J.T.

Cia, This was a really great story! Oh my was I hooked to the plot. I really enjoyed Caleum and Bel'loc's separate, but shared destinies as they shared their common hatred towards tyranny as well as their common sense of honor.It ending was a bit abrupt, as I think the "cleansing" had been a bit harsh, but it was better than just wiping every single living atom from existence I guess. It was also an overly-optimistic ending that somehow with the tyrant Willim gone that the only people left to command STAR would be open to negotiations with NADIR that quickly, however, if "Judgement Day" happened all across the universe instead of just focused on Willim in Mavor and the rest of the population in Tarenna that would be a bit more believable I guess.I would be excited to read a sequel of this story if it were possible. I think the back story of Darea and Pres'lin developing a relationship and perhaps Pres'lin's development of a knack for piloting would be a nice touch. I also think that as the future generations to bear the abilities of the artifact would make a great sequel. Would all of the descendants use the ability for good? At what age would the ability surface? If it is available at birth, would a child's temper tantrum cause the downfall of entire civilizations? Or if it didn't manifest until they became adults, how they would exercise this dangerous act of literally vaporizing any atom(s) at will, including but limited to curing any cancer by zapping cancer cells to doing deeds that equated to Cale's previous occupation as an assassin where he/she would be able to just eliminate those who crossed the chosen ones? Who would these people be accountable for? And my last question would be, would Cale and Bel'loc be able to die a natural death? I would think that atoms may be rearranged to keep themselves from aging at all, all for the sake of preserving "the honor."I'm not trying to knock holes into your ending, as it actually wrapped up the story quite nicely I just wanted to see if you were going to continue this story. Hopefully reading these thoughts might excite that part of your brain and be like... YES!!! Let's write another one! And I'll then be like... Cia!!! Write faster!!! just like how I'm rushing Sara with her story in the GA Chat.Great story, excellent job. Thanks for a wonderful read.~Jay

This is Fmd, and I approve this message.

The scent of caked-on bubble gum on the sidewalk was barely registering in his nostrils as he walked along the foggy streets of San Francisco. Jack Chan was taking the Muni trolley downtown to find a job. At 23 he had finally finished his undergraduate program, a bit later than his peers, but finished with a respectable degree nonetheless. The sounds of trolleys changing tracks and rushing past moderate rush hour traffic pleased Jack as he got to West Portal Station a bit early to beat the morni

As Jack continued his ride back to West Portal Station, he counted down the three stops remaining before he could hop off the trolley and get away from the odd looks from the few who were near him and saw those tears. Those unmistakable drops that betrayed him, breaking his usual state of hardened exterior, had left him so vulnerable, he just wanted to run. But he was in an underground street car with nowhere to run. It was futile to even try to escape. ‘Just three stops, get through Castro,

Jack is a young adult who recently graduated from college, jobless. Focusing on his previous failures in his lifetime, he begins to reevaluate his choices in life, desperately hoping for a better future.

>.< really? try searching for the closed thread from not even a week ago. ; we're not opening that can of worms again. EDIT: Here I'll even link it for ya https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/topic/31205-concerned-reader/

Nope, apparently you live in Belmont according to your profile. There's a pretty big difference there As much as you want to quote its diverse and rich culture in collaboration in the arts as well as social justice, I would hope that with your vast experience that you would first take in what we have to offer and then soak in what this free website provides before mounting a humorous, yet futile attempt to provoke a very hardworking admin and support group who operate this community. I am glad that the mere misunderstanding as you have stated in your post that you may truly understand this community for what it truly is. The team surely appreciates feedback, but knowing the limitations of which they may operate may perhaps ensure that another one of these misunderstandings do not occur by any member in the future. The ID 10T Strategic Response Team position is still available if you still want it

Thanks Cia for another great story. I must not know much about mythical creatures, because for the longest time I couldn't tell who or what each of the characters were or how much of a conflict is between each of the various clans/races. It seemed like it took until about the 3rd to last chapter before I finally started meshing the character dynamics perfectly. I know I'm going to end up rereading this story now that I finally understand who and what clan each character belongs to and what personality traits I should expect. I think a bit more time could be spent describing the main characters a bit more in the beginning chapters to help set the stage for those unfamiliar with mythical creatures, but that's really just my reaction to being uneducated in the genre. Great story!

As much of a nice guy that I am, I'm filing this thread's so-called "complaints" into the ID 10T error pile. It's an ever growing list. Perhaps instead of helping Lugh... Daffy can man the ID 10T Strategic Response Unit of GA.

