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Well, how has your September gone? Do you feel like you need a vacation? I do! If you do too, I hope that you took it and enjoyed a bit of a sidetale with James Carnarvon's La Bella Vacanza! Make sure you share your thoughts in a comment below this interview. Do you eat your fruits and vegetables? Yes! I especially like Mediterranean vegetables like aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes… which should surprise exactly no-one… What do you like to do when you’re not writing? I love listening to music, which also really helped me to find my way into my first Ravello story. I enjoy reading, but I have little time for that when I’m writing. I also like to explore interesting places, much as my fictional characters tend to do. What’s something personal about you people might be surprised to know? I have an adopted teenage son who has read some of my work. What's your favorite room in your home? Do you plot or write there? The living room, which is also my writing room. It’s more cluttered than I’d like, but it’s where I work. I do most of my plotting and writing late at night when I’m on my own. What brought you to GA? I forget exactly! I imagine I was looking for somewhere to publish The Summer of the Firefly, and GA was the site I found. I still think it was the right choice – the community here has been an enormous source of encouragement and support. Have you personally been to Ravello or is the setting based on research? Ravello is an inspiration – without it there’d be no stories! I’ve been there several times, albeit my writing is also supported by a lot of desk-based research. Over the years I have explored Ravello extensively, although there’s always more to discover in the mountainous hinterland. La Bella Vacanza is based directly on my first visit when I was a teenager – albeit without the exciting poolside encounter, sadly! What is your favorite part of Italian living/culture to write about? I think the thing that fascinated me about the place, which ultimately led me to write The Summer of the Firefly, was the wonderfully friendly, welcoming and family-centric culture, which conceals a strongly conservative streak that could be problematic for LGBTQ+ people. In a quiet, safe place like Ravello (I can’t speak for the big cities so much), children in particular seemed to live a free, idyllic sort of life that I admired and envied – but I could see potential trouble ahead for the queer ones. The other things I love about the place – the food, the scenery and all the other sights, sounds, smells and colours – they were just a bonus! La Bella Vacanza is a story somewhat set apart from your series. What prompted this plot? Having read and absolutely loved Comicality’s hilarious but touching unfinished story Jesse-101, I wanted to have a go at writing something more comedic. The best and freshest way to do this seemed to be by bringing in an outside perspective (Reza) and telling the story in a deliberately lightweight and frothy sort of way (a summer holiday). The decision to set the story back in time and bring Reza into contact with the main characters from The Summer of the Firefly when they were still young had a double rationale: Gianni and Angelo seemed like the natural choice of characters for Reza to meet and banter with, and I also – just possibly – may have longer term plans for Reza as a character that necessitated this temporary time-shift. Is there a favorite line or section of this story you love the most? Probably any scene where Gianni and Angelo are laughing together (free of angst for once) and teasing Reza about his friendship with Otto. It may be a little overdone and repetitive, but what can I say – unlike my other work, La Bella Vacanza was a speed-writing project! Can you share anything about your current or upcoming work with readers? My work at GA is on hold for the moment while I have a second go at writing a children’s novel. However, I do have some ideas for a possible follow-up to Lanterns in the Dark. The story would probably be set during the following spring or summer. There’s a lot still to decide – I don’t even know yet who the main point-of-view character will be, whether it will be one of my teenage characters as usual, an adult for a change or maybe a bit of both. Stay tuned!

I used to call my children chilblains all the time. No one ever got it.

Who's ready for week 3 of the Anniversary Anthology story releases? Last week we celebrated GA's 20th Anniversary, and we're not done yet! We've had 2 weeks of great stories, and we have 2 more to go! It's been awesome to see the participation from our readers and authors, so thank you to everyone! I hope you will all continue to enjoy the stories shared by our great authors on the theme of "Anniversary".

Maybe I might have peeked at a profile. 😇😁

Bouncer pounced with his claws extended, and for the first time I saw why everyone was so afraid of cerops. It wasn’t just the wide wounds his claws slashed across the officer’s throat, it was the poison that bubbled from the wounds and the froth that immediately bubbled from the male’s mouth. He died instantly. “Bouncer, no—” was all I got out before he was already stalking back to my side. Ases squeezed my shoulder. “That guy was on the vid feed.” “What?” I couldn’t look away from th

Happy September reading! If you aren't already engrossed in a story or series, I have the best recommendation for you. Every so often I love to hit upon my favorite genres, and these stories are right up my alley. Angels, Cupids, and Death. Which are the snarkiest? I'm not gonna tell! You have to read to find out. Ooh... someone's in trouble! Who is it? To read more, or catch up on the gist of things click here

This month's feature story by Aditus was co-authored with Timothy M, and it does require reading of 2 other series of fantasy tales. I had to feature it though because it's just too good not to! Have you read any of them? If not, hopefully this preview make you want to if you haven't already! Length: 32,788 Description: Sablo and Diego are brothers and Guardian Angels. Sablo has found his true love with the Cupid Theliel, but worries about his brother. Especially when he finds out Death is stalking Diego. A reader said: A wonderful collaboration from two great authors who have combined fascinating worlds for this supernatural adventure. It has it all... memorable characters, unexpected twists and turns, romance, and 'devilish' humor. I highly recommend this unique endeavor and cast of characters. Cheers! ~ Headstall If you want to spread the word about Aditus's story, download the graphic below and add it to your signature! Make sure you come back on Wednesday to see the excerpt I chose to share!

