lEAFMOLD

Is this a rerun of an old story? Somehow, I recall reading a story with this same title several years ago.

In 1972, July 4 fell on a Tuesday, not a Wednesday. Just the same, this is a very enjoyable story.

Is this very much the same as the story posted several years ago? Or have you made some significant changes? I was already into "The Next Stage" and remember much of it.

Please refresh my aging memory. In what chapter was there an attempt to kidnap Bryce?

I actually cried.

The Prologue and Chapter 1 are identical.

My memory fails me. What is OBR?

I do not know what places in this story are real and which are fictional. (I believe Thomsponville is fictional.) As I read, I try looking at a map of Australia via OpenStreetMap at [https://www.openstreetmap.org] I am able to find many of the places named. However, I find Macquarie Harbour on the island of Tasmania and Port Macquarie where the plot-line describes Macquarie Harbour. Is this intentional, is this your mistake, or is OpenStreetMap in error?

In my old age (82), my memory is sometimes not great. Please tell me, what is the "project" that is being built? Alternatively, direct me to the book and chapter where that is explained.

Yes, indeed continue. However, I have been waiting a long time for continuation of other of your stories, for example "Discovering Home" and "Shoulder Season". Also, is there a follow-up book to "And A Child is Born"?

“But that’s not fair!” When my daughter was quite young, she would often say that. I broke her of that habit by replying "Fair is where they give pigs blue ribbons."

I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of romance between Jexon and Marcus. No, I was not expecting sex. I generally avoid "suck and fuck" stories, which do not turn me on. If two people love each other enough to become permanent life partners, however, I would expect some hugs, more words of endearment, and other forms of affection. The most romantic passage involved them sitting in separate chairs and watching a sunset. ☹️

Ahhh! Much, much better. And thank you for the explanation. :)

I enjoy the overall story very much. However, this chapter is not readable. Words near the end of a line are broken and continued on the next line. Can this chapter be reformatted and reposted?

I much prefer Leonard Cohen's performance of "Hallelujah" over Wainright’s. De gustibus non est disputandum.

No, I am not getting older. I am already old, and my memory is not always great. Please tell me in which book and which chapter of "The Tampa Chronicles" the event happened that Jeremy is now being charged with assault. I want to reread about the entire event, so please do not summarize it here.

Silver necklace chains? I thought silver was extremely toxic to lycans and other were creatures.

You wrote: "Dave and I each had a multigrain bagel with cream cheese, locks and capers". What did they lock with the locks? Or did you mean lox?

I have been retired for 17 years from a 40+ year career with computer software. During that time, I worked at two companies as a computer programmer and then at four companies as a software tester. Twice, I was unemployed, during which times I had many interviews. I too had an interview from Hell, which I describe at [http://www.rossde.com/unemployed/unempl_interv_hell.html]. I have four other Web pages describing my experiences being unemployed at [http://www.rossde.com/unemployed/index.html]. However, you will notice that my experiences were more than 20 years ago. My unemployment ended as the job market improved significantly, which is not the case today. Not all of the lessons I learned, however, are obsolete.

Regarding circumcision, in Judaism it is not merely a medical procedure. It is also a religious ceremony called a bris. When my son was born (over 50 years ago), we had a bris when he was about 8 days old. As a Jewish ceremony, we had 10 men in attendance. One of them almost fainted when my son was cut. I do not recall there being any anesthetic being administered ahead of the cutting. For the sake of safety, we had a doctor do the cutting while a rabbi officiated in the ceremony. Yes, he screamed. But his screams were cut very short when the rabbi put a cotton ball soaked in wine to his lips. My son sucked wine out of the cotton and was instantly silent.

Do you mean Amalfi Coast, which is a picturesque area of Italy?

This might seem harsh, but you really need a good editor. I stopped reading your first chapter before I reached the half-way point. There were so many errors that I found it difficult to understand what you wrote. For example, you used "sent" when I think you meant "scent". Where you wrote "a spec of freckled bridging his nose", did you mean "freckles bridging his nose"? Where you wrote "The door didn’t look very different from any other entries, but damn was it opposing.", did you mean "The door didn’t look very different from any other entries, but damn was it imposing."? I really enjoy reading stories about were-creatures, so please start over but with an editor.

I know it would be work to rewrite them. However, a complete collection should include "Towards the Decent Inn" and "Terry and the Peachers" (23 chapters each). The series is a gem. Whenever I see Michael Arram as the author of a story, I must read it.

Only when I reached the end of chapter 1 did I recall reading this before. I think I have read all of the Henry/Peacher/Rothenia/Crown of Tassilo stories by Mike Arram, plus stories that are not part of that series (e.g., "Terre Nouvelle"). However, I cannot find a single Web site that contains all of them. For example, Gay Authors does not (yet??) contain "The Golden Portifor", which appeared on the Awesome Dude's Web site. Is there any one Web site that contains them all? If so, is there a guide for reading them in chronological sequence, not the sequence in which they were written but the sequence of their historical timeline.

This chapter reminded me of a frightening New Year 2018. My wife and I both had our flu shots in early September 2017. We were also current with both kinds of pneumonia shots: pneumovax and Prevnar-13. Nevertheless, we both felt ill as 2018 approached. On 2 January 2018, we saw our family doctor, who took nasal swabs. After dinner that night, he called us to tell us we both had the flu. My wife could not stop coughing. I took her to the emergency room of the nearest hospital, where they immediately admitted her because she had also developed pneumonia. This was very bad. My wife was being treated for atrial fibrillation (afib). Having lost a kidney a decade earlier, her remaining kidney was not functioning correctly because of impaired blood flow caused by her afib. I was informed that the afib and kidney problems combined with the flu and pneumonia meant that, if I had not brought her to the hospital when I did, she would have died. After a full week of hospital treatment, however, the pneumonia and flu were cured. A month later, my wife had an ablation treatment the corrected her afib. It took almost a year for her kidney to recover full function. By the way, while I also had the flu, it was not severe; and I recovered at home without getting pneumonia. According to our family doctor, neither flu shots nor pneumonia shots are 100% effective. Just the same, he told us that we still should get annual flu shots and keep our pneumonia vaccinations current. It is now two years since that scare. We have had neither the flu nor pneumonia since then. My wife's afib has not recurred. Considering our age -- well past our "best if used by" dates in our late 70s -- we now have relatively good health. I have written this long narrative to indicate the reality of this chapter of "The Preacher's Kid: College and Beyond". Even without underlying health problems, the combination of flu and pneumonia can be deadly.