Altimexis

It might be worthwhile pointing out that the title of the last chapter was The Cartel Strikes First. That doesn’t sound like an act of revenge or retribution, nor just the assassination of a social justice leader. It sounds like the opening salvo in an all out war. Never ignore the hidden meaning behind the title an author gives their chapters. I know that from my own experience as an author.

Plan A? Target? Could Hunter’s dad be using his own son as part of his DEA operation? Could he be using Hunter to get to the son of someone in the cartel (e.g. Miguel, or maybe the kid on Grindr)? Is Hunter supposed to be some kind of bait? What father would do such a thing? And Grindr? That’s such a bad idea. There’s a lot of backstory that’s missing here. I think we’ve only gotten the tip of the iceberg so far.

The new image is great. The old image was a lesson in the limitations of generative AI, but the technology is improving. I agree that AI is revolutionary, I just worry that we're rushing ahead in building infrastructure without regard to the effects on the surrounding communities, the effects on the environment, the effects on climate and the effects on society. The cost of building and replacing today's AI infrastructure will be borne by generations to come. Already, the effects on society are profound. We pushed a generation to take up coding as a guaranteed pathway to prosperity, yet AI can do it better, faster and cheaper. Although we've yet to see how well self-driving taxis will do in Manhattan, the data from Waymo suggests they're far safer than human-driven versions. Taxis and limos have long provided entry-level jobs, particularly since the rise of Uber and Lyft. What happens when those jobs go away? But enough about AI. I can't wait to read the next chapter!

I don’t trust Google for anything. Their entire business model is based on acquiring and selling personal data. Not that I trust Apple, but their revenue comes from selling hardware. Too bad their AI is worthless. They need to buy someone else’s AI company. They can afford it. More to the point, I’ve used ChatGPT as a quick search tool, but it often yields ridiculous results. When I point out the errors, it usually self corrects, but you’d think that underlying model would check plausibility before giving an answer.

The original pic is still up on LB’s AwesomeDude site, but probably not much longer. I wouldn’t necessarily assume the boy in the pic is Miguel, although it seems likely. There really aren’t teams in the story, though. Whichever way things go, you can be sure the direction of Hunter’s love interest will be essential to the plot.

Not as intimate, but more believable. In the original, the extra arm appeared to be from the Colombian boy, but the sleeve matched that of Hunter’s hoodie rather than the white shirt of the Colombian boy. It’s amazing what generative AI can do, but the technology is in its infancy. The model underlying the original image prioritized thematic elements over what’s anatomically possible. You’d think the AI model would know better, but that’s the problem - AI doesn’t know anything. Calling it intelligent is a bit of a misnomer. It has the entire database of human knowledge at its fingertips, yet it lacks the understanding of a three year old. Don't get me wrong - the potential for AI to revolutionize many aspects of our lives is real, but the winner of the AI race won’t be the tech ego who builds the biggest data center using chips meant for use in graphics workstations and gaming. The winner will come from revolutionary hardware designs, incorporating aggressive cooling, superconductivity, quantum computing or a combination of the three. That was the underlying theme in my story, The Brilliant Boy Billionaire, and I wrote it before the AI boom.

Speaking of the cover pic, has anyone else noticed anything strange about the cover pic? Either this is an AI generated disaster, or there’s a mostly-hidden third person in the pic.

School gates are a common feature in many places. I can certainly understand the reason for gates that are kept closed during the school day in a place like Medellín. Frankly, with all of the school shootings in the US, I’m not sure why most American schools aren’t sequestered behind gates. In Japan, school gates are ubiquitous. I spent the summer of 1990 doing research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (aka the TIT). I took the train every day from my apartment on the Yokohama campus, to a lab on the Nagatsuta campus. In the train station, I picked up a copy of the English language Japan Times to read on the train. One of the major stories I read about was of a girl who was killed by the gate at her school. She was late for school and ran as fast as she could to try to get through the gate before it closed. The person who operated the gate saw her coming but continued to close the gate. The girl ran through the opening, just as it clanged shut, crushing her skull. Not only didn’t the gate operator lose his job or receive a reprimand, but the parents apologized - apologized - for their daughter’s behavior. The incident was big news and there was quite a bit of debate in the week that followed. The consensus was that the school had acted appropriately in enforcing its policies. I find it reprehensible to think that death is the appropriate punishment for a child’s tardiness, but it’s never appropriate to apply one’s own mores to the norms of other cultures. That’s a lesson with broad application, particularly when it comes to Colombian society.

