This is the archive of our News/Updates from May 1, 2005 through December 31, 2006. Older
News/Updates -- November 3, 2003 through April 24, 2005 are HERE and current updates are on
our regular News/Updates page.
December 27, 2006: The Lifetime TV network has chosen its top 10 movies of 2006,
including A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story. We have previously recommended
this movie, and we're repeating that recommendation. The movie will be shown on
Lifetime at 7:00 pm EST/PST, Sunday, December 31. Yep, on New Year's Eve, but
early enough for watching it before the serious partying gets underway. Recording it is
a good idea, too. From the Lifetime website: "An adolescent boy comes to the
conclusion that he was born in the wrong body and is meant to be female. J.D. Pardo
and Mercedes Ruehl star in this unforgettable film based on a true story." The movie
provides major insight into the hardships and dangers faced by transgendered people,
the T in GLBT, LGBT, etc. We hope you get to watch it.
December 25: Merry Christmas! to all who share with us the joy
of this occasion, and Happy Holidays to all who observe other holidays during
this season. Remember the reason for the season.
December 20, 2006: HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY to Billy. Billy is one of the original
members of our crew and one of the founders of the e-mail group that started all of
this in January 2003 - the group at our own high school. Billy is now a college
freshman, still Aaron's life partner, and still just as lovable as ever. He's a major force
here at The Mail Crew.
Enjoy your school vacations and stay safe! We have some major partying to do for
BillyBoy's birthday. ^-^
December 15, 2006: The college students in our crew today finished a week of first-
semester final exams, and the high school guys met their term paper and research
project deadlines. Their finals will happen during their first week back at school after
the holidays.
We wish everyone the very best during this holiday season. Our holiday is Christmas,
but no matter which holiday or holidays you observe and celebrate, we think you'll
enjoy reading (re-reading for many) "A Yule Tale" by Drake Hunter, which is linked
from the green box on our Stories page. This is the fourth season for that story, and
it still draws a lot of readers.
Again this year we're asking our parents to give us less than they used to and to
donate instead to a local orphanage and to a local shelter for the homeless. Please
consider including charities in your holiday giving, especially organizations that
benefit youth.
A collection of holiday stories and poems has been added at Codey's World. (Click on
Holiday Story Collection above the snowmen.) We were allowed to preview the
collection, and we think you'll like them. We hope you'll regularly check all the sites
linked from our Stories page for updates and additions. And remember that you'll find
good background music, to play while you're reading, at AwesomeDude Radio,
"where it's OK to be gay".
Hey, let's all remember to stay above the influence during this busy season of fun
and parties, so that we'll be ready to make 2007 an even better year than this one
has been.
November 26, 2006: Chapter 2 of Ryan Keith's "Zac and Kayden", the fourth
segment of his popular "Kayden" series, is linked here and from our Kayden page,
which in turn is linked from our Stories page.
Visit the sites linked from our Stories page for new stuff added during the weekend.
Well, back to classes tomorrow for USA students. Have a great week!
November 23, 2006: Happy Thanksgiving to our friends here in the USA and
best wishes to our friends in other countries.
In years past at Thanksgiving, we’ve sent e-mails and e-cards to many of you of our
own generation and of our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, expressing our
thanks to you. This year, hoping that we don’t miss anyone, we’re basically repeating
here in News/Updates what we’ve done in the past in bulk e-mailings.
Many of you have helped us and encouraged us in various ways and at various times.
We appreciate each and every one of you, and we hold you dear to our hearts. Today,
as we celebrate Thanksgiving with our families, we are especially grateful for the
blessing of your kindness.
We want to share with you, again this year, a link to a warm and beautiful music
video by the Irish group Westlife, in which they perform Josh Groban's "You Raise Me
Up". Please click here and then choose either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player in
the lower righthand corner of that page to enjoy the video.
We thank all of you for your help and support. You raise us up!
Peace and love,
The Mail Crew
Aaron, Andy, Billy, Chris, David, Eric, Jon, Rain, Scot, Todd, Trey, Wade
November 21, 2006: As our U.S. Thanksgiving Day approaches, we're aware of how
thankful we are for the great effort being made around the world in our behalf by the
members of our armed forces. We hope and pray that all of them will have as good a
Thanksgiving as possible, in whatever area of the world they're stationed.
Twenty-year-old Gabriel Duncan, a contributor to our Authors Speak to Teens feature,
has added an About Me section to his Lonely Ocean website, in which he tells of his
coming out at the age of 12. Gabe has done a lot of living in his 20 years. Check out
his site and enjoy his talents in poetry, prose, photography, and more.
Codey's World has several additions since last mentioned here, including more
chapters of Codey's own "Freefall" and some artwork and poetry by Blue, as well as
new chapters of Rick's "Chronicles of Kadin" and Lukas and Taylor's "Lifebonded"
and links to new chapters of stories by JamieOfIcaria and Graeme. Well heck, just
have fun with everything at the site. We might not have mentioned all of the new
stuff.
For the many fans of Dewey's Brian and Pete saga, there's a new chapter of "The
Power Within" at DeweyWriter.
Chapters 13 and 14 of Graeme's "Heart of the Tree" have been posted at the
several sites that host it, all linked from our Stories page. A lot of new material has
been added at most of the sites linked from that page, and some maintenance has
been done at The Story Lover's Home.
Ryan Keith and editor Aaron have been bouncing the latest chapter of Ryan's "Zac
and Kayden" back and forth as the editing process gets closer to being final. We hope
to post that chapter this month. Well, we hoped to post it last month, too, but...stuff
happens. ^-^
AwesomeDude Radio is still going strong, and we recently updated our links to it
when some changes were made.
There are now three chapters of Sequoyah's new "Saga of the Elizabethton
Tarheels" at Sequoyah's Place, where you'll find all of his stories. Sequoyah is one
our all-time favorites.
Our favorite Irish teen blogger Dave has moved on to university life and is venturing
out and becoming more comfortable with himself, as you'll see in his lastest (10/30)
post at A Different Shade of Normal.
All U.S. students: Have a great Thanksgiving vacation!
November 9, 2006: Wow, look what happened on Tuesday! If you voted, that's great
-- you made a difference!
Sequoyah, one of our favorite authors and a contributor to our Authors Speak to
Teens feature, is writing again! The first chapter of "Saga of the Elizabethton
Tarheels" has been posted at Sequoyah's Place. The Dude of AwesomeDude is the
creator and webmaster of Sequoyah's Place, where you'll find all of Sequoyah's stories.
November 6, 2006: If you're a U.S. citizen who has reached the age of 18 and have
registered to vote, please vote tomorrow. We've recently seen surprising data which
reveals that in recent elections less than 20% of college-age eligible voters have
actually voted. We repeat a quote from Matthew Shepard's mom: "Hate stole
Matthew's right to vote 8 years ago. Don't waste your right to vote on November 7th."
We join other sites in expressing condolences to the family and friends of John
Tucker, aka Jet, whose stories are at CRVboy. Mr. Tucker died of a heart attack on
October 30 while on a vacation trip to the Mediterranean. We will miss his
encouraging and supportive e-mails.
DaBeagle is back online after taking a summer break. Check out his What's New
section for some recent additions.
AwesomeDude Radio, "where it's OK to be gay", keeps evolving, and now offers
CD-quality audio, along with new brief skits and promos by some of the
AwesomeDude authors and members.
We send our best to Codey of Codey's World, who is back home following a hospital
stay. He's added new chapters by Rick and by Lukas 'n Taylor Ashke, and a new
chapter of his own "Freefall", as well as links to some off-site story updates.
Mid-term exams are over now, and we survived, but the pressure never lightens up,
does it?
Have a great week and be sure to vote tomorrow!
October 27, 2006: Our youngest crew member has a birthday today...a Friday
birthday...a party-all-weekend birthday! HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY, RAIN!! Today
after school the kid will get his learner's permit for driving, if he can pass the written
test. ^-^ Seriously, Rain is a huge asset to our crew, a good organizer and a
talented editor. We love him and we're proud to have him as an honorary brother.
October 19, 2006: We have great news! We're pasting below the text of a bulk e-
mail that Trey sent out this evening, regarding Pops' lung surgery that we mentioned
in our Oct. 16 post:
Dear friends,
This is Trey, sending a bulk mail to a group of great people who have been concerned
about my grandfather's lung surgery that was supposed to happen today. Thank you
for your emails and prayers.
