A Comet Like No Other - 1. Chapter 1 A Comet Like No Other

Although I’d worked with an IBM PC at my job, I didn’t get my first home computer until November 1997. Even though I was late having a computer at home and it had a dial up modem that connected to the internet via my landline telephone, it didn’t take very long before I found a site called Nifty. It had started in 1993 as a site hosting various LGBTQ stories, but at the time many of those stories weren’t the best quality. Some were poorly written and too many of the authors lacked spelling and grammatical skills. A few even made it difficult to tell if the story was written in English or another language that I couldn’t understand.

A majority of those early stories also focused almost exclusively on the sexual activities of the characters, most of whom didn’t have any description about them, other than possibly a first name. Too many of the authors didn’t attempt to flesh out their characters’ personalities or build any relationships, other than engaging in some sort of sexual activity. Frequently, I didn’t have to read more than just a couple of paragraphs before I was ready to move on to the next story.

Occasionally I’d run across a submission that contained a detailed description of the characters when introducing them and the storyline was developed in greater depth, which made it worth reading. My most intriguing find happened in June of 1998 when I clicked on the link for a new entry that had just been posted that day.

By the time I got through the first few paragraphs, I knew I was hooked and had to keep going. Of course, I realized there would be sexual scenes in the story, after all it was on Nifty, but this time the author had set the scene and given a brief description of what they looked like, as well as names. And he’d also explained that the lead character, Randy, had at least one insecurity, and that was about his body – he thought he looked scrawny.

There was also an indication that the story wouldn’t be exclusively about sex. It looked as if the boys, Randy and Ryan, were going to build a relationship as well, possibly even a romantic one, and that intrigued me. Even though they found themselves having oral sex the first time they were alone at Randy’s house, basically due to the fact that teenage hormones are hard to resist. It also appeared that the story was going to be more than just sex, since the boys seemed to be forming a bond – a deeper connection, and they acted like they really cared for each other. Totally enthralled with this story, I decided to write the author an email.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: June 19, 1998

Subject: New Kid in School

Hi, I just found your story “New Kid in School” on Nifty and wanted to tell you that I loved what I read. I’ve read a lot of stories on Nifty before, but this is the first time I’ve ever emailed the author about any of those stories. It’s because you gave vivid physical descriptions of the two main characters, Randy and Ryan, and you gave each of them a personality as well. The sex scene was hot too, in fact it was incredible. The entire story was fantastic and much better than anything else I’ve ever read on Nifty.

You wrote a note at the end of the chapter asking if we wanted you to write more, so let me add my voice to let you know that the answer to that question is yes! I definitely hope you’re going to write more, lots more about Randy and Ryan, and I hope you don’t take too long to do it. I’ll be checking Nifty every night to see if the next chapter is there. Thank you so much for writing this wonderful story.

Regards,

Bill

 

As soon as I hit the send button, it struck me that I had no idea what web tv was or how it was connected to the internet. Did it connect through telephone lines, like AOL, or was it connected via a television cable instead? If that was the case, were the two systems compatible and would my email even reach him? I was new to this and didn’t have any idea about how it all worked.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Since the story was posted on Friday, I found a response in my inbox the very next day.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: June 20, 1998

Subject: Re: New Kid in School

Bill, thank you for the feedback and I’m glad that you’re enjoying my story, “New Kid in School”. I’ve already had several other emails asking me to continue the story, but I’m currently working on a couple of other stories at the same time. If you check Nifty, you should find that one of those stories will be posted tomorrow or the day after, and its titled “Eddie and Me”.

I’m working on another story as well, but I haven’t quite finished it yet, so I’m not sure when it will be posted. I hope you like these stories as well and that you’ll email me again after you read them. Thanks for the feedback.

Comicality

 

I was glad that he agreed to continue “New Kid in School”, because I wanted to see if Randy and Ryan did more than just fool around. I was hoping they’d become boyfriends. I was also looking forward to reading his new stories, and the first story he’d told me about, “Eddie and Me”, showed up on Nifty the next afternoon.

In this story, the main character, Jason, was an extra on the set of Terminator 2 and he accidentally on purpose made sure he ran into one of the actors, Eddie Furlong. They quickly hit it off and eventually get sexually involved, but they hadn’t really formed a deeper bond, like in “New Kid in School”. As soon as I finished reading this story, I decided to send Comicality an email.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: June 21, 1998

Subject: Eddie and Me

Comicality, I just finished reading “Eddie and Me” and wanted to let you know that I enjoyed it. Once again, you described what the two characters looked like and told us their names, but most of all, I like your writing style. I can hardly wait to read more of your stories.

