Cia

How do you write flash fiction? Well, there’s really only one requirement: Keep it short! How short depends on the game, or prompt, or you… but the difference is you write the story planning to make it as concise as possible without sacrificing the image and scene you’re trying to convey. It’s a challenge to write something that pulls in readers without having a lot of time to do backstory or a long adventure. So why do people like writing flash fiction? For me, it’s a different kind of challenge from my usual novels. It reminds me to not repeat words or visuals, which I struggle with. I asked several other authors who are playing with the Pick Two noun game why they like writing flash fiction, and here’s what they had to say: Dolores Esteban says: I think it's an interesting feature to get your creative juices flowing. Aditus says: Flash fiction: no lengthy introduction, no elaborate plot line, no sophisticated ending. Just quick and dirty. What's not to like? Lyssa says: I`d like to write this, because it is fun, keeps my brain busy and I never did something like this in English and I really cherish a new challenge Puppilull says: When I go through patches where my brain isn’t cooperating and the flow just isn’t there, it feels good to write something, anything. Lately, I’ve also tried to challenge myself to write shorter pieces, so I have to work on being to the point. Flash fiction is the thing for that. Mikiesboy says: I like to write flash fiction because it's a challenge. You have to measure what you're saying, and select words carefully. Where i used to post, they often had ultra short fiction challenges - a story in 20 words… those were fun!! Anything like this, forces you to think and step out of your comfort zone! Valkyrie says: I like to write flash fiction because I find it helps me get my mojo back when I'm stuck in a rut. It's also fun to see where the story leads. I never plan out flash pieces, but rather let the characters drive the action. I will also sometimes use flash pieces to work on a particular skill. Such as working on writing in third person, descriptions of characters or settings, or technical exercises such as writing in first person without using the pronoun "I". I never know where flash pieces will take me, and sometimes they lead to longer works. BHopper2 says: Most of the flash fiction I've written has not be published. It's little stories I've written about my Role-playing Characters over the years. I do it for a couple of reasons. 1. To fill in the gaps of what my Characters do "off-stage." 2. For practice, in getting my writing skills better. 3. I love it. So far on GA, I've only done two flash stories from prompts, this game, and a little intro to my main story. I hope to publish more soon. Want to check out some of these authors’ flash fiction? We have a Writing Prompts forum dedicated to the site prompts which are shared weekly. There’s always something new to enjoy in there! If you want to try your hand at writing some flash, give it a shot. There’s a ton of prompts to choose from, or keep an eye out for more games coming in the future like the past Grid & Dice Game and the current Pick Two noun game. Players in those games have their stories in site newsletter features

We left Kraig and Ritch with Mom. Deke drowned out their objections with a fierce growled order to stay put, and I followed him out the door. “Stay here,” I said to the guard. If there were intruders, the house needed protection, but I had to guard Deke’s back. The scent of blood, a sharp coppery tang with salty overtones laced the air when we approached the building that had held the captives. Myles was dead, and Jackie beside him. She was gasping for air, holding her arm as blood dripped

Yes, it is the undercover Cia, yet again donning the mask of Renee to bring you this week's happenings on GA. I've actually done all this week's blogs while Renee enjoys a few well-earned days off. Did you miss something vital happening on the site? A favorite story update? Don't worry, we've got you covered! Another way to get the news is to sign up and have it delivered straight to your inbox with Gay Author's weekly newsletter which goes out every Sunday. Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017 Premium Updates: Negative Splits by Cia *Premium* Classic Updates: Reggie's Journal by Ronyx Signature Updates: April Musings by Valkyrie Mine! by Cia The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel The Secret Life Of Billy Chase 9 by Comicality; Book 9 of The Secret Life Of Billy Chase Promising Updates: Buy One, Get Two and Three... by Caz Pedroso Choices by LitLover Cozy Contemplations by Headstall Headstall's Reflections by Headstall Ripped by craftingmom Slocked Affections by AC Benus timmy's poetry by Mikiesboy Walls by Carlos Hazday; Book 6 of CJ

Cia... Undercover!

Writing Prompts from Cia... wait... no... Of course these are from our prompt guru, Comicfan! I'm just filling in for Renee, but I swear I thought it was Thursday so these are just a smidge late. Sorry about that. I hope you will have fun writing something for these prompts, though, and for first-timers, remember all responses under 1k must be posted as part of a 'collection' of short stories/flash fiction/poetry. More info on that in the FAQ through the Help tab you need it. Prompt 578 – Creative Tag – list of words Use the following words in a story – woods, a crow, a pair of glasses, a new ball, and a cookie. Prompt 579 - Creative Tag – First Line How can you be so sure? And this older prompt has garnered some newer responses, so I thought I'd feature them all

Oh, how the wizard ages... 40! Where did the time go?

