Crackerwriter

Nine brothers Patrick? And all the rest of them str8? Now that's dead unfair! We'll do a bit of worshiping if you've got a nice bod!

Oh it works..........all I have to do now is find my way round it!........... :wacko:

Welcome Bill, (the Storylover) As one of the most faithful followers of my stories, I hope you find others here that you will like as well. Best wishes Mike

well ok, here's honesty for you! I don't think I've read any of your stories before Myr, so I took a look at this one. It seems to have interesting possibilities and I for one would like to read more.... knowing your interest of things magical the setting did not surprise me! It will take time to read much of other author's stuff at the moment as I am way behind on my own stories. (five in progress and more on the sidelines.) I will however try and make a point of reading one a week! (Or at least part if it is a long one.) Anyway this one shows promising results, so for now... Mike

It's an interesting concept, religion. More wars have been caused by it, or rather by people shouting that theirs is the only true faith. It's a bit like the cold war between them and us - the heterosexuals and the rest. (That encompasses everyone who isn't str8). I read Myr's quote and probably like many of you had a good laugh, but it is thought provoking in that it shows just how biggoted and judgemental people are. I don't mind str8 people, so why should they mind me? Do they think they are better than me? I don't run around mugging old ladies or murdering people. I think as quoted before me, the important thing here is love of your fellow men - just don't judge them. We don't have the qualifications for that, no matter what they say in the Old Bailey! If you believe in the New Testament and the word of Jesus, then you should believe that love is the most important thing of all. Supposedly, we were made in God's image - now that's an awe inspiring thought! And nowhere in Jesus' teachings does he mention quality seconds! So draw your own conclusions. Mike , - no! -

I was about to mention the program that verbally reads the story to you. A friend of mine on Nifty has this and uses it whilst he is painting!! If this idea interests you, then I'll check with him what the quality is like. Mike.

I spent the last three days waiting to contact Woodcarver. I just hope he hasn't given up on me!

Happy birthday BM. Only just got the site back, so hope I'm not too late sending greetings! Mike

Patrick! Really! Never say "anything" on a site like this!!! LOL Sorry mate, I don't play games myself, other than in bed! Mike

It's not that crucial to me frankly, as long as it doesn't scream at me from the screen and give me a headache! Red? eeekk!!! I agree a pale green is restful! Not that I intend falling asleep at the keyboard. Mike

Welcome to any new members I missed while being busy re-editing my stories!! It's been a long job. Those of you who may be wondering 'who is this bloke?' will find out when sometime soon my stories will be posted. A word of thanks here to WoodCarver who is doing the donkey work converting them to the required format! To all who've just recently joined a welcome from another relative newbie! Mike.

I think it depends a little on the story itself. Some stories lend themselves to further explanation or different viewpoints. In some cases I think it tends to over complicate the story. Personally I've never bothered doing a story this way, prefering to write in the "fly-on-the-wall" style, which seems to work for me. Mike

I try and use a name that will fit the character and the part played in the story. Last names? Well, there's always the phone book!!! The most repeated name in my stories is my own, but then I'm probably in the story somewhere as a personal experience. Mike

Keep going! Nice start Mike

Well I have to admit this made me laugh. If beforehand in the normal Google Search, I typed in "Jay Cracker", I found links to every single chapter of every story I'd written! The links are now dead, naturally. That was via Nifty of course, so things will be different now I guess. Hmm, I wonder? !! Well I'll have to wait until the stories are up to see! I do wish they'd thought up a better name for the Search Engine though. I find the name mildly insulting. Mike.g

In recent years, I've found my place of peace all right. It's way out in the countryside - we do actually have some very beautiful countryside left in the UK, and just being on my own with pleasant memories. It was one of my childhood haunts from many years back. Happier untroubled times! Mike

Good advice I'd say from Dkstories. Whatever you do, don't just leave it or he'll never understand why you reacted like you did. That would just do more harm. Mike.g

I just can't help thinking that if I was really honest and wrote a "straight" version of one of my stories, I'd have fallen asleep at the keyboard before I'd finished. Frankly, I don't think I could be bothered. But like Comicality says, if you were asked to write a story that was void of gay influence from the start, like him, I think I'd like to think that I could do it, because it would prove to me that I had better writing skills than I probably actually have. Maybe it would work, maybe not. It's easier for us to write gay influenced material, because we know what the story content is likely to be before we start, let's be honest, and that's whatever happens to be on the boil in our heads at the time! A shift in emphasis is not impossible, it just takes a lot more thinking about than we're probably used to.

I think Myr is probably right. I suddenly had a problem with the Java system getting into the Nifty chat, but as soon as I loaded a newer version of Java it worked again, only better! Mike.g

Not a whisper heard about this in the uk, so they evidently don't want to get kids looking for it, or give them ideas. I can imagine there being one unholy row if this broke in the news. I know from Nifty that you should cover your backside by acknowledging copyrights to the appropriate author or whoever owns the rights in a header/disclaimer to each and every chapter/story if you quote a "brand name" or fictious character. ie if you wrote a story about Batman, you should put in a header that "Batman is a registered trademark of Marvel Comics" or whoever it is - I'm no expert on comics these days. They're long forgotten items! If we have any helpful legal eagles around, a few people might be grateful of a bit of advice here Mike.g

Please remember of course that some of us are way outside your time zone. For one site I was guest speaker in recently, I had to stay up virtually until 4am on Sunday morning. It was ok as a one-off, but it might be a struggle if it was every week. Some of us are not so young anymore and it gets to be a bit of a struggle doing that kind of thing! May I suggest that there be two times available so that everyone would have more of a chance to participate? Mike.g

It was in the afternoon here in the UK, three years ago that my mother and I had just finished dinner, which I always cooked for her, since she was 92. My sister rang us and told us to turn on the TV. The first plane had already hit and one of the towers was surrounded in smoke, and as we watched the second plane arrived and hit the second tower. We could not believe our eyes and wondered what the heck was happening. We sat in tears and silence watching the horrific events unfold. Yes, even here in the UK we have not forgotten the trajedy of that day. Sadly my mother died the following year, but I shall never forget that day, when together with most of the rest of the world, a feeling of outrage took us as the reason for this terrible act became evident. We will not forget either. Mike.g

Evidently David has his good and bad days! I'm as surprised as you are that you had those rejected. Mike.g

It's so difficult NOT to put something of yourself into stories isn't it? I'd agree with Comicality, everything I've written has a touch of me there somewhere. Maybe it's not so obvious to everyone, but when I look back over it, I can think to myself, 'yeah, that's me, right there.' It's something I've never really thought about before admittedly, but I think you're right maybe, the best stories come from experience. When you get round to seeing mine you'll probably shout LIAR, LIAR! And if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe either!! Mike.g

I guess like Comicality, we'd all like to be the greatest writers around, but like a lot of you, I don't even let that cross my mind when I'm actually writing. I guess I only ever think about it when I come across a really GREAT story, and sometimes I think, 'I wish I could write something as good as that.' Today, I found out something that surprised me. I was chatting to this guy I know a little in a certain chat room, and he told me that people openly aplauded some of my stories. That was probably about a year before I ever went there myself, yet no one ever said a thing, except perhaps the occasional person says, "Oh, I enjoyed your story XXXXX " and I've thanked them but said no more about it. So just maybe, people enjoy our stories more than we think. Do we write then for ourselves or to get adulation from others? I think if I was waiting for that, I'd have given up a long time ago! Mike.g