Jason Rimbaud

Welcome back! Recovery is never easy. I'm sure you can find a place here to help you dip that toe. We love new writers! J

As I said I would reserve judgement until after the author responds. The author has responded, and I have made my judgement. Two things the author states makes me not want to read this story. One of the reasons I was reserving judgement was I thought Morris might be some sort of supernatural character. if he's not, then this is just about a 13 year old coming of age tale, not a subject matter I like to read about. I am hopeful since we know this is only the first chapter. I was worried that as it stood, as a standalone short, it was so predatory I did not see a reason for it to exist. Now that we know there is more coming, we can hope the abused wins in the end over the abuser. The subject matter doesn't bother me, authors should be able to explore themes that makes people uncomfortable. And for the record, I am against trigger warnings. It takes away an important weapon in our arsenal, to throw someone a curve ball. But on a site like GA, I understand the need for it so kudos to you for understanding that many people do not like to be surprised. You are a talented descriptive writer and I might check out other things you've written. Thank you for your rebuttal, it must have been difficult having so many people questioning your story. And your response was more gentlemanly than I would have been able to compose had the situations been reversed. Jason

Oh perfect, thanks again.

Wow, the perfect definition of changing your point of view. Thanks for destroying my innocent crush you monster!

I have tried to find the answer to this question but failed. So if someone can help I'd greatly appreciate it. My husband, who is a lurker, wants to join but I think I've read that you can't have multiple accounts under the same IP address. Is there a way for him to join though we share the same devices and IP address? Thank you. J

This single paragraph offers so much explanation and it is all very logical and makes perfect sense. I had stepped away June 2nd to focus on a few things and I was gone for two months. And when I returned, it felt like the ad's were suddenly very intrusive to my reading pleasure, especially on the phone as the ads obscure the drop down menu. Then I read this explanation, and I realized, the ads weren't more intrusive. But I was reading stories not labeled with mature rating due to the Secret Author Contest. And once I looked at my reading history, I realized that I am a pervert that only reads mature rated stories so the ads never bothered me. I almost signed up for premium membership to get away from the ads, I hate them that much. And yes, I understand why we have them and fully support GA's decision to keep the site free but I still hate them and it takes away from the reading. But now I know to avoid the ads, just read those sexy stories that are labeled M and my life is suddenly happy again. Thank you for clarifying things, one of these days I'm going to make you a cup of tea and pick your brain until I know all the ends and also outs of running a massive site like GA. Its always nice to get glimpses at the whys behind your decisions. You also rock and I have a small innocent crush on your avatar. J

I was going through my childhood treasures when I found my first cook book. When I was thirteen, I wrote my own cookbook, with recipes I had created. Most of them were crazy desserts I had "invented", mostly lots of banana's with peanut butter and chocolate made with condensed milk, but one of them stuck out to me and last Thursday I actually made it. I thought I'd share with you, what I believe to be my very first entree creation. Recipe is shared exactly as it was written in the summer of 1987 Mexican Lasagna 1 Pound Ground Beef (leave out to thaw night before) 1 Yellow Onion (diced) 1 TBL Chili Powder 1 TBL Cumin Powder 1 TBl Smoked Paprika Powder 1 TBL Cayenne Powder 1 TBL Salt (to taste if you're mom) 1/2 TBL Black Pepper 1/2 TBL White Pepper 2 Cans Old El Passo Refried Beans 3 Cups Grated Medium Cheddar Cheese 3 Medium Size Jalapeno (sliced 1/4 inch) 1 12 Count Large Burrito Tortillas 2 Cans Nacho Cheese Sauce 1 Can Rotel Peppers 2 TBL Vegetable Oil 2 Bottle Old El Paso Hot Taco Sauce 1 Head Iceberg Lettuce In large Cast Iron, add half Yellow onion with 2 TBl Vegetable Oil. Cook onions until soft, add ground beef. Once brown, add all spices with 1/4 cup of water, reduce heat and simmer until liquid is gone. As Beef is Cooking, two cans refried beans into pot, add 1/2 can of water on medium high. When the beans start to boil, reduce to low, cover and keep warm. Add two cans of Nacho cheese sauce into pot on medium high. When boiling, reduce to low, cover to keep warm. Once all ingredients are cook, take baking cast iron. Line bottom with 4 tortilla, overlapping but all space inside of dish covered. Spread thin layer of nacho cheese, then add layer of beef mixture. Shape two tortilla to line inside of dish, over the cheese and beef mixture. Then add layer of beans and cheese. Add two shaped tortilla over bean and cheese mixture. Repeat process until out of ingredients. Fold over the overlapping tortilla, spread cheese, place jalapeño evenly spaced on top. Cover with bottle of Old El Paso Hot Taco Sauce. In your preheated oven, 350, bake for twenty minutes or until cheese is golden brown. Remove from oven, cut into squares, and place on plate. Cover with chopped iceberg lettuce, add Taco Sauce to taste. Enjoy! Results: It wasn't bad, easy to make and though it had one texture throughout, it was rather tastey for a 13 year old. Of course when I made it, I made some adjustments. I added crispy chorizo, finely diced raw onions, I made a cheese sauce as opposed to using canned nacho cheese, and I went with a blend of cheddar and Monterey jack with a bit of pepper jack for heat. I made my own hot sauce, I do like things spicy, and added sour cream as garnish. Let me know if you actually try it. I'm curious to see what people thought of my first ever entree. Hard to believe I'm a Chef with instincts like that. I also tried my messy bannana dessert, that was okay, but it was really sweet.

