Renee Stevens

It's that time of week again, time for the weekly prompts! Before I give the prompts, I want to remind everyone that if your prompt response contains ANY adult material, your entire prompt collection MUST be rated as "Mature". If you need more information on the different story ratings, you can find the information in this weeks earlier blog post or in the help section. Now, onto the prompts! Prompt 362 – Creative Tag – List of Words Use the following in story – candy corn, pumpkin, black cat, torn cape, and a piñata. Prompt 363 – Creative Tag – The Party You have been invited to a party by a name you don’t recognize. It states you are to arrive in costume on the appointed date. As you pull up you see two people already dressed in the same outfit so you don’t want to feel like you bought yours at a fire sale. You race off to change, but when you get back a half hour later the block is now empty and the house is gone. What happened to the party? Now, what should I feature? I decided on ColumbusGuy's response to Prompts 360, enjoy: To read the rest, click here.

“Why didn’t you just tell me that?” I shook my head even though Jamie couldn’t see me. She’d decided to call me after she got home to give me some more of her thoughts on telling Jake about me and Tony. I’d finally managed to interrupt and tell her Tony was on his way over. “When did you give me a chance?” “I’ll let you go, but you’ve got to call me tomorrow and tell me how it goes!” Trust her to ignore my question. “Yeah, yeah. Good night.” I hung up and headed down the hall to get Ja

Thank you for the great review Cia! I need to go back to JBB soon as I know I have a few reviews on it that I need to answer I hope you guys enjoy it when you do! Thank you Aditus! Glad that you enjoyed it enough to be willing to read it again Thank you for the rec Slytherin! I'm glad you enjoyed the story and my take on vampires

Fridays are a great day here at the GA News Blog! Not only does it signal the end of the week, but it's also time to bring you two new prompts supplied to us by the prompt guru, Comicfan. Whether you are looking for inspiration to help get over writers block or you just want to write something short and quick, the prompts are a great way to get started! Let's see what Comicfan has for us this week! Prompt 360 – Creative Tag – First Line “Why do I even bother?” Prompt 361 – Creative Tag – The Fair Every year the local county throws a fair. It is always a lot of food, crafts, and things to buy. This year a carnival has been added to the fair and the whole mood has changed. People seem to be attracted the dark tents, loud noises, and wild rides. Is this just a new addition or has something sinister come to the local fair this year? We only had a couple responses last week, I decided to share Valkyrie71's response to Prompt #358: Read the rest, here.

With the completion of "No More Hiding", it was time for a new Premium Story to take it's place. M.A. Church has provided us with her story The Harvest: Taken for our Premium section and the Prologue and Chapter One started posting this past Saturday. If you don't already have a Premium Subscription, now would be a great time to get one. Not only will you get to read a great story as it posts, but you also get to help support the site! Taken by M.A. Church In 2050, humanity finds out they are indeed not alone. Massive crafts appear without warning above the capitals of all major nations. The planet Tah'Nar is dying. Chemical warfare reduced the warrior race to sterility. They need fresh DNA in order to reproduce... and so they turn to Earth. Dale Michael assumes he's safe since he's under the age limit for The Harvest. How wrong he is! Series: The Taken In Progress Chapters: 2 Category Fiction Genres Drama, Sci-Fi, Romance Tags Medical, Aliens, Adult, Off-Planet, Space, Bdsm Rating Mature Join us every Saturday for more of "The Harvest: Taken"? Or maybe you want to check out more of what's in the Premium Section? It's easy, just purchase a Premium Subscription! Premium Content $8.10 $8.10 Monthly Premium Content - 3 Months $24.00 $24.00 Every 3 months Premium Content - 6 Months $47.00 $47.00 Every 6 months Premium Content - 1 Year $93.00 $93.00 Annually

