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[Graeme] Leopard Skin Cover


Leopard Skin Cover  

29 members have voted

  1. 1. Which player is gay?

    • Roger McDowell
      0
    • Charlie McDonald
    • Dave Islington
    • Deon Bradshaw
    • Jarrod Green
    • Jim Henderson
    • Oliver "Ollie" Bellesconi
      0
    • Owen Driver
    • Paul Crowman
    • Ryan Keen
    • Todd Underwood
    • Ty Flanders
    • None of the above
      0


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  • Site Administrator

AHHHhhhhh...  I think you nailed it.  All this time, we've just thought that Graeme was evil.  He's actually just trying to up his chapter read counts, by having us go over and over and over the chapters again and again.     :worship:

 

 

So that is what he is up too :o Just to spite him, I'm not going to go read the chapters :)

 

Secretly I am

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Wow I certainly didn't expect that. And I can see from the poll noone else did either :)

 

 

 

But I'm glad my notion that it would have to be one of the older established players was correct.

 

 

 

Now I'll have to go back and read the whole thing again to look for hints.

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  • Site Administrator

Thank you :) One of my beta-readers picked it, but that particular person is exceptionally suspicious, and has probably read too many of my stories :P

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  • Site Administrator

 

So I had Deon, Owen and Todd. Even with my last guess on the last chapter it was a epic fail :D

 

 

Well I take my hat off to you Graeme :worship: . This is a great story that had me waiting week after week for an update to find out how badly wrong I really was :gikkle: I loved the way that you had a lot of people guessing in a lot of different ways including myself. Then, when I think I'm factoring in your sneakiness, I think I have it all figured out.

 

The fact that it took me to the final chapter to find out and the shock I had even up until the final words that he spoke in the car, I was at a total loss and shocked at the revelation. For that, good job in itself. I think the shock made the rest of the chapter even more emotional to me. It felt like I was feeling what all the characters were feeling from the person coming out, to everyone that went through the reveal. I'd be lying if I didn't admit a tear or two may have shed after the dinner scene.

 

Looking sooooooo much forward to the next installment, but wondering how you will ever outdo this :) Somehow I know you will though ;)

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Thank you :) One of my beta-readers picked it, but that particular person is exceptionally suspicious, and has probably read too many of my stories :P

 

Naw, I mean - whoever that person was, they're probably just a sweet person, who noticed that the main central interaction was

between Dad and Brat,

and that it made sense that despite other feints, this elaboration of characters leant to one of them being Ken.  On the good side, CJames gets confounded by

my

guesses as well...

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  • Site Administrator

Speaking of which, doesn't this story qualify Graeme for next years' King of Evil Cliffhanger Award? I mean, what chapter wasn't a cliffhanger in this story? 0:)

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  • Site Administrator

Speaking of which, doesn't this story qualify Graeme for next years' King of Evil Cliffhanger Award? I mean, what chapter wasn't a cliffhanger in this story? 0:)

Any story posted this year qualifies for that award. That doesn't mean the author deserves it :P

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So now that it is over, i loved the story BUT i think you used the hook (keeping Ken's identify secret until the last chapter) a bit to the detriment of the story. Paul's character was definitively developed separately to lead readers to believe he was Ken - no problem there. However once things came to a head he almost fell of the map and the issues that were keeping him apart from the team were almost explained in a perfuntory manner to tie up details. The strength of the story is in the relationships, how the boys depend on each other and how that dependence builds and threatens the trust between them. Paul, Deon and others had trust issues as well. 

 

This criticism is not meant to take away from the story, rather having set a high bar, reader have higher expect ions on your writing.

 

Can't wait to read the second part when you are ready

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  • Site Administrator

So now that it is over, i loved the story BUT i think you used the hook (keeping Ken's identify secret until the last chapter) a bit to the detriment of the story. Paul's character was definitively developed separately to lead readers to believe he was Ken - no problem there. However once things came to a head he almost fell of the map and the issues that were keeping him apart from the team were almost explained in a perfuntory manner to tie up details. The strength of the story is in the relationships, how the boys depend on each other and how that dependence builds and threatens the trust between them. Paul, Deon and others had trust issues as well.

A fair criticism :) The main characters were not all equal in treatment, and it shows. I personally blame Ty...he kept wanting to take over and I was weak-willed enough to give him lots of storytime :P Seriously, though, there are characters that I felt didn't get the attention they deserved. In hindsight, Ryan, Dave, and Owen should've had more storytime.

 

 

If you look carefully, Paul's storytime came predominantly on weekends when he had his other activities. Outside of that, he was just a regular guy with not much special going on; the exceptions being his relationship with his sister, and the radio broadcasts. But even the radio station events ties in with Paul's situation, because the players were being paid to do those broadcasts. That's why he was so keen to do them (and why Tony suggested him in the first place). The finale of the story occurs before the weekend, and that is the real reason Paul doesn't make a big appearance in the ending.