However, I do have one criticism, because I disagree with you on one point. I saw the “Terminator” movie too and didn’t think Eddie Furlong was nearly as handsome as you portrayed him. He wasn’t ugly and looked okay, but he wasn’t what I’d call teen heartthrob material either, so I didn’t get why you were so smitten with him. Maybe it’s as they say “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. It’s just that we have a different vision of beauty. Although I wasn’t totally sold on that part of the premise of your story, I’m still looking forward to reading your next story and I hope you post it soon.

Regards,

Bill

 

Like an insecure teenager, I spent each night looking for an email from Comicality. I also looked to see if he’d posted his next story on Nifty, but I didn’t find either one on Monday or Tuesday. Frustrated and needing something to distract me from this obsession, I started reading other stories as I waited. They weren’t nearly as good and only reminded me of what I was missing, and then on Wednesday I finally received an email from Comicality.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: June 24, 1998

Subject: Re: Eddie and Me

Bill, I can’t believe that you don’t think Eddie Furlong is hot. I just loved how his hair would fall down over one eye and he’d have to keep using his hand to brush it back or use a flick of his head to do it. I take it that we must have different tastes.

Maybe you’ll like my next story better. It will be called “The Boy Next Door” and I’ll be posting it soon. Thank you for the feedback and for letting me know what you thought of “Eddie and Me”, other than that you don’t think Eddy Furlong is hot. Hehehe

Chat again soon,

Comicality.

 

The thing is, he didn’t say how soon that story would be posted, so I kept logging on to Nifty every night after work hoping to see the title of the story that he’d told me about. It showed up on Friday night, exactly one week after he’d posted “Eddie and Me”. As soon as I saw it, I clicked on the link and began reading “The Boy Next Door”, and I immediately thought it was much better than his last story.

In this story, the main character’s name was Brian and he’d just moved from the country where he was accustomed to peace and quiet and driving a tractor, but now he was living in Chicago. Luckily for him, his family still lived in a house, not a small apartment in a big building, but there was still a lot more noise and activity than he was used to. Brian quickly forgot about all of those problems, however, when he spotted the boy living in the house next door.

It didn’t take long before he learned the boy’s name was Josh, and Brian quickly discovered that he could look out his bedroom window and see directly into Josh’s bedroom as well. In fact, he caught him naked and jerking off. It was too good to be true, but he wanted to see it better, so he quickly came up with an idea that he hoped would help him spy on Josh. As soon as Brian put his plan into action, it kind of backfired and he got caught, but he was lucky and it turned out better than he could have hoped for and they started messing around, so all was good. It also spurred me to send Comicality another email.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: June 28, 1998

Subject: The Boy Next Door

I just read “The Boy Next Door” and I really enjoyed it. You describe the characters so well that I was able to picture them in my mind, and it helped me better appreciate what was taking place in the story. Now, I have a question for you about the story. How the hell did Brian get the camcorder to stay in the shirt sleeve on the clothesline. I know you said it was small, but I haven’t seen any camcorders that are small enough to fit into a shirtsleeve, and even if you did, it’s so heavy that it would be pointing at the ground. How did he get it close enough to Josh’s bedroom and position the lens so he could tape what was going on? You suggested that he attached it to the window ledge, but that would be kind of obvious, so I didn’t quite understand that part. Other than that, I enjoyed the story.

I’m glad that it looks like Josh and Brian are going to be hooking up and I can hardly wait to read the next chapter. I’m eager to see how the relationship between the two boys works out. Great job! Oh, and your story had the effect that you were hoping for. Hehehe

Regards,

Bill

 

I didn’t receive a reply the next day, but when I logged into my email account on Sunday afternoon, I found an email from Comicality. I hurriedly clicked on the link and opened it.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: June 30, 1998

Subject: Re: The Boy Next Door

Bill, I’m so glad you enjoyed reading this story and that it helped you to get a little relief as well. Hehehe It was sneaky of Brian to spy on Jason like that and using a camcorder to tape what Jason was doing. It meant that I had to find a way to conceal the camcorder, and the only way I could think of was hiding it in the sleeve of a shirt hanging on a clothesline. But the shirt would have to be close enough to Jason’s house so Brian could attach the sleeve to the window sill to keep it still and focused into Jason’s room.

As far as how the stunt worked with the camcorder, it may have taken a stretch of your imagination to see it happening that way, but it was the best idea I could come up with. The main point is that it definitely paid off for Brian. Hehehe

 

I appreciate that you would like to learn more about their relationship, but I don’t have any plans to write more about this story. I could always change my mind if I get enough requests to do so from other readers, like I did with “New Kid in School”, otherwise it will remain as it is now.

