James Carnarvon

Umm, hi again everyone... So, this is my attempt at a comedy. It may not be quite my genre. 😅 I have speed written this in under two weeks so I can share it with you before I get away for my own bella vacanza. I hope you enjoy it! There will be daily updates so the story unfolds in real-time.

A light-hearted novella in seven short chapters. Sixteen-year-old Reza thinks he knows it all until his parents drag him away on a summer holiday to Ravello on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, where a chance encounter by the hotel pool proves to be an education…

Saturday Maybe Mum will stop droning on about it now… Okay, so the wall of heat as they stepped off the plane had been pretty impressive… but, so far, Reza wasn’t impressed with Naples. The tall pine trees littering the car park were kinda cool… they sort of looked like umbrellas… but the airport wasn’t much more than a bunch of tatty metal and concrete sheds, and the surroundings looked like a bunch of crappy factories and tenement blocks. Reza pulled out his treasured Nokia to te

Thanks for the shout out. The story "Milo" you mentioned is a lovely tale by @Talo Segura.

Sounds good, but I might have had a different longer term plan in mind!

There was this one short story idea... about an English teen who goes on a summer holiday to Ravello with his parents and maybe meets a couple of my characters - like, they become friends for a week. Sort of a fresh perspective on the whole thing. But I haven't really figured out how to make the story remotely meaningful. 😝

Thank you, @travlbug, for all your detailed and insightful comments along the way! It's been quite nice for me to have somebody following on a couple of weeks behind... saved me having to go 'cold turkey' on all the lovely likes and comments that I receive when I post stories like this one. 😅 "Many additional books"... tongue in cheek, I hope! I'm really not sure where the Ravello series would go from here (okay, I have a couple of minor ideas, but nothing I feel inspired to turn into a book just for the moment). I actually thought I wrapped everything up pretty well here, as in this would be a good place to stop... but, as you rightly point out, I haven't closed off all future possibilities for drama... because these characters' lives will go on, and when is life ever that tidy? But hey, I'm heading over to Ravello myself this summer, as long as my flight isn't cancelled. Maybe I'll be inspired all over again? Or maybe I'll just try a double espresso for the first time and end up at the top of a pine tree, pretending to be a cicada.

I keep coming up against this and feeling the need to defend Giaco in some way, but I probably shouldn’t. I think you covered it already: he’s young, and I think his reactions are realistic for his age (he’s actually 13… he snuck over that particular line between the two stories… but the point remains). Giaco is perfectly capable of empathy for someone he cares about: he demonstrates it for Dani more than once in this story, and his actions in the previous story were motivated by empathy for his mother. But I guess he’s less able to find empathy for someone like Marco, who he perceives to have taken against him or someone else he is loyal to (Dani). About Sami, adoption and his cultural background: I have some experience in this area and, from what I’ve seen, this is how the system tends to work. I get you what you’re saying, but it is also important for a child to have the means to explore their cultural background as part of their sense of continuity and identity. Obviously this can have the unintended consequence you describe, which nobody would call a good outcome.

I’m still not sure whether I might have abandoned plausibility completely for this scene! They both end up speaking about their feelings much more directly than I’d originally intended. However, in the end I just felt that I’d been skating around this issue, dropping hints, for the entire story so far and some cards needed to be laid out on the table. The interruption to Dani’s hopes when he realises Giaco can provide no satisfactory answer to his crush for the moment helps Dani to see the big picture - that it’s too soon for all of this and their friendships are more important.

I firmly believe this to be the case. It also tends to go on the fritz when it concerns people he himself has a crush on (i.e. Giaco). Like many shy / humble people, Dani underestimates his own appeal to others and the powerful effect his actions can have. To think that, in Ch.1, Dani wonders if Giaco sometimes underestimates the effect he has on people... the irony. Hehe... pigeon poop as a shameless plot device... I think you've got a pretty good handle on Marco's character. His parents' total absence from this story serves to illustrate the point, I guess. I don't think Marco is abused or seriously neglected when his parents are around, but I think there's a lot of hard work and not a lot of joy in that family, and his parents probably don't feel they have the time/energy to take much of an interest in his hobbies or friendships (but yes, they should be doing better). It's fortunate that they have a house that's been passed down through the family and can live rent free. Here's one story idea I toyed with but ultimately rejected because it didn't really fit: Marco is desperate to help Sami but, because the family has nothing to spare, he steals food to do so... and his father takes the fall for it to protect him.

