Cia

Welcome to our first 2026 CSR Discussion day, and our first twofer! I thought, why not give you an extra treat. First, I gave you all a SHORT story because I know you're busy recovering from the holidays, and we all just need a short, sweet treat. Second, you get two interviews for one blog! Learn all about these co-authors and how they both answer the same questions. Hmm, wonder how that turned out? Read on! And don't forget to comment below. First up, chris191070: Do you eat your fruits and vegetables? Yes, to both. My favorite fruit would have to be bananas or plums. My favourite vegetable is Asparagus If you were an animal, what would you be? An Eagle, you have the freedom to fly and explore. What’s something about you that would surprise people? I hate horror films, but I am quite happy to read some horror stories. What brought you to GA? I was after a site that provided proper gay fiction. That provided stories that were not just about the sex. If you had to pick your favorite book or story you’ve ever read, what is it and why? The Harry Potter Series. It conjured up all sorts of things that you wish you could do yourself, especially flying on broomsticks or using a spell to shut people up. What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story? Australia How did your story collaboration come into being? What is the best part? Hardest challenge? We had collaborated before this story and enjoyed working together. The best part is me having weird ideas and Ben transforming them into something readable. I don't think we have hit a hard challenge just yet, we have always agreed on where we want the story to go. Where did the idea for Raven’s Secret Crush come from? My weird imagination, after watching something on television. Do you have a favorite line or scene in the story? A tense silence hung in the air. Deep down, Raven wished his older brother would be more honest with himself and others. He'd idolized him back when they were kids, but had he ever seen the real Altair behind all of the walls he'd built around himself? Can you tell readers anything about your current or upcoming work? Me and Ben have just started posting our latest collaboration - The Fantastic Eight and Their February Surprise. It brings together some of the characters we have featured in our previous collaborations. Now for Bendtedwreath! Do you eat your fruits and vegetables? Ben: Yes. My favorite vegetables are squash and pumpkin. My favorite fruits are kiwi and blackberries. If you were an animal, what would you be? Ben: I’d likely be a red panda, as I’m solitary, shy, and mostly nocturnal. My favorite animal, however, is the sea turtle. What’s something about you that would surprise people? Ben: Though I’m fairly straight-laced, my friends are not. I am very punctual, but none of my other friends are. What brought you to GA? Ben: A friend who was my roommate at the time. If you had to pick your favorite book or story you’ve ever read, what is it and why? Ben: That’s a difficult choice. The Dresden Files perhaps. What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story? Ben: I’d have to learn Japanese to then head over to Japan and retrieve more details about Yokai. How did your story collab come into being? What is the best part? Hardest challenge? Ben: I reached out to Chris for one collaboration, and we had fun with it and continued from there. Where did the idea for Raven’s Secret Crush come from? Ben: We were given a genre from a prompt event, Romance/Contemporary Romance. Chris then brought up a “jock x nerd” theme with characters that weren’t too stereotypically “jockish” or “nerdish.”Then, we went on from there. Do you have a favorite line or scene in the story? Ben: Mine is "I've been busting my butt to collect every OneSlice comic book ever released. I've got 110 out of 113. Not that I'm obsessed or anything." because OneSlice is a play on OnePiece, and I’ve a friend that enjoys the series so much that they read the manga before watching the episodes just to note the differences in the colors used. Can you tell readers anything about your current or upcoming work? Ben: We began posting a collab story that is five chapters long to not only tie all our collab characters together, but to give them an ending of sorts. I’ve also been personally working on a long-chaptered vampire and incubus-themed story which I’ve asked many GA members for help with over the past year and a half that I hope to finish so that I can begin sharing that one, as well.

Creative minds respond to direction? Instead of flow and choice? We provide options that will appeal to the most, not the least, when it comes to events. If you want a specific direction, look up the word(s) and pick one definition and use that whole phrase or one particular meaning. Google image search the theme words to inspire a specific scene to create your setting or character(s). As we (GA team) want as many authors to be inspired in as many ways they need/want to encourage participation in writing events, we will not be limiting inspiration by narrowing the themes, ways to interpret them, or how authors choose to use them while writing. If an author can't decide what to do or is stumped by the broad themes for inspiration, one idea might be to use the discussion topic or personal blog to politely ask what other authors do to gain inspiration or use the themes. I'm sure there are many, many ideas already being thought up by the active authors on the site or readers who are wondering what their favorite authors will come up with!

