Altimexis

I would absolutely love to see a sequel to this story, but as an author, I recognize that it would not be an easy one to write, and would undoubtedly leave some people disappointed. Some things are much better left to the imagination, but Cole, I won't argue with you one bit if you do decide to write a sequel. Marc and Chad at Madison High . . . hmmm. Well, they've be boyfriends, now, but both obviously still very attractive to the girls. They'll obviously still be best friends, but the first big question from Cole's standpoint, and it's a huge one that would dictate the entire story, is whether or not they should come out, and if so, when. Cole could have a lot of fun with the whole "in the closet" scenario, but he's already done that in Middle School, and Cole's not one to rehash a story. I can't picture these guys being the type to lead girls on to keep a cover. Cole really hasn't done anything with the "out and proud" genre - that's actually more my territory, albeit I tend to be an idealist. Suppose Cole does have them enter high school as an out but not necessarily proud couple. No major fights and no serious drama - just two teens trying to fit in. There's a lot he could do with that style, but it would be new territory for Cole. One last comment - Cole, you seriously expect us to believe Chad would even think about asking his parents if it's OK to have sex? Are you serious? When WBMS was my editor, he made the point, very strongly I might add, that teens do not ask their parents about sex - at least not voluntarily!

I really liked the way this story evolved. There was a lot of inference here - a very tangential approach to the original occupants being gay and to the one twin son being gay, and that the parents obviously knew, but never discussed it, but gave their son the journal because they knew. It all fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Very nice!

This whole thing about the gender of the author doesn't ring true. Are you sure you've got the full story? I mean, From Behind Those Eyes by Viv was first posted on Nifty before she was hosted at Gay Authors. There are many excellent female net authors who write about male gay characters. I can't believe Nifty would openly censor them. It makes no sense. They certainly didn't hesitate to post a story of mine, So Close, and Yet So Far, that deals with a lesbian couple. I hate to be skeptical, but I strongly suspect that someone is covering up the real reason behind pulling the story. I'm willing to bet it's something considerably more serious than the gender of the author. Issues arise all the time. When Cole first started posting his very first story on this site, it just suddenly disappeared one day. I e-mailed him right away - he wasn't even aware that it had been pulled - and it turned out there was a silly misunderstanding that he cleared up with the Dude and all has been well ever since. It's amazing to think that one of our strongest authors could have hand his work pulled over a simple misunderstanding, but it happened, and it wasn't anyone's fault. Something much more serious happened with Josh. It's not appropriate for me to discuss the issues, but suffice it to say he did something really stupid and inappropriate. Anyway, he wrote a really beautiful story, which can be found on Nifty, called Book Worms, which he has also submitted here and which I would love to see hosted here as well. It's certainly appropriate for AD, but of course it's the Dude's call and, given what Josh did, I can't blame him for taking his time and perhaps waiting for a more heartfelt apology. Finally, I'm embarrassed to say there is my own situation at Codey's World. Now in my defense, you have to understand that I used to work with kids in the inner city of Detroit, where these kids got shot up with Uzis, the result of gang violence, and ended up in wheelchairs for the rest of their lives. A lot of these kids were already fathers and had absolutely no inhibitions whatsoever in talking about sex. When I added the line, "Now you know why they make flavored condoms," to my story Positive at AD in the context of a presentation that one of my characters, Kurt, was making to his school - this was something a 15-year-old would say. I added it to make the point that oral sex is not safer sex - something that is often lost in stories teens read on the net, and I did it in response to an e-mail received from one of my readers. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of suggesting to Colin that the same phrase or something similar be added to the version at CW. This wasn't my first offense. Sexual exploration often begins in middle school and although a 12-year-old boy may be capable of looking up information on safer sex on the net, IMO that doesn't mean they're going to do so before going down on their best friend after having read a story about it. Forgive me, but I'm naturally cynical. In any case, after contacting Colin, I was banned from making further submissions. I really am terribly sorry about pushing the point, and have apologized several times to Ben and to Tim. CW is their site, not mine. We all miss Codey terribly, and admire the site he built so lovingly. I did not intent to offend anyone, and am terribly sorry for stepping on toes. This is a case study in how a difference in opinion can escalate in a very brief period of time to result in an otherwise good author being banned from a site or in being prevented from having their further work posted. Tim has since reversed the decision to ban my further postings, but I think there must be an e-mail block still in place, as I've made multiple attempts to submit the Naptown Tales that have absolutely no sexual content - these at least should have no controversy - and I've heard absolutely nothing in return. Ben, if you're reading this, at least give me the courtesy to tell me directly to get lost if that's how you feel, or really do give me the second chance that Tim offered, as I'm sincere about it when I say I'm sorry and will abide by your decisions and guidelines. Everyone deserves second chances. I'm even willing to re-edit my earlier stories to bring them into compliance with your current standards on sexual content. It's not about me or about my ego - it's about bringing the readers quality stories. OK, I'll get off my soapbox now. The whole point of this post wasn't supposed to be about me - it's a case in point. I don't believe the story was pulled because of the author's gender, but the real reason must have been pretty horrendous to brazenly claim gender bias as the reason.

