Mark Arbour

You know, I wouldn't feel too sorry for Humphreys. If he gets back to England, even with his share of the prize money from Santa Clarita (assuming all of the silver on Bacchante is lost), he'll be a very rich man.

Another post-orgasmic whiner (see comment below)! LOL. Having Calvert come to the rescue has a certain appeal, especially since it will really annoy all the Calvert haters out there. That is not an unfrequented shipping lane, though, so it could be just about anyone. You're right, too, in that if Santa Clarita could get close enough to the corvette to get to grips, she's pound the corvette into dust. Then again, the corvette will be much faster in most winds.

I love bagpipes too. I think they're an instrument, though, that is tough to listen to if they're being played badly. A guitar is relatively forgiving, bagpipes are not. We'll have to see if your predictions turn out to be correct!

You're disappointed because you wanted more drama with Sir Tobias? That's like having sex with someone, giving them a spectacular orgasm, and then having them whine because we didn't cuddle afterwards. (LOL!) Seriously, I think that's part of the fun with this story. Sometimes a storyline blows up way beyond what you think it will, and sometimes it fizzles and resolves rather easily. I wouldn't worry though. There's enough drama ahead even for you. ;-)

Thank you for your comments! One has to wonder if the sharks ended up spitting Maidstone out. :-) That reminds me of an old joke: A priest, a rabbi, and a lawyer are in a small boat, being circled by sharks, with the shore not too far away. The boat isn't operational, so they decide someone has to swim to the shore for help. The priest and the rabbi both try, but are mauled as soon as they hit the water, and have to be hauled back into the boat, all wounded and bloody. The lawyer jumps out and swims to shore, unmolested. When he returns with help (I know, it's a stretch to believe a lawyer would do that...winks at Pvt. Tim) the priest asks him why the sharks didn't bother him. "Professional courtesy," the lawyer replies.

That is a tough break for Humphreys. The Royal Navy lost more ships to foundering than to their enemies, so the risk was real. I would think, though, that at some point, the Admiralty would probably draw your same conclusion, and decide that Humphreys was simply unlucky.

First of all, thank you for all of your reviews and comments. I really appreciate them. I really liked your ring theme, which didn't pop into my mind until now. I think Jeff Hayes would be ecstatic at how his family turned out, and I think he'd knowingly roll his eyes at all the drama. The guy that gets overlooked is Sam, and I think that as things are now, of all of JP's former lovers, he would have had the most calming effect on people. Brad is committing one of my occasional sins, and that's that he's letting his emotions rule his brain and letting that override how he reacts to Will. Robbie said it: they both know how to push each others' buttons. I do think Brad has a point, thinking that Will is doing some outrageous shit and that he may be doing it just to piss Brad off. And I think that he's approaching that in a ridiculously ineffective way. Will pokes him with the house, Brad reacts. He'll see Will's attitude toward the sex room and the bar in the same way.

Your whole family reads? You'll have to expand on that for me. Send me a PM...or post something in the forums!

You're welcome, and thank you!

I really smiled when I was writing the scene with Darius and Isidore, because I could so visualize Darius struggling to be cool about such a meaningful moment, and then see his wolf-like grin when he said the last sentence ("but since I'm not gay, maybe I can do better in some area").

Thanks! I thought that would work out well, what with Hank being a zealous cop and all, and with her appreciation for cutesy shit like that. I wonder what the divorce rate is for people who go for stuff like that, and get married on 11-11-11 or 10-10-10?

What a nice review! I was laughing as I read that. That's pretty flattering, where you look to a fictitious character for advice. I'd be careful about doing that with this series. LOL. You'll be at this party, talking to this guy who's borderline on your overall scale, and you'll channel Stef, wondering if you should fuck him or not. :-)

You're welcome! And thanks for the reviews and comments!

Acting like a pill? Where does that fit into Jeremy's "Current Trends" thread? You know, I think people underestimate the influence of things like beauty, and think that they will make their decisions rationally, without letting that influence them. I think that they do make their decisions rationally, because I think that as they're buying into this total line from this amazingly hot guy, they're also factoring into the equation the pleasure (I almost used the economic term 'utility') they get from his positive attention. (That's my way of saying 'we all do that')

Why thank you. I do try to surprise you all from time to time. :-)

August 19, 2001 I woke up slowly, moaning because of my headache, then a whole new sensation hit me, and I jumped out of bed and charged to my bathroom. I almost made it to the toilet before I puked, but even then luck was with me, as I projected the vomit into the basin and only a little bit splattered on the toilet seat. I wiped that off, wondering why it was down in the first place, then put it up and sat on the floor; waiting for the next heave that I knew would come soon. I w

August 1, 1798 HMS Bacchante Acting-Captain Humphreys stood on the quarterdeck of His Majesty’s Ship Bacchante, surveying the sea intently, his nose sniffing at the wind, which was warm in a way reminiscent of the Caribbean. Weston approached him with his characteristic smile. “Good morning, sir,” he said. “Good morning to you as well,” Humphreys said. He liked Weston, who was an excellent officer. He had taken over Humphreys’ duties as first lieutenant and

Who would ever want to break up with me? I'm not sure if I can even find them. If I do, maybe someday.

