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Myr

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Blog Entries posted by Myr

  1. Myr
    Stalking Darkness is the conclusion of most of the threads set up in Luck in the Shadows.  It picks up where the last book left off.  Traitor's Moon moves in time a bit and covers the consequences of the first two books.  If you liked the first book, you'll definitely want to complete these two books.
     
    Both of these books are good and have a nice emotional connection to them.  (And the slow burn on the romance final pays off).  There are further books in this series, but I found my interest in them dropping a bit and I have not read the last two released books yet.  I'll post them on this blog when I go get to them.
     
  2. Myr

    Sprout by Dale Peck

    By Myr,


    Books
    I was going back through my list of books that I had bought over the years and this one sprang to mind.  I think it is the cover that got me to read it.  Teenager with greenhair just begs the question why.  
     
    This is definitely a layered story.  It has great character development and is interesting. I definitely found it worth the read.
  3. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Activity and Activity Stream

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    When we upgraded to the new software, we picked up a very powerful tool called the Activity Stream.  The cool thing here is that it has not only built-in options, but you can create your own as well.  We'll start with the most important two, right up front.  
    First.  All Activity.  You can find it by going to the Activity option on the Main Menu and Selection the top option on the Sub-Menu, All Activity.

     
    This immediately shows you all the latest new content on the site.  You can view this in 2 different ways.  Expanded and Condensed.  The system remembers your preference.
    Expanded:

     
    Condensed:

    (You can see that for the forums, the Forum name is in the colored bubble, just like in Fluid View, which we highlighted here last week.  And you get a rare glimpse into the Site Moderator forum... We're discussing a blog Renee is posting tomorrow (Wed) on improving the quality of the tags, descriptions etc on Stories)
    There are icons next to the content to tell you what the content is:
    A forum comment, two story comments and a blog comment.  Story related items are little books.  Forum items are little chat bubbles.
     
    That covers All Activities, so the next important item is Activity Streams.  These are customizable.  The default Activity Stream is "Latest Stories"  You can set this to anything you like.
    You can find all the default stream under your name:
    (That little triangle is the Moderator Report function, for those that are curious)
     
    If you have changed your default stream, that'll be different.

    There is a LOT going on in the Activity Stream.  First, like the All Activity we covered first, you can view story updates as Condensed or Expanded. It works the same way.  The icons for content are the same, this time, since we are looking at only stories, they are all the story icon.  The big change here is there is now the large white "filter box". 
    The filter box is how you set options.  It has the following items:
    Show me - This sets what get's shown.  You can choose between Content (like a chapter) or Content and Comments/Reviews.  You can also filter items using tags.  If you type a tag in that box, it'll show you only things with that tag. Content Types.  This is how you pick what get's shown.  The Story Updates Activity Stream shown above, it shows you Stories and Story Chapters.  That means it shows new stories that are posted and new chapters are posted.  There is a blog post all it's own on just how you can play with that. Read Status - Default is everything.  you can set up a stream to show you only story updates you haven't read.  Important!  "Read" is forum software for "Clicked on".  It is like your notification pop up window. "read" is really loosely defined. Ownership - Default is everything.  I could have it show only things I've posted.  Or I can specify an author.  Example: Following - Default is everything.  You can choose to show updates for only stories you follow, for example. Time period - Default is Any, which also displays as Last 365 Days.  You can filter items during the last year.  It does seem pretty quirky on how successful that works. Sorting - Newest First is the default.  You can reverse that. If you make changes to an existing stream, it asks if you want to save.  If you say yes, it'll keep your stream settings and you can go back to it whenever you like.  There are also a ton of existing Activity Streams availible already.  You can use them or you can modify them.  Example, you can change the Latest Blog updates to Latest Blog Updates of just this blog. 

     
    I hope this helps everyone understand the power of the system just a bit more.  Let me know if you want to know more.
  4. Myr

    Spider-Man: Homecoming

    By Myr,


    Movies
    So I finally got around to watching this.  I shouldn't have waited so long.  Oh... mmmm.  Tom Holland.  What an adorable Spider-Man he makes.  What a great selling feature too, showing him in boxers.  More than once.  lol.
    Eye candy aside, both male and special effects, I also enjoyed the movie in general.  It's really good to see Micheal Keaton back to acting again.  He did a good job with a complex character.
     
