Hi all!

Someone in the TQ thread mentioned that he'd like to see a thread about Tapping. If the number of emails I received is anything to go by, Tapping is certainly the the most popular of my stories.

Anyways, as no one else has done so (is everyone too shy??!!) I will step in and start a thread about it.

Here I put down a few starter thoughts, but feel free to branch out and discuss any aspects of the story that take your fancy. I always enjoy feedback and will always respond to it.

Mark and his dad are already drifting apart when the situation is made worse. His dad announces that they are moving a couple of hundred miles from their city home. Mark, not wanting to leave behind his best friend and familiar surroundings, tries unsuccessfully to sabotage the move. After moving into a large Victorian house in the Northumberland countryside Mark begins to hear inexplicable tappings on his bedroom window. Do his new neighbours, and especially the attractive but slightly weird Tom, hold the key which might help Mark to unlock the secrets of the old house?

On the surface, Tapping is a story about teenage love, both past and present, with possible supernatural overtones linking the two time periods. On a deeper level it is about how Mark, psychologically damaged by the circumstances of his mother's death, finds emotional healing.

Anyone want to comment?

Kit

I read it. It was an interesting story. What got my attention was the parallels between the relationship in the earlier time period with the modern one. It was toward the end we found out what was behind the mystery. I must say that it is an great story!

I enjoyed Tappings and heartily reccomend it!

I'm not sure which is the sharper hook in this story: the characters who you'll quickly decide to like or the mystery which runs through the story.

I was lucky enough to discover the story as it was being posted at CRVboy's board back in '05. By lucky I mean that I couldn't blitz my way through it in one sitting and had to wait for new chapters.

Tappings is a lot of fun and a welcome departure from most online fiction.

I enjoyed Tappings and heartily reccomend it!

I'm not sure which is the sharper hook in this story: the characters who you'll quickly decide to like or the mystery which runs through the story.

I was lucky enough to discover the story as it was being posted at CRVboy's board back in '05. By lucky I mean that I couldn't blitz my way through it in one sitting and had to wait for new chapters.

Tappings is a lot of fun and a welcome departure from most online fiction.

............I found under authors in Cryboy's forum,
http://www.crvboy.org/stories/kit/t/c09.html
I will read it and comment, Thanks for the tidbit on the story.

No need to look anywhere else but here on GA.

All my stories are here on GA and all my new stories will appear here long before anywhere else.
http://kit.gayauthors.org/
The entry page has a drawing of the house featured in Tapping.
Look in the Library... As well as all my stories you might even find the floor plan of the house.

Enjoy!


Kit

Thanks for the kind comments!

An interesting point that arises is the serialisation aspect.
I guess you (and no doubt others) prefer to have to wait a week or more between chapters?

As a reader of other people's stories I'm ambivalent. Having the whole story available to read all at once at my own pace is good for me because I don't have to wait to see what happens next. On the other hand, if it's well written then having to wait between chapters gives me the opportunity to savour each chapter and think about it. On yet another hand (No, I don't really have three hands!) I'm always a little concerned that I might start reading a seriaised story that I really love and then find the author never completes it.

As an author it seems that serialisation elicits more responses from readers, so I guess that in future I would post chapters one at a time, even though since NAE I've always made sure I've completely written the whole story before I start posting it.

Kit

Hi Kit. Thanks for writing this wonderful story.

In response to James' comment, I think both aspects of the story worked together to be an unavoidable hook.

Tapping is so unlike anything else I've read on GA. The aura of mystery and the supernatural combined with an unconventional love affair kept me reading well past my bedtime for two nights in a row. I absolutely hated it when I had to give in to my bleary eyes and goto sleep. How fitting that the consummation of their love for each other was finally able to give both sets of young men what they so desperately longed for.

Well said, Gary. The ending of Tapping was certainly fitting. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Hey KitKit:
You know I loved this story when I read it at CRVBOY,. Not surprised to find you here, all the good stuff makes it's way here eventually!
The short version for the rest of the folks is: I found the occult elements of this story completely within the realm of what I consider possible, and think that it portrays the sometimes parallel universes in operation, or the multi-level of experience of a significant event in the lives of significant individuals. The mystery in this story for me was not so much what was really happening, but when the characters would acknowledge it and how they would react.
This is a gutsy story, no way could you predict how it would be received, and though I think it was right up my alley (so to speak ) , the success of it tells me that it managed to be up many other alleys too, which would be in keeping with the whole mutidimentional thing, and goosebumps would be in order.....

