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Sorry, testing browser compatibility, so I picked your story “Let me help you up.”

Hmm, I used to do that. The wall never became my person's face and it never helped me feel better, either. Lessons we all learn, right? Good chapter with believable angst.

Light by Nathan Burgoine My rating: 4 of 5 stars Light surprised me. I was expecting something a bit more intellectual, technical, I guess you might say. The cover was very 80s-esque, but the plot is very much within the current trend toward superhero fiction. The blurb really plays up the story's overall plot, and the style, so I wasn't disappointed, just a little surprised at the contrast between the cover and actual story. I'm not going to go over the plot. It's covered really well in the blurb. The characters were great. I absolutely loved Kieran's snark when he was judging guys he's dating or 'forced to date' by his meddlesome best friend. The power element seemed to be well described and the author stuck to the 'rules' they'd come up with through the whole story. So, the best friend is pretty much the cut from the same cloth gay man best friend type of character, but hey... I liked the coffee swilling woman anyway. I wasn't impressed or easily understood the element of the Miracle Woman, other than to explain the 'Hide' part that led to Kieran keeping his secrets hidden. Sebastian was pretty cool and HOT! He seemed pretty real, and I liked his interactions with Kieran. I love, love, loved his dog. I had the big, dumb dog myself until last year, so I totally got that and the reaction to Kieran was freaking hilarious. 'Play!' Okay, the bad guy and the bad guy behind the bad guy were completely and totally transparent. So, while I enjoyed the story... they felt way too two dimensional for me to really feel the tension after the first scene during the flag raising at the start of Pride week. Plot... pretty solid. Ease of reading and dialogue/narration flow was excellent and made this a very easy read. The characters were well described, and I could easily 'see' each of them, which was good because there were enough in the story that it could have been confusing if they weren't so distinctly fleshed out. Overall, not quite the story I was expecting, but very good nonetheless. Definite recommend if you like contemporary with a bit of 'extra' thrown in. The world was complex enough with some openings for follow ups, so it'll be interesting if the author comes back and writes more psi stories in this world. View all my reviews

“Your human has some good ideas.” Croll smirked at Birch. Sayer flicked his fingers. Croll’s chair toppled over. He sprawled on the ground, staring up at Sayer. Birch started laughing. “Are you okay?” Sayer jumped up. He held a hand out to Croll. “Let me help you up.” “What was that?” Croll rubbed his shoulder. “I have no idea.” Sayer shuddered. Power that usually took energy to channel just… poured out of him. He’d only meant to mess up Croll’s hair, a surefire way to set off the finicky fa

One of my sisters called me a freak when she found out what I write. We don't talk much anymore and before that we called once or twice a week. Some of my family went 'uh... weird.' and ignore it, and some are supportive. It varies, but considering my first published eBook provided me with the money to take my 2 kids and go see my dying grandmother across the country before she passed last spring, I don't give a rat's ass what anyone thinks in real life. I write what I want, I read what I want, and those who can't accept it can go take a jump of the closest bridge for all I care. I'm not overly friendly or care much about what people think about me in RL though. Plus I'm lucky enough to live in the Pacific Northwest where it's very much 'live and let live' for all different types of folks. There will always be some bigots, but by and large, I live in an excellent atmosphere that celebrates diversity.

After the Fall by L.A. Witt After the Fall was an interesting book. I enjoyed the horse facts, though I grew up around western riders, so eastern riding was a refreshing change. The average reader shouldn't have any trouble understanding the lingo used, especially since Nathan ends up teaching Ryan how to ride since he's the one who landed him in a world of pain. L.A. Witt is an accomplished rider, and I was looking forward to this installment in the Tucker Spring's series. Her stories involve rich characters and intricate relationships, but are rarely angsty. For the most part that's good, but I found this story to be almost predictable enough to be boring. Additionally, the heavy story line about Nathan's friends was distracting though I understood the parallel in the relationship fear. That being said... lust and fear drove the story's conflict. "I want you, you want me..." Both Nathan and Ryan are on the same page, but things changed for Ryan. I felt like the whole blow up at the end was a bit ridiculous. Ryan was never open about being willing to change his mind, that I could see, but when Nathan tried to explain how he felt, what he was afraid of, Ryan shut him down cold. Granted, Nathan was a bit of douche when/where he did it, and sometimes his 'I'm so afraid of being burned again' felt too girly, but Ryan blew his stack without even attempting to communicate his changing feelings. While that might be somewhat realistic, people do break up over non-communication all the time, it didn't feel like enough to drive the conflict in the plot. Part of that would be the first person style not letting us see the changing feelings Ryan had, divorcing us from his growing love and then the drastic hurt he felt. I enjoy L.A. Witt's writing style and her character's snarky humor, but in this case the first person style really divorced me from the couple dynamic. In the end that led to this being a fairly average romance story that was good, but didn't make any great impact on me. If you love the series, or L.A. Witt, you won't be sorry if pick it up. If not... well, read more of the reviews and decide for yourself. View all my reviews

AJ made the design and decided which color went to which group after I went through and added colors and group titles to the file. Creative and techie... handy guy, isn't he?

