Krista

At the rate you're going, unless you go insane, you probably will finish more than three.

A pistol loaded with a lot of ammo and no filter.

Yeah, someone else said there wasn't enough tension. That I needed to show Luke a bit high strung and anxious about the answer. The question would have caught anyone off guard. She probably didn't know the 'first' time he said it, but when he repeated it, it may have clicked. We're in Jackson's head, so we can't know for sure unless she explains it to him, which she did when Luke wasn't in the room. And yes, her answer was more or less to spare Luke, get him in the house, and off his line of thinking. I guess for me, when I know the answer will upset the child that asks the question and I know they're not ready for the answer, I will soften it and spare them. It is a lose/lose situation when someone is upset or frustrated and they ask you something and you want to lead with honesty, but you also know they're doing the asking in a very bad mental state.

Shame, because pine is one of my most favorite scents, especially natural straight from the tree. Also, weaponizing someone's allergies is a boss move, to be fair. I don't think she did that intentionally, but she knew it would happen all the same. She was just looking for that special pray the gay away concoction and it happened to need pine... but still, very bad move on her part. Also, I have to behave and post it Friday or Saturday. Ask Wildthing, he put me on a strict posting schedule and I've already broken the, "Post every Sunday, rule.." I started this whole thing with, so there you go.

Maybe for a test drive...

She started out about as rough as Jackson did. At least, most of the readers thought so and it surprised me a little until I read back objectively, and saw how early on they did a lot of parenting with little stability or follow-through and/or listening. Although, Jackson didn't give them much of a path either.

Damn it... well. Hmm.. too late to edit. Another notch along the fast moving journey of me developing a complex over people reading finished works...

The first swim competition chapter, right? Mercy that one was rough, and long, and daunting, and tiring. Made me realize that my little knowledge of competitive swimming, and my researching was a bit off. I loved the non-swimming aspects of this chapter, back to my comfort zone. I knew I needed to make the swimming as realistic as I could to make it somewhat plausible. I added a lot of fictional sports elements that weren't, but it was done in first person, creating the tension, conflicts, etc that wouldn't have settled into real life that easily was something I struggled with as well. And yeah, I think if you have someone like Jackson, who is predictable as in, you expect smartass remarks, a little untamed shenanigans, wanting to joke and be the life of the party... when a character like that distances from himself, people notice. When you add in an unknown and odd factor into the mix like a Luke, who wasn't on their radar, not a friend, and not similar in nature like a Derek, Toby, Heather, or to a point Ally, into that dynamic - almost forcibly, people with eyes can see things. But, here's to Luke and Jackson being blissful idiots in this part of the story.

Yes, I've had his story recommended to me numerous times. It needs to be on my to-do list one of these days. I am not put off by the 173 chapters, I just know that when I get into it I'll not want to do anything else... and I do need to work, raise my children, keep my husband out of the hospital when he gets into his tinkering, and do my part in adding to the word and story totals here too. Maybe I'll make a point to pick a story and read one chapter a day.

Oh, the storming of the tents... roaring and all that. I'm going to have to read this story again... lol My brains is too lost in Ridley, Elias, Learned to Lie, and such for me to remember these earlier chapters. If I didn't think I needed to start a new story idea in the coming months, I'd be all for rereading this. Luke and Jackson is by far my favorite pairing from all my stories. That's with knowing who Joel ends up with in Learned to Lie. 😮

I always thought in the back of my mind that it was youthful optimism when Jackson told him that. That all he had to do was be himself and everything would fall into place around him. It's when Jackson followed it up with words like, "I'll be here too.." or, "we'll do it together," set it apart from that feeling in my head. To me, it was him saying, you be yourself and I'll protect you as best as I can from the fallout. Either way, when I read back those passages I felt the weight every time, which I didn't when writing it.

Well, if I had let you write Ch. 1 of "Learned to Lie," it would have saved me 230,000 words and a year. As I was reading, when his mother brought out the pine oiled holy water, something she knows he's allergic to and did it anyway, it was right up there as one of the worst things a parent could do. She was willing to risk a severe allergic reaction to settle her own nerves. 😮 At least Dad stepped in, quietly as he did. The dynamics of the family did not disappoint. Now, we just have to wait and see if Ryan is worth all this lusting after... and if he has more to bring to the table than just failing grades, sweat glistened abs, and a cute smile. I laughed at way too many of the inappropriate jokes (you know which ones), to the point where I think I may need to repent. And I don't think Madison will let that slight slide, order has to be restored at their school, at least to how she feels it should go anyway. Also, Skylar Jordan River Montgomery sounds like a name that should be yelled through deep 'hollers' where banjo music comes from, not the California suburbs. I like the name either way.

