Cia

“Fuck!” His leg barely moved as Birch tried to jerk away from Sayer. “Careful!” His stomach heaved. Birch swallowed desperately but the pain was too much. Bile rose, and he vomited sideways. His eyes slammed shut when his stomach rebelled against his control; seeing it was always worse. This is not what he wanted to do when he saw Sayer again. Humiliation rivaled the taste in his mouth for bitterness. Now he’d ruined the bed and made a disgusting mess. Birch flopped onto his back. “I’m sorry

Also Take Flight by Cia... I think our story filters are still screwy! Darn bugs! My story auto posts on Wednesdays so I know it's in there hiding in the weeds, not wanting to come out with the other stories... grrs!

Happy Birthday hun! I hope you have a lovely day.

I'm glad you like the drama! I try not to overdo it, but with this sort of thing it's completely warranted. There's a long lost love interest, fae magic, and much more to come still as well! Thanks again for the review.

I'm glad. The characters don't have a lot of time to be distinct early on in a series of flashes piece. I'll work on making their POV's more distinct and I'll go back and check the names. Thanks for reviewing Eleven!

Hmm... too many changes in this first chapter. That slows down though, so hopefully it'll be easier to keep track of. I'm an admin, Hosted author, and part of our Writer Support Team, so I am pretty active on the site, that does lead to more people knowing me and reading my work. I like to think that it's also pretty good, though obviously I'm not without my rough patches. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, Uziel. I hope you're enjoying GA and the vast number of excellent stories we host.

Sorry about that!

Second Hand by Heidi Cullinan My rating: 4 of 5 stars Okay, I picked up Second Hand simply because I love this series from Tucker Springs. Of course I’d read several of the later books so I know the pairing would work out, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless. It was nice to get the backstory I’d missed since I started off with Dirty Laundry, book 3 in the Tucker Springs world. I’m a big fan of Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton. I like both of their work singly, and they mesh together quite well. Of course knowing Heidi wrote book 3, which is my favorite, was a draw that led me to want this book in particular. What I enjoyed most was watching both author’s style come together in this story. The characters are real, and the setting and plot believable. El’s one of those guys, the ones not looking to settle down, that we see in a few books of this series. They’re often taken by surprise by their love interest, but it’s never one of those ‘instant we love you drips from lips every other page’ even if the pairing is pretty obvious. In this case, I felt like Paul was one of the most real characters I’d read lately. The gay for you trope has been done, quite a bit, but this story doesn’t quite fall into those lines. I do think that Paul struggles quite a bit with his sexuality in this story but there’s nothing false about it. It’s plausible, which is vital in a contemporary story that I enjoy. Watching him make those steps forward, and back when the bitch of a girlfriend shows back up, was quite the trip. If you’re in the mood for a romance that takes you through a journey of highs and lows, but never outside the realm of what could happen, letting you almost step into the world of Tucker Springs … this book will definitely be for you! View all my reviews

Ahh, one of my favorite genres. There are many well-worded responses here but I'd like to make a few examples that broaden the horizon beyond that one genre. Sure, Kirk and Spock can beam to just about anywhere, if Scotty is around ... but so could Harry, Hermoine, and Ron. Machines ruled the world until Erasmus grew complacent and underestimated Serena's human instincts sparking the Butlerian jihad just as surely as Saruman misjudged Gandalf's commitment to the races of Middle-Earth sparking his call to the races of men, dwarves, and elves to unite against Sauron. You can find similar tropes in all fiction. What brings readers/viewers/fans in, and keeps their interest, is what you do with them. The stories you tell are limited only by the imagination you use to bring them to life.

@ Andy: A first story is hard to let go of, but you have excellent help to polish it and present a lovely tale. I can't wait to read your story. @ Nephy: Well, you already know how much I love Silver too! @ Podga: I do think that there are unique reaction to various things in life depending on our age. Our experiences change us and at a certain point, you begin to question your decisions more than someone in their younger years. Bringing that out in your characters is very true to life. Great questions and answers yet again! Thank you Dark, Podga, Nephy, Andy, and the mysterious questioners.

I'm glad you like them Daithi! Someone asked me about writing angels once ... this is as close as I decided to come with a winged creature. lol. Birch isn't going to let Sayer off the hook at all, and Sayer has A LOT to make up for. It'll definitely be interesting. Thanks so much for the review, hun.

Lmao, Brink! Sorry, m'dear, while I do swing the girly side too in preferences you could not possible ship me with her. She is simply so far outside of the character type for my canon relationships that a Cia/Jill fandom would be hunted down in whole new shipping wars, to be decimated with extreme prejudice. Now... A Jessica Biel/Cia femslash might get you an endorsement, lol! I did like her statement about not judging pairings and such. I guess I go along with that notion simply by avoiding 99% of the fanfic out there. Live and let live; those who like it great, those who don't happily remain in their own sphere of reading material. Never the twain must meet ... except for in topics like these where I think we can all do with remembering everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and nobody has to change theirs to agree if they don't want to.

