Adam Phillips

I have a short work in progress that won't be any longer than five chapters. I've written three. I'm stalled for two reasons: I know what I want to happen, but I can't figure out a plausible way to get there. And also, I didn't do my research ahead of time and I'm caught in a knowledge-deficit. My story involves the Air Force as a background, and I don't know squat about the Air Force. This has implications for my setting and for some of the plotting. And some of the questions I can't really get answered from books or online; I'll need to consult a real-live Air Force guy and brainstorm with him. I decided it was just easier to put it on hold and move on to something else. But I'll get back to it. This year, some time, hopefully.

Some people enjoy getting offended. It's high drama for them. You won't be able to prevent that. Aside from that, if you're heart is pure and you really really believe, it should be all good.

Love sports. In HS I played on the football, soccer, and baseball teams. I went to college on a soccer scholarship. I play basketball these days, I'm in an adult men's soccer league, play some handball/racquetball, and I do a little boxing. Never really got around to learning tennis.

You have to tell her, once, as gently as you can, and then let it go: "He is not good for you, he is not demonstrating the behavior that a guy who cares for a girl exhibits, and you deserve better, and you need to think better of yourself than to put up with that kind of behavior from him. If you don't cut him loose he is going to hurt you again. There; that's my opinion, but I have no control over what you do. We won't talk about this again, and if you choose to stay with him, when he breaks your heart again I will be there for you and will not tell you I told you so, but I'm asking you when and if that happens to remember this conversation. Now, let's go to a movie."

Okay, I couldn't leave it at that. Somebody might actually believe I mean it. I'm only through A Summer Love and haven't looked at your Bridgemont stuff yet. But I thought Be Rad and Man in Motion were both most enjoyable. It's always fun for the reader to have loveble characters that aren't subjected by the author to assisted suicide. It's also nice when scumbags who assist in a suicide themselves end up dying alone and in pain. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy. Even if the rest of the story hadn't been good, that alone would have been enough for a "thumbs up" review from me. :devil:

I think your stuff sucks. All of it. In more ways than I can possibly enumerate.

LOL. Here's the deal. I'll be in a better place to write more steadily once the semester's over, but if I'm not allowed a weekly posting schedule I'm afraid I won't have time to finish Crosscurrents by the time Chapter 22 comes around. I'm not a speed demon like Arbour. So you gotta find a way to accept, you know? If I were to accommodate your wishes, that would create trouble for both of us over the long haul. Just repeat the Serenity Prayer a couple of times and read the chapter of New Improved CC every Friday. (Well, not that much improvement, but that's what they say about soap, right?)

The thing that strikes me as intriguing is that apparently there are demographic pockets oddly distributed across the US characterized by different reactions. I guarantee this has already happened at high schools in the Dallas area, with male and with females. Already when I was in high school (I graduated in '98) the whole gay thing was not any particular big deal in my school. Not even among the group that's often reviled in story and song for being the most homophobic of all demographics...the jocks. And when I got to college there was even more acceptance of gay people by straight people. Which is not to say that I never ran into virulent homophobia in high school or college. I'm just saying that for the majority of my cohort at both places, it wasn't any big deal. And if that's true in freakin Dallas, surely it must be becoming more and more the norm everywhere. Then again, Dallas is not some small town in Mississippi.

I'm glad you've liked the start. I do hope you can resist the temptation to head to them other places. I'm tweaking the writing a little bit here at Gay Authors. Not in a big way. In fact my long-time readers will likely not even notice. Also, the layout and formatting at crvboy just aren't good. My writing style really relies on short paragraphs quite occasionally. One-sentence paragraphs, and even occasionally, one-word paragraphs. They need white space between them. I write my chapters in block-paragraph style, spacing between them, with no indent at the beginning. Crvboy's presentation of my story indents the beginning of the paragraph, and doesn't space between paragraphs. It looks cramped and it messes with some of the "pacing" I intend for the reader to take. So just hang in and be patient; there's a new chapter coming every Friday! And thanks for reading.

You're at the aforementioned second thought, LOL. You're right. Adam Phillips is a pen name. So...a bit odd. Except for the fact that I would like the story's protagonist to get a little distance from the author. I've said that the story has autobiographical elements. But I don't know that I want readers necessarily to look at the story and say, "That's Adam." Especially as time goes by.

I appreciate your appreciation. Thanks! 22 is not the end. It's just where I quit writing. While all these earlier chapters are being posted weekly, I can finish the story. There are 10 or 11 more chapters for me to write. By the time we get to Week 22, I'll have the remaining chapters written. As for the changes, they're little, and they're mainly about literary things rather than about story. Nothing in the story changes. Not much in the sentences even change. A typo corrected here and there; a clunky metaphor replaced or deleted; a better sentence replacing an odd one. Nothing major. Except I'm changing the protagonist's last name. That's kind of major, I guess. But don't ask me why. It's kind of ridiculous. In fact, it's ridiculouser than you might first think. At second thought you might realize why it's ridiculous. Then at third thought you might realize why it's not. But don't think that much. Just accept that I'm changing the protagonist's last name. Aside from that, no major changes.

