W_L

“He, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent, Stood like a tower; his form had not yet lost All original brightness, nor appeared Less than Arch-angel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen Looks through the horizontal misty air, Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the moon, In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change …” — Paradise Lost, Book I, ll. 589-597

“What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?" – Woland (The Devil) from The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov The world appears to be at peace—for the fortunate. For the unfortunate, the world appears to be a struggle. To the outside observer, the fortunate seem sheltered from life’s coldest winds: no lack of food, no restless nights without warmth or companionship. Their lives gleam with soft lights behind

Cody grew up in a golden cage as a useful tool for someone else's ambitions. Billy grew up in desperate circumstances, but strived to open the gates to Cody's golden cage. Will Billy succeed in freeing Cody from his golden cage, or will they both become prisoners? This is a story filled with crime and inhumanity. This is a story filled with comfort and healing. (Abandoned, but will post first chapter just so folks know what I was working on in the Summer of 2025)

Thanks Bill W. Not many people write about this era in history, when China and Russia were at odds over the communist ideological split. It's a minor footnote in most Western History books nowadays, but it was a major schism back then. I added a lot of little details for fans of history too, like I hinted in the story at the ideological purges that were going on in China post-Korean War against western influences (Mo Wu's uncle getting sent away to work reform), the Soviet did have the impression that the Chinese were a alot more fanatical about communist ideological purity. But alas, this was one my least read stories ever

Made me re-read Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy's HIM series, slightly less sex and more character development 😛 I do have Rachel Reid's Game Changer series in my TBR (To Be Read) list this year, which includes Heated Rivalry, maybe I should review it.

Neat, I didn't know I reached the #1 on Libertarian Sci-Fi, guess the idea of changing the structure of Medieval English society with advanced tech and creating an individual-based society focused on quality output rather than industrial quantity got readers. Thanks guys for reading! Also, glad that beyond me and @Myr, @RedMoon has wrote in the genre.

To be fair, I think Dexter didn't 'sleep' with Reese that first time, more like fell on top of him due to a combination of oxy and alcohol knocking him out. Plus, there were some steel suits of armor becoming weighted blankets, Early in my story, I focused on the high-functioning nature of chefs, who have substance abuse issues, especially alcohol. Not sure what your experience was, but I know a good share of chefs who hit the bottle hard during and after service. Combine with painkillers due to the frequency of restaurant related injuries, it gets messy fast. It's a spiral that a lot of people don't escape. While many writers demonize alcohol with some standard AA trope, I get that alcohol isn't something chefs can always quit or remove from their lives, especially in cooking. Dexter tries to get rid of his drinking habit, but he doesn't succeed. It's part of his life. The painkiller habit though could be kicked as it wasn't something native to the kitchen or Dexter's routine. Imperfect people making perfect food to others were at the heart of my story. That's why it took me nearly 6 years to write it, despite it being only 44K words. For me, I went for the issues folks don't approach within the kitchen environment and try to craft around it. Not saying it's easy, my early drafts were absolute BS, and it's not easy to make a decent story.

If I do write a sequel, I'll need to plan out ideas for 2026. I have an idea, but not sure if it works: Show what happened to Kaleb, Dexter's ex-boyfriend, who left the relationship after Dexter got violent. Kaleb is a trained pastry chef, but he's reluctant to enter a kitchen again. He moves to another city and encounters a young snarky man, Danny, selling hotdogs at a street corner. Danny is a former government employee, who was laid off. From the high-end Fine Dining world to street vendors and food trucks, showcasing a different side of culinary fiction. Plus, the romance will be between a young twentysomething laid-off government employee, now hot dog vendor, and an older thirtysomething pastry chef without a job.

