Joe Long

I will get caught up on my reading, promise

When I said "Amanda may already know" I was thinking about a possible pregnancy - but damn, you make a compelling argument! A Sam/Amanda split would make it much more likely for Sam to do what he did at the party.

I won a karaoke a couple years ago with that song. My dad had a sticker with that "Beware the owner" message on his back door, so I thought of that being on a sign at the end of the driveway. Then I had the character ask, "What's the sign say?" and as soon as I wrote it down, "Long haired freaky people..." just popped into my head, so I had to include it. I'd forgotten that the song also had "trespassers will be shot on sight!"

That's what I was aiming for. I didn't want anything definitive. I've heard stories about Becky for almost 50 years, many of them different (and most involving alcohol), so I tried to convey that confusion. I had at least one character witness something that they'd swear was supernatural, but that they'd still have a hard time convincing anyone of later "You had to be there..." so that a day, a year, even 20 years later, my characters would be telling the same kind of stories that I grew up hearing. My brother-in-law had some to drink, went to the cemetery by the mall and was scared shitless. He won't go back. A writing friend from town read the first draft of this and asked, "Have I told you my story?" Seems her brother and a friend also went to the cemetery by the mall and said they took a flag off of Becky's grave. When they got to the friend's house, his mother said, "Becky called, and said you have something of hers!" I was also trying to add humor, and with things like the sign, stuff just pops into my head and I go with it.

I liked it! Very well done

I read that story. I have a thing for Kaylee, she draws my attention from everything else when I watch that show. I could have handled her being raped, even dying...but c'mon man!

Forgot about the cops, who were mentioned. Yes, a neighbor hearing prolonged screaming like that would assume injury, perhaps even death. I was even wondering that. The cops show up and a lot of people get busted for the booze, including Craig's parents. Fun shit. I don't think Joe keeps Jack as a friend. Jack warned him to cut it out, Joe didn't, and great damage will follow. Jack won't forgive that easily. Right, I don't see Sam having any friends. And Alan's after school access to Kelly is thru Helena. A break with Sam could likely mean a break with Helena as well, meaning Alan could only see Kelly at school, unless he hops on his bicycle, or gets his license and tries to borrow Jack's car.

Ah, miss meaning you didn't read it (skipped) rather than the story missed. This Halloween chapter fits in with the overall story, and will be included as a future chapter when the timeline gets to late October. No sex takes place in the Halloween chapter, but the characters make reference to sex that has happened in earlier chapters (yet to be published)

I need an edit - is Chrissy the only one who can do that? If so, PM me and I'll give you the details.

Got to Chrissy's & BW's so far. Both very well written. I found the druid's "Feeding the Land" to be scary, even if I found it a little hard to keep track of some of the characters, but that's likely because of unfamiliar names.

I copied most of the tags from my main story - Inc, M/F, minor1, minor2 - and added NoSex at the end. Let me know if I need to modify.

You going to send us instructions on how to add a chapter? edit - I found the "add a chapter" concerning tags - if there's no sex in the chapter, but the characters discuss sex that happened in their past, is it still "NoSex" ?

I know "morning sickness" can come anytime during the day, but I was picturing something like while Jack was at work Amanda tries to start her day, feels queasy and ends up puking in the toilet. She looks like hell, feels a little warm, and Mrs. Harrison tells her to stay home from the party and take it easy the rest of the day. I think oral contraceptives are still by prescription (requiring a parent's permission) but I could be wrong. There are other methods, but none are fool proof. They cut the chances by about 90%, meaning that a woman who has regular unprotected sex might get pregnant every couple years (15 to 25 months of doing it, after the 9 month layoff for the previous pregnancy. By the end of the year and a half the cumulative odds of getting pregnant are very high). With birth control 2 to 3 years becomes 20 to 30 years - so most women won't in their lifetime, but still a fair amount will - once, anyway. I think a pregnancy would add more drama, being better from both the reading and writing sides. Without it, Amanda and Belle and are similar situations which could have similar results. It's sort of redundant. With it, Amanda's sitting at home with a baby growing inside her, now hating the dad Sam for choosing Joe over her. Not only would she have to decide how to handle her peers in the group, her parents and other kids at school, but also whether to continue the pregnancy. five couples Joe & Belle - broken Sam & Amanda - broken Craig & Becca - he's depressed, she's pissed Alan & Kelly - she needs transport from Sam's sister to see Alan outside school, so they're blunted and likely strained Jack & Kayla - caught in the middle, and blamed for not telling Belle & Amanda

and Amanda might already know (before the story even got to Craig's house, just reading about Amanda, I kept repeating, "she's preggers") and be figuring out a way of telling everyone - and then she will be the last one in the group to find out Sam's dick - that put her in her condition - was caught in Joe's ass.

Belle and Amanda will be single. One of the reasons why pregnancy makes sense is to give Amanda a wholly different situation than Belle, and to be different than her brother issues of the year before. Craig was getting stressed out already, then all this happened at his house, and he's the one with the hot tempered, overly protective girlfriend. Then they all find out that Jack and Kayla already knew and didn't tell.