I don’t think Hunter’s cover being blown is an issue with the cartel. The cartel already knows about Hunter and his dad. The issue is with his cover being blown to his fellow students. Most of them were probably too shell shocked to have heard Juan Camilo, but some of them might have. I’m sure his friends heard, and I suspect Miguel did. The safest thing would be for Hunter to return to the States, but there wouldn’t be much of a story if he did. He probably should change schools, but there might not be many other options for schools that teach in English. He could be privately tutored, but that would be isolating. I suspect that the school will reopen after at most a few days, with a new, no-nonsense headmaster and tightened security. I expected the Colombian government will allocate additional security as well. But Hunter’s cover has been blown and if even one or two kids heard it, the whole school will know by the time the bell rings for lunch. At the least, it will change the dynamic between Hunter and his classmates. However, the greatest problem could be that some will try to exploit what they can learn from him and use it for profit.

So many questions! Why were the school gates left open? What was the head mistress trying to accomplish? How can Hunter possibly go back to that school? How can anyone? How can Hunter protect his friends from the danger he’s put them in, just for being his friends? Where does Miguel fit into all of this? Can Hunter really trust his friends? Let’s not forget about Zach’s revelations about sex. What happens next?

What’s wrong with cream cheese and mango in sushi? Cream cheese in sushi has become a staple of American sushi restaurants. The Philly roll, consisting of smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese, is a personal favorite. Although most consumers of lox on a bagel don’t think of it that way, lox is smoked raw salmon. As far as mango is concerned, well there are still those who decry the use of pineapple on pizza, yet Hawaiian pizza has been a standard of American pizza for decades. The great thing about global cuisine is that anything is possible. The fusion of different kinds of food from different cultures often results in new and fantastic flavors — a synergy of palate. I’d encourage Hunter to keep an open mind towards new combinations of food, particularly when the local fare is so dreadful.

There’s so much to be said about this chapter, but little information on which to base my comments. I can’t help but think that Juan Camilo’s warning about Colombian male jealousy will come back to bite Hunter. Although the core of the story in this chapter was on Hunter’s developing relationships with Yeison, Miguel and Zach, I think the real story was the relationship between Hunter and Rory. Clearly, Hunter is far from being over his old flame. Apparently, he still has contact with him and they’re still amicable. In spite of his insistence that it’s over, on a subconscious level, I think he still hopes they can get back together. Apparently, all of Hunter’s self-destructive promiscuity stems from an underlying need to punish himself. LB certainly seems to favor seriously troubled main characters.

You have to remember that Hunter is a teenager, and a rather promiscuous one at that. I can see where he might be more interested in the kind of stories posted to Nifty. In time, as he settles down, he'll likely become more appreciative of stories with an actual plot, rather than explicit depictions of raw gay sex. For a boy who likes classical music, at least there's hope. Like most of us, he'll lose interest in Nifty and visit sites like GA, AD and the like. I'm a bit surprised that Hunter didn't know of the drug bust until Zach told him about it. I was far younger than Hunter when I began reading the newspaper every day. Of course today's teens are more likely to get their news from social media, as are far too many adults. That said, I'd expect an overachiever like Hunter to at least check out the news headlines on his phone while he eats his breakfast. Hell, if he'd subscribed to a local newsfeed, he should've gotten a notification on his phone. I'm still suspicious of Miguel's interest in Hunter, as is Hunter himself. It's possible Miguel is an ultra-popular jock who's been cast into the role of a bully, but is actually a closeted gay boy who's desperate for affection. On the other hand, there's still a part of me that thinks Hunter's father's role isn't a secret and that Miguel has been 'asked' to befriend Hunter for a sinister purpose.

How brilliant. People who didn't read the prologue should read the prologue comments to see that they should've read the prologue? Maybe you should post this in the comments for chapter 1?

My vegetarian evolution is very similar to yours, @Summerabbacat. My next door neighbor eats a lot of beef and I find the smell repulsive. I long ago lost the ability to digest red meat and get sick as a dog if I accidentally eat some. BTW, ostrich is a red meat and I got sick from eating that too. I’ll eat eggs when out on rare occasion, but don’t even keep eggs at home, which makes it a challenge with recipes for baked goods. Many packaged foods contain eggs and those that don’t are ultraprocessed and horribly unhealthy, so there are tradeoffs. It would make a huge difference for the environment if we all gave up dairy products, but yogurt has significant health benefits and I’ve yet to find a suitable nondairy alternative. I also have a weakness for cheese. Health benefits of eating fish and particularly salmon are significant. I do avoid eating farmed fish for the reasons you stated. Obtaining wild-caught Alaskan salmon is easy in the US. I once toured a processing plant in the Alaskan panhandle. The fish were gutted and flash frozen in liquid nitrogen within hours of being caught. I also buy wild-caught Icelandic cod and wild-caught shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, but not the Gulf of America. 😜 More than half my cooking is vegetarian or vegan, with mushrooms and/or legumes as the protein source.

