Graeme

I know what his response to that will be. Something along the lines of "that's because as an experienced lurker, I've seen all sorts of postaholics."

My first thought was the same, but I doubt C James will be that obvious. Another possibility is that Eric tells everyone he's been threatening to tell, and THEY are the ones getting the rope to lynch Steve and Chris. In either case we're assuming the title has something to do with what has been revealed so far. It's quite possible it refers to something that is only revealed in the next chapter. Speculation is fun, but I think I'll wait and see what the goat regurgulates next week....

C James, there's another thing that I've raised with you in a PM, but I thought I'd mention in public now. You are writing a STORY -- not a serial novel where readers MUST wait before the next chapter is due out. The ONLY time they have to wait is while the story is in the progress of being posted/written. There is NOTHING wrong with posting several chapters, or even the entire story, at once. If you are writing on the assumption that the readers will have to wait between chapters, then you're doing yourself an injustice because a large percentage of readers will simply go onto the next chapter because they'll be reading the story AFTER it has been finished. (I'm assuming you'll be leaving it here after it's finished, for new members to find).

I wasn't going to jump in on this, but a certain reclusive goat keeps calling me a postaholic so I supposed I'd better try to live up to the reputation.... I agree, to some extent. I didn't see a reason for the friend introductions at that point, but I didn't say anything because it was possible that they would become relevant soon afterwards. However, chapter two doesn't mention them at all, so I think that the introductions could've been moved to another point. Maybe mention them by name, but I'm not sure it was worthwhile going bang, bang, bang with a mention and short section of each one. Introducing characters and settings is a major error-prone area for a new writer. I know I made major mistakes in this respect when I started, and I'm still not sure I've got it right with my latest story. This is trickier. I think I have come down on DarkShadow on this one. The prologue and chapter one were tense, and then chapter two is more relaxed. If the story maintains the flavour of chapter one, then this is a legitimate concern, but if it goes back to the tension of chapter one then it just means we're in for a rollercoaster ride. In almost every story I can think of there are fast, action-packed chapters, and slower, recovery chapters. Between them they lead the reader up to a conclusion. How to pace things is difficult to describe, so we have to trust to the author's judgement on this. It may be he has it slightly wrong, but until we see the rest of the story we can't be sure. He may have it spot on, or has even (hopefully not) made the start of the story too bland for the rest (*fingers crossed that this isn't the case, because I don't think I'd be able to handle it*). Edit: I've just noticed your comment about it being a possible turn-off for a new reader and why. I have to agree with you there. Chapter two doesn't provide any indication that it's not going to be "just another best friends become lovers" story. I'm trusting C James that it won't be, but maybe some sort of hint in chapter two would've helped.

I thing it was pretty good. It's a cliche for best friends to turn out to be both gay and in love with each other, but I don't mind it. I'm a romantic, after all. It was an obvious direction for the story to go. Now it's a challenge for you to put some originality into it. I'm concerned about the car, though. Is it going to get jealous? As for Eric, I suppose I'm going to have to wait at least ANOTHER week before I find out what happens there. One book I read on creative writing said to trying to include as many senses as reasonable in your description. I read this and smiled at how well you've done. Graeme

Don't worry about not being able to write to a schedule. Very few authors can. I've just come off a THREE MONTH stoppage on my latest story, but that has been due to a wide set of factors. It happens and I'm happy that I'm back to working on my story again. Just don't try to force things. You'll regret it afterwards if you push things out that you're not happy with. Graeme

It's a fantastic clip, Daniel. There's another thread on it from awhile ago, but I certainly don't mind it being started again It's one of those things that should be brought up every so often to remind people that there are good things in the world.

Happy Birthday, JimB! May you have a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead. Graeme

Happy 21st Birthday! I hope you have a great day.

Welcome, lustful_orcs! Feedback is very important to a lot of authors, so I'm very happy that you're intending to help the many authors here. I'm sure you'll find quite a few members interested in reading your stories, too. Cheers! Graeme

He's not the only one. I've heard of readers who have threatened to hunt down any author who gave out spoilers. Now, I'm a nice echidna, so I won't do that, but I'll warn you that my spines are sharp..... Graeme

I'll let you into a little secret. Apart from my Fall Anthology entry, I haven't really written anything for almost three months. I've only just gotten back to writing today. Sometimes things like this happen. I'm far enough ahead in my current story that I was still able to post regularly, but behind the scenes the story hadn't been progressing. Yes, it feels like you're letting your fans down (I felt that way when there were delays in some of my early two stories), but that's just the way it is sometimes. Real life has a way of intruding into the best-laid plans. Don't worry about and just relax. When you're ready, your fans will still be there waiting. As for that disgruntled fan, ignore them. Don't bother responding (or only respond once), and just leave them alone. Graeme

I recently wrote a paper for my local church on the liberal interpretation of the bible on the subject of homosexuality. This is because the Uniting Church in Australia, over all, has given tacit approval to practising homosexual ministers (non-practising homosexual ministers have been approved since 1982). However, some members object and have formed a group that thinks the broader church's position on homosexuality is wrong, bordering on apostary. The conservative view is well known, but the liberal view isn't, so I volunteered to write something up to explain it. I'll find out tomorrow how that paper went down (I wasn't at church last week). As C James has pointed out, the bible does NOT condemn homosexuality, but homosexual acts. The key difference between the conservative and liberal interpretations is whether it condemns all possible homsexual acts or only some of them. For example, Leviticus appears to condemn anal intercourse, but doesn't say anything about other sexual relations between men. I read something that said that the Jews believe that every word in Leviticus was dictated by God and they are all there for a reason. If God intended all homosexual acts to be condemned, he wouldn't have said "as with a women" in that phrase. Religious Tolerance and Whosoever are good sites for anyone interested in a discussion on homosexuality and the bible. A thread at DeweyWriter has a link to an interesting (and positive) article by a Jewish Rabbi, and some informed comment by Jewish members at that site.

