Myr

@PalantirI have the series in my pile. I haven't gotten to them yet.

I should add that I know Cia uses Edge a lot so she can get her reward points for her gift cards for her eBook addiction.

I use FireFox more than Chrome on the site.. but I do use both and haven't really noticed on real difference. It is very common to have both open at the same time.

So, I use Wunderlist to keep track of my To Do lists. I have a lot of them. Stuff for the site, stuff for the business, stuff for home, stuff for mom's home, stuff for the mancave, stuff for writing, and even entertainment. There are more too. As of this moment, I have 69 things on my To Do list flagged for Today. After 50 hours sucked up by the work week, I'm a bit grouchy that I've got more stuff to do. My nerdy nature doesn't help. I like doing research on stuff. (like reading books on string theory and Einstein-Rosenburg bridges for my sci-fi stuff.) But I'm also reading psychology and marketing books. They go in fits in starts as I get a few moments. I am constantly reading about all the changes to Google that affect our lives. It seems kind of endless. Some of this stuff I can't just let slide either. We have to march to Google's constantly changing beat so we can be found in the search engine so that we can get traffic so that we can get ad revenue so that we can stay open. I don't do this nearly as often as I should be. There are tools out there that help with all this, but the good ones cost a fair bit of money. It's worthwhile to invest in them from time to time to make the improvements, but I need to have more free time when I do that so that I can take maximum advantage of the tool while we have it. I wish I had more time to devote to the site. Short of a sudden 10x increase in subscribers, I won't have that time. Though, if we do get a 10x increase in subscribers, I'd be able to dedicate full time to the site and really do some interesting things. lol. I should probably do some chores, eat breakfast and then triage my to-do list.

@Timothy M. I'm glad I could help point you to some more good stuff

Great advice @Comicality

That is right up there for me too. but I also like a lot: The yearly anthologies have the cutest running gay story too. (the earlier ones.) I forget where it started... The have been a bunch of books based on Mags, who is an interesting character: The trilogy with Darian is also good.

The first book in this trilogy, Magic's Pawn, is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. I've reread it a few times over the years and it makes me cry every single time I read it. It's really emotionally moving. Mercedes Lackey has stated that her formula is simple: Make the reader love the character and then drop a mountain on the character. The first novel is deeply touching and heart-wrenching. The full trilogy is powerful as well. The second and third novels are not as powerful to me as the first, but they are still very good. The entire trilogy covers the life of the character and the sheer amount of stuff he has to go through. I can't recommend the books strongly enough. From Amazon: There are something like 35 novels set in this world now. I own them all and have read all but 5. It is really scary just how much writing Mercedes Lackey does. I also have her Joust series, which I really like a lot too. I still have to check out her Urban Fantasy series which has a dozen more books in it. If you are only going to do one... do this one: Let me know if you feel the same about the book. Or if you decide to check it out.

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