GA is my 'home' so to speak. I post a few stories on Literotica, then started my blog when I decided to start doing a bit of ePublishing. I recently started putting my Carthera stories on AFF too and I wrote 2 stories for a MM romance group on Goodreads, eBooked here. Like casting a net to find readers. You will, however, find pretty much everything here on GA. I think that sometimes, inside a situation, people can be a bit short-sighted, fae too. They're so hit by the effects of the magic going wild that they are just trying to survive them so far. Birch looks for problems but his purpose is to follow them to their source, looking beyond the effect to the cause. He's been trained to do it, so it wasn't much of a stretch for him to see the same here. Thank you so much for the review, and I'm glad you enjoy my stories. I never knew I had so many worlds in my head, lol.

The Briefers let me explore different stories with less expectation, since it is only 1k in length. It's harder in some ways, easier in others. I love mixing fantasy with contemporary too, both to read and write. Thanks for the review, Myiege.

“Ow.” Okay, sex felt more than great during but afterward… Birch groaned on his way into the grotto. He made a beeline for the pool. Muscle aches aside, Birch felt good physically. Sayer getting hauled out of bed by Croll for some sort of fae-ish cabal in the early morning hours had certainly upset his mood. The damn man wasn’t Sayer’s best friend, he was! Birch dunked himself. The water closed over his head. Birch’s heartbeat thudded in his ears over the sound of the water over his body on its

Nice shades, Matt.

Sounds like we have a lot of love for the story choice here! Hopefully you guys will all come back and share you thoughts on the story on the 28th.

October already! Really? Wow! This year is flying by, right? Well this month, for your reading enjoyment, we have a story about something any cowgirl or cowboy can appreciate ... Wrangler butts! Wrangler Butts by Reddirtwriter Length: 85,286 Description: Darrin has had a difficult time, but has resigned himself to academia and solitude. But his new office mate arrives, and he is Darrin's living wet dream. A dark haired masculine cowboy with a little bit of attitude, Mitch is going to shake up Darrin's life. But neither of them knows the highs, and lows, ahead of them. What a Reader Had to Say: I don't understand why there are not a ton of reviews here. This is such hot writing and so very good in all aspects. The story is riveting as are the sex scenes. I am blown away by it all. ~ Jaro_423 This story by Reddirtwriter comes with bonuses... sequels!! This first story in the Wrangler Butts series was just the beginning. If you love what you read, keep going and see what happens in the two following stories: Maverick Cattle Company and Growing Josh. That might be a bit much for a book club month, lol, but you are free to fall in love with the stories and keep reading. Our Discussion day will be October 28th, so get started reading now!

Orbital Decay by Allen Steele My rating: 4 of 5 stars I wanted to read this book because the description is so relevant to today. Set in 2016, we aren’t stuck with things like stone washed jeans and bulky cell phones that could double as exercise weights. Of course there are a lot of things that haven’t become as advanced as we are currently, but then again, authors don’t own crystal balls. Yet, this is a classic genre feeling book that drew me back to my first love of science-fiction with all its detail and actual science. Back in the 80s this story had to have felt futuristic, now it just feels … prophetic. Okay, we don’t have beam-jacks, and we’re not expanding into space at the rate humans are in Orbital Decay. But we still have so many aspects of governmental oversight, malfeasance, and denial. We have people who are frustrated with the constant deception who decide… enough! The political climate of the story is strangely familiar, unfortunately. I’m not a big fan of flashbacks, and in essence, this story is very much a giant flashback. It worked in the style written, though I did have some issues with some of the events being narrated by Sam that seemed more like the author than the character, hence the switching between first and third and characters. POV is a lot less fluid in today’s writing. Readers prefer to know who is speaking, and they can be sticklers to demand that authors don’t hop and spill things the POV character cannot know. I like the blue collar character focus. There are several characters that pop from the page, which is something I need when I read a dated book like Orbital Decay. I can overlook the dated technology and assumptions, if I’m drawn in enough by their personalities and interactions. All in all, I found this to be a solid read taking me back to my sci-fi reading roots. A definite 3.5 stars, and a recommend if you’re a fan of the genre already!

Happy Birthday, MJ!

