Cia

Good job! Those look better visually, but I can't read your author name in #1 at this size and the color you used. Don't forget, the image itself and the title is important, but when you write you're marketing everything, right? When you move into eBooks (especially when you are doing so in order to make some cash) a lot of the people who download or buy your book do so because it's written by YOU. Make your name larger and darker on #1, since you're using a white banner strip, and #2 could use a size bump too, though I can at least read it there. Don't sell yourself short.

Welcome to the Signature Author week. This month we're featuring KC's A Grim Fairytale, in honor of the Halloween season. Did you read it? If not, don't worry, my review won't spoil the story for you... but hopefully it will make you want to read it! If you haven't downloaded your background yet, get it here! A Grim Fairytale by KC Signature Author Length: 3,176 Status: Complete Reviewer: Cia Mention Grimm, and I’m in. I was a fan of the original tales with their non-Disney scenes and endings, so when I then read that this Grim family was much older and darker, I was eager to keep reading. The story soon reads with the ‘Once upon a time’ schtick, but then it definitely goes in a frightening direction. *Warning* The first part of this story is very dark, just like the reader is warned. We meet a queen bent on worshiping the dark side and dragging her people along with her. The ritual she performs actually summons the devil… but then things go very, very wrong. And that’s just the beginning of how Magda pays the price of her hubris. We’re introduced to Marcus, her son, but he’s not the heir she expected to have. His nature is very different from hers, and no matter what, he’s rooted firmly in his own path. That’s about as exact as I’m going to get on the plot. I’d hate to spoil this story, since there is still plenty of October left to enjoy the twisted tale. There are a lot of layers to the story. The names of the main characters, Magda and Marcus, both hold interesting meaning if you relate them to their scenes in the story. (Check out the interview on Wednesday for more information on this!) KC’s writing, as always, involves a lot of vivid imagery and action. The visuals of the ritual and following scene is especially chilling. There are some complex themes in this story beyond the traditional good versus evil that all fairy tales employ. I also found several subtle tidbits that readers can enjoy, too. Now, all good fairytales end with ‘And they all lived happily ever after’, but this is a Grim tale, so there’s no guarantee evil will get its comeuppance… or even that you’re rooting for good to triumph by the end of the story. That’s the best part of this short story—it’s full of the unexpected!

A few things to remember about covers: Washed out colors make it hard to see the image when it's shrunk down (which is often the case on blog promos or sale sites). That is also an issue with your text. It's best not to place it at the very top or bottom of the image, because some thumbnails cut out some of the cover, whereas others just shrink everything down, making size of the font very important. When I design a cover, I check how the image appears and the text size/placement all works with the sizes at full, 600x900, promo 200x300 and thumbnail, 100x150. You want something that stands out at all 3. For the cop character, I'd move the font down and the image up, creating more negative space at the bottom so you could use that half to overlay the title and author name. For the handcuff character, I'd change the blue background to a much darker color to create a starker contrast. I'd enlarge the font in both and keep it at least the width of a finger or two (in full size) from the edges.

I had a great question--if only authors could freeze time (and all distractions) for an hour or two a day. I'm sure we could all write more, right? I'm happy to be featured with Aditus and Wolfwriter this Ask an Author post. Big thanks to Dark for organizing these events and posting such great tidbits about everyone!

“That machine will never work again,” I said loudly. “Even if you drag us back to the city, your hold on the city will fade. The people will wake up and realize how corrupt the nobles have become. They won’t stand for it. Not anymore.” “We keep them safe. It is this outside world they fear, and it will continue to keep them in the city,” Varket scoffed. “They will do as they are told or face eviction from the security keeping them alive.” If the people had cause to fear leaving the city, why d

