O, thank you ^_^! I really appreciated your response.

You are a beautiful man Alex, you are, and the world is in need of ‘beautiful’men (and women) like you.

P.S. I deemed it necessary to comment on some things… I guess, as compared to Tough (I know, it’s too early to compare since the story is still unfinished), Shot in the Dark, though a fantastic story, placed gay relationship under the spotlight of ‘justice’ and ‘discipline.’ I know, I’m not in the position to tell what’s ‘good’ or not (and I’d like to point out that I’m not speaking of morals here, I myself have a ‘deconstructed’ standard of morals and morality) BUT I’d like to stress that Shot in the Dark – the story and the characters (I admired them!)- on my opinion, is ‘telling’ the readers that gay relationship isn’t all about sex and pleasure. There’s the discipline in narrating/visualizing the bed scene. Your beautiful characters expressed their love (which is so ‘passionate,’ that makes me envious) to each other not by merely physical contact but their ‘simple’ actions (especially the junior apprentice). The story turned out ‘fair’ to gay couples out there… and that’s what Tough, I think, must ‘tell,’ too (I consider the fact that the protagonists of the story are ‘not yet lovers’). The story is not yet finished, I’m excited to see the rest, and that’s why I’ll keep in touch with you and yaoi911! ^_^

Red roses for a beautiful yaoi writer and publisher. His name is Alex ^_^

Man, you say the sweetest things. ::blush:: And I haven’t thought about writing that line for a long time—but it definitely does represent what I’m trying to do here. I’m really glad it’s something you connect with. Today I’ve just been thinking about how one of the most awesome things about starting Yaoi 911 is finding out how many other folks are interested in making the world a more tolerant, accepting place—through comics! Just thinking about that makes me happy.

You make really thoughtful points. And with “padayon!”, you’ve given me an awesome new work to use in my comics!

I really appreciate you taking the time to comment!

I’ve read three or four of your entries re. how you came up with yaoi911, your ‘story’ and stories, and some ‘debatable’ things about yaoi as a genre–entries which I thought interesting, very interesting. BTW, the ’911′ thing is genius! ^_^

Honestly, I found the discussion of drawing the border line between yaoi and gay comics and of ‘written-by-and-for-women/men/gay’ quite… exhausting (or is it just me? ^_^). Anyhoo, some* conventions suck and I admired your courage to take 3 ‘big’ steps from the border (I remember, you’ve mentioned about having ‘three strikes’ or anything like that).

I think, the most beautiful thing about you and your view about these issues goes with this line:

“I do hope my stories will appeal to you “on your level.” But they aren’t just for other gay men or even primarily for other gay men. As I said in a previous post, one thing I like about creating yaoi is its potential to allow everyone to celebrate gay love — both its special and universal qualities. Maybe my flavor of yaoi will feel a bit more inclusive than other creators’ — I’m just fine with that — but I’m not interested in finding ways to limit my audience or exclude others from what’s cool about a guy loving another guy. In fact, it’s just the opposite. My goal as a creator is to bring disparate groups together and to expand people’s understanding of one another. I personally believe I can do that while showing them a good time and my chosen genre for making this happen is yaoi.”

So beautiful. Kudos Alex!!! Padayon!!!**

*’some’ because without these conventions, one would no longer point what, say, a poem is and what’s not.

**a Filipino word which means continue, keep going ^_^

Wow, thank you so much, Reggie! I'm so glad you enjoyed "Tough"! And to hear that I've earned a top spot among your favorite yaoi authors — well, that's tremendously flattering.

Thank you very much for letting me know what you thought and for your support. I really hope you like the other comics we'll be offering this year — and hope to see you here again!

Hugs,

Alex

Much love,

Reggie

I'm glad you found this post interesting. Yeah, it does seem a little contradictory to encounter intolerance from folks who are into something as outside of mainstream's norms as yaoi, but the truth is, I've only encountered it a couple of times. As I've said here and other places, the vast majority of yaoi fans I've met and interacted with are completely delightful. And it's interactions like that which keep the enthusiasm up for a project that, frankly, takes a fair bit of time to reach completion. <— (feels like running a marathon somedays pant, pant)

As for LiveJournal, I do have an account there — but only to check out other people's accounts. I haven't posted or anything. But I did friend you — alexwoolfson is my account name — so if you want to friend me back, it'd be cool to check out that post.

Be well — and I hope you continue to enjoy the site.

Alex

I make a conscious effort (fight, more like) to retrain and keep my brain running on i-am-who-i-am-so-explore-and-embrace-it-all thought patterns.

Rock on, my friend, rock on.

You mentioned in another post to myself to 411 my friends on the Yaoi911. I only have online friends (real life, I'm surrounded mostly by people I hesitate to share myself and my subculture views around for fear of that freakin' ol' raised eyebrow of judgement. NOooooo! Not the eyebrow! Aaaaahhhh!)

This This is the best I can do for you! If you have a Livejournal.com account and friend me (MightyMaeve), you'll see my little entry on you fabulous site and more! If not, let me know, and I'll send you an email of what I wrote.

Thanks for the encouragement — it's much appreciated! And you are definitely not alone — there are lot of us.

Alex

Keep the good work

ald