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Well, well, well, happy August everyone! This month we MUST stay indoors and beat whatever awful weather is destroying the outside, so what better way to do that than with a nice, loooong story? And, even better, it's part of a series! A looooooooonger series, at that! Mike Arram is an established author who came to share his work with us from other well-known gay fiction sites, so you might have already seen his name, or read his stories, or maybe this is all new to you. Either way, this month you're in for a treat! As always, don't forget to come back on the Discussion day with your thoughts ready to share in the blog comments. The Heart of Oskar Prinz, Rothenian Tales #1 by Mike Arram Length: 76,374 Description: Will Vincent, schoolteacher, exits the closet and finds it leads him to very strange places, for almost out of the door he encounters the beautiful Oskar, cynic and porn star, who is not at all what he seems. A reader said: Thanks for posting this excellent story. I enjoyed it several years ago on crvboy, and very much enjoyed this improved version here. ~vonfoto Don't forget to come back on Monday, August 26th, for the Discussion Day!

A bug was found. It has been reported, but a full and complete fix might take time. Thanks for the information!

You are showing followed stories on your profile, @Talo Segura . How did you follow the authors? I do see that in your notifications that you have set it to show both on your profile. Did you search an author so you were looking at their entire story listing and follow them via the follow option at the top of the list? Not just one story, not just their profile. And if you did this, which author(s) did you follow? If there is a bug, we will need to see if there are other members who aren't showing their followed authors and stories on their profiles or if this is an issue with the author accounts that you tried to follow. I just tested it, and adding a new author I'm following did show up on my profile in the right section by following the author on their story listing. Before I followed Andy78 After I followed Andy78

Remember, the 'Follow Authors' section on your profile means you have followed those members on their profiles and will receive notifications on ALL their content updates. It's like... high level stalking. It used to be IP Board's 'Friends' list. It's separate from GA Stories following options which are primarily to allow you to follow a story and receive notifications when the story or content is updated.

Sorry, James, I answered your PM as well, but I wanted to put this information here for you and others. Yes, if I miss the 24 hour window to moderate a chapter, authors can always PM me and that is just fine. Sometimes there's a moderation hang-up with the team reviewing a story or chapter, and sometimes I've just had something delay me. I typically ask that authors don't post a bunch of chapters live because I've had issues missing which chapter was the latest one posted to the queue and approved, say, chapter 5 instead of chapter 3. If you are familiar with posting and not having issues with your chapters being moderated for corrections, which you haven't been, you can use the post-dating system if you have multiple chapters ready to post. This allows you to post chapters, change the date and time (always do at least 24 hours later for the first one, or arrange with post-dating of several chapters with me first so I don't mess up your posting schedule with a missed approval) in the post-dating section at the bottom of the chapter rather than have the chapter post-immediately. As long as the chapters are spaced following GA rules (at least 8 hours apart, no more than 2 per day) then I can approve more than one chapter at a time. More exact instructions are in the FAQ on the post-dating system through the Help tab. I hope that helps!!

Technically, when you follow the story, you are still following the author's updates... just for that particular story. You can follow an author by 1) following the author for just that particular story or 2) following everything an author (or member) posts (stories, topics, blogs, etc...) by following them via their profile. If you hover over the 'follow author' button on the story you will see it says 'follow this content', and if you actually click on the follow button you will see the story title at the top of the pop up box that appears with the follow/notification options just as it always did before showing that you are just following that story, not the author's updates as a whole.

Fucking nighttime beasts coming out trying to eat me. I spun and smacked the squishy beast from my shoulder before it could lock its jaws onto my shoulder and gnaw a gaping hole up to my neck and blood supply. Worse, I knew these things didn’t come out by themselves. No, the creepy little beasts crawled out of tiny holes with their squishy, extendable bodies, looking for something warm and blood-filled to take away the chill of the night. Where the hell did they come from? I stomped on t