Thanks Daithi! Yeah, unfortunately I did have to stop there. My flash group is only 500-1k in words each week and I've been posting 2 a week here. Unfortunately after this I'm down to 1k chapters for you guys too since you've caught up to my posting on my personal blog. Birch is a complex character and I definitely think Sayer is in for a wild ride. He may have grown up with Birch but there is a lot about him he doesn't know, especially after four years apart. Another chapter will be coming next week! Thanks so much for the review.

I've experienced a lot of anger issues in my past. I had a bad childhood, I'm bi, and I grew up with a bigot as a father. As a teen I got sent to a court mandated anger management program instead of being charged with assault. As silly as that whole situation was, at the time it happened, I was furious and things happened that shouldn't. With age comes a lot more perspective though and I know better ways to control myself than screaming or striking out. The anger management class didn't make a dent on me back then but the threat of a record did sort of similar to your threat of your grades slipping. I didn't want to screw up my future. I agree with a lot of the other comments made regarding finding some professional help, if only for the ability to be able to say whatever you need to say in a safe environment where you know it cannot be repeated and used to out you at any time. You sound like you have some issues beyond your sexuality as well, but just having that outlet might help both problems you're facing. Don't let the fear and anger win. Perhaps with help, you can find a way to take control of your actions, and reactions, because there will always be hatred to face. Reacting with violence doesn't change anyone's mind, not in real life. Good luck, dear.

Luckily, I have a whole ton of them here on GA! I hope you enjoy.

Birch is definitely unique. Thank you so much for the review. I love hearing from readers. More will be coming next week too!

Croll does have bad timing, LOL! Well, we'll just have to see if they get back to their ... interlude.

The feeling was familiar. Sayer simply had to touch Birch when he was bouncing everywhere and the nervous energy flowed right out. Sayer had no idea how Birch figured out that he’d been taking it on purpose, but if he didn’t mind …. “Are you sure?” The Darkling shrieked again, his hands waving, and more of the tulips around him grew larger and began snapping nightmarish jaws full of fangs. The guards were coordinating in their attack to hold it, but the creature broke free when two were felled

Hi StonyCreeker! Thank you so much for commenting; it means all the more for your rarity. Though, I have to say you gave me an excellent review so I hope that more stories will compel you to speak up in the future. The best compliment I ever receive is someone telling me they read my work more than once. I really do want to continue writing the story I began in Synchronicity. I am not sure if/when/what format it will take, but I intend to go back to it. Thank you again, so much, for the review.

This month's book club selection featured Accidents Happen by Comicfan. The story is a bit longer than our usual, but with 5 weeks to read it, I hope that everyone is ready to discuss! The most votes for our feature today was for an interview with Comicfan, so I hope you all enjoy learning a bit more about our resident prompt guru and Hosted author! First, the hard stuff! Who do you like best, Jerry or Tom? I’m always rooting for Jerry. Are you a person who makes their bed in the morning, or do you not see much point? I need a nice neat bed. I make it every day and clean those sheets too. Chocolate or Vanilla? Oh God, of course chocolate. (my kinda man! lol) What are you wearing? A pair of blue shorts and an old grey shirt with the front cover of Superman from issue number one on it. With a nickname like Comicfan, which comics are your favorite? From the comic strips it is comics like Peanuts, Ziggy, and Garfield. If you are talking comic books well it is more like Justice League, Teen Titans, Flash, and of course Wonder Woman. (Ahh, now the shirt makes sense, lol Makes me wonder though... is he wearing shorts in the US sense or the British, ) Let's talk a bit about writing! Do you have any writing rituals? I like to get into comfortable clothes, put in some nice music and start to write. I can’t create though in silence. I need to be comfortable and relaxed. Do your characters try to make like bunnies and create ever more convoluted plots for you? Or do you have to coax them out of your characters? Okay, most of the time the stories are convoluted enough. I mean I don’t have space ships landing in the middle of an everyday story, but there are enough problems swirling around them to keep the story interesting and moving along. I never have to coax them, although I have tried to gag them to keep them quiet every now and then. What sort of coffee would your characters order? Simple coffee, complicated soy-non-fat-extra-espresso-half-caff-nightmare? Most of my characters are pretty straight forward. Light and sweet would be the drink choice. I rarely have a diva amongst mine. Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members. I have a very close knit group of friends that I met in college. They have supported me and offered another set of eyes on some of my projects over the years. It is basically because of that support I felt comfortable enough with my own work to begin to look for outlets for it. Thus, I finally began posting on GA. If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor? I’ve been lucky to work with some really great people on the site. I am always open to learning from all of them, but I have worked most often with Renee Stevens. She has shown me a few things when writing. Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest? Considering I work on the prompts and help with the anthologies, I see a lot of new writers. Sometimes the prompts entice someone to finally venture forth and put out their first piece of writing here. I’ve enjoyed the works of Myiege, Joann, Kitt, and Never Surrender as they have all been active participants in the prompts. Hopefully people will read their work and encourage them to keep writing. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment? Like anyone else you will have people love and hate your work. I don’t know if I am rare or not, but I do post an email for people to contact me if they wish to. Knowing that others will not see a comment offers the reviewer a sense of privacy and sometimes they take advantage. I’ve been told by one person after they read End in the Beginning for an anthology that I write sentimental crap, with unbelievable dialogue, and I should consider just leaving the work to those who could write. My response to that was The Escape of John Doe. It seemed to end the idea that I am just not able to write. I’ve also had someone write to me telling me that they enjoyed my stories and share them with their friends. Knowing my work is appreciated and shared makes writing them worth the rewrites, aggravation, and problems any writer faces when looking at a blank sheet of paper or screen. What inspired you to write Accidents Happen? Like the main character, Charlie, I was going through a lot of changes in my own life. I had just lost my mother the year before, while she was having heart surgery. My father’s health had taken a nose dive and I had just moved back to Long Island. I had found Gay Authors and been reading the works of many authors, but finally decided to I wanted to comment so I joined. After talking to some people in chat, I figured if I wanted to write again, this seemed to be a fairly supportive environment to do it. So I began to think consider the last time my life had gone through so many changes and realized it was just as I was getting out of college. Within just a few minutes Charlie was born and I then wrote out a character sheet for Charlie and all the main characters. Wasn’t much longer till it began to appear each week and while not perfect, at least it was well accepted by those here at GA. Whew! Comicfan answered a lot of questions. Thank you so much! I appreciate you letting us in and telling us more about yourself. Now let's share some of that feedback all authors love so much. If you enjoyed reading Accident's Happen, let him know. Share you thoughts, a review, or questions for Comicfan. If you haven't had a chance to read the story yet, check it out here. Options for October: In the Shadow of the Dragon Skeletons of the Future Marcus and the Slave Wrangler Butts Don't forget to vote for your reading choice!