Oh wow, 20 that's a really nice number of entries!

Poor Toby, as twitchy as he is. Something has to break with everything you brought up. I'm also really far behind you in responding to these comments. I remember when I started this section of the writing I was a bit over this story and struggling with some motivation. I didn't like writing in a restrictive high school setting. It is when I was very fussy with the Wildthing saying I will never do another high school story because I hated having to do similar dynamics all the time. I did not learn my lesson as Ridley = High School. Learned to Lie = High School. It is almost as if I enjoy stressing myself out.

I'll take your word for it, because I can't remember what Ally did. Olivia I know I enjoyed writing, she was similar to Jackson, but I didn't have to worry about anyone not liking her and refusing the read, she had more freedom to say and do what she liked.

I'm beginning to wonder where I was July 10th, 2023. Surely I'm not this bad about missing comments... but I've been known to miss them. I noticed I missed one last chapter as well. I also wished I remembered what the hell happened in this chapter. I think this is the chapter that Cindy terrorizes the campers in search for her little man. If so, I think this is the 'second?' time Cindy shows off her protective instincts. I swear I'm going to have to go back and reread my own stuff... I'm not this ditzy senile, surely.

This is the first time I wrote a character that had a distinctly different, just for themselves sort of hobby that forced me to develop separate dynamics. Writing his original friend group vs. the swimming group. His experiences between the two, the outcomes of both, the plot pressure they both had. It was fun for me to do that. I liked Emily and Jackson's relationship in the writing.

Either way, I look forward to it. I know writing in such a way that you have chosen to write this story is low-key a lot more difficult than it looks. Maintaining such a style, punch, wit, and bite within the confines of a themed chapter and continuance of the plot.

Oh no... 😮 As long as you don't end up on the same list Wildthing usually ends up on. Mostly me weighing pros vs. cons, and geographical distance vs. motivation, and the possibility of having to convince a jury of my innocence.

"Instagram algorithm in human form," has to be the most modernized veiled form of an insult I have read since, "Well bless your heart." The random TMs were hilarious. Especially the one trademarked for Whore Corps. I don't know if Lex is good for him or a very energetic heavy on the peer-pressure grenade. It will be nice reading through the off-beat, funny, and absurdly biased narration to get to the meat of the story where some of it blows up in his face.

Sometimes it does take knowing someone and seeing them as human beings walking the earth for it to sink in. I'm sure they knew of others, but at a distance couldn't understand, or lacked the will to. My mother was somewhat like that. She knew gay people most of her life, she was around those circles as she had a wide circle of people around her running a business, all kinds of different people. It took my friends coming around and her knowing they were gay for her to settle her mind on the subject a lot better. She fell in love with the people they are and removed the weight of 'what they are' off their shoulders.

I was very aware of my own pet peeve when it comes to reading. The quick heel turn of a character, typically the "Morally good, but boring" character in a love triangle. The writer wants the character to choose the smoldering bad boy with a bit of a hard to find heart of gold, so they make the boring, grounded, self-aware good guy do something so out of character heinous that it eclipses all the bad qualities the "bad boy," has in order to finally break that triangle. So, I tried not to do that with Jackson. I wanted him to grow, but I always wanted there to be some evidence of good in him, but also the wild-streak that started the story.

Yeah, I do remember them clicking quick after the kiss. They became rather dependent on one another, but I never thought it was at an unhealthy level really. It was just different from both their normal existences. A challenge of sorts. If I were Grace and I saw the sudden continued appearance of Luke after knowing Jackson and his other friends, I'd be running thoughts through my head as well, especially after the park restoration completed. I don't know if my mind would go 'there' though, not right off, especially with Jackson's history of running through girls not knowing that he hasn't been sexually active with any of them.

Not read a word of this yet, but I just happened upon it because my eyes caught it as a new story. You delivered the hell out of the story blurb all the way down to the chapter title. Now to avoid spoilers, scroll back up and read it.

That would be how I would explain Lisa Benton, at least so far. I think in chapter one the writing explains that they only went to two services a year. I don't think a person that goes twice a year would feel a push to pick up a bible either, not in any spiritually significant way that would lead to learning. Some people just don't care to listen to reasonable arguments as well. It is obvious when someone is truly listening compared to someone who is just waiting for their chance to counter an argument because their minds are already made up and there will never be enough room in there for anything else...