Graeme

*coughs* Can anyone verify the accuracy of this email? While the sentiments agree with the general attitude of certain members of the federal government here in Australia, the language used it extreme and I find it questionable that these things were actually said -- or if they were said, they've been taken out of context. I also personally disagree with a lot of the sentiments stated. Australia is a nation built on immigration. Our native Australian population is, I think, approximately 2% of the total population. The rest of the population are immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants. While white anglo-saxons make up a good percentage of that number, we have very significant levels of Greek, Italian, Chinese, and Vietnamese immigrants (to name, but a few). Many of those immigrants came here without being able to speak English, and have contributed greatly to our nation. While the parents may not be good English speakers, the second and third generation are true Australians, even if they retain a lot of their original culture. The view expressed above by John Howard on multi-culturalism have been criticised by a lot of the media here (yes, he did say something along those lines). Australia's culture IS a mixture of many cultures. As a simple example, in Melbourne alone I have eaten the following cuisines: Italian, Greek, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Lebanese, Thai, French, German, English, American, Mexican, Polish, Indian, and probably a few others that I've forgotten. I know of a Nepalese restuarant, though I've not eaten there. We have all of these because we have people of these nationalities, and many others, living here. As for religion, church going christians are a minority in this country. From memory, the figure is about 30% of the population. The last census had Christian as just under 70% of the population, but had 25% as either No Religion or didn't state a religion. While we are a "christian" nation, we do not have a strong religious basis to our society (and I'm saying that as a church going christian). As an example, religion normally plays little role in our elections and religious leaders usually do not intrude heavily into election campaigns, though do (and are expected to) weigh in on political matters. One of my work colleagues is Jordanian. He came out here recently, but fits in extremely well. Another is Polish -- he came here while Poland was still a communist country. We have increasing numbers of Africans in Australia, with the unrest in certain parts. While they arrive as refugees, they can find a supportive community here from people have came earlier. When the Sydney Olympics were held, I believe that almost every nation (if not every one) were greeted by expatriates from their nation. Australia is and almost certainly will always be a mix of many cultures. While English is the dominant culture, it is by no means an overwhelming majority. In this particular case, I do not believe the views expressed above agree with those of a significant number of Australians. They may agree with a majority -- I don't know -- but I would be surprised if they did, and I would be even more surprised if it was a strong majority. Just my opinion....

:king: :king: Happy Birthday, Robert! :king: :king: Have a great day. I'm hoping Dan has something special planned for you.

Okay, I'll admit that the fact that Brandon had had previous musicial experience has slipped my mind. My original wording was "professional musician", but I changed that because there are some very talented amateur musicians. Playing in a band and being able to write music competently are two different things, but it becomes less of a stretch. Of course, this means he is: 1. A gifted singer 2. A good guitarist 3. A decent, if not good, composer, able to write musical scores. He's not unique in this respect (eg. if you substitute piano for guitar, you could name Billy Joel and Elton John that have the same skills. Also, John Lennon, Paul McCartney... the list goes on). It's still exceptional, but it's not as unlikely as I first thought.

And how, exactly, do you know that?

These are example of people living beyond their means, not people who are poor. A poor person (to me) is one whose income is insufficient or barely sufficient to cover the essentials of life. Brandon is someone who understand money -- at his level. He doesn't understand money when there is a lot more than he "needs" to have. I wouldn't say that this means he has a good sense for money. Rather, he knows how much money he has and what he needs to do with it. Now that he has "too much" money, I suspect it'll take him some time to learn how to spend it to maintain that income stream. At least he's willing to be led. There's another way of looking at it. He probably didn't think of it at the time (my impression is that he was being generous to them because they had been even more generous -- from his point of view -- to him with that $10K he'd been given), but by selling his songs to the band cheaply, he allows the band -- including himself -- to play them and make money from them. As I said, he probably didn't think of it, but he may in the future -- it's a sound investment for extra income. Oh, and my understanding is that the songwriters in bands get a larger share of royalties than the other band members. I've heard of several examples of this, though I don't know if it is universal. Brandon isn't greedy. He just want enough of an income to be able to live comfortably. He hasn't learnt yet the level of spending he's going to be required to do as a band lead singer... though he's beginning to get the idea. I've heard of people like that, too, but you are talking about a musician -- not a roadie who can sing and is a keen fan. I did music privately for several years (I wasn't very good -- I started too late, my fingers were too slow, and I couldn't keep a beat by myself), and that included musical theory. In the musical theory, there was a time when we had to do some composition work. Lyrics aren't hard. Fitting them to a beat, then to a melody, and then fitting an accompaniment -- it's not trivial. Some people can do it better than others, but if trying to do it without having the chance to hear what it sounds like... do able but exceptional. Thanks for the clarification. I thought she was the band's manager, not the manager of the individuals, but the chapter didn't seem to read that way.

