aj

I don't know much about this Olberman guy, but it's fairly clear from what he said in this editorial that he's that most common form of DC wildlife, the spin doctor. Yeah, some of what Bush said was kinda dumb, but we've come to expect that. But this guy took his comments out of context and created an entire diatribe out of that dishonest and distorted take on Bush's comments. The whole 'thundering from the pulpit' bit of 'righteous indignation' was about as convincing as Vin Diesel's acting (don't get me wrong - I'm a huge Vin Diesel fan, and I would never kick that boy outta bed, but he can't act his way out of a paper sack). Those who create and perpetuate spin are the lowest form of life. I'm afraid Mr Olberman has placed himself just below pondscum on the evolutionary scale. cheers! aj

I'm in awe at 'redemption.' This is as good as any writing i've seen on the net, bar none. Further, i'm very grateful to have found out what happened at the close of 'Farmhand.' This gives me a nice sense of closure with the tale. Have to admit that I'm not as big a fan of 'outside the foul lines' as I have been with the rest of Rick's work, but I still read it every time there's a new chapter. When i'm not reading it, I think 'Well, he's just telling us the story, not showing us. There's no sense of immediacy that I associate with really good writing..." and then I read the next chapter and find myself getting pulled in anyway. I think it's the voice that he uses, that of Dooley, that does it for me. I don't know. cheers! aj

Brightly woven, Camy. Very, very nice work! cheers! aj

I quite agree...but I think it would have been better with a car. cheers! aj

Actually, I have found just about everyone I have met from the UK to be quite reasonable about the whole 'driving on the wrong side of the road' issue. Nearly every one that I have asked about it had very nearly the same response: "When everyone else changes, so will we." and that seems quite logical and reasonable to me. cheers!

I'm well aware of it, Cole...after all, HnH started out to be a short story, but with the story line that I finally came to want to write, I realized that it was going to surpass short story criteria and end up a novelette. As someone who had never written anything of that length before, I was a little intimidated by the idea, but then I realized that if I thought of each chapter as a short story in an ongoing story arc, all of that fear went away and the writing went swimmingly. cheers! aj

Hmm. I don't use all caps, because I view it as sort of a cop out, I guess. I think that the harder way - but ultimately more satisfying for both myself and I hope for my readers as well - is to create that sense of tension and power through word choice and imagery. I suppose it also has to do with the fact that I'm not the yelling kind, in general, and my characters tend to get cold rather than loud. cheers! aj

I think that the long (oh god, when will this end?) stories that we see on the 'net and over at nifty are the result of writers who believe that expression and 'art' will conquer all, and forget that any artist worth his/her salt is also a master (or at least a dedicated student) of the craft used in whatever media he/she works. They're trying to hitch a thoroughbred to a cart with broken wheels and thinking that it's going to haul whatever plot line they've come up with across the finish line. Sadly, we get to read the results. Sometimes though, this is not the case at all: one of my favorite stories online is called "Spellsong," and the writer is a true craftsman, but the whole thing seems to have become an endless shaggy dog story in the last 10 chapters or so...though I have to admit that I'm ok with that, because I would read the author's grocery lists if he wrote them as beautifully as he writes this tale. The point is that this story seems to have escaped from the author's control and taken on a direction of its own, and that is seldom a good thing. Like Cole, I don't edit for stories that are all essence and no substance. I've tried a time or two, and I find that the author is usually so enamored of his/her own work that any suggestions are shrugged off and discounted. Not only do they not understand the mechanics of writing, they also don't get the difference between an editor and a proofreader, and while I can proofread, it's not my primary interest. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. I'm currently working on Mechanics 101, which is something I read when I first started reading online and enjoyed immensely, and despite the roughness of the early chapters, the storyline is so good that I don't mind doing a lot of clean up work. In addition, the author showed a great deal of improvement between his first and last chapters, and I find that evolution endlessly interesting. Most importantly though, he understood the stages of a plot line, and instinctively used them even if he wasn't sure why he was doing it. Having worked on one of the larger serial novels on the site for quite a long time - TSOI for about two years before it went on hiatus - I found that the saving grace for me in that effort was many, many long and philosophical IM conversations with the author about the story, the characters, and the 'one liner' that was the basis of the whole story: in this case it was something like "How should we, as ethical beings, respond to attempts at coercion?" I suspect that it is this kind of rapport that makes working on a serial novel possible, beyond merely proofreading it. cheers! aj Oh yeah...I guess I should address Anthony's original question, huh? *grin* I think that it depends on the story, Anthony. Some stories need that kind of nuts-and-bolts correction for continuity and content. I often address those kinds of problems in end-notes that I write at the end of the file in a different color to distinguish them from everything else. Most of my notes to the author are short and rather direct, but I have seen a few instances where they rivaled the actual chapter in length. Sometimes I'll phrase suggestions and corrections as a series of questions intended to lead the author to think about a scenario in a different light, or as simple observations of fact within the story. It also depends on the author - some are open to this kind of conversation, and others are not. I don't find myself doing all of one or the other in two different editing steps, though. aj

They're not...but dear gods, the gasoline for the molotov cocktails! cheers! aj On another note - I would have to agree with an earlier assessment of the current age: though I like to play at cynicism, I remember well enough how it was in the last decades of the prior century to know that life is pretty good right now. Yeah, we live in a civilization in decline, and everything could go belly-up at any moment, but for the nonce it ain't bad.

