Trebs

In this week's Author's Showcase, we break out of our mold a bit by giving you first Editor Johnathan Colourfield's The Room, reviewed by LouisHarris followed by Houdinii's review of Author Cailen's Somewhere Only We Know. We hope you enjoy both reviews and check out these great stories as well. The Room by Johnathan Colourfield Reviewer: LouisHarris Status: Compete Word Count: 1635 There is a strange aesthetic to this work that I can only describe as mercenary to the theme of the Spring Anthology. Two words drew me to the work, and those words make up the title, The Room. At once, the title attracted me to it and I was hoping to read a dramatic discourse, a framed moment in time of an event inside a room, not just any room, but this room, The Room. I wanted suspense, perhaps horror, I wanted drama, perhaps a little fantasy. I wanted something like Stephen King’s, Room 1408. To my utter amazement, I got more. Johnathan Colourfield’s story is based on something that may have happened to him for he admits that this is a “very personal experience”. There is the smell of volcanic ash. It is dark. There are voices; a child’s voice. There is a light. He is tied to a chair in a dark Victorian room with a bed and a TV set. There are nursery rhymes. One thing is clear, a house had been set alight. In the tradition of Virginia Andrews, the suspense builds up as the reader seeks a valid conclusion, because the author has drawn him in by using second person narrative. Using second person narrative is surreal, and there is a definite trend towards incorporating it into popular fiction. The second person viewpoint is often seen in experimental writing, cult or art novels, for example, in “Bright Lights, Big City” by Jay McIniery. Second person creates an almost intrusive intimacy, and is most effective when used in the present tense. The author wants to make his reader uncomfortable. He places the reader in the middle of the action, a witness to the events in the story. Johnathan manages this narrative extremely well, although there are breaks in present tense when he suddenly moves to simple past tense. A gremlin in the editing process I would imagine. But, by using second person narrative, he deliberately makes the reader the victim, so to speak. The Room is nightmarish. The YOU is bordering on dark insanity. There are nuances of blame for the fire, for the voice asks a question, “Why did you do it?” The tale leaves enough space for the reader to formulate his own views. But if the reader has taken note of the nursery rhyme and the newspaper report, it will become evident that the man is the victim, and maybe, just maybe, this is a hate crime. And maybe, just maybe, the entire story is based on hypnotic regression? Nothing is as it should be in this story. So many questions. No available answers. This is precisely why I mentioned in the beginning of the review, that The Room has a strange beauty that is mercenary. The prose is beautifully constructed. The sentences are clear and cut to the bone. This ismade deliberately to heighten the drama, and the darkness of the piece. I was pleasantly surprised by the execution of the prose itself. Masterful. If I did not know that Johnathan wrote it, I would have assumed it to have been written by Edgar Allen Poe, or maybe even Virginia Wolf, all artistes of dark prose. To paraphrase The Room. Enter. YOU will be scared shitless. The rest is up to YOU. Hopefully, YOU will awake from YOUR nightmare. Somewhere Only We Know by Cailen Reviewed by Houdinii Word Count: 40,257 Status: In Progress I've never really been one for the coming of age bravado stories, but one actually caught my eyes. The raw emotions found in “Somewhere Only We Know” by Cailen prove to be just as fine as the graphic arts he contributes to so selflessly. The first time I took a read, I expected the run of the mill “I'm young, just figured out I'm gay, he's cute, we date” sort of story. How wrong was I? I can't say I have a lot of patience, and so far this story is driving me insane. As far as love interest goes, poor Danny boy gets the short end of the stick. This work is about a high school student that was forced to move to Tennessee by a father through adoption, and placed on a farm not far from the cutest guy in town. Typical, I know, but this story encompasses much more. I'm sure all that read this have witnessed a bully go against a weaker mate, and an innocent friend of said bully stand by. While a tale of this nature seems to either speak only of love or bullying, the story I've been reading actually takes both, and creates a lucid and believable story line. Although it has not been completed, I've been pulled back to it many times, and again that is rare. I am a fan of the completed story, but on Mondays I find myself back to the same story time and time again. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Cailen about his story, and I can give a heads up, I suppose. He wrote: “You're going to see that Ryan and Danny are not a perfect match for each other, that they have flaws and make mistakes. But it takes sheer commitment to see a relationship through even though you have doubts.” It kills me to think I am going to be forced to take love advice from a person living a distance away. If you haven't started reading it, “Somewhere Only We Know” is an excellent read, and I'm sure you'd enjoy it. Not many stories peek my interest, and many more fail to cause a continuance, but this one, for sure, has my attention. Cailen proved to be a more proficient writer than I once believed (I know, but the graphics arts guys are typically nerds. Proven wrong once again.), and I'm grateful for his contribution. Thanks, Cail, for a great story, and I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted quicker chapters

Happy 31st Joe!!!

I loved Second Shot - yes, it has a little bit of sports, but not really. Just a great, well-crafted story.

Here is the second of our two-part interview with Quonus10, focusing on his publishing experiences. Enjoy! What made you decide to pursue publishing the story, first on GA as a Premium story and then through a publishing house? GA approached me last year about providing a novel length story to be used in the Premium Content section. Aside from the rush of being asked to do that, I hoped it would be a way to give back to GA. I think the readers and reviewers on GA helped me enormously. The readers helped me understand what people like to read and the beta readers and reviewers gave me insight into how to write better stories. As for publishing it, well that has always been something I wanted to pursue. I started writing seriously with the hope one day I’d be able to get published. After all the time and effort I put into Chosen of Honorus and the cost of having it edited, I had hopes of ePublishing it myself. Before I incurred the added costs of ePublishing something, I decided to shop it around first. I had nothing to lose except a bit of time. For those who’ve never tried to ePublish something, there is a lot of time and expense involved – it needs to be properly formatted for multiple platforms, you need to submit your story separately for each platform – Kindle, Nook, Sony, iBook, etc., or you need to pay a service to do it, you need cover art all of which either costs money or you do it yourself. How did you decide what publisher you wanted to submit your story to? This is something of a trick question. Anyta Sunday and I had a nascent relationship with Dreamspinner Press since agreed to publish (Un)Masked. Anyta and I were talking about ePublishing novels now that we were working with Dreamspinner. One of issues we raised was genre. As anyone who has read my body of work can tell, I don’t really stick to any one genre. But because (Un)Masked fits the classic M/M romance – even if it has a bit of a twist – Chosen is a M/M fantasy – a different genre. We didn’t know if Dreamspinner would be upset by my ePublishing something just before they published our book so I wrote to them, asking if they had any issues with me ePublishing a story in such a different genre using my same pen name. The Publisher wrote back to say it was not a problem, but if I wanted them to look at it, they’d be happy to review it to determine if they were interested publishing Chosen. This was nothing like what we went through when we were shopping (Un)Masked around. All things we needed to do, query letters, synopsis, author background, etc, I didn’t have to do this time. If they had not picked it up, I was going to ePublish it myself. How did you feel when you found out that a publisher wanted your story too? When I got the email, I must have looked like a silly fool grinning to myself in my office. It’s a feeling that is up there with getting into the college of your choice, or getting a job you really wanted. Writing is different in that it’s so personal. It’s your world, your characters, your story. While a part of me thought it was good – even my editor thought it was very good – I don’t think I truly believed it was good enough for a publisher to pick up, invest time and money in it and then publishing it. Hearing I was getting published gave me renewed energy toward pushing forward with other projects. Give us some details! Are they creating an awesome cover? Do you have a release date yet? Will this be put out in print? Uff! So many questions. The publication date is set for early 2013. The publisher thought that given the length, the editing process would take a bit more time. They do provide artists to help make with the cover, or – as Anyta and I did with (Un)Masked you can provide your own and they will evaluate it and most likely use it. I have ideas for what I want the cover to look like, but I’m not sure how easily my vision will transfer to the artist’s hands. Whether this will come out in print is not clear to me just yet. The contract specifies they have the right to release it electronically, in paper, audio and in foreign countries. Whether they will do all the above is not clear yet. Do you have any words of advice to any new writers starting to venture into the world of publishing? Something I learned is that publishers are looking at books that are character driven, not plot driven. It’s been said in several forums on GA and elsewhere that there are but so many plot lines out there and everything is just a variation of something that has already been done. What makes the story stand out is characters. Focus on creating likable characters that will draw the reader in. Once you’ve made the reader care about your characters, then you can keep them with a strong plot. Another thing is to find someone who knows what they’re talking about and will be honest with you. Then follow their advice. One part that stuck out in the editing process was toward the end I was tired of working on the story. I’d read and reread and read it again. I wanted to move on to the next project. The editor said I needed to do something to make it better. I balked, saying it was good enough. Whew, did I get an earful. As I said before, our characters are personal, we own them, we are them to an extent. But that also makes us too close to them. Finding someone who isn’t invested in our characters and our story as much as we are is extremely helpful because they provide a perspective that is closer to what the average reader will experience. Last I’d say don’t give up. If something isn’t picked up to be published find out why. Ask someone who is in the business to look at it and tell you what’s wrong. Then learn from it.

