Valkyrie

I feel like Scooby Doo needs to be mentioned here.

A male "Karen" is a "Chad".

I hate the use of "Karen" to describe rude, entitled people. I know several people named Karen who don't fit that description in the slightest. No one is going to name their kids Karen anymore either, because no one wants them associated with that behavior.

Aditus is taking a bit of a break at the moment, from the site and writing (he's okay, just dealing with personal stuff). I can't wait to see what you come up with!

We are creatures of habit, and sometimes those habits can be a bit strange, especially to other people. My best friend in high school preferred to walk on the right side of people. If I forgot and walked on her right side, she would make me switch over to her left side. It became a bit of a joke between us, and it became a habit for me to walk on the left side of people, even if she wasn't around. Over thirty years later, I still walk on the left side of people and feel uncomfortable if I walk on the right. So, let's explore our quirky habits and embrace the weird! Don't forget to post the link to prompt stories below. It may be featured in a future blog. PT Prompt #229 Tell the story of how a strange habit formed. PT Prompt #230 How does a strange habit affect a job/relationship/friendship? 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/

Short stories can be many things – a complete story, a character sketch, or an experiment in form. They are, by definition, short, which may leave some readers readying the torches and pitchforks. @wildone asked a question in our last guest blog about what to do when readers are clamoring for more, and you want to continue the story, but not necessarily at that moment. It’s a great question and one I deal with on a regular basis since I primarily write short stories. I’ve gotten quite adept at dodging pitchforks and torches! These are some things I have found useful when I want to continue a story, but don’t have the time. The most helpful thing for me is to write a copious amount of notes about the characters, world, plot elements and twists, and anything else that comes to mind. Sometimes it may be a snippet of dialogue, the name of a character, or even the title. Writing these things down while the original story is fresh in your mind will help refresh your memory when it comes time to write the continuation. Keep the notebook handy to jot down ideas as they come to you. Try writing some prompt responses set in your story’s world or featuring a character or two. Prompts are designed to be spontaneous and are great for exploring ideas, even if they’re not used in your follow-up story. You never know where prompts will take you! Personally, I find that sometimes I need to let stories ferment and rattle around in my brain before I can start writing them. So, taking a bit of a pause isn’t necessarily a bad thing, although your readers may disagree. When you are ready to write, I suggest re-reading the original story, which helps get you back into the setting and characters’ minds. Then look at all those notes you jotted down and start writing! Leave a comment with any other tips you can think of, and let's see some sequels this fall! Just remember that anthology stories must be stand-alone and not require any prior reading, but that's a topic for another blog

Well, it is shorter than His Grand Wizard Royal Highness It's totally not because I forgot it was Guess the Author week (You're not the only last minute person here )

My immediate thought was Quokka as well. I know guys who have read Nancy Drew. I always liked the Hardy Boys better, though. Shawn Cassidy was my first celebrity crush

Best laid plans... I've been working on an anthology blog post for the past couple of weeks, and every time I sit down to work on it, something seems to pull me away. So of course, it happened again tonight, but in a good way. I'm writing this on Wednesday night, 6/12, which also happens to be my birthday 🎂Without going into all the details, my day did not go according to plan. What started out as an aggravating day turned into a much better one. I had originally planned on stopping at the grocery store to pick up a nice dinner, since I wasn't planning on celebrating until Friday (which is now Saturday, so the thwarting continues), then didn't have time to do that, so decided on takeout delivery. I had literally just ordered my food when I got a text from @Dabeagle asking if I was free for dinner since he was in town. I now have lunch and dinner for tomorrow, since I have leftover steak from my dinner out (thank you, Dabeagle!). This is my long-winded way of saying there isn't a new anthology blog this week. Please let me know if there are any specific topics you would like addressed in future blogs, or are willing to write a guest blog. In the meantime, I promise to have the next writing tip blog ready for next week, and here is another reminder of upcoming events.

The scenario with your friend is a perfect tie-in to my prompt blog. If I had noticed someone doing that, I would have compensated for that as well. In a sit-down restaurant, I always tip 20%. For me to tip less, the service would have had to been pretty sub-par. I understand those workers rely on those tips to make up for being paid less than minimum wage, and it's hard work. I generally don't tip at places with a set menu because those workers, at least in my area, are being paid above minimum wage. Although recently, we had a food truck at work and they really went above and beyond with accommodating my modified order. They even charged me less than I was expecting, so I added on an extra couple of dollars, which was more than 10%, I believe.

