Hero

It's a fun story to read

Great chapter, it gets better and better. Loved the fantasy element of air machines and tanks. Reminded me of Michael Moorcock. Love the historical base and the twist and turns.

I think it's great to explore life through writing and you open things up to broaden the mind and make the reader think. It is unfortunate that some areas of life which are controversial can be explored but other areas cannot, not here anyway. It seems there are always restrictions to open debate, prejudice and bigotry abound, freethinking can end in a witch hunt, lots of things are still in the closet, a Pandora's box!

The truth in a nice way, enough to explain the what the story is about without giving anything away, what you liked and didn't like and why.

So many questions, some are out of curiosity, some are about how things work, some are about preferences and a lot are about how to live... completely different, which is not at all a bad thing, more a challenge as for our hero, because she (he) is a hero!

It's all a dream, I don't know if I remember it or not, if it really happened or it's my imagination, but other things convince me. Great opening full of stuff I don't understand but want to know...

Ha, ha! If you don't want to know what readers want... don't ask. I can be rude too!

@Daddydavek there are lots of available free books to download online from different sites like https://www.booksfree.org where authors give their work and this way of reading books has a lot of advantages. 1. The book is complete 2. You never lose your place with an ebook app 3. The author gets to see how many books have been downloaded, popularity, and some sites allow feedback As for resources, that amounts to nothing more than all the space used by holding all the stories already here, maybe less if you zip up the ebooks, pdf For me, downloading an ebook or pdf and putting it on the virtual bookshelf of my personal library is the equivalent of a real paperback. You can pick it up and read it anytime, anywhere, and share it. Of course, the writing online novels in progress is a whole other thing, but asked what I would like, it's books with covers, summaries and reviews to download.

In reply to anyone who asked the point of the thread, I was thinking that a larger audience is possible for any author addressing a wider audience and a wider audience really means encompassing the world at large where being gay is a minority. My thought was around expanding stories to include straight characters who play an important role, to have a gay theme, but set in a more realistic perspective, essentially thinking about attracting that wider audience and moving away from the gay sex in every chapter. My thought is that the gay storyline can be more powerfully stated when not every character is gay and secondary characters are developed. A few stories do this, but not too many. Regarding reviews, I was in touch with the author mentioned and I am not sure what to say here. Most reviews I read are 5 star praise, when (do I have to apologise?) in my opinion that is not merited, there is very little negative criticism (is this to be avoided?). I only started with reviews because someone said it was a positive thing to do and they too didn't think 5 stars every time was reflective of every story. That said, I agree a negative review can be discouraging and probably was as I didn't here back (yet) from the author mentioned. However, I would add, he asked for more detail on the points I made and I wrote a long (I think nice) personal message detailing how I thought the story (any story) could be improved. Finally, the hobby writing amateur publishing online, part of a little community is great. Perhaps in my head I am too ambitious in wanting to see books, stories, that address a wider readership. That aspect of writing being therapeutic I can understand, but not quite see how it fits and honestly there was one story in the recent secret author stories that exposed the author's psych I'm not sure I wanted to see. Surely, and this is a question, you need to be honest in making points, posting reviews, and having an ambition to encourage writers to bigger numbers by diversifying out of the gay story cliche is not a bad thing? Still, some will be put out when you don't write fantastic story, loved every minute!

I would like to see a library of books, completed stories (not short stories of one chapter) available for download in pdf.

Taking a random look at published, publishing (ongoing) stories on the site, you can't help but reach the conclusion the number of readers is very small. The best an author might hope to achieve, is 1000 page views per chapter. Certainly, when you look at these numbers casually you see some large numbers, but look a little closer. A series author jdonley has written over 800,000 words in four books over several years and the number of readers is around 1000 page views per chapter per year. The numbers only look big over time. Take a well know author personality, Comicality, the numbers are ten times smaller and he has been writing online for over twenty years and writes about writing. I suppose if you add up all the numbers multiplied by the number of stories, you get some high figures, but divide them by chapters, by years, and it's miniscule! One book, on going, over ten years achieves 100 page views per chapter per year. Conclusion, the site online community is very small in terms of readership per author per book, what it achieves in site numbers overall is through the number of authors publishing as displayed on the front page. 100 page views per story chapter multiplied by 100, 200, or 1000 stories adds up, hence the site can support itself, advertising and premium membership. For the author, you need to be realistic, you may receive several chapter comments and a few (not very balanced for the most part) reviews, if you complete your story. You can have some contact with other authors and readers, which is not to be underestimated and can be valuable, but if you are thinking you will achieve any sort of real readership (as in a print addition from a publishing house) you are mistaken. In brief, being realistic, it is a lot of effort, hours of writing, a big investment, for very little return. Of course, nobody will tell you this and you can convince yourself you will get, or have, a large readership, but the numbers tell the real story.

I just want you to know @James Carnarvon this was my second choice story, but you get only one vote. It was a great story, for me beaten into second place by Learned to Lie.

Well... I already guessed the author of my favourite story and wrote to ask if I was correct. I wasn't... so in a few days I am about to discover a new author whom I really like and maybe, just maybe, some other stories to read. This is going to be a complete surprise!

It was original when Pete got his first girlfriend and his first sexual experience whilst at the same time having another sexual encounter with a band member and potential boyfriend. Then in steps the girlfriend's brother and Pete gives him a blowjob or two with his girlfriend's permission, of course. When she pops into her brother's bedroom because Pete is taking too long and sees her brother fucking her boyfriend in the ass, well that's a step too far and she throws him out naked. Pete can only confide his woes to Ant, the band member and potential boyfriend. They resolve it all by having mutual blowjobs, no hard feeling, no blame. Well, I like fiction, but I kinda like it to have some semblance to reality. Not saying this couldn't happen as you imagined it, but it rather needs a bit more depth and interaction between all the characters to be believed. I mean our hero Pete has gone from a shy boy singing in the choral to a quasi rock singing front man super star, adored by the crowds, and who has sex at every opportunity. We've got sex and music, where are the drugs? And, my god, it's all so polite!

It took a little adaptation to get into the present tense writing style, it is modern, millennial, I suppose, but in any event the story carried me through. The plot so far is interesting, a bisexual guy with a girlfriend and boyfriend. The background of an upcoming band is nothing original, but the story is well done. On the story, it took me to a world I found, I won't call it conservative, maybe dated. I mean, do guys get that kind of meet the parents, dad talk, at 17. At that age myself I had nothing much to do with parents as far as my personal life was concerned and neither did my friends. The music references added detail and the background was nicely filled in. Pretty good so far.