wildone

Happy Birthday Tim Hoping your day was full of fun and happiness!

First off thank you for your honest and bold story. My first serious bf in my 30's was Mormon, but not important to your story though... If I may say, your struggles and awakenings are amazing and show the strength of you personal character that you are. The one thing I did notice is your evolution through your life. When you started out, you were heavy on how the church had wronged you (which they had, I don't thing anyone could deny that) but as time went on, you discovered you, what made you tick, what you needed, and it became more about what you were doing for you to be happy, not the church. You mention there is still times in the dark, I would be lying if I didn't say the same thing about myself and I'm sure a lot of gay folk would say the same. Keep living your life the way you want to, and I'm sure you can deal with the hiccups much better than you ever did in the past!!!

Well this is an eventful day in many places in the world.... Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah I'm sure many of you have already opened your pressies and getting ready to have a feast! If you don't celebrate either of these traditions, we all wish you all the very best on these happy days to everyone, everywhere!! So let's look back at the week that was. Monday we started off the week with Cia doing up the December Signature Feature. We learned the that December is Valkyrie's Alex's Legacy. Valkyrie shared some of her favourite reviews she received on the story. Also, we were given the banner that we can download to our signature if you choose. Tuesday was a day for Myr to take over and give us another addition of Tech Tuesday. Myr updated us all on the workings going on behind the scenes with the upcoming launch of the new IP Board Software that drives our site. There has been 2 years of updates that we have passed on and now we are getting ready for 4.1.18 to drive our forums. Expect more blog posts as we move even closer to the launch in early 2017. Also a big thank you to everyone who had helped out with the beta testing! Wednesday the we featured Valkyrie's story Alex's Legacy again! This time it was the Signature Excerpt from this popular story. We learned that she actually got the story started from a prompt. Just shows that Prompts are a great way to get ideas coming to life. Val also shared an except that meant the most to her! Then on an different Thursday post, we finally found out the much anticipated release of the 2016 Special Anthology "Rewind" was made live! We have 12 new stories that everyone had an option of choosing any past themes. Not only that, Headstall won a prize given out for authors participating. We also learned of another contest running that every story you read, and review, you get entered into another draw for some great prizes. Make sure you check out every one of these great entries as well as leave a review to show how much you appreciate the authors for making the effort to participate! Also, maybe pop onto the many members profile page's of the Anthology team and leave a nice thank you for their work on their profile feed. Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: For the immediate future, please copy in Cia on all Anthology PM's to Renee ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team 2017 Spring Anthology: Jagged Edges / Unintended Consequences - Due April 30th, 2017 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017 Premium Updates: Studly Ranch Hands by Renee Stevens *Premium* Classic Updates: The Red Wagon by Ronyx Signature Updates: Bill's Christmas Gift by comicfan **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Black Widow by Mark Arbour; Book 16 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) Faeries Anonymous by Valkyrie **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Innocence & Carnality - Part Two by Mann Ramblings; Book 2 of I & C Maelstrom by Valkyrie **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Mental Games by Bill W Mine! by Cia Release Me by Comicality HMS Valiant by Mark Arbour; Book 7 of Bridgemont Temporary Dads by Graeme The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel The Legend of Treehaven Woods by Valkyrie **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Promising Updates: An Advent Calendar by aditus Boxed In: A Christmas Story by Headstall **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Daddy Issues by Sasha Distan **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Family Matters by Sasha Distan **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Finding Refuge by Headstall **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Headstall's Reflections by Headstall Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall Of Prophets, Saints and Sinners by AC Benus; Book 8 of Christmas at Famous-Barr Stepping Through the Mirror by Headstall **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** The Egyptian Pantheon by Sasha Distan Tiger Winter by Sasha Distan Trade Deals by Sasha Distan **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Voli Me Tangere by aditus **2016 Special Anthology: Rewind** Don't forget.... Read, Write, and Review!

