Mark Arbour

First of all, thanks! It's awesome when long-time readers come out of the, er, closet and post reviews or to the forums! It's interesting because we really have no way of knowing what such relationships were like back then, since everything was strictly hidden.

I daresay you are right about the position of your mind and soul, and how it is typical of males. Personally, I like it like that. ;-)

July 21, 2001 “Thanks for meeting with me on a Saturday,” I told my shrink, Gary Anderson. “It’s OK,” he said. “I charge more for Saturday appointments.” I chuckled at that. “How are things going with you?” “It’s been pretty eventful,” I told him. “I figured summer would be slow, but shit, it’s been one thing after another.” “Tell me about it. Start where you want to,” he said. I’d actually made notes, which made him smile in a patronizing

Every once in a while, Tim has a truly inspired moment. ;-) Seriously, I liked it too. I think Will isn't really all that worried about them going along with this deal, since he knows he'll be able to pull it off anyway.

While I haven't sub-hunted myself, I've read a lot of Tom Clancy books. And I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the night I wrote that. :-)

I'm not sure that there's all that much to get excited about with George dressed up. The garb would have been pretty boring. I'm seeing a plain dress (black?) with a hijab covering his face.

Because Sharon likes polls so much... So we have the stage set. Bacchante is carrying Maidstone and Bertie's toxic letters back to England. Santa Clarita is trying to catch up to him, while Granger is taking the overland route through Egypt. So I'm curious as to which one of these ships/people will get home first and last?

You are such a cynic. I think I'll have Calvert and Granger get together and run off to a deserted island. :-)

Well, we have third-person narration here, so switching out isn't the trauma it is in CAP, but it's necessary here when you have people splitting up to go in a bunch of different directions, and all are relevant to the story line.

You think that's the end? Seriously? You know me better than that. I think Somers is perfect in that role (as Governor). Undoubtedly he'll buy himself a colonelcy with all of his prize money.

Awww. Don't sweat it. Even if Calvert's a little socially challenged, Granger and Gatling are good at it.

The next chapter gets us back to Granger and his trek to Egypt.

May 1, 1798 HMS Santa Clarita Banda Sea “Land Ho!” cried the lookout. This was not a surprise to the captain of Santa Clarita. They’d plotted their position yesterday, and he was confident that they would finally arrive at Amboyna this morning. It had taken longer than he hoped to get here, but Calvert had done his best, using every technique he and his officers could think of to get extra speed from their ship. Today they would enter port, begin the laborious

I have to say that when I was writing the scene with JP and Julian, I was laughing. The thought of Julian running out naked and looking up to find JP, looking severe and dour, struck me as pretty funny.

I think it's indicative of their relationship that they have these power struggles but the love they have ultimately pulls them through.

Clearly none of you share my hopes and dreams for a classic bitch fight between these two divas. I'm seeing Twitter rants, maybe even fan riots when someone wheres a Bieber t-shirt to a Mahone concert...

Yep, those ships were at the rear of the French line. It is, of course, all somewhat irrelevant speculation on our part as to what could have happened, and no doubt things could have been different, but I don't think it would have had that much of an impact. The way the British were able to envelope the French line, and to maul the French Van, tipped the scales irrevocably in their favor, IMHO. But more on that when we get to it. We're not even to Egypt yet.

Thanks! I'm glad you liked my analogy!

I appreciated the things you said here, especially since it pretty much mirrors my own thoughts, and I'm vain so I like it when people think like me. :-) John is another one who's mature for his age, but we haven't seen too much of that since Paris. I'll bet he's had some of the same sprint-and-drift maturity issues that Will's had.

It's because you're old. :-) And because you wish you could wake up and find cute young twinks walking around naked in your kitchen. ;-) Seriously, your reaction to the two narrators is exactly what I was going for. Will is still young, and a bit of a loose cannon. He's supposed to keep you on edge. JP's more calm and logical approach makes for a nice contrast, IMHO.

I like these two narrators too. They are so different, even more than Will and Wade, that the contrast makes me feel like I've walked from one room in my house to the other. I think that John is just not into being with Will, but he doesn't want to hurt Will's feelings by turning him down. Scott is a douche, but then again, he always has been. He's fun, he's charming, and has absolutely no morals or scruples. The only thing keeping him from doing Will is Will.

That's a pretty funny analogy, and to be honest, it kind of works the same for me. I'll write it, we'll refine and edit the chapter, and then when it's ready to go, it's exciting to see what you guys will say, and what kind of feedback I'll get. That's why it sucks when people don't comment or post reviews. It's kind of like Christmas where no one says "thank you" or asks for a gift receipt to take something back. :-)

I really think that's a bunch of crap. It's so easy to look back with perfect vision on the past and see these 'signs', but nothing about the Taliban destroying monuments in March would translate into the destruction of the Twin Towers in September. The 'signs' that seem so apparent now were not obvious then. It's kind of like being annoyed that you didn't pick the right lottery numbers. I think you're right about Will's attitude toward Scott. If you notice, their whole relationship/demeanor changed, and Will ended up taking charge and directing Scott. I think that's the external illustration of the epiphany Will had about him. Hawaiian/Pacific Motif? Post a pic or two, show me what you mean. I don't know that Will and John have to have a major 'repair the bond' conversation. Not all guys do that (Darius comes to mind), and they'd be quite happy to just assume that things were fine, and to move on. In fact, I'd hypothesize this is the norm with men (especially straight men) as opposed to having a big conversation about their feelings. I can't imagine that a quick-sale of an unfinished house wouldn't present an awesome investment opportunity for someone willing to invest the cash to finish it up.

I'd actually heard his "Say Something" single a while back, and I think he has the potential to be another boy star. It will be funny to see if he does well enough to challenge Bieber's hold on that teen-boy-singer market (whatever you call it), and would be even more hilarious if they got into a bitch-slapping contest over who was better.

Brad can be such a hothead, and get into the whole battle and not see the world around him. Will understands that about his father, and knows just how to play him. That means he's good at both pissing Brad off, and at calming his ass down.