Will Hawkins

I have to be a little bit careful in reading about Will in your story because all through my college years I was known as Will and after I started teaching my students always referred to me as 'Mister Will'. That means I have to take myself out of your characterization of Will in the series. Sometimes not easy to do.

MDK is still expressing his insular European opinion about Will's actions. Somehow that makes me want to express a contrary opinion. Yes, Will is very opinionated and expresses his opinions easily and quickly, but we must remember that even though he is legally an adult, he is only fifteen-years-old and sometimes expresses opinions that are more appropriate to that age group rather then being adult.

Mark, in various chapters of this story one of your characters or another has made a comment about 'whining' being a method communication that is normally not appropriate. That is true even in contemporary American politics; there is an incident which took place between a CNN interviewer and President Trump in which Trump was shown as whining, "Well, I didn't start it." And the interviewer responds, "Mister Trump, with all due respect, that is the response of a five-year-old." This statement I make, not as an insult to President Trump, but as an example of inappropriate whining from contemporary American politics. I hope that its placement here is not interpreted as being 'inappropriate' as well.

As to the point a reviewer made about Joe being a name of a lower class than some other, firstly, 'Joe' is a short form of the name Joseph and it is probably that form of the name that appears on the man's Birth Certificate. And, if my limited Biblical reading is correct.Joseph was the name of the adoptive father of Jesus and therefore deserves as much approval as does Mary by religious folk. Joseph was given the job of taking care of Mary while she was carrying Jesus, even while being forced into a long and hazardous journey by an edict of Julius Cesar, and even as an elderly man, did a good job of that. Therefore I believe that the name Joe or Joseph deserves just as much respect as does any other Biblical based name – maybe even more. After all, he took good enough care of Mary, even under the adverse conditions of the return to Jerusalem and the subsequent flight into Egypt so that Christ's birth was a successful event in Biblical history.

When I read over the comments made by your other readers, I find myself disagreeing frequently with those made by MDK. Perhaps he is expressing a European viewpoint about the events in your chapters, but I find his comments about Will to be rather narrow minded. Yes, Will has a tendency to get over excited about one incident or another, but we should remember that, even though he is a legal adult, in actuality he is only fifteen years of age and is probably not a sophisticated in his manner of speaking or in the formation of his opinions as is a 30-40 year-old. I do agree with the overwhelming majority of those commenting on your writing that you express your characterizations extremely well and, if I find my eye skipping over some of the details of the sexual scenes, I just chalk that up to my great age and concentrate on my enjoyment of the story and the manner in which you express the emotions of your characters in the choice of their words.

It seems that you have one commenter who is unable to accept any action by Will that implies a degree of maturity. Remember friends, Will is only fifteen years old and any degree of maturity he displays is remarkable.

I am aware that as of this date (Nov, 2019) you are no longer posting new chapters to the Bridgemont Series. This leaves Captain Granger floating around amid the ice floes of the Baltic with his crew freezing their asses off. Hopefully that situation will change. There are many stories about the 'Mad Czar' of the Russian Empire for you to integrate into your northern story. I promise to be patient, however.

When I went to high school in San Antonio, Texas, there were two military schools there, The biggest one was TMI (Texas Military Institute), I was a student at the smaller one, Peacock Military Academy (PMA). Since then the brothers who owned PMA have died and the school buildings and large grounds went to Charity, and TMI has become a mixed gender school (separate dorms,, but joint M\F cadet corps). The only advantage to attending PMA and what made them a popular school with the wealthy ranchers near San Antonio was that they offered a cavalry unit and the horses attracted many sons of the local ranchers who wanter their offspring to learn to ride. Fortunately my father was a military man (Air Force officer) so I didn't have to acquire horse skills. My skills were aligned toward weapons at that time and I became the officer in charge of the Armory, not the Stables (somewhat better smelling). At that time, military service was not too popular (late 40's) and I recall marching in parades in downtown San Antonio wearing helmets so when we marched through the Mexican sections of the town, we would not get beaned by thrown beer bottles. Interesting times!

Robbies will is going to be a most interesting part of a subsequent chapter. As an owner of a substatial interest in the company, if his share goes to Will, that will make Will a major holder in the company at the age of fifteen! While I have a great deal of confidence in Will's intelligence and good sense, he does sometimes show his youth in his decision processes.

