Jdonley75

I take a, "better safe than sorry," approach to my commas, thank you very much. 😅

I bet you looked cute in your bell-bottom pants. (I did, but I was three so I had no say in what I wore in the 70's.) And there are still some pinball machines out there. Not many, granted.

Ancient battle machines that mortals once used to battle each other in an arena known as a "video arcade" in a time the ancients refer to as "the 80's."

Minesweeper got me through a lot of boring nights on third shift.

I had a NES growing up and a SNES I bought myself when I was in high school. After that, I didn't buy another console until I was about 30 and got a PS2 well after they had been out. Now I had a PS3 and 4 in the house. I also need a new television in the other room so me and my nephews can actually play all of them instead of having to plug in and unplug systems on the one TV I got.

Especially when there's a lot of good memories in those old games...

#respect. Next novel I write, I have a good idea who I'm going to ask to edit it. 😜

My go to games lately for relaxing has been my new SNES classic. Haven't gotten to it yet, but I plan to revisit Final Fantasy III (actually VI but it's III to me) soon.

That's how it started... Somehow, walking and sucking up some liquids (let's be fair here, we're all experts in that field in one way or another) and somehow instead of going down, it went up. I still have no plausible excuse for how it happened. But, that was like ten years ago. I remember it was when I was leaving work when I was a night auditor.

Believe it or not, it wasn't nearly as bad as that one time I somehow got Dr. Pepper up my nose from just walking. No need to apologize. Every day is a learning experience of some sort or another.

That's... an interesting observation. I'm glad you shared it. In related news, I just learned that coffee coming out of your nose is not a pleasant experience.

Don't get me wrong. I had a dog at one point in my life and he was damn near perfect as far as I was concerned. I trained him and he loved everyone and he lived a wonderful life. We went lots of places together and he never once gave me reason to regret having gotten him. And I think that's my problem with dogs now. None of them compare to what I had in Sam. Also, I've been attacked by dozens of dogs and been injured by a few in the past 5 years and the last one probably would have put me in the hospital or morgue if not for some wild random moment. I have a friend who's overeager dog tried to bite my face on multiple occasions. My friend is great with pets but his dog is completely unruly and the people whose dogs have attacked me (while I was doing my job) seemed to not care that they attacked me. So, yeah, I've been pretty much turned off when it comes to dogs in general.

Ugh. Dogs are just too much work. I don't have time to walk it and pick up it's crap and keep it from destroying everything in its path. Plus, I work a lot and when I am home, I just wanna sit back and relax with my two little demons if they're not upstairs plotting world domination (because that's all cats do when they're just sitting there, staring at nothing.)

All of this is why I prefer living by myself. And have cats.

Sure, I'll play your little game. *takes the test and gets a 4* This test is broken!

None of us are truly alone. I have my family and I have my faith. I have people I work with who respect me and care about me. And you are not alone either. You might not like some of the memories of the past when it comes to the holidays but that just means there's space in your heart to create new memories this time around. To find new reasons to smile and to laugh. Throw out the past with its pain and misery and embrace the good things you have around you now. Deny that abusive man from your past one more victory over you and truly celebrate a new beginning in your life instead of mourning what's been lost. So many other things I want to say. lol. You're well on your way, Albert and I am so happy for you. You might think all you have left are the ashes of your past but before long I just know a phoenix will arise from them and it is going to be a beautiful moment to behold. All my love and thoughts for you for a wonderful holiday tomorrow.

Talking about it with your loved ones is very healthy for you in the long run. A burden shared is a burden lightened. It's not all that easy for you now because it's all so new and fresh in your psyche that it's painful to go back and touch it. But, each time you share it, you're letting go of some of that pain. You may not think that's what you're doing but in time you will feel better for it. I'm really glad for you that you're writing all of these feelings down now. In time, you'll be out of this darkened moment of your life and be able to truly see just how far you've come.

This is a great start to what will no doubt end up being a compelling series. Looking forward to seeing more in the future.

