Cia

“Do you think you are ready?” My stomach grumbled. “If nothing else, I have to eat.” Lakshou smiled. “A very apt observation. And your energy is much calmer now. Just remember, no one in the crew wishes to hurt you. You are safe now, and no one will do anything to you without your permission.” “I’ll try.” I took a breath and blew away the tension starting to build inside me. My shoulders dropped; I hadn’t even realized I’d started to curl in on myself again. “Okay. Ready.”

Did you catch Monday's blog featuring Comicfan's story, The Life of Seeon, as this month's Signature Feature? If not, go check it out and then download a copy of the graphic to share in your signature if you want to show your love for his story. If Monday's blog wasn't enough to move this story to the top of your TBR list, maybe today's excerpt will! Comicfan said: I picked it because it sets up the whole tale. Right from the start you know Seeon is seen as the lesser of the princes. The world he is used to, first two sons are important, then daughters so power can be gain by marriage. A third boy isn't needed and this excerpt shows that. To read more, check out the rest of the story here.

Copying the url and pasting it into the text editor is all I did.

This month we're changing it up a little and doing a feature for one of our Signature authors--and resident prompt guru--Comicfan. The story he chose to be featured was The Life of Seeon. Make sure you check it out (I bet those reviews will help you decide to read it sooner rather than later!) and then download the signature graphic below if you want to share you love for Comicfan's story. Length: 31,995 Description: Seeon Toleran is the fifth child of the ruling royal family. His life was one of study and devotion to his Gods. Then war came and the world Seeon knew ended. There were decisions that were made for him which drastically altered the direction of his life. Suddenly the world of the priesthood is gone as an option in Seeon's life. Instead he is made Ma' Nee. What will this mean to a youth who has known neither love nor choice? Will this end his world or open new vistas? Time will tell. Some Readers Said: If you want to spread the word about Comicfan's story, download the graphic below and add it to your signature! Make sure you come back on Wednesday to see the excerpt he chose to share!

In the gallery: There is not a place to add alt-text to an image when you upload it to the gallery. What appears when I pass my mouse over an image adding from the gallery (like below) is the story title, however. So making that a short description might also be what you want. If you want to include a more in-depth description with the image, the description is where to do it there. However, I also found a place where you can add a note to an existing image. If you move the mouse over the upper right corner of the gray box around the image you're viewing, a variety of options appear. I have the option to 'Add Note' in one of them. Clicking on that brings up a field on the image itself (I did not selection the place) where I can add a note. Then, once I saved that, when I scroll my mouse over that place on the image in the gallery, the note appears appears there. You would have to go to the image to test if it reads off the note to describe. So, you can use the image title, image description, and/or image note (if you have that option. As staff, I am never 100% sure what options members have versus staff). I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do and where you want the alt-text to appear with your images, but those options should help cover the basics.

Okay, let's address this in an orderly fashion so I can be sure I cover everything. 1) Yes, I can include alt-text in newsletter images. I will try that next week and you can PM me if you have any issues with it. 2) Yes, I can include alt-text titles in images I post on the forums for games. I've just edited the image for the White Elephant game, if you'd like to check that. I will pass this along to site staff to ask them to do so for any posts they make as well. 3) We will check what sort of features the site has for places like site banners, signatures, etc... 4) User-generated content: I will include information in the faq topics where relevant about adding images suggesting people change the title to describe the image where that feature is allowed, but trying to require that take far too much moderation time to scan for new images added and contact members who don't know how to do this.

Don't forget to explain why! When you are addressing someone in the middle of a sentence, you offset their name with commas before and after. In this case, though, you were mentioning his name and not speaking to JayT, so that rule doesn't apply. The comma before JayT is there to offset the "introductory dependent clause" that starts the sentence. "In Common Editing Issues #1" shares additional information for the main clause, "JayT brings us some common editing issues" which is independent and can stand alone. It shares a better, more complete, idea when they are combined. If you added JayT's name to your final sentence, "So, JayT, did I mess up on my commas?" then you would use the commas on either side of his name.

Past issue, no longer relevant. Just giving this an answer to move it off the top of the page.

We don't have a specific volunteer to do that. If someone notices it, they can let us know like you have done with this topic, and when a staff member has time we will try to get them fixed. Posting the link is very helpful, thanks!

What grammar or editing source are you using that says you can't end a sentence with an ellipses or dash? Do you never write a story where someone gets cut off or interrupted when they're talking? Or trails off because they think of something or become distracted while talking? I can point out two instances today where a student interrupted me and when I was trying to speak and stuttered to a stop and had to pause because I had to marshal my thoughts to explain myself better to a student. Now, granted, the em dash and ellipses are both bracketed by double quotation marks because it's dialogue, so those punctuation marks are not the literal end of the sentence, but they are still the ending punctuation that is valid and "correct" per both Blue Book of Grammar and Chicago Manual of Style. They, like exclamation points, should only be used sparingly to avoid overuse and interruption to the flow for readers, of course. No, editing is never fun. It's a long, hard process that involves using a critical eye and unbiased mindset to content edit and word-by-word slog to line edit. I still enjoy it, though, because I am a geek enough to like to learn new editing rules. I also like producing quality work, and I don't mind doing the work to produce it. That doesn't mean I haven't cursed out my editors (privately) a time or two. Or three hundred.

