E K Stokes

I was fifteen when I first saw him. Jude, a beautiful boy. I don't remember coming to that conclusion, his beauty. It was self-evident, a fact that declared itself. Like the sky is blue and the grass is green, Jude was beautiful. Was he unaware of it? I thought so. His shy smile and the way he carried himself, standing apart, seemed to suggest he was. But I was wrong. He was totally aware, the master of the game, and he played things out slowly. There were little moments. Him sitting next t

A compelling and unsettling coming-of-age short story about first love, deception, and the painful loss of innocence. The novel follows an unnamed narrator as he navigates the tumultuous landscape of his teenage years, a time made both magical and terrifying by his growing obsession with a boy named Jude.

I regret I have not replied sooner to all your comments, my only excuse is I left on vacation before the end of the competition and have just now arrived back. During my absence I had no internet, a vacation choice, hence my late response. That said, I feel I owe it to you all to give my reply, it's rather long, but there were lots of points made. The character of Morris. Not gonna lie. Morris gave me creeper vibe @kbois just say no and scream if someone touches you in your private places lol. @Jeff Burton Morris is a predator, ... he made me angry @Headstall I'm not sure is Morris predator or guru @Cane23 Morris strikes me as a possible predator @chris191070 Focus too hard on Morris, and it feels like grooming behavior @Thirdly taking the photos may cross a line, but I didn’t get the feeling of any malicious intent. @Lee Wilson Morris was wrong, no doubt but he helped a young man to crystallise his own inner turmoil. @Darryl62 I felt Morris was merely attempting to help Lucas become comfortable with being gay. @Bill W The slant on making Morris so understanding and just trying to help poor ole Lucas comes across as predatory because it is. I've met plenty of Morris's in my life. @Jason Rimbaud In this opening chapter, the entry for the Secret Author 2025 competition, the story plot and characters are being set, with a premier encounter and a revelation of a deep secret, Lucas is a boy attracted to other boys. As some readers commented, we are not sure if Morris is "guru" or "predator." This uncertainty is an essential part of the story, the characters are not black or white, but complicated personalities who act the way they do for varied reasons which may be viewed as good or evil, and your point of view may change. The character of Morris is complex, but the crucial point is he is a human being, as one commentator noted, "I've met plenty of Morris's in my life," and that is the whole point, he's real! The character of Lucas Not gonna lie though me at thirteen probably would have done it too @Jeff Burton you see a teen that's so desperate to accept himself, @Thirdly From Lucas viewpoint... it was a momentous interlude @Darryl62 we are left with the feeling that Lucas feels grateful for being abused @Jason Rimbaud Is Lucas desperate to accept himself or is he longing to find a place in the world where he is accepted? There is a difference. Without doubt his choice is dangerous, "momentous," but very risky. "We are left with a feeling that Lucas feels grateful for being abused," what Lucas feels grateful for is finding acceptance, certainly in an abusive context, but acceptance nevertheless, and that is a reality. Is it good or bad, we don't know, but draw our own conclusions all the same. The story sets the seen, exposes the complexities of the characters, but draws no conclusions, those are for the reader to decide upon. Trigger warnings There should have been a gigantic warning message on this one. What a terrible disservice to GA readers! @Tim Hobson I refuse to read this. ... this story needs HUGE TRIGGER WARNINGS @Inkognito I've read some serious violence and abuse stories here at GA. Comparing to them this story is not exception. @Cane23 I know you've read at least one of each, violent and abusive, because I wrote them. @Lee Wilson Trigger warnings are something I admit with hindsight, I should have consider, fortunately Cia addressed the issue very quickly. Taking a look at Lee Wilson's stories I didn't find trigger warnings. On other stories with phyiscal and sexual abuse I have not found warnings, but perhaps it is a development which older stories did not use. I apologise to those readers for whom trigger warnings should have been there from first publication. I take exception to a shout back that huge warnings are needed when if you haven't read the story how can you know? The story theme/plot I too found this v disturbing to read. @Gary L Morris blatantly broke the law...in any jurisdiction. @drsawzall We can hope that Lucas ended up at Hugo's a few hours later playing video games, and just a little out of it. @centexhairysub Perhaps if the story continued taking the masturbation topic further, i.e. videotaping, my thoughts may differ. @Lee Wilson This feels almost like a gaslighting, propaganda piece ... I find it disingenuous that the adult is written in such a way - @Dabeagle Utterly disturbing and creepy. @Camy The plot is disturbing and Morris blatantly broke the law, absolutely correct. Like any mystery drama, murders, grand theft, kidnapping, the characters, protanganist or antagonist may break the law, they are outlaws. That the story is disturbing, even creepy, illustrates it works, it puts the reader in the place where the characters live and the events happen, it provokes emotional reactions, fear and trepidation. The story does continue, as said previously, the Secret Author entry was in effect the first chapter, so you will have to decided how to interpret things if you read on. "Gaslighting" is a term I'm not very familiar with, but it refers to psychological manipulation and a questioning of one's own perception of reality, in that sense the term applies to this story. There is an undercurrent of manipulation and quite possibly the character of Morris poses a question which perhaps doesn't go so far as to make us question our perception of reality, but does pose questions as he hovers between what may be seen as good and evil. Thank you, @Mikiesboy this entry left me with more questions than I had before. @BendtedWreath Finally, "more questions," than answers is intentional, the story develops, expands, and changes as do the characters. Will all your questions be answered, I'm not sure they will be, but hopefully it's a good story and packed full of drama, a struggle if you like, between what's good and what's not, but each of you will draw your own conclusions. Thank you for reading and commenting, be sure, unless it's not your type of story, to pick up the book as the next chapters get published. For the lack of trigger warnings at the initial publication I once again apologise. For those who obviously didn't like the theme or the way the characters were drawn, then there are a wealth of stories on GA to choose from so you should easily find something to your taste. Thank you, EKS.