Mark, it has been a number of years since I have ridden on a roller-coaster, (would you believe 50 or 60?), but would you also believe I still remember the sound of the clicks on the first uphill slope, of the dogs or stops that would prevent the car from rolling backward down that slope and crashing into the waiting cars below, if there were a failure of some sort in the mechanism. That click, click click would be followed by a silence as the car was pulled over the peak of the highest hill, followed by the roaring, rolling noise accompanied by the screams of the riders as it plunged down that first long slope, followed again by silence as it rolled over the top of the second hill. Those sounds were an important part of the thrill of riding in that little car. I am sure the builders of those early wooden roller-coasters built them loosely just so that they would groan and rattle as the cars ran over them. I anticipate that this story will follow that pattern of clicks on the first slope, the silence at the top of the first hill, then the rush as the car plunges over the top into the longest free-fall (as well as any side thrusts the author puts into the narration to increase the suspense and the thrill).

It is continuing evidence of the interest your readers have in the CAP series -- the number of comments at the end of each chapter demonstrates their continuing fascination with your authoring, both of CAP and also the frequent allusions made to the Bridgemont series. I admire greatly your ability over these years to keep both series moving ahead -- and to keep the events of each straight (pun?) in your head.

It seems that the family has been saved from a morality problem by karma. The coach's accident was a true accident and saved them from doing him in themselves. That may relieve them legally from a charge, but does it relieve them morally? The intent was there to cause an "accident" though they were saved by fate. Does that truly excuse their intentions?

Well, that is one way to end the quandary I presented in the last chapter!

It is grossly unfortunate in events of this sort that it is those who are most innocent who will be hurt the most because a man in a position of a mentor: a coach, teacher, priest, etc. could not keep his pants zipped. Even if the coach dies, either by assassination or suicide, it will be his young family and the skaters who were under his care who will have to suffer the consequences of the negative publicity. Even if that perpetrator is tried and incarcerated, there will be a trail of negativity following him and injuring all those who surround him and are perfectly innocent of his crimes. it would make very some, but very little improvement if the injured parties were of the age of consent. Because of his position as a mentor they will suffer as well. I have been sitting here thinking, trying to come up with a creative way to allow the coach to be punished and as well be prevented from destroying the reputations of his pupils, his family and the skating association. I can only hope, Mark, that you are a more creative person then am I and can write a way out of this terrible mess.

I guess I am of a slightly different persuasion from many of the readers on GA. Because M\M sex cannot produce babies, I find all the concern about incest to be a waste of time. I would have no objection to reading about brothers, cousins or fathers\sons having sexual relations as long as both parties are willing participants. On the other hand non-consensual sex is wrong between any two people, relatives or not. If we are forced to go by the rules of the Bible, then there are several cases of close relatives having sexual relations without being struck by lightning, and any sex between men is a no-no. After all, all of mankind according to the Bible are products of relations between Adam and Eve (not just a sister\brother but two parts of his body). You can't get a much closer relationship than that! And the relations between Lot and his two daughters is another example, except in that case both daughters ended up pregnant. The elder bore Moab and the younger bore Ben-Ammi;

I do not know if anyone from the California wine country is reading these comments, but I would like to extend my sympathies to them if they are. This comment is being written in the midst of the fire and wind storm that is decimating the northern areas of California and I am feeling so sorry for those folks who are being attacked by wind and flame. Climate change maybe just a theory to many people living elsewhere in the world, but it is really affecting California people badly.

The chemical analysis of those pills that Nana did not take is going to be very important in any court appearance. Wade will have to prove that Nana has been drugged into dementia in order to get the control of her trusts out of her hands, not an easy thing for a judge to determine as he is not a trained medical man. That proof will require chemical analysis and expert testimony in a court -- not an easy row to hoe.

I was a bit lost at first in understanding why the baby's ears hurt when taking off and landing in a modern jet, so I did some research on the net and discovered that my concept of a pressurized plane was off base -- so now all has been made clear. I did not realize that full sea level pressurization might cause a fuselage blowout and so only partial pressurization is attempted. One again, Mark, your research has been proven out, you are not only familiar with Eighteenth Century sailing ships, but also Twentieth Century jet planes!!!! The following question will highlight my abysmal ignorance of modern computer practices: if data is saved to the 'cloud' is it subject to as much possibility of corruption as when it is merely saved to your local hard-drive? I use a MacBook Air for my work and in my machine saved work goes to a 'hard drive' (a really big one) that means there is no mechanical interface between the keyboard and the drive. It seems to me to be safer than an electronic/mechanical connection like to a spinning disk.