It sounds a lot like the Halloween Parade, but probably on a much larger scale. The Halloween Parade takes place in the Village, just two miles from our apartment. We got to within two blocks of the route, but the police had it barricaded off and absolutely wouldn't let us through except to access the subway station. In other words, you could get there by subway, but not on foot. I'll have to write that into my story. In any case, my wife and I took advantage of that little loophole - we swiped ourselves through, crossed the platform and walked out the other side. It's too bad we didn't have unlimited passes - it cost us $2 each, but it was well worth it. The parade was amazing - something everyone should attend once in their lives. There supposedly are one million participants in the parade. I'm not talking about spectators - I'm talking about people marching in the parade itself. Thanks, oh vaulted raccoon. You've given me a lot to go on.

Just curious if any of my fellow writers has actually frozen their noses off or any other assorted body appendages and spent New Year's Eve in Times Square, counting down the final seconds of the year as the ball dropped. If not, do you know anyone that has? Now that I actually live in the Big Apple, I have even less of a desire to do so, as I can sit out on my terrace and watch the fireworks on the East River, over the Brooklyn Bridge, with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop. Why would I want to submit myself to all the pushing and shoving, freezing temperatures, waiting around for hours, not to mention having to catch a crowded subway afterwards, or just plain walk the 3.8 miles back? However, I'm writing a story, one of my Naptown Tales, in which a group of ten of my characters along with a couple of their parents will be in New York for their Winter Holiday at the end of this year. Naturally, the boys are all excited at the prospect of being in Times Square at the stroke of midnight, no matter how much the parents may try to dissuade them. Having never experienced the joy of watching the ball drop live with a million of my closest friends, if anyone here has been through the experience, could you please tell me some details that would make the experience more realistic? How early do you need to get there to get a decent spot? Are there food vendors on the street? Are the restaurants open the whole time? For restrooms, are there Porta-potties, and do they work throughout the night? Are pickpockets a problem? Are there a lot of police officers about? Are some of them on horseback? On bicycle? It's little details like these that will make the story more accurate, and real. Thanks, Altimexis

Nice - this ended just the way I hoped it would. It's pretty rare that one of Cole's stories is this linear. Thanks for such an uplifting tale.

What a way to come out to one's parents - by writing a story about coming out to one's parents! Well, at least the A+ grade he got should help soften the blow. The question is, will Chad be able to talk Marc into showing it to them? It's pretty clear Chad understands where Marc is coming from, but is Marc ready to take that last step and admit to Chad that he thinks he's gay? Is Chad gay, or just an accepting friend? Knowing Cole, that's something he may leave us guessing at for quite a while.

Wow, you just blew me away! I'm assuming you meant a positive impact, no pun intended. Thanks!

This is actually one of Cole's earliest stories, having been published to Nifty in 2005 (the final chapter on April 1, if you're curious) in the "Young Friends" section. It was later hosted by RCWP along with his excellent story, Tim. I think this now brings all of Cole's work to AD - at least all of it that I'm aware of. No doubt about it, Cole Parker was one of the single greatest additions to AD. (But don't let it go to your head, Cole!)

