Trebs

Graeme evil? No.... no..... that's one I didn't see coming

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I looked back on your original guesses Timothy and so have a feeling I know who you have it down to... but just in case, wanna share (within a spoiler)?

So, in chapter 10, I started to think that I knew who it was and now, reading chapter 14 know:

His short stories, such as Ex Marks the Spot and You Meet Your Soulmate in the Strangest Places, are FANTASTIC! Some of the best I've read.

Trust me - the number of times I kept hinting "Hey, want me send you some bagels for inspiration" and other texts... I wanna see what comes next as well. He may finish it and return, but right now, he's just keeping his head above water. PS I just updated the status of the story to "On Hold" - so if anyone notices the change, it was me and not Steve

Part of it, yes it was concrete but prior to that, it was a real river. Even though I live in Sacramento, I've heard of the efforts and I think they're cool. Yes, the "river" is dry for most of the year, but turning back to the natural state helps bring back the wildlife that is native to the area.

Ya, Richard is definitely a dinosaur, not only with homophobia but blatant sexism as well.

Updated Thorn! :-)

Very cool beginning... Phillip seems to value kids more than anything, and it ended up biting him badly. I love the interaction he's able to have with his niece and nephew (not to mention his "older" brother), but damn, the dude is hurting. Great beginning and looking forward to seeing where you take this.

This is my last chance to play with the GayAuthors News Blog before Renee comes back and takes over again - so, let's make it good. We were saddened to start our week learning of the passing of GhostRyder15, one of GayAuthors' original Hosted Authors. In honor of his memory, we took a look at a recent story review that had been done of his Kombat Kids story. Wednesday, we had the humorously titled, but VERY informative Cia's Torturing Me! This was a great look at GayAuthors' posting system, and how to correctly navigate it. There have been sometimes where an author make a mistake that causes Cia to have to alert them to some issue - and thus the title of the blog article. Based on the comments - and this one generated a TON of comments - most authors really appreciate all the time and effort that Cia puts in to help them out and I couldn't agree more. And as we do every Friday, we got to enjoy and see two new prompts from our great prompt-guru comicfan! Additionally, we took at a great response to one of last week's prompts. Ron took a first line prompt, and used it to continue exploring a character he created in a previous prompt response. I highly recommend the read of these. Anthology Announcements: 2014 Summer Anthology: The Backup Plan - Due June 8th *Note: Deadline is for submission into GA Stories. Deadline for Submission to the Anthology Proof Team is June 5th* 2014 Fall Anthology: Scars - Due Sept 3rd *Note: Deadline is for submission to the Anthology Proof Team* NEW READING In Premium this week: No More Hiding by Renee Stevens - ***NEW*** By our Signature Authors this week: Flux by Mark Arbour; Book 14 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) Leopard Skin Cover by Graeme Belovéd by Don H HMS Valiant by Mark Arbour; Book 7 of Bridgemont Geeks by CassieQ Lost Inside by Cia; Book 2 of Carthera Tales 0300 Book 3 by David McLeod Purpose - A New Beginning by Andrew_Q_Gordon A prompt a week by comicfan Standing in Shadows by Krista The Strange Life of Jonas Marks by comicfan Pilots II by David McLeod Finding Alex by Nephylim By our Promising Authors this week: Born Wolf by Sasha Distan What Mountains Breed by layla Thorny Poetry by Thorn Wilde Nanowars: Rebirth by JMH, Book 1 of The Sole Scion Cycle: Second Cycle of the Centurion Chronicals Don't forget.... Read, Write, and REVIEW!!!!

I haven't really commented here but I did send Graeme my thoughts as the early chapters progressed. So Chapter 1 thoughts Then reading Chapter 2 Of course, by chapter 4, we know So - as usual, I get it down to "It must be" and Graeme thwaps me with "Nope" (well - maybe nope, could be yup but I'm hiding the body)...

