Brayon

A fantastic tale, of two people in love, who finally admit it to each other. Beautifully written, great visuals. Short and to the point.

Interesting choices this week.

And here, I thought this was an older story and not a brand new one. I should have checked the date. Excellently written, and packed full of details. Looking forward to more.

This was a fantastic short story and a powerful scene of magic in action. Not many people can write a fantasy combat scene, with both martial and magical aspects, and this story does excellent in both. It was minimalist in details of the world at large, which is typically a drawback on fantasy stores, but not where the focus of the story was. The lack of an Infodump, is a serious burden on the reader, as they have no clue what the world is about. Barring the lack of description, and details in the form of an Infodump, I still rated the story five-stars for the action-packed scene alone.

It may have been a fluke, but I tried using this today. Used it 10 times looking for specific content, and 4 of those searches, the system did not change from the default. All six other times, the system returned what I was looking for. Searched for: Fiction, Fantasy/SciFI, Complete, Mature.

Yuppers. They are male. LOL. I so know what you mean.

Tone, and inflection are just as important as the words themselves. I have friends, that when we're together, you'd think we hated each other, with what we called each other. However, if you listen to how we say what we do, you'd see we were playing around. But, be an outsider, and say the same things, and all bets are off. From personal experience, whoever said: "Sticks and Stones, may break my bones; but words will never hurt me," lied. I fully agree with what you said, about the power of words, and what MacGreg said about, "Taste your words, before you spit them." Thank you, molly, for another great blog.

This I can agree with. I've met more than one Ph.D. holder, I wouldn't trust with a 2-year-old because the 2-year-old would have been smarter. The maturity of the person counts for a lot.

Weird, but good. The reason behind the three-star rating and my weird comment is that the story seems to be part of a larger series. In fact, the last chapter, mentions that the story was continued in another one of the Author's stories. However, when looking at the stories, and the descriptions, it is unclear where one is to start, in order to fully get the order of events. Having-said-that, this story as a stand-alone was good. The characters had enough life to them, to where they weren't two-dimensional, and there was a good use of language to convey a fantasy setting. However, there was a lack of details and description to fully paint a picture of what was there. Very minimalist, and requires the reader to fill in too many voids. Also, the use of Translator's Notes on a couple of the chapters makes one not familiar with the Author's series, wonder if these are someone else's stories and were translated to English or just a styling used by the Author. I suspect it is the latter, as some of the other stories presented by the Author uses Translator as a title reference.

That's really interesting. I'm currently writing a story about twins going into space.

New topic in the Fantasy Writer's Sub-forum for Role-Players on how Wizards of the Coast in introducing more inclusive gaming for the Gay Community. Must be a member of the Club to view the link.

As it has been reported WotC is introducing the concept of Genderfluidity among elves in the upcoming sourcebook for 5e. This isn't something new for the 5e ruleset, as in the Players Handbook, it discusses how players are free to choose their character's sexuality, and gender. While I have my own thoughts and opinions of Identity Politics, I think this is an interesting development for the game.

A great video!

Thanks to everyone that has read, or responded to this weeks Topic Tuesday.

I know more people look in the Forums than they do the Status Updates, so a quick announcement. Over in the Fantasy Writer's club, Myr has added a private forum area for Role-Players to discuss storytelling in cooperative games. Just getting off the ground over there, but it would be fun to talk about our favorite systems, worlds, etc. Who knows, we may be able to get some folks together for some Virtual Tabletop RPG goodness. So come on over, join the Club, Hang Out. Pulled up a chair, or sit on the floor. https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/forum/305-roleplaying-games/

More excellent poems, tim. I could feel the emotion in these words, and see the visuals you painted. Lovely they were. Also, I referenced this chapter in a Topic Tuesday thread in the writers club.

I've been playing recently in an online Dungeons and Dragons game via voice chat over Skype. In the fifth edition of the game, there is a mechanic to award inspiration to players for excellent Role-Playing. This can be used to augment rolls later on in the campaign, turning that Natural 1 failure to something much more dramatic with the re-roll of the die (it's really awesome to go from a Natural 1, an automatic and horrible failure, to a Natural 20, a stunning automatic success). Also, recently, @Myr started posting about Pinterest, and in another thread, how pictures can provide inspiration to Writers and Role-Players alike. So, that's what today's topic is: What inspires you? For me, I write because I have a need to, due to my disabilities. However, when another one of my disabilities steps in and prevents me from being creative, I can feel it in my bones. What inspires me to write, is simple, I love telling stories. Sometimes, too much, but that is a different topic. I will sometimes, find inspiration in other people's work. Like @Mikiesboy's poems, when I need a good visual, or like the ones he posted yesterday (3-12-2018) about love when I need a shot of "feel good"-ness, or @MacGreg's Dissonance to see a different perspective. @Carlos Hazday's works with CJ, which I so need to sit down and read more of, and @Timothy M.'s epic Clueless Camping are all different points of inspiration to take ideas from. @Cia's Newsletter games are all good sparks for inspiration as well. Some good prompts can jar a quick scene lose. But the inspiration for me isn't just in the form of written words. I have a vast collection of Movie and Video Game Soundtracks. Just turning on the Halo 2 Theme, with the Steve Vai's Mjorliner mix, is enough to put me into the mindset of an epic space opera. The Superman Soundtrack, from the original Christopher Reeves movie, Star Wars, The Princess Bride, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Tom Cruise's Legend can send you places in your mind, with just a few notes. Queue them up on your favorite music streamer, or YouTube, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Like Myr posted, pictures can serve as a form of inspiration. My current avatar as of today, 3-13-2018, is B&W sketch drawing of two male elves, one older with a beard, and a younger twinkish guy kissing. I've written a story based on this pic, that I won't share on GA, lol, as it's firmly in the "Plot, what plot," camp of erotica (have I ever mentioned I like twink and bear couples?). There have been a few others that a picture has inspired me to write. Sadly, they are among some I won't share. Not because of it being smut, no, most are not, but I write a ton of stuff, that only me, my cat (rest her soul), and select friends have ever seen. With that rambling mess, I hereby award you with a Point of Inspiration. So, what inspires you? Topic Tuesday is a personal initiative to foster communication between Writers of GA. So #LetsWorkTogether.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" - Rhett Butler

