Cia

This is a gross topic. LOL

Teddy is brilliant in his own quiet way, right?! I'm glad you enjoyed it, Caz!

“Varket.” I tried to keep the surprise out of my voice, but I’m sure I failed. “To what do we owe this honor? Are you here to attend the games?” “No,” he said shortly. Then he smiled, an unctuous, disturbing expression. “Unbeknownst to most of the attendees, the king was present at the concert last night. He heard of our little discussion, and he was fascinated with your take on the architecture’s impact on the music. He’s been undertaking some structural improvements to the city buildings—I’m

Thank you, everyone! I'm a diehard fan of sci-fi, and have been since the days I read as many of McCaffrey's Pern books as I could get my hands on as well as William Barton's When Heaven Fell and began the Dune saga by Herbert. I like to read a wide array of things, but I always return to my love of sci-fi, which is why I enjoy writing it too. I'm so glad The Experiment and other stories centered on Caeorleia are enjoyed by so many, and thank you all so much for your wonderful comments!

You can do last week's still! It's pinned in the Games & Humor forum til the end of the month.

Sorry about that Valkyrie! For some reason it didn't show up on my search. It's in there now!

Renee's off enjoying some family time in the summer sun, so today you're getting the weekly wrap up from me! This is a crazy busy time of year for me too, as summer returns and the kids get out of school. This month we have a lot going on at GA with the summer anthology, our Gay Pride Month contest, and the general shenanigans happening. Let's see all the happenings this week: On Monday I reviewed the featured Signature Author story, Crash Landing, by Bill W. This story was written as part of the 2011 Aftermath anthology, and it really took me in directions I wasn't expecting. Have you read it yet? Wednesday let us learn more about Bill W in his author interview. Did you know he identifies with the underdog and originally came to GA upon a personal invitation from Myr, way back in the day? Learn more about Bill and Crash Landing by checking out the interview here. The Gayauthor's Summer Anthology, Road Trip went live on Thursday and has remained our featured blog entry for the last few days. This anthology saw stories from 8 site authors including Aditus, Renee Stevens, Cole Matthews, Valkyrie, Comicfan, Krista, Cia, and Carlos Hazday. Special thanks go to the proof team: Rec, Andy78, Valkyrie and Cia, plus Mann Ramblings for his great anthology banner, and AJ for his invaluable tech help getting the anthology live! Bulletin ..................... Bulletin ..................... Bulletin Wow, everyone's been ripping right through these! Are you playing along with the scramble contest? Well you should be! You can go back and hit weeks 1 & 2 if you haven't already, but then enjoy this week's scramble. If you're lost and need a bit of a clue, these all have something in common... try to find out what and you may figure out why I picked these stories and/or authors to feature! There will be 10 every week posted in a topic and then you PM your unscrambled answers to Cia. DON'T post your answers in the public areas of the site--or you hurt your chances of winning! What are you playing for? First Prize: A year's digital membership to Out magazine Second Prize: 2 Months Premium Access Third Prize: 1 Month Premium Access Rules: Both parts of the scramble must be correct to count. The person with the most correct answers at the end of the month wins the first place prize, 2nd most correct 2nd, etc... If there are ties, Random.org will be used to determine the winner, and those not winning will be entered in the 2nd and then 3rd place prizes as necessary. PLAY THE GAME In Premium Pretty Little Thing by Nephylim By our Classic Authors: Dreams of a Father by dkstories; Book 2 of Dreams of Humanity By our Signature Authors: Leopard Spots by Graeme; Book 2 of The Lilydale Leopards New York or Bust by Krista Are We There Yet? by Renee Stevens; Book 2 of Something Unexpected From Here to Forever by Comicfan Picking up Strays by Cia Sword of Kings: Tested by Adversity by Bill W HMS Valiant by Mark Arbour; Book 7 of Bridgemont Global Explorer II by David McLeod Fortitude by Cia Cosmic Inception by Cia By our Promising Authors: Beneath the Current by Craftingmom 3 PM by Aditus; Book 2 of Clockwise Boy River by Cole Matthews Exit to Redemption by Valkyrie Alex's Legacy by Valkyrie Presence by Carringtonrj Hollow Hills by Valkyrie Don't forget.... Read, Write, and REVIEW!!!

As I skimmed this first chapter, the story pulled me in. I like your characters, and they all have distinct personalities that feel 'real'. I would recommend that you review the Dialogue Punctuation topic in the Writer's Corner because that will help give your text the technical polish the well-written, plot-wise, the content needs.

My lips cracked and bled, but I stretched them out in a parody of a grin. No one had anything to smile about… which made my expression all the more disturbing. And likely to work. The bloody tang tantalized me when I licked at the cracks, darting my tongue in and out. I was crouched down, squinting at the dark figure backed by the setting sun. “What you got?” I cranked my head to one side, as if the question confused me. I placed my fingers on my lips, touching the wet spit and blood, smearin

When bad goes to worse, mankind’s implosion is spectacular… and has one hell of an unintended consequence.

The stone scraped as I lifted it up and slid it off to the side. I winced and froze, ready to slip it back into place if necessary. Listening intently, I ignored the sound of my heart pounding in my chest and tried to keep my breath slow and steady. “I don’t think there are any guards down here,” I said. I heaved myself out of the hole. No Name followed me. Teddy was trickier; I had him turn with his back to me so I could lock my arms around his chest and help pull him up until he could sit on

Thanks Valkyrie! I think the theme of transition is very much going to have to come into play. Craftingmom, thank you!!

