Renee Stevens

LOL... No, I can't imagine it would be. I'm so glad that I had brothers. Well, to a point, they were a bit overprotective at times, but they never would have set me up! I'm glad you think it flows so well, it's hard to keep it flowing with the chapters being so short. I was so worried that would affect how the story moved along. Thanks for the review Yettie!

Glad you enjoyed it DaddyDave! I couldn't leave em like that for too long, that would have just been mean. Besides, Mark is definitely going to need Jackie's support once Trey leaves, and having something between them would have made that difficult. Better to get things settled before then.

LOL Lisa, I have a bff like Jackie too... Maybe not quite as meddlesome, but close. Love her to pieces, but sometimes... Yeah, it would definitely hard to be as close as those two are and yet have something like that festering between them. I couldn't let it go on for too long, that would just be cruel. I really didn't want Mark to make the first move, so having Jackie show up first, even if Mark planned to go talk to her, was the perfect way to get the ball rolling. Glad you enjoyed it!

Glad that you enjoyed the chapter Suvitar! Jackie does mean a lot to Mark, and like you, I'm glad they've seemed to work through the issue. I know a lot of people aren't that big of a fan of Jackie's, which I can totally understand. The only thing I can say for her is she does have her brother's best interest at heart, it's just that sometimes she takes it just a little too far.

So glad that you are enjoying the story Menace! Don't worry, I have no plans to not finish this story. I'll be posting it every week, even if they are short chapters .

It's definitely a scary experience. I've have friends and family both overseas during wars and it's scary not knowing what's going on. While none of them experienced things quite to the extent that Mark did, I have heard of people who did react in much the same way as Mark. I know my best friend, when she came back, couldn't be in crowds and was really jumpy. Loud sounds made her jumpy and had her looking for cover. She's actually been a great help to me whenever I have questions that I need answered for this story. I'm glad as well that Trey decided not to re-enlist when his time is up, I just hate that Mark had to go through such a breakdown for Trey to come to that decision.

That was definitely a big part of this chapter... Trey was so undecided, and while I didn't want Mark "telling" him what to do, I really wanted Trey to "see" how it still affected Mark and base his decision on that. I know that it affects different people different ways. A friend of mine came home mentally stable, she was in what was considered a green zone, or a relatively safe area, but physically she had a few issues, though they weren't apparent at the time and she is still dealing with them. To the point where it has led to a medical discharge from the military. I had seriously considered having Trey not yet make his decision, but after Mark's reaction to just talking about it, I couldn't in good conscience leave him wondering...

I don't think you'd be disappointed Steve. I've read all of them a couple of different times as I thoroughly enjoy Andr0gene's writing. The House Always Wins remains my favorite, but Colorado Game is a very very close second...

That part was absolutely hilarious! Especially when Michael comes up and rats her out about her spending a lot of her time at the arcade when she's there. The only gripe I have about the entire story is the ending... It kept me wanting more and I sincerely hope that Andr0gene revisits these characters at some point in the future. Even if it's a short story!

As my review already points out, I absolutely love this story by Andr0gene! I don't know as I could say much more than what I've already said in my review, but I am going to take this opportunity to suggest the following story for next months book club story: Two of a Kind by Cia Not only is this a wonderful story, but I know Cia is never going to suggest one of her own stories for the book club, what do the rest of you think? While Two of a Kind is the second book in the series, it does stand alone and is in a tie as my favorite with the third book... If we have to choose the first book in a series, then I'm perfectly fine with the CSR book club doing the first book in the series as I thoroughly enjoy the entire series: Bonds Unbroken by Cia Anyone willing to second that nomination? Or third it?

