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Myr

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  1. Myr
    Check out the Spring 2006 Anthology!

     
     
    Be sure to read and review!
     
    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
  3. Myr

    Anthology Flashback: Spring 2009 - Oops

    By Myr,


    Anthologies
    Before we get started with this week's flashback, I wanted to remind all of our authors that there are two anthology topics and a novella coming up.  You can find more details and weigh in on your progress here in the Writing Club:
    If you aren't a member, join up!  There is a lot going on in there for authors.
     
    Now, on with the show!

     
    Would you be so kind as to take a few moments to review the stories you read here?  You never know when you might inspire an author or even a new author with a review
  4. Myr

    Anthology Flashback: Spring 2007 - Fairy Tales

    By Myr,


    Anthologies
    Take some time to check out our Fairy Tales Anthology from Spring 2007
    In no particular order:
     
    Would you mind taking a few minutes to leave a review for our hardworking authors?
     
    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
  5. Myr

    Anthology Flashback: Winter 2009 Deceptions

    By Myr,


    Anthologies
    This week's Anthology Flashback brings back to the Summer of 2009: Deceptions

    As always, we thank all these authors once again for participating.  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 that are still with us surely will.
     
    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
  6. Myr
    Mercedes Lackey excels at telling stories of the coming of age of characters blessed... and cursed... with special powers.  Lavan is an interesting young man with a tragic story.  This story truly pulls at your heartstrings, which is one of the things Mercedes Lackey really excels at.  If you like reading fantasy stories, this story is well worth the read!
  8. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Settings, Emails and Profiles

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    There are a lot of settings and options on the site.  It can be a real chore for people who don't make a habit of clicking on things.  I'll admit, I'm an engineer, and I tend to explore every option.  I realize most people aren't as shiny object driven, however.
    So... settings.  You can find the link in the pop-up menu under your Display Name on the upper right part of the site.  (Or in the hamburger menu if you are on a mobile device).  Choose "Account Settings".
    Today we are going to cover Changing your Email.  It is important that you have a working email address for using Gay Authors.  If you need to update your email, it is under Account Settings -> Email.
    https://www.gayauthors.org/settings/email/

    Very easy to deal with. Just enter your new email address and your current password.  If you have set up Account Security, you might have additional passwords to enter as part of multi-factor authentication.
     
    The other topic for today is Profile Settings.  You can go to your profile by clicking your account picture in the upper right of any page.

     
    You can add a Cover Photo, which is the cool image that you can have on your profile that goes in the dark blue space shown above.
    You can also easily edit your profile by clicking "Edit Profile" in the upper right of your profile page.
     

    First up is your birthday.  Please make sure that it is accurate. It is not displayed to others unless you choose to, which you can do farther down the page.
    Second, you can enable Status Updates on your profile.
    Next, if you are an author, you can fill out your Author Bio.  This appears in the Author listing when you post stories.  It should be a general promotion all about the stories you write and about yourself as an author.
    Next, is the About Me section.  Let people know about you.  This appears only on your profile.
     

    Next up are gender and sexuality.  You can fill these out if you wish to share or leave them blank.
    Next up is important and is required.  You can choose to show your Birthday on the Calendar.  If you choose yes, your birthday will display in the Calendar App and in the Today's Birthdays widget on the main forum page.  The default is off, and you must choose to show it or not.
    Next is where you choose your favorite genre.  You can select multiples by holding down control and clicking the ones you want.  Or, if you like everything, you can scroll to the bottom and choose All.  Or you can ignore it altogether.  Your Favorite Genres appear under your name when you post on the forums.
    You can choose to mention your location.  If you are not an adult, please do not show your real location.
    Interests are next, and you can just type some more stuff about yourself there if you are so inclined.
     

    Contact Methods is last up.  Here you can share the various ways to get in contact with you.  Obviously, anything you show here is public to everyone.  So don't share anything here you don't want public.
     
    Hope this helps!  Be sure to follow the Site Technology Blog if you find these posts helpful. 
  9. Myr

    Beautiful Thing

    By Myr,


    Movies
    So this week, I wanted to break into my extensive collection of gay movies.  This is a good movie.  The British accent can be a bit much at times if you are in the USA.  It sounds sexy though, even if you can't figure out what the hell they are saying.  That really is only a few scenes.  It is a good movie.  Well worth having in the collection.
     
    What are you waiting for?  Go get it
  10. Myr

    X-Men First Class

    By Myr,


    Movies
    I loved the eyecandy on screen.  Special effects and good looking actors.   It was a good movie.  Plenty of action and it tied logically into the existing X-men movies. This is definitely in my collection and staying there.
  11. Myr

    Glimpses by Lynn Flewelling

    By Myr,


    Books
    If you like the Nighrunner series, this anthology of short stories gives more insights to the histories of the characters.
     
    And the cover is cute too!
    Definitely worth the read!
  13. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Fancy Links

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    I created an announcement a few weeks ago asking people for topics they wanted to be covered here in more detail.  You can find it here:
    One of those requests was how to we make the fancy links, like I use in my post signature to link to my story.  It's really, really simple.  Just copy the link in the url address bar and then paste the link to a story on the site into an editor, and it'll auto format for you.  For example, I could paste a link to my Sci-Fi Anthology story, A Bad Day to Be WET:
    And it automatically formats.  The neat thing is, that this applies to topics, like the first example, stories, like the second and other things like the Gallery and Blog's linked below:
     
    If you are planning on updating your signature to link to a story, just remember you can only link one story that way.  Further rules can be found here:
     
    Some offsite links also auto-populate.  YouTube and Google Maps, for example:
     
     
    Hope this helps!  Leave a comment below.
  14. 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.
     
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
     
  20. 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.
     
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
     
  24. 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.
     
  25. 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.
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