Good work, in good company, many thanks to all of you here,
Tracy

Hi Tracy,

Thanks for the kind words.
I'm very happy to be here on GA and I'm sad that I found GA only about 3 months ago. In future all my new work will appear here long before anywhere else.


I tried to leave the cause of the strange events open to different interpretations. This was not because I couldn't think of an explanation for those events and it was not because I was trying to please lots of different people by letting them decide for themselves. I wasn't explicit about an explanation for two reasons -
1) As you understood, the main point of the story was how the characters (especially Mark) react to those events.
2) Such things, if they exist at all, probably have explanations we haven't even considered yet.

Are there 'ghosts'?
Does reincarnation exist?
Do strong emotions imprint themselves on buildings, and can some sensitive people detect those imprints?
Are all these events merely the imaginings of people whose minds are disturbed by tragedy?

Of course, I have my own favourite explanation!


Kit

Hi Kit,
It would be interesting to share your favourite explanation !
Maybe other members made also same kind of experiences ? in UK and some old part of the eastern coast of USA ?
You could open a new topic about it !
Old bob (I suppose I will know the answer in a few years, I'm almost 79 and my Life Expectancy is about 10 years from now. I have just to wait these 10 years )

Okay...
This is my own pet idea, but it doesn't stop anyone else from interpreting the story in another way. Indeed, maybe their interpretations would fit the details of the story better even than mine. Also, as I said before, for me the most important aspect of the story was the impact the strange experiences might have on the main characters.

** WARNING - POTENTIAL SPOILER BELOW!! **


As a scientist by training I suggest this as a hypothesis, not a theory... Anyway, just suppose that inanimate objects can absorb some sort of impression or imprint of very strong emotions, especially those surrounding death. Perhaps buildings absorb more because they totally surround people.

Next suppose that some people are so sensitive to emotional 'vibes' that they can detect the emotional atmosphere left by such imprints in a building, though they do not know what actual events made the imprint. Mark may have been born with such a general 'talent' inherited from his mother. Tom may be specifically sensitive to Prospect House because of his genetic similarity with Tommy. Maybe the feelings of Mark and Tom caused a resonance with the imprint that Edward and Tommy made in the house.

Still, I wonder if that would explain Tom's nightmares of claustrophobia and suffocation?
What do you think?


Kit

I'll hazard some guesses.


Any sci-fi fan can tell you all about psychic residue and the empathic people who can sense that residue. While not quite high sci-fi you can reference Star Trek:TNG "Eye of the Beholder" for an example of what I mean.


A metaphor for being stuck in the closet?

ADDED: I was a bit hasty in my posting yesterday. I forgot to add that I have real world experience with the sci-fi theory posited above. I used to own a ranch that some would say was haunted.

As a scientist by practice , I'm following since years the developments of a science named "parapsychology" which study "facts" like the one you brougt in your story and others. I dont want to bring just a short answer but I will post more later. Just to say for the moment that a lot of famous scientists are working on this matter and it is worthwile to follow the results of their works.
Till later
Old bob

