Trebs

So is this spring break for you? Or does yours start later? Either way a good way to kick off the week is with out Hosted Author story review! Today, Zolia Lily reviews Are You Christian, by Krista. Enjoy! Are you Christian by Krista Review by Zolia Lily I chose to review this story never having read it before purely upon the recommendation of a friend, and I’m glad I did. Christian, the protagonist of this story, finds himself attending school in small town North Carolina after his father is shot by a client and his family relocates. Everything is different from Baltimore, and Christian and his family have to adjust to life in Landfalls – or “hell” as Christian refers to the town on their way there. His kooky psychologist mother, lawyer father, and grumbling older sister all have to adjust, and when his mother decides that they should attempt to fit in, this means going to church. Christian could probably cope with this ok – but the preacher is one of his new friends’ fathers, and Jonathon and Christian have something in common. Despite Christian’s initial dislike towards Jonathon, it becomes apparent that he is gay too – but his parents are a striking contrast to the accepting and loving family that Christian goes home to – and a relationship between them seems the most impossible of things. Christian himself is a strong, grounded individual, who, despite some initial nerves at starting over, is true to himself and refreshingly different from the angst ridden teenagers so often at the centre of coming out stories. The family dynamics are realistic and the characters interesting. Christian’s mother, especially, offsets the claustrophobia of the town by providing a contrast with the adult characters at the church and school and heightening the sense of isolation from their previous life in Baltimore. Even Christian’s new friends step out from the mould and provide the reader with their own moments of amusement and frustration. There’s the girl who is sure Christian wants to date her as much as she wants to date him, the pot-smoking joker and then there’s the girlfriend from the next town over who knows more than she lets on, all of whom provide Christian with small revelations and tensions along the way. There are intimate moments and a couple of strikingly romantic scenes which made me smile all goofily, but what transpires between the two is not only sweet and sexy but full of an innocence and peppered with moments of nervousness and self-consciousness which reflect their age and experience. The story has realistic dialogue, a good, clear writing style, with only a few minor errors with punctuation and differences in formatting between chapters that I found fairly easy to overlook. The themes of Christianity and religion and homosexuality were well handled through multiple characters, and yet never overbearing or heavy handed. Acceptance and negotiating other people’s opinions in a small town all play a part in this story as well. I felt the plot unfolded in such a way that the reader really got a chance to know the characters and the town, as well as wanting to read on to find out more and more. Perhaps my only point of contention was that I felt the climax of the story was a little hurried and a change of pace. It felt as though there was still so much left to explore, yet, maybe the author didn’t want to leave us with every question answered, all the ends tied up, and an easy happily ever after. The ending did provide hope though, and I’m very glad I took my friend’s recommendation and read and reviewed this story and now I hope you’ll take mine: This is a thoroughly enjoyable story! I hope you'll read it and enjoy it as much as I did!

The sun goes down - I think about you. The coffee cup - I think about you... Oops - sorry... need to do the weekly wrap up, eh? Heh -and it WAS a great week to wrap up. Monday started with Cia's review of Weeping Lily, by our Hosted Author Nephylim. On Wednesday, Frostina did a review of Over the Precipice by Promising Author Dark, and we got to see a glimpse of a story by Jasper, a new author who wrote Out of the Woods. Though this is still in progress, Michael9344's review makes it sound like an intriguing story to follow. Two great writing prompts this week - one on correct usage of certain words/phrases in Oops, it's wrong... or is it? The other has the odd title of Said-Bookisms, but nothing odd about how helpful this tip is on how to put more variety into dialogue sections of your writing. Both are written by Cia and both are fantastic. Our new Friday prompts are really interesting - I hope a few people take the plunge and especially try out the poetry one. These prompts are a great way to go beyond your comfort zone - just play with them and see what you can do. We also took a look at how two writers tackled prompts - one recent and a quite older one. Then we closed the week looking at a review by K.C. of one of our earliest Anthology entries, Nicks_a_writer's Finding My Summer Adventure. So - did you enjoy this week's blog entries? Send me any suggestions or comments please! Anthology Announcements Poetry Anthology "Cracks in Time" - Due April 17th Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31 GayAuthors.Org Announcements: Reminder that March is Team Recognition Month NEW READING In Premium this week: Displacement by DKStories By our Hosted Authors this week: The Experiment by Cia Paternity by Mark Arbour, Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP) The Secret Life of Billy Chase 6 by Comicality, Book 6 of Billy Chase Chronicles St. Vincent by Mark Arbour, Book 5 of Bridgemont Circumnavigation by C James Sky Light - Phase 1:Impact by Comicality By our Promising Authors this week: Blue by Bugeye Aglanthol 4 - Tyrnae (Journey to the Otherworld) by Dolores Esteban Purpose by Quonus10 Nemesis by David McLeod Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!

