Tragic Rabbit

Consciously, you never thought of it consciously. Big Coon Kisses... TR

News & Views December 10th 2006 ALL VISITORS AND NEW MEMBERS, please visit the new Welcome Forum in AD Forums for detailed instructions by yours truly on how to get the most from Awesome Dude website and Forums! Registration is not necessary to read in the Forums. Hey, dudes and dudettes, we?ve got a lot of great new stuff for you this week; so fetch a snack, a pillow, get comfy and ready to read! New Serial Stories and Chapters New Novel! Ever want to visit the planet Mars? This collaboration between two fantastic AD Authors, EleCivil and Ryan Miller, takes you under the biodome in Ragnarok, Chapter One! Popular Author Terry O?Reilly?s romantic and sexy One Night in December updates to Year Two this week! New AD Author Cole Parker gives us Chapter 2 of Prom! New AD Author Captain Rick gives us Chapter 4 of Sky?s the Limit, which will now move to updates on Wednesdays and weekends to increase your reading enjoyment! It will be immediately followed by another novel by busy Captain Rick, also posted twice weekly! Can you keep up? Captain Rick hopes so! Longtime Author Sequoyah added chapters 5 and 6 this week to his current novel, Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels! You can also visit http://www.sequoyahsplace.com/ in our Family of Sites for access to all his work, complete and in progress! Beloved Author Jamie brings you Chapter 15 of The Scrolls of Icaria, Book 2! Chapter 2 of hard-working Ryan Keith?s Zak and Kayden is online! Joel, past master of sexy characters and realistic settings, brings us another installment of Mystery and Mayhem at St. Mark?s, chapter 9 is online! And, last but not least, our adorable and multi-talented Author/Poet/Musician Camy gives you Chapter 5 of Seraph! New Short Stories and Audio New AD Author Nicholas James starts his tenure at Awesome Dude with two short stories: the bittersweet A Christmas Letter and Obligation to Myself, one boy?s struggle against bigotry and hate. Audio Buttons and clean clips have been added to the following TR tales: Exothermic Reaction, The Sacred Band of Thebes, Elegy for a Fairy, A Fondness for Pickles, and Something About Tom! TR is working on more and better prose audio clips for your enjoyment! You?ll also find a plethora of Audio Buttons featuring the poetry of AD Poet (and Poetry Editor) Gabriel Duncan at Lonely Ocean, part of the AD Family of Sites. Hear Gabe read his own fantastic poetry at http://lonelyocean.co.uk/ --click on Poetry from left menu! AUDIO BUTTONS: new one-click audio ?wimpy? buttons?click once, download nothing, open nothing, just click and hear the author read his story in his own voice! No hassles, just sit back, close your eyes and enjoy the story in the actual author or poet?s voice. Contact Story-Editor TR if you?d like to your story to have a wimpy button, and Poetry-Editor Gabriel Duncan if you?d like your poem to feature one. Files must be mp3s and relatively clean to upload as wimpy buttons. Send your 2006 holiday stories in ASAP to story-editor@awesomedude.com Poetry Corner Update Four great new poems at the Corner! Poet Alex K.'s Hey (Hey Do You Remember Me?) and Unsure Label and Poet Aaron Bergeron's The Only Chance and Untitled. Visit the Poetry Corner from the top right front page of Awesome Dude! Poetry Corner Submission Guidelines have been UPDATED, read the new Guidelines from the front page link or at Gabe's Guidelines. ADR Our basic raison d'?tre for AwesomeDude Radio is to provide you music to listen and write to and of to support our community at AwesomeDude.com while having some fun. Thanks to all who have provided their favorite tracks for inclusion in our playlists! If you have broadcasting or speech/drama experience or just a desire to help... contact The Dude at dude@awesomedude.com or TR at story-editor@awesomedue.com. We pay broadcasters at the same rate we pay our authors... which means we all do it for the fun and satisfaction it brings. REMEMBER to read the new Submission Guidelines before submitting prose or poems to the Poetry Corner. ALL VISITORS AND NEW MEMBERS, please visit the Welcome Forum in AD Forums for detailed instructions by yours truly on how to get the most from Awesome Dude website and Forums! Registration is not necessary to read in the Forums. That's all the news for this week. Have a great time reading! Kisses? TR, who wants a PermaPuppy for Christmas! "Sometimes there?s a man, I won?t say a hero because what?s a hero, but I?m talking about The Dude here, and sometimes there?s a man and he?s the man for his time and place, he fits right in there, and that?s The Dude. ? ~The Big Lebowski

Don't count on it, I think Jamie'd prefer a figleafed angel. Speaking of Angels... My avatar is artwork by a reader and is Angel de la Torres of Drama Club, also known as The Neverending Drama Story... Kisses... TR

It's BarBRA, and you're a heathen. Hugging and kissing is fun, women (except lesbians) do it so why shouldn't men? I've dated guys who liked football, I don't hold it against you. Do you hold the fact that I prefer ice skating championships against me? Kisses... TR