It's a month for a variety of spooky treats, so I thought I'd bring you a few snack-sized Halloween short stories. These are 3 short stories by our site authors featuring a corn maze, a costume party at a bar, and a few zombies--what would Halloween be with a few ghouls, right? A Halloween Nightmare by Bill W Length: 5,895 Description: Colby is a college senior who’s looking forward to dressing up in his costume and spending Halloween having a good time at a gay bar. However, his evening of fun quickly turns into an enduring nightmare, but will it ever end? A Zombie Valentine by Gee Whillickers Length: 5,736 Description: Halloween parties, zombies, and teenagers. What could happen? King of the Corn Maze by Cynus Length: 4,679 Description: Every Halloween, Jack works at the "Haunted Corn Maze". Some years are more eventful than others, for sometimes the spirits of the harvest are called upon to protect those who who live within the boundaries of the corn field. The Discussion day for October will take place on Monday, October 26th. Don't miss out on your chance to enjoy the spooky spectaculars!

Good start! You set down a nice amount of world building without revealing too much all at once, and had it naturally come about in conversation. The massive amount of characters might be a little bit confusing, so keep that in mind from this point out that readers might have a hard time keeping the character details separate as you flesh them all out as events unfold. You may want to give Josh some scenes where he spends time with just a few characters, 1-3, instead of the whole group, to help reduce that. Best of all, you left readers with a lot of questions. Where is Josh from? Why doesn't he have his memories? How did he get in the Withers? What are all the kids doing, and why are they all together in the scums? These questions will keep people coming back for more chapters!

Sometimes protecting yourself, or your family members, is more important than any socially accepted idea of family bonds. I stopped talking to my grandad at the age of 16, and it was the best choice for me. Maybe not the right one, but it was the only response to the hatred flung my way. I left my dad and stepwitch's house at 17 and have not gone back for more than a few hours at a time since. I have never left my children alone with her. I refused to allow my sister to stay with me after she went off the rails and got her 3rd DUI over prescription drugs--2x with her kids in the car--because I have a lot of pain pills to deal with my health, and she proved she couldn't be trusted. Were any of these decisions easy? No. But I made them keeping mine and my family's best interests at heart, so we could remain physically and emotionally healthy.

Wildman set a brutal pace. For such a small, wiry guy, he could really move. I couldn’t go on much longer, and we were already deep in the jungle. “Can we take a break?” I gasped. I stumbled into a tree and stopped, my shoulder throbbing. Without its support, I probably would’ve dropped to my knees. “We’re exhausted.” Teddy hadn't said anything, but his feet had started dragging, leaving furrows in the thick loam. I hitched him closer to my side; my muscles burned, and my arm felt like it was g

