Graeme

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Jeff Burton as GA's newest Promising Author! @Jeff Burton has been a member here at GA for almost 20 years, but he's only been posting stories over the last few years. Despite his relative newness to writing, he has shown great skill in storytelling, and we look forward to reading more. He writes stories in a variety of genres, so I'm sure you'll find something that appeals. Encrypted, in particular, is strongly recommended. Congratulation, Jeff!

Just for the record, Winter started two weeks ago here in Australia. We start our seasons on the first of the month, so 1st June was the start of Winter... And, unlike Mother's Day which seems to be on the same date through most of the world (2nd Sunday in May), Australia celebrate's Father's Day in September...

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Mark Ponyboy Peters as GA's newest Signature Author! @Mark Ponyboy Peters has only been a member for 13 months, but he's been posting stories on the Internet for over 20 years. I don't mind admitting he was one of the early authors whose stories I fell in love with when I first started exploring Nifty. I especially loved his Seachange series. He's still in the process of slowly posting his extensive backlog of stories, so there's plenty more to come! For now, feel free to explore what he's currently published and, like me, wait eagerly for more! Congratulation, Mark!

I generally tried to ensure I knew how a story will end before I started writing. So, if I were to continue this story, I'd have to work out the overall plot and how to complete the extension. Unfortunately, not only am I not writing at the moment (though still hopeful I'll restart at some point in time), but I don't have a clear picture of how an extension would continue and, more importantly, end. Sorry. 😞

While this statement is true, he wouldn't be unemployed. The tuffs of hair around the hooves of Clydesdales are called feathers...

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating kbois as GA's newest Signature Author! @kbois has been a member for 7 years and in that time she's developed from a relatively new author through to one that's reached the level of Signature Author. Her recent short stories Hide and Seek and Depth Perception are of particular note and we hope you enjoy them as much as we did. Congratulation, kbois!

There have been times when I would like to continue/expand a short story, but unless I can work out a clear plot and ending for the continuation, I won't start. One of the things I hate about a lot of movie sequels is that it's often either stupid or "just more of the same". There have been very few movie sequels that have impressed me as being up to the same standard as the original (the movie "Short Circuit" and it's sequel are a notable exception). That's influenced me when it comes to sequels and extending short stories. One approach, inspired by the sequel to the movie "Short Circuit", is to use a different character as the protagonist in a sequel. It allows a different point of view and a fresh approach. It can be a completely new character or a minor character from the original story. That helps the author out as they're not as trapped as they would be if they continued to use the original protagonist.

I just stumbled across this article about the history of chapters and I thought I should share it. Enjoy! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-26/the-history-of-chapters-childrens-books-netflix-bible-gospels/103801690

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating @WolfM in becoming GA's newest Promising Author. They have been a member at GA for almost nine years, and in that time they have posted over 600,000 words across ten stories. Writing mainly shifter paranormal stories, they are the author of the popular Running with the Pack series. You can find all of they stories (and poetry) on their author page so please jump in and take a look. Congratulations, WolfM!

Thank you, that's a great summarisation! Small communities can be tight-knit, which is a great advantage, but sometimes it's also a disadvantage. This is an example of where it's a disadvantage, but you can also see how the community holds together and support's each other...up until a point. Scott's heart was torn in two by the situation, but the community is being torn in two, too. Scott, with Gramps help, has resolved his conflict. It remains to be seen if the community will resolve theirs, and what that resolution will be...

Thank you! I've always loved Grandpa -- a crotchety old man with a heart of gold.

We've lost someone great... Rest in Peace, Carlos

Late to the party, but congratulations!

I will admit I was surprised by the recent accusations levelled at Hawthorn regarding their treatment of Aboriginal players. I don't know enough to comment, but I always keep in mind that things are rarely as simple as the media presents. I suspect that there is an element of truth in the accusations but that the reality isn't exactly how the media is showing it.

Please join the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Dodger as GA's newest Signature Author! @Dodger has been a member at GA for more than 10 years and is best known as the author of the very popular The Cockney Canuck. But don't forget his other stories, such as A Soldier's Guide to Single Parenting which is this month's CSR story. Have a read and then share your thoughts on Monday 28th November! Congratulations, Dodger!

