Rutabaga

It is an Ellery (Josh) Queen saga! I love it. R

I definitely think it's time for this story to come out of mothballs. (I hope I don't accidentally preempt the Picks from the Past again.) I thought I had read all of Cole's stuff but somehow I missed this one. It's definitely worth a look, but make sure you have a decent amount of time set aside. R

Something I read made it sound like the X-rated blogs could still exist online, but they would be "private" rather than "public." I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it sounds like either you would have to know the blog URL in advance (it would not come up in search results) and/or you would have to be "approved" by the blog owner before you could enter the site at all. R

I found the blog post kind of incoherent and whining. If he wants a certain category of youth-oriented gay fiction, maybe he should ask for recommendations in a sensible and straightforward manner. R

Please send all the snow you can up to the Sierras. The snow pack there supplies water for much of California all year round. R

"Even better, from everything that’s been said here today, I think maybe we can identify the supplier.” Oh, Lordy. Now it's an Ellery Queen mystery! R

Exactly what kind of sword are you referring to? :laugh: :laugh: R

Is that somewhere near the Wesson Alps? R

It's ironic that in this day when traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores are being replaced by online merchants, we still worry about giving books a category so the bookstores will know where to shelve them. But the truth is that the publishing industry itself works in those same categories, with different editorial teams and even imprints for different genres. I think writing teacher Randy Ingermanson offers a couple of helpful insights that serve to explain this phenomenon. First, he argues that the main purpose of fiction -- at least, the kind that lots of people buy and read -- is to give readers a powerful emotional experience. It seems to me, given the emotion-drenched nature of young adult years, that it would be hard not to include lots of emotional issues and experiences in this genre. Second, Ingermanson asserts that even though authors would like "everyone" to buy their books, the best marketing approach is to target the book for a very specific audience, making sure that book simply delights that audience and excites them into telling everyone else about it. Thus, even if the Harry Potter series was initially targeted at 11-year-old boys, as Ingermanson contends, those boys wasted no time in telling the rest of the world about the series. And they were ripping good yarns; I was lined up with everyone else on publication day ready to buy my copy! I have also heard that young adult fiction is among the most difficult genres to write successfully, because the young adult audience has exquisitely keen BS and phoniness detectors that will immediately howl at anything inauthentic, contrived, or condescending. I suspect, therefore, that anything that passes this kind of test is likely to be of good quality by "adult" standards as well. R

This story is still a good one. Thought I would bump the thread here in case anyone hasn't come across it before. http://www.themailcrew.com/tdeintro.html R

Photo of your first sex partner in a thong. R

I know I've read this more than once in the past and I also know that if I start reading it now I won't be able to stop until I've finished it once again. R

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Greetings from LOL. R

This article will piss you off: http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/02/19/superfish-history-of-malware-and-surveillance/ R

I forgot to mention the absence of DIll and Kirk from the group of boys who had found one another at the youth center. R

Also follow the info linked in this article for how to detect and remove the infection. I have a Lenovo ThinkPad of 2012 vintage that runs Windows 7, and it's not considered a consumer machine so I doubt if I'll find this stuff on it. But I certainly plan to check when I get home. R

By the way, I'm not sure how I feel about Jordan and Micah revealing to the artist that they're the ones he saw when he was painting. I can see why it would be incredibly tempting for the boys to identify themselves, but from his perspective I think it could be very awkward. I think if the question was put to me I would advise them to keep quiet about it, and just enjoy knowing the truth about that scene. R

Good that the three pairs of boys found each other. I can't help thinking there is a big surprise in store concerning the source of the meth. R

The problem is that ABC bought the family channel from Pat Robertson and the 700 Club broadcasts are part of the deal. R

Only if we can bleach the hair blond. :-) R

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. . . and maybe one day you'll be the CEO of Apple. R