I’m surprised you didn’t mention the napkin, which was probably the biggest LOL moment I’ve had on this site! 🤣

Indeed. I’m snickering just remembering it!

Thanks! I see my scenes quite visually, I guess, almost like a director blocking a movie, and I think the non-verbal communication is every bit as important as the dialogue. My characters are forever shrugging, sighing, kicking the ground, turning away when things get awkward or embarrassing... As for the scene at the vegetable garden... yeah, I was pleased with how that came out and how it rounded out Dani's character a bit. In my outline, the chapters in this story were broken down by what they needed to cover in relation to each principal character pairing (i.e. Gianni & Angelo, Toto & Michele, Dani & Giaco, Dani & Emilia, Dani & Marco). The 'big' character scenes in the story were all carefully mapped out before I wrote anything, but the background details for some of the later chapters can be a bit vague at first. Everything that happens between Giaco and Dani in this chapter was extrapolated from the following brief typed statement: DANI & GIACO Giacomo misses Dani. They try to spend time together, but it becomes awkward when Emilia and Laura show up. ...to which I added various hand-scrawled notes as I fleshed it out before writing the chapter itself. Thankfully, I had the idea to include something a bit different to represent the two characters just having a good time together. Also, for those with long memories, it was a call-back to a scene in The Summer of the Firefly where Angelo pranks the previous gardener during the first morning he and Gianni spend together. The initial reference to Dani & Giaco in the outline was brief because this was the real point the chapter was trying to get to: DANI & MARCO Dani glimpses Marco and makes his escape. This is when Marco [really] starts to believe that Dani didn't steal Giacomo from him and starts to sympathise with Dani. They talk out some of what happened before and agree to be friends. There's some insight into how I plot these things out, anyway...

Nah, I think you’ve got the balance just right with this one. You’re welcome. Just a gesture of respect and appreciation from one writer to a (more experienced) other!