Utter agony? I love the way you phrased that. Um... meat in my coffee? No thanks! I'll take my froufrou Keurig single cup caramel cappuccino steaming hot each morning.

Of course it has. And I'm never simple.

The bed shifting woke me up and the smell of coffee brought me out of the lazy doze I wanted to linger in. I stretched and groaned. “Coffee.” My voice sounded like a half-crazed zombie calling out for brains, but that wasn’t too far off. I sat up and Ritch handed me a cup, the coffee black as tar and just like I liked it. “The coffee from last night was cold so I made a new pot.” “Thanks.” I took a long swallow of the steaming richness, the bitter flavor curling my tongue. “It’s perfec

Did you check out the banner from Monday's blog for this month's Classic Author Feature? Drew Espinosa chose Tiff's story, The Price of Revelation. This teen story is full of angst and romance, with a few life lessons tossed in. I asked Drew why he picked this story and excerpt to share, and this is what he had to say: Drew said: With those opening words, I was immediately sucked in. For me, I had to know what happened. What caused the breakdown of Sean's dad? What did Sean do? I had set out to read the rest of the story to find out, and along the way, I fell in love with the story and its characters.

*nods* This is why I asked for Classic Author features from readers. There are so many stories by older authors who are no longer visiting GA but were very popular in their day, and it's nice to bring those to the attention of newer members.

This month's feature, The Price of Revelation by Tiff, is an older story that not many current members might be aware of. Originally posted back when promoted authors had their own websites, this story was migrated in the first GA Stories upgrade. It hasn't garnered too many views since then, but maybe that can change with this feature chosen by Drew Espinosa. Check it out, and if you want to support this month's feature, download the banner at the bottom of the blog to place in your signature! The Price of Revelation by Tiff Featured by: Drew Espinosa Length: 74,437 Description: Sean, finally eighteen, is determined to live his own life and make his own decisions. Storm tries to protect Sean at any cost, and learns that no matter his efforts, he can't always shield Sean from the pains of growing up. Sean finds out the hard way that love is sometimes blind, sometimes life-threatening, sometimes unexpected, but sometimes - if you are lucky enough and keep your eyes open - true. mr curiosus said: WoW I really loved this story hope there are more with this extended family, the whole group just invite you into there fold and you feel as though you know them all personally... sad that it's over now plz write more but happy to have read it... cogito_ergo_sum1666 said: Nice! I love it so! Thanks for the fun read! Please write more! joann414 said: Absolutely awesome read. Can't believe u do not have more reviews. The characters and conflicts were right on. I laughed cried, and applauded the characters. I loved Sean and West, but Storm was so great. Thank for a perfect read. Daithi said: Awesome story. Sean and West make such a cute couple. If you want to spread the word about Tiff's story, download the graphic below and add it to your signature! Make sure you come back on Wednesday to see the excerpt Drew chose to share!

Yes!! Park is depending on Ritch for emotional and physical support, for the closeness he needs but hasn't had before. I like the switch of supportive roles too! Yes, there's a lot going on. Thank you!

Fixed it. Thanks Yes! I wanted that as a highlight, even if they're not doing anything 'physical'. Right? He needed it. I think Park's been on edge for a long time. It's good to have someone on your side.

I jumped into the room, every muscle coiled and ready to attack. My claws were flexed open as wide as they could go, and I was prepared to rip off his hands and bust his teeth in if he made a move. “What are you doing?” I hissed. “Cleaning up this boy.” My mom dipped her cloth in the bowl of water on the nightstand, then leaned down and started wiping again. “He’s covered in dried blood.” “He’s not a boy. He’s a traitor.” She looked up sharply. “You don’t know that.” “He atta

The only image that should be in your content would be in the story notes area, on the meta data page where it gives all the description, category, chapter listing, etc... That is broken, and we are waiting on a fix for it from the programmer. And just an fyi, again, there shouldn't be anything but chapter text in the chapters. You can add notes and links in the chapter notes and chapter end notes, but images just don't belong in the actual chapter areas. Images can look atrocious when viewed on different devices, especially smaller ones, which is a big deal because, more and more, visitors are coming to the site via their phones.

@LadyDe @Lux Apollo @Puppilull Yes!! I made all of you feel sympathetic with Lydia and tugged on your heartstrings. Just what I was going for!

