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Be My Boyfriend Challenge  [message #76523] Mon, 03 February 2020 18:24 Go to next message
Bisexual_Guy is currently offline  Bisexual_Guy

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Location: USA Midwest
Registered: September 2015
Messages: 152



I enjoyed the story "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the "Be  My Boyfriend" challenge.  Victor Thomas is growing as an author.  

I live less than three hours from where the fictional high school in Labette County, Kansas, would be, and am familiar with a little of the territory, such as Pittsburg, Parsons, Joplin Missouri, and so on.  I think Victor does a good job on  the description of the types of stuff gay and bi guys face in such an environment.  I grew up 5 hours from the fictional location, in rural Missouri, and am all too familiar with the prejudices in some areas.  

I was saddened to see so few entries in the challenge just ended.  Some of the best stories on the IOMfAtS site have arrived there in the writing challenges.  However, timing might have played a part.  In the United States, for example, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve and New Year's Day all happen in a 33 day time span.  Some authors may have decided that time was too limited to write the type of story they wished.

Don's reaction in Kansas after living in Virginia, and what he described as happening in his Virginia high school, was right on the proverbial money.  We lose too many of our gay persons to suicide.  It is a tragedy to have a world where this happens.

Victor, when are you going to write the story of how Andrew got his boyfriend?  Some of us would like to know.  

Timmy, thanks for hosting the challenges.


Re: Be My Boyfriend Challenge  [message #76524 is a reply to message #76523] Mon, 03 February 2020 19:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I was also disappointed in the sparse number of entries. Perhaps it was my fault. I fell for the blond lad in the video, as did so many online folk. So perhaps it was a story challenge about my own fantasies, and missed the mark for many

There's a whole back story. If you search for tik tok, @Vulang and @_benzyme_ you wil see that Vulang Nguyen filmed his friend Ben in almost a parody of cute love videos. Vuling is a good director, and Ben is a good actor. Vulang has several (incomplete) videos of attempting to get more than one other young gentleman to kiss him, hold his hand, love him.

Even so folk felt it was a real coming out video, pure wishful thinking. Then they fet it was queer-baiting. I doubt that very much. If Ben had been less beautiful no-one would have thought anything of it. One author felt that, because he could identify the boys in real life, a gay story surrounding the video might be a step too far. I respect his thinking, though disagree.

Neither lad is gay, but nor were the actors in Brokeback Mountain. It was a well acted four part vignette. In contrast to Brokeback Mountain I found Be My Boyfriend to be a delight, and understated.




Moving to I Want to Hold Your Hand, I adored the interpretation of the challenge. I read it when t first arrived and found it to be a delight. I would also like more. However, asking an author for more of the same story may gve them an uphill struggle. I'd just like more from you, Victor, please



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Be My Boyfriend Challenge  [message #76556 is a reply to message #76523] Sun, 23 February 2020 14:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Victor is currently offline  Victor

Getting started
Location: Southwest Missoure
Registered: July 2017
Messages: 5




I'm glad you enjoyed the story, and that you are at least somewhat familiar with the area in Southeast Kansas where the stories take place.  The town is real, I just changed the name slightly.  It's where I grew up and went to school back in the 70's.  I'm retired from the U.S. Navy and currently live in Joplin MO.  I like to think that I'm getting better as I write more and more stories.  I have a four part story that I'm working on that's close to eight hundred pages so far.  I've been working on it off and on for ten years now and hope to finish it sometime in the near future.  It will explain some of the background that I've touched on in these short stories, such as why the school is more tollerant then most schools and other topics.  The story about Andrew and Tristan is on the site and is called The Best and Worst Day of My Life.  The one about Trevor and Lucas is simply called Trevor and Lucas, and the one featuring Cole is called Waiting For My Boyfriend.  If you read the stories from the beginning you will notice that they have characters that carry over from story to story, usually just being mentioned but occasionally they play a small part in the current story.  The order on the web site is the chronological order, although future stories will take place earlier.  I have a couple of stories in progress but I don't know when they will be ready, if ever.  The current challenge I have no idea what I can do with it.  
Re: Be My Boyfriend Challenge  [message #76557 is a reply to message #76556] Sun, 23 February 2020 17:57 Go to previous message
Bisexual_Guy is currently offline  Bisexual_Guy

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Location: USA Midwest
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Victor, I am re-reading "The Best and Worst Day of My Life"    http://iomfats.org/storyshelf/hosted/victor-thomas/shorts/th e-best-and-worst-day-of-my-life.html     and I had read it before, but not read it again more than once since it was posted in February of 2018.  My favorite stories by you are  A) Leaving Home,  and  B) Independence Day,  and  C) Trevor and Lucas: Summer Vacation,  and  D) Waiting for My Boyfriend,  and  E) one of my two top favorites, The Best Christmas,  and F) I Want to Hold Your Hand.  Each of those last two stories I have re-read at least five times.  Each of your stories is worth reading again, but those are my personal favorites.

Victor's stories can be found at:     http://iomfats.org/storyshelf/hosted/victor-thomas/     I did not list all of them.

Victor, I hope time permits you to finish the projects you are working on.  I hope to get a chance to read them when you finish.
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