Taking Chances, by E. L. Van Hine and L.H. Nicoll

[Bigheart]

Yup I sure am. I,m always up by 6.30 at least, even in winter..I cant lay around in bed, I have updates to check lol. Yes sadly I fear you are right, re the sadness with worrell. I wonder if Ennis will go and see Jacks mum at lightining flat now?Your going out? but but but,that means real life is getting in the way of the important things, like hip thrusts!!  Good grief June I hope you feel better soon lol. Real life cant be good for you ya know lol. Have a good day.

Haha, yeah, I must be losing my mind eh, letting RL get in the way of my computer time and reading Slash!! LOL! Well souxi, from February till about July I've pratically been online day and night, I used to be very active on the DC boards and it's over there that I got addicted to reading Slash. I'm taking it much easier now  it was just getting a bit too much, taking up ALL my time. I still spend a hell of a lot of time reading Slash, I just can't stay away from that!  Especially not from E+E! 

[opinionista]

Yup I sure am. I,m always up by 6.30 at least, even in winter..I cant lay around in bed, I have updates to check lol. Yes sadly I fear you are right, re the sadness with worrell. I wonder if Ennis will go and see Jacks mum at lightining flat now?Your going out? but but but,that means real life is getting in the way of the important things, like hip thrusts!!  Good grief June I hope you feel better soon lol. Real life cant be good for you ya know lol. Have a good day.

Hey Souxi,

I was wondering the same thing: if Ennis was going to drive to Lightning Flat to give Jack's mother the news. But somehow I don't think so, not with junior with a sprained ankle, and Ellery with a dislocated rib. I don't see Ennis putting Ellery in more pain than he already is. It's a bad idea, IMO. It'll be too much considering the hard time Ellery had in Brokeback. Besides, Ennis told himself he didn't want Ellery to feel like leftovers, again. He could go by himself, but it'll be illegal I think. Ellery has to deliver those news himself as a part of his job.   

Anyway, I think Ennis needs some closure now. He'll always love Jack, but he has to stop grieving sometime, and go on with his life. I think it will be just a phone call, just like Wes suggested. But we'll see what the writer decides!

[MaineWriter]

Greetings everyone,

Leslie checking in from Boston. I can't get the wifi on my laptop to work so I am here in the business center. Sigh...it's always something.

Thanks for another great chapter, Louise.

For updates on our Boston get together, go check the New England gatherinig thread Chez Tremblay. We are having a blast!

Leslie

[louisev]

Louise, I totally agree with you.  No matter what brought Jack to Austin that fateful night, he certainly did not ask for or deserve what happened to him. 

I don't mean to re-hash past chapters, but I just wanted to share a few thoughts.  What I appreciated about the "last confession" was it brought out aspects of Jack's conflicted life which rang true with me.  Yes he was a gay man, and had some anonymous sex with men at times (as gay men sometimes will do).  And he most likely was lonely and attracted to Worrell (though I got the impression Worrell creeped him out by the time they left the bar).  But he was married and loved his wife and son, he still thought of his parents’ well being, and he also appreciated how Ennis might feel about their fidelity to each other.   

I know Ennis may never get over what happened to Jack, and the way you write about Ennis's grief also rings true with me.  It is always lurking behind the surface.  Ok, enough with this or I will start crying again!

About the picture gallery, I will definitely check it out.  I noticed and loved some of the photos I saw on this thread.  I am on my way to the gallery!

Tara

Tara,

There is "no such thing" as rehashing old chapters!  Now that I have a statistic counter on my Livejournal, I can see what people are reading, and HOW MANY people are reading, and while there are certainly a whole lot of people up to date, there have been in the past 24 hours since I got the thing installed, indications of 3 people reading "Looking for Answers", one person reading "Taking Chances" and four people reading "A Second Chance" as well as more reading "Shelter" and the bulk reading "The Long Way Home."  Discussion is not limited to the latest chapter!

What I wrote about Jack's motives for going to Austin, and his regret about hurting Ennis with his other sexual activities, reflects my own belief that Jack loved Ennis deeply, and that his love for Ennis affected his emotions and behavior after their last meeting, leaving him with a need to look at himself, causing him to hesitate before meeting up with other men - even anonymous prostitutes.  I would even go so far as to say that his extracurricular sex with men was something he felt guilty about.  He didn't simply hide it to keep from angering Ennis - I think he hid it because he felt ashamed of it, that he was "not like Ennis", who clearly had not gone out seeking other men's company between their meetings.  But that is only my own fan fic interpretation.

[louisev]

 
Statistics and more statistics!

Okay, I have had a stats counter running on my latest three books for a full 24 hours, which gave an accurate measure of unique hosts that have connected up to read the Laramie Saga.  In a 24 hour period from noon yesterday to noon today CET, the number of unique hosts connecting to read the Laramie Saga (individual computers) is 285, with a total hit count of 3,500.

Holy COW!

Breakdown by country:

USA:  66%
Canada: 15%
UK: 6%
Germany: 6%
New Zealand: 2%
Netherlands: 2%
Hong Kong: 2%
Other: 4%

I am sure this will change slightly over the weekend, but overnight, America and Canada overtook the statistics (since they are in the later time zone) and smothered us Europeans, who are painfully overrepresented at Bettermost.

How many Americans are here on the discussion, anyhow?

[MaineWriter]

How many Americans? Where is neatfreak's list? That was pretty up-to-date last time she posted it, I think.

I am here...

L

[magicmountain]

You are a caution Louise - just like a kid in a candy store with your new all singing, all dancing statistics counter.

Perhaps instead of new chapters, from now on all we will be be getting are statistical updates!! LOL 

PS What percentage of readers are from Australia?

[louisev]

now don't be that way, Jo, you folks got 3 chapters out of my yesterday, and I have to scrub my stove for visitors before I get down to more gettin fancy in Riverton.

The answer to "how many users in Australia" is... on the weekly report I haven't got yet, but the reply must be, to date, part of the 4% that is "other."  I would say less than 3 have logged on in the last day since I am seeing the top 20.

[louisev]

Okay, I got off my duff and wrote an update:

http://louisev.livejournal.com/119274.html  "Chapter 61:  No Going Back"

[souxi]

Louise there is something weird going on with LJ. I can click on the link on the thread and read the next chapter, but on LJ, if I click on the forward arrow, it says, "error, you must be logged in to view this protected entry". Dunno why that is.