In my detailed answer, I shall go steps by steps.
What is your story referring to :
-Hauntings (phenomena often attributed to ghosts and encountered in places a deceased individual is thought to have frequented, or in association with the person's former belongings).
-Possession, belief in the control of the behavior of a living thing or natural object by a spiritual being
The science which study these two phenomena is called Parapsychology, a study of ostensibly paranormal events including survival of consciousness after death. The first step is always to collect “facts”, to understand what are we talking about.
Haunted locations or haunted places are sites of reported ghost activity. The reports of these hauntings are often referred to as ghostlore. Ghostlore is fueled by history and legends and is a part of folklore. These accounts can be subjective in nature and there is no commonly accepted objective evidence that ghosts or similar phenomena exist. See as an example :
List of alleged haunted locations in USA
Approaching paranormal phenomena from a research perspective is often difficult because even when the phenomena are seen as real they may be difficult to explain using existing rules or theory. By definition, paranormal phenomena exist outside of conventional norms. Skeptics contend that they don't exist at all. Despite this challenge, studies on the paranormal are periodically conducted by researchers from various disciplines. Some researchers study just the beliefs in paranormal phenomena regardless of whether the phenomena actually exist.
Parapsychology only studies those anomalies that fall into one of three general categories: ESP, mind-matter interaction and phenomena suggestive of survival after bodily death, including near-death experiences, apparitions, and reincarnation. Most parapsychologists today expect that further research will eventually explain these anomalies in scientific terms, although it is not clear whether they can be fully understood without significant (some might say revolutionary) expansions of the current state of scientific knowledge. Other researchers take the stance that existing scientific models of perception and memory are adequate to explain some or all parapsychological phenomena.
Such experiences seem to challenge contemporary conceptions of human nature and of the physical world. They appear to involve the transfer of information and the influence of physical systems independently of time and space, via mechanisms we cannot currently explain. The existence of these phenomena suggest that the strict subjective/objective dichotomy proposed by the old paradigm (see below) may not be quite so clear-cut as once thought. Instead, these phenomena may be part of a spectrum of what is possible, with some events and experiences occasionally falling between purely subjective and purely objective. We call such phenomena "anomalous" because they are difficult to explain within current scientific models.
When one speaks about a topic which is controversial to many, such as parapsychology, it is crucial to understand the concept of a paradigm. A paradigm is an underlying worldview. It can be thought of as a framework of beliefs which are so taken for granted that most folks are not even aware they have made any assumptions. A paradigm helps us to make sense of the world around us. But perhaps more importantly, in terms of science, it not only determines what is true, but how truth itself can be determined. There is an obvious catch to this. If one does not recognize the underlying assumptions one makes with a paradigm, it has the potential to limit our perception of the world, what we can discover, and how we can determine that knowledge.
The old paradigm, which many have held since the days of Descartes, states that the subjective and objective worlds are completely distinct, with no overlap. Subjective is "here, in the head," and objective is "there, out in the world." The Cartesian paradigm presupposes that there are objective ways to define and measure the fixed external world--which the proponents of this paradigm would say is the only world that matters. The classical paradigm favors experimental research design, which presumes to measure the world in an objective way.
Quantum theory triggered a fundamental shift in how we understand the world. Physicists suddenly realized that there is always some indeterminacy in our measurements. This is because the act of measurement itself can define and change that which is being measured. Because of this, the experimenter may always part of the experiment, and all our "objective" facts are, in fact, potentially flawed (with ESP making it impossible to ever have a truly "blind" experiment). This insight led to the idea of a paradigm based on nonlocality. And while not all physicists agree, the new paradigm that is emerging is one in which the universe is a single whole, within which every part is connected on some level to every other part. This new paradigm does not "prove" psi exists. However, it is compatible with the possible existence of psi, and may lead to a better understanding the phenomena.
It should be noted that the conflict between these two paradigms is ongoing. Because these belief systems are both widespread and deeply ingrained, topics that touch on these fundamentally different worldviews may give rise to bitter and violent debate, with little or no room for compromise. The lack of common ground between paradigms means that the question cannot be solved by discussion. Ultimately, the answer will have to be determined by which paradigm does the best job of answering the questions raised by research.
You see, when I begin talking about parapsychology, I can’t stop ! It’s one of my favorite hobbies. But it’s enough for now.
Summarising my opinion,
Are the related haunting experiences reported by so many people real ? Yes.
Is it possible to explain them inside the old paradigm ? No.
Will future researches bring an explanation to these phenomena ? Perhaps.
Could the present researches about the beginning and the future of the universe (Big Bang theories) bring a contribution to the researches in parapsychology (Parallel universes) ? Why not.
Old bob

Thanks Bob. I'm on the bleeding edge of my understand of this stuff so pardon me if I seem like a total idiot. I'm still a bit old school in that I believe in the Principle of Locality. I can't fathom this universe as the single whole theory that seems to be gaining popularity. Either way though, why would one or the other theory make it more or less likely to prove the existence of psi?

