Mancunian

I'm so happy that the date went well, I've got my fingers crossed for a third date for you, 🤞 That sounds like a horrible book for someone to recommend to you. If they recommend any more ignore them. But I have an idea, why not wright an alternative story with your favourite characters, that way you give them the story, plot and end that you feel they should have, and hopefully, that will override the horrible memories of that book. I've done it before and it worked for me, maybe it could work for you too. 😃

What is it about the book that has put you in a funk? I hope you can shake it before the date, I want it to go well for you.

I was drawn to the craziness, like a moth to a flame, lol.

As my Dad always used to say, the craziest ones are the ones who protest too much. Case proven.

Hey, I resemble that remark, lol.

Bryan has been good at hiding his feelings and putting on a front, but now that front is beginning to slip and his true feelings are showing through. Kenny was right in calling him out for hiding his true feelings and on the trust issues. Bryan's relationship with Steve is coming on nicely, although slow. Diego's initial actions toward Calvin, I mean the poor quality service and food, are childish but perfectly understandable. I'm sure that other readers, including me, would have done much worse and prolonged it even more. I think Calvin's lack of cash confirms what his motives are, but I am concerned about the methods he may use to get what he wants. I wouldn't put it past him to cause harm and try to blame Diego.

Remember @Daddydavek, your friends are here whenever you need us.

I agree with @Mrsgnomie, I don't think the post is intended in a negative way. I have intentionally treated it as a general observation and question. I have tried to answer the question that I think is being asked and hope that I have. I can only speak for myself, but I do feel that many others have the same, or similar, thoughts and feelings that I have expressed. GA is a welcoming community that I am happy to be a part of.

I should make it clear that I am not talking about writing 'blood, guts and gore' for the sake of it, only if and when it is in context to the story. I prefer happy endings, that is how most of my stories end, but even those that have sad endings I try to find something positive.

Thank you, @Comicality for an interesting article. I can only speak for myself, others may have a different opinion. I've written a number of stories, most of which fall in the category of having idealistic happy endings, sorry but I'm that sort of guy. The few that I have written without happy endings have ended with the main character passing away. I have tried to write them in a way that readers can accept the outcome as an integral part of the story and not just because I wanted to kill someone off, I hope that I have succeeded in doing it in a sensitive way. I agree that if we are writing about real life, or at least our fictional version of it, we have to understand that not everything about life is a bed of roses. I find that uplifting stories and happy endings are often easier to write, they are generally more popular with readers, and stories with unhappy endings or content about the grittier aspects of life are more challenging to write. What I question is, should we always write about the bad aspects of life with empathy or delicacy? Are there ever instances where we should write these aspects of a story in a surprising or even shocking way? Sometimes real life is surprising and shocking, there is no escape from that, we can't always sugarcoat the truth.

You make some good points in your post, which could be important to some authors, especially if an author is writing to have his/her/they work put into print by a print house. The numbers are small compared to a global readership potential if they were printed in book form and published. They are also small compared to the global readership potential for those who read online. However, when taken in context to the size of the GA community some of the readership figures are phenomenal. This brings me to my point in reply to your post. GA is not a publishing house it is a community. Authors post here for many varied reasons and are not necessarily concerned about having their work published. Some may have designs on becoming professional authors, using the GA community as a testing ground for their work. If that is the case I say good luck to them, I hope GA has been useful and helped them achieve their goal. However, I think that most of us are amateurs who enjoy writing for pleasure, although I could be wrong. Not all of us are interested in winning the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. I can only speak for myself some authors will agree with me, others will not. I write for my own pleasure, it is something that I have come to enjoy, I do not write for profit or commercial gain. I also find pleasure in sharing the stories that I write and enjoy reading the stories written by others who wish to share, for some of us, it has a therapeutic value. I enjoy reading and leaving feedback on stories, the different opinions and points of view are interesting and sometimes enlightening, this interaction is part of the enjoyment and I value it. I'm not here to make mega-bucks, I'm here because I like and enjoy feeling like a part of the GA community. In reply to the above comment, I say this. The hours of work spent writing are a worthwhile investment in the GA community, the return is being part of a community that is accepting, the online friendships made and the non-judgemental support that many of us receive is a worthwhile return. I did a blog over a year ago about why I joined GA, and a number of members commented in reply. If you follow the link you can read why I, and other members, joined and remain on GA.

Enjoy your night out, fingers crossed 🤞 you don't have a hangover in the morning, lol

Good Morning Terry, or is it afternoon where you are

I enjoyed this story and I love the stories in the Ravello series, I haven't finished reading them yet, but I will.

Don't be hard on yourself, you wrote a good and intriguing story that many of us liked. You only need to read the comments and reviews to see that. I look forward to reading many more of your stories in the future.

I've started a new chapter and got to a point where this song popped into my mind, I've used as a thought for one of the characters. I couldn't resist it.

Aloha Albert, how goes it

Thank you to Cia and all of the Site Admin team for a great contest, I'm looking forward to many repeats in the future. A special thank you to all of the authors, and their teams, for the stories they have written. You all did an excellent job and provided us with high-quality reading. You made it easy for us to enjoy and very difficult to guess who wrote what. Thank you for sharing your talent.

There is always more to write, lol. Sometimes it's better in another story as a follow-up, but not always. What I'm writing was originally meant to be a short one-chapter story, but then it grew lol

Another chapter is complete, finally. This one took more than a few rewrites before I was happy with it. Now I wait to find out what my trusted friend and beta reader thinks 🤞

I wonder which is the operative word here 👆

I'm flattered that some readers thought I had written one or two of the stories. But as can be seen I did not enter a story into the contest, but maybe next time I will. I only said maybe 🤔

Congratulations @Libby Drew, you did a fantastic job with 14,000 Days of Virtue, the reviews are there to prove it.

Hiya B, now I feel like having a nap, I'm shattered.

Aloha Albert, things are good thanks. I've just got in from work and had a good and productive day, now it's time to relax with a cup of coffee while I polish off more muffins, I've only a few left.