I am going to throw my unwanted two cents into this ring and give you another way to look at your own writing. And I disagree with many of the comments that were offered earlier in this thread. And before anyone gets butt hurt, the reason I disagreed are purely on a philosophical level, and not an attack on anyone. So I will be answering your questions and will generally be addressing, as concepts, some of the ideas that others have put forth. Because I believe writing starts in your head and you are in charge of what you produce. 1. What is your general timeframe from the start of a project to its conclusion? I'd first like to know what your definition of conclusion is. My definition, the conclusion of any project would be three to five re-writes of a completed story, edited, and ready to share. All that could look to be a daunting task. Next what are you wanting to write. Is it a novel, short story, something in between? The answer to that question should give you a rough estimate how long your project should take. Here is a little guide, the average chapter is 4K to 6K, the average person can write 1K every hour. The average novel has 20 chapters, you can run the numbers and get a general idea how long each project should take you. A hundred thousand word novel should take you one hundred hours. If you commit to writing one hour a day, roughly three months to finish a novel. I think my math checks out, I don't know, I'm a stupid chef. Sounds good to me. That doesn't seem like that much when you break it down into manageable chunks. One hundred hours to get you the rough draft. You still will need to do re-writes, editing, more re-writes, polishing it until it gleams like the sun off my bald head. That could take another three months. So arguably, you should be able to finish a novel in six months. Now let's get real. And I'll use myself as an example. For the last two months, I took a break from GA to finally focus on a story I've been obsessing about for nearly two years. While I was writing other stories, my mind would always go back to this story. I even dreamed about it. So on June 3rd, I started writing it. On August 1st, I had finished the first draft at 266,675 words and 765 pages. Did that novel take me two months to write or over two years? In a very long way to answer your first question, before you even start the story, you need to have a few things in place. What is the ending? It can be vague, but you have to have something to write towards. With all my stories save one, by the time I got to the ending, it wasn't even close to what I had in mind when I first started writing it. Because as the story progressed, with me always writing towards that ending, I discovered a better ending. It's okay to discover things while you write, but having a goal to write towards will help you not to get stuck and to have a path when things get difficult. More on that topic in the next answer. 2. Do you lack focus sometimes, even (or especially) when you have the time available to you? Here is where I differ from some of the other ideas that have been put forth. I have read people say you can't force writing, that if its not there, its not there and that's okay. Or that to be creative you have to wait on good ole muse to come knocking. Or they say I write only when I feel inspired. To me, that sounds like excuses for not writing. Since I don't believe in the concept of muse, which is what the above sentence hints at, I disagree completely. Doesn't matter if I'm tired, or if I fought with my husband, or if the customers in my restaurant were assholes that day, when I'm ready to create, it comes when I sit down at my laptop with my glass of pink lemonade and strawberry/kiwi vape. I have developed the skill to use it when I desire. Muse is really only your own personal desire. So how did I train myself to write whenever I want? Easy, there are many things one can do. But as every single successful author will tell you, like any other skill, it takes practice. For me, I got that practice by committing to writing two hours every day, seven days a week. And when I first started, it was hard to face that blank screen. And for the first few weeks, sometimes I would sit for two hours and write nothing. But I didn't give up. Instead, all that day, I would think about what I wanted to write that night. So when it came time to sit down, I had a really good idea ready to go. That got me in the habit of thinking about the story away from the keyboard. And while I don't outline my stories, I do go through them many times in my head before I sit down to write. I have major plot points I want to hit, a rough outline of chapters, key conflicts that builds towards a climactic ending and a rough idea of the main characters. That gives me a framework for the beginning, middle, and end. I also have ideas for key scenes