The relevant sections are:

Welcome, metoo44! Yes, I think we all agree with what you have to say. I'm still working on the time machine so we won't have to wait, but I've hit a technical snag.... I think I'll wait until the end of the week before I comment.... I believe it's a fairly old and standard German name I have to side on the "too good to be believed" side when I read that not only did Brandon write lyrics (believable) but also the instrumental parts. I can appreciate that someone who loves music (if he's a good singer, he'll almost certainly love music) wanting to try their hand at songwriting, but to be able to write instrumentals WITHOUT ACCESS TO AN INSTRUMENT (he did it in that rundown hotel) is bordering on musical genius. The saving grace if is the instrumental part is very basic and needs to be reworked by a professional. Most of the stuff so far I don't have a problem with. There are nice guys out there who believe in trying to do the right thing. That don't have their world centered on themselves. Brandon is one of those people. He feels gratitude for being given the chance he's got so repaying Instinct by selling the songs for $1 is well within character. He has that extra money he's been given, so he doesn't have the incentive to ask for more -- and if he had, I would've expected him to be asking for $100 or similar amount. He has no real concept of how much something like that is worth. I don't. If I'm right about what The Scar wants to do, he won't care about Dimitri because he'll have achieved his goals and security will no longer be an issue. The problem with the sellers was that they might have told someone about what they'd sold before the goals have been achieved. Dimitri is a professional and the potential difficulty in trying to eliminate him outweighs the security benefits in doing so.

The problem with trying to respond is that the question is too vague. I would need to have a concrete example before I could say if I would accept or reject the alterations, and hence if I would accept or reject being published. For example, the phrase "...what if those changes conflict with everything you're trying to do?". As an author, all I'm "trying to do" is to tell what is hopefully an entertaining story. I can't see how a change can conflict with that. Favourite scene? A scene isn't a story. I've already cut scenes and I'll do it again. As long as I'm still happy to put my name against the final product, I don't see this as an issue. Ages? I don't see that as a problem, unless it shifts the basic setting. For example, most high school students aren't twenty years old. If it doesn't cause logical problems, I don't see how changing the ages will matter. Situations being altered to make it more marketable? Again, a lot depends on the detail. If I'm still happy that there is a good story at the end of the day, I can't see this being an issue. If I'm not happy to put my name against the story at the end, then I'd have to walk away. "What if what they're asking you to change is so far in the other direction, that you can't let your true feelings flow out onto the page like you want to?" To be honest, I can't relate to this question. What is the "other direction" that is being talked about here? I don't write my true feelings -- I write the characters true feelings (hopefully). As I said, I can't relate to what this question is asking.

Thanks, Jack. A thought-provoking article, even if it is written as humour.

Happy Birthday, Jay!

Happy Birthday, Martin! Cheers!

I don't have a problem reading a story set in the same universe as something else (eg. Star Wars, Star Trek), but I have a dislike for people using characters from another author except in very restricted situations (eg. a scene or two -- not as central characters). Similarly for real people. I've read some good historical fiction that involves real people, but they were minor characters, not the central characters. Essentially, I generally don't read fan-fics and have little desire to do so.

My excuse is that I've been travelling and haven't been able to get online.... I don't think having the silliness stop is having any effect. I'm still formulating a strategy on how to get the next chapter posted quicker, but since it involves time travel, there a few, small, technical difficulties I have to overcome first....

Speculation is easy. Trying to prove any of these theories is difficult because it's so easy to come up with counter-examples. eg. If a movie made me "gay", then why didn't it turn everyone who saw it gay? If they ever nail it down, I think we'll find it's a complex interaction of a lot of factors -- genetic and environmental. I'm happy to leave the speculation to the scientists. As Bondwriter said, it's not that relevant to me any more. I'd like to know, but it's not a burning issue. I've got a lot more important things to worry about

I agree -- someone needs to be turned into a pincushion. However, it's not Emoe. All his emoticon did was to reveal that there was something to see in the next chapter. It could've been all pictures. CJ has just revealed that that is not the case, and that there are WORDS in the next chapter. I think that makes CJ the spoiler, not Emoe

A great article. While it is sad that articles like this are needed, they are needed because they break down the negative stereotypes that too many people still hold about homosexuals. Even over my own 44 years, I've seen changes in attitudes in society, and I can see the rate of changes accelerating. The negative stereotypes are weakening, but they're still there and we need to work on them. Showing a human side to the world is, I think, what's needed. It's harder to point the finger at someone like Loraine than it is to point the finger at some nebulous conceptional "homosexual".