The story was amazing, as it brought an abrupt, but soothing closure to the novel - and I really liked it.A couple of things I would have really liked to find explained more in detail in the story, like how the evidence was impounded for so long and they couldn't determine the cause of the crash for such a long period of time. I also wanted to finally find out just how Dane was positioned to call Tap "just in time" if he was coerced into being in the driver's seat, parked in neutral, over a hill... I would understand how blunt force trauma to the head would block memories, so it's not a significant oversight by any means. However, it would have been nice to be able to get a fuller picture of what happened.Like Andy, I don't see Charlie as Eickel's grandson, the fact that the character was introduced not as someone Eichels brought in, but someone that social services brought in for in-home care. The apartment gunfight was unexpected to say the least. Well, the build-up of tension kind of hinted to someone getting shot, but the mystery of Charlie being also a bodyguard and someone conveniently misses the fact that Dane and Tap were returning home early, not scoping out the apartment beforehand, and other very important traits that any bodyguard or security officer would have done as a basic duty were overlooked. Even if Charlie was only applying to be in the academy, which would explain the blatant oversight, you'd think that Charlie would be a bit more focused on his grandfather's strict assignment of protecting the couple.Cia, you realize you can start a saga just with novel right? You still have Dane's grandmother who can dish out senile evil You have the wonders of college, the changing of interpersonal relationships as more adult independence becomes a part of Neri, Dave, Dane, and Tap's lives, along with changing family dynamics of the Leerans. You've got yourself a gold mine. If you feel like writing another one - go for it, you know you've got yourself quite a few fans who won't stop badgering you for more chappys. :PThanks Cia!

The story was just the right length, yet I felt empty as I finished - not because the story was lacking, but because I wished the story would go on. The plot painted a beautiful picture of the beginning of a great relationship and I was sad that the storyline wasn't taken further. But amazing story nonetheless. Great job!

Great story I hope I see more of your stories in the "Complete" section Please keep up your great work!

So Frosty sent me a review of my first chapter of my new story I'm writing. I have to say in some respects I'm a bit garbled with what I want to present, when I want to present it, and how I should do it - well. I'm not trying to put down any of the authors I've had immense pleasure of reading through their works. However, I believe I like to keep my stories a bit more grounded, a little less extraordinary, with a bit more real-life scenarios - where not only lives are at stake, but money, family, and "common" tragedies creep up at the worst moments and sneak up on you when you least expect or want it. At the same time, I'm not trying to write a pure sob story that's just completely emo. This will be interesting as the main character, who will have a name very similar to a Hollywood Star and would never grow up without not hearing the same jokes about his name day in and day out... interact with his own growth process, will take a toll on himself as he begins a long introspection and reevaluation of his life decisions. Not to give anything away because... well... let's face it I'm writing Chapter 2 at the moment... lol... I'm going to bet that the self-realization will begin a new genre of stories I hope to be writing in the future. Fixing My Destiny. ~Jay To my wonderful Editor + Beta Reader Frosty: zomfg you're the best <3

Use the Schwartz!!!!

Ended up reading The Hostage last night. But no matter, I'm writing the story finally.

I need to stop lying to myself. I think I started to enjoy Carl DaVinci's short stories that I decided to give it another go. Instead of writing I read The Script between last night and this morning, and I loved the story. I think it is wonderful how people can meet in all sorts of circumstances, however unlikely, and come together despite their respective hardships and impasses. Carl DaVinci's The Script is a Hollywood-based drama when a teen star takes a starring role in an upcoming Hollywood film as a gay man, when to his knowledge at the time, is straight. He meets his co-star and develops an deeper relationship which flourished into something the two of them could no longer deny was something more than just rehearsals and retakes. The parental influences, media influences, and other external conflicts that Marcus, the main character faced, only dug deep within himself to find answers he was not prepared to find, and when he dug himself out of the hole after a realization of how much he missed David, his co-star and eventual lover, transformed into a new individual - something that none of the characters foresaw. It is always fascinating how I find new ways of how authors are able to convey the same, if not a deeper implied intensity and details in short stories. It always gives me perspective on what sort of style I want to write. In a way I want to dive into details of the surroundings, I want to immerse the reader into every detail of every step the character takes, yet something as simple with one sentence can sometimes portray more than what a paragraph can at times. One contemplates Again, thank you Frosty for the recommendation to read Carl's work, and thank you Carl for writing another amazing series! I look forward to spending my writing time away by reading your stories instead Carl DaVinci ~ The Script: https://www.gayauthors.org/story/carl-davinci/thescript

I'm reading The Script by Carl... about half way through

I read You and Me in 5 hours... It was really warming.