I can't believe how much time has passed since I started this thread, but I finally got around to rereading JE in its entirety. The revisions Cole made are fairly minor for the most part, but there are some that are fairly significant and one that changes the story in a big way. One of the more significant changes is the way that Cole handles Eric's coming out to Josh and Bryan, handling it with much more sensitivity, which is nice. The ending of the story is the most apparent change, and it alters the story in a big way. In the original version of JE, after building a relationship between two boys and giving all appearances that they were gay, Cole backed off in the end and made it appear that they were just very close friends who liked each other a lot and were experimenting. In the revised version, Josh still organizes a triple date, but rather than having the story end at that point, he continues the story with them actually going on the date. He brings out the sense of awkwardness of the boys going on the date with the girls and wondering what to do during the movie, and whether to kiss at the door. Then at the end, they admit that there were no fireworks when they kissed the girls at the end of the date - nothing like they felt when they kissed each other. This is a very different way to end the story, to say the least! It gives the reader the distinct impression that Josh and Bryan may well be gay after all, and may ultimately become more than best friends. I'm just curious as to why Cole decided to make such a significant change. It's an excellent story, either way, with a number of great subplots, but how one feels about a story is often dictated by the ending, and this is a different ending.

There's an old saying about replying to one's own posts. . . . It's interesting how the mind works, but when confronted by a disclaimer in small print and then a very intense, lifelike, compelling story that almost exists within its own reality, it's very easy to discount the initial disclaimer and think to ones self, "Maybe that initial disclaimer was tacked on automatically and doesn't really apply to this story." In the end, I decided that this really was a brilliant work of fiction, but it's written so well that for a time I really did think our Wibby had become infatuated with a teenager. I think the real clue that this was a fictional piece about a tormented soul and not a legitimate writer was when the second boy came into the picture, and the writer fell in love with him. I have teenage fans, but they're interested in my stories, not in me. Let's face it, teenage boys aren't all that interested in older guys - that only happens in stories posted to Nifty. Seriously, Wibby has created a very believable character who is in deep denial about feelings he has for teenage boys. He did have me going for a bit, though. I'm not quite sure how you can have a revision date that's still three days in the future (10/29) when it's still Sunday, 10/26 where I am. Thanks for correcting the reference to the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

Wow! I'm not sure where to begin with this. I'd say this is not our typical Wibby's writing, but then there really is no such thing when it comes to our Wibby. The one thing I will say is that it sure seems to be unedited, as there are numerous typos. There are a lot of missing spaces between words and I think it would probably be a good idea to at least run the text back through a spell checker to at least catch these. There is also one major, glaring error. Wibby attributes the phrase, "We hold these truths . . ." to be from the U.S. Constitution, which of course is false. Nothing so eloquent made it into the U.S. Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson was in France at the time of the Constitutional Convention. "We hold these truths . . ." comes from the Declaration of Independence. The triumvirate of "mankind's" inalienable right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is something Jefferson actually lifted from the ideas of John Locke, although Locke was considerably more materialistic when he wrote about life, liberty and the pursuit and acquisition of property. I had a great U.S. History teacher in high school. We spent most of our time in the library reading up on this stuff and then presenting and debating it in class. Who needed textbooks? But I digress . . . So about this story . . . Wibby makes it clear up front that it says nothing about his tastes - only that he can write an engaging story, but then he goes on to say that it's true. He almost has me believing him, this time. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if the typos I mentioned above are deliberate, designed to make me think that the story was written by his tortured soul, rather than by the cool, collected Wibby we're all used to. I've used Wibby as an editor for my own writing before, and I can tell you that no one is more meticulous. Would even a distraught Wibby who thinks he might be about to throw his morals to the wind fail to even run his story through a spell checker? I think not. So the question, folks, is, is this fact, or more of Wibby's amazing fiction?

