DaveinLA

I am late to this party - but after 19 chapters, I must weigh in. I don't think I've ever read a story on GA with so many comments at the end of every chapter. It is like announcing a concert appearance and the tickets selling out the first day. That certainly deserves a fanfare for LittleBuddha! When I read these stories, I am most involved in the characters that the writer portrays. Don't misunderstand, I am not critiquing character developmet. I know how to design buildings, but am not literary enough to dissect the minute parts of literary works. No - I just follow the characters and love them, or not. I could fill pages with the characters I have loved from GA - but I won't bore you. Now - here is where I am going to set myself up for some hazing. From the beginning of SFTF, I thought Jack was the character most deserving of love. That is not to say he is without issues - one doesn't tear up his dorm room and break down into a puddle of tears and withdraw from everyone without possessing their own ghosts. And from the beginning, I hope Nick would be Jack's remedy and they could both build a solid relationship. From the beginning, I thought Noah was at the least, a snake-oil salesman - and at the worst, a predator. I love Jonah - I'll take two of him, anyday! Which brings us to Nick. Little Buddha - you have done an absolutely amazing job of painting an extremely complicated character. Nick overthinks everything to the point he can't make rational decisions past his own - often unfounded - conclusions. Granted, he came from an environment where he was deprived of the closeness that friends can bring - but most 14-year-olds would jump at the chance to embrace new friends and respite from his former isolation. He is oblivious to the effort others put into literally dragging him into their world - e.g. a birthday party which turned out to hold an unexpected set of surprises. He received thoughtful gifts and participated as his friends celebrated his birthday - then he blew it out of the water when he found Jack wasn't there (what took him so long to discover that?), accusing his friends en masse and Jack in particular! Nick is the most broken character in the story. Little Buddha has done a magician's work in portraying this. I am quite sure that I, personally, would not care for Nick at all! If there is any one area where the author has seemed to leave us in the dark, it is in explaining what all these other people - Jack, Mark, Emery, Christian, Jonah - find so magnetic about Nick! I would have put his whiny butt out to pasture long before Chapter 19! Little Buddha - thank you for your hard work in giving us this. I am definitely in for the long haul! Dave

I know I am late to this, but... In a story that seems to be have a lot of characters that are all monied, upper-crust and should have lon ago learned the difficulties of social life in upper society, there are a lot of idiots. And Carter gets the crown for being the biggest idiot of all.

Well - as more of a Saturnian-sized man, I am not sure I am ready for a Colosian group, yet! Great story, Chris. You have a Colosian-sized imagination and put it to great fruition with this story! Thank you for all the work - most of us by-standers don't realize how much effort it takes to write a story like this. A zillion thanks, Dave

Hi, Chris, it is a pleasure to read something written by you. I am thinking that Christa may be in for a rough ride, here! Then, again, Chris might be in for a rough ride, as well! Thanks for this work! Dave