Did you catch Monday's feature of Mann Rambling's story, Ones and Zeros? It was part of an anthology featuring all sorts of disasters, but it certainly wasn't! What did you think of the story? If you didn't read it back in 2013, or I haven't intrigued you with it yet, check out the excerpt below! Want to read more? Click here!

This month we are featuring both an older story and an older anthology! @Mann Ramblings posted Ones and Zeros to the 2013 Recipe for Disaster Anthology. Check it out and some of the other stories if you are looking for a great read or some inspiration to write your own anthology submission for this year's later event. Length: 9,015 Description: In the future, all para-humans are 2nd class citizens under constant control and supervision. Poll's sponsor is a securities specialist, specifically the man responsible for designing all tech the maintains the balance of human superiority. Poll accepts his world, he's well treated, until the disappearance of his twin brother Costa shatters his world view and forces him to decide where he stands. A reader said: What a great story Mann. A personal disaster leading to a worlwide one, I could see everything in my head like a movie. Seeing how this world worked something like this had to happen some day. A well written and constructed story which interpreted disaster as it should be, inexorable. Wow. @Aditus If you want to spread the word about Mann Ramblings' 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!

In just 58 days the sun will set after 7 PM. The northern hemisphere gains between 2-3 minutes of sun each and every day after Dec. 21st. My vampire butt mourns this and enjoys my Pacific NW clouds and rain (and I have an unhealthy ugh knowledge of when it all comes back). I thought I'd pass it along for those who miss the jazz and sparkle of our evil overlord, the ball of gas hovering in the sky like the ultimate Christmas light.

Well, no great announcements about 2026 from me... Except the start of CSR! I thought I'd do something a little fun, a twofer! That's right, this month's feature was written by 2 GA Authors! That means double the fun on the Discussion day. Raven's Secret Crush by @BendtedWreath and @chris191070 Length: 5,301 Description: Raven Bran always feels stuck behind his brother, in basketball, at school, and even with friends. But when he meets someone who truly understands him, everything starts to look different. Sometimes, the right person is all it takes to finally feel seen. A reader said: Well done indeed, @BendtedWreath and @chris191070. I would like to give this story six stars, but the system will only let me assign five stars. This story is put together well and easily enjoyed. I recommend it. ~ ReaderPaul Don't forget to come back to comment on the Discussion day, Monday, January 26th!

Please forgive my tardiness, I lost track of the days of the week! The bliss of holiday vacation. My darkest days? Next week, when I go back to work with all the kiddos who also wish we were still on vacation!! So what did you think of this month's story feature? Share your thoughts on that and the interview with Jack below! Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla. Unless we’re not talking about ice cream here…? What’s something personal about you people might be surprised to know? I hold a Master’s degree in Physics, though I’ve drifted far from that field professionally. On a less academic note, I am an enthusiastic Karaoke singer. What do you like to do when you’re not writing? I love to travel, write songs, and—far too rarely—contemplate the universe. This year I published an AI-assisted music album, and last year I indulged my physics background by uploading a personal “Theory of Everything” paper online. It keeps the other side of my brain active! What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story? Japan. What brought you to the GA? I discovered GA ages ago as a reader hunting for good shifter stories, and the site is a goldmine for them. When I finally took the plunge into writing, it felt like the natural home for my work. I do write erotica as well, though I usually reserve the explicit stuff for Nifty or my Patreon (Bob and the Biker being the exception). You’ve added a variety of stories in different sub-genres to GA. Do you have a favorite one to write? Definitely (Dark) Fantasy. What inspired you to write Darkest Days? It was early December here in Munich. A radio segment about the local “Perchtenlauf” (a traditional alpine parade) sparked my interest. That sent me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole regarding the “Wild Hunt,” and I just had to write about it. Fun fact: some of the icy imagery is a nod to Hemingway’s A Day’s Wait. I’m certainly not comparing my prose to his, but the atmosphere of that story has stuck with me for decades. Do you have a favorite line or scene in the story? Not a favorite, but there is one line that sticks out: “…you mustn’t leave your washing hanging or the Wild Hunt could get caught up in it.” It’s a specific bit of local folklore here in Bavaria. It’s practically an inside joke that shouldn't be in a serious story, but I couldn't resist including it. What other mythic lore have you considered writing into a story in the future? The list is endless. I’ve been brewing an epic with strong religious themes featuring a Biblical figure who is famous in name, but whose actual story is quite obscure. I also dream of writing a Roman history epic with wolf-shifters, though the sheer volume of research required is daunting! Greek gods are also top of the list. Can you share something about your current or upcoming work with readers? I’ve resumed Hungry for Gains—it deserves a proper ending. I’m also prepping the second Lightbringer book (Histoire de Noir series) and work on redrafting/editing BigPaws for Amazon publication (likely under a new pen name to keep it separate from my Jack Poignet erotica titles). As for something brand new: I’m planning a mash-up of Arthurian legend, The Ring of the Nibelung, and other myths and legends. Think swords, dragons, and lots of action. It is loosely based on an AI narrated (no-one wants to hear a German accent, right?) short story I did for a rather under-utilized YouTube channel I run–or rather don’t really run. I’ve figured I can’t do everything at once. Shocking, right?

