C James

Hrmmm, I'm usually accused of having my head shoved up there, not somebody's hand! See? Shadowgod is teasing me! He's mean, he is... What have I ever done to deserve this.. It's not as if I ever tease him... Poor Eric, so maligned. For all we know, he went up with the sheriff's house... Incidentally, did anyone find it perhaps a little odd that the FBI never mentioned Blackheart's demise, or lack thereof, to Chris and Steve?

Actually, I have one very much like that, that's a little scarier. I also have a one with a big rhinestone cow skull, which I tend to wear for formal occasions.

Thanks Graeme!! I've had a lot of fun at GA, I love this place. Thanks to everyone who makes it so special, and you are certainly one who does. But Frosty, what I said was absolutely true; GA has a tradition of celebrating 1k, 2k, and 3k, but we've never made a practice of celebrating 4k. And what? You don't believe I'm a lurker? Why, I'm shocked, shocked I tell ya! I'm just as much a lurker today as I've always been.

Thanks Steve!!!! I didn't think Echidnas could read backwards... As for why I put it there, though i tried to conceal it.. For this, I must blame Emoe and Shadowgod. Emoe, long ago, reminded me to mark my milestone posts. And Shadowgod? Well, as we all know, he's to blame for everything...

Shhhhh!!!! Its a seeecret!! ShHHH!!!!

I have a special hatred for ties; I got rid of my last one at least ten years ago. If I have to go anywhere formal, I wear a string tie, also called a bole toe,the official neckwear of the state of Arizona. If I had to wear a regular tie, I'd probably start babbling gibberish, like so; tsop htdnasuoht-ruof s'JC Besides, i think a goat would look ridiculous in a tie.. Thanks Jan!!! Yes indeed, the Arizona Memorial is a very, very special place; Morso than any church or library I've ever been in, people become silent when getting off the launch and entering. Yes, poor Eric was indeed exposed to porn... During the webcam's operations, at least. I'm sure that both shocked and mortified him... "More vulnerable to his environment" Hmmm, I like that! Hi Benji!!! I take it that you might be in the anti-eric camp? Well, I do admit, there are some very valid arguments there.

This Anthology has been wonderful; Great stories and lots of 'em, plus plenty of readers and comentors. Thanks everyone!

Thanks Sonoluminus! I've seen those before; they always make me smile; especially the double-takes I see them get. Thanks Camy!! I was a fun one to write. I was wondering what would work for a rainy day story, and it occurred to me that a hurricane would suffice. moments late, I had the plot to Cat5. It was a fun one to write in another way, it bought back a lot of memories of surfing. Dang it, the next time I'm near a decent beach, I'm hitting the waves again. My one remaining board has been gathering dust for nearly five years, so it's high time I went out again. I'm probably so rusty that I'll get nothing but face plants and sand facials, but I gotta try. LoL

Thanks Ieshwar!! And you're right, so far surfing has been in two of my three anthology entries, and now FTL. Hrmmm, It wasn't in my Fall 2006 story "The Muse", though. Maybe I should have had the Muse go surfing after their dinner together? Sorry I can't answer about the next chapter.. If I did, the Echidna will turn me into a pincushion! ROFL!!!!!!!!!!! But, but, I'm a lurker, I tell ya! And lurkers almost never post... It even says so in my profile: "Just a shy, quiet, retiring forum lurker..."

Happy 18th!!!! I hope you have a great day, and an even better year! CJ

Hi Ethan! We shall see... But... what you say is true, but everybody needs a hobby... Bondwriter! First you called Eric a Bastard... I don't know how you knew that, BTW, you said that long before you saw the chapter where that was even hinted at, and now a Weasel? Poor, misunderstood Eric. Uhoh.. but, but, I'm nowhere near 4000 posts.. I'm a lurker, I tell ya, a lurker!!! Hi Graeme!! Yes indeed, the thread was hard to find. However, by general consensus, we decided that everything was Shadowgod's fault, so we must blame him! The FBI do tend to be coldly professional in real life in such a situation (they will try and keep their personal feelings out of it, or at least they are supposed to), so that part was easy for me to write about. The situation with Thaddeus' e-mail is a good catch Graeme. I can't say more for fear of your spines, except that the password for an e-mail server at an ISP would be one thing, but, say, sending via gmail, hotmail, or a host of other web-based ones, while reataining an IP, would be able to be created by anyone tapping into an open home network. As for the action ramping up, it is possible that it might. Chapter 35, well, it's just a relaxing little scene, entitled "Hell's Fury".

