Cia

“Garjah, it looks like you have a new friend,” Timok teased. “He just smells Essell on me.” Garjah had both pairs of hands lifted away from Bouncer who was looking up at him. “Cerops are predators, primarily hunting by sound but also by sight and smell. He’s using smell, that’s all.” “He’s hunting you?” Seedrah’s voice rose. “No, you fool. He thinks Garjah is his other parent. He’s adopted Essell as his pack, and something about Garjah tripped that caretaker role for him as well.”

Welcome to 2021 and a new series of Classic Author features. A lot of these stories are older ones you might not have read before, since many of our Classic Authors aren't active on the site anymore. Enjoy this year's features starting with Gabriel Morgan's short story, Days of Farewell, as we say farewell (and good riddance! to 2020). It's all about the goodbye. Length: 705 words Description: A Short Story. Thanks to John Mellencamp for the title and story prompt. A Reader said: It maybe a short, but it is a fantastic story. A snippet of a memory if you will. Excellently written. ~ Brayon If you want to spread the word about Gabriel Morgan'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!

I went through the settings. Our usual blue color is set for the mention text, but for some reason it still shows up on the site as pink. Not sure what the issue is. It may be a bug?

When you are reading, you can change the screen so that the background is dark and the text is light. It is a fairly common setting across many devices. Cell phones, Kindles, computers, etc... To use this on GA's text editor, click the last button on the chapter control that shows a circle with half blocked out. When clicked, it turns from light blue to a greenish blue. And makes the dark/light changes.

“What?” All three of the Four Arms stared at me. Bouncer curled in front of me, pressing against my legs. He exposed his fangs and snarled, his ears and eyes focused on the watching group. “Stop that,” I said. “You are insane.” Seedrah’s eyes were huge. “He should be dead.” “I am not,” I objected. “Cerops are vicious. They attack anything between them and their chosen prey. Even though they are smaller than many of the prey animals, a mated pair can take down almost anything.”

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2nd half of my first name, and it's part of a childhood nickname. A lot of my family down south still calls me Cia. I banned the Cia boo though

Seedrah once again came at a trot, bringing my exosuit. We made our way slowly to the hold, and I tried to memorize the symbols on the walls for the journey. It might not be in aid of escape, but I needed to study these aliens. Their culture was very similar to most bipedal races, their interactions and basic mannerisms mostly within the norms. They had fairly standard emotions and expressed them in ways I could understand. Their culture was gregarious, and they worked as a community. They c

Welcome to 2021! In honor of the new year, hopefully to be a fun, fast one, I'm featuring several short stories in the All Wet series by Myr. These start off with A Bad Day to be WET... but it's never a bad day to enjoy a story from Myr's Terran Confederation Spaceforce world! Follow Bill's adventure's in all 3 stories for the most enjoyment. Then come back to share your thoughts and enjoy my interview with Myr on our Discussion Day! All Wet Series by @Myr Length: 11,720 Description: William Elijah Thomas, WET, callsign Jammer, is one of the foremost pilots in the entire Terran Confederation. He is an empath, but more importantly a Jumper. Jumpers are the extremely rare humans that can plot a path through jump space and program shipboard A.I.'s to be able to do jumps without the need for a jumper. A Reader Said: A great Sci-Fi story set in a world that the Author has invented. It is one that I would love to read more about. ~Brayon Don't forget to come back to share your comments on the CSR Discussion day on Monday, January 25th!

To help members be "more in the know" I've added Myr's write up and some quick at a glance info to a FAQ topic.

Question: What are the reaction icons and what effect do they have on GA members? Short Answer: Reacting adds a reputation point to the recipient. View full question

Yes, the one this blog post is posted in.

Authors, you have been... so let us reward you! Did you read our Thank You and Happy New Year message? Don't miss it! In 2020, you published 319 new stories and over 4,000 chapter updates. You have worked hard, and we want to recognize those amazing accomplishments. Let's keep the writing flowing with some inspiration reads, perhaps, with these prizes you could ! What can you win? Prize 1: 3 months free Premium membership Prize 2: 1 month free Premium membership How can you enter to win? It's simple! Just do BOTH of the items below: Follow the GA Writing Tips blog (Click on the follow button in the blog banner above the post if you don't already follow it) Respond to this blog post. A couple of ideas on what you should comment on could be: What inspired you to write in 2020? Do you have any project you can't wait to write in 2021? Do you have thoughts on new GA Stories goals? How will winners be selected? All GA Writing Tips followers who also comment on this blog will have their names entered in a random.org drawing. 2 winners will be selected and shared on Sunday, January 9th.

