Graeme

That's why I'm in awe of Hemmingway's, because you do feel a story in those six words. Coming up with a story, rather than a statement or a summary, is very, very tricky..... He climbed that mountain, but why?

This would have been great as one of the Writing Prompt exercises Essentially, that's what it is. As it stands, I sincerely doubt I can beat Hemmingway's story -- it's just so evocative. It's also a complete story. Duct tape doesn't fix broken promises.

G'day, DEMO! We're glad to have you here. If you've got any questions, please don't hesitate to ask myself or any of the other moderators. Once you've made five posts, you'll be able to use the PM system to send any queries you might have. Cheers! Graeme

Happy 18th Birthday! Party like there's no tomorrow....

My reasons for not posting has been very pragmatic. As one of the beta readers, I know more about the story than has been posted and I therefore try not to post because I don't want to accidentally say something because I've misremembered whether something has been in a posted chapter. Having said that, it's a good story Don't worry about it. I recently went back to my Heart of The Tree discussion thread in the Story Cafe and I noticed that there were no comments for a big chunk of the story, and then a huge number as the story started to conclude. People were reading it, but not commenting until they had something to say. I've had other authors notice similar things. The conclusion I came to was that the more you are perceived as a 'good' author, the more likely people won't comment because they don't have much more to say than 'I enjoyed it' and hence don't want to say something so trivial to a 'great author'. Too many people don't realise that authors like those comments, too

I wouldn't go that far. Nothing said has, in my opinion, been malicious. Realistically, Clay is unlikely to read this thread, so the comments are unlikely to be taken personally. Most of the comments have been on the side of humour -- they found the situation that Clay was in to be amusing, and an example of what they wouldn't want to do. It's one of the problems with humour -- it almost always involves poking fun at someone. I'm not a politically correct person and I don't mind a little fun at someone else's expense (or even my own), but it has to be within reason. After a certain point, a joke isn't funny any more. Clay appears to have had problems acknowledging his sexuality -- it's amusing for a short period of time, and then it becomes sad. It was like the video I saw of Oscar Figueroa during the Beijing Olympics of the weightlifter that tried numerous times to lift a weight, but his right hand kept slipping off the bar. It was amusing the first few times, and then it wasn't any more. You had to feel for the guy.

I have to say that I'm a little shocked and slightly saddened by some of the posts above. I thought it was the number one principle that it should always be an individual's choice as to when, where and how they come out. Just because everyone 'knew' it already, that doesn't mean he should be lambasted for finally coming out. Yes, James, before you comment, I know that not everyone gets that choice. Some people are thrown out, rather than coming out , but, in principle, a person should be allowed to determine their own sexuality in their own time, and be allowed to inform the world (or any subset of it) the way they want to and when they want to. Clay clearly didn't want to discuss it previously. That may have been for purely pragmatic/cynical reasons (he may have perceived that coming out would hurt his career -- and that is sad enough by itself without making it to a negative for Clay), or it could be that he's been struggling to accept that he's gay. What's been going on in his private life that could have stopped him from wanting to admit to himself he's gay? We don't really know....

Firstly, there are stories that don't revolve around characters. Rather, the characters move through a story, going with the flow, rather than directing the flow. This is more true in certain genres, such as adventure and action stories, but I thought I should point out that not every story revolves around characters. Okay, onto the question at hand. Character development is very important. The techniques are varied, but the point is to make the characters three dimensional. Readers have trouble identifying with shallow characters -- they want to see that there is a real person in those words. Real people have multiple interests. Real people aren't always consistent, but they have a reason for what they do. Real people have quirks -- not necessarily positive or negative, but little things that show that they are individuals. Conveying this complexity is what makes a character interesting to the reader, and it's the challenge for the author. Most of it can be done by simply showing -- the neat freak who will tidy his desk before leaving the room, the sports mad student who skips a game so he could visit his grandma in hospital (with a radio so he can still listen to the game). The little things that show that they are human....

My brother told me yesterday that he and his family will be moving to Montreal for a few years for work. He told me that it's a lot like Melbourne with French add, and about 10 degrees colder.... One of my brother-in-laws agreed. If Montreal is so much like Melbourne in atmosphere, it must be a good place to be

Just heard from him again. He's somewhere civilised (they provide Internet access to goats)... but that's as much as I know. He said something about having a blast -- did any hear about any recent nuclear explosions between Arizona and Alaska?

I've just had a goat mail from the elusive beast. I've sent back a reply, asking if I can post it here, but while I wait for a reply, he did ask me to pass on a "Hi" to everyone He's on a public internet PC at the moment and he can't get in here to see what's been going on. So, from CJ... Hi!

Happy 21st Birthday, Mike! Have a great day. Why don't you start partying now? If anyone asks, tell them that you're already 21 in Australia....