@CCinPS You can also create a reading Story Collection (FAQ in link below) and turn on your chapter reading progress option (Profile Settings e.g. image) to know 1) which story/stories you are reading and 2) what chapter you read last.

I can speak to this. I do 2 main blog features for authors each month. One is the CSR, or Can't Stop Reading blogs, where I promote a story for people to read and hopefully comment on and feature an author interview for another comment/Discussion day. This requires the author to 1) have completed a story recently and 2) be active on the site so they are available to answer interview questions. It rotates between all the different types of authors on the site. The second Signature/Classic Author feature is a benefit for authors who have been on the site longer, worked to improve their writing, and have been promoted. It's also my attempt to bring older stories to the forefront for readers who may not have been around when they were posted versus our current postings. We also have multiple features available to any author on the site for the blogs, such as the Ask An Author and Author Guess Who which just requires authors to reach out to astone2292. We have a review team that does a story review each month... but I can't remember who is heading that up at the moment. If authors wish to become Promising or Signature authors, they can also reach out to Graeme in regards to the team reviewing the criteria on becoming a promoted author. One of the main things I've told to authors who have contacted me about the best way to gain readers or make the most out of their time at GA has always been you get out what you put into it here. We always want to feature those who wish to feature themselves, but sometimes authors have to let us know. Also, occasionally there's a bit of a line because there's a lot of authors and only so many blog features. Hopefully this clears up some of the features, goals behind them, and options for authors to be included. This is some of feedback we were looking for. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Did you catch Monday's feature? Have you read Krista's story? Raven1 said it wasn't spooky... but like many of Krista's readers, thinks her writing itself is enthralling. Is it her characters? The way she writes the scenes? What do you think? Read on and decide? (and share your thoughts!!) Want to read more? Click here

Today's Signature Feature is our last one for the 2025, and it just so happened to line up with Krista! One of GA's longest posting authors, no matter what kind of content you want to read, you'll probably find it in her author listing! I decided to slip back a bit from the happy holidays to a bit of a spook factor. Who doesn't like visiting gravestones in a ghost town during tinsel time??? Length: 39,193 Description: What else is there to do when your friends are having premarital sex in your car, then to visit the gravesite of a witch in an abandoned ghost town. What if ghost town wasn't actually a cliché? A reader said: Elias is a well written mystery and ghost story. It isn't a sad or scary story, but a very compelling tale that keeps you engaged. The characters are lovable and often fun. The ending will leave you hopeful and wanting to visit again. ~raven1 If you want to spread the word about Krista'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!

