wildone

Good Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night. Depending on where in the day you are when you read this. 🕰️ I looks like our shortest month of the year is almost over. Can I tell a joke that hopefully everyone sees the humour of it and don't fill up my inbox with hate mail Actually it was told to me by a friend in the field, so to speak So what month of the year do farmers complain the least amount about the weather? Okay, settle down out there Would that fit into the category of a dad joke? Maybe this week I will ask you to tell me your best dad joke What do you call a guy out in the ocean bouncing up and down? Buoy What do you call a guy with no arms or legs? Doesn't matter, he won't come What do you call a guy about to tell the next joke? Randy What do you call a guy on his knees helping another guy out? Either, Neil or Bob If I at least made you crack a grin a little bit on any of the above, then my job is done. But on the other hand if Myr see's this and doesn't approve, my job will be done. Permanently 😮 Shall we get onto the wrap up? Yes? Okay. Monday, Cia was in a bit under the weather. Hope she is doing fine With this month's Signature Author Feature, it is a popular story A hop, skip and a jump to a Wednesday follow up, the Signature Author Excerpt. Hope this entices you to read or reread Thursday was a shout out to everyone to maybe dust off their poetry skills, or plan out to get ready for our Poetry Anthology. Friday, Mr. Matthews decided to take us on a journey, with some prompts: Saturday, Comicality helped us all out with another writing article: 3 days left!!!! Last week I was impressed where we were on our goals for February. Wonder where we are now? If you are curious like me, here is the answer: Word, word, everywhere a word... sung to the tune of Signs by the Five Man Electric Band zymurgy, hobbish, zibeline, zephyr, zeal, zoology, zebu It appears that the Words of the Day were more or less brought you by the letter Z! Upcoming Writing Events Poetry Anthology - Exploration! All Submissions due Saturday, April 1 - get the information here! Secret Author Story Contest! All Submissions due Saturday, July 1 Leap of Faith Anthology! All Submissions due Sunday, October 1 And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories Inked by Carlos Hazday **Complete** Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories Translation Trashbin by AC Benus Gap Year by Mark Arbour Sakura, and Other Poems for Sunny by AC Benus **Complete** The Best Year by Krista Kiss Of An Angel by Comicality Escaping Kherson, a novella by AC Benus Ancalagon by Cia **Complete** a Glass Floor Underfoot by AC Benus GFD: Fanboys by Comicality The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Prose by AC Benus New Kid In School by Comicality Northern Exposure by Mark Arbour Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories Great Restorations by Libby Drew Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Desperado by Dabeagle **Complete** Recently Updated 'Author' Stories Pig-Boy and The Insectorator by Biff Spork The Root Beer Boys by gdaniel Ash's Marriage Trigger by Thirdly What Is True Love Anyway? by gdaniel **Complete** 593 Riverside Drive by RichEisbrouch The Undertaker's Devil by Refugium Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox Inherited by lomax61 Maddog & The Pope (Learning to fly on Broken Wings) by Georgie DHainaut **Complete** ARROW by CLJobe Coming Out by Tim Hobson The Star in my Eye by James Carnarvon **Complete** Hamilton Gode New Edition by Luca E Rainbow Falls Chronicles by Ajbt2001 The Icebox by JujuTheDruid Higher Education by WolfM Double Your Age by Simon Iskander Blueblood 5.1: Red Alert!! by R. Eric Leave This Small Town by Simon Iskander Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

I think you should do the entire series from a fanfic point of view

Ooops, I did it again Up here in the frozen Great White North some people decided years ago that the time between New Years Day and Good Friday/Easter Sunday was tooooooo long of a break without a day off from work I know, you all are thinking did you damn Canadians create another holiday in February? If you are thinking that, you are correct. The day falls on President's day in the US of A, but most provinces call it Family Day . So the 3rd Monday of the month is a day off for most companies unless you live in Newfoundland or Quebec. They have their own holiday, but they decided to put them in the summer where you can be out and about and enjoy the weather. Tomorrow, we have another polar vortex coming in for tonight, and could bring up to over a foot of snow and temps in the -22 C range. Warning to my 'merican friends, that usually means it will be coming down there. Why I'm telling you all this is that I totally forgot today was Sunday. Again , I really need to get back in the routine. Would someone be willing to hit me with a cattle prod on Saturday nights to remind me? Sorry, Val, I know this would make you too giddy so for your heath and mine, you are exempt Oops again, I made it 50 days before I said something not all positive and rosy about Val. That New Year's Resolution is gone. But think if the fun I can now have . So to the wrap up at a later hour than usual... Let's focus on the Words of the Day first this week: dexterous, calliope, opusculum, emolument, xylem, yammer, zing On Monday, Myr shared with the community the top 9 results of our first Reader Choice Awards! Did one of your favourite stories make the list? On Thursday, Val shared another 2 Poetry Anthologies. So have you thought about stepping out of your comfort zone this year and submit a poem or 2? Or 3? Friday, Val was back again and pretending she was Captain Kirk Yesterday we had Comicality with an all new writing article. Always good to take these in and employee the techniques and ideas in all of our writing: Last week due to technical difficulties, I was unable to share with you the results so far for the month of February on our Reading Goals. We are now up to date and with just over a week to go, let's win one for the Gipper. BTW, does anyone know what is a Gipper? And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories Inked by Carlos Hazday Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories a Glass Floor Underfoot by AC Benus Krista's Prompts by Krista A Home For Christmas by Comicality Gap Year by Mark Arbour Escaping Kherson, a novella by AC Benus Ancalagon by Cia Lyrical Laments by Headstall Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories Great Restorations by Libby Drew Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Recently Updated 'Author' Stories Taming Of The Beast by ASH PHOENIX The World Out There by Drew Payne The Star in my Eye by James Carnarvon Pig-Boy and The Insectorator by Biff Spork Growing Pains by gdaniel **Complete** Men in Paradise by Vikki The English Year by Jwolf 593 Riverside Drive by RichEisbrouch The Undertaker's Devil by Refugium Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox Never say love by Vikki Higher Education by WolfM ARROW by CLJobe Double Your Age by Simon Iskander Maddog & The Pope (Learning to fly on Broken Wings) by Georgie DHainaut Never walk alone- Walk on by Andre Delport The Seducer: A Gone From Daylight Inspired Story by MrM The Flamekeepers of Delta Psi Theta by Kelevra Ark II by R. Eric Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