 

One thing you'll see a reasonable amount in my writing is letting the readers make assumptions, and then show them that the assumptions were incorrect. Paul is a good example of this. There is very little in his behaviour to make a reader think he's gay -- it was just the fact that he was clearly hiding something. It started with the first time coinciding with Ken's visit to the nightclub, but he continued to sneak out every weekend, while the 'Ken' story line made it quite clear that Ken generally only went to the nightclub once a month. Is being gay the only thing that a person would want hidden? Of course not, as Paul showed.

 

 

I tried to write the story such that the reader didn't need to buy into the 'Ken' mystery. I know I made a big thing of that with this thread, but I tried to ensure that the rest of the story was interesting, too. The story can hopefully be read without trying to work out which player was 'Ken'.

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  • 11 months later...

      Graeme writes with dates clearly in mind.   Even if the following chronology of "Leopard Skin Cover" has errors, it may be helpful to any reader who strays into this old forum.   I did something similar for "Leopard Spots" on the 26th May 2015.

 

Chapter   Dates

 

Dramatis personae

                Friday 21st February 2014, as Graeme said

1              Friday 21st

2              Saturday 22nd

3              Sunday 23rd,  Monday 24th

4              Monday 24th

5              Tuesday 25th

6              Wednesday 26th February

7              Saturday 1st March

8              Sunday 2nd

9              Monday 3rd

10            Wednesday 5th

11            Wednesday 5th to Friday 7th

12            Saturday 8th,  Sunday 9th

13            Friday 14th to Monday 17th

14            Monday 17th

15            Tuesday 18th to Friday 21st March 2014

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  • 1 year later...

It was Jim?! :o

 

Damn, I was way off. :lol: I was leaning heavily towards Paul since he tended to make excuses to leave/sneak out. 'Course, when it turns out it was because he got a new job to pay off the debt his girlfriend left him with, I was back to square one.

 

Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise! :D

 

Now... off to Leopard Spots!

Edited by Drew Espinosa
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It was Jim?! :o

 

Damn, I was way off. :lol: I was leaning heavily towards Paul since he tended to make excuses to leave sneak out. 'Course, when it turns out it was because he got a new job to pay off the debt his girlfriend left him with, I was back to square one.

 

Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise! :D

 

Now... off to Leopard Spots!

 

LOL, Drew, now I can post the comment I didn't want to make in your status update thread about Leopard Skin for fear of spoilers. ;)

 

There will be more about Ty and Jim as you keep going. The brat is a main character in book 2. That's all I can say without making any spoilers. Although, truth to tell the whole Leopards team plays the main role.

Edited by Timothy M.
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Hey, I just noticed (after seeing Ken's post above about the dates) that this book is only 15 chapters long. I had remembered it as longer. :huh: It's especially surprising when you consider that Leopard Spots has 58 chapters, even though Graeme ended it early to take a hiatus.

 

PS: I didn't notice at the time that Ken had done these chapters, too. He really was a sweetheart. :hug:

Edited by impunity
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LOL, Drew, now I can post the comment I didn't want to make in your status update thread about Leopard Skin for fear of spoilers. ;)

 

There will be more about Ty and Jim as you keep going. The brat is a main character in book 2. That's all I can say without making any spoilers. Although, truth to tell the whole Leopards team plays the main role.

I look forward to more of Ty :D I mean, not only is he and Dad great to read about, but also he and Karen. They're just such a sweet couple, and she's the right girl to housebreak the brat! :lol::P

 

I was pretty convinced it was Paul, too. :rolleyes:

 

Dad and the brat are too awesome for words! :wub:

 

Enjoy book 2. :)

Gah! I know! :gikkle: I've come to the realization about Graeme's stories when it has a mystery: that the first assumptions or conclusions the reader makes will most likely be wrong. :rolleyes: On the plus, it's fun trying to figure it all out! :D

 

Ooh! Question, does the brat start calling Tony, "stepdad"? :P

Edited by Drew Espinosa
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Hey, I just noticed (after seeing Ken's post above about the dates) that this book is only 15 chapters long. I had remembered it as longer. :huh: It's especially surprising when you consider that Leopard Spots has 58 chapters, even though Graeme ended it early to take a hiatus.

 

PS: I didn't notice at the time that Ken had done these chapters, too. He really was a sweetheart. :hug:

 

The plot line in this book was very much focused on Ken and Tony, and there was a limit to how long the mystery could be dragged out. Book 2 has several parallel plotlines.

 

Yeah, so sad about the real life Ken. He would have loved book 3 too.  :(

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Ooh! Question, does the brat start calling Tony, "stepdad"? :P

He does not, but there's a hilarious chapter when he gives another character a "family" nickname. :lol:

 

And he finds plenty of other ways to annoy Tony. As you'd expect. :rolleyes:

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