Geron Kees

Hey, Boo! TWICE in one week? That's a record for you!

Gort is an old favorite of mine, because he wasn't cute, he wasn't trying to please, and he wasn't simply another anthropomorphized machine. He had no lines at all in The Day the Earth Stood Still. And yet he did have a personality, an all-business one, and he was willing to stay the law long enough to revive Klaatu and take a stab at saving the Earth instead of pulverizing it. That showed more the compassion of his creators than anything that might have been present within the machine itself, and yet what is a machine, but an appendage of ourselves? He projected the sheer menace of an intelligent machine, and seemed to have few of the safeguards built in that Asimov placed in his robots. For that, his creep factor was extremely high. And as a guest character for Halloween, he works cheap, too!

Hey...what on earth have you been reading? I want some!

Agreed, no one is perfect. But we are dealing with a very tiny culture here, a culture of nine people living in tight accommodations. The fear of messing that up would make even experimental kids play it safe. There are always those that seem oblivious of or simply indifferent to rules, but that is a specific personality type, and I don't have any in my story. Of course I failed to mention Marvin, the tenth kid, who used to live in this story, but was evicted for treading in forbidden territories. He's probably zombie fodder by now!

Missed your comment, Ivor. Sorry!

Missed your comment. Sorry! By now you have your answer!

Whoops! Missed this one. Sorry!

Haha. So are you!

Again, thanks!

Thanks for taking the time to read so much at one sitting. My notifications list was running off the screen when I logged in today! I'll take that to mean you like the story, and I'll just go over here and sit and leave you alone so that you can read some more.

I'll take that as a positive comment!

I fully agree with you. Places made for many people seem spooky when none are present. The idea of towns and cities made for thousands just standing empty is a bit of a chiller. I don't think the average person quite realizes how many people are around them each and every day as they go about their business. It gets so people tend to fade into the background a little, become less noticeable, but without somehow leaving our awareness. We know we have company, everywhere we go. Imagining that feeling just gone is pretty unsettling. I don't know if I could quite imagine going out into the world every day, and knowing that there was no one else around, maybe for hundreds of miles. Saying it in words, in a story, is a far cry from experiencing it for real.

Always a pleasure to get a nice word from you. Thank you. I have already started on the Christmas tale. Haven't decided which direction to go with it, but it'll work itself out. Haha. Yeah, Kippy has a way of being a lot of people's favorite.

Thanks. A lot is owed to all the science fiction I read growing up. That stuff just oozes back out as you get older. Hmm. There's a story idea right there!

Something to think about, and thanks for the tips. I'd have to be convinced first that publishing wouldn't take the fun out of it!

The title of the first tale might definitely cause a problem, but it could be changed. The others have no correlation to Schultz tales. The name 'Charlie Boone' is not an infringement of any kind. This is just mental exercise, anyway, so why worry?

Thank you, Ivor. I knew I could count on you for support. Um, more or less!

I am always a little down when a story is over. Like getting back from a trip to some really fun place when your're a kid. Fortunately, there are many more trips to be taken, and many more destinations to see. I write what I do because I do like to show that being young and gay is just fine. It's also fun for me. I appreciate your faith in the tales. Publishing is a tough world these days, though. Finding one that would be interested in publishing books for young gay readers is not exactly easy! --G.

I would have done that, but it was not quite as much fun!

Oh, no you don't! Your're not drawing me in! I wouldn't touch your balls with my ten foot pole!

No. You mean klompen? No one really wears them anymore except for festivals, and maybe out in de achterland. You can kick some serious butt with them, however! Ha! That picture? I am not about to subject myself to what goes with that!!!!!

Gary, you always say the most encouraging things. I need to bottle that...wait...where's my encouraging things from friends bottle???

Noordzee, Texas is a horse of a different color. Or, two horses of a different color. There are some excellent Nederlander films, especially shorts. And some excellent Nederlander guys, especially in shorts!

Punny! Moths are also found in closets! That is just so gay!

Thank you. But I would not do to Santa and the guys what was done to the cast of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Like Max, I have some standards!