I didn't know if I should bring this up or not, some people have very, very strong feelings about it The upcoming Tuesday is Valentines Day 💘Now if you are newly in love, you probably enjoy this day. If you are married and you and your husband, or wife, have been happily married for a while, do you feel an obligation to go out and buy them something, anything for the day? What if you are single like me. Does it get you a bit down as a reminder that you are single . Do you want to find a crossbow and go hunting the little cherub with wings and give him a taste of your tipped arrow. Hmm, just looked that up and other than Minecraft and other games, doesn't appear to be such a thing, oh well . So for the heck of it, I'm going to ask you what Valentines Day means to you? I'm curious to see if there is a varying amount of opinions. Now that we got that all out of the way, I do have to thank @Myr for doing the wrap up the past two Sundays The first one I was on holidays, but last week I honestly forgot and didn't pop on the site until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon . Luckily the big guy with his all seeing and all knowing eye, sort of like the Eye of Sauron 👁️, jumped in and got 'er done On Monday this week, we had this month's CSR Feature announced. It has the name of my favourite singing groups of all time in the name : Jump to Thursday, we had @Valkyrie let us know that her and Myr have revived an old contest, so to speak. In the olden days there was the Reader's Choice Awards, but it was all mostly done anonymously with nominations though our Harry Bird, @TalonRider. Seeing what Myr and Val they have cooked up, I like the new format and look forward to seeing the results of the different categories. You have to pay attention to the main forums page to see what is the current genre to be nominated for or what is closed and now needs voting on! Is there going to be a King/Queen of Cliffhangers Or has that one been awarded to a goat for life! Fridays prompts looks interesting! I'm sure someone has something Harry Potter related to contribute: Saturday finished up our week and @Comicality was back with an all new writing article. Some really good advice in this one for all you authors out there. How about the words of the day? I did not do too good in knowing what most of them meant. Luckily we have the Word of the Day to solve that assuage, frolic, microcosm, outlandish, garrulous, dithyramb, rebus Upcoming Writing Events Poetry Anthology - Exploration! All Submissions due Saturday, April 1 - get the information here! Secret Author Story Contest! All Submissions due Saturday, July 1 Leap of Faith Anthology! All Submissions due Sunday, October 1 And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories Inked by Carlos Hazday Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories Gap Year by Mark Arbour Translation Trashbin by AC Benus Headstall's Reflections by Headstall Inked by Carlos Hazday Escaping Kherson, a novella by AC Benus a Glass Floor Underfoot by AC Benus Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Desperado by Dabeagle Recently Updated 'Author' Stories The Seducer: A Gone From Daylight Inspired Story by MrM A Love to Last by vanalas Pig-Boy and The Insectorator by Biff Spork ARROW by CLJobe Growing Pains by gdaniel The Valentine by Backwoods Boy **Complete** Canaan Club by Westley D. Solitary by RichEisbrouch The Icebox by JujuTheDruid The Star in my Eye by James Carnarvon The Undertaker's Devil by Refugium Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox Inherited by lomax61 Stolen: Unearthing the Lore by lomax61 Coming Out by Tim Hobson Luminosity by paren01 Rainbow Falls Chronicles by Ajbt2001 Taming Of The Beast by ASH PHOENIX Higher Education by WolfM PBax's Prompt Work by PBax What Is True Love Anyway? by gdaniel Recently Updated 'Poet' Stories Thoughts of a Wolfpup. by Midnightwolfpup Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

You know @Myr, @Valkyrie is going to start charging you royalties for using the picture of her afternoon, evening and nightly ritual It is after all her glass