that I either need to write towards or move on from. So I have a roadmap worked out beforehand. Then I start to write, and that's where I discover all the fun things, character traits, idiosyncratic behaviors, the fun dialogue that hopefully brings life to my stories. And when I do get stuck, I revert back to my roadmap to keep me in the right direction. So I plan, think about, and discover all at the same time when writing. And I never get stuck and the skill is there whenever I call upon it. And if that doesn't help you, I'll share with you another secret I learned. A few weeks ago, I knew what I wanted to happen in a particular chapter but I could not figure out how to write that particular scene. I was stuck, and when I checked my plot points, I saw that I was exactly where the story needed me to be, I just couldn't write the scene. So I wrote this instead, because this is a first draft and I know I can go back and correct it. So I wrote, "D goes to the island, gets blown up by a goat, and nearly dies." Suddenly I wasn't stuck. I know D went to the island, he got blown up by a goat, and he nearly died. Then using that as a placeholder, I could write the aftermath, what happened after D was blown up. And in the dialogue I actually discovered how it happened through eye witness accounts. This was showing not telling through interactions and dialogue. So if you get stuck, just write the next scene and hopefully that will give you a way to fill in the gaps later. Either way you're moving forward. The final trick I learned. When you start a story, don't go back and edit. Keeping moving forward until you get to the end. You can always go back and expand on something, its easier to edit than to complete a story. Train yourself to keep going to the end, like writing, that is a skill that is learned and practice until it becomes second nature. If you have to write D went to the island and got blown up by a goat, do it. The first draft doesn't have to pretty, just get to the end. Think of it in this manner, authors write the story to the end. Then they go back and edit. 3. Do you write everything down first and then section it off into chapters, or do you build it up one chapter at a time? Think of chapters as you would a serial TV show. Each chapter contains it's own unique conflict/world building/character building arc with a resolved conflict while pushing the overall story forward. Babylon 5 did this in genius ways over their five year run. As a novel has to have a beginning, middle, and end with conflict resolution, your chapters don't have to follow that same formula. Sometimes chapters are there to raise the stakes, to make the conflict even bigger, put your characters into worsening scenarios to give depth and meaning. And sometimes they could be a breather, a chance to let the reader catch their breath and process what had just happened. Most writers know when the chapter should end. Don't be so tied to the idea that chapters should be 5K to 7K words. I have written chapters double that and still feel like they could be longer depending on what I am trying to say. If your chapters are less than 3k, you might be leaving a lot of narrative on the table. If any of this advice sticks in your head, because I get long. winded and boorish, take away this one thing. There is no muse, no 'well the words just aren't coming today'. That's your brain tricking you. Writing is a skill that needs to be practiced, to become great you have to write whether you feel like it or not. I didn't become a chef in San Francisco because sometimes I felt like cooking and sometimes I didn't. I have my own restaurant because when other people were going out drinking, I was at home practicing my recipes on my friends and neighbors. I have my own restaurant because when people were going to brunch and hanging out, I was drawing my logo and the floor plans to my first space before I had the money or a location. I had a goal and I worked towards it. Writing is the same thing, you have to write, when you don't feel like it, you write. When life is hard, you write. That's what author's do. Writers give up, or wait for inspiration, authors create the inspiration and push through the times they don't want to push. To become great at anything, they say you have to spend 10,000 hours. Writers takes breaks, authors don't. Authors develope the habits that keep them writing no matter how much time they can devout to their craft. The last thing I will say, lots of people approach writing differently and what works for me might not work for you. But one thing all the great authors agree upon, writing is a skill, your brain can be trained to be creative whenever you desire, and the only way to get good at it is by writing and reading other great authors. I'm sure none of this helps but It was fun for me to analyze my own thoughts.