<hug> We understand... Besides which, I know it takes time to think up all of those cliffhangers

For the Blast from the Past, we have a review on one of GA's earliest Anthologies. So from the 2006 Summer Anthology: Going on Vacation, here is the review for: Finding My Summer Adventure by nicks_a_writer Reviewer: K.C. Status: Complete Word Count: 9,698 On a cold March night, wanting to find something hot and steamy to warm me up, I stumbled across a 2006 Anthology story from Nicks_A_Writer. From the first paragraph of, “Finding My Summer Adventure,” I was hooked. What better way to warm up on a cold winter night then with a sizzling summer story? When Eric’s parents want to take a Caribbean cruise alone, he get shipped to Florida to spend a few weeks enjoying the company of his grandparents, whom he hasn’t seen in years. Determined to make the best of it, he does what any bored, 17 year-old guy would do…figures out how to get laid. Under normal circumstances that would be nearly impossible in a retirement community, but Eric has a plan. The nice old lady from the plane trip down told him about her grandson, Jackson who happened to work at the retirement center and since every Grandmother is required by law to carry pictures of her family, he get a sneak peek at the hottie waiting in Florida. Heartbroken from his first real break-up, Eric isn’t interested in anything serious. His goal is to have fun in the sun and pass the time as quick as possible until he can go home, yet all of that takes a turn when he meets Jackson. This summer fling might turn into so much more. It was a cute story that was very smoothly written and very focused on Eric’s goal to make the best out of his summer vacation. I would give it 4 stars upon review, it had me smiling and feeling the warm sun from start to finish. This is Nicks_A_Writer’s only completed story, but it shows his talent and amazing skill for a young writer. He hasn’t been back to GA in a while. I hope when he returns he comes back with some ideas for more stories since I would really like to read more of his work. So, what are you waiting for! Check out this "Blast From the Past" and leave a review!!! If you are interested in reviewing Anthologies prior to 2009 for the Blast From the Past section, or any other story for the Blog, please contact Trebs or Renee Stevens.

Happy Friday everyone! Our two new writing prompts to play with are from ComicFan: Prompt 122 – Creative Cue – Word List Use the following words in story: Red hand print, shattered vase, new car, fifteen year old boy, and a spider. Prompt 123 – Challenge Cue – Poetry Mention poetry and see the look of fear on so many faces. Choose whichever kind of poetry you prefer to write in, but it must be about one of three topics. Either your favorite season, favorite holiday, or your favorite person. Length is up to you, but it must be long enough to give us a sense of why this is your favorite. Let your mind wander and see where you can take them - be sure to share them with the community in the Writing Prompts forum. And for our featured responses - I actually have two to share this week. From last week's Prompt 121, LouisHarris came up with his "The Wish", An African Gay Fable. Like it? Here is the rest of the story... The other featured prompt response is a recent entry to a Prompt from May 22, 2011. I find it fantastic that we have such a trove of great prompts to help stimulate these great writing exercises. I love seeing where people take the same starting information. In this case, andy021278 came up with his own idioms. To see the full list, visit his full prompt response but a couple of my favorites are:

Cia has done it again and written what I think is a fantastic writing tip. Check it out and see if you agree... Oops, it's wrong... or is it? So many times I get confused by the complexities of English grammar, I'm sure many of you are the same. The rules are often contradictory, and the exceptions to exceptions are absolutely a quagmire of missteps and misspells waiting to trap you. I recently read an article that said to polish your writing skills, spend thirty minutes a month reviewing your grammar skills as well. After all, our stories are only as good as the way we present them. A great plot can only go so far. To help with that polish, here are a couple of the most common trip ups in word choices for you to review. Its and It's. Okay, so we're all taught that if Sally owns the red scarf, it is Sally's scarf. Notice the apostrophe s that indicates possession. That's the rule EXCEPT if the scarf belonged to an it. In that case it would be its scarf, no apostrophe. See, the only time it gets an apostrophe s is when you make it is into a conjunction or it's. An it doesn't get to show possession of anything with an apostrophe, poor thing! Lay and Lie This one is TRICKY! So, they are both verbs. BUT lay is an intransitive verb, it needs a subject and an object to work. I lay the food on the table. Past tense of lay is laid. I laid the food on the table for dinner. See, the food is the direct subject (who the action is happening to) and the object (where the verb is acting on) is the table. The verb, of course... is lay/laid. Then you have lie. Lie is a verb that requires no object, because no one is doing anything to the subject, in this case. In the following example, no one is doing anything to the cat, but lie/lay tells you what the cat is doing, depending on your tense. The cats lie on the bed. In this case, the word lie is telling us what the cats are doing on the bed. Past tense would be, The cats lay on the bed. Since the action is being taken by the subject, not done to the subject, the verb is transitive and you use lie/lay. Okay, how do you tell them apart? Usually if you read your sentence where 'I, he,she,it' is doing something to something else, you'd use the intransitive verb: lay/laid. If you read it aloud, you can also often tell if that is the verb form to use because the sentence is incomplete with an object: 'I lay the food' doesn't make much sense does it? I lay the food where? Since and Because I learned this rule because I made this mistake. The difference is that since speaks of a time frame and because is cause/effect. Look at my first sentence. I used because. If you say the sentence it wouldn't sound off to use either word, but because is appropriate as I'm telling you that making the mistake caused me to learn the rule. If I wanted to indicate a time frame about learning the rule, I would use since. I have not made this mistake since I learned this rule. Who's and Whose So who's is a contraction of who is. Whose is a word that shows possession. This one is simple to differentiate if you replace the word with who is. Who's going to ride in whose car? Try replace both of those with who is, you can clearly tell who is (who's) does not replace whose. Nauseated and Nauseous This is one I had no idea of until I read it! I'm sure I've broken this rule quite often, actually. The rule is that something can be nauseous, but if you feel sick you are nauseated. Huh . . . new things learned every day! Now - do YOU have a writing tip that you think others could find useful? Let me know!

Banish those Monday blues by reading this review by Cia of Nephylim's Weeping Lily. Then for a real treat, check out Weeping Lily for yourself! Weeping Lily by Nephylim Review by Cia Do you love music? Do you love beautiful men? Do you love beautiful men who love other beautiful men? Then Weeping Lily by Nephylim is just right for you! This story starts off with the excitement of a Goth band just finishing up a world tour on the same day their album goes platinum and #1 on the UK charts. Everyone in Weeping Lily is riding a huge high. Ashton, the lead guitarist that just wants to play. Rik, the bass player is happy but laid back, always ready to jam with his friends no matter where they are. Cal is versatile, to say the least. He loves the attention of being in a band and excels at playing and singing. Another party animal is Luc who plays the drums. He’s just as outgoing as Cal and they love to vie for attention. Last, but not least is Jayden. He loves the music, but could care less about the attention that comes with it. He is the heart and soul of the band, with the voice of an angel. But what happens when that soul is damaged? With a Goth band, that meant the music he wrote and the pain that he felt had an outlet. He was ‘The Great Jayden’. Sometimes being that popular can lead to problems. Jayden is fan-napped and drugged. They need him, and they need him whole. But even if they find Jayden in time, can he recover from the attack and trauma? Will the band continue to play together, or will they have to call it quits? Will the man who secretly loves Jayden step forward to help save him? This story was so dramatic and filled with tension. There is a large cast of characters, but everything focuses on Jayden. Nephylim manages to keep the reader on the edge of their seat through the entire story; she’ll sweep you along for all the highs and lows. A lot of the struggles in this story are internal but the bonds the characters share and the dynamics between all the various characters keeps you from feeling bored. You can’t help but feel for Jayden and want to hug him. When you get to the end you will feel like you’ve seen the depths of his being and traveled his journey along with him. The conflict pulls you in, the love is beautiful and passionate, and the characters almost leap off the page. If you want to read a story that will pull you in and keeping you reading until the very end, then read Weeping Lily. You won’t regret it!