It's common shorthand for La Cage Aux Folles a great play and French film series about a gay couple. 'La Cage' is pronounced LA Kaazsh...I'm not sure how to write it for English speakers but it does rhyme with camouflage...the g is soft and extended, exactly as in camouflage. Promise! Rebuttal. Yes, I used to be a cross-x debater, just like Gene Kuo in Drama Club, though our team didn't have quite as much money for competing nationally. Gene's an idealized (gay) debater, he's not me. Really. Thanks! It was just fun and not meant to annoy anyone, just another perspective on sissies...has anyone else here read Sissyphobia or Sexual Oppression and Gender Phobia in Queer Men's Lives? Kisses... TR

You Don?t Want To Be a Sissy By TR You don?t want to be a sissy, You?re better off in camouflage; Sissies don?t get asked out a lot Though they do get cast in La Cage. You don?t want to be a sissy, Str8 acting is the ideal mate; You?re better off a hairy mensch For sissies have a lonely fate. Some think they should be deported To some far, mythic swishy land, Others think they?re fun at parties Where sissies might be in demand. Sissies ?man? the Pride float parades But otherwise they?re kept at bay- Too queer, too femme, not man enough- Just too damn obviously gay. You don?t want to be a sissy But you might want to wear a star, So when with a girl on your arm You are still seen for what you are. Doing girls doesn?t make you str8 Nor the garage make you a car; But true sissies are most admired At a distance and from afar. Do you want to be a target For all the jerks and stupid jokes? Do you want to spend nights alone When your ?boyfriend? visits his folks? Macho men are the gay ideal Else, why spend hours in the gym, Str8 acting means your voice is heard Before the guy who?s swish and slim. You might fall in love with sissies- I can?t blame you; I do myself- But most would rather be seen with A man more manly than himself. No, sissies don?t get any perks And few gay men want to be one: Tolerated but not esteemed Though in the nights, they are more fun. The truth isn?t like externals For macho men aren?t keen to top, But get a sissy in the sheets And you?ll be begging him to stop. Of all the shades of being gay You get least dick if you?re prissy, Str8 acting is the easy role It takes balls to be a sissy. *

It was written in 2005... TR

Digging up this old topic for two reasons: one, because the story is now graced with one of the new 'wimpy' audio buttons: one-click, no hassle, just head me read the story aloud for you! Two, in the time since I wrote this story, Terry actually found me online and we've spent some RL time together. He provided some photos of himself from our HS days, one of which is now at the bottom of the story for your edification, and the audio version is, naturally enough, dedicated to him. He hasn't read the story, that I know of, but he's still a sweet and dreamy guy and I've enjoyed our reacquaintance. As another of my characters likes to say, 'Just goes to show, you never can tell.' Re-read EXOTHERMIC REACTION by TR or HEAR me read it for you, courtesy of our new 'wimpy' embedded audio buttons! As always, let me and all other authors know what you think of our efforts! Kisses... TR