Ding, ding, ding... Ding, ding, ding... SO - Chapter 13 is up and OMG is it good. If you haven't read it yet - WHAT are you WAITING for?!? If you have read it, well - what do you think? Think your original guess for Ken is still accurate? Want to change your vote? For myself, I had a strong opinion in Chapter 1, that I started to doubt by chapter 10. With Chapter 13 done, I have completely changed my opinion... So - what say you? :-) PS - maybe use spoiler text. If you don't know how, before you write something you want hidden, do a bracket [, then the word spoiled then an end bracket]. After the text you want hidden, you do a bracket [, slash/, the word spoiler again then and end bracket]. When it's done,

Thanks to Uziel and some others, I started the Codex of Alera - first book, Furies of Calderon done and I've started the 2nd. The writing is decent and the story is semi-engaging, but WAY too much ... foreshadowing and blatant over the top "hints" about what probably should have been a slower reveal. I do like it though, so already picked up books 2-4, and by the time I start 4, I'll have 5 and 6. I do really like the characters - Tavi is great, but so are many others, both "good" and "bad". The world Butcher created is very interesting, with the elemental furies, the foreign enemies on three sides and the internal enemies. I think my main complaint is that there are a few places when the editor should have done a bit more slashing to tighten up the writing.

I'm back! Well, just for a couple of guest posts to allow Renee to enjoy herself. So we're at the end of the week, and that means we get a chance to explore two new writing prompts, courtesy of our prompt-guru Comicfan. I think you'll like these - I know I can't wait to see what people come up with. But when you do - share it with the rest of the community in the Writing Prompt forum! Prompt 320 – Creative Tag – The Drought Your town is suffering through the worst drought that it has ever known. It is going on two years without a single drop and nothing is growing. The once lush lawns and forests are dry kindling. The businesses have slowly closed and the town is looking like it might soon just vanish beneath the blowing dust. You might know a way to finally make it rain, but you know it will come at a cost. What do you have to do? Prompt 321 – Creative Tag – List of Words Use the following words in a story – a cactus, a hedgehog, a broken clock, a Band-Aid, and a computer. One really interesting use of last week's prompts came from Ron, who took Prompt 318 (first line) and came up with The Goodbye Garden: Here you can see the rest of this response, as well as a link to an earlier prompt response involving Tommy. Enjoy!

Naw, it happens. Just like, sometimes you never know where a character will take a story - a place you weren't expecting, so hard to prepare in advance. So, you take a short break while you wait for the responses to your questions, and all is good when it happens :-)

Steve is alive and well, just totally crazed with going to university and working. I've tried a few times to drag him back, but he's just a bit overwhelmed right now.

I just finished reading it - LOVED it and now starting to pick around at some of the other stories set in the same world. After looking at the timeline, decided to start with Barrett the Beggar and so far, enjoying it as well.

Andy - nothing says you can't go back and do last week's prompts as well as this week's :-)

The fire safe idea is good and one I use as well, but with additional information for my will's executor (my brother). He then also has the combo and 2nd key to the safe and if it ever comes to it, can access all of my accounts: financial, email, social, etc. I plan on being around for a long time to come, but you never know what tomorrow may bring.

Cross-cut shreaders are pretty cheap these days... I have one that can handle 10 sheets at a time with no problem

I just finished changing most of my passwords. It's also important to find out if the websites you use have upgraded to be protected against Heartbleed. If you google Heartbleed, there are good articles that show a few websites that you can go to, enter in the name of say your banking website, and it will analyze the site and tell you if it is protected or not. It doesn't make any sense to change a password if the site is still bad although most of the better sites have gone and made the necessary changes.

You haven't seen my bookcases :-)

This actually was a bit stronger in the book and is a major basis of the sequels. I actually just pulled "Speaker for the Dead" off my shelf last night and was starting to re-read it. I may have issues with my money going to this author for various reasons, but his books are fantastic. The entire Ender/Shadow series are fascinating studies on potential future geopolitics and how people really would react to finding new life out there (ramen). Certain visualizations are so strong - dropping a stone in the road. So - if you liked the movie even a little - go out to a good used book store and buy the book. :-) PS Buying via used books stores is my passive/aggressive method of assuaging my guilt

I've got it!!! The gay one is I think....

Agreed! I haven't read any of them yet, but plan to, especially yours and Cole Parker's. Congratulations to Awesomedude