Chris James

Isn't that the truth. What we need is another close look at failure like we had back in 1957. Sputnik was the kick in the ass that made us look up at the sky and at ourselves. The most definitive and heart warming look at our reaction to Sputnik was in the 1999 film October Sky. Still one of my all time favorites:

I used to marvel at Gene Rodenberry's gumption in the Star Trek series. We used to see Captain Kirk sitting on the edge of a bed pulling on his boots while the alien woman stood there, her three breasts heaving from the suggested sexual encounter with the commander of the Enterprise. So I guess encounters of the strange kind were nothing new to Bill Shatner. I would have thought Koko had better taste.

Koko the gorilla is an amazing animal and smarter than some humans, I'm sure. Able to understand and communicate by sign language, she also possesses a sense of humor. There are dozens of encounters between Koko and some famous humans, this is just one of my favorites. Stay the course until the end. Typical Bill Shatner humor.

Goodness, the language difference just became personal. I had a reader point the finger at a line in my story (Seasons, Chapter11) because he could not understand when I had a character say: "I resemble that remark." What? You don't have Three Stooges across the pond? Curly is one of the foremost intellectual minds in American film, our version of Mr. Bean...and we all know how that turned out.

Dunno Cole, I might have enjoyed a little prehistoric information on the hunting and killing of large beasts. You see there is this woman who lives up the street...on, never mind.

Come on Luggie, I am going to stop writing author's notes at the beginning of my stories if you don't read them: "This is an old story, written in the days when I was challenging myself to become an author." I have since made some serious changes and if anything I have become the relic.

I don't know how some of you will see this, but this bit of interspecies love cannot be denied: http://news.yahoo.com/dog-quickly-takes-nurses-stray-kitten-minn-022833533.html

I will have to admit I am suprised at the reader's reactions to this story which I had once considered just some old thing from my attic. That is to say I am gratified over the positive reactions, and for good reason. It originally appeared on Nifty about eight years ago when I was just about at the breaking point with that site. There was entirely too much sexual description in a story that played tug of war with my conscience over such matters. Having removed most of that I am now getting mail from this posting that tells me I did the right thing. Even from the Nifty posting I received commentary about the emotional values wrought by the characters and little about the sexual escapades. Those comments are even stronger now, and some of you have expressed those same feelings. This type of validation makes my day, even if some of the readers are impatient for the next chapter. I see that as a good thing because this story pointed me in a new direction. Writing a romance story involving young characters evolved into embracing the whole as a family of people getting on with life. The concept of gay family has always been an important theme to me. Perhaps by the time you have read the final chapter you will understand. This was not meant to be just another story about spoiled rich kids but about the basic human values we all must share to be gay and proud of it.

Ahh Des, you lovely pervert! Simply marvelous, and with such a lusty cast. Camelot has never seemed so bawdy....except: Some of you have read Exit Stage Left, a story I wrote a few years back. The truth is that I did that four year stint in summerstock theater, a touring house on a major circut. And one summer we hosted Camelot, starring of all people, Rock Hudson. Those of us behind the scenes knew he was gay as did most of the Hollywood insiders, but no one spoke of it. I don't know who cast the show, but it was the largest cast of gay and lesbian people I have ever encountered outside of perhaps Rent. The young man playing Lancelot was Rock's boy toy of the summer. The knights were probably all wearing G-strings under their armor. The only one who couldn't sing very well was Hudson, but the cast pulled him through. A gay time was had by all, and fortunately for us it only lasted a week.

Let me say, Mr. Gee, if your ideas are anything like this I want you to stop everything and write the story. I remember watching Rod Serling's programs in my younger days. And then one evening I saw this program called Night Gallery. I will tell you, this story episode had a most profound effect on me and I can see a bit of this in what you have suggested: http://en.wikipedia....ted_Earthquakes If you have the patience the original episode of Night Gallery is posted on You Tube but the links have been disabled. Just look for The Boy who Predicted Earthquakes...and be prepared to freak out!

Goodness! You seem to have started with the Emu version of the apocalypse. Unless you have an exit strategy for your characters they seem to be toast. But who knows, maybe your next thoughts for these guys are off in another life.

Then stop hugging polar bears, you're melting the ice cap.

Interesting story, a lot of chapters, going to take a while to read them all...but so far seems worth the effort.

Don't you just love a story where it's possible to learn something? This latest offering from Bi-Janus may be short but it contains a wealth of knowledge on martial arts, a subject that I may write about on occasion but that he seems to understand far better than I ever shall. Authors should always endevor to write without pretense, and even though this story is fictional it has the ring of truth. Life's lessons are not always easy and this subject comes up all the time in gay fiction. I found a good deal of empathy for the main character who faced a challenge and learned from the experience. In fact, all the characters worked so well in concert that I would like to read more about them. Well done.

Colin, ignore the red and green underlining until you are done writing. I agree, if you stop and wonder at every little hint these grammar and spelling programs throw at you then you will lose your train of thought. I'm not saying ignore them completely, but the time to address the underlined cues is at the end during your editing phase. Maybe they have a valid reason to flag you, or not. The spell checker is weak on certain terms and hates me when I write dialogue. I wish there was some way to say "I know" back to the program, or "leave me alone, I know it's a fragment."