Not a dumb question at all. I pop into this forum all the time to learn all the stuff I should know and I think I'm 17 years on the site now The best way that I can think of is to follow the topics and people that you want to follow. So if you ask a question in a topic, follow the topic. At the top of every topic is a follow button, just click on it. After setting your notification settings as mentioned by @GLH, you can be notified when someone posts in the topic. Might not be the answer of your question. You can also do this with members too! Go to their profile and click on follow member: Likewise if someone clicks on following you, you will be notified if they post something, may not be about you as well. If you want to call out to someone in a post, you can use the @ symbol before their name. Like if you want to call me out to a post in this topic to look at, you could type something like @wildone, how's it going? Now you notifications are in the drop down menu by your username in the top right corner of the screen. Drop down to notifications. There is a lot of things you can play around with, if you mess up like I've done at times and get like 300 notifications a day, you can change this up to what you want. Here is my notifications selection, everyone has a different setup. Notifications will appear as a number in the top right (alarm) bell to the left of your user name. If you are on site when someone posts something that you followed, you can choose to get a popup as well. Play around with it and if you have any more questions, ask! You can even use @wildone to grab my attention

Now just where was that ‘ban sandrewn’s account’ button.

Character wise, can anyone see Rory taking advantage of a drunk and stoned Dodger (come on, a shower doesn’t sober you up that much 🤪) especially when Rory is with a gf, and he knows Robbie is with Nathan. I mean that would totally go against evert fiber of Rory that we all love and adore. Also Rory is very sober, whereas Robbie isn’t. If it wasn’t for Amy being in the basement too, I would say Daniel and Robbie could set some boundaries by walking around naked in the morning and before bed 😉 Everything Dodger has said about Alex and Robbie is true, but I think I’m like Robbie and now hoping for Alex to redeem himself somehow in the end. Where @Timothy M. said there will be future trouble, let’s hope Alex isn’t one of them. Don’t worry, I still haven’t forgotten or forgiven Alex for raping Robbie. As for the drugs with Nathan, we still don’t know who sold the drugs or possibly had sex with Nathan before he got beat up. Nathan knows but there is only one character that is capable of all 3, as we all were just exposed to all 3 situations in this chapter ☹️ Maybe I’m not rooting for Alex any more.

Oh, I’m taking the new causeway/interstate over 😁

Hi all! I should be on a plane on my way to Hawaii, but delays I know my coverage to do the wrap up was really busy this past week so I'm here to wrap it up nice and tight with a bow on it Monday Cia started off our week with a brand new Signature Author Feature. Hoping it doesn't keep you up all night We jump to Wednesday when we have a excerpt from the Signature Author Feature: On Thursday, Valkyrie got down to the brass tacks and gave us the info for the 2023 Poetry Anthology: Friday, Aditus dropped in from the Prompt Team and gave us two new prompts: And Saturday, what can we say about Saturday? Well Comicality stopped by with a brand new article: Shall we take a look back at the words of the day from last week? Thanks Myr, 3 words that I never heard of before skulduggery, deflagrate, vicarious, tutelage, de minimis, metonymy, canoodle We are getting to the end of January, so shall we check our monthly goals to see how we are doing? Upcoming Writing Events - More info to follow Poetry Anthology - Exploration! All Submissions due Saturday, April 1 - get the information here! Secret Author Story Contest! All Submissions due Saturday, July 1 Leap of Faith Anthology! All Submissions due Sunday, October 1 And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories On Fire by Cia Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry by AC Benus Ancalagon by Cia a Glass Floor Underfoot by AC Benus Headstall's Reflections by Headstall Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories 40 Souls to Keep by Libby Drew Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories Engineer Benson by Wayne Gray Storyverse: Stealing the Show by kbois Recently Updated 'Author' Stories He's My Brother by Backwoods Boy **Complete** Tall Ship Journey by quokka Canaan Club by Westley D. Solitary by RichEisbrouch Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox Return to Zenda! (stage play) by Refugium **Complete** The Niccodemi Variations by Lenny Bruce **Complete** Coming of Age by Tim Hobson **Complete** Brandon Smiling: From the Billy Chase Chronicles (2) by MrM The World Out There by Drew Payne The Flamekeepers of Delta Psi Theta by Kelevra Incandescence by Demiurge Stolen: Unearthing the Lore by lomax61 Maddog & The Pope (Learning to fly on Broken Wings) by Georgie DHainaut Never walk alone- Walk on by Andre Delport Higher Education by WolfM Inherited by lomax61 The Busker by Mancunian **Complete** Sword of the Missed (SOTM) by Kong Wen Hui Clothing Optional by Backwoods Boy **Complete** The Icebox by JujuTheDruid Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!) Any spelling, formatting or grammar mistakes are wholly mine In a rush.

