Graeme

Ross is caught between conflicting emotions. He has his dreams and he has his reality. He's making sacrifices to give his dreams a chance to become reality, but the price of those sacrifices isn't clear.

I think you meant Stuart, not Steve Ty's knee is recovering. He's hoping to be doing some light jogging in the upcoming week, so some dancing the following weekend should be fine as long as he doesn't try too hard. Oh, wait...we're talking about the brat here...

Wu crossed his arms and stared at his friend lying on the living-room couch. “Are you going to come with us and apologise for yesterday?” Ross didn’t meet Wu’s or Lauren’s eyes. “I’ve got nothing to apologise for. I’ve decided to watch the grand final from here, where I can concentrate on the match without other people distracting me.” He waved a hand dismissively without looking at them. “I hope you have fun.” “You’re making a big mistake, Roscoe.” Wu stood there for a few more seconds before

Happy 21st Birthday, Drew! :wizard: :wizard: Or, if you prefer, Happy 7x3th Birthday (if you like prime numbers) or Happy 3+1+4+1+5+7th Birthday (two more years and you can make it the first 6 digits of Pi!)

I came across another fun webcomic on the weekend : http://www.lostinconfusioncomic.net With gay and straight characters (and a homicidal penguin with a sniper rifle whose sexuality is never indicated), there is something for everyone. The only thing missing is some lesbian characters, but the existing female characters are great!

While others have concentrated on the old lady, to me it was Djadi's question about why people needed a day to celebrate family that had the bigger impact. Christmas is just a day. A special day, okay, but there are too many people that act differently on that day when they really should act that way the entire year. Why should there be only one day of 'peace and goodwill to all' each year? Why isn't that a year-long thing? Thanks, Sammy! It was an interesting and thought-provoking piece

Happy Birthday! More good news for the day

Okay, as expected Jacob is being resourceful. There's still a lot of potential problems to overcome, though. At least he has the advantage that practically no one at the school knows what he looks like. They'll need Josh's parents to send over a photo to allow it to be distributed. Would it be a police matter if a boy ran away from a boarding school? If so, bus terminals would be an obvious place to check out -- the only question is when...

There's a lot to like about this chapter. The opening scene where Toph does an introspective as he analyses why he pushed Gary away for a time, the encounter with Ian and then Oscar's subsequent comments, the discussion with Gary about Clarissa and Teddy's wedding (though I personally thought the solution -- the same as Gary's -- was obvious. I suppose that's a sign that Toph's form of thinking is different, which reminds me of an earlier thought I had about Toph being possibly mildly autistic), the revelation that Toph interprets emotions in terms of colours. It's been implied before, but it hadn't sunk in until it was made explicit in this chapter. Thank you. I look forward to new chapters for this story. It's very thought-provoking and enjoyable.

Ronnie Corbett, one half of the famous British comedian duo 'The Two Ronnies' has passed away at the age of 85. 'The Two Ronnies' were watched regularly at our home as I grew up. They were one of the staples of British comedy at the time. He will be sadly missed.

I agree. A truly amazing story!

A nice chapter. It's good to get back to Indie and his toy (hey, don't yell at me, that was Efrain's term!). We didn't really get much of a view into their family lives, apart from the fact that Preston seems to get away with anything short of murder at home (and murder might still be a possibility) and he's the big brother than his siblings hate because he gets to do cool stuff that they're not allowed to do.... Indie's family is still being held off in the distance. We only see things from his perspective and we already know he's not impressed by his step-mother. Now we can add his step-brothers to the list. As for favourite lines. It was a toss up, but the runner-up is "(who puts a dimmer switch in a bathroom?)", beaten out by waffle iron... ...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I’m now popping a boner over my boyfriend’s reaction to a kitchen appliance. Great. Thanks, Dayne!