Let us consider, if we could, the workings of a writer of fiction. It helps to have a story! That writer must have a starting place and an ending place - and all the little fun things in the middle. Then there are characters...I am not a writer and I could write pages and pages of bland facts about what characters may be doing , where they may be going or who they may be interacting with. And if I wrote those pages, I would bore the readers on this forum to revulsion. Oh...and let us not forget that in fiction writing, the author may pick out the World in which he sets the story, the characters and the events! This is my second reading of "The Case of the Short, Short Prince" by one of my favorite authors, Mr. Geron Kees. "Short, Short Prince" is a story of magic - Mr. Kees prefers 'magick'. But this is not the cushioned, easy, soft magic of that kid we watched grow up at Hogwarts - No Sir! This magic not only has power and produces results - and consequences - but is driven by a desire of Mr. Kees very powerful characters. Oh, yeah - if you have laughed and shared joy with Charlie Boone and Kippy Lawson - you are going to dream about and write fan letters to Jamie Grimmstone and Garvin Kinsmith! And those two mentions don't even include their absolutely charismatic traveling companions! The bad guys are entertaining, also. We can't help but despise them until Mr. Kees turns some key in a lock, changes our attitude and suddenly, maybe we had a wrong impression on the bad guy! How does he do that? Then...there is the World! Mr. Kees works as a professional - he and I have traded some very light correspondence - and I have to ask...where does he find the time to let his mind roam and dream up and note all of the amazing, extraordinary details that find their way into the World, the setting and the details of the place, details of beings, details of animal life, details of foliage, that he has crafted into "Short, Short Prince"? I read in a Stephen King book once where he sometimes went to sleep and just "let the men in the basement do the work"! Perhaps that is where Mr. Kees fleshes out the myriad details that he wrote into this masterpiece. Then, have you ever tried to learn chemical matrices? Particle Physics? Engineering Load Stresses? These things can put to sleep even an interested student like a WWF sleeper hold! But - in "Short, Short Prince", our amazing author manages to describe the workings of magick - using electrums, magickons and incredibility! I have read much of what Geron Kees has written, and I would have say that this is at the top or close to the top in great quality reading of his entire portfolio. This is a great read, full of excitement, great characters, a delightful new world setting and a new perspective on 'magick'! Thank you, Geron Kees, for all the work you have put in to produce not only this one, but a list of short stories, the terrific Charlie Boone saga - and others. You have labored many hours. I and many others appreciate it. DaveinLA

Well - I guess it is time to write a review so all these commenters can glance into my mind! DaveinLA

I know that I am late to this party - but I am simply catching up on the world of Geron Kees! This story takes creativity to an exponential level in the world of teen angst stories! Mr. Kees - you are a very talently wordsmith! And while I am here, "She said my great, great, great grandson, Frit, had just come out of the stocking." is one of the funniest lines I have ever read! Thank you for all your hard work, Geron Kees. Dave

I have read two stories today by Master Wordsmith Kees (Legendary Level). I read "My Crimson Year" as well as "Goofy-Foot". "My Crimson Year" was so well crafted that I was just caught up in it like rolling in a big wave in the ocean. Andy and Donnie are such likable characters that it would take a hard hearted person, indeed, to not immediately fall in love with them. "Goofy-Foot" also has a very likable character in Jason and Master Kees is so talented that he can even make the reader like the acerbic Snark! Geron Kees has the ability to show the reader the emotional, logical and psychological reasonings of his characters. It it a talent that not many authors have. Both of these stories were written - as acknowledged by the author - as a challenge to a photo prompt. I looked at both of the photos that inspired these stories and I must say. Master Kees can certainly see more in a photo that I have ever been able to! Thank you, sir, for all of the hard work you have put into writing these enjoyable stories for the slugs like me, who simply read! Dave

In this chapter was the following: “You have words for things that do not exist on your world, and we do not have words for things that exist in ours.” That is such a profoundly imaginative sentence that it makes my mind sing! What an author!

This is a beautifully told story and so imaginative that it astounds me. I am surprised there are not more chapter comments.