Wow, did that werk ever go fast Just a few personal notes to check in with this week. I continue to be nice to Val, but my devil on the right shoulder keeps pestering me to throw that out the window. Second thing, I’ll probably be taking off the next two wrap ups as I do believe I’ll be on a South Pacific Island. It has been actually 14 years since I took a vacation outside of a 3 hour drive from home. Just need to ensure I have reef friendly sun screen 😉 As usual, enough about me and let’s get to the wrap up. Monday was the day that our Review Team got to remind you of all the superfragilistic reviews over the past year. Also check out how you too can be a part of our Review Team. 😎 While you caught up on reading all the reviewed stories, we looked back at a past Poetry Anthology. Which coincidentally is our first anthology of the year. On Friday, our Prompt Day, we got a few new ones: Saturday’s article by Comsie was an interesting read: Now I’m out and aboot 🇨🇦 this morning, but my dedication to get you 3/5th of the wrap up is amazing gikkle: but I won’t get you the words of the day or goal summary until later. Upcoming Writing Events - More info to follow Poetry Anthology - Exploration! All Submissions due Saturday, April 1 Secret Author Story Contest! All Submissions due Saturday, July 1 Leap of Faith Anthology! All Submissions due Sunday, October 1 Blog Opportunities Ask an Author 3.0: Send in 3 questions that you would like your favourite story's author to answer for you. Send them into @astone2292 Story Review: Send it in to @Timothy M. of @wildone And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories On Fire by Cia (In Process) Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Prose by AC Benus Newport by Carlos Hazday The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry by AC Benus Ancalagon by Cia Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories 40 Souls to Keep by Libby Drew Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Desperado by Dabeagle Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories Engineer Benson by Wayne Gray Storyverse: Stealing the Show by kbois Recently Updated 'Author' Stories A Ticklish Thriller (Revised) by Ajbt2001 Maddog & The Pope (Learning to fly on Broken Wings) by Georgie DHainaut Return to Zenda! (stage play) by Refugium ARROW by CLJobe Tall Ship Journey by quokka Solitary by RichEisbrouch Dark Star by Arch Hunter Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox The Mantis Variant by Adam Andrews Johnson Makarovia! Yes, I Know Where That is! Sophomore Year by R. Eric Unspoken by Late to the party The Niccodemi Variations by Lenny Bruce Coming of Age by Tim Hobson The Caped-Crusader Caper by Geron Kees **Complete** Heat by MythOfHappiness Welcome to Brain Torture Hotel by Refugium **Complete** Poem Collection - MythOfHappinessby MythOfHappiness You Complete Me by Salander The Ticklish Life & Times Of Nik And Parker by Ajbt2001 Ash's Marriage Trigger by Thirdly Two Cats by Refugium **Complete** World Made by Hand fanfic by Refugium **Complete** If Dr. Seuss Had Written Leviticus by Refugium **Complete** Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

So, can't say I'm going outside to nictitate if going for a smoke? Would sound better than going for a smoke. Not that I smoke or anything

Ah, but no where did I mention it was a secret It is public knowledge in the public realm of information I just didn't make my usual status update or in the olden days, a Happy Birthday forum on Jan. 3rd. See, I'm good

I"m curious, how you are doing on your New Years resolutions? I promised to not be mean to Val this year, and I haven't No matter what she says! If you want, share if you made any resolutions. The past two years I resolved to be more of a drama queen and failed miserably both years 😢 Hey, maybe you have a resolution for me Can you believe we are in 2023 already? I'm pretty sure it won't be long before we talk about it nearly being 2024! Not sure if time flies faster the younger, or the older you get. Or, is it based on for a lack of a better word, boredom. Like sitting at work and doing nothing makes an 8 hour day go on forever. Yet if you are behind the eight ball it seems like those 8 hours were not enough and you feel like you just started. Last thing I want to tell you about is that I was an extremely good boy on Wed, Jan 4th . I didn't point out any members here a GA had a birthday or how they are soundly in the later half of their 30's. Nope, I did not! To start of the New Year, we had a relaunch of the January CSR due to technical difficulties. So if you missed the first call to read, consider this a second chance: As a side note, on Monday as well, Myr shared with us a recap of all the stories that were updated in 2022. Wow, that is one big list Thank you to all the people who picked up a pen in the past year and gave us all something to read : Now strap yourself in for the wild and whacky ride that Ask An Author 3.0 brought us You could feel the love in the room this past Wednesday: I hope you all saw the blog last week where the Anthology Selection Team revealed that the theme for next year's Anthology was Leap of Faith. Well this week we found out the dates and information for two more writing events: Friday was another chance to get a couple of new prompts. Hey, that could be a resolution, write one prompt a week! Saturday, Comicality kicked off a new year with a new article. Make sure you check this one out. I thought there might be a certain Ozzy Osbourne song as part of the blog, but I was wrong . I must be crazy!! Since we are in a brand new year, let us look forward rather than back at the last year for goals. We did that last week already. So here is where we are for our January goals: There was some really interesting conversations in the Word of the Day entries this week. Check them all out and let everyone know if you have something to add: sprachgefühl, harangue, tare, amerce, moxie, dorsal, semelparous Upcoming Writing Events - More info to follow Poetry Anthology - Exploration! All Submissions due Saturday, April 1 Secret Author Story Contest! All Submissions due Saturday, July 1 Leap of Faith Anthology! All Submissions due Sunday, October 1 Blog Opportunities Ask an Author 3.0: Send in 3 questions that you would like your favourite story's author to answer for you. Send them into @astone2292 Story Review: Send it in to @Timothy M. of @wildone And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories On Fire by Cia Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories a Glass Floor Underfoot by AC Benus Newport by Carlos Hazday Winter Haven's Dyrpath by Cia The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry by AC Benus Northern Exposure by Mark Arbour Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories 40 Souls to Keep by Libby Drew Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Desperado by Dabeagle Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories Engineer Benson by Wayne Gray Storyverse: Stealing the Show by kbois Recently Updated 'Author' Stories A Diamond Heart by wolfwriter He Ain't Heavy by Backwoods Boy **Complete** Dark Star by Arch Hunter ARROW by CLJobe Solitary by RichEisbrouch The Snake's Lover by Refugium **Complete** Canaan Club by Westley D. Unspoken by Late to the party Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox The Ticklish Life & Times Of Nik And Parker by Ajbt2001 The Mantis Variant by Adam Andrews Johnson Tall Ship Journey by quokka The Icebox by JujuTheDruid A Love to Last by vanalas Coming of Age by Tim Hobson A Ticklish Thriller (Revised) by Ajbt2001 The Flamekeepers of Delta Psi Theta by Kelevra The Brotherhood: Awakening Book II by The Writer X Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

