Will Hawkins

A question is buzzing around in my head. In my current residence in Brazil, I have no worries about Coronavirus infection even though Brazil is certainly not totally immune to the problem as I am living with only one other person. How are you doing with the isolation rules where you are? I have been in this state of isolation for a couple of years and have become used to it. But I do enjoy reading the latest chapters to my favorite stories. The temperatures here are in the low 30's and I do not feel right about leaving my favorite Captain in the wilds of frozen Russia. Let's get him out of there before the Tsar goes totally bonkers! If I remember my history correctly it was something the Tsar was prone to do. I especially enjoy your writing as I feel I have learned a great deal about the British wind navy of the 19th Century. Right from the Gun Room on up to the lookouts.

I am trying in my mind to picture the appearance of the Fedain. They are obviously similar enough to humans to be able to move through a crowd without being too visible, but it seems they behave differently. Is there someplace I can go, some site I can view, to get the Fedain backstory and picture their appearance?

The interactions between past and present, between real and dream in this story are like the Gordian knot – you untangle one strand only to discover another confusing one. This is excellent writing Cynus; a fascinating story of relationships and characters.

Your characters are well conceived, Cynus, it shows in their complexity, their humanity, and their love for one another, though that love is often hidden below layers and layers. This is truly a tale of development and one I am eager to follow.

There are certain makes/styles of cars that cry out to be certain colors. for example a Rolls should be black and a Ford P/U should be rusty. But what make of car s/b yellow?

Breath of the Wild I will have to look this up – it sounds interesting!

One tiny thing: nurses heels do not clack, their shoes are specially chosen to be quiet. At the very worst, they will squeak on a polished floor.

Somehow, as a gay man, I feel that rejection such as this never happens. Fathers are supposed to accept a lesbian daughter, even though they may reject a gay son. I realize that is foolish, daughters get rejected just as much as do sons (I am not sure of that statement percentage wise) for being gay. As far as the bear is concerned, if he were shot with both barrels of the shotgun, would he die or just disappear because he is already dead? You have created a fascinating story here, Valentinedavis. I wonder how it is all going to wash out in the end? I guess one just has to read on to find out. Oh, in reference to the actions of Tim Kelley's son. Both the boy and his father have been warned (repeatedly?). Next time call the police and file charges against the father for assault, aggravated assault against a minor child and hopefully put Tim in jail. Maybe the mother will realize how threatening dad is and kick him out.

Nora shifted from iced tea to red wine in a hurry!

Going too smoothly, yes, too smoothly for Quokka. He has a tendency to stir things up from time to time (like two storms combining into a class 5!).

As a Yank, I will have to get used to December, January, and February, being summer months and July, August and September Being the months of Winter, but perhaps if I stand on my head I can remember that. Do you Australians pronounce Seamus as 'She-mus' or 'Shay-mus'?

It seems, Q. that you have gotten your aye and nay mostly right. The 'neigh' that appeared in the last chapter prompted a lash of my tail and a rearing as it is the sound a horse makes. You will note that I have not made any objection to 'meter' and 'centre', as these are acceptable English spellings, but I do have a small problem with 'thou' as that becomes confusing to an American, we use 'though' for the conjunction and 'thou' as a Biblical form of the pronoun 'you'. Do you object to my making suggestions like this, if so, I will cease as I wish to respect the rights of an author to write a stories he desires. (See 'thou' in Wikipedia for its history as a pronoun.)

There is apparently no mention of insurance payments in reference to the destruction caused by the storm(s). It would seem sensible that many structures be covered to a some small extent by insurance. Did I miss something?

Q. you have a tendency in your writing to get wound up in description and away from interactions between people. The number of parking spaces has very little to do with the story of two orphan boys and their guardian uncle. I would suggest that some of the detailed descriptions be omitted or reduced and human interactions be substituted, just to make the story more interesting to the casual reader. NOTE: this is a suggestion only; the story is yours to write. I am pleased to see that there are only a very few grammatical errors, your mechanics (grammar and spelling) are superior. The troll who lives under the bridge between writing and publication has not had to nip at your bare toes very often!

I do not know how there are any Australians left, I was reading about crocodiles and alligators, snakes, spiders (my god, fifteen different species that can kill), jellyfish, sea snakes, rockfish, and the list goes on and on. I am currently living on the margins of the Brazilian rain-forest the only thing I have to worry about is mosquitoes and black flies and 'Deet'(OFF!) takes care of most of them. Oh, there is also one breed of big (2m) snake in the reservoir next to our house, but at my advanced age, I don't go swimming very often. In the time I have been living here we have had one night of nearly continuous thunder and lightning, but we have an agreement with Jupiter(the god of storms) and he brings the rain only at 3:00AM every other night during the wet season.

You have done your usual excellent job of describing the vessel and the changes made to use it as a medical facility, but I am waiting for the personalities of the various members of the family and the crew to be developed as well. With all those personalities, I am sure some conflicts will develop, Q.

I am totally overwhelmed by the yacht (I looked at the photographs on the web site). It seems to be very expensive for accommodations, but then, I am not used to amounts in Aussie dollars. Is there an elevator so the boy in the wheelchair can get around? I know that the yacht, I hesitate to call it a 'boat', is very upscale.

I have my belt snugged up ready to work hard at understanding the Australianisms. My one Pacific expedition was to OZ, but only to Sidney and the east coast as far as Cairns, so the Northwest is all new to me except for a reading about Shark Bay and the dolphins. I'm looking forward to the exploration. One thing, I do hope that the wet season brings some regrowth of the greenery. The fires suffered in the Southeast this year have been devastating and you have my sympathy.

Well, if Bratty likes him, he can not be all bad. It is nearly impossible to fool a cat. Excellent start to a relationship story, I'm looking forward to reading the progress of their relationship.

were a flight of stairs – was a flight of stairs Keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer. (Sun Zu)

Truth or fiction, cops always act the same way – kill before questioning. So typical; the table with the assassin could have been rolled out of the wedding area with a crossbowman still aboard to be arrested and questioned away from the area of the ceremony. But no, kill him first and lose all possibility of finding out who had sent (was paying him) and which one of the men was his target.

Killing a subordinate is not much of a punishment for his/her/their subordination. When one is dead, they cannot feel pain or remorse. Capital punishment has never been a cure for crime. It stops one criminal from his behavior, but when someone is dead they cannot feel pain any longer. "Chop off their head" may clean one weed out of the garden, but it does little to prevent the future growth of weeds.

Pointless cruelty is never a winning tactic. All armies from the Tartars up through the Nazis have eventually discovered this to be true. But dictators never seem to learn from history – if they even read history. In war, the forces of dictators need to be afraid, very afraid.

The fact that crushed peanuts formed a brown powder may be artistic license – I believe that crushed peanuts would make peanut butter as the peanut is an oily not. We will have to let the author get away with this one as artistic license though. As to the question of posting frequency, life has a way of interfering with desire, Your writing makes uppitiest for the longer intervals. Just keep up the interesting writing, you do it so well!

and quaffed brown hair, – and coiffed brown hair. coif – an arrangement of hair.