JJQuinn

@Cane23YESSSS! That's always been one of the biggest problems that they had. Fact that they considered one another brothers, family which made having an emotional connection more dangerous for both of them in the sense that it could easily break them the relationship didn't work. And we saw that it has broken him and Sam some ways. It will get fixed though later in the novel by something that Max does that is proof he's accepted and moved on past his relationship with Sam and truly embraced Ben as his family, not just as an addition that comes along with Sam by default. Hah Emma needs to be put on that job for sure. She does love her Disney Princesses so that might actually work out well lol I haven't written that part yet but I have a feeling that you just inspired that particular moment. 😂

I forgot to address this part which is completely on the mark. Sam on iously had qualities that Max was drawn to and in some waya felt safe with. The ones he couldn't handle are in part, what prevented their relationship from moving on into something more lasting. Roman, has qualities that are unique to compliment Max's makeup just like Ben has qualities unique to him that compliments him. Tara said it in just found heaven. That Roman needs a very specific kind of man. One that is in a sense, more aggressive than Sam was capable of being in a relationship. Not in a bad way but with a certain dominant streak that matches Max's. They're similar in so many ways . Both southern, both strong , and both very very protective of their people. Which obviously means they will be protective of one another as well eventually. It's already starting. Like you pointed out, Roman doesn't get offended easily by Max's nonsense. He gives it back to him , pushes him, challenges him and that's going to be a continued theme. Has protective streaks that Roman isn't being used to being turned on him. He's used to being the protector, not the protected. But we'll see more of that later by how Max responds to situations with Roman as well as another's character in particular.

Thank you @Cane23. I always appreciate your perspective. You're on my wavelength 95% of the time I wasn't sure, but I'm glad that it read that way. There are definitely skating around the intimacy issue as far as hearts are concerned (not other parts!) LOL but we did see Romans perspective in the two last chapters of Just Found Heaven so kind of know where he is already. Not LOVE yet, but DEFINITELY a STRONG LIKE. Max is just very squirrely. He's stuck between feeling a sense of loyalty to his feelings for Sam, because he had them for so long and knows he messed up any chance of the relationship between them, even though he also knows and has admitted that Ben is a much better choice for Sam. He's sort of at a crossroads right now, holding on to a memory out of a sense of guilt and because it's SAFER. The next chapter is going to show more of a shift. There will be a lot of snark and silliness in the beginning because Tara is involved so we know how that goes LOL but after she leaves there's going to be actual clothes on conversation between him and Roman and a lot more contact as to why Max is the way he is when it comes to relationships. The emotional constipation isn't because of a past romantic relationship that went wrong as much as it is family dynamics. Because whom do we learn to love from, and first? Yep, you guessed it, family. Which of course is the foundation for the entire series. Every novel will always go back to the bonds between friends and family. You're correct. Max makes a lot of excuses for the feelings he's beginning to develop for Roman because of that conflicted sense of what he should be feeling for Sam especially after everything he put him through. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a parallel. He did admit that Roman reminds him of Sam in some ways but he also pointed out even if it was only to himself, the fact that in some ways Roman is stronger than Sam. Granted, Sam saw and did some dark things while he was the military. Granted, Black Ops is something that very few human beings can handle . Most of them come out with issues of and poor integration habits when they have to get back into society . You can read about it or listen to tons of podcasts from former members of Special Forces teams, but Roman also went to prison which we will learn about in the next chapter and he has his own ghost, both living and dead to deal with. Max admires that tenacity that Roman moves forward with, and reflection how he treats his Misfits and people that he considers his. And I think it's already pretty clear that Max is starting to fall into that category. Like you said, Max through his own words at him so a promise that he doesn't even realize yet, but Roman certainly does . He's not stupid. And he's very very patient. On to continue editing the next chapter. It's written but I just have to finish editing it. Thanks for always sticking with me.