Less than two hours before the surgery was to happen this afternoon, one of
Grandpa's doctors told him that he had just received a delayed pathology report about
one of the samples taken during a bronchoscopy on Sept. 21. The surgery was
cancelled!!! The thing that looked like a tumor in the CT scans is really a fungus ball
and not a tumor. The fungus is sporotrichosis (Aaron wrote that down to be sure) and
it probably can be killed by 6 months or more of drug treatment, since Grandpa's
immune system is in top shape. He will have a new CT scan and other tests every
month to see if the drugs are working. There is only a very small chance that the
fungus ball will have to be removed by a surgeon if the drugs don't work. The reason
for that report taking so long has something to do with growing the culture that
showed the fungus. If that report had come any later, major surgery would have been
done and Grandpa would have lost half of his left lung for no good reason.
All of our crew and my cousins, aunts, uncles and a bunch of friends are all too happy
to even talk about medical mistakes, but that was actually a close call.
Thanks again to all of you for your thoughts and prayers!
Trey, for all of my family and all of our crew
FYI, we found out that the sporotrichosis fungus is found in dead leaves, freshly
excavated earth, compost piles, and even on some rose bushes. Pops probably
inhaled some of the fungus spores while doing lawn and garden puttering around.
We'll all go back to school and classes tomorrow with happy hearts!
October 16, 2006: Most of the e-mail responses to our September 30 news post
regarding National Coming Out Day have been very positive. Only a few have objected
to our policy of never advising gay teens to come out just for the sake of coming out,
or as a way of making a statement in support of the gay community. We embrace
unity and a sense of community among GLBT people, and we believe that as members
of our generation quietly and peacefully find our places within that community, we
help to weaken some of the stereotypes that in the past have made people reluctant
to come out, even to themselves.
Three weeks from tomorrow will be election day here in the U.S. Many of you who
have been with us since the beginning of this site are now in the 18-to-20 age group,
and you've registered to vote. As part of The Matthew Shepard Foundation's Get
Out the Vote campaign, Matthew's mom says: "Hate stole Matthew's right to vote 8
years ago. Don't waste your right to vote on November 7th." Check it out.
Teenager Codey has been busy over at Codey's World. He's added Chapter 6 of his
own "Freefall" story and the first chapter of "Lifebonded", which is by and about
Australian (Tasmanian) teens Lukas and Taylor. Check the lower left corner of
Codey's home page for links to those, as well as new chapters by other hosted
authors, including newly-added author Rick, who has contributed the prologue and
first chapter of his fantasy tale "The Chronicles of Kadin".
We failed to mention last time that Dewey has posted Chapter 21 of "The Power
Within", the latest segment of his Brian and Pete series. The last few chapters of
TPW have been surprising and unsettling to many who are following the boys'
relationship.
Check for new material at the sites linked from our Stories page, except for DaBeagle,
which is still closed for the summer. Don't miss Chapter 11 of Graeme's Heart of The
Tree at AwesomeDude-Lite, The Story Lover's Home, Codey's World, and DeweyWriter.
We might fall behind in answering email during the next couple of weeks, due to the
fact that Trey's wonderful grandfather, honorary grandfather to all of our crew, will
undergo lung surgery later this week. We've been almost immobilized by concern for
"Pops" since the tumor was discovered, and we'll be skipping school and cutting
classes to be there for him in any way we can, and of course he's in our prayers.
October 3, 2006: HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY to AARON! Aaron is one of our
crew's originals, and he's very special to all of us, not just to his partner Billy. It has
been four years since Trey and Eric slipped a little note into Aaron's school locker that
changed his life, as explained on our How It Started page. Oops, we need to update
that page and some others to reflect this new school year. Aaron, we love you!
AwesomeDude Radio is now on the air 24/7, playing mostly oldies (but goodies) and
including promos by some of the AwesomeDude members. The radio station is linked
from the home pages at Codey's World, AwesomeDude and AwesomeDude-Lite.
We'd like to thank The Dude for mentioning on air our site and our Sept. 30 news post
(just below this one) about NCOD.
Sept. 30, 2006: It’s that time of year again. We’re getting close to National Coming
Out Day, which will be on Wednesday, October 11. Again this year a lot of high
school students – and some middle school and college students – are asking our
opinions about the day "when closeted gay and transgender people are encouraged to
stop living a lie and instead be true to themselves and others." That can be a good
thing for some people, but bad for others.
For teens, we advise that if you're not out at home, don't come out at school just to
please people who are promoting NCOD. If you come out at school, your parents will
find out – probably sooner than later. Wouldn't you rather have them learn of your
orientation from you than from third parties? If you're sure you're ready to come out
to your family, do that before October 11 and then get their input on your coming out
at school. Please show your parents our For Parents page.
National Coming Out Day is actually not limited to the U.S., but is an international
effort. We never advise anyone to come out just for the sake of coming out, or as a
way of making some sort of statement "for the GLBT community". More than ever, we’
re seeing people using their space on the web to challenge others to come out. You
know your individual family and school situations, so be wise and be careful. Hey, you
live in your space, not anyone else’s, right?
New today at Codey’s World is Chapter 5 of Codey’s “Freefall”, which we think is an
excellent story, but then, all of Codey’s work is good. ^-^
September 20, 2006: Wow, it's been almost three weeks since our last post on this
page. Contrary to speculation, that doesn't mean we're short on time because we've
become addicted to the social networking and video-clip sites. It's just that we're
busy with school, e-mail groups, and correspondence from you fantastic visitors to our
site. ^-^
Ryan Keith has started the next segment of the "Kayden" series, naming this one
"Zac and Kayden". The first chapter, "A Day Revisited", is linked here and from our
Kayden page, which in turn is linked from our Stories page.
Check the story sites linked from our Stories page for new material. The Codey's
World site has been updated in ways that make navigation a bit easier, and Chapter
4 of Codey's "Free Fall' has been added, as well as poems by Blue and the short
story "Obligation to Myself" by September's guest author, teenager Nick.
Check out the latest entry (dated the 11th) at A Different Shade of Normal, by our
friend Dave in Ireland. It's way cool. He's got it goin' on!
September 1, 2006: We're pleased to announce today's grand opening of two new
sites, Codey's World and AwesomeDude-Lite, now linked from our Stories page.
Codey's site is a spinoff from the original AwesomeDude site, where it's listed as a
"New AD 'Family' Site". At Codey's World, Codey's new "Free Fall" now includes three
chapters, and he's posted a new fable called "The Nature of Bear". AwesomeDude-Lite
is a welcomed, teen-appropriate, g-rated version of AwesomeDude, for those who
prefer non-sexually-explicit reading material.
We've realized that we've never mentioned a teen writer whose feel-good stories are
really fun. Nineteen-year-old EleCivil's stories are at Codey's World and
AwesomeDude-Lite.
We have also failed to mention a new on-going serial novel by Don Hanratty, author
of the award-winning Working It Out. His new Beloved is available at The Don
Hanratty Official Site, which is also now linked from our Stories page.
Hey, we hope that everyone in the U.S. has a very safe and fun-filled Labor Day
weekend.
August 25, 2006: With the new school year starting, new e-mail groups are being
formed by some of you, and it's great hearing from you about your plans. Keep up the
good work! Please remember that you're placing yourselves into roles in which you'll
be entrusted with private and confidential information that you MUST NOT expose on
any of the social networking sites or anywhere else. Your group is local and private,
right?
Ryan Keith's newest story, "Phil's Story -- Stars and Dreams" is now available here,
and linked from our Kayden page. It's a side story to the "Kayden" series, and it
involves the character named Phil, who lost his best friend, Zeke, two years before his
appearance in "Kayden and Zac".
Also new from Ryan Keith is the 16th and final chapter of "Collision", the round robin
mystery that's hosted by AwesomeDude, DeweyWriter and CRVboy. Ryan contributed
chapters 9 and 16 to that project.
We recommend the newest ongoing series from Graeme, "Heart of The Tree", which
you'll find at AwesomeDude, DeweyWriter and The Story Lover's Home, all linked from
our Stories page.
We haven't posted much story news lately, but many of the sites linked from our
Stories page have new material. DaBeagle is on hiatus, and DrakeTales has problems.
Some of the links at the version of DrakeTales that we currently link to don't work, but
we understand that a solution is in the works.
August 15, 2006: The following is an entry written by Aaron, last year at this time.
It's so good and so true that I, Rain, will repost it, altering it for the fact that a year
has passed:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TREY!! Today, the third of the three oldest members of
our original crew turns twenty. Trey, more than anyone else, has been the stone
foundation of our group, from its beginnings in 2002, the founding of the original e-
mail group in January of 2003, and since we started this website in August of 2003.
He steers us toward the right decisions when the going gets tough and cheers with us
when we reach new milestones. Trey is a natural leader, and not just because he's a
bit over 6' 5" tall. He's big of heart, soul and spirit, and he always stands up for what
he believes to be right and just. He's become a role model for many gay teens, but
it's not easy to get him to acknowledge that fact. Trey, we love and admire you more
than you can grasp. Believe it, big bro.