    I'd definitely say this is worth having in your library.  The 4k version is also worth it if you've got the hardware to rock it.
  5. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Fluid Forum View

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    So, when Forum 4.2 was released, they added a new feature called "Fluid View".  This is a whole new way of looking at the forums.  It basically lists all new topics based on when they were posted and gives you a color-based tag on which forum it belongs to.  The forum company is recommending now that new forums start with it.  This ties into me taking the time to colorize the forum icons awhile back.  You can check out the different options here:

    The Standard forum view is the button the left.  The Middle button is "Grid View" which is frankly pretty odd.  The Fluid view is the option on the right.  Give it a click and check out the options.  It really shows active posts a lot easier.
     
    When in the Fluid view, you get filter boxes on the left-hand side of the page.  This allows you to show topics only from selected forums.  If you don't select any, it shows you all topics from the forums you have access to.  Each topic has a color-coded tag indicating which forum it is from.

     
    As soon as you select a few forums, you'll show only the posts from those forums.  For example, Announcements and The Lounge:

     
    This view is an option if you're not a fan of scrolling through all our different forums looking for updates.  It might surface content easier and it more likely you'll see something.  Give it a try and let me know what you think. 
     
    Coming soon, I'll go over the Activity Streams as another way to view new content.
  6. Myr
    This week I want to bring up the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling.  All of her books seem to touch on one LBGTQ issue or another.  Nightrunner though stars the adorable, naive Alec. 
    From Amazon:
     
    I really enjoyed this book.  It is a slow burn on the Alec thing.  This is a pretty long series and I don't think I've even read the last two yet.  I think the first one is my favorite though.  If you like fantasy stories, this is absolutely one that is worth checking out.
     
  7. Myr

    Wonder Woman

    By Myr,


    Movies
    This is the best DC movie I've seen in awhile.  Probably the best since the Dark Knight.  It is way better than the Superman movie, and Batman V. Superman.  I also enjoyed Chris Pine in this movie.  Though, to be truthful, I seem to like the job Chris Pine does in all the movies I see him in.
     
    For the movie itself, it has a good solid plot.  It explains the picture from Batman Vs. Superman very well.  The movie has action and character.  It's good to see a kick-ass woman kicking ass because she's supposed to be versus some Hollywood virtue signaling deal.  They did a great job with this movie.
     
  8. Myr
    This week's Anthology Flashback brings back to the Summer of 2007 and for Endings and Beginnings.

    As always, we thank all these authors once again for participating so long ago.  If it is not too much trouble, would you be willing to write a review for these authors?  Even if some of them are no longer around, I'm sure other readers will appreciate the effort.  The authors are are still with us surely will.
  9. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Quotes, Mentions and Etiquette

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    I thought I would talk this week about the use of quoting and mentions while you make posts and comments on the site.  There is a certain etiquette to this to keep topics flowing smoothly without making a nuisance of yourself.  So, first up, some definitions:
    Quoting is when you press the "Quote" button and it pulls in the entire comment Quote This is when you highlight a portion of text and a small "Quote This" box pops up that you then click.  It functions the same as Quoting, but only for the highlighted text. Mentions are when you type the "@" symbol followed by a name.  The system prompts you to create a mention @Myr Users are then alerted that someone mentioned them. (example of "Quote This")
     
    You shouldn't ever really use the first option unless the post you are quoting is short.  Most people have just read it and there is no reason to repeat the whole thing, especially if it is long.  That ends up being more irritating than helpful.  A great alternative is to highlight the small section you are referring to and using "Quote This" instead.  Now, I understand that this is harder to do on mobile devices as well as other circumstances, so a great alternative there is to use Mentions.   The system can get squirrelly if you use a lot of them in a row, but you usually shouldn't need such a thing.
     
    Just a note that is forum software bug more than anything, if you are using post dating feature, if you use a mention, the person will be alerted, even if the post/blog/whatever has not posted yet.  I think that is supposed to be patched, but I know from experience that it sends the notification as soon as you submit it, not when it posts.
     