I have avoided commenting here for most of the week because I agree that Nifty provides a certain kind of story site aimed at a particular kind of reader. It doesn't have to be a classic story, just something stimulating. Like many who post here, I read and then posted on Nifty. Swapping comments with some of the other authors I found writing the same kinds of stories as I was wont to do in those days. Stories with sex don't bother me, they serve the needs of the readers on Nifty, but they are also quite boring after a time. Writing a Nifty story is like cooking with the same five ingredients meal after meal. And then came the day. FreeThinker posts the following comment: "David performs an invaluable service. He provides a place for anyone to post a story, whether they have a PhD in English or are a high school drop out. And, he has minimal restrictions beyond those egregious examples of just horrifying abuse and perversion." Let's talk about those minimal restrictions. When you are an author posting to a site it behooves you to read the other works being posted to see what company you are keeping. I think the very nature of the volume at Nifty keeps David from reviewing everything and so it seems things got past him. The reason I left Nifty is two-fold. First, I read a serial story that meandered until about Chapter 9 where the author depicted a child rape in graphic terms with blood, bondage and screaming in agony galore...I almost threw up. Second, I commented to David that this was totally innapropriate for the site and violated his rules. I got told to mind my own business. I did, I left the site and have not been back. Perhaps David now has help in screening what authors send him, but I would not be a part of any site that allowed such disgusting material to be posted. The Dude is not alone in managing this site, he has eyes in the back of his head, other eyes to read what comes through the door. I would have removed all of my stories from Nifty after that occurance but I am not allowed to do so. I just hope the FBI is kind when they knock on my door. In this day and age everything on the Net is filtered and possibly examined. We have a fairly liberal climate on censorship at the moment, but there may come the day when this is no longer true. This is not paranoia, just a hard look at what other people see with my name on it. I want FreeThinker to know that he is perfectly entitled to his opinion and I respect that. I had a bad experience, some laughs and met some interesting authors on Nifty. The "Morlocks on Nifty" comment brings to mind one author's opinion that he was writing his stories for "one-handed readers." You get the picture. I like to think that I write for a better class of people these days, ones who read with both hands.

However we view music, I am still an avowed supporter of boy's choir, chorus, singing groups. Listen to any adult choir in the world, perhaps the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the sound of female sopranos cannot hold a candle to the purity of voice found in a boy soprano. Add girls to the sound and you have spoiled my listening pleasure. Many a classical composer seemed to understand this and wrote music just for such voices. Alas we all know the changes that are wrought by puberty, but in the time allowed a well trained boy cannot be outdone just as a well trained ear knows the difference.

...not to set aside the beautiful threads on music, but this is an emotional moment for a young child. How many time as a child did you lose something that meant the world to you? One young boy is very fortunate: http://youtu.be/Lk34j3HUJbE

Goodness, Luggie...when do you find the time to read a 12 chapter story so quickly? I am on chapter 4 of this one, chapter 6 of that one. No disrespect to any author, but I just don't have the time to read everything within a day of the posting. Not like anyone can get bored here at AD. Arrrgh, back to "It was a dark and stormy night..."

Not sure there are any strictly LGBT events here in the US but there are book conferences galore around the country. The general appeal of such events is to show the buyers for various libraries what is on the market. Conferences are hosted by a consortium of publishing organizations. My father foolishly bought into having one of his books "represented" at a conference. That amounted to a $500 check sent to the publisher who then placed a notice of his book on a list and a copy on a table at the event amidst thousands of other books. I suppose if you trust to fortune then this is a good idea, but hardly worth the fee. I would think that some LBGT bookstores might sponsor a small event like this, but their number diminishes every day. Gay literature seems to be better represented online since many of the buyers are individuals who value their privacy. If there is such an event it would be in New York or San Francisco so those of us who live far from the big cities could not attend. But this merits further research and if I find anything I will post it.

Aw damn, why didn't I think of that? Good move, Colin. The only good news is that it seems Microsoft got a court order to take over the domain source of this malware crap and is now redirecting all traffic to that site into its own security labs.

I guess once you get to play the role of God you can speak the truth and not worry about the reaction. So Morgan, bless yourself for speaking wisdom in the face of such ignorance from the Right wingnuts.

I truly believe that the English church choir program is responsible for such wonderful music. Throughout the years I have viewed many young choristers and appreciated the talent and the voices. Lorin Wey is a product of the church choir system, and when he solos you can see the high quality of his voice. America is filled with children's choirs, but they lack the training found in the English system. There is also less focus on the classical music available for boy sopranos and altos. YouTube features many of these boy choirs, or perhaps you might find them at: www.boysoloist.com which has a very extensive database. No matter where they learn the music, I will always see the value in teaching children to sing. My current favorite is, and perhaps shall always be Libera. This song gives me chills:

The author in question is lilansui, and several places on the internet list her as a 29 year old woman of Japanese extraction. (let's hope that is true and not part of the abstract behind which many authors hide) I do agree, she has a marvelous command of the English language, but then she may not be native Japanese. We often overlook the woman's point of view when reading gay stories. Nothing says a gay story has to be written by a man, just someone with a good deal of talent. Thanks for the heads up, vwl...always glad to find new things to read.

Emmit Burns is a pastor in his conservative Christian church so this should not be such a surprise. What should get him in deep trouble is that he used Maryland House of Delagates stationary to send the letter. At the very least he should be censored by the Maryland Assembly for that. Otherwise, this just proves that wingnuts come from both political parties. Free speech, Burns should recognize that citizens have the right to use it just like he does, otherwise toss the jerk out.