What a busy week. Did everyone catch the news that the Spring Anthology: It Wasn't Me is now live - we have some fantastic entries there! So, we started the week with a review of Myr's fanfic Three Edged Sword. Andy021278's review was so good, I started reading the story. It's reviews like this that are so vital to the site - gives you a great flavor for the story so you can see if you want to go read more. And in this case, I personally say yes - more please! We had two tips this week, a thoughtful one with good advice on Revisiting "On-Hold" Stories, by Renee Steven, and an extremely funny but contemplative piece that Myr found on English Joke / Writing Primer. If you find or write a great tip that you want to share, be sure to send it to me! We changed the name of our Wednesday feature to Author Showcase so Monday's blogs will continue to be reviews of Hosted Author stories, and Wednesday's will be two reviews, one of which will be for one of our Promising Author's story. This week, K.C. did a really nice review of Comicfan's The Strange Life of Jonas Marks. Comicfan had started this as an anthology entry, and now his new story is a fuller development with six chapters already completed. We also had a review by Kiltie69 of Billy Brat's Trials and Tribulations. As Kitte69 puts it, "I first started to read Trials after being asked, as a favour, to see what I thought of the first chapter, I was not disappointed and have gladly read each new chapter within a few hours of release." This weeks writing prompts, thanks as always to the imaginative Comicfan have already spurred some authors to see where they can take them. Even if you've never written - try them out. You may find yourself going from a reader to author! So - did you enjoy this week's blog entries? Send me any suggestions or comments please! Anthology Announcements Poetry Anthology "Cracks in Time" - Due April 17th Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31 GayAuthors.Org Announcements: Reminder that March is Team Recognition Month March 15 - Clean Up Deadline. So did YOU help by going through your old PMs, attachments, etc and reduce the clutter... honestly you do not need those "yes me too" messages from 2008. Look at your gallery and see if there are pictures you should trim. The more space you help to recover, the better GA runs for all of us. The deadline might be passed, but we still all need to keep the clutter down. NEW READING In Premium this week: Displacement by DKStories By our Hosted Authors this week: Birthday Surprise by Lugh The Experiment by Cia Rich Boy: Inheritance Book 3 of Rich Boy by DKStories St.. Vincent Book 5 of Bridgemont by Mark Arbour Shorties by Renee Stevens Paternity Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP) by Mark Arbour By our Promising Authors this week: Purpose by Quonus10 Nemesis by David McLeod GA Writing Prompts by Dolores Esteban Blue by Bugeye Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!

Happy Friday. Looking forward to a great weekend, especially with the GA announcement coming out tomorrow morning. What announcement? Well - check this news blog tomorrow and you'll see! And as it's Friday, we have two new writing prompts to play with Today's writing prompts are brought to you by Comicfan: Prompt 120 – Creative Cue – The perfect body Science has created the process. You no longer have to be unhappy with the body you were given. Now you can have exactly what you want, if you are willing to give up … Prompt 121 – Creative Cue – The Wish We have all heard the saying be careful what you wish for. Well you just made a wish that has come true, however, you didn’t see the other problems that come with your wish. What are they and what did you wish for? Play with these great prompts, see where you can go and share them in the Writing Prompts forum. In a future entry, we may feature your response! This week's feature is in response to last week's Prompt 119 and comes from Renee Stevens. I loved how she set the mood on this - as you can tell from her title, you might want to be in a well lit room when you read it. Her prompt response is called Chilling Tales I love this time of night at the county library. It’s nearing closing time and most people have come and gone. Even when it is busy, it’s quiet, but there’s something about this time of night, when it’s getting dark outside and all the parents have taken their children home to feed them dinner. There is only one thing that I find slightly disconcerting. I think everybody has their own little niche at the library. Someplace they just like to sit and relax as they read. I know I have one and I enjoy nothing more than going to my little spot and losing myself in stories about mystical beings and far off places. Lately though, it just hasn’t been the same. It all started about a month ago. I was sitting in my spot, like usual, when I felt as though I was being watched. I looked and didn’t see anyone, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t alone. I shrugged it off and went back to reading, but over the rest of the week, the feeling of being watched just got stronger and stronger. I stayed away over the weekend, hoping that when I went back on Monday, the library would once more become the peaceful place that I could just relax and read. When I did finally go back, I decided maybe it was just something with that one spot and searched out a new little alcove to read in. I wish it had been that easy, but it hadn’t been. No sooner had I sat down and opened my book than goose bumps rose up on my arms and a chill crept down my spine. I jerked my gaze up, but all I saw was an older man walking through the aisles, tracing his finger over the spines of the books as though he was looking for something specific. The hair on the nape of my neck stood up until finally I had enough and snapped my book closed before climbing to my feet. I had only taken a single step when my arm grew cold, and it felt as though someone was gripping it. I shook the invisible grip and rushed from the library, not stopping until I’d reached my car. I got in and closed the door before realizing that I still clutched the book I had been reading. With a sigh, I got back out and headed inside. I’d return the book and maybe see if there was anyone there that might know some of the history behind the library. There had to be someone who might have had a similar experience to mine or know of someone who had. I just needed to know that I hadn’t completely lost my mind. I was tense as I walked up to the desk where a girl about my own age was talking to another patron. I overheard her saying that the regular librarian was on vacation and would be back the following week if the lady wanted to come in then. Doubting that the girl behind the counter would be able to help me, I dropped my book in the book return and headed back to my car. Something had changed about my beloved library; I just wanted to know what. I’d headed home that night and sat down at the computer, determined to figure out why I constantly felt like I was being watched. Even more than that, I wanted to know what had grabbed me. I had never been one to believe in ghosts, but my experiences at the library had made me begin to wonder if I was wrong. I searched the internet for haunted buildings in my county, and each search result ended up being a dead end. There was a haunted mine in the town to the east of me, but nothing that I could find on was about the library. Nobody else had reported an experience like mine, but the lack of information didn’t deter me. I had to know what was going on. I wasn’t going to let whatever it was chase me away from my time at the library. It took me nearly two days of digging around with different search words, but I finally found something that looked to be promising. That might actually explain to me what I was dealing with. A woman had come forward, though it only gave the year, saying that she had experienced something similar in the same building that our county library was housed. At the time, the building had apparently been the county courthouse. I hadn’t realized that it had ever been anything except the library. The woman, whose name isn’t important, had been a cleaning lady at the courthouse. She had been there alone one night when she had felt as though she was being watched. She’d checked to make sure she was alone, and other than the security guard who was still at his desk, no one else was in the building. The feeling never dissipated. Eventually she had done as I had and shrugged it off and gone back to her duties. She’d finished up the cleaning and left, but two days later, she had felt as though someone had grabbed her arm. She’d left the building after that, refusing to finish the job that night. She’d told her boss that she wasn’t going back into the building, and was essentially told that she either does it or lose her job. Against her better judgment she’d gone back in. It was when she was cleaning the upper hallway, just outside of the main courtroom that her fears were fully realized. She’d just turned the vacuum on when she felt something brush against her and heard what sounded like the clanking of chains. She shivered, but decided she was imagining things, and went about her duties. Within seconds she claimed she felt hands wrapped around her neck, even to feeling individual fingers pressing into her neck, squeezing as she gasped for breath. She had apparently fought her invisible assailant, but the pressure never let up and she felt as though she was being pushed backwards. She wrote that just as her vision started to go dark, she felt the hands let go, but before she could even feel relief that it was over, she felt something shove against her. Her assailant had pushed her backwards to the top of the stairs and that last push sent her tumbling down. She apparently didn’t remember the security guard finding her, only waking up in the hospital with a full memory of what had happened. Only, no one believed her. Until now. I sure as hell believed her. I wanted to know more about when it happened, but with only having the year, all I knew was that it was some time nearly twenty years ago. Wanting to know more, I continued my search and found a couple more attacks in the years since, all of them eerily similar, but nothing about who, or what, was attacking people. I tried searching for incidents at the courthouse prior to the first attack, but couldn’t find even a reference to anything in particular. I sighed and shut the computer down as I thought about my options. I didn’t dare go back to the library until I knew what I was going to have to protect myself against. Every attack had escalated from something very similar to what had happened to me. I regretted the loss of the library, but in the end, I wasn’t about to be attacked and very nearly killed. It wasn’t worth it. I just needed to find someone who might know some of the history of the building, only then would I be able to return, knowing that I was safe. Until then, well, there was always the library in the next town.