    Of course, I have previously made a video on how to use mentions.  It is here on YouTube:
     
    Would you be willing to like and subscribe if you found the video helpful?  It lets me know whether or not making further videos is worthwhile.
  10. Myr
    Well, this movie is a bit different.  So, right up front, let me say that I liked this movie a lot more than the critiques.  Sci-fi and fantasy are definitely in my wheelhouse.  I also enjoying watching Dane DeHaan.  Kris Wu is also a nice in the eye-candy category too. 
     
    The movie's special effects are outstanding.  The plot, which those critiques complained about, requires you to pay attention.  Not Inception levels of attention, but not casual watching either.  I enjoyed the movie enough to watch again.  It's worth checking out if you like Sci-Fi, for certain.
     
  11. Myr

    Survival Handbooks and Writing

    By Myr,


    Writing
    For those of you that haven't figured it out by now, I'm a compulsive researcher in far too many ways.  I end up all too often with far more research than writing what I was supposed to write.  Having said that I picked up these two books a number of years ago to give a story I was working on more accurate flavor.  It didn't get posted, but it is in the backlog of things that I'm sure I'll polish up, complete and post some day.  Anyway, I found both of these books interesting and informative.  The SAS guide is more technical and the other guide is more hippy gone wild.  They both serve their purposes, especially if you're writing about a disaster-struck modern world.
     
  12. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Tag, You're It!

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    This week is all about the tags.  Every part of the system uses them.  I bet most people kind of gloss over them if they notice them at all.  Buy why are tags important?  The honest truth is that the tags are there to help you group like material together.  For example, I tag all of these type of blogs posts with Tech Tuesday.  if you click on a tag, it pulls up the search engine and shows you everything that is tagged with that item:
    https://www.gayauthors.org/tags/tech tuesday/
     
    The same thing applies to stories.  Say you want to find all the stories tagged with Magic, well, just click on the tag on a story and you'll get your list:
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/tag/magic/
     
    With Stories, you can also go to the "Genre and Tags" page and see the list of all the Genres and All the Tags.  Clicking on them will bring you to all the stories tagged accordingly.
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/genre/
     
    Using tags is easy.  On every new topic, blog, gallery image, or story, or whatever content you're posting, be sure to place 1-3 of the most important keywords in the tag box.  The tags will self-format when you hit the comma.  So Tech Tuesday tags look like this:
    Please note here the item prefix.   In some places, you are allowed to add this prefix and it shows up on the subject line ahead of the subject.  This should be used sparingly as it is meant for emphasis.  Usage of the prefix  option does vary by by member group and which part of the site they are using.
     
    There are some pretty big search updates coming in the Forum 4.3.0 software that is entering beta test now at our forum vendor's site.  Using tags not only helps our system now with searching, it'll make it better in the future.
     
    Speaking of future, we will be patching the site soon with some bug fixes and part of that will be that we are going to start tracking readers' stats on a weekly basis.  Right now, when you look at a story, you see the total number of views over time.  But that could have been 10,000 views four years ago or last week.  There's no way to tell.  With the new system we are implementing, authors will be able to tell what of their material is trending and when.  Publicly, we plan on showing data on what people are reading by genre and by tags.  This update will just begin the recording of the raw data.  This way, when we get to the real update in a few months, we'll have a lot of data already on hand.  For those concerned with privacy, there is no personal data recorded at all.  For those wondering, why should I care?   This data will be used to understand our market.  Stories that get the most reads in a time frame will boost their tags and genres in popularity.  Writers who are looking for a challenge, can then write stories that fit what people are looking for... or do that and twist it back to what you're looking for by hooking them good and proper.  This ties back to tags.  Make sure the tags on your story are useful and actually describe the story.  Review your stories and make sure your tags make sense.
     
    We are also open to adding more tags that are currently not in the system if you make your case for them.
  13. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Story Reviews

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    Writing reviews is hard.  That's the honest truth.  Writing the first review is even harder.  Humans are social creatures and tend to have a herd mentality.  Most people will wait for others to go first.  It is part of human nature.  However, writing those reviews is important for the same reason.  A lot of people don't like to go and read something unless it's been reviewed.  There are other factors people look to like number of views, number of likes, and number of follows when the reviews aren't there, but we've been trained by the billions of dollars marketing companies spend to look for those stars when we are considering something.  It's completely unconscious for so many of us.   Amazon has this down to an art form.  Every time you buy something, especially if there are not a LOT of reviews, you'll get a follow-up email asking you to review the item.  That's because people look for social proof that others like what they like.  There are entire psychology and marketing courses and books on just this subject alone.  It's mind-boggling, really.
     
