blackbird

You may want to go general with a character with a non-verbal learning disability (there's a site called NLDline and some others you can find via google), it'd be an interesting to have a main character who can't read body language or grasp figurative language without having it explained.

There are a fair number of Aspergers support forums and sites about it. I'd look for ones that include the life stories of people with Aspergers. If you'd like to know how it is to be the partner of someone with Aspergers I might be able to help. My girlfriend has been diagnosed with it and while I believe that most of these "disorders" are simply facets of peoples' personalities that, like other things, sometimes need to be worked around by others, her particular personality facets are what some people call Aspergers. I'd say that the easiest way to find out things about whatever kind of person you don't know enough to write about is to join a forum for them and post, asking for whatever information you need and explaining why you need it. In most cases, people will be more than willing to help you. HTH

Mine is the truth

I haven't read any of his books, but hearing any author died always makes me very sad.

*giggle* I agree with the others, it's nearly impossible for the author not to end up in their stories in some way. If the author isn't in there, someone they know is. I think half my problem with writing alot of the time is that I attempt to avoid that and it plain doesn't work.

First of all, I'm sorry that this happened to you. I've never met a cop I liked, aside from my grrlfriend, but she's no longer a cop, lol. In my experience, male cops tend to be very stereotypically male and very anti-queer. It may just be that I grew up in PA and then moved to a town mostly populated by rednecks, but I never felt safe around cops, either as a grrl or a queer person. I hate the way they treat my grrlfriend for being trans and I hate the "cops are above the law" attitude alot of them seem to have. Honestly, in your place, I would have felt both angry and threatened. Probably more threatened at the time and angry later. Cops have the power to make our lives very difficult without being questioned by most people and bigots with badges are very dangerous.

I have a few: Together Forever In Love ~Go Sailor (my grrlfriend sent me that song early on in our relationship and I adore it. It describes our relationship perfectly.) http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/G/gosailorl...nlovelyrics.htm Breathe (2 am) ~Anna Nalick http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/annanalick/breathe2am.html I Knew I Loved You ~Savage Garden http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/savagegarde...wilovedyou.html

If what I think happened, happened, I'll strangle you with your intestines, but not because the story sucked. You're not allowed to kill off any characters, you hear me? lol. j/k, you know I <3 you and your stories, no matter how sad.

In all my years of public school (from kindergarten to early 10th grade), I've dealt with very few good teachers. Out of all the ones I've had, only four stand out as truly exceptional teachers in both ability and intelligence. The rest are either mediocre or plain evil. Of course, before you can focus on educational goals and hiring teachers who have some idea of what they're talking about, you have to make schools safe. I used to go to a school in PA where there was a student teacher who molested at least two of the grrls in his class. The school didn't do anything but pass him on to another district. Most of the people who should be looking out for students aren't. That much is very clear to me. I fail to see how not firing (at the very least) a teacher who repeatedly makes sexual remarks to students is acceptable. I fail to see also how hiring a teacher whose grip on the subject they teach is almost nil and their level of maturity even less is acceptable. I never thought I'd hear my math teacher's opinions about which illegal drugs were the best or how she lost her virginity to a 28 year old when she was 15. I also never thought that telling that to a disciplinarian/assistant principal would nearly get me suspended for "spreading rumors about such a nice person". The lack of accountablity on the part of school staff is part of the reason I left public schools and would homeschool my children. The internet school I've been in since last year has been pretty good, aside from not giving the opportunity any debate between students or deeper discussions about literature or social studies because there are no classes, just books shipped to you and pdf's on the site. *edited because I left out a word*

Gah, I feel badly for Garret, but I can't really, since in the end his kindness and lack of listening to the warnings everyone gave him was what let what happened at the end of chapter 38 happen. As always though, the newest chapters are exceedingly well-written and interesting.

I second the magic wand comment.

My grrlfriend and I are planning to have at least one child and one of the things I worry about most is having that child/those children taken away from us. In addition to us being lesbians (well, I'm bi, leaning strongly to lesbian), my grrl is trans and we're kinky and non-conformative as all hell, so I'm concerned her family might not want us raising their grandkid(s) and will use one or all of those things to get custody of the kid(s). Which is probably paranoid, but considering the number of ways the law screws glbt people over, it's not like it couldn't happen. But yes, great article. It's nice to know that gay parents are gaining some much-needed positive attention.