That's it, we've made it to the end of the road, the last month of 2025, and our final CSR feature of this year! Seeing as it's December, the holidays, and yadda yadda... I couldn't pass up finding a story that was themed, of course. Did you read this small gem last year? If not, don't miss it now! Darkest Days (The Wild Hunt) by @Jack Poignet Length: 10,399 Description: It's cold up here in the mountains. Elias mourns his lover, but in these darkest of days between the years, strange things ride on the wind and the old tales come alive. A reader said: This captivating story of love and loss weaves a thrilling tale! The author masterfully blends elements of folklore, fantasy, romance, and action. The world-building is rich and immersive, transporting readers to a realm where magic and myth intertwine. The characters (assuming the wild hunt is a character itself) are complex and compelling, Elias' struggles resonate with the reader. I really loved it! ~ rafy Don't forget to come back to comment on the Discussion day, Monday December 29th!

This month I featured a story that I enjoyed reading by Thirdly, and I hope you did too! Odd, as I did not relate to the character (having married at 19) but I could just... get how intensely the characters were feeling at times. I always enjoy that and consider it the mark of a great writer. What did you enjoy about Ash's Marriage Trigger? Make sure you share your thoughts below, after you read this interview Thirdly did for me! Do you eat your fruits and vegetables? Mostly vegetables, as I’m at the age where all fruits are now just considered sugar. Learned that if you eat any greens before anything else, it helps buffer sugar spikes. I’ve been doing my best to stick to that. If you were an animal, what would you be? A hummingbird, flying eternally backwards at 25mph, and never knowing where I’ll end up. What’s something personal about you that people might be surprised to know? Soundtracks elevate everything for me: games, shows, anime, and movies. It could be the most basic, plain movie in existence, but if there is good background music or a solid playlist, it's going in my rotation of things to rewatch. Examples: Predator Badlands: Dek of the Yautja The Holiday: Maestro [and literally EVERY project Hans Zimmer touched, because his Chevaliers of Sangreal in the Da Vinci Code, his work on The Gladiator, Inception, the pirate movies, the Dune movies… I could go on forever.) Ferngully: Spirit of the Trees Deadpool 2: You Can't Stop This Motherf**ker Free Guy: Fantasy (Jodie Comer’s cover… and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you have GOT to watch this movie) Bad Company (2002): Main Theme The Beverly Hills Cop theme, the Mission Impossible theme, Indiana Jones, Eye of the Tiger… The OA theme song, The Mandalorian theme song, the Severance opening, the Game of Thrones main theme… Bratz’s Flash N Dash (from the first PS1 game), Super Mario Land 2’s The Star Maze, Megaman 3’s insane intro, Sonic 3’s Ice Cap Zone (actually, there’s always a song in every sonic game that’s catchy AF… and the Sonic Frontiers game has no right to have so many song slappers tossed in there), Ragnarok’s Rag All Night, Chrono Cross’s Time Scar, the entire Xenogears soundtrack… For anime BGMs, there’s a song called Frustration from Haikyuu that is gorgeous, Naruto’s ‘Main Theme’ with that one shakuhachi flautist’s soul never fails to impress me (the scatting no one can quite replicate), the entire Tsubasa Chronicle OST and Hikaru no Go OST… I’m not mentioning openings and endings, as there are far too many to list. Is there one location you’d love to go to research for a story? I suffer from Paradise Lost syndrome, in which my first 7-10 years of life were spent on an island in a shack built without the government’s permission, so they tore it down when we left. I’m talking “slum beach front property” where I used to catch crustaceans with my bare hands and walk for miles just to get to school. That small neighborhood of low-income locals is gone, replaced with tourist condos. That, and the people who once lived there have passed away. No amount of money can bring any of that back, so it would be the power of time travel that I’d really need in order to research a story in that location. If you could give advice to yourself when you first started writing, what would it be? Let’s see… 1. Never post anything incomplete. Ever. 2. Diverse and LGBTQIA+ friends are worth keeping, often over selfish straight friends (regardless of ‘seniority’ and years of friendship)… and they don’t hesitate to provide mutual help with projects. 