I’m currently working on the next chapter of “New Kid in School”, but it will probably be two or three weeks before I’m ready to post it. I’ve also started working on another story idea as well, but it probably won’t be ready to post until a couple of weeks after I submit the next chapter of “New Kid in School”. You’ll just have to keep watching to see when they’re posted, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter and the next story. I also hope you email me with your comments about them as well.

Chat with you soon,

Comicality

 

True to his word, it took three weeks before I saw anything else by Comicality posted on Nifty, but it didn’t take very long after that before I discovered it was well worth the wait. It was the next chapter for “New Kid in School”, and it looked as if Nifty had combined chapters 1 and 2 in the same link dated July 18. I immediately clicked on the link and started reading, starting at the beginning again to see if Comicality had made changes to it. It didn’t appear that he had, so I quickly started reading the second chapter as well. When I finished, I emailed Comicality to let him know what I thought of the new chapter.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: July 18, 1998

Subject: New Kid in School

Damn, I was surprised that you introduced a third character, Tyler, into the story, along with the green-eyed monster of jealousy. As far as Randy is concerned, I can totally identify with everything that he is feeling; his love for Ryan, his personal insecurities, his jealousy of Tyler, and the fear of losing Ryan.

I’m really enjoying this story and can’t wait for you to post more chapters. Please keep up the great work,

Regards,

Bill

 

Once again, I kept checking my email account to see if I had anything from Comicality. There wasn’t an email from him when I checked my email later, before I went to sleep. There was also no response from him when I checked my email when I woke up the next morning or when I checked it again after I arrived home from work. There wasn’t anything the next day either, or the day after that. Was it just that he was busy writing and hadn’t checked his email yet or had my email even reached him.

I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get a reply, but when I checked my email later that evening, I spotted a message from him. I hurriedly opened it and started to read what he wrote.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: July 21, 1998

Subject: Re: New Kid in School

Bill, I apologize for the delay in responding to your last email, but I had some things come up that I had to take care of right away. I hope you understand.

Thank you for the feedback on the second chapter of New Kid in School and I’m glad you enjoyed it. Yes, I included Tyler in the story to play on Randy’s insecurity and see how he’d handle the feelings of jealousy. He doesn’t seem to be taking it too well for now, but we’ll see what happens in future chapters.

I’m also in the process of writing new chapters for “New Kid in School”, and I’m writing other stories at the same time, but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post them. Just keep checking Nifty and I’ll post them as soon as I can.

Chat with you soon,

Comicality

 

I’m glad he wrote back, but I just don’t get it. Why is he working on another new story? Why isn’t he concentrating on “New Kid in School”? After thinking about it for a while longer, I emailed him.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: July 21, 1998

Subject: Question

Why do you keep spending time writing more stories instead of just focusing on “New Kid in School”? Why don’t you just concentrate on writing more chapters of “New Kid in School” instead? I enjoy your other stories as well, but I really think you’d be better off writing more chapters of New Kid and leave those other stories until after you’re finished with that story. I’m just curious and maybe a little frustrated as well. Anyway, I’m still a fan and looking forward to you posting more chapters or more stories.

Take care,

Bill

 

There wasn’t a reply when I checked my email the next morning, but there was one when I returned home from work.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: July 22, 1998

Subject: Re: Question

Bill, I understand why you think that I should just focus on “New Kid in School”, but I have so many ideas swirling around in my head that I have to write those down quickly. I don’t want to forget what I’m thinking, and sometimes I can’t just jot down a few notes and come back to them later when I can flesh them out. The ideas keep coming and I have to start writing them down and notes just won’t do. That’s why I’m writing more than one story most of the time and I appreciate that you’re giving me feedback on them.

 

You probably won’t find anything posted for a couple of weeks, and I’m not sure if it will be another chapter of “New Kid in School” or another story that I’m working on first. Just so you know, if it’s the new story then it will be called “Arcade Junkie”. When either of those are posted, I hope you like them and that you’ll email me again with your comments after you read them.

Looking forward to hearing from you again,

Comicality

 

That was an informative email, and I can see his point too, but I still think he’d be better off concentrating on New Kid. Maybe I’m just being selfish, because I’ve become so invested in that story and want to know what’s going to happen next, but I enjoy his other stories as well. I just hope I don’t forget what was happening in the last chapter of New Kid by the time the next chapter is posted. I suppose I could always go back and re-read the last chapter first, if I think that’s what is happening, so I’ll just keep checking Nifty as I wait to see what gets posted first.

I logged on to Nifty every day and searched the high school section to see if he’d posted anything, and if he hadn’t, I’d try to read one of the other stories, but sometimes I’d just log off. I’ve read more than 100 stories and haven’t found an author I like as much as Comicality, and I could probably read 1,000 more stories and still not find another author of his caliber. This presented me with a dilemma, but then again maybe I’m just spoiled. The thing is, I don’t find any of the stories by other authors as interesting or as good as the stories by Comicality.

