Mark Arbour

That's what I've done, and it worked out well. I realized that if I got overwhelmed, trimming back my writing didn't mean giving it up, it just meant postponing it. And I have appreciated your feedback. Most of the time. ;-)

I think that Wade is definitely anal retentive, and both he and Matt have the makings of control freaks. You may be right about the generational thing, but I think the fact that they are both more secure with themselves has a lot to do with it. I also think the crucible they went through in "Bloodlines" bound them together more tightly than most guys their age.

I'm glad the mood was right. It's possible that Carl is just an idiot, or perhaps there's more there. We'll have to see.

Ah, you'll just have to trust me. ;-)Besides, agreeing to a truly polyamorous relationship is entirely different than actually living it.

I agree, and I personally liked this chapter. Relationships so often reach these crisis points, and I decided that these two had the skills and the love to cement their connection.

It's like Wade uses his super-powers for good, not evil (like his mother). ;-)

I've pondered that. Maybe I'll do a cameo with him in a future story and see how it goes.

Glad you liked it!

I think that it's a bit like the dilemma in Poor Man's Son: Matt is still immature, but then again, he is still in college, so he's not really doing bad for his age. I think the problem is that Wade has grown exponentially, especially with Riley's birth.

How can you be 'against' 20-year olds having kids? It's kind of an individual thing, don't you think? I'm glad you liked the step-son reference. Adapting to a baby's arrival isn't always an easy thing.

I'm glad you enjoyed them! I think this was truly a seminal battle, in that it marked the beginning/change where captains began to have more control over how they engaged the enemy.

We'll see what happens to the randy Welsh lad. I'm glad you liked the pics. I've got a few good ones for the next chapter!

One of the things I try to keep in mind as I write this is that compared to the other characters, I think Matt and Wade do a really good job of communicating with each other. Now granted, no one/couple is perfect, but even in this situation, with some serious shit to deal with, they manage to work through it together. If it were Brad and Robbie, Robbie would already be in a body bag by now. If it was JP, he'd still be grinding things around in his mind, and not verbalizing them to Stef.

That made me laugh my ass off.

September 29, 2000 Palo Alto, CA Wade I could tell that he was still seething, absolutely furious. This is where I’d wanted him to get, to see Carl for the shithead that he was, but now that he was there, I typically felt sorry for him. I really loved the guy, probably a lot more than he loved me, although I knew that he loved me a lot. Maybe it wasn’t the amount of love, though, maybe it was the protectiveness. I saw him as kind of a neophyte when it came to people like C

Remember that the frigates aren't built heavy enough to withstand the firepower of a ship of the line. Think of it in more modern terms, with armor. A WWII battleship had really thick armor (more than a foot) so it could withstand enemy fire. A cruiser didn't. The same thing holds true here. The frigates weren't built "heavy" enough to withstand that kind of damage. As for Molotov cocktails, remember that if the British could do that, so could the Spanish. I believe Wellington made a comment along those lines about poison gas.

I might.

LOL. Don't do that. We need to have Wiki accurate. I use it all the time.

This turned out really well, and it had to take a lot of work. Kudos to you, Lugh, and to your team, for all that effort! Well done!

On the issue of naval battles, much is written about the impact of splinters. I found and thought it did an excellent job of illustrating battle damage.

I posted this picture in the body of Chapter 29, but thought I'd post it here too. This purports to show Victory 'raking' the Principe de Asturias. In this case, she's crossing the stern of the Principe de Asturias and firing her broadside, probably gun by gun, down the entire length of the decks of the hapless Spanish vessel. Such an attack, if delivered properly, could be devastating. The Victory had a broadside weight of over 1100 pounds, but if those guns were double-shotted, so too would the weights. Visualize a couple of thousand pounds of iron being hurled into the largely defenseless part of the Principe de Asturias. It must have been horrifying for those on the receiving end. As an aside, notice how Victory appears (in this painting) to be firing on the down roll.

That's really cool. I'm glad you liked it, and that you're enjoying it together. I haven't written the next chapter. I have the first few pages done, and a broad idea of how I want it to go, but it's not done. I thought about waiting to post this one until I was finished with the following chapter, but went ahead, and now I'll pay the price in making you all wait a bit. I'm sorry about the delays.

"convey my official messenger..." so he's going to London, but probably not as the official messenger.

New meat. There are grounds for his elevation to the peerage, but there's also the issue of jealousy in the fleet. Granger has risen far and fast, and been given choice commands (Intrepid and Belvidera) and missions. He's already received a knighthood. I think that in a back-biting, fraternal association like the Royal Navy, which was steeped in politics, that might almost be a disservice to him. Good point on Nelson's promotion. The ONLY way to be promoted Rear Admiral was by seniority, hence the usefulness of the appointment as Commodore, since it gave the navy the ability to give senior captains with skill a chance to prove themselves in command of multiple ships. Ah, but we don't know if Granger is the one being sent with "the news." The bearer of victorious news was usually rewarded, so it's a very big honor to be the one to take those dispatches home.

I'm glad you liked the pics! I often forget to put them in, but there are so many good ones available for this battle, it jogged my memory.