Cia

❤️ (hug) to @Renee Stevens for the recommendation! I still love this series. I should put a banner together and organize it all up pretty-like.

April 28th, which I've put in the topic post. Thank you for the reminder to add that, Comicfan!

PRIDE & PREMIUM How would you like to support GA and maybe earn a little spending money? Or Premium access? We need your new 5-15k short stories featuring 'Coming Out' stories for to help celebrate before, during, and after Pride month. Each story would be featured with weekly installments and posted for Premium subscribers, with a copy maintained in our Premium archive. Any author on GA can participate, and stories can be 1-3 chapters in length and any genre, as long as they incorporate the theme and are between 5,000 and 15,000 words. Deadline: April 28th, though earlier is always nice so Cia can help do a proof on your story as they come in! We'd also like to create an eBook of the stories to use solely on the site to provide to those Premium subscribers who enroll for higher month renewals for their offline reading pleasure. Authors who provide stories would also receive a copy of the eBook! For more information, please PM Cia if the question is private. Also feel free to chat here!

Our link pulled at me, and I followed it. These Elites didn’t have their cells set up like the scientists and doctors had. No constant surveillance, just guards. Guards who didn’t see me coming before I took them out. Deke would be proud. The last one had managed to draw a weapon on me, so I’d been forced to use a knife on him. If he was valuable, they could regrow the tendons. If not… it was him or me. And nothing was going to keep me from Captain. Hopefully Anyas was doing

This month's story announcement for the CSR Book Club was Down a Darkened path by Ronyx. An experienced hand at writing, this GA Classic Author knows how to write a story that sucks in readers and keeps them reading as you can tell through many of Ronyx's works. This story was no different, based on the thoughts a lot of readers' thoughts. I know I enjoyed this story despite the sometimes troubling events and sad scenes, the redemptions and ending held true to my hopes for the characters. But what did you think? Make sure you share your thoughts at the end of the interview! Who do you like best, Jerry or Tom? Jerry. I’m extremely allergic to cats. LOL. Besides, Jerry was the smart one. If you had 30 minutes of free time, what would you do? I would take, Shadow, my twelve-year-old flat-coat retriever for a walk. Because of his advancing age, I know he won’t be with us too much longer, and I love to spend time with him. What's your favorite room in your house? Do you plot or write there? My den (or as some would say- my man cave.) Everything I need is here. I have a large screen television, a computer desk and a comfortable leather sofa. It is where I do all my writing. Do you have a favorite quote about writing or reading? My favorite quote deals with education (which involves writing and reading.) At the end of my story, Reggie’s Journal, after Reggie struggles for months to complete a weekly journal, the teacher rewards him for doing an excellent job. He also writes the comment: The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. Very insightful comment about growing up and seeing the world through a different perspective. If you could give advice to yourself when you first started writing, what would it be? I wish I would have started writing sooner. I had thought about writing in my teens, but I lacked self-confidence. When I was about sixteen, I wrote the first few chapters of a story, and it still remains hidden in the bottom of a drawer. It wasn’t until many years later that I threw caution to the wind and attempted to do what had always been a dream. I’m forever grateful that I did. It was the beginning of an amazing journey. I’ve made so many wonderful friends over the past twelve years through the Mustard Jar, Codey’s World and Gay Authors. How much research did you need to do for Down a Darkened Path? I didn’t need much research. I had never considered writing a story with a blind main character. One night I received an email from a college student who told me he was blind. He asked me if I would write a story about a blind person. At first, I told him I didn’t think I could because I had never known anyone who was blind. However, a few months earlier, my nephew was involved in a serious car accident. He was a passenger when the driver lost control and plowed into a bridge abutment. He almost died. He was in the hospital in critical condition for days, and after a month he was moved into a nursing home for rehabilitation. As a result of the accident, he lost his left eye. Several months after he returned home, he was attacked outside his apartment by two men who tried to rob him. He also was engaged to be married, and his fiancée decided she couldn’t handle the situation and left him. For those who have read Down a Darkened Path, you can see the similarities of incidences in the story and my nephew’s life. I was able to take a tragic personal event and incorporate it into the story. My nephew is happy today, and he has adjusted well to the loss of his sight. In the story, I wanted Troy to accept what happened to him and live a happy and fulfilling life with Jayden. You wrote a scene where the characters tried to learn some empathy for your main character by experiencing sensory loss in a public place. Was that something you did for your writing process? Not directly. When I was in college, I took many psychology classes. In one of the classes we did a trust exercise where we were blindfolded and led around the campus for an hour by another student. We were required to do several sensory experiments. I used that learning experience and applied it to the story. This story has several very emotional scenes. How did you handle writing those? As I discussed earlier, this story was written from a personal experience. Probably the most difficult was writing the hospital scene directly after the accident. Tony (my husband- it was his nephew) rushed to the hospital when we received a late-night phone call. At first, he was not expected to live. The engine of the car was pushed into the passenger’s side, and his lower body was crushed. He also hit the windshield which resulted in the loss of his eye. He was in intensive care for a week, and he managed to show improvement after several weeks. The sorrow that night was very intense and emotional. We also visited him in the nursing home when he was recovering, and he talked about some of the depression he was experiencing. It was difficult because he was only twenty-two at the time, and he had such a bright future ahead of him. Today, he still suffers from bouts of depression. Do you have a favorite scene in the Down a Darkened Path? I love the ending! I think it is one of my best. I admit tears flowed down my face when I wrote about Troy singing, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” What better inspiration than to end a story: “When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high. And don’t be afraid of the dark.” What is one thing you would like to share with us about your current or upcoming stories? I took a hiatus from writing for three years. In 2015, I lost my twin sister. She was in intensive care in three hospitals for ulcerative colitis. I visited her for three months as her health continued to deteriorate. She passed away two days before our birthday. Fortunately, I had just finished my last story, Other Sinful Things. After her death, I lost my passion for writing, and I stopped. I never intended to write again. I had also written twenty-two full-length stories, numerous short stories and a two-act play (which has never been published.) I was literally burned out. During the past three years, my readers have been wonderful. They have waited patiently for me to write again. Occasionally, someone will email me with words of encouragement. Two years ago, an administrator wrote and asked me if I would consider posting my stories here. Interaction with the wonderful GA members has also helped motivate me. Last year, I attempted a new story, Dancing on a Star. It has been difficult trying to write again. Several times I even considered deleting the story. It’s been a struggle, but I am beginning to approach the end. I’m not posting regularly because I don’t know when I might experience a slump. However, I have always promised my readers that I will complete any story I start. Dancing with a Star will be completed. I hope that it contains the quality of writing my readers have come to expect. If not, I hope they understand.

