methodwriter85

And in your case, you get to revisit music from high school. *ducks*

Chapter 15 -Christmas, 1942, where Steven realizes that Nathan has moved on, and an awkward dinner conversation with Tono ensues. "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mjb4yLMeK8 -When Steven gets with Nathan. "Tangerine" by Jimmy Dorsey

Well, you know, Frank may only be seven years old, but....(KIDDING.)

Paya, you do realize that you're in a thread that is inherently about fans giving Mark storyline suggestions, right? Paya, the reason I give so much feedback to Mark's stories is because of the fact that I serve a function on his writing team. On Mark's Gay Authors homepage, Mark has outlined my function as this: As Mark has said, he doesn't use all of my ideas, but he does use quite a few, and that's why I serve as his muse at times. Note how I brought up Will being into parkour, but Mark sees Will as much more likely to be into skateboarding. If he shoots down an idea, I'm not going to try and force him to change it. The only time I've ever gotten particularly aggressive about something is a storyline with Bloodlines. Mark was going to have Cole be allowed to go right back to living at his dorm at Stanford after his suicide attempt. I told him emphatically that there is no way in hell a university would ever allow a guy who tried to commit suicide go back to living on campus without assurance that it would never happen again. I had some personal experience with something similiar, so I really wanted this to be done in the right way. I asked around for feedback, talking to R.A.s and such, and they agreed with me that at the very least, the university would have made Cole take off the rest of the quarter and undergo mandatory counseling before he was re-admitted to Stanford with a doctor's note stating that he was no longer a danger to himself or to others. Mark took that idea, and gave us the storyline of Cole living with the Cramptons for a quarter, which was a nice little subplot that worked well and served to repair Cole's friendship with Matt. There was another time when another person on Mark's writing team got somewhat upset at an upcoming storyline with Mark's then-current story, Man In Motion. This person, who I will refer to as Austin, did not feel that the storyline made sense for the characters. Austin felt that the storyline made the main protagonist, Brad, look extremely bad, and it went against who Brad was as a character. Austin laid out an argument for why the storyline didn't work in a very calm, methodical manner. Mark wrote what he wanted to write anyway, but then Mark realized in writing the story that Austin was right. So Mark backed up and re-wrote the chapters, and I think the finished product of Man in Motion turned out well. So those are two examples of when feedback changed a story direction. But that feedback only changed the story direction because Mark himself felt that it made sense for the story. I put this on the front page, but just in case you don't check it out... Added May 26, 2010: Paya just made a very interesting point. I myself have been guilty of not talking about how the story should end, but instead talking about what should happen as we get there. So I'm expanding the scope of this thread to include just general speculation about what the future of the characters are. So it is now on-topic to include discussions of where the kids will be in 5 years, or where Brad and Robbie's relationship will go, etc etc. This thread is no longer just about the ending of CAP- but also about how we will get there.

I was over at my favorite bar tonight. I was there for an acoustic guitar show by a guy named Jefe. Afterwards, I was watching a good amount of people crying their eyes out. Because it was the Jefe show they'd ever see at the Deer Park Tavern as a college student, you know? I was seeing one guy in particular. He was just bawling his eyes out, and comforting and being comforted by his friends. It went on for at least half-an-hour. I had a bit of a cry later in the car- you know, the "Oh no this is the end of college and it makes me emotional" deal, but I think in general I'm not feeling that sort of despair that guy is feeling. I contrast that to when I graduated from high school five years ago, and I just don't feel that same sense of,"my world is ending", that I did back then. Back in high school, I felt like the world was going to end as soon as I stepped off that stage- that because the world I had taken four years to build was over, that my life is over. And I don't really feel that when it comes to college, and I don't really feel that much despair about things ending. Part of it, I think, is just the fact of the matter is that I'm a 5th year senior. I mean, I know that technically I'm the class of 2010, but in my heart I'm the class of 2009. This isn't really the class I grew up with. I went through the feeling of saying my goodbyes to my fellow seniors last year, I think. This year has felt like an extension of college, but my heart's already moved on a bit. And I don't really have the tightknit, "we do everything together" kind of group that a lot of these kids seem to have. I transferred into UD during my sophomore year, and I just never really became part of any one group. I was more of just a "floater", I think. So there aren't really any huge emotional ties tugging me to UD. I mean, there's my friend Steve, and I do have some good friends, but University of Delaware just wasn't the center of my world that Cab Calloway High was. I'm ready for it to be over, and I'm ready to move on to grad school. I mean, I'll still always be the silly college kid at heart, and I don't think that will ever change, but I really think doing a 5th year of college prepared me for the end of it. It feels time, you know? Time to smile, time to reflect on my accomplishments and all the fun and all the tears and all the tediousness and the joy and the sadness...and just..walk forward. I might be a total blubbery mess on Friday on Saturday, but for now...I'm happy that I'm marching towards something new and away from the familiar.

