Valkyrie

There are two different observances in July that I'd like to honor with prompts. July 14th is International Non-Binary People's Day - halfway between International Women's Day and International Men's Day - and is aimed to bring awareness to issues faced by non-binary people. July is also Disability Pride Month. It commemorates the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and celebrates the accomplishments, experiences, and challenges faced by individuals with disabilities. Be sure to scroll to the end of the blog for a couple of recent prompt responses. PT Prompt #295 Write a diary entry from the POV of a non-binary person. Feature everyday interactions and experiences that subtly challenge assumptions about gender. PT Prompt #296 Many disabilities are "invisible", but still have a profound impact on an individual's life, such as autoimmune or cardiovascular diseases. People with these type of disabilities are often gaslighted by medical professionals, colleagues, and even their own friends and family. Write a story featuring a character with an invisible disability and their encounter with someone who doesn't believe they are actually disabled. Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection. If you check the subgenre ‘prompt’ in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here: https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/ Yesterday was capybara appreciation day, and while I don't think @wildone truly appreciates these cute creatures, he did take on my word list celebration prompt featuring capybaras. Read at your own risk! @BendtedWreath took @Aditus out on a date. Wait... uh... he was late to the date... uh... he wrote about Addy's date prompt Be sure to check that one out as well!

@Parker Owens needs to compose us a Clerihew 😁

@Slytherin nicknamed me Penguin, after the cat in my first multi-chapter story. So it's a dig at me Steve and I have a friendly(?) rivalry over penguins and otters. For those not familiar with the Pepsi reference, I wrote a prompt story ages ago about a zombie apocalypse that was cured by spraying the zombies with Pepsi. It's become a running site joke

Today is National Capybara Appreciation Day

Today is National Capybara Appreciation Day 😁 If you appreciate capybaras, you might not want to read @wildone's prompt story

Today is also National Capybara Appreciation Day 😁

There are lots of secrets surrounding our Tell the Truth - Secret Author contest, but one thing that's not a secret is the due date for story submissions! My beta reader is twitching in the corner because I used "secret" three times in the same sentence There's less than a week to go, so get those finishing touches put on your stories and get them sent off to @Cia. Just don't tell anyone about it It won't be long now until we can start the guessing game as to who wrote what, which is always super fun to participate in or even just to read the guesses. Submission guidelines can be found here:

Now I'm afraid of my bubblewrap They need to introduce giant mutant otters to eradicate the capys, although if they pattern them after Steve, they would definitely be in trouble. Great take on the prompt, although this is even more proof that it's better to not piss you off

That reminds me... Joey Chestnut actually ate 70.5 hot dogs in 10 minutes, not 40.5 And yeah... gross.

I used to work at a big equestrian center downstate and a big storm was predicted in the evening. We had a lot of horses turned out, so we kept a close eye on the weather because metal horseshoes in wet pastures during lightning storms is not a good thing. When the storm approached, it was a literal black wall of clouds creeping toward us. Very Lord of the Rings/Armageddon type stuff. We managed to get all the horses from the top pastures into the barn, while a couple of people ran down to the lower pastures to get the lesson horses in, even though the storm had hit at that point and we yelled at them not to. We stood just inside the barn, trying futilely to see through the wall of torrential rain, when a lightning bolt flashed and thunder boomed immediately afterwards. I felt the hair on my arms stand up, and we all screamed and ran away from the door. It turned out the bolt actually hit the lower barn. The people had thankfully made it inside with a group of lesson horses and they told us the lightning actually arced across the blanket racks. Terrifying!

Uh... how old are you, Steve?

Happy Canada Day to our neighbors to the north and Happy Fourth of July to my fellow Americans! In the spirit of celebrating, let's explore various ways to do so. PT Prompt #293: You're a competitor in a major competition in your sport and will clearly win. Knowing this, you celebrate too early, which costs you the win. What happened and what is the fallout? PT Prompt #294: Use the following words in a story: balloon, cake, capybara, fireworks, flame-thrower, bubble wrap Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection. If you check the subgenre ‘prompt’ in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here: https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/

Hmmm... do we need an otter/spider crossover thread?

Steve... use a spoon!

It's definitely the theme for some people 🙄

For some reason, I thought of you when I typed in "alien capybara" I'm honestly a bit afraid of what you are going to come up with for this theme

GA features several writing events throughout the year, usually with a theme. When themes are announced, there are generally two reactions - yay, I love it! or WTF were you thinking? Participating in site events is fun and a great way to get your work out there and gain new readers. So, what happens when you want to participate in a site event but don't like the theme? I'm going to outline some tips and tricks to still participating, even if the theme doesn't "speak" to you. We've repeatedly said that the link to the anthology theme can be tangential - it doesn't have to hit us over the head. Let's take this year's anthology theme as an example. The classic definition of a Creature Feature is an old-school horror movie where the monster is the main feature of the film. If vampires, werewolves, or swamp creatures aren't your thing, you'd have to give this a hard pass, right? Wrong! Anthology themes are selected with the intent that they are open to multiple interpretations. What else can a creature be? Any kind of animal fits the bill. Add a wolf, blue bear, penguin, otter, or capybara to your story and voila! You've tangentially fit the theme! It doesn't have to be the main feature, either, since humans are creatures as well. So are aliens from another planet, but now I'm going off on a tangent. Alien capybaras? Enough of that. Another tip is to think about the theme and why you don't like it. Then think about how you could spin the theme into something you do like. Embrace the challenge of incorporating a creature into your story, even if it isn't the main feature. The idea of the anthology is to be inclusive, not exclusive, so if you have an idea you really want to write but you're not sure if it fits the theme, remember that tangential link and add a fluffy kitten or a flame-throwing unicorn and start writing! If you have any tips or tricks of your own, feel free to add them in the comments.

Good lord. Time to send these two to HR. Again. 🙄

Happy Canada Day! Looks like Steve's started the celebration

That was my first thought too LOL