Hi Conner! Thanks! And you're right, I do sometimes chase my tail, but I beleive in playing to my strenths, and I'm good at chasing my tail. As for the sex wax; thats explained in my summer, 200g anthology entry, "No Shirt? No Problem!" And I might mention that another term for your board is your stick. Thanks Graeme!! I'm thinking now that I might have been able to open the story with Drake at school for a few paragraphs, and use them to develop him more. I don't think I could do it anywhere else; it would have altered the pace of the plot. Hi Greg!! Thanks for reading!!! What I had in mind was for Drake's actions to define him, but I think a paragraph or two at the beginning might have helped. Oops. Well, I could always, at this point, claim that I went with a phonetic spelling for clarity. I think that's a good reason, and a convincing thing to say. I'd also be lying my ass off. LoL. Here's what happened; I wasn't sure how to spell "Haole", so I spelled it "howlie" and checked by googlig. Sure enough I got a few hit and they wer in context, so I figured I was ok. Nope, it just means I'm not the only one who can't spell it. Thanks for reading, Matthew! I really tried hard on the imagery, glad you liked it. Thanks Steve!! Cody's slightly spooky impression at first was intentional. I dropped a few hints to his suicidal intent but worded them so they could be read that way too. His stoic stance was intended to be enigmatic, but also true to form; he was looking death in the eye. I did indeed hint that the rescue wouldn't succeed when Drake arrived, "almost in time", and they found themselves trapped by the waves. Then came Apu-hau's advice, which Drake had thought meant to stay put in the house; "Ride it out". Thanks Steve!! I do indeed try and develop my character based on what they do; it's really the only way I know how. I've always, in real life, gotten a far better "read" on a person by what they do rather than what they say, so to me it's more natural to show the character via actions. However, a an extra quirk or mannerism might have helped. I couldn't get into his background, as that needed to be veiled until later in the story and brief at that point due to plot pacing. Thanks Bondwriter!!! Wow... Thanks Bob, that rendered me speechless (a very difficult task indeed.) All I know of apu-hau is that Apu-hau is the Hawaiian god of Storms and hurricanes, and one of the eleven cloud-children of Tawhiri. I couldn;t fina any actual legends online, so I took a few enormous liberties. The biggest is that Apu-hau is usually refered to as male, but in my story, female. I figured that gender was rather meingingless to a god, when they can appear in any form whatsoever. Thanks Ieshwar!!! Yep, Cody was more the focus. The surfing background and Hawaii was easy for me; I used to surf, and I've been to Hawaii quite a few times. (including on surf safari). Thanks especially about the green room. It's darn hard to put it into words; it's an incredible feeling to be in one. Thanks!! CJ

Congratulations on becoming an Editor! Congratulations, too, on your excellent anthology story! I loved it! I've been thrilled with the turnout for this anthology, both in quality and quantity. BTW, Boy scouts?? You??

That was great! And so true, too, from what I've heard from many people. I've been to a few clubs, but not recently, and come to think of it, the last time I was in a gay bar it was a Lesbian biker bar.. And I had a blast. Glad you had fun. I'll bet I know which one you'll be going back to.

Canonizing head wear, eh? That was brilliant, I loved it. However, you forgot one of the most important things for stylish baseball caps; advertising your favorite tractor brand! And you say you know fashion..

