James K

Unashamed self-promotion: I am publishing my first story online https://gayauthors.org/story/james-k/a-russian-summer/ One summer well before the Bolshevik revolution, when Russia was a noble country, young Alexei, as was the custom of the time, left the city with his family, for the countryside. It was a time of discovery, excitement, longing, and also sadness. A time in which he made new acquaintances and fought battles with himself, as the child he still was struggled free from many constraints into a world of dangerous possibilities.

New tech is always expensive, later it becomes cheaper with mass production. An engine which can propel a spacecraft at 99% the speed of light has been invented, theoretically, they just need to build it! It has no moving parts and will get you to Mars in 12.5 minutes, to Neptune in 4 hours, and beyond... https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/nasa-claims-their-new-space-engine-can-reach-99-the-speed-of-light Yuval Noah Harari who wrote the bestselling book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – has boldly claimed that ours will be “one of the last generations of homo sapiens.” “Within a century or two, Earth will be dominated by entities that are more different from us than we are different from chimpanzees,” “You know, we’ll soon have the power to re-engineer our bodies and brains,” Harari replied, “whether it is with genetic engineering or by directly connecting brains to computers, or by creating completely non-organic entities.” “This is something that is way beyond just another species,” https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/11/anderson-cooper-freaked-experts-shocking-claim-last-generation-humans/ We will survive, here or somewhere else!

The Chinese built a great one, but it became obsolete when their empire expanded. The Romans built one in the north of England to keep the Scots out. That was the pits! The Americans built one, much criticised, especially by the Europeans, to keep the immigrants out. The British exited Europe, not because of a wall, but they hated those immigrants their American friends wanted to keep out. Not the same immigrants, but the same ideology. They didn't need a wall with Europe because they have the English Channel (which of course, is only called the English Channel by the English. For the French on the otherside it's La Manche, or simply the sea!). Oddly, now all the foreigners have gone they would quite like some to come back. The debate about a wall in Ireland is ongoing, but hopefully won't get physical. Now you might think the rest of Europe, you know, that amalgam of countries led by France and Germany, come out looking pure as snow. They do not. Europe has it's own wall, in those eastern countries with land borders, which it's building to keep out... immigrants! Bloody walls... You build them (there was one in Berlin) then either you knock them down or they fall into disuse. They are put there to keep people out, mostly, in Berlin they wanted to keep people in. A bit like North Korea. These walls kill people, seperate people, cause heartache and anguish, until finally, years later, they become... tourist attractions. And why they were built, and all the lives they destroyed, are forgotten. We do need walls, but only for houses for people to live in, not for countries to keep people in or out!

Thanks @Camyfor the link. You can also get all those books free from the electronic library https://en.fr1lib.org/ There is no sign up, nothing required, unless you want. Just type into the search box title and author, hit search and download it. No catch, over 8.5 million free books! Happy reading. PS. @Camy link is great for reading synopsis before deciding on which books to read. PPS. There are way too many to read....

A fantastic story, very intimate. I can't help being stuck in the afternoon sun and imagining what you talked about for hours. That you got together years later is interesting in how paths cross, but 2010 is not 1978, anyhow both have gone forever, except in your head where they live forever as often as you like to recall. Thanks for sharing this.

Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa Borrow it free from the electric library. @Camy I don't really want to know personal details about the authors, but something about why, how, the background to writing a story, might be good. It was Jonny Garza Villa's intro that made me persevere through the Spanish American and read the story. I haven't finished yet, but the book certainly gives a different POV. And... telephone boxes are good... I've watched Dr Who! Thread hijacking... happens all the time... If it's interesting to talk about something... why not? What was this thread about anyway - LOL 😁

