paya

Awwwww Thank you all so much for the wishes! And thank GA for my Westie!

Awww what a great blog post! I'm really glad you're feeling better and better! Can't wait meeting you when I'm in the UK! I'm so happy for both of you!

Poodle! Now that's something to remember!

You tease you!!! I usually crash on my bed and need a few moments to recover from the day at work. I wish I could say "I hug my boyfriend" but I need to wait for that for some time before it can happen.

Well then we know the story is in good hands and you'll figure it out. Though if you needed any external voice I'm blunt enough to say it. Just... why can't you include Wade as a narrator into that one? Truth to be told, he's a RICH man's son but if you have two so different characters like Gathan and Will, it would certainly not hurt the story (more)? I bet you'd find a way how to do it non-violently.

Why wasn't Wade considered as a narrator? He'd certainly have things to say? If I remember, 2000 was GWB x Al Gore election, he'd certainly be following it? More like the whole family would? That would also start some tension. And Will as a 13 yo is certainly not interested in politics, well maybe 13 yo Wade would be but certainly not Will... There's the problem with the lack of narrators apparently. Normally Mark would just skip in time but since we're catching up with modern times it's harder to do. There also has to be something to talk about, to express with the story. Anyway, I'm putting off reading PMS until it's done or until the next story is out so that I can go on reading and not lose the context. I still have Granger to catch up with (Mark! You'd better keep my Calvert alive! )

Happy birthday Steve!!!

Great story. I was pissed off for first thirty or forty chapters as Brad was really obnoxious. But I was reminded the story was from his POV so it had to be heavily biased. The more I'm persuaded his character took a big hit in that part of the story. They way how both of them managed to get through their problem was really remarkable. And even if it's placing me among Robbie's staunch fans (which is not all that fair), I really admire the way how counseling helped him - in fact so much he was able to lead Brad through some of the retrospection. I only hope Brad and Robbie remain like that (stable and equal), the experience of 1968 has it Mark is always ready to stab the readers in the back with a very unrealistic twist in a character, at least that's where I'm coming from :P :P (I know, I know! Enough of Jeff-flogging but it's scarily similar to the end of CAP01. All happy and lovey-dovey...)

Well... Jeff was an IMPORTANT character but he's not alive anymore, he didn't get the development JP and Stef got. I see the characters of the saga like there's the "holy Trinity" - JP - Stef - Brad, now made to a foursome with Robbie being Brad's equal finally, then there is the inner core with Isidore, Frank, Matt, Wade, Claire, Jack, Cody and Kevin I guess? and then there are the kids and other characters. The importance of course varies depending on who's the narrator but the Holy Quaternity (? how would you call a Trinity in 4? ) is untouchable and always important, in every story. At least I hope Robbie will remain there (unsaddling him after what he overcame would be only annoying and showing how little Mark cares for the Hayes family IMO). And what I meant about Marcel and Gathan was that it took two stories of main staring for Stef to be the narrator, Brad was similar. Matt is the only exception but Bloodlines is an exceptional story. I have yet to see Gathan as narrator, as well as Will, and I'm thinking of waiting till the story gets finished as I'm not really interested in a 13-14 yo narrator's story nor a straight/bi-curious narrator. I'd be just bitchy and that wouldn't help Mark to overcome the crisis. I wish I could help. Choosing the right narrator is always problematic. I think one needs to know what kind of story they want to write, what is the message they want to relate. And pick the narrator fitting that, not vice-versa. I haven't read Graeme's story Linxe was linking here but I could imagine a straight narrator in CAP if he was giving a fresh look at the torment of some of their gay sibling or close friend or whatever - but it would work only as when we had Wade narrating instead of Matt. Because even if straight sex scenes might be fun to write and refreshing to see here, it's not the primary reason I'm at GA reading the stories. And I think the narrators should be at least adult or nearing that age, 13-14 is too low IMHO.

I'm glad we moved from stereotyping Robbie as the whiny one, unstable one, etc. They look more equal now, more stable and more mature I really like in what state they evolved.

I love your "Deus ex machina" solutions, Mark!

Bah, you Americans are soo uptight! So what if she slept with a black man? Moreover, affairs from wife's life wouldn't make that ado in Europe. Sometimes I'm really happy not being an American.

"Merde" ) That sums it up soooo well!!!

