Mark Ponyboy Peters

@Canuk oh yes, so many folks "don't come into their own" until later in life, which is sad on so many levels. Just remember that Kevin is only 19 though -- just a few years younger than Kieran -- so he has reached a prime age for a person to realise and grow into their own sexuality. Better now than in another 20 years, and what better way to step into a new life than to have two cousins walking alongside you? Here's hoping that Kevin can find the courage to be true to himself, hopefully find "the one", and that the rest of his family is just as welcoming to his possible coming out as they have been for Kieran?

-- Chapter Fifteen -- Dinner was noisy, as it always seemed to be when the entire family was together. We all shared prawns and fillets of fish cooked on the barbeque, wrapped up in aluminium foil, with butter and sliced lemon and garlic. And Nan made her old favourite, her Tuna Mornay. It was all served with lashings of hot vegetables, which were most welcome considering the day was overcast and cool. Laughter crept back in, tentative at first, but then much freer, as old

@pvtguy thank you so much!

@Philippe thank you very much!

@weinerdog if I put the Rainbow Serpent on it as well, they might just figure it out though! lol

Oh, you never know, @Ivor Slipper

Thank you @Summerabbacat. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Part of the idea behind it was to start at the very beginning with Thompsonville. And another part was to show that the whole gay 'condition' (for lack of a better word) is universal. As for Septimus ... nah ... he was inspired by another idea altogether! But that story is a long way off seeing the light of day ... it's a little too far-fetched and complicated for me -- at this point in time anyhow. lol

@dboggs9700 I'm thinking of selling t-shirts! LOL

-- Chapter Four -- They sat on low plastic chairs beneath the shade of the verandah. One of the elders disappeared briefly and returned with enamel mugs of tea. No one asked if Tony took sugar. He didn’t anyway. The children had retreated a little, though he could feel their eyes on him from somewhere beyond the shade of nearby tea-trees. Aunty Pearl did not begin immediately. She sipped her tea. She watched Tony over the rim. ‘You write about this town,’ she said at last.

Hmmmm... let's see @Summerabbacat... Purple is OK. Purple Rain is not. I have a good voice, but the passage out is a bit rough. Maybe AI could help fix that? Yes, Sheena Easton is hot, especially when singing with Kenny Rogers! LOL

@Philippe and everyone else ... point taken ... the conclusion will post tonight, instead of tomorrow 😁

Ooops, my bad. I jumped the gun there. There is a second section of similar size (three shortish chapters) that is ready to post. I'll push it out on Friday, then that's it ... it WILL be completed then. 🙂

@Ivor Slipper @Summerabbacat all will be revealed in Part Two. 🙂

-- Chapter One -- The meeting room at the Macquarie Harbour Writers’ Centre had not been set up for this many people. Extra chairs had been dragged in from the hallway. A few latecomers stood along the back wall. Someone had even perched on the windowsill, notebook balanced on their knees as though they might catch inspiration mid-sentence. At the front of the room, Tony Scott sat on the corner of a table, one leg swinging lazily, the other braced against the floor. He held his la

Every town has a history. Every town has stories that have been handed down through the ages . . . stories that tell of people or events that may, or may not, be real. Thompsonville is no different. In fact, this town probably has more than most. Here’s another one of them!

Thank you @Summerabbacat there will be a few closeted skeletons revealed as time goes on, but ultimately I just want this to be an uplifting type of story that shows young guys like Charlie and Kieran, and even Tobes, and K's cousins, that all these hangups over sexuality are just not worth the effort, for anyone in this day and age! After all, Society has changed since Patrick's parents kicked him out! And just a heads up, there's another Thompson River Tale coming on Wednesday!

-- Chapter Fourteen -- Charlie was just finishing up with serving some customers when I called in to pick him up, just on six o’clock that afternoon. One guy did something of a double take when he noticed him behind the counter when he went to pay for his fuel. He gave Charlie a nod, neutral but not unkind. An older woman smiled. ‘Good to see you back here, love.’ Charlie swallowed and smiled back. ‘Good to be back.’ I noticed Matt hovering near the office door and said

Thank you so much! Glad that you enjoyed it! MP

What CAN'T this kid do??? MP

Thankyou @Summerabbacat I'm trying to make it a laidback kind of story, with just a bit of nostalgia thrown in. Life in a small coastal town just has so much appeal to me at the moment! lol And I have to admit that I was kinda proud of the 'clutching at pearls' line when I came up with it! hahaha! And yes, that's THE Matt. These boys will get to finally meet all the other guys ... though I'm still mulling over just how involved they all get. You can never have too many friends ... or so they say! Thanks for the comments! ♥️

-- Chapter Thirteen -- Our second full day in Sydney was New Year’s Eve, and it proved to be just as exhausting as the first, but it could have been worse, I guess, as – thankfully – we were unable to obtain tickets to do the Harbour Bridge climb. That was a relief! What we did manage to do was check out the Art Gallery of New South Wales, visit the Maritime Museum, take a look at Parliament House, and wander through The Rocks. If the truth must be known, we could quite have probably s

@Summerabbacat Garden gnomes? Haha! That's gold ... because to me they were like a couple of the Seven Dwarves ... I could just see them marching off to their little mine singing 500 miles! LOL Hmmm ... maybe there's more of a story in Patrick's running away from Mac Harbour as a teen. Oh geez, just what I don't need ... another idea! haha I've only been to the Imperial once. When I was in Sydney once at the end of a work trip I met up with a mate and his boyfriend and they took me there. I was that proverbial country boy in the big smoke ... goggling everything. Funniest night I've spent in my entire life watching that drag show that night! Those inner-city suburbs always held something of a fascination for me ... not really sure why. Maybe because they're a mix of old and new, poor people and yuppies, grime and trendy reinventions of the old. A fascinating mix really.

@chris191070 I AM NOT PLAYING IT . . . I AM NOT PLAYING IT . . . I AM NOT PLAYING IT . . . LOL

-- Chapter Twelve -- Uncle Leo’s four-wheel-drive wagon probably wasn’t ever meant to hold four adults, four overnight bags, a milk crate full of miscellaneous junk from the boot, a large cosmetics bag, and Pippa’s apparently non-negotiable Esky, yet there we were, all crammed in and buckled up just after dawn. In the end we decided to leave a day earlier, to give us a chance to get there and get settled before going to the Imperial to see Patrick’s show the following night. Charlie an

@Summerabbacat no, no and no!!!!! And I HATE that bloody Purple Rain song! haha!