As a pescatarian, I have a bit more flexibility, but it’s amazing how many restaurants just don’t get that poultry aren’t fish or that a plate full of vegetables doesn’t constitute a meal. My wife was on the board of a nonprofit for several years and that meant going to the annual banquet, held in a former Marriott that had been turned into a hospitality school. The first time we went, we ordered the vegetarian entree. There were literally more vegetables on the plates of those who ordered the prime rib, and was virtually no source of protein. We sought out the manager to complain and ultimately got more vegetables added to our plates, but we still left hungry. I mistakenly thought that it would be better the next time, but it wasn’t. I asked my wife to request of the board to move the banquet to another venue, but that was a nonstarter. Everyone else on the board loved the food, which apparently was great if you ate prime rib. From then on, we ordered the salmon, which was overcooked, but at least we didn’t starve. It used to be that in Italian restaurants, both in Italy and in the US, the concept of vegetarian didn’t register when it came to ‘old family recipes’. Salads often came with prosciutto and minestrone often contained meat, as did the marinara sauce, and that was after being assured by the server that everything we ordered was vegetarian. Things have improved a lot since Italian food supplanted French as the preferred venue for fine dining. Even so, some servers don’t get that bacon isn’t a suitable garnish in a vegetarian meal.

The food must be really be awful for McDonald’s to be a splurge. BTW, I know it’s Colombia, but my fingers keep insisting otherwise. 😛

On more reflection, I’m concerned about the encounter with Miguel and his friends. I had enough experience as a kid to know that a popular boy and his entourage usually has something else on their minds besides friendship when approaching the new kid. People in some countries are naturally friendly compared to elsewhere. Hell, New Yorkers tend to be friendlier than most Americans, in spite of their reputation. We think nothing of striking up a conversation with total strangers. That said, kids seem to have their own code of conduct that transcends local customs. I’d be cautious with respect to Miguel if I were Hunter. I’m more concerned that something more sinister might be going on. Hunter’s dad’s cover for being in Columbia seems awfully thin for someone going after narcoterrorists. Further, any information can be found in a country where bribery is the norm, so I wouldn’t be surprised if his cover is already blown. What better way to go after a DEA agent than to use teenage friendship or even better, romance, to get their hooks into the agent’s son. They might even be able to leverage Hunter to get his father to give up the entire DEA network. This is all conjecture and I have a terrible track record when it comes to predicting a story’s plot, but I have a bad feeling about this.

This story has me hooked already. The first chapter is a nice introduction to people who know nothing about Columbia, by a character who knows almost nothing about Columbia. I’m surprised by the blandness of the food. Not that I’ve ever eaten Columbian food before. However, eating healthy foods can be a challenge anywhere. Turkey might be a Mediterranean country, but the food is far from being representative of a Mediterranean diet. It’s surrounded by water, yet fish is seldom on the menu. Beef and lamb predominate. It’s a good thing I hadn’t yet stopped eating red meat when I was last there. I’m curious about the reference to being jet lagged. Perhaps that was just a figure of speech, but jet lag arises from crossing time zones. Medellín is at almost the same longitude as Washington, D.C. It should be in roughly the same time zone.

More than 20 years ago, Little Buddha burst onto the gay fiction scene with an amazing story about a teenage boy, coping with a difficult family situation and finding love. There have only been a handful of stories since then, but now, LB has emerged with a full-length novel with a sequel in the works and another novel ready to post. His talents as a writer have only matured since then and with Swing from the Fences, we have a tightly-integrated, complex story about abuse, grief and love. This is not your typical story about high school romance. Nick presents as a high school freshman who never fully dealt with the death of his father a few years ago. His unresolved grief has resulted in insecurity, self-doubt and severe depression. Jack has suffered mental and some physical abuse from his parents all of his life. The psychiatric effects have been profound and there remains much for him to resolve. The two are paired as roommates at a prestigious boarding school, where they support each other as they search for stability, and ultimately find love.