**Special Announcements** Many of you have spoken and we have listened. Have you ever had to decide how many of your likes to use within an 24 hour period and were limited and unable to like everything you wanted? Well starting today we are happy to announce that there is no limit on the likes you can use in a day!!! The only exception will be the Newbie Group that will be increasing from 3 to 20 a day. Just so you know, if you are a Newbie and want the unlimited feeling, you only need to make one single post to get out of the Newbie Group Also we are consolidating the numbers needed to move out of Moderation Queue and Peer Review Queue as well. With more likes being available, we are sure most can get more, more quickly. In order to consolidate you will need 150 likes to move out of the Moderation Queue, and we have lowered the number from 200 to 150 to move out of Peer Review. Now don't be afraid to like this blog as it won't go against your daily total (shameless solicitation on my part ) And now to our regularly scheduled Weekly Update to see what has happened over the past week. Monday Renee introduced us to the Featured Story; A Taste Of Desire by Arazon. Timothy M was very helpful in providing a great review of this completed story to us. After reading the review it piqued my interest and now I'm reading it myself. Always great to find something new to read that you weren't aware of before. Wednesday we received some Writing Tips to help any of our New Authors, but really is good for the experienced ones too. Two of our popular authors gave us some great tips. Aditus shared with us all how to he handled Starting Out with posting stories. Being around a while myself, I can personally attest that what he shared is great advice and many of our authors have followed this advice themselves. Next Graeme gave some invaluable advice on Planning your story. There is multiple ways to tackle this issue and Graeme reviews some of them. I guess the key piece of advice is to have a plan when you start. Thursday gave us all an update on the 2016 Special Anthology. If you haven't checked it out already, please do if you have contributed a story to be featured in this first time reboot of all past Anthology themes. Even if you are not contributing, it is a good chance to plan out what you are going to want to read. If by chance you didn't see your story, please contact Cia and Renee as soon as possible. Friday Cia gave us our Weekly Prompts for the week. Prompt 544 has a first line of It's time to bury the hatchet. Hmmm, that can be taken several different ways. Which way will you choose to interpret this one? Prompt 545 seems like a great one for this week. The tag is a Party Nightmare. I'm sure most can relate or sympathize for others on this one. A total disaster is about to break loose hours before the family is about to arrive for your first ever Family Holiday Party that you are in charge of. Finally Cia featured Timothy M's response to Prompt 543. Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: For the immediate future, please copy in Cia on all Anthology PM's to Renee ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team All Pre-2016 Anthology Themes - Due December 14, 2016 **Now Closed** 2017 Spring Anthology: Jagged Edges / Unintended Consequences - Due April 30th, 2017 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017 Premium Updates: Studly Ranch Hands by Renee Stevens *Premium* Signature Updates: 319 Winesap Lane by CarlHoliday A Class By HImself by Comicality Black Widow by Mark Arbour; Book 16 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) Innocence & Carnality - Part Two by Mann Ramblings; Book 2 of I & C Mental Games by Bill W Mine! by Cia Temporary Dads by Graeme The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel Promising Updates: An Advent Calendar by aditus Headstall's Reflections by Headstall Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall Of Prophets, Saints and Sinners by AC Benus; Book 8 of Christmas at Famous-Barr Tiger Winter by Sasha Distan Don't forget.... Read, Write, and Review!

Skinny, those words are never easy to take hearing about someone else, but to hear them about yourself I can't even imagine. Stay as strong as you can and know that you are in everyone's thoughts.

