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The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73277] Fri, 25 August 2017 06:57 Go to next message
Bisexual_Guy is currently offline  Bisexual_Guy

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Once again, Geron Kees has a winner of a short story!  I liked the "homage" to the Hardy Boys Detective Stories I read in the 1950s and 1960s, before the earlier books began to be "updated."  Our family had a box of books which included 25 of the ORIGINAL Hardy Boys books, some Nancy Drew, and a few of various other books.  I read the Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew, and this story fits the mood of the originals.  Well done, Geron!

the story had elements of more than one of the old books.  Great to see some of the forties and fifties terminology used here, yet arranged so even those born much more recently than I am (I grew up in the 50s and 60s) could understand and enjoy the story.  The same-sex interests were well done, and realistically with attitudes from the 40s and 50s and 50s.  Geron, you even managed to capture the somewhat more rural atmosphere of that time, when needed, as well.

I thought you might have gone into some other elements as well, such as exploring Joe and Frank having to pretend to like the girls in a differing way than they did.  But that would have made the story longer, and wasn't really necessary.  Should you ever do a couple of sequels, that might be pursued a bit.  

Hopefully, soon a sequel to The Odd, Onward Door will appear, and perhaps a new Charlie Boone story? (Hint, hint.)

Another good and enjoyable story.   Well done, Geron.  I heartily recommend The House of Storms.
Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73281 is a reply to message #73277] Fri, 25 August 2017 12:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

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When Geron mentioned this to me I asked if he fancied writing a Bobbsey Twins tale, too! And I don't mean about inter-twin romance, not that I count that as incest as long as the couples are the same sex!

For reasons I don't understand at all, I, here in England, found Bobbsey Twins books, by the Laura Lee Hope Syndicate, in my local, obscure corner shop! They were great for a 1952 baby, and the Americanish they spoke was a learning experience.

[Updated on: Fri, 25 August 2017 13:04]




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: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73282 is a reply to message #73277] Fri, 25 August 2017 12:57 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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I heartily agree with Bisexual Guy's comments about 'House of Storms'.

I knew nothing about the Hardy Boys who, as far as I can tell, appear to have stayed in North America. However, that didn't detract from my enjoyment of what I'd term 'a rollicking good yarn' that benefitted no end from Geron's attention to detail as well as considerable research to establish both time and location.

It may not have been particularly gay or romantic, but it was darned good story and well worth reading.

Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73283 is a reply to message #73281] Fri, 25 August 2017 14:33 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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"Quote:"
timmy wrote on Fri, 25 August 2017 12:28When Geron mentioned this to me I asked if he fancied writing a Bobbsey Twins tale, too! And I don't mean about inter-twin romance, not that I count that as incest as long as the couples are the same sex!

For reasons I don't understand at all, I, here in England, found Bobbsey Twins books, by the Laura Lee Hope Syndicate, in my local, obscure corner shop! They were great for a 1952 baby, and the Americanish they spoke was a learning experience.


--I also read some of The Bobbsey Twins books.  Probably about three were included in the box of books my parents bought at an auction, and as a preteen I bought another four or five, but quickly aged out of those.  In the earliest books the twins were four and eight years of age; later in the series they were upgraded to six and twelve.  Wikipedia has an interesting article on The Bobbsey Twins.  The Hardy Boys books, the Nancy Drew books, and the Tom Swift, Jr. Adventures, offered more plot possibilities, since they featured older characters.  In fact, sometimes Nancy Drew and Frank and Joe Hardy would team up in the books of the 1980s.  One book caught my attention and I bought it when the back cover read something like this:  

"Frank and Joe Hardy are newly married and on their way to Egypt for their honeymoon with their brides, Nancy Drew and Bess Marvin.  Not!  But the four of them are working undercover for the State Department, investing a number of international jewel thefts...." or something like that.

[Updated on: Fri, 25 August 2017 14:58]

Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73297 is a reply to message #73277] Sun, 27 August 2017 03:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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Quote:

Bisexual_Guy wrote on Fri, 25 August 2017 06:57Once again, Geron Kees has a winner of a short story!  I liked the "homage" to the Hardy Boys Detective Stories I read in the 1950s and 1960s, before the earlier books began to be "updated."  Our family had a box of books which included 25 of the ORIGINAL Hardy Boys books, some Nancy Drew, and a few of various other books.  I read the Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew, and this story fits the mood of the originals.  Well done, Geron!

the story had elements of more than one of the old books.  Great to see some of the forties and fifties terminology used here, yet arranged so even those born much more recently than I am (I grew up in the 50s and 60s) could understand and enjoy the story.  The same-sex interests were well done, and realistically with attitudes from the 40s and 50s and 50s.  Geron, you even managed to capture the somewhat more rural atmosphere of that time, when needed, as well.

I thought you might have gone into some other elements as well, such as exploring Joe and Frank having to pretend to like the girls in a differing way than they did.  But that would have made the story longer, and wasn't really necessary.  Should you ever do a couple of sequels, that might be pursued a bit.  

Hopefully, soon a sequel to The Odd, Onward Door will appear, and perhaps a new Charlie Boone story? (Hint, hint.)