Trey, Eric and David will still be with us, as advisors and champions
of the cause, as they tackle their second year of college. Aaron, Billy, Chris, Jon, Scot
and Todd will also remain on call during their first year of college.
August 3, 2006: A new school year is rapidly approaching in our part of the world.
Many of you will be making the transition from middle school to high school or from
high school to college or university. Six of our crew members will begin college, and
three of our original crew will enter their second year.
If you're gearing up to start a new e-mail group in your school, be sure to follow the
suggestions on our How It Works and Do/Don't pages, and contact us if you have
problems or questions. Your group is local, for your school only, private and
confidential. Beware of involving your group in the very popular social networking
sites. They can be fun and useful in a broader sense, but be very careful about what
you make public there.
We know that lots of you, as well as all of our crew, have followed Jason, Kyle and
Nelson through Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High and Rainbow Road, the award-winning
trilogy by Alex Sanchez, and you've enjoyed the Lambda Award-winning So Hard to
Say. The latest novel from Mr. Sanchez will be on store shelves on September 26, but
you can pre-order it now from B&N and Amazon. Please click here or on the link on
our Links page to read an excerpt from Getting It.
This summer, we've been too busy and too scattered about to do a multi-state tour
and beach trip, like we did the past two summers, but we fondly remember the many
fine people we met on those trips. Enjoy the rest of your summer vacation, and then
make the new school year your best one yet!!
July 18, 2006: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Eric, one of our crew's originals, and still our
resident clown/prankster/jokester. He's 20 years old today, our second crew member
to leave the teens. Eric and his partner Trey are two of the world's most special and
wonderful people, always there for the rest of us when we need them. We love you
guys!
July 14, 2006: More from Grasshopper! Chapter 15 of Just Hit 'Send' - The Happy
Years is available here.
July 10, 2006: Amazing teen author Grasshopper has a new one-chapter story,
"Whispers From the Past", that is typically wonderful Grasshopper magic. If you're
not a Grasshopper fan, you're missing so much. Here's a part of his comments that
follow the end of his newest story: "Oh, and for the fella on the MB who said that
what we write are just stories and people's lives aren't really like that and that the
world is just a pile of shit......a hug and a hope and a prayer that you think hard,
choose your path wisely and let your heart show you the way. God loves you, always
has, always will."
If you haven't already, we hope you'll read Grasshopper's contribution to our Authors
Speak to Teens feature, "My Name is Grasshopper and I'm Left-Handed".
July 5, 2006: We congratulate Geoff Davis, a long-time friend and supporter of The
Mail Crew and a contributor to our Authors Speak to Teens feature, on a recent honor
bestowed upon him. Last month, as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours 2006, Geoff
was named a Member of the Order of Australia. Click here for a news article about
Geoff's accomplishments that lead to the honor. There's a photo of good ol' "Uncle"
Geoff there, too. (depending on browser, you might have to use your image controls
to enlarge the scanned image) Geoff is a past president of The Campaign Against
Moral Persecution in Western Australia and a member of B-Legits, a support
committee for GLBTI teachers in his country.
July 4, 2006: We wish everyone in the U.S. a very happy and safe Independence Day.
Happy Birthday to our nation! We're grateful to our service men and women around
the world, whose lives are constantly in danger on our behalf.
We normally mention on this page only the birthdays of our crew members. Today
we're breaking from that tradition to wish a very happy birthday to Pops, Trey's
grandfather, who is an honorary grandfather to the rest of us. He very kindly puts up
with our constant invasion of his home, which is the location of our headquarters and
where Trey lives. We love you, Pops, you old firecracker. Happy 65th!
June 29, 2006: "A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story" will be telecast again
tomorrow evening, June 30, at 9:00 pm EST on the Lifetime TV network. That will be
the third showing that we're aware of, but hopefully not the last one -- if you miss it,
watch for it to be shown again. This true story of Gwen, living in the body of Eddie,
provides major insight into the hardships and dangers faced by transgendered people,
the T in GLBT, LBGT, GLBTQ, etc. It's a very important movie, and we hope you get to
see it.
June 28, 2006: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to David, our oldest crew member, who
turns 20 today and leaves the teen ranks. David is one of the founders of The Mail
Crew, and he and his girlfriend have stayed on board through their first year of
college. They help straight guys and girls deal with becoming aware that a brother,
sister, cousin or best friend is gay or lesbian. We love ol' David very much, and Susan,
too.
June 18, 2006: Happy Father's Day to fathers everywhere, and especially to
ours. We thank you for being our dads, not just our biological fathers. And to Trey's
grandfather, who's an extra grandpa to all of our crew and has been Eric's substitute
dad for years, we say "Happy Father's Day, Pops".
June 17, 2006: Okay, it's been a while, huh? No excuses, really, just taking some
time off to enjoy being out of school. Six more of our crew graduated from high
school, so congratulations to them and to all of you other grads out there. We've
heard from some proud eighth-grade graduates, to whom we send congrats and
wishes for greater things to come in your new schools this fall.
If you are involved in running an e-mail group in your school and have just graduated,
please recruit someone to take your place as a group leader. We know that many of
you have, already, so thanks for that.
Someone sent us this link to the Ryan's Well Foundation site. Check that out! Ryan
is a 14-year-old Canadian who has been raising money since he was six years old, to
provide safe drinking water in Africa. What an inspiring guy he is! He's definitely
making a difference.
This week, gay teen activist and author Gabriel Duncan sent us his latest short story,
"Gay Prom '06", which we're hosting, linked from our Stories page and here. Gabe
also sent us his contribution to our Authors Speak to Teens feature, which includes
wise advice that ties in to his prom story. Gabe has experienced a lot of life in his 19
years, and we appreciate his sharing some of the wisdom he has gained.
The sites linked from our Stories page have new stories and additions to on-going
stories. Look for Graeme's "Heart of the Tree" at some of the sites, and a new
addition to Dewey's "The Power Within" at DeweyWriter. We've replaced our bad links
to DrakeTales with one that takes you to all of Drake's stories. The forum is still
down, since someone hacked the site.
May 29, 2006: Today is Memorial Day here in the United States. It's a holiday
intended to honor those who have died in service to our country; who have died so
that we may remain free. Let's remember and honor those heroes as we enjoy our
freedom, on this day and every day.
May 14, 2006: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of our moms and to all moms who
visit our site. We're very grateful that we're fortunate enough to have wonderful
mothers. You're the greatest, and we love you!!!
May 12, 2006: Chapter 12 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac" is now here, linked
from our Kayden page. Ry's end-of-chapter comments make us wonder what's in store
next for that fun bunch of Canadian high schoolers.
We're still having e-mail problems, and our e-mail service provider is still promising
all customers that the problems will be resolved soon. If your mail to us is being
rejected, please keep trying. If you haven't received a reply within 48 hours to an e-
mail you've sent us, we either didn't get it or our reply was eaten by the system. On
our Contact Us page we're listing a temporary alternate address for use by anyone
having problems with our regular one. We don't want to permanently change e-mail
addresses, because our address is so wide-spread, publicly and privately.
Hey, have a great Mother's Day weekend!!!
May 9, 2006: Since April 28, we have had serious e-mail problems. If you have
written to us and had your e-mail bounce, please try again. Some incoming e-mail has
been rejected without notice to the sender. We have not intentionally failed to
answer any e-mail during this ongoing ISP-caused on-again/off-again e-mail situation.
We have only one broadband provider in our area, so we're stuck. They're undergoing
major alterations, and their newest promise is that all will be 'back to normal' (???) by
May 15. Please bear with us. This problem has caused a delay in the posting of the
next chapter of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac", but we hope to have it posted soon.
Aaron has finished editing it.
Teen author Grasshopper has a new story named "In the Blink of an Eye" that is
simply beautiful. Become a Grasshopper fan! Click here for his stories. Grasshopper
has an amazing ability to see into the heart and soul of life. Your life, our lives. He
helps us to understand and appreciate feelings that we're often either too rushed or
too stubborn to even realize that we have. He helps us see beauty in even the
simplest of things.
We're busy with term papers, preparing for finals, getting ready for six more of our
crew to graduate from high school, etc. Good luck to all of you who are doing the
same things. It's been a good year!
April 27, 2006: A big Thank You to all who are writing to tell us about yesterday's
Day of Silence at your schools. We're busy, having fun catching up on replies to
everyone. Ours went very well. Seems that the number of middle school, high school
and college groups participating increased this year. Most of you report that
everything went smoothly, but there were some instances of teachers and even
principals being total jerks. Some of you feel that participation was heavy at your
schools simply because it became a cool thing to do, or just another opportunity to
express teen rebelliousness. Whatever; you made the point. Some groups had
awesome end-of-the-day Breaking the Silence celebrations.