Welcome to the CSR discussion day for July with Love is Blind by Nick Brady! Did you have a chance to read this story? Nick was kind enough to do an interview for me and share some of his thoughts on what he learned while writing Love is Blind. He also filled in a few thoughts on his favorite cartoon hijinks character, tall or small, and his hobbies outside of writing! So enjoy learning more about Nick, and then share your thoughts on his story in the comments below. Who do you like best, Jerry or Tom? Probably Jerry because he always outsmarts Tom the cat. If you had to choose between being eight feet tall or four feet tall, which would you choose and why? I might choose to be 4 feet tall because little guys get away with more. What do you like to do in your free time at home when you’re not writing? I like to read and work in my garden. I'm also an amateur photographer. What brought you to GA? I read a few stories here quite a long time ago and posted one of my first stories with you. GA is a very professionally managed and I appreciate having my stories hosted on your site. What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story, in modern time or the past? California during the gold rush. There were a great number of men there all trying to strike it rich with little constraints on their behavior. There has to be a good story in there somewhere. If you had to try method writing (like method acting) for research on a story, what type of plot or character research would you like to do? I have always been drawn to characters who seem to be very different then discover that they have a great deal in common. I find relationships between people of different ages, abilities, backgrounds, and races to be interesting. Can you sum up Love is Blind in one sentence? What begins as a casual friendship between a blind and a sighted college student evolves into a lifetime commitment. What is the most interesting “I never would have thought about it like that” thing you learned from your research from others who faced similar challenges as your characters? Sometimes what appears to be the weaker of a pair turns out to be the strongest. What was your favorite scene in Love is Blind? That's hard to choose, but I will say that the episode in Chapter 5 where Ian and Andrew try their hand at home brewing was fun to write. It was easy because it really happened to me when I was in college. You might say it was a learning experience. Can you share a little of your current/future work you plan to post on GA with us? I make mental notes of various characters and situations that accumulate in my head until they form the basis of a new story. Sometimes they come from my own experience but more often from observation. The erotic parts are almost always fictional. My life has not been nearly as interesting as my characters. I'm working on several new ideas. Stay tuned.

If you look on the right sidebar of any story meta data page that you like, you can see a box titled "Stories" that has stories that has other recent stories. From there, you can look at the genre(s), read the description, check out the rating, etc... to decide if you want to read it or not. You can also use the browse options to check things out by tags such as, find stories marked as light-hearted, no sex, etc...

“This is too weird,” Deke said. He stared at me and then smirked. He glanced at Captain. “Guess you two are daddies now.” “What?” Captain opened his mouth and then shut it. He shook his head. “You see that fire-breathing sparkly death machine anywhere around here?” Deke looked around in example. “She looked pretty cozy with those ones that looked just like her but left that one with your boy there. And he’s talking to you. I’m thinking she’s basically saying the boy is your problem

Congratulations @northie and you're very welcome on the banner! (FYI everyone, there's a bug affecting the author banners that we do know about and it has been reported, by Northie, actually. )

So one of the major aspects of Mellicat's story, Dare, is family. We're all born into a family even if we don't know them, or we lose them, in one way or the other. The adults and children and relationships we see and know or wish we had are how we model our own future selves in our minds. And that shapes who we become and the choices we make in our entire life... for good or ill. In Dare, the choices the characters make are based on the men in their lives and the roles they all grew into. In some ways, those roles have been locked in since they were children and the choices they all make are based on the same choices and images of each other they've always held. But are those choices what's best for each of them and what they wants out of life or just in kneejerk reaction to what they think they have to do and be based on their childhood? And can they all come together as adults when something bad happens and learn that what they thought they knew about each other maybe isn't the whole picture? In this feature, I stuck with one chapter, but I picked two sections that really highlighted the brothers and their roles and their connections to each other and their families as well. Want to read more, click here.

I fell onto my ass abruptly, fighting to draw in a breath. Captain dropped to my side. “I thought… I thought that was just what created the mental connection. The stuff in my body and brain joining me and Sparkles so I could feel her and probably them. Not making us physically—” I broke off, waving a hand between me and the little hatchling. Captain and Aparoe exchanged glances. Aparoe scowled and folded their arms, and Captain sighed. “What?” I split a look between them. “What?” I

Can you believe over half the year has passed and we are closer to out of the twenty-teens and into the twenty twenties than before? The future is coming fast, years passing, and before we know it, the twilight of the year will be here! And that can be true in stories too, you start and don't even realize you're reading faster and faster, desperate to know if the character will be able to find that happy ever after. In this short story by Mellicat, you can't help but be sucked in to the sense of time and the story that is created. Have you read it? Length: 24,539 Description: Family can bring out the best and the worst in us. A Reader said: Wow. With all its anger and resentment, its past and present, this was a delicious, full flavored slice of life. I was deeply touched by this story and still reluctant to give Thomas a pass, lol. If you want to spread the word about Mellicat'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!

