I Am Number Four is an interesting book. Human looking aliens are amongst us and they are being hunted by some really bad aliens. It's quite the romp and an enjoyable book. It's the first in a whole series that has a follow up in the pipeline as well. I enjoyed it and I really need to spend some time to finish reading the whole series. Check it out!
So, there are times where I want to read a little lighter fare that is still good. Alex Rider series definitely fits this niche for me. His adventures are all over the top. He's pretty much a teenage James Bond.
The author is good across multiple genres as well. I've read a few different things. He's also written a well-received James Bond novel and two Sherlock Holmes novels.
Anyway, if action-adventure is your thing, the Alex Rider series of books (11 and counting) is worth a read.
I've just enjoyed, and I use the term loosely, an Internet free weekend. This was not my desire in the least. The several-year-old network interface board for Verizon FiOS decided to die Friday afternoon. The tech was able to replace it fairly quickly, thankfully. Unfortunately, it wasn't until Monday morning that they got around to getting here to do it. The only internet access I had over the weekend was through my phone. That means that time I would normally have for taking care of stuff around here was totally zapped. This includes being able to write one of the more detailed blogs that show up here on Tuesdays. I'm writing this as I'm overdue for bed because like Winter is Coming, so does Work.
To our authors, if you've noticed the "Respond to Review" option now showing up on reviews... don't use it. Stories doesn't know what to do with it yet so, you'll just get an error when you submit whatever you write. I've reported it to our programmer, so it should be included when we roll the next version out. It's currently going through bug squashing. The weekend without internet, when I actually had time to work on it, didn't help. Anyway, I will hopefully have more a more helpful blog next week
I really enjoyed Eragon when I read it years ago. I liked the sequel as well and then I was so tied up I never finished reading the series. I have them in my giant pile... but I still haven't gotten back to them. I really need to, since I did enjoy the book so much.
As we roll ever closer to Armeggedon... er.. the go date for GDPR, Invision, the software company for the forum software is releasing another update to specifically address the ongoing concerns of pretty much anyone running anything on the Internet. We will be rolling the update ASAP. It is set to release Tuesday (Today).
Some features in it:
Downloading personal data. One of the requirements of GDPR is to be able to provide what personal data is tracked. They've added a feature to create an export file of personal data.
Deleting Members. We now have the option to anonymize data when we delete a member. As a reminder, in most cases where users have content posted, we delete your account and leave the content per the Terms of Service you Agreed to upon joining and re-agreed to if you are logged in and reading this. As a general rule, deleting content causes community disruption and we avoid that wherever possible. But we can now easily strip said content of anything the EU considers to be personal data.
The Privacy Policy page gets more updates as well. Currently, there are a lot of third-party services that integrate with the forum software and any of them that are used, have their own privacy policy. The system will now automatically display said policies and thus allow us to simplify our own.
We are also working through the bugs on the new story update as well. This is the update that will put all the sorting and filtering right at your fingertips. I leave you with a current image:
As you can see, we have the theme working on the test server. This shows Stories I follow sorted by word count (most)
Of all the times Batman has been in movie form, the first two movies in Chris Nolan's reboot top them. Batman Begins gives the gritty, more realistic and most important of all, less campy version of Batman. This movie hit all the right notes and was only really topped by it immediate sequel, the Dark Knight. (And then pissed away in that god-awful mess called the Dark Knight Rises. I swear Nolan purposely trashed that movie so that no one would ask him to make another)
Anyway, Batman Begins set the stage. Well worth it.
If you have somehow stumbled through life and not read this, you really should. I just loved that the history department head at my school, assigned this book. Far too many of the current generation indoctrinated on BS need something to wake them up.
A few weeks back, our tech guru extraordinaire, A.J., compiled the reading stats to date for me. I poked them around to see what I could see and I made a little pie chart for everyone.
Now, any math person will tell you that you need context to understand what that means. So here are the relevant details:
Data is compiled based on "reads" from Jan-April 2018. This is about one quarter of the year.