Graeme's The Rainy Day is the CSR feature for September. I asked Graeme a series of questions about his time on GA and his story, which, considering the story is from a past anthology was kinda tricky of me. I hope you'll enjoy learning more about Graeme and his writing. He is a busy man, but he will be "live" on the site at 6 PM his time zone, which is 10 PM Pacific and 1 AM Eastern. For our night owls, YAY, and for the rest, make sure you add your questions beforehand so he can answer them then. You’ve been a member of GA for a long time. Is there one thing you’ve enjoyed most about the changes over the years? Without a doubt, it’s been the people. New authors, readers, and forum members. Each with their own personality and charm. I don’t like it when good friends move on, but there’s always someone new to get to know. In particular, the range of stories available now from all the new authors is amazing. That’s been building up every since I joined GA and it’s one of the most exciting parts of the site. You write a mix of short stories and novels. Do you have a preference? Not really. The two serve different purposes. The short stories are for those little ideas that I want to explore. Simple things or special circumstances. The novels are more for exploring bigger ideas. My first novel was exploring the impact on a straight guy when one of his friends comes out of the closet. The second was exploring a different way to present a story, trying to take advantage of online functionality that’s not available in print. My most recent two novels have been exploring the issue of homosexuality and sports. My short stories, are a lot more varied because I can approach each one from a fresh point of view. I’m not tied to any particular genre or situation; I can do what I want. I sometimes consider expanding some of those short stories into novellas or even novels, but there always seems to be something else to do, instead. What’s your favorite part of writing in general? The creation of something unique. The thrill of seeing the idea or scene in my mind taking form in the words on a screen. That’s what I enjoy the most. I love the feedback I get, but I’m not writing to attract readers. I’m writing because I want to write. If it ever became a chore, I wouldn’t do it. You have written several anthologies, but it’s been a while since you took part in one. Any particular reason for that? Sadly, yes. A number of years ago there were a series of massive bushfires near Melbourne; an event now known as the Black Saturday Bushfires. They came close to my home and deeply affected the community in which I live. We know people who lost everything in those fires, including people who lost family members. I was supposed to work the following Monday, but I couldn’t make my mind focus. I rang my boss to let him know I was taking the day off. He was just relieved to hear from me. He knew I lived in one of the affected areas. My clearest memory from that Monday was going through my closet and collecting all my old suits that no longer fitted me. I took them to the local church where they were collecting donations for people who weren’t allowed back into the bushfire areas to find out if they still had a home. Why was I donating my suits? Because those people needed them for the funerals of known victims: friends and families whose bodies had already been identified... I didn’t realise it at the time, but that was the beginning of several years without writing. I tried many times to start, but I couldn’t come up with anything. My muse was gone. It’s been slowly coming back, but I’ve found that I can only work on one thing at a time. I’m not able to write multiple stories at the same time. Since I’ve been writing about the Lilydale Leopards for the last two years, I haven’t been able to focus my mind onto any short stories, for the anthologies or otherwise. Since I’m currently between novels, at least as far as posting them is concerned, I’m going to try to write a couple of short stories. Whether one of those is for an anthology remains to be seen. When you wrote The Rainy Day for the anthology “Worth Fighting For” did the theme prompt the story, or did you have to work it in? Now you’re straining my memory. That was eight years ago! I believe that theme, in conjunction with the theme of the previous anthology, The Rainy Day, worked together to inspire the story. When combined, the old phrase about putting something aside for a rainy day just jumped out at me. Why would you put something aside? Because of something worth fighting for. After that, it was just a case of working out the circumstances. As a parent, was this story hard for you to write? Not really. While I know of so-called parents like Brat’s mother, and I know of people who are foster parents, I don’t have any personal contact with either situation. I’ve read enough, though, to be aware that it occurs way too often. Of course, in my opinion, once is way too often. Your main character, Brat, is a dichotomy. He’s hostile and yet dedicated to his siblings. Did you set out to make him this way, or did it evolve as you wrote the story? His apparent dichotomy stems from his motivation. I always try to give my characters motives for what they do, and in Brat’s case it was easy. He is protective and he has an Us-vs-Them attitude because of that protectiveness. ‛Us’ is his brother and sister. ‛Them’ is everyone else, including his mother. Because of his mother and her succession of boyfriends, Brat doesn’t trust other people. He’s had too many years of experience that told him that trusting people was a bad idea. Unfortunately, that mistrust extends to people who could be trusted, like Stephen. Brat’s not old enough to develop a strong sense of grey. To him, everything is black or white. People are either part of his family or they’re not. If they’re not, then they are a danger. Brat’s sarcasm leads to a lot of one-liners. Do you have a favorite? I think it would be when Brat snapped at school and yelled at Stephen about football boots: I don’t have parents who’ll buy me whatever I fucking want. I don’t even have parents who’ll buy me what I fucking need! It’s so easy for other people to not understand what it’s like to be poor. I’ll admit that I don’t really understand it, either, but I remember being told once about a counsellor who was trying to help a family who couldn’t make ends meet. The counsellor couldn’t tell them what they had to give up. All they could do was keep going through their expenses, pointing out the monthly phone bill, and silently hope that they would realise that, for them, a phone was a luxury. That’s where the comment in the story about not having a phone came from. For Brat, it was a luxury he couldn’t afford. Football boots were so far down the list it wasn’t funny, but Stephen didn’t understand. This story has a compelling theme that really draws the reader in emotionally. Do you find themes like this work their way into your writing often? I try to work with emotions a lot. To me, the situation the characters find themselves in is merely the setting that allows them to express how they feel. They do that in many different ways, but it’s the characters and what they feel that drives my stories, not the situation. That’s my goal. To put it another way, I try to write character-driven stories, not plot-driven. The type of character-driven story that appeals to me is where the characters have goals to strive for. It’s the striving towards that goal that makes the story. In this case, it’s Brat trying desperately to keep his family together. With the special anthology where authors can return to past anthology themes, do any of them draw your interest for jumping back into the anthologies? I’m sure there will be, but as I mentioned above, my muse is being temperamental at the moment. The anthology story that I had the most fun writing was the 2007 Fairy-Tale anthology, the same year as The Rainy Day. That’s the one I’d like to write another story for, but I don’t know if I’d be inspired as I was then. If I’m going to go back to a past anthology, I’d probably look at the ones during that period when I wasn’t writing. But I would have to find the inspiration first, and the tough part. Sorry, no promises (which, if I’m allowed to say it, isn’t a bad anthology theme itself). Thanks to Graeme for taking part in the CSR this month, and don't forget to leave your thoughts and questions for Graeme in the comments!

