Cynus

Thank you. Wish it didn't hurt so bad.

Yeah, I know they're working on it. This is my temporary fix until that's resolved. I actually don't mind, and I didn't want to come across as complaining. It would be a different story indeed. I mean, i totally have an idea for a story along similar lines that takes a completely different path, so maybe I'll explore that sometime?

It's my favorite myth! I am so incredibly excited to learn what you think once we get into the meat of the myth. Part 1 is almost entirely stage setting, but we'll be done with it soon (relatively speaking). Once part 2 hits, we'll be waist-deep in lore. Eventually we'll be in over our heads!

You sound a lot like Liz here. I think you'd get along well with her. I agree completely with your statement about art, and I think that's what my goal has always been with writing, to make people reflect upon emotion. I appreciate your wisdom here, and I'm grateful you chose to share it with us.

PLEASE QUOTE OR LIKE THIS COMMENT SO I KNOW YOU ARE COMMENTING. This is my new strategy to get notifications on chapter comments.

Indeed. The most recent novel I wrote(not this one) deals directly with the grieving process, and I went through a lot of the same themes between these two books, though they are vastly different and that's the only thing which is similar between them. My goal was to make their grieving realistic. Hopefully I pulled it off.

It is extremely unfortunate. Having been there myself, I know the road that takes you there, and it always feels like there's no other fork to take. I've been using the activity stream since i learned about it, but this way I'll get the notifications without having to check (which I consider to be the point of the word "notification"). I can make a habit of constantly checking, I guess... all I know is that this seems to be working so far. Thank you for commenting!

The wind was cold for June, but everything felt cold to Caleb now. He doubted the world would ever feel warm again, no matter how hard it tried; global warming be damned. Caleb stared down the small hill toward the assembly beside the open grave where Ethan's body would soon spend the rest of eternity. Only a small crowd had gathered: a few dozen people, mostly people from the community church Ethan's family attended, a few members of the school faculty who'd known and liked Ethan, and, o

Hope starts to form over the next few chapters.

Thank you. I appreciate the feedback. This is one of the few chapters Liz wrote, and I loved her for it. It was just what I needed to move on to the next chapter.

Caleb and Ethan wrote this book together. They lived inside my head for a week, and this day nearly destroyed me mentally.

What I want to say to one of you, I want to say to all, so I hope you'll forgive this bulk reply. This was written from a depth I haven't touched in a long time. I lost someone extremely precious to me when I was a teenager. It was a motorcycle accident which shouldn't have happened. He wasn't even going particularly fast, but he skidded out on wet pavement and ended up in front of a semi. Losing someone close to you, especially when it comes out of nowhere . . . it locks you up in ways I've wanted to describe for a long time but always failed to do so. This story was driven by that need to express those emotions. This story was driven by that overwhelming need to make things right somehow, to feel the pain again and somehow recapture love and life as it was before. I understand all of you who have felt this loss, and I'm sorry to have made you relive it. Though I do hope that this story, which is about a journey I think we all metaphorically take when we lose someone, will also inevitably take you to a place of hope and peace. May the universe grant you solace.

Thank you. Writing-wise, the paragraph about Caleb standing in front of the mirror is one of my favorites in the entire story, and it was something I came back to and reread from time to time when i needed to get into Caleb's mindset. Delivering news of this sort is definitely difficult, even as a writer, knowing how to say this took a lot of time. I think this is possibly the chapter which took me the longest to write. I appreciate the compliments on my writing, and, don't worry, we'll see hell soon enough. Thank you for posting that link, my friend. This scene is why I was saying to wait to pass judgment on the "bleeding out" part from earlier. It was the combination of things which made him slip into unconsciousness. Ethan planned too well, and that's what led him to here. But in the end he tried to save himself. He tried to tell Caleb that he'd taken something, he just didn't get the words out. The delirium is what prevented them from knowing. Unfortunately, sometimes the wrong turn leads you off the pier, not just to the dead end.

This seems to work right now, so I'm not going to complain. I'm vaguely considering the arduous task of going back to all of my earlier stories and placing one of these comments so that I'll know when people say things. I appreciate your compliments. Hopefully I will continue to live up to them.

PLEASE QUOTE OR LIKE THIS COMMENT SO I KNOW YOU ARE COMMENTING. This is my new strategy to get notifications on chapter comments.

Voices sounded from below Caleb. His parents were talking about him, talking about what to do with him, most likely. He'd barely left his room in the last five days, and he saw little reason to do so anytime in the future. He saw no reason to get dressed, no reason to eat, no reason to sleep. Some of those happened anyway, but not usually until his natural instincts forced him to. The front door opened and a new voice joined the chorus beneath him. Liz spoke more loudly than his parents h

Valkyrie, sometimes I swear you and I are the same person...

If only. Their story certainly would've ended a lot differently in the long run. I'm already feeling like I should put up the next chapter today, if only to begin the healing process.

PLEASE QUOTE OR LIKE THIS COMMENT SO I KNOW YOU ARE COMMENTING. This is my new strategy to get notifications on chapter comments.

The mirror taunted Caleb with his shirtless body, seeming to accent the stains of red on his skin. He knew he should clean them off, but he didn't have the motivation. It was Ethan's blood, his life force, and washing it off would make it seem like he was washing away the memory of what had happened. Tragic as it was, he wasn't prepared for that. The rain had let up as they'd waited for the paramedics to arrive at the park, and nature itself seemed to want him to bear the signs of the tragedy, a

Soon. And I appreciate your confidence in me. It is always my goal to be true to the emotion, no matter the cost to me while writing it, or to my readers who read it. Thank you for the comment!

Roman!!! I missed you, buddy! Glad to have you aboard.

Holder Series (It's a story series, best I could do)

I'm glad you caught that mention of his mother. We're going to learn a lot over the next few chapters so stay tuned. I appreciate your willingness to see this through to the end. I was more apologizing for your misery. This story sets up the tragedy right off. I didn't pull any punches with this one, I'm afraid. To be honest, I thought I'd given fair warning on this story, because I used the "suicide" tag, but when I look at the story on the main story page, I realize that's one of the tags which was pushed to the "and two more" section. Now I feel like I might want to go back and edit the description so I can include a disclaimer warning about suicide and death...

Granted. You now sleep all the time, and can't seem to get anything done. I wish I knew how to market my books so they'd sell. *sigh*