It's not canon! 😱😆

Okay, @travlbug, you inspired me to this. I hope you like it! 😆 __________________ Now You See Him… (5A. Ravello Series) Giacomo stared incredulously across the bar table. “Wait… what do you mean, you’ve never tried coffee, Dani? Not once?” Daniele shrugged awkwardly. “I dunno… it just never appealed to me, I guess.” Giacomo exchanged a disbelieving glance with Emilia. Just when he thought he knew all there was to know about his open-hearted friend, he had gone and served up this stunning revelation. How did I never notice this before…? “We’ve got to put this right, haven’t we, ‘milia?” he said. Emilia nodded. “For sure.” One of the waiters was passing. Giacomo gestured at him to summon him over. “Prego,” the waiter said expectantly. “Could we get a double espresso?” Giacomo asked. The waiter gave him a dubious look. “Aren’t you a bit…?” “Oh, no,” Giacomo shook his head, putting on his most earnest voice. “Our parents let us drink them all the time, don’t they, ‘milia?” Emilia smirked slightly but declined to answer. The waiter shrugged, as if he could no longer be bothered to argue. “All right.” As the waiter departed, Daniele gave him a troubled look. It was amazing, Giacomo thought, the power those bright blue eyes of his had to, sort of… stare into your soul. “C’mon, Giaco,” Daniele grumbled. “Do it for me, Dani,” Giacomo coaxed him. “It is my birthday, after all…” “That’s not fair,” Daniele protested. “But, all right…” A couple of minutes later, the waiter reappeared with a small cup and saucer in his hands. He gave Giacomo a questioning look. “It’s… for my friend here,” Giacomo said, gesturing at Daniele, who squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. Giacomo grinned as the waiter plonked the coffee down unceremoniously in front of his friend and went on his way. Daniele sniffed the drink dubiously, then reached for the sugar jar and plonked a cube into the cup. He stirred the drink carefully until it had fully dissolved. Giacomo sensed that his friend was playing for time. “Come on, Dani,” he said. “Down in one!” Daniele stared at him helplessly. “Seriously?” He glanced hopefully at Emilia, but there was no help to be had there; she just snickered. Daniele sighed, conceding defeat. “All right.” Giacomo watched, open-mouthed, as Daniele lifted the cup to his mouth and drained the contents in one gulp. Daniele set the cup heavily down on the table, eyes screwed up, visibly shuddering at the bitter flavour. For a moment, Giacomo began to wonder if he had finally pushed his friend too far. “Dani… are you okay…?” he ventured. Suddenly, Daniele’s eyes flew open. They blazed with blue fire. “Oh my God…” he breathed. “That was…” But then he uttered a deranged laugh and sprang to his feet, sending his chair to the ground with a clatter of metal on stone. He vaulted over the basket of colourful geraniums behind him and charged across the sun-drenched square towards the valley, trainers pounding the paving stones as he went. Without slowing down for a moment, he threw himself over the railings, and was gone. “Dani!” Giacomo cried in dismay, staring at the empty space where his friend had just been. Emilia put a hand to her mouth in shock. “Well… that was unexpected.” “Oh, Jesus…” Giacomo murmured miserably. “Just when I was really starting to crush on him, too.” They looked up as quiet footsteps announced the arrival of two familiar figures. “Ciao, guys,” Toto said, while Michele offered them a friendly smile. “What’s up?” Under the curious gaze of Daniele’s two oldest friends, Giacomo felt himself beginning to well up, and he wiped the tears away. “It’s Dani,” he said miserably. “He just took off, and he…” He broke off, his eyes finding the railings once again. The others followed his gaze. “He what….?” Michele gasped. Giacomo sobbed and cast his eyes back down to the tabletop. Emilia placed a tentative, comforting hand on his shoulder. Toto’s intense brown eyes had found the empty coffee cup. “Wait a minute,” he said warily. “You didn’t give him coffee, did you?” Michele cursed. “Giacomo, didn’t Toto tell you what happened that time he let Dani taste his Red Bull…?” Giacomo stared blankly back up at them both. “No. Why…?” Toto gestured for them both to get up. “Come on, you guys,” he said. “We need to check this out.” Confused, Giacomo followed the two older boys, Emilia by his side. To his dismay, he realised they were leading him towards the railings, and he halted halfway across the square. “Wait,” he protested. “I don’t think… I want to see this!” From somewhere high above them, there came a high-pitched giggle. “Ciao, guys!” came a piping voice. Utterly confused, Giacomo cast his eyes skywards, only to see his friend perched in the crook of a branch of one of the eight tall umbrella pines that lined the view across the valley to Scala. “I’m a cicada!” Daniele called down to them, flapping his elbows like a chicken. Giacomo stared up at him, lost for words. “It’s not fair, Toto,” Michele grumbled. “After everything we went through together, why is it the blond kid who gets to fly?” - End -

Do you, like, summarise things professionally, @travlbug? 'cos you're awfully good at it. As discussed above, though I say so myself, this is one of my favourite chapters of this story because of the way it breaks down the barriers between Dani and Marco. Character-wise, it really is the product of everything that's happened so far in the story, and there's a lot intimated in the writing here which is open to interpretation. Hahaha - oh, you may have a point there. Never has my own lack of Italian heritage been more apparent. Pah, well, maybe Dani just doesn't like the stuff. He's super-sweet, after all, and it wouldn't be the only thing he does differently. And you can't tell me I'm wrong, because I'm the author. 😆🤪

