Renee Stevens

Who's ready for your weekly dose of prompts? We have two new ones for you, courtesy of @comicfan. Prompt 730 – Creative Tag – First Line The snow was deep and hard to cross, but the fear of what was following kept you moving. Prompt 731 – Creative Tag – Love Cupid You’ve been picked to play Cupid in the college play. What no one realized was you didn’t audition, and love is already your full time job. While arrows are simply a myth, you are required to bring two of the most stubborn people you’ve ever seen together as a couple. Both of them are working at the play. How do you do it? So, you had the option of four different prompts last week. Did anyone do some prompt writing? Share your prompts in the comments below.

Nice to see you too, Sir. i hope You have a great evening!

me too! It's been a rough little over a week with both of us being sick. And trying to get a 6 month old to take meds.... that was a challenge, especially when he realized i was doctoring his formula and would take a taste and then refuse to eat it if it had his flu med in it.

Sorry to hear that, Sir. i hope it gets better!

Hi, Kitt!

hey tim! Sorry, was getting the sewing project started. How are you, hon? xoxo

i hope it was a good day, Sir.

i'm doing okay, Sir, thank You. i think me and Baby J are officially on the mend from the flu. Now i'm just waiting for him to fall asleep for a nap so that i can work in the sewing room on some lace suncatchers that i hope to sell. How are You, Sir?

i'm on the mend, Thorn, thank you. Sweet dreams.

Good evening, Sir.

Hey all, just thought i'd say hey. Hope everyone is doing well.

Well, we're getting closer to wrapping up the Improve & Encourage feature. Working toward that goal, today we've got a critique on CassieQ's story, Bliss. If you missed out on the opportunity to sign up for the Improve & Encourage feature, don't worry, there are other features available for you! Let's take a look at what Mann Ramblings had to say about Bliss. Bliss CassieQ Critiqued by: Mann Ramblings Please give us a short summary of the story you chose. Logan is preparing an elaborate evening to celebrate his anniversary with his husband, Connor. Unfortunately, a severe bout of influenza has complicated the plan. What do you see as the strengths of the story/poem? One of CassieQ’s strengths is her ability to write characters and scenarios filled with legitimacy. At no time did I ever feel like any of the story’s moments “couldn’t happen.” You can empathize with Logan’s efforts to save the night to his own detriment because he’s determined to make it a night to remember. Real people do this. What do you see as the weaknesses of the story/poem? It’s rare that I find something that I can call an actual weakness in one of CassieQ’s stories. The only thing I can see as a weakness is the ending. Not because it’s written poorly. It’s not. It flows well and tells another part of the character’s histories. The fact it’s written as a flashback (which in and of itself is not a flaw) completely in narration that takes us away from Logan and Connor’s intimate conversation and never comes back to them. It makes the short story feel slightly unfinished for me. This is less of an issue than it sounds really. LOL How do you think the story/poem could be improved? I would love to see the flashback turned into a revelation through conversation mixed with narration. That way we’re not pulled away from their wonderful interaction and we can just get more of it while we learn of their background and competitive natures. What was your favorite part? (scene/sentence/etc) Logan’s attempt to not ruin the night with his illness even as Connor starts to try and seduce him resonated with me. In my 20s, I missed 5 New Year’s Eves in a row by coming down with the flu, including staying home while my partner at the time went out.(I insisted, and he came back early.) So Logan trying to hide his condition reminds me of some of those times and strikes home CassieQ’s ability to make believable and likeable characters.

Don't forget to send me your answers!!!

Thanks, Tim. Working on it.

It definitely sucks, and unfortunately it looks like little man may have got it. He's got a doctor appointment at 3:15

Thanks, tim. Fever is doing a little better, i think.