    Our Stories system is set up so that people can comment on ongoing stories as well as each chapter.  When the story is marked as complete, people can leave a review.  You need to leave a 1 to 5 star rating with 1 being Oh God, Why Did I Read This? and 5 being WOW!  Where can I send you money? I have made a video where you can listen to my non-dulcet tones explain how to do this:
     
    If you watch the video, would you mind taking a moment and hitting like?  It would be much appreciated.  Also feel free to subscribe to our channel so you can see when I make these little videos.
     
    Important notes on reviews:
    The more spoiler-free stuff you are able to put in there, the better.  This is especially true the lower you rate the story.   If you really liked the story, "This is Great!" is a positive feel good for the author, certainly.  However, if you can tell the author why you thought it was great, then the author has a great target on what to give you more of.  Did you love the characters?  the plot?  the humor?  the twists? the big cliffhanger? (but don't spoil it!) If you didn't love the story, it's even more important to let the author know what's wrong.  It is imperative you do this constructively! "This Sucks!" is a complete waste of time for you to leave it and for the author to read it.  So DON'T do it.  Some examples approaching constructive feedback: I like the characters in this story, but the plot felt flat and empty. You can use the spoiler tag to give specific examples. I really loved the concept, but I struggled to read through the editing issues. I think the plot was well thought out, but the characters felt interchangeable and flat. Star Ratings to Me:
    Stars mean different things to different people.  1 is bad, 5 is best.  But what does that really mean?  This is my own scale of how I view them: 5 Stars - This story is one of the best.  A must read for me. 4 Stars - This story is great.  Well worth a read.  (this is my most common rating) 3 Stars - This story is good.  Decent story that may just be mismatched to my genre/mood/preferences. 2 Stars - Meh.  Not a horrible story, but it has issues. 1 Star - This story is a complete mismatch to my preferences or is horribly written or has one or more fatal flaws.  
    Older Stories
    Gay Authors has been going since fall of 2002.  We have a lot of stories, of course.  Some of our early members are no longer with us for one reason or another.  @DomLuka@dkstories@vlista20 @C Jamesto name a few.  They each have some great stories but have low counts in the system.  This is because they had their own hosted sites on Gay Authors and were not in the system when they were getting the most hits and actively posting.  We promote the older stories regularly, but they really need members that love the older stories to review, like, comment on them to bring them to the attention of others.  Hell, @Comicality is active and has a huge back number of stories that you can check out.  @Mark Arbour is another.  Read and Review!  Let everyone know why you like the story.  Reviews, comments, and likes are all fuel for authors.  In many cases, the only fuel. 
     
    So, will you--the reader--be willing to take just a few minutes of your time to let the author, who probably spent hours writing what you just read, know what you felt about their story?  Would you mind leaving that review in return for their hard work?
  14. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Series Feature in Stories

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    This week's blog was triggered by the observation that some authors and members seem to be unaware of a built-in feature of our Stories system.  This is the Series function.  First, for the readers, you can find Series easiest by using the right-side menu on the main stories page. See below:

     
    If the Longest Series is not your thing, you can easily adjust it by selecting "Sort By" and choosing a different option:

     
    When you click on a Series Title, say "Gone From Daylight", the stories will be listed in Series order.  You'll recognize Series stories in the system because they'll have a Series # followed by Series Title after the Story Title.  For example, on the Gone From Daylight Series page, you can see the highlighted Series # and Series Title:

     
    That's all great for Readers, but how to Authors make a Story part of a Series?  Easy!  Edit the Story and right at the top of Step 1 is the Series Title and Series Number:

     
    We do ask that Authors not add the Series Title and Series number until there are at least two Stories in the Series posted in the system.
    Also note, that is a great way to tie related Anthology stories together.  Although in the case of Anthologies, the staff will have to edit the story for you. 
     