Thank you. I always appreciate you taking the time to comment. And you were the first one this time lol yep he is still on his mind, but that will change eventually. Against his better judgment LOL they will have their clothes on for the next two chapters 😁

"If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?" -Lily Tomlin MY GRIN widened as I leaned my left shoulder lazily into my bedroom’s open doorframe to support my weight while I lounged against it. I wanted to be comfortable as I gorged myself on the visual bounty laid out before me with all the promising potential of the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving. Roman had followed half of the directions I’d given him in the bathroom; he was situated naked and gorgeous on

Hi Mike thank you. I intend to finish them all just not sure when. Health is not cooperating and some of the medications given for the muscles spasms make my mind fuzzy so writing has been an issue. But I do intend to finish them all. I wanted to finish them all by this year but it looks like it'll be maybe some this year and some next year. This one maybe I'll do. It's pretty light and fluffy and is a doable goal by the end of the year. It is a heavy revision of a story I wrote like 15 years ago so I'm essentially rewriting it. I have most of the next chapter done. I also have most of the next chapter of hood and holy water and Coloring Outside the Lines done so it's a thing of which one do I work on. I just have to see where the mind goes. In the original version Jessie wasn't trans but it works out better for the new version just new times and relatable to more people. I have a lot of stories that are in the making but just haven't come about yet. If I could just connect my brain to some kind of amazing computer that would write the stories for me it would be fantastic cuz it's all in there it's just getting it out lOL but thank you for commenting and following along. If you like the cheerful fluff you might like the short piece I did last year for the Anthology. I actally missef the Anthology date so I posted it separately.

You know me sir... Max and Sam will start coming to terms midway here but towards the end they will come to terms and so will Max and Ben. And yessss I didn't think of it that way but you're right. Max has been more Sam's brother than Connor for decades minus the fact they were bonking lol... Mild pseudo incest.

Cane, you are always so perceptive! Yep this and the next chapters will be big turning point for the adult toddlers. There will be some nods to the past... I'm sure you will pick up on the parallels. They are so stubborn lol.

Yep! She'll be introduced in this book but won't be a huge character until sweet Cherry chapstick which is Tara's book

Thanks for that. I always appreciate your insight. They are definitely the opposite of Sam and Ben who were slow burn Romance to eventual hot and heavy. Max and Roman are doing it backwards but the next chapter will have a little bit more insight into max and his relationship issues. Some sort of daddy issues but a lot of it is stuff that was already touched upon in Halos and heroes and just found heaven. Mostly that he didn't think he was good enough for Sam, but the why. Still, knowing the why doesn't necessarily change the behavior. It's going to be a process and we saw in Romans point of view and just found heaven that he already is a little bit more into Max even if he won't admit it. You'll see some of that in the next chapter and then in chapter 8 as well. There was supposed to be a lot of in the next chapter but I'm not sure yet because it might not fit the tone now that I look at it. So I have to see . And there will be a portion with Adeline in it as well showing how Max reacts with other people. LOL and Tara of course is Tara and she will be featured a little bit in the next chapter as well again. Her story should be shorter than the others but it's going to be more of a novella since she's already had a lot of her story introduced in Halos and heroes and just found heaven and we'll have more of it showing in put in holy water . One of the characters that's going to be introduced in hood and holy water and has already been mentioned will become her love interest later on. Not Sloane though.

Ooooooo OK I misunderstood you lol. Sorry! Most people love Sam and Ben as a couple. Oops! And yes I agree with you. Some of that will be addressed much later in the story as the heat dials down enough for the emotions to amp up. Roman is much more possessive than Ben is so he will share on his terms and give Max just enough rope not to hang himself with It will get very awkward for a bit- Sam and Ben have a surrogate and oh boy... Max will be all about the big ugly feelings. Very different story but the damaged ones are always the most fun to write. Tara said it her POV in Just Found Heaven; that Max needs a very specific type of man....that Sam was a soldier but, 'baby boy, you need a SOLDIER a la Miss Beyonce herself."

Sam and Ben? Many people do It was the first book and introduced everyone and Sam was a damaged man with a gentle heart and Ben is most people's dream guy. Makes sense for most. Ben for me, is a little too goody goody. He's the ideal man (tough past yet he rose above and is so righteous I wrinkle my nose lol) and what Sam needed as a character because he was so damaged. I tend to prefer Max's hot mess lol. He has more to redeem for. It will get I to that eventual. Right now it's more the heat factor and being a smart ass but he has a heart that will be see more as he interacts with others like Adelyn.... Pseudo uncle Max does no harm but takes no shit from anyone who hurts his Addie-Cat lol... I agree. They're falling, but they will fight it tooth and nail because they're stubborn. Roman is a little further in (based of his chapters in JUST FOUND HEAVEN) but he hides it better. Cool cucumber while Max goes all in and balls out to hide the hurts. Some of it is going to come out in the next chapter. Vulnerable Max equals feral cat Max, so Roman has to buckle in. I'm glad you're following along! Hope the next chapter will land well and slowly as characters work their way in we will see other sides. And yep! He and Tara will eventually get there. Probably at the end of her story. ♥️

“Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go, it’s pretty damn good.” — Woody Allen “JUST AS an FYI, you probably should’ve brought your blueberry surprises in here with you. Out there, they’re in the wild with a beautiful hell beast who’ll house them in an impressive heartbeat-small bites and chewin’ are not required.” I didn’t bother turning around as I addressed Roman because he was standing so close that I could feel the heat radiati

Oh yes she does. LOL I always look forward to your Insight because you're usually so on the nose or so close to it that it makes me giggle. Alexis definitely has insiders and there will be a lot of twists and turns. She will try to play them all against each other. Nobody is going to want Griffin there because of course there's that suspicion that he did help her especially because of the way the news manipulated the story and there will be a short flashback scene as to what happened in the church and how she didn't kill him when she could have that leaves suspicion on Griffin . Doesn't matter if he's innocent. If you're guilty in the eyes of the public, then you're guilty. He and Sean will be tested, and there's going to be some things I don't think people will see coming. It's also unrolling in my head as we go along. I had a whole plan like in my book written down of what I was going to do slowly it's turning into something else so lots of twists and turns even for me . And of course she's going to have help LOL she can't be who she is and not have some link to the outside world. I can't say that she's ever going to redeem herself because she's on redeemable honestly no matter what her motivations are, which will come out later, but she has a moment let's say. Not a Redemption Arc but a moment. But there's going to be a lot of head games in the next chapter which I anticipate being probably about as long as this one because there's going to be a lot of cat and mouse and of course the flashback and then as they're finding information he'll be leaving the room and coming back talking to the team and coming back Etc I'm so glad that you're enjoying it. I know how much you like my deep family dramas so this is something that I'm not really strong at and I know that so I'm glad that so far it seems to be drawing people in. I know it's darker but I'm trying to keep it from being too ugly even though obviously there's children involved so going to be hard to read for anyone who has kids and being a former pre-kindergarten teacher and just a very soft hearted person in general it's tough for me to think about it but I just try to detach and think of it as just a story because that's all it is. If I ever learned about somebody doing anything like this to the children that I know, including my friend's children come on my nieces my nephews etc, I would be the one wearing pretty silver bracelets, but as far as I'm sorry we can push ourselves as writers. I might be Switching gears though for a hot minute lOL I'm going back to Max and Roman because I just write as it pops into my head kind of what I'm feeling that day so I have most of the next chapter for Max and Roman written well most of the next two chapters so I might work on those and then go back to this. It all depends on if the person who was being a better reader for me before can edit those while I work on Alexis and Griffin . We shall see.

LOL thanks Cane. I try to do certain things like in this case keep it dark keep it very serious but I can't LOL I mean it's dark don't get me wrong . As you read along you'll see that it's dark , but I have to sneak myself in there which is my humor. Can't wait to see what you think of the rest of it. Thank you

Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin. We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.” — Maya Angelou “LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, welcome to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. We’ve now landed and arrived at our final destination. We kindly ask that you remain seated with your seatbelts firmly fastened until the aircraft comes to a complete stop, and that nifty little sign up there indicates that you can remove them. Thank you so much for choos

I appreciate that thank you. Yeah I've noticed that a lot in gay fiction. Even the published stuff the characters are usually not nice or the best friend that's super bubbly and doesn't get flushed out further than that. I try to make my characters as realistic as possible which you know that by now but I never want to seem stale or repetitive because I do tend to write in the genres that I'm comfortable in which are romantic comedies and or family dramas with all the ups and downs and sometimes we don't like the characters very much. Ben was loved. Sam was appreciated and people could relate to his struggle, and Max was not like very much LOL which is fine because I want readers to be able to see them as relatable humans even if they're not very well liked humans. Tara story is mostly plotted and plans including her love interest, which will be someone that Sloan is friends with, but has a career path that's similar to her brother, nate. So that will cause the usual ups and downs. Attraction, but also fear because of all the parallels and her history of losing her brother. Christy will show up again later in Coloring Outside the Lines but her role will be very different and instrumental so I wanted to make sure that she and Aiden sort of ended on a good note and showed that she would be willing to help when needed. Especially when it becomes a big old mess which will happen lol. I appreciate your input as always. I just never want to be a one-trick pony and I'm so glad that so far that hasn't happened.