Australia is not as gay-friendly as Canada ... yet. We have the advantage that it is only a law that is preventing gay marriage, and laws can be changed. There is already a lot of pressure within both major political parties to grant same-sex couples the same rights as defacto couples, and my impression is that defacto couples in Australia have more rights than they do in the USA. Neither major party is willing to go as far as proposing same-sex marriage, but recognition of the defacto relationship is a good step along the way. It'll mean a lot of lawful discrimination will be eliminated as almost all laws at both the federal and state levels recognise defacto relationships. However, I can understand and appreciate the idea of moving from a unfriendly area to a gay-friendly country. New Zealand is more gay-friendly than Australia, but I don't think the difference is enough to encourage the sort of migration that is reported in this article. All I can say is I wish those that want to move all the best, and I hope that those that stay will find things become more friendly in the near future.

Happy 22nd Birthday! Have a great day and I hope your year ahead is especially fantastic.

Congratulations to both Krista and Bondwriter You have enriched GA with your presence and many wonderful posts and I look forward to reading many more in the future.

Happy Belated Birthday, Jared! Congratulations!

I also have to disagree, but from a completely different perspective. The toilet in question would be used by parents with young children. Consenting sexual activity between adults must take place where children can't be affected. If this was an out-of-the-way toilet block after dark, then I would agree with Jack. In a transport center, however, parents (like myself) should feel safe to have their children go to the toilet when they need to. This is especially true when a mother is travelling with her boys and needs them to go to the toilet, since she can't go in with them. I'm not accusing these people of molesting children (though that HAS happened here in Melbourne), but I'm simply talking about the risk of what those children may see. As for the rest of this discussion -- I agree that Sen. Craig has been a hypocrite by publicly working against gay rights when he's a homosexual himself. However, I can understand a lot of how he must have been feeling because I've been in a similar situation. You feel torn, and the pressure can be overwhelming. I've been lucky in that I've found a non-destructive release (in my writing and in participating in communities like GA), but it would've been that much more difficult for a public figure like Sen. Craig to do so.

I have to politely disagree. Using the music industry as an example, many, if not most, songwriters acknowledge they've been influenced by other songwriters. They don't list those other songwriters as co-composers, though, because influence is not the same as actual writing. I've had scenes cut from my stories because early readers think they slowed things down, were boring, or just plain pointless. I looked at what they said, and when I agreed, I cut the scenes. The final decision was still up to me. I've added scenes to my stories because early readers thought something was missing, not explained well, or that a character needed to show more motivation for what they'd done. Again, I considered what they had to say, and when I agreed, I added something to the story. However, what I added were my words, not theirs, and it was my decision to add the extra information. I've changed scenes because early readers thought something was unrealistic. Again, I consider what they have to say and if I agree, I will alter what I've written. I acknowledge that I'm not an expert on all fields of human experience, and if someone who knows more about something than I do points out a logical flaw, then I believe I need to fix it. I've acknowledged the help those people have given me at the end of the chapters/stories, but I don't consider them to be co-authors, and I'd be surprised if they thought of themselves as co-authors. They have provided input into the final work, but the work has been mine, not theirs. I'm the author and I thank them for their contributions towards making my stories better, but I have the final say on every word that goes into those stories. Just my opinion....

I think these are all just wishful thinking. My suspicion is that Lump will try to cause trouble for the band. Suing them is an obvious first step, though on exactly what grounds I don't know (I don't have enough understand of either American law or the way band contracts and finances are organised). I've just had an idea.... I've remarked before that I didn't see how Gabe could get away with cutting the roadies entitlements (meals and accommodation allowances) without some sort of "official" backing. I speculated that it was the boys father who provided that backing, but maybe it was Joe Clump? I can't remember from the story -- how long ago did Lump find out about Chase and the split the band start? If it was about a year ago, maybe Lump and Gabe were in cohorts to skim some extra money out of the band? The other thing that may have happened, but hasn't been explicitly stated in the story, is Chase telling Lump that he's been fired as the band's lead singer. If that going to happen in the next chapter? If, as has been implied is likely, Lump is high at the time, there could be some spectacular fireworks. Now we just have to wait....

It seemed pretty clear that they had bought some material on the blackmarket. I'm not sure if it was uranium or plutonium (I suspect the later), and it wasn't quite as weapons-grade as they originally thought. The rest of the detail, I'm happy to wait for it to be resolved. The idea of what they were doing seems clear enough. Motive and detail are still to be revealed....

We don't, but one of our neighbours has a goat. There are also a few that I pass when I go to and from work. As for treating them properly... I don't think they are. To the best of my knowledge, none of them have been given internet access