aj

I'm not a big Adam Sandler fan--his movies tend to take one joke and string it out to the very bitter end. However, i do like his Hannukah Song. cheers, aj

Interestingly, one of the major institutions of our times is based on circular logic: the christian faith. Christianity starts with the unproven assumption that God exists, and then goes on to prove the existence of God by basing any logic they apply to the religion on the assumption that God exists. This is why religion is so frustrating for those who base their thinking on logic--religion in general is a non-logical way of thinking. It's all based on faith, which is essentially an emotional response. cheers! aj

LOL, TR. great site. for those who are still wondering... Circular logic is when you assert that an unproven statement is true, and you demonstrate that it's true by using the same statement in your proof. I would take issue with those who assert that this is a type of logic--it isn't. Logic doesn't assume anything is true until it has been run through a series of steps, checking for consistency with axioms, which are known to be demonstrably true: if a is true, then a is true; if a is true, then b is true and if b is true, then c is true and therefore, if a is true, then c is true. The difference is that no assumptions are made in true logic. cheers! aj

Welcome, Talonrider! Always nice to have another prose-mender on board. when i'm editing, I usually put the old word that i'm replacing in <brackets> and type the new, suggested word in green. That gives the author the option of accepting the new word, or deleting it and going with his prior phrasing, spelling, whatever. Alternatively, if you're working in Word, you can turn on the "Track Edits" option, and it will show everything you've done. cheers! aj

Unrelenting, unmitigated angst. I can't tolerate any character who can't step back and laugh at himself a little bit. as i've mentioned before (again, and again, and again, ad nauseum :roll: ), stories where the campy and/or promiscuous are viewed as second class citizens, while the "straight-acting" jock is held up as a paragon of virtue. Cross generational sex, where one partner is underage. Can't give a reasonable defense for this one, but it's a huge bail point. gratuitous violence/death, the glorification of slavery, etc. Excessively weepy romance. I can't deal with characters who cry at the drop of the hat. And, to finish the list, excessively bad grammar, syntax, etc. Though I'm willing to put up with a lot for the sake of a promising plot line or really well visualized and likable characters. cheers! aj

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates Jar-Jar with a passion...I often fantasize about that character being slowly asphyxiated, garroted with his own tongue. What the hell was Lucas thinking? cheers! aj

I was very excited to note that John Ellison has posted the initial chapter of a new novel in the Aurora series. www.selfpics.org/nifty/gay/military/knights-of-aurora/knights-of-aurora-0 is the link. You should definitely read this piece, but it won't make much sense if you haven't read the other books in the Aurora series first. I cannot overemphasize what great pieces of writing all three of the first novels in this series are... cheers! aj

For me (and only for me, at this particular time), editing is a process of facilitation. My job is to make the meeting of author and audience as smooth and amicable as possible. The author's intent in writing whatever it is that we are working on has to be my number one priority, and I have to second that effort to the greatest extent that I can, short of rewriting everything, because I also have to be an invisible partner in the finished product. As I commented in another thread, it's a whole lot like the work I do as a nurse, wherein I facilitate my patient's body's ability to heal itself. It's a helping role--I relieve the author of the need to fix every little grammatical and syntax error, and free him to focus more on the creative, visualization side of authoring. One other thing I wanted to add...I find that editing is often viewed as a technical process, and certainly I won't argue that it has an aspect that is technical, much like writing. But that is the craftof editing...and there is an art aspect to it as well. I am finding, particularly as i edit with Jamie on The Scrolls of Icaria that the art lies in an ability to shape the prose to evoke a response from the audience, and especially in the ability to sharpen that focus. cheers! aj

Thanks Mike, for making a space for the editors. It's an interesting part we take in the writing process: invisible partners with the authors, exerting an influence on the work but deliberately keeping ourselves out of the finished product. cheers! aj

I'm lovin' these poems...they so clearly describe a stage and time in my life, now thankfully behind me. I've managed to slap a veneer of functionality over these feelings, and if i don't look to closely at myself, i can pass for 'normal'. I particularly liked the last one--"A false connisseur of love" is brilliant. cheers! aj

And so, being summarily rebuffed, and regretting the chance I had muffed, I turned to my own which was hard as a bone... Then the cops came in and i left--cuffed. all in all, not a good night . cheers! aj

Hey DJ-- Great poem! I would suggest, however, that you check out the thread "Ben Blue" in Limerick Lane that talks about "to, too, and two..." lol. cheers! aj

This is a lovely poem, dcorvus. It resonates with me...the language is delicious, and the feel melancholy and blue...suits my mood tonite. Thanks for sharing this. cheers! aj

And it's a very fine story. good and likable characters, great plot line and excellent action scenes...Petersholme acts as I expect an english peer to act, and Barry is an american to be proud of. The bad guys are all worthy of hisses and catcalls when they come on stage, and the action is tight and tense. I'd like to read some adventures involving Alan Dudding in this setting...he was one of my favorite characters in the tale, though he plays only a minor part in this particular story. cheers! aj