News & Views December 3rd 2006 Hey, dudes and dudettes, we hope your December has started nicely. I?m writing your N&V this week because we spiked The Dude?s coffee this morning and he?s zonked, out cold. Ah, the potential... We began the month with World AIDS Day and many will celebrate religious, familial and/or gift-giving holidays before the month is over. We have some new stories, new authors, new ?wimpy? audio buttons and, as always, the awesome music of ADR to help you along when you?re writing or reading. New Serial Stories and Chapters One Night in December by new AD Author Terry O?Reilly: Introduction and Year One of this romantic tale that covers the love between two men over the years, each chapter comprising a year in their lives, a night in December. Prom by new AD Author Cole Parker: Chapter one of the specially edited version of this teen tale by author Cole, whose other work may soon grace our website. Read chapter one, say hi to Cole and let him know what you think! Sky?s the Limit by new AD Author Captain Rick: Chapter 3 is online! Book I is complete, reedited for AD and released one chapter a week, and he is currently working on Book II, which will be exclusive to AD. Mystery and Mayhem at St. Mark?s by Joel: chapter 8 is online! Heart of the Tree by Graeme: Part 2, chapter 15 is online! Dream My Dreams of You by Jay B. ends, alas, with chapter 6! Just one new Short Story this week, Elegy for a Fairy by TR: a short TR tale which was written for World AIDS Day (Dec 1st) and is now graced with one of the new one-click audio ?wimpy? buttons?click once, download nothing, open nothing, just click and hear the author read his story in his own voice! No hassles, just sit back, close your eyes and enjoy the story in the actual author or poet?s voice. AUDIO BUTTONS One-Click ?wimpy? audio buttons are available on the following AD short stories: Exothermic Reaction by TR http://awesomedude.com/tragicrabbit/storie...%20REACTION.htm A Letter to My Son by Graeme http://graeme.awesomedude.com/short_storie...r_to_my_son.htm Another Letter to My Son by Graeme http://graeme.awesomedude.com/short_storie...r_to_my_son.htm Something About Tom by TR http://awesomedude.com/tr/something_about_tom.htm Sacred Band of Thebes by TR http://www.awesomedude.com/tragicrabbit/st...d_of_thebes.htm Elegy for a Fairy by TR http://www.awesomedude.com/tragicrabbit/st...For_A_Fairy.htm A Fondness for Pickles by TR http://www.awesomedude.com/tragicrabbit/st...for_pickles.htm Contact Story-Editor TR if you?d like to your story to have a wimpy button, and Poetry-Editor Gabriel Duncan if you?d like your poem to feature one. Files must be mp3s and relatively clean to upload as wimpy buttons. POETRY UPDATE Check out the new poetry corner submission guidelines AND poetry corner Picks! Http://poets.awesomedude.com/submissioninfo2.htm Http://poets.awesomedude.com/picks.htm NOTE: AD Author Tragic Rabbit will be Guest Author this Saturday at Nifty, on the Writer?s Chat with Kip, at 8 PM EST-visit Nifty and log into the Chat to join the discussion! ADR A reminder of the changes at AwesomeDude Radio: For the time being, we're dropping the hourly newscasts which take up way too much of The Dude?s time for the relatively few listeners we are currently supporting. Building radio listenership is like building readership and it took us nearly three years to build up to the nearly 40-thousand unique readers we get every month at AwesomeDude.com. Our basic raison d'?tre for AwesomeDude Radio is to provide you music to listen and write to and of to support our community at AwesomeDude.com while having some fun. Thanks to all who have provided their favorite tracks for inclusion in our playlists! If you have broadcasting or speech/drama experience or just a desire to help... contact The Dude at dude@awesomedude.com or TR at story-editor@awesomedue.com. We pay broadcasters at the same rate we pay our authors... which means we all do it for the fun and satisfaction it brings. Some new stuff at our AwesomeDude Family of Sites: Codey's World ? www.codeysworld.com Chronicles of Kadin by Rick S: Chapter 5 new this week! Down the Rabbit Hole ? a.k.a. www.tragicrabbit.org Short stories Elegy for a Fairy, Where No Shadow Falls, A Fondness for Pickles & The Sacred Band of Thebes, several stories newly wimpy-ized and TR poems Sequoyah's Place ? www.sequoyahsplace.com ? Latest chapters of Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels have been posted. NOTE: AD Author Tragic Rabbit will be Guest Author this Saturday at Nifty, on the Writer?s Chat at 8 PM EST-visit Nifty and log into the Chat to join the discussion! That's about it for this week. Have a great week of reading! Shhhh...don't wake The Dude! Kisses... TR

Thank you both, Jamie and Graeme, for your kind remarks on Sacred Band of Thebes. I'll be quite honest and say I'd never heard of them until earlier this year, when I came across them while researching another story entirely. I was stunned and shocked that such an amazing story had not shown up in anything I'd read so far (I read a lot of LGBT history and commentary) and that it hadn't entered the gays-in-the-military debate that has raged for, what, over a decade? Apparently, those against not only don't understand that gays are already in the military, but don't know that Plato postulated, and Thebes proved, that gay soldiers could actually make better troops than unpaired heterosexuals. In fact, no one has used this thesis to form a crack unit of soldiers since Thebes, and that's just...odd, considering how renowned and effective they were. Far more common is the idea that gay men are cowards on the field, etc, etc...yet the Sacred Band were anything but cowards. The events of the story are true, I researched the battle at Chaeronea, Thebes, Philip II, Alexander, the resulting final conquest of Greece by Macedonia/Philip II and other specifics and tried to keep the story entertaining while sticking to the facts that I had at hand. Jamie's right, the two photos are of artwork specific to the Chaeronea situation: top photo is of a presumed homosexual pair of Greek hoplite troops practicing with a chariot, bottom photo is of Alexander using cavalry in battle in the manner his father apparently initiated. Both Alexander and his father were successful generals and, by conquest, created one of the largest empires the world has ever known. Plutarch is only one ancient source that confirms that these events occurred and that Thebes took the idea directly from Plato's fictional Symposium. There is some controversy about whether a few of the Band survived Chaeronea injured and were taken prisoner but I decided to stick to Plutarch and that version, mainly for dramatic purposes. Thebes, of course, lost their preeminence after this battle and Philip II extended his hegemony across Greece...his son continued that tradition, but was influenced enough by Greece and Greeks to spread Greek (rather than Persian) culture throughout the lands he later conquered. Both Alexander and Philip II had male lovers, a fact that seems not to be in dispute. Philip II's tribute on the field of Chaeronea to the Band is true, too, and several sources use the line I begin his tribute with (O Perish any man who...) and I did place it where it is supposed to have occurred, while Philip and young Alexander were standing over the slain bodies of the Band who had, alone and against great odds, held their line. After finding this information, it went into my Story Ideas file and became an actual TR tale last week. I thought that rhyme fit the older setting, though it makes constructing the story harder, and hope that it and the 'trial' Listen button both worked for readers. Kisses... TR

