Blogs

Writing Tip Writing Tip: Setting "the Scene"

Today's Tip is brought to you by our prompt guru, Comicfan. Thank you for this wonderful little lesson on setting the scene for a story! If YOU have a tip for a future blog entry, let Trebs or Renee Stevens know! The Scene by Comicfan Ever notice how important a scene is? I don’t mean the action; I mean that place it is located in. Sometimes it can add to the overall sense of what is happening or it can make it a tragedy. It isn’t very hard to have a story go wrong by the

April 10, 2012

Life is worth an entry

What is darkness to a reader?

I've wrote a very cold blooded and chilling scene and realize that I can be extremely dark if I choose to be. I've gotten a lot of comments in the past from readers that felt I tend towards darkness a lot in my story, but I never ask you guys, what type of darkness is it? Is it something that you guys like or something you guys fear? or a little bit of both? Then, I start reading and writing review of stories and find other authors with the same word in their reviews, "it's dark" or somethin

W_L

April 10, 2012

Billy Martin's Blog

Can someone explain to me how to do a poll in a blog?

I'm wanting to do a poll, but every time I've attempted it, I've been unsuccessful. Help?

Enoch

April 9, 2012

Story Review Featured Story: How The Light Gets In

Duncan Ryder is one of our Hosted Authors that writes in a very touching and true fashion. Two of his stories, Everybody's Wounded and its sequel, How the Light Gets In show very realistic young men, struggling through life and struggling to connect both with others, as well as with themselves. CarringtonRJ has done a great review of How The Light Gets In - but I strongly recommend reading Everybody's Wounded first for the full experience of how each person has gotten to the place they are w

Trebs in Featured Stories

April 9, 2012

Life is worth an entry

Just saw a movie, I put off for a bit

It is truly amazing and spell binding. It also has some really interesting questions about ethics, human nature, and greed on an international and human scale. Margin Call (2011) was fun, aggressive, and highly entertaining: Jeremy Irons is such a great actor, plus you got Kevin Spacey and Demi Moore. I think Michael Douglas has good competition for Wall Street versus Jeremy Irons in Margin Call. I've put off watching this movie for a while, but another benefit of freeing up m

W_L

April 8, 2012

Weekly Update Weekly Wrap Up!

Before we review the past week, I want to point out that the deadline for the Poetry Anthology is just NINE days away. If you are planning on submitting a poem (and I hope you do), it needs to be sent Lugh by April 17. Our week started as always with a Hosted Author review - and this week, Roan wrote a review of Renee Stevens' Eternity. This is a story that I loved when I first read, and Roan's review is a great reminder of what a gem Eternity is. Our tips this week were both very usefu

Trebs in Weekly Wrap Up

April 8, 2012

Story Review Blast From The Past!

Today we're going to revisit another Anthology Entry from some of the earlier anthologies. So from the 2007 Spring Anthology: Fairy Tales, here is the review for: Time to Grow Up by Jack Scribe Reviewer: K.C. Status: Complete Word Count: 8,584 “Time To Grow Up” 2007 Anthology piece by Jack Scribe is a modern twist on a timeless fairytale of Peter Pan. The character of Peter Pan has delighted children and adults alike for more than a hundred years. Peter’s carefree l

Trebs in Reviews

April 7, 2012

Life is worth an entry

On hiatus from the Soapbox for 3 months

I'm serious about it this time and it has been building up for a while. I mean I love debating, but I love writing stories too. Every moment I spend researching and debating points is a moment I can't write. I said almost two weeks ago, I'd release my Act 2 and Act 3 this week for my play. Look at my GA stories profile, it's still not up. I've had this happen to me more than once, I start a story with ideas, themes, and concepts, then I get into a heated debate in the Soapbox and I neglect i

W_L

April 6, 2012

Prompts Writing Prompts #126 & #127

Good Friday! Happy Passover! Or that great catch all - TGIF!!! I recently chatted with someone who said they couldn't write - they thought they did well on email and documents for work, but trying to write a story was something they thought beyond their skill. I have to say, ESPECIALLY for that type of person, these writing prompts are the perfect way to just experiment and try seeing what you are capable of. ComicFan has given us two great new prompts - I really hope you try one of them

Trebs in Prompts

April 6, 2012

Writing Tip Writing Tip: Writing For Technical Geeks

For today's tip - we have a great writeup by Myr that we hope will be useful to you as an author. If you have a tip you think the community would find useful, please let Trebs or Renee Stevens know! Writing for Technical Geeks by Myr As many know, I'm a rather technical person by nature. It is in my blood to research stuff into the ground so that I can understand all the angles of a thing. I think and rethink on things all the time. It is thus when I went into a writing blo

April 5, 2012

Story Review Author Showcase!