We're doing something a bit different this week. We were priviliged to have a great interview with Quonus10, both about his new Premium story Chosen of Honorus, as well as his experiences with getting published. I've broken his interview into two parts - today we give you his thoughts on his new story and tomorrow you'll have his thoughts on being published. We hope you enjoy this two parter! Chosen of Honorus by Quonus10 Status: Premium, in progress Word Count so far: 30,626 How did the idea for Chosen of Honorus come to you? The beginnings of this series was about six years ago. Like most of my writing, it started with an image. I saw Farrell sitting outside the mountain. I still have that scene, but it is nothing what it ultimately evolved into. Once I fleshed out the original scene, I started to back fill and lay out the world, the players, the conflict, etc. I know you went through an arduous editing process with an independent editor who really forced you to consider a lot of new information as you polished the story. Can you give us an idea of the process and what it taught you? Once it was decided I would work on this for GA’s Premium Content section, I began to rewrite the story. Over six years I learned a few things about perspective, head hopping, tense, etc. The original story board changed a bit over time as well, meaning in future chapters I wanted to do things that conflicted with the beginning. After that, Anyta Sunday read it and made suggestions to each chapter. Only after all that did I send it to the independent editor. At the time I felt pretty good about it and thought it would sail through. Wrong. First I was told to go back and rewrite every chapter, eliminating wordy sections and replacing weak verbs. She – the editor – gave me guidelines to use as I self edited again. We also started a story guide where we put down all the ‘rules’ of the world. For instance, was it Grand Master Wizard or grand master wizard? High Priest or high priest? We referred to the guide often to be sure we kept things consistent. Finally, she started reviewing things like this scene needs work, or what was the purpose of this character? Oh, well then in that case you need to add more here. Those kind of comments and corrections. When I was finished, I had a new appreciation for the difference between good writing and published quality writing. I’ve tried to incorporate those things going forward and it has actually slowed my writing down. But I’m hopeful it will reduce the amount of time editing and re-editing. What’s next for you? Are you working on the next part of Miceral and Farrel’s story or something new? Miceral and Farrell’s story is by no means complete. I have probably the next 3-4 books written, depending on how long they each are. Those need a major rewrite just as Chosen did, but I’ve started that process. In addition, Anyta and I are working on another story we hope Dreamspinner will want to publish and I’ve started a sequel to Second Shot. But doing all at once is too much to focus on at one time, so I’m going to work with Anyta on that book and work on revising the next book of The Champions of the Gods series. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I have the need to write about Harlin and Stefrem, the two characters featured in a Cold Rain. That one is on the back burner for the foreseeable future, but I’d really love to get that written one day as well.

We started this first week of July with andy021278's review of Kombat Kids by Hosted Author Ghost Ryder. If you're like me, you'll find andy really has a good way of giving a good flavour of the story without giving too much away, and letting you know how he feels the author did with plot and other elements. We then were treated to another Myr write up, this time on the Tag system of the new forum software. Our Author's Showcase gave us reviews of two of Promising Author Wrathofmagneto's stories - Captivated and Consequences. We also got a review of Author TMcCallahan's Dust & Ash. Comicfan helps us with his writing tip on "Getting Directions" - about how to get from plot point A to point B in a story. Be sure to catch the comments on this one - once again, the community helps by giving some additional viewpoints. Comicfan is also the guru behind this week's Writing Prompts - a challenge on writing based on a location and its atmostphere, and a creative one on changing the past. We also looked at a response to a past prompt - actually, two past prompts that Yettie One took on. Finally, we ended as we began - with a review by andy021278, this time on a 2006 Anthology entry by Camy title JJ and the Boys. Can't say I didn't warn you that I love andy's reviews :-) So - how was your week? Anthology Announcements: Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31st Fall Anthology “Friends and Enemies” – Due Sept 4th NEW READING In Premium this week: Chosen of Honorus by Quonus10, Book 1 of Champions of The Gods By our Hosted Authors this week: It Seems Hard to Believe by Bill W Odyssey by Mark Arbour, Book 6 of Bridgemont Paternity by Mark Arbour, Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP) The Secret Life of Billy Chase by Comicality, Book 6 of Billy Chase Chronicles Circumnavigation by C James Legacy by Altimexis, Book 29 of Naptown Tales By our Promising Authors this week: Angels Ascending by JMH, Book 3 of The Centurion Cycle Reach by CassieQ Protector of Children by David McLeod Attack of the Coffee Beast by Dark The Princes of Mir by JMH, Book 2 of The Gods of Mir The Prompt You Say! by comicfan Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!

Fire up the flux ca.... oh.... um, nevermind - wrong show. For this show, we have a review by andy021278 of Author Camy's JJ and the Boys, written for the 2006 Anthology Day of Silence. I hope you enjoy andy's review as much as I did! JJ and the Boys by Camy Review by andy021278 Status: Complete Word Count: 7592 Set in a boarding school in England, it is the story of John Palmer, a seventeen year old prefect in the Lower Sixth, and Jimmy James (the JJ of the title) who is a sixteen year old boy in the same house as John Palmer, and is in the Upper Fifth. John Palmer has two secrets; the first is that he is gay, and the second is that he is completely in love with JJ. The story starts out with Prefect Palmer catching JJ and three other boys misbehaving in a classroom. Palmer has the idea that JJ was being bullied, but upon questioning, JJ says that he and the other boys were simply horsing around; leaving Palmer with no choice but to punish JJ as well. JJ comes to the conclusion that Palmer doesn’t care about him at all and that Palmer doesn’t care that he is being bullied; and even worse that when Palmer actually catches him being bullied Palmer gives him a detention. JJ has his own secrets; he is gay, and is completely in love with John Palmer. JJ writes in his blog: To love someone so much and not be loved back is too much. I can’t cope for much longer. Come evening inspection, it becomes evident that JJ is missing, and another boy reports seeing him with a bottle of pills. After reading the blog entry and hearing about the pills, John Palmer is fearful of what JJ might do, so he calls his friends together to help search for JJ. Palmer’s friends are a ragtag group who outwardly have nothing at all in common, yet they are a very tight knit group. However, it becomes clear that in order for John Palmer to save JJ he may have to reveal certain secrets to his friends that he may not want to. How far will John Palmer go to try to save JJ? Is he prepared to risk not only his friendships, but also his life at school, all for the boy he loves? Can he help JJ before it’s too late? I hadn’t read anything of Camy’s before, but I was impressed with his writing style, and really enjoyed this short story. The characters are unusually well developed for such a short piece, and as a reader I could connect with both JJ and Palmer on a much deeper level than usual with short stories. Having read the other entries from the “Day of Silence” anthology, “JJ and The Boys” is my personal favourite.