In the interim, I met a guy online who told me about a Yahoo group I should join. He said the guys in the group talked about the stories they’d read online and enjoyed, some on Nifty and some on privately run sites. I didn’t even know there were privately run sites, so after getting the names of a couple of these Yahoo groups, I signed up so I could learn the titles of the stories that the other guys suggested and where they’d read them.

One of the privately run sites (which is no longer operational), I read a story titled “The Strawberry Boy” and I thought it was exceptional too. It was about a boy who fell in love with another boy, and the title didn’t refer to a characteristic such as strawberry blond hair or that he ate a lot of strawberries. It was the fact that the shampoo he used left his hair smelling like strawberries. It was a very sweet and romantic story, and I wish I’d kept a copy of it so I could read it every so often. I’ve used Google to search for it and can’t find it anywhere, so as is often said, “shit happens.”

Eventually, I discovered a new story by Comicality, clicked on the link, and started reading. The story was about a gay kid named Matt who liked hanging out at the local arcade. Not only was it a great place to check out cute boys, but he was also really good at playing certain games. He especially enjoyed showing off his skill and taking on all challengers. In fact, he was undefeated, at least until a new boy named Sam challenged him. That’s when Matt lost for the first time.

Matt couldn’t let that stand though, so he challenged Sam to a rematch, which Matt won. It seemed like they were taking turns beating one another, and when they were eventually ready to leave the arcade, they ended up spending some more time together. They went to grab something to eat first, and after a while they started playing a new sort of game in Matt’s basement.

Comicality’s descriptions were so moving that I felt as if I was watching it all play out on a TV or a movie screen, so as soon as I finished the story, I hopped on to my email account and sent him a response.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: August 3, 1998

Subject: Arcade Junkie

Man, that story blew me away. I loved your description of Matt and how he hung out at the arcade playing the machines and taking on all challengers. I liked how he was beating them one by one until he ran into Sam. I loved how you explained Matt’s immediate attraction to Sam, as well as his admiration for how skilled he was at playing the games, and even how they ended up at Matt’s house. The sex was amazing and got me all hot and bothered as well, and I certainly hope you’re going to write more chapters to let us know if this is just a one-time fling or if they become an item.

I hope you’re going to post another chapter of “New Kid in School” soon. . .or I’m going to forget everything I’ve read so far. If that happens, then I’ll have to read chapters 1-2 again before I can start chapter 3. . .but on second thought, that might not be such a bad thing either. The biggest problem is that I need my New Kid fix, so please get writing and save my life.

 

Great job,

Bill

 

The next morning, I checked my email account before I left for work, but there was no response. I shouldn’t have been surprised, though, because it was late when I sent the email. It’s just that I thought with Chicago being in the central time zone, and Comicality being an hour earlier than where I lived in New York, that maybe he might have used that extra hour to reply. I’ll just have to check again later, when I get home from work.

I rushed home after leaving my job and checked my email, but there was still no reply. Was he busy writing the next chapter of “New Kid in School’ or was he working on another story? I hope he wasn’t offended that I was sort of pushing him to work on chapter 3 and that I’d prefer if he didn’t keep working on new stories.

I didn’t find an email from him when I checked again later, or even when I checked my email account the next morning. I was beginning to worry that he had taken offense to my complaining, but then I found an email from him when I got home from work that evening.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: Aug. 5, 1998

Subject: Re: Arcade Junkie

Hey, Bill, I got your email and I’m pleased that you enjoyed this story. And now I have some good news for you. You’ll be happy to know that I’ll be posting another chapter of “New Kid in School” in the next day or two. I’m also working on an idea for another story and I hope I’ll be able to post it a few days after I post the next chapter of New Kid. I plan on calling the new story “A Stepbrother I Could Love”. Keep reading and I appreciate your feedback.

We’ll chat again soon,

Comicality

 

Damn, it’s about time that he’s finishing the third chapter of “New Kid in School”. He posted the first chapter on June 19^th and the second chapter a month later, on July 18, and now it will only be about two weeks in between that chapter and the next chapter, so he’s cut the time in half. The thing is, instead of working on the fourth chapter of New Kid, he’s working on another story again.

I can understand why he says he’s doing it, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating, and waiting a long time between chapters is probably frustrating to other readers too, and not just me. I checked every evening looking for something, but at least he’s giving me a heads-up that a new chapter of New Kid and a new story is going to be posted. I wonder if he does that for everyone who gives him feedback or if it’s because I’ve been pressing him about it.