Well Happy New Year to you all! On behalf of all your peeps here a GA we are wishing you all the very Best in 2023. May it be in health, wealth, or staying wise, our heartfelt wish for all of them. As we continue to move forward day by day, I hope that everyone can settle back into a life where you can choose what you want to do, how you want to do it, and when you want to do it This program was like all the other ones for regular TV between Christmas and New Years, it was prerecorded at an earlier time. I hope nothing changes in the next while So let's see how it goes. Cia was in on Monday with the October CSR discussion day, yes, October Read the blog to see why : Can I get a drum roll please 🥁... Thursday the Anthology Selection Committee came up with next years winner for a Theme. Check it out here if you haven't already read up on the results. You have just over 10 months to get it in. Don't leave it for the last minute, like I would : Aditus gave us a few prompts that not only look to the past, but to the future as well. So is this where we see who lives in the past or always looking to the future? Just kidding, why not write one for each! Saturday, Myr was by with all the very best in the New Year to all of you!! Myr was also a busy beaver in between holiday parties making sure all the Words of the Day were up and ready: peace, auxiliary, paladin, blandish, antidisestablishmentarianism, spiel, intercalate Now that 2022 is in the bag, let's see what we did on our December and 2022 Reading Goals: Blog Opportunities Ask an Author 3.0: Send in 3 questions that you would like your favourite story's author to answer for you. Send them into @astone2292 Story Review: Send it in to @Timothy M. of @wildone And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories On Fire by Cia Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories A Home For Christmas by Comicality Winter Haven's Dyrpath by Cia The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Prose by AC Benus Gap Year by Mark Arbour Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories 40 Souls to Keep by Libby Drew Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Ouroboros, Inc. by Dabeagle **Complete** Desperado by Dabeagle Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories Engineer Benson by Wayne Gray Storyverse: Stealing the Show by kbois Recently Updated 'Author' Stories The Retreat by Backwoods Boy **Complete** The Mantis Variant by Adam Andrews Johnson The Closing Act by Arch Hunter **Complete** The English Year by Jwolf Solitary by RichEisbrouch In Chandler's Hands by MrM It's Just a Matter of Time, Charlie Boone! by Geron Kees **Complete** The Six Swans by Refugium **Complete** Never walk alone- Walk on by Andre Delport Unearthly Delights by Littlelovestories Maddog & The Pope (Learning to fly on Broken Wings) by Georgie DHainaut ARROW by CLJobe More Than Nothing by Littlelovestories Stolen: Unearthing the Lore by lomax61 Coming of Age by Tim Hobsonb A Love to Last by vanalas More Than Christmas by D.K. Daniels **Complete** Brandon Smiling: From the Billy Chase Chronicles (2) by MrM Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox Ash's Marriage Trigger by Thirdly Dark Star by Arch Hunter Heat by MythOfHappiness The Princess Who Danced with Fairies by Refugium **Complete** Plattenbau by Thirdly **Complete** Unspoken by Late to the party Ark II by R. Eric Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

