EleCivil

"A bit odd," The tattooist thought, About giving a tattoo that taught A grammatical lesson In ink on one's chest when The wrist'd be a much better spot. "It's quite simple," The customer replied, "This way the tattoo can hide; Despite good intentions, Teachers have apprehensions About ink on the wrists come test time."

Even if a vampire could get AIDS, vamps are near-immortal anyway, so it wouldn't bother them too much. Maybe it'd make them a bit more vulnerable to light-poisoning or garlic, though. Practice safe siring; know your victims. (Oh, and good work on this chapter, too.)

So they're the ones, huh? And to think, I never had a problem with the French before. That does it. From now on, I'm referring to "queues" as "Freedom Lines". That'll teach 'em to put extra letters in things. And yes, I am aware that I probably shouldn't use "'em" when talking about putting the correct number of letters in things.

Hmm...juggler vain. I like it. It kind of implies that you've got to juggle to live. Reminds me of a quote... "Philosophers for millenia have argued over the definition of 'man'. I propose that we should consider man to be 'the juggling animal' as no other species has managed to invent the three ball cascade. This would of course imply that any person who does not juggle is in some sense sub-human, but most of my readers have probably noticed this already." -Andrew Conway As far as Q goes...yeah, I'm all for losing that one. Q can't even do anything without U's help. Can't even stand on its own Scrabble tile - what's the deal with that? Q is just like one of those guys who hangs around with one of the popular kids, hoping to get attention but never quite fitting in. Q's not going to get anywhere until it stops riding U's success and builds a name for itself. And what's the deal with the word "Queue"? Every time I see it I want to pronounce it as "Kyu-woo" just as a matter of protest.

Hey, we're getting all kinds of midwesterners in here now. For a while I thought I was the only one... Ahoy.

I don't think someone with the letter Y in their name should knock the letter Y...Codi. Y does so much and asks so little. And where would fantasy writers be without Y? Just add a Y or two and you can make anything a fantasy name. Chrystopher Columbys, Byll Clynton, Charylton Hestyn... take away the Y, and all they've got are needless apostrophes to make their names sound more exotic. -ElyC'yvil

And there's the problem with finding gay role models. I'm sure there are plenty of guys who are out of the closet but don't look or act stereotypically gay, but since they don't act like it or advertise it, who's going to know? It's not really something that you just go around asking people. Chances are, most of the closeted guys would still act the same way even if they were out of the closet, so they wouldn't serve as major examples to society, either - so you can't really blame the lack of examples on them. Well, he did kiss Bluto once, but that was while he was asleep and dreaming about Olive Oil, so it doesn't really count...

All issues of war analogies asside, I'd like to touch back on the first issue - role models. I can honestly say that I can't picture an appropriate time for someone to walk up to a group of kids and say "Hey! I like guys...but that is only one of my many interests. I also enjoy carrying a briefcase, collecting staplers, playing that game where you roll the metal loop down the street with a stick..." (Yeah, that's right, I'm out of touch with the elders.) But...do kids really need gay role models? As one of "the kids" (or one of the younger guys, at least), I'm going to say no, not really. Everyone always says things like "Gay or straight, it doesn't matter - you're still the same person you always were". I'd like to think that if some different switches were hit and I had ended up straight, I'd be the same person I am today. So why throw so much weight on the issue? Isn't that just giving it more power, saying "Yes, we really are that different"? A male kid can have female role models. A white kid can have black role models. An athiest kid can have theist role models. A poor kid can have rich role models. Is sexual orientation, that one little thing that we always say doesn't make us any different, really bigger than race, sex, religion, and socioeconomic standing put together? Instead of looking so desperately to find some other gay guy to point to and say "Look, he's normal, isn't he?", we should be able to point to ourselves and say "You know who I am. I know who I am. That's enough." Oh, and in keeping with the tradition of ending posts with quotes... "I am what I am, and that's all that I am. Ugg ugg ugg ugg ugg ugg ugg, spinachk." -Popeye the Sailor Man, a straight role model

I rarely write poetry, but this one had been kicking around in my head for a while, so I figured I might as well let it out. ------------------------------ We Used to Own the Night Spoke in code and double-dares And magic-marker murals The ink we let lie on the stairs It claimed the crawlspace crucial Critical, cautious crawl Memorize the floors No battle cries but nervous sighs Of shaking saboteurs Don't use your given name out here It slows your step to the stars For all our plots and diagrams We only breathe when it's dark It's been a year, but just today Swear we'll still run this block From the basements to the barricades From dusk 'till five o'clock Only on this street these lungs Attack this Akron air Rip it in past teeth, this tongue I taste this street, I swear The sidewalk-stripes and sewer pipes Each step seduced a sketch We wore our symbol on our backs Our code-names on our chests We would swear that we could race the sun Run West and never age Exist between the satellites And never face the day But we never made it off that street The crawlspace always jeered And we found ourselves downstairs, asleep We'll try again next year But now the coats that showed our signs They don't fit any more We used to stomp and sing and cry But now we only snore I guess that we outgrew it all And I'm not sure what to blame We lost our symbols, lost the night We lost our secret names ------------------------------- Dedicated to the Thunder & Lightning Bros, Shadow, 'Pocalypse, and Blondie. The old names may be gone, but never forgotten. -Civil

It's kind of funny...I was thinking about the exact same thing yesterday, but in reverse. I've almost always written in past-tense 3rd person, and was wondering how present tense would sound in a first person story. "I'm going to write a novel in fifth person. Every sentence will start out 'I was told by a guy who heard from somebody...'" -Dmitri Martin (slightly butchered, most likely)

Hey, just wanted to let you know that I'm reading it, and that I'm liking it a lot.