I lied, in an effort to sneak myself a preview of what Frosty recommended to me, I decided to read the first chapter of You and Me by Carl DaVinci and then by the time 6AM rolled around I had finished the last chapter and I saw the sun peaking out as it started to burn off the overcast and fog from overnight. As I sit here typing, I feel groggy, yet comforted at yet another author surprises me with a super short but super powerful story. to Frosty for recommending yet another amazing story to me. You are now the cause of many sleepless nights, and I am thankful. Anyways, back to the story: You and Me by Carl DaVinci ~ https://www.gayauthors.org/story/carl-davinci/youandme I was very glad that the identical twins didn't get involved with each other... especially since I just finished with Working It Out. I just felt I needed a break from sibling relationships for a while, even if they were adoptive siblings. The story showed distinctly how a child's upbringing made it possible to take different paths in sexual orientation, even if they are biologically identical. The home situation was especially heart breaking in the beginning, while the cynicism around Jeremy was a focus for the story ~ how to refine his cynical personality to a more neutral more happy outward person by letting love in. In some respects, I kind of wanted to see if Jack would make an attempt to not only mend ways with Nathan, but develop a deeper relationship as old times, perhaps even more. While that would cause a identical twin love triangle, it would definitely bring out an age-old question of whether to choose the twin Nathan fell in love with in the beginning or the one he settled with instead. While I agree the ending to the story brought out a hopeful wrap-up to the plot, the short story had definite wiggle room to expand to the future. And I sincerely hope that Carl will be able to take the plot further down the road. This has been the shortest series I've read on GA, mainly because I don't read short stories too often, but this was the perfect evening reading to get myself tied up before I let myself go to sleep. While I will regret not sleeping last night, I sincerely enjoyed this heart moving story and only hope that my story writing skills will be even 10-20% of what these authors are capable of writing. In time, I hope to develop my story writing skills to a relatively respectable level (above 5th grade adjectives I hope lol) and be able to publish more polished works in the future.

Next up on my reading list is: http://www.gayauthors.org/story/carl-davinci/youandme

Again, thanks Frosty for this wonderful recommendation

So, I finally got a chance to finish the entire Working It Out saga. I really enjoy the last novel, as a shift from the main characters began to occur starting from Book 2, and extended even more so in Book 3. A lot more emphasis was placed on the extended family members, even pursuing the majority of some of the chapters on these side characters instead of just focusing on Mike and Matt. This was an interesting approach since I've always commented on some of the other works I've read here on GA that the minor characters did not have enough plot development for my tastes. While I enjoyed the general progression of the plot, by Book 3 it seemed like Don had somewhat lost a sense of direction of where the story should go. A quick revival of an nemesis from a previous book decidedly became the main plot and a twist that did not finish until the very last chapter. Don Hanratty had a great plot which he could most likely extend the book another 3 chapters, but he decided to wrap the entire story, all of the characters, and randomly fast forwarded the timeline by a couple decades in the span of a few paragraphs. It felt like the ending was quite forced, but at least DH did a good job wrapping everything up. I sincerely hope that the story can continue, because it definitely can, as Book 4 can just take the last chapter and somewhat expand on the details a bit more. Just how Matt and Mike raises the kids, how Josh and Chris get along, etc etc can go a long way. Thank you Don for another wonderful story, and I look forward to reading Beloved after I begin writing my own story. I encourage you to spend the time to read Working It Out. It is a long story, but the story pace goes so fast you won't even realize it by the time you finish reading the first book, and by then you're hooked http://donh.gayauthors.org/working-it-out/index.php

Indeed I can't wait to get started on Book 3. I am sure I'm not going to sleep much tonight because I'll be reading Book 3 on my phone until I doze off... then reread all of the sections I missed over in the morning for effect. Yes, Book 2 was that good.

Working It Out Book 2 was a great read - and excitingly picks up right off from where Book 1 ended, which some authors sometimes decide to move the timeline forward quite a bit to introduce enough uncertainty to introduce new characters, new settings, and new conflicts without opening up questions to why the conflicts did not occur in the previous novel. Don did a spectacular job in making sure that the plot progressed just as quickly as Book 1. I loved the plot, and it gave me the long awaited "ending" I have been looking forward to reading in a long, long time. One relationship I would have hoped that Don pursue before was to pursue what happened between Arnie and Sean, if there were any developments or how they grew apart. While keeping up with the novel, I like the contrast that not everybody in the character list somehow find inseparable love, but I would have liked to see why they were or were not meant to be. I can't wait to get started with Book 3. I'm guessing since DonH hasn't released more books to this novel that this will unfortunately be the last novel I will read for this Saga, which is extremely unfortunate. I hope there's a good reason for it, and I sincerely hope that I can enjoy the rest of this saga soon. Again, if you didn't read the first post, Don Hanratty's Working It Out can be found at: http://donh.gayauthors.org/working-it-out/index.php And yes, I will read Beloved next. I read the first line in of Beloved, and I found it is not a plot continuation of Working It Out, so I know I need to prepare myself for this.

Cia