If you are just waking up and and decided to fire up GA for your first task of the day , then On behalf of all of us here at GA, we wish you and all yours the very Merriest of Christmases. I really hope that it is profitable for everyone out there I am off to my sisters for dinner this evening, how about you? If you are not going anywhere, doing anything, know that we all will be thinking about you in addition to the ones we are with. I usually ask a different question to you, besides what are you doing today, so I want to know is if you have any different, unique or just interesting Christmas traditions? One of mine is back from when I was living a few hours out of my home town for a decade or so. I would always come home for the holidays and spend Christmas Eve with my best friend and his family. I'd spend the night but that usually entailed too much wine and me and the friend building the larger Christmas presents. Has anyone ever tried to assemble, and place stickers on a mini kids drivable jeep after maybe 1 or 2, probably 3 bottles of wine When we started it, Maddy was 10 months old and she is now 23 Although I do not sleep over anymore, I am still there every Christmas Eve. Speaking of that, I'm doing this up early tonight and I better get my assets in gear! Looking back at the past Monday, Cia introduced us to the December Signature Author Feature: The great thing about that happening on a Monday, it means Wednesday is following up with an excerpt: Thursday Val popped in once again and gave us a gentle reminder to get out and vote for next year's Anthology themes: Friday, Cole from the Prompt Team was feeling generous and gifted us all with an additional prompt this week Yesterday the big kahuna, aka Myr, popped by to wish you all a very Merry Christmas too! Without forgetting to get these in before I hit save, here are the words of the day: uncouth, narwhal, askance, elucidate, babel, sashay, yuletide Now before you continue on with your Christmas celebrations, I know you all want to know where we are on our goals, both monthly and yearly. Blog Opportunities Ask an Author 3.0: Send in 3 questions that you would like your favourite story's author to answer for you. Send them into @astone2292 Story Review: Send it in to @Timothy M. of @wildone And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories On Fire by Cia Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories a Glass Floor Underfoot by AC Benus Winter Haven's Dyrpath by Cia On The Outside by Comicality Left Without Words by Comicality First day of Christmas by northie **Complete** Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories 40 Souls to Keep by Libby Drew Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Desperado by Dabeagle Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories Tales of Inanimate Objects by astone2292 **Complete** Recently Updated 'Author' Stories The Icebox by JujuTheDruid Plattenbau by Thirdly It's Just a Matter of Time, Charlie Boone! by Geron Kees The Mantis Variant by Adam Andrews Johnson Never walk alone- Walk on by Andre Delport Solitary by RichEisbrouch Canaan Club by Westley D. The History of British Currency - A Brief Introduction by Refugium **Complete** Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox ARROW by CLJobe Maddog & The Pope (Learning to fly on Broken Wings) by Georgie DHainaut Dark Star by Arch Hunter The Golden Bird by Refugium **Complete** Coming of Age by Tim Hobson Love Is Everything by Ajbt2001 The Fear of Fairies by Refugium **Complete** The Naughty List by Ken A Slice of Life by Xfighter1984 Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

Done and sorry!

Exactly 7 days to Christmas Day! I actually had to go to the mall and tell Santa what I wanted as I get a feeling I'm not getting anything from this lot Curious, what percentage of shopping did you do in lets say online, brick and mortar stores, and/or local merchants instead of national chains? I ask since I really didn't look at the other two options. Amazon delivers my presents to my work and I go home and just wrap the boxes Lazy, I know. Well in the effort to conserve heat, it is freezing here and getting worse, I'm going to whip through the wrap up and climb back under the covers of my bed. If anyone wants to join me to share heat, and nothing else, let me know Monday, our review team put up another fantastic story for all of us to read: Wednesday/Thursday (time zones ), Val let you all know about the voting for next year's Anthology Theme. You have until the 27th of December to get your vote in. Every vote counts Friday our prompt team gave us to conflicting prompts IMHO. Or, are they conflicting? I guess it is determined by the ending Saturday, Comicality was talking about drinking Jack Daniels on the rocks, The Slow Burn. Oh, that isn't what it was about? Maybe I should go read it Let's see how our December goals are. These could go two different directions; first being more time for authors to write and readers to read, or authors and readers are too busy and don't have the time to do what they love. Here is December and the fast approaching end of 2022. Words Of Day Better late then never repartee, stymie, apologia, millefleur, paraphernalia, ransack, quash Blog Opportunities Ask an Author 3.0: Send in 3 questions that you would like your favourite story's author to answer for you. Send them into @astone2292 Story Review: Send it in to @Timothy M. of @wildone And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories On Fire by Cia Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories The Cockney Canuck by Dodger Flying Circus by Carlos Hazday **Complete** The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry by AC Benus Winter Haven's Dyrpath by Cia a Glass Floor Underfoot by AC Benus Gap Year by Mark Arbour The Cat Burglar by Aditus Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories The Wrong Guy by Kyle Aarons **Complete** Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Desperado by Dabeagle Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories Tales of Inanimate Objects by astone2292 Recently Updated 'Author' Stories Goofy-foot by Geron Kees **Complete** Merry Christmas, Baby by Ajbt2001 **Complete** ARROW by CLJobe Ark II by R. Eric Solitary by RichEisbrouch Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox Oklahoma! - Deleted Scenes by Refugium Plattenbau by Thirdly Unspoken by Late to the party Coming of Age by Tim Hobson The Second Circlet: The Old Places by MrM Maddog & The Pope (Learning to fly on Broken Wings) by Georgie DHainaut The English Year by Jwolf Caliban and Miranda by Refugium **Complete** A Metabolic Malady (parody lyric) by Refugium **Complete** Stolen: Unearthing the Lore by lomax61 Love Is Everything by Ajbt2001 The Icebox by JujuTheDruid Lord Edwin by quokka **Complete** Heat by MythOfHappiness Gilgamesh in a Nutshell by Refugium **Complete** A Slice of Life by Xfighter1984 Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

Drew, I would so be turning around and leaving and calling in on the way home to say once it is fully resolved, you will be back Thank gawd it wasn't you! I'd have to come down with my flame thrower to help you out Edit to add: Even if you worked in an oil refinery