Thanks all - and as Renee mentioned, major thanks to Myr for finding this and getting it to us. We're just the messenger. Speaking of which - do YOU have a tip that you think we could use? Send any potential writing tips to me and you may find it featured on a future Tip Tuesday or Tip Thursday News blog entry. We're also always looking for good reviews of our hosted, promising and other authors. If you can help - let me know and I'll get you the guidelines we use!

Myr found this joke and shared it with us. It may be a joke, but it is also very informative! We'd love to know YOUR thoughts on it! English Joke/ Writing Primer I think a retired English teacher was bored. THIS IS GREAT! Read all the way to the end................. This took a lot of work to put together! You think English is easy?? 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture.. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.. 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .. There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UPfor election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UPan appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. A drain must be opened UP because it is stoppedUP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close itUP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP,look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't giveUP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearingUP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so.......it is time to shut UP! Now it's UP to you what you do with this email.

And while I'll be in Charlotte in early Sept - um, doubt that I'll have time this time for a meetup...

Revisiting "On-Hold" Stories By Renee Stevens As a writer, many of us may find times when we get stuck. Maybe we push a story to the back-burner and think, ‘oh, I’ll go back to it later.’ Then the time comes and we realize that we have no idea exactly where we want the story to go. Here’s just a few tips that might just help you get past the block and finish up some of those on-hold stories. Tip #1: When you finish a story and are trying to decide what to work on next, go back to all those "on hold" stories. Read through them or at least skim them. See if, by chance, one of them jumps out at you to the point that the story comes alive again in your head. Tip #2: You have a story that is in “on hold” status that you just really want to finish, but you’re not sure where to take it. Get help. Send the story to a trusted beta who is willing to look it over. Let them read through what you have and then discuss it. You can re-read it during this time too. Maybe you, or your beta reader, will get an idea of where the story could go. Talk it out with them and take note of their ideas. You might not use them all, but one or two of those might jump out at you. These two tips are no guarantee that your “on hold” story will get finished, but it’s a good first step to take. Authors - Do you have any other tips that help you in this situation? Let the community know!

