The Least of These

[blue]

I could've sworn I'd read more than Ch. 1 of The Least of These.

Anyway, I've restarted reading and am in Ch. 4. Excellent, so far.

Thanks, Josh, for a sensitive portrayal of someone like Davey. I get the feeling really understand someone like Davey.

Also, you've done a good job showing how it feels to grow up trying to figure out those growing feelings that you prefer guys.

[dude]

Blue,

Stick with the story. It gets better and better. You'll find that once

Davey and Mickey get the sex thing figured out... they move on to what is really important in relationships.

Josh has crafted an excellent story here which I think will be a benchmark in defining what young male-male relationships could be.

Kudos Josh... and glad to have you on AwesomeDude

[Guest]

this is my favorite story online and i like it cuz is a about being the way you ought to not want to. what i mean by that is it has some elements of morality and making difficult choices to do whats right and all the characters struggle with it it the way we do in real life.

[dude]

I agree, Trent.

It also has some great characters, in addition to the main ones, including Granpa Bentolli.

Did you read Sea Change by Josh? It was the first of his stories that I read and led to our original dialogue. Josh has said he had wanted to polish and edit it a bit and a couple of us are encouraging him to do just that and then maybe re-serialize it here at AwesomeDude.

What do you think?

[Guest]

no i couldnt find it. wheres it posted

[blue]

Hi, Trent. Sea Change is somewhere in the high school section at Nifty. It might be in a previous year's index there. The story may be posted elsewhere too. I'm going to check it out.

-----

I'm a few chapters further along in TLOT. All the little details that Josh gets so right make it special. They struggle with what's right and what to do, and sometimes they mess up. Even the minor characters get real depth and are true to type. Josh gets Grandpa, Brandon, and Hunter right. It's nice to see a kid shown as a regular kid, not some too-wise, too-dumb, or too-sexual non-kid. He's got some pretty good humor in there too. And, uh, not every character is somehow suddenly secretly gay. That's real too.

Josh gets Davey exactly right. Davey's got more inside than he can express, and he knows it all too well.

Oh, and Davey caught that baseball. Good job, Davey. Blue can't always do that. Basketballs, yes; baseballs, not always; smaller stuff, no. Just how it is.

[Guest]

couldnt agree more. other online authors need to take character development and realism classes from josh. the least of these is buy far the best story i could find on nifty. the last chapter is the best.

[Guest]

Hi guys

If you are looking for the link to Sea-Change on Nifty you can try the following:

http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/sea-change/

Regards

[Josh]

Hey guys, thanks for the kind words. It's been crazy-busy, but I wanted to let ya'll know I'm doing well and I'm grateful for your comments.

I wanted to thank everyone who sent their prayers and good wishes for me and a new job. I have one, and it is incredible. A perfect fit in many ways and a great workplace; good company, fine people. But it does take many long hours. And I still have other obligations.

As some of you found out, I turned over my author?s email address to Michael, one of the editors of TLOT, for safe keeping. He has been answering email for me and forwarding me copies of most coming in. Once I have my feet back on the ground, time-wise, I hope to resume comrrespondance.

Prior to that, I may take time to clean up TLOT. You guys are a gracious audience. When I looked back over the story, especially those early chapters, I was appalled at the syntactical errors, over-used words, etc. I?d like to clean those up and elevate the posting from rough draft to first draft status.

Oh, and Michael is taking the lead in cleaning up Sea Change for a re-serialization and first-time posting here on AwesomeDude. I may look in on that project from time to time. So don?t expect my marvelous reappearance for a while, guys. But thanks for the emails, the prayers, and the kind wishes. Oh, and thanks for liking TLOT.

[dude]

Really nice to hear from Josh again on the AwesomeDude Forums.

Let me add my thanks, Josh, for your posting The Least Of These here and inspiring us "young folks" of all ages.

I really enjoyed Sea Change and remember that it was that story that brought us together the first time. We will be happy to re-serialize it in it's "polished" form for the first time anywhere on the web here on AwesomeDude.

And all the best to Josh in the new career... may you make as much money as Mickey and Davey!

[Tien]

Hi

I had just finish the story, and it was awesome. Thank you Josh for writting it. You can be sure that i'm putting you at the top of my list of favorite authors.

Tien