Nigel Gordon

There are quite a few writers who have put forward the view that Jesus was essentially a socialist reformer, indeed the whole basis of the rise of Socialism in 19th and early 20th century England is very much based on the idea of Jesus the socialist. Unfortunately I tend to find that the Christian Right are not much interested in Jesus or his teachings, they just want to maintain a world of privilege and subservience in which they are the ones with the privilege. Well if they actually read the sayings of Jesus and not the interpretations put on them by the later writers they would find something that makes Marks look right wing.

I almost missed this, with all the Turning Ten stories in the feature block to get through. Glad I spotted it. This is a truly delightful story very well told.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY - I look forward to seeing the next ten years of AD.

It has to go with their faith, they believe the end of the world with the second coming is imminent, it appears to have been for the last two thousand years. Being that wrong is bound to make them a bit paranoid. Though I suppose there is always the possibility that Jesus got back to heaven and turned round to his father and said, "You what, you want me to go back there again? Do you know what they did to me? Look Dad I don't mind doing these errands for you but there is no way I'm going back to that place, surely you've got a nice civilized creation around somewhere I could go to?" So Daddy being nice and understanding has sent him off elsewhere, so no second coming, so no end of the world, so big problems for those who expected it in AD100, AD1000, AD2000 and all the other dates the lunatics have come up with.

I'm sure you will think of something, if it is only admiring them on screen as they walk behind your vehicle. Just think what you might see!

Even here there is some positive news, it shows a one percent change in favor of acceptance since 2007. It is not much but it is something. No doubt that one percent change is what got the Christian Right so worked up.

That looks very much like a typical African rent a crowd.

It seems that Uganda's anti-gay laws are having some unexpected impacts. This is from SciDev, a online magazine about science in the developing world, it is an interesting read: http://www.scidev.net/global/hiv-aids/feature/uganda-s-anti-gay-law-may-threaten-its-research.html

I spent yesterday walking around parts of London, as usual there were a lot of weddings taking place with couples having their photos taken outside historic venues, the majority of them seemed to same sex marriages. Even saw the rainbow flag flying over one popular wedding venue.

I think it would be a good idea to have non-gay themed stories identified maybe they could have their own section. I have written quite a few stories that have themes or issues in them that affect gay people but are not gay specific. The question is how many AD authors are writing non-gay themed stories and do we want to mix it up with the stuff on AD, also how would Mike cope with the additional work? There are a lot of things to consider. At the moment Mike has enough on his hands and I don't think we need to complicate things for him but it might be worth some of use talking (in the Green Room) about possible options. I know I am not the only AD author who has none gay themed material.

Sorry but in most of the world Mardi Gras is Rio or Sydney.

None of my stories have been published on line, a few have be published in some small magazines and writing circle publications. I am wary of publishing on sites I don't know and it does not seem right posting non-gay themed stories to AD, not sure Mike would take them.

Yes, it appears they speak English in Sydney.

It is strange how you can sense if a novel is going to be worth reading or not from the first chapter. Of course this depends a lot on personal taste, there are a couple of pieces on AD where I have never been able to get past the first chapter whilst other reviewers rave about them. This for me is one where I can't wait to get onto the second chapter. Mark Peters has set the scene for what I am sure is going to be a great novel in a most effective way. There are no long descriptions of context or place but in some of the best dialogue I have come across he manages to give you a feeling of time, place and history whilst being economical with his use of words and language. That is masterful writing and I cannot wait to see what is to follow.

I have listened to this again on another system and I am fairly certain they are singing Freiheit (Freedom) rather than Heiterkeit (Joy). If that is correct it is the Bernstein version and a clear 'up yours' to the Russians.

You are right, it is wonderfully symbolic. For those who are wondering what it is all about The Ode to Joy is the anthem of the European Union. This performance took place in Odessa, which is the Ukraine's third largest city. Was not able to make the words out clearly but I think this performance used the Berlin Wall arrangement by Leonard Bernstein, often called the Ode to Freedom.

If you have access to the BBC IPlayer site then this is an interesting programme to listen to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03yggdf It is a look at how the movement for Gay Marriage came about in the United Kingdom. Strangely the two main campaign groups for Gay Rights seem to have been caught out by it.

I have experienced much of what Colin talks about, before I retired a large part of my life was professional technical writing and I was always writing against a deadline. Don't know if this has impacted on my approach to writing but I tend to find that I am doing my better writing when I am under pressure. Some of my best short stories were written in response to having to produce something for the next weeks Creative Writing session. Sorry, they are not gay themed so will not be appearing here. One advantage of writing under pressure is that it prevents you from going off on lines of exploration that may well lead no where in the end. The two major disadvantages are that inspiration does not always strike when you require it for the deadline and you don't have time to explore those interesting ideas. That is why I always keep a notebook at hand where I jot down story ideas and notes about alternative story developments.

Precisely, there is an old saying that even bad publicity is better than no publicity, so let's try and make sure they get no publicity. That will annoy them.

You won't be on the second or third read either, it just keeps getting better and better each time you read it.

The style is a Persian style of poetry called a Rubáiyát. That is why the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" is called such.

I think there is a lot of truth in what Cole says. The problem is that the more they see themselves losing the more desperate they become and desperate people do desperate things, just look at what American Baptist have managed to pull off in Uganda, though even they are now saying that the law there has gone too far, that's after seeing the backlash it has created. I don't know what things were like in the States but I do know that in the period between 1964 and 1967 when it was very clear that the legalization of homosexuality was going to come about there was major pressure put on the police to clamp down on homosexual activity. I heard from one source that in those three years more arrests were made than in the previous ten, though I have not been able to authenticate that information. What I do know from a friend who was a senior police officer at the time was that they came under heavy pressure from the local Watch Committees, which were mostly made up of people from the conservative end of the political spectrum, to 'show how bad this problem is". It totally back fired as a couple of high profile arrests ended up with juries acquitting against the body of the evidence as they thought it was nobody's business what went on in private in a bedroom, which showed that popular opinion was in line with legalization.

In fact he may even have helped the cause, I know that sounds stupid but a comment I heard at a recent LGBT event was to the effect that the extreme position taken by the religious fundamentalists was so clearly stupid that it made people who had lukewarm about gay rights move to a position where they supported them, just so they did not get tarred with the same brush.

Colin, I quite agree it worked out how it should, it is just that the way the story developed is not how you expect from a lot of gay fiction that is around. It does, as you say reflect real life. Like you I ended up having a good feeling about Tom.