LOL. I have several Mark Arbour novels to get through first, anyway.

I'm glad you like it, West...I'm tweaking it a little for Gay Authors. It will be the New Improved Crosscurrents, Now With Brightening Agents! Actually, like improved laundry soap, most people won't even be able to tell the difference. The changes won't even be that big. A typo corrected here, a word changed there, some imagery tweaked, a literary cliche dumped. The writing improvements probably won't register with people; they'll just make me happier.

Nah, that's not it at all! Well, maybe not entirely... I should say that I dearly love A Map of the Harbor Islands...I've lived a good bit of it personally...but not everybody is as crazy about the story as I am. Persistent, pesky little bastards. I'd have walked away from them years ago if I could have.

Yeah, but this assumes that stories about someone with a fetish for a toe up the ass are by their very nature lo-quality. I maintain that in the right hands, any premise can be made into a story that's well-written and compelling. Perverse, maybe, but compelling. Yeah, there's lots of bad writing at Nifty. But there's also hi-quality non-smut that shows up like a needle in a haystack over there. Not many people have the patience to sift through it all to find that. And to be honest, I myself don't anymore. But that's not to say that I won't ever again. Sometimes it's fun to find the hidden gems. The fact that they're surrounded by so much garbage makes the finding all the more satisfying an experience.

Thanks for the BD wishes for John, Tim. He's not really an "online" kinda guy so he seldom comes here. I've sent him an email letting him know someone left a birthday greeting for him in this Forum. I know what you mean about Sam's story making you a better person. Sam was an inspiration. I loved him so much, even though I never met him in real life. I miss our chats like everything. He helped keep my head on straight. Or bi. Or whatever. John is every bit the man that Sam is, though he'd deny it. They're really nothing alike; But John is a first-rate guy. I'm also honored to know him, not just to have been Sam's friend.

I'd never admit to crying over a song. But if I were to admit, I'd have to admit that I'm a sucker for the poignant tune. Particularly if it resonates with my own experience. Here's a song that was first sung to me, accompanied by guitar, by someone important in my life, not that long ago actually. Since then, it's been one of my maudlin-romantic favorites.

Some day you oughta read my story Crosscurrents. At least when it gets to Chapter 15. That song has a special relevance. What a great tune.

Thanks, Bugeye. I'm several novels behind with my good e-friend Mark Arbour and he's such a speed demon. But once I'm current with him I'll check out your stuff. Thanks for reading, and thanks for stopping by.

I don't know if you've ever read J. G. Hayes' A Map of the Harbor Islands, but I think it's one of the finest gay novels I've ever read, and actually one of the finer novels I've ever read. Anyway, in the preface Joe Hayes talks about how he began writing the novel, but 9/11/2001 caused him to stop writing on it, because the times seemed too somber for the tale he was telling. Then he says, "But eventually I returned to it, of course, for it seemed Danny and Petey, the heroes of this work, would stomp on my stomach at night while I tried to sleep, demanding to be birthed." That's exactly how I feel about Andy and Matt. They won't leave me alone. The story won't leave me alone. I'm compelled to tell it. I have to get it out. The two-year period where I abandoned Andy and Matt to work on the story of Sam and Brian in It Started With Brian, I felt them looking over my shoulder. Patiently, because they loved Sam and Brian too, but letting me know they weren't going anywhere. The day I finished ISWB, it's as though Matt said to me, "Okay, dammit, time to saddle up. Let's get this done." Who can oppose Matt? Can't be done. So the long and short of it is this: The story will be finished this year. You'll get a new chapter every week until the very end. Whatever it takes to get them to stop jumping up and down on my stomach.

Sorry. Honestly I'm not trying to hurt you. And I for sure wouldn't want to punish a reader who's stayed with the whole thing in an earlier version! I'm pacing it for first-time readers. I know that's extra-hard on some of my long-term readers, especially people who want a block of material at a time. So you're perfectly within your rights to wait until I have a lot more out there.

I hear you about the "sad," Tiger. But trust me, the story has a happy ending. Sam wrote the final chapter himself. The "plot" finishes off well before Sam discovered he had cancer. It's a celebration of love and light in a guy's life.

I always liked this way of putting it:

Now there's an interesting proposal, and cheaper too! Man, am I glad those days are over. Been there, done that. Interested in buying a pre-owned one? Nah, that wouldn't work, would it? Yeah. It's drudgery, isn't it? I did not enjoy working on mine at all. At all. Starting up my online writing again is much fun-er.

What he said.