I'm home from my seven weeks of gallivanting around Europe, sailing across the Atlantic and visiting with my parents in Florida ... and I've even unpacked! Had a fabulous time and am less exhausted than I deserve to be, LOL!

I spent time today catching up on LJ as I've been offline for awhile and came across Garettgal's story rec -- and saw that no one had commented, so I'm reinforcing her recommendation. I hope she won't mind me quoting her public post and my response to her entry:

She wrote, "Go read the second TS story from T Verano at http://home.earthlink.net/~t.verano/. It is called "New" and is set just after Blair has moved in to the loft and his seven days are up. The story is GEN. Go and enjoy. It really is very good."

I replied, "Excellent Work! Hey, thanks so much for reccing this story! It's wonderfully written and simply delightful. Her descriptions of Blair's various attempts to find accommodation after the week was up were terrific -- highly imaginative and compelling. She deftly manages a mix of humour and pathos with a balance I've rarely seen. I was so impressed that I immediately read T. Verano's other story, and it's exceptional, too. She's definitely tuned into Blair's stream of consciousness, and she nails Jim in a very skillful and sensitive way. The stories have moments of whimsy, poignancy, great banter and a whole lot of insight. I gladly add a strong rec to yours for folks to rush on over to read this author's work -- and I urge people to send feedback so that she'll write lots more!"

Seriously, folks, waste no time in checking out this new author's stories. And, hey, those of you who prefer slash, don't be put off by the fact the stories are gen. You can easily read them as pre-slash in terms of how these guys feel about one another as they do the dance of getting to know one another early in their relationship. And PLEASE do send feedback so the author, T Verano, will be vastly encouraged and will be inclined to write many, many more stories for our collective enjoyment.