Today's anti-gay Day of Truth observance evidently had little support across the U.S.,
with participation at very few schools, similar to last year's poor turnout. Apparently,
the main "truth" that the Day of Truth movement attempts to spread is that we gay
and lesbian kids can change/ignore/reject our inborn sexual orientation. Truth????
April 19, 2006: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Andy, who's 17 today. Here's another mid-
week birthday that will be celebrated mainly during the coming weekend. Andy is one
of this school year's new crew members. He and his partner Wade are our fun-loving
and colorful "A & W" duo. We love you guys!
April 16, 2006: HAPPY EASTER to all who celebrate this wonderful occasion with
us. We hope that all people of other faiths also have a wonderful Sunday. This
morning, all members of our crew will attend Easter sunrise services at our churches,
knowing in our hearts that God does not hate us; that He loves us for accepting
ourselves as He made us and for not questioning His wisdom.
We're pleased to announce that teen writer Codey has contributed a very, very nice
essay to our Authors Speak to Teens feature. Codey's poems and stories are at
Codey's Place, a part of the AwesomeDude site.
We've added links here and on our Links page to CHECK YOURSELF, a place for
teens to check where they are with drugs and alcohol. You'll find true stories, videos
and short movies about teens who have literally checked themselves. It's never too
late.
We've also added a link to a cool Australian anti-bullying site, BULLYING. NO WAY!
that our friend Graeme told us about.
The 10th annual national DAY of SILENCE is coming up on Wednesday, April 26, and
more participants are expected than in previous years. Click here for information. At
our high school we'll again encourage students to participate as usual in teacher-led
classroom discussions, but to remain silent otherwise. That approach has worked well;
it gets the point across without disrupting classes, and it results in more participation
because it alienates fewer students and teachers.
Don't forget to visit the sites linked from our Stories page. There've been lots of
additions since we last listed story updates.
April 11, 2006: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Scot of our crew, who is 18 today, catching
up with his partner Todd. Scot is our main man in the technical department, keeping
us up and running on the 'net.
COMING SOON - a contribution by teen writer Codey to our Authors Speak to Teens
section. Codey's stories and poems are at Codey's Place, a division of
AwesomeDude. Check 'em out!
April 4, 2006: Another great chapter of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac"is now here.
Chapter 11 is fun, and it brings us some new things to speculate about.
We congratulate the University of Florida basketball team. The Gators gave both their
school and their state their first-ever NCAA Division I national championship.
March 21, 2006: We always like to say that being gay does not define who or what
we are, but is simply a part of the complexity that makes each of us a unique
individual. Being gay does add a measure of difficulty to our lives, though, and that
probably gives us a greater appreciation of any individual's achievements in the face
of adversity.
We especially admire Adam Morrison, star forward on the Gonzaga University
basketball team, who was today nominated for the Naismith Trophy, which is one of
college basketball's Player of the Year awards. Adam has been a Type I diabetic since
he was an 8th grader. Now, as a junior at Gonzaga, he takes as many as five insulin
shots during the course of each game. Today, he's still recovering from a flu-like
illness that bothered him during the first rounds of the NCAA tournament last week,
but he's expected to play on Thursday when the Gonzaga Bulldogs meet the UCLA
Bruins. Adam has become a role model for children with diabetes, with the help of
coverage by ESPN and Sports Illustrated.
Nominees for the Naismith Trophy are: Adam Morrison, Gonzaga; J.J. Redick, Duke;
Rudy Gay, UConn; and Allan Ray, Villanova. You can text "vote" to 87654 for a ballot,
as fans are allowed to vote along with coaches and media people. The winner will be
announced on April 2.
March 14, 2006: Today, another of our crew members turns 18. We're getting old!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TODD!! We combined parties over the weekend for Todd's
and Wade's birthdays, but Todd's parents are having a big birthday dinner tonight for
Todd.
Spring break is here already for some schools, and coming soon for the rest of us.
Wherever you go and whatever you do during break, have fun!! And be safe!!
Grasshopper's "My Name is Grasshopper and I'm Left-Handed" contribution to our
Authors Speak to Teens feature is getting very positive feedback. If you haven't read
it, check it out. The first chapter of Grasshoppers latest story, "Fallow's Creek", is
now at IOMFATS.
March 12, 2006: Chapter 10 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac" is now posted, linked
from here. This one includes a party that goes out of control, but the guys handle it
well.
We watched the NCAA tournament bracket announcements this evening, and we were
surprised by some of the placements. For instance, we think Gonzaga should have
gotten a 1 or 2 seed, instead of a 3. Oh, well, there'll be lots of good games along
the road to the final four.
March 11, 2006: One of our newer crew members turns 17 today. HAPPY
BIRTHDAY, WADE!! "A & W", as we refer to partners Andy and Wade, joined our
crew last summer, and we love 'em lots.
Dewey of DeweyWriter sent us a one-chapter short story this week, giving us
permission to post it on our site. "You Are Not Alone" shows that it's very important
to reveal the truth if sexual abuse happens to you. You are not alone.
Whoa! It's been over two weeks since our last update. Our high school guys have just
finished a week of mid-term exams, and the three college guys in our crew will have
some exams next week. We know lots of you are in exams now, too. Good luck!
Since last time, we've had a major problem with one of our shared incoming e-mail
folders. We were able to recover most of what was lost, we think, but if you haven't
received a reply to an e-mail, please send it to us again.
Chapter 10 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac" will be posted soon!
February 22, 2006: Today, we have another crew member turning 18. HAPPY
BIRTHDAY, JON!! Jon and his partner Chris are two of the founding members of
our crew. Because it's mid-week, and because Jon, Chris and some other crew
members are recovering from an intestinal virus, the partying will wait until the
weekend. You're special, Jonathan!
February 15, 2006: A brief but important update on two teen authors: Chapter 14 of
Grasshopper's Just Hit 'Send' - The Happy Years was posted today at It's Only Me
from Across the Sea. Also, AwesomeDude now has a section called Codey's Place,
devoted to the stories and poems written by our buddy Codey. Our favorite of Codey's
poems is "I Danced with Unicorns", which he wrote shortly after experiencing a period
of semi-consciousness in a hospital.
February 14, 2006: We think of this as a day that is special not only for lovers, but
also for friends. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to all of you. Thanks for being friends of
The Mail Crew.
February 12, 2006: Special announcement! GRASSHOPPER has made a
contribution to our Authors Speak to Teens feature. The link to his essay is near the
bottom of that page. Just click on his name. It's a great feel-good essay. It's pure,
wonderful Grasshopper speaking to you from his heart; a teen speaking to teens.
Another thing that makes this a special day -- Chapter 9 of "Kayden and Zac" by
Ryan Keith is now here. It's a great chapter, with some big things happening.
As usual, there are new chapters and stories at most of the sites linked from our
Stories page, including a new chapter of Dewey's "Brian and Pete -- The Power
Within" at DeweyWriter.
Hey, don't forget, Valentine's Day is coming up on Tuesday.
February 4, 2006: We now have New Brother, a great novel by Graeme, on our
site, linked from here and from our Stories page. The story is told through the eyes
of a straight high school student who learns that a good friend and team mate is gay.
We wish that all straight guys would read it, and all GLBT folks, too, of course.
It's been two weeks since our last update. We're all well and staying almost too busy,
but we love it. There are lots of new things to read at CRVboy, AwesomeDude,
DeweyWriter and IOMFATS, so have fun with that.
Stay cool, and keep up the good work, those of you who are leading e-mail groups at
your schools. Thanks for keeping in touch with us.
January 21, 2006: January 23 thru January 27 will be the third annual No Name-
Calling Week. This event, inspired by James Howe's novel The Misfits,is a joint effort
of GLSEN and Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, plus many organizations that
have partnered with them. Originally aimed at middle school students, the idea has
spread to high schools as well. We appreciate the contributions of all of you who are
involved in the project at your schools.
Amazing teenaged author Grasshopper has written another awesome story. The
complete "Promises to Keep" -- nine chapters and an epilogue -- has been posted at
IOMFATS. Is this Grasshopper's best story yet? Check it out and see what you think.
We send best wishes for a speedy recovery to another teen author, Codey, who
recently underwent surgery. Codey's stories and poems are at AwesomeDude, where
you'll also find the newly-posted final chapter and epilogue of Graeme's novel New
Brother.
