The plot against Adrien was utterly hilarious! Can't wait to see how that pans out.

I predict dire fallout as a result of the drunken 4, and the comments about the politics hit just the right note with me; great realism in that.

Not into prediction but yeah, sharing an intimate moment with friends you bring back from a night-club drunk could be a not so smart move. Tabarnak de famille de fifs, ces Lemoureaux! Leur aîné Adrien c'est une sucette à mecs!

We'll see how this turns out, but thanks for bringing in some adventure and action. Now they need to arrest some nationalist activists, stop a few bars and restaurants from being racketed by mobsters and we'll be all set.

Aah so Adrien is just using Loic for relief.

Now that chapter was totally naughty! I absolutely loved it!

Ok, a riddle....What's better than a pool party?

Finally, an author who knows what adventure is all about! I just can't wait to see how Adrien will try to squirm his way out of this one. Then there's Ben...how will he take advantage of the situation? Boy sucette, indeed.

From my point of view, this must have been a difficult chapter to write. It just strikes me that having a foursome scene with our 2 lovers, Ben and Steph, coming out of it with their relationship intact, must have been a challenge. As an author, you took on a big risk. Well done, Jack!

By the way, the ending unquestionably qualifies as a cliffhanger!

Conner

Thank you all for your comments!

Now I noticed some of you may be wondering how to say the French names without f**king it up. Let me help.

Benoît - "Be-nwa" - The e sound as in bet
Julien - "Zhew-lain" - This one is more tricky...the J in French is like the s in measure, almost a sh-sound but not the same. And then the u, it doesn't exist in English...it's the same as German ü. Eh...it's like that sound when you say "oo" and you keep the lip rounded there and then say the "ee" instead of "oo". And finally "ien" is a nasal sound...almost the same as "ain" in again, but don't say the n and use your nose a little. This is tricky...I still cannot get this name right in French.
Adrien - "Ad-rain" - Same nasal sound "ien" that I told you about with "Julien".
Loïc - "Lo-eek" - Probably the simplest name to say. The two dots on the letter means the vowels are separate, not combine. If you have "Loic", it would sound like "Lwak" instead.
Mathieu - "Ma-tyoh" - The "eu" is like German "ö". It doesn't exist in English, but it's very close to the sound i in birth, without saying the r.
Julie - "Zhew-lee"
Marie - "Ma-ree" - French r is like choking on something, so it's not like English. It comes from the throat...pretty close when you say "brrrrr" from the throat. I never mastered the French r...I screw it up all the time.

Here's the guideline to help you what I am talking about.

http://www.jump-gate.com/languages/french/french1.html


It's funny how the French people try very hard to curse in joual and get it wrong.

No one says "mec"...that is so-so French! It's always "gars".

For French beginners trying to sound out the French 'u', here's a trick.

Pucker up your lips, like for a kiss or to whistle, then try saying the English 'e' as in tree, keeping the pucker in place.


Conner

That's Molière's way in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. But from my experience English natives will have a hard time with a sentence like: "Luc a vu le bus dans la rue."

Your phonetics course is relatively accurate, Jack. Of course, there's a BUT, though.
Julien: the J is pronounced as in English, without the [d] sound [dʒu:ljən] for Julian [ʒyljɛ̃] for Julien
One of the problems in the link you give is that the sound clips are way too short. There are many places where you will get more sounds in context. BTW Talon Rider gave the link to readplease.com, a software to review text that reads it aloud, and you can download electronic voices. For all it's worth, they're not too bad reading text out loud, so for you language learners, you might want to have a look.

Yes. I refrained from using IPA because it will confuse people, so I tried using other ways. The link was a good copy from Google...I didn't even check them out.


Gotta love Molière...I'm still reading some of his works.

"La faiblesse humaine est d'avoir des curiosités d'apprendre ce qu'on ne voudrait pas savoir."
("Human weakess is to have some curiosities to learn what we wouldn't want to know.")

Beautiful quote...

Canada photos. Mostly are of Montreal. I took them all myself.

http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j205/CasseCou/Canada/

Thought you might want to get some great photos of Montreal. I encourage you to look at them so you can get the exact picture.

Enjoy.

Thanks for sharing

Love seeing old Buildings like that.

(MtlAot1008 and MtlAot1007)

Really great pics, Jack. Well done!

There's one, I believe, taken on Ille Ste Helene, with the big globe-like structure in the background. Did you know that that structure, when first built, was the USA pavillion at Expo 67 (World Exposition 1967)? 1967 was also Canada's centennial year. That brought back a lot of memories. I was in my graduating year of high school. I had purchased a season's student pass and skipped a whole lot of school in May and June to see Expo...before the crowds ever got there. Expo became my personal playground; I felt like I owned the place.

Thanks for that.

