Alien Son

Today in the Senate our attorney-general, George Brandis, made a speech during debate on the same sex marriage bill. I'm no fan of George (in fact, during most of the life of the current government I've regarded him as a real dill), but this speech is a gem. I only hope he really meant it. There's an edited version of it here: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/attorneygeneral-george-brandis-powerful-samesex-marriage-speech-in-full-20171128-gzu669.html. I think this is the highlight: "I want to reflect for a moment on the message this will send, in particular, to young gay people: to the boy or girl who senses a difference from their friends, which they find difficult to understand and impossible to deal with. In his first speech in the Parliament, my friend Tim Wilson spoke movingly of his own experience of confronting that knowledge, as a tormenting fear "that took an energetic 12-year-old and hollowed his confidence to eventually doubt his legitimate place in the world". How many hundreds of thousands of young Australians have known that fear? How many have lived with it, silently and alone? How many have failed to come to terms with it and been overborne by it? By passing this bill, we are saying to those vulnerable young people: there is nothing wrong with you. You are not unusual. You are not abnormal. You are just you. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. There is nothing to be ashamed of. There is nothing to hide. You are a normal person and, like every other normal person, you have a need to love. How you love is how God made you. Whom you love is for you to decide and others to respect."

Thanks for your encouragement, Colin. If it happens it might be a long time coming, though.

I read this just a few minutes ago. It's quite moving.

You're probably right about sequels, although my reason for writing Another Day was to tie up all the loose ends I left in The Worst Day. I had always thought I would never write a sequel. I had heard of authors claiming that their characters sometimes took over and told the story. I wasn't convinced that they were being truthful until it happened to me when I was writing Black Dog. The last two or three chapters almost wrote themselves.

Thanks for the link to the voting survey, Graeme. I wasn't able to find it again. This time I'll save the link! My memory of the article wasn't very accurate, either. Sigh. The number of MPs who said they would vote in favour was much higher than I said above, and the number who didn't respond to the ABC was also higher.

Chris, you've made my day, thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Your mention of Andrew made me sit up and realise that I really like him... but then I think I like all the characters I've created. Is this the case for all writers?

Already introduced, late in the afternoon after the result of the ballot was announced. Without going into the history of the whole sorry mess, suffice to say that several MPs already had a private member's bill ready; all they had to do was introduce it and get it debated. That process started in the senate yesterday afternoon. Both major parties (and most of the minor ones, I think) have given their members a conscience vote, which means they can vote however they wish. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation asked every member of the house of representatives and every senator how they would vote on the legislation if it was introduced. The ABC published the figures the day before the result of the ballot was announced. They seem to have removed the article from their website, so I can't provide a link; however, a clear majority of MPs said they would vote to pass the legislation. I can't remember the figures, but I think it was around 60% yes, 40% no (pretty much in line with the result of the marriage survey), with some saying they would wait for the result of the marriage survey before deciding. A couple of diehards said they would vote no whatever the result of the survey. I think only two MPs did not respond to the ABC's question. For the bill to pass it simply needs a majority in both houses of parliament to vote in favour of it. There will be debate in both houses (it has yet to be introduced in the house of reps), and the far right of the Liberal Party will probably do their best to scuttle it, but they don't have the numbers. The bill as introduced yesterday might end up altered a little, but I don't see much happening because those who oppose it just don't have the support. They may succeed in delaying the passing of the bill, but I think that's the best (from their point of view) that they will be able to achieve. Everyone else is fed up with their antics, and they just want to get the thing done -- as does the general public.

The results of Australia's voluntary postal survey on same sex marriage have just been announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. There was an amazing turnout - 79.5% of eligible voters responded. The vote was 61.6% YES, 38.4% NO, with 0.2% unclear. Of our total 150 federal electoral districts, 133 voted YES; 17 voted NO. Of the 17 NO, 12 were in New South Wales, 3 in Queensland and 2 in Victoria. Every state and territory voted YES, with the result in all states except New South Wales more than 60% in favour. In NSW the figure was 58%. Detailed figures (including by electorate and age group) are available at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-15/same-sex-marriage-results-ssm/9145636. Now all we need is for our politicians to get on and do what they should have done in the first place - pass the law in parliament, with no more obfuscation, no more delaying tactics, and no more dishonest campaigning.

Thank you, ChrisR and Merkin for your kind words. I tend to agonise over my writing, and I'm very slow at putting a story together (Another Day sat for more than two years after I started it and got stuck on it. I was motivated to dust it off when Mike needed new stories), so it's very encouraging to receive such praise. Altimexis, thank you for the insight into the disease. My knowledge of it came from research on the internet, so apologies if anything I said was not accurate. The only reason for Andrew being pushed around was the storyline, but I should have approached that aspect of the story in a different way. The least I could have said was that Thomas and Percy helped him some of the time. (Having said that, however, there is a scene in The Worst Day where Andrew pushes himself around.) There always seems to be something that could have been said better! And thank you for your kind words, too.