Once again, to bring a "simple" answer of your question isn't simple !
First point of your comment : the Principle of Locality.
I just want to bring several examples from the studies and the thoughts of the physicians of today.
One is the thought experiment of the Schrödinger's cat, often described as a paradox : A cat, along with a flask containing a poison, is placed in a sealed box shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence. The flask is shattered, releasing the poison, if a Geiger counter detects radiation. Quantum mechanics seems to suggest that after a while the cat is simultaneously alive and dead, in a quantum superposition of coexisting alive and dead states. Yet when we look in the box we expect to see the cat either alive or dead, not in a mixture of alive and dead.
Another one is his Bubble universe theory, which fits well with the widely accepted theory of cosmic inflation. The bubble universe concept involves creation of universes from the quantum foam of a "parent universe." On very small scales, the foam is frothing due to energy fluctuations. These fluctuations may create tiny bubbles and wormholes. If the energy fluctuation is not very large, a tiny bubble universe may form, experience some expansion like an inflating balloon, and then contract and disappear from existence. However, if the energy fluctuation is greater than a particular critical value, a tiny bubble universe forms from the parent universe, experiences long-term expansion, and allows matter and large-scale galactic structures to form.
Another open question studied by physicians like Bohm or Kapra : Multiple universes : are there physical reasons to believe in other universes that are fundamentally non-observable? For instance: Are there quantum mechanical "alternate histories"? Are there "other" universes with physical laws resulting from alternate ways of breaking the apparent symmetries of physical forces at high energies, possibly incredibly far away due to cosmic inflation? Is the use of the anthropic principle to resolve global cosmological dilemmas justified?
I just want to show by these examples that the Principle of Locality is openly rejected in the subatomic world.
The relation between parapsychology and the new physical theories is clear for me. Why should we accept, with no exceptions, this Principle of Locality in the "no man's land" of the parapsychology ?
I suppose my explanations are for you not so clear as they should be . But I need more time and more researches in my data base . I will bring later my answer to your second question (the correlation between the Quantum theory with its consequences and the psi phenomena.
BTW we dont need a theory to prove the existence of psi phenomena. There are enough facts to prove it .
Old bob

Wow!

Bob, you have certainly gone to a lot of trouble to share with us your ideas on the paranormal, etc. As a biologist, much of what you wrote went above my head, so I'll just comment on a couple of points.



Well, one thing I can state definitely, there is no "posession" in Tapping... or if there is, I didn't deliberately put it in!


Seriously, though, regrdless of what they experience, all the characters in the story are in control of their own actions so they are never possessed by any external being.

Personally, I think that it is possible that what some people experience as 'ghosts' may be some sort of imprint on a locality, but I don't believe that there is any consciousness to such 'ghosts', just as there is no consciousness in a video recording of a person.



I think that this statement is open to considerable debate which would be off-topic here.
Perhaps you'd like to start a new thread for that?

Best wishes,

Kit

Possession or not, its just a question of definition of the word itself ! you wrote in Tapping :
"As a weight began to crush my chest that fear escalated, and it became sheer terror when something wrapped around my throat and began to choke me."
Another will took power and controlled his movements.Isn't that a momentary possession ?
"So I think maybe what happened tonight wasn't us," I added, "I think it might have been Edward and Tommy."
An expression of horror spread over his face, then he shook his head.
"No!" he said firmly, "I don't believe it! And I certainly wasn't possessed."
"I don't think we were possessed either," I said, reaching out and squeezing his shoulder, "I think maybe they just prodded us and then went along for the ride." "Like we're horses?" he said doubtfully.
This remembers me the ritual of "Candomblé"or "Macumba", a syncretic religion in Brazil, with the god possessing the priest, riding on him.. For details, see Macumba

Certainly not ! I dont want more trouble.
Thanks for your wishes, and thanks again for the nice stories
Old bob

How do you explain what happened during the dreams? If it wasn't a possession of some kind then what was it? Was it just their unconscious mind acting out what they believed might be happening?