Members, we have a New Year's prize for you! Will you win? Did you catch our Thank You and Happy New Year message? We want to thank you for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts with GA's authors, writing nearly 50,000 story and chapter comments and hundreds of story reviews! What can you win? Prize 1: 3 months free Premium membership Prize 2: 1 month free Premium membership How can you enter to win? It's simple! Just do BOTH of the items below: Follow the GA News Blog (Click on the follow button in the blog banner above the post if you don't already follow it) Respond to this blog post. A couple of ideas on what you should comment on could be: What was your favorite story you commented or reviewed on in 2020? What stories do you hope to read in 2021? Do you have thoughts on new goals? How will winners be selected? All GA News Blog followers who also comment on this blog will have their names entered in a random.org drawing. 2 winners will be selected and shared on Sunday, January 9th.

Four Arms had genetic memories. Ones that went beyond instincts, beyond those basic intuitions that most species had that seemed to be encoded in the basic genome. Humans had recorded this very phenomenon with savants; somehow they had knowledge that allowed them do things they couldn’t have possibly learned through experience. This was something I hadn’t come across before. “How does a trainer release the memories?” Some sort of ceremony? “I show him once, he knows.” Garjah sliced off a

Wow, it's the last CSR Discussion day of 2020! Hopefully everyone has had a great holiday season, and enjoyed the stories featured. I asked a few questions of the authors featured this month the same questions. Enjoy the answers I got back, then share any thoughts you had as you read their ficlets in a comment below! Mikiesboy with The Christmas Cracker How do you celebrate the Holidays? Usually we have a large reunion in early December with the whole family from around Toronto and Niagara Falls. Then we meet with Michael's parents, and his brother on Christmas Day. It's a pretty traditional Christmas. This year is Christmas under lock down. So, just me and my Husband and a zoom get together with everyone else. I'm cooking our traditional meal, only smaller for the pair of us. What is a favorite holiday memory you'd like to share? I don't really have a favourite memory. I look forward to Christmas annually. It always fills me with a sense of wonder and fellowship. Do you have a favourite line or scene in The Christmas Cracker. This part makes me hold my breath for a second, it's among my favourites: What is your favorite Holiday Story: Well my favourite is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. On GA my favourite is this wonderful, naughty version: Bill W with A Gay Christmas Carol How do you celebrate the holidays? This has changed over the years. When the kids were younger and we lived closer to our other relatives, we used to throw a big dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and invite the entire extended family. Sometimes we'd be like the Currie family from The Castaway Hotel series and have up to 30 people at our house for those meals. Now that I'm older and many of those relatives have died and the kids live a long way away from me and each other, I merely chat with them using all of these marvelous new technologies. What is a favorite holiday memory you'd like to share? It's another idea I stole and used in The Castaway Hotel series. On Christmas Eve when the kids were younger, one of the adults would dress up in a Santa suit and then go outside to peek in the picture window so the kids could see him. We would rotate who played Santa so the kids wouldn't figure it out, and some of the women even took a turn doing this. After Santa appeared, we'd use that to urge the kids that they had to go to bed so Santa could leave his presents and this ended a lot of hassles about them wanting to stay up longer. Do you have a favorite line or scene in A Gay Christmas Carol? What is your favorite holiday story? Every Christmas I have to watch at least one version of A Christmas Carol or I don't feel right. My favorite is the 1951version staring Allistair Sims, but I also like the 1984 version with George C. Scott and the 1999 version staring Patrick Stuart. I also enjoy 1970 musical version, Scrooge, so I guess you can tell why I wrote A Gay Christmas Carol.

Thank you, DrP! There was a lot more I'd love to add to this, but I just ran out of words. Hopefully the brevity didn't take away from the larger tale around the storyline and interactions between Miguel and Wink. Thank you and a Merry Christmas to you too, Chris!

Monday I featured Sara Alva's short story, Dare. Did you read it? It's just 5k, a story of friends, fun... what more could you want to take a break from your life right now? A holiday time out, a reminder of summer to come if the cold is sapping you, or even just because those memories of carefree days can be so fun to head back to. And that's just why I picked this excerpt. Did you ever play Truth or Dare? The swing is one thing... but were you ever this dumb? Want to know what happens next? Click here!

The magic of that first snow, not just of the season, but the first ever!

Miguel peered out the window into the darkness. It was rain mixed with slush. The edges of the window were rimed with frost, and he shouldn’t want it to snow, but he did. He had to go back to job hunting in the morning, and his coat wasn’t thick enough to keep out the cold, but could it be worse than the rain? It was still damp from his futile all day trek yesterday, even though he’d left it draped over the vent. Maybe he should have stayed in Florida, where everything was familiar, where th

So half the world celebrates the holidays in the heat. So while this story isn't a holiday tale, I couldn't help but pick a story that features a group of friends and some summer-time fun. This snack-sized tidbit is just right for this busy time of year for readers to enjoy too! Length: 5,064 Description: Mark always takes a dare. A Reader said: This was just a wonderful story, written very well. And I loved the ending! You are really really good at this. ~ Toast If you want to spread the word about Sara Alva'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!

If you worked with a beta/editor, try looking them up. Or try the Way Back machine?