Meanwhile, here on the East Coast, private schools seem de rigeur. In the state I'm from, you either send your kid to private school, a charter school, a magnet school, or you hope and pray you can choice them into a more decent district. The public schools are horrible because we have low property taxes. Even in nice areas, the public schools are horrible. I was really shocked when researching for you where Darius, Will, and JJ would go to high school, because in my experience, there's a private high school for almost every town here in Delaware. There's only one actual private high school in the Malibu area, called Colin McEwen, but it seems like a special-needs school that has about 23 people. For middle school, there's a little more choice, but I cannot see Robbie and Brad willingly sending JJ and Will to Our Lady of Malibu, a k-8 Catholic school. So Malibu High it is. Although if Robbie and Brad were really bent on sending their kids to private school, they could bus them out to Santa Monica. The boys could attend Crossroads School or Concord High School, which are the two secular private schools in Santa Monica. I don't know if Robbie and Brad would really want to give the guys such a long commute though when Malibu High is right there and has such a great reputation. Plus, with Robbie and Brad having great experiences with really good public schools, I don't really seem them having the snobbery about sending their kids to private schools that you see a lot here on the East Coast, or in the mid-West with the Carrswolds sending Matt to the University School. I found something pretty neat on Youtube, though. It's footage from the actual rehearsals and show of 42nd Street at 2004 Malibu High theater production. So they're the contemporaries of JJ and Will. Pretty neat, huh? Mark, aren't you glad you have me to do the bitch researching grunt work so you don't have to?;-)

Come on, you gotta admit that parkour is pretty sick. And eh, I guess Will could be skater, but I just figured I could keep you up-to-date about likely subcultures that Will, JJ, and John Hobart will run into during their high school years, which are circa 2001-2005. Details like parkour, which I remember popping up when I was high school, do a good job of keeping the story current. (For the time frame.) You don't want the story to stay stuck in the early 80's when Brad and Robbie were in high school, right? Here's a cool clip I found of some rapper performing at Malibu Inn for some Malibu High students. It's from 2006, and it gives you a good idea of how the kids dress and dance in that era. Hair seems to be generally straight, and strappy tank tops seems to rule. Note especially how the girls dance with each other onstage. [url=" And here's a short clip of a guy skateboarding late at night at Malibu High School: [url=" Malibu High seems like the typical Western school- lots of open hallways. I've been reading up on it- the town of Malibu itself doesn't seem to have a lot of private high schools. So it looks like Darius, JJ, and Will are most likely attending Malibu Middle and High School. If they were living in Santa Monica, it would be different- Santa Monica appears to have more private schools. But Malibu doesn't. Which I thought was pretty interesting for such an affluent area.