True to his word, the next chapter of “New Kid in School” was posted on August 7^th, and I brought it up as soon as I saw it. The chapter started off with Ryan and Randy having another sexual encounter, and they almost got caught by his mom, but they managed to just barely avoid it.

The next day was Friday, and Randy had forgotten that he’d made a promise to Ryan. Luckily, Randy was able to keep his promise and the two of them were able to help Tyler move into his grandmother’s house. And then the next day, Randy decided to play hard to get, because he was getting jealous that Tyler was living so close by. His plan basically backfired, though, and it ended up causing him even more heartache. It was a good thing that Ryan was able to figure out what was up and that he was able to keep it from getting worse, but only temporarily.

Randy couldn’t sleep that night, and the more he thought about it, he concluded that Ryan wouldn’t have done anything with Tyler and given up what they had together. Sometime during the night, Ryan came over and climbed through the window in Randy’s room and Randy apologized for how he’d reacted. After they had make-up sex, Randy asked what was so important that Tyler wanted to tell him the day before. When Ryan responded that Tyler had told him that he was gay, and suddenly Randy got jealous again.

At the end of the chapter, Comicality left a message that said there’d be more to come next month, but this was the last chapter he’d be posting on Nifty. After asking for the readers to send him feedback, he made an announcement. If we wanted to read more of New Kid then we’d have to check out his website: www.kanza.net/Comicality/ Damn, I didn’t even know he had his own website, so maybe he’ll post more often there. I can hardly wait to find out.

I decided to write him another email so I could share my thoughts with him. There were a few things I wanted to tell him, along with a couple questions I wanted to ask. I logged into my email account and began composing an email to send him.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: August 7, 1998

Subject: New Kid in School, chapter 3

Fucking hot chapter, dude. It was totally awesome. Beside starting the chapter with a hot sex scene, you included a lot of sexual tension and jealousy as well. It was totally amazing. Thank you for your fine work!

Oh, and I have a few questions for you. You said previously that you were only a few years older than a teenager, so how old are you? That would help me figure out how you seem to be thinking like the teens that you’re writing about.

There is one thing that’s been bugging me too. Why doesn’t Randy’s mom smell the aroma of cum in the room when she enters it when Ryan is there? Maybe she isn’t familiar with what causes the smell, but she must smell something. You might want to add a line to circumvent this issue and give a hint that she might be aware of a smell, possibly even what the two are up to. You could have her wrinkle her nose and sniff the air, or she could make a comment such as, “What smells in here?”

And I didn’t know you had your own website, but I’m going to visit it soon. I can’t wait to see if you have more posted there, and if not, I hope you have more chapters nearly finished and you’ll be posting them soon. And with your penchant for having a lot of different story ideas at the same time, maybe there will be other stories there that I haven’t read yet. If there are, I promise to write other emails to let you know what I thought of them.

Heading to your website to check it out,

Bill

 

I was too busy with work and checking out his website to look for a reply from him, but eventually I remembered to check my email and discovered there was a reply from Comicality.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: Aug. 8, 1998

Subject: Re: New Kid in School, chapter 3

Thank you for emailing and giving me more feedback, and let me start by answering your questions and addressing your observations. Yes, I have my own website, but I haven’t had it for very long. And as far as my age is concerned, I’m 23, so you can see I was being truthful about having been a teenager just a few years ago myself.

Now, let me ask you a couple of questions. Out of curiosity, how old are you? Have you ever thought about writing stories? Judging from your emails, you appear to write well, and your comments about my stories show that you also seem to have a grasp on what it takes to make a decent story. If you haven’t thought about writing a story, then I urge you to give the idea some serious thought.

Just let me know what you think.

Comicality

 

I was surprised that Comicality was asking me questions, but since he’d answered all of mine, I was going to answer all of his and started my reply.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: August 9, 1998

Subject: Re: Re: New Kid in School, chapter 3

Ok, here are my answers to your questions. As to my age, I will turn 50 later this month. Yes, I’ve thought about writing stories, but work and family matters always seem to take up most of my time, and what little free time I have left I use to read.

To be honest, I’ve never actually written anything other than letters, memos, emails, reports, term papers, and several of eulogies that I’ve written and delivered at the funerals – well that’s mostly true. One eulogy was for my maternal grandmother, who helped to raise me and whom I loved dearly. The second was for a very close friend who died in a one car accident after he fell asleep, and a third was for a friend who died from a reaction to an illegal drug – the first time he’d ever done that. There was actually another one that I wrote for my father-in-law’s funeral, and several years later I wrote another eulogy for my mother-in-law’s funeral. However, my older son begged me to let him read it at the funeral, because he’d always been very close to his grandmother and loved her very much, so I told him he could do it instead of me.

In the meantime, I eagerly await the next chapter or a new story.