Really sucks I can only like that once... I didn't intend to create an ensemble cast but it just happened that way. I meant to just write a story about Kyle and Jacob. I had figured Kyle was a semi-popular guy in high school so I gave him friends (poof, there they are.) Then somewhere along the way these friends started growing and exhibiting personality, emotion and most importantly, they became the link between past and present. They had their own stories to tell and each of them effected the main plot in ways that made the story much better overall. The story really wouldn't have worked if it had just been Kyle and Jacob on their own. Also, I needed some moments to lighten the tone so it didn't come off as one emotional roller coaster and then another. So, it helped to have someone like Brian to be a good support character to add a little cheeky humor here and there when needed while at the same time bringing his own story to the table that blended well with everything else. Now, having done it, I can see the appeal of writing future ensemble stories.

Well, to me it looks like you're doing just about the best thing you can do right now and that's writing about it. Talking about it honestly and openly. That takes a lot more bravery than I ever had so, like I said before, you're doing a lot better than you think you are. Your pain dealing with your ex is still very fresh and that's why it all feels as bad as it does. That's the proverbial thorn in your soul that's infecting the rest of your spirit. It'll take time to get it out but it will come out time. I promise, better days are ahead of you and someday you are going to look back at all this with a smile and see it all as the learning experience it will end up being. I've been down in this hole before and I know the way out.

Awesome story! Gave me the warm fuzzy feels at the end.

I'm really glad you're making progress towards defeating your opponent. And, yeah, that's how I used to see it when I went through pretty heavy anxiety issues in my 20's and 30's. I haven't had a really bad episode in about two years now so I guess I'm better...? I dunno. All I know is I personally hated the slower, creeping attacks because I would never see them coming until it was too late and suddenly I'm off on a serious emotional bender for a day or two before I recognized what was going on and be able to beat it back into submission. I tended to use a lot of visualization in my mind of the great big horrible beast and use any weapon I could think of to slay it. I figure, why waste my imagination when I get it to work for me instead of against me? But, then again, I'm weird like that...

Always nice to read a story that isn't a complete happy ending but more of the dawn of potential better times ahead. Chester's reactions to his abuse is understandable and his reactions to the cage his world became over time are powerful in this. It's a testament to the human soul that Chester has a chance to heal from his scars if he allows himself the chance. It's weird that halfway through reading this I thought about how my mother cried when I called to tell her my dad died. They'd been divorced for over twenty years and he had treated her poorly towards the end but still she grieved for him on a level she couldn't explain.

Totally agree. It's good to point out some relevant things that gives the reader an idea on the kind of lifestyle someone lives (rich, middle class, poor) by giving a modest description of a room or what kind of clothes they're wearing but writing everything down to the minuscule details takes up page and time and energy best served keeping to the narrative. Conversely, sometimes you need to point out those kitchen knives in the room because in a few minutes a fight with a vampire is about to break out and they will come in handy. 😜

Always looking forward to reading these. I tend to avoid sex scenes now, that's for sure. I've written one and it took me over a day to write it because I felt... I dunno... like an intruder in their personal moment as I'm writing down for the readers what's going on. After that (purely to save time) I would just segue to what one of my favorite authors would call "a boot scene," and just get back to the main plot. I agree that it's a lot easier to let the readers fill in the details for themselves. When it comes to physical descriptions of my characters I usually limit it to hair color, eye color and a general height assessment along with an idea of how they are built. Brian is still trim just like he was when he was in high school. Troy has a dad bod going on being a happily married father of three now as opposed to when he was the captain of the swim team. Andy bulked up during his time in the marine corps and has a goatee now. Jacob went from teen heartthrob to fat to nearly body builder proportions. Kyle kept his good looks but lost some of his old body definition and is just a handsome every-man now. The rest I leave up to readers imagination to fill in because I got better things to do than constantly keep describing how the characters' bodies look. And, boy, if the comments were any clue, the readers were perfectly fine with that too.