Well - since the world ended, no one is reading this, right? Heh - just in case, I guess I should let you know what this week's writing prompts are. I mean - maybe our Prompt-guru Comicfan knew something the Mayans didn't, because we have two new prompts from him.
So - if we're all here tomorrow, check out these prompts and give one (or both) a try. But when you do, please share with the rest of the community in our Writing Prompts forum - cause you wouldn't want bad karma because you decide
A big "Thank You" to Libby Drew for this weeks Wednesday blog!
No Warm-ups Required: Why Opening Matters
Warming up before you exercise makes good sense. You need to increase your body temperature. Stimulate blood flow to your ligaments. Mentally prepare yourself for what’s to come. Warming up for a workout is all about starting slow and building momentum.
Fiction is not exercise. Never start a story with a warm-up.
In other words, don’t open your masterpiece with an in depth
The Beard
by
dkstories
Reviewed by: Trebs Word Count: 77, 013 Status: Complete
So many gay stories are based on tired storylines - the best friends agonizing over the other knowing their attraction while all around them can see they're in love, or the gay boy kicked out of home only to find the perfect family and boyfriend, or that most classic cliché of the hunky rich jock falling in love with the poor geek/nerd.
Once in a while - rarely though it happens - an author
ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Winter Anthology Desperate Ends is LIVE - check it out through this link!
And how was our week? Well, we started the week with a great review by Dark of Promising Author Jian_Sierra's poem "Come With Me."
Andy021278 then gave us a great Wacky Wednesday with his piece on The Infinitive: To Split or Not to Split.
And finally, Prompt-Guru Comicfan gave us two new prompts in Prompt Me - including one that challenges writers to come up with a response that includes "han
REMINDER - Today is the deadline for the Special Mayan Tribute Anthology "End of the World." If you have any issues posting/etc with the anthology, you can contact Cia, who is the temporary anthology coordinator.
So, after you finish posting your anthology story, come on back here to try out one of our new writing prompts, courtesy of Prompt-Guru Comicfan. Please share what you come up with in our Writing Prompts forum!
Prompt 192 –Creative Tag – List of Words Use the following words in
Happy 12/12/12 to everyone - and to celebrate, here is a writing tip piece by Andy021278 that we hope you find useful. Enjoy!
The Infinitive: To Split or Not to Split
by
Andy021278
We’ve all seen it. We’ve probably all hurled expletives over it. And more than one of us has probably fretted over it at some time or another. It’s that annoying grammar check in MS Word, and other similar word processing programs, which tells you that you’ve split an infinitive. Well
This week's "Featured Story" is actually a "Featured Poem". Dark gives us a wonderful review of Promising Author Jian_Sierra's Come With Me. We thank Dark for this review - and if you can help us with a review, please let us know. We're especially in need of reviews of Hosted Author and Promising Author stories. Thanks!
Come With Me
By
Jian_Sierra
Review by Dark Status: Complete Word Count: 326
I chose this poem because although I have no knack for it myse
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Edit to Add: The Winter Anthology Desperate Ends is NOW LIVE! Check it out through this link! The Special Mayan Tribute Anthology "End of the World" deadline is one week from now, on Friday, Dec 14th. Also, Cia will be taking over these Anthologies for now, so please contact her if you have any issues - thanks!
We have launched our second new Premium Story this week with Empty Corners by Comicality. This story will alternate weekly with Challenging Fate by Renee Stevens, whic
ANNOUNCEMENT - LAST MINUTE REMINDER!!! Entries for the "Desperate Ends" Winter anthology are due tomorrow - NO EXCEPTIONS! Remember that Cia has temporarily taken over anthologies so please let her know if you have any trouble posting your submissions.
Thanks to our Prompt-guru Comicfan, we bring you two great new prompts:
Prompt 190 – Creative Tag – The Note You came home to find a note that listed everything about you, including your last lover, and where you hide your toys. There isn’
We're always grateful to our contributors, and especially to Libby Drew for this great article on traveling with Dorothy from a first to a second draft. Enjoy!