The data shown here represents 2.89 million views, which compromised the top 717 stories. The cut off for that number was 1000 views in the time period.
Stories can (and do) have more than one genre listed on them.
The displayed data was compiled this way:
Stories were ranked by most views Jan-April
All stories with more than 1000 views were left in.
We counted up the number of times a genre was tagged in those stories.
The pie shows the proportion of stories so tagged.
As you can see, people are reading Romance and Drama in high numbers. Though, to be honest, many of the stories on the site are tagged with Romance in addition to whatever else someone wanted to be listed. Western is not shown but is half the size of Paranormal.
Enhanced story stats will be part of a future update to Stories.
I forgot to set this to post this morning... oops.
This is one of those late 90's action movies full of one-liners. And it features Samuel L. Jackson doing his thing as a BAMF.
If you haven't seen it and you like action movies and one-liners, this is a good movie.
This is an oldie but goodie. The visuals in this movie are stunning, especially when you consider it came out in 1984. It has long fueled my thoughts of space and space exploration. It is also a much tighter story, unlike the very plodding 2001. Sci-Fi movies suffered from long, slow scenes to soaring music in the 1965- 1980 timeset. You can see this in the first Alien movie, the first Star Trek Movie (The Motion Picture), and to a lesser extent Star Wars. I think Star Wars was the one to start breaking towards action faster.
Anyway, someone beat on Arthur C. Clarke to get him to cough up some explanations for the weird near acid trip of 2001: A Space Odessy. I'd like 2001 a lot more if it cut out about an hour. 2010, probably over-explains, but it makes more sense.
Anyway, I strongly recommend this movie, just for the cool visuals of Jupiter, though it is also well acted.
This is another coming-of-age story by Mercedes Lackey that she does so well. This story is powerful and emotional, like so many of Mercedes Lackey's first book in a new series. (This is a pattern with her. Pretty much every first book in a series she does is a powerful coming of age story). The dragons in this story are fairly unique compared to others. They are characters in their own right, though not speaking or human intelligence. They are definitely not stupid either.
If you haven't read this story, and you like fantasy, this is definitely worth a read.
There has been a lot of news lately about Privacy and information breaches all over the place. Combine that with the new EU law, GDPR, going into effect on May 26th, and every internet company on Earth has been bombarding you with alerts, messages, and requests for re-agreements. The amount of regulation that you have to deal with as a small business is frankly crushing. As the laws were written by technical half-wits (and I'm being generous), the law is written in such a way as that everyone is in violation of the law in some way or another unless you have a large team of well-paid lawyers making everything more complicated and messy. The USA wasn't to be outdone and passed a moronic Anti-Sex Trafficking Bill... that basically puts every company that operates on the Internet in harm's way....unless you have an army of lawyers. Expect more changes as we make adjustments to make sure we are well inside what's allowed by these laws.
In the meantime, you can find our most up-to-date Privacy Policy linked at the bottom of every page:
You can find the Rules/Terms of Service/Guidelines for the site under the Help Menu as Guidelines:
The Terms of Service Short form is here: https://www.gayauthors.org/terms/
It links to the full Guidelines as well.
Opt-in for Site News
We have the capability of emailing members from time to time via the system. This is a strictly opt-in system and we had people cycle that some time ago. If you wish to change your current status for on-site email contact, you can go to your Notification settings here: https://www.gayauthors.org/notifications/options/
For people that Subscribe to the Read! Write! Enjoy! site newsletter, there will be a new opt-in going out soon so that we comply with the new EU GDPR law. Keep an eye out for that.
As an engineer, I have always been fascinated by how things work. You can boil down most engineering to "Problem Solving". Problem solving is a skillset. The most popular problem solver in popular culture when I was growing up was MacGyver. Lock the man in a room with some spare parts and a knife and he'd make an airplane. The people that make the world work are real-life MacGyvers.
In our world, there are not a whole lot of people that fall into this category. Atlas Shrugged is a book that asks the question, what if the people that make things work suddenly stop and disappear?