My 9 year old son plays that game. I'm so not into video games, but he loves it.

I agree with Renee. Nothing is being said about the great number of updates by the ENTIRE group of promoted authors or the content that was featured this week on the blog, just bickering--albiet good-natured--about who posted more. FYI, though, Classic authors are previously promoted authors we do not wish to demote but who are not actively posting, even if they are still members. Occasionally, these are authors who could be posting at one time or another, but don't wish the pressure of the need to remain actively writing and sharing content on the site consistently.

It's supposed to be clear here tonight, so I promised I'd make sure we could see it and then wake up my daughter so she could see it and take pictures.

Yep, poor Teddy. He's lost in the weeds, for sure! More on Wildman will be revealed in future chapters.

Aww, I love Teddy too. His character really fits his name and all the squeezing hugs he makes me want to give him. They're definitely not safe, and there is a lot left in the air still. More coming on Wednesday! (sorry this one was late, I forgot to post here. Whoops!!)

Getting out was only the first step! Definitely not in the clear yet. Thanks for the review, Valkyrie!!

Thanks so much, Cyn!! Teddy's reaction is definitely worrying, but they've been through a lot, plus he was injured.

Nothing was ever simple. We got out of my house—I didn’t even feel the need to look back. My family could reap what they’d sowed if the king came after them. I felt no sympathy for people who could sell their own son. But we’d only gone a few streets before guards began stomping down the main thoroughfare. I pulled Teddy with me into an alley as six passed us, their boots thudding against the cobbles. When it fell quiet, I slowly peeked my head around the corner of the building. They’d left a

Ahab... a fictional protagonist whose great white whale WAS the original great white whale. Probably one of the most iconic American novels of all time.

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The choice to check stories or not is always up to an author, and if you don't feel it's worth it, that's totally fine. I don't think having an author's stories stolen reflects badly on GA, though I do feel horribly anytime it happens here. We've had a few instances where several of our authors were targeted, but that's rare. Unfortunately, it's far more common on other sites, and if you cross-post, you're at an even greater risk. I wanted authors to have the information available if they feel the need to check their work. Readers are often instrumental in discovering stories on sites you don't post on (because a plagiarist is obviously going to avoid sites where you have a presence) but this gives authors a chance to be proactive. Since I've been personally plagiarized 3 times, it's very upsetting to me on behalf of other authors. Additionally, by searching for my stories, I once found someone had posted a blurb and link to my story on their site... and it was NOT a site I wanted to be associated with. I've also found my published eBooks on download sites, which are a dime a dozen online, but it's still worth it to me to issue those DMCA notices.