I actually had a conversation with a girl from the White Rock Lake area of Dallas who told me about a rave club in Dallas called After Life. I guess raves actually became more of a thing AFTER your youth in in your area. Here, they were popular around 1999-2002, but then seemed to die out. It's kinda interesting to wonder about what this next generation of kids will get into as they come-of-age in the 2000's. What if Will got into parkour? It 's a pretty interesting subulture that emerged in the past decade, and it'd be a way to make Will his own character instead of just having him be into surfing like his father. I can see parkour being something that a guy like Will could be into- it's almost poetry, the way these guys work: There is no way in hell JJ would ever dirty himself like that, fussy fella that he is, but I can see the quiet intensity that Will has working for something like parkour.

You kinda remind me of a friend I have who tells me to knock it off with my bullshit. I think I have a better appreciation of that now. As for Andy's school, wow, you've really crafted one interesting ficticious high school. Could have been interesting to go to a school like that, but they don't exist in Delaware because Delaware doesn't have the taxes to support stellar public high schools.

Hey, Nephie, if you like him in scruff, you'd like this picture. http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2j5ycledc1qc0skdo1_500.jpg God. Ian Somerhalder has to have one of the most beautiful male faces I've ever seen.

LOL. Mark, you missed your calling...you should've been a high school counselor, I think.;-) Anyways, I've got a team that I'm pulling for that is doing well. It's pretty nice.

Sharpe. I don't know- Andy no longer having a P name to match with Price somehow feels wrong. I l really liked the P & P element. Kinda emphasized how the two are pretty much like brothers. Couldn't he have been named Patterson or something? The popularity stuff was interesting to read. My high school never really had it in the way that it seems like their high school does. I think it might have been just that we were a different flavor of kids- urban, performing arts kids. There were bullies and snobs, but pretty much everyone could do their own thing. I can't really think of any one cliche that totally dominated the school. If anyone had, they would have been laughed at. Everyone had their own different scene/major to be into- the comm kids, the vocal majors, the dancers, the artists, the actors, the band geeks, etc etc. And a jock/cheerleader culture didn't really exist at my school, because we didn't actually have sports. I mean, some kids played sports at the school next door, but yeah, Homecoming was for a Battle of the Classes, not really for sports. But for a school like theirs, I'm glad that Matt wants to lead by example, though. He really is quite the amazing, compassionate young man. Having been baby of my family, I feel Danny's pain, really. LOL. God, I remember being 10 years old and wanting to hang out around my older sisters' cool older friends, and being annoying about it. Although being that I had sisters instead of older brothers, I didn't have to deal with the physical torture that Andy seems to inflict on Danny. Finally, I love how Andy's not-so-platonic love for Matt is creeping up on him. The Michelangelo stuff was great. It's been awhile since I felt that about anybody- thanks for bringing that feeling back, Adam.

Yeah. I guess that makes sense. Track and cross-country was filled with people who were in an off-season. It seemed like the biggest committment for anybody was swimming, which basicaly ran all year. Soccer was a spring sport here, I think. Or it might have been boy's soccer was fall, girl's soccer was winter/spring. As for the other stuff...I guess you're right. In high school my friend Courtney made fun of the Andy types- the honors kids who were nice but mainly because they wanted to be seen as nice. I think me and my group prolly would have seen Andy as kinda fake.

Kinda weird for me to read, since I was the biggest loser in 9th grade, but it's nice to see how such a nice, charming young man commanded the respect and attention of his peers. Most of the coaches I knew wouldn't have really cared about someone doing multiple sports, but that was usually only during off-season. I'd never heard of anyone who could get away with doing two sports during the same season, but I guess it somehow worked for Andy that way.

This one's for you, Mark.

Chapter 14 -When Steven checks out Nathan while he sleeps. "Who Wouldn't Love You" by Kay Kyser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-54ixopJw8

Nah, I'm more broad-shouldered and stocky, although I do have the tree-trunk legs Nathan has. Back to the story...Brad is bringing up the events of 1985. Hmm. Wonder if that's signifcant, or foreshadowing something...maybe Brad and Robbie still have some issues to work through...

I don't think Darius will want to join the military, given the shit he's likely going to get for being middle-Eastern. As for the story...Nathan and Steven...I kinda like 'em. Maybe it's because Nathan reminds me of a guy I know, physically. Although Nathan isn't as dumb as a box like my sweet but really dumb friend is.

