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  • Valkyrie

    2026 Anthology - Horizons and Unspoken - Week Three **NOW LIVE**

    By Valkyrie

    Anthology month continues with the third installment of the 2026 Anthology.  I'd like to extend a huge thank you to all who have supported, read, commented, and reviewed all the stories that have been released so far.  We've had 11 stories over the past couple of weeks, with 5 more today  If you haven't checked out the first two installments, check out the banner at the top of the page, which will take you to the blogs listing the stories. Will there be a fourth installment?  You'll have to be s
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Weekly Wrap Up (May 15 - May 21)

Not much to say this weekend, so we will go with the facts, just the facts ma'am  Well, I guess I can ask since in Canadia and other Commonwealth countries I do believe this is a long weekend, any plans? Kick off summer bbq's or parties? I know the US of A has theirs next weekend which is much smarter. One more week for things to warm up  So what are the plans next weekend for all my American friends? Jumping right in, Monday was an announcement by Cia of our new Classic Author Feature:

wildone

wildone in Weekly Wrap Up

Venting Machine

Venting Machine It'll happen at some point. Don't try to dodge it, duck it, or outrun it. You can be the nicest, most docile, most hard-working person on planet Earth...you can back out of conflicts, you can work yourself to the point of utter exhaustion trying to avoid an argument or attempt to keep the peace...but that sinister beast is going to creep up, raise its head, and find you every single time. It happens. It's never a matter of 'if'...but 'when'. And all you can do is try to find

Comicality

Comicality in Writing Tips

Book Review: Rag and Bone by Michael Nava

Back in 1986, Michael Nava published his first novel to feature the West Coast American lawyer Henry Rios. Over the years that followed, Henry Rios featured in seven novels and all of them have been highly readable and enjoyable. But Henry Rios is not the clean-cut, all-American male lawyer who breathlessly solves murders. Henry Rios is a defense lawyer who usually defends the underdog, but that is where the similarities end. Henry Rios is Mexican, from a forcefully working-class family and

Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Book review

Roads Less Travelled - The Genre Edition

I love murder mysteries, but I love other kinds of writing as well.  Whether it's Tolkien or Asimov, I can really enjoy a good sci fi series or a great book of fantasy.  So, I'll offer up a couple of prompts in those genres.  Please simply take the kernel of the idea and play with it.  You don't need it to follow the prompt exactly.  It's the concept that's fun.  Try something different!!!   Prompt #49 - The Lycan Hunter - A werewolf hunter hears about a pack on the other side of the c

Cole Matthews

Cole Matthews in Prompts

Grammar Guide 20 - More on Sentences

This week we wrap up on construction of sentences.  Our first part talks about Parallel Construction in sentences. Parallel words, phrases, and clauses improve the flow of ideas and heighten its impact.  Similarity of form helps readers recognize similarity of content or function. Use consistent voice throughout sentence Ensure consistent voice (active or passive) and an introduction to each clause in a series Bad: Joey was worried that the exam would

Myr

Myr in Grammar Guide

Book Review: State of Independence by Robert Farrar

This is a gay comedy of manners and that can be a genre. It is the early 1990s and Lenny, in his early twenties, is trying to find his way through gay London. He lives in a gay house share; he works as waiter at a restaurant and dreams of finding a boyfriend and a better job. He has run away to London from his suburban Evangelical Christian home; unfortunately, he might not be in Kansas anymore but London is certainly not the Emerald City. Lenny, the narrator here, is a likable and eng

Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Book review

May Classic Author Feature: The Dream Dreams the Dreamer by Andy78

May is a month of changes, and this story is one I think fits perfectly with that theme. Have you ever read our Classic Author, Andy78's story, The Dream Dreams the Dreamer from the 2013 A Night to Remember Anthology? If not, check it out now!   Length: 2,546 Description: Matthew dreams that he is recruited as an Angel of Death. A Reader said: A very enjoyable read, Andy. Seeing I'm getting up in years, I hope when the Angel of Death comes for me that it's someone cute

Cia

Cia in Classic Feature

Jeb Stuart

Meet my pal, Jeb Stuart. We met one-day last spring and I knew we were going to be pals from the start. He was a young Tom riding on the back of a terrified medium-sized dog. I fed Jeb and eventually tamed him enough to adopt him.   Why Jeb Stuart? We live in Mississippi, he's gray and obviously a cavalry man.

JamesSavik

JamesSavik in cats

Weekly Wrap Up (May 8 - May 14)

I think I'm going to start out today wrap up with a question for you all  Are you superstitious? This past Friday was Friday the 13th  Did anything untoward happen to you? Were you worried something might happen to you? If, and there probably isn't a lot of us, you like sports do you have rituals or things you do on game day or right before the game? If you wear a shirt or something before an event and the outcome isn't positive, do you avoid that piece of clothing going forward. My Ca

wildone

wildone in Weekly Wrap Up

Book Review: Make Death Love Me by Ruth Rendell

It is 1979 and Alan Groombridge, the manager of a small, provincial town bank, has a fantasy. One day, he’ll steal all the money from the bank’s safe and run away from his suffocating life. A life with a wife and children he no longer loves and doesn’t even like. But he only gets as far as taking the money out of the safe, when he is alone in the bank, putting the money in his pocket, fantasying about where that money will take him, before putting the money back. Then one day, as he holds the mo

Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Book review

Genre Fatigue

Genre Fatigue ::Giggles:: Really? Are people out there trying to make that a 'thing' again? It doesn't exist, you know? No, seriously...it's a business based illusion. Its not real. The idea that you cant write and release an awesome story because the 'idea' has been done to death and nobody wants to see it anymore…? Its all bullshit. Don't ever buy into that brainwashed mode of thinking about the stuff that you write. Your story is your own. Period. If there are 150 fantasy novels

Comicality

Comicality in Writing Tips

Prompt May 13th

Do you want to write a story, maybe for the upcoming anthology,  but nothing inspires an idea? How about this? PT# 47 For weeks, someone has this uneasy feeling they forgot something important: a birthday, an anniversary, an invitation. Then a long-forgotten childhood friend calls them. “I just wanted to remind you about—” About what? I’m curious to read your story. Or, you send someone on a scavenger hunt. PT# 48 The protagonist steps out their door and finds

Aditus

Aditus in Prompts

Chit & Also Chat Equals An Upset "N"

Chit & Also Chat Equals an Upset “N” May 12th, 2022   I can’t believe it’s already May 12, 2022. Life seems to move faster and faster the older you get. I’ll be fifty in two and half years. Where the hell did the time go? Just yesterday I was twenty year old chasing fuzzy bunny slippers and now I’m lucky to find my slippers. Not sure if that is a euphemism. But it sounds dirty so I’ll allow it.  So I’m bald. But that’s been for like ten years now. I’m one of the lucky one

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