Hope everyone has had a great week so far and is looking forward to the weekend. What better way to start it off than with brand new prompts! If you've been feeling stuck, or maybe just want to do something a little different, maybe one of these prompts will jumpstart a new idea. Don't forget, if under 1,000 words, prompt responses that are posted in GA Stories must be posted as part of a collection. Prompt 358 – Creative Tag – List of Words Use the following in a story – fall leaves, rain storm, blue jeans, kitten, and a pizza Prompt 359 – Creative Tag – The Mutt The dog arrived in the middle of night with a note on his collar telling you to keep him and he will help you with your problems. You thought whoever left the dog had to be crazy. However, after a week the dog seemed to sense you needed things and for some odd reason would nearly drag you on your attempts to walk him right into the middle of some problem that ended up solving one you were having. What do you do with your mutt now? Normally this would be the part where I'd share a response from the last set of prompt responses, this week however, we have a little something extra to share. AC Benus and Irritable1 started doing poetry prompts a month ago. Just a couple of days ago, AC Benus posted Poetry Prompt #2! Poetry Prompt #2: Write two Haiku. One inspired by a sight you witnessed outdoors, in a secluded patch of nature (either in your yard, a city park, or the great untamed wilderness). And a second one inspired by an urban sight (something that catches your eye on the street), or that happens indoors. You must be true to the form and include a seasonal word within both poems, but remember, words like 'surfboard' and 'bug spray' speak of summer just as much as 'frog' and 'cicada' do. Think outside the box and just use a sight that speaks to the season in the part of the world you are right now. To be a true Haiku, do not use words or concepts like "I," "my," "mine," etc. Stick to plain scene painting, for if the sight moved you, it has the potential to move others too. Before you write your Haiku's, you might want to check out all the background information shared in the Prompt Thread! Now, lets look at some Prompt Responses! This week I've decided to share Aditus' response to Prompt #356: Also, since we're adding Poetry Prompt #2, I decided to feature a response from Poetry Prompt #1: Tanka. Here is Rano's Tanka poem: Don't forget.... Read, Write, and REVIEW.