I somewhat arbitrarily set August 13, 2008, as the date that I started writing fiction. That’s when I first started hammering out Chronicles of an Academic Predator, a story spawned by thoughts of what havoc a rogue professor could do in the early 1960s. The era itself (1962-3) was chosen for less arrogant reasons than because that’s about when I was born, rather I picked it because I’d watched the movie Hairspray and it inspired me to look into that period of history. The rogue professor turned out to be anything but rogue, but that’s OK, because I like him better this way. Westie made these observations in a comment on one thread, which I will edit for brevity: There is much truth in his observations, and I found reflecting on them to be quite intriguing. When I was done thinking about it, I concluded that in fact these generations are also reflective of me at different stages of life. Some of you who have been around GA long enough will recognize the hot-tempered Bradley-esque rants of my early days here (some ten years ago), rants that once pushed my warning bar up to 75%. I’d like to think I’ve mellowed toward a more cerebral JP standard as I’ve aged. I never imagined CAP would spawn a whole series, and the second story, 1968, certainly wasn’t an uplifting one. I used to try and decide which of the stories was my favorite, but I’ve since decided they’re all too different to make that call. As noted above, there is much of me in these stories, as many readers have guessed or noted. Probably the most personal reflections can be found in Paternity, which is reflective of my conflicts with my own son, even though they weren’t so dramatic as the ones Will and Brad inflicted upon each other. I usually develop my characters in a story with someone I’ve met or known in real life as a model. That’s helped me answer some of my critics, who would opine that sometimes characters are too mature/too immature, etc. But some of the characters resonate more than others. Bridgemont evolved from a fascination with the Royal Navy of Nelson’s time, one I owe to CS Forester. I read Beat to Quarters when I was twelve years old, and maintained an entire set of his Hornblower Saga in my room from the time I was thirteen until now. George Granger is all that Hornblower is not, which made it more fun, and made sure the series would be substantially different. I thought that by writing two series, I’d actually end up focusing on one to neglect the other, but I find that they actually fuel my productivity. Sometimes, when I get bored or stymied by one story, I can switch to another, and that helps keep me in ‘writing mode’ long enough to switch back to the other story and solve my problem. So now, here we are, five years later, and thanks to my team and my readers, I’ve been motivated to generate an astounding number of chapters. As I sit here and type this, I’ve now become GA’s most prolific author (that happened when I published Odyssey, Chapter 58 and took the title from my friend Comicality, an author I enjoy immensely). I’ve posted 4,422,121 words, which works out to 884,424 words/year, or approximately 150-175 chapters/year. That’s an enormous amount of work/words to write, beta, edit, and re-edit. I think the writing part of it is almost the easiest. And that leads me to the real purpose of this post. There is absolutely no way I could have done this without my team. They work tirelessly, and do as much to make these stories readable as I do. I really could not do this without them, and more importantly, I wouldn’t want to. The motivation to do it would not have been there if it weren’t for my readers. It takes time to read chapters, it takes time to post reviews, and it takes time to comment in the forums, but you all have taken that time, and done that. Thank you. Thank you so very much. I appreciate all of them, even the ones that are annoying. If you don’t think that you have done your part, consider that as of this posting, Paternity is the most reviewed story on all of GA, with Odyssey, 9.11, St. Vincent, and Poor Man’s Son also making the top 15 most reviewed stories. My forum has generated over 15,000 posts, second only to CJ in sheer volume, and those posts go on whether I participate actively or not. I love to read them; they’re fascinating. So when I sit back and reflect on this past five years, I think of all of you who have had an impact on me. I reflect on my team, and how people who started out editing and beta reading for me are now some of my closest online friends. (Some of them were before I started writing…winks at Sharon) Readers can come and go, but I like to hope that even if they stop posting reviews or forum comments, they’re still out there, reading once in awhile. It’s almost like the readers, and my team, form a family. So for those of you who have been with me all the way through, and for those of you who have flitted in and out from time to time, stopping in at family reunions to say hi (to continue the analogy), I want to thank you for being part of my life, and for making this fun. And speaking of fun, I figured I'd round this out by posting a poll, where you can pick your favorite story of the CAP and Bridgemont Series.

i have to admit, there's an evil part of me that loves writing destructive scenes like that. It's all I can do to resist having Will light the Ferrari in Palo Alto on fire sometimes. A can of lighter fluid...a match... The original destruction scene for Paternity was much worse. I had him just mauling the whole house, but my team wisely talked me off the ledge. Psycho Mark.

He takes two steps forward and one step back.

As you noted, RJO had a great description of Marie's feelings. I think that will guide her as she rallies her forces to earn back her leadership role. In many ways, in high school terms, she's a lot like Will's father, in his desire to control and manipulate his friends.

That's pretty much my mantra: patience and some good weed.

"I am wondering if the problem with Marie is that she sees Will as a compediter. She was the leader of her circle of friends. Then Will comes in and takes over. She is left on the sidelines. In her mind it is a fight for leadership." I think that's the best description I've seen about what's going through Marie's mind.

I wonder if Will and Brad will be able to have a decent relationship before Will graduates from college. I'm not sure that's possible.