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  • Valkyrie

    Upcoming Site Events

    By Valkyrie

    Now that the poetry anthology is behind us, it's time to look forward to what's next.  Last week, Cia announced the forbidden secret author contest.   No, it's not forbidden to participate - just to announce that you're participating     We also have our annual anthology, with two themes this year, Horizons and Unspoken.   We'll round off the year with our annual Prompt Team event - details will be revealed later this year.   Should we make it a contest to see w
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Review

'Dead happy' by Josh Silver

'Dead happy' by Josh Silver. My rating: 5 (out of 5) stars I haven't posted here in a while. I've still been reading but nothing's grabbed me quite in the way this book did. This was a gripping, emotional follow-up to Happyhead. In continuing to skewer cults and pseudo-psychology, Josh Silver delivers a real humdinger of a book. Seb's journey continues. A queer teen, he's been enrolled in a programme that claims to foster happiness, even in the most unpromising. The psychologic
northie

northie in Review

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Mistake?

Mistake?

I've been around GA for 14 years in one form or another. I've read many great stories by amazing authors who could very well be published and earning money for their talent. Yet, they are here on GA offering their works to all of us for free. Since I was able to spend more time on this site. This past year gave me to urge to write again after reading more amazing stories. I was inspired by the many awesome authors. However, being inspired doesn't mean one has the talent to actually accompli
Enoch

Enoch in Mistake?

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blog post

Why Shoot the Doctors?

On Friday 8th August, a gunman opened fire on the offices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, but it barely seemed to make a ripple in the news. The British media seemed to ignore it. Why disregard this horrendous attack? Bullets hit the buildings and shattered windows, causing CDC employees to hide for their safety as over 500 rounds were fired at their workplace. In this hail of gunfire only one person died, that is still one person too many. David Rose, 33
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in blog post

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Craft Tips That Aren’t

Craft Tips That Aren’t, Vol. 1

At some point, every writer stares into the abyss of their manuscript, googles “how to write good,” and ends up ugly-crying through a screenwriting guru’s YouTube ad. And it is in this fragile, emotionally collapsed state that the truth reveals itself: Most writing advice is either painfully obvious or spiritually useless. (“Just write!” Okay, Brenda. Thanks.) So, in the spirit of not helping whatsoever, here are some writing tips I completely made up while avoiding my own stories.
Blogs

A Teensy Update

A little note before reading... I have had a few adult beverages.  In the span of a year, many things have happened in my personal life. Being accepted into a new community in this world with open arms. Reevaluating personal goals. Discovering values in life that needed to be brought to light.  Aaron... My sweet, darling, precious Aaron. Why in the world are you writing this, pretending this blog doesn't have the thickest layer of dust and KFC crumbs?  Because, you silly-billies.
astone2292

astone2292 in Blogs

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Esaay

Threads: The Film That Frightened Me at 18 and Still Scares Me Now

It was a terrifying television film but I couldn’t stop watching. A bomb had exploded followed by a mushroom cloud rising above the city. That was shocking but the aftermath was terrifying, how quickly everything disintegrated and fell apart, and how no one came to rescue the survivors, they were just left alone in this burned world. I watched it all on my own. It was Sunday evening, 23rd September 1984, and I was eighteen. I was sat watching my portable television in my bedroom. It was my
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Esaay

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Thoughts

Tribute

Gay Authors have had and continue to have some amazing authors. I like to pay tribute to a couple no longer with us, at least as far as I know. Comicfan was a knowledgeable writer and mentor.  He was also an incredible human being. I miss interacting with Wayne. He was very insightful and helpful.  I also miss his storytelling. He had the ability to bring his characters alive. Another author who will be missed by many, many people is Comicality.  He had the talent to put the reader into the
Enoch

Enoch in Thoughts

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Story Updates

There was a plan- 010425

You know the game, right? You make a plan, you maybe even announce it, and then you get nothing of said plan done. Yeah. My general plan was to write on Emmett and Finley so we get their story done, but hey, after stary at a blank page for half an hour I closed the document and turned to other things. For example to our cursebreaker Dust, who got some updates. But also to Riley and Cedric. Yes, moth and butterfly are still fluttering around. In their story is a lot of stuff happening i
Celian

Celian in Story Updates

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Story Updates

How to proceed - 110325

Okay, so, phew. Milestone for Emmett and Finley is reached! And of course I once was "oh but with 25 chapters it should be done". Yeah, sure. Seems like I'm incapable of short(er) stories. Anyway. There are two more stories waiting for them in my mind and following that I have the idea of a fourth one featuring another couple (one of the guys we already know, wanna guess?). But I'm sure as hell not start straight away with part 2 as soon as I'm done. The Drama Queen has a cooldown. (Or my nerves
Celian

Celian in Story Updates

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general news

It's me

Hi there! It's me! This first entry shall be more about introducing myself. So, yeah. I'm German, meaning English is only my second language and please, dear native speakers, have mercy. I'm a 90s kid, raised kinda strict by parents who love books (mom crime and historical stuff, dad sci-fi and military-themed stuff) and therefore I got books for every opportunity. My first story I wrote when I was 8 or 9, about a baby rooster named Chester, who's lonely because apart his dad he's the
Celian