It's hard to believe that it's already October, and with the start of a new month, it's also time for the newest Ask An Author monthly feature, provided by Dark! Do you have a favorite author on-site? Have you had a question that you've been wanting to ask them, but haven't? If so, send it to Dark and you might just see it in an upcoming Ask An Author feature!! Ask an Author #21 Welcome back to another quirky question and answer session with your favorite authors! In AtA #20, we had questions for authors Aditus, Celethiel, and TetRefine. In AtA #21, we hear from authors comicfan, K.C., and reddirtwriter. For their protection, the members who asked these questions shall remain nameless (unless they choose to reveal themselves). Please note that all author replies are copied as is, spelling errors and grammar eccentricities original to the individual. Our first author today is Comicfan, a member of the Forum Moderation Team. Comicfan (perhaps so named due to his love of Peanuts?) and I have been members for about the same amount of time but you might be most familiar with him as the instigator of Friday’s prompts, evil creature that he is. In case you didn’t know, as a New York-er, Comicfan equates sarcasm with love ... when he’s not cursing at the craziness that amounts for island living, that is. It’s been a busy summer for Comicfan, a summer of new beginnings at a wedding and of goodbyes, specifically making room in the old noggin for some new memories by excising the old. While still cranking away at his multi-chapter story, The Strange Life of Jonas Marks, Comicfan has gifted the September Anthology (Scars) with two new stories! Both have about 4k words, with Fang and Claw falling in the werewolf/supernatural genre and crossing over into the crime drama genre and Body and Soul a more modern drama. Have you checked them out yet? While you’re at it, take a look at the other anthology offerings. To Comicfan: Where do you get your inspiration for the prompts you come up with? Do you ever have a response in mind when you come up with them? Prompts come from a number of places. There are ideas for stories that I don't have time to write, conversations overheard, times spent people watching, and sometimes suggestions made to me by other members, like the bacon prompt by AJ. People have requested picture prompts, first line, and lists of words which is why they appear so often. Mainly I try to create something that will give people an idea they can make their own. I love seeing what people do with the ideas. Some create great little gems to read and others have turned them into multi chaptered tales. That is the great thing about the prompts, they are as unique as the author who takes up the challenge. Also joining GA around the same time as Comicfan and myself is recently-promoted K.C. As of April 2014, K.C. has joined the ranks of our Signature Authors. Congrats, K.C.! You may be asking yourself “Why him?” and I’d tell you, but it’s best you find out for yourself by reading one of the tons of stories he’s posted. Many of you have already sampled Pour Me Another and Great Balls of Fire, two winners from 2013’s Reader’s Choice Awards, but he has actually written some stories not for the anthologies. I think I still like best Chasing the Shadows, written way back when in 2011, but there’s also A Grim Fairy Tale, a short story about my favorite holiday: Halloween! To K.C.: What was it like to get promoted from Promising Author to Signature Author? I'm always amazed that people actually read my stories! LOL Winning awards or getting promotions for something that I do because I love it, is incredible. I remember looking at the Hosted/Signature Authors & Promising Authors with stars in my eyes when I first joined GA. I aspired to reach that point and now to be rubbing elbows among them is unbelievable. My writing has improved as I've learned so much over the years with help from many GA members with beta readers, editing, and readers encouragement that it has pushed me to keep trying harder with every new project I take on. Reaching this point doesn't mean I get to slack off and enjoy, now the real work begins 'cause people are watching and will know if I screw it up! Today we finish up with author reddirtwriter. He’s a bit of a food connoisseur and you can check out some of his favorite new recipes by venturing over to the blog he started about a year ago in May of 2013. (You can also find out his super-secret name!) reddirtwriter has led an eclectic life, migrating from the southwest to the Midwest (crazy man to stay there, lol) and having held quite a few jobs has accumulated some serious story fodder. In the short time he’s been churning out good stories, reddirtwriter has also become published through not one but three different publishers and has also self-published. Find out where on his blog. I think he’s most well-known on GA from his story Wrangler Butts, a story that was no doubt influenced by the time he spent as a ranch hand. I like it because, well, come on, cowboys! There’s nothing quite like a good butt in a tight-fitting pair of jeans, and these guys have attitude to match. To reddirtwriter: What was your first story and what inspired you to write it? My first story was Wrangler Butts. It's a western romance between two graduate students in an Agricultural college. Why did I write it? I grew up in a pretty rural setting and like the whole ranch and cowboy thing. Unfortunately, most of the stories in those settings had the characters sounding and acting like morons. I didn't like their versions of the people I'd known, so Wrangler Butts was born. It now has two sequals and a fourth in the works. That’s it for now! For more info on these authors, go check out their stories, post in their forums, and/or catch them in chat! Coming next time: Stay tuned for the Ask an Author #22, an ultra-special installment with 2 questions each for 4 different authors: comicality, Nephylim, Rob Colton, and Sasha Distan. Can you believe I’ve been compiling these for almost two years now? Want to ask your favorite author a question? Simply PM me (Dark). Until next time! Dark

Want to help support Gay Authors? One way to do that is to purchase a Premium Subscription. As a Thank You, there are a fair number of stories available for Premium Subscribers to read. Each week, I'm featuring one of the Premium stories in the GA News blog. This week, I'm featuring the story "The Cassini Mission" by Rob Colton. The Cassini Mission by Rob Colton Former Union Navy scientist, Dr. Aron Adler is ordered on a rescue mission to an outer rim research colony located on an uninhabited planet. He reports to the USC Cassini along with two other scientists and a Union Marines unit. Dishonorably discharged for failure to obey orders, the Cassini crew shuns Aron. He finds comfort in the arms and bed of Marine Corporal Kane Robertson. At the colony it becomes apparent all is not what it seems. Once again, Aron must decide: follow orders or his heart. Series: Galactic Conspiracies Words: 37,575 Chapters: 10 Category Fiction Genres Sci-Fi, Romance, Adventure Tags Future, Love, Anal, Space, Aliens, Military Rating Mature Want to read "The Cassini Mission"? Or maybe you want to check out more of what's in the Premium Section? It's easy, just purchase a Premium Subscription! Premium Content $8.10 $8.10 Monthly Premium Content - 3 Months $24.00 $24.00 Every 3 months Premium Content - 6 Months $47.00 $47.00 Every 6 months Premium Content - 1 Year $93.00 $93.00 Annually