3. Everyone has a different method of madness, but starting with a bang and escalating is a solid approach, regardless of the method used. Just beware of Deus ex machina and excessive predictability (a little predictability is fine, though, as there are only so many ways some situations can unfold… and I know some authors who can prove even this wrong and can find that 3rd unexpected path). What is the easiest part versus the hardest part of writing to a prompt? Ideas are an endless farm of fornicating rabbits in my mind. Whenever I read a prompt, it’s like shining a spotlight on a singular rabbit, which focuses my attention. For me, it’s easy to add a cast of bunnies to that prompt idea… what becomes difficult for me is knowing where to stop the story and just how far to condense it. If I’m lucky, the idea is simple and can be conveyed in a single one-shot piece. The minute I start creating charts to keep track of everything, though, that's when I start panicking. The most challenging part is wrapping everything up before the deadline. Your main character, Ash, feels pressured about relationships & marriage. Do you care to share your relationship status? My relationship status doesn’t exist right now. It turns out I was more gay than I thought I was and, unlike Ash, I’m attracted to women. My life is far stranger than the fiction I write. How did you come up with the character names in Ash’s Marriage Trigger? The name Ash was given to me by the prompt, as it’s what Aditus named the character (likely to more easily explain the prompt). I either look at the words floating around me to make some names up, or I research names that seem more fitting for characters. In this case, my nerdiness came out because the name “Ash” brought to mind “Barren” lands. I ended up naming that whole family desert-related names (Siena came from the hue “burnt sienna,” Sage came from the shrub ‘desert sage,’ Sandy from desert sand, Aster from Mojave Aster, which grows in some deserts…and their last name Barren from the phrase ‘barren desert’). The name “Cove” came from reading ‘Discovery Cove’ somewhere around me, likely someone’s pamphlet. Ashley, Cove’s daughter… her name was part of the story’s plotline. Do you have a favorite line or scene in the story? I have three favorite moments/lines, and they are all major spoilers: Can you share any of your current or upcoming work (published/unpublished/in planning stages) with readers? Published: Persistent Pheromones ( https://gayauthors.org/story/thirdly/persistent-pheromones/ ) Unpublished: My Younger Self Rect Our Story Endings (MYSROSE, the third and final WRECK world story. I finished Act 1, but still have Acts 2 and 3 to complete). Come Early, Come Often (CECO, which used to be a collaboration with Robin. Robin gave me full rein to finish it as I saw fit, and I’m working that out, as well.) Planning: Fowls Committed (my first bird-shifter story, and a collaboration with Luna, which involves an incompetent Viking leader and his quad of soulmates). Loving Sable’s Prime (my first story that features primarily straight couples). Training Toki (based on an old collaboration with Toma, a story featuring winged, gay fairies). I actually have over 8 more projects, but I don’t even want to think about them until some of my other tasks are completed: 1. A prequel spin-off to Crossing the Moon, titled Under the Same Moon. 2. An unnamed story of a shaman’s descendant, his narcoleptic brother, and Morpheus. 3. A feline shifter story featuring a nonbinary main character and a pair of twin mates. 4. Tulips and Roses, a (romantic comedy?) sci-fi regarding an outlaw and an enforcer joining forces to right certain wrongs. 5. Dying in 2005, a story written in honor of a close friend of mine who passed away before her time. 6. EPDA, a story of a pair of young detectives, which is both a crime novel and a romance? 7. Another unnamed story featuring seasonal elves. 8. Yet another unnamed story featuring an interesting take regarding souls and soulmates. 9. Kidnapping a Cuddlefish collab with Robin. 10. Borders and Bribery semi-collab with Robin.

Turkey and ham are the proteins of choice, but our turkey is free (from the hubby's company along with a pie each year) so I splurge on a small but high-quality spiral smoked ham. My little family of 4 just gets 'Thanksgiving lite', though, as I make the traditional sides like homemade rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn, cranberries in the shape of a can, deviled eggs, along with slightly less traditional roasted green beans and roasted whole Japanese sweet potatoes. This still leaves me with 3-4 meals afterward for dinners. We have make your own leftovers plate, hot turkey gravy sandwiches on white bread purchased just for that (we usually have whole grain oat bread but NOT for leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches!) potato soup with chopped ham, and potentially either a dark turkey meat & rice casserole or cheesy mac & cheese casserole, depending on which protein captures the family's fancy for sandwiches (meaning I don't have leftovers to make into dinners). Yes, they do like their predictability. It's why I have a dry erase menu board each week on the fridge that sees a lot of repeats!

