TWO STORIES, ONE BOOK

[Jim]

When you contribute to this forum you seem to be reviered.

I'm only on chapter 33. But I can see it's a beautiful thing.

Any advice gratefully received.
Jim

[Mikado14]

Mikado,

You and I must share many things. Curiosity for one.

Too much, way too much for my own good.

Am I who I have said I am? Who have I said I am? The next phrase should be something about green eggs and ham.

How old do I look in Paris in 1956?.

Actually, I believe I said "when". There is something I can't put my finger on. Oh, in that picture you look no older than 30, if that.

The weather must be as bad in your neighborhood as it is in mine at the moment .... or you and I would be out doing something else besides trading riddles.

Trading riddles is what keeps the mind sharp and I appreciate yours in a way you may not understand.

Is Morgan a "drover" on this forum. No. Try again.

No offense, do you know what a drover Is?

Mikado

[twigsnapper]

Jim:

Pretty good story eh? It gets better. Paul is doing a good job. And as for what you said about the way I am regarded ...... ah ..... age will do that for most of us. ....... Hang around, you will see.

Mikado:

Ah, perhaps I misinterpreted. To me " drover" brought back memories of visiting Austrailia. I had a friend who, of course, had sheep. When you get a bunch of them together I understand they call them mobs. And the drovers tried to keep all of that in line. Of course sheep are quite different than horses, they tend to stick together, prefer it that way, while a herd of horses will take off at a high trot and go in whichever direction they want. I have always preferred horses to sheep.

So .... do you know how to encourage a herd of wild horses to go in the direction you hope that they will go? You ride as hard and as well as you can and you try to get in front of them. Hopefully they will follow you then No guarantees however.

Austrailia has some fine horses, mainly thoroughbred crosses and of course I have always had an affinity for a good fast horse. I learned something rather shocking though. I had encountered a fine handsome stallion that was not about to give up his mares and he was roundly charging the horsemen, kicking the slats out of the saddle horses, trying to savage the men right out of their saddles. I reported this rather excitedly to the owner of the station. " Oh? " he said riding in that direction. The stallion was a wonderful animal and I had visions of capturing him and making good use of him, and thats what I thought was going to happen. Imagine my shock and horror when the owner just drew his rifle and dropped the horse in his tracks. " Problem solved" he said to me as he rode away.

I have always learned alot from fine horses but that stud taught me the most. When you are raising hell ...... do it covertly.

Don't know what led me to that little remembrance. Oh, sheep.

And your "drover" was? twigsnapper

[Mikado14]

Don't know what led me to that little remembrance. Oh, sheep.

Ah my friend, if I may be so bold, Mr. Twigsnapper. You may have forgotten what started the conversation but you did recover quickly. Can't be getting too old.

And your "drover" was?

Well, I wouldn't want to "cheat" and look it up in a dictionary, but I love railroads and there was a particular type of railroad car called a drover's caboose. When "cowboys" would drive cattle to market or in most cases, a railhead, the men would ride in the "drovers" caboose. "Drovers" were basically "herders". My reference was that somehow, Morgan is watching over this forum and at times will steer a direction to travel, much like a drover.

Now, back to your picture in '56. I said that you appeared to be about 30, if that. No comment? Actually, I bet you don't look your age at present.

However, the operative word from the previous post was "when". You appear to have......amazing recall.

Why do I have the feeling that your response will be:

"Ah but Mikado, we are playing chess"

The question is, who is the white and who is black and I don't even remember if I opened with Knights or with a pawn picket or King's pawn to King's 4 or.....

whose turn was it?

Just for a grin, life's so short!

Mikado

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

Mr Twigsnapper,

So .... what you are perhaps saying ..... is that Morgan influences this forum the way you would have influenced wild horses? By staying ahead of us? Perhaps I am going way too mystical on the subject, but I find that possibility ..... fascinating ..... of course maybe you didn't mean that?

And if you were playing chess with Mikado how far ahead of the moves would you plan to be? I don't understand chess at all but I know that most who play chess have the kind of mind that can hold many possible moves in some sort of order. And here I am again trying to work on a time line when we might be dealing with something that dismisses that concept.

Elizabeth

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

Jim,

You said you had been able to read up to Chapter 33 so far. Thankyou!

I have a favor to ask of you. If you have a question or a comment on any one of those chapters I encourage you to post that in the section which deals with the chapters individually. If something puzzles you or concerns you PLEASE give us your unvarnished reaction. As Paul has said, this is a "work in progress" and he values all constructive input.

And anyone else new to the forum. Please wade into the discussion here! Thanks ahead of time!

Elizabeth

[Paul S.]

