Krista

Thank you everyone for your kind words about my little poem. I am not a poetry person at all. I do find myself writing for these poetry themes every now and then, but I have really only basic knowledge of the writing of them. When this theme was announced, she came back to my thoughts and I wrote it quickly, then I didn't look at it for a couple of days. I decided to post it, because at the time there weren't a lot of poems linked, but after I saw a lot more coming in I almost chickened out and asked for it to be removed. In the end I decided to keep it listed for the anthology. The comments here were nice, I haven't responded to them until now, because I honestly didn't know how to. She was important to me and I think of her often still. Posting was bittersweet for me, y'all uplifted me, the entire process, bringing her back the way that it did, that may have been too soon. Regardless, I am thankful and blessed you took the time to read my poem and review/comment.

I'm a canner, I garden, pickle, can, etc. So I've looked into spoiling vs. canning, vs. store bought canned goods with preservatives. It is a bit of an eyeopener when you really look into what you should look for, smell for, and even taste for when determining what is spoiled and what isn't. I do tend to toss canned goods that are over two years old, even if the seal is still firm. Nothing I've canned the past couple of years have ever made it past the first year and a half though, usually by the time I have enough garden stuff ready to can... I'm nearly empty of last year's stuff anyway. I am far more worried about vegetables, lettuce, and fruits. Especially in salad assortments, and that's within the sale by dates. Stuff like sour cream and mayonnaise makes me wrinkle my nose... but I still give it a few taste tests to make sure. If it is a food I don't like at all and won't eat it, if I see it expired I do toss it. I don't trust the husband and the brats to not food poison themselves. I do not refreeze leftovers, I know a lot of people that do, but I just think when something is heated/cooked, and frozen, then thawed and re-heated it loses a lot of flavor and texture. It is more of a.. space issue in my freezer, and the fact that my family just won't eat it due to the change in texture/taste. It is wasted effort for no rewarding outcome. I am also really considering dehydrators and freeze drying, although that can be expensive, I think it pays for itself in the long run. There's a lot of waste with gardening and if I had access to both, there would be a lot less waste. And freeze dried candies are damn good and lets be honest, that's the real reason I want one...

You were a Gift You came into my life like the new of Spring, Energy in endless tapping toes on hardwood. Easy to love from the start, all legs and chocolate brown eyes. Meanness that tried my patience, and goofiness that got you out of everything. You were a gift I didn’t know I needed. Summer found you grown, shining in the sun, a smile on your face. Playful still, your youthful spirit still holding you barely to the ground. You gave away your joy so free, and peace at

Written for the 2024 Poetry Anthology - Seasons

Thank you for reading! And thank you for sharing a little about yourself as well. I thought about the friend groups a lot. It is pretty rare, even in small towns for best friends to remain that way. But, I mirrored it with my own life. The first 10ish years, I've been able to cultivate and keep those relationships. Kids, marriages, and jobs that takes us farther apart took some of my closer friends away from me. It is a natural drifting, the pandemic didn't help. I still have 4 really close friends from high school. I think Jackson would easily retain Toby and Derek... and by extension Lily if Derek and her were to stay married. That's me projecting where I wanted to go though, but since it was a shorter time period.. where they likely were still being invited to things, going to one another's weddings, etc... they maintained relationships. The big hurdles of time and personal goals taking them away wouldn't be happening as fast, but may beginning to start as more of them graduate and start careers and families. Good time to finish the story though.. as drifting friends would not be a fun write for me. If I went that way, some people can remain friends easily, it isn't out of the norm either... but basing it on my experience, I would likely mirror it. Family just becomes more important and easily accessible as time passes... if there are connections there to begin with.

I forgot who Matt was there for a minute... lol. Woops. I was like:

Yeah, he was being a jerk. Although, the school has never helped Jackson, it isn't a school sanctioned sport. Probably a good thing as far as Jackson is concerned, because then they could have been more disciplinary with it whenever he did act up. This is the first time I think Jackson went well out of his way to be snarky since the beginning chapter. It was with Welker again and they have had 4 years of butting heads. Doesn't excuse the behavior any. and yeah, both of them were doing Prom preparations and it is the weekend. So unless Jackson told him at Prom, then I don't think Welker should have expected to know until later on... lol. I was a bit back and forth with how this scene was going to go, it may have been a bit overkill in hindsight, but I've always wanted Jackson to keep parts of what made him difficult to like. I don't think people change entirely, especially in the span of a few months. I see it in writing a lot, complete turns in characters, and I just find it awkward... I think these growing pain scenes are awkward, but they're more realistic.

This was one of the more difficult chapters for me to write. I think I DNF'd it twice. Thank you for reminding me by leaving a comment that it is also one of my favorite chapters in the whole of the story as well. I think this one solidified the rest of the story, coming out of the high of Prom, taking risks, learning more about one another. I liked Luke in this chapter a lot.