In recent years (2000 and on) there has been a dramatic increase in crimes related to child pornography reported in Norway. Some of this increase has been brought about by changing legal definitions — violations by relatives added to the criminal list and changes in age limits for example -- but there is also an increase brought about by upgrading the definitions of what constitutes child pornography in Norwegian law. Norway has become one of the leaders in the European Union (EU) in the protection of children from predation.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." Sir Walter Scott. In this aphorism, Scot implies that experience with evil behavior is the best teacher in the black art of evil behavior. The truth of this is certainly is brought out in 'Mother's' case. Not only is she an expert in evil, but she has taught her daughter the art as well. One can only hope he has learned this evil art well enough to defeat it in his own family.

As usual, Mark, your tales have wheels within wheels operating. That is one of the many things that make them so interesting for the reader. Private Tim, in his comment picked out an English error he had discovered. I don't think it serious enough to 'fire your editors', but it does show that no matter how many eyes study a chapter, errors do seem to creep in. I have detected a continuing error in your selection of pronouns, but have not raised the red flag as I am reading this tale many years after its first posting and I am sure you, as Author and Editor in Chief, are so tired of the effort that you would not even be interested in going back and correcting something that you wrote so many years ago. It just shows me that there is a human being at the other end of the computer line, not an automaton.

'He looked like an artist.' Okay, Mark, what does an artist look like? I consider myself to be an artist, but I do not have a 'hairy chest and legs', nor a 'smooth skin with muscles just below the surface'. Does that make me look more like or less like an artist? I am going to challenge your statement about the cab driver looking like an artist unless you can define what an artist is supposed to look like!!!

I will have to disagree with the commenter who said they (not 'he or she', see, old teachers CAN update writing skills to take on more modern methods) were enjoying the CAP series better than Bridgemont. I enjoy them both and have followed the adventures of the CAP clan as well as our favorite Captain, but Bridgemont has two teeny advantages as far as I a concerned, the exploration of parts of the world that I will never be able to visit plus the interesting facts about the British navy and sailing ships (the United Kingdom ((UK)) of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was not created in its present form until the secession of the Irish Republic in 1922). I consider it a learning experience as well as entertainment. Yes, I am aware that CAP is moving to and about the North Shore of Hawaii and introducing the reader to ice hockey and surfing, but somehow the oceans and seas of the world are more romantic than hockey rinks or even the 'Jaws of Maui'.

Molestation of a youth can be seriously damning to the accused -- it is one crime where a person is guilty even if and when proven innocent. But then, don't get me started on the subject of molestation of young men by priests. It seems that even in cases of proven multiple molestation, the only punishment the Bishops apply is to transfer the guilty adult to another parish -- foisting the problem off on them rather than eliminating it. It is my opinion that the entire Catholic rulebook needs to be turned upside-down with priests able to marry (women or men, whichever their inclination directs them). There are many Protestant Ministers who are happily married (to a woman or another man) and there has not been the scandal about them that has darkened the reputation of Catholics who are unable to keep their dicks zipped up! It was not the Council of Nicea which decided the books to be included in the Christian Bible. According to history it was Constantine. One man who had begun life as a believer in the Roman gods, only to discard his early beliefs and espouse Christianity later in his life. One man, and a man who had difficulty in deciding which was the path in which to believe, was the one who decided what the rules to become a Christian were to be. It is the opinion of many Biblical scholars that he erred in several of his choices. I believe he erred in including in the Bible, rules for priests refusing them the right to select with whom to cohabit. But I am famous for being an iconoclast so, even though I express an opinion, that does not make me correct, merely different. But then, I am different in many ways. End of rant.

I can certainly agree that this was one of the best chapters ever on CAP! Elizabeth Danfield may have left the field in disgrace, but I am sure she will return with a vengeance. She may be a Danfield by marriage only, but she has absorbed all the Danfield machismo ten time over. Hell hath no fury. . .