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating @kbois in becoming GA's newest Promising Author. She has been a member at GA for just under five years, and in that time she has posted over 900,000 words across ten stories. Writing mainly romances, she's the author of the popular shifter novels Spirit Wolves and Shadow Effect as well as the very entertaining The Devil is Gay short stories. You can find all of her stories on her author page so please don't be shy about taking a look. Congratulations, kbois!

On theme interpretation, I remember one of the older anthologies had a theme of "A Rainy Day". How can that be interpreted? Probably lots of stories about rain, but it doesn't have to be that way. Inspired by the idea of "saving for a rainy day" I wrote a story about a day of challenges for the protagonist. It didn't make that particular anthology, but I submitted it for the next one with the title of "A Rainy Day" instead. Another author had a story about a massive forest fire and firefighters being parachuted in to fight it. When I read it, I interpreted that as "praying for a rainy day", but the author later on told me that it was actually inspired by the song "It's Raining Men." Similarly, if you go back over the older anthologies you'll find lots of stories where a 'non-obvious' interpretation of the theme has been used. Use your imagination to make the theme an inspiration, not a straitjacket...

Please join the Author Promotion Team in congratulating northie as GA's newest Signature Author! @northie has been a member since 2016 and in that time has posted over 500k words across 35 stories including the popular Never Too Late series of novels. If you haven't read them yet, don't hesitate. You can find these stories and others at northie's author page.

Thank you! As I said in a previous comment, several elements were drawn from real life situations that I read about in the local newspapers. The street prostitution including selected streets formale prostitution and the locals helping the street kids, these were things reported in that area of Melbourne back in the 80s. Thankfully, things are better now, but some of the underlying issues are still around.

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating @astone2292 in becoming GA's newest Promising Author. Aaron has only been a member at GA for just under two years, but in that time he has posted over 600,000 words across eight stories. Writing mainly paranormal romances, he's the author of the popular Cerrunnos shifter story as well as his current novel Death in the Shadows, the third in his In the Shadows series. You can find all of Aaron's stories on his author page so please don't be shy about taking a look. Congratulations, Aaron!

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating @Mawgrim in becoming GA's newest Promising Author. Mawgrim has only been a member at GA for less than two years, but in that time he has posted over 700,000 words across twenty-three stories. While many of his stories are fan-fics set in Anne McCaffrey's world of Pern, he also writes in other genres including his current intriguing mystery Hidden Secrets. His most recently completed and popular Pern story, Empty, Open, Dusty, Dead, is part of his series based in the Eighth Pass while his current story, To The Weyr is one of his stories set in the Ninth Pass. If, like me, you're a fan of the Pern stories, don't forget to check them out! You can find all of Mawgrim's stories on his author page, so what are you waiting for? Congratulations, Mawgrim!

Just to complicate things further, the burned vs burnt is also an English dialect issue. In American English, burned is the norm, but in British (and Australian) English, burnt is the norm. So, you'll words that end with a "t" instead of "ed" more commonly in writing from countries that also use words like "colour" instead of "color". That's one of the things I've "learnt" while developing as a writer... Here's a link on British vs American irregular verbs. It's only a sample, but it shows some of the complexity in the different dialects of English. The Cambridge Dictionary site has a list of irregular verbs in British English.

If you're going purest with Third Person Limited, you need to be careful when describing other characters. If it's not the 'main' character, you can't say. "John was angry" because that's reading their mind. You need to do something like "John looked angry" or better still "John glared as he clenched his fists" which allows the reader to interpret John as being angry without telling them explicitly. It's tricky and easy to get wrong, but most of the time only a purest would object to "John was angry" for a non-main character in Third Person Limited so it's not really that big a deal.

Please join the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Mrsgnomie as GA's newest Signature Author! While Mrsgnomie has only been a member of GA for three years, in that time she's written some very popular stories including Boss Nanny and Tied up in Knotts. If you want to check out her stories, please visit her author page. It's definitely worth a visit! Congratulations Mrsgnomie on your well deserved promotion.

I have been struggling to work out what to say ever since I learnt what had happened. I have come to the conclusion that sometimes there's nothing that can be said to fully express how you feel.... RIP Wayne