C James

Kevin, my sincere condolences. Time, they say, heals all wounds. They're wrong in that, but the passing of time lessens the pain, and as you say, cherish the happy memories. Allow yourself to grieve, but remember the good times, of a life well lived. <hug> CJ

Jane is still at the resort. She also, so far, doesn't know about the nukes. Good point on the traffic! Yep, it's all one-way at the moment. The farmer only heard the gunshots... He's not that close, so probably didn't see anything. The area is largely evacuated, due to all the ash. The ambush site was a narrow road between rock-walled feilds, in a hilly area. Very rural and lightly populated even before the ash. The authorities might not be overly responsive in the area; managing the evacuation would be their top priority. Yuri and the bomb weren't seen by Felecia and Brian; the henchmen moved the truck to the henchman's main bivouac point, inland from the airport. I'm going to attach a map of La Palma, made from Google Earth, that shows the relative locations of everything. The volcano, BTW, isn't just where the symbol is; it's a fissure system, running from just south of the tunnel to almost the south tip of the island, over ten miles. If you look close, you can see the string of cones and craters. The volcano symbol, though, is a good indicator of where the ash ventings have been occurring. Or to be more precise, further south, inland from the resort. Most of the activity, so far, has been from a single vent. However, Cumbre Vieja's past behavior often includes more than one vent at a time, and includes eruption from long fissures, up to miles in length. Also, the whole area south of the tunnel and west of the volcano's crest (roughly, that line of cones and craters) is what the geologists have warned is about to slide into the sea. CJ

I forgot that I'd told you about it; that was before you joined our team. (I've had this in the works for a few months). Have fun with you-know-who on the rollercoasters.

Thanks! And Delores Estiban, thank you, I'd often wondered how double entendres would come across to someone whose first language is not English.

I fixed the last paragraph. Thanks! (On my monitor, it didn't show up that way, so I had no idea until you mentioned it.) Could you, or someone, please tell me where the spelling errors are? I can't fix them unless I can find them. Thanks! Thanks! I designed and built my entire site, so adding this was easy from a technical POV. It's not actually hard to do.

Hi! I've been working on the website, and I've added "First to the Sun" under short stories, and also added a new page, one I've been working on for a while. This will be the first my team learns of it. What I've added is a Team page. Have a look, go to http://cjames.gayauthors.org/ and click on the "Team" button, on the lefthand nav bar.

Very well done, Mark! The line that was most evocative for me was the one about the lice... Skillfully done; with that one line you showed, clearly, the difference between life on the line and elsewhere.That one small detail spoke volumes, far beyond itself. What struck me the most was how strongly affected Jack was by the carnage of the Somme (as well he would be; it was the bloodiest of a very bloody war). The battle is at least the better part of a year in his past, yet it is still vivid. He's wounded, much as is Gabielle, for he shall never forget. Thanks for a great story, Mark! CJ

At least Eric is in a fairly safe place to have some tequila, except for the volcano, The Scar, and his armed henchmen.

Well, Jansen is on his way to see Eric, with Tequila. Okay, now, I can say what the big clue in chapter 37 was; the receipt for the storage unit in Jim's wallet. Yuri found it, and recognized it for what it is. Yuri and The Scar now know where the storage unit is. Of course, they are all distracted by the imminent eruption, which could come at any time. Well, as for the nefarious Mr. Graeme; the narrative does say that he has a prickly disposition. Think one scenario through... he's in very hot water as long as Helen has the bombs. On the other hand, if The Scar gets them while Helen is refusing to disclose their location... who would be the one in hot water then? Mr. Graeme, or Helen and Instinct? And Lol, yes, a goat transport. Actually, there are lots of goats on those islands, so it would be the most likely form of livestock truck. Besides, i couldn't resist. No cliffs here! And, ummm, could you please issue an Amphibious Declaration 0f Cliffhanger-free? Well, Graeme, I'm so please to hear that you would have preferred Graeme to be ROYAL name. Fortunatly, you have come to the right place! We'd be happy to help, right, everyone. How about King Graeme, King of Cliffhangers. I like the sound of that... So, what say ye all? Graeme for 2009 King of Cliffhangers!!! :king:

Yep, the other "drunk writing" was "Three for Jake" (the first 3/4 of it, anyway), also a result of too much tequila. "First to the Sun" was written while drunk, but the idea stemmed from an e-mail I wrote months before, where I explained, in somewhat technical terms, how such a mission would work. I'll post that e-mail here. So, whilst drunk, I had the sudden idea of redrafting that old e-mail, adding the general and the janitor,and making it into a story, and did so, while still drunk. Some of the above made it into the story, but I chopped a lot of the math and tech. The innuendo wasn't planned, it just.. happened. I blame the tequila. LoL BTW, the title graphic was created from a NASA pic of the space station, to which I added the picture of the sun and the congressional seal.

Well, there is that... but they didn't know that, then, so it was all fun and camaraderie. BTW, I goofed on the chapter names in the last thread... the next chapter is 41, "Pushing the Limits", not 42, "Passion in the Dark". CJ

Wow, thanks!!! I have to admit, I was nervous about this one... For one thing, as Talonrider alludes to, I was drunk when i wrote it. I'd been at a neighbor's birthday party, and had far too many tequila shots. I staggered home, and was about to send Graeme an e-mail, saying I was sorry, but I didn't have a story. (I was the one who suggested the theme for this anthology). This was after the document submission deadline, but before the HTML deadline. Somehow, I had an idea, related to a smart-ass e-mail I sent quite some time ago, and started typing. It took me an hour or two (When drunk, I have no sense of time) though I did go over it once sober, and polished it up (it badly needed it). Thanks to an incredibly fast response from my team, I made the deadline. (and Graeme came up with the blurb: "Pro is to Con as Congress is to Progress".) BTW, the filename for this story, when my team got it, was "dont drink and write". CJ

I just thought I'd mention that the next chapter will be posting on time, Tuesday. And, umm, isn't it nice, having all the old gang (Umm, except the dead ones) from LTMP staying at the resort together. Kind of a nice, friendly reunion?

I promise that Eric has some things coming to him... There, am I off the hook now? ACK! Now, now... I've heard of critics hitting below the belt, but this.... You mean castrating a mayor? Isn't that unusual, even in Texas? I think my feelings for most of our government congresscritters was summed up in "First to the Sun", a short story in the anthology.

My sincere thanks to Graeme, Kevin, and Steph! Speaking as the former Anthology Coordinator, let me say that there is an enormous amount of behind the scenes work involved. The stories come in, and they have to be read, then any typos or other changes requested, then there's the HTML formatting, layouts, graphics, etc, etc, etc. Well done, and THANK YOU!!! CJ

All these comments about castrating me over a few perhaps-ever-so-slightly tense chapter endings... Well, please look to where this can lead!! http://www.boingboing.net/2002/08/06/third...ml#previouspost Here's more on his honor, Henry Clay III, the beer-guzzling goat who is Mayor of Lajitas, Texas. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2227 He drinks 35 to 40 beers a day.

I'm right on the boarderline of what I can say here... <looks around nervously for the Echidna>. Okay, I think I can say what has been in the posted text;

Thanks Conner! IMHO, Eric has been shirted much to often. LoL Good point... Yuri has got to be wondering, especially after he became aware the Scar was ordering him to do two things at once. LoL But... Cliffhanger??? It's not a cliffhanger! I will confirm that there is a major clue to what's going on now and in 41, back in 37. You're warm, Wildone, very warm. Yep, given one Jetta, plus the possibility of The Scar and company "borrowing" it, we do have a slight problem, what with the volcanic situation and all. How long until it blows? Could be any minute now, according to the vulcanologists, or a couple of days, who knows? It's just "ever so slightly tense", as we say around this forum.