Conner

Ta-ta!

http://www.gayauthors.org/eficiton/viewsto...&chapter=16

Two more Canada chapters and the boys are going back to the States. That I can tell you now.

Ooh so Adrian likes to both both ways. And nothing like hating on another part of the country, kinda like what we likes to do with New Jersey and West Virginia

Hey, I LIKE New Jersey and West Virginia, two of my favorite states; even though I've never lived in either one, they're great places to visit--the first for my many friends, and the second for great scenery and music.

--Rigel

Well New Jersey is more for jokes then anything....

Hehe I did make fun of the Jersey people last week. I always do.

Yikes!!! And you even went so far as to pick Toronto

TO is probably hated by 29 million of 33 million Canadians! Especially us rednecks from Alberta

Excellent Chapter Jack! The hockey game made it that much better for me, not enough hockey in stories it seems.

So, the question is with Adriens' non-label sexual status, and it seems the other four guys laissez-faire attitude, could we have an interesting scene before Steph and Ben head home to the states?

Toronto bashing is at least something most of Canada share in common. That and making stupid jokes about the Newfies.

As for your last question you'll see in a due time.

Thanks guys.

Poor Adrien! What a nasty joke to play on him! This was really cruel, just so Ben could pay him back with a silly "sobriquet" (nickname). Are all Canadians this nasty?
Still discovering Montréal and the mores of the locals. There are obviously questions unanswered as to the sentimental happenings of the various actors of this story.

This is very uncool. The stereotype of Jews being stingy stems back to the Middle Ages, when the Church forbade money lending in any form. Since Jews had no such prohibitions, they became the de facto money lenders of Europe. Sadly, I still occasionally hear someone talking about "Jewing down" the price of something, or "They're being such Jews!" Just because you substitute the more acceptable word "Jewish" for "Jew" or "kike" doesn't make the stereotype any more acceptable. How many of us have heard the word "gay" used in a derogatory fashion? Just because someone uses "gay" instead of "fag", "fagot" or "queer" doesn't make the intent any more appropriate.

Using another analogy, it's OK for an author to use the term "nigger" in the context of a bigoted character who is clearly racist and likely to get a comeuppance, but only a racist author would dare to have a character in their story use the term matter-of-factly. I was going to PM Jack about this, but thought that the lesson is important for all gay authors to hear. Using "Jewish" to mean stingy is every bit as offensive as using the term "gay" to mean weak, effeminate and perverted.

I wasn't trying to be cool.

Well, sorry...but it was't the first time I did that. Outside the offensive context, they're just expressions with no intent to offend anyone. What's the difference? We all do that... People just choose to be offended over certain words... Some words may sound nothing to some people but some others would find them offensive. I can't be careful not offending everyone that I don't know.

You should have followed your first inclination and PM'd Jack. Frankly, you really do overstate the circumstance. You do come off well in the self-righteous department, though. Furthermore, your expressed intent to teach other gay authors a lesson is an insult and speaks to a presumptuousness often found amongst the very bigots you seek to chastise.

Sorry, Jack, but I shouldn't need to tell you that using the label for a person's heritage, which is something they have absolutely no control over, as a substitute for a derogatory remark is offensive. I shouldn't need to point that out to the readers of gay fiction. Yes, it's very easy to offend blonds, geeks, Canadians and a host of other groups of people, but unless you have been outright hated for being who you are, you can't fathom the effect a few words can have on a person. Hitler rounded up and sent gays to the concentration camps, too.

I didn't choose to be born to Jewish parents and I didn't choose to be offended by your writing. I would have been equally offended if you had used "Latino" to mean someone who is lazy, for example. And please don't presume to speak of all of us when you say "we all do that". If you condone the use of language that's actually pretty antisemitic (even if you don't realize that it is), then how can you expect anyone to respect people who are gay? I'm quite disappointed by your reply because it reflects your own beliefs and not just the ramblings of one of your characters. It's sad that it makes no difference to you. I never thought of you as a person who is insensitive.

I do understand what you're saying, Conner, and any further remarks will be via PM. Perhaps it did come off as a bit self-righteous of me in the way I phrased it, but I still feel that a sensitivity to things that are blatantly offensive to people of certain racial or ethnic backgrounds or of certain sexual orientations is a must for any author. I'm not trying to teach anyone a lesson - I'm asking other authors to be sensitive to the feelings of others. Bigotry in any form degrades a story.

PM...please...not in my story's topic. This concerns about my writing, not the story itself.

I really enjoyed this chapter, Jack!

Whoever said revenge is sweet certainly knew what they were talking about. I did like the way Adrien took it all in stride, though. Boy lollipop - that's a riot.

I'm delighted with the way you're able to make the dialogue flow so well, given that you provide the translations as you go along. Well done.

Loic is sweet! I loved his answer to Steph's question around loving Julien.