Another good and enjoyable story.   Well done, Geron.  I heartily recommend The House of Storms.

--

I was born in 1967, so it was a stretch for me to imagine what being gay might be like in 1948. I did research the subject, but what I found also needed to be used in keeping with the fairly straight-laced attitudes of the Hardy Boys series. I just decided to keep the gay element low-key, in keeping with the perception of what being gay was like in 1948, because I am also quite sure that people loved just as strongly and passionately then as in any other era of history. But not in a Hardy Boys novel!

I read the original series written in the twenties and thirties when I was a kid. My dad had a big box of that stuff that had been handed down in his family. When I happened upon copies of the later 'updated' revisions, I was aghast at how badly they had butchered them. Anyone wanting to read those stories now should find the originals online.

The thing about being gay is that it does not preclude anyone from liking girls. I considered that my Frank and Joe actually liked the girls they were hanging out with, but were simply not sexually attracted to them. So they wouldn't have to pretend much at all. It's not like provocative, overt sexual mannerisms were as normal between teens of the opposite sex in 1948 as they are today. So I just kind of wrote around that subject, figuring it was not that important to the story as a whole.

I knew when I wrote The Odd, Onward Door that there would be sequels. This story is also a kind of look back at some of the science fiction stuff I read as a kid. No need to explain the science, as technology at the level of interstellar transportation portals might as well be magic to us at our current level of science. But we have reached a level of science and technology where we do understand that we do not understand everything, and so technology once considered impossible is being given a second look these days.

I am currently writing the third story in the Mooi set, and then need to cook up something for the new challenge. But I do want to do more experimentation with ideas like these last two stories.

Charlie and Kippy are kind of holiday-oriented. I should have hauled them out for Independence Day (Kippy loves rockets and other pointy things). But I do want to add to their storyline, too.

Thanks for the good word. Wouldn't be quite as much fun writing without knowing that somebody is reading on the other side of the screen...

Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73303 is a reply to message #73277] Mon, 28 August 2017 03:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ChrisR is currently offline  ChrisR

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And let us not forget Tom Swift Jr. and his friend Bud who were always doing things dashing and daring. They had their de rigeur "girlfriends" on occasion, but spent much of their life being tied up by dangerous foes and miraculously escaping each time. Not to mention inventing things like the double-decker jet 25 years before Boeing!
Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73304 is a reply to message #73303] Mon, 28 August 2017 05:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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Quote:
ChrisR wrote on Mon, 28 August 2017 03:09And let us not forget Tom Swift Jr. and his friend Bud who were always doing things dashing and daring. They had their de rigeur "girlfriends" on occasion, but spent much of their life being tied up by dangerous foes and miraculously escaping each time. Not to mention inventing things like the double-decker jet 25 years before Boeing!

--
So right.  Several of Tom Jr.'s inventions are here, although I would like to see the repelatrons and the inverse-square-wave-generators come into existence.  In one of the sequel series to both the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, the Hardys are hired by the Swifts to solve a mystery. Working together, Tom, Joe, and Frank succeed, and end up saving the Time continuum. I really would have liked to see Tom Swift and Nancy Drew team up, but as far as I know, that never happened.

Tom and Bud were indeed close buds.  Bud Barclay dated Tom's sister, Sandra Swift, as I recall, while Tom dated Ned Newton's daughter.  Phyllis?

A "gay" tribute to Tom and Bud could be done, but might be tricker than was a Hardy Boys tribute.   
Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73308 is a reply to message #73304] Tue, 29 August 2017 02:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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"Bisexual_Guy wrote on Mon, 28 August 2017 05:19"

"Quote:"
ChrisR wrote on Mon, 28 August 2017 03:09And let us not forget Tom Swift Jr. and his friend Bud who were always doing things dashing and daring. They had their de rigeur "girlfriends" on occasion, but spent much of their life being tied up by dangerous foes and miraculously escaping each time. Not to mention inventing things like the double-decker jet 25 years before Boeing!

--
So right.  Several of Tom Jr.'s inventions are here, although I would like to see the repelatrons and the inverse-square-wave-generators come into existence.  In one of the sequel series to both the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, the Hardys are hired by the Swifts to solve a mystery. Working together, Tom, Joe, and Frank succeed, and end up saving the Time continuum. I really would have liked to see Tom Swift and Nancy Drew team up, but as far as I know, that never happened.

Tom and Bud were indeed close buds.  Bud Barclay dated Tom's sister, Sandra Swift, as I recall, while Tom dated Ned Newton's daughter.  Phyllis?

A "gay" tribute to Tom and Bud could be done, but might be tricker than was a Hardy Boys tribute.   


--
I read Tom Swift, Jr. as a boy, too. I remember those tales as fondly as I do the Hardy Boys. In truth, neither of those series was exactly literature, but when you're eleven, you aren't looking for the classics. Just a fun read, with some wow and wonder. I like the idea of doing a Tom Swift homage with a gay slant. Have to reread some of the old books and see if I can do that. Might be a lot of fun!