A very good question! (and yes, I loved the snuggles too!) Yeah, thanks for the catch! Very true. He is very sweet in a rough "I'm a jerk sometimes but I don't mean it" way.

Again, nothing should be in the chapter text but chapter text. Links belong in the chapter notes.

@ColumbusGuy Please be more specific. Link to the story and tell us exactly what links. For instance, I went to your stories, clicked on Jay & Miles, tested the first link in the story description to the forum post about the characters as well as the story prompt link in the chapter end notes in chapter one. (They both worked just fine) I used my laptop with Windows 10 and Edge. So... what links do you mean? What stories? How were you trying to access them?

I woke up on the couch with Ritch in my arms. He had his face nestled against my neck, and the soft swoosh of each breath tickled me. I shivered and he tilted his head and mumbled something, then snuggled closer. The automatic move to seek comfort and warmth from me gave me a strong feeling of satisfaction. Waking up with him in my arms was awesome. Now all we needed was to start off in a bed… and maybe have a few less layers. I longed to feel his skin against mine. Of course, my damn phone

So, if you look at the Forums, you'll notice that the different topics are in bold if new content has been posted to them since you last accessed it. The same goes for any forums with new content (either posts or new topics). You can click on the blue button with the thought bubbles (this will be updated later, so the image may change, but the circle is to the left of the forum title) and that will mark the entire forum as 'read'. When in a forum, you can also use the 'Mark Forum Read' link right next to the 'Start New Topic' button at the top of each forum to do the same thing, which simply removes the bolded titles showing new content. GA Stories doesn't have the same integration with bolding the titles for new content posting, so marking the entire site read wouldn't have any effect that I can think of on that.

“Sit down right now and let me look at you.” I grimaced, but I didn’t argue. Mom could pinch an ear and make you listen, if you didn’t the first time. One time my dad had told me a story about how the older werekin’s ears were so long because their moms had pulled on them so much as a kid, and I’d believed him. The next time she’d grabbed me by the ear, I’d accused her of trying to make my ears longer than ole Mr. Constance’s. That earned me an extra yank when she asked what the heck I mean

My stepdad gave me a box set of LoTR when I was 11 that I've read to pieces, but I'll never give them up. I was reading stuff like Grimm's fairy tales in kindergarten, Mrs. PiggleWiggle in 1st, Island of the Blue Dolphins in 2nd, A Wrinkle in Time in 3rd grade, Huck Fin in 4th grade, Anne Frank in 5th, Pern by McCaffrey in 6th, Dune in 7th, Outlander in 8th... I've always devoured books of all sorts to the point where I was always in trouble for reading in class and got grounded from books at home. My daughter is a big reader, liking all the anthropomorphic fantasy stories geared toward kids, but we're still looking for what kind of thing will inspire my 10 yo son's imagination and love of reading. Funnily enough, he just started reading The Fellowship of the Ring (a new box set we own, not my precious set).

So... who wants an extra month to read Caz Pedroso's Unison Island series? I hope you're all raising your hands because with everything going on, I completely spaced sending her the interview, and then I thought I had another week before I started to panic this morning because I realized that and then thought I had another week. But no... I just ended up being the flake. Sorry!! So, fortunately for me, Caz is very understanding and we picked a CSR Feature with a lot of content for you to enjoy, if you haven't already. So, this time, FOR REAL, the CSR Discussion day will take place on Monday, May 29th. Missed out on the announcement and forgot to read the stories this month too? Well maybe some of these reviews will whet your reading appetite! Welcome to Unison Island: Thank you for explaining Unison Island. I couldn't figure out the geography or location, so I had had decided that it was just some no name area of the U.S. One thing, just how large is this island in the Bermuda Triangle? Actually, that doesn't matter. I love these stories and characters. Are you going to finish Andrew and Jamie? ~ LadyDe Andrew and Jamie: I really liked this story and these characters, what a lovely ending of this tale Thank you so much for sharing ~ Slytherin Adam and Ben: I don't know why I never commented on this story which is probably my favorite of all the Union Island tales. Ben may be shy, but he's feisty too and can keep Adam on his toes. I liked the way he stood up to Ian, and I'm pleased Adam finished the bastard off. ~ Timothy M Buried Treasure: This was cool...thanks ! ~ Mikiesez1 The Mouse That Roared: What a lovely parting treat! Even better, you left it wide open for a sequel... YEAH! ~ hillj69 Catch up on the series here!