Cory read tons about coming out, that one friend who's "more", and those stupid "He's straight, but can I turn him gay?" posts. His life was about as cliche as they came, but sometimes romance stories had to be true... right? Or they were all false advertising. All he had to do was risk telling Elliot he was gay and how he felt about him. Bam! Love! Two teenagers, lifelong buddies, in college just outside of Bible Belt Southern USA could totally end up both gay, in love, and just not say anything to each other for two years of being roommates. Sure.... Cory might just stay in the closet and keep his best friend instead.

Use a computer or tablet with a decent operating system like Windows. Sorry, but most phones operating systems (Android, iOS, or even Windows) simply are not geared to work with IP Board sites/this system, even as sophisticated as they are now. Especially since you are expecting them to have the system capabilities to work with a text-based Word processing file that is then converted with all the formatting to an online post when copied and pasted. GA Stories works best when copying from a Word or similar based text editing software, and it works best on a Microsoft-based operating system device like a computer. Some users do have Docs or use tablets like iPads, but they typically take some working around and have their own tweaks to get the content pasted in properly.

@Talo Segura Features are great ways to help authors get exposure, but none of the features we have exclude new authors or their first stories. The only thing I see being a big problem with this suggestion is that there's no way for us to know when a new author decides to complete their first story. Or really, any author and any story. Authors have to take the initiative and promote themselves, the site can't do that for them all the time. We do have different options for promotion available, mostly with the site's blog, but most of the time, people just don't take part! Last month in the site newsletter (and it was posted with a link on the site Facebook/Twitter) I asked authors and readers to suggest their favorite stories for their CSR, either their own that fits with the having to be 1) complete and 2) between 10-70k usually, so it can be read in 3-4 weeks. You know how many suggestions I got? 1. You get out of GA what you put into it. This is advice I've given authors in the queue over the years. Just posting here doesn't get readers. You have to read and comment for other authors. You have to reply to comments on your stories. You have to post a Stories Discussion topic for your story and post content about your writing, your story process, characters, etc... and encourage people to follow your story to keep them interested. You need to make a place for yourself in the community by taking part in the discussions among the other authors and being part of the games, the anthologies, etc... Unfortunately, far too many people want a lot while doing only a little. It takes deliberate effort to provide a quality product (be it a story/stories or a great website) and to keep people interested. That's what we're trying to do with GA all the time. Clearly, you can see by the amount of feedback we've had here, that we have a hard time getting ideas or thoughts from most members to do that.

Yeah, you can create custom Activity Streams to track a LOT of things happening on the site to keep you updated and in the know. And, as you can see with the option of "since my last visit" that even takes care of story updates if there's been more than one chapter posted, for instance, if you're following a few stories and the individual updates are buried in your notifications.

@Talo Segura Remember, we have Stories custom-built for us, but the rest of the site (profiles, forums, blogs, clubs, etc...) the forum software comes from IP Board and we don't have control over that. We don't always get to make it all mesh 100%. You can't click on a person's reviews straight from their other reviews, but just click on the member's name or their avatar on the review and you can go to their profile to check out any other reviews they might have. There are so many other things that are filtered and searched in Stories, we can't always have everything, especially if it's possible in other ways/places on the site. And, if you decide you like/trust the reviewer's viewpoint and you want to follow any and all reviews they post for the future, set up a new Activity Stream. That will do exactly what you want, give you clickable links and all the reviews a person has posted in one place. On top of that, you can get notifications when they post a new one. So their reviews come to you! There are a lot of features on the site that might not be exactly what you want but will let you do similar things to what you want. You just have to explore, or ask others, and be willing to try it out. To make a new Activity Stream, click on the Activity tab, then My Activity Streams, then go down to Custom Streams at the bottom and click on the blue button to "Create New Stream". Then you select through the options. Screenshot of an example, since you like those:

Sparkles blinked once, staring at me intently, her claws nudging my hands closer, just barely touching them. The sharp tips pricked my skin, one tiny blood drop welling up. “That’s it, isn’t it? You can’t touch the eggs.” But she could retract her claws. But her paws were still hard, the scales rough. I’d felt it when she grabbed me earlier. My skin, on the other hand… “I can touch it?” She blinked again. “Okay. Here goes.” I slipped my hands into the water and cupped them under th