Thank you Andy

Another busy week here at Gay Authors! A couple of announcements were made throughout the week. The first was Sasha Distan's promotion to Promising Author! If you haven't already, visit Sasha's new forum and leave a message of congrats! The second big announcement was my promotion to Site Administrator! I look forward to continuing to help out on the site. There was a lot going on in the blog this week as well. On Monday Lisa provided us with a review of "Endings and Beginnings" by long time member and Hosted Author: Viv. If you haven't already checked out this story, then I strongly suggest checking out the review. Maybe it will pique your interest, and you'll find a new story to read! Wednesday we introduced a new feature to the blog. With so many areas of Gay Authors some aspects of the site can sometimes be a little overwhelming. Our Tech Blogs are meant to make it a little easier for members to navigate and do the things they need to do on GA. Our first Tech Blog included a video to help members who are interested in becoming either an author or editor. We ended the week with a couple of new prompts courtesy of our prompt guru Comicfan. This week was a choice of two creative prompts, so hopefully one of two of them will jump start an idea and maybe next week your prompt response will be featured like Daemok's was this week! Anthology Announcements: Winter Anthology: Recipe for Disaster - Due Dec 8th (Don't forget to get them in early so that Anthology Editing Team can do the final proof read!) 2014 Spring Anthology: Nature's Wrath - Due Mar 8th NEW READING In Premium this week: Boy Called Slave by Nephylim By our Hosted Authors this week: Durch Ferne Welten und Zeiten by David McLeod Geeks by CassieQ Odyssey by Mark Arbour; Book 6 of Bridgemont 9.11 by Mark Arbour Book 13 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) Recovery by Nephylim Dribbles by Cia Thwarted by Renee Stevens By our Sponsored Authors this week: Noah's New Plan by Rob Colton By our Promising Authors this week: Summer Camp by Sasha Distan My Coming Out by FrenchCanadian Direct Confusion by Sasha Distan So Little Magic Left by Mann Ramblings Wedding Ring by JMH Have a great week everyone! Don't forget to come back on Monday for our Can't Stop Reading Book club discussion about Andr0gene's story, The House Always Wins. As always... Read, Write, REVIEW!!!

“Hand me that, will you?” Trey pointed at the cell phone lying on Mark’s night stand. Mark palmed the phone and slid from the bed, grinning as Trey’s gaze followed him during the short trip to the dresser. He dug through the drawers until he found a pair of workout shorts and slipped them on. “Got time for breakfast?” He closed the distance between them and slid Trey’s phone into his lover’s front pocket before giving him a quick kiss. At least, it would have been quick if Trey hadn’t grabbe

It's time for another featured story! This week, Lisa was kind enough to provide us with a review of "Endings and Beginnings" by Viv, one of our Hosted Author's here at GA! Not only did she provide us a Hosted Review, but she also provided us with what could be considered a "Blast From the Past", so in essence, it's a two for one! We're always looking for reviews to feature in the blog, so if you've been reading a story that you would like to review for the blog, please PM me! Now, without any more of a wait, lets get onto the review, shall we? Endings and Beginnings by Viv Reviewer: Lisa Status: Complete Word Count: 10,442 This was one of the best stories I’ve read anywhere. And the good thing is, there are four more like it. Viv started “Endings and Beginnings” for the Spring 2007 Anthology and she continued with books 2-4 for the Summer, Fall, and Winter Anthos. Book 5 can be read in the Spring 2008 Antho section. I’m hoping that if enough people read this review, they will check out her stories and review them so she can see that she clearly has to continue with this fantastic series. That’s my hope anyway. I happen to love all her stories; she is truly a gifted writer, but I really hope that if enough readers comment on these particular stories, she’ll complete the series. Tracey Marshall is a very angry nineteen-year-old boy. Ok, ok, to me he’s still a boy even though many of you out there would consider him a man. To me, his actions make him a boy. His mom died two years ago and his father up and got himself a real trophy wife, totally disrespecting his late wife and his son. This really pisses Tracey off. It’s bad enough his mom isn’t around anymore and he misses her so much, but now his father has to flaunt his new bimbo everywhere he goes. One night after drinking, Tracey decides to go on a joyride over to Kingsman Bluff, a ranch about ten miles out of town. He barrels through the ranch, taking out one of the fences and crashing through one of the barns on his way out of there. Since his father won’t pay for the damages, the judge suspends Tracey’s license and rules that he has to live at the ranch and make the necessary repairs himself. Tracey is so overcome with guilt, remorse, and shame that he feels totally embarrassed and humiliated that he has to see the people that he hurt every day. Paulette is the widow who owns the ranch and she lives there with her twin nineteen-year-olds, Catherine (Caty), and Casey, Will, a ranch hand, and Janie, the wonderful cook. Caty is a beautiful, sweet girl who is crushing on Will big time. Of course Will is oblivious. Casey is a hot-tempered, angry boy and Tracey is just fueling his anger because all Casey wants to do is beat up the person who caused so much damage to their ranch. Casey and Tracey (don’t laugh), are so much alike but they don’t even realize it. They both lost parents, they both miss their parent so much, and they have all this anger simmering inside of them, with no where for it to go. Naturally, Casey and Tracey get off to a very rocky start. Casey has so much animosity towards Tracey and he’s just looking to start fights with him while Tracey wishes he could just disappear. He is wallowing in his own guilt and shame, as I’ve mentioned before, and he feels so badly about hurting the Kingsman family due to his own recklessness and contempt for his own life. Book 1 pretty much sets the stage for the next four books, but what a beautiful stage it is. I can’t say enough wonderful things about this series. If you like horses, ranches, a beautiful, funny girl, a sexy ranch hand, a compassionate mother, two hot guys, and a wonderful cook, then look no further: this story is for you!

