Krista

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.

Well, aren't we all glad that Cindy 'didn't' think of that scenario going forward, Lol. Although, it would have been rather eye-opening for her to know where Luke spent a lot of his time. If this were told in Luke's POV, I may have went there, but I honestly didn't give that much thought. I wanted her to be of the mind that, she is seeing children progressing into adulthood way too fast... and that phones and such just allowed them the space and tools to do so. That was always my reasoning for her, a bit old-school thinking for her with such things especially coming from a more present day school teacher. I also think the time span at which these chapters are written are more --- aged. I also would be very interested in what Luke would have chosen to do for his extracurriculars. Developing him more in that way would have been nice for me to do. I will tell you now though, I would have written Cindy in a lot more motherly and healthy way, because I don't and never really did want to depict her as a stereotypical small-town, backwards thinking "Christian.." woman. We're only seeing her through Jackson's eyes, more or less. I wanted her anger and protectiveness to stem more from... just protecting him from Jackson, due to having a biased opinion of him and his nature, and by extension his friends, and environment that he creates around him. At the beginning of the story, I feel she was very much justified as well, as he was more than just a brat that hated discipline. So, yeah Cindy at home would be different than the Cindy we know in this story.

I picture Jackson clinging on with all he's got, whilst Luke is comfortable. I'm basing this on my first riding experience. It is the horse that makes the difference, if the horse is calm and after you get used to the foreign feeling of having something moving underneath you, it gets easier. I got up to a full gallop my first time out, but I had a professional show horse rider boyfriend. He got me over the fear and how to sit comfortable on the saddle. I used to ride a lot, but I've not done it in years. I would most definitely not be as comfortable now, I doubt it is like riding a bicycle. lol

Thank you for leaving a comment! I've never been a fan of forcing someone who doesn't want to be out, to come out. I feel it causes a lot of undue stress and anxiety, so that's unfortunate the person couldn't appreciate you, for you. i am glad you're liking the story so far.

There's a face in that tree... a bit off-putting, but otherwise gorgeous.

Aww thank you. I'm glad you called them slobs, because one of the comments @wildone made was that none of the guys ate any of the salad. They all essentially drank alcohol and ate steak, and some of the left over chicken. And, I wanted them to be messy in that way, being out and fending for themselves. I almost had them do worse than that.. and just eat microwave stuff or what they could get delivered... they at least cooked. Thank you for reading and leaving a comment. Thank you! I'm glad you're liking the story. Aww, thank you. These planned epilog parts have been a bit fun, but a little stressful to write. But, I am happy. Over 400k in words... is a long story to write. Longer since it took me sooo much time to actually write it.

Waking up to a door closing, I jolted awake and looked around. Seeing movement outside of the blinds as the sunlight hit me through the blinds, I groaned and kicked the covers off me. Not seeing Luke, I stretched, reaching down, readjusting myself as I headed towards the door. Peeking through the blinds, I saw everyone gathering around the picnic table. The less intense sunlight already told me it was later in the day. Derek had the grill smoking, and it looked like Toby was helping him fight ba

Thank you for sticking with me for so long... I'll never be able to put to words just how thankful I am to y'all through this. We still have two more parts to get through, I hope nothing in the writing derails everything. lol.. 😮

It has been a bit since I checked in on this story. I want to know, since I just finished "The Best Year," the last two parts just need to be worked on/edited then posted. Are there still people out here wanting more parts to this story? If not, I will make the attempt to move on to something else or retire. If there is interest, I do have part 2 and 3 written, but I also won't be posting them until I am positive that the story will be completely written before I start posting anything new for it. This is your moment to speak up though. I am liking the direction of the story, I don't think it is going to be that large of a project. Maybe 5 - 10 parts depending on a decision I want to make or not make involving the plot.

I 'have' to write my poetry on the fly... in one sitting. Otherwise I overthink it, I cringe at it. I am not a poetry sort at all. With that said, I did write one for this Anthology. Who knows if I will be brave enough to commit it to being posted for you people to see.