Come to think of it, I also have some Rick Brant adventures, and Tom Corbett, too. Somewhere in there, there are some gay guys trying to escape. Anybody have any favorites in those series?
Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73309 is a reply to message #73277] Tue, 29 August 2017 05:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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Oddly enough, Tom Swift Jr. offers an interesting possibility.

I was sort of devastated a few years back when I learned that there was, in reality, no Victor Appleton II! The books were all apparently written by committee and then fed to the awaiting lion kids in schoolrooms across the country. (where "lion kids" = "sci-fi geek tweens") I'd been snookered by the publishing behemoth, never to trust adults again.

BUT - in keeping with the original method, has anybody around here ever worked on publishing a group story? There seem to be more than a few talents floating around that could fast forward Tom et al into the twenty-first century. Unless, that is, they've already invented everything worth inventing! (Or, in the case of Frank and Joe, solved every crime!)
Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73313 is a reply to message #73309] Wed, 30 August 2017 16:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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Quote:
ChrisR wrote on Tue, 29 August 2017 05:39Oddly enough, Tom Swift Jr. offers an interesting possibility.

I was sort of devastated a few years back when I learned that there was, in reality, no Victor Appleton II! The books were all apparently written by committee and then fed to the awaiting lion kids in schoolrooms across the country. (where "lion kids" = "sci-fi geek tweens") I'd been snookered by the publishing behemoth, never to trust adults again.

BUT - in keeping with the original method, has anybody around here ever worked on publishing a group story? There seem to be more than a few talents floating around that could fast forward Tom et al into the twenty-first century. Unless, that is, they've already invented everything worth inventing! (Or, in the case of Frank and Joe, solved every crime!)

--
Yes. There was no Franklin W. Dixon, the listed author of the Hardy Boys series, either. Both Dixon and Appleton were house names of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which employed teams of writers to crank out these tales according to a set of general guildelines. And, some of the same writers teamed to write the Rick Brant Electronic Adventures, also published by Grossett and Dunlap. And....I hate to say it, no Carolyn Keene, either. Nancy Drew mysteries were produced in the same way.

Syndicated writing was a big deal in the twenties and thirties, when most of these storylines originated. WWII changed the publishing industry, and syndicates were never the same after. But, for the most part, there was no team writing on each individual title. A single author wrote each story, only conferring on certain elements if one writer was producing a story that immediately followed another being currently written by someone else. It was a complicated way to produce a series, but economically extremely profitable, as an entire series could be cranked out in very short order. The Stratemeyer Syndicate is also responsible for other series, including The Rover Boys and The Bobbsey Twins. At one point in time, Stratemeyer held a significant majority in the numbers of books read by American children.

Updating Tom Swift to the future (or even the present) might be fun. Something to think about, anyway.
Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73314 is a reply to message #73308] Wed, 30 August 2017 17:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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Quote:
Geron Kees wrote on Tuesday, 29 August, 2017:
Quote:


--
I read Tom Swift, Jr. as a boy, too. I remember those tales as fondly as I do the Hardy Boys. In truth, neither of those series was exactly literature, but when you're eleven, you aren't looking for the classics. Just a fun read, with some wow and wonder. I like the idea of doing a Tom Swift homage with a gay slant. Have to reread some of the old books and see if I can do that. Might be a lot of fun!

Come to think of it, I also have some Rick Brant adventures, and Tom Corbett, too. Somewhere in there, there are some gay guys trying to escape. Anybody have any favorites in those series?

--
At last, someone besides myself who remembers "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet!"  I have seven of the eight books.  The premise reminds me of Starfleet Academy from Star Trek.  I could see a romance between Tom and Astro whenever Roger is off chasing the girls.
Re: The House of Storms, by Geron Kees  [message #73321 is a reply to message #73314] Thu, 31 August 2017 02:22 Go to previous message
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"Bisexual_Guy wrote on Wed, 30 August 2017 17:15"

"Quote:"
Geron Kees wrote on Tuesday, 29 August, 2017:
"Quote:"



--
I read Tom Swift, Jr. as a boy, too. I remember those tales as fondly as I do the Hardy Boys. In truth, neither of those series was exactly literature, but when you're eleven, you aren't looking for the classics. Just a fun read, with some wow and wonder. I like the idea of doing a Tom Swift homage with a gay slant. Have to reread some of the old books and see if I can do that. Might be a lot of fun!

Come to think of it, I also have some Rick Brant adventures, and Tom Corbett, too. Somewhere in there, there are some gay guys trying to escape. Anybody have any favorites in those series?

--
At last, someone besides myself who remembers "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet!"  I have seven of the eight books.  The premise reminds me of Starfleet Academy from Star Trek.  I could see a romance between Tom and Astro whenever Roger is off chasing the girls.

--Sure, I have some of the Corbett books, too. Despite the Carey Rockwell byline, they were the brainchild of Joe Green at Grossett and Dunlap, who was inspired by Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet. Green had his own ideas, though, and Tom Corbett was not a ripoff of Heinlein. Tom and Astro, huh?

I wonder if Tom Swift ever met Tom Corbett? Maybe they should?

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