Well, another week has gone by and the time has come to take a look at what's happened in the GA News Blog this past week. Before we do that, I seem to recall promising an announcement of the 2015 Anthology Themes. A big thank you to the team who helped narrow down the choices as well as to everyone who voted. We have some great themes for next year and they are: 2015 Anthology Themes Spring Anthology: Full Circle Summer Anthology: Road Trip Fall Anthology: Blurred Edges Winter Anthology: Blackout Poetry Anthology: Remember To start off our week, we featured a review of Judas Tree by Author: AC Benus. Timothy M. thoroughly enjoyed reading the first story in the series of novellas and brought us a great review for the first story in the series. Based on the comments, he wasn't the only one who enjoyed the story by AC Benus. If you haven't already read Judas Tree, check out Monday's post and see if maybe the story might be for you. If you have read it, feel free to stop by and leave your own comment as to what you thought of the story! It's always great to bring attention to our Premium Stories since they are one of the ways in which GA is funded. On Tuesday we featured a story by Cia called Burden of Secrets. It's a great story and so worth the price of a premium membership. If you don't believe me, just go check out the comments on Tuesday's posts. Myr joined us on Wednesday to bring us his monthly Tech feature. This month he talked about the testing of the new forum software and some of the new features, one of which is the way the new software will recognize top contributors. There is a lot of great information in these monthly features and as the release of the new forum software gets closer, we'll have a lot more of them. Curious as to what's coming? Go check out the blog post! Friday brought us a couple of new prompts from the Prompt Guru. This week he decided to give us a "First Line" prompt and a creative prompt with the tag of "The Party". It should be interesting to see what people come up with. Some members have already taken these prompts and ran with them. We also featured Rook Lee's prompt response to last week's Prompt #355. Normally Friday would have been the end of the week for the blog, but this week we had a Saturday post. In another break from the norm, our CSR Discussion Day took place on the last Saturday of the month instead of on a Monday. This month we had a live Q & A with Dark regarding their story "The Phantom." There were lots of great questions asked and answered so stop by to see what Dark had to say as the interviewee instead of the interviewer! Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team*** 2014 Winter Anthology: Chain Reaction - Due December 3rd 2015 Spring Anthology: Full Circle - Due March 3rd ***NEW READING*** In Premium: No More Hiding by Renee Stevens *COMPLETE* Do Over by dkstories *reposting* By our Signature Authors: Priest and Pariahs by Mann Ramblings; Book 3 of Ship Logs of the Santa Claus Leopard Spots by Graeme; Book 2 of The Lilydale Leopards Finding Alex by Nephylim A prompt a week by comicfan Global Explorer by David McLeod Sword of Kings: Forged Out of Necessity by Bill W The Secret Life Of Billy Chase 8 by Comicality; Book 8 of Billy Chase Chronicles Lost Inside by Cia; Book 2 of Carthera Tales Noah's New Plan by Rob Colton Streak by Mark Arbour; Book 15 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) Kiss Of An Angel by Comicality By our Promising Authors: Lay Your Prompts On Me by Sasha Distan; Book 2 of GA Prompts Sole Scion by JMH; Book 2 of The Sole Scion Cycle: Second Cycle of the Centurion Chronicles Vintage by carringtonrj The Art of Being Gay by Cole Matthews A Wolf And His Man by Sasha Distan Redemption's A Bitch by Sasha Distan Curse of the Fallen by JMH; Book 2 of Fallen Don't forget.... Read, Write, and REVIEW!!!