...to Victoria and Mark:

But in the final book will you keep it like this, flipping back and forth> or maybe index it somehow so that folks that want to stay with Linda and Morgan can just pick the appropriate chapters to get a consistent storyline?

I expect the chapters will be in the same order, more or less. Maybe I'll color code the pages...<g>

Two, two, two books in one!

Right... it's a floor wax and a desert topping all in one easy-spray can!

Maybe there are three stories in this book. .... An extension of the Linda and Morgan story. See, thats really the third part.

Mark might be right, there may be three stories here. But the third one is not the one he's thinking of. The business about Morgan and Linda continuing their relationship, I consider that the extension of their existing story line.

No, the third story line is the story of MY relationship with Morgan and this whole story. And that, I'm finding, may be the most difficult story to tell of them all.

--PS

[Paul S.]

viewtopic.php?p=3851#3851

Was it just me or did anyone else have trouble just keeping track of the caracters? They all looked so alike to me, these early OSS guys, fraternity brothers, white, repbublican, wealthy , priveledged and well connected. They all look alike.

I just posted a reply to Elizabeth's post here:

viewtopic.php?p=3903#3903

Follow the bouncing digits now...

--PS

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYBODY ON THE FORUM. WE HAVE HIT 4000 POSTS!

I didn't know where to put this little note so I just picked this but I think that Paul needs to rename it. Not "Two Stories, One Book" but "Three Stories ..... one book." This forum and Pauls learning process and reaction to the material that has come in his direction is as much of the story as the stories of the two couples.

Its amazing and wonderful that you all have put so much energy and enthusiasm out here in this direction. Four thousand responses!

Maybe this will be 4001. I love it! You have all played a major part in this book that will be. Thank you so much! Elizabeth

[Victoria Steele]

Elizabeth,

Have you noted that since your last post over 600 new messages have flowed in!
And I just found one of mine that I put in the wrong place, Paul made note of it, but I don't think I ever went back to find another nitch for it so here it is now. Pertinent I think to the subjects at hand after seeing all of those books piled on Pauls desk. Reference material. Good, if you understand, like I mentioned in this message , that all of them have their particular failings and you have to navigate through the material carefully. Which I am pleased to see, Paul has refined that to a fine art now. Anyway heres the link
viewtopic.php?p=1743#1743

And for some who don't want to read the whole thing .... some parts I find exceptionally appropriate for the discussion we are having right now.

"Not to say that Paul won't make mistakes but at least I know that he is sort of "self regulating" on his material. As someone said earlier, its important to make a body of work that will stand up against scrutiny. Actually, I have to laugh because Paul already has a preview group which he seems to have accepted instad of railed against. And I have warned him already that I came into this armed to the teeth and not expecting him to be as careful as he has been (or as touching) See, thats the difference .

Other writers don't even know when or where Dr. Brown died. Paul knows some of the innermost workings of the mans mind and his relationships with other people. Its just obvious that if others might have been "interviewed for this job", they failed. "

Just remember that I posted the above in June of last year! My! How time flys!

OH<OH<OH I just read a post that Paul had put up earlier in this post! " Something about the third part of this story being the CONTINUATION of the Morgan /Linda story line? HUH? HUH? but of course! If he walked across the desert to her corral ... he is back in her life during the writing of this book! Is that why she maintains such a low profile in all of this? If so Paul. How much can you say about their relationship NOW? Probably nothing right? Still, it makes my heart soar for them. The romantic in me. Victoria

[Victoria Steele]

Ever since I have figured that Paul is going back to the Linda/Morgan side of things I have been asking myself ...... how could he possibly .... be able to walk away from everything in his life. He STILL has parents ...... STILL a brother I think ...... STILL friends that he had while in highschool.

The friends that are just classmates. Yes, I understand. How many of us have said " Whatever happened to such and such" especially after a few good years under our belts (or "past our petticoats" as my wonderful grandmother used to say of her girlfriends.)

But this Morgan dude. I don't think he was an easy type to forget. And I wonder how hard that was for some of the girls that he might have had relationships with ( according to Pauls chapter there apparently were even more than one on occasion and the way it was phrased I imagined it must have taken a pretty good sized bed. Ok girls , you know the rumors! There was always someone out there that generated that kind of mystique. Maybe it was just the time ... the mid sixties .... free love and all of that ... but I'll just bet he was something and I'll bet that it was not all that easy for him to "detach himself" from the ladies in his life.

And frankly I am sort of suprised that someone who knew him (in the biblical sense or otherwise) hasn't logged on.

Well, no, maybe not. If they liked him enough to sleep with him , I don't think they would declare his identity, even if he had " dissappeared into the woodwork" forty some years ago. So how did he manage to leave one life totally behind, and what kind of life did he pick up on.? He gave up the motorcycle too remember? So , the guy was serious about this!!!! Victoria