Happy Birthday, Bao! May you have a great year that's full of fun, fortune and favour

I've got a suggestion for the site admins -- reset CJ's post count back to zero, and then start a poll on when he'll pass Kitty again.... It should be a fun game

I'll accept that Chris may be in a minority with how he handled it, but I don't think he's exceptional. I have a broad opinion of what's typical. If he's an emotional guy, or (like me) has been emotionally deprived (and there are indicators of that), then having a connection to someone would have a big impact on him. If it was just a friendship, then I'd think he'd walk away, but we know it's stronger than that, and he may really fear losing a strong friendship when he's not had that before (or recently). We also don't know how easy it would be for him to move out. It may, conceivably, require him to either quit college or change to another school, with all the headaches involved. That is not something to be done lightly. I think the total sum of those things, plus an absolute terror of being gay-bashed, makes him succumbing to the blackmail believable. You'll also notice he didn't have a lot of time between being found out to paying out the $4K. He almost certainly didn't have a chance to try to find out for himself if Steve was homophobic or not. I'm not even sure that idea crossed his mind -- he just might've taken Eric's word for it uncritically (doing that is more an experience thing, and he may not have had that experience). Just my opinion, of course

I have to agree with C James. Chris doesn't strike me as being exceptional in any particular way. He looks like your typical closeted gay who doesn't want to lose friends by coming out -- or being outed. He went into denial with the blackmail, but that's not exceptional. He probably spent those weeks trying to work out how to keep paying everything, and constantly think the solution was "just around the corner". Would I, at that age, have paid blackmail to prevent being outed? I don't know. I'd like to think I wouldn't, because I would realise that it's a never ending situation, but I don't know. I was a lot less mature then than I am now. The blackmailer made the mistake of being too greedy. In a novel I read many years ago someone commented that the idea is to screw the blackmailee until it hurts, but not to "kill" them. That way they'll keep paying. Eric asked for too much and forced Chris to face up to the fact that he couldn't pay -- and hence forced him into invalidating the blackmail by revealing the secret anyway.

Okay, I've read chapter one now. Here's a few comments: 1. There is no need to repeat the end of the prologue at the start of the chapter. If readers want to know how the previous chapter ended, they can go back and read it themselves. 2. I found the following paragraph cumbersome: I can see what you were trying to do, but the "day would come" and "this day came" just grated on me. I'll admit that I tend to go a bit overboard at times trying to avoid repetition, but I've always found that the start of a chapter is when most things like this get noticed. After the first page or so, I'm usually too involved in reading it as a story to spot things like this. 3. My wife's family had a cat called "Killer Kate". Beelzebub reminds me a lot of her 4. No offense, but: I hate single tears. I've never seen one in my life. It doesn't change the meaning to use "tears" instead of "tear". I've finished the story now... and I'm shaking. The identity of the blackmailer was a surprise, but you've resolved the questions I raised about the prologue. I'd like to know more about the blackmailer, but I'm sure that's going to come out soon. A number of possibilities present themselves, including Chris getting his money back. I also noticed the possibility that the information Chris was told, about Steve being homophobic, could be wrong. It hasn't been confirmed by anyone else or but other events, as far as I can see. I won't say any more at this point, just in case someone reading this hasn't read chapter one yet. You've left it as a bit of a cliffhanger, but not as much as the prologue. Nice chapter, and I suppose I'll read chapter two when it comes out... Graeme

That's sad. I was enjoying waiting. I suppose I have no choice but to go read it now... *sigh*

So was I :ranger: In another thread I estimated it would take you ten minutes to go from 1997 to 2000. I was wrong -- it took you fourteen minutes. Is something slowing you down?

*** Possible spoilers ahead *** Nice start! I've got two complaints. 1. Tears aren't cold. That cold tear at the start of the story jumped out at me as out of place. 2. The ending was too abrupt. It took me a couple of times to realise that he'd found out that Steve was homophobic WITHOUT telling him. You probably should expand on that to say how he found out about Steve's attitude Blackmail stories are hard to write well, in my opinion. Too often they are unrealistic, or the blackmailee is stupid. I'm confident you'll pull it off, though. The start of the prologue implies that the blackmailer has taken Chris for all his money. I'm interested in finding out how long it was from the end of the prologue to that start. How long did the blackmailer screw Chris into the ground? All interesting questions that I'm sure you'll be answering soon Graeme

I've finally figured it out. C James is an alien goat who doesn't need to sleep! CONGRATULATIONS C JAMES! You have successfully lurked your way to 2000 posts -- and in less then 12 months. May you have many more to come Graeme

A lurker with (at the time of this post), 1,997 posts -- almost at the 2000 mark! I'm estimating it'll take him... let's see... about ten more minutes to reach that milestone.

I WAS hoping that C James would ask that question, because then he'd be admitting to being our resident master-lurker. As it is, I'm sure he could wheedle out of that confession if he tries hard enough. Oh well, he sort-of admitted it with his response above.