Celian in general news

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Review

'Our evenings' by Alan Hollinghurst

'Our evenings' by Alan Hollinghurst. My rating: 3 (out of 5) stars I don't read very much queer 'literary fiction'. Those I have, I've mostly enjoyed. This, though, was different.  Alan Hollinghurst is a Booker Prize-winning author who's lauded and lionised. A new novel from him is something of an event. I read the description, ummed and aahed, then finally bit the bullet. It's a long read - 16 and a half hours - and for that, I want to feel engaged. Was I? No. Hollinghurst's
northie

northie in Review

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Esaay

These Three Films

Three films that helped shape my queer identity, but not at the same time or even in the same way.   Films and books have always been important to me, and growing up they provided me with so much information and many times shaped how I thought and saw myself. I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s and there was so little information or help about being gay, that I could find, so I turned to novels and films for my help and education. So many times, films have given me an insight into ho
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Esaay

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blog post

A Holding Space but in A Different Place

I first came across Wicked when I read the novel, in the early 2000s. I enjoyed the book’s story and themes, questioning whether are people born evil, made evil or just painted as evil. Isn’t it so easy just to have a villain? We saw the original London West End production of the musical, back in 2006. And last month we saw the first film, in the two film version of it. I enjoyed the film as much as the book and musical, though they are all different, and found myself swept along with the story,
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in blog post

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blog post

Good Mental Health Day, Just Not Today

In October, the British government announced plans to help people with mental health problems to get back into work. This would see “employment advisers” visiting people in hospital, who have been admitted with mental health problems, and giving them CV and interview advice. It was piloted at hospitals in Leicester and at the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, London, with “dramatic results”, though the results haven’t been published yet. This isn’t a hundred percent altruistic, it is al
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in blog post

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Review

'The Mars house' by Natasha Pulley

The Mars house by Natasha Pulley. My rating: 5 (out of 5) stars Like other recent novels, this is both a great story and a shrewd commentary on current times. Western exceptionalism turned on its head, refugees, language barriers, how to start a new life, gender issues, and politics are all woven into this engaging, engrossing sci-fi/fantasy/romance. Life on Mars is difficult. Those who have adapted over generations can cope with the cold, the long, long winters, and the reduced g
northie

northie in Review

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Esaay

Another Man Called Drew

He was the first Englishman I met who was also called Drew. I had met several men called Drew when I visited America, but he was the first other English Drew I met. Growing up, I hated my first name, and the very common abbreviation of it, which people frequently called me by. I felt trapped by my first name and dreamed of when I could be old enough to change it, though I had no idea what to, my choice of name would change almost month from month. Then, in my middle teens, I read an America
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Esaay

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Review

'Project Hail Mary' by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir My rating: 5 (out of 5) stars What an amazing novel! Hard science, suspense, so many emotions, shocks and surprises, and a most human of tales. Andy Weir does a fantastic job of marrying (astro)physics, gentle humour, and a very real, fallible hero into a story that caught hold of me right from the off and only increased its grip as the tension and emotions racked up. A man wakes up in what he deduces to be a spaceship. He doesn't know who he is, whe
northie

northie in Review

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blog post

With Pride: The Unwelcome Bigots at the Parade

"Everyone's happy, everyone's just joyous to be here," Pumper, club member of Sapphic Riders, at this year’s London Pride March. The sun was bright and hot, the crash barriers were all in place and the pavements were filled with spectators, as the 2024 London Pride march slowly but brightly moved through the capital. Yet, at the beginning of the march, was a small but noisy group of bigots trying to shout down the parade. Eight Christian protesters, stood at the beginning of this year’
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in blog post

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blog post

The Tactics of Voting

On social media, I have made no secret of the fact that I dislike this Conservation government, they are the worst government in my memory, and I lived through Margaret Thatcher. I want a change, I want a Labour government, and I am not alone in this. The polls show that Labour is well ahead of the Tories and are on track to be elected as our next government. But can we be sure of this? We elect our governments under the First Past The Post system and this does not mean that a political par
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in blog post

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blog post

Genuine Proof of Person

My government doesn’t trust me at my word. Before 2023, all I had to do to vote was take my polling card to the polling station, have one of the election officials check my name off against their list of registered voters and then I would vote. Now I have to show photo ID to vote, but not any photo ID, only one of the nineteen legally approved photo IDs. Why the change in the law? There’s been no voter fraud scandal. There has been no large-scale electoral fraud in Britain, and since 2
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in blog post

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blog post

My Vote Doesn’t Count

In this coming General Election, there is no point in me casting my vote because it will not change anything. I don’t mean that all politicians are the same, and all those simplistic arguments against voting. I mean that because I live in a safe Labour constituency, it doesn’t matter which party I vote for, my constituency will return a Labour MP (Member of Parliament). In the 2019 election, my local MP kept her seat with a 32,000 majority. She received 70.1% of the constituency votes. The
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in blog post

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Book review

Book Review: Sleep No More (Six Murderous Tales) by P.D. James

This was the second collection of short stories published posthumously after PD James’s death. Not known for her short story, this collection gives a very different view of James’s writing. She’s known for her very well written novels, where the handsome and cultured Commander Dalgliesh steps in and meticulously takes apart a vicious crime. Instead, these stories present murder where the guilty aren’t punished, and some are even rewarded. In several of these short stories the central charac
Drew Payne

Drew Payne in Book review

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Blog Post I

A Matter of Professional Opinions....

As I start this, I've got a slight caffeine withdrawal headache.  Normally, I drink about a liter of Dr Pepper a day to keep my cluster headaches in check; however, I wasn't in the mood for anything sugary yesterday, so I'm paying the price for it.  I did have an energy drink with my pills, and I'm about to have some kefir (drinkable, probiotic yogurt), so we'll see how that plays out. May fucking sucked.  There were more downs than ups, and if I were still inclined to delete myself from ce
John Henry

John Henry in Blog Post I

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