Also during the dreams, as I see it the boys were sensitive to the psychic residue and thus more receptive to dreaming about it when they weren't in control of their own actions?

I'm not sure what you mean here, so please excuse me if I missed the point...

Do you mean that they were not in control because they were asleep? They might have been picking up subcouncious 'vibes', like detecting an imprint in the building, but dreams triggered by such vibes are not the same as being posessed by an outside force. I sometimes get nightmares if I eat cheese before bed - am I possesed by a cheese spirit?


Lots of people do things in their sleep without being posessed.

They couldn't control their dreams & nightmares, but neither can most people, so that doesn't mean they were possessed.
Mark did some things in his sleep, but people walk and talk in their sleep without knowing they are doing it, and they aren't possessed.

It's long time since I wrote Tapping, so it's possible I've forgotten something, but I don't remember anything in it where an awake person did anything without intention or knowledge.

Kit

I'm sorry for laughing, but being possessed by a cheese spirit was a very funny thought.

I'll accept your explanation about not being possessed in their sleep. It could well have been the psychic remains that triggered those experiences.

I remember on my ranch having visions and experiences triggered by the ghost that inhabited the place. And yet I never felt possessed. It was purely the psychic residue of a man who had been treated badly by the former owner of the ranch. Once I found out the whole story I took steps to make it possible for Charlie to feel comfortable moving on.

But what about Tom? He often seemed like a boy possessed by some outside force. Befriending the old lady. Constant visits to the graveyard. Wanting to be by himself so often. What drove those behaviors?

The thought amused me, too!




I don't think it's really uncommon for a child who feels different and maybe a little lonely befriending an old lady. Just as sometimes children feel more at ease with their grandmother than they do with their parents.

Maybe Tom felt an affinity with the house because of its imprint, and because he spent time in the house he became friends with her. Then her stories about her brother, combined with the affinity to the house may have made him feel that Edward was like his own relative.

Just because he did certain things because of that affinity doesn't mean he was possessed. Take for example your experiences at the ranch. Because of those experiences you took certain courses of action i.e. 'took steps to make it possible for Charlie to feel comfortable moving on'. Taking those steps didn't mean you were possessed.

Kit

Your words caused me to reflect on my own childhood.

I had a much better relationship with my maternal grandfather than I did with either of my parents. Benji lived with us and since we were both night owls we'd often sit around the kitchen table talking about all kinds of things. He wasn't an educated man, but he was a very wise man. I still adhere to much of the advice we talked about.

Similarly my next door neighbors were an elderly couple with whom I liked to spend time. The wife loved flowers and tended her garden every day. Kind of like Tom. I looked forward to the time I spent with her. I'm sure she enjoyed passing on her love of gardening to someone who really appreciated it.

Charlie was definitely not someone who possessed me. Although at times it felt like it. Still, he seemed to sense that the house changed owners and I wasn't the mean SOB the former owner was. As a result he was fun albeit at times a a bit too mischievous. And yet I knew he needed to move on. Part of him is still with me and I know he's happy now.

I concede to your well thought out points, Kit.

Tapping will always remain one of my favorite stories. I'm not even going to qualify that statement by limiting it to GA stories. Thanks again for writing it and for being so engaged with your fans.

I can't give up ther pleasure to make my comment (as we say in german : "to add my mustard" ) to your comments, refereing to the new topic I began about ghosts.
Its a pity that we have not more stories about "gay ghosts". The only stories I know are these brought by Josh Asterovis.
Kit, you have here an opportunity to use your skill to introduce us "deeper" in this strange world. I'm sure a lot of us will read more about this subject and enjoy your stories .
BRW, I'm also calling other authors Building a bridge between these two worlds should be a real challenge .
Old bob

I Josh. We've been friends forever.

I agree Kit. Some more stories that explore the bridge between both worlds would make for fantastic reading.

Bob, I certainly agree that Kit did a wonderful job as creating "a bridge between these two worlds". In fact, I think more authors should try something like that in a story. In fact, I happen to have an idea. I always love it when members and other authors inspire my creative juices.