“Fuck.” Birch stared at the aspen groves … or where they used to be. There’d been a huge a huge stand of the gorgeous trees all along this small valley. He’d seen their leaves changing, from green to bright orange and red, on a last hike before he went off to college. Now they were gone. Half the stream was choked by broken off logs and mud that slid down the sloping banks. The sun beat down on his neck as he stood within the devastated area. He’d been home just a week, thrown into the field b

Well a lot of people have already read it, and this month is one of the longest reading times we have between the announcement and the Discussion day.

I think we all have our preferences. I'm not a fan of fan-fiction as a reader or author. *shrugs* The author I help already knows that I don't read it and also understands why. They don't think I dislike reading their work and force myself to beta their fan-fiction at all. I'm a reader of one of the worlds they used and can help with authenticity to the series, and the other I hadn't read so mostly gave them info on the writing and their plot on its own. The fact is, a lot of fan-fiction is either written about things I don't watch/read/know so it makes little sense to me or the writing itself is poorly done. I'm not saying those who write fan-fiction can't write well, but I think one interview I read about a 'fan-fiction' story that was revised and published to great notoriety, 50 Shades, sums it up best for me. It was a Twilight fan-fiction that used many of the same elements in the plot slightly revised. My problem with it? The author failed to look at a map, the editor failed to look at a map... and the excuse for the mistakes in setting? "It was a fan-fiction piece originally." That smacks of author laziness. The 'I don't need to verify my facts or research my story elements' because 'I am just going off what I've read and twisting it a little to make it fit what I want' sort of writing ticks me off. I would say it irks me even more than the really horrible pieces some readers come up with because they want to change the story the author had when they don't have basic writing skills. As an author, I don't look down on anyone who wants to write it, if the author is accepting of fan-fiction either. It just doesn't work for me or my writing style. I don't like anyone taking a world I worked hard to create, and characters I have such an intimate connection to when they come alive in my head, for their own purposes. They're mine; I'm selfish that way. I know I may be lumping some really great stories into the massive piles of dreck that I think most fan-fictions belong to, but that's my choice as a reader. I'm not willing to wade through that to find the good stories. I just don't really want to read fan-fiction, so other than the rare instances when it's for authors I know can write, eg the author I beta for, I don't. I re-read some of my favorites series more than once but my reading preference is usually set to 'what can I find that is great and creatively new'. Fan-fiction just doesn't do it for me. As an aside, I thought this CNN article about 50 shades has some interesting thoughts on fan-fiction, including a short bit on gay/lesbian twists of popular fan-fiction sources.

Oh yes, there is a lot to come in this story! More about the fae, Birch and Sayer, the past and the future ... it all plays a part! I hope you'll enjoy the story.

It's September already! I'm off on the last summer hurrah, a family camping weekend, but I've managed to bring the September selection to you for your reading enjoyment! Per your voting (thank you to everyone who did the poll!) this month's selection is .... Accidents Happen by Comicfan Length: 93,993 Description: Charlie's whole life has been a series of accidents. He often joked that if it wasn't for bad luck he wouldn't be here. But now that everything is changing again in his life what will this accident bring to him? What a Reader Had to Say: I started reading this story right before I saw people nominating it for the Reader's Choice Awards. I've been reading it on an off ever since. I finally finished. It was such a wonderful story. It made me cry, made me laugh, made me cry again. ~ From Lisa Okay, come back for the discussion day on September 30th, which gives you plenty of time to make it through this novel. Also, don't forget to check out the poll, so you can help pick out the post for that day.

I definitely agree, Jo Ann!

Nope, not a fan. A lot of it either creeps me out, or confuses me when something I know gets 'changed'. I only read it to beta for those of my authors that write it... which is all of one. For myself, it smacks of the opposite of creativity. I wouldn't feel like I could expand the world and characters in a way that feels natural to me when coming up with my own stories. That may be because I write a lot of paranormal/contemporary mixes that I like to take and twist, but fan-fiction just doesn't work for as an author or reader.

You're very welcome! It's not bad writing, I like Anne Tenino, but this book didn't interest me much at all. One of those ... if this is your style, then sure you should enjoy it, but I didn't. *shrugs* Not everyone likes everything, lol, and I face that as a reader sometimes too.

Sweet Young Thang by Anne Tenino My rating: 3 of 5 stars Things go wrong ... again, and again. Beware, this review has a whole bunch of spoilers. Overall, I liked the story but felt that it was rather mediocre in my reading experience. That has nothing to do with the drama in the book, but more of my own perceptions. If you like college fiction, or stories with fireman paramedics, romance and a lot of drama... this story could be for you. I might be a bit picky about preferring the plot a bit less transparent, so if you don't mind early on knowing who your baddie is ... well, then sure, I'd recommend the story! View all my reviews

Well I am glad you can read it here! I don't really know exactly where it is going, lol, but we'll get there. Thanks so much for the review.

Thanks Daithi! I'm not sure where it is going, even several chapters in. It's set to post 2k updates every Wednesday, so you won't have to check back too often! And you know, there is never too much enthusiasm! LOL

“Always racing as fast as you can,” he muttered under his breath. He remembered the first time he saw Birch running. They’d been young. He was tall and muscular in ways most kids his age weren’t. Birch was new, a whip-cord thin boy so fast with his bright blond hair flying. The smaller boy had kicked his butt at the dash on field day. Shocked, never having lost a race before, Sayer marched up to Birch and announced they were going to do the three-legged race together. A few kids had laughed bu