Altimexis

@LittleBuddhaTW last visited 4 hours ago. I don't understand why he doesn't post something to let us know he's alive. Here's hoping the reason for his most recent visit is to get ready to post another chapter or three. In the meantime, Chapter 19, which was posted over the weekend on the AD site, confirms my suspicions about Miguel's dad. Even so, it's a shocker! That's all I'm going to say until the chapter's posted here.

I assume people are discussing their disappointment in Hunter’s behavior in Chapter 17, two chapters hence. I’ll wait until it’s published on GA before saying anything more than this: Hunter isn’t just horny or promiscuous. He’s self-destructive. He needs help.

I hope that nothing is wrong. I've sent LB an email and a PM and received no response. What I fear is that we've lost him again. After some very productive writing in the early days of GA, he just disappeared. I was thrilled to see him writing again after a fifteen-year hiatus, but perhaps he was just keeping his mind occupied after the breakup of a longterm relationship. Now he has a new boyfriend and perhaps he's too busy to post. At least I hope that's all that has happened. I just hope he doesn't disappear again without even saying goodbye. Most of us manage to balance our personal life, our work life and our hobbies, but perhaps LB can't. Having hobbies separate from one's personal life is important. With all the craziness going on in the world, especially now, I find writing fiction to be particularly therapeutic. I hope that LB finds his way back to his writing but if not, it'll be his loss as much as ours. He's a gifted writer and I wish him the best, either way. Regarding this chapter, I'm particularly fond of reading about American traditions from an outsider's perspective. It was fun reading about Hunter's attempt to recreate a traditional American Thanksgiving in Colombia. It was even more fun reading about how all of his friends viewed the holiday. I could sympathize with his friends when it came to being forced to watch American football, and the Detroit Lions, no less. I grew up in Indianapolis before they had the Colts and without a local team to root for, never understood the allure of the sport. The Colombian boys are much better off playing what the rest of the world calls football and what American's call soccer. Chapter 16 is already posted on AwesomeDude. I'm not going to give anything away except to say it's a very steamy chapter in more ways than one. The two chapters taken together are a nice interlude - a therapeutic respite after the trauma of Chapter 14. Why do I get the impression that all hell will break loose in Chapter 17?

Finally!! I hope that you're okay, @LittleBuddhaTW, and that you were merely distracted by good things in your life. If you were sick, injured or otherwise detained, we'd like to know so we can keep you in our thoughts and prayers, or whatever. I sent you an email and a PM. Please take a moment to stay in touch! This is by far the most intense chapter, but judging from the cover art, we're in for more of the same if not worse. The scene in the ice cream parlor seemed so realistic that I almost have to wonder if LB went through something like this himself, or at least knew someone who survived a terrorist incident. The loss of Ferney really brought the war home. I have a feeling that in saving Hunter, Carlos will play a bigger role in the future.

I almost reacted with the angry emoji, but crossed fingers seems more appropriate. I’ve read the next chapter on AD and it’s the most tense one yet. Respectfully or not, I see little reason to wait when the story is available on another site. I certainly hope AD is okay. I’ll be really upset if anything bad has happened to him. Frankly, I’ll be kind of pissed if he hasn’t posted because he’s in love. Don’t get me wrong – I really hope that’s the reason and I don’t want to think of the alternatives – but I’d like to think that he’d value his faithful readers enough to at least let them know the story will continue after a delay. I would really hate to put LB in the category of authors who would abandon their readers because they’ve lost interest or have better things to do. One thing to consider is that GA doesn’t allow for automatic publishing. They used to and I took advantage of it by setting up a publication schedule for all of my chapters at once. That way, if anything happened in my life, my readers wouldn’t be kept waiting. Now, however, one can’t schedule the next chapter until the last has been published. I suspect the reason is to thwart automatic chat bots. LB, I really hope you’re okay, but if you’re in love, please come up for air long enough to let us know what’s up.

I sent an email to his proton address this morning (Saturday). I haven’t heard back from him yet. He last visited GA on Feb 22. I’m genuinely concerned. The AwesomeDude site has been handled by Alien Son ever since Mike (The Dude) died. He manages the site and takes care of posting. Stories are submitted in their entirety, vetted by an editorial team and then coded and posted on a schedule without the intervention of the author. In other words, LB had nothing to do with the post of Chapter 14 to AD. For those unfamiliar with the AwesomeDude site, Chapter 14 of Medellín can be found here.