Bill

 

A couple of days after chapter 3 was posted, Comicality posted a new story, “A Stepbrother I Could Love”. It also sparked a 45 days period where he managed to grind out several additional short stories and three more chapters of “New Kids in School” (4-6). The other short stories included: “Unnatural Attraction”, “Wil Power”, “To Be More Than Friends”, “Saying I Do”, “Summer Love”, and “Summer Songs”.

After reading each of those items, I would send Comicality an email to let him know what I thought of it, and then something happened that shook my world to the core and affected me very deeply. It was a breaking news report about the murder of a young gay man named Matthew Shepard. He’d been murdered, and even though I didn’t know him personally, it was the brutality and utter lack of humanity on the part of his killers that shocked me, as well as most of the world.

Matt was a gay student at the University of Wyoming at Laramie, and on the fateful night of October 6, 1998, he met two men at The Fireside Lounge. The three of them were all in their early twenties, but unbeknownst to Matt, the other two men were only pretending to be gay. What they intended to do was to rob Matt, since he was only five feet, two inches tall (1.6 m) and appeared to be an easy target. When it came time for the place to close for the night, the other pair offered Matt a ride.

The two men were named Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, and rather than taking Matt home, they drove to a desolate location and stopped. They then attacked and robbed Matt before McKinney brutally pistol whipped him, and this left Matt with a fractured skull and numerous deep lacerations on his face and neck. If that wasn’t bad enough, they used ropes to tie Matt to a split-rail fence, which was erroneously first reported as a barbed wire fence, and then they left him there to die in the near-freezing temperature.

Matt wasn’t found until 18 hours later by a cyclist who at first thought he was a scarecrow, due to the fact that Matt’s face was swollen and nearly unrecognizable. It was also completely covered in blood, with one exception, and that was where his tears had cleansed tracks down each of his cheeks. He reportedly had one eye partially open when he was discovered, so his rescuer could see his dazzling blue eye, and eventually he was able to summon help. Matt was rushed to the hospital in Laramie, but since his injuries were so severe, he was quickly moved to a more advanced trauma center located at Fort Collins, Colorado.

By the time Matt’s parents arrived, it was said that much of Matt’s face and neck were covered in stitches or wrapped in bandages, so they were unable to recognize him. They were becoming very upset that they couldn’t tell for certain it was their son and he was only identified by the student ID he carried in his wallet, and then they spotted two very distinct features. The first was the one eye that was open, exposing his sparkling blue iris, and the other was due to the tubes that had been inserted into his mouth and allowed them to spot his dental braces.

It was only because of the life-saving machines that he was hooked up to that allowed Matt to survive six more days, until October 12, 1998. His death, however, caused outrage all over the world and his loss was mourned by thousands, possibly even millions, and I was among them. I had to discuss this with someone, so I sent Comicality an email.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: October 8, 1998

Subject: Matthew Shepard

I’m sure you’ve already heard about what happened to Matthew Shepard, the student from the University of Wyoming at Laramie. That story touched me so deeply that I’m still in shock at the brutality and inhumanity shown by his attackers. In fact, it’s even making me consider writing a story that parallels what happened to Matthew, without it becoming biographical.

If I do write this story, I’m thinking about loosely basing the main characters on my best friend from high school and myself, so it will be easier for me to establish their appearance, family background, and personalities. You see, I grew up on a farm and we didn’t have very much, while my best friend’s father was a professional and quite well off. You might even say wealthy, because they lived in this huge house in one of the best parts of town. I intend to have the character based on me, Billy, to also come from a farm family that lives in the country and are just scraping by. The character based on David will live in a much better section of town and his father will be the plant manager of a large factory, rather than having the same profession as my best friend’s father. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to pull it off, which makes me very nervous about doing this.

Anyway, since you first suggested that I should try writing a story, I thought I’d run my idea by you to see what you think. If I didn’t have such a strong reaction to Matthew Shepard’s death and a desire to write a story pointing out how there are people that hate gays so much that they don’t consider them worthy of living. I’d give this idea up now, because I don’t believe I can write as well as you.

Bill

 

After I sent the email, I wondered how long it would be before I heard back from Comicality, so I was surprised when I received an email from him the very next day.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: October 9, 1998

Subject: Re: Matthew Shepard

Yes, I definitely heard about Matthew Shepard and I think it’s a damn shame. The photos that I saw of him in the newspaper and on TV, he was an extremely cute young man just a couple of years younger than myself. The gay community keeps hoping that things are getting better, but then something like this happens and we realize that isn’t the case. He must have suffered greatly before he died.