Give my story a try if the subject appeals, it's set in fine dining, which is probably the most tilted in gender demographics. Only 6% of Michelin-star restaurants are led by female chefs. Of course, I gave my story a "nicer" filter, rather than dig too deep in the weeds of prep and restaurant dysfunction, briefly touching some of the details. After all, I was trying to write a realistic culinary romance, not Upton Sinclair's The Jungle I grew up around restauranteurs and a lot of different kitchen cultures, both my parents were in the industry at various roles. Lots of curse words, short tempers, and stress in service with long-prep time (A lot of folks might be surprised how long it takes to prep in the morning or the attention to detail). I loved Anthony Bourdain's no-nonsense and real touch when it came to food, sadly he was hiding a lot of inner demons. There's a dark underbelly to food culture that a lot of folks know exists, but don't really focus on. Heavy workloads lead to stress, stress leads to bad health choices, and bad health choices lead to chronic issues, both physical and psychological, among other things. The need to perform and create for others can create a negative feedback loop. That's something people near the industry can probably understand. --------- I think you should consider writing something in Culinary fiction, there's not many authors in that field on GA. Sounds like you have experience and you can probably add to the genre.

I do agree with you that going the "Mature" route from being "Everyone" is going to drop clicks/readers, significantly. Readers may not like the heavy stuff in mature content. When portraying a realistic workplace sexual assault and recovery of a female supporting character, Jasmine, I switched my rating for Essence of Life from "Everyone" to "Mature", clicks went from 300s range to 100s range. Writing foodie stuff is fun, but there are real problems behind the kitchen door that TV shows and reality series obscure, so I had to approach the real content with a mature rating. I know readers want to read the foodie escape fantasy aspects (I kept some of it, like mastering sugar sculpting isn't easy even for trained chefs), but grounded the story with things like misogyny from the minds of chefs, the depression and stress from service, immigration status of staff, and countless details that kept the story realistic. That made it a mature story by the end (Heck, I approached various cancers and end-of-life decisions, which definitely belong in the category of mature content). But, like I said, lower clicks don't make a story bad, it's just a matter of readers' interest. From just cursory observation, I can tell a lot of my casual readers prefer an escapist plot that is still relatable. Core readers enjoy the hard-hitting stuff and deeper details.

2025 is about to end, and a lot of us are doing reflections on what happened in the past year. In connection to GA, I'm reflecting on my stories in the past year: 1 novel and several short stories, not a bad writing history personally-speaking. From a stats perspective: 1. For my novel Essence of Life, Genre was Culinary Fiction and Romance, I'm averaging around 435 for total clicks to my single novel, 2. It's skewed towards the first chapter with 864 views (making it my most read chapter) and a low of 99 views for chapter 12 of 17. 3. Overall, my average per chapter view was 281, but without the 864 clicks from the first chapter, it goes down to 241 average clicks. 4. Best read short story was Boy Behind the Lens, a HP fanfic, with 251 clicks 5. Worst read short story was the annual prompt anthology, A Frozen Exchange, Historical Romance, with 94 clicks Anyone else have thoughts or stats they want to share PS: No pressure, just thought it would be neat to share observations for how some of our stories panned out based on readers' tastes. Doesn't mean they're bad stories, A Frozen Exchange was probably my highest reviewed story, but I knew it didn't get a big audience; though people who read it liked the romance (Shows me that I can write a good love story, I just have to pick my own setting in the future). In contrast, Boy Behind the Lens was emotional and provocative with established characters, even though there were no reviews for it. Stats don't define your work, but they do tell you what people like to read without you asking them.

Personally, the last "gay" show I thought was groundbreaking was the Netflix series, "Special". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_(TV_series) It was refreshing to see disabled members of the community (myself being in the group) getting a spotlight, the first season was a great showcase of stories a lot of writers don't or can't understand without living the life of a disabled gay person. It's not a perspective that you can use your imagination to live in fantasies, so there's a genuine feel. Too bad, the second season (after limited success with its first) fell off a bit. I still respect the effort in season 1, which did something no one had done before.

