie was. I hadn't really thought about Ollie and Axl until readers suggested it. And I sat back and went Huh... that actually works... huh.

What goes on behind the closed bedroom door is closed Axl's going to skip to work the morning after

I would release them all here, but I only get two release slots a day and I use them for new material.

Every so often we need a little bit of sweetness to remind us that the world's a bright place