I’d been separated from everyone. The Elites didn’t look at me, didn’t talk to me. Shivers wracked me as I was hauled away, my hands bound behind my back with strong shackles. I wanted to vomit up that last meal we’d had, or cry, or drop to my knees and not move. But none of that would help me. None of that would help the others. Years of experience suppressing my emotions helped me stay on my feet and kept me from panicking. I squeezed my hands together behind my back. A wa

This week's feature is a much older story but one I hope more interest in will prompt Myr into writing more. Who wants to join me in getting some more psi-corps? The banner feature was on Monday if you want to download and put the banner in your signature to share the story as one of your favorites! Myr's story is a short one, but I still chose a longer excerpt. There's a good glimpse into Jerry's character here, but it doesn't really give anything away about the story's events to come. Myr does share some tantalizing tidbits about just what might happen in the future. If you want to read more, click here.

February is a short month, and I've picked a short story to go along with it. This is actually one of my favorites of Myr's stories, so I hope getting a bunch of new eyes on it will help get him to write more. Jerry is an interesting character, and there's a lot more to be told of his story! Length: 7,832 Description: Jeremiah Declan Samuels has been in the Terran Confederation Spaceforce since his unusual birth. Those years of training are about to pay off as he leaves Earth to go to Europa to learn Jumping. If you want to spread the word about Myr'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!