Thanks! I was sure delighted to see your story too; until yours came in mine was the only hurricane. Well, you might say that.. But it just fit... After all, we have, officially, decided that he's to blame for everything from global warming to the sinking of the Titanic. #3? We,, if this isn't proof of you evilness, what is.. I mean cloning yourself? Really... Tsk, tsk... I have a question I'd like to ask everyone... Somethign that's been bugging me for some time. A while back, Shadowgod used a few words of Spanish in a chapter of Living in Surreality that I betad. I was worried that no one would understand it unless they spoke Spanish, or at least knew what those words meant. In CAT5, I had a similar situation with the surfing lingo; sure, I know what it means, but unless the reader has some familiarity with surfing, they likely won't, and I didn't define all of it in the narration. (Thus contradicting my own advice to Shadowgod, amongst other things). I did try and tone it down; I ommitted leashes, sex wax, bullfrog, and a plethora of terms and context regarding the waves. I also "interpreted" rather than quoted the surf report; a real one would be a little harder to understand. The ones I heard in hawaii also included more local patois. Anyway, what I'm wondering is, should I have omitted any surfing terms that I didn't define in the narration? For example, "Green Room" was defined, but "bottom turn" wasn't. I could have said "turning left at the base of the wave once I'd picked up enough speed" or something similar instead. Also, should I have developed Drake's character a little more? Thanks! And all comments, including of course criticism, are very welcome!!!

Greame, thank you for the wonderful review. Thanks LC! I did base Apu-hau partly on Pele's mischievous nature. Good catch! The storm was based partially on Hurricane Iniki, though I meddled with the track a bit, plus made it present-day. Thanks Beastkid!! It was a fun one to write. Thanks Conner!! And they had to do something with that mattress, right? Thanks Bondwriter!! Yes indeed, I do seem to have quite a few hazardous activities in my stories. In my 2006 summer anthology entry, the protagonists met when one was showing off his rock-climbing skills, only to end up proving, via gravity, that he was lacking in said skills. Maybe I should compile all this into a list of "things to do to pick up guys" ? Thanks Viv, and you do raise several good points; Yes, I'm a surfer (well, former); stated in high school and kept at it until I moved to Arizona. I do tend to write about things I've done, and places I've been, at least in part. I've been to Kauai, but the bay in the story is an invention, I couldn't say whether one exists on that coast that fits the description. I've certainly never surfed in a hurricane, either, LoL. The closest I've come to that is some of the big winter storms in California when i lived there. I'll try and explore the thoughts and feelings of my characters a little more in future. With Cat5, I couldn't at first, especially with Cody, as that would have ruined the plot. But I could have during their sheltering from the storm. Drake I could have illustrated more at the beginning. Thanks!!! Thanks! I haven't ever tried surfing in a hurricane (I amy be crazy, but not that crazy) but I used to surf. I've also had a few encounters with the "green wall" you mention; I used to race sale boats, 14 footers, and got caught in the Anicappa channel during a race once, by a very sudden change in sea conditions. Not fun. Thanks Jan!!! Drake eneded up rescuing someone, but he rescued himself in the process; courtesy of a meddling deity. LoL. Thanks Steve! I did miss one thing in the draft until I did some fact-checking; Central Pacific originating storms have HAwaiin names. I took the name for this one off their official name list. However, while drafting this out, I'd overlooked that fact, and the original name for the storm in the story was.. Steve. Thanks James!! Katrina, yowza, I know quite a few people who were scarred by that one. I'd imagine that it would be very difficult indeed to write about. I hope those scars, both real and psychological, are healing.

Please give them a

Totally agreed. Actually, I take issue with the current definition of "conservative" when claimed by Republicans in social policies; they don't fit with the classical definitions of conservatism, which espouse individual liberties, not pandering to reactionary groups such as the religious right. Another problem with most of the Republican Congress was that they aren't conservative on fiscal policies at all; they became just as enamored of political porkbarrels spendfests as had the Democrats in their heyday. Hence, a lot of the real conservative base hates their guts, and that was a huge part of why they lost last November; many of their core supporters stayed home in disgust. I agree about leaking, but the fact of the case is that Richard Armatage, Dep. Sec State, was the leak. This is documented, and there is no evidence at all that Libby had anything to do with the leak. Yet, Armatage wasn't charged, but the guy who WASN'T the leak gets three years in the slammer? Ugh, only in DC... Clinton has every right to weigh in on any issue, but, he should be made a laughing stick for this one; what he did was exactly what Libby did. To put the Libby case in context; think on this. What would you say if a former National Security Advisor smuggled documents out of the 9-11 commissions archives, depriving them of the chance to review them during the investigation, and destroyed said documents? He even his some under a construction trailer so he could retrieve them later (Oh yeah, he's the national security adviser and he does THAT with classified files? ARGH!) The person in question is Sandy Berger. He plead guilty to the charges, and walked away with a 10k fine. Yet, Libby lies though wasn't the leaker at all, and he gets three years, and a quarter-million fine? That is insane. I won't defend Libby at all; in fact, I think he deserved his sentence, but Berger did far worse and Clinton the same, and they basically skated. Only in DC... I'm disgusted with both parties. And James, I agree with the post you made about the hypocracy; that is a glaring case, it turns my stomach, and I'd sure like to see the ass charged, too. Typical politician; the laws are for the little people, not them.

