Rilbur

What a very strange story... I'm looking forward to seeing where it will go. I could never, not in a million, trillion years, write anything like this.

Ouch! Terminal miscue! But still a great read... but what a way to end a date, lol.

Ah, OK. Oh well, no chapter for me this week!

OK, maybe I'm a bit confused... but I thought this story was supposed to be updated every other Friday. Did I misunderstand something? I've been checking back since Friday the 6th looking for the update...

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Better idea; Just ignore it. Render him irrelevant by ignoring him like you would yesterday's garbage once it's been dumped.

That was hilarious... and it would be nice to do a continuous counter-protest, I must admit...

Ah, another great chapter! It's a shame some people have to be such idiots, but at least Shane and his new 'boyfriend' have friends to help them out.

And so it has ended. The story is finished. And I have a question left, for those that care to answer... I've been asked, on several occasions, if I intend to 'publish' this story. Readers have wanted a hard copy version of it. And I think I may attempt to provide that, using Lulu's on-demand printing. Who out there would be interested in such a thing? I looked into it, and approximate pricing is as follows: Paperback: 17.50$ for a single volume, 11$ each for a two volume edition. Hardcover: Casewrap: 26$, Dust Jacket 27$, for a single volume edition. For a two volume edition, 19.50$ and 20.50$ respectively. I don't think anyone is going to be interested in the two volume edition, but at 250,000 words this is a very big book. Cutting the book into two volumes costs more, but makes it more slightly easier to handle. If I remember correctly, the books are about an inch and a half thick, which is OK for a hardcover, but way too thick for a paperback, IMO. I also intend to provide downloadable electronic versions for those that want to use an e-reading device to enjoy the story, hopefully in every possible format ranging from a printable .doc and PDF to Epub and mobipocket formats. So... who out there might be interested in that? (Edit: This post is in no way meant to suggest that the existing electronic copies will be taken down, or that I will fail to maintain them; I'm offering these as a supplement to reading them through the various websites that carry them).

I generally browse electronically for anything I read... it's just so much easier to deal with than print. My collection of e-books is growing, rapidly, since I don't buy hardcopy anymore.

I always love SMBC

Radiation is. Most people really overreact to the idea of it. You can pick up a huge load of radiation from something as simple as taking an airplane flight, or getting an X-Ray taken. Should you try to minimize 'excess' exposure? Yes. Should you fret over it? No. Also, chemotherapy is only parly about radiation. It's actually a chemical treatment, with the addition of radiation. They poison your body with the chemo, hoping to poison the tumor worse than you (this is why chemo is so terrible; they are literally shooting you as full of poison as they 'safely' can). The radioactive aspect of it is because up to a certain threshold, radiation exposure actually helps your body's immune system.

I suspect that certain other parties won't let him loose the job.

Thanks everyone!

Oh, btw, with Chapter 34... did Ronan's final words spark anyone's imagination, make them realize something absolutely incredible that completely changes the relationship between Jason and Ronan? Does anyone understand what a huge shift that on, single statement causes? And just as a clue... Ronan's final words weren't a typo. He really did address Jason as... Well, read the chapter to find out. It changed everything about their relationship... it changes everything about the story...

On one level I'd love to claim that that wouldn't work... but who knows. Honestly, the entire piece of the chapter just leaves me thinking that he expected the entire stupid thing to go off without a hitch.

Yeah, I knew it was worth it. It was a small mistake... but I'd say it sure paid off. And those idiots are sure learning a lesson!

I already read through all of them that I am for the moment. I felt like re-reading Do Over (honestly, some of his best work!) and then grabbed the ones I'd missed. I'll probably come back and do Rich Boy sometime soon; somehow he's ended up being one of my 'fallback' authors that I pick up when I can't decide what I'm going to read next. (Edit: To be clear, I'm saying he's one of my favorite authors... and most of his works can be read independently, too!) Something worth mentioning is that I read fast, very, very fast. To give you a good benchmark, I read Mission of Honor by David Weber in less than 24 hours, including a sleep period in the middle. While I can't directly compare word counts, I believe Mission of Honor would come in fairly close to a Wheel of Time book. I read a lot; and I do mean A LOT. This means I get lots of practice. Which means I do it very, very, very well. A couple of hours a day can really add up fast, too. I tend to eat when I'm eating, cooking, etc etc -- anything that requires me to be away from other entertainment without locking my hands and mind in place full time. On top of that, I read while I'm traveling on the bus, or being driven in a car.

A small announcement, for those that are interested: I have written up through Chapter 38... and the epilogue that comes immediately after. The story has an end, and I expect to have it posted before the end of summer.

Great story, I'm sorry I waited so long to read it! I'm also going to go for the future of 'Let's do it' -- they said they came up with a new idea for a bottom-up approach to reform, and that's exactly what you're seeing here.

I didn't start reading this story until recently... In a way I'm sad I waited, it was a great story! In another way, it was worth it since I got to power through to 'the end' (I think) pretty darned quickly!

Would it suck to have to wait two weeks if it weren't worth it? If it weren't worth it, I'd probably just drop the story until it was

Basically, it's because WYSIWYG editors REALLY do not work nice with word processors at the moment. I get around this by hand-coding everything into HTML, and then uploading that file into e-fiction. I just have to be careful when I need the < and > characters, because the WYSIWYG editor STILL tries to parse those like they're actual internet code.

In general, you don't 'have' to. It just really sucks when you don't, and then turn around and discover something went wrong.

I think his decision may have been a mistake... sucks that I'll have to wait two weeks to find out!