There was an announcement at the start of the year that we were moving to a monthly digest (last Sunday of each month) of the newsletter due to a lack of engagement and clicks from subscribers, with a move to posting more content on GA's social media and direct emails to authors for special site announcements like special events (Premium short story call). We want to get information about what's happening to members, and we're looking for the best ways to do that.

“A cell is not a home!” I snapped. It was a hell. My heart was pounding, and my hands shook. I couldn’t walk, wouldn’t step forward when Anyas’ guard tried to push me to follow him out of the house. “I’m quite aware,” Anyas said. He cast a sharp glance over his shoulder. “What are you doing? Just pick him up.” The guard picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. He was something… not human. Too big, too strong. Nothing I did had any effect on him at all. He just kept walking.

The question I often face is... it a hole or an opportunity to backfill later with a twist the readers didn't expect? When you write and instantly post the chapters of an ongoing serial, you don't have as many opportunities to 'clean things up' as you do when you write a complete work and then post, but you do need a team of readers if you plan to be able to find all those missing moments your author brain can't see for the story in your head. Writing off the cuff versus writing to a plan also make a big difference. Of course, sometimes I try to make a plan and it doesn't mean anything when the story goes off the rails and in a whole new direction, lol. Another great thought on writing and editing, @Comicality

Anyas clapped his hands. A servant approached and handed him a cup. Oddly, I saw him also palm a device that detached from the base, slipping it under the table. It was tiny, the many sides each having a different button. He pressed his finger to the top, and it emitted a hum. I twitched and winced. “My apologies. Just ensuring we are secure now.” Anyas went from reclining in his chair to sitting upright. “Please remain seated, but you may move if you have need to shift or get comfortable

My guess would be that you need to compress the resolution, not change the size. Whatever program you use for editing, when you save the image, look for the 'image quality' option as you save. There's usually a way to save it as best quality, which is typically the default and largest file size, to the lowest quality. Lowering the quality will compress the image without changing the size. How much you need to do depends on size of your original image based on the ppi of the images you used and the size you need. For your GA banner, you need to ensure the file size is under 2 MB. Or, in case this is a bug or other issue, have you tried adding the banner via a different browser or device?

"Trouble" can be a lot of things. Please be more specific. Did you get an error message? Is it too big, too small? 720x90 is the correct size for a story banner, but resolution can affect your image size depending on if you have 72 or 200, 300 dpi...

Hard to believe it, but it's already February! This month we have 3 weeks to read the CSR selection, and it's a longer one. Good thing @Ronyx helped me pick his feature for this read, and it's one that was popular with readers so you might have already read it! If not, with the number of comments and likes, it's sure to be a read that will pull you in. In following with last month's feature of a different sort, don't go into this expecting the same old storyline! As always, the Discussion Day will take place on the last Monday of the month, February 25th. Down a Darkened Path by Ronyx Length: 76,436 Description: Troy Neal has it all- good looks, smart and talented. A classmate, Jayden Henderson, finds himself struggling to survive a dangerous life when he is sent to live with his aunt and cousins after the sudden death of his mother. Late one night, when Troy's car runs out of gas on a dark, deserted street, fate brings them together. Can they survive a disturbing journey down a darkened path filled with insurmountable obstacles? Warning: Before you begin reading, you should be aware that this story centers around a brutal and violent event involving the main character. Several scenes in this story may be upsetting and disturbing to some readers. A Reader Said: I highly recommend this well written story. There are parts of this story that are unpleasant, but they were handled carefully. The characters are believable, and I quickly came to care about them. The dialogue and the feelings of the characters seemed realistic. Now that all the chapters are available, this will be one of those hard to put down kind of stories. Thanks to Ronyx for sharing this story. ~ JeffreyL Don't forget to come back and share your thoughts on the Discussion Day on Monday, February 25th!

With my Pixel XL phone, in Edge, Chrome, and Firefox, if you tap on the thumbs up symbol just once, the reactions appear in a vertical bar and the actual name of the reactions appears in a gray bubbles to the left images of the reactions so you pick the one you wish to use. Maybe it just depends on the type of phone you have, but there is a way to see what the reactions are a little bigger as well as what they mean without 'hovering'.