I write, I beta/edit, I work on the site in many different capacities with a primary focus on supporting all our authors. I'm so busy doing all that I don't get nearly enough reading and reviewing time, unless it's for the mod queue, but I appreciate many stories ... once they're finished! LOL

My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m a fan of Heidi Belleau. Her writing feels ‘real’. That, to me, is what contemporary fiction is all about. Most people aren’t perfect with ideal lives or living in squalor and on the brink of complete meltdown. Yet those extremes are very well represented in MM fiction. Heidi takes stories about the average man, or woman, and makes them interesting. Which leads me to Rob and Bobby. Okay, I’m not an online MMORPG fan. I’m not a game fan at all, but I love fantasy so I can understand the draw. With the advent of the online world, those fantasy worlds have exploded in popularity. They allow people an outlet to be who they want. Rob became Bobby. Both male names, but Bobby is the inner woman inside Rob’s body. She’s what he cannot be, sexy and outgoing, confident and casual. That’s not to say Rob is transsexual. I don’t know that you could put a label on his character. He likes things about looking and acting like a girl, and he likes things about looking and acting like a guy. Where all this slams together is when his personas become alive in real life. Bobby agrees to a video chat, and then Rob decides … why not at work? Unfortunately, his work isn’t a microcosm. It’s an interesting world, for sure, considering it’s an adult store called Rear Entrance, but people come and go. Some of those people are in Rob’s world too. Some good, some bad comes from that overlap. That leads me to Dylan, who Rob meets in Art class. Of course … Dylan had already met Bobby. It was so interesting that Dylan’s character didn’t act any different. He was interested in Rob, and made it very clear. A man stuck in a world not quite his own, as an adopted Inuit, Dylan knows about pre-conceived notions and how they can hurt a person. I absolutely loved the evolution of his character throughout the story in relation to Rob and Bobby. Telling how that evolution goes would be spoiling the story though. Let’s just say that not everyone is what they appear, and Rob is put through a wringer. He has to deal with all of his confusion and fear. Thankfully some of the cast from Apple Polisher returns to support him. Rob has a great network of people, and that’s an amazing aspect of this story. The characters. I can’t say enough about Heidi’s ability to create men and women I feel like I can walk up to on the street. I love the creativity involved in making so many characters and letting them drive the plot. If they were one iota less real, it wouldn’t work, but it so does. I cannot say enough about the Rear Entrance books and definitely recommend them to anyone who likes contemporary stories with real life thrown in. View all my reviews