If you receive GA's monthly newsletter, you know we’re looking for feedback from YOU! Now’s the time to share your thoughts on site features and potential future changes. *Let’s be constructive and give ideas on what will help encourage new membership and activity among current members, not just what you don’t like, please!!* Forum Moves and Shake Ups There have been changes to the forums. Some forums were moved or removed with their content moving to new places, some Clubs removed or consolidated, and Myr shared the Fluid View option in last week’s announcement. So now that it’s been a week or so, how’s it working for you? Have you gotten used to the new locations? Never really noticed the change? Like it way better? Share your thoughts below! Stories Comment, Review, and Chapter Comment Guidelines These guidelines are pretty intuitive to long-time members, but there’s now a pop up field at each section for comments and reviews on stories. They explain what each section is for and how to best support authors by readers. The idea is to have the information ‘on the spot’ for users to encourage them to use the features. Do any of the guidelines not make sense to you? Thoughts about them? Comments in general? Share them below! Example of Story Review Guidelines below in the Spoiler! Site Membership, Activity, and Clubs Hello, members! Can you tell us what prompted you to join GA? Literally, why did you click that button and make an account? Were you browsing for stories and decide, why not join? Did you see an ad or a pop up? Did you want to comment on a story you were reading? Reach out to an author? We need YOUR ideas about how to encourage readers and lurkers to join the site. Share them below! Favorite Areas-Features of the site… So when you joined, what areas or features of GA kept you coming back? Where do you spend your time? What can we do to keep those areas active or create more activity in other areas or features that you enjoy or think would encourage more lurkers to join the site to take part in? Share your favorite site spots and ideas below!

@Talo Segura If you want to see all the latest story reviews that have been written, please click on the Activity tab in the menu bar. Then click on the option "Latest Story Reviews". You can even change some of the sort options to change what reviews show or from what dates. For other places to look for story recommendations or reviews: There are various blog features beyond Ask an Author as well. I feature the CSR with an author/story (varied between author, promising, signature, classic (if they're active) once a month for readers to read and then comment on the first/last Mondays of the month. They don't necessarily have to be 'popular' but I do try to ensure they are active to do the interview for the last Monday's blog post when readers comment. 1-2 times per month on Monday the site's Review Team does story reviews for a wide variety of story types/authors. I also feature an older story by a Classic Author since those are often posted before current readers would've been active on the site. All of these features can be found in the Gay Stories site blog.

1) ***Do not force indents on the text as an author on GA*** Please just post the text as is because the system allows readers to either use the block formatting or to add an indent if they prefer to read with it. You can see this by clicking on the middle button on a chapter by the font size buttons. 2) Indents are used when authors do not have a single space between paragraphs, which is called block formatting (the preferred method for online fiction/website text). The indent goes at the beginning of every paragraph. It is called a 'first line indent' and is used with books to save space on paper. It isn't based on narration or dialogue. Hope that helps!

@Carlos Hazday when reporting a bug or site feature that isn't working, it isn't just that we might be able to move or do things correctly for you, you're reporting a problem. If you had provided an order or links, I could have rearranged the stories for you since the system worked for me, even if you addressed this to Myr. And I would have been more than happy to help in that way. However, for the underlying issue of it not working, that I can't fix. If members remember to provide staff with all of the information in regards to what exactly they did, how they did it, what they did it on, etc...then if the problem is a bug or systems permission issue that just needs to be changed that information can all be passed along to the right admin/the programmer and used to figure out exactly where in the system the problem is. That is why we ask for all of that information, links, etc... in ALL Help forum requests because it eliminates a need to ask for that or retesting the problem on our part for something you, or another member having an issue, might have done already (like trying other browser, because not all our members are techy enough to know to do that). It's a reminder we have to repeat quite often, so I hope you don't feel I was singling you out. That was not my intention, and I do apologize if it came across that way.

Members need to remember to give us as much information as possible. If someone hands you something and say "It's not working", how helpful is that to knowing what exactly they did and how to go about fixing it? The more we know, the better/faster we can help you. When I go to my series, A Maze for Three, on Edge with my Surface Pro, the arrows work just fine to move stories up and down. That usually indicates the issues can be group permissions, a bug that might be device/browser dependent, or a glitch on your end. Most of that is back end and Myr does have to look at that. However, the more information you share, the better we are able to pinpoint what it could be. @Carlos Hazday How is it not working? Can you see the arrows, can you click on them? Do the stories just not move? Do they move but not stay moved? Did you get an error message, and if so, what was it? Did you just try one browser or did you try more than one (which I always recommend) as well as one or more devices? Which ones so we have that information? Did you try clearing your cache and restarting your device then moving stories?