Mark Arbour

He wanted to make a point with his brothers, and he obviously wanted to see this guy himself. Four and a half hours to keep your brothers from thinking you're an idiot? I'd do that.

July 31, 2000 Malibu, CA Will “I’m Patrick,” he said, introducing himself. “You can call me Pat.” “I’m Will,” I said, as I shook his hand. My other guard had decided to fall in love and get married. I was kind of bummed out, because he’d been real easy-going and we’d gotten along well, but I was happy for him. Only now, I had to break in a whole new guy. “My last guard was named Pat too.” “Maybe they’re trying to keep things easy for you,” he joked. It was a go

I agree with you about Brad, and I said as much in the forums here. It's funny that you mention just having one viewpoint per chapter; I work diligently to make sure I have both guys in most of them. Perhaps I need to rethink that.

Not to worry. We'll see much more of Matt and Wade when Gathan starts playing hockey.

That is correct. A gold star for you!!

It's going to be depressing. I'll try not to write another 1968.

Yeah, I can see it now. "Gee John, I'm sorry you were kidnapped, molested, and traumatized, but that doesn't matter. I"m still going to ground you. Because you simply haven't been through enough." Claire or Jack are going to say that? That's not how parenting, at least with kids like Will or John, would work. It would be completely ineffective, stir up nothing but rebellion and resentment in them, and might turn them into serial pole dancers. This was probably the one circumstance (or one of the few, anyway) that would get Will out of his f**k-up with light punishment, IMHO.

A church youth group? JJ? If I wrote that in, my writing group would lynch me for coming up with something so unbelievable. Were you thinking Greyhound, or a City bus? I'm not sure if I see JJ that way. I think he'll try to be that way, nice and unemotional and discreet, but I'll bet he'd be pretty messed up if the lightning bolts of love zapped him.

I think you're missing the real point here. The wounds these guys bring back from Afghanistan and Iraq are more likely to not be physical, but to be mental. These wars have seriously f**ked up some young minds. In my opinion, it's one of the most depressing things I've seen. Even if they haven't lost a limb, they've lost the ability to be happy.

I would expect that what happened in Paris would have been on Brad's mind when he was dealing with Will. When he left Paris, his son had just been molested and was dealing with that, and had all but broken up with his boyfriend. He was a pretty morose guy. So he shows up at home, back from Rome, pretty much like his old self. They surf, and then he's joking around with Brad, they're having a good time, and they're communicating openly. Do you really want to bust his balls too hard after all that crap? Or would you be so glad to have your son back, pretty much like he was? As far as Stef and Brad go, those two like drama that involves other people, not each other. Their conflicts have been sparse, very sparse. The only outright fight I remember them having was when they were going out on the boat (in BeRad) after they rescued Jake, and Stef was fawning all over Jake. I think it's going to be interesting to see how they handle JJ and Will, since they will have to handle them differently. The thing that will probably save Brad, Jeanine, and Robbie from being completely unfair is that JJ's skating will dictate much of what he can and can't do anyway.

No shit. Those damn things are scary. I went to a few raves during that era. You're right, they were pretty cool. Interesting concept: an errant Japanese tourist takes photos of Will that show up in some Asian porn rag and wander back to the US. Good thing I'd never write crap like that.

Brad doesn't want Will to fear him, and he doesn't. That's why the exchange isn't as toxic.

I can't really see a porn-quality (whatever that is) tape showing up either.

The star thing is interesting. I'm not sure who's doing it, but as soon as I publish a story, it gets low stars. I learn to ignore the bullshit that goes on around here.

Brad's reaction was remarkably calm for him, but I think he's starting to learn how to handle Will. Going off the deep end wouldn't have accomplished anything positive.

No, they wouldn't. If he got a tattoo in a place that wasn't always visible (like the lower back), I think they'd be OK with it. If he had his ear pierced, I don't think anyone would object. But gauges? No way. It's too permanent. He's not rebellious enough to do that.

July 29, 2000 Claremont, Ohio Gathan “Kristin is not your niece,” Chris Hendrickson said firmly. “She actually looks kind of like Grand,” Will observed, then got all nervous that he’d actually spoken. It was hard to tell if he was right, but when I compared Kristin to Claire, the similarities became even more pronounced. “She is my niece,” JP re-asserted. He paused and turned slightly so he was addressing Chris Hendrickson directly. “Your paternal grandfather w

Actually, I think what you got was an update. I neglected to list Sharon as the editor of Poor Man's Son so I fixed that oversight, before she decided to smite me. That's one of the mildly annoying problems with the updating system. If you change a story to correct something like that, or to edit the description, or if you make changes/corrections to a chapter, a notification goes out. I've had to 'unlike' some authors that I like simply because they fiddle with their chapter after they post them and I end up getting a cavalcade of e-mails. I try not to do that to you guys, but we're all fallible.

They were there. The computer gods are playing tricks on you. Resist the urge to smite them.

The last part of "The Box" wouldn't have been there if not for Sharon. She's the one who told me it needed a better ending, with closure for Stef. She was right.

I had to really search my memory to try and think about what it was like when you're that young, and saying goodbye to someone you love.

LOL. I'll have to ask Jeremy to include an organ soundtrack next time that happens.

I think Brad covered his tracks pretty well with Brian. Think about how that would look, especially in 2000: Gay guy gets killed by his random sex partner. Who would give a shit?

I'm so glad you liked it! Blanche wasn't captured, she was just out of range, and thus of no help during the battle. Not that it would have mattered when the Spanish have a 112 gun ship.

I'm glad you do!