Ross isn't unusual, apart from his football talent. He's a decent guy who gets scared at times, and does the usual macho thing by responding in an aggressive way rather than admit that he's scared. My original plan was that the period leading up to the draft would be part of the previous book. When circumstances dictated that I split it off as a separate book, that gave me the opportunity to bring in some new characters and plots. I'm glad you're liking them Neil and Liam will be making an appearance, but the extent of the role they'll play remains to be seen

Are you looking for Ross to stalk Neil, or does Neil need a new boyfriend? Seriously, Ross is deeply closeted and is scared of being outed. He's trying to avoid anything 'gay' and that would include large groups of gays and lesbians that show up unexpectedly. Is it rational? Well...

Thank you for the great comments. The actual AFL grand final is coming up in a later chapter, so my apologies now for bring back those memories Great news about the Rainbow Swans. I'll admit that I missed it when they were formed. I only knew about the Purple Bombers because the news was on the TV at the gym that day. I hope the function is a great success! Good luck and take care

Clarissa probably won't work it out since it's unlikely Ross will feature much in the conversation at the game. He might be mentioned in passing, but that would be about all. They'll be at the match to watch the AFL grand final, not to talk about someone that Clarissa has never met.

There's this thing call 'gaydar' that Ross is scared of. He doesn't want to take any chances on being outed, that he can't take the risk that someone with gaydar will pick him up. As for Jim and co., there's not a lot of difference in behaviour between someone who is homophobic and someone who is deep in the closet and doesn't want to get caught. Unless they have a reason to consider other options, the simplest explanation is usually the one everyone will use. As for the brat, so far three clubs know about him: Hawthorn, Carlton, and the Western Bulldogs. That leaves fifteen more clubs...

Ross grimaced as he turned into his street at the end of his morning run. He couldn’t fool himself any longer; he was getting worse. The day before he had given himself the excuse that it was just a one-off bad day, that it was the weather, that it was anything except his mental state. But he was too honest with himself, even if he couldn’t be honest with anyone else; it was Stuart Trent. For the last two nights Ross hadn’t slept well. The turmoil in his mind as he struggled with both worry an

Thanks, Cole! There's still a lot going on with the Leopards, so there's still a number of story lines to follow Not as many as in the last book, but life doesn't stop after the grand final...

It would be nice, but as you've said, it's unlikely.

The draft system was introduced as being fairer overall. The draftees are the worst off, but what was happening before was all the good prospects were going to the successful clubs and the disparity between the clubs was getting worse. The current approach isn't perfect, but it's helping to level out of the competition and is making more teams competitive. Initial contracts are only for two years. After that, the players have the chance to negotiate and ask for a trade to a preferred club. If they're good enough, the preferred club will trade for them, so the draftees only have no say in where they go for that first two years. It's not a life sentence

Thank you! I'd love to be able to post faster, but my writing time is very limited at the moment. I'm trying to keep to a regular posting cycle and that means posting slower than I'd prefer.

“Kevin!” Joe whipped off the headphones he was wearing, stood, and stepped away from the sound-booth console to shake the young AFL player’s hand. “I’m really glad to see you again. I can’t thank you enough for what you did on Sunday.” “I didn’t do a lot. Liam and Doug were there before me.” Kevin’s smile had a nervous edge. He wasn’t used to being around a lot of gay guys, and in the time it took him to walk from the radio station’s front door to the studio where the morning show was being pro

Sporting codes to be scored on inclusionary measures under Pride In Sport Index While I appreciate why this is being done, I can't help feel a few qualms. All I can hope is that it's only needed for a maybe a decade and then it can die a nice death because it's become irrelevant. Of course, I also know I'm an optimist...

Another fun chapter. I'm not convinced that Efrain's mother was really going to make quiche. I think that was an excuse that Zoe used so she could go in and try to get a look at Cory without clothes on Naturally, when it came to the best line, it had to be from the Schrodinger's Queer story I took a much-needed drink, noting with satisfaction that the entire table was silent, before looking back at Juaquin and Eric. “I’m sure keeping your mouth open like that is a useful skill during your little Brokeback weekends,” I said as I turned back to my dinner plate. Their dropped jaws shut so fast their teeth clicked. Corey knows how to fit right in with Efrain's family