The only Hayes I can think of that could fit that would be Fred the Third, who we saw in Bloodlines harrassing Matt. I'm assuming he's the son of Fred Junior, and he must've been one of the cousins who raped Robbie back during the fall of '79. So he's roughly the same age as Robbie. Did he say in the story that he had kids? I think the only thing we knew for sure is that he's the town resident drunk. If he had kids though, I wouldn't see much of a point bringing them in because they're prolly just as abusive white trash as their dad is...Robbie doesn't seem to have a high opinion of his cousins or their kids. I'm assuming his brother and sister didn't have kids, because Frank seems to treat Matt as the only grandkid he's ever had. Of course, it's just as likely his two oldest shut out Frank and Robbie and sided with their mother and her church.

Wasn't that kind of the point of bringing in Matt Carrswold? It looked like the Hayes family was dying out because Marcel and Robbie weren't going to have biological kids, and Mark Arbour brought in Matt, which created a new generation of Hayes. I'm convinced that the Hayes family must be the gayest family. Ever. Even Frank experimented a little on the gay side. But back to Mat Carrswold and Danfield...for 9/11, they're seniors at Stanford. Still together, or do you think they've had a riff? Maybe Matt is visiting Danfield in D.C. that fateful summer?

I like to read obituraries, and I love walking around graveyards and reading grave stones. I love grave stones. Unfortunately, because I plan on getting cremated, I can't have one. It'll be a memorial plaque instead.

Mike, JJ will be 14 in 2000. He's good, but guys that age don't compete on that high of a level yet. I asked around....male figure skaters hit their prime in their early to mid-20's. That means he will likely compete in the 2006 and 2010 Olympics. Hopefully he'll bump into Jeremy Bloom...geez, that guy is hot.

Adam, I think the fire marsal one sounds a lot like Sean. He's a leader, but in this benevolent, easy-going way that doesn't come off the least bit bossy. As for Mark- you are a pretty nice guy. You are like that witty bisexual stoner/preppy uncle I wish I had.

I guess raves were more of an East Coast/West Coast thing, then? I wasn't cool enough, but I knew kids who snuck out to raves when we were 15. Maybe Will and JJ will hit one in Los Angeles at some point? Assuming in high school they make friends with older kids. I can't see Robbie or Brad being all that parental about that considering what they got up to in high school. Or Matt and Wade can hit one in San Francisco? I remember the clothing my sisters and her friends wore for it- baggy, brightly colored cargo pants, visors, wifebeaters, the pacifers, the glow sticks, and candy necklaces for some.

Don't forget Adam's body glitter and glowing lipstick...really adds to the sexy. Nah, actually, I picture College Adam as the kinda guy who went to frat-like parties, only instead of frat kids, it was all the soccer players at his school. You know, they all sit around in their Tommy Hilfiger t-shirts over wifebeaters, baggy cargo pants, and black Adidas sandals, keying beers and such. We're in 1999 now, right? Trends to know... -Britney Spears and the pop princess explosion that included Christinia Aguilera, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Simpson. Blond girls singing pop is back in again. Accompanied by the explosion of boy bands- Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, 98 Degrees, LFO, and many others. -Latin pop explosion. Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Antony, Jennifer Lopez, etc. -Electronic pets. Particularly Tamogotchi and Nanopets. Will and JJ are probably obsessed with their pets, like we were back in middle school. -Pokemon. Seriously. Meet anyone who was in middle school circa 1999, and they or someone they knew was OBSESSED with it. -Harry Potter. When it was still just a book. -IMacs. Really seemed cool back then, and in retrospect signaled the major comeback of MacIntosh. Stefan and Brad will hopefully invest in Mac stock. -Abercrombie and Fitch. Really, really explodes in popularity that year. Anything else I'm missing? -The Blair Witch Project. I feel like everyone and their mother saw that movie. Remember all the parodies people made?