Krista

Oh! What a nice little surprise. Thank you. 'One of GA's longest posting authors...' my goodness. And aww, Raven is such a nice reviewer. A treasure to us authors.

Yeah, the fear of not having a chapter buffer is why I have my documents pulled up... 22 minutes past my Sunday bedtime, so I can greet Monday and have everyone around me survive being around me.

Fear and disappointment can be rather motivating.

Same. Definitely.

I am both jealous and appreciative of all the men that have mastered the art of twerking.

I think that's a collective agreement most men have... probably a surprising number of straight ones too.

Congratulations, it looks like you're well on your way to all that behaving... right?

I don't either so *high five* it does terrible things to my heart, I'm severely sensitive to caffeine. I even have to defend my decaf iced tea, because just no.

@wildone ban him until he PM's you with proof of a completed chapter.

I saw that. Not another one...

Of course we won.

I can't take all the credit. It was @wildone who came up with the idea for an Anthology then decided not to complete the idea. I took it over and here we are. All of this has been more than I hoped for really. Especially in the middle chapters when it seemed I went too slow and too bogged down with Joel's grief and mindset. When I post something I mostly am afraid I'll finally put something out there that will run everyone off and have you all thinking I've lost my damn mind.

Damn it! I hope your power comes back on soon. It seems to be a big issue as you're the second person I've seen today having power outage issues. Stupid arctic blast.

You do seem like you live on caffeine and sass. So you probably can fit such things in and be very efficient at doing it. That took you twenty minutes... hmm. Maybe you could start and finish the chapter I've yet to start, so I can be correctly buffered with the posting schedule for another week.

"That's my favorite crayon!" *slap* Few months later, she gives him the 'best' valentines day card she could make, with the good candy inside. Aww.

Yeah, the fall is why I've stayed in these little romances so long. The characters may take similar journeys, but they're all different-ish. Maybe not so much with me... but most of the time they are. lol

Oh my good gracious. When I saw that we had won and was preparing to read this... I was thinking I was about to be given a treat of chaos, sultry, sex appeal, and glistening skin of some kind. But you decided to break my damn heart with this nonsense. My goodness. This was a side of Gavin we'll never see in the writing, as it isn't his story, but this... this really makes me wish someone would write it. Thank you. Keep that leaf turned back over... it is your happy place.

So what you're saying is... that we won?

Yeah, I remember for TBY people were saying, "Is this even a gay story?" Because Jackson didn't show much in the way of his sexuality or being remotely attracted to who he ended up with. But they were interacting a lot during that time. When they finally did make that connection, people were excited about it. Insta-love isn't meant to be deep and meaningful. It can be lasting. But, it can't be deep in the beginning. The sex can be... if one or both are endowed... but that's a totally different sort of story. For a romance.. instant love is a pet peeve of mine. If you establish they love one another so early you're constantly having to defend it. You're constantly having to make it interesting. You're constantly trying to come up with something else and underlying for them to be part of/drive them. It can be taxing, when it is simpler for them to just fall in love over a period of words, not within the first three paragraphs. And unless you're writing an inta-love story, like say... 'Cupid's Arrow" buried in an butt cheek and forcing a sort of magical premise of love... you can most certainly take your time.

Yeah, I've been lost all weekend... I don't even know anymore.

I see we went firmly into whatever this is... lol. But it is where I am a lot more confident in just saying: Oh goodness, me and sneak right back out of the comment section.

Yeah get him! I'm also waiting on a certain story.

Let's not rush it! I only have one chapter as a buffer now. How in the world did this happen... oh right... I decided to spiral. I have always tried to be subtle with characters. It's something that feels real to me. People don't fall in love instantly, they don't even like one another instantly. You have to know someone to figure them out and where you stand with them. So stories that take their time and create a lot of subtle and nuanced connections, even if they're early on in the writing it feels more organic to me. Early chemistry can and does happen with people. It happened between me and my husband... it may have been that early chemistry that opened my eyes to him... but it was getting to know him that done it for me. But, it wasn't an instant 'romance.' Early chemistry is actually something that 'professional' authors suggest between characters. Which I think is important. There has to be something there.. and you can have good flow between characters that aren't friendly either. Just some form of dynamic chemistry between them, it works. Proximity also does. Or at least, I hope my usual approach to my characters read that way.

Early on that's the only way I knew how to function. I had three or more projects on the table at the same time. Now, I can't. It is odd that my creative approach completely shifted, but it has. I have tried to focus on "Ellis" whilst working on this story and I just don't have the creative energy to spare for it. It might be because the two stories aren't the same type of story... but one would think their opposites would make the creativity easier. As it would feel like the two stories and all characters involved would live on their own islands and I can travel between the two. But no. My brain won't allow it.