Thank you Little Blue One. I look forward to seeing what you think of the final chapters. It is a bit of a sad day, but on the plus side, it just means I can turn my focus to something else. I will miss Phillip, Vance, Jacob, Sam, Robert, Bree, Corey, and Marissa though. *sigh* Maybe that's why I wanted to share a little of the history of "No More Hiding". Sometimes it really sucks to change a story from "In Process" to "Complete"

Wow. It’s hard to believe that No More Hiding has finished posting in Premium. I first started writing about Phillip and Vance all the way back in 2009. I completed it and ran it by a few of my friends and, after a bunch of corrections, submitted it to a publisher in February of 2010. In April 2010, I heard back that it was being rejected. It was probably the nicest rejection letter I could have gotten. Not only did the publisher tell me they liked the characters and the storyline, they told me exactly what it was that was keeping them from accepting No More Hiding for publication. It took nearly a year before I really decided to sit back down and start to work on the story again with the help of Sara Alva (at that time known as KingdombytheSea). I didn’t understand what the publisher was talking about, but I was lucky that Sara did and was willing to help me. Unfortunately, we only made it through about five chapters of the rewrite before the story stalled. Entirely my fault as I started struggling with the chapters. I can’t say enough about how much Sara helped me in those early chapters. Fast forward nearly three years when I was asked about doing a story for Premium. I had a couple options, and at first I tried to work on a story called Rough Stock Wranglers. I got a few chapters into the revision before realizing that it needed a lot more work than what I could accomplish in the time frame I had to complete it. So I turned my attention once more to No More Hiding. It’s been a lot of work. I’ve changed some plot aspects, added some scenes, and some chapters were nearly complete rewrites. I was incredibly lucky to have Cia and AJ who stuck with me through its entirety and once again, not only has it finished posting in Premium, but it is once again in the hands of a publisher. A different one this time and hopefully by the end of October I’ll have an answer as to whether or not they’ll accept it for publication. If they don’t, then it looks like I’ll be self-publishing it, just like I did with Challenging Fate! A huge Thank You to all those who have been reading and commenting on the story as it posts! I've enjoyed reading all of your thoughts and thank you for sticking with me through the story, I know at times it has been a bit of a tough read! So, what's next? It’s hard to imagine that it’s been a 5 year journey with No More Hiding. Now I need to work on Rough Stock Wranglers, which, ironically enough, will have also become a 5 year journey once it’s done considering it was my 2010 NaNoWriMo story. (I will also be working on finishing "Thwarted", "Line of Sight", and "Forging Trust".)

It's Friday again!!! I hope that everyone has had a great week so far. It's that time again for two new prompts, supplied as always by our prompt guru, Comicfan! *Reminder: Authors are more than welcome to post their Prompt Responses in GA Stories, but please remember that flash pieces under 1k must be posted in collections, not as individual stories.* Prompt 356 – Creative Tag – First Line “Since when do I have to tell you everything?” Prompt 357 – Creative Tag – The Party You have been part of a group who meet and discuss things online for the past five years. They have decided to get together and have a huge party. What is it like and where is it held? This week I decided to feature Rook Lee's response to Prompt #355: To read the rest, click here!

For those who are new to the GA News Blog, Tuesday's are the day when I share a little information about one of our Premium Stories. While Gay Authors is free to it's members, it's not free to run. One of the ways GA keeps the site running is by the help from members who purchase a Premium Subscription. What do you get when you purchase a Premium Subscription? You get access to the select few stories that are not available to the regular membership. One such story is "Burden of Secrets" by Cia. Burden of Secrets by Cia They both have secrets they want to hide. Chris isn't out and his break-up with a waitress at the restaurant his father owns, and he's interning at, results in a lot of pain for someone else. He has to take care of Niel as much as he has to hide how much he wants him. There's something about him that draws Chris in. But Niel's hiding too, from some very bad ... people. Will he have the courage to tell Chris everything and will Chris still want him afterward? Words: 25,443 Chapters: 5 Category Fiction Genres Romance, Fantasy, Drama Tags Modern, Coming Out, Adult, Magic, Young Adult Rating Mature Want to read "Burden of Secrets"? Or maybe you want to check out more of what's in the Premium Section? It's easy, just purchase a Premium Subscription! Premium Content $8.10 $8.10 Monthly Premium Content - 3 Months $24.00 $24.00 Every 3 months Premium Content - 6 Months $47.00 $47.00 Every 6 months Premium Content - 1 Year $93.00 $93.00 Annually