There are no stories by young writers so like reading Dickens, the stories are set in the past, mostly the last century. Sounds old, but it's just twenty or so years ago, although that is a lifetime if you're young! I think it would be hard to write today's world for teenage protanganists unless you are young and surrounded by it. I like stories set in their historical times. For something from today, well, I'm reading Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa, very much now, obvious by both the style and vocabulary. For style, it uses present tense, for vocabulary, it's routed in Spanish American, something you never get from American writers here. That is not a criticism, but an observation. What are the author profiles? Middle class white American grew up in the 1980's or 90's? Impossible to know, there are no author bios, nothing is given on that count. There are the British writers, obvious by the language and settings, but we (the readers) really know little about the authors. It is not to say you (the author) need give your life story, but maybe a little background. Like Jonny Garza Villa who opens his book with an intro. "I want you to know that in the hundreds of pages that comprise this book, there is a lot of joy. So much. It is a journey of figuring out how to embrace who you are and of unexpected love, a celebration of those who adore and accept every part of us, and, if I can be so bold for a second, pretty fucking funny." "Many scenes in this book triggered deep, emotional reactions, both while writing and still when I go back and read. This story is more personal than I ever could have envisioned when I first started drafting, and much of it I’d never taken the time to process before. I say all this not to diminish the beauty of the aforementioned joy you will find here but to acknowledge the reality that for queer people of color, for queer Latinxs, Chicanxs, Mexican Americans, joy is very much tied to trauma. Two sides of the coin that is our lives. So, as the writer of the words that form this journey, I ask you to do me a favor and check in with yourself before starting. And I want you to know that it’s okay if you’re not ready for this book yet. It’s okay if you never are. No hard feelings. Te lo prometo y te quiero." If you want to read a young guy's today's world from a Latin American POV with the language, you could do worse than picking up this book.

I came across this article and I think it is nice to share how the world is changing... for the better... sometimes! "I know what my 9-year-old son’s “type” of guy is. This is not something I expected to have knowledge of, not when my son was 9, and perhaps not ever. But that knowledge is in my brain anyway, and now I have to deal with it. And as much as it weirds me out, it is so cute to see him when the right kind of boy walks into his life." I Know My 9-Year-Old Son’s ‘Type’: Pretty Boys With Dark Hair

Kirk rose to fame as a pet project of Walt Disney himself, who cast Kirk in the original TV series The Hardy Boys, part of the popular show The Mickey Mouse Club. The popularity of the show made Kirk into a household star, ... ... 1963, Kirk’s career hit the skids. The actor would later recall that he knew he was gay from a very early age,... When I was about 17 or 18 years old, I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t going to change. I didn’t know what the consequences would be, but I had the definite feeling that it was going to wreck my Disney career and maybe my whole acting career. It was all going to come to an end.” Kirk was right. In 1963, the 21-year-old Kirk began a relationship with a 15-year-old boy. When Disney learned of the affair, he personally fired Kirk.... https://www.queerty.com/classic-disney-star-tommy-kirk-died-gay-cost-career-20210930

According to a reader survey carried out by the Gay Authors site those readers who replied to the questions posed like to read stories with sex in them. Romance, drama, and adventure, with sex, not pornographic, but spice in the story. Readers want to get the sex lives of the characters. Interesting!

I think that is a forum update, you see it at the Gay Authors site, same provider, Powered by Invision Community.