Since I'm rather sick at the moment, I'm going to just get right to it. Here are the four prompts as promised. Prompt 726 – Creative Tag – First Line The sound of heavy boots and crashing furniture woke you from an uneasy sleep. Prompt 727 – Creative Tag – Situational writing Now for something a little different. Your scene is created based on what happened to you last. Who was the last person you talked to? They are now your main character. What is the sitting on your kitchen table? That what the scene needs to revolve around. Where is your favorite place to go in your town? Blend the three parts into a story. Prompt 728 – Creative Tag – List of Words Use the following words in a story – A star, a crushed box, a broken tablet, a skunk, and an icy sidewalk. Prompt 729 – Creative Tag – Suddenly Daddy Six years ago your best friend got married to her dream man. Four years ago they moved across the country for his job and you lost contact. Five minutes ago you found out she and her husband were killed in a fire, but their son survived. Both were only children and they named you as their son’s guardian. How do you take it, Daddy? Have you written any prompts over the last couple of weeks. Share a link in the comments.

Sorry, it's been a bit crazy the last couple of days. In-law drama. @Mikiesboy i agree. it's easy to blame everything on the anxiety, and while I truly believe that at least some of it is because of the anxiety, i still dont think it's all due to anxiety. Hopefully we'll know more soon. As far as writing, those are some great ideas and i'm working on some others and hopefully will have something soon. @Kitt i do have some notebooks that have things jotted out, so hopefully something will pan out with them. @MacGreg Thanks for those ideas, Sir. i've actually tried doing some meditation the last few days, but have been struggling with it. However, i'm also keeping a meditation journal and afterwards i write down how I feel afterward and why i think i struggled. i think it might be helping as i've fallen asleep much quicker. i'm glad to hear the Tanka helped Sir, even if only for a moment or two. i hope we both are able to find our ways out of our respective writing slumps. As far as the doctor, i really hope to find some answers when this latest round of blood work comes back. If nothing shows up, then we'll talk to the doctor and see what we do next, though i already have a few ideas.

It's still not fixed, but I remembered the issue from before and put it in manually

So much has happened in the last year. There's so much I wanted to do, that I never actually managed to accomplish. Of course, a lot of that pales in comparison to my biggest accomplishment yet...Baby J. We waited so long for him, and at times I still feel like maybe we're living in a dream, or that something is going to happen that will take it all away. I try my best not to focus on the negatives, but sometimes it's hard. Then I look at that little boy's smiling face, or hear his little giggle, and I realize that everything I didn't accomplish, doesn't matter. What matters is him, and my Husband, and our little family. What matters is making the most of every moment that we have together. It's been a rocky road getting to where we're at now, but in the end, it was all worth it. I came to a realization this evening, as I was sitting here listening to the Hubby and Baby J sleep. I was looking at the themes for the anthologies this year and thought that just maybe, I could write something for it. It's been so long since I really did much writing at all. And I realized something. About the time I quit writing, really writing, was about the same time that I got diagnosed with Anxiety. That stupid A word that makes me think that every little twinge is something wrong. To be fair, many in my family have had health issues the last couple years, and not just minor ones. But that had happened before and I'd always been able to write through. I'd always been able to put my feelings to paper and it helped. Then a dang nurse at a doctor's office mentioned one word, and I saw something wrong with me around every corner. (Note to nurses: Don't tell a patient (all perfectly calmly) that their blood pressure is in stroke range and you'll just give it a moment and take it again. Nothing good comes from that, especially when less than five minutes later you take it again and go "Oh, it's a lot lower now, maybe it was a mistake". Maybe? MAYBE? You mean you don't know? You're talking about my damn life, woman! GRRRRRR) I'm lucky in that I have a Husband who is willing to do whatever it takes to put my mind at ease, but sometimes I feel like it gets a bit ridiculous. And the more I looked at things, the more I realized that is when I stopped writing. I was so focused and worried about what MIGHT be wrong with me health wise, that it consumed me. I started with a new doctor, and at first things seemed good, up until I refused a medication that I read more bad than good about. Sure, it worked for people's anxiety, as long as they never tried to go off of it. And it wasn't even something that he thought for sure would work, but something that he just wanted to "try". Everything I read pointed to people being completely hooked after only a very very short round of dosages, even less than how long he wanted me to "try" them for. And these people had a nightmare of a time trying to come off of it, many of which never managed it). After talking about it with the Hubby, we both agreed that neither of us were comfortable with me being on that medication. My doctor's response was basically to tell me that he didn't know what else I wanted him to do then. Ummm... I don't know, maybe try and actually rule stuff out rather than blaming anxiety for EVERYTHING! In the end, we THINK that some of the ER trips, EKG's, chest x-rays, and doctors appointments that I was told were just anxiety, were the beginnings of my gallstones. They hurt, but we're thinking the gallstones just weren't big enough to cause the excruciating pain that finally got the ER docs to do an ultrasound and find the stupid gallstones. Gallbladder removal, and surprise, no more than the occasional twinge that could be just about anything. Fast forward to now. I've started going to a new doctor that is doing a really long blood panel to see if anything comes back. It's early days yet, but he has promised that he will NOT blame anxiety for things without ruling other issues out first. So we'll see how that works out. Anyway, that's a long winded way of saying that perhaps I need to look at things a little bit different now. I've always had some anxiety, but never as bad as it has been in the last couple years. If what I now suspect is true, perhaps it was my writing that helped me to keep my anxiety in check. Could it be possible that by losing my writing, I lost that outlet that gave the anxiety free rein? If I could get back into writing, is it possible that I'd be focused enough on that and Baby J that the anxiety would take a back seat? I'm hoping to find out. Of course, there are no guarantees, but this year, I'm going to put forth a concerted effort to get back into my writing (most likely during Baby J's naps and after he goes to bed at night). It might just start out with short stories, or prompts, but writing was my escape for so long, and I think when I quit writing, I lost the part of me that was able to keep other things at bay (though I got something back too, in the form of Baby J). Anyway, this was all on my mind, so I thought I'd get it down while thinking about it. I hope to have something new to share soon!!!