Thanks for the plug, Cole. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

The Worst Day, my contribution to the AwesomeDude tenth anniversary in 2014, left a few things up in the air. If you would like to know what happened next, Another Day will be posted on Wednesday 8 November. It's short and sweet, and it's been a long time coming... but it does tie up the loose ends!

Thanks for your reply, Nigel.

Nigel, why are you so anti-leave?

Nigel, did you mean "lose" or "loose"?

Colin asked: "WTF did the Aussies take the long way around to the North Atlantic? Afraid of a little Antarctic ice??? Worried that South Africa might retaliate if Australia dumped their trash off Cape Town???" Actually, the route through the Panama Canal is more direct. I think we might have taken out a few Pacific island nations, though.

I rarely visit the forums and post even less often. When I do post it's usually in a site-related topic. I shared with Mike the Trump article linked below and he urged me to post it here. Just to show I'm not biased I've also posted a link to an hilarious article about my country. SatireWire is written by Andy Marlatt, an American who writes comedy for TV and radio. There are some excellent articles on the site. TRUMP NOMINATION A VICTORY FOR AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AUSTRALIA GETS DRUNK, WAKES UP IN NORTH ATLANTIC

Des, you must have more than a "suspicion" about the village. The current LNP government has to be the most incompetent and dangerous we've ever had. Merkin, the latest opinion polls are showing Labor running almost neck-and-neck with the Liberal Party/National Party coalition, so they may have a chance. The Labor party has been making up ground and is looking pretty good for a change. I'd certainly love to be rid of the present government. The standard of political debate in Australia has been woeful since Tony Abbott was elected leader of the Liberals. They were in opposition then, and he became known as "Dr No" because he opposed everything the Labor government did, just for the sake of opposing it. No matter whether it was a good policy or that the country needed it - he simply opposed it (a little like the Republicans during Obama's term as president). When the LNP coalition won the 2013 election and he became prime minister he still acted like he was opposition leader. As prime minister he was a disaster. Sadly things haven't changed much since Malcolm Turnbull took over as prime minister - the government is just as incompetent, and the standard of debate is still very low.

Thank you, Rutabaga, for resurrecting this thread, and for your comments. It's nice to know that you appreciated the story enough to do that. Thank you, Chris and Cole, for your kind comments. I'm chuffed (and somehow humbled) to receive such praise from two of my favourite authors! -- John

Harvard cognitive scientist and linguist Steven Pinker has compiled a list of the words we misuse the most. This article includes the list. Of course, no AwesomeDude writer misuses any of these words!

Sorry to disappoint all you "double spacers" but when I prepare a story for posting I always remove any additional characters, so all of your stories have only one space after a full stop - which is the correct term for a "period" where I come from. John

Colin, thank you for the link to the media creation tool; being able to download and create an installation disk is a much better way to go. I've been using the tiles the same way you describe Doug as doing since I upgraded to Windows 8 nearly three years ago. I have them sorted into groups that make sense to me. I can't fathom the amount of opposition to the start screen; I find it much easier to use than the start menu in Windows 7. I actually tried several of the start menu replacement programs in Windows 8 but ditched them all because the start screen was so much better. I much prefer 8 to 7, which I have on my laptop and don't like at all. John

It's interesting that some of you have picked up on things I never even thought of as I was writing the story. I guess to some extent each reader interprets what he or she is reading in their own way. Graeme, thank you for your further comments. You're right - it was a major challenge. I have nerve deafness (that's the old name, I've forgotten what it's called now) and wear two hearing aids when I'm around other people. Without them I miss bits of conversation, and when I wear them I realise there are plenty of background sounds (like birds singing) that I don't always hear when I don't have them in. My experience with my hearing loss, however, is a long way from that of someone like Alex, and the story needed a lot of research. I feared I'd made Alex and his world less than authentic, so I asked Deaf Services Queensland (because the story is set in Queensland) for an opinion. I was gratified when they agreed, and even more gratified when they found little wrong; only a few fairly minor changes were needed after they read it. Nick, Des and Mihangel... thank you for your kind words! Nick, I've been partly deaf for as long as I can remember, but the loss has increased as I've grown older.

Thanks for your comments, Graeme and Pedro! I don't get much feedback on my stories, so all the positive comments here from other authors are very encouraging. Graeme, I think you're right... I used to live in Sale, which has a RAAF base nearby. I knew quite a few air force families over the years, and they usually stayed for a couple of years before they were posted again. Pedro, I was at high school in the 60s also - but in a different hemisphere :).

G'day, everyone. Thank you for all the nice comments! I guess I did something right when some of you are asking for more, but I can't promise anything, sorry. For me, when an idea has run its course, that's it - and I think this one has. However, if inspiration strikes again I'll go with it!

Rutabaga, there's obviously something wrong in the way your phone is rendering the page. The image that we used for the holidays is no longer there, so you shouldn't be seeing that at all. On my iPhone the Dude's Picks box does overlap the menu bar, and that's an oversight on my part; I'll try to do something about that. Otherwise the page displays as it should.