This is a compelling look at the journey of one young man who escapes the suffocating hypocrisy of a conservative religious divided family for the bright lights of a big city which offers a certain gay freedom. Perhaps one might quote the saying, "out of the frying pan into the fire," because with that gay freedom comes promiscuity and a somewhat lengthy road to true love. It's the story of a struggle and overcoming bigotry and finding true worth. A spotlight on America in the seventies that stands as a testimony to many young gay men's lives in that epoch.

@andy cannon thank you for your nice comments I am pleased you enjoyed this story ☺

You and me both 🤗

The gritty reality of STDs and the predominance of a single theme rather lend this story an air of an auto or semi-autobiographical novel. That our protanganist has a life heavily influenced by a controlling, egocentric, and obsessional mother, not just touched by religion, but buried in it, and worse unseeing of the hypocrisy is such an individual history. It is to his credit, as his late father told him, that Michael managed to escape his mother's demented world view, but I think like all or most gay boys trapped by such an upbringing, the consequences are far reaching, the escape propelled him into sexual promiscuity. Of course, one might say the time was right, it was the era, the epoch when free love was a hippy movement and coming out was in step with the whole gay movement becoming visible. He could just as easily have gotten lost in drugs, with pot, weed, whatever it was called and LSD. It was the time, he was there, very much of his time, even if this might only be true of big cities like San Francisco, it's where he chose to be. All that said he has some good karma or a guiding Angel because it seems like he is heading for a loving relationship which hopefully will reward him with that which he is just realising was what he was seeking. Not just escape, but salvation, salvation in the arms of the man of his dream.

I felt all those eyes appraising me as if I were auditioning for something or other. A roll in someone's bed! A role in someone's fantasy!

Introspection and a year or so goes by...

it is very difficult to convey and show what a twenty-something gay man felt upon entering the gay scene in San Francisco in the late 70's. I don't think you did a bad job, although it could have been two or three times longer because the little glimpses of encounters with house mates and at the hairdresser were short and notes passed back and forth like with the bank teller, just a mention, but I kind of imagined the scene. I do wonder how our 22 year old slipped so easily into casual sex with lots of different partners without any reservations, there's lots of sex, no hint of any deeper emotional connections, dare I say it, no falling in love.