The Writer’s Yellow Brick Road: Journey from First to Second Draft
by
Libby Drew
First drafts are often wordy. We make them that way because at the divine moment we’re crafting a scene, adding words is the only way to get the details across. Soliloquies abound. Descriptions clutter. Characters chatt
As the gloomy last month of the year is upon us, let's fill our eyes and minds with a sense of the erotic. We're thankful to joann414 for her review of Author Mark92's Let's Make Love. Enjoy!
Let's Make Love
by
Mark92
Reviewer: joann414 Status: Complete Word Count: 3,396
The beginning of this erotic tale lets the reader know that one of the two characters is without two of his senses because of his hands being tied, and a blindfold over his eyes. Well, so
ANNOUNCEMENT: The deadline for the Winter Anthology "Desperate Ends" is only ONE week away - Due Saturday, Dec 8th. The Special Mayan Tribute Anthology "End of the World" deadline is not long after that on Friday, Dec 14th. Also, Cia will be taking over these Anthologies for now, so please send your completed entries to her - thanks!
ALSO - Now that Chosen of Honorus, Chapter 1 of Andrew_Q_Gordon's Champions of the Gods has concluded with the completed last chapter being posted last week, we
So Friday means another prompt day. And - um, if you were here last week, prompt day can get to be a little ... wild. I do have to thank joann414, Mark92 and K.C. for giving me a serious set of belly laughs.
In addition to the above named trio, we have to always give thanks to our Prompt-guru Comicfan for two new fantastic prompts. I hope you try one (or both) but please share it with the community in our Writing Prompts Forum (though, you can also put it in the comments - but so that future
Today's blog is some thoughts and insights into one of our long time members through a conversation with one of our older members. Check out this conversation about writing, GA, FSO and more with Colinian and Yettie One.
First off, sorry about the lateness of today's post! Makes me extra glad that it will still have all day tomorrow to be up! Since it's review day, we're bringing you a review of Promising Author Jack Frost's story "The Comfort of a Blanket" reviewed by Comicfan!
The Comfort of a Blanket
by Jack Frost
Reviewer: Comicfan Status: Complete Word Count: 7,217
As someone who has written a number of short stories I know how hard it is draw the line and attempt to stay within a
ANNOUNCEMENT: It may seem like a long time away, but the deadline for the Winter Anthology "Desperate Ends" is only two weeks away - Due Saturday, Dec 8th. The Special Mayan Tribute Anthology "End of the World" deadline is not long after that on Friday, Dec 14th.
We started this week with a great review from Johnathan Colourfield of Wintery Wanderland by Promising Author Formosa. How did Johnathan feel about the story? One hint from his review: "This story was a masterpiece in terms of its
Good morning and happy trypophan-coma day! One way to fight your way out of the sleepyness is to engage your brain with a good, quick writing exercise, say ... OH - maybe write a response to one of our great weekly writing prompts, provided by our Prompt-guru Comicfan. But it is only fair, once you've helped yourself out of your funk, to share your response with the community in the Writing Prompt forum so others can engage their brains and marvel at what you pulled together!
Prompt 18
Participial Phrases 101, Or The First Thing Your Editor Is Going To Yell At You About
By
Libby Drew
That’s not true, by the way. All editors are angels.
So… a participial phrase. What is it? According to grammaruntied.com, it’s a word group consisting of a present participle (also known as an -ing form) or past participle (also known as an -en form), plus any modifiers, objects, and complements.
If you find the English class gibberish definition c
What a week! So, how did everyone like the new weekly schedule for the blog? I have to say that it was nice to have things up for more than a day so that even more members were able to see and respond to the blogs. This week, we're starting out with a review of a Promising Author. Johnathan Colourfield was kind enough to provide us with this review of a story by Formosa! Hope you enjoy it and perhaps even take this opportunity to check the story out for yourself!
