Graeme

"Ah, Mr. Shadowgod, we've received your latest bill. I'm afraid there's a problem with paying it." "Why?" "You see, you've charged us for Mr. C and Mr. J. We only wanted Mr. C killed. We just can't pay for the extra death that resulted. "How was I supposed to kill one and not the other? They're conjoined twins, for God's sake!" "That wasn't our problem. We had a deal and you've failed to live up to your side. We just can't pay the account you've submit." "In that case, TANSTAAFL!" The bomb embedded in the accountants phone, keyed to explode when the key word was uttered, killed five people. Shadowgod sent himself the bill and promptly paid it. It is, after all, important to pay these sorts of things on time and not to quibble about details....

Welcome, Ty4650! Like you, I think it'll be Instinct who are to be killed. Once they've been used to smuggle the bombs into the USA (which appears to be the plan, though that is still, I think, an assumption), The Scar may not need them anymore. Shadowgod, you are assuming payment is per person, not per incident. I would think that a single task that kills one person would be charged the same as that same task that kills ten. Mario will be paid to do a task, not on a body-count basis. That's what I think....

The problem with the research is that they weren't comparing apples to apples. They were comparing same-sex couples with straight married couples. This later group is a subset of all straight couple AND have legal and financial reasons to make more of an effort in keeping relationships together. They should have compared same-sex couples with a similar group of straight couples, regardless of marital status. Regardless, marriage does provide an additional incentive to work at a relationship because of the financial cost of divorce, but doing research with only unmarried straight couples would also be considered biased.... It is this sort of flawed research that gives misleading results. The overall results are good (that there really isn't that much difference between the median length of relationships), but I can see anti-gay groups seizing on the headline figure to say same-sex relationships are not as good as straight ones because they don't last....

Evil? How is he evil? If you read yourself into his story, that's probably just your conceit. It's not like he put a character into one of his stories (like Blackheart in For The Love) who is named after someone he knows (Blackheart is one of Shadowgod's pen names), described the character as being very similar to the person he knows (the picture of 'Blackheart' from For The Love looks remarkably like Shadowgod), and then gave that character brain damage (check the epilogue in For The Love) and said that after the brain damage he started writing stories on the internet.... I couldn't see any of that in Shadowgod's story.... Just a simple hunting trophy with some fun accessories. I think you're being overly sensitive

Happy 16th Birthday, Justin! Have a great day and party all weekend

Mainly Woody. My family and I have been holidaying in the Noosa area for the last few years, but I don't know the Rainbow Beach area where the resort is located (and I only worked that out with the reference to Tin Can Bay).

G'day, FireDrill! Thanks for joining in I have to admit that I've only read a few of the prolific Comicality's stories myself, so I'm going to make the time to read your short story recommendations. One story that is very powerful, but is also disturbing, is "My Only Escape". If you want a happy read, avoid it.... If you enjoy powerful writing, definitely read it.

Happy 18th Birthday! Welcome to that weird world known as adulthood....

I personally use the "changing the names to protect the guilty" option It sounds life is fairly complicated for you, at the moment. I honestly can't offer any advice -- you're living in a world I've never experienced. All I can say is good luck

Does anyone want to speculate why Joe Clump has made a reappearance in the story? There has to be a reason, so what is it? Will his attempted suicide (which is sure to be reported in the gossip columns) be brought to the attention of his father, and if so, what's the likely reaction? What about the guys in the band? Back in chapter 8, there was the following exchange:

I've noticed that there has only been two references to the Fairy Tale Anthology in the member choice awards. One of those was mine, and I have to admit that I added it as an after thought because I'd forgotten about that particular anthology (it was in February last year) when I first did my nominations. https://www.gayauthors.org/anthology/index2.php If you haven't seen it before (it's a little hard to track down if you don't know where to look), can I suggest you have a peek? There are a lot of fun stories there

Close, but I've only heard it in reference to swimming costumes Togs are another term that's used: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cossie

It's mainly experience, but you don't have to rely on your own. Find someone who has done it before and use their experience Many people in the industry are also helpful. In Australia, the post office has a handly little brochure that tells you who you have to inform when you change address (mail redirection being just one thing to do). Real estate agents will help point you in the right direction, because it is in their interest to make sure you're ready to buy from them. Banks will help you because they want you to be in debt to them. While they have their narrow field of interest, they generally will have a broader understanding that they will share (it's good customer relations, after all). I hope this helps

I don't believe I ever said that. Life is like a rollercoaster. Once you get to the bottom one hill, you find yourself climbing the next one and wondering what exciting thing is going to be on the other side...

Actually, it was the day before. She's Australian, so I actually started a birthday wish thread on the real right day, for once PS: I've merged the thread that Kevin started with the earlier one. Yes, 18 is the legal drinking age in Australia, though you can also legally have alcohol at an earlier age under some circumstances (mainly, if it's with a meal where your parents/guardians are present, or at home with your parents/guardians)

I agree with James. I know the ending I'm aiming for (though it could change) and a few major events along the way. Otherwise I usually only think one chapter ahead, and that's only to try to avoid writing myself into a corner. As a reader, I can't usually tell if the stories are planned out ahead of time or not, unless the story is poorly written, or serialised. If the story is completed before it is posted, just because something in chapter 2 set up something in chapter 20, that doesn't mean the story was planned out. It's possible that when the author got to chapter 20 he went back to chapter 2 to set something up.

There are some areas/cultures where this is a good thing, because it is raising awareness. In others, though, it is counter productive for the reasons the dissenters specify -- it gives the appearance of trying to make gay people "special", rather than just ordinary men and women who just happen to be attracted to people of the same sex. There is nothing wrong with the "gay culture" that we hear so much about, but there are many, many gay and lesbian people who are not part of that culture and have no interest in being part of that culture (eg. myself). For this later group, we just wanted to be treated as normal people -- nothing special. If you try to apply the same idea to other groups, I think you can get a better feel for how this idea can sometimes be a good idea, but other times is counter productive: Hug a Black Person Day Hug a Deaf Person Day Hug an Amputee Day Hug a Veteran Day Hug a Politician Day Hug a Catholic Day Personally, no, I won't be hugging a gay person on 2nd February.

Happy 20th Birthday, Adrian Michaels! :wacko: Another loss to the teenage universe :wacko:

I know, and even allowing for that, you still have an amazing number of chapters that meet the two-out-of-three rule You missed the bit about only using your definitions when it suits us and causes the maximum amount of mayhem :mace: The story made it clear in chapter 22 that "Jerry" is a persona, not a personality. The Scar is acting, and so what we feel for the "fictional" character "Jerry" is completely divorced from the "real" character of The Scar. What "Jerry" does is no indication of how The Scar feels -- it is only what The Scar thinks he has to do to maintain the "Jerry" image.

G'day, cellArdore! Welcome to GA, Ben If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact any of the moderators or admins. Graeme

Thanks, Steve, but I should point out that we have a number of other Australian members here, too, who are active in the forums It's only the NSW ones who have missed out on the long weekend

I've seen The Zot online, and Little Buddha was seen at the GA gathering at the end of last year. Vlista has some health issues, and Dom just seems to be busy with real life. That's all I know....

Pandas Did you mean Koalas? Or maybe Echidnas?

Thanks, Jack! Australia Day is Jan 26th -- the same as India's Republic Day. In our case, it's the date of the landing of the First Fleet that started the colonisation of Australia by Europeans. Since the 26th was a Saturday, most of the country is also having the Monday off to make it a long weekend, apart from New South Wales, whose State Government decided that the Saturday was the public holiday.