lEAFMOLD

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.

In some of your early chapters, you request: "If you have anything that can improve my writing please let me know.". You are actually doing quite well for someone whose primary language is not English. However, I suggest that, since you are self-taught in English, you might improve your stories by finding a volunteer editor.

I received an RSS feed message that "New Year's Resolutions" by Altimexis had been posted. I selected the link in the RSS title and got the summary page. That summary page has no link to the story itself. Where is the story?

I started reading GayAuthors when I discovered my daughter is gay. I especially appreciate the stories -- such as Northie's -- that are NOT fuck fests. Northie in particular seems to capture well much of the angst of seniors. As my wife and I are in our late 70's, what happened to Jack at the beginning of this story somewhat scares me: That also happens to seniors who are not gay. This could happen to us. I just hope we can continue to age as did Jack, still with control over our lives.

I have mostly enjoyed the entire story. However, this chapter 51 was hard to digest with its generally blanket condemnation of how religion is anti gay. There are a number of denominations that not only accept but embrace gays. Even before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of same-gender marriage, Unitarian-Universalist Church and the United Church performed such weddings. The Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis -- representing the largest portion of Jews in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean -- were on record supporting gays and gay weddings. Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches were also supportive of gays.

I am disappointed that there was no mention of the Homomonument in Amsterdam. CJ and Owen visited the Ann Frank House. As they exited, they should have turned left and then immediately left again. This memorial to the gay victims of the Nazis is right there. It is huge but not overwhelming. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomonument

A "a south – south easterly wind" blows FROM the south-south-east, not toward it. Thus, the wind in this chapter would blow a northerly fire away from the facility.