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  • Valkyrie

    Please, Sir (or ma’am), may I have some more?

    By Valkyrie

    Short stories can be many things – a complete story, a character sketch, or an experiment in form. They are, by definition, short, which may leave some readers readying the torches and pitchforks.  @wildone asked a question in our last guest blog about what to do when readers are clamoring for more, and you want to continue the story, but not necessarily at that moment. It’s a great question and one I deal with on a regular basis since I primarily write short stories.  I’ve gotten quite adept at
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Genre Deep Dives

Mystery Genre In Depth

Mystery sub-genres of mystery focus on investigating events.  Depending on the sub-genre, this can be solving a crime or murder, finding missing persons, finding missing stuff, or solving a grand historical conspiracy.   Sub-genres: Caper, Cozy Mystery, Detective, Historical Mystery, Light Mystery, Noir/Hard-Boiled, Police Procedural   Top 10 Most Read  - Light Mystery Circumnavigation by C James Box Shaped Heart by Laura S. Fox T
Myr

Myr in Genre Deep Dives

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Featured Stories

Featured Story: Baring My Soul by Kbois

Well, in case you were wondering what to read among other things this month, make sure you check out this review done up by @chris191070. Check it out!!   Baring My Soul by Kbois Reviewer: chris191070 Status: Complete Word Count: 14,893 Well where does one start a review on a story that is so well written, that deals with topics of an upsetting nature. This is a story that will take many readers out of there comfort zone as it deals with abuse, suicide and mental ill
wildone

wildone in Featured Stories

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Weekly Wrap Up

Weekly Wrap Up (Oct. 1 - Oct. 7)

Happy real Thanksgiving  At least to my Canadian friends.  You know what that means here, another day off for a long weekend or if you work on Monday, probably will be time and a half  Makes me thankful I live in Canada   This long weekend I find myself dog sitting at the dog's house. Not as in the dog house  but at the house the dog's live with their human friends. They wanted to put them in a kennel as they headed out of town for a celebration of life, but shall we say the doggies ar
wildone

wildone in Weekly Wrap Up

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Writing Tips

Story Parallels

Story Parallels If ‘this’…then ‘that’. When I’m writing or even creating a new idea for a new story in my head...that’s always a part of the process. Always. Not only from beginning to end, but involving the characters that exist within the plot and the world that I ultimately built, just for them. There is just something that gives the story a very personal level of depth for me, and it’s become a permanent style when it comes to my writing in general. Everything has a cause and an eff
Comicality

Comicality in Writing Tips

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Prompts

Horrible Prompts

Let’s squeeze some prompts in before the anthology takes over the blog. It’s the time for creaking doors, flickering lights, and whispered words in the dark. Don’t forget everything orange. PT #171 How about we play with tropes: wide open mawing jaws, saliva drips, and then set a sweet counterpoint? PT #172 Write about a most unlikely person who hates orange and everything it implies.   Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description
Aditus

Aditus in Prompts

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Author Interviews

Ask An Author 3.0 #33

October is one of my favorite months, right behind November. While the temperatures are still high, I feel autumn coming. That crisp and chilly breeze, the layered fashion trends, and countless s'mores over a campfire... I can't wait! Then there's Halloween, which I thoroughly enjoy. It's the one day a year where I can blatantly ignore my job's dress code. The apron, appropriately dubbed "my little red dress" remains at home while I don some sort of wig or silly outfit. What will I be this year?
astone2292

astone2292 in Author Interviews

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Genre Deep Dives

General Fiction Genre In Depth

General fiction are fiction stories that don't clearly fall into other more strongly defined genre fiction. This category also features two common Gay Story mainstays, "Coming of Age" and "Rich Boy".  With Rich Boy being extremely common escapism fiction from the dawn of the internet where the usually teenage character had enough wealth not to deal with the downsides of being Gay.  (Far more extreme in the 1980s and 1990s) Sub-genres: Coming of Age, Drama, Experimental, Prompt, Rich Boy
Myr

Myr in Genre Deep Dives

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CSR- Can't Stop Reading

October CSR Feature: Miles to Go by Comicality

So October means the real start to fall and, as I sit here in my I Love Spooky sweatshirt, it's time to feature something for the Halloween season. ZOMBIES! So welcome to your October CSR read and an older story from Comicality, Miles to Go. For those who enjoy this kind of thing, from the comments this is a prequel to more in this world too!  Miles to Go by @Comicality Length: 20,385 Description: As another one of the character spinoff tales from the zombie apocalypse series
Cia

Cia in CSR- Can't Stop Reading

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Weekly Wrap Up

Weekly Wrap Up (Sept. 24 - Sept. 30)

No matter where in the world you are, you have 22 hours to get your Anthology in  Actually if you are in Auckland New Zealand, you come out with extra time. As of publishing this blog, you are at 7:40 PM Sunday. So if you are thinking you only have 3 hours to go, no, you have 22 more hours 😮. Same to you in Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi, Kyiv, Johannesburg. You get where I'm going here   Yes, if you read this blog right at the time of publishing, that is how many hours you got to get in yo
wildone

wildone in Weekly Wrap Up

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Writing Tips

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

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Prompts

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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