This year I’m going to clear out the shed. I’ll try this long hike someone recommended. I won’t sleep in every day. I’ll eat healthy, all these yummy vegetables and fruit that are available now. I will finish the story that has been on hold for so long. Summer break starts on Monday, and I have a very long list. What about you? Maybe try to write a prompt story?
PT Prompt #352
Dale bought an ice cream maker, but vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry are just about that
Jeff Beck died Jan. 10th. I can't describe how good he was as a guitarist. He was enormously talented, played for the Yardbirds and, practically, everybody else in rock. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice - once was a Yardbird and again as a solo artist.
Jeff Beck Dies Suddenly of Meningitis (ABC)
Here's one of my favorites.
If you have a streaming service, do yourself a favor and look for some of his work. I suggest the albums Blow by Blow, Wire
Have you ever read something you wrote twenty years ago and literally cringe in embarrassment? I have so many times it’s becoming a constant state of cringe. And believe me, I’m a master of cringing.
I’ll give you an example of a cringe that came over me about six months ago..
Twenty-one years ago I wrote a fanfic about the members of Nsync. Which I find to be strange as I have never been a fan of their music. Nor have I been attracted to any of the members of Nsync, then or now.
This one is one heck of a run, with no prewritting done. So rough ride ahead. Go figure, it all started from watching a tictak. What I was watching was a young dark skinned woman talking about how she left her faith because the Quran has rules and laws for how to treat your slave. So of course, my book collection being what it is, I had to dive into this rabbit hole head first. To elaborate, my personal library has enough religious texts from hundreds of religions. A large enough spread to make
The Hunga-Tonga Eruption may have had something to do with the severity of this winter.
This eruption occurred slightly less than a year ago (2022 Jan 15) and was classified as a five on the Volcanic Explosivity Index(VEI). Some may even argue it was as much as a six. In the case of this volcanic eruption, satellites recorded the entire thing and showed the explosive plume reaching the mesosphere.
There have been many incidents of volca
Paramount has done such a fine job with Star Trek, turning it over to the 10,000 Woke Monkey's Typing script shop, Gene Roddenberry wouldn't even recognize it and would be horribly embarrassed by it.
Star Trek offered an optimistic, idealistic post-scarcity vision of the future. It offered insights into technology that inspired its child viewers to grow up, become engineers and invent the tech. What the hell were they thinking? They took something inspiring and wonderful, then shit all over
Speaking as a tekkie, there are times when you have a huge charlie-foxtrot on your hands and there's nothing you can do about it. A tiny little resistor, capacitor or transistor decided to commit suicide and takes your system with him. It's totally NOT your fault, but you are the TEKKIE on the spot and take the heat for it anyway.
Having been there and done that, I suggest 1) have a thick skin and 2) a sense of humor.
Murphy will visit you. It's going to take you x amount of time to fi
FIFA - corrupt dishonest and spineless
Association Football (soccer in the US). How did a game invented 150 years in England end up being controlled by an infamously corrupt, dishonest and spineless “organisation” headquartered in Zurich?
It’s a while since I posted a point of view but the current World Cup is all over the news and TV schedules and for all the wrong reasons - thanks to the greedy, self-serving, incompetent male patriarchy that has controlled FIFA for generations and no
All this can be found at any Walmart. You'll need:
2 X boxes of Uncle Ben's Original Wild Rice
1 pound of small peeled shrimp
1 onion diced
1 bell pepper diced
1 clove of garlic diced
1 cup cheese - your choice but I like medium cheddar
Steps
1 Make the wild rice according to directions.
2 Dice the onion, bell pepper and garlic
3 Combine vegetables, wild rice and shrimp in a mixing bowl and stir evenly
4 Place shrimp and rice mixture
One week from tomorrow is the 4th anniversary of C's death. It's hitting me harder than normal this year -- then I start to feel guilty about morning C while I have SP by my side. 😢
I was inspired to write this through my prompt, someone who live their life in complete denial of themselves. It's a very interesting portrait of a man who is trapped in a world of his own creation, probably filled with regrets, compromises, and desires. It's a psychological story about accepting mortality and accepting reality even if it's bleak.
Additionally, readers will probably figure out that the young man in my story was murdered. I took inspiration on this from a certain gay serial
Chapter 10
It took a bit longer than usual to publish a new chapter of this story, but sometimes, good things come to those who wait
I know I am opening up a lot of knowledge in this chapter about the ancient world, the nature of cultural differences, urban organization, and some respective observations about both Chinese and Roman/Western Civilization. They're both looking at the world through different lenses, but there's also some fallacies that each side holds in regard to themse
Music
Soundtrack
Track List
Invisible - Duran Duran (Colin’s Theme)
Stranger - Miami Horror (‘Who is this guy . . . How could he understand?‘)
Whataya Want from Me? - Adam Lambert (‘Well?’)
Temptation - NewOrder (Colin Is Tempted)
Touched by the Hand of God - NewOrder (‘What would a living God want with me?’)
Lost Cause - Beck (Discouraged and Discouraging)
Save Your Tears - The Weeknd (‘Please, please, don’t cry over me, Russ
In lieu of a chapter posting today (hurricane clean up is still monopolizing my time) I figured I'd share my thoughts on my recent vacation.
A little background... later this month my husband and I will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We've been together 36. In those 36 years we've taken exactly one vacation that has been a full week where we have gone somewhere by ourselves and not involved visiting family. That was our honeymoon. A week in Disney World when Disney was actually fu
There was a time I didn’t live in fear of creating. A time when, after I had finally managed to regain my childhood wonder for the art of art itself, I no longer felt the need to hide the ideas in my head. I wrote novels, I wrote short stories, I wrote… darkness and light.