Thanks @Cane23 I appreciate that. I didn't realize that you vacation so much in greece. When I eventually get to that story that I'm rewriting that did win a competition years ago called Stupid Cupid but I'm changing it to other cupidity, I'm basing the new one off of several prompts and just adjusting so it takes place in Greece and as I've never been there, I will be picking your brain for details and to make sure that I'm setting the scene properly. You're always a helpful support so thank you so much. I've always liked Greek food even though afro Caribbean cuisine is nothing like it lol. But I like baklava and if course chicken souvlaki and anything lamb. I also like... gosh what is it called and now I can't remember, the spinach pie with the freaky though. So yummy. I try not to write but you characters. I mean Alexis and there's no such places Neverland will be a very complicated and as you pointed out a bit of a female Hannibal Lecter though I don't want her to fall into that format so I don't want it to be a copy in any way. But she will play Mind Games to the extreme and just not be a very nice person even though she has reasons for being the way that she is. She'll still not be a likable character. Maybe a tragic character in the sense of you'll feel sorry for her at some points would be also despise the things she's done. I don't often write bad characters, so this will be interesting I'm just alwaysI'm just always afraid that because I tend to write in the genre of romantic comedies or family dramas with a lot of supporting characters to flush out the story that he might get stale and I'm trying to avoid that. Thanks for the input.

Hah tzatziki sauce is AMAZING. I used to eat it with fresh sliced cucumbers and some good naan bread. Delish with fresh dill. I'm so glad that you're getting the feeling of sexy hope Fair that's kind of what I'm going for. Since we got the first three chapters from Sev's point of view I wanted this to be from Aiden's but it's sort of has to be his own POV on the same ideas in a way. It's hard when you switch back and forth between characters because you want them to have their own individual voices and it can be tough in first person. I do have a question for you and @Cane23 b because since you both mentioned parallels between Christy and Tara I went back and read it and I'm beginning to see it too. Unfortunately when I write female characters, a lot of my own personality seems to find its way in there. The snark, Gallows humor, love of food lol. But my biggest fear as a writer, like any writer I believe, is of becoming a one-trick pony. So is the parallel between her and Tara so obvious that I should find a way to change aspects of her personality if I can? I'm not sure if I will be able to but I'm open to suggestions. I'll just have to be very aware of it for the next time that I have to write a female character. In there's no such places Neverland, Alexis is very different. I'm finishing up that second chapter and hopefully we'll get it up by the end of the week. But she's also a complete psychopath LOL so she's pretty far out from any female character that I've ever written before. I just don't want my characters to come across as the same personality over and over again just with different names, so I am always open to suggestions if you guys start seeing that. Please let me know because then I have to do a hard check and regroup. I appreciate you both. Thank you.

I'll have to add this to my TBR pile since it seems to be so well received and I do love a good western. I think I already have the Sidewinder series noted as to be read in the future, but I'll add this one as well. Thanks for the suggestion.

I do love a good Western so I'll have to put some of these on my ever expanding TBR pile. That list is ever growing. Far too many talented people on this site lol. Congrats to all who made it.

Lol!!!! I never saw the parallels before but I totally do now!!!! Lol maybe a long long cousin since you did give me the idea to stick Jeremy Ren in the Halos universe lol... Neve know... I agree. Sexuality can be complicated because humans are. Our heads might want thing but the body is occasionally on board with a broader spectrum of possibilities.

Aiden SEASONED professional screenwriters couldn’t have set the mood for romance any better if they’d tried…the soft glow from the hundreds of strings of small lights wrapped around the poles strategically placed around the rooftop restaurant wound up along the open work trellis overheads, lighting up the night sky like fireflies. A breeze, just strong enough to push back some of the lingering heat and humidity from earlier in the day when we’d been in the blistering vacuum of nearly tropic

Congratulations!

LOL yes, yes it is. That movie is what I aspire to when I want my readers to laugh, cry, then laugh some more with lots of other deep feelings mixed all up in there like Louisiana gumbo lol. There are not many movies or shows that can hold my attention or that I ever rewatch, but that one has been watched so many times that I've lost track over the years.