Huh... No one else noticed that, least of all me! I renamed a character mid-story! OMG 😲 Yes, Cameron was his name and it apparently became Christian. I can't believe I did that, other than the fact this is a Briefers story so I wrote it just one 1k chapter per week, which takes forever and really spaces out the writing process. Things tend to be hard to keep track of. But a character's name?! 😵

“Interesting. So he is more than just a member of your crew?” Anyas eyed the lack of space between us. “You already knew that.” Captain’s voice was flat. “Don’t act as if you know nothing about us. I am sure you have been recovering data since the moment our ship came in range.” “If you believe I have such resources, and hate the Elites so much, why risk coming here? Why put such tempting morsels within my reach?” I frowned. “I’m not a morsel.” I shivered, disliking the thoug

How's your 2019 shaping up? I can't believe the first month has already passed, and here we are at the first CSR Discussion day! Who checked out this month's fanfiction story by @Laura S. Fox that was featured? I heard the word... "hot". What do you think? Make sure you share your thoughts in the comments below along with any questions you might have, but first, mine always come first! Here's the interview I sent Laura with all the in-depth, probing questions I'm known for! Have you ever gone out in public, realized your shirt is on backwards, and just don’t care? I wish I had that level of ‘I don’t give a damn’. Unfortunately, I’m quite self-conscious once I realize that something is wrong with my clothes. It’s best that I don’t realize if that happens. What’s something personal about you people might be surprised to know? Maybe that I’m – almost – 5.2? I hope my writing gives people the impression that I’m taller, lol. Also, that I actually had IT as my specialization in high school. Don’t ask, my family thought I could be a mathematician. I got decent grades in math, and it felt like victory whenever I solved some tough equation. But I loathed all those times when I couldn’t. Did you like to write in school? I didn’t write anything close to something that could be called a story until 25-26, except for compositions that were school assignments. Although I’ve always loved stories and books, and I got good grades in literature classes, it just didn’t cross my mind I could write. I was imagining stuff in my head, sometimes very long and winded, but I wasn’t putting anything on paper. Long story short, my husband made me do it. Do you have any favorite quotes from a famous author? When I was younger, I loved those quotes that expressed some kind of cosmic truth. But then I grew up a little and realized cosmic truths don’t really matter that much. So I happen to find quotes that are more specific or focus on details that refer only to an individual or a specific situation or an era to be much more interesting. Samples at hand: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice) “What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise.” (Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses) What’s the best part of being an author? For me, it’s the freedom of imagining anything you want. You can create something that didn’t exist before, and that feels liberating. To some people, writers – and other creators – may look a bit like lunatics in that sense of ‘what are you doing all cooped up inside all day long? You’re not living your life’ kind of thing. But I believe it to be a sort of escapism that’s hardly equaled by anything else. What do you think makes up a good book? It must be the capability to make you suspend all your beliefs and delve in without one look back. If an author manages to help you escape reality while you’re reading their work, the topic doesn’t even matter that much. What’s the key to that specific ability, I’m still trying to find out. How did you get interested in manhua? If I were to talk about 19 Days in particular, it happened because it kept popping on my Tumblr feed. But, in general, manhua, manga, and manhwa – which are just Chinese, Japanese and Korean terms for comics – came into my life via Boys’ Love stories, and yaoi. First, I watched some yaoi anime, simply by accident, then I progressed to reading comics, and I also got into slash at the same time, and it all sort of rolled down from there, just because of the love for the love of boys. I just found the stories coming from Asian creators to be funny, interesting, even intense and dramatic, compared to anything else I had ever read before. Fanfiction isn’t posted often on GA. What’s the biggest difference to writing fanfiction versus original fiction for you? I think it must be the fact that it is somewhat easier to write fanfiction. You have all the characters, their motivations, even settings, already made. You’re practically playing in someone else’s sandbox. When you write original fiction, however, you need to be careful not to slip, and make your own characters sound OOC. Keeping things consistent is a real challenge for original fiction. Do you have a favorite scene in Nude Pics Please? If you had to sum up the story in one sentence, what would it be? It all started with a naughty pic.