@Comicality this story is totally addictive. I'm quite relieved that I've caught up now, because I've spent way too much of the last couple of days reading it! Now, I will just have to join the crowd of fans patiently waiting for the next instalment. Why do I like it so much? I haven't read that many stories at GA overall. I have read a couple of your shorter ones in the past, but this is the first novel-length one of yours I have looked at. Partly it's because I tend to be less interested in the fantasy angle, and you seem to have some major series along those lines. But, one thing that unites all of the 'real world' teen stories of yours that I have read, is your ability to convey the breathless excitement and intensely emotional inner monologue of a young person who is deep in the throes of first love... and you generally do it in such an uplifting way. There's angst, for sure, but your writing doesn't wallow in it... which it's way too easy to end up doing in the pursuit of 'serious' drama. I couldn't believe how you managed to keep just building and building Tristan's frantic, pent-up energy / feelings over the first few chapters of this story! Just when I thought he couldn't get any more swept up in it, you managed to up the ante again. It was such a relief when Tristan and Jesse started actually communicating, because it allowed the tension to boil over and plateau a bit (in the nicest possible way). Tristan's revelation regarding Scotty's feelings and his subsequent desire not to see his 'golden heart broken' was super sweet. However, he's in very risky territory at the moment. I'm glad you haven't shied away from exploring the dangers and downsides of Tristan and Jesse's plan to set Scotty up with Artie. Despite the fact that I have been desperate for them to meet since Tristan and Jesse first got acquainted, the way you have handled it so far has been realistic. I just hope you will continue the story so I can see how it all plays out. Sex... yeah, there's been a bit, but in over thirty chapters, only a little bit, and it didn't seem out of place. I'm on record at GA as saying that explicit sexual content can take me out of a story. Some stories here feature it way too much, or get straight to it within the first chapter, leaving the story with nowhere to go because they haven't taken the time to built up the relationship at all! But not this one. No, on the whole, this story has been even more wholesome than Heartstopper - and that's saying something! The stories that I write here cover similar territory, I suppose; I aim for heartfelt, and it's sometimes painful, even if it is usually hopeful in the end; it's not always joyous. In this story (and others), you have approached the subject in a much more light-hearted way, but it's none the worse for it as there's a bed of solid drama and character underneath it. Oh, and Lori is the best friend ever! Overall... this story has made me nostalgic for experiences I never really had, and has frequently had me giggling just like Tristan and Jesse at the sheer cheek of it / them. Way to expose my own arrested development! Well played...

Hmm, yes, we'd better keep an eye on Giaco's shadow to make sure it does what it's told! Thank you for your comment. 😊

@travlbug Dani can certainly be persistent when he feels things aren't the way they should be. He's caring / meddlesome that way! 😇 We'll have to see if he can get past Marco's stubborn defences. It didn't even occur to me that Dani would even think of talking to Father Stefano. Dani and his parents aren't really churchgoers; I guess they don't have that kind of relationship with the priest.

That’s interesting. I’ve heard of The Prisoner of Zenda, but I’ve never read it. Thanks for filling me in.

Well, I have no background at all in the whole Rothenia storyline, but it didn’t matter as this was clearly a standalone story. From such a lowly beginning, I was very glad to see Damien become so happy in his new home. He turns out to be a proper ‘rough diamond’. In reality, there will be troubles ahead with that much childhood trauma, but you can only hope that the good times outweigh the bad. Danny and Gus worked well together. I liked the way both of the main couples in the story spanned the class divide, and I appreciated all the reflections on that point. Good story - I enjoyed it!

The physical reality of child neglect, expressed through the state of Damien’s teeth, and the intense ups and downs of taking on a neglected/abused child, rung very true here. Good job!

Sorry… but that is one place where there is absolutely zero chemistry! Thank you once again for all your comments @Summerabbacat. I certainly feel appreciated when you and my other regulars are around!

Oh, I was meaning to come back on this point. I've just checked, and Dani is a Gemini! 😱 This means, in the words of a random web site I just found: Seems quite appropriate, although the descriptor could equally apply to Giaco, who would actually be a Cancer. It took some effort on Dani's part to penetrate the defences Giaco had in place while he was working for Ettore. This just goes to demonstrate what I have always believed - that the way star signs are characterised is so vague and open-ended that you can almost always find some sort of correlation between an individual and the star sign's alleged qualities!