Thorn Wilde

Hard agree on this one! Aren't there more important medical mysteries out there? And, as you point out, these studies always focus on cisgender men. No one ever looks into why women are gay, or why people are bisexual. Come to think of it, it's the same with studies into transgenderism; they're all performed on people assigned male at birth. As it turns out, as queerness is becoming more socially acceptable, more men who would previously have referred to themselves as straight are beginning to identify as bisexual. I think there are a lot more bisexual people than previously believed. It may in fact be the largest group in LGBTQ. Sexuality exists on a spectrum. There's a reason Kinsey made a scale and not just three categories. I think hard 0 and hard 6 are relatively rare.

Well, you are. And I'm proud of you. ❤️

Ugh, I know the feeling all too well. The city centre here feels like one gigantic construction site, lol! But, as ever, you turn negative emotions into beauty. I'm glad you found a few miracles. Thank you for sharing them with us.

A very deep and thoughtful poem. Lovely imagery. As a small aside, that last bit reminded me of a line from a song by Placebo. 'My computer thinks I'm gay. What's the difference anyway? When all that people do all day is stare into a phone.' I saw them live once and during that song someone in front of me was literally watching the concert through their phone cause they were filming at the time and the irony in that just astounded me. It's definitely worth stopping and thinking about what technology does to us. What was more important in that moment? The experience of watching a live performance, or having the video of it afterwards?

I think it's so wonderfully sweet how Jed and Wolfgang and the beast are bonding. How they've fallen in love in just a couple of weeks (less?). The trust and love they share is really beautiful. Also hot, let's not forget, lol!

Glad you had fun! And glad you're safe, that thunderstorm sounds kind of scary.

This kind of made me tear up, lol! I hope you realise what a wonderful human being you are, Wayne.

Thank you for your kind words and for your support. Finances is actually a huge problem for me. I suffer from chronic mental illness causing reduced work ability and my benefits are about to be cut off. It's extremely stressful and I worry about what that will do to my writing. I'd like to make money doing what I love, so I don't get mired in trying and failing to do something I don't, because that way lies further depression. The world would have me quit writing and use my very limited energy on some 'real' job that will likely make me even more miserable than I am. I hope I won't be forced to make that choice.

I really feel this. Especially the last few lines. It's a sad world where money matters more than people's lives. Thank you for sharing.

That's my feeling exactly. I follow many musicians, comic artists, YouTubers, game developers, etc., who fund their work through Patreon or Kickstarter, who take all the risks and get all the rewards. It's a marvellous business model if you can pull it off. It lets the artist have complete creative control over everything they do, and it lets fans discover things they might otherwise not have. And thank you, I may in fact do that. ❤️

Hehe, maybe you should. I appreciated your review of Black & Blue, anyway.

Go for it! I always try to think, if I like it, chances are others will too. That's why I'm doing this. That's why I dare put stuff out there in the first place. I like the stories I write. If you like yours, you should get it out there.

Yeah, there's a lot of shady stuff out there. I feel bad for those authors and musicians...

I dunno, you've read and (I believe) quite liked some of the stories that are in this collection, actually, so I'd say you are in the target audience. I wanted to do a simple design for the cover. I find that the bare-chested muscle boys and flowery fonts you get on most gay romance covers get tedious in the long run. It's been done. I guess those covers attract readers, but... I think it also turns some off. The cover image is a free stock photo from a site I visit a lot (all my banners for my stories are from free stock photo sites).

The heart is for solidarity, my friend.

Depression is probably also involved, though I have these thoughts and feelings when I'm not depressed as well. Of course, even if I'm not depressed I usually still have anxiety, lol

It would be cool if some GA authors got together and started their own publishing company. As for visuals, title and synopsis, I'll let you judge for yourself. It was hard finding a title that worked, but at least it makes sense, lol! (I made changes to the Kindle one that haven't quite updated yet, since I decided to add another story to the book...)

I'll give you a new one: The Martian. Guy who wrote it self-published because friends asked him to. And here we are a few years later, with a bestseller and a movie starring Matt Damon.