Did you catch Monday's feature of kbois story, When Opportunity Knocks? As we focus in on the holiday season, family can be what we lookforward to, dread, love and loathe... and sometimes all of the above for a variety of reasons. This story has love, drama, doubt, drama, friendship, and more. Have you read it? Want to read more? Click here

Once again, I'm featuring a story that brings up that topic we often think of this time of year, family and love. Why do we love our family? Do the people in our lives truly love us? What might that prompt us to do, or not do, for love, family, friends and more? When Opportunity Knocks has some hard topics, light moments, and a lot of great writing. Please take the time to enjoy it! Length: 96,473 Description: Jett Anderson and Kyle Benton are starting to build a relationship. Life decides to throw in some speed bumps and hazards to make navigating the road not so easy. Add in some unexpected family dynamics and soon enough things get challenging. Can they work it out? A reader said: Wonderful wrap up to this story. But you're not done with these characters. (That's not a question) I don't want to let go of Kyle and Jett and Kim and Bruce and Rosie and Tater and Bo and Noah and ... Great writing, as always. Whatever your next opus is, I look forward to reading it. Thank you. ~ Quixo If you want to spread the word about kbois' 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!

Oh, November... that month we all love. It feels like it goes on forever, and can we just get to the good holidays??? For those of us in the U.S. it also includes the Thanksgiving and gathering of friends and/or family, and all that fun (or friction). In honor of the onus of family, as well as feature another great event GA hosts, I thought I'd feature a prompt response by one of GA's popular authors! Have you ever tried writing to the featured prompts? It can be fun, as Thirdly shows readers!! Ash's Marriage Trigger by @Thirdly Length: 28,449 Description: PT#84 (posted by aditus) In order to avoid the pesky marriage-soon-trigger, Ash doesn’t date, officially. Amid plotting the most outrageous excuses to tell his family, he is greeted with a splash of the past. A Reader said: It began with a tiny prompt and an amazing story rose from the ashes. ~Aditus Don't forget to come back to comment on the Discussion day, Monday November 24th!

Did you PM me? You've been a member/author for years, long enough to know that the help topics all say to send me a private message if you have an issue with the moderation queue and you've been waiting longer than 24 hours. That will get you a faster response.

Hello Lisa, Due to EU and some states online regulations, Mature content does require members to sign in to read. You just need to sign in once in the same browser window and not log out if you wish to continue to visit other areas of the site or multiple stories. At log in, you can also check the box to save your log in info if you are using a personal device and it is safe for you to do so. Are you using an Incognito browser or have your browser settings set to log you out if you navigate away from websites? Otherwise you should not be having this issue as GA does not require members to sign in multiple times unless you choose to do so. I hope that helps!

I do often use the phrases "Walking feet!" and "How do you think that made so and so feel when you did ....?" LOL

I hadn't quite left yet since I had laundry to fold (why can't the sock eating monster just fold the rest of the clothes in payment??!) I think I did the thing that lets everyone read the stories through the links @Valkyrie added here on the blog. I checked via a browser I'm not logged in (as a site guest) and I was able to access Aditus' story chapter text. Myr might need to make more things visible/accessible later, but hopefully that's a good start for everyone. Happy reading!

Maybe it was my way of catfishing readers to the CSR blog this month, LOL!!

Hi all! How many of you have taken the time (or have been on GA long enough) to have enjoyed some of the earliest anthologies? As readers and authors gear up to enjoy all the amazing entries to this year's event, I thought I'd feature a few of the past Hallow-spooky themed events to both fit the season and get you ready for these themed reads! https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/10-2006-fall-halloween/ https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/20-2008-winter-ghosts/ https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/28-2010-winter-haunted/ https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/134-2019-fall-fall-from-grace/ https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/63-2013-poetry-anthology-whispers-in-the-dark/ Enjoy and don't forget to comment!!