    I hope that helps everyone understand our Series function in Stories.
  15. Myr
    So, I thought I'd start with one of the first published gay books I've ever read.  I have this in both paperback and Kindle.  This book is outstanding in that it creates a fantasy world that has a very unique magic system.  I've never really read anything that was similar.  The fact that it has a gay teenager as a lead character just rocks my world.  There is an age struggle basically between an immortal 20-something? 30-something?  and a teenager.  It works very well since, by the time anything happens, there is certainly no coercion or even ability to coerce in place.  
     
    I loved the book and have read a few times over the years.
     
    By the same measure, I can't stand the sequels.  The sequels to this book suck to such an extreme it is hard to believe the same author wrote them.  So, by all means, check out this book.  Skip the sequels at all costs.
     
  16. Myr

    Baby Driver

    By Myr,


    Movies
    So, while I was laid up this weekend, I finally had some time where I could do pretty much nothing but catch up on the very large pile of movies I have sitting here.  Well, I could have caught up on the very large pile of books or games or reading lists or nevermind.  I watched movies.  Baby Driver was one of them.
     
    Now, I love action movies.  Check.  This has action.
    I'm rather fond of any movie with a Twink-like character in it.  Check. Check. 
    Kevin Spacey almost always plays an obnoxious prick.  Turns out the reason why is because he's not actually acting that part.  Knowing what we know about Mr. Spacey, I have some concern for Ansel Elgort... after all... Mr. Spacey was calling the guy Baby the whole time.  And was a manipulative bastard of the first order.
     
    Anyway, I enjoyed the movie.  It went pretty quick and there were only a couple of slower spots to distract. 
     
    The links above are affiliate links, so if you decide to go buy them from Amazon (USA), then Gay Authors gets a cut.
     
  17. Myr

    Writing Habits and Stuff

    By Myr,


    Writing
    The start of a new year is a time of reflecting.  I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately.  I'm in the process of searching for a new employer so that I can move.  We're coming up on three years since dad passed away.  I've more than quadrupled my visits to mom since then.  Most of the summer and fall, it was every weekend.  It's not a horrible drive, but I'm tired of it.  Mom wants me to move back in with her and I'm good with that.  It would let me take care of the stuff she needs and let her take care of her parents.  (Grandpa is 86, Grandma is 83).  My career is flexible enough, in theory, to move and get a new job and with the economy going finally, this should work in theory.  But I am getting rather sick of working for other people.
     
    When you step back in look... there are 168 hours in a week.  Scratch 50 hours for sleep.  Scratch 60 hours for work, going to work or getting ready for work.  Scratch another 10 hours for chores/bills/other requirements of life.  That leaves 48 total hours in the week.  then GA.  figure 4 hours a day averaged out for what I do.  That leaves 20 hours.  chances are good that not more an 2 or 3 of those hours are consecutively available.  And by the time all that is done, I don't want to be on the computer anymore.  I usually read or occasionally I'll get time up in gaming.  This pattern has been pretty much the same for 10 years.
     
    So, I'm working on breaking that pattern a bit and get into a pattern of writing more.  Some of this is the blogs.  I'm now handling three site blogs per week.  Some of them are fairly simple, but the Tech Tuesday blog is a lot more involved.  I'm also thinking of doing just a general sort personal blog, like this one, once a week.  I'm also looking more into alternative revenue sources for the site.  One of those options is what they call affiliate marketing.  That is, we link to products that other people are selling and we get a small fee if you buy after clicking on our links.  Since I'm a gadget kind of guy, I've thought about talking about some of the gadgets I get in my blog and putting up an Amazon link to it so that if you decide you want to try it too, the site can get a cut.  Also thinking of doing the same with books and movies.
     
    Writing and posting blogs regularly keeps me in the writing mood and helps prompt me to write more in other areas.  I'm currently reviewing my Harry Potter and Parliament of Dreams story so I can finally complete it and then focus on new stuff that is wholly my own.  I'm also targeting the anthologies this year.  Slowly but surely I want to get myself back into a regular writing habit. 
    Time will tell!
     
    Let me know what you think.
     