Likewise!

I was pleased with the way Hunter let Yeison down gently. I wish he’d done it sooner, but he’s only sixteen. I’m a bit concerned, though, that denying there was someone else will come back to bite him. The thing that really got me about this chapter, however, was the redemption of Miguel. He was nice, he was sensitive and he wasn’t afraid to show his tender side. He gave Hunter the space he needed… and he cooked for him. We also got some insight into Miguel’s dark side. He grew up in the shadow of the underbelly of the cartels. He was and perhaps still is friends with kids who have been subsumed by it, yet he’s managed to float above it all. It’s no wonder he became a bully. I think Hunter could be very good for Miguel, and Miguel’s connections might help to protect Hunter in the future.

I don’t have anything to add that hasn’t already been said. Just thought I’d mention that half the USA got slammed with a winter storm. Here in NYC, in my corner of it, we got a foot of snow and ice. Something tells me you don’t get any snow in Columbia.

Let me get this straight. The healthcare system gives out PrEP for free, but condoms are a luxury? Nothing is more expensive than an unplanned pregnancy. It might not cost $320-390k to raise a kid to age 18, as it does in the US, but it’s still bound to be a major contributor to poverty. Would it be impolite to suggest that lack of condom use has more to do with male machismo than with cost?

What’s so strange about having a melted hunk of cheese in hot chocolate? Cocoa is the basis of a molé sauce, which is great on chicken - not that I eat chicken anymore. Frankly, I think I’d rather have melted cheese in hot chocolate than bubble tea. As long as the cheese is creamy and not too sharp, I think it would blend nicely with cocoa. I’ve been putting off commenting on this chapter because I’m just not sure where this is leading. Actually, I think I do know where it’s going and watching a train wreck in the making is both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. I get the feeling that there is a big puzzle piece missing that Hunter isn’t letting us see that would explain a lot about why he has trouble with relationships. It might even make more sense of why his father would involve him in his work. However, that Hunter considers the relationship he had with Rory at the age of what, fifteen, to be the gold standard is really pathetic. Oh, a lot of teens think they’re in love, but high school relationships are usually very shallow and teenagers are so naïve. Not that I think Grindr is a good place to start either. I reiterate that Hunter isn’t ready for a steady relationship and he needs to be honest about that upfront, with himself as well as with his dates. Plus he needs to use condoms!

Yes, it’s much better now.

I wasn’t going to say anything, but then I remembered how I felt as an author when someone gave truly constructive criticism. To me, that was worth far more than a ton of praise, as it helped me to be a better writer. The last chapter ended with a lot of drama and a real concern that Yeison wouldn’t make it home safely. It seemed that their relationship had ended before it had really begun, and then there was the kiss. LB really left us hanging at the end of the last chapter, and I expected at least something in this one to address that. Instead, it’s as if none of all that drama had mattered. There was a lack of continuity that left me feeling disoriented. In general, this chapter felt disjointed, and yes, emotionless. Perhaps that’s because of the way Hunter feels in the midst of all the chaos. Rudderless. I can only hope things become more clear in the subsequent chapters.

What kind of father would use his own son as bait? What kind of father would ask his son to befriend a kid he hates as a way to get to his father? What kind of father would ask his son to lie to his friends? What kind of father would bring his son to an unsafe place in the first place, apparently for the specific purpose of helping to infiltrate the Clan? I don’t know if Hunter’s father is aware of his son’s struggles with depression or his risk-taking behaviors. From Hunter’s perspective, the two of them have always been distant. Could the reality be something else?

Fortunately, there hasn't been any conservative blowback, nor liberal blowback, for that matter, since this story was published some 2½ year ago. The protagonist is the 15-year-old son of a democratic politician, but he's equally critical of people on the left as on the right. It's a sad commentary these days that political centrists are an endangered species, not just in federalist governments such as in the U.S., but in parliamentary systems as well. Except for the plot element of the missing state certificates and a locked pouch containing duplicates, the other elements of the story are based on verified accounts of events as they unfolded on January 6, five years ago. Of course the protagonist and his father expressed their own opinions, but they are presented as just that – opinions. I take pride in the research I do for my stories and do my best to present a balanced account, even if the narrator is from one side of the aisle. That there aren't many Republicans in my New York stories reflects the political makeup of the city. My Indiana-based stories have at least as many Republican characters as Democrats.