albertnothlit

It takes guts to share so much about yourself. While reading I wished I could give the boy a hug and tell him it's going to be all right, but by the end of the story realized I didn't really need to. Despite all of the challenges that are conveyed through this at times oppressive, circuitous, and effective writing style, it's clear to the reader that the boy is now a man and the man has learned much. I see inner strength in these lines; the will not to give up but instead keep going and seeing what other interesting surprises life has in store. Thanks for sharing, Lux.

This is such an interesting start to a story! I really like the way we see Taylor from their point of view, not the way the world sees them, until later in the story. This makes me, as a reader, imagine Taylor as an androgynous person and resist the urge to immediately classify someone as belonging to either gender, a kind of reflex reaction that comes from a lifetime of binary thinking. I think the way the narrative evolves and how it is asking us to challenge many preconceptions, among them the fact that having a romantic relationship and moving it to the "next step" should always involve sex - but what if someone isn't ready for that? There are many kinds of intimacy. I like the line where Taylor wonders whether they are comfortable enough with their body to trust another person with it. That was such a powerful statement, and it speaks to a journey of self-acceptance which many people go through, and which I can only imagine. Thanks for sharing this, Valkyrie!

Thank you guys for the amazing feedback. Wombat Bill - I'm glad you found your own path during this particular celebration. In my case, I think I will still celebrate, as I did on my own this year, not so much because of religion but because of the symbolism I associate with that day specifically. For me, it's an opportunity to be thankful, cook something special, and sing along to obnoxiously catchy Christmas carols on what often is the longest night of the year. Lux Apollo - thank you for the wishes. I actually had fun on my own on Christmas Eve and it was great to watch a Christmas movie without needing to run it by anyone else and then just go to bed early so I would avoid the fireworks which people in my neighborhood love to set off right around midnight. I slept really well and spent Christmas Day reflecting and, I think, growing as a person. I felt lonely occasionally, but more often at peace. Tony - thank you for the message and don't worry, I understand it's not pity. Thank you for commiserating. I'm working on not feeling pity for myself either, and I think it's going very well. In a way, it's exciting to have this freedom and an opportunity to really learn to enjoy my own company. Happy soon-to-be 2022!! -Albert

Thank you all! I hope everyone has a lovely holiday time

Thank you so much, Valkyrie! I'm sending you a big Christmas hug, and I wish you a wonderful New Year!

This will be the first Christmas of my life that I spend on my own. These past few days have been interesting. I have alternated between feeling sad, defiant, and hopeful. I have spent much time in reflection, pondering questions, and I have found my answer. I hope that, by sharing it, I can understand it better, and maybe even help someone else. I suppose I should begin by describing how I have come to understand that I have deeply internalized a message that is ubiquitous, a socially

My reflection on spending the holidays with myself as company.

Thank you all! It's really heartwarming to read your messages, and it looks like this new year which is only just beginning is already looking like it will be full of good things, growth, and hope. Warm hugs to each and everyone of you!

Thank you, guys! And happy 2020!

Months have gone by since I last wrote, and it has been an interesting time. Tough, challenging, at some points surprisingly rewarding – an ongoing struggle to regain my footing in the middle of a frozen lake, on ground that felt like treacherous and slippery ice at the beginning. It felt impossible to try and take a step forward without risking losing my balance and falling down, crashing through the brittle surface that could barely hold my weight and sinking into the black and icy waters of p

Good observation, Will, thank you! And yeah, chipmunks are right up there too, though I do find them cuter, not sure why.

Thank you so much, drsawzall!

I love spinning mysteries, and I think part of that is because I have always enjoyed reading mysteries myself. When I do, there's always this struggle I go through where I want to read ahead so the author reveals what's going on, but I also want to figure things out in my own. (Most of the time I just read ahead - I'm not that good at guessing as a reader!)

Thank you! I also love space, but in my case, my fascination is also tempered by really big what ifs. There might be dangers out there that we don't even suspect exist. And yet the more we learn about the cosmos, the more my fascination grows.

