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

I've updated the link to be more clear. It now says Top Reviewed Stories. It lists stories by their Star Ratings with 5-star stories on top. We're working on a more accurate ranking (Highest Stars With Most Votes), but that is a bug issue we're trying to work around. You can find it here: https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/top/reviewed/ The link is also on the side menu on stories under "Advanced Options" (as of this posting; we're looking at updating that menu as well) Contrarians and curmudgeons do indeed ignore reviews and do their own thing. Congratulations, you fit into the small percentage that doesn't wait for others I mentioned in the post. The same group of people that I said look at other factors, which you also said you did. The vast majority of people will not go first. It's a psychology thing. Some of them will chew your ear off in private and won't hit like and won't leave a public review. Some will if someone else goes first. Everyone is different. Most people aren't going to review. A LOT of them will read a review if it is there. Taking time to write reviews encourages others to do the same. If you are an author and you want people to review your stuff, then YOU NEED TO WRITE REVIEWS for others. It's another aspect of human nature. I give you something, you give me something. Everyone who is not socially maladjusted is taught this as a child. It's one of the biggest ways that marketers push people's buttons. You know, along with showing star ratings next to things to give social proof that because other people like something, I can like it too. It's built into most people's autopilot. This is why I posted this. Pay it Forward. If you want authors to write more, encourage them. If you're just a taker, then live with what you get, when you get it. It just might be that the review you leave is the one that encourages others to step forward. It might be the one that makes the author go the extra mile. I know some of my readers have pushed me harder with their reviews and comments.

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?

A very interesting spin on a classic tale. But witches are icky. A good read with interesting character development.

Great job Lugh! I like the twists you stuck into this classic fairy tale. Good mystery, good character development. It's just right.

Great story @Lugh Please find the original file and repaste it into the editor. That should clean up all the oddities in the text.

This really is a great version of Peter Pan. I got a few good laughs and enjoyed the cuteness of it all. Definitely a great contribution to the site. We miss you Jack.

We had this discussion in the Writer's Circle, but in Science Fiction and Fantasy, because the worlds are not our worlds, there is more telling than in other genres. The dreaded "information dump". People that are primary in science fiction and fantasy, probably have a higher threshold for telling and not showing than others, but one still needs to be very careful with it.

Thanks for the great advice @Comicality !

A very enjoyable quick read. I had a good chuckle a few times. And great job name dropping all those different tales.

I enjoyed this short story. It was a nice twist on Goldilocks while maintaining a fairy tale feel.

An interesting story and a nice plot. I'm always a sucker for "save the prince" stories.

I've done this, but it is, unfortunately, showing up somewhere else as well. I'll be working on cleaning that up a little.

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.

A cool story with a couple of twists.

This story is a bit odd for me. I am not a huge fan of first person as it is difficult to do well. I definitely don't understand the plot.

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

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.

Question: How do I set up a Series or World? Short Answer: See full answer for step-by-step instructions View full question

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.

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.

4 letter slang words for upper and lower female anatomy. Google really loves flagging those words. Obnoxiously insulting word starting with an N for people of African descent. Also highly flagged. Posts in this topic using those words appropriately as examples were blocked automatically because Google only flags the word, not the context. @Timothy M.And yes, I'd love to have everyone subscribe and kick touchy advertising rules to the curb.

I should point out that the system now automatically moderates certain words. If you have those words, the system will block the post. This is so that Google doesn't punish us. Please keep the public areas teen friendly. If you want to have a debate on that, I suggest The Pit, which Goggle does not access. Those words are allowed in stories, but should be rated appropriately.

Thank you for the information. We'll contact folks in private if we need more. The issue has been reported to the programmer, but we'll be unable to patch for awhile. He is working on the new version of the software.