Graeme

Happy Birthday, Greg! Have a great day!

Does that make you CJ's original inspiration? As the shy, retiring lurker who never went away?

Happy Birthday! I haven't seen you around lately, so I hope everything is going well for you.

A calculated risk, but the name is more common here in Australia than it appears to be in the USA. As an example, Graeme Kennedy was a major Australian TV personality who died recently. He was a household name when I grew up. He also happened to be gay There have also been major sportsmen with that first name. Professor Graeme Clark is a pioneer in the development of the cochlear implant to help the deaf. Graeme Base is a well known author of children's books (and I'm really jealous... only joking ). Do a google search on Graeme and you'll get lots of hits in both Australia and Britain.

Congratulations, Benji

G'day, Joel Welcome to GA and I'm really glad that the posts could help you. That's one of the things I like about this site -- how helpful and supportive it can be. I read a lot of science fiction, but mainly offline. I've tried writing it a couple of times, but I don't think I have the vision to write a SF novel... yet

Graeme is a proud Scottish name, the celtic spelling for the name Graham (or is it that Graham is the anglo spelling for the name Graeme? ) The name of kings, it means... er... (looks it up)... never mind It also happens to be my first name :mace:

Since I've done a fair amount of the critiquing of the anthologies recently, I have to object to the highlighted phrase. I review the anthologies because I want to. I'm not a great one for providing feedback personally. There are a few reasons for that. One big one is I've learnt that, as an established author, people seem to place more emphasis in my comments than are warranted. I have to be careful about what I say, because some people seem to think that if I say something, I have to be right (as an aside, I originally wrote that word as write -- which shows you how wrong I can be at times ). Doing the reviews for the anthology stories allows me to encourage authors, while doing it in a way that doesn't place excessive emphasis on what I say. I will say now and publicly, I like Lugh's stories And I think my comments on his stories should count Now, getting back to the matter at hand.... Feedback is a personal thing for both the author and the reader. I have recently learnt of an author who does NOT want his stories discussed, except in select forums where he wants them to be discussed. I personally find that weird, but I accept his decision. Other authors like feedback, but aren't fussed too much by its absence. I'm personally in that category. I love feedback when I get it, but I'm not discouraged when I don't. I've heard from other established authors that the quantity of feedback they get decreases the longer they've been around -- readers seem to get the impression that because they've been around longer, feedback is either not needed, or had to be at a sufficiently high level that a 'I liked it' type comment would be unwelcome. While that may be true, that's not usually the case. Almost all authors like feedback -- even the 'I liked it' comments. Some authors crave feedback. These authors need to work on their marketing skills, because to get feedback they need readers, and they need to get their stories noticed above the crowd of other other stories out there. There are a LOT of stories out on the internet. Even here at GA, there is a multitude of stories competing for readers. Without some advertising and marketing, stories can be lost. If you, as an author, desperately desire feedback, you're going to have to work to make sure your story is noticed and read. Sitting back isn't going to do it. From the readers point of view, we are writing in a genre that readers are not as comfortable with responding as they might be in other genres. I know personally that until I accepted myself, I would NOT give any feedback to any stories I read because I was deathly afraid of leaving any trail as to what I had been reading. There is, and probably will be for the foreseeable future,, a certain percentage of readers that are too afraid to leave comments, because of the genre of the stories. Authors have to accept that. Other readers don't want to sound dumb. If they can't think of something more than 'I liked it', they won't leave a comment because they've seen reviews and comments by others that, to them, sound intelligent and insightful. They don't want their comment to be held up in comparison. If an authors still wants to get comments from these readers, they need to encourage them. They need to tell the readers that they're happy to receive those sorts of comments. CJ has touched on the issue of negative comments. An author should try to make it clear if they want these. I personally feel that if they indicate that they do, they'll get more feedback because some people won't comment if they can't point out any negatives. But that's just a personal feeling on the subject -- I don't really know. Good luck, everyone: Readers and Authors alike. This is a touchy subject for a lot of authors, but I don't think it is any easier for a lot of readers. They are scared at offending the person who wrote the stories they like, and would often prefer to remain silent than to risk upsetting someone who has impressed them.

Welcome I understand how you feel, but there are ways you can entertain yourself without TV and cable. There are many hobbies, for example, that can keep you occupied and are considerably cheaper that what you're currently paying to be entertained. The local library, if it's not too far away, will give you a lot of options, too. As for employment, you're going to have to keep trying. I know it can be difficult, but try asking the next few employers who turn you down why, and ask what you can do to improve your chances if any position opens up in the future. The mere fact that you ask that will typically raise you in an prospective employer's eyes, because it shows that you're willing to improve. Good luck! No one is going to pretend that it's going to be easy, but you will need to save up and that means sacrifices. You need to eliminate all unnecessary debts, and potentially spend money on some skills to improve your employment options. That's going to take some discipline to do....