  18. Myr

    Potpourri of Updates

    By Myr,


    Life
    Welcome to my little potpourri of updates.  It has been a little while again.  As it happens, I get way too busy bouncing all over the place with all the stuff I'm doing.  Some personal stuff first... the project I started two years ago with my mother after dad died is now pretty much done.  We converted the back porch of the house into a very nice family room that is pretty much all windows.  (There are 15 windows in the room).  It turned into a great place for me to write and to read when I stayed there during my vacation from work.  Mom is also very happy with it, which is the most important part, of course.
    I can also report that the mancave I built in the barn at moms is also finished stage 1.  Aside from the nice Phillips Hue lights in the room, I have some black lights mounted on the back of the projection screen. There are no windows, so this room can truly be a cave.
    As for the site, we have worked out the majority of the bugs from the transition to the new software.  Just in time for the next transition, it seems.  Forum software 4.2 is in Beta 8 and is scheduled to be released in the first week of August or there about.  We will be waiting until 4.2.0.2 or so before we upgrade if we even have our software update ready for that.  Stories do work with the update already, but some new features aren't integrated yet.  We hope to have that all set by the time the software is ready to upgrade.  The upgrade to the new version should not cause all the issues we just went through, as the hardest parts are now behind us.
    I am also in the process of writing the specifications for the next feature update to stories that focuses on adding the "Reading Lists" feature into stories.  This will also replace our dodgy "Favorite Author" and "Favorite Stories" list with something much more useful and obvious.
    In addition to that stuff, I have also been researching business and marketing stuff.  With our business model, we need a constant flow of new people and new material and the success of eBooks has taken away a lot of our feeder streams.  These means that we have to take more effort, time and resources in order to further develop our own stream.  We are working on a bunch of stuff that's more long term development in nature.  It is exactly what the revenues from Premium Content gets sunk into.  If you don't already subscribe, doing so keeps this train moving:
    In addition to all of that, we are also working on developing more writing resources for our authors. Comicality has been very kind in helping me out with articles for a new feature that will be coming later this summer.  I hope to get that set up so we have regular articles and other helpful material to be released on a regular schedule.  
     
    I've also been making an effort to write something every day.  None of it is worthy of you guys seeing yet, but it will be when I get back into the regular swing of things. I promise.
     
    That's all for now.  I'll try to do this more regularly, even if it is just to bs a bit.  
  19. Myr

    Articles in Review Week 5

    By Myr,


    Writing Tips
    Welcome to the New Year!  We are wrapping up the last of the Writing Tips before launching our new weekly article feature.  Be sure to check these out and let Comicality know what you think!
     
  20. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Starting off 2018 Secure

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    I thought I'd start off 2018 with a reminder to everyone about computer security.  In the past year, we've seen major security breaches that gave away pretty much everyone's personal financial information and worse.  It was bad, to put it mildly.  So, first, I'm not a security expert but I'm offering some common sense items for everyone.
    Use different passwords on all of your accounts. Use Strong passwords( 8+ characters, mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters like $#@!) If this sounds scary to you, use a password manager. I use LastPass personally as it works on all my devices. Use Two-Factor Authentication on your major email addresses and all financial accounts.  This could be an authenticator app, using the option to get codes texted to you, or setting up security questions. Keep your computer software up to date!   
    You can change your password in your Account Settings. It shows you how strong your password is as you type it.  Go for green! (a password Strength indicator shows up when you start typing)

     
     
    Gay Authors offers two-factor authentication as well.  Either questions or the Google Authenticator App.  Or both.

     
    Further resources from MIT:
    https://ist.mit.edu/security/tips
     
    I also use Secunia PSI for making sure all the programs on my machine are updated.  It's free for home use:
    http://learn.flexerasoftware.com/SVM-EVAL-Personal-Software-Inspector
     
  22. Myr

    Articles in Review Week 4

    By Myr,


    Writing Tips
    This week, we start posting articles by Comicality.  These are in our Writing Tips category in the story system.  When we catch up on all those tips, we'll start posting new ones directly right in this blog.  Keep an eye out!  In the meantime, check out these tips by our very own Comicality:
     
  23. Myr

    Did you read these classic Anthologies?