I'm counting on Ben passing his driver's test. I really want to hear about Quebec City.

Conner

http://www.gayauthors.org/eficiton/viewsto...&chapter=17

Ta-ta!

Sadly Bondwriter is accusing me of Belgian bashing. If you know what I'm talking about.

I really do have to get back to Quebec city sometime soon. It's a beautiful city.

As a college student in Montreal, friends and I would make an annual trek to Quebec in the winter for the Quebec carnival - to see the Bonhomme and, of course, drink ourselves silly in the streets along with everyone else. Those were good times.

Oh yeah, your story. Again, a great chapter, Jack!

You especially got my interest peaked with Adrien's admission to Steph about his 'gay past' (and apparently, his gay future). It was a sweet exchange.

So, you don't like Belgian waffles or what???


Conner

A nice chapter indeed. It's all quite mellow, and the relationships between characters evolve nicely. I hope Ben drives carefully. And if Steph keeps on going to yuppie Belgian restaurants, he shouldn't complain about prices. Why don't they buy groceries and cook a bit, after all? Rather than blaming the Belgians for all their woes...

BTW, Jack, do you have a count of meals in this story? They seem to be guzzling down starch and fat like crazy, one of your characters should have heart problems soon!

Be assured, afterall...the boys did have a decent Italian dinner with wine (good artery declogger)

And Steph will have some salmon with his mother.

Hey Jack

Another awesome chapter, thanks.

But i hope it isn't the end yet!!!!

Another good chapter

Great chapters! (I've been away, so I read both at once).

The flirtation between Adrien and Steph was cute; very well done. Adrien's "outing" and aftermath was hilarious!

I did notice a few subtle put-downs of the French.

The background for Quebec and the details really made this whole trip first-class IMHO.

Well done Jack!

http://www.gayauthors.org/eficiton/viewsto...&chapter=18

Another great chapter.

I loved the way it wound down the Canadian trip; and sort of prepared the way for steph to return to "normal life" which might be a bit of a shock for him.

Boy does Adrien likes to grab packages

Be interesting to see what Steph will do back home, will he come out to his friends or not.

Question...what's your favorite chapter so far?

Hrmmm... For me, it had to be their arrival in Montreal...

Yes, that makes sense for you, CJ.....seeing that you live and vacation in the wilderness! Big cities must impress you a lot.

I'm just joking, CJ! You're the most travelled goat I know!

As for me, the chapter where Adrien got set up by his brother, Ben, and the guys was my favourite - Boy Lollipop!.

The French lessons have been GREAT!!! So that would be every chapter.

Conner

My favorite chapters are the country ones. I think the one(s) in which they get stuck in the snow storm are among my favorites. I'd have favorite pages in the Montreal trip (the evening ending at the night club with them meeting Loïc & Julien) rather than a favorite chapter.

The latest chapter and the whole marivaudage was cute. What I'll remember from activities available in Montreal:
1/ eating varied international carbs (with the occasional fat)
2/ having sex
3/ drinking beer
4/ having group sex
5/ shopping
6/ playing pranks involving BJs
7/ having sex in the snow

Lalalalalalala!

http://www.gayauthors.org/eficiton/viewsto...&chapter=19

Great chapter, Oh Kool One!

I was happy to see Matt back in action! My mother often used the same expression as Mrs. Lemoureaux "...put me in an early grave." Not about me tho!

So it looks like the next adventure for our two heroes might be the coming out process, maybe the forced out process. Steph's the one who it seems will have the more difficult time of it. Krist's remarks were exactly helpful...



Yes, uncertainty for sure. I have this bad feeling Ben may regret his little lie about the foreigner thing being the senior's issue. Who is this senior, anyways? My short term memory sucks.

Conner

You can find the senior in the chapter before the Canada trip...10 or 11...I forgot which.

Great chapter, kind of hard seeing Steph back in "notmal life" with the end of his trip. The comments by Krist seem to me to be mainly accepting. In fact, I think he has suspected for a long time about Steph and Ben and is trying to lure them out. (I recall some of his earlier comments on the issue).

BTW, Jack, I love your flair for names; "Krist" is a superb one. I love unusual names.



Lol, well, yes, I do tend to stay away from cities, so good point even though I have been to plenty of 'em. LoL!

Yes, it's "notmal"! :

Surely you can't expect a goat to type well?

I can't wait for next chapter

Just letting you know I may take a week or two to release Chapter 20.

It's almost a year since I started writing this story...so I want to take my time to make Chapter 20 a really special one...one year anniversary edition.

Thanks.

PS - I'm really honored that my story has been a featured story in E-Fiction. Thanks guys!

So, any special features for the anniversary episode? Like coming out to Kris who turns out to be having fun with Alex and Jake?

I do hope you mean Jake, the freind, and not Jake, the dog... Not for that kind of fun...