Not sure where in the world you are, but Winter has finally arrived here Temperatures reaching highs of -20C / -4F has kept me in a lot and doing a lot of reading instead. Enough about the weather, lets see what happened on the site this week. Monday we had Cia introduce us to the December CSR Feature. This month we are going to look at Kuragari129's story My Life Started At The End Of The World. If the title doesn't capture your interest then wait until you read the synopsis. Discussion day for this story will be on Monday, December 26th. You have just over 2 weeks to git er done. Wednesday was the ever popular feature called Ask An Author here on the blog. This is where Renee turns the blog over to Dark for questions presented to authors of our site. This month Dark interviewed albertnothlit, Nephylim, Riley Jericho, and skinnydragon. Not only is it interesting to hear from popular authors but also to learn how they handle writing and making the great stories that they do. Friday finished up the week with our return to Writing Prompts 542 and 543.These new prompts are good to get the creative juices flowing (hopefully more than molasses in Calgary this week ) and get some interesting ideas and works on the site for everyone to enjoy! Prompt 542 was a creative one using these words - red leaf, turkey, squeaky wheel, pumpkin, and a blue shoe. Prompt 543 was a creative one using the first line of I think it is time for you and I to have a little talk. Lastly Cia featured Hunter Thompson's response from Prompt 539. Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: For the immediate future, please copy in Cia on all Anthology PM's to Renee ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team All Pre-2016 Anthology Themes - Due December 14, 2016 2017 Spring Anthology: Jagged Edges / Unintended Consequences - Due April 30th, 2017 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017 Premium Updates: Disastertastic by Cia *Premium* Studly Ranch Hands by Renee Stevens *Premium* Classic Updates: Door Number Three by Ronyx Signature Updates: 319 Winesap Lane by CarlHoliday Black Widow by Mark Arbour; Book 16 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) Innocence & Carnality - Part Two by Mann Ramblings; Book 2 of I & C Mental Games by Bill W Mine! by Cia On The Outside by Comicality Temporary Dads by Graeme The Best Year by Krista The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel The Secret Life Of Billy Chase 9 by Comicality; Book 9 of The Secret Life Of Billy Chase Promising Updates: American Steel by Carlos Hazday An Advent Calendar by aditus Fallen Pride by Sasha Distan; Book 7 of The Best Circle of Hell Stories Headstall's Reflections by Headstall Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall Of Prophets, Saints and Sinners by AC Benus; Book 8 of Christmas at Famous-Barr One Hundred and Fifty-Five Sonnets by AC Benus; Book 5 of Verse Right Where We Live by AC Benus; Book 5 of Christmas at Famous-Barr Tiger Winter by Sasha Distan Don't forget.... Read, Write, and Review!

Huh

Sorry to hear of your loss Tim

Renee will be taking a bit of time off from the Site Blog but will return soon. I will be doing the weekly wrap up for the immediate future, so lets hope I don't mess it up Monday we started the week off with the November CSR Discussion Day of Comicality's Between the Lines. Cia had a lengthy interview with Comicality about not only the story but also what motivates him to believe he is writing a good story. A lot of tips and information from one of our most read authors at GA. Wednesday on December 1st, we learned about a first here at GA. Cole Matthews, Valkyrie and Aditus all shared with us a project that they are working on called Advent Calendar. This will be 24 short pieces by the 3 authors posting every day up until Christmas. To add some fun, the 3 have a topic where you can try to guess who penned the pieces and a big reveal at the end of the week. Make sure to pop in daily to see the story posted by Aditus and then try to not only guess the author, but participate in the discussion. Friday was our Prompt Day and we had the Second Chance Prompts #509 & #511. 509 is a creative prompt that is based around a Tire. Mainly a flat one and no working spare and encountering a person from your past that comes out from the Auto Club. 511 is a creative prompt called the Child. Things aren't normal in the neighbourhood when a new family moves in and they have a child. What is it about this child that has upset the normal day to day activities of the neighbours? Sounds interesting, eh? Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: For the immediate future, please copy in Cia on all Anthology PM's to Renee ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team All Pre-2016 Anthology Themes - Due December 14, 2016 2017 Spring Anthology: Jagged Edges / Unintended Consequences - Due April 30th, 2017 2017 Fall Anthology: The Fall Out / Secret Spaces - Due November 15th, 2017 Premium Updates: Disastertastic by Cia *Premium* Studly Ranch Hands by Renee Stevens *Premium* Classic Updates: A Christmas Eve Awakening by Ronyx Door Number Three by Ronyx Signature Updates: 319 Winesap Lane by CarlHoliday A prompt a week by comicfan Black Widow by Mark Arbour; Book 16 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) Innocence & Carnality - Part Two by Mann Ramblings; Book 2 of I & C Mental Games by Bill W Mine! by Cia Temporary Dads by Graeme The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 2 by Bill W; Book 11 of The Castaway Hotel Waiting Outside The Lines by Comicality Promising Updates: American Steel by Carlos Hazday An Advent Calendar by aditus Fallen Pride by Sasha Distan; Book 7 of The Best Circle of Hell Stories Headstall's Reflections by Headstall Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall Right Where We Live by AC Benus; Book 5 of Christmas at Famous-Barr Tiger Winter by Sasha Distan Don't forget.... Read, Write, and Review!

