I have edited and reposted What Do You Want? to correct the numerous structural flaws and boo boos I created by not paying attention to what I was working on. It should be much more consistent, and make for a more readable and enjoyable? experience. It is still pretty dark, as was intended.
Then again I know I didn't fix everything, because as I'm writing this, I realized that I still didn't address the actions of Jim's three friends during the Event.
Let me try to explain here. Most people freeze in the face of an unexpected act of brutal violence. I know this from direct personal experience. It is human nature. Are we really seeing what is happening? Is that actually happening? And when something starts and ends quickly, you are often left wondering what happened as your mind tries to process and reprocess what you just witnessed. It is even more paralyzing for someone who is a trauma survivor such as myself, but even without that history, witnessing something like this is still shocking in the extreme. So Jim's friends didn't have mental stability and flexibility, the experience, and the training to be able to intervene before it was over. They were only able to help pick up the pieces.
Be well, and I hope you all and your families stay safe and healthy in these impossible times.
-Gil
I tell ya, I gotta write more often than every few years. Seriously, though, writing is a good outlet for me. It helps me de-stress and keeps me more sane. Not completely sane, you understand. Let's not set the bar too high. So I hope to have a new submission out soon. Does anybody have an opinion? A sequel to one of my previous works, or something new? Let me know.
On an unrelated topic, but one that is very important, I am saddened that it took the death of a fellow human being to Spur all of this discussion and social upheaval that is going on right now. But I am very happy that it looks like change is finally going to come. It's only 400 years overdue. If you hate me for saying that, you need to go on a quest for self-discovery and evaluation.
Well, I finally got another story written for you. Hope you like it. This one was fun. And it was insistent. I had to stop some other stuff I was doing because this demanded my attention. Now that it is done, I can try to remember what I was working on before. Heh.
I did notice that there is/was an error. Well, more than the usual stuff, this one was quite egregious. I replaced ESRB with MPAA in chapter 1. That was silly of me.
I have received some good feedback in the past on Betting It All. Thank you to those who took the time to send me something. Everything was appreciated, especially the critical stuff. That makes me a better writer.
The question I have about Betting It All for all y'all is, does anyone want to read a sequel? I have some ideas on where it could go, and besides, is any story ever really over? Let me know if you want to see a sequel to that, of if anyone has any ideas on what I should write next. I am open to any suggestions you might come up with.
Thanks again!
-Gilbert Moore
So, it has been two years since my first submission. I think it was received better than I expected. I got a lot of positive feedback, and some negative, which is just fine. I have in mind a couple new stories, one in the Naked In School universe, and another one about a mythical creature loose in the modern world. Heh. That one has been eating the most at me lately. We will see.
Thank you all for reading this, and for reading my first story. Even if you didn't like it, I'm still glad you read it.