C James

I certainly do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially all the people who work behind the scenes to make this such a fantastic place! The person below me will join me in saying THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who had sex?! Oops! OK, I should have said:"leaving it to the reader's over-active imagination. Considering how Connor had been nibbling on Ben's neck, and that they were face-to-face in bed, I figured something must have happened... But, maybe I've just got a dirty mind... Good points all, Nick! His attitude towards Maggie rankles me, too.

OK, the first thing I'd like to mention is the title: Turn the lights out when you leave. (the lyrics are here) This sure sounds like it's over between Connor and Ryan to me. However, who knows? I could see it going either way at this point. I loved this chapter!! I've never tried Ethiopian food, but this has me curious! I also thought that is was very sweet that Connor was concerned for Cody. Whoa! Now that was some hot imagery! Speaking of hot imagery! Cody in a speedo, too! Woot! VERY hot, LB!! Cody is certainly comfortable with his (hot) body.. first the loincloth, and now speedos at a water park! ROFL!!!!!!!! That scene made me laugh out loud! That one made me laugh out loud, too! Then, the roller coaster took a turn, and we got to the serious stuff: Connor having to see his rapist again. That anticipatory stress would rattle anyone, badly, even in just photos (and Connor thought it would be face-to-face). I'm usually a bit unforgiving when it comes to people flying off the handle, but I could certainly understand Connor doing so at Ryan under those circumstances!!! The ADD crack was a bit low, but given what Connor has just been through, totally understandable even if Ryan hadn't dumped him. I liked the way Connor made a beeline for Ben's bed. No, not for the usual reasons, but because it certainly shows just how much he has changed since Chapter 1, especially in self-confidence. I also liked the "no commitments" part, VERY appropriate under the circumstances. I also liked the way LB skipped over the sex scene, leaving it to the reader's imagination. That was so funny!!! Now that I agree with! What a turn of events!!! Ryan's actions continue to mystify me... And I can't wait to see what happens in 24! Great chapter, and my thanks to LB and Kitty!!

That sucks! I know the feeling all too well. I'd put on a few (ok, more than a few, close to 20 ) extra pounds since college, and decided to get rid of them last year. I hated dieting!! I failed miserably (due to feeling hungry all the time) at several diets. I looked into Atkins, but hated the idea of all that cholesterol. So, I swapped out a lot of the cholesterol for monounsaturated fats and protein, and gave it a try. It worked great for me, and I dumped the weight in two months (and have kept it off). If you are a meat-eater, a low-carb approach might be worth looking into, and it sure does solve the appetite problem. (did for me anyway) As for your triple-bypass special, technically that's fine on a low-carb diet as long as you don't eat the bun. (fast-food buns are full of junk anyway, not to mention having about half the calories of the entire burger ). When I was on the diet and traveling, I'd order the burger without the bun (many places will do a lettuce wrap) and then wrap that in a low-carb burrito wrap. Another helpful thing is to get rid of ALL snack foods in your house. Convenience foods and diets don't mix. Drinking lots of ice water with a meal helped a lot, too. The best thing I found was to take up hobbies that are active. That way exercise is fun. Whatever you try, good luck to you. It's rough, as I know all too well.

I'll definitely second that! Any Authors care to weigh in???

No culture-shock problems? If so, great! Yes, even with my abysmal fashion sense, I can see how a red vynal suite might not go over so well at a job intervieiw! I can sympathize though.. I have an utter hatred for ties. I refuse to wear them EVER. I'm fortunate that I'm from Arizona, where the official state neckwear is a string (bolo) tie. I've got a nice one with a silver and turquoise hasp that I got on the Navajo reservation. That one really raises some eyebrows in Europe! However, my favorite, which is reserved only for very formal (and stuffy) occasions, such as formal nights on cruise ships, is a rhinestone cow skull. BTW, congrats on the weight loss!

I was surprised to see this thread, as CH 15 wasn't announced in the story announcements forum. Well, my guess that the eyes belonged to Kyle was way off! I've been on a roller-coaster with Mr. Harris. I liked him at first for taking Cameron in, then hated him for the way he behaved, especially after the funeral. Then, I was beginning to like him again, especially after he listened to Cameron in the hospital. Now, of course, I'm back to "hate".

The big question for me is: Is Ryan's behavior a temporary aberration, or not? If it's temporary he may well revert to being like he was in the early chapters. That's what I'm thinking too. I'm really wondering about the Connor/Ben angle, too. I also wonder about the orientation of the other twin, (Derick/Ethan ) though it looks like he is straight. That is an especially good insight, especially given your own age! I'd have to say that it's easier for those of us past our teens to look back and say "nah, first loves almost never last", but who is it who sees that aspect? Kurt! Good one, Kurt! BTW, there are now 72 posts in this thread, and 28 in the pre-release thread, making a total of 100 posts for Chapter 22!