Yes, I remember people asking me if this was a Gay story, or a character who may question his sexuality and then eventually come to the conclusion that he was straight or bi-curious, but not curious enough to do anything. Either way, I feel you're far enough into the story to know where Jackson falls with that. I'm glad you didn't look at the ending, as I feel the ending is rather straight forward... I struggle with endings, but people have said that I've gotten a lot better at ending stories, so maybe with this one it's all a go. I also don't blame anyone for waiting for a story to be marked completed. Myself, I have put my readers through it with breaks, and long times between chapters. I hit a few bouts of writer's block and lacking motivation. Full time mom, full time job, full time everything else limits my time as well. It took me a really long time to get this out... admittedly, it is longer than some of the longer novels in print at the moment... and professionals struggle with that wordcount, I doubt it is ever as long as it has taken me to finish this story, but I'm far from a professional.. haha. I am glad you stuck with it, I have got notifications of your progress. I wish I could remember all parts of this story so that I know where you're at and what you're about to wade into. I also agree about films and books that may go 70% in one direction, and are advertised as an LGBT Drama and they don't go the rest of the way. Or, what is there is in a span of two or so scenes. It's okay if done well, but most usually it isn't. There's one director that likes to do that and I have fallen for it a few times.

I won't talk you down from that curiosity. Although, I think at this stage of the story most people were wondering where the hell I was going with it. lol. I remember a few PM's asking me when I was going to make it a "gay story..." Seven chapters in though.. yikes, the chapter numbers left may seem a bit daunting as there are so many. Unlike the ones that read this as I was posting it, you don't have to wait... the chapters are there waiting for better or worse. If you do end up taking a sneaky look at the end, I hope you come back for the journey of it too. If not, at least we had chapter 7 together.. haha.

I admit I went a little overboard in these "prom" chapters. But I hadn't written one yet, and this was the best opportunity to do so. Maybe it shouldn't have taken 2 - 3 chapters for it to all wrap up, but... I'm not ashamed that it did, lol. And yeah, Cindy overstepped. Olivia's parents either didn't know, or allowed their daughter to go out in that dress. Although, Luke was also surprised at how much she had it altered. Either way, the school was okay with it and she was there acting as a staff-chaperone, so she needed to keep those opinions at the door... but of course she didn't. I went to four proms... the first one was scary as I was the youngest one there by far. The second one was boring, as I didn't have anyone but my date and his friends to really talk to, aside from older teammates from the various sports I played.. lol. My Junior and Senior proms were a lot more fun.

Yeah, Tony has a small and selective team to work with. I worried that Jackson may have improved too much, but since I already depicted him doing well last Districts with just 'raw' talent, I thought the new training from Emily/Tony should have boosted. With the better mindset he had anyway, I could see that drastic of a change making him regress a bit, but I would have had to make Jackson a bit... awful for him to regress, I think. Yeah, I don't think Tony would have held anything back, as he has nothing to lose with Cindy. She isn't a sponsoring parent, she doesn't have a kid on the team. And, he'd feel protective of Jackson as a swimmer that needs a cool and collected head. So, yeah, Cindy would have definitely met her match with him, possibly.

Wouldn't we all like to be the flies on those walls overhearing those conversations. Too bad they all happened whilst Jackson was away at college. Henry, the pastor, and Luke probably had their wits ends tested. I was on the fence about having her react at all, aside from her being there in the flesh. I didn't want her 'not' to be there. I wanted some progress, I just didn't know if there was too much, or too little. I rewrote her statements to Jackson, I think over four times... this one was the.. more distant one. I like to think that maybe her and Jackson can get to the... normal mother-in-law stereotype instead of being half-ass afraid of her. Or maybe being half-ass afraid of mother-in-laws is the most organic and I should have just doubled down and made it so, but in this case it is because Cindy never truly warmed to him or the relationship.

I loved the prank chapter scenes. And I found out Mustangs aren't the best for all that sex stuff in the writing of the scene.. lol.. they're a bit small for the occasion.

🙈 Definitely didn't get that far into the show. Lol. Oh well, I will continue to miss out.

