northie

Contact on that day is even more important than on any other day. Just a simple phone call - that's all it needs.

Yes, and I wonder how often that happens in real life. Maybe not so starkly but I'd guess it's pretty common.

Good for you. Commenting on stories is something you grow into, I think. I always enjoy reading whatever comments people choose to leave.

Thank you! One of my more eccentric offerings...

Even as a fledgling writer, it struck me as a great way to make the comparison without shoving it in people's faces. Thanks for rereading I hope Eric's story continues to stand up.

Your title made me smile. I'm sure these lines make more sense and serve more as a list of accomplishments than many an email that's landed his inbox. Those, I think, must be demeaning and a complete waste of time. Utterly performative. Your observations are, as usual, a delight and a joy to read and imagine, and you may continue to make them for as long as you wish.

It's well worth a read. Good, vivid writing, and a subject which, I suspect, resonates with a lot of people.

I enjoyed reading this a lot. It felt real - the thoughts, emotions, actions, and the way you wrote them. Bravo.

Hi, having discovered there's a Supporting Member category, I went to pay for 12 months worth on PayPal. When I got to the confirm and pay page, I clicked. It went away and thought for a few seconds, then returned to the same page. A second try produced a non-specific error message. Is the issue with them or with GA? A quick search produced no reports about PayPal being down. Laptop using Chrome.

The king or the kingmaker... Or both. One can't help suspecting there'll also be covert operations from (ex-) CIA, other intelligence agency or military operatives. I look on from the outside. It's difficult to imagine what it's like for you all when democracy, rationalism, and the rule of law are all under threat with no practical resistance outside of violence.

'Our evenings' by Alan Hollinghurst. My rating: 3 (out of 5) stars I don't read very much queer 'literary fiction'. Those I have, I've mostly enjoyed. This, though, was different. Alan Hollinghurst is a Booker Prize-winning author who's lauded and lionised. A new novel from him is something of an event. I read the description, ummed and aahed, then finally bit the bullet. It's a long read - 16 and a half hours - and for that, I want to feel engaged. Was I? No. Hollinghurst's writing style borders on perfect: word choice, story flow, descriptions all rise up off the page to paint their pictures. That was probably what kept me going. The narrative content didn't. Really, I should've read the blurb more carefully. I'm not a fan of slow, decades-spanning tales, so I guess I started on the wrong foot. The novel follows the life of Dave Win, who's half-Burmese, as he navigates school, college, discovering himself, and carving out a career in the theatre. Maybe it's because I haven't followed anything like the same path, but I didn't really relate. The amount of time spent while Win was at school in the 1960s and early 70s bored me rigid. Part of the problem was a lack of variety in tone. Every incident and thought and reflection hovered around the same pitch. There were no real highs or lows; no joy or hot, vivid anger. In the end, I 'flicked' through the last 3 hours or so, desperate to finish but also not to waste that amount of time on reading something unrewarding. Oh well, not one for the reread pile.

Sometimes I leave something for a while, come back, and it continues as if nothing ever happened. One incomplete story I have now, I spent a lot of time on a couple of years ago and I've pretty much never been back to it. That was probably an issue with plotting and character motivation. To go back to that one will need a lot of work and tearing up of digital pages. First, I've got to decide whether it's worth it. Another, I'm enjoying more but requires a lot of research and I return to it in fits and starts. That one's already had a rewrite. New work usually happens when there's nothing more urgent. I don't lack for ideas so there isn't the imperative to slog on with a unrewarding story in the hopes it'll turn good. Unless you're under contract to produce something, do whatever makes most sense (creative or otherwise). Keep the story though. Maybe you'll come back to it, maybe you won't. I imagine most writers have a bottom drawer full of unfinished masterpieces... 🤨😄 If the new idea gets your creative juices flowing, I'd go with that. Be interested to see other replies.

Thank you! I remember being surprised at how good this story was. It was my first time at really getting emotions into a story.

An ode for Valentine's Day as only you could write it. Truth - messy, inconvenient, and unfinished shines from every line. Bravo.

Wow, thank you for wading your way through this. 🤨😊 A very early piece written for my first antho ever. I'm still proud of it, though I've no idea what most people thought of it at the time.

Hi, welcome to posting your writing on GA. This link should give you some sense of the moderation queue process Please also bear in mind that site admins are volunteers and have their own lives outside of GA.

I am from a mystery solved. I am from an uncommon perspective. I am from humankind.

Thank you! I'm very pleased you enjoyed the story.

Being English and having little to no interest in movies, I, like @Thirdly (again!), didn't make the connection to horror. Other things, yes. Things which are equally uninviting when it comes to setting my writing juices flowing. I know... boring. No mental flexibility, some people. 👀🤨😄

I agree with @Thirdly and @CassieQ about the single main antho theme. I confess to looking at it with a sinking feeling. However, it's always emphasised that the theme doesn't have to be front and centre in whatever results. I'm taking this to heart. I plan to revisit two characters from another piece. The beasts will be there in the background.

Thank you for coming back to Eric. He was part of my life for several years. Although he's a character I'll never forget, there's no urge (currently, at least) to write anything more. Ask any writer. Producing something to order when there's no creative urge to do so, is a recipe for dissatisfaction all round.

Glad you enjoyed the story. Yes, it was a pretty action-packed start to a week for Julian. A coming-together of things which had been brewing and new concerns.

Thanks for reading. 😊 I do write a lot of shorts. Sometimes I revisit characters; sometimes I don't.

I have to say, I look in from outside in utter disbelief. And the solution touted is to make schools themselves places with guns instead of general regulation. Not something that's going to change over the next few years unfortunately. There's been so much noise about one prominent incidence of violence, and yet, these seem to slip from the front page. Commonplace. Hardly worthy of serious comment. Again, you use your art for protest. Your words should shame everyone involved in this spiral of violence.

Thanks! I always find it fascinating how the same prompt can mean different things to different people.