C James

Actually, I'm an only child. However, I have been known to play the occasional prank or two. Who? Me? Would i ever do such a thing as that? Jerry Clump is The Scar's real name, based on what has been in the text so far. The "Dear boy" is the way I've seen gay men portrayed on screen when they are going for a flaming stereotype. And The Scar is acting, so, that's how he speaks as "jerry". I made "Jerry" a flamer becuase I thoguht it fit with what a stright man who wanted to act like a gay man would do, but also because I needed to portray Jerry as gay, but not say he was gay. I can't lie in the narration, so I had Helen tell the guys what she knew about JErry (The narrator can't be mistaken, but a character can) and then the flaming part was to keep him as "gay" in the reader's minds without having to say so. Yep, The Scar tells Dimitri that he contracted for a hit on Instinct, and as we previously saw him do so, we can be fairly sure that the hit is indeed on Instinct. Assuming, that is, that The Scar is telling the truth. And what? You thoguht Eric was done putting strange animals in Helen's suitcases? After just one? I'm shocked, shocked i say, that you would so malign Eric's admirable spirit of perseverance I'm shocked, Shocked I say, that everyone assumes that The Scar is up to no good? I've never actually said he's the villain, after all.

Chapter 23 is posted.

Yes, courtesy of Joe! However, you might also note that Shadowgod had "King of Evil Cliffhangers" in his profile for a much longer period of time. Now, now, Steve, No one, least of all I, is suggesting that Shadowgod uses too many cliffhangers! The reason that he is the King of Eeeevil Cliffhangers is the devastating power of his cliffhangers! I only count 13 in LiS, but here is a comprehensive list, complete with quotes, of his most devastating cliffhangers in LiS. It's not about the numbers. And besides, my number would be zero: I never use cliffhangers. (though, of course, this does not include the ones that Shadowgod may add in the Beta, so if you see Cliffies in my stories, then you need to add those to his total.)

Ha! Oh no you don't! There was the locker incident, and the phone call, and the "come on up", and several others. Hrmmm, I've been meaning to re-read LiS... So, I can prepare a nice list for your forum. All in the interests of fairness, of course, and also paying rightful homage to the King of Eeevil Cliffhangers.

Thank you!! This was my first try at writing a serial, so I made a lot of mistakes along the way. In some cases I had to go to extremes (becuase it was first-person) to get Chris into places where he could find out things. It was a lot of fun to write. I do plan a sequel, so the Charger will ride again (General Lee air-horn and all). . How did you like the ending? HAving Eric, who did some not-so-nice things during the story, turn out to be a hero of sorts (though his motives were open for debate in some cases) and ride off into the sunset with the $$$ was controversial. Eric, who everyone seemed to love to hate, ended up saving them all. But what? Cliffhangers? Me? Ahhem! I, unlike you, never use cliffhangers. We already do... Shadowgod. If you doubt me, go read his story Living in Surreality. Then, hang on tight, he has some doozies, but the most masterful of all is in Chapter 26.

Hmmm.. So what we have here is a member of SPiCE who thinks The Scar should nuke Instinct at a concert? Uhoh, Graeme, they're on to you... :nuke: Hey now, how come you can confirm that Shadowgod is not a member? Oh, I see, the founder isn't considered a member, right? I will, actually, admit that I do write action/adventure, and suspense is a part of that, so thank you! It's just cliffhangers that I never use... However, yes, I fully agree, Shadowgod is the King of Evil Cliffhangers! I beg to differ regarding the highlighed bit. I can't comment on the rest, but regarding red herrings, I can say that I have used them on occasion, but generally mine read one way but actually mean something else, rather than being total false-flags. Thanks for noticing that. And you are entirely right about the nukes used in WWII: after NAgasaki we were six weeks away from having a third nuke, as I recall. The Hiroshima bomb was U-235 based, and the NAgasaki bomb Plutonium, which effectively exhausted our fissionables supply. The odd thing is, the Hiroshima bomb was exceedingly inneficiant due to design. The one prior test was Trinity, and implosion device utilizing plutonium. The Gan assembly for U=238 was simple enough that it was used untested (due to only having enough for one.) However, implosion works very well with Uranium, too, so the amount of U-238 used in the Hiroshima bomb could have made at least three implosion devices. However, that would have entailed several week's worth of delay.

A belated HAppy B-day from me too, and I hope you are having a great time!!

Happy Birthday! Hope you evening goes well!

