I took the desktop into a shop. $45 for the diagnostic and they couldn't find anything that was causing such a slow boot up. He was actually surprised it took over a 1/2 hour or more before starting up till you could even start any app or browser, then another 15 mins before typing into a browser  

He called and since I backed up all my files on the cloud ☁️ I went with the cheaper option for him to reformat the hard drive and install Windows 11 on it again. Just means that I had to load all the apps back on, Office 365, Adobe, etc. Oh well, it is a hell of a lot faster now. 

In a way, it wasn't as bad as I thought when I thought of reformatting and losing everything on the drive. It had me glad that I did all the backups that I did. I hope I can get a couple of more years out of this one . Then only file I loss was my collection of all the blog banner headers  So I just spent a half hour putting them in a file on the computer again. 

I'm finishing up the past 2 weeks of a staycation. Did I get anything really done, nah  I caught up on sleep. Now I will not be looking forward to Monday AM getting up at 6 AM 😭 

I really don't have a question of the week this week 😮. So how is the weather in your neck of the woods ? We just had the 3rd wetest July on record and August hasn't started off much better. If I start growing gills and flippers, I will let you all know .

Let's check what happened this past week, shall we.

All hell broke loose on Monday . Cia released a blog with the link for the authors of one of the Secret Author contest, and all the stories. now everyone is trying to figure out who is associated with which story. 12 pages already, oh my!! 

Tuesday was Myr's chance to have us look at the Literary Fiction genre:

Word's Of The Day for the past week:

heliotropism, decimate, mnemonic, assemblage, panoramic, halcyon, mystique

2nd question of the week . I did not get anywhere near all of these words. Guess which ones I did get .

Upcoming Writing Events 

2025 Yearly Anthology - Creature Feature - Due Oct 1, 2025 - All the information you need is here.

2025 Prompt Team Event - More information to come!

Member Participation Blogs - Great way to promote yourself!!

Ask a Author 3.0 If you have a author you want to get some answers from, write a PM to @astone2292

Author Guess Who Get our members to guess who you are and also let everyone know who you are. Also write a PM to @astone2292

Here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets!

3 Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories

1. The Freshmen by Mark Arbour
2. Learned to Lie by Krista
3. Beyond Salvation by Mark Ponyboy Peters

5 Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories

1. Carter's Breach by Topher Lydon
2. The Watchers by Topher Lydon
3. Swing for the Fences by LittleBuddhaTW
4. A Summer in Iowa by Altimexis
5. Secrets 3: The Road to the Future by Bill W

1 Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories

1. Blades of Ashes by lilansui

55 Recently Updated 'Author' Stories

1. The Ticklish Brotherhood by Ticklishboy30
2. Fates Mates & Pirates by P. E. Knapp
3. Face Value by empath
4. LEGALLY BOUND by vanalas
5. The Clinton Boys Head South by Lee Wilson
6. The Weight of a Secret by and9993
7. In My Mind by ChromedOutCortex
8. Kill the Messenger by mastershakeme
9. Love is... (Marcus and Justus) by Tony S.
10. Flame and Frost by lomax61
11. Traded Goods by Yeoldebard
12. A Jewel in the Dirt by Celian
13. The Legend of Fred Krueger by Twisted_Dreemz
14. Sapphire in the Stars by JujuTheDruid
15. The Storm Wolf: Gathering Clouds by RedMoon
16. Misaligned by Laura S. Fox
17. Serenity by Albert1434
18. All Lost Things by Josh Aterovis
19. Peter's Story by Connectwriter
20. Black Sun by Jeff Burton
21. W.R.E.C.K. by Thirdly
22. Blood Money by Yeoldebard
23. Not just another Summer by Robert Hugill
24. Do You Ship Us? by Littlelovestories
25. The Flower Thief and Other Tales of Yalda by Page Scrawler
26. How the Coronavirus Jump-Started my Sex Life by KKirk
27. Liar vs. Liar by Laura S. Fox
28. Adventures Of Joy City's Heroes: Book 1 by Ticklishboy30
29. Everything Meant Nothing by StoriesByTroy
30. Gagged, Grinded & Legally Screwed by Inkognito **Complete**
31. The Scandal by FV2112
32. The Purple Phoenix by GENERAL PIGNOUF
33. Shadows of Consequence by mcarss
34. Surrounded by the Darkness by Lupus
35. Just a Tuesday by Celian
36. Family Practice by Tomkin Watts **Complete**
37. What the Ship Remembers by andy cannon
38. Family life, but not as we know it by Robert Hugill
39. A Love Worth Having by irivera
40. Blades of Ashes by lilansui
41. Egypt by CLJobe
42. Reverent: Six by Tony S.
43. Lines of Attraction by Tony S.
44. Yours to Bully by Littlelovestories
45. What Brings Us Together - Part 2 by Paladin
46. Somewhere to Go by astroguy
47. Neighbour's Riddle by Thomas Lindblad
48. A Silver Tongue is a Double-edged Sword by Absolute Debauchery
49. House Of Exiles by GENERAL PIGNOUF
50. Unspoken by Late to the party
51. Only What the Moon Sees by thedelfinoplaza
52. Wolf in the City by Laura S. Fox
53. The Merge: Through a System of Control by astroguy
54. Lee: Lessons in Adulting by Bndmetl
55. Another Time by Celian

1 Recently Updated 'Poet' Stories

1. Family embrace by Jean87

Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)