“Are we really going to keep ignoring it?” Trey pushed his plate back and rested his hands on the table. “No, I guess not.” Mark stood and picked up the plates to carry them to the sink. He’d known Trey wanted to talk about his option of re-enlisting, but it wasn’t something that Mark really looked forward to. He knew what he wanted him to do, but in the end, it was Trey’s decision. Mark dumped the plates in the sink and grabbed a couple of sodas out of the fridge. He had the feeling he was

Wow! What a week it has been here at GA! For those who didn't know, on Thursday, the site moved to a new server! I'm sure I'm not alone in thanking those who worked on making the move go as seamlessly as possible. Hopefully the move to the new server will help keep the site from bogging down due to the high amount of traffic it gets during the day! While I know this is the "Weekly Wrap Up", I also wanted to give a heads up to look out for a new feature coming to the blog this upcoming week. I don't want to spoil the surprise as to what it's going to be, but I think many will enjoy it! Now, let's look at what happened in the blog this week! Every once in a while, we like to bring the members attention to our Premium section and some of the wonderful stories that can be found there. On Monday, we featured a review on "The Cassini Mission" by Rob Colton. The review gave a great intro to this now complete story by this very popular author. If you haven't already, check it out! Things always seem to be dragging by the middle of the week, but not on the GA News Blog! For our Wednesday piece, Ashi provided us with an Interview with Totallyy, a newer author here at GA. Want to know what inspires Totallyy to write? He answers this and much more and gives us a little bit of insight as to what goes on inside his mind when he's writing. Our "Prompt Me" feature was a little different this week. As usual, Comicfan provided us with two new prompts to get your mind working, but rather than simply feature one prompt from last week, Comicfan decided to bring your attention to many different stories. This week, he gave a list of five stories that go beyond the normal one time prompt response. Anthology Announcements: Winter Anthology: Recipe for Disaster - Due Dec 8th (Don't forget to get them in early so that Anthology Editing Team can do the final proof read!) 2014 Spring Anthology: Nature's Wrath - Due Mar 8th NEW READING In Premium this week: Boy Called Slave by Nephylim By our Hosted Authors this week: Take Flight by Cia Geeks by CassieQ Odyssey by Mark Arbour; Book 6 of Bridgemont Durch Ferne Welten und Zeiten by David McLeod 9.11 by Mark Arbour Book 13 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) Thwarted by Renee Stevens By our Sponsored Authors this week: Noah's New Plan by Rob Colton By our Promising Authors this week: Prompt Ramblings by Mann Ramblings So Little Magic Left by Mann Ramblings Veil of Shadow by Stellar; Book 2 of unnamed In eBooks this week: The Cassini Mission by Rob Colton - $2.99 Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!

I agree Daddydave and couldn't have said it better if I'd said it myself. I really didn't want the guys dwelling too much on what they couldn't change, and since they feel the connection, I really wanted them to work on just building something that could last. Of course, they still have meeting Trey's parents to get through and Trey's deployment, but only time will tell what's going to happen with these two. Thank you so much for your review and I look forward to seeing what you say on the future chapters!

Thanks for the review Stephen!! I couldn't let the tension go on too long. I agree, they can only wait and see what happens. Things happened so quick with them but sometimes it just feels right. Hope you continue to enjoy the story!