A goat who can't properly identify cliffs? Hrmm, you must mean Conner! He has (shockingly, I know) seemed to suggest that I've used cliffhangers on rare occasion, though of course, I never use cliffhangers. Now, if you want proof that I can see and identify cliffs, let me point you over to take another look at Shadowgod's forum. Over there, in the cremnophile's lair, there are a plethora of soaring cliffs, dizzying precipices, malevolent, vertigo-inducing crags.. I get dizzy just thinking about it...

I know of the sig line and the which appears under interests in my profile. Well, actually, I lie, I only spotted that one when you said. Hey everyone, see what he's done to me? He's mean, I tell ya, mean!!!! Joey, how could you say that I use cliffhangers? That's slander, I tell ya, slander! I mean, it's not like I called you a Redneck Cheesehead, or anything?

It's 3:30 am, so I'll have to make this quick, but I've stayed out of the thread for a day to give everyone a chance to discuss. Thank you all for your comments!! I'll reply in more detail tomorrow, but for now, let me say, MikeL, fear not, no frogs (or toads) were harmed. Let me explain a little of what I did; Yes, the clues start in Chapter 2. This is why I've been so very careful how I answer any questions about the two plotlines; the fact it, they have never been separate. Remember "The Kiss" when Dimitri and The Scar kissed in Rome? That was, in part, to show that The Scar had no problem acting gay. He's not homophobic. Also, Jerry was never mentioned as gay in the narration; only in dialog. (you can lie in one, but not the other. LoL.) Also, this is why there are other characters with multiple names; Jump (Joe Clump) and The Engineer (Vladimir) and now, we know, The Scar (Jerry). I'll post more of this tomorrow, and I'll answer any questions that don't cause spoilers for upcoming chapters. Congratulations to those who figured it out. I don't mind saying that I've been sweating a little on this for months now. LoL. BTW, now that we know a bit more about Jerry, I do hope this won't make him unpopular. I read somewhere that characters need to have a few little flaws to be believable, so now we know that Jerry is The Scar. But, nobody's perfect, right? Poor, misunderstood Jerry. I do want to remind everyone how sweet he was, in letting Eric use the scooter. And he even helped Brandon pick out Chase's Tiger's Eye necklace. So, don't be too down on Jerry; and maybe we can still use the emoticons? Anyway, I'll post in detail tomorrow, and if y'all have any question, ask away! Thanks Everyone!!! CJ

Thanks! I'm going to re-do FTL the same way, and I'll use that format from now on. It's easy to do once you set it up. The navigation table that appears in each chapter is actually a single file with just the table, so there is only one file to edit. ROFL! Well, I'll see what I can do. ROFL! I love it! Thanks Hylas! More insight behind the sunglasses, you say? Well, okay... And no, no GPS coordinates. And anyway, for what? You know I never use cliffhangers. OK, seriously, good idea about Ed. Ed Wooton, who I have a little memorial to on my main page, was my first editor. He edited the first few chapters of FTL, (and, come to think of it, I did start FTL before LTMP) and then there were re-written and re-edited just over a year ago when I got back into writing. Ed helped me get started, but I had no clue what I was doing. Ed passed away in 2003, and he was not only my editor but my conduit to writing sites. I was also heartbroken when he doed. He was in very ill health, but still, I was very sad. Ed was a great guy and I miss him. Anyway, With Ed gone, and having lost interest in online sites, I still liked to write, but never intended to post my writings anywhere. One day, while chopping wood of all things, a story line popped into my head. (proving that nature really does abhor a vacuum.) I saw a guy, down on his luck, at the end of his rope, get a major break. Everything was wonderful, but there was this other storyline hovering around, featuring a guy who had a little nuclear project running. (Yep, LTMP). And like i always do when a storyline occurs to me, I felt compelled to write down the main elements, and then start filling in details. I made it to around Ch 8, plus an outline, before other projects came to mind. One of them was "Mixed signals" While I do want to brush up and start posting. The way stories occur to me is weird. For those who have read "No Shirt? No Problem!" which was my first story to be posted, that was not what I envisioned! I tried to write about a very different trip, rock-climbing in Utah, no romance, etc, but it wouldn't come. So, I just decided to start writing it with my protagonist backing out of his home and leaving on a vacation, and I had NO idea where he would go. By the time I'd gotten him to the edge of Phoenix, I had the story outline in my head, and the title too. FTL was different. I got the end of it first! The epilogue (though it did change a little) was the first thing I wrote. Actually, the epilogue to LTMP was written about halfway thought writing the first eight chapters, so I ended up with endings, and had to see how to get there. LoL. Other times, I've started stories with utterly no clue where they were going. I also have a long list of story ideas in my writing directory that I need to get to. Hrmm, is the above something for the page? Info on how I write? I do get many questions about that, and don't mind sharing as long as no one thinks its a "how to" becuase that would be bad advice for them and they'd likely end up hating me. The way I write is admittedly weird. It works for me, so I use it.

ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, you are an accolyte of Shadowgod?!!?!?

Go to "Edit Profile" in your control pannel. The "custom member title" should be one of the boxes abotu halway up the resulting page. If this doesn't work, please let me know. And BTW, just to let everyone know; the only threads we have in the lounge for posting milestones are millennium threads. There have been members getting irritated by what looks like posting just to drive up totals, and posts about posting, so from now on such things are fine in here, but here only. CJ Edit to Add. For some reason i thoguht this thread was in Games and humor. Please ogore the "here" amd supstiture "games and humor". Ooops.

I love it! At least I got away!

Aww, I'm sorry. Now will you help defend me against the scurrilous accusation that I use cliffhangers. :o OMG, you know what this means??? If Shadowgod is predicting a cliffhanger, one I don't even know about, then that means he intends to ADD ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER to the story!!! He is, after all, our Anonymous Beta Reader, and He's evil like that, ya know... Oh, Graeme? If Shadowgod has, in fact, revealed an upcoming plot detail (a cliffhanger), wouldn't that be a SPOILER? Doesn;t he therefor need to be made into a pincushion?

I changed the master index for LTMP: The navigation boxes at the bottom of the chapters and also the main story index now have the chapter names. I was digging through the story the other day to check a fact in an early chapter, and I found I had an easier time navigating if I could see the chapter names, so I created the new index. I've also added my latest two anthology entries to the main index page. Okay, now I have a question; there is a link on the sidebar called "stuff" that goes to a blank page containing an "under construction" bar. Any suggestions what the heck I should put there? What would you guys like to see? (and, um, no, not me roasting over a fire. ) Thanks!! CJ

Brandon and Chase also had a blackmailer go after Brandon for sex, and Chase's brothers screwed up and tried to get Brandon to do it, right when his relationship with Chase was just forming. LoL BTW, there are two photos of Rome at the bottom of chapter 21 The first is of the Baths of Caracala, and the second is of the Pantheon. I took them a few weeks ago when I was there. Actually, many of the graphics in my site are my own photography. The sidebar on the main page was taken in one of Arizona's slot canyons, the background for the title banner was taken in China (even though it looks like Arizona, lol) and the graphic for "three for Jake" was taken on the Greek island of Corfu a few weeks ago.

AHHA!!! Yippe, I just noticed the poll now has In the LEAD!!! YES!!!! Thanks you!!!

Carl had goats as food items in his last anthology entry! Ack!!! I've got to start reading more of Carl's stories. I've been meaning to but I've had no free time lately (I have family staying with me at the moment and they are driving me up the wall).

Happy Birthday, Hylas!

Just like you would never use cliffie's right? Precisely!

Well, LTMP Ch 19 was, I suppose I'll admit, perhaps ever so slightly tense at the end, and I can't discuss all the reasons why I did it for a couple of weeks yet. But, there were reasons, and yes, it was, I suppose, a tad tense. But not a cliffhanger. Speaking of cliffhangers, I highly recommend Shadowgod's "Living in Surriality" on his hosted site here. If you want a cliffhanger, Chapter 26 is the Mother of All Cliffhangers. And, speaking of our Soverign of the Malevolent Precipices, Shadowgod has a new story coming out on Thursday. It's called "Dreams and Clipped Wings" and I've seen it, and all i can say is it's really good. And Graeme, no, that's not a spoiler!

Hi Wolfwalker! I do have a serious word of advice on that; ending EVERY chapter in a cliffhanger both dilutes the effect, and irritates the readers. Better, in my opinion anyway, to use them judiciously and for effect. (Note to everyone, no, I am not admitting using them! ) It;s guilt, you see... If Shadowgod sneaks a cliffhanger in during the beta, wouldn't I be wrong to take credit or it? Well, of course I never use cliffhangers, so of course I deny it. Why, the next thing you know, you'll be implying that I'm not a lurker...

Ouch, sorry you have to move, and I hope things work out for you! That has got to be rough, I know you've said you liked Dallas in some ways, so it will be tough leaving it behind. And Joe, would I ever call you a Redneck Cheesehead?