I'm hoping for feedback too. I mentioned at the bottom of the story that I'd be creating a thread in the Story cafe, and to please either comment there or PM me. I did ask for constructive criticism, as I'd much prefer to see a comment of "your story sucks because of xxxxx" rather than just "Your story sucks!". (the former is helpful, the latter isn't IMHO). As for jumping off the boat, you can view this as throwing me overboard to test the waters for you! (I'll be going first, because unless Kitty or one of the GAC change their minds, my story will be in the summer anthology! Yipeee!!!) Look at it this way: what is the worst that can happen? You get some negative feedback that might help you in the long run.

Journeyman's story is here: http://www.iomfats.org/storyshelf/hosted/thejourneyman/

I've seen guys with only collar-length hair tie it back, especially for sports. Besides, maybe Dom just accidentally neglected to mention that Aiden got a haircut in Ch 2? Good luck with the story if you do decide to read it. It's excellent.

Good point! I didn't notice that, but now that you have mentioned it, I think you are right. Could they be decended mainly from Russians? I loved the DO series, and am amazed to find that I like DoH at least as much. Yeah, 4:03 AM is when he posted! He's in California and I'm in Arizona, so at this time of year it's only a one hour time difference, so that would make it 3am his time. He's either up very early, or very late! Way to go Philistine!

Yes, actually, I once got cornered by the school bully, and no one, including me, thought I'd win. I don't know who was more surprised, him or me, that I won. As for the physics question... Close! (but I'm VERY rusty on physics, so take this with a grain of salt). Deuterium-Tritium fusion has the unique signature of 14 MeV electrons, and the resulting 4He nucleus carries 3.5 MeV. The resulting 4He has two neutrons and two protons, and it's energy level does indeed make it an alpha particle. The reaction I was thinking of was D+T --> 4He + n + 17.59 MeV. The Neutron carries 14 MeV. I did have to crack open a book to find that 17.59, as all I could remember was that it was 17 something. The only reason I remembered the 14 MeV electron signature was that it was what was looked for and measured in the early test shots (at Eniwetok) during the initial development of multi-stage (Thermonuclear) nuclear weapons. (It was proof that D+T fusion was occurring). The person below me loves physics jokes!

Tastes like a yogurt drink: a fermented milk that is sometimes sweetened with honey or fruit? The person below me knows what specific kind of fusion reaction produces 14 MeV neutrons. (Snowey is my pick to get this one).

Reading this thread has been incredibly helpfull to me. I tend to write piecemeal, working on chapter 5 for a bit, them on chapter 2, etc. My problem was that I couldn't get some chapters up to what I thought was the "standard", which seems to run between 7000 and 10,000 words. My first chapter was only 2300 words. But, due to the story structure, I had to end it where I did. I tried adding some "filler", but it didn't work. I got around this problem by having it as a prologue, but I still had some chapters that were too short. Until I read this thread, I was in a quandary as to what to do. Now, I'm not going to stress out if one chapter is 5000 words instead of 7000 or 10,000. I'll be posting them at a high rate, so it shouldn't upset the readers too much. Thanks everyone, for saving me from a MASSIVE headache!!

A few years ago I was, when applying for new car insurance, politely informed that the outstanding warrant for my arrest disqualified me. That was the first I'd heard of any warrant, so I looked into it. Long story short, a vehicle had been caught on camera running a red light, 200 miles (but in the same state) as where I lived. The camera had not gotten a clear pic of the last digit of the plate, so they had apparently guessed. They came up with a similar model car to the one in the pic, so issued the citation to it's owner (me), though I never received it. What saved me was the fact that the car in the picture looked very similar to mine, BUT, had some differences (mine was apparently a different model year). I still had one heck of a fight to clear that up. UGH! I'm just lucky I wasn't pulled over during the time that warrant was active. Good luck with your problem. They can be a real pain in the neck. The person below me has successfully fought a parking ticket.