Yes, I believe it was. I never understood why, I think most of what they got up to was heavy kissing, with a little butt groping? Then under the cover stuff, that didn't amount to anything. If it went farther than that, I do not know, as I didn't finish the series. I found it rather boring. I also felt moving it was a complete ploy at making Disney's decision to buy Hulu more market ready, as that was the first Disney funded project to debut after that acquisition. They have since moved it to both platforms, I think. Either that, or Disney didn't really know what was being produced/written and assumed Love, Victor would be more adult themed than it was. I am not certain on either, but the first one is probably the more likely reason, even though they did say it was too adult for Disney. Sheldon didn't have any homosexual tendencies? He was depicted to being more Asexual with little to no romantic interests. He grew to tolerate Amy, then fell in love, but he never once showed any interest in the same sex. None of them did, as the other three were awkward around women, but still desired them. I would find it queerbaiting for one or more of them to come out, really. I do not like shows with established writing and character development to take a hard swerve just to include something. With The Big Bang Theory, there wasn't anything there. What was there was done as laugh fodder and not supported by character development. All four of them were written as being heterosexual males and it was okay for them to be that way. It is the same for Glee's Brittney and Santana, prior writing shown both of them to be heterosexual female characters. They both had boyfriends/male flings, they were both outwardly attracted to the opposite sex. Neither of them showed any inclination they were mutually attracted to one another. Then it just happened, it happened in a span of a handful of scenes with zero foreshadowing. The show had numerous other representations it could have built the inclusivity factors on, but they chose to force that relationship to tick that box. Writers who do not hold solid to the characters they begin the journey with, do a disservice to their art. If you want your character to 'be' something, work on 'making' them that way from the start. I was also more or less joking about Love, Victor, because overall I felt the entire series too tame and one-note. Maybe if they had Intimacy coaching, the two would look more natural with one another... or have more passion? I didn't feel like they were all that committed to it, but this is all from memory as I watched it when it first debuted and felt it severely lacking. Now contributing to the topic more: I watched Summer of '85 and Newcastle the other day. I found Summer of '85 to be a worthwhile watch. It was different, there was an odd depth to the main character. The plot was more unique than most, I haven't done much research on it, but if it is based on a book I may read the source material. The acting was decent as well. Spoiler below: Newcastle, either hasn't aged well.. or it was never any good. Being an older film, I just felt it was a bit of a cluster of different plots trying to marry into one film. It was a sports film, a tragedy/drama, and attempted to be a coming of age film. It just didn't do those three elements well separately, so when it all came together, it just didn't work for me. I've hit a bit of a drought with Gay themed films, unfortunately. With more months ticking by and not sign of Prisma Season 2, I may have to finally make an effort with shows/films I have little to no interest in. Like Young Royals, I have been told season 3 was better than the start of Season 2, where it lost my attention. The snobbery continues with me, I guess.

I hope Spring sees you snowy on your wee head, Steven. All the way up until the middle of June. Also,

Okay, I found the old topic that I used to post my Story updates on. Let me tell you, I've been a wee bit of a liar in there. *slaps own wrist* Naughty. Anyway, if you 'find' that topic or know where it is and wish to read it, know that I am no longer going to be writing 'any' of those projects. I'm not going to update it, because there really isn't a reason to. Those projects are all done with, scrapped mostly, as I have little to no interest in completing them. So, instead I will do this here. I may start up a blog or something instead, to give little bits of an update here or there. Status updates aren't really good for that sort of thing, as it only ever reaches people who have "followed" and I hope I have more readers willing to read my work than I do followers of my profile. So, my next project is: Learned to Lie. I am nearly 40k words into it, I have four parts written. The first part is posted, as I started it for the Secret Author project. Someone was nagging me to submit a story for it, and I had nothing that I could just throw in there as a completed work. I had to write something completely new, and had no time or word space to really complete the project. I had to leave it on a cliffhanger of sorts, with just enough resolution in what happened to qualify it for the Secret Author submission. I have been working on it though, introducing new characters, forming out a better plot. I said I wasn't going to be doing anymore High School aged romances, but that one most definitely is going to be one as well. With that said, do not expect me to begin a posting schedule for this new project any time soon. I am holding firm this time to not post anything until it is completely written. In fact, I likely won't start posting until the project is written, beta read, and edited. That may be months down the road from now, I just hope you guys don't forget about me entirely in the meantime. ---- Following that, I have the project Ellis that I've vaguely mentioned. I still just have the character names, and the theme/plot elements I wish to cover. They are far more adult in nature. I have not written a single word for it. I haven't plotted out much either, other than what I wish to cover. Execution will be where I am most hindered, as it is vastly different from anything I've ever done. The closest may be, "Force of Nature," but that was more of a fast hitting soap-opera and this one is going to be more linear in nature. When discussing my plans for the story, @wildone told me that it may be more appropriate in Premium. I have been wanting to contribute to the Premium selection for some time now. I have been hosted as a Signature author here for ages, so I wish to give back and if that is with Ellis, and a few other stories, then I will be working on those with that mindset. We'll see what comes of Ellis or if my mind changes after writing, Learned to Lie. I don't ever want to promise anything, but those two projects are still firmly in my mind and they have been through out the writing of Ridley, Elias, and the closing chapters/epilog chapters of TBY. Typically if a story survives in my brain for that long, I at least make an honest attempt at the writing of them. I write for fun when I have the time to write, so in the end it will be what I am having fun with. I'm just glad there are people out there willing to read what I put out into the world. I'll end with thanking you guys for carrying me along on all of this too. Over one million words in, and over a decade and half of another. I hope to see you back if I start to post, Learned to Lie, but if not know that you were appreciated and loved. - Krista

Thank you! But I cannot epilogue the epic-log. lol... we have to break the cycle.

