Valkyrie

It needs to be a collaboration with a Signature Author, in all fairness

I was screaming "COCONUT!!!" at the screen, just like if it were the real Family Feud And Promising Authors #1 answer? Pfffft Team Signature all the way While the weekly wrap-up is a pretty awesome blog, so are the anthology and prompt blogs *cough cough * I can totally see @Cia and I having a laugh attack while being told to behave. I've given myself asthma attacks during laugh attacks before and I don't even have asthma I kind of want to pet Weinerdog now I just realized Family Feud is on the TV right now How perfect is that? This was great! Definitely the laugh I needed today! BTW there needs to be a match-up between Signature Authors and Promising Authors... 😁

I should have checked out the word of the day before reading the weekly wrap up. I thought you misspelled plane

Let's do a bit of a flip-flop with today's prompts and push ourselves out of our comfort zones. In honor of our upcoming Poetry Anthology, I thought it would be fun to feature a couple of prompts that can be used for either poetry or stories. If you are a poet, then try writing a paragraph, short story, or vignette. If you are a non-poet, then give writing a short poem or two a try. The anthology theme is Exploration, so let's explore writing styles that may not be in our wheelhouse. You never know what you might come up with. PT Prompt #109 - Write a poem or paragraph about colors without naming any colors. PT Prompt #110 - Write a poem or story about the following image: an elderly couple holding hands on the beach, staring out at the water.

I love this! That sounds like it would definitely make a fun game here In the past, I believe for National Poetry Writing Month, a few site poets participated in writing collaborative poems, where one person wrote one stanza, someone else the next, etc until the poem was finished. It was fun and quite interesting to see the outcome.

The anthology has never limited the amount of stories an author may submit, so I would say the same is true for this anthology. The intent behind specifying that the poetry must be submitted as a single story submission is so that we don't get someone posting, for example, ten different "stories" consisting of one poem each. For matters of conciseness, it would make more sense to post them all as a single submission. We don't want to put an undue burden on the site staff who have to move the 'stories' into the anthology category and then publish them once the anthology goes live. In your case, submitting more than one "story" containing multiple poems of different forms/styles/themes would be fine. Each "story" or poetry collection, may have one to five "chapters". I hope this answers your question. If you need further clarification, please let me know.

Due to feedback I've received about the poetry anthology, the guidelines have been revised to eliminate the limitation on number of poems submitted. There is now a maximum word count instead. The one poem per chapter rule has also been abolished, so multiple poems may be posted in one "chapter", with a maximum of five chapters. Please review the revised guidelines and let me know if there are any questions. I have also created threads in the anthology section of the Writer's Club for discussion, links to anthology submissions, and the guidelines. https://gayauthors.org/forums/forum/298-anthologies/

Have a great time! Hopefully you won't be delayed too long. I'm still waiting on my ticket, BTW

Sorry, no progress yet. I'm doing the work of two people at my job while we're looking for a second person. No luck so far It's taking all my mental energy just to get through work and all the anthology stuff on this site.

Yes, all forms of poetry, including prose poetry is welcome. I will edit the guidelines to make that clearer.