A great way to wind down after a long week - check out these two new prompts from ComicFan and share your responses with the community in the Writing Prompts forum! Prompt 150 – Challenge Cue – The Scene Write a scene where the story is dictated by the atmosphere of the location. In other words create a story that might use a graveyard, a haunted house, a cheery nursery, or a cabin in the woods. Prompt 151 – Creative Cue – Changing The Past Everyone is always saying that if they could change just one thing, everything in their life would be perfect. The opportunity came only instead of better, your life became so much worse. What did you try and change and why? I love looking at past prompts responses and this week, we have a treat to show you. Yettie One took BOTH of last week's prompts on, and with fantastic results. For prompt 128 which gave a starting phrase, he wrote Sold: He also took on prompt 129, which I think is one of the most interesting word list prompts, to use Starry sky, bottle of champagne, Zombie, a ticket, and a deer all in a story. His take on this is Dawn Breaks: I hope you enjoyed these snippets as well as I did - check out where he took each (the above are just part of his prompt responses) - the title of each story will link to the full prompt response. Or, check out his full set of Prompt Responses. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Don't let the title fool you - this isn't about how to get from here to the store, it's how to get from plot point A to plot point B. We thank Comicfan for this look at "Getting Directions"! If you have a tip you'd like to share with the community, let me know! Getting Directions by Comicfan69 Everyone enjoys a great story. You read along following the action, learning about the characters, seeing the problem, and finally getting to the conclusion. It all seems so smooth and easy. However, ask any writer how they did it and they will give you a dozen different answers or more. To put it at the simplest of terms you must take your character from point a to point b, but the question is how do you do it? That varies from author to author and is something you need to decide for yourself. Some authors are great fans of outlines. They plan their story out from beginning to end, showing every conflict, resolution, and character interaction in the widest possible form before writing. This way they know what they want to accomplish and then work carefully from their outline. If you ask them how they accomplished their work, they tell you it was structured and set up before the pen ever touched paper, or a finger began typing in today’s world. Another school of thought is to carefully plan out your characters. You have a complete dossier on them. This will include their names, ages, addresses, likes, dislikes, skills, and names and sketches of their closest friends and family. When they begin to write then, they know their characters inside and out, allowing them to guide them from beginning to end with only a rough idea of how to get there. When you ask these authors how they got from the beginning to end they tell you, their characters led or told them how to do it. Then there are those who jump in with both feet and no set guidelines. They start and stop, change and go forward then back, but never have a clear destination in place. Their stories like their characters seem to meander near and far, but after a while seem pointless because the author was never sure what they were doing with them in the first place. Every writer is different, and they will have a different way of approaching the subject of how to plot their tale. The main thing to keep in mind is a story needs to include some sort of problem for your characters and a resolution. Doesn’t mean the problem is solved, but it is a way to bring it to an end. Think of your favorite stories and the journey the characters underwent. Did they grow up, find a new love, kill someone, rescue something, or just go visit a family member? Along the way what did they see and do? That is the direction the author has taken and when writing your own story remember to include your own brand of those ideas. Enjoy your writing, bring your reader along, and may you both have fun at the end.

Kombat Kids by Ghost Ryder Length: 283,898 Status: Complete Review by andy021278 When I was first thinking of reading Kombat Kids, I was initially apprehensive as I am not a fan of the military genre in any format; I never even got into TV series such as JAG, NCIS, North and South, and SeaQuest. However, I was pleasantly surprised not only by the story, but even found myself being drawn into the genre. Also, when a new military term is introduced in the story it is explained, which makes it easy to follow the use of these terms and they eventually become familiar. Kombat Kids is set in Washington State near the Columbia River, and focuses on Unit One. The local area has a number of church-run groups and of course there is Boy Scouts; however gay children have been made to feel extremely unwelcome and have been left feeling ostracised. The story starts with Phillip Martin (the son of the town’s sheriff) telling his father that he is gay. Sheriff Martin has no idea how to help his son through this time, and feels unable to answer his questions. So he turns to Matt and James Bateman for help. Both brothers are openly gay and are ex-military; Matt having been a SEAL, and James having served in army airborne. After uncovering the rampant homophobia in the community’s children’s groups, James and Matt decide to form Unit One, which the Bateman Brothers decide they will run like a military training camp; complete with weapons training, fitness training, and even its own Judge Advocate General group. Phillip becomes the poster child for, and a very prominent member of, Unit One. Although initially the Bateman brothers keep Unit One independent without any external support, they soon attract the attention of Sheriff Martin’s brother-in-law, a US marine general. Once he gets involved, the story goes from strength to strength, and in my opinion is the source of some of the best overall plotlines in the story. Not everyone in the community is happy however with the formation of Unit One, and they go to extreme lengths in order to try to close down the unit; lengths which have dire consequences for several of the kids. There is a lot of sex in the story, probably the most I’ve seen in a story here on GA given its length. Though, as with other authors here, GhostRyder15 has managed to avoid it reading too much like smut. However, the way some of the couples first come together, and some of the sex scenes do have a very Nifty-esque feel to them. There are a few negatives with the story; however they are all technical issues. The speech tags are poorly punctuated, and there are minor issues with spelling, continuity errors and general formatting. Whilst these issues are numerous enough to be obvious and are a frequent stumbling block, and numerous enough for me to usually move on to a different story, the story itself is of more than sufficient quality that any reader should try to, if not forgive these errors, at least overlook them. Forgoing these technical errors, I’d give the story itself an 8 out of 10.