I refuse to vote. My track record for never making the deadline speaks for itself. I did take a look at the list, top notch list... have fun voting for them.

Thank you for leaving a comment. I thought they needed a simple night. Thank you! I had something profound to say about baby steps, in how that life is better off moving in baby steps instead of rushing head-long into it... but then it left me, and was probably silly to begin with. lol. Thank you for reading and leaving a comment. Aww, thank you. ---------- I do have the final two parts written. The story is over for me, it was a bigger project than I ever thought it would be... and it took way too long to write. Overall I am happy and a little bit scared. Either way, I want to thank everyone who has stuck around with me. I will try to edit and get the next two parts out in a timely manner. Seeing this story moved to "Completed" will be a very nice day for me. I will miss Jackson, Luke, and the rest of them they were fun. I don't know what I will move along to... I do have Learned to Lie up to three parts, but I may just retire where I am at instead, I have been doing this writing for fun thing since 2003.

I felt Luke get out of the bed not too long after everything got quiet in the house. I heard him shuffling his feet across the hardwood floor. Opening my eyes, trying not to shift in the bed, I looked over at his dark figure bent over, looking for his flip flops. Not seeming to find them, I watched him reach for the lock. When it clicked, I noticed him jump and look behind him. It was just dark enough in the room that I didn’t think he could see that I was still awake. I had almost fallen asleep

To be honest, I don't know why they would need one? I'm not remembering anything that would have required it. Usually that situation only becomes an issue when the actors are involved in filming scenes that requires full nudity that cannot be hidden or edited heavily. Especially if they're in a position where the parts would touch in a simulated way, example: naked skin to skin grinding. --- On another note - I have recently fallen into the mood where I just want to watch films with a homosexual theme. I've watched five recently, only two of which I actually liked. Hidden Away and the second being, Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the Universe. Both depict younger characters than what I would usually watch, but they came to me recommended via Prime's algorithm so I was like.. fine. So, it surprised me that those two are the films that I liked. A+D Discover --- is based on books, now that I've watched the film I will have to read them, I guess. The other three, two I was on the fence about: Lonesome - which I thought didn't have any real direction to it. The main character carried the film, but I for the life of me can't understand the motivations he had at the end. I don't think the guy he ended up with was worth chasing to be honest. Anyway, it just seemed like two... messed up people found one another and were okay that they are both messed up. Where there should have been growth, there was very little. Floating Skyscrapers - Fell into the most used gay film trope of all time, one that I am completely exhausted with. I won't say it now, but I'll give anyone three guesses. I bet you'll only need the one. And lastly, the worst film I think I've seen in a really, really long time. I wasted time and money renting the damn thing. 'Something like Summer,' terrible. It should be free it is just so bad. Actually, one should be paid to get through it, I would rather clean toilets.

One of the things both of my gay friends have said, they never really felt the pressure from Religious people. They were never all that religious to begin with and belonged to families that at most.. did Easter and Christmas. What they told me was, they put so much pressure on themselves, and most of the fear came from failing the expectations that were placed on them. They are both male, they were more scared of not hitting milestones, marriage to a woman, having kids, being in a stable home that they own, etc. Saying that... those expectations, especially from family is what scared them more than the blatant homophobia. To them that was all secondary, still a cause of fear and stress, but the different expectations for their lives dominated their minds more. They both had terrible coming out stories though. They were right to be afraid, as it turned out. That is mostly why I'm here. Thank you for sharing bits of yourself here though. We all hope for the days where there isn't fear of that nature.

You also have to consider that GA has gone through cycles of transitions, so those numbers aren't the exact number, unless they came after the last transition that didn't carry over the raw data. I can't remember when that exactly was, possibly with the transition to Stories? Having had this system for a bit, I am not remembering how they were calculated in the past. Could "Hosted/Signature, Promising," and the like even see their reader count? There was a time where we sent our chapters to be added to our Hosted Sites, and I can't for the life of me remember if they had a view counter back then. I do remember I demanded a lot of pink... and for those of you that had to experience that level of pink, I apologize for that.