G'day, Trevor! I hope you like it here and that you lose some of your pessimism There are a bucket load of people who will welcome you with open arms if you give them a chance Good luck! Graeme

Happy 21st Birthday! Celebrate!

Happy Birthday, Viv! I hope you have a great day and that your family spoils you rotten!

Congratulations, John and Robbie And it should have been "not so secret lover", Robbie, because you gave it away with your thread on deaf culture

Shane Warne's been playing in India recently, in the 20-20 competition that was started there. He did quite well, from what I've heard, though I haven't kept up with what's been going on. There was a rumour in the papers that he had told Ricky Ponting that he was available again, if wanted, but I think that was just a rumour. Nothing came of it. Have fun tomorrow!

As far as I can tell, there is a general acceptance that the word derives from an acronym or abbreviation, but it is not clear of what. As such OK is legitimate. It is also the form most commonly used in computers (the ubiquitous OK button, for example), but in most writings it appears to be okay. It isn't universal, though. As long as an author is consistent, they can use whichever one they prefer. O.K., however, does not appear to be legitimate spelling for the word. My personal preference is okay, because I see that a lot more when I'm reading. Also, while it may have an acronym or abbreviation in the past, it is now almost universally treated as a word, in which case I think it should be spelt as a word, not an acronym.

But it is the 19th in Australia. Why not celebrate that and have a 48 hour birthday? You only turn 18 once

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions I'll admit that this is why I personally would like to know the lengths, too. What I've done in previous anthologies was to open up a story, look at the scroll bar on the right hand side, and if it indicated that there was a lot to read, I'd leave it and go find something else to read. I would then come back to that story when I had more time. Messy, but it did the job. A rough word count for stories submitted in HTML isn't hard to do -- I can just cut-and-paste the text into a word processor and check the statistics. A couple of minutes work Word counts will always be rough because there's debate on whether notes, disclaimers and copyright notices should be included or excluded. But if people are only looking for a rough indication of the size of the story, then I don't see that that would be difficult. I understand your point of view, and it was why I said we were trialling the idea with this anthology. Since we hadn't told the authors ahead of time (it was a late idea), I drafted the initial set of blurbs and sent them out to the authors for comment (apart from CJ, who already knew about them). Several authors came back with their own blurbs to use instead. But when I was drafting them, I was careful to try to avoid saying too much while giving a feel for what the story would be like. In most cases, I drafted the blurb after reading the first couple of pages, since this set up the story. But what you've said is a real concern. I can still remember a print novel where the blurb on the back talked about something that didn't happen until the last page of the story.... :wacko: Blurbs for short stories are tricky, because it really is too easy to say too much, or to twist things so much that what the blurb says isn't what the story is really about.

:king: :king: :king: Happy 18th Birthday, mate! :king: :king: :king: With your graduation, and other things in your personal life, I hope all the changes turn out for the best. Good luck and best wishes!

Congratulations! And I even know what the last sentence means

Not necessary, but it certainly made it easier for him

This has happened before, though not to me. The procedure is, I believe: 1. Contact the site admin. There is usually an email address of webmaster@domainname that you can use if you can't find anything on the site itself. That's not guaranteed, but it should exist for standard websites. 2. If you can't contact them, try any email address associated with the story, such as someone who posted it, etc. 3. If they won't take it down or come to a mutually acceptable arrangement, threaten legal action. Unless the site is located in an obscure country, copyright laws will mean that you have the rights to the story, not them. You may need to be able to prove that wrote the story first (eg. by showing it was posted on the Internet prior to the copy that you found), but there are ways of doing that (The WayBack machine is a good tool to use, unless the time interval between the two was short). Just remember, that the author owns the rights to the story. If you can establish that you are the author, most courts will find in your favour.

I believe either OK or okay are acceptable, and my personal preference is okay. As long as the author is consistent about which one of the two they use, they should be fine. They shouldn't mix them, except in special circumstances (like having the characters discuss which one is correct )

I have to disagree with the last bit. The spotters are unlikely to be keeping a constant watch on the house itself. They would have noticed the police vehicle showing up, but then ignore it on the reasonable assumption it was just the change of shift. The shade of the porch would have also partially obscured the ability of anyone watching to have seen what happened. It was possible they saw, but quite realistic that they didn't notice. Remember the first killing was quick and quiet.

Not all in vain. He did admit to using one cliffhanger. He's still got a very long way to go, though.

I understand what you were saying. What we tried to aim for was something that wouldn't spoil a story. For example, we had to be misleading, because otherwise we'd risk ruining the ending of the story. What sort of additional information would you be looking for? Genre? Length? Or just more information on the plot essentials? If you have specific examples of what bothered you, please PM me so we don't give out any spoilers in this thread. Graeme (with his GA Anthology Hat on )