"All FOUR countries..." Take a look at Wales. It is a Principality. A principality is a state which is part of a larger state ruled by a prince, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne of England, the Queen of England's son. Other European principalities are Monaco, in France, Andora between France and Spain, to name two. Wales also has it's own language which is compulsory in schools. So, if you use @Cole Parker example of Iowa, it is like Iowa has a seperate head of state to the President, is still ruled over by the President, because it's his son who was given the little state, but Iowa doesn't speak English, but Spanish, which would be taught in all its schools. Then we have, Northern Ireland. Why is the United States so pro Ireland and keeping the border to Northern Ireland open, something threatened by Brexit. Here we need a history lesson. The English conquered the island of Ireland, the English are protestant. The English crown then owned the whole ...... country, just like Scotland. The Catholic peasants were suppressed and forced to rent their own land from the English ruling lords, like Scotland. The Catholic peasants, a lot of them, escaped starvation by fleeing their miserable lives to start a new life in America. Then there was a revolution, just like in America. The Irish rose up and nearly defeated the English. The difference with the American revolution is, continuing the analogy, Iowa was left English. The protestant English retreated to the north, and there they stayed and are more fervently English than the English themselves. So in effect the FOUR countries of the United Kingdom, are one country, England, which invaded Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, managed to hang on to (Iowa) Northern Ireland, gave Wales to the monarch's son as a Christmas present and kept Scotland which is still mostly owned by the monarchy. The history of the United Kingdom is very far from being one of a democracy for the people, one might argue America had a lucky escape, rather like the Republic of Ireland. Scotland wants independence but those English lords which own all the ...... land, obviously don't want to lose their wealth and give it to the people. The British government will say they already voted, but who th hell voted, the English living in Scotland. The Scots, born in the country, but living outside, were disenfranchised, they didn't get to vote. And why did they leave? Like the peasants in Ireland went to America, they left because they were being starved to death by the English. The story of England is a less than glorious affair, which you should be only too aware of in America, because you were forced to revolt just like the Irish, the Scots, and the Welsh.... God Save the Queen! Or revolution and independence. History has two sides to the story.

You are absolutely right about getting a booster if proposed. Some research suggests long term protection from the two shots and explains the booster initiative (previous image). Here is the article, it's interesting: Immunity To COVID-19 Could Last Longer Than You'd Think

@JamesSavik your comments are misleading and dangerous, you are telling people who are dying, not to get vaccinated, when this is our only effective weapon of protection against Covid19. It is the people who act like you who will kill the rest of us. You are responsible for spreading fake news and promoting the anti-vaccine stance which is totally irresponsible and irrational. Think before you talk!

It is ignorance that kills, the Covid vaccines based on mRNA messenger have a long history born through research into a cure for cancer. The story started in the 60's and developed twenty years ago into the possibility of curing certain types of cancer, but a cure for cancer is slower to be approved than a vaccine for a worldwide infection crisis. I think many people believe that mRNA simply popped up and mad scientists pushed it on the public like Frankenstein in the same vein as genetically modified crops, and the great fear of genetically modifying not plants this time but humans. Humans, like nature itself, are imperfect. We are born with genetic abnormalities and catch diseases, that is the way life is. Correcting a fault is like doing some DIY on your house or home appliances, it makes them last a bit longer. "We don't know the long-term effects!" I hear the cry, but we kind of know the long-term effects of over using fossil fuels and warming up the planet. Knowing, or not knowing, appears to make no difference.

I read this interesting piece about America and who are the people who refuse the Covid vaccine. I have no idea how many places in the USA resemble Leon county, but it is pretty mind blowing how the folks who live there think. The population of this rural community is 72 percent white Christian, including 44 percent white evangelical, and election data shows 87 percent of the county voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020. Just over one-third of the county’s eligible population is fully vaccinated, even though COVID-19 case rates are higher than they have ever been. What is significant about Leon County is the role religion has played in residents’ low vaccination rates even when faced with death from the coronavirus. "When my classmates were hospitalized with COVID-19, there were repeated calls for prayers and proclamations that God would provide healing. When they died, those prayer requests became comments that “God called [them] home.”" The belief that God controls everything that happens in the world is a core tenet of evangelicalism — 84 percent of white evangelicals agreed with this statement in PRRI polling from 2011... Given the numbers of evangelists across America, this may explain why a large number of people refuse to be vaccinated. If you believe what they believe, it seems death is a reasonable outcome and a call to paradise. Some similarity with some Muslim beliefs. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-some-white-evangelical-republicans-are-so-opposed-to-the-covid-19-vaccine/

Here is another good book you can borrow from the library. I haven't read it yet, but it has great reviews. Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa

I suddenly feel very humble, that was so very apt and poetic...