Ha ha, in my ordinary life I use broken French because of my partner and because it's a difficult language to master, but hey, if people understand you and you them, what the hell, it's a multinational world!

It's not only in Spain, also in France, probably across Europe, but why do marketing experts think like that, perhaps it's the anglicisation of the world spread through the internet and social media and cemented by the use of English words with their own unique lingo by the younger generations?

As a new reader to your stories I would have found it easier to navigate if you had included a note, something like: this is the second saga which follows the history of two boys William and Andrew. The beginning of their story can be found here: Still, in navigating to find the information I was interested to note your author bio on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13277005-carter-s-army and discover the books are semi-autobiographical. Why don't you include your author bio here, it's a very nice intro to your writing. Anyway, thank you for your replies and I'm pleased to have discovered your writing and now I know where to start and have a lot of summer reading 😁

Yeah, I get that, although I have to say it's confusing to have a story which is part of a saga, written over twenty years, and where does it begin? I only looked quickly at the other site and the saga and thought it was probably a different saga because it's about teenagers and here it's about MI5 and adults. Really, I don't know, what's what and where it starts although here it states book 1, but you aren't going to go from adulthood back to teenage years, well probably not? Maybe some further clarification before starting the saga, like where do the other stories fit?

I guess you didn't look because there is a William Carter Saga, which I imagine @IBEX is referring to, on the site he mentions, crvboy.org, by the same author. But you are right, I think, it's not the same Carter Saga, but it isn't difficult to get confused and ask the question, it's all in the name. Carter's Army:William Carter I Chapter 01; © MMIII Christopher Lydon

Work and Docklands shiny towers overpowered relationships and their confused emotions a bit, but I guess if you know the environment it could be compelling?

It was a cool chapter, romantic even if it wasn't meant to be, but unrequited love, been there done that!

@flesco thanks for your nice comments and for following the story, pleased you liked it. I have a couple of other story projects, one I'm currently working on, another which is just an idea, but I won't forget these characters and I hope to get the inspiration to continue their histories, but it needs to be a good plot, because often sequels can disappoint, so we will see 🤞

Thank you, all of you commentators, @akascrubber @Ivor Slipper @Summerabbacat @drpaladin @drsawzall and the others, for your kind words, your interesting observations and plot guesses, all very encouraging and whilst I've written a few short stories before, this is my first story of any length and it was great to have so much reader support.

The final stretch of their journey, through the sun-drenched countryside, passed with a quiet efficiency. Then, almost before they realised it, the familiar red-tiled roofs and soaring domes of Florence appeared on the horizon. After weeks of travel, encounters, and profound personal discoveries, their arrival felt strangely uneventful, almost an anti-climax. Étienne's mission, the delivery of the Papal letter to Charles, had been completed weeks ago, a success that now seemed a distant memory.

A wonderful narrative that eloquently fits the genre bildungsroman (a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood, coming of age). The story evokes those books by famous authors like Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, R D Salinger, Catcher in the Rye, it has the sort of lazy summer haze that so easily places these early events right there in the heart of rural America of the 70s. I am looking forward to reading how things will evolve, a great start.

Well, realistically, yeah, I'm afraid it is a little too much to hope for. Not sure if it's specifically stated later, but the silver coin they had stashed is gone.

Thank you for that comment, I wanted to write exactly that, the capture and what they were put through, but without going into the horror in detail, focusing more on how they isolate one from the other, then gradually build back their relationship, the healing process more than the descent into Hell.

Étienne made a bad decision to carry on when they saw the smoke billowing into the sky and the consequences were dire. Taken prisoner, interrogated, and whipped, then raped, it is indeed a harsh world in medieval Europe and they were very lucky to escape alive (and get their mule back - the same one, still attached to the cart!).

Thank you, I pleased the story has captured readers' interest. Life was very different, society was very different, the views and opinions dictated by religion and sensibilities of another epoch which don't quite match with today. Personally, I revel in the difference and enjoy getting lost in the medieval lives of the characters.