WOW! What a week! Hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready for a new week to begin. I know I am, since I'll be gone all week! Before I forget, I've got a little reminder before I get to the Weekly Wrap Up! Reminder: SonoLuminus has decided to participate in Light the Night, a walk to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She has dedicated her walk, and even named her team, in memory of Robert (aka Trebs) who passed away on August 7th after a long battle with Mantle Cell Lymphoma. To learn more about Light the Night and how you can help support SonoLuminus, please visit the lounge topic. Now, let's see what happened this past week! We started out our week with review day for our September Signature Background featured story, "9.11" by Mark Arbour! We did things a little different this week considering the sheer nature of not only the story itself, but the series itself. The CAP Saga is enormous with many reviews, so instead of asking one author to review the story, Cia pulled a few reviews from the story itself. Hope you enjoyed seeing what some of the other readers thought, feel free to stop by and share your own thoughts as well! Tuesday was Premium day where we featured "The Experiment" by Cia. Premium Content Subscriptions help to maintain the site and keep the majority of content free. If you've thought about subscribing, check out Tuesday's post and see just one of the stories you would gain access to! Mark Arbour has been a member of GA for over nine years. On Wednesday we got to learn a little more about not only him and his thoughts on writing in general, but what it was like for him personally as he wrote his story "9.11". As many would guess, it had to be an emotional undertaking, right? Want to know Mark's thoughts? Go check out the interview Cia did, it's there, just waiting for you! To finish off the week we brought you the weekly... Oh, wait, that's right, there were no prompts this week. Why you may ask? Because instead of prompts, we released eighteen, that's right, EIGHTEEN, brand new stories for you to check out. On Thursday, the 2014 Fall Anthology: Scars was made live. There's something for everyone: Romance, Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror, Adventure, Historical, Creative Non-Fic, and Poetry! Don't forget to leave the Authors a review to let them know what you think of their hard work!! Anthology Announcements: 2014 Winter Anthology: Chain Reaction - Due December 3rd *Note: Deadline is for submission to the Anthology Proof Team* 2015 Anthology Theme Voting is Now Open - Make sure to stop by the topic and register your votes for what you would like to tackle writing or reading over the next year. We have some really great choices to choose from thanks to our Anthology Theme Selection Authors who whittled down 162 suggestions to 20 Quarterly themes and 5 Poetry themes. You have until September 21st to vote, so VOTE NOW!!! ***NEW READING*** In Premium: No More Hiding by Renee Stevens By our Signature Authors: Priest and Pariahs by Mann Ramblings; Book 3 of Ship Logs of the Santa Claus What's in a Prompt by Andy78; Book 3 of GA Prompt Stories "Waiting Outside The Lines" by Comicality Standing In Shadows by Krista Streak by Mark Arbour; Book 15 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) HMS Valiant by Mark Arbour; Book 7 of Bridgemont Stitching Our Memories Together by Bill W *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* S.C.A.R.S. 2094 by Bill W *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* Festering Wounds by Bill W *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* Fang and Claw by comicfan *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* Family Tree by Renee Stevens *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* Body and Soul by comicfan *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* Bridging the Chasm by Cia; Book 3 of A Maze For Three *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* Global Explorer by David McLeod The Secret Life Of Billy Chase 8 by Comicality; Book 8 of Billy Chase Chronicles Sword of Kings: Forged Out of Necessity by Bill W Thwarted by Renee Stevens Lost Inside by Cia, Book 2 of Carthera Tales Line of Sight by Renee Stevens By our Promising Authors: Curse of the Fallen by JMH; Book 2 of Fallen Vintage by carringtonrj Into the Fire by Cole Matthews *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* Bright Thunder by Sasha Distan *2014 Fall Anthology: Scars* The Art Of Being Gay by Cole Matthews A Wolf And His Man by Sasha Distan Sole Scion by JMH; The Sole Scion Cycle: Second Cycle of the Centurion Chronicales Redemption's A Bitch by Sasha Distan Lay Your Prompts On Me by Sasha Distan; Book 2 of GA Prompts Don't forget.... Read, Write, and REVIEW!!!!

