Watching Brad

[gsdx]

I read some of the posts above this one, and the waterworks started again. All of this, even before considering the extra-special circumstances involved, which I vividly remember. Maybe the most powerful quote of the whole story so far, and there's a LOT of competition there.

Believe it or not, Frank, there are some scenes (including that one) where I had to walk away from the keyboard just to calm myself down long enough to sit back down and finish it. I don't know if this goes for a lot of writers, but I usually know how the readers will react when reading it by my own reactions to writing it.

By the way, I'm glad you enjoyed the 'crunchy tea' bit. Where do I come up with them? I usually don't. Most times they just sneak up on me and jump out of my fingers onto the keyboard when the time is right.

 

[bamadude01]

hey, neil. it gives me some hope to see you posting on here again. I know you have your own issues to manage, but I hope some more chapters could be coming soon for this story. I love it so much. may actually start my 3rd read-through on it soon.

 

[DonQuixote]

Frank,
It is so much fun watching you enjoy this story.

 

[frankfrank]

Reading this years after the fact, I didn't have to wait from Friday...to Monday...to Wednesday during that torturous stretch of days in late summer 2006. And writing in Ted's nightmare IN THE SAME CHAPTER as J&J screaming and being torn away in the end, was one helluva devious dastardly trick...one of the MASTERPIECES of trickery. Even though the Judge hadn't made his decision yet, I think that the deja vu aspect of that ending tricked most or all of us into thinking that denial of adoption was a Done Deal!! It 100.000000% seemed like something that it wasn't at all.

You are a Grand Master.

And what a twist for Jerry to disobey and keep the file, and have it in the courtroom. Most authors would have simply forgotten that it existed.

"We don't need them anymore," Justin replied.

Another place that brought on the waterworks. You do know how to make grown men cry - in the best possible way.

Something tells me that, at some point before I am finally caught up to the most current, the Teddy bears will make ONE cameo appearance...for some reason.

 

[frankfrank]

Oh thank you DonQuixote...and wasn't it YOUR LINK in another thread that got me here? IT'S YOUR FAULT.

In more than nine years here, I don't even think I ever visited this Forum even once, before.

I can no longer properly claim that I spend more than 99% of all my JUB time between two Forums (Hot Topics, C E & P).

And a romance novel, and a family, and all that mushy stuff? I don't "do" that genre...

 

[gsdx]

And what a twist for Jerry to disobey and keep the file, and have it in the courtroom. Most authors would have simply forgotten that it existed.

Actually, I have forgotten. Except for proofreading for spelling and such, I've never read what I write. I don't even remember what Jerry was investigating let alone what file you're talking about. Would this emoticon be appropriate here?

 

[frankfrank]

I may comment on your comments, but nothing you say will change the future. It has already been decided.

Unless it's Cali and Mags, of course.

This story has, I suppose, become the life I would have liked to have had.
t

the characters in your story are so real, that you ARE having that life, to a degree - as they love you back, after you gave THEM life...and so much love. As I haven't peeked ahead to get even a slight hint of what kind of reading I have coming up (I'll resume on Post #881, Part 94, when I next come here), it's whatever perspective of present and past tense, which I can't know yet.

It took me almost 2 weeks reading your story from the beginning to now. It's like i've been invited to Ted and Brad's life and that I have known them all these times. I've told my friends of my new addiction and they just shake their heads. At first, I really found the sex stuff really interesting. As the story progressed, I skipped the sex part and went on to read about their life. Don't get me wrong as the sex part is really REALLY hot, but I see Ted and Brad and their kids more as people and I care very deeply about them. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Seeing the CDA, are you the same guy who had a number in his username until recently, and now has an "x" in it? Entire post is seconded, and approved with Ayes around the room. I am now as likely as not to skim through the sex part, as hot as it is, likewise. The sex part is suitably balanced with all other aspects of the relationship and the family/families involved.

 

[frankfrank]

Actually, I have forgotten. Except for proofreading for spelling and such, I've never read what I write. I don't even remember what Jerry was investigating let alone what file you're talking about. Would this emoticon be appropriate here?

You STILL haven't read what you wrote? Wow. You or somebody else suggested you doing so in 2006. (I'm through Post #880 now) This was the file when Ted had Jerry do some P. I. work on the background of the twins, and the background about the twins in the playpen being able to reach out and touch their dead father, which resulted in them not talking until Justin's "Are you our new Daddy?" moment, and other things. Ted looked at it and told Jerry to destroy the file, because he never wanted to see it again. In a twist, which you are capable of, the not-destroyed file came to be preeminently important, and it was brought to the right place at the right time...very important to the adoption approval.

 

[gsdx]

^ Thanks for that. I suppose I really should go back and read it, but I'd be so afraid I'd be my own worst critic and hate what I was reading.

 

[bamadude01]

neil, you have nothing to worry about. the story is wonderful. I was like frank, found it near the most recent chapter, then started binge reading. would read this story for 4-5 hours a night, until I caught up. then once I was done, took a break, then started over. and I'm seriously considering reading it a 3rd time.