World AIDS Day: Renewed calls for strategies LONDON, England (AP) -- Circumcision, microbicides and microfinance. These are some of the most promising options being examined as potential ways to prevent AIDS. As World AIDS Day is marked Friday, some public health experts are saying the current focus on universal access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs has had an unintended effect: sidelining prevention. Without a vaccine, preventing HIV infections is key to controlling the pandemic. New strategies that attempt to change the very environment of AIDS transmission are now being considered. A study published online Thursday in the British medical journal The Lancet describes how a microfinance project in South Africa cut women's chances of domestic violence by more than half. There is a strong link between HIV transmission and abusive relationships, with abusive men more likely to have multiple partners or to become violent if asked to use condoms. "If you address the broader risk environment, women and communities can be quite creative in finding solutions," said Dr. Julia Kim, one of the Lancet study's authors. In the study, 430 women in rural South Africa were loaned money to start small businesses. Most women sold fruit, vegetables, clothes or offered tailoring services. With economic and social independence, women were no longer obligated to remain in violent relationships. Rates of HIV infection continue to grow, with 4 million new cases worldwide every year. The battle continues to be waged even in countries that were previously models of control. Due to erratic condom use and the virus' spread into new populations, like married women, HIV has made a worrying return to countries such as Thailand and Uganda. "We need to run faster to get ahead of the virus," said Jennifer Kates, vice president and director of HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent U.S.-based organization that works on AIDS issues worldwide. Because the AIDS outbreak is accelerating, so too must the public health response. Dr. Purnima Mane, a senior UNAIDS official, estimates that public health officials need to plan for at least the next two decades before seeing a substantial decline. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Only in sub-Saharan Africa is AIDS really hitting the general population. In the rest of the world, intravenous drug users, prostitutes and gay men are at highest risk. "You have to focus on where transmission is actually occurring," said Dr. Kevin De Cock, director of the HIV/AIDS department at the World Health Organization. Surprisingly little information is available on how most HIV infections are acquired. Without that, it is difficult to know which interventions would be most effective. Even when countries do know where AIDS is spreading the fastest, there is no guarantee they will focus on the epicenter. In Latin America, the disease primarily infects gay men. And in much of Russia and eastern Europe, it is drug users. Yet in both regions, most resources go toward educating general populations. "We would make quite a bit of headway if countries acted on the information they had," Mane said. Governments must be held accountable for their choices, said Dr. Jim Yong Kim, an AIDS expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University. Kim advocates "prevention scores," which would rate governments on how appropriately their AIDS dollars were being spent. Potential solutions include microbicides, pre-exposure use of antiretrovirals and circumcision. Microbicides under study or development include a vaginal gel that could help women protect themselves against HIV in countries where men are notoriously reluctant to use condoms, and substances that enhance natural vaginal defense mechanisms by maintaining an acidic pH, killing pathogens by stripping them of their outer covering or preventing replication of the virus after it has entered the cell. Preliminary trials in South Africa last year showed circumcised men were 60 percent less likely than uncircumcised men to become infected from female partners. New data from trials in Uganda and Kenya are due in mid-December from the National Institutes of Health in the United States, the trials' sponsor. Still, experts say there is no silver bullet. Success ultimately hinges on implementation. "It will be so disappointing if we have a new tool but we can't deliver it," said Kim, adding that bottlenecks in health care need to be addressed now if the outbreak is to be curbed. While WHO's ambitious "3 by 5" strategy, an attempt to put 3 million people on antiretrovirals by 2005, failed to reach its target, the urgency inspired by the campaign did galvanize the global community. Much of that drive has dissipated since the campaign ended. A recent report from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition says efforts are stagnating, meaning the world will miss the UNAIDS 2010 target of treating 9.8 million people by more than half. Kim said public health experts have an unfortunate tendency to spend too much time in meetings before taking action. "While officials work on a process of getting consensus and no one is held accountable," he said, "poor people die." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/conditions/...y.ap/index.html

Another short tribute from Tragic Rabbit, author of this month's A Fondness for Pickles and The Sacred Band of Thebes. READ Elegy for a Fairy by TR. FROM Elegy for a Fairy : ?Boring old faggots,? he continued, ignoring my amazement, still staring off at the distant cluster of men. ?Pretending to be interested, to care; wasting their days, pretending to be alive.? He snorted, tossed down his cigarette and ground it into the grass. ?Who?re they fooling?? He looked over at me and chuckled. ?You look surprised.? I cleared my throat, hesitating. ?Well, yes.? ?Didn?t expect to see me here.? I coughed, hand to my mouth. ?Ah, no, not really, Jeffrey.? He laughed and tapped out another cigarette, lighting it as he watched me, then sighed. ?Couldn?t really stay away, now, could I?? READ Elegy for a Fairy by TR.