Getting to your idea about writing a story, I think it’s a wonderful idea and I’m sure you’ll do fine. As I’ve stated before, you write well and communicate your ideas clearly, so there’s no reason to doubt that you can do this. You just need to have a little confidence in yourself, because I have confidence that you’ll do just fine. I look forward to reading your story once it’s posted, and I suspect you’ll be posting it on Nifty, and I’ll be happy to give you my feedback, since you’ve been so generous in doing that for me.

Get busy writing,

Comicality

 

Although I’d expected him to encourage me to write the story, since he initially suggested the idea, that’s all I’ll need to get started. In addition to what I told Comicality, after Billy and David meet, they will go from being best friends to eventually becoming lovers. As a sidenote, although Billy and David will loosely be based on me and my best friend from high school, we never had any sexual contact or became lovers because I assumed he was straight. He had a girlfriend, and I heard through mutual friends that they were having sex. I didn’t learn he was gay until several years later, and by that time I was married and had children.

To summarize the idea for my story, David’s father will do everything in his power to keep Billy and David apart. At first, he’ll do it because Billy’s family isn’t from the same social class as they are and he feels Billy is trying to take advantage of his son. Later, after he learns that Billy is gay, his interference will escalate, and this eventually forces his son to run away and the boys move to another location after they turn 16. Two years later, David is attacked by two homophobes, and although it wasn’t as brutal as what happened to Matthew Shepard, it will definitely be reminiscent of that attack. The story will also go into how David’s dad reacts to Billy after he learns about what happened to David and blames Billy for everything.

Now that I had an outline for what I wanted to take place in the story, I just had to flesh out the ideas and start writing the chapters, since it was obvious that this wasn’t going to be a short story. In fact, the task turned out to be quite arduous, because I decided to write the entire story first, before I started posting any of the chapters. I made this choice because I’d found nothing more frustrating than to start reading a story and then have to wait a long time before the author posts the next chapter. I’d also started reading other stories that I thought were complete, only to discover the story hadn’t been updated in months, and possibly never will be.

I could think of nothing more frustrating than to get hooked on a story and become totally invested in it, but then have to wait weeks, or even months before the next chapter was posted. I want this story to be completely written so I could post a chapter once or twice a week, and that might even get the readers to be more willing to send me feedback.

I used nearly all of the time that I had off for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years to work on the story, and I finally finished it by the middle of February,1999. I immediately sent an email to Comicality to let him know that I’d finished the story and was ready to start posting the chapters.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: February 18, 1999

Subject: My story

I’ve finished my story and I’m about ready to start posting it. I’ve given the story the title “A Tragic Love” and plan to submit the first chapter immediately. I just wanted to let you know, in case you wanted to look for the chapter when it came online. I’ve written the entire story already and plan on posting two chapters per week, on Wednesday and Saturday, and there will be 15 chapters in total. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

Regards,

Bill

 

I posted the first chapter after sending the email, and then I waited to see if I got any feedback. At first, I was very disappointed, because in addition to an email from Comicality, I only received a couple of other responses.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: February 20, 1999

Subject: Re: A Tragic Love

Bill, first of all that’s a very Shakespearean-like title for your story. I say this because his initial title for “Romeo and Juliet” was "The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet", and Hamlet was originally titled, "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark".

Your characters are also younger than the boys I usually write about, but other than that, it’s a good beginning. As I’ve told you before, you write well, and as I suspected, you’ve conveyed all of the important facts, created two very likeable and believable characters, and have set the stage for what is to come next. I don’t know what you were so worried about. . .it’s a great beginning.

I’ve also noted the similarity with how it begins to what I did in “New Kid in School”. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I’m very humbled that you’ve adapted an idea I used and converted it to work in your story. This is a great start and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Chat with you soon,

Comicality

 

The first thing I noticed before I opened the email was that he changed the subject line from ‘My Story’ to use the title of my story instead. Otherwise, I was impressed by his feedback, but now I had a question for him and immediately began composing a new email.

 

To: comicality@webtv.net

From: billw88@aol.com

Date: February 20, 1999

Subject: Question

I appreciate your feedback on the first chapter of “A Tragic Love”, but other than your email, I only received two other comments. Is that typical, or should I start to worry? I’d really like to know.

Regards,

Bill

 

Now, I sat back and waited for his response. It came the next day.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: February 21, 1999

Subject: Re: Question

From my experience, and from communicating with other authors that I’ve happened to come in contact with, the responses will vary. There are multiple factors that might cause this, the first being the category your story is posted. My stories appear in the high school section, but since your characters are younger, your story was posted in the Young Friends section. Another factor is if the subject matter Is something the readers find interesting, as well as the quality of the writing, and I think you should be fine where that is concerned. An additional factor is that some people will never respond to an author about his story, so I’d imagine that you’ll receive 0 to 10 responses for every 100 people that read the chapter, and the number will change with each chapter.

