everett Weedin jr

'So, it seems we've come to a bit of an impasse.' Glorious sentence and moment. A thoroughly heartening chapter, and credibly so since it includes and does not deny the father's arid stupidity. Nick's caring patience and Dave's increasing courage and honesty are making a wonderful dynamic between them.

Thank goodness that someone is finally telling the police. I so wanted Dave to take Nick to a hospital emergency room right after Nick ran to him following the rape. A doctor would have known exactly what medicine and the law require.

A gorgeous chapter. The dynamic between two characters' disliking (even hating) each other and their fitfully growing awareness and acknowledgement of regard for each other is, I think, hard to make credible for a reader. The on's and off's can seem arbitrarily imposed. But the shifting tensions and (so far) brief and tender ( I mean that word thoroughly) resolutions that you are making between Nick and Dave are entirely and endearingly believable. Their tentative and piecemeal discoveries of each other, and of themselves, are very affecting to read. Is "What the actual fuck...?' an idiomatic expression in the UK? Or is it your own devising? In either case, it is certainly a pleasing transformation of the USA's wtf. And I had never before read or heard 'Satan had shat in his head'. That one I'm going to work into a conversation soon.

I just happened on Nemesis this morning, and have read through the first four chapters. 'Oi, you're my worst enemy. No one else is allowed to mess with you!' is a very satisfying piece of dialog. I grinned wide. Both Dave and Nick are engaging characters. I do feel sorry for Zoe, and hope she tosses Craig out in a chapter or so. It is a pleasure to know that I have not only the remaining chapters of this story to look forward to, but also those that you are posting of Nemesis 2.

This really is a sidebar, I suppose, but Mike's words at the dinner are inexcusable. I don't know which is worse: his talking nothing but business over a meal with people who are his family and friends, or his arrogant presumption that Colin will change his plans for the next day to suit Mike's and that Mike knows just what Colin should do with his portfolio. I cheered when Colin refused him entirely. But Charles is not the guy who wouldn't let Colin top, and Charles is not Mike. Colin has realized that first fact; I am really really hoping that he realizes the second before time (and this narrative) run out. Argh. (I know, I know--they're fictional characters, not real people. But still....)

I clicked on "love" for this chapter (as I have for many chapters here and in Three Strikes), but I could have clicked "HaHa", too, because many times, reading this chapter (and others), I laugh out loud. I really admire many qualities in your writing. Because you ask, I'll reply that the restaurant and trip to Mother's were my favorite scenes. And a remark of yours on an earlier chapter was right: the story is the better because both of the "couples" are very likable and appealing. But when Jesse says to Colin, "Cancel," I think that he offends courtesy, friendship, and affection. Since then I haven't felt my former regard for him. I'll be reading succeeding chapters with not only pleasure but nervousness. A pretty good way to read, all in all.

I've enjoyed this story from the beginning, and thank you for all the work, time, and talent that you have used to make it. Jamie is a wonderful addition to your extensive cast of characters; and the more that I read of Alex, the more sympathetic and likable a figure he is. I admire your developing him into a complex character (which you probably had in mind from the start). So I am really pulling for Alex and his brother, and hope you have good futures in store for them.

' "Well, I want them crippled financially, and out of office. Some time behind bars, too." He ended the call and poured himself a sweet tea before he went to the evening Bible study.' That is as perfectly constructed a pair of sentences as I've read. Thoroughly satisfying in its assurance of future retribution, and laugh-out-loud funny in its unexpected juxtaposition with the regimented piety of the Bible study. Life's rich tapestry strikes again. Fine chapter and story.

This is a remarkably satisfying story. Headstall exercises all the virtues evident in Cards on the Table, this time in a more concentrated narrative and cast of characters. The two main characters, Drake and Jimmy, complement each other fully in Headstall's characterizations of them, making a couple whose regard, concern, care, and love for each other is thoroughly developed. Each is tested by his personality, past history, and the present narrative to which their differences contribute. Though there is much affecting and tender affection between them, Headstall does not allow easy sentimentality. Drake and Jimmy earn their mutual trust and faith in each other, which brings them through the stretches of desolation and frustrations that each must suffer. And much of the narrative's unfurling occurs in the exquisitely composed conversations between them and with other characters. Headstall's dialogue is pitch perfect. The reader hears the protagonists realizing, working out their thoughts and feelings as they discover themselves and each other. The other characters play important roles as well. There are some very pleasing scenes of the bigoted and weak being told off. This reader cheered. And often during the story laughed out loud. Oh, and there's a dog. Every story is improved by the presence of a dog (or a horse, or even both). I honestly cannot imagine any reader who would would not admire this story.

A beautifully tender chapter. So touching. Wonderful to read.

What a beautiful chapter. The first exchange between Drake and Jimmy on the bench is yet another one of your exquisitely, achingly, tensely composed conversations--Jimmy trying so hard, kindly, and in restated ("rewritten") iterations to help and love Drake , and Drake repeatedly mishearing and rebuffing him. Much pain between them and for us readers. The passage that begins "Jimmy looked taken aback..." is especially affecting to me. And "Drake turned his head, and stared into compassionate green" is such a splendid transforming of an adjective into a noun. They are even placed by you on a golf course! Thank you for another fine chapter.

The conversation between Jimmy and Drake at the pool is beautifully tender, inquiring, and affecting in its uneasy and carefully worded declarations of regard. It makes me hopeful for the two of them.

If Jimmy, aka Dean, weren't so obviously in love with Drake, I'd offer him a proposal of marriage.

I do understand and sympathize with TIMMIGON's humorous imploring. But isn't part of the implied deal of reading stories posted online (rather than published in a completed book held in one's hands) that one is reading perched on the edge of a precipice? The pleasure of nervously savoring rather than gulping? When the next chapter does arrive, it is such a welcomed gift. And your chapters, Bndmeti, are always a treat.