Pecman, except for a short story or two, has Graeme ever written a story that was not set in Australia? Actually, there are plenty of clues along the way, certainly that the story is not set in America and not likely in the UK. Getting the location of the story within the first chapter of the story is certainly acceptable and, BTW, if you're ever in Australia, Melbourne is well worth a visit. It certainly tends to get short shrift compared to its more famous neighbor to the north - Melbourne is beautiful, and charming. It's too bad air travel has gotten so @&%$ expensive. ******** Caution: Spoilers Below *********** Graeme, I absolutely love this premise. At first I thought this was going to be just another boy meets boy story. It never occurred to me that Rick was straight. Rick misread all the clues Drew was sending him and gave back all the answers he thought were appropriate for someone who was straight and accepting of gay friends. What he didn't realize is that his answers could also be interpreted as being appropriate for someone who was gay themselves, but how could he have missed that Drew was asking him out on a date? Even then, he could have recovered when Sue confronted him in the mall, but Rick had had a really bad experience two years earlier, and he wasn't willing to take a chance on losing this group of friends. Chances are it would have been Drew who would have been embarrassed, but Rick just wasn't going to rock the boat, so he made the decision to be gay for the next couple of years. Surely he could do that, right? Actually, this isn't so far fetched, and it's not surprising that someone like Graeme, who has actually lived a double life, would think of it. Many of us have been there, too. It took me twenty years to get the courage to come out to my wife, and four years later, we're still together. If gay men can play the straight role, straight men can certainly play a gay role. Now I expect this to be a comedy, but wouldn't it be funny if Rick actually ends up falling in love with Drew? Stranger things have happened?

The only problem I had with Dominoes is it was way too short, particularly with the Dude making site updates only once a week and two chapters at a time. With the description in the prologue, I kind or expected it to be quite a bit longer. Nice story, but we, your loyal readers, demand more . . . way more. Three days for chapter 1 of your next story, and not a second more. We need our weekly fix! Seriously, great story.

I was beginning to worry about his awesomeness, The Dude, and the lack of a site update, but at long last, Dominoes delivers! Cole is clearly one of the best gay, or should I say gay-themed authors on the Net today. His stories are extraordinary and the breadth of his writing within the gay teen fiction genre is astounding. Try not to blush too much, Cole - you deserve the praise. I think i'm going to have to give up on the speculation. I'm still not sure where the domino effect comes in here just yet. Jeremy's life has been altered in unforeseen ways, most likely for the better, and Paul and his cronies' lives have been altered for the worse. In a true domino effect, each change in their lives would bring about a change in someone elses life that would have a ripple effect on down the line. In any case, I can't wait to see what happens next.

Well, while we're waiting for chapter 3 to appear, ** hint hint ** it's already interesting to speculate on where Cole's going with this. I know how much Cole hates it when I do this, which is why I love to speculate. If I'm right, I can pat myself on the back and laud myself for being so wise and knowing Cole so well, and if I'm way off the mark, I can just shrug my shoulders and say, "Oh well, no one, not even I can predict the direction of Cole's warped mind." So anyway with a proper spoiler alert for Chapter 2 for what follows, here we have Jake's best friend, Jeremy, a total slacker up to this point in his life, who heard Jake on the radio. Now I'm sure most kids would have been mortified by the thought of what other kids would say and think about them, too, and do everything to distance themselves from their best friend no matter what, but for whatever reason, Jeremy doesn't think like that. Jeremy loves Jake like a brother. He's not gay, or at least he doesn't think he's gay, and more than anything else, he's worried about Jake. He's willing to throw away everything he has - his popularity, his potential girlfriends, the life he's known up to know, to save and protect Jake. That's a pretty tall order, and it may be a bit much to expect of anyone. If he sticks with it, his life will be changed forever. He won't be able to be a slacker anymore. This could wreck his life, but as a slacker, there really wasn't much worth worrying about, anyway. The real potential is it could build his character in ways he never could have foreseen. The risks are high, the stakes are high, but Jeremy could become much more of a man because of it. Can't wait for chapter 3, so post it, already.