Hehe, thanks Wayne. Yeah, there's some bad stuff. Remember that awful book cover I showed you, from the guy who was mystified as to why he wasn't getting more pre-orders? Definitely a lot of shit, lol! But lots of good stuff, too.

Thank you! I don't think she self-published... I don't know how she could have back in the mid 90s. But yes, she got an awful lot of rejections. Goes to show how little these publishing houses truly understand what people want.

Thanks, tim. That means a lot.

Thank you! And Happy Birthday!

You should! It'll have to go in your queue.

This is beautiful. Well done! ❤️

There is this overwhelmingly popular opinion that self-publishing, to some degree, isn't valid. It's what we do here on GA, of course, and putting out your work for free on the Internet for people to see seems to be acceptable and sometimes commended, but as soon as an author tries to make money from self-publishing their work—either by setting up a Patreon and asking for donations, or by publishing their work using services like Lulu and Amazon KDP and thus circumventing the traditional publishing process—a lot of people, and in particular other writers, become sceptical, sometimes bordering on hostile. There's this idea that people who self-publish just aren't good enough to be published by a major publishing house and, as such, don't deserve to get paid for the time and effort they put into writing. But is it really about who's good enough? And who decides? Some arbitrary authority, like editors, agents, and publishing houses who are out to make money off of what you write? Is the question whether your work is good, or whether they think it will sell? How much bias and prejudice goes into that evaluation? I think a lot of publishers steer clear of queer fiction, thinking it won't sell as well, and a lot of what you do find published wasn't even written by queer authors. It's getting better, sure, but I still believe the cards to be stacked against us. Yesterday, an event called PitMad took place on Twitter. This is an event that happens four times a year, where authors scream into the void. You write a pitch for your book to fit into one tweet, tag it with #pitmad as well as additional relevant tags for genre and demographic, and wait for editors and agents to like your tweet. Then you send your manuscript to them, and by liking your tweet they have pledged to read it. This rarely leads anywhere, of course. As with everything else on the Internet, it's a lottery. Was your tweet visible enough? Where did Twitter's algorithm place you when they were scrolling through tweets? And it's hard to market yourself, to try and make your book sound interesting in less than 280 characters. And without an agent, you're basically fucked. You don't get JK Rowling stories anymore. You can't just send your manuscript to a publisher. They won't even look at it. So there are more steps, more middlemen, more people who have to think your book is worthy of a chance, who have to think they can make money from it, before it's even seen by someone who can decide whether it deserves to be published. The market is oversaturated. It's harder than it used to be. There are also indie publishers, but a lot of them are sketchy. I've heard stories from authors who were asked to pay to submit their manuscript, pay for their ISBN, which is not how publishing is done. Most serious indie publishers close their submissions periodically because they get so many. At least by self-publishing, you get it out there, you have the chance to make a little bit of money from it. Some self-published authors have later been picked up by major publishers or literary agents. Some have managed to make a modest living through self-publishing. And yeah, when anyone can do it, you end up with a lot of bad stuff. That's not to be denied. But that's no reason to discount the whole thing. I wonder if a lot of writers believe they're simply not good enough. Most writers of online fiction never even try to get something published, indie, self or otherwise. Maybe that's where the hostility towards or dismissal of self-publishing authors comes from. Why should they do it when I don't? And of course, self-publishing comes with a necessity for self-marketing, which can easily be seen as narcissistic. I'm taking the plunge. I'm self-publishing a book of twenty-four of my short stories. All of those stories are available to read here on GA, though I have polished, edited and, in some cases, rewritten parts of them. I have chosen to believe that I'm good enough. That my writing is good enough. And I'll be pushing my book hard on Twitter. I've been writing all my life and I'm taking this into my own hands. It won't make me rich. It may not really sell at all. And posting about it may not make me any friends. But I'm doing it anyway. It will be available on Kindle and as paperback through Amazon KDP, and also as an eBook through Draft2Digital, to be released on Apple Books and Barnes & Noble, among others. It will be out on the 30th of September. I choose to think I can do this.