How's your week been? Mine personally has been fantastic (check the little personal blog entry at the end if you're interested) In Blog-land, life has been good as well. We started the week with a look at Hosted Author Bill W's The Castaway Hotel - Grand Reopening 1. Andy021278 did a great review, in part because of how much he grew to love the story. On Tuesday, we had a highlight about Premium Membership, what it is, why it exists and the benefits of being a Premium Member. Also, after four years, the price of Premium Membership is slightly increasing and this blog entry explains the new price structure and why the change. Out Wednesday Author Showcase highlighted Just Love Him by Promising Author Dion as well as Author GREEN's A Hero in the Hallways. I've read both stories and they are both excellent - I hope you check them out. Thursday saw Part 2 of our two part series on Getting in the Mood. What started as a simple inquiry by podiumdavis (THANKS AGAIN!), turned out to be a fantastic look at how various GA authors get themselves in the mood to write such wonderful fiction. The variety of responses was great! Thank you also to all of the authors who contributed. Our weekly Writing Prompts, courtesy of Comicfan, are ... well, even more humorous than normal, this week. I burst out laughing when I saw the one "How in the hell did you think this would be a good idea?" I cannot wait to see where people may go with that. The second one with a list of words - well, when one of the words is Zombie - again, fun times can ensue. Finally, we ended the week not looking back, but instead having a Blast to the Future with an update on GayAuthors.org software updates. Informative stuff and cool to know about. Anthology Announcements: Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31st Fall Anthology “Friends and Enemies” – Due Sept 4th NEW READING In Premium this week: Chosen of Honorus by Quonus10, Book 1 of Champions of The Gods By our Hosted Authors this week: My Only Escape by Comicality The Secret Life of Billy Chase by Comicality, Book 6 of Billy Chase Chronicles Paternity by Mark Arbour, Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP) Odyssey by Mark Arbour, Book 6 of Bridgemont Legacy by Altimexis, Book 29 of Naptown Tales By our Promising Authors this week: Protector of Children by David McLeod Reach by CassieQ Tower of High Sun by JMH, Book 1 of Of Sun, Moon, and Stars Confounded: Part II by Andr0gene, Book 2 of Confounded Angels Ascending by JMH, Book 3 of The Centurion Cycle Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!! What? You're still reading? Ok - you might have noticed the mention about having a good week at the top. So Saturday, I went to a wedding. It was a two hour drive each way and Dan couldn't go because of Tyler's Little League. It turned out to be one of the best weddings I've ever been to. I met both the bride and groom 21 years ago when we were all in college in the Sacramento area. They dated for about three weeks then figured it wasn't working out. Then two years ago, out of the blue they ran into each other and a friend goes "Oh - have you met..." to which "Ya, didn't we date?" They hadn't seen each other in all this time. They exchanged numbers, called a couple times and went on a date - and it just grew from there. They are both extremely wonderful people. I don't keep in close touch, but know what's going on generally with them and could NOT be happier. It was more of a reunion than a wedding - all of the old friends I saw and chatted with. The setting was beautiful. I can't just stop the high I got from being there tonight. It is the people in your life, the communities you create - these are the treasures you keep (and grow) forever. Robert

Cough - ummm... CJ, why was the chapter late again? Ummm, someone sent me an INTERESTING photo...

Once again, I have to make sure to say THANK YOU to podiumdavis for coming up with this idea!

So, last week we brought you one part to a tip on getting in the mood. We received so many wonderful thoughts from the authors here at GayAuthors that we just couldn't fit them all into one blog entry. With that in mine, today, we bring you "Getting in the Mood: Part Deuce". Enjoy!!! Hosted Author: Comicality Well, I kind of do things backwards. Meaning that I let the mood dictate what I write instead of the other way around. One of the reasons that I have so many stories going at once is because I follow the 'mood' so I can get the strongest material for everything that I write, and it doesn't always fit with what I want to work on at that particular moment. It depends a lot on what I've been going through on that specific day in lie or at work. When I'm angry, or sad, or happy, or horny, or just feeling kind of 'preachy'....I follow that emotion and choose a story that fits that particular mood. It allows me to really channel what I'm feeling into my writing. And if I don't have a story fitting that feeling or motivation at that time, I'll write something else to get it off of my mind. It's hard to have something bugging me and trying to write about something else. So I either have to put those thoughts into something ese that I'm working on, or I have to write something personal that nobody ever sees, and get that angst and those bothersome thoughts off of my chest so I can write something for the 'public'. Other than that, music helps. I have CDs that I've burned for certain stories, that I listen to in order to create a certain frame of mind. Find songs that really have a true meaning to you in tone, vibe, and lyrics...and put them all on the same CD. Play them while you're writing. Not only will it get you in the right mood, but it can set a natural rhythm for your words while writing. I do it all the time. Promising Author: CassieQ Getting into the mood to write is mostly about telling my brain that it is writing time. That means no distractions. People, television and the Internet are all made to catch and keep attention. I take these away (as much as I can, TV and Internet are easy, people not so much) and put on some music, usually something familiar that won't draw my attention away from my project and help block out the world around me and I am good to go. Sometimes, if I need a little extra motivation, I'll listen to a song that remind me of the story I am working on, or research some aspect of the story to help me get into it. As for the mood of a story, I tend to leave that to the elements of the story itself--plot, characters, setting, dialogue, etc. The only limitation is that I might have trouble writing a dark themed story if I am in a cheerful, bouncy mood, and vice versa. That is why I have several projects going at once…one for each kind of mood Promising Author: Dolores Esteban I can’t write without inspiration. A piece of music can help and reading a book or an article on the internet sometimes inspires me to write myself. Experimenting with different genres and writing styles can also serve as an inspiration. Sometimes a whole story just pops up in my head. Once the story forms in my mind, it’s easy to jump into this world of my own and get into the heads of my characters. This is when I feel the need to start writing. I must not miss this moment, else the energy is lost. I can write non-stop for hours and it’s almost like the story writes itself. I’m enjoying this flow. This is my reason for writing. However, I can’t force myself into it. This just doesn’t work out for me. Poet: Foopy Well, unfortunately I'm a bit odd in my writing habits, as I feel I don't personally create the story, it simply uses me as a conduit to the world... I will suddenly have a chapter (or part of a chapter) appear complete in my mind as a movie, and I just have to transcribe it out... With Poetry... The idea for the poem comes in, but then I have to work at it, and tweak it to get the flow/emotion/words I want in. This usually involves a lot of 'back-burner-ing' lol, as I'm too much of a perfectionist to get things right quickly. I like to use a thesaurus, but I will not use a word that I don't fully understand (for instance, if I am making a poem, and the Thesaurus has a cool looking word that I've never heard of before, I likely will not use it) So i'm a very slow poem-writer... It's more a science than an art for me for poems. Author: SidLove Doing things to get in the mood to write is not really me. Unless I am struck with a brilliant idea for a new story or a chapter, I never get in the mood. The mood comes to me. Really if my senses don't feel like I should write, however hard I try to sit and write, I just can't lol But of course there are times when I am inspired, I have the idea where I have to go with the story because of my preliminarily worked-out outline but I just feel lazy to write. Yet, I drag myself to sit down with my laptop and open the word file. The neglected cursor blinks on the blank document and the window remains minimised while I am on MSN, FB, GA, etc... The day just ends like that and I close the blank document before I go to sleep. BUT the next day, I am determined. I wake up early in the morning, shower and all, have a nice, healthy breakfast before I sit with my "lappy" again. I disconnect my internet and first thing I listen to my most current, most favorite song. It has to be a romantic song or something related to the story subject that I am writing. For example, when I was writing the story "When time has come..." which is about fashion world, I used to listen to this specific song which was used on a runway show. It would remind me of the excitement I felt watching it on TV and that would set the mood. OR like my current story "The Life of Him" which is about a man getting raped and his struggle to find himself and love, I always listen to that new song from Katy Perry called "Part of Me". Then I would sit to write and words would flow out of me!