Happy Boxing Day (Hope everyone had a great Christmas)

BL has its merits as a gateway to other things within LGBTQ media and literature, which exist after a search. Why I enjoy The Summer Hiraku Died is partly due to the unique creative direction of Mokumokuren, who identifies as Queer, and you can see it in the story direction. Yoshiki and "Hikaru"/the entity were not meant to showcase BL themes, but rather how two people who are not quite 'normal' develop a bond. Who you are? What you want? are major questions in this story, which opens the provocative concepts native to LGBTQ people. @Topher Lydon The mainstream is dominated by heterosexual interpretations of LGBTQ perspectives, there are stories that explore deeper themes. Don't give up @Ron I would also add Horror to the potential list of genres LGBTQ creators play in beyond merely Comedy. The monster within, perception of alienation, and finding connection with a world unlike the individual are classic themes that tie into LGBTQ stories.

Right now, I am watching the Japanese Queer Horror anime show The Summer Hikaru Died on Netflix, it's quite provocative. Probably one of the better LGBT themed animated shows on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/81948057 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Summer_Hikaru_Died# The creator of the anime and manga does not like the label of "BL" on his story, he prefers to consider it "Queer" coming of age story. I think that's a good evaluation of the story and plot, which deal with identity, changing relationships that developed beyond friendship but haven't reached the point of romance (a kind of love without definition). There's heavy subjects like existential topics mixed with light banter of regular teenagers in the spring of their lives. ----- It might take some time to find new stories and series, but don't limit yourselves to BL, either. While I enjoy the light romance and storylines, there's also a lot of up and coming LGBT creators who have branched out beyond BL for expansive genres

Yay, I made it onto #2 in Cozy Romance. Time for folks to kiss the chef

Gone but not forgotten makes me think of Gone from Daylight. Still miss Comicality

Thanks for enjoying the literary feast

Thanks @Seraph28, @Calvin, @peter rietbergen, @andy cannon, and @chris191070 You followed the story to its end and I hope the full course of Dexter and Reese's lives was fulfilling

Love BL drama and a lot of the Taiwanese BL isn't censored thankfully. If you want written versions for Chinese novels equivalent to BL, aka Danmei, there's a decently sized group on reddit with a nice selection of recommendations. The translated danmei stories are pretty good with focuses on romance, devotion, and couple goals.

So, I've written an outline for a new story for 2026. Speculative Fiction, Progression Fantasy, and STEM/Academia Romance It's been 10 years since I wrote 0's and 1's, but I've still gotten occasional fan mail and people asking me to keep writing the sequel novel, which I had abandoned. It was a different time back then so I just don't have the same thought patterns to write the sequel novel, but I would like to play in the speculative fiction subgenre again. I want to combine several subgenres that usually don't mix in a story. One lesson I've learned over the years since 0's and 1's is to write a detailed outline and structure for character arcs in novels.

Life is rarely all joy or all sorrow; it moves with sweet and bitter, like a well-made drink. At fifty-six, Dexter had reached the bottom of his glass. Some would call it too soon. He did not. Years of wine and painkillers in the brutal rhythm of a kitchen had led to cancer; cancer had led to a transplant; the failing transplant now led to a choice. He would not chase another round of treatments. He would finish with intention. By his side, at fifty, Reese was also saying his goodbyes witho

Now four reviews with Chris joining in, thanks guys for reviewing and loving the story. Grateful you guys enjoyed it, like I said, I don't mind it being a low reader count story. For folks who gave it a chance and liked it, it's already worthwhile. Cold war subgenre has been cold in terms of interest by authors for a while, @Altimexis A Summer in Iowa was the only other story in the subgenre within 2 years, but "cold war" was more the era framing for his story than the subject so I tried to craft mine around an actual event. I tried to make it a bit more interesting by changing the framing and perspectives outside US and western contexts.

Thanks Chris

Love is limited to a certain place or time, there's tons of unknown and beautiful love stories out there. Glad you got over your fear of historical background and enjoyed the romance. But based on low readership, I don't think I'll be making a Hallmark movie out of this story any time soon.