I'll definitely come back to this later (at work now), but for now, I just had to say SUPERB POST!

The General's initiative was poorly planned; he got overconfident. He's a genius in the tactical world, and wrongly assumed he could play in the political one too. He couldn't. Part of the problem was timing; the volcano made the press conference look like a cheap PR stunt or worse. The no-show of the bomb, combined with the nuclear detonation in Iran not yet being proven, well, those didn't help. The general didn't confess to the nuke. That's my fault; I covered his description of the mission as a summary, due to not wanting to repeat all that and bore the readers to tears. So, we don't see that part of his speech, and I do see how it could appear that he was admitting culpability for the nuclear blast. In fact, some of his statements are colored that way. That last part, BTW was intentional, for plot reasons. True that I'm not disfigured. As for the trying to lay hands on nukes... no comment.

Whoa! That one, I will argue. The General did NOT trigger any nuclear explosions. Per the text, he only found out about the nuke in Iran seconds before it went off. There was, at that point, no possible way to stop it. Therefor, I would say it's unfair to paint him as "triggering nuclear explosions to change his government's policy". Refineries? yep, he did, with hand grenades and cargo planes. But not nukes. He simply didn't do it. Felecia did, acting on The Scar's orders. Now... stupid to give the conference as he did? Arguable. I'd tend to say yes, at least to a degree. He should have at least confirmed that there was evidence of a nuclear detonation. I'd also say that going public, especially under the circumstances, might have been... unwise. A lot less politics. This chapter had to be as it is, though, to set the stage for what is to come. You're right; I'm not intentionally referring to our current political overlords. The administration in the story is fictional, and its behavior was plotted out before the election (actually, early in the primaries). The way I look at it is this; the story's world branched off from ours before the story time line began. The most recent "real world" event in either LTMP or CL, that I can recall, is a mention of 9/11, so the "branch off" could have occurred anytime after that. If not... I'd suggest staying out of Toowoomba. Conner, for you, I'll release the next two chapter titles. The next one is "Trapped", and the following one is "Passion in the Dark". The Echidna prevents me from mentioning why this is relevant... but I have a hunch you would approve.

