Mark Arbour

Hard to see the food in those plates. Seriously? That's just a bit busy. *ducks*

I think that Calvert, while much maligned by some of you, brings out Granger's playful side. He's the modern-day equivalent of the guy who makes you feel young.

The argument is not that children can't be taught or shown (and it is an argument, not a fact), the issue is whether they can learn from an iPad (or similar device). The answer is that it depends on the child and their aptitudes and learning style. The iPad is only a medium to deliver knowledge. The idea that kids can't find what they want or need online is laughable, but if you can cite some credible sources to show me otherwise, I'm more than willing to listen.

Bah. Pittsburgh is the old way. Pittsburg is the new happening way to spell it. I'll bet you still use "whom" too.

I like George. I didn't want him to die. I think of Will's line in Paternity, when he was talking to Stef, explaining that he'd sent Jeff and Michael through 8 airports on their way to Norway. Nothing too extreme, just a little pain. :-)

Thanks for your review, and your comments! Bertie, as the governor, ordered Bacchante home. As Westie pointed out, Bertie may have overstepped his bounds, but now that Humphreys has sailed, he would have to have a damn good excuse to digress from them. Sir Tobias is merely a passenger aboard, at this point, so he would be unable to do more than plead his case if he wanted Humphreys to go somewhere else.

You are such a savant. :-) I'm glad you like this one. I'll try to get another one done in a reasonable period of time.

Granger has little to fear from his brother on a personal level. There truly is a lot of love and affection there. Granger's problems with Bertie stem from Bertie's unscrupulous behavior, when said behavior conflicts with Granger's duty.

Why thank you!

Thanks so much! Not everything can go George's way. Having a fever was a dodgy affair back in the day, and it's not all that pleasant now.

Thanks. Bertie is fun to write. He's like a 19th century heterosexual Stefan (from CAP). ;-)

February 1798 George Granger lay in his bed, in an ethereal state. For the first time since he could remember, he didn’t feel pain. It was as if he was detached from his body, not really part of it, but just inhabiting it. In fact, this feeling would have been pleasant if he hadn’t known there was a wall of pain beyond his subconscious, waiting to lunge forward and thrash his body. He breathed in as deeply as he could, but it was difficult, and it seemed that ev

Very well said. Although we actually saw him (in Paternity) make a point of doing just that.

I'd have to believe Dana knew that too. She's fighting for her man. Don't you think that's rather sweet? ;-) I'm so glad you've been to Laumeier. Most people who visit St. Louis miss it, and that's a shame, since it really is pretty spectacular.

I think that Brad trained Will pretty well when it came to that. :-)

July 6, 2001 “You will be alright?” Stef asked as the plane descended into Chesterfield, Missouri. “I’ll be fine,” I said. I was self-sufficient, and I knew that if I had issues, I was a cab and an airplane ride away from home. “If things don’t work out here, I’ll just go back to Chicago and hang out at the bar.” “I am not convinced that would be a responsible decision,” he said dubiously. “You sound like Grand,” I said, teasing him. “We had fun

I posted Bloodlines as an e-book. It's free. Here's a link if you want to download it.

You make excellent points, as usual. I think that in this case, though, all parties will escape unharmed. I would expect that any naval captain would be walking on dangerous ice to defy an order from a governor (which should be phrased as a request) that didn't contravene his Admiralty orders, or even if it did, that made sense. I think this gets Humphreys off the hook. As for Bertie, I suspect that the way things are shaping up, no one will really make any big deal out of it. I think that by the time Bacchante makes it back to England, they'll have other things to worry about. Plus, Bertie is more in John Company's orbit. With Jervis' downplaying of Nelson's role in the battle to avoid pointing out that he had disobeyed orders (which is somewhat questionable, giving the signals Jervis used), there was a lot of politics swirling around that event. It also was indicative of some of the overarching disputes about strategy in the navy at the time, with men like Calder opining for a more traditional/conventional approach, and the young bloods like Nelson trying for annihilation. We could make a case that Bertie's quandary is similar, exposing the changing authority of the government relative to John Company, but I don't think any of those people really want to use this situation as a public battering ram to make their point.

Thanks! All is well so far!

I just wanted to give you all a heads up that I've got a chapter of 9.11 that should be ready to post soon, and a chapter of Odyssey that's in final editing as well. After that, there's not much in the pipeline. For those of you who've been reading my stories for a while, you know this isn't unusual. I have all the headaches of finishing up a semester, and as I write this, I'm out of the country (in Asia). But I did want to keep you posted.

I'll try to post the next chapter in a few days.

There are two problems with this approach. The first is that Granger asked them not to tell them about the galleon, and it would be hard to explain Santa Clarita without doing just that. The second is that they really don't know how long it will stake Santa Clarita to sail to Manila then back to Amboyna. It could be a couple of weeks, or a couple of months.

Thanks for your comments. I hadn't noticed that you'd posted here (have to check my blog settings) before now. When I started writing, the sex was fun and interesting, and probably the prime reason for me to do it. It's still fun and interesting, but I've gotten so much more into the characters. I wouldn't have expected that when I started; it's been a pleasant surprise.

I've been really down yesterday for a number of reasons, but mostly because of Vic's death. I was having an early dinner at Mimi's Cafe last night and taking advantage of their free wifi to read Treb's post more thoroughly, along with all the responses, and to write out a comment on the announcement thread. I sat there afterwards, trying to subtly dab the tears away, when I looked up and saw this couple sitting in a booth diagonally from mine. There were two young men there, probably in their early 20s. One was cute and thin, a real twink; the other guy was bigger, with bigger muscles and a beefier frame. They were in the booth but sitting next to each other, touching constantly. At one point, the twink rubbed his cheek on the beefy dude's chest in a playful way. They giggled, then the beefy dude leaned in toward the twink as if to listen to him say something, but the twink kissed his neck instead. They were so cute, it was hard not to stare, but they were so visibly entranced with each other, they never made eye contact with me. But what blew my mind was that they were doing this, acting all lovey-dovey, in a restaurant, and no one really seemed to give a shit. Now some of you will note that that's not a big deal. Who the fuck cares. Well, I don't live in San Francisco or New York (we'll chalk that up to rotten luck on my part), I live in an upscale suburb of St. Louis, where people usually are required to have one SUV, and it should be foreign. Here in Missouri, the only way two guys are going to be able to marry each other is if they are able to prove they're guns and they get the NRA to support them. Yet here they are, these two guys, having this incredibly romantic interchange, right here in a restaurant in suburban middle-America. And no one kicked their asses, or tried to. I've never seen that here before. I've seen it in other places, but not here. How ironic that I do on the day I find out we lost Vic.

OMG! I've been beseeched! SMILE. Good point about Washington. If this is malaria, there are a number of different strains with different effects. And no real cure.