Another short story in rhyme by Tragic Rabbit, as he tells us about the Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite fighting unit of ancient Greece composed solely of homosexual soldiers and their lovers. Plutarch and other ancient sources verify the details of this story, but don't think that makes it dry and boring. READ OR LISTEN TO The Sacred Band of Thebes written and read aloud by Tragic Rabbit Hear TR's story and remember that many current governments work to keep gay soldiers out of their armies. According to Plato and Plutarch, they're making a terrible mistake... Read about those soldier lovers' Sacred Band in Sacred Band of Thebes....OR listen to TR read the tale with the NEW 'wimpy' audio button- just click and hear the story read! Soon, several other TR tales will have audio buttons. FROM Sacred Band of Thebes: Thus forty undefeated years did Thebian Sacred Band protect fair Thebes and keep the peace throughout that troubled land. Men grew old and with their lover retired to quiet fields, they were replaced with lovers young and their bright shining shields. The fame of these strong fighting men it spread across the sea; fair Thebes was safe from enemies and those who came did flee. And famous Sacred Band of Thebes were all above reproach, in matters of honor and faith they were each others? coach. In hot battle or in peacetime they never ceased to train; from dishonor and debauch did the Sacred Band refrain. At night each man would lay down arms and crawl into his tent to close embrace his dearest love and spend the night content. READ OR LISTEN TO The Sacred Band of Thebes written and read by Tragic Rabbit *

Welcome new AD Author Captain Rick by reading chapters one and two of completed serial Sky's The Limit Book I, Book II to follow exclusively at Awesome Dude. Start the story and let Captain Rick know what you think! READ CAPTAIN RICK'S Sky's The Limit From Sky's The Limit Ch2: After a few minutes, I got to an area that was fairly deserted, except for one guy throwing a Frisbee to his dog. I got a little closer and could tell it was a guy about my age, and my Gawd was he gorgeous. He was taller than me, maybe 5'10 or 11". He had a dark golden tan, and sun-streaked brown hair that was just long enough to blow in the wind and barely touch the top of his shoulder. He had six pack abs, and a beautiful treasure trail leading into his low-hanging trunks. His face? Well, think Brad Pitt at around sixteen, but somewhat thinner with slightly higher cheekbones and a stronger chin. Gorgeous. I decided to drop my towel, sit, and enjoy the scenery. I guess I?d sat there about ten minutes while he threw that Frisbee to his German shepherd. The dog would catch it in mid-air and at times he would throw it out in the water and the dog would swim out and fetch it. They both seemed to be having a good time, and at some point, I noticed I had a full on hard on. I thought it best to roll over onto my stomach to hide my embarrassment. As I did so, I looked up just in time to see the frisbee get caught in the wind and was headed right for me. Out of nowhere, I saw this black-grey streak fly over me. The dog had jumped over me, caught the thing in midair and came down about three inches from my head throwing sand in my face. Mr. hunk comes running over and said ?Man, I am so sorry, that one just got away from me. Are you okay?? ?Yeah, he missed me, I just caught a little sand.? I said as I rolled over and sat up before suddenly remembering why I was trying to roll over in the first place. I quickly pulled my knees to my chest to try to hide my still obvious woody. ?That?s good. I was really scared he might have hurt you. I?m Skyler, but my friends just call me Sky? he said holding his left hand out for me. It was then I noticed he was looking at me through the most beautiful steely blue eyes. READ CAPTAIN RICK'S Sky's The Limit