You left out When you get stuck, go online and tell other writers how you would have written their story better or better yet, how they failed in writing their story

Great job! Had no idea it was you though.

Good Job Camy, It was between this and another one for you. Liked this one and made me fuzzy bunny slippers.

I don't hate you but how in the world could you have read through this two previous times? It took me two years to finish it only once, and I started in Feb 2023 and only finished it in June 2025. My husband hates this story too as he had to listen to me rant about it for the last two years. You are way better of a person than I am. My hat is doffed.

I'm of two minds about this story. Well written, for sure, amazing poetry hidden throughout the narrative. Which has some amazing lines that will live in my bald head for a while. The ending, telegraphed the moment Derek was mentioned, fell a bit flat for me. And the turn around, Derek starting snarky and then quickly getting all emotional to a man, a Navy man, he hadn't seen in twenty years , just blurting out I like you. Felt a bit force. I would have liked a bit more drama, maybe another 1000 words before they got together. Over all, this is my second favorite story in this years SA contest. Beautifully written that kept my attention from the opening line to the end. Great Job SA.

I agree with Cassie, I think, Henry was the abuser and possibly killed his lover. The problem is in the narrative. If it was made confusing on purpose to leave the ending ambiguous or if it's imperfectly written, only the author can tell us. It's twisted, and probably worth another few readings. J

So this is the second one that reminds me of a bird...now to narrow it down to one guess.

Knowing how much you love vampires, I believe you, you did not write this. Because if you did i'd be pissed, I went off and created a complete new vampire lore because of how much you don't like vampires, just so you'd read it. J

Someone thought I might have been the author, undies obsession aside, this makes me think of a bird, I mean brit.

I really hope this story isn't written by one of the SA's...that would suck. J

Who ever wrote this has to be on the older side, no under fifty knows who Sam Spade is... There is a lot of story packed into ten pages, interesting premise with a upbeat ending.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Flash Fiction. J

Having read the story and then all the comments, I'm not surprised at the reaction. We throw away discussion on writing, or technique, I think those are obvious. We can also throw out hints that Morris might be otherworldly or some kind of evil presence, there are hints that tread towards that vein but since there is no resolution, its moot. So we have to digest what was presented. Being a survivor of abuse, this story brought up too many memories, and yes I read the warning but I chose to ignore them to see what the fuss was about. Normally you would think in the end Morris would get what is coming, Lucas would bring the police back and the man would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But we are left with the feeling that Lucas feels grateful for being abused. Much like what happened to me. As gay kids, told this is wrong, when an adult accepts us and let's us explore what we've been dying to explore we feel that relief and acceptance. Which is why most of the time we continue the abuse longer than we would. I don't believe in censorship, and I am not saying this shouldn't be allowed. It's just that I am struggling to understand who this story is written for. It's not a warning story for children to be careful and never talk to strangers. It almost reads as a how to guide to take advantage of questioning youth. The slant on making Morris so understanding and just trying to help poor ole Lucas comes across as predatory because it is. I've met plenty of Morris's in my life. Sadly, a few too many Lucas's as well. I hope once the authors are revealed, the author can give us insight to help clear up some of the questions as to motivation. I will reserve judgement until then because I am never one to jump to assumptions. But this story is disturbing on multiple levels and one I won't be reading twice. J

Attracted to the story due to the title, stayed for the offbeat humor, some really clever puns. On the ending, can one know something and not know they know? Can the protagonist haunt himself? Interesting conclusion and probably a story I'll read again to fully digest it. I like this one.

For two months I purposefully stayed away from GA, I have too many things going on to get sucked into the madness of the SA contest. So I did not participate on purpose. So this is the first story I read. And the reason why I did, someone thought I might have been the creator behind this amazing premise yet flawed delivery. First half, shrug, second half, better, final third, great premise with one great line with a surprise ending. PS: Fuck Seth Rogan J

I never got the pleasure of knowing the author, I bet he was fascinating to chat with over adult beverages. His love for boating, traveling, and speedos are as clear as his aversion to making Trevor a believable gay character. There is so much filler and fluff in this story one could cut out tens of thousands of words and never lose anything. Which is frustrating because when this story is good, it's really good. The pirate sequence, Trevor's fight to stay alive, brilliant. His run across the ocean in a broken boat, needed to be tighter, but believable to someone who knew nothing about navigation. Did we need pages of him building gadgets, detailed descriptions that I'm sure almost everyone glossed over with dull eyes? The answer is no, we didn't. Is this a story or a travelogue or worse yet, a commercial for Catamarans? The rest of this comment has been deleted as I felt it was too mean as the author can't defend his choices. If I didn't like this story why am I commenting at chapter 120. I gave up the first three times I tried to read this story. The last comment I made was back in chapter nine when I threw in the towel over two years ago. But two weeks ago, I decided I have to know why this story is held in such high regard. Maybe the author sticks the landing, so I have about thirty or so chapters left. I will finish it.

I got trapped into re-imagining something else, the good news it started out as me editing a very old story on GA that was finished twenty years ago and morphed into an original story that was inspired and pays homage to this older story while being updated with a different premise and all new characters and situations. I am coming to the ending, about twenty chapters with 100K words or so. That being said, I am going to move back to Glacier Bay and finish what needs to be finished so I can make Glacier Bay my main focus. I get sidetracked too easily sometimes. I think Lee has already edited the chapters and I just need to post them. Man do I get distracted by bright shiny objects. PS: This new story is called Captivated By Kai A Glacier Bay Story J