Did September last eleventy-millionth days for you as well this year? I swear, it just gets longer and longer. Hopefully that just means you got a ton of great reading time in, though you shouldn't have needed too long for this gem. Also, Altimexis shared an image they had on another site for Cliff's Pendant, so I wanted to add that here for you along with the Author interview. Enjoy and don't forget to share your comments below! Are you a person who makes their bed in the morning, or do you not see much point? Growing up, my room was messy, but there were two things my mom wouldn’t tolerate. Firstly, clothes were never to be left out — if they were dirty, they needed to be dropped in the hamper and if they were clean, they needed to be hung up in the closet. Secondly, I was never to leave my room without my bed being made. It wasn’t that she was strict, but she was firm about keeping my room clean, if not neat. To this day, the first thing I do when I get up is to make the bed. If you were an animal, what would you be? Technically, we are animals. That said, my avatar at AwesomeDude is a crow I photographed while hiking in Bryce Canyon. My avatar for Zoom is a pair of doves I photographed on our terrace in New York. Whether it’s a conscious choice or not, apparently I’d be a bird. What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story? If there are no limits, I’d say Mars, with the Moon being a close second. If I’m limited only to places on Earth, it would probably be Cape Town. I’ve traveled extensively and been all over North America, including 49 of the 50 states. I’ve been to Cuba, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan, China and Australia. I’ve been all over Europe, both east and west, before and after the fall of communism. I’ve been to Russia and to Turkey. I’ve yet to get to Portugal or Spain, which are high on my list. Likewise for New Zealand. I’ve yet to get to Southeast Asia, a place I’d very much like to visit. I had planned a trip to Antartica, but was hospitalized the week before we were to go and never made it back. The most glaring omission, however, is the entire African continent. I’ve heard the Cape Town is exceptionally beautiful and of the places I haven’t been, it’s probably the best setting for a story. What’s something personal about you people might be surprised to know? Although I consider myself a rather private person, I’ve not been shy about my background. My early history is covered in the Introduction to Naptown Tales, and other aspects of my personal history, my religious and political philosophy and my professional life have made it into my stories in one way or another. Perhaps the most surprising things for a prolific writer of gay-fiction is that I’ve never been in a gay relationship. Growing up as a teen in the Midwest, I thought that homosexuality was a mental illness. I did my best to ignore my feelings. Once when I was twelve, I convinced my best friend to get naked with me, but that was as far as it went. Finally, at the age of 29 while doing a residency at Stanford in the San Francisco Bay Area, I acknowledged I was much more attracted to guys, but I went to see a psychologist who told me it wasn’t a good time to be gay! That was in the Bay Area, of all places. In his defense, we still didn’t know the cause of AIDS yet. However, he also said something of much more significance – that I shouldn’t worry about my sexuality. The main thing was to meet people. Less than a week later, I met a woman who blew me away. Forty years later, she’s still my wife. Do you have any writing rituals? The only rule is that I never post a story until the first draft is complete. Nothing frustrates me more than a story that’s left unfinished, or one with obvious inconsistencies. My stories are character-based and I like to develop my characters over time, which is why I favor story series. Some of my series have lasted years, during which my characters may grow from early adolescence to young adulthood. When I write a new story, I start with a premise and a character or set of characters. I usually have an idea of how I want the story to end and what sort of things will happen along the way, but I don’t work from an outline. I give my characters defined personalities and the stories pretty much write themselves. That said, I love to leave clues of what is to come, and nothing is more fun than using deception or distraction to keep the reader off base. Because I get frequent migraines that can last for weeks, I don’t like to write on a deadline. Indeed, the migraines forced me to retire early, leaving more time for writing. I write when the urge strikes me, which may be at home or when out and about – even while riding the bus. I’ve written entire stories on my iPhone. How many stories have you written? Do you have a favorite and why/why not? That depends on how you count my stories. My series may include stand-alone short stories, multi-part novellas and full novels. I’ve been writing for about twenty years and have written dozens of short stories. I’ve written four full-length novels: Love in a Chair, which was my first story and an embarrassment, Legacy, which is a Naptown Tales sequel, Conversations With Myself, which is a sci-fi thriller, and