daffy106

This was a great story. Cannot wait for further adventures from CJ's mind! Daffy106

Oh my! I admire and embrace in my own stories, your enlightened approach to human consensual sexuality and morality, and I understand how you are injecting Nicotolianism into the story, but the exact interpetation of it seems to be a minefield. As I am not a biblical scholar, I googled Nicotolian heresies and some of the straight up definition pages defined the way you use it, although some commentators seem to interpet your approach to consensual intimacy as Nicotolian also. (I don't!) Enlightenment was specifically mentioned as edging on Nicotolian heresy by some of the commentators. But the loudest sites were "Christian" sects who accuse all the mainstream religions as Nicotolians because they celebrate Christmas and Easter!!! Apparently these people believe any joy or pleasure at all is to be condemned as un-Christian, that the more we suffer, the better chance of "salvation". What a horrible way to live. I am greatly enjoying this story and look forward to its continuation. daffy106

Delicious ending!!!

How does one write a critical review in the "LIKE" society we have today? Many of the reviews I read seem to be only praise, even for very unexciting and rather dull stories. If I recall, GA once had an "I DON'T Like it button" that disappeared without comment, as if there should never be a negative word on a story a person was uninspired by. I read a lot; we have a 5000+ book library in our home filled with books I have re-read because they were good. There were some where I have read a chapter, and put it on the shelf to donate to my local library; maybe someone else would like it, but not me. I like to think I have a good sense of what works in writing and what does not, but I am terrified to write any comment whatsoever, lest I hurt someone's feelings and get myself severely trashed for doing so. (Yes, this has happened to me!) Right now, I have been reading a story I really do not care for, just to check on where I am in liking or not. The story, after 25 chapters, is still less than excellent to me, and the author, one of GA's "Signature" writers, seems to have a limited comprehension of male sexuality, as I, a very sexually active male, understand it. In all of the decades I have been having sex, and talking to others about it, I have never met or heard about another male with such an approach to his own sexuality. This makes the central character less "believable" to me. How do I say this? Many of the reviews, mostly by one reader, are vanilla praise. As for my own praise, the story is well written, the English is stellar, and the flow is fine, but....

This is an exciting start. I'm very much looking forward to the next chapters.

Well here it is a year later and the justices took the easy way out. That's OK, I'll take all we can get right now and the door is still open for a sweeping decision later. Here in California, I'll be marrying my partner of 26 years very soon, something I thought could not happen in my lifetime. I was a friend of some of those Stonewall drag queens and I still love them for their courage and heart. Daffy106

This story seems to be blazing ahead! Kudos! daffy106

What a beautiful, sensitive story. I am looking forward to reading more of your writings. daffy106

Well all other things aside---- Have a great sabbatical----Or trip or journey. Learn some new things----See new views of Being. Love someone----The ability to do this is the Universe's greatest gift to mankind. Make some love to someone in some way----With the body; with the heart...who cares? Rest when you can----Perhaps the hardest thing for passionate humans to do. Be refreshed----Let it happen! Find some happiness----Easy, just look for it. Appreciate the Good in our world! Come back to our community whole. Daffy106

Hi Mark. I have been following this story all along, and am enjoying it immensely. I hope you continue it to it's fullest extent rather than stop with the next chapter. I would suggest that the very long length is putting off some people from continuing to write feedback to you. I, however, like very long stories, and hope you continue to like to write them. I would like to point out I have devoted many hours of my time reading your story. I have a story on a minor site, (World of Slash) and I am thrilled that a just few people have read it, and just a couple of them have given feedback, both praise and critical. I appreciate their time spent to enjoy my story. I wish I had the time to write more, but my life, even at 74, is very crowded. Yet I still read, the passion of my life. If you decide to finish this story for just fans, please include me on your list! I encourage you to keep going!! At least one person cares a lot. Daffy106

Well, finally!! How sweet you made this chapter. I hope it works out; I like the two guys. Daffy 106

Just when I think things are getting a bit slow....BOOM!!

Don't you think calling me a troll is a little over the line?