OK now that I've met Gathan and got an idea of his character, even if it's too early to make any profound conclusions, I might have a few points from on why Gathan might not be as popular narrator. 1) I think he was chosen as a narrator pretty early. He's introduced in the 50s chapters of Millennium, so the readers didn't get enough time to get to know him so well that they can identify with him as a narrator. I think the same thing happened to Marcel. The only narrator that made it literally from scratch was Matt. In my opinion Bloodlines had been so far the highlight of the saga, at least in the modern era (i.e. since Be Rad; Land Whore and JP's stories are pretty strong on their own). 2) But Matt was gay. IDK what the next story is about, I have some 17 chapters to finish the Millennium, but I expect Mark made another Crampton/Schluter-Hayes couple. The problem is that Gathan as a new character doesn't have much to bring. Starting at college? We've seen that hundred times already. Hockey at Stanford? IDK if Gathan chose to go to Stanford yet but Matt already covered that area. And as I've said above, bi or straight might be a nice thing for a short 20 chapter story - but what's the reason to put such person in the narrating place? What's the aim of the story? 3) Gathan doesn't have any strong link to a MAIN character of the saga. Matt is Robbie's son. Marcel is Jeff's - and Jeff, no matter how important he was, is not a MAIN character of the saga. I hope Gathan is not the one that gets to narrate the 9/11 part of the story (nor any of the teenagers). My opinion is that it should be some very strong character, I'd go for JP himself, even if it was a short story like Summer Love. But as the 9/11 shook America to its core, I think it should be a really strong narrator to do the job. Problem is nobody is interested in him having sex anymore. But I guess it's too early to talk about 2001?

this thread is still alive? IDK why but now I feel it's pretty sick to just sit here and decide who's going to die or not. Playing gods are we? And as I've already said, I hope nobody from the CAP main characters is going to die. There's no need for that.

“I think their relationship is more complex than any of us, including Wade, understands.” I’d been trying to figure out what made Elizabeth Danfield both hate and fear Alexandra Carmichael, but I hadn’t been able to discover it. That's an easy one. ABC knows Danfield abused his son. It would destroy the politician's career. I wonder how this is going to be dealt with though.

I really hope Jeanine's child has lavender eyes! It could be twins! one from each

Haven't you hired Nephy as a member of your team? I hope we see the room being used a lot!

I think I don't praise too much. Well the flashback and the kinky sex scenes you mix in the story are really fun! They spice it up.

I have yet to meet him but what I've heard/seen, he's Hayes and "somewhat straight" - well that's a novelty (I do admit there's Frank but still... the gay genes are so potent in their family ). And I didn't get to reading the next story. But with the straight narrators, the problem is they are not targeted for this audience. I may have said that in a wrong way, I don't know how to express it. But I'd guess people might be interested in seeing a straight acting narrator as they are in seeing an albino animal or a unicorn it's a nice and refreshing ANOMALY () that everyone will go and see, some would even watch it having sex but then they would hurry back home (e.g. to a great hard cock ). So even if it might be something new for Mark to write, changing patterns and all that jazz, it shouldn't be an integral part of CAP or only as a dead end / spinoff - which is how I see Marcel's stories. Edit: uhhh I'm not seeing Marcel as a straight narrator. But as for the saga, it was a dead end, a bit purposeful (to get JP watch the fall of the Soviet Union) and IDK... it wasn't a big success I'd say.

I can see Darius in this one. My image of Cody is Jason Lewis from the times of Brothers & Sisters and Sex and the City. I doesn't matter if it's wrong. I'm curious about this Justin Blalock guy from Millenium. I googled for images and all I found were some pics of a football player that doesn't look sexy at all. So is it a fictional character or real? It's really confusing.

There are so many conditions that would have to be fulfilled so that the story kept my interest that I'd probably find another way how to use my time.

OK, I know it's nit-picking and I mentioned this already in one of my reviews of Millenium I'm in the middle of reading right now. The thing is, Mark uses “I see where you’re coming from." phrase in every damn chapter. In some twice (maybe even more). I'm confident the English language is richer than that and there are other ways how to express that. Since I'm having a pretty intense "CAP-marathon" I get to notice it quite frequently and I just couldn't stand it any more. Could please somebody from Mark's team keep an eye on that? It starts to ridicule the otherwise SUPERLATIVE amount of work Mark has done so far.

Seriously? ALL of Brad's enemies grouped in one place?

This is scary! :-o It looks like the storyline is moving! :-o So we have only one last piece of puzzle to solve... And since everything is tied to Man in Motion, how about connecting the evil person instigating the wrath of Carmichaels being some Neil's relative, huh? They'd have how to know the identity of Brad, motive and just waiting for the right opportunity to rise... This is why I like these stories, not all that emotional drama, mostly self-induced.