Renee Stevens

Thank you, Val! Thank you, tim. Glad that you enjoyed the puzzles

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!! Hello, Hello!!!! Long time no talk to! My little guy is doing well (and sleeping through the night, YAY!) and I thought perhaps it was time I returned to my site duties. A huge thank you to all the admins and other team members for taking care of the blogs and blog content while I tended to Baby J and took care of some health issues. @wildone has agreed to continue helping with the Weekly Wrap Up blogs while I get back into the swing of things. I hope everyone is doing well. Now, let's see what I have in store for you on this spooky holiday!!! Now that you have some Halloween stories to read, how about some other Halloween fun? Halloween Sudoku anyone? Maybe a Halloween Crossword? The solutions are hidden in the spoiler! Halloween Sudoku Each box, row, and column must contain only one letter of "Halloween". Since there are two "L" and two "E" each will contain one uppercase "L" and "E" and one lowercase "l" and "e". Halloween Crossword Note: If you click on the picture, the numbers are clearer. Solutions

Thank you, Timothy!!!!

I hope to include our community more in future blog posts. With that in mind here are some questions: Authors: Have you experienced writer's block? If so, what helped you get past it? Do you use an outline? Why or why not? Readers: When reading, what is one thing that will make you stop reading a story? What is your favorite trope? What draws you to it? Editors: What would be your number one tip that authors should do BEFORE sending their story to their editor? What is your biggest pet peeve when editing? And why does it bug you so much? PM me your answers. In the subject line, please use: writer's block answer, stop reading answer, or tip from editor. PM me your answers. In the subject line, please use: Outline answer, Favorite Trope answer, or Pet Peeve answer. Deadline: December 5, 2018

We've had 7 sign ups, so far!!!! Who's next? Just PM me

Author questions are complete! I have three authors signed up already, who's next? If you'd like to sign up, please PM me and I'll send you the list of questions. Authors will be posted in the order in which I receive their completed questions. Thank you!!!!

Looks like there is enough interest, so I just need to come up with the questions and guidelines. If you'd like to sign up to have a Guess Who feature, PM me, and I'll PM you the list of questions as soon as I'm finished coming up with them. Should only take me a day or two! Then once I get enough backlog, I'll start posting whenever I have an open blog.

Well, I never said authors can't guess on their own blog posts to try and throw the community members off their trail

I could maybe make a Guess Who Winner signature banner for those who guess correctly.... or for the author if they evade being guessed....

And if anyone has ideas for the questions, simply PM me!

A thought I had, for kind of a fun blog feature, plus another chance for authors to get themselves out there.... What about doing a "Guess Who" blog feature? Authors would answer a few interview questions, but with some guidelines, and the community would try to guess who it is... Then in the weekly wrap up, we'd reveal the author, along with a link to up to two stories on GA that the author would like to promote? If there's any interest, I'll start putting it together and then open it to sign ups A sample question might be: What prompted you to write your first story? (With this question, you wouldn't be able to give the story name)

Good luck, James! I hope all goes well for you and your brother!

I started a response to one of these, but Baby J would wake up every time I thought about writing! It's like he knew what I was thinking!!!

Hope you have a quick recovery, Val!

@Dodger

Happy Birthday, Mann!!!! Hope you have a great day and great sales at the art fair!

Thank you everyone! Baby J is doing great and I’m on the mend. He’s actually a pretty happy little guy and rarely cries and as of right now, he only wakes up about twice during the night for feedings. He’s obviously getting what he needs though, because as of Tuesday, he’s gained 5 ounces!

Thank you everyone!!! Had a good day. Just spent the day at home with Hubby and Baby J, and my parents and Grandma brought over dinner and cake.

Thank you everyone!!! After 12 hours of labor which ended up in a c-section, and 3 days in the hospital, and one night under UV lights for Baby J, we all got to come home yesterday afternoon. Baby J and I are doing well, I'm just a bit sore and a bit bruised up.

Thank you! Normally my chapters are longer, except for with this story and a couple others. This story was written as part of a flash fiction group, where each week we posted a 1,000 word or less chapter. There were so many times that I wanted to go over that set word limit, lol. And yeah, I never liked Mark's old man either!

I suspect, though @Myr would have to confirm, that once they've all been gone through, they'll be gone through again. These are a way to highlight the past anthologies, as well as keep the upcoming anthologies in the minds of authors

Sorry I missed replying when you commented, Val! Glad you enjoyed the story Thanks for reading! I wanted to do something a little different for the theme, and I thought this fit

As this was for an anthology, it was meant to be a shorter read. However, once my muse decides to actually let me write again, I do have one final story planned for these guys! Thanks for reading!

Hope everyone has had a great week so far. It's time for this weeks writing prompts. If you're stuck, or you're considering writing for the first time, these might be perfect for you. Don't forget that stories under 1,000 words must be posted as part of a collection. Prompt 674 – Creative Tag – First Line “What do you mean, I’m the father?” Prompt 675 – Creative Tag – First Date You set up a romantic first date, but your date recently was in an accident and their leg is still in a cast. What is the date like? Don't forget to share your prompt responses from last week! I'm fired. I completely spaced posting the responses to "Renee's Writing Challenge" on the 1st. It looks like the only one to take up the challenge, was Puppilull. Thanks for taking the challenge, @Puppilull. What was your experience like when writing the two short stories? Was it easier than you thought? More difficult?