Merkin

For sure, Cole, those losers in New York might be called Yankees, but yankees know that real baseball is played by the Red Sox.

Nice, Cole. No use walking the walk if you can't talk the talk. James

Man and Superman is superb. Every character is captured beautifully. The pace and development is dead on. Bruin employs a wonderfully effective technique of coming at his story from the points of view of secondary characters, who are charming in themselves. Additionally, I am very pleased to see that Marks & Spencer continues to incite writers to lay pen to paper. I, for one, hope that Bruin continues to hang around those retail precincts for inspiration. James

Yes. Never forget.

In Chapter 17 Gee may have come up with the ultimate cliff-hanger.

Blush. Thank you both. Praise from two such good writers is praise indeed. James

Wow. You've a right to preen. Congratulations. Go eat worms.James

Wunnerful, wunnerful. (I thought they looked awfully young on the bus last week.)

This is absolutely tragic. Charismatic doctors convinced of their own righteousness are just as evil as charismatic bible thumpers. How do we protect children from people like this making irrevocable decisions on their behalf? James

Reminds me of the life work of Cynthia 'Plaster Caster' Albritton. She got more than her fifteen minutes of fame back in the seventies and was an inspiration to many of us. I'll append a wee bit of her Wiki bio:'...Shy as a young girl, Cynthia sought out a way to make contact with the opposite sex. In the mid-1960s she became caught up in free love and rock music. In college, when her art teacher gave the class an assignment to "plaster cast something solid that could retain its shape", her idea to use the assignment as a lure to entice rock stars to have sex with her became a hit, even before she made a cast of anyone's genitalia. Finding a dental moldmaking substance called alginate to be sufficient, she found her first client in Jimi Hendrix, the first of many to submit to the idea.Meeting Frank Zappa, who found the concept of "casting" both humorous and creative as an art form, Albritton found in him something of a patron. He moved her to Los Angeles, California, which she described as a veritable groupie heaven, with no lack of assistants. Together, Zappa and Albritton conceived an idea of preserving the casts of musicians for a future exhibition...'While I admire your scheme, Des, you've left out the possibility for incorporating candlemaking technology to produce a line of personal votive candles.James

We messed with Nature the moment we poured concrete slabs and laid asphalt roads and it probably is too late to turn back. I'm surprised those sycamore trees have any life left in them at all, and I don't begrudge the bugs their snacks. James

I'm struck by the Premise you unroll as the basis for this work, for it reveals that there is a poet at work here, hiding behind these lines of fiction. While I could argue with the generalizations you've put forward, I'd rather sit back and enjoy your take on what is after all a universal experience (and one not reserved exclusively for Americans). I'm thinking there's at least twenty-seven dollars and some change worth of adventure left and I hope you'll continue this. Please consider getting an editor, or at least a good beta reader. Grammatical errors are going to kill you with this crowd. James

Lovely poem. Strong beat, strong message. I hope we will see more. James Merkin

Or, in the George Bush tradition, we could call him '7'. James

Actually I think cake decorators claim 28%.If I switch to writing nothing but political commentary, will that straighten me out?

Conversely, since I write poetry did that make me gay? And here I thought I was born that way...James

Yet consider the alternatives. Europeans never had much luck with hereditary magistrates in the form of the nobility. If, instead, we appoint our judges we must agree on who does the appointing and hope that nothing corrupts that process. Perhaps judges could buy their benches -- oh, wait, maybe that's already part of the present electoral system... James

Des, your dream has become our nightmare. James

Circumstances, Finale When you are fourteen in our culture your circumstances are dire enough, for you have no real control over your own situation. That includes no choice over your location; no real freedom of movement; no significant income; no ability to select the groups you are placed in or schools you attend or bed you sleep in or house you call home. If that isn't hard enough to deal with, then add some other possible circumstances that might be your lot: parents who don't love you, school officials who don't like you, teachers who misunderstand you, classmates who ignore you or worse, who shun you, or even worse, who are actively out to get you. Cole has done a masterful job of examining the force and the effect of circumstances such as these upon a single individual, a solitary boy whose ability to cope with a situation that constantly shifts beneath his feet is tested to the limit. We can only watch in breathless anticipation as this writer moves this boy through ever changing, ever challenging new circumstances, as he and those around him act and react and learn and change. The outcome is in doubt throughout; much like driving on a twisted and steep mountain road in the dead of night with dim headlights that flicker on and flicker off, the odds that this boy will plunge off the edge to certain disaster are constantly greater than his chances that he will make it to the summit. The force of this powerful story results from its writer's ability to make us see and understand and learn along with its young protagonist, for by the end of this tale we all, characters and readers alike, will have experienced a profound shift in the circumstances of our understanding. Congratulations to Cole for his ability to transform a single element of flash fiction into this powerful extended narrative rich with meaning. James Merkin

I think many developing writers have to get that particular story-line behind them before moving on to something less angsty. The test of a good writer, for me, is usually the work that follows. James

I think the plot 'gimmick' is brilliant and absolutely engaging. I love Mr. Woolcott. I hope Dabeagle will post five chapters every time. James

Chapter 47: Mr. Johnson brings a whole new dimension to the term 'asshole.'

Right away I'm confused by Cole's advice to you, Camy. I had to look sedulous up, and Dictionary.com tells me it comes from the Latin 'sedulus' meaning 'of uncertain origin.' Now who calls friends things like that? What sort of friends does Cole think you have, Camy? Maybe Cole should pay less attention to his willy-nilly. I'd take umbrage, if I were you.

The team who cut on me were telling jokes and planning lunch. No one was even humming. Dang. James

What he said.Just don't burn out. Pace yourself.James