This book is absolutely despised by 'progressives' because it torches socialism like the dungheap it is. It's maligned by the left because it torches their sacred cows and it is maligned by social conservatives because Ayn Rand wasn't too fond of religion either.
The big concepts are great. The romance in the book is cheesy at best. There is a cool bro-mance thing going on too. And there is a tendency to monologue, at least by John Galt.
If you've never read it and only heard it's evil or some 'progressive' snowflake melted over it, it's worth your while to educate yourself. Enough people out there that make the world work, feel as the characters do in this book.
We are actively developing a change to the story system that will go with our forum software upgrade. There are a lot of things going on under the hood, but there is a fairly sizable visual change coming as well.
Clicking on Newest Stories currently shows you this:
Our still-in-development software update shows you this:
A couple of notes here on the image:
This is a work in progress and subject to change
This is in the default color scheme and has not been updated to GA colors yet
The idea with the interface is to put all the story sorting options right in front of you and have the listing update as you make changes.
For example, if I wanted to list all the stories by either @Cia or me, I can do this:
Or maybe I want to see the Premium Stories?
We are working hard to make things easier for everyone. The Stories Archive software offers some really powerful features, but they are a bit fidgety and in out of the way places. The idea of the new update is to put the power right in front of you.
Like... show me just the stories that I follow:
Do you think this sorting method will be easier for you? Do you think it will be helpful to find specific stories?
Now is a great time for feedback!
It is time for another Anthology Flashback. This week we are featuring Spring 2011 's People are Strange anthology.
Anthologies
2018 Spring Anthology: Now or Never - Due May 15th
2018 Spring Anthology: Encounters - Due May 15th
2018 Fall Anthology: Fight Back - Due Nov 15th
2018 Fall Anthology: Good Intentions - Due Nov 15th
Would you mind taking the time to leave a review for our writers?
This week's flashback brings us back to Winter 2010. Haunted. Check them out:
Anthologies
2018 Spring Anthology: Now or Never - Due May 15th
2018 Spring Anthology: Encounters - Due May 15th
2018 Fall Anthology: Fight Back - Due Nov 15th
2018 Fall Anthology: Good Intentions - Due Nov 15th
This week is all about help. We have a pretty extensive help system here on-site where we've taken the time to write up the answers to the most frequently asked questions. We've also made videos for some of the features on site to make it that much easier. So first things first, help your fellow members with a quick link to the appropriate help section. Help is on the red menu on every single page of the site. Don't be afraid to click the menu.
Help -FAQ - Brings you to the list of common questions. You can search for the what you are having issues with the "find on page" or "Search" function of your browser. (Ctrl-F in Windows) Or you can just read through the list. Links bring you to the proper topic in the FAQ database.
You can open a Support Request by clicking "Support". We prefer you don't do this for simple things, as it'll take awhile to get to you. You'll probably get a faster response to a topic on the forums. The only exception is Premium Content issues. Those you should use the Support Request for so that we can see your account information and can troubleshoot your issue easier.
Staff - Shows the list of our volunteer staff on-site.
Guidelines - These are the rules.
About Gay Authors - This gives you a bit of a history of the site.
15th Anniversary - This was the page we ran to celebrate our official 15th birthday.
Extras - Not everything fits where we'd want it and, to avoid scaring people, we hid some of the links here for those who wanted them.
Editors - List of Editors on Site. (These are people listed as an Editor on a story in the Stories archive.)
Beta Readers - List of Beta Readers (These are people listed as a Beta Reader on a story in the Stories archive)
Categories - List of Categories in Stories. Also available in side menu on the Stories Archive homepage.
Online users - List of members currently on the site.
If you wish to jump straight to the help topics, you can go here: https://www.gayauthors.org/faq/
As an example, here is a Step by Step guide to posting a story on the site:
Be sure to let us know if a help topic needs to be updated. Also, let us know if we need to do a video on a specific subject to make it easier to understand.
I've started my new job and I'm getting settled in. I'm hoping my schedule settles down soon as I've been going a bit bonkers. lol.