This is a nice way of winding down the story and setting us up for the sequel. There isn't much to be said about it except for Tommy's date with Jonah. That wasn't entirely expected, but it fit the situation nicely. As an aside, there's some backstory missing that leaves the reader wondering why the public schools where Nick lived were "not great". I had the advantage of excellent public schools within commuting distance of where my dad worked. My high school was ranked in the top percentile, nationwide. In Michigan, there are two top-ranked high schools that are among the best in the nation, but they're in the distant northern suburbs of Detroit. If Royal Oak was a long drive from where Nick lived, moving near one of those schools would have probably meant an untenable commute for his mom. Five of the public high schools in the more affluent suburbs of Detroit are in the second percentile for national rankings, but then rankings fall off rapidly after that. This might seem esoteric, but it's the type of thinking I do before I start writing a story. There are many reasons why a parent might choose to stay put rather than seeking a house or even a job within a better school district, for the sake of their kids' education. Even though emergency medicine physicians are some of the lowest-paid physicians in the U.S., the average salary should be enough to send a kid to private school. However, a college education isn't free in the U.S. and it's not uncommon for physicians to graduate with a debt of a quarter million dollars. Add to that a three- or four-year residency before actually earning a decent salary and the debt load may be nearly impossible to surmount. Unless Nick's father earned a decent income, things such as life insurance might have been an expense they couldn't afford. The one thing they had was a nice house, bordering on woodlands. The bottom line is that Nick was extremely lucky to get a full scholarship to Harrison West. He was even luckier that his roommate turned out to be his soulmate, and that he found a niche of friends unlike any he'd had before. Now that Jack's a Michigan resident, perhaps they'll both go to the University of Michigan, a public ivy with an in-state tuition Nick's mom could afford.

That’s much better. A fear of bridges and a Tigers game caused you to miss seeing the UP? What a pitty. However, as factionalized in my story, The Vista Dome Boy, when I was thirteen, we visited San Diego during winter break to see my sister and my new nephew. We’d taken the famous train, the California Zephyr, out and were supposed to return via the Super Chief, but my dad took it upon himself to trade in the tickets for a plane flight so he wouldn’t miss the football playoffs. Therefore, I can relate. My mom and I were not pleased. In fact my dad became so wrapped up in watching each game that he was nearly unapproachable. Because of that, I’ve never been able to enjoy spectator sports. If you’re ever back in the States, the UP of MI is well worth the trip, but it’s not in the same league as the American West when it comes to scenic beauty. Unfortunately, most of the National Parks are overcrowded during the summer, but there are less crowded gems. Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park, in southern Utah, are still places where you can enjoy spectacular scenery without the crowds. That’s a bit far to go for a group of kids in Michigan, though.

I noticed that too. After a week of separation, Mr Bojangles should have been all over Nick and Jack. In fact, that whole scene seemed off. Not to be overly critical, but wouldn’t the boys have called ahead to let Nick’s mom know they’d be coming home early? What if she’d decided to have some major work done on the house? Who cuts their vacation short anyway, other than to deal with a disaster? Actually, my wife and I did on an after-conference trip to the Virgin Islands. We aren’t beach people and after snorkeling, there wasn’t much to see or do. We were bored to tears. But I would think that teens would never run out of things to do. The boys were having fun and there were plenty of wonderful things they could have spent another day on. Why would they come back a day early? Wouldn’t the resort have charged them for the extra day anyway? I can relate to the ascent of Sleeping Bear dunes, only for me, it was the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Sleeping Bear has dune buggy excursions available, or at least they used to. There have been times I’ve hiked rather than driven to a mountaintop, but that was for the enjoyment of the journey. There’s nothing enjoyable about climbing sand dunes. Enough of my criticism. This was a most enjoyable chapter and @LittleBuddhaTW did a fantastic job of describing the awkwardness of a first time sexual experience.

The fishing expedition reminds me of when my roommate during my residency talked me into a fishing trip on the SF bay. There was no one as colorful as Captain Stinky and we kept losing our sinks and hooks on the rocky bottom. Of course replacements were available for purchase onboard. I think I spent more on sinks and hooks than on the trip itself. I did manage to catch a decent striped bass - the second largest on the excursion. The crew gutted it and wrapped it up for us, but we had to deal with the scales. I wouldn’t want to do that again. As I have pointed out in some of my stories about teenage lovers, many adults have difficulty remaining monogamous, much less hormonally-driven teens. Nick and Jack are deeply in love with each other, but Nick has already been tempted. Could he resist seduction by someone like Christian? I have my doubts. Would Nick come clean with Jack if he did have sex with someone else, or would he continue to have unprotected sex, risking both their lives? Just one more to go.

Traverse City and Traverse Bay in the springtime are known for their cherry blossoms, which are everywhere. I’ve only been there in the summer, but lived in the Maryland suburbs of D.C., where cherry blossoms are in abundance in April. The Tidal Basin is known for its cherry trees, which were a gift from Japan. The sakura in Japan are supposed to be more beautiful than anywhere else. I’ve been to Japan multiple times, but never in the spring and it’s so far from New York. As for cherry pie, I didn’t like it as a kid and will tolerate it now if it’s all that’s available. I much prefer a Dutch apple pie, pecan pie or pumpkin pie. I’m particularly partial to sweet potato pie but my favorite of all is cheesecake, and Junior’s has a well-deserved reputation for making the best. It’s guaranteed to clog your coronaries in seconds. The fudge that Christian bought sure sounds tempting though.