There are so many new stories and new chapters of ongoing stories that we can't list
them all here, but be sure to check out the story sites linked from our Stories page.
January 13, 2006: HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY to Chris of our crew. Chris is
now legally an adult, but he's really still a big kid who never lets anything bother him.
His calm approach to problems helps us stay on track. We love ya, bro!
So, Friday the 13th is the beginning of a party weekend for us. Birthday parties for
Chris and celebrating surviving first-semester finals.
January 5, 2006: Beginning tomorrow, Brokeback Mountain will be shown in
many additional theaters across the U.S., including the South and Midwest. Click here
and then on 'click here for more release information' in the lower righthand area of
that page to find a location near you. The movie is rated 'R', so if you're under 17
you'll have to...well, do whatever you've done before to get into 'R' movies...
December 31: We wish everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR, and safe and wise
New Year's Eve parties and celebrations. Let's make 2006 a greater year!
Last time, we mentioned the changes at CRVboy (.com, .net, and .org). All three
are now up and running full-time. There were problems with printing stories and
chapters after the changes, but Robb has corrected the problem that caused
printed pages to be right-justified instead of left-justified. If you want to print a
chapter, simply right-click the chapter link in the sidebar and choose "open in new
window". You can then print all pages flush left, without the sidebar showing.
That "new window" trick is also helpful if you're reading chapters from your
monitor and find the sidebar distracting.
Our first-semester final exams will be next week. Good luck to everyone who also
has after-the-holidays exams. Too bad we couldn't have gone through that
before the holidays, like a lot of you did.
December 27: Chapter 8 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac" is now here. It's an
eventful chapter, with some fun and some surprises.
We've added links here and on our Links page to Above the Influence, a great site
designed to help teens deal with pressures that can negatively influence our lives
-- if we let them. Try the "Feeling Pressured?" quiz. Are you above the influence?
Or...are you under it?
Just a reminder -- the $10 discount on subscriptions to Young Gay America's YGA
Magazine ends December 31. Click here to order.
CRVboy.com and CRVboy.net are undergoing changes and might be offline at
times during the next few days, but www.crvboy.org has already been through
the changes and is up and running.
A big "Thank you" to everyone who sent us holiday e-mails and e-cards. We really
appreciate those.
December 26: To those who celebrate them: Happy Boxing Day, Happy
Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa. May your holiday celebrations be filled with
peace and joy!
Apparently, some of the holiday e-cards we tried to send were not delivered. We
apologize for that; we didn't intentionally omitanyone.
December 25: Merry Christmas!
Remember the reason for the season.
December 20, 2005: HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY to Billy, or BillyBoy, as we call
him. Billy is one of the original members of our crew and one of the founders of
the e-mail group that started all of this in January 2003 -- the group at our own
high school. We love ya, brother! Billy and his partner Aaron are major forces
here at The Mail Crew.
People have been asking us to revise our About Us page, and now we've done
that, adding our new guys and updating ages, school years, etc.
This Christmas, we're again asking our parents to give us less than they used to
and instead donate to a local orphanage and a local shelter for the homeless.
Please consider including charities in your holiday giving.
We wish everyone peace and joy during this holiday season. Our holiday is
Christmas, but no matter which holiday or holidays you celebrate, we think you'll
really enjoy reading "A Yule Tale" by Drake Hunter, which is linked from the green
box on our Stories page. This is the third season for that story, and readers are
still thanking us for hosting it.
Grasshopper has added a new chapter to his popular "Just Hit Send".
The story sites linked from our Stories page all have new material, including a
new chapter of the multi-authored "Collision" mystery, which is hosted by several
sites. A new story by CRVboy and a new one by Jet are now at the CRVboy site.
Graeme of Australia brings us a new chapter of "New Brother", as well as new
short stories "Family First" and "Another Letter to My Son". Teenager Codey has
written a fine Christmas novella, "A Christmas Wish", which is linked from the
home page at AwesomeDude, as is Jamie's "Hosanna", another wonderful
Christmas story.
We know that many of you are waiting for the next chapter of Ryan Keith's
"Kayden and Zac". Aaron finished editing Chapter 8 and sent it to Ryan for his
approval and final additions on Dec. 12, but we haven't heard from him. We know
he's been busy with projects and final exams at his university, so we're being
patient. As soon as the chapter is finalized, we'll post it and mention it here on the
News/Updates page and send a notice to Ryan's One Life and More Yahoo group.
Some of you have asked us for help with the AwesomeDude site. If your browser
allows you to disable pop-up blockers for selected sites, try disabling them for
AwesomeDude, to make the new drop-down menus work. We're having
problems, too. Some of our computers use the ZoneAlarm firewall, and we've
been able to make the new features at AwesomeDude work properly on those,
but we can't make the drop-down menu links work on our computers that use the
ZoneAlarm Pro firewall, even after setting it to accept web bugs, mobile code, all
cookies, and private headers from the AD site. We've tried everything we can
think of. If anyone knows what we might be doing wrong, please let us know.
Enjoy your school vacations!! We are, and now it's time to get on with the
partying for Billy's birthday. Yeah!
December 8, 2005: Looking for a special gift for someone special? Young Gay
America's YGA Magazine is offering subscriptions at $10 off the regular price,
through Dec. 31. That makes the one-year (six issues) subscription price only $15
for USA residents, somewhat higher for other countries. The discount applies to
your own order as well as to gift orders. YGA Mag is mailed in plain, unmarked
envelopes. Click here and then click on GET IT! to place your order.
December 1, 2005: Today's World AIDS Day theme is "Stop AIDS: Keep the
Promise". Please visit this site to find ways to get involved and stay involved --
not just today, but on a continuing basis.
Watch for airings of the new MTV movie "Transit", which tells the story of eight
young people whose lives are intertwined and shows the danger of contracting
HIV, even when it seems there is little risk.
November 24, 2005: HAPPY THANKSGIVING to our friends here in the USA, and
best wishes to our friends in other countries. We're thankful for your friendship.
May you have a safe and happy day!
November 23, 2005: E-MAIL WARNING!! A new version of the Sober worm,
Sober-Y, is being spread rapidly in e-mails that show subject titles such as "smtp
mail failed", "hi, I've a new mail address", "Mail delivery failed", "Registration
confirmation", "Your password", and other odd subjects, such as Paris Hilton.
These e-mails include file attachments. Delete the e-mails without opening them.
If you accidentally open one, DON'T open the attached file. Some that we've
received appear to be from people and organizations that we know would not
intentionally send them, including the CIA and FBI. This is a worm that uses your
computer as a spam generator, invades your address book, sends infected e-mail
to everyone on your list, and harvests your personal information.
November 22, 2005: As our U.S. Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we're aware
of how thankful we are for the great effort being made on our behalf by the
members of our armed forces. Here's a website where you can post a supportive
message for our troops. We hope and pray that all of them have as good a
Thanksgiving as possible, in whatever area of the world they're stationed.
November 13, 2005: Big time gap between updates. Like a lot of you guys, we've
been involved with mid-term exams, and we all did well on them. We've been
concerned about some friends of The Mail Crew, and some of Trey's family's
friends, who were injured by the tornado that hit SW Indiana a week ago. We're
glad to know they're all recovering nicely. Aaron's grandmother is doing well,
after having heart surgery on November 4.
Tonight, we posted Chapter 7 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac", linked from this
page. It's an eventful chapter, and we think it's one Ryan's best.
Check out the sites listed on our Stories page for new chapters and stories that
have been added recently.
Due to some intermittent technical problems during the past week or so, some of
our e-mail didn't go out, and we apparently didn't receive some that were sent to
us. If you wrote to us and haven't received a reply, please try again. The
problems have been solved.
Everyone, have a wonderful week!
October 27, 2005: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Rain, our youngest crew member,
who is 15 today. Rain joined our crew during the summer at the age Aaron was
when he helped start the original e-mail group at our school. Rain is his real
name, not a nickname. Our nickname for him is Mr. Picky II, because he's learning
some editing skills from Aaron. Have a great birthday, bro! Party time this
weekend! (Limited by studying for mid-term exams.)
Congratulations to all of you White Sox fans. A four-game World Series!
October 23, 2005: Chris and Jon of our crew have done an analysis of the 538 e-
mails we've received to date regarding our Sept. 30 comments about National
Coming Out Day.
Eighty-seven per cent of those e-mails are from teens, and 91% of those teens
agree with our policy of never advising gay teens to come out just for the sake of
coming out or as a way of making a statement in support of the gay community.
The remaining 13% of e-mails on that subject -- the ones from generations older
than ours -- are split almost 50/50 as to whether or not our view is a good one.
