Sparhawk

First off, if you used word to type your document, it was dated when the document was created and would prove it was your story. Copy right is real important when dealing with a publishing house and in a thread here the board discussed not too long ago, I will have to do some searching to find it again. But anyway any time you write a story just email it back to yourself and save the email as proof of copyright. If you have that then you have a case. The reason the lawyer most likely said to forget it was the amount of money involved. Depending on which state you live in that amount would normally come under small claims court, which normally means it is not worth the attorneys time. Very few people use attorneys in small claims court. But anyway emailing the story back toyourself even before sending it to a editor would prove you own it. Hope that helps you. Mike

Frist off Patrick, I have never heard of an editor here giving out secrets or advances of stories. It just does not happen, if you want to keep editing. I think that all the editors and proof readers here would be more than safe in that regard. However I think you may have a hard time getting one with that "harddrive" threat. A good editor always tells you what they think, good, or bad. That helps the writer improve his writing.

Happy Birthday Taryn and many happy returns!!!!!

There are three days that stand out iun my mind. Bad days that is. The first one was when JFK got shot. The second one was when they announced that Nixon was being impeached. I was in France at the time and the news was delivered to me by a local with great glee. If that man only new how close he came to meeting his maker that day. The news was bad enough, but the way he rejoiced in it made me sick. 9/11 I walked around in a daze for several days after that one-. Now to open a bag of worms. Here in the US that is. Elections are coming. This will not be a long drawn out post. Now I can not say I am a great bush backer. I do think that he does done some things wrong and for the wrong reasons.. But basically if we keep bush in office the war on terorism stays in the middle east, vote for kerry and then we fight them right here. Some food for thought.

It is hard to belive that three years have passed already. I don't think I will ever forget that day. I was on line chatting with Myr when I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit the tower. I pretty much live in the middle of nowhere, but you always see plane contrails in the sky, and hear the traffic on the freeway. But for the next two weeks it was unearthly quiet here. It was a couple of weeks before I caught Myr on line again, and when I pinged him, he asked "Do I dare chat with you, look at what happened the last time we talked"

Don't blame you my friend. I have not used MSN in over a year now. And yes I was on your list at one time. Send me a pm and I will let you remember who I was. I enjoyed the chats that we had. Messenger has screwed up my system more than once. I will not use it now. I really am not fond of any of the messenger services but I do have ICQ and only give it out on a limited basis. People have to contact me through pm's through the few boards that I belong to before I add them to my list. Many of you that list everything are saying what in the hell? Well to make a long story short. I have met someone from the net in person. We had long conversations on the net before we met and that really was not enoubh. After we met I found out that that person was not a very nice person. I found out that he was not at all, who he claimed to be. Guys I just want to let you know that folks, are not always waht your expect them to be. Be very careful about who you give your information to. Mike

I have to agree with Ethan. Firefox moxillia's browser has become my favorite. It really is one of the most flexable browsers I have ever used.

I think that you can be a good author without all the life experinces. I do think that it takes a lot of research and finding people that have lived through what you may be writing about to use as sounding boards as you write. There are many great authors out there that could not possiably live through everything that they write about. Also you will find that most, if not all the great writers are also avid readers. This is one more great way to get a feel for the subject. It really is amazing what we can experince just through our minds and the words of others authors. This thread made me think about how I got my start reading novels. I would like to share it with you all, and it does have to do with fact and experince in writing. I grew up in NW Colorado, right on the border of the Rockies. To the west was all high desert and to the east the Rockies. My Grandfather was one of the last of the old Cowboys. He was a master outdoorsman and a gunsmith. My great love of the outdoors all came from this man. When I was 12 years old he took me out in the high desert for the weekend. We had to hike in 9 miles to the place that we were going. When we got there I was totaly amazed. It was a canyon and in the bottom there was a cabin with a fruit orchard. There was a cool clear runing creek full of native trout. There was wildlife in abundance, Deer, Elk, Rabbits and we even saw a Cougar. It was a amazing and wonderful weekend for me. My Grandfather told me that weekend that he had only brought one other person to this place, but he would not tell me who it was. He told me that one day down the road, I would figure it out for myself. My Grandfather passed away the month before I had to report to Navy Bootcamp. One of the things that he left me was his collection of Louis Lamour books. At this time I was not a avid reader. When I told my Grandmother I was going on my first Med cruise she sent me 6 of the books to read on the cruise. She sent me a note telling me to read a certain book first. She said that Granfather had told her "When she gave me the books to read this one first". So anyway I started with that one. It was good too, I was enjoying the story and all of a sudden....... I was back in that canyon. The detail was so rich it could be no other place than Grandfathers canyon, that he had took me to. When I finished the book, there at the end was a note to me from Grandfather. "Mike, Now you know who the other person was" "Love" "Gramps" I read all six of those novels on that cruise and anything else I could get my hands on. I think that was even the year I read Herman Woulk's "Winds of War". So any way I thought you all might enjoy that, even if I got a little detracted there a bit. I do think that life experinces are important, but I think there are other ways to obtain them.

