Yep, I'm back with the wrap up! A huge thank you to the rest of the Admin team for helping to cover the blogs while I had to take care of family issues. As I'm sure many have noticed, GA no longer has a chatroom for members to hang out. Unfortunately, for the time being, this isn't going to change. If you want to know more about why chat is gone, you can check out Myr's chat topic, which explains what happened and why the chatroom is not feasible at the moment.

To start our week, and new year, off right, Cia announced the first CSR story for the year. You still have plenty of time to read The Pledge by Mikiesboy before the January 30th discussion day.

Myr was next up in the blog with his post about another new aspect of the upcoming software upgrade. To learn more about the Leaderboard and what it entails, make sure to check out Myr's blog post.

We were back on Friday with our first prompts of the year. There were a couple of great options this week, so make sure to check them out. Since there were no takers on the New Years prompts, I didn't feature a specific prompt response and instead asked authors to pick their favorite of their prompt responses and share it.

Finally, to end the week with a bang, we announced the upcoming April Fool's Day Short Story Contest. Make sure to read the guidelines carefully to ensure that you're able to participate.

Contests

• 2017 April Fool's Day Short Story Contest - Due March 1st, 2017 *Guidelines*
  

Anthology Announcements:

***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team

• 2017 Spring Anthology: Jagged Edges / Unintended Consequences - Due April 30th, 2017
• 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017
  

Premium Updates:
Studly Ranch Hands by Renee Stevens *Premium*

Signature Updates:
319 Winesap Lane by CarlHoliday
Black Widow by Mark Arbour; Book 16 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP)
Innocence & Carnality - Part Two by Mann Ramblings; Book 2 of I & C
Mental Games by Bill W
Miles To Go by Comicality
Mine! by Cia
Release Me by Comicality
Safehaven by Comicality
Studly Ranch Hands by Renee Stevens
Temporary Dads by Graeme
The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel

Promising Updates:
A Man in a Room, and other poems by AC Benus; Book 6 of Verse
Confide/ant by Sasha Distan
Give Me Back My Prompts by Sasha Distan; Book 4 of GA Prompts
Headstall's Reflections by Headstall
Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall
One Hundred and Fifty-Five Sonnets by AC Benus; Book 5 of Verse
Tiger Winter by Sasha Distan
Walls by Carlos Hazday; Book 6 of CJ