Ibsu

(Just as an aside, there was a McCain for President ad on there... Irony, no?)

I'm in.. I've got a great idea about an atheist getting drawn into the Pagan world.

A Xanthlogy? (27)

I think the harder one to justify is how someone's wife lives in a different state than them. I mean, yes, Cheney changed his residence to Montana, but that was shady itself.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" That's just too cliche... wait... did I hear Clancy? Never mind, then.

That's when Brian shakes Sean violently to create the time machine again, and Sean does... after twenty years of watching Brian suffer. (Sean always had this plan - he wanted Brian to understand what Davey went through, and see if Brian ended up finding someone else. OF course, Brian doesn't.) Then he silently recreates the machine, Brian goes back and saves Davey, and THEN they live happily ever after.

It's still possible! Don't give him any ideas (And yes, I loved the chapter. I actually liked that we didn't have to watch Jeremy die.)

And in DO1/2, protease inhibitors had already been started... unless that wasn't in the letter given to the president...

Full disclosure: I am a former evangelical/pentacostal Christian, and did just that trying to fool myself into being straight. (I'm better now. ) I guess I see it differently. Are they tribalistic? Sure! But we ALL are! Every single one of us, whether we like it or not, separate the world into "us" and "them." None of us would put KKK members in our "us" group, for example. Does that make us bigots against racists? Maybe. That said, the Unitarian-universalists would be a church that does not separate the world into believers and non-believers. Further, the United Church of Christ, as well as being affirming are also very lax in their "heaven/hell" theology. But these places are tribalistic because humans are tribalistic - they're doing nothing less than human nature. And for the most part, I think it's a subconscious measure. But Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism is so appealing not because they don't have to think, but because it's a place to belong. It's not that they don't think, but it's that they try to advance along the tribalistic thought. Very few of us have thought through our personal philosophies from the ground up, myself included. To the extent I have, it's incredibly emotionally taxing and isolating. But these people do think about ways to make the world a better place. It's just that their thoughts on how to make it a better place and ours are completely different. They see a world where individual churches join up as the center of society, responsible for caring for the poor and those who have come on hard times. Many larger churches have a Harvest Center or similar that distribute food to the community. One Catholic church I went to as a youth housed homeless men in the winter. The Salvation Army is both a church and a charity. That's the more devious piece of neo-conservativism... It's not that they want no safety net -- it's that they want Christianity to be the safety net. To them, government cannot do the job effectively because it does not submit to Christian principles and further, hinders Christian charities by making them less needed. If Christians don't center as the core charity, a fundamental piece of their evangelism is cut off. In this, we agree. My thinking above is heavily influenced by Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer." The book rocked my world shortly after deconverting. I don't agree with all of it, but what book can we? *laughs*

The thing about AZT is that it was actually first synthesized in 1964 as an anti-HIV drug. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZT) That's why it was able to make it to market so quickly. I didn't catch that part of it being on trial now, though.

The bigger question I have is, why isn't Jeremy on AZT? In the other DO timelines, he got the information out. I presume that one of those letters was about AIDS and how to control it, wasn't it?

Chapter 6 just didn't hit me that hard. I blame it on me being too jaded. A little angry, yes, but not really all that emotional. However, I still thought it was a good chapter - just not the catharsis that others found it.

For perspective: 1. No, I haven't shared much of my writing with the general populace myself, and the one time I started, I myself got a very disheartening letter over, of all things, a disclaimer. (This was nifty.org, and I got a bit too cute, yet someone went off the deep end and I thought twice over continuing.) 2. I myself have taken long breaks from online communities, largely out of burnout. That said, I do hope you reconsider, even if it means taking a break. As you've established your audience, I would hope that you consider writing for publishers next and take your craft to the next level even if you leave the amateur world. One of the hardest things as a creator is learning to suffer fools and their criticism. (Oh, and I did buy my electronic copy of The Wreckers - I hope those who would hope to sway his decision would choose to find themselves near https://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=133229 pretty soon.

I am profoundly confused about the chapter, though. 1. If Sean would have come back, what memories does he have? Does he "remember" this timeline? How did he figure out Davey and Sean had become best friends in this timeline? 2. Do we discount chapter 39 in DO2 for DiR? I mean, it sounds so much like a seventh grader's perspective, something that's difficult to mimic. 3. How does Davey get past his father, who can tell the difference between old Davey and young Davey? I just figured Davey would stay young and we'd see Sean deal with all the problems with being the old man amongst young'ns this time.

Hrmmn... yes, I still have to read it again... I hope I didn't lose it in the laptop crash... I think I backed it up... (One of the online buyers)

Oh, of course you set it up quite well! Papa might not need an electronics store, but Davey's dad sure could use one right about now! He just got his father a job -- and, since he's within a few hours from Steve Jobs and the other homebrewers, guess who becomes incredibly successful - and influential! PS - I just hope he remembers to get a hold of Brian's uncle.

I would actually suggest a flashback mechanism. Start yourself with two timelines in each chapter - the first part is about present, and then the next part incorporates a moment that ties into the present, those moments coming in chronological order through the chapters. Yes, it means quite a bit of rewriting. A similar thing happened to me in a large, as-yet-unreleased story. I waved my hands over the introduction (because I'm really not good at them) and kind of skipped over the hard parts, thinking that I would just weave a thread through them. Unfortunately, what I found out is that those hard parts were goiing to result in a large plot hole and an overpowered main character. So, here comes the major rewrite where instead of the protagonist being a Ph.D student in Physics (of which I don't know nearly enough to write!), he's an artist. Who, it's going to turn out, really wished he would have gone through a few more science and engineering classes. Sometimes the rewrite is the solution.

It's most difficult when you can't actually move to find a job. Other than writing, what are your qualifications? What are you looking for?

There are whole sections of gay fiction in the bookstore. Unfortunately, most of them are relegated to the gay and lesbian section. Anne McAffrey's Pern series had many major gay and lesbian characters, but it was fantasy and tied to the mythos of the realm.

White boxers - I'm boring.

Okay, that cleared up in Chapter 40. What I *thought* happened is that Brian had figured out a plan after the last diary had been revealed to us. So, then, how did Sean, being on a timeline where the scientist was still around, *or* being on a timeline where the scientist had been killed, know about the attack? Sorry, overanalyzing it, I know

Wow... I started reading it over again (since 30 should be posted by the time I get there) and Chapter 6 had me teary eyed again. Almost that we didn't have someone to do it over with information about AIDS at the time. Even though I didn't understand waht was happening when I was living through the start of the epidemic, I do remember my uncle's partner dying two days before Desert Storm, and a friend's sister just last year. the "what ifs" are endless.

great chapters! I was floundering around until 39 when you really delivered the payoff. But.. will we find out exactly when Brian went back to in time? Or... how many times he had to do so for the right result to occur?

I still love music videos. In fact, I see them all the time on Yahoo's Launch. Seriously, the music video in American culture is an art form, and I don't think it's going to die off completely, it will merely morph. We've already seen things like AYB go across the net, will that too happen with other music? I'm trying to remember the songs with the angry kitties, but there's another example.

I still wish he'd stuck with the pre-WWIII ending. Of course, I've never been a huge clancy type, but hey.