We do support unity and a sense of "community" among GLBT people, and we
believe that as members of our generation are quietly finding our places within
that community we are weakening some of the stereotypes that in the past have
made people reluctant to come out, even to themselves.
Oops! It looks like we failed to mention the posting of Chapter 10 of the multi-
authored "Collision" mystery a while back. Chapter 11 has also been posted
recently. That story is at AwesomeDude, CRVboy, DeweyWriter, Movie Guy and
The Talon House.
Chapter 21 of Graeme's "New Brother" has been posted at AwesomeDude. You'll
find many new story additions at the story sites linked from our Stories page,
including the important "You Are Not Alone" by Dewey.
October 8, 2005: Chapter 6 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac" is now on our site,
linked from this page, less than three weeks after we posted Chapter 5. Good
chapter, Ry!
National Coming Out Day will be Tuesday, Oct. 11. Please see our comments
below, dated Sept. 30.
October 3, 2005: HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY to AARON! Today is a school day,
so the parties happened Friday night through Sunday night. Aaron is one of the
smaller guys on our crew, but he is big spirited and has a great big heart. He is
one of the founders of The Mail Crew, and probably the hardest working one of
us. Brother, we love you for all that you do as a member of our crew and just for
being lovable Aaron.
Sept. 30, 2005: A lot of high school students, and some middle school and college
students, are asking us for advice about National Coming Out Day, which is
actually not limited to the U.S., but is an international effort. October 11 is the day
this year, and it's been called a day "when closeted gay and transgender people
are encouraged to stop living a lie and instead be true to themselves and others."
That can be a good thing for some people, but bad for others. For teens, we
advise that if you're not out at home, don't come out at school just to please
people who are promoting NCOD. If you come out at school, your parents will find
out -- probably sooner than later. Wouldn't you rather have them learn of your
orientation from you than from third parties? If you're sure you're ready to come
out to your family, do that before October 11 and then get their input on your
coming out at school on National Coming Out Day. Please show your parents our
For Parents page.
We never advise anyone to come out just for the sake of coming out or as a way
of making some sort of statement "for the GLBT community". You know your
individual family and school situations, so be wise and be careful.
Next week, the third novel in the multiple-award-winning "Rainbow" series by
Alex Sanchez, Rainbow Road, will be available at major bookstores and from their
websites. Rainbow Road continues the great story that began with Rainbow Boys
and was followed by Rainbow High. You can read about Mr. Sanchez and his four
books, including So Hard to Say, at his website, which is also listed on our Links
page.
We're late on this update, so we need to mention that Chapter 20 of Graeme's
"New Brother" has been posted at DeweyWriter and at AwesomeDude. As
always, those sites and CRVboy have new stories and chapters of ongoing
stories. DaBeagle has posted six more chapters of "Colorado Game" by
Androgene. That story has links embedded in the text that take you to pics and
bios of the characters.
Don't forget our favorite Irish teen blogger, the very insightful and intelligent
Dave, at A Different Shade of Normal.
Sept. 18, 2005: We posted Chapter 5 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac" today,
linked from this page. Ryan says this is one of his best chapters. See what you
think, and if you'd like to comment, you can do that in Ryan's newsgroup, One
Life and More.
Some site visitors are reminding us that we need to update our About Us page for
the new school year, and to include our new crew members, Andy, Wade and
Rain. We've been so busy that we haven't done that, but we'll take care of it
soon.
Sept. 14, 2005: Teenaged author Grasshopper's new story "Beyond the Rain"
has been posted in the Stories by Grasshopper section of IOMFATS. The story is
complete, and all nine chapters plus an epilogue have been posted. If you're not
yet a Grasshopper fan, it's time to join the crowd. His stories are amazing.
Sept. 12, 2005: Someone has spoofed crewmember Trey's personal e-mail
address and is using it to send e-mails that may or may not contain viruses or
worms. If you get an e-mail that lists Trey's full e-mail address as the sender,
please delete it without opening it. Genuine e-mail from Trey shows "Trey" as the
sender, not "trey@------".
Sept. 11, 2005: Ryan Keith now has a Yahoo! newsgroup that encourages
discussion of his stories and poems. Click here to be among the first to join One
Life and More.
Chapter 19 of Graeme's New Brother is now at AwesomeDude.
Sept. 10, 2005: During a relatively brief period of time this evening, visitors to our
site were asked for a password. We thank those of you who e-mailed and made
us aware of that problem. Scot and Todd were able to correct it. That was not
the first sabotage attempt against our site, but it's the only one that was
immediately evident to site visitors. We have never barred anyone from access to
our full site or any part of it. Thank you for understanding.
August 31, 2005: Please give as generously as you can to relief efforts for victims
of Hurricane Katrina. Students, please take an active part in efforts that seek
donations of money and goods. Our school's Student Council and other student
organizations will be active at Friday night's football game, in pre-game, halftime,
and post-game efforts to collect donations for the American Red Cross.
Donations to the Red Cross can be made online at www.redcross.org. Please
share your blessings with those who need your help.
We're getting e-mails from online friends from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and
Florida who are now temporarily in other locations. Our thoughts and prayers are
with all of you, and we hope you'll soon be able to return to your homes.
We appreciate the many e-mails from those of you who have shown concern for
Trey's family and friends who live in the New Orleans area, where Trey was born
and spent most of his first 15 years. We've learned that all of them evacuated the
area on Saturday and Sunday and are safe and uninjured, but they don't know
when they will be able to return to their homes, or if their homes are still there.
August 27, 2005: We're breaking from our tradition of mentioning only the
birthdays of our crew members to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ryan Keith.
Ryan is our honorary big brother and an honorary member of The Mail Crew. He's
leaving the teen ranks today, his 20th birthday, and will soon begin his third year
as an engineering student at his university in Canada. Ryan's stories, "One Life"
and the "Kayden" series, are very popular, and he's one of the authors in the
round-robin "Collision" project. He's also one of the contributors to our Authors
Speak to Teens feature. We wish you all the best, big bro, and continued success
in your university career. Your friendship means a lot to us.
August 19, 2005: Chapter 4 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac" is now here. Brad
is getting more devious, and Zac and Lenne are having a major disagreement.
The first of Ryan's two chapters of the multi-authored "Collision" mystery is now
up at AwesomeDude, CRVboy, DeweyWriter, Movie Guy Gay World Stories, and
The Talon House. Ryan's chapter, "Playing Detective", brings a bit of fun into the
story and heats up Kelly's situation.
DeweyWriter is hosting a new teen author, 15-year-old William. The first chapter
of his first story, "Joshua", has been posted. Check it out. William is listed under
"Hosted Authors" on the lefthand side of the DeweyWriter home page.
DeweyWriter is also now hosting another teen author, Chris Harrod, from the UK,
with the first three chapters of his "Krystal" already posted. Chris is listed under
"Hosted Authors" as Harrod200. Chris has a website of his own, with more of his
stories, some stories by other authors, and other cool stuff.
Other new material has been posted at the sites linked above and also at The
Story Lover's Home and at Stories by Driver.
We remind all who are considering starting new e-mail groups to pay close
attention to our How It Works and Do/Don't pages. The suggestions on those
pages are important to the success of your group.
August 15, 2005: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TREY!! Today, the third of the three
college-bound members of our original crew turns nineteen. Trey, more than
anyone else, has been the stone foundation of our group, from its beginnings in
2002, the founding of the original e-mail group in January of 2003, and since we
started this website in August of 2003. He steers us toward the right decisions
when the going gets tough and cheers with us when we reach new milestones.
Trey is a natural leader, but not just because he's a bit over 6' 5" tall (when we
can get him and Eric to wear shoes). He's big of heart, soul and spirit, and he
always stands up for what he believes to be right and just. He's become a role
model for many gay teens, but it's not easy to get him to acknowledge that fact.
Trey, we love and admire you more than you can grasp. Believe it, big bro.
Trey, Eric and David will still be with us, as advisors and champions of the cause,
as they tackle their first year of college.
August 11, 2005: Back-to-school time is already here for some in the
U.S., and coming soon for the rest of us whose schools don't have some sort of
alternative schedule, such as year-round school. We're working with some new e-
mail groups, and we hope to hear from more new startup groups as schools start
their new year. Also, we welcome aboard new group leaders and members who
are replacing those who graduated from existing groups. Please be sure to
closely follow the suggestions on our Do/Don't page. Let's make this the best-yet
school year for gay, lesbian, bi and not-sure teens, as well as for transgendered
and intersexed teens -- who seem to be the most misunderstood.
We think you'll enjoy the blog maintained by our friend Dave from across the sea
in Ireland, A Different Shade of Normal. We're fascinated by his blog because he
freely discusses feelings and curiosities that are typical of many gay teens.