It's been eight years since GA has featured a poetry anthology, so if you'd like to see them continue, please consider participating and supporting this one. April is National Poetry Writing Month, so this is a perfect way to celebrate! The guidelines for participation are featured below and will also be posted in the Anthology portion of the Writer's Circle. 2023 Poetry Anthology - Due: April 1, 2023 The 2023 Theme is “Exploration” Feel free to interpret the theme in any way you want. The anthologies are not exclusive, but inclusive, so don't worry if you think your entry has only a tangential link to the theme. If you are inspired, then write some poetry! Please read these submission guidelines carefully. You may address this theme in any poetic style. Be creative! However, please note that this anthology, UNLIKE the other GA anthologies, is an anthology of poems. Therefore, no prose allowed, unless it is prose poetry. Who may participate: Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. However, you must be a member here at GA with author or poet status (which is free and can be purchased through the Activities tab: Store link). Please RSVP to the 2023 Poetry Anthology – Exploration event (can be found by accessing the activity tab, then events) to receive reminders and also to give the anthology team an idea of number of participants. Submission Guidelines Submission Date: April 1, 2023 Please Note: Anthology submissions must be uploaded into Stories and the link posted in the 2023 Poetry Anthology Exploration Links topic, which can be found under the Anthology tab in the Writer’s Circle Club, by midnight EST April 1, 2023. Your entry must include the following: At least one poem – there is no upper limit; however, submissions may not exceed 10,000 words total. Posted as a single story submission A maximum of five chapters may be included (“chapters” may consist of multiple poems). Due to site limitations, if there are multiple chapters submitted, one chapter will post every 24 hours. This is not something we can change. When submitting multiple chapters, do not set a date for the ‘story’ or the chapters. Site staff will set the dates for you once they are moved to the anthology category. The ‘story’ and first chapter will publish on the anthology release date, and subsequently, additional chapters will post every 24 hours after that. Submission Procedure *Please read carefully* Once your poetry collection is complete and has gone through your beta and editing team, please complete the following steps: Submit your poems into the GA Stories Archive. For help, please read How do I upload my anthology entry into GA Stories? Make sure the story stays unpublished (DO NOT click on either the publish or publish now buttons for the story itself or later when adding a chapter/chapters.) Select “Fiction” as the category. It will be moved later by staff. Mark your story status as COMPLETE. Only completed works are allowed in the anthologies. Please note that once you submit an unpublished story for the anthology, it will NOT show up in your list of stories for readers until the anthology has gone live. Copy the URL for your story (not any chapter page) and paste it in the announcement topic so your submission may be checked to ensure it meets submission guidelines and can be moved to the anthology category. [*]Please do a visual check of your story once it has been uploaded to ensure that it posted correctly. If it did not, contact @Cia. IMPORTANT: Please DO NOT do ANYTHING with your story once it has been submitted to the anthology. We lock edits to anthologies, but we can only lock so much and making ANY changes can cause issues with the system. If there is something with your story that absolutely needs fixed, added, etc, PLEASE contact @Cia. Thank you! Extensions Occasionally things happen that prevent an author from meeting the deadline. If you need an extension, contact @Valkyrie or @Cia before the deadline (not the day of or after), and something may be able to be worked out. If you have NOT made arrangements prior to the deadline, your anthology entry will not be included. You are welcome to post your poetry independently and include a story note stating it was originally meant to be part of the anthology. Poem Titles Please do not use the anthology themes or your GA Username as a title. Be as original as you can. In case of duplicate titles within the anthology, we will request that titles be changed. No foreign language or ALL CAPS for the titles, please. Unacceptable entries & Content Warnings Entries that are obviously unedited (containing many errors) or that violate site guidelines will be either declined or changes may be requested as a condition of entry. For information on what is considered to be unacceptable, please see the Story Content Rules FAQ. Please include a Content Warning in the story notes if your story contains sensitive content, e.g.: abuse-physical, mental, sexual, extreme violence, taboo topics, etc... Previously posted stories/poetry (whether at GA or elsewhere) are not eligible for inclusion into the GA anthologies. Editing All entries MUST be edited prior to being uploaded. If you need an editor, please visit the Writing Support Requests forum to request one. We recognize that poetry sometimes breaks the rules when it comes to grammar and wordplay; therefore, it is not a requirement for poetry to go through the Anthology Proof Team. If you would like your poems reviewed for obvious misspelling, misused words, or something specific to the form you’ve attempted, then please contact Valkyrie and a proof team member will review your submission. PLEASE do not format text beyond bold and italics unless absolutely necessary. Changing the font color, size, etc… or other excess formatting breaks the custom GA reader controls which are helpful to those who may have visual impairments. Copyright As with all content in GA Stories, the rights remain with the individual authors. Your story will post with a simple 2023 copyright notice, using your GA user display name. If you have another preference (for example, a different name, or a Creative Commons license, or specific copyright wording you'd like to use), please include that with your submission. However, with this anthology, by submitting your poetry, you are giving GayAuthors.org first worldwide rights with 14 days exclusivity. What that means is you are giving GayAuthors.org permission to archive your story on its website, distribute it via RSS, kindle, iphone, ipad, eyeball…. And you agree not to publish it anywhere else for 2 weeks. If you later decide to post your story at another site, please mention at the beginning or end of the story that it was first published as part of the 2023 Gay Authors Exploration Poetry Anthology and include a link back to GA if possible. If you have any questions, please post them in the Anthology Forum or PM Valkyrie.

I knew he was ill, but it's always a punch to the gut to hear news like this. Northie hit the nail on the head. Mawgrim embodied courage, and I greatly admired his outlook in the face of dealing with his illness. He was always a pleasure to interact with, and he will greatly missed. My condolences to his family and friends.

I'm going to call you out on claiming to be nice to me, since I wasn't invited along on your South Pacific trip. And you haven't congratulated me on my latest LPW win. I expect lots of pictures to make those of us in less temperate climes insanely jealous. A Steve-less two weeks here? The site won't be the same

I think #106 is right up @Aditusalley too 😁

I'm still working on fine-tuning the details for this year's poetry anthology - Exploration, so stay tuned to next week's blog for further information. In the meantime, I thought I would feature our last poetry anthology, which was eight years ago! Hopefully this will inspire some of you to explore the realm of poetry and participate in this year's anthology.

Every kid who grew up in the '80s wanted to be one of the Dukes and have a General Lee

Well my car is named Drogon, so flying is pretty much in our wheelhouse And better make sure not to piss me off, or well... you know... dragon stuff will happen 😁

Thank you for letting us know. I'm very sorry to hear of Richard's passing. He read and commented on several of my stories, and I always enjoyed my interactions with him. I also really liked seeing his garden pics. I will miss him.

Thank you so much! As you said, people with Down syndrome are very capable and just as diverse and unique as the rest of us. This story is special to me, so I'm really glad you liked it so much.

We do not know when the guidelines will posted yet, but I would imagine within the next few weeks. I'm working on the anthology guidelines currently, and Cia is working on the secret author guidelines.

Wow... it's been eight whole days 🙄 However will you manage to keep this resolution? I think your resolution for this year should be to write an anthology story. 😁 My resolution is to write more. I have ambitious goals for this year, so we'll see if I can pull them off. 🤞

I love the challenge of technical writing prompts. So here are two that hopefully you will like as well. PT Prompt #103 Choose a setting and an emotion. Write about the setting in a way that evokes the emotion without explicitly naming it. PT Prompt #104 Two characters are having a conflict with each other but refuse to acknowledge or talk about it. They are playing a game (can be any kind of game), and their true feelings keep sneaking out. Write the scene.