:music: Happy Birthday Andy :music: Hey, missing you baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Hope you are enjoying your Birthday

:music: Happy Birthday Lisa :music: I know that you do a lot of celebrating of many authors here, but you definitely need to be celebrated today on your birthday!! Hope yoru day is great and you enjoy every minute of it

:music: Happy Birthday Gary :music: I hope your day was a little bit extra special and that everyday going forward are the same

:music: Happy Birthday Aditus :music: Hope you had a great day!!

:music: Happy Birthday Dr P :music: Hope you got up to a lot of mischief and other fun things today!!!

:music: Happy Birthday Northie :music: Hope you had a great Birthday and you were treated like the Royalty that you are

Belated Happy Birthday Emoe

:music: Happy Birthday Mikie :music: Hope your day was everything you expected and more Enjoy!!!

Adam, you will be missed I'm lucky to have got to known a little bit about you. Rest in peace

Having been a member here at GA for years, Leonard Cohen's name has come up numerous times in multiple threads and posts. Personally I have never heard anyone ever say they didn't like his music. Some arguments over who did his songs better, him or others that covered him. He will truly be missed . I also think of one of our past Authors, Duncan Ryder, who him and his partner saw him in concert many times. RIP in Leonard

:music: Happy Birthday LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEY :music: Hope you had a super day!!!!

Bravo Graeme. Take a bow. It is amazing that I won't get a fix of life in the VFL for a while, but I'm very thankful for your hard work and sharing your talent with us. Thanks to to your team (including a certain goat) and to any of the athletes and/or teams that helped or inspired you to write this amazing tale. Steve

And a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada too!!! Sasha, just email/call him and tell him Turkey is the meal of the day today He should be good with that

Welcome and Congratulations Ronyx. And a a special Thank you for sharing your work with us

Wow, October 2nd already!!! Won't be long until the holidays arrive and we turn the pages to the new year. This week we started off with C S R Discussion Day and Cia took the time to interview Puppilull and discuss her story Thaw. It is always interesting to see the responses to the hard hitting questions of Cia . The other great thing about C S R Discussion Day is that you the readers get a blog to discuss what is on your mind with the Author. We had a great discussion on Monday. Wednesday was Re-Visit Reviewing For The Blog. Renee explained to us all the parameters for being on the Blog Review Team. We have a great community of authors and readers. This is your way to give back to the community by volunteering to do a review for the blog. I know the other day I read a review and ended up reading a 20 chapter story that I really enjoyed. Why not help out the team by putting your name forward? Friday was Prompt Me day and we had double the amount of prompts this week. Second Chance Prompts #475, #477, #479 and #483. Being four of them this week, make sure you stop by and see if any get your writing on. In addition there was a look back at some older responses back to the beginning of the year from Doctor Oger and Timothy M. Anthology Announcements: ***NOTE: All Deadlines are for submission to the Anthology Proof Team 2016 Fall Anthology: Blindsided / The Forgotten - Due October 28th, 2016 All Pre-2016 Anthology Themes - Due December 14, 2016 2017 Spring Anthology: Jagged Edges / Unintended Consequences - Due April 28th, 2016 Premium Updates: Journey's End by M.A. Church; Book 2 of The Harvest *Premium* Studly Ranch Hands by Renee Stevens *Premium* Classic Updates: Love & Loss by Dabeagle Signature Updates: Leopards Leap by Graeme; Book 3 of The Lilydale Leopards Mental Games by Bill W Mine! by Cia Veil of Shadow by Stellar; Book 2 of unnamed Weightless by Cynus; Book 2 of Less is More Promising Updates: Falling Apart by craftingmom Headstall's Reflections by Headstall Morningstar: The Malaise by Headstall One Hundred and Fifty-Five Sonnets by AC Benus; Book 5 of Verse Don't forget.... Read, Write, and Review!

:music: Happy Birthday M :music: Hope your day was great!!!