Lugh: That was adorable Part of the reason that I'm always trying to perfect what I'm going to say before I write is because I don't want to write 310 pages and have someone go "oh, no, you only have 100 pages of the real story." Dark Star: Thanks for writing such a long reply. I have trouble with two out of three rules... maybe that's why I don't get much prose done. I tend to proofread/reread/change stuff in the middle of what I'm writing and by the time I've done that, I'm nearly ready to stab the computer screen. It annoys me, since the poems I write are usually just how I want them to be with little or no editing. colinian: *writes self a sticky note "never delete anything"* I have the problem where I think of something right before I fall asleep and wake up with a nagging sense that I was supposed to remember something. I'm glad you can remember things though

Get better soon!

I haven't run into a straight sex scene in any of the stories I've read here, but I'm not against the idea of one being put in a story if it helps the plot (i.e. someone who's gay pretending to be straight). I don't like sex scenes thrown into stories for the hell of it, gay or straight though.

I'm not very good with criticism, honestly. I tend to take things very personally, especially when it comes to my writing. Usually I read it, get offended, put it in the deep, dark depths of the Communication Abyss and wait til the sting fades some. Then I evaluate everything that was said and fix anything I think needs fixing.

You might find it easier to make up a genderqueer character too, you can make a more masculine character then, which might help you get over the awkwardness.

I think that straight relationships or hints of straight attraction or even a straight female friend here and there can be beneficial, even in a story with gay main characters, possibly especially in that sort of story. Too many stories with gay main characters seem to imply that we live on a planet where no one's straight and that sort of thing can be a bit...odd. Even in stories where the main character knows a whole slew of gay people and no straight folk, or even bisexuals in a male/female relationship. I mean, birds of a feather and all, but I keep thinking "where's this GayPlanet and where is the spaceship I can get on and go there?" Maybe if you wrote a series of scenes with gay characters interacting (or borrowed them from your other stories), and then made one of the characters female, it'd be easier? It'd be good practice anyway. I don't know about anyone else being interested in the addition of that kind of thing, but it adds to the realism of the story, I think. Also, lesbian relationships are teh love and might be easier to write cuz it's same sex stuff, just not male same sex stuff. (and if I completely missed the point of the question, forgive me, I'm operating on no sleep)

bwstories8: Thanks! The worrying about being fat thing made me remember something else I wanna put in the story. Graeme: YAY! The smileys and luck I've always wanted! *puts them beside my shiny new intarweb and pile of e-cookies* Thanksies.

All writers are well qualified unless their answer is "so...it's a week? what are you so worried about? it's not like she'll be pregnant for months or something" XDD.

Thanks for the ideas. Old bob, I'm reading Dreams of Humanity right now, thanks for pointing me to it, it's excellent.

Graeme: I hope I come up with one as good as yours. Kitty: This is one of those "everything about it is important" sort of things. The pregnancy itself is a big deal, because it outs a certain character to basically everyone and the kid's life is important cuz it's...well, unusual. There's alot of stuff that I'm planning to have happen during those nine months, but I don't know what to do with all the extra time.

Yay, no one's ready to kick me off because of the questions yet! I had thought about that, but I was planning on not going with the typical pregnancy/birth thing. Primarily because I don't believe that medical interference in the process is necessary and Main Character (nameless for the moment) is alot like me. I guess I could go with some other time-related indicator though. Just don't quite know what. Maybe I could have Main Character write a monthly letter to the baby and use that somehow?

If you began a story with the main character finding out she was pregnant, how would you deal with the following nine months?

Razor: Anne Rice is teh love and she's my favorite author ever. She's amazing *shuts up about that now* *goes to reread the very beginning of Rave Boy* Nickolasjames8: I actually write things like that, but decide it's bad/dumb/could be better. Perfectionism sucks. DomLuka: I have a bunch of ideas that I like. The best beginnings (i.e. the ones I could run with) are dialog ones or ones that are like one sentence, than dialog. Maybe I should stick with those for this time. If I don't start that way, I end up doing the