Carlos Hazday

I usually dispose of nasty characters quickly; I'm not sure why I kept Damien around! This may be it for him, though. He may not have been liked before but now he's despised.

If you're anything like me, you'll be wishing you could live in Pandora's Box. What's not to like? Well-written funny story that left me smiling but wanting more.

Thanks, Q. Too damn early to be blushing, but I am. I already admitted these first too chapters are definitely crowded, but I hope subsequent ones feel less rushed. There will be areas I leave to the reader's imagination, hopefully readers will forget the chapters are short. Yeah, right.

Take a look at my comment above this one. It'll give you insight into the 1k format. The CJ series, and a good number of my other stories, are about family. Biological or otherwise. You actually think I'd have Chipper ignore his? LOL

I may ramble but bear with me. You weren't misunderstood. As a matter of fact, I sort of agree with you. To me, the challenge of flash chapters is how to tell a whole story with a limited number of words. That goes back to my belief that chapter breaks should come organically instead of being forced. Each one should end at obvious stopping point. Cliffhangers are natural breaking point. LOL In this chapter, my goal was to show Chipper coming to his sister's assistance and his friends coming to his help. I want to showcase him having close connections with his blood family and the non-biological one. I might have been able to break this one in two by doing one with a more detailed description of what Damien did and another one showcasing Chipper's actions. Same with the first chapter. Mann beta read that one and said it was okay but I could have expanded the section with the professor and done a separate chapter for the actual audition. However, my anal retentive mind had already trapped me into a format. While I developed the outline and later wrote the story, I watched most of three seasons of the show. I knew the number of performances needed to reach different levels. Using that as a starting point, I began picking music; the songs tell their own story. Writing a chapter for each time Chipper sang was not enough to show other things I wanted to include. I decided to alternate between a musical chapter and a non-musical one. When that didn't work, I settled on one with songs and two without. The prologue was a marketing ploy. Having CJ, Owen, and Liebe in it I thought would at least entice their fans to read. I tried to provide enough details a newby wouldn't be lost. Not sure if it worked. Any new readers out there wanna comment? So, with the prologue set, I wanted to start the actual story with music, and that meant cramming the meeting with the professor and the actual performances into one chapter. Rushed? Most likely. As the prologue proves, and those familiar with me probably know, I'm not adverse to starting in the middle and working my way back and forth (I have a story in the works doing that every chapter.) With Cristina, I wanted the shock of what was happening without too many distractions, in the next chapter, I follow up on these events, and provide additional details. Bored yet? I've driven readers crazy in the past with quick scene changes. Writing a story in 1k chapters was an effort in being concise and limiting a chapter to one topic. I did not entirely succeed, but I liked the approach and will probably try it again in the future. I have a better idea of how to make it work. Although I've been taken to task for not expanding certain scenes in the past, I've realized that's my style. Throw out something, provide enough detail to create the atmosphere, then back away and allow readers to fill in the blanks with their imagination. I hate stories where authors tell us someone's routine every time they write about the characters morning routine. I don't need to hear about anyone brushing their teeth every couple of chapters. Coming up in "Green Room" is a non-musical chapter followed by Chipper's initial performance (the one CJ and Owen watch in the prologue) in the next one. I'd love to hear what you think after each of those.

I'm assuming most people since it's in quite a few countries. I'll refrain from describing what happens since we'll see the whole thing. But if you're not familiar with the process, I'll just say both the coaches and the contestants have a say as to what team they end up. @Wesley8890is #TeamBlake. LOL

TGIF? Catching up? A wine bottle and GA stories?

Interesting. You know those two gay guys in Chelsea? The ones that own a club and a gym? I'm working on a story and this morning I wrote something about the Italian family patriarch being driven around in an old Lincoln Continental limo. The tank-sized ones from the 70s!

I firmly believe readers can tackle Singer without having previously read about him in the CJ series. That said, because this one and Goodnight, My Angel overlap for a while, I've covered a couple of events twice. When I first wrote about Cristina and Damien having troubles, I kept it somewhat vague on purpose. I wanted to use Chipper's story to explain what happened.