Am I the only one that thinks that if I were a parent and my child committed suicide, I would want to know why? I would be beating myself over the head trying to figure it out, and it would come as a great relief to me to know, even if I didn't like the reason. cheers! aj

I still have very fond memories of watching Tom Sellek and Kevin Kline kiss in "In and Out." What a lovely little movie, and what a lovely pair of men. cheers! aj

I found this over on Nifty and kind of liked it. While the early chapters need a bit of a touch up in terms of editing - mostly mechanical stuff and a couple of places where editor's notes got left in - I like the idea that it's about older guys, not teens. It's a very mellow story, and worked for me. Here's the link, if you want to check it out: http://library.gaycafe.com/nifty/gay/beginnings/skin/ cheers! aj

I read all of the shorts that Des had over on CW this morning before I went to work, and I'm sure all my colleagues and residents were wondering why I had a grin pasted on my face and was prone to spontaneous chortling. These stories totally made my day at work...nothing could get me down until my boss sprung a surprise admit on me, but not even a truly comical story can overcome that tragedy. Still, up until lunch I had a first rate day, thanks to Des, Jase, Aaron and Bryce. cheers! aj

Since I can't seem to figure out how to post a #$*&^%@#$#% url anymore, look below for the URL of the one of Comicality's best ever. cheers! aj

I read the first book of this epic tale tonite...damn! This is some good stuff! I was particularly amused by the name of the chief underling of the main bad guy: Karn Roven. lol But that aside, this is a brilliantly realized world building effort. Very nicely done! cheers! aj

The whole 'closet birder' thing is almost inconsequential to the story here, though I'm sure the author may have thought it was important. What I found interesting about the story was the protagonist, and the way that the author developed his character. That was well done, and I think a longer story about this guy would be interesting. But please, no more with the 'parallel structure' kinds of devices...honest storytelling is far more interesting than such conceits. cheers! aj

There are many, many sad tales just like this one...ok, not exactly like this one, but awfully close. A very dear friend of mine is currently going through the trial phase of just such an ordeal at this very moment...in West Virginia, no less. Yikes! I hope and pray that his situation won't devolve into a mess like the one above. cheers! aj

I was completely unsurprised by the quality of this story...Camy always comes through with a fine tale, and this one was no exception. This one is of AD quality, and I think that says it all. Well done, Camy! cheers! aj

Oh my goodness...I just found this thread all these months later. I'm so sorry i didn't reply at the time. Please believe that I wasn't high-hatting you...just didn't know. To answer the question on the minds of those who asked - well, that's another story. I have a small beginning made toward writing that story, and eventually...someday...I'll finish it and post it on AD. It will mostly feature Amos and his partner, Dan. I see it as a roadtrip story of sorts...we'll see where it ends up. Thanks again to all who wrote such kind words! cheers! aj

Yup, that's me...beating the bushes and flushing 'em out! lol cheers! aj

Ok...got a note from the author of this piece, stating that he was back in business. I advised him to send a chapter or two to TR, and to send me a chapter or two to post here. I'm waiting for a reply, but if you're curious, the link to the tale on Nifty is: http://library.gaycafe.com/nifty/gay/sf-fantasy/godsend/. cheers! aj

How odd that you should mention this one...I just read the whole thing in its entirety the other night, and loved it too: nice system of magic, good characters - with the 'hero' being a very mixed bag of 'good' and 'evil' - and some memorable battle scenes. The only thing that semed a little incomplete to me was the problem that he brought up and then discarded regarding the national government and its involvement in magic: that felt incomplete, and I think he's going to have to deal with that in a great deal more detail at some point in the future. cheers! aj

Well done, Cole! I've followed this tale with real pleasure, and I'm both elated and sad to see it end. These are boys (and girl) who are going to stick with me for a long, long time. It was a kick for me to see someone else work out the dynamics of a trio, as I did (with very different conclusions) in JB&P all those years ago... different backgrounds and a very different set of personalities so a very different outcome, but I love seeing someone approach the same problem and solve it in a different way. Great work! Anyway, congratulations on a tale well told and a beautiful conclusion. Thanks for many hours of entertainment and learning. cheers! aj

I grew up in Alaska, in a town where people walked around with pistols strapped to their waist and a rifle in the gunrack of their truck all the time. There was wildlife in the forests around my home that made wearing a gun when out in the woods a very good idea - it's not a good idea to let yourself slip from the top of the foodchain with bears around, and a high calibre gun is a pretty good way to guard against that. In addition, hunting for food in the form of moose and mountain goats was common place, and many families wouldn't have made it through the winter without that moose in their freezer. So I know guns, and have no particular fear of them as an object, or in the hands of well intentioned, responsible people. But, many people are neither well intentioned or responsible. A great many people in my current home city get shot every year, and far more people die of gunshot wounds in my city than any other means of violent attack. So, I have a hard time with owning a gun in the city...I would have to drive hours to find anyplace to shoot, and I know that if I did try to use it to protect myself, there's a pretty good chance that it would be taken away from me and used against me. This is why, when my father sent me my .22 rifle that I owned as a child, I sent it on to my older brother and asked him to keep it for me. Gun ownership is not something that I can see for myself. cheers! aj

I'm not having a lot of luck with finding stories lately...the author of this tale just sent me an email saying that he had suffered a severe setback when his home was flooded, destroying nearly everything he owned, including the computer his writings were stored on. He states it will be quite some time before he's able to get back online with more chapters of his work. cheers! aj