Brilliant Boy Billionaire, which is nearly a half-million words in length. My favorite story is Conversations With Myself, even though it didn’t seem to get much traction with readers. The premise was of a government scientist who develops the technology to communicate with himself in the past, but through his dreams. However, meddling with time is serious business and to avoid it falling into the wrong hands, he does much of his work in secret. Then he makes a critical error. As a test, he contacts his past self on the night before September 11, 2001. It was only supposed to be a proof of concept, but his past self acted on the information, preventing the 9/11 terrorist attack. Things spiral out of control as he goes farther back into the past to try to fix the problems he creates. It was the most challenging story I’ve written because there were seven periods in the main character’s life that were involved and each time he made contact with a past self, it affected events in all timelines after that. Presidents changed. History changed. It was lot to keep track of. I ended up creating a graphic to keep track of the seven timelines as they progressed simultaneously. Of course there are aspects I would do differently if writing it today, but I’m particularly proud of how well-it turnout in the end, in spite of a two-year hiatus in writing it. When writing Cliff’s Pendant, did the idea for the character or the plot element of the pendant come to you first? Because the theme of the anthology was the gift, it was the pendant that came to me first. A lot of the characters in my New York Stories series are Jewish and so I imagined a Star of David, inscribed with the Hebrew word for ‘life’, with a rainbow background of iridescent glass. My next door neighbor’s kid, who’s currently a student at the University of Michigan, attended Brooklyn Tech High School at the time, so I conceived of a kid of similar age and wrote the story about Zach. To make the gift unique, I came up with the story of Cliff. Is there a particular line or scene in the story that you love the most? That’s easy – the scene in front of the Stonewall National Monument. Zach’s father hadn’t given him the gift yet, but the way his parents let him know how they felt still brings me to teas. Coming out stories can be very popular on GA. This is a very personal event that can go very different ways. Do you want to share your choices on the plot development for Cliff’s Pendant for that? I think the main reason Zach was still in the closet was because his parents, both emergency medicine physicians working staggered shifts, just weren’t around. I think the real coming out story was that of the father’s best friend, Cliff. After all, it’s Cliff’s name in the title. Cliff grew up in a much more restrictive environment, in Indianapolis in the 80s, and he led a double life. Zach’s dad didn’t even know his best friend was gay until he developed AIDS. However, out of the tragic story of Cliff came the pendant – a beautiful symbol of love between friends – which became a symbol of love and acceptance between a father and his gay son. Then when Zach made a duplicate, it became a symbol of shared love with his boyfriend. Can you share anything about your current or upcoming works with readers? My current story, A Summer in Iowa, is in progress right now. It’s a prequel to one of my New York Stories, and it’s partially autobiographical, based on when I was sixteen and spent the summer at the University of Iowa. The characters from Cliff’s Pendant have appeared in two subsequent New York Stories, most recently in October Fire, which is about the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7, 2023. I’ve been planning a sequel ever since, but then the world went off the rails. For a while, I wasn’t sure where to begin. My next story doesn’t have a final title yet. The working title is Fallout. I’ve written two chapters so far and there will probably be a dozen or so. Rather than focus only on the aftermath of 10/7, I’m going to try to tie up most of the loose thread in the New York Story series. Whereas October Fire involved multiple primary characters and was written in third person. Fallout is told in first person by Zach’s kid brother, Jake, who’s now sixteen years old, and he’s straight. Jake is a budding journalist who’s given the chance to take a summer trip in the American West with a group of his friends, most of them older, established characters from the NY Stories series. A number the kids are victims of 10/7 and two of them are in wheelchairs. Jake will go, hoping to write a story about the survivors of 10/7, but he’ll come away with much, much more. He’ll experience personal loss and the triumph of the human spirit.

Life is crazy, which is why I need new lined sticky notes after only being back working in school for 1 month!! We all get it, and no one should feel guilty if they just don't reach a goal. I basically put writing on the back burner 2 years ago, which makes me sad, but at least we are all still here on GA! This community is about writing and reading great gay fiction, but also just showing up for each other in our little niche. I love the connections everyone here shows all the time, but especially around our big events!