Round 4 is now up. It was a little delayed due to real life issues, but you will have until February 6th to answer. And, this time there's a bonus question for all groups!

Hope you have a much better 2019, Wayne!

Round 4 will be up sometime tomorrow!

The questions in the post are the only questions the authors get asked.

I wanted to do something new for 2019, and what better than to start the new year off with a brand new feature. This one could be interesting as Authors were sent interview questions and had to answer them. The author's name has been omitted, and you'll have until the 26th to guess the author. The weekly wrap up on the 27th will reveal who our mystery author is. Each member gets three guesses, after that, guesses won't count. Happy guessing! What is one thing that most GA members might not know about you? I have never been hang gliding. What prompted you to write your first story? My grade 5 teacher. I’d always made up stories but she pushed me to write one. What genre of books do you enjoy reading and have you written for that genre? Many types are including comedy, drama, historical, horror, and science fiction. I’ve written a number of them. Is there a genre that you haven’t written for that you would consider trying later on? Perhaps one day historical or horror. Both would be a challenge. What do like most about publishing on GA? That would have to be the interaction with readers. Do you have any unique writing habits or rituals to help you get into a writing mood? No, nothing in particular. I do like to have a cup of coffee, however. How has your writing style evolved over time? Yes, it most definitely has evolved. Practice makes perfect as they say. Most people know I need a lot more practice. Do you have a significant other? Yes, I do. Do you have any pets? No, I do not have any pets. Do pet rocks count? Do you post multi-chapter stories as you write? Do you wait until you’ve finished writing the entire story? Or is it something in between? I prefer to write the entire story. Doing so ensures that you do not write yourself into a corner. So much less embarrassment that way. What is your favorite television show? Well, that’s a hard one. After much thought, I would have to say, Fortitude. What is your favorite movie? The Legend of Hell House Do you write poetry? Prose? Or both? I enjoy writing both. Each of them brings a different sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. If you could meet one person, living or dead, who would it be? I would enjoy meeting John Steinbeck. He is an author I much admire. What would you say is your greatest accomplishment? Beyond my writing, I would have to say my marriage. It means a great deal to me.