My goodness, this group has fabulous taste in movies! All of the above plus: 300 (a whole new style in historic war films) Across the Universe The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938 Original) All the President's Men (Still a thriller after the fact) Amadeus (If you like Mozart, this is the one) American Beauty (Twisted Love) American Graffiti (George Lucas' best film) Angels in America (Powerful!!) Australia Avatar (The best visual effects to date I would suggest) Babel Babette's Feast (A woman spends her life savings on one dinner) Batman Series including The Dark Knight (Full of unreal characters that take on a life of their own) Beauty and the Beast (Disney) Billy Elliot (Coal miners son struggles to become a ballet dancer) Blade Runner Boogie Nights (Soft porn, but still amazing) Brokeback Mountain (Gay love; have a box of Kleenex handy) Butch Casidy and the Sundance Kid Caligula (Nasty hard core but bluntly historic) Casablanca (One of the great movies of all time) Chicago (A gritty Musical with biting satire) Chinatown A Clockwork Orange (Bitter violent social comment) The Da Vinci Code (A mysterious romp across Paris) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 Original - Still relevant in 2011) Desk Set (2 great actors doing their thing on and off camera) Diary of Anne Frank (Hard to watch history) Die Mommie Die (Drag queen madness - hilarious) Fame (Original Irene Cara version) Fargo (Pregnant cop solves a puzzling murder) Field of Dreams (If you ave ever clashed with your parents) Flashdance (Steel worker want to become a ballet dancer) Forbidden Planet (Intriguing Science Fiction) The General (Silent Buster Keaton masterpiece) Ghost (One of the best romantic films made) Gone with the Wind The Graduate Hairspray (Heart warming musical about my hometown Baltimore High School I went to, but filmed in Canada) Home Alone (Very funny kid slapstick) Independence Day (totally schlocky Aliens vs Earth with humor and a heart) It's a Wonderful Life (Another top classic) Jerry Maguire (About a talent agent with a soul) Kick-Ass (About a wannabe super hero) King Kong (Original 1930's uncut version) Momento (Takes your mind to new places) Midnight Cowboy (An American in Turkey) Milk (The life and death of a San Francisco gay hero) Mystic River (Murder in Boston) North by Northwest (Hitchcocks masterpiece) On Golden Pond (Henry Fonda's last movie) Ordinary People The Pianist (A Jewish Pianist/composer in Warsaw in WW II) Pretty Woman (A hooker falls in love) Rent (Musical - Get out the Kleenex again) The Robe (Biblical Spectacular - The first Cinemascope Picture) Romeo and Juliet (Leonard Whiting Version - Shakespeare made beautiful beyond words) Saving Private Ryan (War irony at its best and worst heartbreaking) Sherlock Holms (The new one - tons of fun) Sister Act (Nuns acting up) Some Like it Hot (Classic Comedy -Marilyn Monroe at her best) Star Trek 11 (A powerful refresh of a previously tired theme) Titanic (DiCaprio! Victor Victoria (The funniest dance scene in all the movies) Windtalkers (American Indians in WW II)

Life does not end after so many words. It probably a basic instinct to want to know what happens next in a well written story. I myself try to seek out the stories with the most sequels, which means I can literally wallow in someone else's world for a long time and integrate into it more completely, thus getting a lot more flavor from it. The books don't even have to be tightly related. Just the act of introducing a set of major characters into a different new story immediately and effectively injects all the book long complexity of those previous persons into the new story, with only a few words actually written. Jack Scribe is a master at this. Mercedes Lackey is a major writer who also likes to transfer characters from one story to another. These are examples from the best. I would note that many of the world's best selling fiction writers write long series of related books, and given their sales, it seems a lot of people like stories that never end. Daffy106

What an interesting and important conversation. As someone who made a really serious attempt at suicide 17 years ago, I relate strongly to this subject. Although many factors contributed to my feeling that the pain of living had become intolerable, it seems the primary factor was a serious clinical depression, which, after much experimentation, a workable balance was found. One writer said the effects of the medication wore off after a while. Medical science in this field had advanced a lot in the past few years, and I strongly advise you to do your head a favor and seek help in finding a better medication. Out of curiosity, I looked up the State suicide statistics, and immediately saw interesting correlations. The colder the state, the higher the relative number of suicides. Even more influential was that the the more "socialist" the state; the more a state promoted social services and not dog eat dog social independent attitudes, the lower the suicide rate was. Alaska, with it's cold weather and cold social values, has the highest suicide rate in the country. This suggests that those unhappy persons contemplating offing themselves would find counseling effective, as it seems to indicate that it is effective in those places where it is easier for a non wealthy person to obtain such services. It also suggests that moving to a warmer, more socially responsible place, might also help some people. I was lucky. I rose out of my death bed after the doctors had told my loved ones to buy a casket, and I somehow found myself surrounded by loving support and a will to finally listen to them and do the hurtful mental therapy I needed to recover. I won't go into the details, as each person is different, but the most important wisdom I can give is to believe in yourself. If you really want your bad feelings to go away, it can be done! It may hurt a bit while you are working on it, but the end result is a much better outlook on life, a feeling that can be long lasting and permanent in most people. Since I finished this work, my self esteem is much better and I enjoy living a lot more. Daffy106