Don't blame me.. Yuri gave the order. If no one is saying there is a cliffhanger, that means this chapter gets an Amphibious Declaration of Cliffhanger-free, right? What makes you think all hell will break loose? Maybe they'll just go on with their vacation? ACK... But.. I didn't do it! Yuri and the ambush force did! I haven't been near the island in over a month! Thanks Steve!! You pegged it. The General's tirade is more against the US goiverment, past and present, than one particular administration. Now, as an exercise in tactical thinking, what could have been done about North Korea? In the Clinton and early Bush years, plenty, and relatively easily. The "Agreed framework" deal under Clinton (and followed by Bush)was a crock. I said that then, as did many others. There was no means of verification which made the whole thing meaningless. The NK's signed on because we were in effect paying them to do so; we gave them reactors (not the one at Yongbon, though), food, and fuel oil. The NK's were laughing themselves silly at our stupidity, and rightfully so. What could have been done? Definitely not an invasion, Iraq style. I'd oppose that for the same reason I opposed Iraq up until the day it started; it was not necessary and crippled our ability to act in other areas by tying down our military. Once it started, I became a supporter, because I recognize that war changes everything; pulling back after starting would be geopolitically catastrophic. (a fact neither party in the US seems to comprehend; they both flaunted it, from different angles). Prior to about four years ago, North Korea's Yongbon reactor contained its fuel rods, the ones they processed for the material for their current bombs. It was a sitting duck. One stealth bomber on a cloudy night, a few custom-made laser or GPS guided bombs, (custom made so they would NOT be easily traceable as to country of origin) and viola, North Korea's nuclear program has suffered a very severe, and very deniable, setback. Alternatively, they were warned not to attempt to reprocess the fuel rods into plutonium. Once they began moving them, and we knew where the processing plant was (we did), level the place with a cruise missile strike. No invasion, just hit the needed target. That brings us to today. The key now is China. They need to cut off North Korea's oil and other support. China tends to act in its own self-interest, which gives us golden openings. China has two hot-button issues; US arms sales to Taiwan, and Japan as a nuclear power. One of China's nightmares is the US setting up military bases in Taiwan. Offer them a choice; they chut of North Korea, or the US begins unrestricted weapons sales to Taiwan and opens basing talks. As for Japan, let China know that if Japan decides to become a nuclear power, not only won't we oppose it, we'll cheer them on. Then let China find out that we're leaning on Japan to do just that, and tell China that we'll be every bit as tolerant of Japan's nuclear ambitions as China is of North Korea's. (and Japan has strong reasons; North Korea is their enemy and NK has been committing acts of war against Japan for decades). For a carrot, recognize their dominion over Tibet. (we de facto have anyway, but they'd like the diplomatic cover). There are other options, all dependent upon intel data, but it will be far from easy. However, something has to be done. Time and time again we've drawn a line and North Korea has crossed it. Now, we've said their will be "consequences" if they sell nuclear weapons or technology to other nations or groups. No one, certainly not North Korea, takes that seriously. In fact, it's even more hollow than it sounds; the Syrian reactor that the Israelis thankfully annihilated a couple of years ago was almost certainly built with North Korean help. Also, the NK's were active in the AK Kahn nuclear ring. North Korea has always sold what it could, and its only exportable commodity is weapons. Now, they have the most valuable weapons of all. This cannot be allowed to continue. Just for a start, the Treasury department should immediately sanction any bank, anywhere (via cutting off their access to the US financial system), that does business with North Korea. Bush tried that, and it made the NK's howl, but he backed off. As for Iran... They are following in North Korea's footsteps. Iran, though, is if anything even easier to deal with, if done correctly. Obviously, an Iraq-style invasion and occupation is impossible. Iran has a larger population, and as we learned (it was incredibly obvious before the invasion, too, but they didn't listen) you need a large number of boots on the ground to occupy. We barely managed Iraq for that (Rest and retraining means you can't deploy, long term, more than about 1/3 of a military service, and even doing that puts it under great strain). Iran's larger area and population precludes that option, unless the US military doubles in size. It would also be bloody and take many years, like Iraq. So, given things as they are, even without America's commitment to Iraq, it's impossible. Its also unnecessary. We don't know where all of Iran's nuclear facilities are. Nor do we need to. All we need to do is take out enough of them to de-rail the program. The Isreilis, with far less to work with, recently took out a huge chunk of Syria's nuclear program, much as they did Iraq's, at Osirak, 20 years ago. They also launched, in the latter case, a sabotage effort for the second Iraqi reactor, wrecking its core before it ever left France. Diplomacy would be the ideal solution, but its prerequisite is international solidarity and a policy with teeth. Failing that, there are other ways. Air strikes would do, *IF* we don't wait too long. If we wait until their program reaches fruition, an air strike would only give a delay or a year or two, whereas today it would likely yield up to ten. Waiting, pussyfooting