One of the fun parts about doing the GA News Blog is to highlight authors on the site - especially our Hosted Authors. In this case, it is especially gratifying to share a review of a great short story by Myr. Andy021278 does a very comprehensive review of this five chapter complete fanfic. Enjoy the review, then hopefully the story itself! Three Edged Sword (A Harry Potter Story) by Myr review by andy021278 This piece of fanfiction by Myr is one of the best pieces of fanfic I have read anywhere. I’ve read both gay and more traditional versions of fanfic based on a number of TV shows and books – from Star Trek to Malcolm in the Middle through Dr Who, Twilight, Peanuts and everything in between. I have been left sorely disappointed in the past with gay genre fanfics written elsewhere, and I approached his works with such trepidation and fear that I almost didn’t even start reading. However, I’m so glad I did; I found I really enjoyed Harry Potter and The Three Edged Sword from the beginning and will say that this rivals the HP stories written by J K Rowling. At times I found I had to remind myself that I wasn’t reading one of her works. The other reason why I enjoyed this fanfic is that it doesn’t feature the “traditional” gay fanfic pairing of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. The story picks up around the start of the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, following the murder of Cedric Diggory at the hands of Lord Voldemort. The events of the fifth year at Hogwarts have been almost completely rewritten as you would expect with a fanfic, yet there are nods to events from the HP world and there are also elements from Order of the Phoenix present; you don’t even need to look for them if you know the stories well. Myr’s world has a genuinely Potter feel to it, and although there are surprises and the occasional “huh, what!” moment, none of it feels totally out of place or a far stretch from the established Potter world. There is fun and laughter, but there is also the darker chaos you would expect with Lord Voldemort’s return, and the presence in the school of Dolores Umbridge. Unlike many of the gay fanfics around, The Three Edged Sword reads much more like a romance than the usual smutfest. For a fanfic (especially for one in the gay genre) this is extremely well written, and the characters are very imaginatively developed beyond the original works. There is really only one sex scene in this work, and it occurs in the first chapter; which is, as Myr has forewarned his readers, a non-graphic rape scene. However, in spite of the briefness of the scene, the after-effects are no less devastating and heart wrenching. You may want to have a tissue on standby; I know I needed one. It is also this scene which serves as the catalyst for the story. My only criticisms are that there are a few minor grammar and spelling errors, but nothing that really detracts from reading or the flow of the story; they are really only obvious if you go looking for them. Also, since the entire school year was written in only five chapters, it is not as developed as it could be nor does it truly allow Myr’s writing talents to shine through as much as some of his other works. If you have never read a fanfic before, then make this your first. If you have been left disappointed by other fanfics, then you have to read this. If you are simply looking for something new to read, then read this. Having read and been highly impressed with Myr’s other fanfics, Harry Potter and The Three Edged Sword gets a 4 out of 5 from me.

So - did everyone (who needed to) remember to change their clocks? Before going into our Weekly Wrap Up for GA, I wanted to share a few quick announcements. First - a hearty thanks to Lugh who had been the Lead on this, the GA News Blog. This past week we switched over and I'll be the Lead for a while - so if you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know. Lugh did a fantastic job getting this set up, figuring out the daily format and rounding up the ton of content in the goal of making GA a more accessible place for all of us. Again - a HUGE round of thanks to him. We've also welcomed recently a new moderator to GA - Renee Stevens, as well as a new chat moderator - Patrick (WatchPatRun). These key volunteers, in what are usually thankless jobs, help us keep GA running and a welcoming environment. When the admins asked them (and others in the past), they were willing to step up and help out and we very much appreciate their help. And with that, the Wrap Up: We started with a Tip from our fearless leader, Myr. He had a fantastic write up of GA.Stories that is so extremely useful. Cia also did a wonderful Tip piece on reviewing stories. Speaking of reviews, Cia pulled out some reader reviews that help give a much better idea of what Kiss Me Deadly, by NoMoreTears and Wolf, by NightOwl88 are like. After reading these reviews, now I want to go out and read these stories too. We also had our two weekly writing prompts, thanks to the efforts of ComicFan. CassieQ has already written a very cool alternate perspective of a classic American legend. I can't wait to see where others will take these new prompts. And we closed our week remembering a Dec 2006 review of a very magical TheZot story. So - did you enjoy these blog entries? Either way, remember to send me any suggestions or comments please! Anthology Announcements Spring Anthology - deadline has passed (was March 8) - we hope to have these up for reading by next weekend Poetry Anthology "Cracks in Time" - Due April 17th Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31 GayAuthors.Org Announcements: Reminder that March is Team Recognition Month March 15 - Clean Up Deadline - by March 15, please go through your old PMs, attachments, etc and reduce the clutter... honestly you do not need those "yes me too" messages from 2008. Look at your gallery and see if there are pictures you should trim. The more space you help to recover, the better GA runs for all of us. NEW READING In Premium this week: Displacement by DKStories By our Hosted Authors this week: Belovéd by Don H The Experiment by Cia St. Vincent Book 5 of Bridgemont by Mark Arbour New Kid In School by Comicality Paternity Book 12 of Chronicles Of An Academic Predator (CAP) by Mark Arbour Circumnavigation by C James Harry Potter and the Parliament of Dreams by Myr Rich Boy: Inheritance Book 3 of Rich Boy by DKStories By our Promising Authors this week: Prompts? by CassieQ Blue by Bugeye Nemesis by David McLeod Purpose by Quonus10 The Strange Life of Jonas Marks by Comicfan Aglanthol 3 - The Castle of Saelethiel (The Law Cannot Be Shaken) by Dolores Esteban Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!