Thanks for the link; very enlightening. Daffy106

I was reading a story called "The Shadow of My Father" by this author and his name and all of his works seem to have disappeared. Does anyone know where that story can be found? Daffy106

As an older guy into grand opera, this brings me to cry. Lascia ch'io pianga from Handel's opera "Rinaldo", in this case from a movie of the life of the singer Farinelli. Farinelli was one of the worlds greatest castrato sopranos, deliberately castrated at age 10 to preserve his voice. Sung in Italian against the castration scene, it reflects the sadness of the whole thing and yet also reflects the greatness he rose to as one of the great gay men in history. Translation: Let me weep Let me weep over my cruel fate, And that I long for freedom! And that I long, and that I long for freedom! Let me weep over my cruel fate, And that I long for freedom! Let me weep over my cruel fate, And that I long for freedom! And that I long, and that I long for freedom! Let me weep over my cruel fate, And that I long for freedom! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdaYXIuEebs&feature=related Daffy106

This will be my last post to this thread. I think many fine people have made good points. On some items I stand corrected. I admire the loyalty and fervor of the people who staunchly defend Gay Authors. I feel my big mistake was in the title I gave the thread; it was exaggerated and in hindsight, uncalled for. I assure all involved in this conversation that I am as big a fan of Gay Authors as I can be. I have read over half of the entire content of the site at this point and enjoyed most of it. The few stories I did not care for was a strictly personal thing, and that does not make them "bad". I have learned: The participating readers to this site are very loyal and defensive. This is all well and good, but a few people seemed not to get past the thread title and seemed to assume I disliked most anything and everything, despite the fact that my text said otherwise. The Lesson? Keep the title a couple of notches lower than a first instinct. I found support for some of the points I made, as well as a feeling by some that I should go away and not complain. I find the latter attitude sad, as no society succeeds well without sometimes controversial debate, and indeed, some of the administrative responses seem to be hinting that polite but vigorous debate occurs among themselves. Gee, this is the biggest response I have ever had to a post. I am actually new with this, and was amazed at the variety of return posts. The Lesson? I really feel I should keep going. Just maybe we have made a few people think something new. To James Savic: Sometimes blowing on the paint helps it to dry faster. A lot of previously obscure information has come to light in this conversation. To everyone: Thanks for increasing my knowledge of the Gay Authors community. I am intrigued by the liveliness of this forum and promise not to go away. Since I am most assuredly not a vanilla person, I sometimes might seem noisy. By all means, tell me if I am out of line; I can learn too, but I also know that the best learning sometimes comes from taking a risk. I have been a gay rights activist for more than 40 years, and gay rights did not happen without some of us fostering debate that was sometimes very very uncomfortable. And finally: To those who defended Gay Authors with all their hearts and souls. I live in San Francisco, where gay freedom is a way of life. I have learned from you that there there are apparently still many places where the likes of Gay Authors is all there is to support a very lonely situation, and I may have been seen as endangering that lifeline. I needed to be reminded that the rest of our fair nation has a long way to go to catch up. Please be reassured that I really do support this website and the fine people who run it, and the excellent authors who write for it. Daffy106