As I've probably mentioned on several occasions and in many places, I have limited writing time and lots of ideas for new stories, so writing a spin-off or sequel to an old story is very low on my priorities. I'm currently working on a short story (Perspective) and a novel-length story (The Asset).

HOWEVER, I have the outline of a story involving Mark, Tom and some of the other characters from Tapping. That story (should I ever get time to write it) will be titled 'The Bus Stop', it will involve Mark's 'sensitivity' and will be a sort-of detective story. But I can't make any definite promises and if it gets written at all , it won't appear for at least a year.

Kit

I think perhaps you misunderstood at least me, Kit. I don't want a sequel or spin-off to Tapping. I was hoping you might find time to explore the genre using completely different characters.

Hey Kit!

I have just finished reading the third chapter of Tapping.
Must confess the first two seemed a bit too long for me. Maybe it's because I tend to write in a more compact style, but some parts appear a bit over-decriptive.

But well, now on the third chapter I'm getting into the story. I like way you portray the difficult relationship between Mark and his dad, and loved the bit about the Northumberland accent (Manchester experience!)

Hi G,

Thanks for the comments.


I'm originally from near Manchester, and when I first moved to the North East it took me a while to get used to the accent - actually, in some ways more like a dialect.

The amount of detail in descriptions is often mostly a matter of taste and style. In general, I think my style has become more 'compact' as I've had more experience writing. Also, it depends on the type of tale I'm telling.

You may have noticed that the three short stories were written after Tapping. I'd never written a short story before that and those shorts were a deliberate effort to discipline myself into working in a more compact style. As I get more experience writing I'm learning (and hopefully improving!) all the time. Perhaps if you read more of my stories you will be able to detect a difference between my styles of writing after the shorts as compared with before the shorts.

In the case of Tapping, as you noticed, there is a lot of description in the second chapter, and most of that description involved Prospect House (BTW - did you notice I include a picture of the floor plan in my Library?). Much of the later action occurs in and around the house, and where people are located at different times is often important for the plot. So it seemed to me to be a good idea to try to give the reader a mental picture of the house and grounds. However, the perfect balace between information and entertainment is not easy to achieve, and each reader needs to judge for himself how well (or how badly!) I achieve that balance.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the rest of the story and that you will make further comments on it as you read more.

Thanks again for your comments so far. They are very much appreciated!


Kit

I just read this in one sitting. I have to say, I enjoyed it very much -- the descriptions were excellent, and the characters were very well-developed. My only complaint is that it was too short!

I look forward to reading more of your stories soon.

LB

Well, thank you, kind sir!

If you do read any of my other stories I hope that you enjoy them and that you will comment on them.

Oh, and don't tell anyone, cos it's a big secret... I'm planning a follow-up story using some of the same major characters (Mark, Tom, Chris).

Thanks again!


Kit

Hi Kit

As promised, I am posting a comment on your novel. Sorry about the delay, but it's been a busy period with the trip and everything.

Anyways, I'll tell you the bad first so that the good compensates for ;-)

After reading the story and giving some time for it to sink in, my overall impression is that it is far too long for the amount of things that happen in it. As I commented before, some parts are overdescriptive, and during the first 50,000 thousand words or so I didn't have a clear idea of what the story was going to be about (expanding the "preview" really helps, though). This pace is constant, so throughout the story one can skip entire paragraphs without missing out much of the action. This particularly happened to me in the middle chapters, when I wanted to know more about the tapping.

This is entirely a matter of taste (I've just read the previous post saying that the story is too short!), but I do believe that this plot, told in half the words, or even as a short story, would have been a neat read.

OK, now let's go to the good bits. :-)
Your characters are complex and one cares about them, your dialogues are believable (which is not as easy to get as is seems), and above all, you have a very friendly prose; once one starts reading the words just flow. I can really picture you going on and on typing and ejoying the sentences as they go out (which is why we all write, I guess). This is why one cannot really pinpoint where to edit your text.

Also, the story line is really sweet. It reminded me of the film "Possession" (which actually doesn't have much to do with your plot, but still...) and it has many lively and contagious descriptions of Mark's feelings. I particularly liked that bit when Tom and Mark are holding in the darkness and stand still so that Mark's dad wont see them.

