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  • Cole Matthews

    Emotional Rescue

    By Cole Matthews

    Ahhhh!  The plot is thickening.  The characters have developed perfectly.  You have balanced your pace so there is riveting action, informative scene setting, and a richness to your tableau.  Everything seems to be going so well, and yet, your beta reader drops a bomb on you.  "It's just falling flat."   What are you supposed to do?  Where do you turn?  How can you enrich and round out your characters?  How about a little emotional rescue?  Let's try filling in the back story of y
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My Daily Bread Crumbs

MDBCs 01 Oct 2023

October 1st 2023 - Holidays and Observances   (click on the day for details) Armed Forces Day (South Korea) Beginning of the United States' Fiscal Year Children's Day (El Salvador, Guatemala, Sri Lanka) Christian feast day: Abai (Syriac Orthodox Church) Bavo of Ghent Blessed Edward James
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Melancholy ... the broken staff of life

Cancer Surgery 101

Twas the night before cancer surgery, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even the mouse We don’t have cats to catch the mouse, thank you very much. When you have dogs, who see cats as vermin to be kept out of the house, our yard, the neighbors’ yards, and everywhere else that is within their field of view, you learn to live without cats no matter how cute they naturally are. The dogs don’t like any kind of vermin, especially the squirrels who think being chased
CarlHoliday

CarlHoliday in End Times

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Writing World

Immersion

Immersion Something that I think about, mostly for science fiction or other genres of fiction outside of my normal fanfare, is finding out how to really pull my readers into this new world that I’ve built, often from scratch, and find a way to truly keep them immersed in it from beginning to end without having it feel like some sort of ‘trick’ or an illusion. You know how you have those really weird dreams that you don’t really recognize as dreams until you wake up, and you think, “What the
Comicality

Comicality in Writing Tips - Mileau

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My Daily Bread Crumbs

MDBCs 30 Sep 2023

September 30th 2023 - Holidays and Observances   (click on the day for details) Agricultural Reform (Nationalization) Day (São Tomé and Príncipe) Birth of Morelos (Mexico) Blasphemy Day, educates individuals and groups about blasphemy laws and defends freedom of expression Boy's Day (Poland) Christian feast day: Greg
sandrewn

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Life is worth an entry

Of Pride and Power Chapter 4 is Live

Chapter 4 I'm touching a few third rails here between the various subject matters and rising conflicts. Readers, understand this point, I am not Eli Tudor, I am just the character's creator. Someone different than me, who prides themselves on independent ideas of freedom and a passionate disdain for religious authority from being raised as an abused unwanted intersex child of Christian pastors. I imagine I would be pretty pissed off with Christianity having grown up in those kinds of c
W_L

W_L in Writing Stories

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My Daily Bread Crumbs

MDBCs 29 Sep 2023

September 29th 2023 - Holidays and Observances   (click on the day for details) Christian feast day: Charles, Duke of Brittany Hripsime Jean de Montmirail Theodota of Philippi September 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. O
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Writing World

The Bad Man - Fleshing Out a Villain

I've always approached prompts as more than just stimuli for new stories.  I've seen them as practice, play, more like working out the kinks without worrying about perfection.  Prompts can help us build setting, time, place, mood, and characters.  But, prompts can also help us fine-tune and flesh out things as well.  Sometimes we build a character and they are too perfect, or too evil.  As a result, the reader begins to lose that all important "suspension of disbelief" so inherent in good s
Cole Matthews

Cole Matthews in Prompts

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Gay Authors News

Last Call!

Anthology submissions for Leap of Faith are due to the proof team by midnight, EST this Sunday!  I will be out of town this weekend, so there will be a delay in assigning stories to proofreaders, but don't worry - you will still have time to complete the proofs and post the story links in the appropriate thread.  Those of you who have stories that have already been proofread, don't forget to post your links in the anthology links thread.   If you have any questions or need assistance w
Valkyrie

Valkyrie in Anthologies

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Words, Words and Words

Book Review: How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman

It’s the suburbs in the 1970s, and two teenage lads, Enn and Vic, go to a teenage party to meet girls. Vic is the charming and handsome boy, who is always successful with the girls, while Enn is tongue-tied and awkward around them. At this party Vic pushes Enn to talk to them, to finally have some success with the opposite sex, but the girls at this party are amazing and so easy to talk to. This short story is a showcase for Neil Gaiman’s storytelling skills and his otherworldly imagination
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Book review

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Words, Words and Words

It’s Showtime, Again

My short story, Even a Monkey Can Fall from a Tree, can be read in this, new anthology, Showtime 2023, but there’s more to it than just that. Every year, Newham Writers Workshop publishes an anthology of its members work, and I’m member of them and this is the fourth anthology I’ve had work published in. But I’m also now part of the editorial team that published it. I had the easy job. My fellow writers, Belgin and Paula, had the hardest task. They proofread and edited all the submissi
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Writing

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Gay Authors News

Fantasy Genre In Depth

Sub-genres of fantasy, of which there are many, focus on speculative elements of writing that have an extremely unlikely possibility of actually being real. Magic, fantastic beasts, and in many cases the places you find them, all land in fantasy. Sub-genres: Alternate History, Anthropomorphic Fantasy, Arcanepunk, Arthurian, Assassin, Crossworlds/Portals, Dragon Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Flintlock, Gaslamp, General Fantasy, Grimdark, High/Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Lost World, Low Fant
Myr

Myr in Reading Reports

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My Daily Bread Crumbs

MDBCs 26 Sep 2023

September 26th 2023 - Holidays and Observances   (click on the day for details) Christian feast days: Canadian Martyrs (Catholic Church in Canada) Cosmas and Damian John of Meda Nilus the Younger Wilson Carlile (Anglican) September 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
sandrewn

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Gay Authors News

CSR Discussion Day: The Matchmaker by Arch Hunter

Did you read the twisty teen tale by The MatchMaker by Arch Hunter? What did you think of the ending? Not what you expected? LOL! Well, make sure you share your thoughts about the story or his interview answers below!  Do you eat your fruits and vegetables? I'm all about veggies; fruits not so much. I think veggies are far superior - you can roast, fry, boil, steam them. You can eat them raw, most of them. Literally hundreds of culinary applications! Fruits aren't bad, but most are har
Cia

Cia in CSR- Can't Stop Reading

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My Daily Bread Crumbs

MDBCs 25 Sep 2023

September 25th 2023 - Holidays and Observances   (click on the day for details) Armed Forces Day or Revolution Day (Mozambique) Christian feast day: Abadir and Iraja and Companions (Coptic Church) Aunarius (Aunacharius) Anathalon (Archdiocese of Milan) Cadoc Ceolfrith
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Melancholy ... the broken staff of life

The Big C, part one

My grandfather, after whom partially named, died of lung cancer before three years before my birth. My grandmother, who I vaguely remember, died of ovarian cancer when I was six. My father died of metastasized prostate cancer unusually at 52. He hid it from my mother by calling it hip cancer. It didn’t help that he was a five o’clock alcoholic. My mother died of recurrent breast cancer that in the nearly fifteen years between the initial case and the last when it had metastasized to her abdomina
CarlHoliday

CarlHoliday in End Times

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