My, I seemed to have stirred things up a bit? This site is perfect according to some comments and should never change for better or for worse, and how dare I have a few nitpicks. The things I have criticized as not being convenient exist and work properly on other sites. I believe that lobbying for improvement is a good thing. Most human endeavors that do not continuously strive to improve themselves eventually whither and fade away. I don't like that idea especially, but it the truth of American society. I take issue all of you who feel Gay Authors cannot be better and put down those who would point out weaknesses and errors. Gay Authors is currently the best out there. It won't stay the best without constant work, and sometimes an outside point of view is useful. I may not be spot on, but at least I open my mouth and dare to point out what I think might improve Gay Authors. I appreciate the thoughtful replies many have returned, but I deplore those who think I should not agitate the waters at all. Agitation is a good writing form! The definition of minor and major concerns is in the eye of the beholder, and telling me my concerns are minor (to you) is not kind. As an example: Why am I hot about seeing what chapters I have read? Well, that's kind of personal. Maybe even a bit selfish, but maybe there are others like me. You see, I am a speed reader. I can read 50,000 words in a few hours (or less). I read by keeping the slow scroll button permanently down. I usually have at least 50 to 60 stories in progress on my plate at the same time, hoping for a new chapter each week. Having to dig around and figure out using a spreadsheet to keep track is a serious waste of time. I could have read 10-20 chapters in that wasted time. It's annoying. Most other sites including Nifty tell me with a change of color that I have brought up that chapter and the unread ones show a link in a different color, so my browser keeps track of what I've read. Gay Authors website code BLOCKS this function for no discernible reason. My software engineer husband, who has written many major commercial websites, upon examining the source, thinks this is easy to correct, so why not bring it up? And now for a real Flame. "Don't start none, won't be none" If that had been true when I lived in my birth town of Baltimore in the 1960's and a lot of people including myself hadn't started a LOT, Maryland and this country would still be executing people for certain gay acts. At that time, the openly uber fabulous and stylish royal 5 star B****** all resided in the local jail. The cops hated their guts. I know, I bailed several of them (my dear friends) out. I look back with joy that I could help "start some". And I still am. For all the hard work it takes to keep Gay Authors up, the loudmouthed hard and dangerous work of Gay Liberation first made it possible. And out of habit, some of us are just socially noisy. Daffy106 PS My handle "Daffy" comes from "Daffodil", my Radical Faerie name.

I know it was callous, and I won't do it again. I apologize to my anonymous victim. I picked a random author (one of the site's original founders), read the stories, and then, genuinely disliking an author who casually treated serious drinking, decided to experiment with the ratings system to see what could happen. The result surprised even me. The point I'm trying to make is that one person should not be able to make that much of a change good OR bad. Given the youth of the new system, I'm sure the rating will recover; I also think no one is paying much attention to reputation at this point (I sure am not), given the rather skewed and incoherent current results. (Mark Arbour 574; Nicholas James 74)(Both excellent hosted writers with many stories). As for having to clicking "like" to get current updates, what if I'm not sure I really like the story yet? I sometimes give stories I'm skeptical about a chance before deciding I'm not really into it. Clicking "like" would be dishonest. This whole web author thing that seems to say "I wrote it and here it is free" and therefore don't criticize syndrome scares me a little. I took polite issue with an author once who I thought was WAY out of line over when it's OK for an abused gay to commit murder, (Immature abused teens read this stuff) and got my head bit off, not "maybe you have a point." "It's only a story" was the comment. (Blood libel, anyone?) More comments to come. Daffy106

Hi Guys. Please take this as constructive criticism, I read your site a lot; I understand this is a work in progress. First, I like a lot of what you have done with the website. Finding a hidden in the woodwork author is a little less byzantine than before. I like the unified interface. Sorting stories is more convenient. However: When I go to a chapter list, it does not remember I have already read this or that chapter. To get my browser to tell me I have already selected a particular chapter last week, I need to turn off the "see the page as the site wants" control. Then I can tell where I am in the story without having to take notes that get lost causing me to spend an extra 10 minutes per story to figure out where I am. This is slowly making me more and more unwilling to consider reading any story "in progress". The reputation thing is amazing. I cannot figure out how it works. I do know I found an author with a 15 rating and by playing with +s, -s, and stars I could reduce his rating by 2 points to 13 (15%) in 2 minutes. Just one reader. Me. Cool; I didn't like his style. Is this how it should work? All the "story entered" dates are now dec 2010-feb 2011. Now I don't have any idea if a story "in progress" was started in 1990 and never added to or if it is a new story that has a chance of continuing. (See my "unwilling to read" note above.) Also the story update list is so clogged, the actual updates are lost in a list that changes in minutes or hours as you add all the old stories in the site to the "update list". Daffy106

I'm very happy to see a story about late 18th century British Navy adventures. I am a total Hornblower fan, and a gay story about those times and places could be a lot of fun. I'm sure a lot of un-aknowledged sexual activity went on in those ships, and a more truthful story about what really went on would be a trip. Many historical writers imply that the sole real purpose of the Ship's Boy was to service the Captain and eliminate the necessity of him finding relief with the crew. I bet that would make interesing gossip! Certainly this story has started out wonderfully, and I am looking forward to more. I hope this story focuses a bit more on the adventure and romantic side with complex relationships, and not on an excess of repetitive raw sex (Some is good!) So far so good. daffy106