Middle of the week - it's all downhill from here. To celebrate, we take a look at two great stories of GayAuthors.org. The first is Just Love Him by Promising Author Dion. This short story gem gives you a good introduction to Dion's writings. We also have a review by podiumdavis of Author GREEN's A Hero in the Hallways. I hope you enjoy these reviews and they lead you to checking out one or both of these authors. Just Love Him by Dion Status: Complete Word Count: 2954 Dion is one of those authors that not only writes well with interesting characters, his dialogue is so realistic and keeps you reading. His short story Just Love Him is no different. We start with a fight between Cory and his mother Patricia. Not the typical opening for a story and I found myself immediately drawn in to the scene. After the fight, with both of them saying things they'll regret, Patricia has a visitor who tries to get her to view things in a different way. While a short story gives less room for character development, Dion does an admirable job in showing us Patricia and her visitor. Cory is more of a very minor character, but that didn't detract from the story for me. I very much enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more of Dion's works - such as his Mind Over Matter story (next on my reading list). I hope you check out Dion's writings and enjoy them as much as I have! A Hero in the Hallways by GREEN Review by podiumdavis Status: Complete Word Count: 35,477 In the blink of an eye, your life could come to a stuttering halt. The mind is something that is so fragile, that with just one small bump to the head, every memory you’ve ever had could be gone, just like that. Which brings us to a story called “A Hero in the Hallways” written by GREEN. The story is about an author by the name of Jonathan Williams, who, in high school was a part of the popular crowd. As an already well-established author, being a New York Times best seller, offers start flooding in for the rights to his works, with promises of money, creative control, among others. However, there’s only one slight problem. He can’t remember what they’re so interested in; his own story. One that he spent the better years writing to be a voice of a darker time in his life. As he can’t recall anything that’s written in his book, he goes on a journey to discover his past through his own words from his bestselling book. What will he discovered? Will he finally decide to whom he sell the rights? Ultimately, this is for you to discover. Also, as a side note, after reading the story, I went to see if GREEN had written anything else, but I soon discovered that GREEN passed away in 2006. So please, let this be a living testament to his work, may his life be celebrated.

This week, we're starting off with a wonderful story by Hosted Author Bill W. Andy021278 gives us this review of Bill W's The Castaway Hotel - Grand Reopening 1. I haven't read the story myself, but after reading this review, I plan to very soon! Take a look and see if you agree... The Castaway Hotel – Grand Reopening 1 By Bill W Review by andy021278 Word count: 164,814 Status: Complete As I sit thinking about writing this review, part of me knows I will never truly be able to do Bill W’s “The Castaway Hotel – Grand Reopening” justice. On a cold Christmas morning in 2011, I finally overcame my unease about reading a story of this length and intricacy (ten books and four hundred plus chapters), but the series has been one of the best written and most heartfelt pieces of literature I have ever read. It is also a rare treat when an author, especially one who is writing for the sheer pleasure of the craft, takes the time and effort to rewrite and expand on a previous story. The story is predominantly told from the perspective of Josh Currie, who at the start of the series is the principal of the middle school. His wife had passed away a few months before the first book starts, and owing to the size of his house, a friend suggests he open a Bed and Breakfast to help alleviate the loneliness he is feeling - having lost his wife and the fact his children are all grown up with lives of their own. That is until another friend, Sally Swarthout, who works for the Department of Social Services suggests he takes in a foster child owing to the shortage of good foster homes. Although Josh is a widower and lives alone, she feels given his experience of having raised four children and that he is the middle school principal, he is more than ready for the challenge. Josh finally makes the decision to take in a child and we are introduced to Ricky Glover, who happens to be a student at Josh’s school – and is certainly my favourite character. We see how Josh adapts to raising, and being responsible for the life of, a child again; a child whose initial description in the book is “a whirling dervish who could only be subdued by a tranquilizer dart filled with a dosage large enough to calm a raging elephant”. Ricky is just the beginning of Josh’s new life, and while they are still trying to get to know each other better and trying to figure out how to live with each other, Josh receives a telephone call from Ms Swarthout about another boy she would like Josh to take in. The series follows everything from the effects this decision has on Josh, to the effects it has on Ricky and others, their friends, Josh’s biological family, and the community at large. Josh also harbours a secret, which if discovered, has the potential to spell disaster not just for him, but those around him. The story takes you on a rollercoaster ride as you run the entire gamut of human emotions, and be warned the author pulls no punches; so make sure you buy an extra couple boxes of tissues. There are a number of sexual scenes throughout the series; however, the vast majority are between loving partners and the scenes do not read as sex for sex sake. Bill has clearly conducted vast amounts of research prior to writing the series; not just into adoption, but into everything else that is featured in the series. This comes across in both the excellent quality of his writing and his attention to detail. I’ve read a few of Bill W’s other stories and The Castaway Hotel maintains the standards of grammar, plot and attention to detail I have come to expect from this author. His scenes are full of detail and are beautifully crafted. Giving The Castaway Hotel “10/10” or “five stars” somehow seems woefully inadequate. I will however, say that this wonderful series has replaced Jules Verne’s “Around The World in Eighty Days” as my all time favourite read. For a truly unique fostering/adoption themed story, make this your next read.

Have you been enjoying the latest anthology, Choices? The next anthology is a big one - "Secrets Can Kill" is not only a Novella Anthology, but also will be celebrating 10 years of GayAuthors.Org! Full details on the specifications for the anthology can be found here. For those that don't want to click, the baseline requirements are: Our past novella collections have been wonderful and I can't wait to see what people come up with this time! Our week started with a review of Ben by Hosted Author (and Cliffhanger King Emeritus) C James. Ben is a short story spin-off of Circumnavigation and Renee Steven's review gives a good glimpse of this story. This was followed by the second of our two-part series on Publishing. K.C. helped us a great deal in doing the interviews and presenting the information in a very informative piece. Mid-week we looked at our Author Showcase - this week was Life by Promising Author Jian Sierra and Author Mark92's Another Fairy Story. Our Tip Thursday was part one of a two-part series on Getting in the Mood - a look at how various authors get into the mood when they write. Pretty fascinating so far looking at the different ways that some authors prepare to write. ComicFan provided us with the usual great prompts. this time in addition to a situational "The Family Get-together", he also provided a bit more unusual one in "The Sketch". I am looking forward to seeing the results of how authors approach these prompts. Ending the week, we looked back at a November 2006 GA Newsletter entry by AFriendlyFace on Sequels. That was our week - hope yours has been great! Anthology Announcements: Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31st Fall Anthology “Friends and Enemies” – Due Sept 4th NEW READING In Premium this week: Chosen of Honorus by Quonus10, Book 1 of Champions of The Gods By our Hosted Authors this week: Legacy by Altimexis, Book 29 of Naptown Tales A Late Awakening by Renee Stevens Odyssey by Mark Arbour, Book 6 of Bridgemont The Experiment by Cia Paternity by Mark Arbour, Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP) Circumnavigation by C James By our Promising Authors this week: Protector of Children by David McLeod Reach by CassieQ The Prompt You Say! by comicfan Tower of High Sun by JMH, Book 1 of Of Sun, Moon, and Stars Confounded: Part II by Andr0gene, Book 2 of Confounded Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!