Chapter 8 of the round-robin mystery "Collision" has been posted at the several
hosting sites listed in earlier posts on this page. Chapter 8 was written by Plastic
Reality. Look for Chapter 9 -- by our buddy Ryan Keith, who's still a teen for a
couple more weeks -- to be posted on Sunday.
Chapter 18 of Graeme's "New Brother" is at The Story Lover's Home,
AwesomeDude, and DeweyWriter. New stories and chapters are at those sites
and at CRVboy. New visitors, be sure to check out Sequoyah's Place, DrakeTales
and Stories by Driver.
July 30, 2005: Technical problems with a new version of our website software
have been bugging us, so we've gone back to the older version to do this update
and make some site changes. That's why it's been so long between updates.
We're all doing fine, and we thank everyone who has written to ask about us.
Our Links page hasn't been getting as many hits as it used to. Some of the sites
linked from there are always updating, so don't forget them. We've added new
links to suicide prevention and anti-violence resources, and on our Stories page
we added a link to Josh Aterovis' website. Josh is a young (20-something) writer
whose two mystery novels have won awards. His short stories and novels are
available at his site.
Grasshopper has written another new story, "Nothing in Common /Wanna Bet?".
Here's his preface to the story: "This is for my brothers out there who want it all
now and are struggling to keep their heads above the water. You've got time.
Hold it in the road and pick your battles. There's room for us all." Thanks for
another great story, Jamie.
In other story news, Dewey has posted Chapter 10 of "The Power Within" and
Chapter 17 of "Life from a Distance: Ben" at DeweyWriter. DaBeagle has posted
another chapter of "The Enigma of Flatness" by Devon Keene. "Quarry Tales" is
being added at Stories by Driver, with six chapters posted so far. Chapter 7 of the
round-robin mystery "Collision" has been added at DeweyWriter, CRVboy,
AwesomeDude and The Talon House. AwesomeDude and CRVboy also have other
new story and chapter additions, as always.
Summer break is going too fast! School starts next month and we hope to be
ready. We hope you guys will be, too.
July 18, 2005: Happy Birthday to Eric, who is 19 today. Major party coming up
tonight! Eric is one of the founders of TMC, and a wonderful brother to all of us.
He's the clown of our crew, and he knows how to lighten things up when the
going gets tough. We love you, joker!
We spent the weekend at a cabin in the woods that we sometimes visit when we
want to get away from it all. David didn't go, but the rest of us did, including
newbies Rain, Andy and Wade. The cabin is near a huge lake, where we spent a
lot of time water skiing and also did some fishing. Rain was already a good skier,
but it was Andy and Wade's first try. There's hope for them. Really.
We're busy today, catching up on e-mail, and no one will be left out, we promise.
Seventeen-year-old Irishman Dave is now home from Greece. Check out his
latest blog posts at A Different Shade of Normal. Dave is writing a story that we
hope to post here at The Mail Crew, beginning sometime soon. Watch for it.
Chapter 17 of Graeme's "New Brother" is now at AwesomeDude and at
DeweyWriter, along with his new and funny short-short "A Letter to My Son".
We know you e-mail group leaders in the northern hemisphere are keeping in
touch with your groups during the summer break from school, and that's
important. We're hearing good things about your successes. Keep up the good
work!
July 11, 2005: We hope everyone affected by Hurricane Dennis is doing well. Our
area will get as much as a foot of rain from the remnants, starting tonight. We
might have some unexpected swimming holes for skinny-dipping by the end of
the week. ^-^
Okay, if you need a break from that summer reading list that you've gotta finish
before the Fall semester starts, here's some story news:
We've posted Chapter 3 of teen author Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac". It's a
great chapter, and you'll really be surprised by some new plot developments.
Another teen author, Grasshopper, has written a new story! We think "In a
Heartbeat" is awesome, and we think Grasshopper's fans will agree with us.
Become a Grasshopper fan!
Teen poet Codey is out of the hospital and feeling better. He went though a
period of semi-consciousness and talked of unicorns. Later, fully conscious, he
wrote "I Danced with Unicorns", which you can read in this thread at the
AwesomeDude forums.
We've previously mentioned a round-robin story that's being written by ten
authors, including two teens. "Collision" is back on track, now, and six chapters
are available at AwesomeDude, CRVboy, DeweyWriter and The Talon House.
Poet Codey wrote Chapter 5, and Ryan Keith will write Chapters 9 and 19 of that
20-chapter mystery.
Dewey has posted a new chapter of "The Power Within" at DeweyWriter, in the
continuing saga of Brian and Pete. Lots of new stories and chapters are at
CRVboy, AwesomeDude and DeweyWriter.
At The Story Lover's Home, you can find help with computer problems and
questions by clicking on Personal Pages and then Computer Web Links. Some new
stories are there, too, and other interesting things.
Keep on enjoying your summer! We're really enjoying ours. We have a water
skiing trip coming up at the end of the week, weather permitting.
July 4, 2005: We wish everyone in the U.S. a very happy and safe Independence
Day. Happy Birthday to our nation. We're grateful to our servicemen around the
world, whose lives are constantly in danger in our behalf.
We normally mention on this page the birthdays of only our crew members.
Today, we're breaking from that tradition to wish a very happy birthday to Trey's
grandfather, who is an honorary grandfather to the rest of us. He very kindly
puts up with our constant invasion of his home, which is the location of our
headquarters, and also where Trey lives. We love you, Pops, you old firecracker.
Happy 64th!
Teen poet Codey is in the hospital, in ICU, following a seizure last Friday. Please
keep him in your thoughts and prayers. He will remain hospitalized for a at least a
few more days.
June 28, 2005: Happy Birthday to David, our oldest crew member, who turns
19 today, at 4:23 pm EST. He'll soon be put out to pasture, along with Trey and
Eric. They'll still provide support, though, even after their first semester of college
begins. David is really helpful to straight guys who become aware that a close
friend, cousin or brother is gay. He dealt with his best friend Eric's coming out in a
very mature manner, and he was one of the founders of The Mail Crew.
June 22, 2005: Hey, we got back late Sunday from our 11-day trip. We spent
more time in North Carolina than other states, but we were in Ohio, Indiana,
Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, too. We met
and talked with many wonderful people, including lots of cool high school and
college students.
David lasted four days before flying back to be with his girlfriend. He lasted longer
than we thought he would. Here's a picture of 'David the Shark' after four days
without Susan. Actually, that's a 61-pound blacktip shark that was caught from
the longest fishing pier in North Carolina, which is on Oak Island. Billy took this
picture from up on the observation deck out at the end of the pier early one
morning when mostly older fishermen were there. Later that day on the same
pier we met two teens from Mount Airy, NC, who told us about Pilot Mountain,
which we saw later in the week. We want to go back there when we have more
time to spend exploring it.
The first night of our trip we camped out in the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park, and we had a great time there. Those black bears are way cool!
After we got to the beach area of NC, we were headquartered in a beach house
on Oak Island. We visited Caswell Beach, Long Beach, Carolina Beach,
Wrightsville Beach, Yaupon Beach and Holden Beach, all in NC, and Myrtle Beach,
SC. We did some surf and pier fishing, tried wave runners on the ocean (way
different from wave running on our lakes and rivers -- kinda scary), did some
parasailing, surfing (the waves were almost too small), and partied on the
beaches (mostly at night) with high school and college-age guys and girls. A
bunch of us almost got into trouble with the beach patrol guys one night, for
shooting off fireworks on the beach.
We want to thank John and his wife, long-time friends of Trey's grandfather, for
letting us use their beach house.
Most of you who visit our site know that Aaron edits for some story writers. He
will edit everything I (Chris) am typing here, but I think he'll leave in the next
part. We didn't let him have any free time to do any editing while we were on that
trip. Here's a picture of Aaron after too much sun and not enough editing. Hehe.
We love to pick on Mr. Picky, 'cause we love him. Billy keeps us from going too far
with our teasing.
We took lots of pictures that include us and other teens, but we have to stick with
our promise to our parents to not post pictures of ourselves. That can be a
dangerous thing to do, as we mention on our Be Safe page. Also, we would never
post pictures of other teens, for the same reasons.
We want to thank everyone we met for being such great people, and we thank
you for visiting our website. You confirmed our belief that times are changing, and
most straight young people and many older people, as individuals and not as
members of certain groups, don't really care one way or the other about whether
someone they know is straight, gay, lesbian, bi, or whatever. GLBT kids are
becoming more and more comfortable with themselves and have greater self
esteem than our counterparts of older generations.