I will tell you off the start, I had some fun this week I had the pleasure of stepping in to do the Ask An Author for Aaron this week. It was kind of nice to give him a much needed week off. Still not sure the reason for his absence, but make sure you check out the blog and hazard a guess . So what is new and exciting in my life this week? Well a whole lot of nothing. I'm in what I call the 2 weeks of hell at my real life job that happens every year. Luckily that is done and over with now . What about you working folk, do things get busier at this time of year? I work backstage retail so yeah I guess it would be fair to say I'm running around like a chicken with his head cut off. No offense to any chickens reading this . We had a pretty productive week here at the GA New Blog, so here is a rundown of every day on the site in case you forgot to be here a day or two . Monday, Cia presented our CSR for the month of December. Not sure is it is seasonal related but I might have to check it out based on the title alone. Tuesday, it was the aforementioned Ask An Author 3.0: Thursday, Val went way back into the Anthology Vault and found a theme of Carpe Diem: Friday, what would Friday be without some prompts. This week Aditus went with, what can I say, Magical! Then to finish up the week, we had Part Deux of Comicality articles about cheating Remember, don't cheat kids Sunday through Saturday, Myr gave us a word to ponder and pontificate over if to use in our daily vocabulary carpe diem, rutilant, saccade, bilk, uxorial, haptic, lambent Well that concludes are weekly wrap up... No wait, we still have more I'll post where we are in the month of December as well as our yearly goals for the next 3-4 weeks: Blog Opportunities Ask an Author 3.0: Send in 3 questions that you would like your favourite story's author to answer for you. Send them into @astone2292 Story Review: Send it in to @Timothy M. of @wildone And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories On Fire by Cia Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories Northern Exposure by Mark Arbour Flying Circus by Carlos Hazday GFD: Children Of Sunset by Comicality By Chance or Appointment by Parker Owens The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry by AC Benus Ancalagon by Cia After Practice by Comicality Translation Trashbin by AC Benus GFD: Fanboys by Comicality Lucid Truth by Stellar Gap Year by Mark Arbour A Home For Christmas by Comicality The Cat Burglar by Aditus Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories A Lottery Win for Christmas by Bill W **Complete** Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Christmases I’ll Always Remember by Bill W **Complete** Desperado by Dabeagle Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories Last Reels by Mawgrim Recently Updated 'Author' Stories Unspoken by Late to the party Waltzing with Bears by Refugium **Complete** Dragon's Roar by Xfighter1984 ARROW by CLJobe Plattenbau by Thirdly Solitary by RichEisbrouch Canaan Club by Westley D. Lord Edwin by quokka The Icebox by JujuTheDruid A Love to Last by vanalas Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox Heat by MythOfHappiness Makarovia! Yes, I Know Where That is! Sophomore Year by R. Eric Coming of Age by Tim Hobson Collections by RichEisbrouch **Complete** Warming The Cold One by garfwiz Ash's Marriage Trigger by Thirdly The Flamekeepers of Delta Psi Theta by Kelevra Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

I did enjoy the sarcasm in the quote, Myr

I thought it was about a gay lamb Get it, a bent lamb Okay, I'll crawl back to the hole I popped out of

