Working It Out Part 1 - 13. Epilogue

WoW...

Loved this story! I have never cried so much reading a masterful piece of fiction,

excellent work, well written, well thought out concept, five stars all the way...

Sorry to say this, but there is no emotion in this story.

The story in words may/could be interesting, but i could not feel the characters.

After chapter 3 i lost interest and the reading of the story took longer and longer.

The story could be better .... it is not a "must read".

Ignore the hater. They quit before they got to the meat of this story. This is my absolute FAVORITE family story in all of the internet. Thank you for sharing it with us. It absolutely deserves to be sticky'd.

Liked the story.

Absolutely beautiful story. Loved the mixture of faith, love,sex, and above all the friendship that all the characters cultivated. Can't wait to read the next part. Thank u for such a wonderful story.

Thank you for the beautiful story. It wasn't a mushy goody goody happy story. There was a lot of heartbreak in it , some surprising turns. Other than the breakup and yes in the long run it did turn out maybe not for the best since Sarah did lose her life and both men had to deal with a lot of pain. But there is now another Matt and Mike in the family and hopefully the two men can overcome pains do get and stay together. Am really looking forward to book 2.

Such a wonderful story. Matt and Mike both go through so much. And I cried so many times while reading and laughed too.

loved this story, thanks for taking the time to write it and sharing it with us

Bob

I loved this story and the second read was even better. The way the two mc's overcame challenges was amazing and the family life promoted by the parents was an inspiration. Well done. Definitely five stars!

I just finished reading the whole wonderful story. It's a pity you haven't gone with it much longer... Anyway, thank you very much for it!

I'm so frustrated with Matt I don't even want him and Mike back together. It's not fair for Mike, he suddenly becomes Matt's backup plan. Why did Matt choose Sarah? Why did Sarah have to die? The last two chapters seem like a different story.

I couldn't be  anyone's second choice. He chose Sarah over Mike. There would have been no coming back from that, at least for me.

Had Matt talked with Mike and expressed his desire for kids surely they could have found a surrogate or adopted. I can't imagine how poor Mike is going to cope with the possibility of rebuilding his life in these circumstances. 

Matt comes across as a self-absorbed, self-centered arrogant prick. In fact this character is perfect being an attorney. He goes after what he wants to the exclusion of everyone else even if that includes having a couple of boys to carry on his family name.

What would it take for me to go back to him?

It would start with Matt agreeing to lock his dick in a chastity cage 24x7 with Mike retaining sole possession of the keys.

I'm not sure if I could ever trust him with my heart again so there would have to be some major personal concessions and I'm not even sure what those could be to satisfy me.

This is my fourth round reading your series! I love the development, characters, and the bonds you've created!

Chuckle, chuckle, on one side of the coin it is a small victory to have been right in my prediction for the outcome of this story -- on the obverse, it makes me sad to have been right. I have over the years authored many stories based on my worldwide travels and the people I have met. Unfortunately, all these do is sit in the memory of my computer because I am too lazy, old or disillusioned to take them any further. I am very much of a hack writer, preferring, as I have said elsewhere in GA to be the troll that hides under the bridge nipping at the bare toes of the writers as they cross over. I suppose after I die -- which at my present age of 85, might not be many more years -- someone may find these tales in my computer and do something with editing, combining and publishing them. I can only hope that will come about. OK, enough hand-wringing and sniveling, I am sorry to see this series end, but cannot express loudly enough nor often enough my congratulations on your writing skills.

Will H.

Not liking the Epilogue. It's too easy. 

This was a great story and shows the grand scope of human emotions and the ability of humans to hurt the ones they love and help and love the ones they love and ultimately forgive and let love triumph over sadness and hurt. Love never hurts nor is it puffed up,pridefull or arrogant.

   There is one paragraph towards the end where you mix up Matt and Mike in the same paragraph.

After reading this story again many years later, I don't think it had the same impact on me as when it was first serialized on Nifty.  The jokes still made me groan, but this time around it seemed the plot was a bit shop worn.  