I was referring to PT Denys - The Cycle and PT Denys the author, and the publishing, or not, of her two books. Then there is the book you mentioned, Red White and Royal Blue, which I haven't yet looked at but I will.

14% of US residents say they definitely will not get vaccinated, but it gets worse. Figures for Europe range around 25%, but vary country to country. In Ireland, vaccine refusal is just 10%, in Bulgaria it's 67%. France, a country where people consume medicine like coffee, the rate was around 40%, until government pressure forced people to reconsider, along with dramatically increasing infection rates. The people who refuse the vaccine have the right to do so. They are a broad spectrum of society, the only vague connection may be that they follow (fake) stories on social media. Whatever the reasoning or whatever negative things these people believe, the sad fact is, it will kill us all! Please re-think if you are a vaccine refuser. Sacrifice your personal misgivings and save humanity. It hasn't touched you yet? It will, on Martinique, a part of France with only a 17% vaccine up take, the hospitals are full, it's an extreme emergency, the whole island is in lockdown and tourists have been evacuated. Perhaps you only get your local or national news, but this is worldwide, and God help us, it will surely come to you if you refuse to be vaccinated. It is life or death, it's that simple, whatever your personal feelings, we only have one defence, the vaccine. The longer you wait the worse it will be, until we are all wiped out!

Did it get published? The publisher Wilde Works, Indie Artist Press, does not exist, except as part of the Book Depository, which is now owned by Amazon. Anyone can list on the Book Depository if their book is in print (catalogued ebook). Which I take to mean, it's on Amazon or another self-publisher. Begging the question is the book self-published? I couldn't find the answer. The author PT Denys (female) is the parent of two daughters, a teenager and a toddler. Her two books, this sequel and the first Violence Begets are both available on Amazon (Kindle - ebook only) for next to nothing, a couple of pounds or dollars. Which leads me to believe it is self-published with a publishing label. The book is not available in print (paperback) and perhaps never was. Conclusion: I don't believe it ever got published! It just looks like it did and we all know, appearances can be deceptive. Indie Artist Press was a US company based in Utah and did exist https://www.linkedin.com/company/indie-artist-press but not any longer, the website has gone (404 error). On Twitter it says: " (Indie Artist Press) The new face of self-publishing! Our books have been vetted for content and quality, edited, copyedited and proofed. Our authors earn 100% royalties!" I rest my case... I knew my true vocation was being a private investigator 😂😂😂

I tried really hard to progress this book, but it was so much introspection, I gave up just before the halfway point. It seemed to be very repetitive, very slow and drawn out, with nothing happening other than paranoia or psychosis.

@Camy can you send me a copy? jameskeogh112@protonmail.com Because the website offer is only for US and Canada.

It is a choice, maybe not a good one. When you are young you are going to live forever! Death is an abstract concept. It's Saturday night, nearly 3AM, you've had a great time out with friends, there was such a good atmosphere. You had more than enough to drink and smoked a few joints, but now it's time to go home. You get on your motorbike, it's freezing, this is winter. It's dead quiet. Cold air hits you in the face. Head down, you are thinking of home. A warm bed. The lights changed. You grill a red stop. You don't care, don't even think much about it. So I don't put that in a story because you don't want to give young people bad ideas or wrong examples? I was thirteen. Whose idea was it? I don't remember. My parents always warned me about stuff like this. I didn't want to, but there was no way out. I ran across the railway tracks, following the rest of them. I wasn't going to be, couldn't be, left behind, out of the gang. I shouldn't write that in a story? No, really, a story is a story, it is not something else, not a message about safe sex, protecting the world from Covid, or giving sane advice. You might want to do that, but... yes, it's a choice. You might prefer to tell it like it is... when you are young you will live forever!