Anyway, we stealth upgraded the site a few days ago and since no one complained, things appear to be working well. We also updated the rules on the site on Sunday which triggered a request that you agree to the rules again. This rule updates and your agreement with them is now recorded so that we comply with the upcoming EU debacle, the GDPR. (General Data Protection Regulation)
This update has also put in place a new function in stories that I mentioned a couple weeks ago about allowing us to put the posting rules for Stories right there where you are posting your stories. I'll be updating those this week, so keep an eye out.
On a more interesting note, I got an update image from our programmer that deals with the User Interface improvement for sorting and filtering the story data.
The system we are working eliminates the need for "advanced search" as you'll be able to build your search live right on the page and have the page update automatically. There will also be a few preset search options (like latest completed stories or most reviewed or newest stories under the Quick Search menu). This is a work in process, so there will be variation. We are working hard to make the system easier to use, but having it just as powerful in being able to find the stories you want.
I've mentioned in a previous blog that we have started tracking reading statistics on stories over time. We'll be adding stats features so authors can know how many people are reading their stories and if it varies by time. (right now, the system only shows totals). I'm happy to report that we now have over 3.3 million story views in less than 90 days. The data is still collecting, so when we roll out the new feature, it'll cover back to the start of 2018. We are working hard to make things better for everyone.
Authors, take note, there is a deadline fast approaching for the Novella Contest! We are also 6 weeks out from 2 anthologies!
Contests
2018 Summer Novella Anthology - Due April 15th, 2018
Anthologies
2018 Spring Anthology: Now or Never - Due May 15th
2018 Spring Anthology: Encounters - Due May 15th
2018 Fall Anthology: Fight Back - Due Nov 15th
2018 Fall Anthology: Good Intentions - Due Nov 15th
This week's Anthology flashback is from Summer of 2010. The theme is Out of This World:
Our authors really appreciate it when you read and review! Would you mind taking the time to review a few of these stories?
I've completed my move, but my life is in boxes and I'm actively digging out. I am keeping it short this week and hoping to resume longer posts next week.
If you have not already signed up for our weekly newsletter, you should. Cia likes to sneak surprises in from time to time.
You can find it here: http://eepurl.com/cqQPIz
We also have a YouTube Channel, which I have placed a number of "How To" videos. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/user/GayAuthors
If you have something you'd like to see a video on how to do, please let me know. I should have time very soon to record them again.
We also have a Google+ page, which is just because Google favors it for search results. You can find it here: https://plus.google.com/+GayAuthorsOrg
We do update it pretty much daily with blog links and occasional posts.
We have a Pinterest page. Be sure to follow us here. I've been pinning things for writing inspiration. https://www.pinterest.com/gayauthors/boards/
I try to pin a few things a day.
So, this week for my Monday movie mania, I thought I'd stick with a Christopher Nolan movie and recommend the Prestige. This movie was great. It has a few good twists.
I think I might pick up a copy in Blu-ray as I have on DVD.
This week's Anthology flashback brings back to Spring 2010 - I'd Never Do That!
Now in Alphabetical Order:
For Authors!
We'd also like to remind all authors that we have 4 Anthology themes for 2018 and a Novella Contest:
Contests
2018 Summer Novella Anthology - Due April 15th, 2018
Anthologies
2018 Spring Anthology: Now or Never - Due May 15th
2018 Spring Anthology: Encounters - Due May 15th
2018 Fall Anthology: Fight Back - Due Nov 15th
2018 Fall Anthology: Good Intentions - Due Nov 15th
I have been a fan of Tom Clancy's books since about 1991 or so when I first read Hunt for the Red October. The books tend to be almost the only books I read outside of Fantasy and Sci-Fi. I'm a bit behind on the latest books that have the co-authors (since Tom Clancy is no longer with us) started up. I have spent many, many enjoyable hours reading his books. Patriot Games is the first of the Jack Ryan books. (Hunt for the Red October is 2nd, I think it is). He has 3 intertwined series. John Clark, Jack Ryan and Jack Ryan Jr.