A few do: Remember Me Steel Magnolias Gone With the Wind A Single Man

Yeah, I just had a nerdgasm! Added to the list as well.

You've hit on one of the problems that are still in the world today. Gays are not treated the same as Straights when it comes to certain topics. Sad to say, but we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Again that is my opinion. In our lawsuit-happy culture, at least in the US, and that bigotry still lives, not as much as it used to be, I would rather as a writer errs on the side of caution than to write a story where two underage kids are having graphic sexual encounters. Like I said, there is a difference, between two people exploring each other, and some of the stories I've run over the past few days. Working on a 1st-person PoV story, so decided to read such stories, and a friend suggested one that was on another site. That one was fine, but once I started looking at others that were recommended, that's when the "OMFG, WTF am I reading" started. I think Timothy M. said it best. The term Teenager covers a wide age range. To me, ages preteen to 14 should be a non-starter for any sort of sexual writing. 15-17, like age groups, and Hinted at and the "Fade to Black" method seems to be the better options, as a writer. It's what I do. I have written two stories now that have teens in sexual situations. The first is my current project, and the MC and his "Friend with Benefits" both come out and state they are banging. Heck, one turns 18 and the other is 16 turning 17 a month later. I even had them discuss the law in chapter 4 that allows for close-in-age Adult/Teen couples under the Washington D.C. legal statutes. The other was a flash fiction short, and I can tell you now both kids were 15 and 16 respectfully because I was the 15-year-old. It was a narrative style retelling of my first time, at a BSA summer camp. Surprisingly it started as a prompt, and the First Line that was suggested was exactly the line I said to "T." when he said he found me attractive. It's been a while since I wrote that one, but I do believe it's fairly mild on the sex, and I used the FtB before it got really graphic. (Yeah, I know... "He without sin, cast the first stone.") All I'm saying is my tolerance level for graphic sexual encounters between underage kids is has reached its limits. And that as writers and readers we should be mindful of the impact our art has on the perceptions of others. Especially when there is a double standard between Homosexuals and Heterosexuals, and we should hold ourselves to a higher standard. Writing about First Love, Feelings, Nostalgia, and the like is one thing. Having a 13-year-old shove his arm, elbow deep on someone, and other more Graphic sexual encounters are crossing the line.

*Makes sure we're in one of the Private Areas of Gay Authors, where Google is not a factor* There is a difference between writing about First Loves, feelings about that time frame, nostalgia, etc., and writing a hardcore sex scene of two 11-13-year-olds, which involves many positions and kinks most adults would shy away from. Example: How many teens are going to "fist" their partner, or drink their partner's urine. When a writer describes, a character's bowel movements, and how the size of one is giving the character a hardon, well that's crossing the line. I kid, you not. I've run into stories that had all three of those elements in them, and I stopped reading when I got to those parts in the middle of chapter 1. And they weren't on Nifty or Literotica. As I said, there is a difference between writing about teens in love, and full-on hardcore sex scenes. The former is fine, the latter is where the creepy factor comes in, and makes it a stain on the Gay Community as a whole. Sex happens. I'm not saying, not to hint that it happens, or not to use the popular FtB method. Just to be mindful of perceptions of others outside our community, who may still hold prejudices against us. You mentioned, that we had some fantastic forbidden love stories, and we did. I wrote mine that included the death of the main characters for being gay. Not because they were in an incest relationship, but for being homosexual. You know why? Because in 2018 in parts of our world, being Gay is illegal, and will get you killed. We don't need to add fuel to their prejudice.

Thank you, very much for reading, and for the feedback Badforlad. Devin's cursing, like his appetite, are just character flaws that I added. Though his eating habits are tied to his magic, his cursing is more rebellious youth. Having spent a day at a religious private school recently, I actually think I don't have enough cursing in the story! So many F-bombs, and it was an elementary school too. I will say, my editing team did remove a lot of the cursing, so it wouldn't be overbearing. Thank you again.

Agreed. Like you also said, hinting is one thing, fade to black is also good. But, making it graphic for titillation, no, hard pass.

Lately, I've read a few non-GA stories, that are written with teenage characters, and I've had to stop reading them. I don't know about anyone else, but when do you say, "I'm sorry, I'm not comfortable with this." I think I just hit my limit when I was on another site, that is supposed to be stories that are more that P.W.P., and seeing graphic sex scenes involving young characters. Sorry, I'm not sorry, but that shit just creeps me out. The Gay Community has been fighting the stigma that we are nothing but sexual predators, preying on young kids. However, we have gay writers that are writing about sex between kids, sometimes in very graphic details, and it just makes us look like a bunch of pedophiles trying to get our rocks off. I don't want to be associated with that. When as an Author does one say, "enough is enough."