Bargaining? Are you getting ready for when you need to do it with the grandson? How about if I promise not to have a cliffhanger every other chapter like Mann does. @Mann Ramblings you didn't even edit this one and you're getting ink!

If gram gets an AK47, I'm leaving the area.

As I just mentioned, Cristina took the first step. She recognized there's a problem. And as you say, she already tried to make excuses to stay with Damien. I tried to make it clear Chipper was not going to sit idly by. If he needs to do some tough loving to keep her and the baby safe, he'll do it. And he has backup.

I think it would be tougher if he was doing it alone, but he's already called on Michael, Blaine, Ethan, and CJ for assistance. And since this is a musical story, I'll remind everyone That's What Friends Are For.

One advantage of what I'm doing is there's no full-week waiting between chapters! Next one goes up Tuesday. Maybe they're not a full meal, but frequent, smaller ones are supposed to be better for us.

The sad part is there are countless people like Damien around. Abusive partners are a dime a dozen. I think Damien's downfall will be not realizing Chipper would back her up and he would have the support of his friends. At least Crisina took the first step of asking for help.

I'm not patient either! You have any idea how tough it was not to publish early? I've had Singer loaded since early July and I was tempted to start sharing a few times. My intent is not to cover Chipper's life in detail, the novella limits itself to his time competing on the TV show. I delve a bit into Chipper's personality and I hope readers will enjoy some of the lighter moments including the judges.

Thanks, Tony. I've noticed some GA Authors tend to rest on their laurels after a while (particularly many promoted authors) and I don't want to emulate them. Because I will not begin publishing anything until it's done, another multi chapter story with larger word count might mean a long hiatus between offerings. Instead, I'm focusing on shorter stories so I can build an inventory before I tackle something larger again. Sounds like Chipper has his own 'old-boys-network' to call upon when he needs help. When his sister is in trouble, and he asks for help, they'll jump in no questions asked.

Thanks, bud. Happy with a Chipper stand-alone tale?

Fair enough. After years of reading comments left on stories using a similar approach, I expected a certain level of dissatisfaction from some readers. I did it because it was a challenge. Could I string together a series of short chapters into a comprehensive tale? Strip everything down so there are as few superfluous words as possible? I don't want to write stories burdened down with unnecessary details. One of the issues is the serial posting which I tried to ameliorate by publishing twice a week. I suspect if read as a novella instead of individual chapters, the level of dislike would diminish. Help me out here. You say you don't like the format for "this type of story." That suggest you might find it enjoyable under different circumstances. What type of story do you think it would work for you?

Damien is not a good person. What he may have failed to realize is Cristina's not helpless. Her brother will defend her, and he obviously has some strong supporters himself.

I had Chipper call it rape because that's what it was. Our society has in the past deemed forced sexual encounters acceptable when between married couples, but assault is assault.

A while back I realized I had a bunch of great characters eclipsed by CJ. Singer is my attempt to shine the light on one of them. It's also a challenge to see if I can draw readers to something other than a CJ-centered story. I may have tinkered with the format, but the style and tone will be similar. I did tell someone I always felt CJ and Chipper were more alike than any of their other friends. Don't tell anyone but there'll be a Christmas story in December featuring CJ, Owen, and Liebe.

The music business is complicated and most of us fail to realize performers are surrounded by support personnel. It helps when you have a network of individuals you can trust. They might just help keep the sharks at bay.

It is Chipper's story and he will be at the center of what happens. But he's no hermit and has close friends who'll provide support. Michael and Blaine at first and now CJ and Ethan. Sorry to tell you I think this is the last time CJ's name gets uttered. LOL As for chapter length, all the chapters will be around 1 thousand words. I wanted to flex my writing skills and tried to be concise to fit the word limit. You know I'm not one for excess verbiage and in this story I tried to strip everything back to bare bones while still making it interesting. Let's see if I can do it.