Rainbow, my thoughts and wishes are with you, I know that it will all turn out sucessful for you. Keep your spirits up.

Dan I have done so much reading over the last few years. I have really slowed down this last year. I had a lot of time on my hands and was able to at least read the first paragraph of each story posted at nifty on a daily basis for quite some time. If it grabed my attention then I would at least read the first chapter. I do pay attention to how many people have read and voted and reccomended a story though. But it is not my number 1 prioity. When I find a author I enjoy, I do a search of nifty and then the web. Also check out Gay author sites that host great stories. It seems that I am always finding and site out there that I have missed or, even a story(and that does not happen too often). The Cafe here at gayauthors is a good place to start looking. The Cafe is not the only place, even here at gayauthors. You really need to read through all the sections, you will find links to some great stories in the strangest places. Dan I think this is a wonderful topic you started, I am really interested myself in how others pick the stories that they read. I went back to a site I had not been to in quite some time this evening because of a post on this board. And I must say I am so gald that I did, it has really changed since the last time I was there. Lot's of stories now!!!!!

I just can not belive how far we have come. Strolling through the members list i find that many of my favorite Authors have joined. I want to thank each and everyone of you for your great stories. I hope to see many more over the next few years. I thought about listing each of you and your stories but then I realized that would take me a week to compose that list or even longer My heartfelt thanks to each and everyone of you. Please keep up the good work. Hugs

Oh my, I have been remiss, I must be checking my library I see! Thank you in advance Cos. This makes my day. **drools and he treks off to his library***

Etan it is only a little over 3 meg, so not a real long wait. It is really worth the wait too. hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehhehehehehehehehehehehehehehhe

What an article DK, How anyone could buy into that hogwash. Any one with an iota of sense would not buy into that. It just shows you that folks with a cause will grasp at anything. Quite a number of the folks in my neighbor hood are retired from unions. It constanly amazes me that if they union says it is so, then that is all there is to it. They do not seeem to be able to think for themselves. Well I had better leave that one alone. Nice Post Dan.

I like it either way Myr. The portal does give you a great summary of what has been happening on the board. Looks good.

I can not belive how smooth and quick it is responding. Great job Myr!

Really looking good Myr. Great job you are doing here. Thanks for all your hard efforts!

Ok Bill, you posted the highlights, now I would like to read some of those! Got the links too????????

Go away for a couple of months and look what happens. I can not belive how much the board has grown. We even added dkstories and Eric case as hosted authors. Great work Myr. Things are really looking good. One thing I am a bit sad about is that after being away for a little over two months I am still the second highest poster. But I do see that BM is catching up and if eric keeps posting like he has been, he will pass me rather soon too. Well anyway, I had several problems over the last couple of months inculding too many hours at work, homopobic renters, and computer crashes. But that seems to be taken care of now. Now it is time to get back to the stories I love so much. Boy do I have some catching up to do.

Awesome

Well finally about 10 I downloaded MiRC and gave that route a shot! By the way, I am not a aol user, the only thing I have of theirs is AIM and I am not using that now. Switched over to msn messenger "sparhawk_3@hotmail.com". Any way I tried MiRC and it worked just fine. There were even several folks still chatting and I got to chat with them for a couple of hours. I am going to look into trillian now.

Well I have been trying to get to it and keep getting a 404 error, I know it does not start for onther 10 minutes yet. I will try again then.

Sounds good Bill, I will try and be there.

I started with beer this afternoon and swichted to whiskey about six this evening, and yep I am feeling it. I can not say I am sober. Designated Driver, Nope not me this evening. I am not going anywhere expect to my bed and it is looking better by the minute.