Good luck with organizing the June 16/17 DC meeting. It takes a little work, but it's not too bad. If you need any advice/help, let me know but it looks like you all have a great start. One thing I recommend - doing overall ideas in the public forums is good, but for exact details (name of restaurant, meeting times, etc), probably best to use PM 's, just to avoid lurkers/stalkers. With the current system, you can create one PM and add anyone that expresses interest. We haven't had any luck with doing a group hotel rates before but have given suggestions on a couple of low price places. In Dallas, many of us stayed at the same place and it made it easier to transport to a theme park when Dan and I rented a minivan. In a place like DC, as long as they're near the Metro, you should be all fine, but for late night gathering/gigglefests, staying at the same place is nice. While scheduling multiple events will work, I suggest scheduling one key time - a lunch or dinner and reserve a private room in a restaurant. That way, if someone can't make the whole weekend, at least they can join up for that meal. In San Francisco, there were 11 for the main dinner, but other times during the weekend, groups of 3-6 would go off and do other things. For Dallas, we did an informal Friday night dinner, all day Saturday at Six Flags then the main dinner Saturday night. Whatever people are able to join in for - main thing, have fun! Trebs

Contest4jen and hh5 - thank you for bringing this up. It's a topic that has definitely exploded around the web in the past few days. hh5 brings up a LOT of great questions, and on something like this, I've done a lot of thinking as well. I tend to be a skeptic and was one of the people pushing back on the initial onslaught. Looking over the information, I can see both the pro-"Invisible Children" side as well as those that wonder about the motives of the group and the allocation of their revenues. I really think hh5 has put it best - there is a lot of information out there and everyone should sift through it to see where they stand. At the same time, I can see this topic potentially devolving and so I'm going to close the topic. I think Jen's intro of the issue and hh5's review are perfect. If anyone does want to debate the merits or any other aspects, I recommend you do so in the Soapbox. Thank you, Trebs

So happy for you and Westie - and like the others said, you'll be fine.

Going back through old GA Newsletters, you find gems like the below review. Not only was the review good - I remember it led me to TheZot's work which are uniformly GREAT! Here from the Dec 2006 newsletter, a review from the past: You Meet Your Soulmate in the Strangest Places by TheZot With high recommendations from many people I recently checked out this short story written by hosted author TheZot. To say it made me smile would be a grave understatement. Love at first sight, a concept I truly believe in, is explored in this beautiful short story. A sleepy main character meets a forward stranger on a train and from that first encounter he can’t seem to get the handsome stranger out of his mind. After a few run-ins with each other they both are a bit nervous but both know deep down there’s more than a fleeting crush or a lot of just plain lust there. What ensues is a tale that will warm your heart, make you laugh, make you smile, and definitely say a few ‘awwws.’ The writing is flawless and keeps you scrolling, needing to find out what happens. You grow attached to the main character and can easily feel what he feels for his mysterious train companion. This story, if even for a moment, can make the world’s biggest pessimist think ‘love at first sight’ can happen! So if want a good story that won’t take days to read, my recommendation would definitely be TheZot’s ‘You meet Your Soulmate in the Strangest Places.’ Great review of a fantastic story. And once you read it, you might want to check out the rest of TheZot's writings - one other of my favorites is Ex Marks The Spot.

