Cia

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

They were best friends, planning on going to college together. Sayer left for his annual summer trip; everything was fine ... until Sayer didn't come back. Birch waited for him but eventually tried to forget him; he went away to college and got his degree. Now he's moving back home, back where he was with Sayer last. Will the other man have come back to town while he was gone? Will Birch ever know why Sayer didn't come back to him?

Welcome back to another Discussion day with the Can't Stop Reading Blog Book Club. Whew, is that a mouthful. What isn't a mouthful is the story that is the subject of today's discussion. Quite a bit of the problem we're introduced to right away is that fact that one character doesn't talk at all, at least not out loud. I hope everyone is ready to discuss their thoughts about Don't Shout by Sasha Distan. First, though, we're going to learn a bit more about Sasha, who I subjected to another one of my interviews! When did you first consider yourself a writer? 2007, the year I turned 20. I’d been writing since I was like 9, and writing online for all the world to see since I was 16. But 2007 was the year I wrote my first book. I entered NanoWriMo because my Godfather, who gave me most of my writing advice asked me to for his birthday. I entered, and I won. That was the point when writing stopped becoming just a hobby and started becoming something I defined myself by too. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing? Mostly, allowing my brain to finish a sentence before my hands catch up. I tend to get overexcited, then you get lots of errors, especially continuity ones. I make no secret that I write quickly, as some people will know, I wrote the whole of Don’t Shout in something like 28 days flat. It took up half of February and half of March, which is why the weather that Cole experiences on the farm is so awful. Anyone in my part of England may recall that those were the two months where it basically rained every day. The writing is fine, it’s the not writing which I find challenging. I don’t really think up my characters, they just show. If they don’t show, I don’t write. I hate not writing. 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? No, they pretty much run with the story and I try to keep up and not burn my fingers. There were a couple of scenes that never made in into Don’t Shout (an awesome Cole-is-thick cinema moment and some riding-instruction stuff that was going to be building between Cole and his little sister) because by the time I’d gotten to the keyboard, the boys had moved on and there was something else to write down furiously. So how did you come up with your idea for Don’t Shout? The inspiration for Don’t Shout…. Is sort of tricky to explain. I was reading a story on another site (I didn’t know about GA then and I hadn’t found my new family here) which featured a boy who for some unexplained reason didn’t talk. It was appallingly written and I didn’t read more than two short chapters in which nothing of note happened but the apparent shy and mute boy had sex with his friend a lot. The whole thing was nonsense. I went to bed thinking “Wouldn’t it be interesting to write about a couple who maybe couldn’t communicate easily?” And then there they were. The story, both the boys, Wilton and his (fabulous) guitar, Jared’s over protective twin sister, all laid out for my with about the first two pages, verbatim, of the first chapter, in my head. Then Cole turns and looks at me and goes “Well, get on with it.” So I did. I met a friend during NanoWriMo who signed, and she’d taught us a few bits. Let me tell you, she, and various deaf-signing YouTube videos, got a lot of attention that month. I bought a book on BSL and studied up. The kids (I teach) thought I was amazing and nuts. Sometimes we sign to each other in class, mostly emotions and stuff. They seem to think I rock. What is your favorite part of Don’t Shout? I have a couple of favorite moments. I love the end of Chapter 5, where the boys are riding Dune on Blackrock Farm, and the sun comes over the lake. I love that moment because I was there, Blackrock farm exists, under another name, and I have ridden my horse into that sunset. It’s a great moment to be in. The photos of Cole and Jared though are my favourite things though, the way they keep the boys going when they are physically apart. I can see that picture of Cole, in love, in his truck in the moonlight, so clearly I’m surprised sometimes that it doesn’t exist. How did you find your way to Gay Authors? Cannd. I was referred by a user who got in contact with me through a lesser site that shall remain nameless. GA came highly recommended and when I started branching out, I decided I wanted an actually community to branch out to. I like it here *sits* I think I’ll stay. Okay, now a bit about you! I know you recently got married, congrats! Does your spouse read your stories? Thank you, married life rocks. Short answer, no. Long answer, he promises that he will read something I wrote… one day. He’s a proper geek, and it’s not really his sort of thing. I don’t write in code. Where do you do most of your writing? The biggest chunk of my writing is done on the sofa. I write on a little 10 inch netbook, and I have an ordinary sized PC playing music, movies, or episodes of old TV shows. I do quite a lot of writing on the train, at school at lunch times, and sometimes in the pub. The best place I wrote in was at The Workshop where I trained as a jeweler, lots of other people being quietly creative, good music in the background and whirr of dentist drills. The weirdest place I ever wrote was in the tattoo studio while getting tattooed. Do you eat your vegetables? Yes. I eat everything. But if a meal doesn’t have meat in it, I will lay back my ears and get stubborn. And oh so very important … Chocolate or Vanilla?. Vanilla with chocolate ganache sauce. But I’d rather have lemon sorbet with a key lime pie. Thank you Sasha, for putting up with my questions! Okay... now I'm going to open up the floor to readers to discuss the story. Don't forget to check out the poll above and vote on your choice for September's CSR story selection. Accidents Happen be Comicfan Colorado Game by Androgene The Paladin by David McLeod