Welcome back to Week 2 of our special 2022 Anthology themed Anniversary! Thank you to all the authors who shared stories for us to post last week and all the readers who took the time to read, like, comment, and review. Of course we're back with even more variety for you to enjoy. Keep up the enthusiasm and show your appreciation for these takes on the theme of Anniversary!

“Stop it. If he was going to turn me in, he would have done it already.” I put a hand on Ases’ shoulder. “You need to calm down or Bouncer is going to lose it too. These guys are our allies. We need to hear them out.” “Well look at you using your logic and brain,” snarked Timok. He cocked his head. “I didn’t know you had it in you.” “You’re not helping either,” I said shortly. “Seal your lips and listen to the plan unless you have something better to offer.” I crossed a pair of my arms

Oh the big Kudos definitely go to @Valkyrie who stepped up in a huge way to take over the Club forum topics and proofing team. I'm more Johnny on the spot. 😆 Thanks though. We appreciate the time and hard work of everyone involved!!

Well, on this 20th anniversary year of GA we wanted to get at least 20 Anniversary-themed stories to feature for our 2022 Anthology, and our authors pulled through and then some! We have short stories, long stories, poetry, and exploratory fiction. This month of September (which just so happens to my anniversary month on GA & in real life!) we have stories that will go live every single Thursday for readers to enjoy. Make sure you check here for links to each one! Enjoy these Anniversaries!

When I wasn’t asleep, I drove everyone else nuts. First it was because of all my questions, then it was because I couldn’t stay still. I wanted to move, to go. I needed to do something, anything, to help Garjah. When I was sitting and doing nothing, all I saw in my head was horrible images of what could be happening to him. We hadn’t talked about what happened when Garjah was forced to detain or punish someone; the worst I’d seen him do on the ship was assign shifts that were considered the

Can you believe it's already September? I can't! So to go back to that holiday feeling, I've featured La Bella Vacanza by James Carnarvon. This story is linked to his series, but somewhat of an aside, so you can read it and enjoy a sampling of the tales. La Bella Vacanza by @James Carnarvon Length: 22,202 Description: A light-hearted novella in seven short chapters. Sixteen-year-old Reza thinks he knows it all until his parents drag him away on a summer holiday to Ravello on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, where a chance encounter by the hotel pool proves to be an education… A reader said: Ravello is a magical place for a vacation. Reza sets out to make his parents understand how put out he is to be away from friends, to visit this foreign town where nothing happens. Ravello and its magic slowly transforms Reza. He discovers an entirely different world, different perspectives and very surprising things about himself. This is a delightful, short summer read, and a great introduction to the other Ravello books. ~ Raven1 Don't forget to come back and share your thoughts on Monday, September 26th!

Ases wrinkled up his nose before he even drank the tuber milk, but I kicked him under the table. I’d warned him in the transport what he had to do, and I knew he could drink this and lie about it. I’d once seen him swill an entire bottle of bar mixings on a dare. He’d vomited profusely within minutes, but that was alcohol and sugar. This was just fermented tuber milk. Totally fine. He was a shifter; he should like milk. I upended my cup, suppressing my shudder at the gloopy nature of t