OK, I think I see your method: Cut and paste from the page into Word. I've done that with a few non-GA stories where they either use a cursive or Gothic font, or have the background color too close to the text color. Thanks, Bob! Thanks! I've been using the "make available offline" feature in the IE bookmarks when I want to save a story to my laptop. I'm lazy so having to save each page of a 30 chapter story would drive me crazy(er). I also have a software program that "grabs" an entire website and makes a copy on your HD, though I haven't used it for this. I'm curious about the legalities here: many stories have a "do not copy" warning. However, anytime you view a HTML page, you ARE making a copy: in your browser cache. My gripe about flash is that it's lacking a very important feature: a way to turn it off by defualt! I suspect that the reason for this is that it's mainly used for adds. So, if I don't want annoying (and bandwidth-wasting) adds, I can't have it installed. As you might guess, I share your feelings about popups and the like. I HATE them. I run two popup blockers, plus block the worst offenders (and major add servers) with my hosts file. I also disable the internal windows messenger, as it's an annoyance for adds. DSL is a type of broadband: Broadband merely means a high speed connection (dialup modem speeds, for example, are not broadband). DSL comes in over a phone line but is not an analog modem. One big drawback with DSL is that it's only available in limited areas: basically within 12 miles of a phone company main switching station. That means that if you are in a rural area, you are likely out of range (as I am). There is no cable TV in my area, so cable in no option either (though it is a bit more widely available than DSL) .

Thanks! I see that I'll need a homepage, too. Fortunatly I can do HTML, so that shouldn't be a problem. Good point on linking a homepage from the story, and linking from there to a yahoo group or forum: That way you can change the location of the discussion group without changing every page of every story at every published location. Thanks... I'll give it a try when I start publishing my multi-chapter story. Edit to add: Not now that I've read Nifty's license agreement!

lol.....I'm not picky ACK! A conspiracy is afoot! :mace: Y'all wouldn't do that to me, now would ya?

Ummm, the only mention of Aiden's hair length that I could see was this: "His dark hair was longer, and always tied back." That was in the middle of chapter 1, BTW. OK, for the sake of YOUR reading enjoyment, let me point out that "longer" does not mean the same thing as long (and long itself is rather subjective). I've seen guys with medium length hair tie it back, so we really don't know how long his hair is. Actually, my read on it is that it was medium length. I certainly didn't get the impression that Aiden had hair a few feet long. So, now, hopefully you can now enjoy one heck of a good story! And neither one of you will ever be as weird as me!

But, Emoe, how can you say that? Isn't everything, by definition, your fault? We shall have to keep an eye out tomorrow! This is a win-win situation! If DK's arrangements work, we get a new chapter of DoH! If they don't, we get something to blame Emoe for! Yep, it's all good! Well, no wonder he can't remember it! OK, so, a new chapter tomorrow... Any predictions? My guess is that we don't get to meet Billy just yet. Something will go wrong with the "family reunion", delaying it for a while... My hunch is that it will have something to do with Demi's contract being bought by Tremaine. Hmmmm... I'll even go way out on a limb here and predict that the next chapter will be called "Chapter 3".

Connection speed has nothing to do with my extreme dislike for flash, and my refusal to have it on my computer. I connect via a microwave transceiver (my only option for Internet here) and my throughput rates are better than cable or DSL (though the lag times are slightly longer). The reason I can't stand flash is that it's mainly used for adds: moving adds. I can't stand moving graphics on a page (I set IE and Firefox to not display moving GIFS or similar) as they are incredibly distracting. So, for me, it's just far better to uninstall it and never have to deal with it. BTW, good point on the offline availability issue! How is that normally done? The only way I know of is to use the "make available offline" feature on the bookmarks. Is there a better one? If so, I'd love to know it, as that would be incredibly handy for a laptop.

OK, a few suggestions: Have you tried clearing all the IE related caches? Have you tried disabling any anti-spyware, anti-virus, or firewall programs? (just to test!) Have you tried a full defrag, plus a check for corrupt files? Are you on a home network? Did you make any changes immediately prior to the problem occurring?

It's alluded to in Ch 1: "I'd found out that Dr. McCormack was a single mom, their dad having passed away only two years ago from a massive heart attack." It's not, as I recall, mentioned how they dealt with it. That sort of a shock can have serious long-term effects on anyone, but IMHO especially kids. That is a very good point, especially considering that psychologists are still arguing over a definition of "rational". A better choice of words on my part would perhaps have been "normal". Ryan certainly is not (IMHO) behaving normally, compared to his behavior in the early chapters. While Ryan's behavior might be quite normal for some people, it's (IMHO) the strong and relatively consistent change (to withdrawal and rejection) over a comparatively short time that to me indicates major trouble. But, he's a teenager, and I was unable to understand "normal" teen behavior and psychology, even when I was a teen myself.

One suggestion (or beg): Please don't start using macromedia flash! I stripped that thing from my system and blocked most of it's install sites with my hosts file, but I still often get the "do you want to install?" window, plus a delay for every page that has it (the delay unfortunately applies every time I try and load a page that has flash on it, whether it's source is blocked in my hosts file or not).