    By Myr,


    Anthologies
    We hope you had a great Christmas!  As we march closer to the end of 2017, did you get the chance to read our previous holiday anthologies? 
    Our 2004 Christmas Anthology:

    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/7-2004-anthology-christmas/
     
    Our 2006 Winter Anthology Blizzard Theme:

    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/11-winter-blizzard/
     
    Our 2015 Secret Santa Short Story contest:

     
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/80-2015-secret-santa-short-story/
     
    Also, this story was strongly recommended:
     
    We'd also like to remind all authors that we have four 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  
  24. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - 2017 Year in Review

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    There seems to be an unwritten rule out there for websites and publications everywhere that the last week of the year is the time to do a year in review wrap-up sort of post.  This is the one for Gay Authors.
    2017.  What a year!  This was the year we jumped 50 versions of software to finally break free of the 3.4 version of the forum software and break into the world of 4.1 and then 4.2 versions of the software.  We've had hundreds of Stories archive software updates in the same timeframe as we've worked through all the bugs from going through a complete software rewrite and carrying a ton of existing data along.  The good news?  The biggest part is behind us for now.  It took considerably longer than we wanted to get where we are, but the system is mostly working as intended.  There are some outstanding notification bugs and quirky language that will be the target of a patch sometime soon.   The important thing here is that we made it!  We had a much smoother transition this time around.
     
    It's time to look ahead at 2018.  Just what is coming?
    Blogs and Newsletters:
    Sunday Weekly Wrap-ups Blogs - These will continue. Sunday Newsletter -This will continue Monday - No change Tech Tuesday Blogs - I'm hoping to keep this going as a weekly feature to highlight features on the site and new features that will be coming. Wed Blogs - No change Thursday Anthology Blogs - We will be featuring a previous anthology (or two) on a weekly basis.  We will also be reminding authors about new anthologies and contests coming up. Friday Prompts - This will continue Saturday - Writing Tips.  We will be wrapping up the previously posted tips next week and then we start with new content provided by Comicality, a (20 year!) veteran of writing on the web.   We'll also feature other author's tips along the way.   
    Tech updates
    We are testing the bug fixes for notifications and wonky notification wording now and hope to patch that soon. This version is also going to streamline the story pages so we have a standard listing everywhere instead of the odd front page we have now.  Very large advanced search improvements will be added as well to make it much easier to sort and filter stories in the system.  This will include being able to do so by author.  Example, if you want to look at all of Comicality's Fantasy Stories, the filter bar on his author page will let you do that with a couple of clicks.  It will look similar to the filters you see on the Activity Streams. The major update after that will be Reading Lists.  This will allow you to have "Favorite Stories", "Favorite Authors", "Reading History", "To Read", "Recommended" and custom lists of stories and authors.  The intention is to make things clear and easy for you.  The Reading History list, which will be private unless you choose to share, will include the chapter you were last reading to help make finding things easier.  We'll go into more details when we get closer. The major update after that will be aimed at authors.  We are working to provide far more robust stats on what people are reading so an author can see how they are doing.  We'll also be working to provide more stats for authors on what readers are looking for.  This will appeal to authors who like writing for the market and challenging themselves to appeal to that market will differentiate themselves.  We'll go into more details when we get closer to this one as well. The final currently planned update for Stories is to improve the Story Queue.  This will automate some of the rules and let us do mass updates.  For example, the plan is for you to be able to post all your chapters at once so they are in the queue, and then you can just click a couple of buttons saying to post weekly on Friday at 9 am.  Stuff like that.  We know it is a bit tedious posting multiple chapters currently.  We'll get a lot more into this later in 2018. The forum software 4.3 updates is also expected earlier in the new year.  The only announced features we are aware of right now are Improved search, Emojis support and Club enhancements to make them more visible when they have activity.  We'll post more as we know about it in our Tech Tuesday posts.  
    My personal 2018 Stuff:
    I am planning on writing an entry for the anthologies and novella contest for this year. I am hoping to complete my Harry Potter and the Parliament of Dreams story finally.  16 years is really procrastinating. I am also hoping to spend more time writing in general. And I'm making an active effort to be posting on the site regularly.  A good portion of that will be with the various writer clubs.  
    Thanks to everyone for making 2017 so great for us!  Here is to all of us having an even better 2018!
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