Read the latest from fiction favorite Sequoyah, Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels, Chapters 1-4 online so far! A charming and confused gay teen worries and interacts with others, including girls, in this story by everyone's favorite author-Sequoyah. READ SEQUOYAH'S Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels From Chapter 1: Anyway, the big traumas for gay teens -- dances, proms, that sort of thing -- were no problem. As I said, by the time I started school, "dates" for the events at the country club were arranged by the mothers. That didn't change when I got older. For social events, mothers arranged everything and from birth, practically, I knew I would be taking Mary Beth Arnold. Since both events and the dates were boring beyond belief, I just closed my eyes and took my medicine, so to speak. They were to be endured like political events, trips to the dentist and "family holidays" taken to provide photo ops. Of course young men were expected to have a "lower class" girl on the side for fucking by the time they were sixteen at the latest. When I was asked every now and again, "Gettin' any?" I always just gave a shy grin and said nothing. I had been given a red Subaru WRX STi for my Sweet Sixteen and it was not a car you could sneak around in. I made sure I was seen in a neighboring town often enough to start the high school grapevine talking about who I was fucking there. Justin laughed when he told me he had helped the rumor along "to protect your reputation." I read a lot of stories about guys being shy in the showers at school for fear of popping a boner. Never a problem. I was used to walking around nude at home. When I was ten or so, Clarisa had advised me to close my blinds before walking around nude since her apartment in the other wing of the house was directly across from mine. "I don't need to see it swinging to know you are a boy," she had laughed. So walking around nude was pretty natural and there was enough ass and cock grabbing in the gym to produce boners on the straightest jock. Junior-senior prom my junior year ended up ok, but had almost produced a problem. For the past year, Mary Beth had ended up drunk at most of the events we were obligated to attend. I usually got her just before she passed out and managed to get her home. I expected that to happen for the prom, but I was wrong. Mary Beth's brother -- a college freshman -- was home for the weekend to escort his girlfriend to the prom, and Mr. Arnold had ordered a limo -- a stretch Hummer no less -- for the event. Nothing would do except for Mary Beth and me to accompany them. Her dad also made reservations for a suite of rooms in the hotel where the prom was held. After the senior walk -- sex on parade I called it -- Mary Beth grabbed my hand and led me up to the suite. There was a full bar and she got an early start on the booze. I stuck to ginger ale, as usual. Before long, her brother and his friends came up and serious drinking started. Pretty soon, I was a sober dude in the middle of a roomful of drunks -- a very boring situation. I finally went into a bedroom, closed the door and flopped across the bed. I had been pulling some late nights recently trying to keep up with a shitload of homework and before I knew it, I was sound asleep. I don't know how much later it was when I woke up with something hot and wet on my cock. I looked down and Mary Beth was giving me my first blow job. Gay or not I was hard, and before I could do or say anything, I went over the edge. May Beth looked up, tried to focus her eyes and finally was able to slur "You should have warned me," before she promptly passed out. READ SEQUOYAH'SSaga of the Elizabethton Tarheels

Visit Cambridge College, albeit in fictional form, and meet Joel's usual fantastic cast of likable, loving and sexy boys by reading Mystery and Mayhem at St. Mark's! Chapters 1-7 online at Awesome Dude! READ JOEL'S Mystery and Mayhem at St Mark's From Chapter 1: I spoke up at last as he'd exhausted his frequently repeated diatribe. "I hope you won't be fucking there," I said in measured tones, " I sincerely hope I'm the only one being fucked by you." "Oh God! You pedantic little prick. You know what I mean." He sighed. "And my prick is not little as you so often comment favourably on its general dimensions." I rolled over him and put my arms round him as he shifted towards me. "Tris, let's get this straight. I do not want to do music as a profession. There's a lot of it around at home and I like it too much.... ...I don't know what I want to do. I am only sweet sixteen..." "....Seventeen in a fortnight's time...." "...OK, OK, seventeen in a fortnight's time... ....but you know you want to be a lawyer like your Dad. My family's all music and I'd rather keep it as a hobby ." "Yeah, so you keep saying, so why not do bloody Maths or fucking Physics? You're doing those for A's as well as manky‑arsed Music. Make up your tiny mind, please!" I nuzzled his ear. "I will make up my mind all in good time and it won't be helped by your foul tongue. A well brought up young man of your standing shouldn't have to resort to peppering his arguments with such unseemly adjectives... Ouch, you fucking bastard!!" READ JOEL'S Mystery and Mayhem at St Mark's *

Thanks! I did get some interesting emails on this tale. One reader, a woman, said she thought the story (more a scene, really) was set in the past, at least the 1960s, if much earlier...and she's right. I just didn't state it in the story. To me, their situation was one from the past, though it could surely happen now, too, but the images in my mind were mid-20th century. She's a fan of Murder on the Oscar Wilde so maybe that's why she noticed? Or maybe it the Sardi's setting. And, yes, I plan to finish both Drama Club and Murder on the Oscar Wilde, I've just been seriously overloaded with other stuff lately. I'm not sure but I think Drama Club is the only story I have that's actually set in the present... Weird. Kisses... TR