It would be difficult to overstate the talent that this boy has shown for writing. At a very young age, he has written one of the classics of the genre. With one novel, he has positively impacted so many lives. For those who don't frequent IOMFATS, Grasshopper and his family are heading out west from florida to help his Uncle on his ranch--partly to escape the hurricanes that have a way of ravaging florida every year, and partly in consideration of his father's poor health. So young Grasshopper is off to ride the range in the high desert, and hopefully to experience more life, which will result in a richening and deepening of his already considerable writing expertise. I wish he and his family only the best in the future, and i hope like hell that he eventually gets back on the net and continues to enertain and edify all of us with his tales. cheers! aj

howdy! welcome to the happiest place on earth...well, ok, maybe not the happiest, but it's pretty damn gay. With your interest in publishing, perhaps you'll join the (rather thin) ranks of the people who are too damn lazy to do all that typing, and prefer to kibbitz about what other people write--the editors. cheers! aj

Thank you for your kind words, Jamie. It's been a bit of a learning curve, figuring out the editing game. It's not very easy, sometimes, figuring out how to keep that sentence from ending with a participle and not using the word 'which' every time, or working in a word that more closely catches the nuance that is needed in a particular given passage. I had no idea, when i started all this, what was actually involved. One of the things i'm discovering is that good prose is not unlike poetry in some ways...the way a passage sounds is important, not just the clarity with which it conveys meaning. I try, when editing the scrolls, to bring a sense of sonic play to the work, through alliteration and assonance, while trying to keep it subtle enough not be obtrusive. Working on the scrolls, i have to say, is purely a pleasure. It's a work with literary value, and knowing that i am instrumental, even in a small way, in producing work like that is truly rewarding. cheep, cheep aj

At great risk to my eternal soul, I have to agree with WBM here. coffee is the ambrosia of the gods. Jamie-- Can't think of anything i'd rather be doing than hanging out in a streetside cafe in Bruxelles in your amiable company. I'm pretty sure we'd have lots of laughs. cheers! aj

It's probably blasphemy, coming from a guy who lives at starbuck central, but i'd almost prefer chewing lightbulbs to going into a starbucks. The coffee is overroasted, the whole set up of the shop is waaay too commercial and corporate--blech! I have a favorite little coffee cart down the street that i always go to--it's called TNT Coffee, but we all know it as "Lesbian Coffee." It's owned and operated by our favorite flavor of women...the women that work there are a hoot, and they pull a damn good latte. I like a triple shot, 20 oz mocha, 2% milk, no whipcream with a shot of raspberry syrup. cheers, aj

Yup blue, you're on the right track. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to be concerned with writing good role models for gay youth, because all the negative stereotypes wouldn't exist. I can't think of many straight writers who are concerned that if they write a story about straight people acting out in self-destructive ways, that they're going to confirm anyone's suspicions that all straight people are drug addicts, swingers, or freaks in general. Yes, there are straight people who live with those issues, but everybody knows they aren't the majority, and no one tries to paint the entire group with that particular brush. Not so with gay people--when a kid reads a story about self-destructive behavior on the part of a gay person, all those warnings that they've heard about "Those People" come rushing into their heads and they have to worry "Is that what i'm going to become because i'm gay?" My comments were actually inspired by a conversation with Jamie, wherein we talked about the easygoing attitude around sexual orientation experienced by he and his friends on the european continent. According to him, it doesn't carry a stigma there--it's seen as a natural part of the human experience, and well within the parameters of normality. Thus, the gay people there don't have the same angst and neuroses that so many of their american compatriots show. If you think we don't have that angst and neuroses, all you have to do is take a look at the drug addiction figures for the gay community versus our straight counterparts. I don't know about the gay populations where all you guys live, but Crystal Meth is ravaging the community here. *sigh* aj

Know that feeling...born and raised in a trailer myself. The good news is, there's life after the trailer park. cheers! aj

Shows up fine for me...colors are good and easy to read, no problem with anything running off the screen. I'm a mac user (when WILL all you pc users come to your senses? :)) using Safari, but i also have netscape so that i can use the 'composer' feature for when i edit HTML documents. the front page is fine with both browsers. cheers, aj

My own light o' love mixed and edited this album, so on that basis alone, I reccomend it. :D :D cheers! aj

Something i've found to be true again and again in online communications is that we're all handicapped by not being able to hear tone of voice or see body language. Both of these 'subtext' means of communicating are extremely important in face-to-face communication...so much so that when we don't have them (as we don't here), much of what we're saying is lost. This being the case, i have two personal rules that i follow in online communication: 1.) assume that the other person is not trying to offend me. Yes, what they said may sound harsh, but i don't know HOW they said it, or what they were doing with their body at the time. So I assume that i'm misunderstanding their intent if i feel offended, and ask for clarification, in a way that expresses this assumption. 2.) Be excruciatingly polite. It doesn't hurt me to practice my best manners online, because they tend to lap over into my realtime communications...and that's a good thing. "A soft answer turneth away wrath." A third rule is, "Don't participate in arguments. Have discussions instead, and know when it's time to stop." cheers! aj

Due to massive doses of the outdoors as a child, the only kind of camping i enjoy these days involves wigs and heels...not on me, but certainly on others.