Thank you for the compliment, Will! I do love that era, and the language of the time holds a certain draw that I just couldn't resist using

Thank you for your comment, Will! I wonder what Mr. Holmes would say if presented with such a mystery. I have a feeling it might involve a lot of telling poor Mr. Watson cryptic things with disturbingly accurate perceptiveness.

Thank you, drpaladin! It was awesome to hear your feedback after each and every chapter, and I am very grateful for the fact that you shared your wonderful insight with me as the story progressed. It was, for me at least, a relatively short but fun journey and I enjoyed the process immensely. As I was writing the story, I could not help but think that, if alien life one day comes to us instead of us finding it, it is extremely likely that we might misunderstand one another somehow since we will be so different from one another. The differences might be such that contact might harm one or both of us, humans and aliens alike. Or we might be completely unable to communicate. The good aliens in this story sent a messenger with good intentions, but in attempting to communicate, the messenger brought about horror, death, and its ultimate demise at the hands of the very beings it was trying to warn. I'm a sucker for happy endings, though, whenever I can get away with them, and so I leave the door open at the end of the story for, as you say, a possible future. Thank you so much! -Albert

It is nighttime now and the world panics. The floating cylinder opened for the first time and a smaller object shot out from it, evading the fighter planes that tried to intercept it, heading for a destination unknown. But that is not all. Observatories around the world report seeing large unidentified objects, spherical in shape, approaching the Earth from the blackness of space. They are moving very fast and it is all but certain that they will collide with our planet in the next few hours

I think the thirst for knowledge has a dangerous side which we too often overlook, to our own peril. However, if I were the first person to find alien life, I wonder whether I would act differently from Charles... I think I would, but the temptation to know would definitely be there.

This morning, a cylindrical monolith hovers over London. It is the only image on television, a live transmission coming from every channel. Every radio station on the planet, every news outlet, every newspaper, they all talk about one thing and one thing only: the object that came down from the sky, enormous, easily three times the size of any man-made skyscraper. It did not crash to the ground, however. It hovers. It waits. The object, the ship, the UFO… Whatever people call it, its tru

They often say that curiosity can be dangerous sometimes, and I suppose that for those with a very strong natural inclination for inquisitiveness, it may be hard to resist. In the case of Daniel, he is beginning to learn that sometimes it is best not to know... Although, by now, he is in too deep and it would appear it is too late to retreat into blissful ignorance.

It is now morning. How long has it been since I last slept? It seems as though I have been writing these memoirs for weeks, but I know this is not the case. I turned on the news today. There is mistrust, and there is confusion. Some people suspect the truth by now but their voices are being drowned by others who call them alarmists, liars, or agents in the service of some foreign power or another. Here in America we blame the Soviets. I have seen no less than three news programs where they s

I have, a couple times, taken relationships for granted, with friends for example, and I remember seeing those people again after essentially neglecting the friendship for weeks or months or even years and kind of feeling betrayed by the fact that their lives are so radically different now. A close friend might become just a friend or a friendly acquaintance over time and it hurts because I, at least, have felt irrationally sad at the way things change over time. It’s a selfish thing to do, to expect that others will essentially pause their lives or be forever trapped in some sort of stasis for you to drop by whenever you feel like it. I tried to capture a little bit of that in this chapter. Danny was so caught up in his own quest for external validation that he thought he could pause things and that Charles would just wait around like a book you leave, half-finished, and expect to resume exactly where you left it whenever you want. Three years is a long time. Much has changed at the Observatory. Charles has not been sitting idle. He has been investigating, learning, experimenting, and Danny might not be ready for the things Charles is beginning to understand.

Alas, how often have I wondered whether things would have turned out differently had I acted otherwise than I did. If I had not left Charles alone to fulfill what both the law and my own conscience dictated to be my duty, would I have been able to stop the events which unfolded? Or were they perhaps unstoppable, destined to happen despite the pitiful amount of resistance that a single human being would have been able to oppose? Would we have found another way? Would we have been able to act befo

Several questions, and I can’t wait to reveal the answers! Thank you as always - I hope the coming chapter will prove as intriguing as this one!