I can sure identify with your fear of bridges. They usually don't bother me too much, but I have a fear of heights. There's one in particular that bothers me the most; the harbor bridge in Lisbon, Portugal. The deck is made of a metal mesh, lots of holes. Looking ahead out the windshield, it looks fine. But if you look down from the side window, you see all the way down the the water, and the big ships passing underneath (its quite a high bridge). That bridge gave me a massive case of white knuckles (and I was stuck on it for half an hour: traffic jam). CJ

You're badly mistaken on the facts; No one, not even the prosecution, claimed that Libby leaked anything. What he was prosecuted for was claiming to have learned of Palme's identity from a journalist; in other words, he lied under oath., Just like Bill Clinton. Just like Clinton, it was a fact not necessarily germain to the case, but it was perjury and obstruction of justice. My point is that they did basically the same thing, and yet Clinton has the unmitigated hypocrisy to criticize the commutation of Libby's sentence?? I'm not saying I support what either of them did: I don't. My point is that for Clinton, of all people, to weigh in on this issue was one of the most hypocritical things I've ever seen, yet it received little notice. And that's the whole point; there is so much hypocrisy in politics, on both sides of the aisle, that we hardly take notice anymore. That's what bothers me; it bodes very ill indeed.

A very profound blog indeed. I've never been able to "understand" the dominance/submissive thing, and that's probably why I have never been able to fathom authoritarian fiction. The core point here though, is just becuase its not my thing, doesn't mean I think there's anything wrong with it! I like Pepperoni and Peanut butter sandwiches; they aren't everyone's thing either, but so what? We're all different and the world would be dull if we wern't. I think Bondwriter is a wonderful role model; He's very "out" about his interests, including his screenname, and above all helps people understand what, to many, is a little discomforting due to lack of knowledge. Many people think that any kind of tie-up automatically means heavy S&M, and that a person interested in one would be interested in the other, which is quite untrue. I'm not ashemed to admit that I fell into this assumption myself: When I first got to know Bondwriter, I assumed he'd like just about anything having to do with tied-up characters. So, I dropped hints about an upcoming chapter of my serial, which he was both reading and proofreading, because I thought he'd like the scene, an indian-style stake out of two protagonists, as part of an action/adventure story. Turns out, that wasn't his idea of interesting, so I'd given him false hopes due to my misunderstanding of his interests. Oh, BTW, Bondwriters interests are far from limited to what he's stated. He writes damn good "mainstream" gay fiction, and rumor his story "Blow Up" in the Summer anthology is superb. (I've read it, and it is). CJ

Hi Bondwriter! Congrats on the Blog! I love the layout too. Glad your gig went well! CJ

I don't see why you make such a fuss... I'm just an average goat, writing stories on the internet... Chris did manage to find a Hawaiian version of Piedmont, didn't they? LoL. Well, that was all the doing of the Eeeevil Blackheart. And, um, watching me? Surely that is a very boring passtime... Why don't you save yourself some trouble? Or, if you insist, you could always wait until I've made 52 or 53 of the 55 posts you mentioned. Shhhhh!!! ACK! Another leak!!!! But, surely, it would be an ideal niche market... Fiction about gay goats seems to be terribly under-represented on the internet...

Hrmmmm... I know McCain's campaign is in financial trouble, but I didn't know it was this bad... I mean really; sending his top staff out to give $20 blow jobs in order to raise funds...