I’ve also discovered that some readers like to wait until there are an accumulation of chapters before they start reading when there is a directory for the story. Don’t get discouraged, because 3 responses to your first chapter is fairly normal for a first chapter, and it’s likely to improve with the following chapters you post. Now it may become clearer as to why I value your feedback. Not only is it consistent, but you give specifics. You don’t merely say things like “great chapter” or “I like your story” and nothing more.

And so you don’t start worrying, I probably won’t respond again until you’ve finished posting. I’m very busy right now, not only with writing my own stories, but with other parts of my life as well. I’ll wait until the story is completely posted, and then I’ll read it and give you an honest opinion of what I thought of it, the same as you do for me.

Chat again soon,

Comicality

 

Without Comicality’s support and encouragement, I probably wouldn’t have ever started writing. He’d planted the seed, so when I found a cause that moved me and found the courage to take a chance and act, I began writing. As I posted more chapters, I began to build a fan base of my own and heard from the same people after every chapter was posted. Shortly after the last chapter appeared, I received an email from Comicality.

 

To: billw88@aol.com

From: comicality@webtv.net

Date: April 12, 1999

Subject: A Tragic Love

Damn you! Once I started reading your story, I couldn’t stop until I’d finished all 15 chapters. I don’t know why you were so worried when you first started writing it, since I found it to be compelling and your characters were very likeable and believable. Your story was also teeming with action, replete with tender moments, and having an ample amount of tension

I was actually tearing up as I read the final couple of chapters and I loved the confrontation you described when Mr. Michaels tried to blame Billy for everything that had happened. I actually cheered when Billy turned the tables on him and I thought you had Billy say all of the right things in response, but I’ll admit that I wasn’t prepared for how the story ended.

After I finished reading your story, I felt as if you’d toyed with my emotions before reaching into my chest, ripping out my heart, and then gleefully playing with it while it was still beating. Great job and you should receive plenty of comments, if you haven’t already while you were posting the various chapters.

Chat with you again soon,

Comicality

 

He was correct and I did receive plenty of comments on the various chapters, especially the last one. Included in the group that had sent me the most of the best comments was a number of young men, from 12 on up to 25, who began to regularly give me feedback on my story. Several of them were too young to be reading the stories on Nifty, and I’d posted a disclaimer at the beginning of every chapter stating that they shouldn’t read the story unless they were 18 or older. That didn’t stop them, however, and before long they were sharing a great deal of information about their own lives.

The things they told me caused me to write stories designed to help them deal with some of the issues they were facing. A few were dealing with extremely religious families or communities and feared they wouldn’t be accepted. This information caused me to write “Son of a Preacher Man”, hoping that it might help them resolve some of those issues. Others told me about living in foster homes or lacking a supportive family, and this led me to write “The Castaway Hotel”, and the boys in those situations told me it helped. They said it gave them a safe place to go to in their imagination, and in some way that helped to make up for not having a caring and supportive biological or foster family.

I also continued reading and responding to Comicality for years after that, and I even got to have a few conversations with him on the phone. We both also ended up at Teen Gay Boy Authors, but the site’s title didn’t mean the authors were all teen boys, just that they wrote stories about gay teen boys.

After that site went defunct, Myr invited both of us to be hosted on a new site he was creating and we ended up here at Gay Authors at nearly the same time. Technically, Comicality’s start date was three weeks before mine back in 2003, but we ended up celebrating our 20^th anniversary along with Gay Authors in August, 2023. And I can’t help but to think that none of that would have happened if I hadn’t started reading Comicality’s stories and emailing him about them, or if he hadn’t encouraged me to try writing as well.

When I learned about Comicality’s death, I had flashbacks of when I’d first heard the news about Matthew Shepard’s death back in 1998. It wasn’t only due to the fact that Comicality had discussed what had happened at the time, but because the news was gut-wrenching and affected me emotionally for quite a while.

Since I felt I owed him for his encouragement and friendship, I donated as much money as I could to help Comicality’s mom, since she had his funeral to pay for and was struggling without his income. It’s also why I wrote two stories for the “Coming of Age Tribute” to Comicality, this one that expresses how I’d become acquainted with him. The second story, “Starting Over”, is meant to humbly copy Comicality’s style, at least as closely as any of Leonardo DaVinci’s apprentices were able to copy the master.

I hope that wherever Comicality ended up after he left this world and journeyed into the great beyond, I’m convinced that he’s still sharing his awesome stories and attracting a huge following. I hope that I’m fortunate enough to end up in the same place when my time on earth comes to an end, because I’m eager to discover the fabulous stories that his overactive mind has created since he left us. Rest in peace, my dear friend, and hopefully I’ll be seeing you again in a few more years.