Aww, sorry you had doubts in the happy ending. I never had any doubt... but I'm the naughty author that knew everything... lol. Thank you for sticking with the story over the years, and leaving a comment. Happy you liked the story. Thank you for reading! Glad you liked the ending and enjoyed the story over all. Thank you! The ending was 'the' easiest thing for me to write in this whole story, because I had it planned from the beginning. Just pulling it off worried me, because weddings can be so cheesy. I wanted to downplay a lot of it, but still make it meaningful enough to make it worth the words. I struggled with Cindy. I thought about posting all the "deleted" scenes in the Prompts section, but then I run the risk of people reading them before they pick up the story, and may end up with the wrong context.. but I think I deleted the most important deleted scene, as I can't find it. lol. The Meadow... I 'almost' did something with it on top of the wedding. Maybe plans for a house to be built there. *whistles* but since I had Jackson actually settling into his education, I didn't want to stretch their plans way beyond that. I also feel like Luke's education doesn't travel easily... there is a bit of a low demand for field biologists. That's why I didn't go into it... and you have to be willing to relocate and travel 'to' jobs, instead of job openings being where you wish to live. Thank you! I know I didn't want to write them going through college. I think my mindset for high school stories and college stories, where they're actually actively there.. instead of not being on summer vacations or whatever, just isn't there. lol. So, they needed to survive. I feel if I wrote it, there would be a lot of moments where they most definitely came close to 'not' making it. Then I would have to be mindful of keeping Luke and Jackson a worthwhile relationship... when they couldn't be physically together. I didn't look forward to that. Also, Tara and Oliver both would have ended up in the University of Georgia I had planned for them to be there... with Jackson. I don't think Luke could have survived his cute jealousy knowing those two were up there. And, I didn't want to do that to him either. Turning him into an insufferably jealous character to create drama... no. But yeah, that's where I would have taken it if I continued it into College. Lol! I always thought that y'all would be fighting over Luke... and thinking Jackson was too much of an ass to deserve him. So it is good to see someone want to push Luke aside... for the ass. Aww, thank you! I'm glad you stuck with the story over the years it took me to work my way through it... I think after all the stuff I put them through.. and managing Jackson's character growth they deserved this final chapter. Aww, thank you! And shew... I don't know what y'all are asking when you say you want more chapters... lol. Authors can be evil you know... cliffhangers, drama... But yeah, there are a few things that tempted me, but not enough. Thank you for have the patience with me as it took years off all of us for me to write the thing. I am glad you enjoyed the story! Thank you for reading over the years and sticking with it! Glad you enjoyed the ending. I will miss these characters too. *************** I will be resurrecting an old forum post about my future plans here as an author... or I may post it here later, maybe it would reach more eyeballs if I do it here. I'm not sure. I may do it in both places just to cover my bases. I wanted to get to the comments though.

Now that this story is over, I feel that I can talk about it more behind the scenes. I felt Jackson in this point of the story was being too... subdued and felt he changed too much from the beginning of the story. I know I had to have him soften or people were going to get fed up and not continue. Characters need a redemption to deserve the relationship that I had developed. Otherwise it just wouldn't work. So yeah, with that thought, I had him regress here. A Leopard cannot change their spots, as they say... so to expect him to do a complete turn just never felt realistic to me. It was also more fun to dot scenes like these in. He's no longer completely insufferable, but the boy will have his moments. lol.

Lol, adorable is a funny way to explain him. He definitely wasn't too... bullish. I remember writing this chapter and wondering if I took her too far with this scene... I may have, but I thought she would have gone there, at least with Jackson.

“Jackson, we’re about ready to head down,” Mom said from just outside of my mostly empty bedroom. The only thing really left unboxed and out of the way, was my bed. Looking around, there were already some of the twin’s things scattered about, as they spilled into a lot of the rooms now. Smiling, looking down at my jacket, crisp right out of the dry cleaning bag. My heart rate picked up and I took a deep breath. “I need your help,” I answered and when my door squeaked open I turned to see h

I glossed back over the chapter because I couldn't remember it... been a bit and when you're actively writing things sort of jumble together. These seemed to me, the beginning or middle of the.. sloppy angsty teenager chapters. Although fun to write really, probably a bit frustrating to read.. lol.

I'll need another set of eyeballs on mine before I think about posting it. I am never confident when it comes to poetry. But it is ready... err written.