The teens who are the most confused and who are hurting the most are the "not-
sure" ones. They agonize over coming out to themselves, and need positive
images of what it means to be a GLBT teen. That's why we picked certain stories
to post and link to from our Stories page. The story sites we link to also have
many positive and helpful stories. E-mail group leaders, please keep in mind that
the "not sure" members of your groups probably need your understanding and
encouragement more than the "sure" ones.
That's it for this update. We'll add more in a week or so. Sooner than that if
something major happens.
June 19, 2005: Happy Father's Day to fathers everywhere, and especially to
ours. We thank you for being our dads, not just our biological fathers. And to
Trey's grandfather, who has been Eric's substitute dad for years, we say "Happy
Father's Day, Pops."
June 8, 2005: We've just received some very sad news. A 16-year-old friend
named Billy, from California, is apparently losing his battle with aplastic anemia.
The bone marrow transplants are no longer helping. Here's part of what Billy's
uncle wrote us: "Billy has been incredibly strong throughout this. He told me last
night he knows he is dying. He was trying to comfort me, he is an amazing young
man. We will never give up hope for a miracle. Billy has found a peace that is
amazing to witness in someone so young. Thank you for being there when Billy
needed someone to help him sort out his confusion so many gay teenagers
experience."
Please keep Billy in your thoughts and prayers, as well as his family, including his
younger brother and sister. Billy wants his savings account to be split between
The Mail Crew and another website. Of course, if it comes to that, we'll ask that
the money be given to charity instead of to us, but that's just an example of Billy's
wonderful personality. We love you, Billy.
*******
Today we posted Chapter 2 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac". Ryan's new
character, Brad, is adding a new dimension to this great story about some really
cool Canadian high school students.
All of our original crew of nine will leave tomorrow morning, heading for the
Smoky Mountains and then a week on the North Carolina coast. We'll be back on
June 19 for Father's Day. Actually, we expect David will fly back early; he'll be
missing his girlfriend. We'll try to keep up with e-mail while we're away, and new
guys Andy, Wade and Rain will help out here at home while we're gone.
Aaron has finished editing Chapter 16 of Graeme's "New Brother" story, so it
should appear soon (maybe today) at AwesemeDude, and then later at
DeweyWriter and The Story Lover's Home.
The "Collision" round-robin story that we mentioned on May 23 now has four
chapters complete and posted at AwesomeDude, DeweyWriter, CRVboy, The
Talon House, and Movie Guy Gay World Stories. Chapter 3 was written by Oz and
Chapter 4 was written by CRVboy.
Everyone, enjoy your summer activities and be safe, okay?
May 31, 2005: Today was our last day as The Lawn Boys. We've sold the
lawncare business that we started in April of 2003. All of our crew will be able to
do some traveling together this summer, and we'll have lots of time for fishing,
water skiing, camping, baseball, skinny-dipping, etc. We plan to really enjoy our
last summer as the original crew, before Trey, Eric and David enter college. We'll
always keep up with e-mail, though, from wherever we are.
Inside the red brackets below is most of an e-mail we received today about a gay-
teen-oriented movie. Marc Hall is from Whitby, Ontario, the hometown of the
fictional Kayden, Zac and their friends, of Ryan Keith's "Kayden" series. We don't
like the title chosen for the movie, since it seems to refer to the leading gay
character as a "queen", but we know we have to see the movie, so we ordered
the DVD.
[[[Prom Queen: New LGBT youth movie on DVD just in time for prom season
PROM QUEEN
This uplifting comedy-drama is based on the true story of Marc Hall, the
Canadian gay teen who sued the Catholic Church for not letting him bring his
boyfriend to his high school prom. Like a homo-positive "Afterschool Special,"
PROM QUEEN has a terrific cast which includes openly gay "Kids In The Hall"
comedian Scott Thompson and rising star Aaron Ashmore (see his photo spread in
the current issue of OUT Magazine) as the blue-eyed, blue-haired rebel who
boldly confronts the homophobic school board, and ultimately takes on the
Catholic Church.
This heartfelt story inspires and entertains as it offers up a heroic
portrait of gay teen activism and portrays the true courage of his straight friends
and family as they rally together to send Marc and his boyfriend to the prom. DVD
extras include a documentary featurette on the real Marc Hall, director's
commentary, Melanie Doane's "You Are What You Love" music video, closed
captioning, and original theatrical trailer.
Available on DVD starting May 3rd from stores everywhere; or visit
Wolfe Video to place your order today.
* ACTION ITEM: Ask your video store to carry PROM QUEEN! Many LGBT titles
are available for rental at video stores across the country. However, there are
also lots of stores that don't carry LGBT titles or don't realize there is a demand
for them. Next time you visit Blockbuster or your corner video store, tell them
they should carry more LGBT videos and DVDs!
PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS & FAMILY & LGBT YOUTH EVERYWHERE.]]]
May 28, 2005: We wish everyone a safe, fun and happy Memorial Day weekend.
Let's forever appreciate those who have died and are dying daily so that we may
be free -- free to be gay, lesbian, bi, straight, sideways, upside down, or
whatever. This weekend is about much more than the Indianapolis 500 and the
Coca-Cola 600.
Congratulations to all of you who have graduated from high school in the last few
days, or will be graduating soon, including our own crew members David, Eric and
Trey.
Drake Hunter, a super friend of The Mail Crew, has completed "A Royal Thief"
and has posted the final chapters, 24-28, at DrakeTales. Be sure to check it out.
Drake's writing was delayed for a while by new developments in his life, but he's
back in action, and we send him our warmest regards.
May 23, 2005: With the school year ending soon, it's time to make plans for
keeping your school's e-mail group active during the summer, including continuing
regularly-scheduled chats in private chat rooms. It's also important to find new
group leaders to replace any who are graduating. We're losing Trey, Eric and
David to graduation, but by the beginning of next school year, Andy, Wade, and
Rain (cool name, huh?) will be on board as new members of The Mail Crew.
They've already been handling some of the e-mail and chats for our local group,
and some leaders and members of other groups have already heard from them.
Our friend Grasshopper is hanging up his writing hat, at least for an indefinite
length of time, and donning a cowboy hat. We miss you already, Jamie. We wish
you great happiness. Click here to read Grasshopper's announcement of the new
developments in his life. His wonderful stories will remain available at that site.
Aaron has updated the introduction to his "Did He Really Say That?" story to
include a link to the entire four-story series, of which his is the third story. The
other three stories are easily printable from that link.
The "Collision" story we mentioned last time has grown to two chapters, with the
addition of "What Happened?" by Graeme. The multi-author story is being hosted
by DeweyWriter and CVRboy under the topic Round Robin, The Talon House and
Movie Guy Gay World Stories, and is linked from AwesomeDude's home page as
this week's Hot Spot.
Check the sites listed on our Stories page for new stories and new chapters of
continuing stories. Those sites are frequently updated.
May 16, 2005: Tonight we've added "Fields of Hope" to our growing collection of
works by Ryan Keith. Check it out.
"Collision" is a multi-chapter mystery that will include chapters by several
prominent authors. Several sites will be hosting it, and we will list those in a later
update. As of now, we've found the first chapter, "Between the Darkness and
Light" by James Savik, only at DeweyWriter.
New stories and new chapters have been posted at CRVboy, DeweyWriter,
AwesomeDude, and DaBeagle.
May 9, 2005: Just a quick update. We're busy with term papers, getting ready for
finals, etc., etc. We're a bit behind in answering mail, but we'll catch up. We
haven't forgotten anyone.
Tonight we posted Chapter 1 of Ryan Keith's "Kayden and Zac". "Kayden and
Zac" is the third segment of the saga, preceded by "Kayden" and "Kayden II".
Those stories and Ryan's "One Life" are linked from our Kayden page.
May 8, 2005: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of our moms, to all moms who
visit our site, and to the moms of all of you guys and girls. We're very fortunate
and grateful to have wonderful mothers. You're the greatest, and we love you!!!
May 1, 2005: This is our first entry on our new News/Updates page. The older
entries are still available -- just click on the link above. The old News/Updates
page had gotten so big that it was slow in loading on some dialup connections.
Here's a quote from our Do/Don't page: > "Don’t get involved in debates
involving religion or politics. Those topics are not essential to the purpose of your
group and often lead to irreconcilable differences."
Without debating the subject, you can recommend Whosoever and The Gay
Christian Network to your Christian group members. Those are really good sites
for GLBTQ Christians, and we've added them to our Links page and our FAQ page.
We're asking for recommendations of sites beneficial to GLBTQ people of other
religions.
The final chapter, epilogue and afterword of Graeme's "Falls Creek Lessons" is
now available at DeweyWriter, and still at AwesomeDude. As usual, new chapters
and stories have been added at one of the Internet's best story sites, CRVboy.