As you told me before, this novel is few years old. I've read some of your newer stories, so I can tell that your style is getting less spread and you add lots of suspence now.

Again, this is just my personal view. As I've always said, one has to be careful to make out which suggestions are worth taking and which ones not. Mine can be at the very bottom of your rejects ;-)

Take care, Kit
And please, Oh please, keep writing stuff for us!

Cheers,
G

Thanks for the comments.
I'm sorry that you felt that there wasn't enough 'action' for your taste.

Three of the main themes in the story are:
1) Mystery - what is the Tapping? Supernatural or all in Mark's head?
2) Psychological - can Mark recover from the trauma of his mum's death?
3) Romance - can Mark and Tom lower their barriers enough to become friends or even to form a relationship?
There are, of course, other sub-themes as well - e.g. being a gay teen in a small village.

Mark's interactions with Tom, and the friendship they slowly develop, all play a major part in both of the first two main themes. Given the personalities of the two boys, it would be unrealistic for that friendship to develop quickly. In any case, it's not really an 'action' story (except perhaps for the attempted rape), so you could probably skip most of the story without missing much 'action'.

Because it's a mystery, you wouldn't expect to know exactly what was going on in the first half of the story. Just as in a detective mystery, the reader is given the background and clues throughout the story, so by skipping over any 'non-action' bits they might miss some of those clues. As there is a supernatural element, there is a need to generate an 'atmosphere', and that requires some descriptive passages that hopefully contribute to that 'atmosphere', even though they don't contain much action.

Because of the psychological aspect, rapid developments can't really be expected and wouldn't be realistic if they occurred, especially bearing in mind that Mark has built up a protective mental shell around himself. He has to go through a healing process, and the reader has to find out why he feels some guilt about his mother's death. By achieving some understanding of the source of the Tapping, and by slowly letting Tom through his protective mental shell, Mark is able to begin the healing process.

I really don't think all that could be accomplished within a short story!


Thanks again for your comments!

Kit

Have to say I thought the length of the story allowed it room to breathe.  I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it anywhere near as much if it had been condensed.  I guess the other option would have been to throw in some more twists and turns to 'excite' the chapters but again I think it would have detracted from the overall feel of the story.  

I appreciated the fact that the characters and situations were given time to present themselves, I thought it allowed the story to be more than just a mystery to be solved and gave it much more depth, maybe thats just my personal preference, I enjoy character driven stories more than other more action driven ones.  A shorter version of the story might keep all of the ghost story but surely it would have to leave out a lot of the atmosphere building and character development.


S

I totally agree with you!

Tapping really gave the reader an insight into the characters, well... everytin. and by the end I had come to really care about what happened to them.

Kit, i think it was a brilliantly pieced together story

well done

Dear Kit,

At your suggestion I'm looking at your forum and have just read all the posts about Tapping. I do think it is an amazingly good story with suspense, love, kindness and a happy ending.

I don't have a problem suspending disbelief in the supernatural aspects of it but I think the thread got a bit obsessed with dicussions about whether they (the aspects) could be real. Perhaps I ought to start a private argument with Old Bob. I started suspending disbelief in the impossible with Alice in Wonderland and always quote the White Queen who was taught to believe six impossible things before breakfast.

Suspending disbelief is one thing but realism in characterisation is necessary for one to be able to trust the story and author at all. I put myself in Mark's shoes and I am a coward like him and sometimes brave like him and spy on Tom like him and watch Chris being forced to give a blow job and I can believe in him completely. There are no false notes. There is nothing to shock me out of my complete acceptance of the narration. That's what makes a really good story. And we can all suspend disbelief easily even when the things we accept are as way out as the magic in Harry Potter (which I read with enjoyment) but HP would be unreadable if one didn't empathise with the emotions of the good characters and hate the villains! To do that they had to be believable as people.

And I am a complete atheist and quite confident all the stuff about parallel worlds is rubbish. There is no ghost and there is no god and when Old Bob dies he won't discover anything because there is no afterlife either. (Dear Old Bob, please don't take offence - I'm not trying to be offensive!)

And supernatural or not the story is excellent. Kit, you deserve the accolade.

Love,
Anthony