As I begin this, it is obvious that "Jay's Loelife" has a plethora of reviewers who have already lavished appropriate praise for a story well-planned, well-written and presented with great flair. Therefore, there really is no reason for me to write a review - except that I take pride in writing reviews that I think are well thought out and cannot miss a chance to lavish my own praise on this story. I try to make a point to never read stories that are not completed. There are several authors at GA who have works that as soon as they appear as the author, I don't even look at the story - simply because they have histories of many, many incomplete stories. For this reason, I didn't even begin "Jay's Loelife" until it showed as complete. Of course, its prequel "Boss Nanny" was a truly good read, although I didn't review it. "Jay's Loelife", however, is simply inspired! What kind of mind does an author have to have to take characters who are important - yet peripheral - to an epic story like "Boss Nanny" and write their story so that their lives dovetail so perfectly into the prequel story without breaking the storyline of either one? The only answer is a brilliant mind. "Boss Nanny" was about Seamus, Matt and Aiden. Jay Petermeyer was featured as a former college classmate and best friend of Seamus. Loran Patrick doesn't even show up very early in the story. BUT, MrsGnomie breaks Jay and Loran (Loe) out and tells their story with great flair in "Jay's Loelife". There is drama as the couple overcome very different backgrounds and years of growing up. There is drama as they bridge differences in their own personal goals and beliefs. And there is drama among their families, friends, coworkers, teammates and public fans. The great hook for the story, the magnetism that will simply not let the reader stop reading is the beautiful and great portrayal of the characters as well as how their lives change and mold those characters. There are times in the story that I would have personally choked Loran to death, thrown the body into a lane of traffic and told police he ran into traffic. There were times I would have choked Jay Petermeyer and told him he was a naïve fool. But, MrsGnomie patiently and with care nurtured her/his characters until they matured into people that I - the reader - could not help but love. And, like Aiden in "Boss Nanny" , the author also populated "Jay's Loelife" with kids that were magically adorable, friends that were gregarious and charming and family that the reader looked upon as we all look on our families - we love them, sometimes on purpose! Writing a story like this isn't like television or cinema. It take a huge amount of work to portray the lives of complicated (and who could be more complicated than Jay Petermeyer and Loran Patrick?) in prose. This is thirty-three chapters of well-written prose. Each chapter represents a huge amount of work. Thank you MrsGnomie for all of this hard work. Thank you for providing the slugs like me, who just read, with such great literature. If you are looking at this and haven't read these stories, don't wait. Just click on MrsGnomie as an author and start with "Boss Nanny" then follow with "Jay's Loelife". Go shopping before you start though. Get everything you need for however long you think it'll take you to read the chapters. It isn't likely you'll leave until you finish. Davey

The Universe of Fanfiction amazes me! I stand in awe of the thousands of people that spend zillions of hours writing 'secondary' stories based on their favorite books, games, movies and TV shows. BUT - even more amazing is the amount of fanfiction that Mrs. Rowling's stories about Harry Potter have generated. On a popular website dedicated solely to fanfiction, in the 'Books' category the series with the SECOND highest number of stories is the "Twilight" series (everyone loves Vampires and Werewolves!). That series has 222,000 stories on the site as of the writing of this review. The series with the third and fourth highest number of stories are "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" and "Lord of the Rings" - both which have less than 100,000 stories. The fanfiction stories for the Harry Potter series numbers 842,000. So, it is obvious that there is no small number of Harry Potter fanfiction stories to compare DKStories' Destiny series to. Over the years I have read enough to make a comparison. DKStories' 'HP and the Sword of Gryffindor' and 'HP and the Destiny of Prophecies' are both excellently written stories that definitely meander outside of the original books' canon. The author weaves a storyline that encourages the readers to soften their attitudes to some of the original characters that may not have caused such favorable reactions by helping us to admire and appreciate Draco and his parents as well as Harry's Aunt Petunia and her 'little Dudleykins'. Although Harry and Draco's lives are filled with challenges through the first (and most) of the story, there are many aspects where they are also filled with satisfaction, fulfillment and yes, a little angst. There is only one place where the reader is given a hint that there may be some subterfuge underneath everything, but it is not until the last four or five paragraphs where the diabolic plan is revealed and the author manages to end the "Destiny" series on a note that the readers will no doubt, appreciate. This is an author who, in all his stories and all his series, manages to write storylines with well-planned turns, twists and intrigue. "Destiny" should be enjoyed by all who have even a slight interest in the Harry Potter Universe. Davey

My post about Harry being pureblood at the end of the last chapter is vindicated. Thank you Narcissa!

It is always my intention to be encouraging and kind in these end-of-chapter comments. However, I have to point out a point of order here. Draco said, " 'I was so angry at Harry Potter, the mudblood who stole the House Cup from Slytherin and who didn’t want to be my best friend.' and later in the chapter Harry said, "I am not a pureblood". Both of those statements are incorrect based on the books. James, Harry's father, was from an old pureblood family. Lily was a Witch - she was born to a muggle family (I believe) - but she was a Witch. Therefore, neither of Harry's parents were mundane and so he was absolutely pureblood. Just not from a union of two old-line magical families. Just a little fact-checking on the fanfiction!

This was a very dark chapter - even for DKstories. Worthington Michael Sinclair may be try to walk the Gray path - but in this chapter he was definitely in the shadows!