Which P word? Well it be similar to the way I stole that title from a Skype conversation with Wildone... Figured it out yet? Plagiarism. Yep, a thief struck again. I'm sure many of you remember my rant from a few weeks ago about how one of my stories, and 6 other authors' works were plagiarized on another site. A conversation ensued about how to protect your work, as an author, but I never had a chance to post it officially on the site. Well, this time we had a thief try to post their stolen work on GA, but they were busted. I contacted the original author and confirmed the theft, removed the work, removed their account, and our site integrity was restored. There is a silver lining to plagiarism, which often brings the community together. Unfortunately it happens more often than you might think. Previously we had a large incident with multiple stolen works, which brought us the lovely Cassie Q. She found she liked the site, so she stuck around and continued posting her stories. This go round we have gained another great author, Gee Whillickers. While I hate that it took a theft of their work to bring them GA, I am happy they decided to keep posting here. Make sure you say hi to Gee Whillickers when you see him on the site, or check out his stories posted so far. So how do you protect yourself against having your stories stolen? Write bad stories no one wants to steal? Some think it's a form of flattery, but I'd rather just get a nice review. If you post a story for free online, there's no way to prevent someone from copying it, unfortunately. Some plagiarists, the really lazy ones, just rename it and post it as their own. Others take more effort, changing names of characters, locations, and significant events/themes in the story. I had a daemon story turned into a werewolf fiction. I saw a contemporary story where the main character's gender was changed. Fortunately for us, the MM reader community is pretty tight. People who read here also read on Awesome Dude, or Archive of Our Own, or Literotica... or many other sites not as well known. Reader discovery accounts for about 25% of the plagiarism we've caught here on the site; usually on work that's posted after the author has left the moderation queue. Why did they wait until then? Every new author is subject to the mod queue on GA until they hit 75 likes. Until that point, their stories and chapters are checked, partly for our posting and content guidelines, and partly to verify the stories aren't stolen. That's how we tend to catch the other 75%. How do we do this? Can you do it? Yes, you can, and it's really simple. How to check your stories for plagiarism: 1. Pick a distinctive phrase such as: Nyle looked up nervously as he rode under the portcullis. 2. Search the phrase within quotation marks "Nyle looked up nervously as he rode under the portcullis.". 3. Repeat search with a distinctive phrase without names: "The austere chapel and rigorous training had been a sharp contrast to his youth". Tips: Search on both Bing and Google. Search phrases from the first chapter and later chapters. DO THIS OFTEN. How do I get the story removed if I find one that's been stolen? How to report plagiarism: 1. Look for a report button or a contact us link. 2. Copy the story link to the stolen story. 3. Share the stolen story title, author name, and links to your original. Haven't posted online? Keep copies of all sent mail to beta readers/fans with advanced reader copies of your work to prove when the content was written and sent. Offer to provide a forwarded copy of said email. If you really want to protect your work, purchase an official copyright, especially if you might publish later. 4. Follow up. Most sites will work with you to remove the content. Sometimes you have to take it further to the ISP. How to issue a DMCA notice: 1. Contact the site owners/ISP with the following information: Your signature, links to your copyrighted work, links to the plagiarized work, your physical and online contact information, a statement in good faith that the plagiarized work is unauthorized, and a statement that your information is accurate under penalty of perjury.... There's a lot more to DMCA notices I don't want to outline here, but there is a great website which explains the process: The DMCA Takedown Notice DeMystified by Ken Liu Sample notice: So that's basically it. Search your stories proactively, but feel free to let me know if you need any help. I've had to deal with this type of situation many times, and I'm always willing to give advice or guide a new author through the process.

C- Chrystal. She's been my best friend for 28 years now. I always say she's "my person", cause she knows me best in this world and being around her makes me really happy. (If we get this far, I seriously have a nephew named Xzavier, cause my sister didn't want anyone to EVER spell that right!)

Happy Birthday!!

Being a parent is the biggest time warp EVER. My kids are in school full time, and I don't have a job like you do, so you'd think I'd have decadent hours of me time every day. Somehow, it never happens. I'm so impressed by all you do in life, but make sure you take the time you need now and then--even if it's only 5 minutes snatched in a locked bathroom where you look in the mirror and promise one day, someday, you'll get through twenty-four hours without "Dad!" shrieked out--even if it's a happy voice, damn, that's jarring after a while!