A nice lazy Saturday, the perfect time to crank up the way-back machine and look at a GA Newsletter entry from Nov 2006. Here is AFriendlyFace's take on Sequels... Enjoy! An Article on Sequels Featuring: Staking My Claim by Nickolas James Many people have a love-hate relationship with sequels. Oftentimes, fans are elated to see their favourite characters back in action and there's always the hope that more loose ends will be tied up or more mysteries revealed. For many, however, the sequel contains the threat of "tampering" with the original, of killing a story by playing it to death. So when do sequels work? The answer is when the characters remain realistic and vivid and when they remain true to themselves and the framework within which they are set. Another key factor is when the storyline remains fresh and the narrative exciting. In Staking My Claim, the sequel to My Jump Off, Nickolasjames certainly manages to accomplish these goals! The characters have never been fresher and the storyline never more intriguing! Andrew Stout seems to have it all: parents who love an accept him for who he is, a good home, material comforts. What Andrew doesn't have however is a boyfriend of his own; instead Andrew has someone else's boyfriend. In this sequel to My Jump Off Nick shifts the focus from the "cheater" to the "other man". Such a perspective is indeed rare; it's also a great deal of fun to read! But can Andrew convince Jarred to leave Phillip? Is Andrew truly in love with Jarred or is he simply in love with getting what he wants? Does Jarred love Andrew or Phillip or does he simply love the sex? How will Andrew's parents react when they find out what's going on? Will Phillip ever learn the truth? Follow Nick as he resolves these questions and, in so doing, proves that sequels can be more than "guilty pleasures", but instead be powerful artistic works in their own right! AFriendlyFace

[Err - I was tired last night and accidentally titled this Blast from the Past instead of Prompt Me - it has been corrected] After a short break due to our Summer Anthology, the Prompts are BACK! Thanks to our prompts guru Comicfan, we have two new prompts this week. I'm really intrigued by this first one - try it and really stretch your creative muscles. The second one on the Family Get-together can go in sooo many different directions. I hope you try one or both prompts - and please share with the community in the Writing Prompts forum! Prompt 146 – Creative Cue – The Sketch In a few paragraphs give a description of character you are creating. However you are forbidden from actually giving straight facts on the character. In other words no, I’m Sandy Oliver, I’m five foot two, a virgin, terrified of telling my dad I might like girls. Instead find different ways to give the reader the same sense of things without just spitting it out. So that instead of what was there earlier you might have something like this – I sat in the girl’s locker room taking off my school uniform and could just make out Olive on it. My school had all our last names on the back of our uniforms but the mud covered over the “r” in my own. It looked so small sitting next to Tina’s but then I guess mine would look small next to nearly any of theirs. Thinking of Tina made me blush as I imagined what it might be like to kiss her, and I was just happy my father wasn’t around to notice how I looked at her during practice. God, why couldn’t I be normal? “Yo, Sandy? You going to shower before you head home or not?” I blushed as Tina called from the showers. “Be right there,” I called as I hurried to join the rest of the softball team cleaning up. Prompt 147 – Creative Cue – The Family Get-together The family has been called together. It has been a long time since everyone has shown up at one these. You wanted to go, but now you are upset you did because you are finding out more than you ever wanted to know about your family! What have you discovered? So - getting some ideas? Before you head off and write your prompt response, here is how Labrador responded to Prompt 145, which was to "Use the following words in a story: recipe book, clothing store, vintage car, pink box, and a tiger." Pretty great start, eh? I thought so and here is the rest of her story...

Getting in the Mood: Part One Compiled By Renee Stevens Have you ever wondered how your favorite authors are able to write what they write? What gets them in the mood to create these wonderful works? We have, so when Podiumdavis came to us suggesting a tip on getting in the mood for writing we thought this would be a great idea; not only just to be able to feel what an authors characters are feeling, but to really set the mood for the story. You can read his thoughts on this in his blog post here. While we could have probably come up with a pretty good tip on this, we thought it might be better to take this tip to some of the authors on site. With that in mind, we contacted a host of authors and got enough replies to be able to do a two part tip. Today we are bringing you Part 1 of "Getting in the Mood." Enjoy! Hosted Author: C James Setting the mood is critical. Most stories (except short stories) have many moods; it varies from scene to scene, and sometimes within a scene. There are surely many ways of doing this. However, all I can do is recount the methods I use (Caveat: I may well be wrong). First, I envision the scene itself. All else stems from that. If it's a place, such as a bar, I envision the bar, and then describe it. That puts the reader in the scene. For the characters, I try to put myself in their heads; what would they be feeling? Is it a high-tension meeting, such as between two hired killers? Or two strangers meeting with possible romantic entanglements in the air? Those are two radically different atmospheres, and the scene has to fit. So too do the characterizations, as relayed by dialog structure, body language, and vernacular. Getting in the mood for writing. Now that's a hard one to answer. For me, writing is recreation, so usually it's easy. Sometimes, especially when facing a plot conundrum, I find myself blocked. However, just sitting down, opening the document file, and starting to work on it help greatly. Another method I use is, if blocked, I just work on something else for a while; a different chapter, or a different story. Promising Author: Dark After the last 9ish months of working 12-16 hour days, I have little energy for getting "in the mood" to write. Currently, it's more like avoiding writing until I just can't take it anymore. If you've read my writing tip on dealing with plot bunnies, then you've probably guessed that I have a few. On a scale from one to ten, with one being plot bunnies nibble on my toes occasionally and ten being plot bunnies nibble on my toes all the dang time, then I'm a ten. And if you know anything about plot bunnies, then you know that they multiply like rabbits. Pretty soon, that one plot bunny is ten and then a hundred and before you now it, you're wading knee-deep through the pesky creatures. Don't forget: they're still nibbling. My plot bunnies love ambushes. I'll be teaching or working on things to teach or grading papers and out of nowhere ouch! Plot bunnies. You can punt them out of the way, but they keep coming back for more. I try to ignore them and they just come up with more creative ways to get my attention. Eventually, there's no further recourse but to write down their sadistic, kinky, little thoughts. A sentence here, a sentence there, just to take the edge off so that I can concentrate on what I really should be doing. Now, even before all this craziness, I never really had a set schedule for writing. My schedule has been too random and crowded. Now, on the few days when I have sat down and said, "okay, today I am going to write," I do tend to find a quiet, comfortable spot with no music or TV, no food or drinks, and no distractions (ie a time when I know that no one shall disturb me for awhile). Sometimes I can get right into writing and sometimes not. I don't stress about it. I suppose if I were to ever make my living by writing that I would have to learn how to be better at getting "in the zone." Until then, I'll just take a weed-whacker to my bunny problem. Author: Yettie One Personally for me I am not sure that there is ever a specific mood to write. Generally I have to be disciplined enough to set aside the time to actually take up the task of writing and then the mood in a way seems to set itself. That might sound counter intuitive as if I put no effort in preparing what I am about to write, or do not consider what I am going to write about, but the truth of the matter lies in that there is no special process that I follow in choosing when to write. When I write the basic idea of a story is already set in my minds eye. I write at a time when the general thoughts, feelings and actions of the main character/s has worked itself out and the central theme for that specific time within the story is clearly established in my mind. It is then a matter of focusing in on the chosen person from whose perspective I write and try to imagine things from their point of view, for example, what might they choose to say, or how would they see things, and then it is really the writing that sets the mood. I often find that as I write, the excitement of the story builds and very often sets the pace, direction and theme of the story itself, and while I may have had a general idea when I started, it is common for me to find that my mood has been inspired by the writing process itself, and the finished result is markedly different from what I may have imagined when I started out. So I guess for me, it is the discipline of actually committing to write in the first place and the fact that I am actually writing already that in itself sets the mood for my writing. Author: carringtonrj I like to have music on as I write - I know some people will violently disagree with this approach! I choose pieces that are still, calm, gentle, not distracting. It helps me to cut out disruptions and get in the zone. I tend to write quickly, really feeling the moment and letting the words flow - it's a kind of dream-like, hypnotic state for me. More specifically, I like to have a strong sense of the place where my action is happening. And I tend to engage fully with the feelings of my main character, becoming them whilst I write, even if they are very different to me. My characters tend to emerge from an aspect of me, all of them: men, women, gay, straight - though I don't seem to have written any entirely straight characters for a while! But they are also not me, and I enjoy making the imaginative leap of empathizing with them whilst I write as or about them. The emotions, desires, needs, wishes of the characters are what tend to drive my narratives, and I try hard to be in tune with them. I might play over scenarios whilst driving, walking, running, before I get to typing, so that when I'm actually writing, I am ready to go, ready to flow. There are costs with this speedy, in the zone approach - I'll never write so precisely as the best writers here. But I find writing like this very enjoyable, and GA has given me a chance to get some lovely feedback to my lonely tappings too. THANK you to all of the authors who replied and helped us understand how they get in the mood. Stay tuned to next Thursday when we will have our part 2!

