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    Secret Author Contest-Forbidden Is... Revealed? Nooooo.

    By Cia

    Ha! Did you think it was time to share the stories and authors? No!! Total clickbait. Heehee! That's right, time to vote on your favorite! Now, to be fair, it would be ideal to have read ALL the stories. Can you vote without having read them? YES! Because this is about your favorite use of our theme of Forbidden Knowledge that you read in this year's Secret Author Forbidden Knowledge stories. Pick a SINGLE title, this isn't your top three. It doesn't even have to be your favorite overall st
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Writing Tip: Synonyms

Synonyms   In writing, especially when doing character pieces, you need to watch for repetition. The words used when writing can give clues to accurately express how the character appears or acts depending on what synonym is used. Physical cues are very important when it comes to showing and not telling. However, using the same word repeatedly is boring. Below are a few common actions and examples of synonyms you can use to highlight them in different ways.   Expression: noun-outward ap

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Author Showcase

Well, it's Wednesday again, and you know what that means! Is everyone ready for their weekly dose of "Author Showcase"? Today we bring you a story by Promising Author: JWolf titled "Nowhere Man". Also, we are bringing you a story by a bit of a newer author here at GA, Author: Percy and his story "The Waltz". Nowhere Man by JWolf   Reviewer: LouisHarris Status: Complete Word Count: 44,350   JWolf understands the edge. And, in this short thriller, he doesn’t waste words. Ever

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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Writing Prompts #124 & #125

Happy Friday (and for those who celebrate, Happy Cesar Chavez Day)!   ComicFan has come up with two new prompts - I hope you give at least one of them a try. If you do, share them with the community in the Writing Prompts forum.   Prompt 124 – Creative Cue – The Mystery You have been having a nice walk with your dog along the beach when your dog suddenly begins barking and tugging you toward pier. Deciding it is still a move back toward your car you allow the dog to lead you under the pier.

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Writing Tip: Spell Check

For today's tip, Cia found a fantastic "Ode to the Spell Check". It appears to have been written by Nico van Tonder from Zaire who wrote it around 1999.   Ode to the Spell Check Eye halve a spelling chequer It cam with my pea sea It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.   Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh.   As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long And eye can

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Author Showcase

Today we bring you two more stories. One called L.A.F. from Promising Author, Linxe Termoil. The other story, Dangerous Impulses, is brought to you by Author, Greg_A.       L.A.F.   By Linxe Turmoil   Reviewer: Renee Stevens Status: Complete Word Count: 12,017   I was looking for a story to do a review on and I decided on Linxe Turmoil’s story L.A.F. This story was first published as part of the 2011 Fall Anthology: Legends. I must say that it was an interesting

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Featured Story: Are You Christian

So is this spring break for you? Or does yours start later? Either way a good way to kick off the week is with out Hosted Author story review! Today, Zolia Lily reviews Are You Christian, by Krista. Enjoy!   Are you Christian by Krista Review by Zolia Lily   I chose to review this story never having read it before purely upon the recommendation of a friend, and I’m glad I did.   Christian, the protagonist of this story, finds himself attending school in small town North Caro

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Weekly Wrap Up!

The sun goes down - I think about you. The coffee cup - I think about you... Oops - sorry... need to do the weekly wrap up, eh? Heh -and it WAS a great week to wrap up.   Monday started with Cia's review of Weeping Lily, by our Hosted Author Nephylim. On Wednesday, Frostina did a review of Over the Precipice by Promising Author Dark, and we got to see a glimpse of a story by Jasper, a new author who wrote Out of the Woods. Though this is still in progress, Michael9344's review makes it sound l

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Blast From The Past!

For the Blast from the Past, we have a review on one of GA's earliest Anthologies. So from the 2006 Summer Anthology: Going on Vacation, here is the review for: Finding My Summer Adventure   by nicks_a_writer   Reviewer: K.C. Status: Complete Word Count: 9,698   On a cold March night, wanting to find something hot and steamy to warm me up, I stumbled across a 2006 Anthology story from Nicks_A_Writer. From the first paragraph of, “Finding My Summer Adventure,” I was hooked

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Writing Prompts #122 & #123

Happy Friday everyone! Our two new writing prompts to play with are from ComicFan:   Prompt 122 – Creative Cue – Word List Use the following words in story: Red hand print, shattered vase, new car, fifteen year old boy, and a spider.   Prompt 123 – Challenge Cue – Poetry Mention poetry and see the look of fear on so many faces. Choose whichever kind of poetry you prefer to write in, but it must be about one of three topics. Either your favorite season, favorite holiday, or your favorite pers

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Writing Tip: Said-Bookisms

Today we have another very informative writing tip from Cia! Enjoy!!! Said-bookisms   I'm betting you have NO idea what a said-bookism is, do you? I know I didn't; I do know what the term means though, in a general sense. A said-bookism is a speech tag other than said or asked. Quite often they are used to describe the speech or the tone.   A few examples: He laughed She shrieked They intoned He smiled   Now, these are really common in usage, yet frowned upon more and more. Somethi

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Author Showcase

Today, for our Author Showcase we bring you two more stories. One is by our Promising author, Dark, and it titled "Over the Precipice. The second story is from one of our newer authors, Jasper, and is called "Out of the Woods". Enjoy!!! Over the Precipice   by Dark   Reviewer: Frostina Status: Complete Word Count: 8,249   The reason I keep going back to check whether or not Dark has posted yet another short story is because he never fails to surprise me. Each one of his s

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Writing Tip: Oops, It's Wrong... Or Is It?

Cia has done it again and written what I think is a fantastic writing tip. Check it out and see if you agree... Oops, it's wrong... or is it?   So many times I get confused by the complexities of English grammar, I'm sure many of you are the same. The rules are often contradictory, and the exceptions to exceptions are absolutely a quagmire of missteps and misspells waiting to trap you. I recently read an article that said to polish your writing skills, spend thirty minutes a month revi

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