Thanks Caz!

Share the plot bunnies... I need a story idea to pursue!!

So I'm part of a group of authors and readers on Facebook called "Queer Sci Fi". They had their 2nd annual Flash Fiction Contest, just 300 words in a speculative fiction theme incorporating the subject: discovery. Last year in the contest I took 2nd place. This year, I didn't place in the written contest, but the group is putting out the submissions in an eBook so they also ran a cover contest. Out of the 10 covers submitted, I took 2nd. I do get a $20 cash prize, but they won't be using my cover for the eBook. So now I need to come up with an idea to write for it. What do you think of the cover and does it inspire any plot bunny ideas?

Welcome to GA!

Was the man holding a knife at my throat one of the people helping betas and gammas get away? Or was he part of the king’s circle who were consuming and misusing power? I opened my mouth, and he dug the knife in again; another trickle of blood slid down my neck, the warm slide tickling on its way down to soak my collar. “You don’t speak,” he said harshly. “One word, and it will be your last.” He definitely knew what I was. “You.” “Me?” Teddy licked his lips. His eyes were huge. “Who are you

June is here already! For many, that means a break is coming from school. What better to do during your break than to enjoy another story with the CSR book club? This month I'm featuring Where Life Takes Us by Kuragari. This is a story about how an orphan finds a new home and a family he might not have expected. Where Life Takes Us by Kuragari Length: 49,379 Description: Step into the life of Wyatt Luis and find out how he handles his new family and friends. Adopted from a near by Orphanage, Wyatt joins Kenneth, Diana, Kayla, Caitlyn, Grandpa Nicholas, and most importantly Talon to make the complete Luis Family! A Reader Said: I love the characters you've created and you do an awesome job of developing them. ~ Cannd The CSR Discussion day for Where Life Takes Us will be on Monday, June 29th, so you have plenty of time to read! Enjoy!!

If any authors or editors have editing questions, feel free to send them my way anytime! I have a membership to the Chicago Manual of Style, so if there's something I don't know, I can always look it up!

Have you been blocked lately? Looking for some creative inspiration? Just feel like having some fun? Then writing prompts are for you, and we have 2 new ones this week from our prompt guru, Comicfan! Prompt 420 – Creative Tag – First Line “He put his hand where?” Prompt 421 – Creative Tag – The interview Your job has put you forward for a great new job. Everything seems to be going great ‘til the day of your interview. As you enter the room and go to shake hands the elastic in your underwear lets go. Before you say or do anything your briefcase pops open and everything falls to the floor. How does the rest of the interview go and what happens? In honor of her new promotion, I'm featuring Craftingmom's response to last week's prompt #419:

Please join the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Craftingmom as GA's newest promoted author! Joining just about a year ago, Craftingmom quickly gained popularity on the site and became a favorite author for many readers. Her Tears of the Neko story, both the original and re-write, garnered a lot of interest on the site and launched her into GA's author and reader community. She also has a lot of other stories, but likes to focus on the theme of hurt/comfort so they have a fair bit of angst, so if you're into a story that has a lot of twists and turns, check out her work!

Another good grammar fail! The funny thing is, "you" can be singular or plural as a pronoun... but when used as the verb form it's always considered plural, and so "are" is correct instead of "is" even if the sentence only refers to one person. You as a group: "You are going to line up quietly," the teacher instructed her class. You as a single person: "You are going into the store in those?" she asked. I grinned. "Sure, so what if my pajama pants have ducks on them?"

Graeme, you're correct. In that sentence, the "use" of the cellphones and mp3 players is the subject, so you'd use the singular version of "is". The use of apostrophe s with compound possessives is a bit tricky, and in the end BOTH are right--depending on what/who is doing the possessing and what they're possessing. The rule is that if the nouns are closely linked that are doing the possessing, then you only use apostrophe s on the 2nd noun. If the nouns are not closely linked, you would use apostrophe s on both. Your example, "We drove to Matt and Paul's house" would use the possessive apostrophe s only after the 2nd name because it is a singular thing they both own "together". You can have a singular name for objects that are still owned separately like: "I've used New York's and Baltimore's public transportation system." Those are both distinctly different things (even if you call them the same name) being possessed by two separate cities, so you'd use the apostrophe s for both cities. This is per Chicago Manual of Style 7.72, Joint vs. Separate Possession

When I researched it before, there was one view that it's as a contraction, it is, was the more common usage and so the apostrophe s was excluded from its for possession through history until that became the common usage. The other was that the word "it" is a pronoun and the apostrophe s isn't used for pronouns like hers, his, theirs, so not using the apostrophe s when its is being used as a pronoun is consistent with that practice. Of course, when one is used a pronoun and is possessive the use is one's... so like I said, I think mostly it's just that English is a language geared to have no consistency because someone, somewhere in time, was a total sadist.

I covered who vs. whom in Grammar Rodeo #1. I also spoke briefly about possessive its in Grammar Rodeo #2. Drew is correct; the only time you use an apostrophe is when it's is short for it is. So if you read your sentence and it is can be substituted for for the its/it's, then you should be using the version with the apostrophe. If it is being given possession of something, you just add s. That makes NO sense, as every other time you give a someone or something a possession when writing in English, you use the apostrophe s... but no one has EVER said English makes a lot of sense.