 

[frankfrank]

I finished Post #1490, just before Part 132 starts. I copied the link to Post #1491 (where 132 starts), I pasted it into an email I wrote to myself...so I can quickly resume exactly where I left off. JUB navigation otherwise gives no easy way to get to Page 75 (my settings 20 posts per page).

Neil, people can learn real life-lessons from your fictional epic. You have a GREAT sense of "social consequences" of both good and bad actions by people, not to mention when Ted went to the psychiatrist during his near-breakdown and the results were so positive for everybody involved (as of the point where I've paused). You've shown a great example of why there is NOT ANY SHAME, not at all, in deciding to go to a psychiatrist. Though it didn't last for long (and thank God he didn't get Baker Acted like he might have in Florida...or similarly railroaded in some other U. S. states), his benefits from going to the psychiatrist were incalculable. Of course, he also "got lucky" - he ended up with a shrink who really knew what he was doing. That can be guaranteed no more than getting a great and conscientious car mechanic, accountant, landscaper, or au pair. (As for the last two, Ted has some good part-time ones right THERE.)

Uh-oh. FRENCH. I'm turning into Warren. NOOOOOOOO!!!!

No, wait, maybe that's a good thing. LOL

Ya know what else impresses the hell out of me? You have gotten comments from A LOT of people who decided to use their very FIRST JUB-posts in this thread. There can possibly be no greater proof of the power of your story than that...unless perhaps there is somebody saved from suicide in the next 1,900 posts, or a relationship is saved, or something similarly major.

I assume it has happened, even if we don't hear about it.

This is still the greatest story I've read in my lifetime.

 

[gsdx]

^ Or, just bookmark the link. Then you can delete it and make a new bookmark next time.

 

[frankfrank]

Yeah, true. but doing this keeps it out of the bookmarks clutter.

 

[frankfrank]

I pulled open the bottommost drawers. There were their Teddy bears, right where they had put them when they didn't need them anymore.

But I did.

I knew they would make a cameo appearance, didn't I? But I thought it would be for one or both of the twins.

Wow. What more can I say. (I'm posting this now, looking at Post #1560 just above...)

I just realized my comments on the story best be nebulous and nonspecific, lest they be some kind of spoiler. More people will still find this story.

 

[frankfrank]

gsdx, is that BRAD in your avatar?

No, guess not. It's more than just a CHIPPED tooth.

 

[DonQuixote]

LoL.

Frank, that is one of the British Actors from "Are You Being Served", a comedy based in one of the upscale London Department Stores. It was/is part of the BBC in America offerings from the 70's or 80's. They did a sequel series "Are you being served, again", where the cast members are all retired and at the company retirement home - where they wind up having to keep a working farm in business, IIRC. The series was full of double entendre with Neil's Avatar as Gay as they came.

 

[gsdx]

a comedy based in one of the upscale London Department Stores.

'Upscale'! Now that's funny!

Seriously, though, it was set in the 70s, but their clothing was stuck in the 50s and 60s. That's where most of the humour came from - the staff of Grace Brothers trying to sell stuff 20 years out of date.

The second series called 'Grace and Favour' in England was renamed 'Are You Being Served? Again!' in North America. That came about after the last of the store's owners, Young Mr. Grace died and left a hotel to the retired staff of Grace Brothers: Mrs. Slocombe, Captain Peacock, Mr. Rumbold, Miss Brahms, and Wilberforce Clayborne Humprhies (the guy in my avatar).

Humphries was portrayed by John Inman, who was gay. Mr. Humphries' sexuality was never 'nailed down'. Creator and writer David Lloyd stated that Humphries was just a 'mother's boy'. In 'Grace and Favour', he was described as neither a 'woman's man' nor a 'man's man'. He was merely 'in limbo'. I'm sure he was still a virgin.

Just some info from an AYBS? fan.

 

[DonQuixote]

We need a GSDX Appreciation Thread for you to post all of your stuff in!

 

[frankfrank]

Quoting "necro-posts" from more than seven years ago:

So the much-awaited wedding of the millenium is now officially over and Brad is now a de Villiers Hayes. I'm glad it went off without a hitch

No, there WAS a hitch! Ted and Brad got hitched!!

I hope this brought a satisfying conclusion to Connie. It had never been my intention to bring her back into the story, and I really had no idea what was going to happen with her when I brought her back.

I liked the way that she said goodbye, and proved that there was after all some humanity left in her cold heart. Her tears, when Ted told her he's happier with Brad than he was with her, were probably her own lament for "what could have been" for her.

Tear time, and laugh time, again!!! Yes, you-dun-it again Neil!

This is still the best story I have ever read (nothing else even in the same universe)...and certainly, by far, the longest. Really long...as in Old Testament long, or something...I never expected to tackle anything like this. Ever.

And I can STILL keep track of the characters! That NEVER happens.

 

[gsdx]

And I can STILL keep track of the characters! That NEVER happens.

Good. You can keep notes for me, then.