It's Wednesday again and that means it's time to feature some more stories from GA's very talented authors. Houdinii has done a great review of "Charlie", a touching story by Promising Author Hamen Cheese. We also have a guest reviewer who is a board member but would rather do reviews anonymously, and we agreed as long as all of these reviews are under the same reviewer name. So here is "Fozzy Bear" with their first review - and what better first story for them to review than Mr. Anonymous b

Trebs in Reviews

April 4, 2012

jamessavik's Blog

Kingdom of Rust

Doves Kingdom of Rust I hear a sound, a sound above my head Distant sound of thunder, moving out on the moor Blackbirds flew in and to the cooling towers I'll pack my bags Thinking of one of those hours With you, waiting for you My God, it takes an ocean of trust In the Kingdom of Rust I long to feel some beauty in my heart As I go searching, right to the start Hmmm The road back to Preston Was jutted out in snow As I went looking for that stolen heart For you, wai

JamesSavik

April 4, 2012

Billy Martin's Blog

Trials and Tribulations - Chapter 13

I have finally finished chapter 13 and have it published now. I'm sorry for the delay on this chapter and hopefully chapter 14 will be out soon, perhaps next week. Someone mentioned that this chapter was a little shorter, and it was, but it felt like the place I to end with what's coming in the next chapter. The dream is important and hints are in it of the things to come. Chapter 14 will also have a twist in it I'm sure no one saw coming. Anyway, thanks to all of you for supporting me a

Enoch

April 4, 2012

Writing Tip Writing Tip: Blogging For Exposure

How to get more traffic to your stories is frequently something author's are concerned about. What use is it to write a fantastic story, if people don't know about it. Here is one way - Cia writes about blogging as a way to increase your exposure. Check out her tip and let us know what you think! Also, if YOU have a tip, let me know. It may be one we feature on a future news blog entry. Blogging for Exposure by Cia Do you blog? I didn't until about 3 months ago. I've writin

April 3, 2012

Billy Martin's Blog

I give up

As soon as I can finish Trials and Tribulations for those of you that like the story, I'm done forever trying to write again or open my heart for another person, ever. I can't allow myself to be called names that hurt and always have my love and commitment questioned every other week. As soon as I am done here, I don't think I'll interact online anymore with hopes or dreams. Sorry.

Enoch

April 3, 2012

Story Review Featured Story: Eternity

Being an admin on GA, and especially recently with working on this news blog, I've "met" and gotten to know quite a few people. Renee Stevens not only is a great writer, she also has been a fantastic help with so many things on GA and helped me so much with this blog. I really enjoyed reading Roan's review below - especially as I first read Eternity on nifty, and remember waiting for each new chapter. Now I get to really know an author I admire. Eternity by Renee Stevens Review

Trebs in Featured Stories

April 2, 2012

Weekly Update Weekly Wrap Up!

We had a great week and now it’s that time again to take a final look at what was included in the News Blog over the last week. On Monday we featured a story by Hosted Author: Krista entitled “Are You Christian?”, reviewed by Zolia Lily. Hopefully it gave you a slight insight into this author's writing, and if you haven’t already, go check it out and leave Krista a review letting her know what you thought! On Tuesday we had a very informative tip written by WatchPatRun on Online Safety.

Trebs in Weekly Wrap Up

April 1, 2012

old bob's Blog

Soon 83, I learned how to enjoy my age

In 9 weeks, I will reach my 83th birthday. It seems to me that my brain is still the same as 43 years ago, with perhaps just the fact that it works at a slower pace. It is different with my body, especially in the morning when I have to get up ! I fought a long life full of hassles, but also full of pleasures and joys . Did I may be live too long ? Certainly not ! My greatest pleasure now is to revive in my memory all these happy and unhappy moments. My life is not finished and I hope t

old bob

April 1, 2012

jamessavik's Blog

The War Inside

The War Inside Stardate 43887.3 Dr. Walter Ingalls, Starfleet Medical Personal log. At the request of the Angosian government, Star Fleet has dispatched a team of doctors and other specialist to help rehabilitate veteran's of the Tarsian War. When I first got this assignment, I thought that we would make quick and easy progress. Nothing could be further from the truth. What I first thought were symptoms of severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a much more complicated condition

JamesSavik

April 1, 2012

Methodwriter85's Blog

Day 33, Day 34, Day 35, Day 36

Day 33- March 27th Continued working on Box 2. Day 34-March 28th Someone showed me a diploma from the Indiana State Normal School, from 1910. (That was IUP's name when it was a teacher's college.) It was interesting to read it, because the diploma listed all of the subjects that the person was able to teach. It was a quite a list as well- everything ranging from politics to geometry. Nowadays, a person needs a master's in education just to teach elementary school, it seems. I had

methodwriter85

April 1, 2012

Writing Tip Writing Tip: Editing

I love looking back over older GA Newsletters. This gem about editing was published in the December 2006 issue - but is still very relevant today. I hope you enjoy! Editing Tips... How Far Should You Go? There can be little doubt that editing is an extremely complicated process. Sure, anyone with basic literacy skills and a spellchecker can read through a story and correct spelling and grammatical mistakes. It's not exactly brain surgery. Yes, it takes a certain degree of skill a