Hmmm...I've gotten more hate/'ick' mail on this one than any other single story. It's not first time I have written about death or even bedding the dead, it's just the first where I'm calling it necrophila. Why were The Midnight Chime and Some Enchanted Evening, both TR Halloween Tales, lauded as so romantic and this one panned like a Adam Sandler film? Both stories involved physically, and emotionally, loving dead guys. Are you assuming the love in Shadows isn't reciprocal? What if I'd written it from Billy's perspective? I am not a necrophile but I think the story reasonably represents a kind of love, necrophilia, that exists on the human spectrum and is not, as Karen Greenlee tell us, uncommon. Depite professional denials, many in the mortuary industry are so inclined. And so ....does that make the story horrid? Bad? Untenable? The story Where No Shadows Fall, to me, is as much about small towns, byzantine family secrets and 'Southern' life as about necrophilia but I got no comments about that. Odd. Sorry for the character, Kel? That's reasonable, to me, and applicable to a lot of my main characters. Ghoulish, sure, by definition, but is it so horrid that it just can't be reread or complimented...or seen as anything but a necrophiliac defense? It's a love story, for gawd's sake, like most of my tales, and I was shocked that only one reader took it that way, at least via email or PM, as love and not as something that ought to get TR admitted to his local psych hospital. Seriously. I worked on hard (as I usually do) on the details and the perspective, and as a non-necrophile, it was hard work finding the information and descriptors that would accurately (IMO) portray the necrophile sensual and sexual perspective. It's not the ideal Nifty type tale of rich, young, hot, hung hunks getting it on, but I notice that Josh's Masquerade is getting some of the same response because he too took the Halloween opportunity to open up the box a bit. Does that make either story disgusting, unappealing or unacceptable? If yes, why? Think, guys. If you're in a box, get out...or at least let in some air! Indeed, if this helps, this main character is not necessarily a necrophile in the general sense, he is in love with only one dead man/boy and remains devoted and loyal to him. He loved him in life, too, much like Tanzler. What I enjoyed most about the story was painting the small town atmosphere and the family secrecies, those were what I considered character challenges and narrative successes. Yet not one person seems to agree. Did you all skip to the end? I even consider it slightly hypocritical for gay persons to lay blame hither and thither when so many around us consider 'ordinary' gay sex to be so perverted and sick. Isn't it interesting to see another perspective, another kind of love, one that is beyond (I presume) even your own proclivities? Isn't it fair to approach it without prejudice and simply look for the love in the story and not rush for the torches and pitchforks? BTW, thank you for the LA details via PM, Nevius, and Louisiana readers who also supplied them. I agree that the story could have been set anywhere but I, like Camy, tend to think of backwoods Louisiana as a tad creepy and so the tale ended up there. I did also consider the Florida Everglades area but decided that it didn't have quite the same historical and psychic punch for this tale. Why is loving, physically and emotionally, a boy with a fishtail, a ghost or a geeky Chinese-American teenage Trekkie debator okay, even hot and romantic, but some subjects are just a priori not? Why does my box have to have limits, why does anyone's? Did Where No Shadows Fall have no redeeming features? Did the various human relationships have no value, no meaning, to readers? And why is it that this story gets more post comments than, say, A Moment in Memphis or Dog Boys, both about racism, a subject deeply important to me, but containing no sex whatsoever? I seldom put graphic sex into stories anymore, partly because of the negative and personally insulting reactions I've gotten from (presumably) non-AD 'readers' but made exceptions for this and for The Midnight Chime, also an AD Halloween Tale. Should I stay away from explicit sex? Should I switch to tried and true storylines? Should I take up basketweaving? I want to entertain and, if possible, do that while also making readers think, question their prejudices and preconceptions, yet without preaching to them. Is this a pointless goal? Would you prefer a good, hot wank story from TR next weekend? Or no story? Did you like the short A Fondness for Pickles that went up this week? To me, that's another story about familial relationships and secrets, though obviously sans sex. Sigh. Kisses... TR depressed bunny

Hmm...since it also gives you the right answer along with your score, then retests with repeat words, I'm not so enthused about that. It doesn't appear to have an overall large number of words in its arsenal. It's a short, cute test but replaying a lot it sort of defuses the pt, doesn't it? If you scored 945, you'll be on this week's high score lists, what did you register as? (nevermind, just checked back and that starts at 991...and I'm not sure he's updating it, still, either.) You might try the other links I offered, while still just sort of meaningless, they offer a little more punch nad a little less chance to weigh the scales. Try, for instance, this one at Advanced and Fast (10 seconds an answer): http://www.wordsandtools.com/vocdemo/gzram3.html . It should give you a rough estimate of your vocabulary size and each test, should you repeat it, will be different...resetting takes time. I took it twice and no two words were repeated, though it does give you the 'right' answers with your score. TR

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UxkLARoqxhU Kisses... TR

SAT and ACT are the two college entrance exams in the US, PSAT (a pre-bie SAT) is given in later HS years in the US for scholarship purposes. Highest percentile scorers that year get a bit of college money, as do all school valedictorians, for instance. SAT has two sections, if I recall correctly, total perfect score is 1600, 800 verbal and 800 math. GRE is the general university graduate school entrance exam and has either three or four sections, one being Logic, and scores can be compared to one's SAT score...usually they are similar or higher. There are specific tests to enter specific higher schools other than the GRE, one for pre-law, another for pre-med, etc. In America, HS is defined as the end of required schooling: kindergarten then 'grades' 1-12, so it overlaps somewhat with the UK definition of required schooling and college. In America, the words 'college' and 'university' are sometimes used synonymously, that is, they are 'higher' education pursued after obtaining a high school diploma (graduating) and obtaining a high enough score on either, or both, the SAT or ACT. While American schools give some tests routinely, they do not routinely test for either IQ or skills in the US, that latter of which I think is unfortunate. However, sometimes students are singled out in either high school or college for special testing and, of course, anyone can pay for IQ and skills/other tests to be administered. Mensa, for instance, administers its own 'intelligence' testing but does sometimes accept certified scores from other testers in determining admissions. Their requirements are that scores be in the 98th percentile, actual numerical scores vary by test and tester. Mensa is International, btw, and will test you locally for a modest fee. You get some perks with paid (around $50/yr) membership, like store, restaurant and other discounts, 'honors' and whatnot that vary. Here are some online vocab testing options I've found tonight: http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/schmies.html For some very easy alternatives, try the 'thorough' vocabulary tests here from SAT, GRE, TOEFL and GMAT (100 questions, just gives you your score) http://www.vocaboly.com/vocabulary-test/ A little harder, with level and speed options-tells you your estimated vocabulary size (don't guess-wrong guesses count against score) http://www.wordsandtools.com/vocdemo/gzram3.html Kisses... TR