Firstly, I don't think I have ever said or implied that "writing sex if beneath me". I know Steve wasn't making that comment about me, but I'm in the camp of those who don't write sex scenes. The reason is pragmatic and personal -- my wife reads everything I write and she's told me she doesn't want to read a sex scene. Secondly, I agree that writing a sex scene can be very daunting and scary. I've contemplated including one in my stories from time to time (and warning my wife, so she doesn't read it), but I've never done so. Part of that is because I'm not sure I could do a good job of it. Readers expect sex scenes to be erotic and exciting, though I can think of a few stories where they weren't (deliberately -- it was important to the story that the sex was not erotic). Having said, I keep wondering if I should be including a sex scene in my current novel. It could be interesting I probably won't, though, but you'll have to read the story to find out Do I read sex scenes? Not often. I tend to skim them, rather than skip them, to see if there is something going on that I need to be aware of (plot-wise, for those of you with minds in the gutter), but I don't deliberately not read them. As I'm beta reading for Steve (shadowgod) I went through his recent sex scene very carefully (and it was interesting what I found ). I've got no objection to doing that -- my skimming of sex scenes is usually because it's 'more of the same', not because I dislike reading them. I read the first sex scene in Dom Luka's Desert Dropping story carefully, as an example, because it wasn't more of the same.

Gee you ask difficult questions.... :wacko: The short answer is that I don't know what size we'll have the final image. I would suspect that if you render it to 1024x768, any resizing after that point will have a minimal impact. Does that sound reasonable to you? I didn't want to specify sizes in the original request, though I made a note that images may need to be resized. That was to allow someone to send through a high-resolution picture if they wanted, and then we could resize it, if needed. However, it sounds like you know a lot more about this sort of thing than I do

Happy 40th Birthday, Steve! Have a great day!

The concept of "Mr. Right" revolves around expectations. "Mr. Right" is a compilation of expectations of what we think we want. As an analogy, when my wife and I were house hunting, we had a list of requirements for what we wanted. The place we bought had very few of them, but it had character -- something that was missing with most of the places we looked at. My wife feel in love with it from just the photograph and description in the newspaper (and she was the one that was a lot fussier than I was when we were looking around). Expectations tend to be concrete things (blond, 6', washboard abs, rich, cute smile), while relationships are built around intangibles (emotions being the biggest one -- how do you define 'I'm really comfortable around him'?). That's the biggest flaw in the "Mr. Right" concept. Having said that, Mr. Right is a dream, and dreams are important. They give us a goal to aim for, though sometimes goals can change. As happened with our house hunting, we had a goal that kept us looking until we found something completely different and changed our goal.

As long as a normal browser can display the image, it's acceptable I've seen some excellent 3D art and I'd love to see what you've got in mind. Personally, I have no real ability to draw or paint, but I've seen some great graphics that I've assumed were done by members here which is why I opened this challenge up to the membership. Graeme

Happy 19th Birthday, mate! It's been a while since I've seen you around. I hope things are going well for you. Have a great day!

G'day, Morena Darkling and MikkiBlue If you have any question, please don't hesitate to contact myself or any of the other moderators. We're here to help. You may also want to send a PM to Joe (JSmith) to ask for Author status. This will open up a couple more forums to you. MikkiBlue, you'll need to have made five posts before you can use the PM system. As an alternative, you can email Joe instead. Check the FAQs for more details. *puts on Anthology Coordinator's hat * Since you've both indicated that you write short stories, I thought I would bring your attention to the quarterly anthologies. Submissions for the 2008 Winter Anthology are due 1st December and the theme is "It's only a game, right?". The themes for the 2009 anthologies have also been posted.

I have a special request for the GA membership. We are looking to hold a special anthology in 2009 that is based on an image, rather than a theme. To do, so, however, we need an image that suggests a story, without being restrictive on what that story will be. The image could be a scene from the start, the middle or the end of the story, or maybe just an image that evokes a range of possible emotions. I am therefore asking the GA members to send possible images as an attachment to anthology@gayauthors.org There is no prize, apart from seeing that image used for a special anthology. I'd like to offer something more, but echidnas tend not be particular affluent A few rules: Pornographic images are strictly prohibited. The image must be either in the public domain, or copyrighted by the person submitting it. Drawings, paintings and photographs are all acceptable. Multiple submissions can be made, but please be reasonable. You don't have to be a GA member to submit an image. The person submitting the image retains copyright (if appropriate), but grants to Gay Authors a perpetual non-cancelable right to use the image in relation to the proposed 2009 special anthology. The right for Gay Authors to resize the image to an appropriate size for displaying on web pages will also be granted. Image submissions close on 1st December. The decision on which image to use will be made by the Gay Authors Anthology Coordinator. I'm looking forward to seeing what will be submitted Please remember that the image chosen will be viewed by a wide range of people, so please keep that in mind when you are submitting your images. Good luck, everyone, and thank you in advance to everyone who submits a picture. Graeme GA Anthology Coordinator

Hi From what you've said, he's had a year to indicate if the feelings are mutual. Since he doesn't appear to have done so, I think you have to work at letting him go, at least as a crush. Definitely keep him as a friend, but you need to move on. I'll say now that it is possible that he didn't really understand what you said when you told him you had feelings for him. I don't know how clear you were. If you were clear, then I think you have to accept that he hasn't reciprocated. If you may not have been clear, then I don't know. You seem to have a reason not to approach him again on the subject. If you don't feel you can, then you have to either be clear or move on. Staying in limbo isn't going to help you Good luck!

Happy Birthday, Tomon! It certainly sounds like the celebrations have already started....

Welcome back!

I think that says it all Good luck with everything, guys!

Originality is the key for me. I don't want to read the same conflict in story after story. Some things are basics, but originality is key if a story is to be interesting. That applies to the conflicts within a story, too.