Cole, you devil. How dare you sneak in a new story without at least warning us it was coming. Chapter 1 has got to be one of the funniest things I've read in a while. You had me in hysterics the whole time.

I haven't had the time to go through Cole's story with a magnifying glass, and I suppose I could always use MS Word's Compare Documents feature if I were really anal retentive (which I'm certainly not I can assure you - we birds have a urogenital sinus, I'll have you know) but I couldn't help but notice that JE has a different ending in the version Cole's posted here than it has in the version he posted on Nifty. The ending posted here gives the story a whole different feel at the end of the day. Since I'm tying up loose ends and preparing to move and start a new job, rereading JE is not at the top of my priority list right now, but I'm curious about what other people think about the new ending. I'm not going to discuss it just yet, since that would involve posting a major spoiler - I'll come back here in a week or more and see if anyone has posted anything, and then we'll have some discussion.

Ah, but the fans are worth it!

I've been thoroughly enchanted by this story and am surprised that no one's discussing it here. It starts out on a rather serious note with a couple of boys who grow up together in a small Pennsylvania town, and then nearly stop talking to each other after a little sexual experimentation, each when they realize they want to go further. Just as the main character decides he needs to discuss his feelings with his best friend, an aggressive bully beats the shit out of "the little fagot", putting young Scotty into a coma for a short time. This gives Bash some time to think about things, and to talk to his favorite uncles about being gay. The story unfolds beautifully, and shows a wonderful sensitivity as the two boys and their friends grow up over the next few years, in the early nineties. They are unusually kind hearted, and Scotty even choses to recommend leniency to the judge in the case of his attacker - a move that will have a major positive impact in what would have otherwise been a wasted life. The story has touched on some other serious issues of late, including physical child abuse and teen suicide (not in our protagonists, but in a close friend). I can highly recommend this story to anyone who isn't already reading it.

I almost forgot about this one. It's short, but definitely one of Cole's best stories of all time.

Well, since Cole isn't one to sing his own praises, I guess I'll have to do it for him. Besides the stories already published here, there's Eighth Grade, which was initially published on Nifty, and can also be found on the more or less moribund RCWP site, and of course there's the ever popular Josh Evolving, which is only posted at Nifty, but which Dude just invited Cole to submit here in this very thread. Cole has threatened to write a sequel to JE based on Eric, Bryan's shy, gay friend - I think it would be a natural, but it's a lot easier to write from scratch than to try to start with a framework from another story. I'm not aware of any others published elsewhere on the net, but wouldn't be surprised if Cole has some hiding on his hard drive that he never got around to posting or that he started but never finished. The one thing I'm certain of is that Cole is one of the best if not the best authors of gay-themed fiction on the Net. Of course, he'll vehemently deny it or make light of it, but we all know the truth.

Thanks! *Blushes* And you are changing the subject again - there's already a separate thread for Naptown Tales, which you're welcome to post to, BTW - it's a bit lonesome on page 2.

But I do!

Just getting around to adding my own comments to this thread. If I'm not mistaken, it was in response to reading Tim at Nifty that gave me the courage to first contact Cole. In fact, I believe that was the first time I ever contacted anyone in response to reading a gay-themed story on the Internet. I was too paranoid before that, but Tim was so exceptional and the fact that it portrayed a kid with a disability, and not just any disability, but a rare disorder that so few people would have ever heard of, empowered me to take action. I just had to get to know this extraordinary author. At the time, Cole was in the midst of posting his story, Josh Evolving (When is that one coming to AD, Cole?), and I was so impressed with his style of writing, that I searched for his earlier stories on Nifty and found Tim. I've read Tim several times now and it was this story, and Grasshopper's Just Hit Send that inspired me to write Love in a Chair. I should be so lucky to have a tenth the talent of these two authors. Cole, thanks again for a wonderful and engaging story. Seriously, I really would like to see you bring Josh Evolving to AD as well, and maybe to write that sequel you've been thinking about (and probably didn't want anyone else to know about - OK, I'll keep it quiet ). Your writing has truly enriched my life.