All Comments on 'The Unbucket List'

Hello and thanks for reading! A quick note:

For the record, I do know Lynyrd Skynyrd was not a country music band, but Smitty and Layla, both born in the 1990s, do not. I overheard a conversation about that song in which a person born well after the 1970s made the same assumption based on the presence of a character named Linda Lou. It amused me so much that I used it here.

Wonderful story!

5

A hard choice to make---I've loved all your stories, Van, but yes, I think this may be the best one yet. There are just so many things to like in the tale that I don't really know where to start so I'll just leave it mostly unsaid. Perhaps the first thing to impress was Smitty's mention of all the assumptions people can make based solely on one's physical appearance. And Layla's wonderful day should bring a lump to the most jaded throat. I'm sure a lot of your readers will cry out for a sequel but I don't think that would be necessary. You've said everything you need to in this lovely story so leave the characters alone to live happily ever after in their own way.

A wonderful uplifting beautiful story.

Excellent story!!

Very nice encore to a story that previously ended on such a down note. Very well written. It was a pleasure spending time with these characters again, and I'm glad Layla is doing better.

Great story!

Reading this was similar to tasting a fine wine, getting the base flavour and then sampling all the little subtle notes of various memories and experiences on the tongue. Then they recombined into a deeply satisfying taste.

Thank you. 5*

Great story. Great great story.

This was such a delight to read. Very beautiful, evocative writing. 5 stars.

Such wonderful characters, wrapped by an uplifting story and so well written. Great job. Exercised my tear ducts more than once. Thanks for sharing.

I've a similar history from back in '80..

Major surgeries, very heavy experimental chemo. They did a lot of extra damage, but be damned if i'm not still alive to complain about it.

And for some reason, my wife stuck with me.

Yeah, i lucked out too.

Thank you for the excellent story!

Congratulations on winning.

A delightful and uplifting story about returning to the real world after battling and beating cancer. Thanks for posting.

Your caring and warm spirit comes through. Thanks

An old cancer survivor. 🎀

I had to stop and wipe the tears from my eyes more than six times while reading this story. That should tell you all that needs to be said.

A delightful, romantic, erotic piece - very fitting as a contest winner. Thank you for suggesting reading the prior story as it was central to how the characters fit together here.

They are too perfect. Give me the rest of her list!

Fuck me, but there's a lot happening in the first sentence of your story. Tighten your shit up if you want to be more than a literoticadotcome writer.

The front end was so natural...I felt like I was part of the conversations.

One of the "gang"...

I have SUCH a soft spot in my heart ...Possibly also in my brain?

For nice people being nice to each other!

I want to be nice to you...for you...with you!

So glad you won.

A nicely written short love story. I kept waiting for the erotic part of the story to happen but it never did happen Definitely not an erotic story. I cannot understand why it won. Not a great love story and definitely not erotic.

Loved it....!!! Definitely drew me in, it would be great to hear more of their story!!

Wow! I have to read your other stuff now. Well worth 5 stars

A cat named Geddy. Love it. Next your are going to have a story with dogs named Stanley and Lucy Wasserman.

Loved this, and it seemed familiar. When I got to the end, I had already given it five stars sometime before. Would give it five more if I could. Excellent!

Keep 'em coming baby!

dancing with splendid !

As much as I enjoyed the first installment, I regret to say that this one disappointed me. I'm not going to elaborate on the reasons because they're very personal to me. The writing was very good, but I just couldn't get into the story itself.

I do want to take time to thank Van for emailing me a personal response to comments that I left on the previous installment. It made me feel really good that the author cared enough to read my comment and acknowledge it. I'll be adding you to my favorites list for two reasons; (a) I enjoyed your writing and (b) you care. May our Father in Heaven continue to watch over your Mom.

PS- my work has me frequently traveling to the Hershey/Harrisburg/Carlisle area, so I was very familiar with the locations of this story. It made it very enjoyable to read since I could connect to it on a personal basis. 😀

Excellent, I wouldn’t say no to part3, thanks

Excellent! Found my eyes leaking numerous times! Thank you.

I lost my Rachel after a four year fight with overian cancer when we were 24... I simply do not have the words to say how much this story and its prequel have meant to me. Layla even has some similar characteristics that Rach had. These stories gave me a few good cries. I would really love it if you did another instalment when (hopefully) she makes the five year survival mark - during her 14 months of remission we talked alot about what we would do at that milestone... looking back I think she knew it wasn't going to happen, she was always reminding me there was only a 25% chance of getting there. But it would be nice to read about Layla making it and what her life is like and that shes really going to be okay.

My only criticism of this story is only when compared to the first. Its the inconsistancy - in the first the siblings are adorably close and lean on each other, huge parts of each other's lives. That story was from Gary's pov and he thought of all the time and its clear she does as well. I get this story was not about that relationship, but you can practically feel Gary's absense through much of it he's only in two scenes and she doesn't think of him all that much or that foundly... I would have thought they'd be closer after all they went through (even without what happens at the end of the first story) not more distant.

Other than that - well done. Thank you - while these stories brought back a lot of bad memories, it also brought back so really good ones, some I had almost forgotten, so again, a very sincere thank you.

Hi, vanmyers86, I’m surprised I didn’t read this at the time of the contest since I had a vested interest at the time, but was glad to read it now after the first story, which gave it a lot of context that might have been missing otherwise. That said, being narrated by Layla after she’s beaten the cancer, it has a very different feel than Gary’s telling in the first. Mom was conspicuously absent, too, making me disappointed that we didn’t learn more about their reconciliation. In the end, it was a sweet story that came to a happy ending after being in such doubt in the first tale. Great job with it and congratulations on the well-deserved win.

Layla was a fighter, she probably wouldn’t think of herself as one. But with cancer if you give up you can never go home.

Layla’s emergence from cancer was a whirlwind of adventure. A woman should always have a support group such as this. She gets a new boyfriend and adventures all at once. Layla is a survivor and looks like she has the rest of her life to live. She is one of the lucky ones.

This one hit in a few places. Any person who can recover and stay in remission has my highest praise. Those of you that are in remission…..LIVE for yourself and those who love you. You have a second chance, don’t waste it.

Well done! 5* Thanks for sharing.