“Meditation?” “When you ran into me, you were nearly mindless with panic. Anyone who is feeling that lost could benefit from some techniques and time to center their thoughts.” Lakshou shifted on his cushion, arranging his robes over his knees. I clenched my teeth. “I’ve had time.” Hours, days, months, years, in that cell alone. Most of the time I had no input, nothing but my thoughts. “Do you want to tell me about what had you so scared, then?” “No.” I shook my head violentl

I like him too!

When those were posted, we had one site blog for all the different kinds of posts, actually. It's tied in with the writing community, but perhaps that is something we can look into--doing a reader specific blog for those types of tips and other events/information that might be more reader-centric. You can search for topics with tags and keywords too, but most people don't think about looking for past information, they go for what is right in front of them or recently posted.

Inner balance is absolutely vital to handle stresses from the world around you, especially when things change so much like it has for Kohen. Lakshou definitely will have a strong influence on Kohen's future, which will involve a lot of recovery time. Well there are a lot of aliens on the ship, and having so many different cultures means there needs to be a variety of ways to accommodate them. Religion would definitely be a big part of that. More about Lakshou, and the other aliens, and the ship, their mission, and Captain's questions... coming up! Thanks, Lux! I do try to mix it up with the different stories I do for my Wednesday Briefers group, and I love writing scifi.

That's a kind of greedy I understand. And don't worry, there will be more 'overall info' as to the time/place/machinations coming soon. Definitely more coming soon, like I just said to dughlas. It's hard to get that info in because I think that Kohen isn't in a place to take in that info in a way I could share it with readers from his POV, but that'll change. Yes. Shocking highs from such simple things as a drink and horrific lows such as fleeing from a single touch. Lakshou is definitely a stabilizing influence (even if he did knock him down when they first met, lol).

Ahh, but all that we saw and have had him remember has been physical deprivation and punishment. Conditioning must include the mind, once the body is broken down. Lakshou will definitely have a role in this story, so I don't want to reveal too much about him now. Kohen is going to have to stay strong mentally to deal with the changes in his circumstances, certainly. Even if they're positive, they're going to be a shock to his system. And yes, "triggers" is exactly what he's going to get tripped up by. Just makes you want to snuggle him and make it all better, right?

Yep, for sure! Yes, definitely! So many experiences to come in this story. I'm starting Kohen with the basic sensory inputs, things that we might all take for granted--until they're taken away from us like they were from him.

Maybe... One never knows what I have in store for my characters, right? But for someone who has suffered like Kohen, I'm sure he deserves all that and more. Kohen definitely has mental reserves, especially for one taken so young. It very, very much makes me want to snuggle and love on him. Too bad he's probably not ready for something like that. As for cheating... they'll forgive you, lol. Each one of my stories has something different to love, imo, but that's totally okay. Nope, he's not broken yet, and he is free from their lab and their torture device. But we definitely haven't seen all that he's going to be facing even with those major obstacles removed. I try to layer character traits and make every one 'real' even if they are in a place/time/location that can't be real, so I love to hear comments about that from readers. Thanks, glennish!

Yep, sometimes "too good to be true" really messes with your mind. Well, this is a futuristic story and they had Kohen under chemically, so they could control when he came out it probably a lot more efficiently than doctors can nowadays where the body has to burn it off. So much to suspect, so little to know at this point, even for me, LOL! I agree with it being locked in. Scent is a very basic yet super important sense memory for us. Like a baby animal, though, is Kohen just latching on to the first thing he's impressed on? Maybe...

Sorry, format of this group is 500-1k every Wednesday. But you know it's coming each week, so there's that. Glad you're enjoying the story, bundu_st! More each week! Hey Smoothy, thank you!! I do try to create compelling characters that draw readers in. Kohen is particularly sympathetic in this story, for sure.

Very, very cruel. And that's just the hideous point of it. Even if you wish for comfort, it's turned into a negative reinforcement. Evil, evil mind thought that up. ( ) Yes, I've seen medical documentaries on people with that condition. It is truly horrific, especially as a parent when it's a child that you can't make better. Or a handsome, young man with all the experience of a child. Yes, but if the aliens were all sweetness and light to him, you wouldn't hate them, would you? *nods* Touch is a fundamental need for humans, and they not only took it away, they made it a punishment. They were reprogramming him, remember?

LOL! Another one bites... now to reel you in!

We have, a ton of them over the years. These are just a few of the blog posts put up.

“Kohen? Is that your name?” I nodded. “Good. Kohen, do you know where you are?” I licked my lips, wishing for more of that fluid. “Are you still thirsty?” “Yes.” He walked over to a spot on the wall. A hum, a flash of light, and another cup appeared. He stretched out his arm, not getting too close. I touched the cup, and he settled it into my hand without our fingers brushing. Relief swamped me along with a tiny bit of regret. The fluid was cool, and I jer

@Dahawk Well, I am glad you're not going on a knee-jerk reaction, however, the saying 'opinions are like assholes' exists for a reason. We're talking about a negative subject, yes, but authors don't have to take it negatively. When you allow someone else's (or a few someone elses) opinion of your work to hold sway to such an extent then you're giving away power over your creative process in a destructive way. If someone has harsh feedback that's nothing but a flame, ignore it. If someone has hard to hear but true feedback, especially if it's echoed by more than one person, then you should try to reevaluate your work with a dispassionate eye and see if it can apply to help you improve. Focusing on what people are saying that you feel is just all negative rather than the parts of this topic that are constructive and intended to help others takes that away from you. And, above all, just because you might write something that doesn't sit well with others, for whatever reason, that doesn't make it any less valid and perhaps popular with readers it does resonate well with. You can't please everyone all the time.