Graeme

LOL -- yes, he does protest a bit much, doesn't he

Warren stood beside his car, beginning to despair of finding Vince. It had been three days since he had arrived home, and he had spent each day in a fruitless search. Each night had been spent going over maps with Rhys, Bobby, Karen and Mark, planning the next day. Warren’s mum was a nervous wreck, so Padma and Mia were helping out around the Asters’ home. While he waited for the ancient bowser to fill his petrol tank, he tried to convince himself that it was all going to work out in the end, b

Mia was still talking with Shane when Mark’s phone rang. Not wanting to disturb the other two, Mark stepped away from the table before he took the call. “Mark.” “What the hell is going on, Mark?” “G’day, Rhys. What do you mean?” “I mean, Aunt Cynthia has just had a call from Matt saying he won’t be able to make it next weekend. I thought you guys were supposed to be getting him to help us, not making things worse!” Mark glanced back at Mia and Shane and then took a few more steps away from

Thank you! The Princess Bride is one of my favourite movies I understand what you're saying about the "legality" of gay marriage, but you have to remember that these are eighteen-year-olds. In 2005, when the story is set, marriage was still a single concept in mainstream Australia that involved a wedding ceremony and legal recognition. I'm sure they would've worked out for themselves that The Tree didn't care about the legal recognition, but it's not something that would have immediately occurred to them. Leo and Craig, however, had the advantage of a personal understanding of commitment ceremonies and that's why they worked it out so quickly.

Yeah, a few mistakes were made, so it's Shane to the rescue!

Shane's one of my favourite characters, too He was an interesting person to write about.

“Are you going to be okay?” Mia asked Rhys. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked before taking another sip of coffee, trying to hide the nervousness he was feeling. Mia looked around the coffee shop before answering. Rhys followed her gaze. There were a handful of tourists having breakfast, but otherwise the place was quiet – a fairly typical situation before ten on a Monday morning. Mia leaned forward and lowered her voice. “You’re going to see a couple of gay guys to talk about a gay marriag

Trudi Canavon's "Age of the Five" trilogy is also excellent, though I think The Black Magician trilogy is better Her inclusion of a couple of very tastefully done gay characters in that trilogy is just the icing on the cake Of course, she's Australian (lives in Melbourne, too!), so it's no surprise...

All I'll say is that the story has 32 chapters, broken into four parts. This is early in part 2. It starts as a mystery(ish), but the genre is listed as Romance/Drama.

I haven't read House of Hades yet, but my eldest boy has. I'm aware of what you put in the spoiler because of something I came across on Wikipedia recently when doing some research on the topic of Gay Literature. It was referenced there....

Vince stood outside The Treasure Chest, his heart pounding and his mind racing. He hadn’t expected his friends to figure out his secret, and he was in a state of panic while he tried to work out what to do. He knew enough to be certain he couldn’t stay in town. He was sure his friends wouldn’t be able to keep the news private. They wanted The Tree fixed, and Vince didn’t think they cared if his life was ruined in the process. He felt that Mark had pretty well said it out loud, and Rhys had made

My boys and I love the Percy Jackson series. My eldest boy was counting down the days until House of Hades was published I was on a business trip a couple of years ago and saw the original series in a book shop. I bought the first two to see what they were like, read them that night in the hotel room, and was back the next day to buy the rest. The Coran Chronicles are good, though I don't think they're as imaginative as his others series. I'll admit that the second group in the chronicles was great -- it's always good to see a story from the "bad guys" point of view, and to discover that they're not all as bad as we thought from the first three books Thanks for the reminder. Besides the Riftwar Saga, the three books he did with Janny Wurst, "Daughter/Servant/Mistress of the Empire" are also great -- better, I think, than the Riftwar Saga itself. And Janny Wurst is a great author in her own right. From what I've read of her stories, the complexity in the Daughter/Servant/Mistress trilogy is largely due to her -- she's got a great mind for political intrigue. Her Mistwraith series is also good, though I find a little much deus ex machina things happening to make it a great series.

Insufficient data for meaningful answer. The article itself indicated that this was a rare event. However, without knowing details of the child's behaviour, we can't put things into context. I agree that the parents sound like scumbags but we don't have the details as to what they've gone through. It is a a desperate step to try to "return" a child (the non-adoptive option is to relinquish a child to whatever the appropriate government body is in your area). It is generally not something done lightly, and I had the impression from the article that it wasn't done lightly. Whether it was done after sufficient alternatives were investigated is not something that the article covers. I found it interesting that the parents could not be located. That sounds like there's more to the situation than just the parents not able to cope with an aggressive nine-year-old. But we don't have the information needed to properly judge what is going on. Based purely on the article, there's something wrong with the parents. I'm just not inclined to condemn them without more information.