August flew right on by, and if you were a science fiction geek like me, or if you love dragons, you enjoyed reading about the flying in Dark's Pern fanfiction, The Seventh Wing, that was featured earlier this month. Make sure you share your thoughts in a comment below his interview! If you were an animal, what would you be? Vampire Deer What do you like to do when you’re not writing? Read, read, read! I also sing in a choir and paint DnD miniatures for my brother and his players What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story? I would have said Alaska, but I live there now, so I my next wish is Australia or New Zealand. If you could give advice to yourself when you first started writing, what would it be? Don't be the dad in Back to the Future. Be bold and let people read your stories. What’s the first thing you do when you start to write a story? Backgrounds and settings, like what does the place look like? any important, relevant history? cultural norms? and a basic outline. But most of my stories realistically start with a scene that just plays on repeat in my head. I write it down to stop the madness and then get into the details. I love making the details, even if I don't end up using them (see the extra files for Waylon's Crossing as a prime example). When did you first read one of Anne McCaffrey’s stories? I think I was in 6th grade, maybe younger. My mom loved Pern and had saved up her money to buy the People of Pern book, with all the images of what the main characters were supposed to look like, painted by a real artist and then pictures were made into the book. My sister and I were both there that day and kept asking "who is this?" type of questions and getting her to tell us about each character. My sister and I found it so fascinating, we eventually begged to have access to our mom's books to read them ourselves. Besides: dragons! I was hooked at the idea of people riding dragons. What was the hardest part of writing a fanfiction story? The easiest? The hardest part was sticking to the POV originally chosen. I hated it, LOL, but I didn't know that at the time I started writing. If I had to re-do it, that would be the first thing I'd change. I ultimately felt a bit caged and wanted to explore more sides of the story. The easiest part was actually the characters. They were based on people I knew and loved, friends and coworkers. It's funny that one of the comments I received on it said that he didn't like how F'rian was acting so girlish. I had a good laugh, because that guy ... he was a good friend but he drove me absolutely bonkers with his attitudes and behaviors, and I'd had the exact same thought when I first met him! I never did get to a point where I could predict what he was going to do or say or behave. If you were to Impress, what color dragon would you hope for? I would want a green because they're fiesty and have attitude, and they're small like me. But, knowing myself and how everyone knows me as the steady, dependable type, I'd probably Impress a brown. Which is cool, because I prefer being the right-hand of the leader. I can be the person in charge and I often do very well, but I prefer to be the power behind the throne and deal with a much smaller sandbox. Do you have a favorite scene or line from The Seventh Wing? There were several scenes based around the flying games that spun me into this story. Many did not survive the final version, but I had a background in ROTC, marching band, and various other types of similar exhibitions and I had dancing dragons in my head for months, flying those routines I'd seen (and been a part of) on the ground. And there was one scene where G'day found out F'rian designed the wing's patterns. That was the one I envisioned where he really started seeing F'rian as more than just a pretty (if exasperating) face. If you were to write The Seventh Wing again, would you change anything? I think I mentioned this earlier.... but to be frank, this is very early writing for me and there's loads I would want to do better.

I was happy to help @wildone Myr showed me how I can "reset" the system when it goes wonky most of the time, but the fixes are down to Myr and the programmer, so we just trade off hours of when we're trying to keep it from affecting site users. Unfortunately, summer's over and I go back to work tomorrow at the elementary school, so between that and doing homework for 4 college classes (16 week semester accelerated into 8 ) I'm probably gonna be the one who looks like they were hit by lightning by the end of this week!

Thank you for telling us when you had issues and giving us browser and device data. However, the issue is not with your cache. It's an issue that comes from an update that was pushed out that is causing issues for many website using the same software GA does. We're working to try to get it fixed permanently as soon as we can, and to apply the short-term fix whenever we are online/can do so, but GA doesn't have 24/7 paid site staff so there's not always someone on site who can do it right away.

Yes, Myr fixed it.

Mine is my real person nickname, shortened from my full name. I don't use the whole nickname, though, that's just too embarrassing. Apparently I had a habit of showing up in unexpected places a young child. FYI because you're an author, you can't change your display name anymore on your own. This avoids creating confusion for readers (and site staff) on site content. You will need to contact me via PM to have that changed, preferably before you begin posting, so just make sure you know what you want!!

“No one else has the resources they have or stand to lose what the Kardoval do. So, yes, he does need help. He’s been betrayed, attacked, and someone has to be holding him or he’d have tracked us down instead of you. Now let’s go. We have plans to make.” Timok looked about as put out as he ever had, and I took a small amount of pleasure in that. But now that I was going to let him help us, he needed to get to it. Ases snorted. “Meet Mr. Bossy.” “Now is not the time for jokes.” “I’

A homograph can also be pronounced a different way, so if I was teaching using your example I'd call it a homonym since they are pronounced exactly the same way but have different meanings. Isn't the English language grand? Teaching the /u_e/ /oo/ /ew/ /ou/ /ui/ sound spelling rules can be super confusing for students (and teachers if they aren't given a specific phonics course to follow).

We're both checking the site multiple times a day to see if we need to employ the temporary fix, but yeah, this is a doozy. It's always frustrating when a bug appears through no fault of our own, and we're hamstrung when it comes to fixing it. Thank goodness we have amazing members who are so patient.

Yes, you can have chapters but we prefer as few as possible.

“How did you find me?” I stared at him, wide-eyed in shock. I jerked away from the tree, crouching with my lower arms braced against the ground. I could dart left or right, though he was blocking the direct path toward the spring where Bouncer and Ases were hunting. I wasn’t sure I wanted to lead him toward them anyway. “I didn’t find you. I found him.” He pointed over his shoulder at Bouncer. He slipped around Timok, as silent as I’d expected him to be, and came to stand at my shoulder. I

I'm in Washington. I finished the online summer college semester (as a student getting my teaching degree) on July 31st, and I start my "fall" semester tomorrow on Aug. 15th... plus my working stiff job at a local elementary as a K-5 special education paraeducator starts all our pre-student training events next week and students force us to return to the building to teach them on Aug. 29th. 😭 Where did the summer go?!! Well, at least I got my youngest through the process to get his driver's license, and my daughter who graduated from high school in June signed up to sub as a playground supervision para this year to get her foot in the door/work part-time and signed up with the program for free online college I'm in starting tomorrow too. Oh yeah... that's where it went! 😆