Middle of the week - to help you get over the hump, here are two great reviews of stories here on GayAuthors! First, Cia gives a very frank review of Life, by Promising Author Jian Sierra. Now, not all stories fully appeal to all reviewers - and while Cia loved the crafting of the story, as you will see, she had some reservations too. Our other review is by Comicfan, of Author Mark92's Another Fairy Story. I love reviews like these in that they give me all of the background so I can see if I may enjoy the story, even if the reviewer had issues with it. And you know - if you have a different view, please be sure to leave a review for the author. The first review does make use of our "spoiler" feature - PLEASE do not click on show if you intend to read the story soon and don't want too much given away. I tend to read the story, then go back and see the spoiler With that, ENJOY! Life by Jian Sierra Reviewer: Cia Status: Complete Word Count: 7,839 Renee mentioned that she needed another Promising Author review so I told her to pick an author and a story and send it my way. This sometimes is a great way to find a new story, or author, you might enjoy. Of course, I've read most authors on the site but in this case I had never read Life before so I settled in to enjoy this short story of just under 8,000 words. First, I like to check the story description and tags before I read something new. I don't want spoilers, but they give me a good idea usually of what is going to happen. Right off the bat I know that our main character will find out that he has cancer before he meets a love interest. That is a very tragic set of circumstances and the story does follow through with that. The story follows Paul and Matt's meeting, and shows how they come together as a couple; the climactic scene at the end is very emotional. However, I had several issues with the way the characters were portrayed and the plot proceeded that failed to bring it home for me. This section explains my reservations, but as it includes quite a few spoilers, I've hidden it for those who would like to make their own minds up. My perceptions of the story are the basis of my review, but for someone else, this story might be just the bittersweet romance they are looking for, so I don't want to ruin that. The story was obviously carefully crafted, but I had such a hard time with the character's interactions and relationship that I simply didn't connect with it. Part of that was the first person monologue style, I think. There were also some tense issues and dialogue punctuation errors, though those were minor overall and didn't detract much from the story, if I had been able to get into it and really connect to the emotions being shared. So, while Life wasn't really to my taste, Jian clearly carefully crafted the story to showcase the character's story and emotions and in that he didn't fail. As shown by the two existing reviews, others really enjoyed the story and found it quite poignant. I'd love to discuss other's thoughts on the story in his discussion forum, so why not check it out today! Another Fairy Story by Mark92 Reviewer: Comicfan Status: Complete Word Count: 10,211 Anyone who keeps track of me knows I am a bit bias when it comes to Mark. I’ve worked as beta and editor for many of his works. However, I am proud to say I am not the only person he works with. So when I found out that Mark hadn’t been reviewed by anyone yet, I couldn’t wait to bring some attention to his work. This piece is the second that Mark has written concerning fairies around Pond Farm. His editor for this work is another known name here on GA, K.C.. Mark’s story here returns the reader once again to the world of fairies that live and breathe around Pond Farm. This time the focus is on a dark Fay named Gizmo Nightshade. Gizmo made the mistake of trying to over throw the other dark fay and was instead thrown out himself. Flying along he soon finds Pond Farm and the fairies Apple and Teasel. Gizmo has decided he will take over the area as his new base of operations. All he needs is discover the where Queen Arwen, leader of the Pond Farm fairies is so he can overthrow her. Gizmo decides the easiest way to get that information is by taking Apple hostage. Apple’s lover Teasel is a Guardian and isn’t going to take his lover being held hostage lightly. What will the end result of this encounter be? Is Apple always to be the victim or is he capable of more? What will the result be of Queen Arwen being challenged for her right to rule? Mark weaves a marvelous tale of modern fairies in the English country side. His tale is both sweet and violent, keeping your interest from start to finish. Give this tale a read and leave him a comment as well. I hope you will enjoy it as much I did.

Choices - our Summer anthology is LIVE! Go enjoy (after you read the rest of this post) ;-) We started the week with Almost Home, by our Hosted (and very sexy) Author Shadowgod. This is one of Shadowgod's short stories, and Podiumdavis wrote a wonderful review of it. In this week's Author Showcase, we also had great reviews of both Promising Author WrathOfMagneto's Three Hundred Years, as well as What Remains, by Author myself_i_must_remake. Our Tuesday Toss-up gave us the first of a two part interview series by K.C. on Publishing. His follow up will run this coming Tuesday and I can't wait! And for Tip Thursday, we had an extremely helpful post from Cia on GA.Stories posting. Using GA.Stories correctly, can help you bring more attention to your stories, but missing a few simple rules can do jus the opposite - and Cia's tip helps you understand these issues. Finally, our weekly Writing Prompts and Blast From The Past were "hijack"d this week - but I don't think anyone minds as Renee used the opportunity to announce and publish all of our Summer anthology stories - and such Choices they are! That was our week - hope yours has been great! Anthology Announcements: Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31st Fall Anthology “Friends and Enemies” – Due Sept 4th NEW READING In Premium this week: Chosen of Honorus by Quonus10, Book 1 of Champions of The Gods By our Hosted Authors this week: The Experiment by Cia Confluent Dichotomy by Lugh Paternity by Mark Arbour, Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP) Circumnavigation by C James By our Promising Authors this week: Angels Ascending by JMH, Book 3 of The Centurion Cycle The life and times of one Linxe Teroil by Linxe Termoil The Mark by JMH Footsteps of Giants by wrathofmagneto Reach by CassieQ Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!