around, endless international jawing, etc, is how we ended up with a nuclear North Korea. A nuclear Iran would be even worse. They have threatened to wipe Israel off the map, and have been the leading international supporter of terror for decades, so certified by five consecutive US administrations (this is not a partisan issue). They not only fund Hezbollah, they founded it. That's far from their only terrorist arm. Israel can do the job alone, but only if is has logistic support; Iran is too far away and the air routes are problematic. Israel has shown an admirable knack for securing logistical support from Arab states when needed (It's well to remember that Iran is not Arab, it's Persian, and there's also the Sunni-Shia difference, so a nuclear Iran is almost as feared in some Arab states as it is in Israel) If Israel can secure logistic help (refueling bases) It will likely act within the year (their current, largest ever, nationwide civil defense and military exercises are a huge clue IMHO). If we were smart, we'd help, covertly perhaps, but we wouldn't stand in their way. What scares me is what if Isreil can't get the logistic support it needs? Then there's only one military option left to them; a nuclear strike on Iran's facilities. In my opinion, they'd do so (indeed, would be suicidal not to) of there was no other option to stop a nuclear Iran. The results would hellacious on many levels, but if survival is at stake, I think they'd do it. To prevent that, or worse, a nuclear Iran, I feel that we should either help Israel (clandestinely perhaps) or do the job ourselves. The latter would be far less destabilizing to the region. Most of the sites could be hit with precision munitions, including the deep underground ones. Follow up strikes are a necessity; unlike in the movies, you have to do bomb damage assessments, then often a follow-up. Take out the reactors and the three centerfuge sites, and you've knocked them back a decade or more. Take out subsidiary project sites as well, of course, but the reactors and the centerfuge sites, plus any reprocessing plants (they are also persuing a plutonium production capability) and you've solved the problem. Iran's reaction would be.. what? They already go out of their way to support terrorists. Send their army after US ground forces in Iraq? They would be insane; their army is large but poorly trained in the main, and also poorly equipped. They'd have to do approach marches on foot, across western Iran, and would be very, very vulnerable to air attack. Could they cause a lot of trouble? Heck yes, and they would, but far less than a nuclear Iran would. The thing about Iran that people (especially US politicians) don't seem to get; its nuclear program is driven by internal, not external, political considerations. That's why the gasoline issue is their achilies heel. OKay, I'm yapping far too much. Back to the story; you're right, I did basically concoct as fictional framework, but try to keep it reality based (real locations, installations, etc). Iran's nuclear program is a major concern of mine, so when I needed a source of nuclear weapons for the plot, it naturally, along with North Korea, came to mind. I did come close to setting the rescue mission in North Korea, but two things stopped me; it's too far from La Palma, and its nuclear program was further along, so I'd be dealing with possible major news events. There was also a technical issue; Iran's nuclear program is Uranium-based, while NK's main one (there may well be a secondary) is plutonium based. For the latter, you need an implosion core, and that cannot be triggered the way Wilhelm did in Iran. I suppose, in a way, I was trying my hand at writing a "future history" regarding some aspects of the the geopolitical side. LoL You're right about Helen, the General, and Felecia being in character in thinking that they should go to the US government. That, of course, does not mean that they were right. There are, of course, others that they could have turned to. BTW, I think we had confirmation from Bill, very early on, that Washington intended to leave Brian and Private Johnson to die. I'd have to check though (even I can't remember, which is rather embarrassing as I wrote it!) Okay, I checked, and it's in chapters 2 and 3. In 2, General Bradson dug for info, and in three, Bill confirms the game Washington was playing. I consider Iron Eagle to be one of the best comedies ever made. All the better because they didn't intend it to be one . The missile launch on the runway alone never fails to have me laughing out loud (for those that don't know, you can't do that). Its an utterly hilarious movie, outlandish in countless ways. Well, speaking of private rescue missions, I don't consider them far-fetched. The best known example was Ross Perot's (who then owned EDS a data processing company, and later became a candidate for President) rescue of several of his employees from Iran. Follets "on the wings of Eagles" is a great recount, though it does, by necessity, omit some of the larger violations of the law. Short version, Perot's team went in and got his people out of Iran, out of an Iranian jail in Teheran, to be exact, and then out of the country, overland. They succeeded, so therefor I don't see the idea of a private rescue missions to be far-fetched in and of themselves, though I'd sure agree that the holywood versions are. . Also, this is a good place to mention; Authors usually don't share all their character's values. I don't share all of General Bradson's. I don't share all of Jerry's, either. (I'll bet you're going to argue that latter, huh? )

I get called "Jackass", and worse, all the time.

Guys, Sorry, but I'm closing this thread. Discussing whether a relationship between a below-age-of-consent minor and an adult are okay is not appropriate (below age of consent means exactly that) for this board.