Not as big as I'd imagined, dammit, I tried the WordSmart Challenge three times and could not get higher than 880. No Hall o' Fame for TR. Hey, size isn't everthing! People apparently get 900+ and 1000 on that thing...grrrr. I actually had my vocabulary professionally tested in grad school (my prof's idea, not mine, and no charge), aside from SAT, GRE etc, and once knew the supposed number (they run in the multiple thousands) from some test more complex than the listed one of multiplying from the dictionary, though that one seems worth trying. The problem is that dictionaries vary and the ones they're suggesting don't have an actual standard. 'Webster' is no longer, for instance, from that family or company, the name was sold and is used in a variety of dictionaries...whose contents are of varying difficulty levels (and accuracy, but that's another rant). Now if we all pick up the OED (work out first!), use that, and we'd have something, or at least pick the same single edition of the same dictionary, otherwise I don't see that it's comparative, though it might be personally fun and even useful. I couldn't get the other vocab test to come up, Camy, it said the site is dead...did you try it out or just copy the link? I love stuff like this, thanks, Camy! Kisses... TR, whose vocab ain't what he thought it was PS. I did get an 800 (perfect score) on the verbal SAT, though, and I'll bet most of the AD Authors and Editors did, too. True?

I Was Placed On This Earth To Put Off Doing Something Extraordinary November 22, 2006 | Issue 42?47 Ever since I was born three weeks overdue, it was clear that there was something different about me. However, it wasn't until I postponed going into the ninth grade, just days before delaying my 16th birthday, that I realized what it is that makes me unique. You see, I was placed on this earth to put off doing something extraordinary and I won't settle for holding up anything less. I'm on a different path than most. A higher path. A path that takes numerous detours until one finds oneself, many months later, back where one first started. It's a long, hard road, but I know that if I just take things one lateral step at a time, I will at last defer achieving my true potential. Mark my words: Nothing will get in the way of me getting things in the way of my goal. Whether it's never finding the time to search for a cure for cancer, dedicating my life to abandoning the idea of helping those less fortunate so that I might instead watch The Game Show Network, or pushing aside the urge to start a family in order to spend time at the local bar, I take solace in knowing that I was meant to not follow through on something remarkable. It's not the type of thing I can explain, especially not during my aimless daylong drives around town, or my spontaneous bouts of sitting in silence. It's more of a feeling I plan to someday put into words. Unlike other people, I know that when I surf the Internet for hours and hours, rather than simply killing time, I'm avoiding doing something truly spectacular. I may not seem like much now, but someday everyone will see that I'll be more or less at the same place I am today. Many will count me out. They'll say that I don't have what it takes to stay focused on my dream, that I lack the determination to not succeed. Well, I can hardly wait to see the looks on their faces next year when I'm still five to seven years away from being something spectacular. If I stay off task and dedicate myself 15 percent, I can become as big as the almost-greats of the past, the men who could've become Einstein, Galileo, or even Edison?men of limitless untapped potential who exhibited a nearly unparalleled capacity for procrastination. Like them, God has a plan for me. An amazingly vague plan that drags its feet and never really gets going until it's too late. I guess you could say I'm one of the lucky ones. Every morning when I wake up just as the sun is about to rise, before realizing how early it is and going back to bed, I have only one thing on my mind?getting a bit more shut-eye. I'm telling you, in time, I'm going to reschedule doing something so utterly amazing, I can't even start to think about it right now. Or later tonight, because that's when the Sanford And Son marathon is going to be on. You only get one chance to delay the important things in life, and it's a chance I'm not going to hold up setting back unless I'm especially preoccupied. What am I going to not do? Who knows? Maybe I'll procrastinate going into show business, or slack off becoming a world-renowned surgeon. Perhaps I'll put writing the Great American Novel on the back burner. Whatever happens, be assured that I will not rest until I've rested, and I will not start until I absolutely have to. I am standing on the precipice of greatness, and I intend to stay there, even if it takes my entire lifetime. ? Copyright 2006, Onion, Inc. All rights reserved. The Onion is not intended for readers under 18 years of age. http://www.theonion.com/content/node/55460

sock monkey I lie beside you, quiet, soft, available; at your side I nod yes- agreeable me. My button eyes are blank, windows to nowhere; your easy companion- stuffing leaks a bit. You drag me by the arm, I smile; you are pleased; I am your sock monkey- love me, love me not.