Ready to check out a new story but not sure what to try? Hopefully these two reviews may help. New reviewer ChingTara reviewed Three Hundred Years by Promising Author WrathOfMagneto and MJ85 has done a great review of What Remains by Author myself_i_must_remake. If you'd like to help us out by reviewing a story here on GayAuthors, just let Renee Stevens or myself know. We love seeing more people reading and reviewing and helping us to highlight the great talent we have here, writing compelling stories for us to read! Three Hundred Years by Wrathofmagneto Reviewer: ChingTara Status: Complete Word Count: 7529 I'm personally not a big fan of horror/fantasy and almost always lean towards drama/romance. Wrathofmagneto's Three Hundred Years came as a 'choice shock' to me as I simply loved every bit of it. He's a Promising author on this site and I knew him for his intermittent postings and love for the genres like sci-fi, horror and fantasy for which I didn't care much. Yesterday, I pulled a chair and sat down to read something different. I'm not sure when it happened but I found myself leaning in, my face a few inches from the screen, crazily hooked, taking in every word written in this wonderfully woven tale. Three Hundred Years is a story about a seasoned monster hunter Tommy, written with a tinge of humor and great surprises, vividly descriptive of situations albeit a bit low on character development and portrayal. That said, it's still easy to fall in love with Johnathan, Tommy's cherubic apprentice and boyfriend. It was one of the earliest postings by Wrathofmagneto and I assume there's a chance it's forgotten. It's very light-hearted and an easy read. I'm hoping he polishes it a bit and posts a sequel soon (which he's talked to me about). It kind of leaves you wanting for more. If you're a 'Supernatural' enthusiast, this might just be the thing for you. What Remains by myself_i_must_remake Reviewer: MJ85 Status: Complete Word Count: 5,373 “What Remains”, by myself_i_must_remake, is a poignant tale of two cousins, Ryan and Michael. The two-chapter story is told from Ryan’s POV. There’s several tags given for this story, but the one that stands out the most is “coming of age”. Yes, this story reflects on events that happened in Ryan’s adolescence, when both he and Michael were 16. Though there’s enough detail in this story so that we, the readers, either know what’s happening or at least have a pretty good idea of what’s happening, this story very much carries an aura of being “shrouded” in sort of a mist of emotion. At the same time, it’s interesting that this story only has two chapters. Why’s that, you ask? Well, as one chapter takes you the reader upward, the other will take you right back down. How does a story manage to shroud itself in the emotions that are at work and come off feeling like a roller-coaster at the same time? What are the emotions that this story shrouds itself in? How does a story like this manage to shroud itself in emotion and leave you, the readers, feeling like you’ve read a powerful piece of work? Ah ah ah, readers…that would be telling.

We are very appreciative of everyone here at GayAuthors that has stepped up and offered to help in some manner. One of our volunteers, K.C., did some interviews with AnytaSunday and Nephylim recently about publishing. Here is part one of his two part contribution. Publishing Interviews by K.C. You said you were going to do it! You swore you were going to do! Even a few of your friends laughed at you, but you’ve finally did it, you finished that novel that’s been spinning around in your head for years. You put pen to paper, or more like pounded away at the keyboard until all the pieces came together. Countless hours of sweating and grunting…it was like you gave birth, which you kind of did (duck as the mommy’s of GA throw something heavy at our heads,) you created a story. It’s your masterpiece…but now what? Unless you’re going to use it to prop up that wobbly leg on the coffee table, it’s not much use to write a story if nobody ever sees it. Every writer dreams of being published. Before the digital age, the chances of getting published where the same as being struck by lightning (1 out of every 1,000,000 people annually, in case you didn’t know) except now, with eBooks and online writing forums you can get your story noticed, but is that the same as a published book? Nowadays there’ more options in publication: traditional publication and self-publication. Here at Gay Authors we have quite a few authors choosing to pursue both of these options. AnytaSunday and Nephylim are two well know authors here at GA and I had the pleasure of interviewing both these wonderful ladies to get their views on their publishing success. AnytaSunday: Your story ‘Veined’ was self-published in 2011, why did you choose to self-publish? I chose to self-publish Veined because I felt I needed to take a risk. I've always dreamed of becoming an author for "real", and this was one way of getting there. Sure I tried the traditional route, but after hundreds upon hundreds of rejections, it can get more than a little depressing and draining. So I thought, well, it doesn't hurt. I could just see what happens to the story if I self-publish it. Certainly, I felt it better than letting it sit in my drawer and rot. Especially after writing and re-writing the story numerous times. So yeah, I owed it to myself and the story to give it a go. What is the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing? Probably more than I could tell you, but some difference are: With self-publishing, you are a ONE-MAN show. You have to be not only the writer, but your own editor (or you need to be able to afford an editor as well as having friends to beta for you), cover design artist (unless you're like me and have someone who can do this for you, or you choose to pay a professional to design it for you), promotions manager and advertising exec etc. This is both good and bad. The good is you have a lot more say in things, the bad is that it's so easy to over-look things. Typos, grammar, spelling--you might have looked over your story a hundred times, but as one person, you become blind to your own work--you read what you EXPECT to be there and not necessarily what is. And if you can afford a professional editor, it's the way to go--but when you don't know if the book will earn you any money at all, it's a risk--an expensive one. Traditional publishing: Not always but quite often, authors have agents who do a lot of work for them. The agents offer advice on where to strengthen the book, and they are very familiar with the publishing world, so they know what sells and how to make your work more attractive to readers. They also know what editors and publishing houses are looking for and will try selling your book to the publishers for you. If your work gets picked up traditionally, there will be an editor assigned to your book and possibly a few more re-writes in places might be needed, but once you've sent that final version off (and your agent or you have dealt with the contract and royalties etc.) then the publishing house takes over a lot of the work for promoting and advertising the book--something which is hard to do as a self-published author--again as advertising and promoting costs money. How does it feel seeing your book and knowing that it’s something you created is being read by people all over the world? Yeah, that's pretty darn cool. Will you consider self-publishing again for your next story? I'd love to be published traditionally at some stage, but for the moment I feel self-pubbing is worth exploring. But ask me again in a year or so--I may have a different opinion then. Do you have any words of advice to any new writers starting to venture into the world of publishing? Yeah, with lots of different people and personalities reading your work, you have to learn how to accept that your baby isn't the sweetest wee thing for everyone, in fact there will always be people who think it's ugly--so you have to get used to the fact you will never be able to please everyone. So write what you love to write and what you'd love to read yourself. Next week, we will look at Part 2: Nephylim's Interview

It's Monday! Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend, and while I'm sad to see it end, I'm also happy because it gives us another choice to bring you a review on one of Gay Author's wonderful Hosted Authors! Not only is our author today a Hosted Author on the site, he is one of the earlier members of the GA community. He's the author of the chapter story "A Shot of Bourbon" but has shown that he can write not only longer stories, but also short stories as well as poetry. Today we are happy to bring you a review of Hosted Author: Shadowgod's short story "Almost Home" reviewed by podiumdavis. I hope you enjoy this review and that it prods you to go and take a look at this story as well as others written by Shadowgod. Enjoy! Almost Home by Shadowgod Reviewer: podiumdavis Status: Complete Word Count: 3,008 I’m going to admit it; I’m a diehard for a good drama. With that in mind, I went searching around for a short story that would help break the dust from within my ears. I’m sure Shadowgod doesn’t need much of an introduction considering he’s a hosted author within the GA community, and I can see why. ‘Almost home’ is a tantalizing story of two main characters, first James and second Bryson. Shadowgod has a talent to describe the physical world into writing that I haven’t seen in some time. From the very first line, you’re sucked into James’ and Bryson’s story. With a break from college, they decide to go on a ski trip up in the mountains to get away from the stress and stay at one of their parent’s cottage. The words used to describe the scenery, were woven like velvet, you can see it all within your mind as if you were there yourself looking through their eyes. You can clearly see just how much each of them means to each other. May it be through a word, actions without words, or even a gentle kiss. In the end, you feel like you're a part of the story rather than a spectator. Which makes for a great read; the ending especially.