This is a wonder filled story with many emotional twists and turns much like a roller coaster ride. The are many side issues addressed as well which act out as if it is real life..

This was recommended in the recent email. It was a fun read but the ending is quite disappointing. It basically killed both characters twice. Like a double jeopardy, chap 12 and the epilogue 

On a lighter note I really enjoyed Matt’s jokes. He reminds me of Zach Attack lol

Uga Buga!

7 minutes ago, Reed1101 said:

This was recommended in the recent email. It was a fun read but the ending is quite disappointing. It basically killed both characters twice. Like a double jeopardy, chap 12 and the epilogue 

If you search by author there are two other stories in the series. 

8 hours ago, mfa607 said:

If you search by author there are two other stories in the series. 

I wasn’t expecting there’s book 2 and 3. If anyone wants to read them it’s probably those who wanted the relationship to really worked out and there are those who thinks book 1 (epilogue) is suffice to point that out. I’m with the latter.

The only thing I appreciate on book 2 (only read upto few chapters ahead a think and skipped book 3 almost entirely only to scan through on the last chapter) was the first chapter where Mike shared about how much Matt had hurt him. And even then felt frustrated that the author decided to force the relationship as it is. There’s no beauty in that.

Ngl, this was a troubling read... As to what follows - my thoughts after having read this story - please be advised that YMMV (as it indeed should) and that is perfectly a-okay - I'm not in the habit of requiring people to agree with me. So don't fret if you don't is all I'm trying to say...

The writing was excellent - tight, well layed out and grammatically speaking, smooth as a water licked rock.

The story it told however, imo, sucked troll ass.

While much of the story can be - if one squints really hard - viewed as exciting, adventurous even, because of the many twists, turns and surprise dumbassery (a previous commenter mentioned something about the story reading like a series of Hardy Boys misadventures and yeah, concur...) unfortunately the underlying prejudice - particularly the various flavours of internalised homophobia - make it impossible - for me - to suspend irritation long enough to enjoy it.

The whole 'punish/kill the gays' framework this work is built on is disappointing at best and heartbreaking at worst.

That Mike - of the two MC's the only actually gay party from the start - is forced to endure the world's saddest loose-a-family-win-a-new-family-loose-a-soulmate-win-a-dog-become-an-indentured-servant rollercoaster, while Matt - the straight, then gay, then straight, then gay again (bisexual?) party with an intact family bar one member who, let's face it, had one role & performed it well enough before being ushered off the stage - gets to not only buy the cake, take it home and admire it before eating every crumb all by himself is quite honestly, a bloody travesty.

That the gay men in this story are drug addicts (Jase), are murdered (Jase), are beaten (Mike), portrayed as erstwhile sluts who pine for but never find love (Arnie), find their soulmate but can't keep them because they lack the ability to produce children, have to move cities and start over alone but are expected to jump right back in and not only play parent when children miraculously appear (despite it never being established whether or not children were ever on the 'things I want' menu) but also take back the wandering ex who forces himself back into picture when he's had enough of the distance (Mike); while the straight men are allowed to live unencumbered by any such setbacks, and the bisexual (?) man - while retaining everything else, family, schooling, home etc - loses his best friend (by his own choice) and his wife but gets to keep their offspring (thereby fulfilling the character's need for children *and* setting the stage for the Great Return) speaks volumes, yes?

Ya know, this whole sorry af tale could have, with very little effort, made a fairly decent m/m/f threeway. Which would have - potentially - been (not ideal because not everyone is built for throuple life & only Matt seemed that way inclined) a vast improvement given the nasty mess it ended up.

I know there are two more volumes in this saga but honestly? I'm pretty much out of fucks to give. And while I fully support writers rights to tell the story that needs told - even if it's a prejudiced mess - I equally support reader's rights to choose their reading matter according to their own preferences. So that's a big ol' nope from me.

On that note I offer my thanks to the author, despite him being unable to receive it, for writing his truth - somebody somewhere will benefit from it. Perhaps many somebodys.
Of that I am very sure...