It was cold and dark on the planet’s surface. How many of these planets were we going to go to that were so harsh? Beings had adapted to all sorts of planets, but I honestly got Captain’s desire to retire to a quiet, warm planet. Something with a lot of sun. “You okay?” Captain asked. He lead the way, while I lagged a step behind instead of walking beside him. “Fine.” I didn’t like the lack of people in the port. It was good to keep others clear of the shuttle, but it made blending

Here we go again, another day, another author feature! We hope you guys enjoy getting a glimpse at some of these favorite stories from the past that kept readers enthralled in earlier days of the site. This nearly 200k story is a perfect example. Monday's graphic teaser should've whet your appetite, now let's see if I can hook you in completely with an excerpt. There is a LOT of drama going on in this story... but that's because the story starts off with a bang and the hits keep coming. You get a good look back at the action and an idea (though, omg, a run at the gate is crazy!!!) of what is to come with this excerpt. And, of course, Topher's stellar writing style and clean editing. If you want to read more, click here.

The picture says it all! LOL Who's picked a book or story to read thinking it was one thing and found it to be totally different from what you expected? How'd the mistake come about: tags not added, vague description, description didn't really fit the story, you didn't pay any attention to anything but the title...? Did the mistaken read turn out be a good thing or bad thing? Let's not flame anyone, discretion might be key if your story involves a piece of GA fiction that you have a not-so-great experience with in this way.

Welcome to 2019 and the first of our Classic Author features! This month I've another oldie but goodie, Topher_Lydon's epic, The Falcon Banner. This science fiction series had quite a following, and if you haven't read it yet, you're really missing out. Length: 182,459 Description: A lone man picks up a battle standard cast down three hundred years before. beginning a journey that will lead him to find the lost fleet, and a forgotten ship at the edge of nowhere. Darien Taine must accept his role, guiding his crew on the long road to free their people from Amsus tyranny. Uncovering along the way the sins that led to humanity's downfall, and reforging alliances long thought forgotten. Three hundred years of slavery, of persecution and of tyranny are at an end. If you want to spread the word about Topher_Lydon'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!

What so many Indie authors don't realize in their rush to get in the door is that a lot of this begins well before you ever sell the first copy of a book or eBook. #5 is a big one that should happen well before you begin publishing. This is part of 'branding' yourself. You need a home base such as a website or blog, you need graphics and recognizable artwork or logos or profile images, and you need social media. You need to be part of the community of authors and readers you wish to publish into before you publish. #1 is next. Then you have the book idea written, cleaned up and edited, and you should really format it. If you have done #5, you have an audience to hopefully tap to help spread the word. You should create ARCs and send those out ahead of time to review sites (those can require 1-3 months scheduling ahead of the publish date if you wish to get reviews for that timeframe) or ARC reader groups. This can be done with an unedited proof copy, but you clearly want something that is relatively well done, so you don't want to send out a rough draft too early just to get it out there. Once you are in the throes of proofing and formatting and waiting for the ARC reviews to roll in to help pre-promo your sales, you should be marketing. This is there in #3 and #6 and #7 but you need to be organized about it. Create cover reveal and book release day tours where other people will promo for you, but you will still need to collate all the promo material and/or do blog posts for them such as promo posts, exclusive excerpts, interview questions, etc... You should have promo images for all the various sites and want to update things like your headers. Free stuff is good (but don't give away the new book because then people won't buy it), a newsletter can be done if you follow all the EU guidelines, a contest (Rafflecopter and Random.org are useful for those) that provides entries for shares/tweets, etc... is a great way to spread word-of-mouth. There's one thing I know that is a key to success both here on GA and in the publishing world: keep the content coming! The more you write (and publish), the more readers you will gain (and sales you will make). Disappearing, taking long breaks, not finishing things... those are all death knells to your selling potential.

No, you don't need to be a poet to post poetry. However, some poets do NOT want to be categorized as authors, so to accommodate them we have a category just for poets. I will change your group back to author. If you are going to post flash fiction or poetry, please make sure you've check out the FAQ posting guidelines for fiction under 1k in length.