Wintery Wanderland
b
ANNOUNCEMENT: We are very happy to be able to announce GayAuthors.org's newest Promising Author - SidLove. Please join us in congratulating SidLove!
So, we come to the end of our first week of trying out our new format here at the News Blog. The team appreciates all of the feedback and input and REALLY appreciates all of the offers of help. We will be contacting many of you to follow up on these offers soon.
Monday, lilansui gave us a great review of From the Heart, by Author Branflakes
Welcome to the end of the week and a chance to unwind and relax. Or - wait, before you do - maybe try your hand at a writing prompt? Thanks to the genius of our Prompt-guru Comicfan, we bring you two great new prompts. And one of them is a poetry writing prompt - and come on, you know that sometimes the best things happen when you get pushed outside your comfort zone, Whether it is the poetry prompt or the "Tag" prompt - please share what you come up with in our Writing Prompt forum!
Prompt
So, we're going to try our new format for this week and see how it goes. So as today is Monday, we have a featured story review - this time a review by lilansui of Author Branflakes' From the Heart. Enjoy!
From the Heart
By
Branflakes
Reviewer: lilansui Status: Complete Word Count:2,205
From the heart is a different kind of love story. I’m so used to reading about romance, that the message at the end of this story caught me by surprise. Randy, the main ch
So, I started a bit of a firestorm in yesterday's blog. Short story - we're looking to change the format of this GayAuthors.org News Blog from daily to four times a week. As I said yesterday, nothing is set in stone so if you haven't yet, let us know your thoughts.
Otherwise for this week, we started the week by looking at the GA story with the most number of reviews - Paternity by Hosted Author Mark Arbour. In reading the reviews for this story, it is obvious why Mark is such a popular aut
I miss the old days! When, I was a kid at summer camp. The only possible question or one of two likely answers to any sentence that had kindle / kindling or rekindle in it, was and/or were:
Q - Got a match?
A 1 - Yes.
A 2 - No.
(To this day I still carry a match/lighter, just in case?)
Just the facts:
REKINDLE Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
REKINDLE Synonyms: 23 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
REKINDLES Synonyms: 23 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
REKINDLING Synonyms: 23 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
REKINDLED Synonyms: 24 Similar and Opposite Words | Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
KINDLE Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The Forbidden Knowledge anthology is just about upon us...it will be fun to see how many of us guess just who our 'secret authors' are!
Here in Central Massachusetts, the center of the universe, we are experiencing high temps along with an outrageous humidity index; the combined effect will have "feel-like" temps hitting the triple digits...lasting through the Fourth of July!
I haven't put the AC in the window just yet; thanks to a bunch of mature trees and shading, the inside of the h
The concept of rekindle—the act of reviving a lost passion, a forgotten memory, or a dormant connection—is a powerful storytelling tool. It injects vital emotional stakes into a plot by forcing characters to confront their pasts, heal from trauma, or rediscover their core motivations, making the narrative deeply relatable and resonant.
Emotional Stakes and Character Arcs: Rekindling breathes life into stagnant or disillusioned characters. It acts as the bridge between a character's "before
Rekindle means to ignite or revive something (like a fire, passion, or relationship) anew. The word was formed in the late 16th century by combining the Latin derived prefix re- (meaning "again", "anew", or "back") with the verb kindle (meaning "to light a fire"). Initially, the word was used strictly in its literal sense of setting a physical fire back to life. However, its figurative use (to reawaken faded emotions, memories, or interests) has been popular since the late 1600s.
We've had timely rains this spring and June has not been too bad so far, but this coming week for my area is forecast to be toasty with temps 95F and above with heat indices in the triple digits through next weekend. The troubling part is that the overnight lows are to be near 80 F which doesn't provide much overnight cooling...AT least most of us have air conditioning and don't face what has happened in Europe this past week.