Before we get to this week's Featured Story, I'd like to take a minute to tell you a little bit about our Premium Section here at Gay Authors. Gay Authors is a free site, but it is certainly not free to keep going. In order to keep GA online, we rely on income from various sources, including advertising. One such resource that funds Gay Authors is our Premium Content. Premium Content is a section of the site that members subscribe to. As a thank you for helping to support the site, you get access to stories that aren't available to the general public. Unless I counted wrong, there are 28 stories currently in Premium and more will be added. The latest story in the Premium section is the now complete "The Cassini Mission" by popular author, Rob Colton, and is the second story in the "Galactic Conspiracies" series. "The Cassini Mission" is also the story we are featuring for the week. The Cassini Mission by Rob Colton Reviewer: Daithi Status: Complete Word Count: 37,239 Rob Colton is an amazing writer I think. He doesn't write complicated or intricate mysteries or earth shattering romantic stories. What I find so amazing about his writing is the fact that he can take something a little out of the norm and make it so you can't put the book down . It doesn't really have a set criteria either, there really is no off limits subject, be it interracial, ex-con or sci-fi; everything just seems so natural and fits when he writes his stories. I think the first story I ever read of his was "The Degan Incident" and I loved it, reread it numerous times. So when "The Cassini Mission", the second book in "Galactic Conspiracies", was posted I was right there and couldn't wait to read it. I remember Aron from Devon and Bastian's story and I couldn't wait to find out how things turned out for him after all the hoopla in "The Degan Incident". The first few chapters grabbed me right away. Aron finds himself back in the Navy. The same Navy, by the way, that dishonourably discharged him for what he thought was right. He is given no choice, he is reinstated and sent out to the far reaches of space with almost no details. Also along on this trip is two other scientists which he knows and a troop of enhanced Marines. Everyone other than Kenji, one of the scientists, and Kane Robertson, an enhanced marine, won't have anything to do with him because of his past military history. Now, why would the navy reinstate someone then ship them out to the far reaches with no info? It just screams intrigue and you know someone is up to no good. These enhanced marines are your typical high school bullies ,bigger, meaner and in your face and every chance they get they constantly bully the three doctors . By this time Kenji and Aron have pretty much decided something isn't right with the assignment, from the no detail mission to the ship that they have to fly in. The Cassini is literally a rust bucket with a skeleton crew, now if this was such an important mission why are they going on a ship that looks like it is held together with bubble gum and baling wire. As time moves on both these doctors and Kane sorta band together. Once they hit the planet and the research center more and more things become clear and crap hits the fan. But for each question Rob answers another one seems to pop up . As of the last chapter before I wrote this all hell seemed to be let loose and Aron once more is put in the hot seat of making a choice to follow what he knows is right or what he knows to be safe. I am looking forward to what happens next to Aron and Kane as they set out to right wrongs done to them and as we find out about Devon and Bastian as well. And of course, another face off with the Navy is sure to be in the cards for Aron. This story is part of the Premium Content on GA , which means that is requires a membership subscription to access the story but take my word for it the stories, including this one by Rob Colton, are worth the few dollars a month needed to access them. Interested in reading "The Cassini Mission" by Rob Colton? Want to help support the site by subscribing to Premium? It's easy to make the purchase in the GA store. The longer subscription you sign up for, the lower the price per day and you can even set it to renew automatically! The current pricing is: 1 Month Subscription: $8.10 3 Month Subscription: $24.00 6 Month Subscription: $47.00 12 Month Subscription: $93.00

I think it's going to be hard for them whether they get closer or not. Though each day has brought them closer together, so I'm sure it's gonna be even worse when the time comes for Trey to leave, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens. You should know by now that I won't give anything away ... Thanks for the review and for reading!!!

Thank you for your review Suvitar! It's definitely a situation that I don't think anyone would want to find themselves in and it would be a difficult situation for someone to find themselves in. Now to see what the next couple weeks bring for these guys, and don't forget, Mark still had to meet Trey's family. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on future chapters!

Mark definitely needs something to help him stay busy while Trey is gone. It still won't be easy, but it will at least give him something to focus on other than what is going on with Trey. Though I'm sure he'll have that on his mind quite a bit as well. He will definitely have a lot of time to think, and over-think... Thanks for the review Lisa!!!!

Thank you Suvitar, glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for the review m.p. I know that me and my brothers definitely fought on a daily basis. We could fight as much as we wanted, but let someone else fight with us and that was an entirely different story! I can understand her concerns as well, but like you said, she needs to be there no matter what. As for what is going to happen between Trey and Mark, only time will tell and I hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters! Thank you again!

I agree Lisa. I'm a sister as well, though I'm also the baby of the family and the only daughter, so I've always been more on the "protected" end of the spectrum instead of the "protective" end, but I still don't think I'd act like Jackie did. I don't always have to agree with the choices my siblings make, but I will support them in it. It's a sad thing about the divorce rates after deployments. My ex was navy. (He's not an ex because of him being gone, he's an ex because he was a cheating jerk). It was so sad because when the ships would come back, there was usually a line of attorneys there to serve sailors with divorce papers. I can't see doing that to someone. I do agree that while there's always a chance that things won't work between Mark and Trey but they deserve the right to give it a shot without Jackie's interference. And yep, agree, she needs to back off! lol.. As far as being a pain in the ass reviewer. Nope, never! I actually changed that "him and Trey" to "they". I tried out the "he and Trey" and while the "he and Trey" is gramatically correct, I didn't like the way it sounded. I liked the way the "they" sounded better. Whenever you find a mistake, please feel free to let me know, on any story, but especially this one. Thwarted doesn't always make it through my team before it posts so mistakes don't always get caught! Thank you so much for your review!!