And I didn't kill anyone off this time! Thank gosh

OMG, where is Aaron If he lived up here, he might have got hit by a snow plow, but down where he lives that is not very likely. Or is it? Someone told me that he was stocking a shelf when the whole aisle collapsed on him and he was by himself. Then they say he saw all the spilt liquor and couldn't bare the idea of all the good spirits going to waste. So injured on the floor he started slurping up everything he could get. Luckily he was lying at a low point of the store floor so all the split booze flowed to him. Now I guess he has a wee bit of a hangover Actually personally I think he went AWOL. I'm not sure who told him he could take the month off! Oh, it was me Okay, for the truth none of the above is true except getting the month off. So we have a different AAA 3.0 that was sent in this month in where one of our anonymously question suppliers came forward with some questions for none other than @astone2292. Rather than have him appear full of himself (appearances are everything) I decided I would take over the blog, just this once to ask him the questions. 1) What interested you in writing stories about shifters? I write shapeshifter stories as an escape, of sorts. Living with a basic, daily routine (wake-up, work, sleep, repeat), the paranormal genre gives me something life can’t. The ability to transform between human and animal is a concept that would provide one such freedom, even if the animal is odd. A wolf can run in a forest. A mole can dig in the dirt. A bird can sit on power lines and shamelessly defecate on passing strangers. A Golden Retriever can walk around and be called a good boy/girl. Shall I continue? 2) Since you have already hinted about crossover stories, what pros and cons did you consider as you deliberated writing a crossover? The one crossover I performed was not an easy decision. Combining the In the Shadows series and Cernunnos into the same universe had its issues. I had to create a reason for the differences between the shifters and their differing abilities. As time passed, I desperately wanted certain characters to have the opportunity to meet. I can only imagine my readers’ delight if Cyrus ever met Cyn, or if Kaplan met Keiran. The cons… Well, my primary concern was if my In the Shadows readers hadn’t enjoyed Cernunnos (or vice versa). I hate spoilers more than the next person, so potentially causing someone to be exposed to who met who, or who did what unspeakable action was a heavy detractor in the decision. 3) What things do you consider when creating a new universe? By this, I mean considerations between canon and personal ideas about how things work. Going back to my answer to the first question, I want to escape. What could I do to alter life around me to make it more interesting yet believable? I think of a concept, flesh it out, and either stick it in the “to-write” pile or toss it if it’s not beefy enough. Sometimes, I’m met with a stunning image or hypothetical situation through conversation, and my imagination dives into the rabbit hole. Putting a story in consideration, I evaluate whether I have the attention span to commit to the idea, and how passionate I am about the concept. If I know it hasn’t been done before on GA, I’m gunning for it. Two of my projects are going to be unique: Cow-man, being an anthropomophic fantasy/western, and a Pokémon story, a first for GA’s fan-fiction archive. 4) Can you explain how you develop a character from the beginning to the end of a story? Here I’m thinking about the minor character, Sarah, from the In the Shadows series and her arc in Death in the Shadows? Planning, planning… Nah, I can’t say that. I wrote In the Shadows while flying by the seat of my britches. Did I have plans for Sarah back in the first book? Oh, hell no! As much as I’d like to say, “Oh, I just made a bunch of side characters that don’t matter so I can use them when I need to,” but that would be a lie. That’s just the miraculous way it turned out. Being a young and inexperienced writer is both a blessing and a curse. Even now, it’s what I continue to do: write the story, incorporate some minor characters, and when a plot point starts to unfurl, I think whether to give one of the side peeps a spotlight or not. 5) Anything you can add about character development of main characters would also be appreciated. With main characters, I’ve kept them either relatable (Vincent) or true to their nature (Cyn). I find embodying a MC to be the best. Using Cyn as an example, what can, would, or should he do? He’s a deer shapeshifter, and hasn’t been around humanity and their modern ways in his upbrining. I… ate… that… up! Cuisine, transportation, technology. The poor guy sat on a mattress for the first time and thought he was on a cloud. My point is to dive in with a character. Make them stand out and be individuals, but be cautious. It’s easy in the supernatural and paranormal genres to make an all-mighty character without weakness. With Vincent, I did my best. He is a mage with several abilities, even before he became a lycan. What was his weakness? A lack of fighting experience and a morality that prevented him from killing in a ‘kill-or-be killed’ situation. Well that is it for this month! If you didn't enjoy this out of control train about to go off the tracks, don't worry it probably won't happen again. Aaron will be back next month, but only if you continue to send in some great questions like the ones above! Just click on his handle here @astone2292 and then click on the Message button to submit them to him. Easy peasy

It is past my bedtime... I think. So does anyone want to come over and fix my painting job at my condo? I've never painted a house or such in my life, and everyone seems to have suggestions, after I've f'uped and it has gone to shit. Well, I'm done the most difficult wall and pulled the tape off around the door frames and unfortunately took off in some spots a couple of layers of paint too! Krista suggest to bribe someone with cookies, that most men will paint for cookies. So if I bake up a batch of my mom's secrete recipe of chocolate chip cookie if you will come over and fix and paint the rest of my place Well since I don't have anyone knocking on my door yet, let's move onto what happened here this week at the GA New Blog. Monday was a interesting CSR Discussion Day with @Dodger. You thought you knew a guy and then you find out he is ambidextrous We all took a bit of a break whilst Myr was busy with the Words of the Day for the week. How many did you know? vindicate, parvenu, wimple, crepuscular, deracinate, scarify, languid After doing the wrap up tonight, I'm a bit languid 💤 Based on that, I'm done for the night Just kidding, can't leave you hanging. On Thursday Val was in to let us know about the upcoming 2023 Anthology selection process. Friday, Cole came in guns a blazing and brought us a couple of new prompts: Saturday, Comicality swooped in with what might me a multi week posting on Cheating Who would cheat??? We finished off the month of November and now into December. So let's look at November stats, December and also the 2022 stats! Wow, that is a lot of stats! Blog Opportunities Ask an Author 3.0: Send in 3 questions that you would like your favourite story's author to answer for you. Send them into @astone2292 Story Review: Send it in to @Timothy M. of @wildone And here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets! Recently Updated 'Premium' Stories On Fire by Cia Recently Updated 'Signature Author' Stories Flying Circus by Carlos Hazday Ancalagon by Cia GFD 12: Blood Ties by Comicality a Glass Floor Underfoot by AC Benus The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Prose by AC Benus The Cat Burglar by Aditus Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories The Spirit of Christmas by Bill W **Complete** Taking Off the Mask by Ronyx Desperado by Dabeagle Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories Last Reels by Mawgrim Recently Updated 'Author' Stories Lord Edwin by quokka Confluence by Refugium **Complete** ARROW by CLJobe Fix It by RichEisbrouch **Complete** A Love to Last by vanalas Blueblood 5.1: Red Alert!! by R. Eric Plattenbau by Thirdly Chasing Rusty Parker by Laura S. Fox Finding love by AquariusGuy The Brotherhood: Awakening Book II by The Writer X Unspoken by Late to the party Coming of Age by Tim Hobson More Than Nothing by Littlelovestories Maddog & The Pope (Learning to fly on Broken Wings) by Georgie DHainaut The English Year by Jwolf Stolen: Unearthing the Lore by lomax61 Never walk alone- Walk on by Andre Delport Ark II by R. Eric Detour by matcha Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)