And I shared those stories with the world, or at least my own little corner of it. I loved being able to put those stories out there and have people read them, respond, tell me what they thought, whether they liked it or
Chapter 9
Friends, Romans, Countryman... 😛 Yes, I am introducing a Roman Christian missionary in my historical fantasy story involving Chinese gods, Buddhist deities, and a whole lot of references to Journey to the West. To be fair, I never quite understand why Chinese writers avoid talking about Christians as they came around this period as Missionaries in China, establishing the Church of the East. The same goes with historical fantasy western writers, who avoid talking about Chinese phil
A Flash of Brilliance
Land Power created Nations
Sea Power created Empires
Air Power created Collective Blocs
Space Power will create a Human Civilization
-If I write a full series, I would use that as my tag line
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Have you ever had moments where you wish things were different? After reading about discrimination, hate, atrocities, and death, how can all that stuff change? What type of person could do that? What are their motivations and ideals?
Chapter 8
Oh heavenly politics
Some interesting things to think about in this chapter, historically Chinese civilization did begin to hybridize Buddhism and Taoism around this point in history. The blending was partly due to the invasion of barbarian tribes from the steppes with a need to unify various systems together to act as a counterweight. They incorporated mixed belief systems similar to how Romans adopted Egyptian gods or Persian deities in the Middle East, while still worshi
So we have been open for a month. And I know the pandemic has been heartless for countless small businesses around the world. Thousands of restaurants have closed forever, who knows how many people are out of work due to these closures. So it might have been foolish on the surface to open a new restaurant at this particular time. But we did.
I am also saddened by the damage that has been done to the San Francisco restaurant/hospitality scene. A lot of my friends lost everything and it is he
Chapter 7
Can you believe that I have written 7 chapters into this fanfic prequel series!
Anyway, this chapter opens a few concepts, including some uglier aspects to Ancient Chinese history, i.e. the concept of the Nine Familial Exterminations, which are historically a form of ancient Chinese genocide against certain clans or peoples viewed as dangers to the empire. It was one of the practices that started during the Shang Dynasty, which contributed to its overthrow. Within my story,
Chapter 6
I am doing a fair bit of world-building in this chapter. Taking pieces from various Chinese myths and concepts on Taoism and Buddhism to create a coherent concept.
It's fair to say that the White Snake demon boy, Xu Xiwang, in my story is similar in some ways to Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto if you guys are trying to draw some parallels. In Chinese and Japanese stories, it's not uncommon to have characters like that with an all-consuming lust for vengeance. Can you really blame h
Chapter 5
I wanted to show off a skilled military operation that wins an entire battle without costing any lives. Some people will say, is that even possible?
Technically, it required a lot of precision, timing, and extremely good luck, which are all attributes that Hua Cheng possesses in excess. Hua Cheng was asked by Xie Lian to keep the army of Huan family alive, but simply to remove their threat. Putting them all to sleep through the use of grounded herbs and powders being sprinkl
I took a few weeks off from GA. I don't know if anyone noticed or if I was missed, but just in case anyone was curious, here is why:
I get depression sometimes. It's usually seasonal, but sometimes it comes on for no reason at all and this time, it was bad.
I broke my foot. I am hobbling around in a boot right now, my coworkers and patients think its hilarious and it didn't do much to improve my mood. Also, it is very tiring to walk around 10 hours a day with what is basically an
Chapter 4
Thank you guys for being such great readers and keeping up with this passion project story. To show my gratitude, I'm publishing an extra chapter this week. I'll go back to 1 chapter a week next week unless the readership grows further, at which point, I might have to do a bit more long-term planning for this story.
As for the story, I wanted to show a very important fact to readers: Homophobia isn't unique to only Western societies with Judeo-Christian backgrounds. Any relig
Just the facts:
THRESHOLD Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
THRESHOLD Synonyms: 74 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
Word of the Day: Threshold | Merriam-Webster
ON/AT THE THRESHOLD Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
THRESHOLDS Synonyms: 72 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
A threshold in storytelling marks the vital boundary where a character leaves the familiar safety of the ordinary world and steps into the unknown. It drives the plot forward by forcing personal growth, creating structural tension, and establishing high stakes.
Narrative Architecture and Progression:
Commitment to the Quest: The exact moment a character steps past a physical or emotional line, signaling they are fully locked into their journey with no easy way back.
World-Building
I totally agree with you. I was trying to find examples that did not relate to chemicals & reactions. Something that GA authors and members could relate with. I found the following and I think it sums up what you stated.
It is what Ga Authors does for all of us here, now and has since it first started.
Play the Catalyst Role in Life
Thank you Myr,
sandrewn
"Threshold" comes from Old English (þrescold), denoting a doorsill or entry point. It is a compound word: the first part relates to thresh (treading or stepping), and the second originally signified a piece of wood or base (from the same root as "hold").
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the noun threshold was first used in English during the Old English period (before 1150), with historical records showing examples like þeorscwold appearing around 888 AD.
Same here. Last week July till September. And I still have 15 days Flexitime...
Going to an island with no running water and no electricity. Digital detox par excellence.
Enjoy the guessing! I am so not participating ... or am I?
Just the facts:
CATALYST Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
CATALYST Synonyms: 59 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
CATALYTIC Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
CATALYSIS Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
A catalyst (or inciting incident) is the irreversible turning point that shatters a character’s normal life. It forces the protagonist out of their comfort zone and into the main conflict. Without it, the story lacks direction, urgency, and the foundational tension needed to drive any meaningful character growth.
The concept serves several essential functions in narrative structure:
Shifts Status Quo: It destroys the protagonist's "normal world" and makes returning to it impossib