Sometimes it feels like we’re losing the ability to empathize with each other. Road rage, entitlement, me, me, me. Recently, I was heading into a store and someone locked their car with that annoying car beep right as I was passing it. I am extremely sensitive to noise, so it caused me to involuntarily flinch. The person noticed, so their reaction was to beep the lock again. I ended up going into the store right before them, and held the door for them. Their look of surprise was worth pushing down the urge to let the door slam in the guy’s face. Even though this is a pretty minor incident, it has me thinking about why this person felt the need to deliberately antagonize someone because they flinched at noise. I thought this would be a perfect subject for some prompts, so let’s take a deep breath and look at things from another perspective. Both of these prompts are based on actual experiences I have had. Write each of these prompts from both perspectives. PT Prompt #225: It’s rush hour and one driver is trying to turn right onto a busy 6-lane street. A second driver doesn’t let them in, and driver one gets annoyed. Later, on the same street, there is construction which has two lanes closed, causing drivers in those lanes to have to merge into the one open lane. Now the tables are turned, and driver two needs driver one to let them merge. What happens next? PT Prompt #226: Two people are in a car – one driver and one passenger. The passenger is known to get carsick quite easily, which is made worse in stop-and-go traffic. At a stoplight, the driver looks the passenger in the eye as they repeatedly creep forward, then put the brakes on. They passenger asks them to please stop, and they don’t. What is the passenger's reaction? Why is the driver behaving this way? 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/

Not all penguins are gay I'll have to check the story out.

Glad you like your alter ego 🦦 I follow "In Otter News" on FB and @Slytherin and I send each other pictures we find funny

GA's Secret Author contests are a fun way to participate in site activities and also to get your stories read by a wide audience. There's plenty of time to get a story written and submitted to Cia! Just don't tell anyone you're participating Outside of your beta/editing team, of course. Information can be found here: Guidelines for our annual anthology have also been released, and it's never too early to start and get your story(ies) to the proof team. More information can be found here: We've also announced a writing event for next year; a tribute to Comicality. More information can be found here: There may be another surprise or two coming up this year, so stay tuned to this blog for future announcements!

Is this it? I did

Is this it? BTW, I would think you're feeling more "Ottery" than "ducky"

Sometimes life can get a little freaky. So let's get our freak on and explain the unexplainable. PT Prompt #221 You're running late to work and don't have time to stop for your customary cup of coffee. Instead, you end up taking a completely different route to work and end up experiencing what can only be described as a 'glitch in the Matrix'. What happened? PT Prompt #222 You keep having moments of deja vu, to the point where it's starting to freak both you and your friends out. Then you predict a bombshell event that comes true. What was it and how does it affect you? 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/

With the announcement of this year's Secret Author Contest - Hidden - I thought it would be a perfect time to take a look back at last year's winner, @Libby Drew If you haven't read her heart-wrenching tale based on the theme of "Secret", then I highly recommend you do so. It's worth a re-read, even if you've already checked it out. So read Libby's story, then get writing for this year's contest! Details for Hidden can be found here: Remember to keep your participation in the contest a secret...