I thought the ending was pretty clear (and a nice touch, too). The characters all seemed believable to me, but I'm no history expert. I don't really know much about...well, any of the time periods covered, so you could have gotten away with anything there. The tone and style really made this story for me. The only adjective I can think of for it is "beautiful", really. I'm don't think it would have had the same emotional impact if it had been in a more contemporary light-n'-loose style. Best - Probably the stopped suicide attempt. Least - If I had to pick, it would probably be the very beginning, with the history of the house and the family. I actually skipped this the first time through, then went back and read it later.

Loved it. Quite possibly my favorite of all of TR's writings. The mood and the language and the characters...everything just seemed to "click". One of the few stories to have me crying after reading it, rather than just during. I'll admit, I'm an easy touch when it comes to stories - pretty much anything'll set me off if it strikes the right chords - but this one really hit hard. Don't pass this one up, guys.

I liked it. It took me a while to realize that it was coming from a different character's point of view. At first I was thinking it may have been a flashback, or possibly taking place in the future, and finally it all hit me at once, so I went back and re-read it with that in mind, and it made a lot more sense. As always, I liked the tone and overall "voice", and it makes me want to read more. Oh, and I liked the poem at the beginning, too.

Just wanted to say good job on the Christmas side-stories. Angels in the Snow was an insanely cute break from the high-tension stuff that's been building, and Stolen Christmas was great (and not just because it's centered on my two favorite DC characters). Oh, and I guess I should throw in another "nice avatar" comment. Nice avatar. Looks like...vector graphics? Not an easy medium for drawing people.

Just finished reading chapter four. I completely forgot that they were so close to leaving. I really like the way Rob is developing, and the stuff between Paul and Dan is really interesting - can't wait to see how that turns out.

Thanks again, Tragic...jeez, you've got me blushing over here. Hmm...when I was younger, I'd read pretty much anything. Mysteries, kids' horror like R.L. Stine and Bruce Colville, encyclopedia volumes...anything with words and paper. I used to love Gordon Korman's books. Those were easilly my favorite books as a kid. I got to meet Korman at a Young Authors' Conference when I was 11...cool guy. Wrote his first novel (which I've still got a copy of) while not paying attention during English class in high school. I didn't think about it before, but he's probably been my biggest influence. Now I've been reading whatever looks interesting. "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by David Eggers and "Syrup" by Max Barry are some good examples. I've been re-reading "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card at least once a year since 8th grade...just can't get away from that one. I remember skipping school to finish it the first time. Now there's the sign of a true geek - skips school to read books. 8) ...Wow, I digressed the hell out of this topic. Ah well.

Oh yeah, I'm with you there. In fact, I'vealways preferred physical descriptions to be somewhat vague, too. You know, set up the basic characteristics, but let the reader flesh them out the rest of the way.

*Necropost: This corpse of a topic = reanimated!* Er...anyway, I just found some cool music that I felt like sharing. I found out that the entire Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution demo is available for download at http://skachilles.com/music/botar/ (with their permission, of course). Check out "Here's To Life" (track 2) for a lot of literary references, and "They Provide the Paint for the Picture-Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint on the Insides of your Eyelids" (track 5)...well, just because anything with that long of a title has to be cool.

Honestly, I'm leaning more toward novelty. Don't get me wrong, I like it, and were you to write another story using it, I'd read (and most likely enjoy) that one, too. For the most part, I'd say it would depend on the overall tone of the story. In a really dark story, I could see it becoming kind of a mood-breaker, or even a hindrance to the plot. As cool as knowing what every character is thinking can be, not knowing what they're thinking can be more powerful in that it lets you build suspense. Making your readers question the characters' motives along with the main character tends to keep things interesting, you know? I liked chapter three, by the way. Good stuff. And on a side note, this format works perfectly with FireFox's tabbed browsing.

Well, 8 ended up taking a few more days than I had expected, but it wasn't too bad. No month-long delays this time. I do now. Story/author section. Bah, took me way to long to write that bio.

Hey, Thirdeye. Always glad to see a new poster.

Had no idea. All I know about Australia I learned from reading AwesomeDude. Heh, I've actually seen guys come to blows over this. "It's called 'pop', damn it!" "I'm tellin' you it's 'soda', and that's that." "Just call it 'Coke', y'all..." "Coke!? Oh, that's it!" *suckerpunch* All in all, best family reunion ever. Yeah, no one really uses "rubber" any more, though. At least, not around here. It's got kind of a negative psychological effect: "Rubber? That's like something my parents would say. Aw jeez, now I've gone and pictured my parents' birth control habits..."

Hey - sorry, I guess I either didn't notice this or I forgot about it. I really liked Hero in the Hallways - one of those rare Nifty stories that has a developing external plotline. I'll check out the other one the next chance I get.

Blue pretty much covered it. I've noticed a few in your stories - "barracks", "joey", "cuppa", etc. - but it's never obtrusive. Personally, I like the kind of story where it takes a few second-thoughts to really understand what's being said. I've always found it fun to kind of speculate on the origins and adaptations of the word.