Holiday by Backwoodsman

[Mihangel]

I keep a folder into which I download stories that I know I will want to read again and again. I have been collecting for thirteen years now, and there are still only twelve stories in it. One of them, which has been there pretty well since I began, is Holiday. That shows how highly I rate it. So it's a delight to find Backwoodsman here on AD. A great welcome to him.

[Cole Parker]

I read this one a while ago, then again a year or so later, and I loved it both times. Good to see it where it belongs, where all the great stories in this genre belong.

And a warm welcome to it's esteemed author!

C

[Gee Whillickers]

I first read this story a number of years ago. I loved it then, and have re-read it once or twice since. It is among my favorite stories in the genre. I'm very pleased to see it here.

[Jeff Ellis]

I too am getting a great read from it. So very gentle.

[The Pecman]

I agree, a memorable story. And here's the link:

http://www.awesomedude.com/backwoodsman/holiday/index.htm

[backwoodsman]

Thank you all for those nice comments: they're most encouraging. As more gets added to the site, and particularly when it's all there, I'll add a bit more information about its creation. And I'll also see what you think about another story - Boydrake.

Is that the sound of whetted appetites I hear?

[Nigel Gordon]

Well, this story, which I had found interesting and delightful with its insight into boyhood relationships, has suddenly taken a turn to the dark side. Something unexpected from what had gone before but which promises to take the whole story in an interesting and challenging direction. I just hope it can match its promise.

[Mihangel]

And now it's all up, as human and warming and insightful a story at the umpteenth reading as it was at the very first. Thank you again.

A couple of months ago you did promise us some more information about its creation . . . hint, hint!

[Nigel Gordon]

This has been one of the most moving and insightful stories that I have read for some time. It is a story which I feel I will be coming back to read time and time again and I expect I will get more out of it each time I read it.

[Cole Parker]

That's how many of us feel, Nigel.

C

[Nathan Green]

This story is one of the ones that I really enjoyed on this website. Not saying I don't enjoy other stories, just that not all of them have the complexity, unpredictability and the "empathiness" of this novel - in that I really thought about the characters.

(spoiler alert)

Everything changed in that chapter where Mark dies, before that happened I thought it was almost the end of the story, but no, it was only the tip of the iceberg. I liked how this turned out.

This story really shows the core of the stuggle of being gay - our society being hateful and ignorant towards us. If the sexual content was removed so it was only suggestive, this would be an excellent story to educate people, particularly on the 1960s attitude.

While there are lots of spelling and grammar mistakes in awesome dude stories, they are high quality and there are so many of them!

I wrote rather more than I meant to, oh well.

Nathan Green

[Cole Parker]

Nice of you to join us, Nathan. Please come again, often!

C

[backwoodsman]

I'm really pleased to have received a number of emails - complimentary - about Holiday. Every author would join in that sentiment. it's also good to see nice comments here. Thank you.

The story was originally two. In fact I'd got to the end of the Amberdale holiday and was vaguely dissatisfied with its end which, as far as I can remember, as somehow different from now in that I had no idea what to do with either of them after James had gone home. So - as you do - I started on another story. English canals have always been an interest, and there have been certainl holidays where...

...nothing happened, though I really wish it had! But it seemed a good place to let my imagination start.

Then about halfway through, I ran out of steam, as you do. The imagination faltered. But gradually it occurred to me that the stories could be spliced together, with a little bit of judicious editing. So I sat down again...

There are probably quite a dew authors who say "the story almost wrote itself." When I wondered how to deal with the loose ends of Amberdale something clicked with my own period of adolescent agonies, when it was bandied about that homosexuals were cured by electric shocks. And the more I thought, and agonised (as an adult), the blacker it got, especially as I read about more and more teen aged boys who had taken their life rather than face up to reactions they feared but never knew. What waste. What tragedies.

So I watched, in horror, as the words describing Mark's end poured out onto the screen in front of me, seemingly without any conscious effort on my part. And other parts wrote themselves too, mainly to do with the canals.

And finally I wondered how to end it. A full circle seemed logical, so they booked to return to the Island near Amberdale. And I couldn't resist mentioning The Book!

Will they return? Maybe, but coincidentally, as adults of course.

[Mihangel]

Many thanks for that insight. The story obviously falls into two halves, but nowhere does it show that it began as two stitched together. All the more credit to you for disguising the join. I love Holiday mainly because of the characters and their unfolding, but also because I too spent long periods in the 60s chuntering around the canal system and identify with the setting. And, as you say, what a setting! Renewed thanks.