RainbowDood

Weird... I had a sample of these show up in the mail today without ever ordering them... I think I bought from this company once like two years ago. Anyone else have that happen?

Hey all, So I won't be ashamed to admit that I've been out of the dating scene for quite a while. Working graveyard shifts combined with a relationship that ended badly, which left me single for almost a year. But I've bounced back and find myself in a conundrum. See, I'm ready to jump into dating once again in the hopes of finding Mr. Right, but I'd also like to try and find a Mr Right who at best shares my interest in diapers, and at least understands why I wear them to relax (this wasn't the case with my last relationship; thankfully I kept quiet, cuz he turned out to be the kind of guy who would post that info everywhere). So I'm putting up some age-old questions in search of some sage advice. 1. Where did you look to find your other half, either in person or online? 2. If you didn't find someone who is AB/DL but still understands and accepts your interests, how did you approach the subject with them? Thanks in advance to anyone who answers

Wow that's a lot of acronyms... Anyway, topic is what it says. I'm just wondering if there are any other LGBT AB/DLs in Southeast Michigan? I haven't been able to track down a decent social site on the web for such a niche group, so I figured here is as good a place as any to ask around. I won't lie and say it wouldn't be cool to meet somebody over IM and maybe even (God forbid!) have coffee or lunch!

My Triumvirate of favorite authors is: Robert Heinlein - favorite inside joke with my friends comes from him: "Do you Grok me, motherf----r?!" J.R. Ward - the Black Dagger Brotherhood was suggested to me by a friend, and while it started out like a standard vampire romance story, it shifted rapidly into horror/action/drama the likes of which I've not seen since my third fav... George R.R. Martin - When you've absolutely, positively had enough of elves, dwarves, halflings and happily-ever-after fantasy. Accept no substitutes. Others worth mentioning: Hero (Perry Moore, young adult), Magic's Pawn (Mercedes Lackey, semi-YA), The Malazan Book of the Fallen (fantasy balanced between Martin's brutality and Tolkien's whimsical; 14 books long, with at least one more Epilogue book to go), Redwall series (made my childhood), and let's just throw in Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooter series for good measure.

Despite the age of this forum, I figured I might as well throw this one out there. 24 year-old gay DL from Southeast Michigan, near Sterling Heights.

Meh, I work in the Novi area.

What I like about it: You do have the foundation of an opening here, with lots of room to expand upon. What's the part time job? What do the parents do? How old are the sisters? What could use improving: It's very very very compartmentalized as WB said- you could easily turn that paragraph into two chapters of a regular story. Just have to put the work into it. Also, the constant use of the word normal- generally when I write and want to get a point across by word repetition, I use the word no more than three times. That's it, end of story. Also, I try to put a sense of humor into the third use of the word. (Example: he had a normal house, with a normal white picket fence, with a normal dog name fluffy who, like every other dog, just had to use the neighbors lawn when he let Fluffy out to go). How I would recommend you proceed: Keep all the details and expand upon them in your first draft- but don't start out with it as a normal day. Start the day with something not normal happening. For the first time ever, his alarm doesn't go off and he's late for work. Or his tire blows out during the morning commute. Or the coffee from the coffee machine burns his wrist as he's running out the door. You know, something that NORMALLY goes wrong. Because really, the perfect "normal" doesn't exist outside of I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver. The small calamities of "normal" life are what make it exciting! Good luck and happy writing!

'Bartholomew' by The Silent Comedy. Thank you, 'Hatfields and McCoy's' for introducing me to this band!

*Raises glass* Here's to you and your enormous pair of brass ones. What you're doing, most people won't be confronted with a choice like this in their lifetime and no matter how they take it, you should feel genuinely feel proud of yourself for having the courage to say/write something that will change your life so profoundly. Please keep us posted- we're all rooting for you.

Well said, FF! My family has had deeply religious roots in the Catholic Church for generations. Everyone on both sides went to a Catholic school of some sort, did all the sacraments, took part in the community. And you know what? Even as a closet gay male, I enjoyed it. The sense of community, the usual emphasis on love and doing good works to earn your place in the hereafter- as opposed to just saying some words and suddenly being in a special club for all eternity. For the longest time, I wasn't even aware the the church looked down on people like me. And when I say "the church" I mean the bureaucracy centered in Vatican City. After I got out of grade school, our parish received a new pastor, one less in tune with the needs of the community and more in tune with the Pope and the local Bishop; literally overnight, the tone of our church changed from "Love one another and love God," to "Here is a list of things you must never ever do, or the supreme being who created you, judges you, and sentences you will send you to a place of fire and smoke and torture and suffering forever and ever until the end of time. But remember- he loves you!" Kind of ironic, then, that one of the first people who knew about me was a nun from the same parish. I never told and she never asked, but she had a sixth sense about it- I was one of several kids who were, shall we say, questioning things and taken under her wing/habit. She was very tuned in to the fact that I was conflicted and often stepped up to say "Don't listen to all the fire and brimstone- he doesn't know his head from his *** (swear, her words not mine!). He just wants attention since he's new. Listen to yourself and what you think God is telling you." So when I see people like that barking and shouting and raising Cain, I get a little frustrated that more people aren't standing up to them and challenging their outdated assumptions. But I can also look back and remember that it was someone from the same clergy that helped pull me through that first phase of finding who I am. I guess, in a rambly sort of way, I'm saying "Thank you," to all the people of faith who don't think like Westboro, who publicly accept us for who we are- people who often love God as much as yourselves- and "You know, silence is almost as bad as consent" to those who aren't as vocal in their disapproval. Peace, Love, and Righteousness to all

I actually was greatly interested in these stories when they broke. I'm not a huge comic nerd, but I read a handful of books on a regular basis. In regards to the DC/Marvel timing, it's my understanding that the storylines are worked out around a year in advance of printing, so while the ANNOUNCEMENT may have been motivated by the Northstar wedding, the storyline of Alan Scott being gay was prepared quite some time in advance. It wasn't something that was decided a month in advance. So while I question their publicity gathering tactics, I applaud their inclusiveness. I remember going through that awkward phase in High School, trying to find books with LGBT characters in any form- major, minor, walk-on parts- Thom Creed in 'Hero', Blaylock from the Black Dagger Brotherhood, and Tony Foster in 'Smoke and Shadows'. Anything to show me that I wasn't the proverbial freak show (something I knew to be true but, like every teenager, didn't believe). For a while I was a huge supporter of Mercedes Lackey just because of her Magic's Pawn trilogy from the late 80s. Despite the fact that the protagonist went through hell and back, then *SPOILERS* died in a horrific manner, I bought those books and never gave em up. Alas, I still try to find books and comics with LGBT characters now and then, with some success but not enough. So in my opinion, it's the lack of characters that bothers me the most, UNLESS the character change is done in a way that is not fitting with the story. If Johnny Superhero is chilling with the ladies in issue 11 and suddenly comes out to his parents in issue 12 with no warnings or clues, then I as a reader feel cheated.

'Little Talks' - Of Monsters and Men