[spoilerS] . . . . . . . . . . . . Sam and Joe have been outed...just as Amanda gets morning sickness Holy Mother of God...

whoa, 37,861 words! ranks right near the top for longest...I pasted it into Word so that it's safer to read at work (taking me away from all the other things on my list)

I rarely burn out, although I did for a couple of weeks in July. Usually my OCD gets directed onto something else. I'm always going on something (or several things) long term: 55-60 hours a week at work so I can get paid my home consulting business, need to make a new report preferably today, started on user's guide last night, need to upgrade products genealogy (not so much lately, but got an email yesterday that got me going) my full OTA story, now being revised as the wind blows: the Halloween chapter of OTA (basically done, will be up this weekend here at AFF) started downloading and analyzing weather data, to see if it's really warming (or not) Twitter, forums and shoutbox here, SB Nation's Pirates blog, etc oh, keep my wife happy, that fits in there somewhere...going to a Steelers game in 10 days

Unlikely Antichrist is a story on this site that is well written and slow building, in the style of the authors mentioned (and thanks for including me!). I believe there's sci-fi coming later.

Normally, but each school sets their own Homecoming date, at a home football game - that can be anywhere in September or October, with Halloween at the very end of October

I can conclusively say that I am not! bi - but every once in a while a guy looks good, although never in a sexual way, just an attraction. And when I was a teenager who had never had a girl I did say yes to two guys, because like I said, a girl never asked me, or said yes when I asked them, and I was horny, but once the dicks were out I quickly lost interest. I had mine in someone's mouth, and in someone else's ass, and I couldn't keep it up. So I can see where it's possible to check out a guy without being into guys. I ways going to disclaim that with Sam not being a horny virgin like me, but do we have any confirmation that Sam & Amanda have actually 'done it'?

I think if Amanda loses Sam she turns to promiscuity, offering herself to any guy who will fuck her hard so that she can feel 'wanted'. She might even look into getting paid for it.

The end could be another 3 million words!

The Catcher in the Rye [spoilers] . . . . . . . . I had never read it until it was mentioned here. I earlier in this forum provided a link to an online pdf copy in case anyone else wanted to check it out. Yes, Holden sounds very whiny, put he is actually very perceptive of the people around him. When I posted the Pink Floyd lyrics "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control...all in all, we're just another brick in the wall (How can you have your porridge if you haven't eaten your meat?)" it echoed my original reaction to what Holden was seeing of the private schools his upper middle class parents of the 1950's were sending him to. Every young man was to sit in his spot on the assembly line, being molded into some product that would fit into the great cog of society. Sort of like a 'Stepford Man'. How could one be a grownup if they don't go to their finishing school? Holden say this as B.S. People were being phonies, because they were willingly presenting themselves as something they were not, in order to fit the image of what others wanted them to be, what they were expected to be. Their own kind of political correctness, where your outside behavior must fit some kind of social norm and narrative, despite your own personal opinions and attitudes. So Holden refused to give up who he was, and that clashed with the program. He wanted to determine his own destiny, but he had no damn idea what he wanted that to be, so he was depressed. The best he could come up with was disappearing into the countryside, where he could live without anyone observing him and thus judging him. Page after page, for three days of his life, he drones on about everything he sees in the people around him. The guy just won't shut up! Until he does. I've read all the Cliff Notes and whatever there is these days, but no one I've seen has analyzed the ending the way I have. The first sentences of the first chapter establish that the story is being told as a flashback, from a place in Los Angeles near his brother, to events of a year before. Then at the end, after rambling on about endless details, the last being how happy he was to watch his sister reach for the brass ring on the merry-go-round, he just stops, saying he doesn't want to talk about it anymore, just that he went home, got sick, and ended up in the asylum where he's being interviewed by a psychiatrist. At the end he claims he doesn't want to talk anymore, that he regrets telling the story, because it makes him miss people, even the people he didn't like - but I say it makes him miss his sister. In his narrative, Holden had gotten to the point where he explained his thesis, that children should be free to explore the world and chase their own dreams, as illustrated by his sister Phoebe reaching out, perhaps riskily, for the ring. I think Phoebe did reach out and grab for the ring, but she failed - and fell, and possibly was killed. That's what caused Holden to 'get sick' and need to be institutionalized. Why he didn't want to talk anymore. Why he missed people. He would never see his beloved little sister again, just as his little brother had been taken from him before. The ideas that he advocated took his sister away from him. The system had been so cruel to punish him in that way. So, do I get an 'A'?

They just started season 2, The show runner and head writer is Bruno Heller previously of 'The Mentalist' The pilot started with the murder in an alley of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, witnessed by a 14 year old Celina Kyle. Young Bruce is left an orphan, minded to by the family butler Alfred Pennyworth, who used to serve in Britain's SAS. Meanwhile, Gotham is overrun by organized crime and a collection of super villains. Oswald Cobblepot, nicknamed 'Penguin' because his first job was to hold Fish Mooney's umbrella and then of his crippled right knee after she beat him with a baseball bat for insubordination. Penguin is a master schemer who plays the crime families off against one another, which are led by Don Falcone and Don Maroni. Det. James Gordon and his partner Det. Harvey Bullock have to fight not only crime but corruption within the police force and city politics. Gordon promises Bruce Wayne he will do everything to find who murdered his parents, who owned the influential Wayne Enterprises.