Thank you for your review Timothy. While I disagree with you, everyone has their own opinions. Tree's in a natural forest are going to get scarred over time, granted, some could be prevented, but not all. Do foresters also take a dim view of Elk & Deer raking their antlers against a tree, scraping the bark off and scarring the trunk? Or a bear raking their claws into the trunk leaving marks that also can scar over time? Do I advocate going around and taking a knife to every tree you come in contact with, no, but a family, or a couple, carving their names into a tree isn't a horrific act. Whenever I'd go to the tree where generations of my family have carved their names, I feel a sense of belonging. I guess the difference is, that foresters look at a tree and only see dollar signs, so the slightest imperfection is unacceptable.

Thank you Sam, I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's so interesting when you find something like that and imagine all the people who have been there before you. Something like that has it's own tale to tell.

Thank you Cole! I'm glad you enjoyed it! So many times Scars are only seen as something bad, I wanted to show a way in which Scars, while still a disfigurement, were actually something good and I'm glad that I was able to do so.

Thanks Aditus! It was a great tradition, but sometimes you just have to look beyond the bad and find something good. It's not always easy, but it can be done. Who knows how many names will be on the new tree in the future

Thank you Slytherin! I didn't think it was something too many people would come up with and am glad you enjoyed my take on the theme

Thank you Bill! When I was trying to think of a name for the story I kind of had to smack myself because it was staring me in the face, lol. I've never really sat down and traced my family tree back too far. I'm glad that you enjoyed it and that it brought back special memories for you!

Thanks Wayne! I wanted to do something a little different. I remembered seeing that tree every year and decided to write about it. It's interesting to think about how, even though the people who's names are in the tree may be gone, their is something of them that remains.

Unfortunately, I have a cousin's daughter who celebrates her birthday on September 11th and she hates her birthday. Her's isn't just a normal September 11th birthday either, she was actually born on THE September 11th. We remind her every year that she's the one good thing that happened that day. She still hates her birthday and I can't say as I blame her, because like you said, through her entire birthday she see's all the news coverage, facebook posts, etc. of the September 11th attacks. The sad part of it is, even some of the birthday wishes she got on facebook, the people just couldn't help but mention the attacks. Makes it kind of hard to make her want to celebrate her birthday.

Thank you Mr. Yettie! I'm glad that you enjoyed the story. I'd love to be able to go up and see our own "family tree" but unfortunately it's on private property so it's a bit difficult, though maybe one day. Would just have to get in contact with the people who own the property rights and get permission and keys to all the gates leading in.. Maybe one day and then my brother can add his kids' names to the tree. Would be great! I struggled to come up with the names for this story, but I really liked Ean as well and it's not one I really see too often in stories, so it worked! As far as the picture, I found a site that you could create them and then order them as a poster or canvas. I just saved the preview and then Cia tweaked it a bit for me.

Glad that you enjoyed the story, Cia. Unfortunately for me, sometimes I have too much sentimentality, the good thing is, sometimes I manage to incorporate that into my stories. Thanks for the review!

Thank you Lisa. It sucks that it's not longer standing, but on the bright side, they won't actually have to cut it to be able to take it out of there... The challenge is going to be actually packing it out. I'm glad that you enjoyed the story. As far as the picture, I found a site where you could enter what names you wanted in and it would "carve" them into the tree. You could then order the results in either a poster or a canvas. I just saved the preview and then Cia helped me by editing it a bit to add some fall color and focus it more on the names.