The stunned silence that followed Vince’s confirmation was finally broken by a happy Mark. “That’s great, then! All you need to do is marry Matt and this whole thing will be finished.” Vince jumped up and took the two steps necessary to loom over Mark. The fury on his face erased Mark’s glee almost instantly. “Marry Matt? What fucking planet do you live on?” Bobby heard Mia draw in her breath at the angry swearing, but he kept his attention on Vince as he slowly rose to his feet. He had a fe

The idea was inspired by a story a friend told me about how he was almost outed by his BF's dog that was yelping at the closet door in which he and his BF were hiding (naked) from the BF's mother.

Thank you! When I thought up the line, I just had to use it

Vince awoke to the screeching of a flock of galahs flying over the house. His headache made it sound like they were in the room, using a rock band’s amplifiers at full volume. Gingerly easing open one eye, he saw that he was lying on top of his bed, still wearing the clothes from the night before. The only things that had been removed were his shoes, though he didn’t remember doing that. He didn’t even remember going home. He was incapable of smiling, as that required too much effort, but he w

There is a gay sub-culture which is along the lines of what TetRefine indicated -- bars, parties, hooking up. But as he also mentioned, there are other not-as-obvious gay sub-cultures, such as gay sporting clubs. There's a gay rugby team in Sydney that plays in the normal competition -- their "culture" is the club, which is part of a wider "straight" cultural group (rugby players). When people talk about a "gay culture" they are usually thinking of one of two things -- the bars/parties/hook-up sub-culture, or the arty/creative/effeminate sub-culture. The first is largely defined by the sexuality of the people involved, the second is not. The second also contains straight people -- it just has a higher-than-typical percentage of out gay people and that's why people tend to identify it as a "gay" sub-culture. But there are other cultures that are partially defined by sexuality, but more by other things. The gay sporting clubs are a good example. They're defined by the love of the sport of the participants, and the sexuality is more a sub-grouping within the larger culture. In short, some gay sub-cultures are defined by sexuality, but many merely have sexuality as an additional "trait" of the sub-culture and even that trait may not be true for all members of that culture. Using an analogy, wheel-chair basketball is played by people in wheel-chairs However, not all wheel-chair basketball players are disabled -- some only get into a chair to play the game. It's the same with many "gay" sub-cultures -- the arty/creative sub-culture I mentioned above being a good example.

Bobby stepped forward and coughed loudly. The other two jumped apart, with the unidentified guy tripping over the bags at his feet and falling to the floor. “Col! Are you okay?” Patricia asked, bending down to check on the guy. Bobby paused while his sluggish mind filtered the name. As he watched the young man clamber awkwardly to his feet, the name rang a bell, but Bobby couldn’t remember why. “I’m fine, Pat. I was just startled, that’s all.” Bobby felt extremely awkward. He knew from the

Vince was labouring by the small lake in one of the back paddocks. Despite the broad-rimmed hat that kept the afternoon sun off him, the sweat was dripping off his head and down his back, forming a wet arrowhead on his shirt from his shoulders to the back of his jeans. The occasional hot, northerly breeze brought a faint scent of eucalyptus from the surrounding gum trees, and cockatoos squawked in the distance. Patches was nearby, chasing rabbits. Vince could hear her barks across the paddock as

Thank you!

“Hello?” “Where are you?” “Nice to hear from you, too, Vince. I’m very well; thanks for asking.” “I’m not in the mood for games, Mia. Where are you? I need to see you.” Mia frowned, thinking that something must have happened. Vince wasn’t normally abrupt. “I’m in the shop. What’s this about?” “I’ll see you in about ten minutes.” The connection went dead. Slowly placing her phone into her pocket, Mia tried to work out what was going on. Vince had sounded angry, rather that upset or concern

At the moment, I think my favourite fantasy author is L.E.Modesitt Jr, but I'm not sure if I prefer the Recluse world setting (with Order and Chaos "wizards") or the Imager Portfolio world setting (with imagers who can create things by simply imagining them). Both are very imaginative with a great series of books (with, admitedly, some duds in the Recluse world series). Overall, both are incredibly detailed. One thing I really like about L.E.Modesitt Jr is that he doesn't just add magic (of any sort) to a world, he works out what impact that would have on the societies within those worlds. The magic system isn't an add-on, it's an integral part of the way the society operates.

Do you blame him? The girls were a little aggressive

Cynthia woke up as the sun streamed through the window. The songs of a bird filtered into the room, underpinned by the rumble of a truck heading down the street. In a routine she’d been doing for many years, she stretched out her left arm and patted the empty space next to her. “It’s time to get up, Andrew,” she said as she clambered out of bed. Slipping a pale pink dressing gown on over her white lace nightie, she walked over to the empty fireplace at the end of the room. As always, it was sp