Mark Arbour

Thanks so much for your good wishes. COVID wasn't fun, but other than extreme fatigue I came through it okay. As you might imagine, I've done a lot of research on the plan to invade India. The invasion never actually happened, it was just planned. As you noted, Paul set things in motion by dispatching the Cossacks, but they only made it as far as the Aral Sea. There's no indication the French ever even started to march. It's interesting because some people attribute this plan to Paul, while others attribute it to Napoleon. My personal opinion is that while Paul may have thought of the idea, (although this was clearly on Napoleon's mind as well), the plan, with all of it's complexities and ridiculously unobtainable goals and timetables, seems to bear Napoleon's fingerprints.

January 22, 2004 Bondi Beach, Australia Will “You look good,” Connie said to me nervously. I was wearing a gray jacket Patrick Christian made for me, along with black Dior slacks, a white Dior shirt, and sleek black Prada shoes. He was dressed in a much simpler way, so that along with his comment made me wonder if I was overdressed and I’d look like some New York runway model. “Am I too dressed up?” I asked. “What, are you saying I look like shit?” he ask

February 15, 1801 St. Michael’s Castle St. Petersburg, Russia Granger stood with the Stroganovs in the same reception room as he had last Sunday, and as he looked around, he could see that the same people were here in their same places. “No one moves around?” Granger asked Pavel. He shook his head with a slight smile. “You must remember that His Imperial Majesty likes military order, which means that everyone has an assigned place.” Granger pondered tha

Thanks for your good wishes! I was diagnosed with COVID when I went into the doc because of extreme fatigue. I got lucky in that the fatigue was the only symptom I really had to deal with. It knocked me on my ass for a week, and since then I've gotten better to the point where I feel fully recovered. Time to write a chapter or two.

I like your Star Trek analogies, but personally I'm more of a TNG guy. 🙂

I regret not taking a side trip there when I was in Spain.

You mentioned this...about past relationships...and I've spent the last half hour ruminating on how true that is! Thank you for those kind and encouraging words! My editors have trained me so well that I find reading the news to be incredibly annoying...not just for the content, but for the grammatical errors.

February 8, 1801 Pavlovsk Palace St. Petersburg, Russia Granger lay in the Empress’s bed, flat on his back drenched in sweat, while the Empress lay next to him on her side with her head propped up. She smiled at Granger in what was almost a leer and stroked his pectoral muscles gently with her fingers. She was physically attractive, but Granger was having a hard time finding her attractive as a person. To her, this was just a fun physical rendezvous, something Granger was q

January 21, 2004 Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, Australia Will “Is this everything, Mr. Schluter?” the bellman asked politely. “That’s everything,” I said. “I’ll keep my backpack with me.” “Certainly, sir,” he said. He shuffled the cart out of the room while I took a few minutes to appreciate this beautiful room. I’d spent the past two days with Connie and it had been sheer bliss, other than the various pains in my body. Hanging out with him took some endurance

The age of consent in New South Wales is 16.

I'm most comfortable in flip-flops too, but I attribute that to growing up in California. 🙂 You're right about Russian ship construction using pine, although with the way warships were constructed (with multiple layers of wood) the splintering probably had less of an effect than you think.

January 17, 2004 Oxford Street Sydney, Australia Will I walked up to the club, a different one than last night, but this one was just as crowded. I’d spent the afternoon with David, touring around Sydney and having a decent time. It would have been better if I hadn’t spent most of my outing imagining how much more fun it would have been if I’d roamed around with Connie instead. David and I met up with the same group of guys I’d met the night before and went to a few ba

February 7, 1801 Stroganov Palace St. Petersburg, Russia Granger sat in the anteroom with Pavel, enjoying a glass of wine. He’d had a very pleasant morning, which had started with sex with Pavel, followed by an excellent breakfast, and then a detailed tour of this palace. Granger was duly impressed by the edifice, which had obviously been crafted to display the incredible wealth and taste of the Stroganov family. “If you do not mind, I will excuse myself to attend to b

Good points, although it's hard to blame any guy (young or old) for pursuing someone he's into, and for being a little aggressive as he does it.

I actually read an interesting article (which of course I can't find now) stating that most athletes who have come out have been warmly received by their teammates, and in fact, their male teammates were more accepting of their gayness than society as a whole. That raises some interesting questions, such was why, then, there's so much fear about coming out?

January 16, 2004 Oxford Street Sydney, Australia Will The cab pulled up to the club and I paused to pay the driver and tip him well, even though he hadn’t been all that friendly after I told him where I wanted to go. Guess homophobia was a thing here in Australia too. Chris had been right about this place, because there was a line of guys waiting to get in. I chuckled to myself when I noticed that Chris had hurried here only to get in line, and he was standing about fo

January 14, 2004 Kahului, Maui Will “I’ll take your bags,” Kai said glumly, in a way that was incredibly unattractive. “Thanks,” I said. He took my suitcase and garment bag and shuffled off toward the garage in what seemed like a walking pout. “I think he is going to miss you,” Kiki said to me with a smile. “I’ll miss him too,” I lied. “You’re all set up now. You need anything else?” I hadn’t realized that hiring her to focus on getting this project done

February 6, 1801 St. Michael’s Castle St. Petersburg, Russia Granger stood in one of the galleries he’d walked through on his way to call on the Tsar as he mingled for the first time with the apex of Russian society. Daventry was off in a different room, no doubt either trying to find someone to bed or trying to advance his plan, but fortunately Stroganov was close at hand. A woman who looked to be about forty years of age moved gracefully yet purposefully toward Granger, a

January 8, 2004 Kahului, Maui Will She sighed, much as Kai and I had, as soon as she was in the Toyota. “When this is all over, then I will have time to cry.” “You’ll have lots of time to cry,” I said sadly, remembering how I’d felt. “Cry all you want, that won’t bring him back.” “He’s in a better place now,” she said, and mumbled a silent prayer. I could see why religion was so intoxicating, especially at times like these, because that meant you didn’t really

January 7, 2004 Kahului, Maui Will I yawned, and that caused me to look at my watch. It was 10:00pm, and only now was the crowd starting to thin out. Both Kai and his mom looked exhausted, and people finally seemed to get that. What started out as a trickle of people leaving soon turned into a torrent. I stayed out of the way as people took forever to fucking say goodbye. I was so glad that my brothers and I had gotten over that habit a long time ago. “Hey,” Kai said,

February 6, 1801 Kiryanovo Usadba St. Petersburg, Russia “I had not expected last night would be so much fun,” Stroganov said. He had shown Granger that he was just as fun as the one being penetrated as the one doing the penetrating. For Granger, plunging into Stroganov’s soft, pliable ass had been one of his more memorable sexual experiences. “I thought you said my reputation had preceded me,” Granger joked. While the sex had been good, he had felt a bond developing

Third face, second name.

Yeah, because that’s how Will works. 😂 The list: Yes. You may be busy.

Thank you all for your comments! I'm excited to start on a new story too!

Thank you so much for pointing that out. Got them fixed (I hope).