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see what I can come up with

Today's blog comes to us courtesy of our resident Coyote Cub, @astone2292. He's put aside his Ask the Author and Guess the Author hats to give us his thoughts on writing short stories. Thank you, Aaron for sharing your ideas with us! I would like to do a series of these blogs, so if there's a particular topic you would like to see addressed, please PM me and let me know. Now on to our feature presentation! Only one word comes to mind when I think about short story crafting: Excitement. I might be considered a selfish dink when I say this but I am not thinking about a reader's excitement here. I'm thinking of my own. If I'm not excited for it, why would anyone else be? Me, myself, and I, I tend to live in the now. If I find something funny, I'll be swimming in that proverbial pool all day. Retelling the event or joke over and over in my head, sharing with my friends and coworkers, and using that EXCITEMENT in my bounding gait for hours. That is the power of a short story, at least in my life. It's what I look for after reading one. Exciting things happen to us all in some shape or form, so why not use them in our field of expertise? One of my favorite ways of crafting a short is using dad jokes. I know, I know, I feel several bullseyes on my person. But look at the core value: it's a joke that, albeit groan-worthy, will leave a lasting impression on one's mind and add itself to one's arsenal of conversation pieces. All you have to do is expand on it a bit. Why was the bicycle too tired to compete in the race? What was the true reason for the drummer to name his twin daughters Anna-one and Anna-two? See, I either made you giggle or grab the nearest can to pelt me with. Harness that emotion, grab your creative toolbelt, and run with it! I follow a piece of advice from one of my English professors in college. "If you don't have to think about it, don't." And I might as well have that line tattooed on my hand. I am notorious for my lack of brainstorming, and while it drives beta-readers up the wall, I can't help but cackle maniacally like an evil villain. Combine that with a golden rule Carlos Hazday gave me, "A chapter is done when it's done, regardless of word count," I have a fair idea when a story is done. Looking at the second story in my "Sticks and Stories" collection, I used 288 words to create a cute tale of a gingerbread man escaping a castle's kitchen. Did it need more? Heck no! I got my point across, and several people got their fair share of giggles. So, with my rambling out of the way... What goes into a short story? Contrary to my advice of wild and rampant writing with no concern for whether your britches are being held, thought is required. Not much, but some. I recommend sticking with the basics: a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Refrain from branching out potential avenues, lest you tread into novella/novel territory. Humble beginnings? More like crucial beginnings. This is the beast. The big game. This was my rambling earlier. What happened to pique your interest in creating a short story? Without the inspiration, you have nothing. Let's use... Oh, what's a good example? The too-tired bicycle dad joke! *dodges a thrown tomato* I was joking! Jeezums! In all seriousness, your beginning lays out the potential path to victory. Odds are you already know the ending, but you need to dissect the correct branch to form your middle. Trim the weeds, in this case, the audibles that speak for you to widen the story's length and winding road. Iron out the wrinkles of the chosen route that leads to the middle. Speaking of, we're skipping the middle for now. The ending is the easiest part of the battle. How will your tale finish? Does the hero overcome his adversary or problem? Are you going to pull a Game of Thrones and lop off his/her head? Is it a happy-ever-after with a smoking-hot beefcake? I know my preference. *cough* But remember this: once you set your ending, you must coordinate it and your beginning to craft your... Middle! Oh, jeez. This can either be easy or challenging. Taking this year's Secret Author contest as an example, you have up to 30,000 words to use. What may be even more daunting is the concept of having one chapter to play with. Do you dare use every word at your disposal and create a lengthy document, or shall you cut it to make a precise piece? As an author, you must dance. Tango with the details long enough, and you lose your readers to repetitive boredom. Do the Lindy, and your readers will hop into the ending without realizing it. The key is placing your few plot points in proper beat to the rhythm of the short bop you're making. Aside from all of the, what some may consider goofy nonsense, the most critical advice I can give for short story creation is to have fun. We're authors. We write because we love to express ourselves. I adore writing shorts. They consist of subjects or ideas that I want to put out there but don't have the proper time or attention span to give them. Do those ideas deserve more tender, love, and care? Probably, but I also have to conserve my energy. If I exhaust myself with novels, I'll be on the floor gasping for air in a forest cabin with no WiFi and a typewriter. Short stories are also an exciting way to throw spitballs on a wall. Readers will comment and clamor for more from certain shorts than others. That can signal you, the author, to expand on a story universe, thus creating a beloved tale, novel, or even a series. For those who think they can't write a short story, I'm gonna poke you on the nose. You can do it. If some snot-nosed man-child from Banjoland, Kentucky can, you can. I found a home in writing novels. In the last year, I've popped out more short stories than I ever anticipated. I'm having an absolute blast! Toying with new ideas, giving dusty side characters new life, and experimenting with tones and emotions gives me writing energy. So, I'm challenging you, novel-exclusive authors. Make a story that resembles an elementary school science fair project. And if that paper-mache volcano explodes green goop instead of red, let it stain the gymnasium floor for all to enjoy for the years to come. In the end, you'll laugh and love it just as much as your readers. I promise you this.

You don't need a doctor. You need a speech therapist. I'm available Wednesday afternoons 😁

FYI, I have an army of those surrounding your house right now. Sweet dreams!