Happy Friday everyone... And since it's Friday, that means it we've got some writing prompts for you, as well as a great piece of writing that last Friday's prompts generated. Today's writing prompts are brought to you by Comicfan: Prompt 118 – Creative Cue – Myths and Legends No matter what part of the world you are from there are myths and legends associated with it. From the leprechauns of Ireland, to the Gods of Norway, the dragons of China, or Paul Bunyan and his ox in the United States, myths and legends abound around us. Your task is to take one of these creatures from your part of the world and create something new . Prompt 119 – Creative Cue – Library Sometimes a location can be limiting and sometimes it can open a world of new ideas. Your task is to create a tale about a library. What kind and where are up to you, so try not to limit yourself and see where this takes you. Play with these great prompts, see where you can go and share them in the Writing Prompts forum. This week's feature is in response to Prompt 116 and comes from Rndmrunner. I loved how he first sketched out how he was responding to the prompt before writing this - you can see the outline at his post here. And here is his story: The Gift One of my selfish pleasures is to not book anything or anyone on my birthday. I have reached an age when I am simply embarrassed when friends and family fuss with celebrations. I was reclining on the couch writing when the chimes sounded setting the dogs into Howler Monkey mode. Annoyed at the disturbance, I snapped at hem to for God’s sake be quiet and heaved myself around them to the entrance to turn away whoever was soliciting at the door. Carly jumped back as I snatched the door open still harping at the dogs who crowding around the entrance. At the sight of her startled frown, I softened, smiled, and swung the door open to let her in. The dogs, soothed by a familiar face and happy that they had done their duty, swarmed around her knees, and rubbed their heads lazily against her leg. Carly’s face was flushed as from the cold, her glasses fogging as she hit the warmer air. Carly was dressed in typical college fashion, an eclectic mix of comfort and fashion, well worn at the edges. Amidst a tangle of boots and dogs I took her coat and invited her in. “Sorry to bother you, I know you keep your birthday to yourself but I needed to talk to you and I knew you would be on your own tonight. “ “What’s up” I smiled; “you know that you are always welcome” Carly sat down as I proceeded to pour another glass. “It wasn’t so long ago that this would have been juice and Oreos. Carly looked flushed and a little nervous so I gave her a few moments while I put away my journal and settled back in on the couch. I wondered at how that timid tearful child I first met had grown to be this confident young woman who was uncharacteristically at a loss for words. Carly looked up and gathered herself. “Eric, you remember the day I met you. It was my 9th birthday, I was in such a state. I was feeling forgotten cuz Mum was strapped for cash and time, you know the whole single parent thing, so there was no fuss or party. As only a nine year can feel I was feeling neglected and I so wanted to celebrate a special day. You found me sitting on your stoop in tears with a runny nose. Well I always wondered why you sat down and talked to me, really talked to me, instead of just asking where I lived and taking me home. Even then I knew it was okay to talk to you. And when you took me into the book store and bought me that hand puppet I knew I had found a friend. You didn’t rush me and then walked with me back home. I remember I was afraid when I showed it to Mum , you know, talking to strangers and all that and I was surprised when she just shook her head a little sadly and hugged me and offered you a coffee. You started coming around after that; Mum was never really surprised to see you, and you became Uncle Eric.” Carly paused and looked up at me directly and took a breath. “Mum has always been open and told me as soon as I could understand that she had me using a sperm bank. She said that when I was older I might be able to get some info on my biological father. I had always been curious as to who my biological father was. Mum and I were enough though and I didn’t need some stranger to make us whole. Mum raised me on her own and while I know she struggled sometimes she did a great job. And you know, over the years, you became the one I talked to for things that Mum just couldn’t answer, so I didn’t want to meet a stranger and feel that I should have some special connection to him. Anyway… ” Carly paused again looking down at her hands absentmindedly peting the dogs who were resting their noses in her lap. Looking up, Carly began again “Last summer, shortly after my birthday, Mum sat down and had a chat with me, she said she needed to clear the air. She told me that she always felt badly that I never had a chance to know my dad and her decision to have me by herself had cost me that chance. We talked and I tried to explain to her that even if I didn’t have a dad I had a Mum all to myself, one who was always there for me.” And I meant it, she went on. “I remember looking at my friends and their families. Some of them had two parents but they might as well have been alone most of the time. Besides Eric you have become part of the family too. I told Mum not to worry. The scars that I bear are pretty normal for a nineteen year old. I even told Mum that she hardly ever embarrasses me anymore. She laughed and agreed that she’s slipping and promised to try harder. We talked some more and I think Mum understands that I get it” “So what I really came here to say was thanks for being there for us.” Carly slipped an envelope out from behind her and passed it over. “Happy Birthday”. I smiled and opened the card. It was one of those gauzy drugstore cards that kids buy and emblazoned on the cover was HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I felt a tightening in my gut and looked up. Carly smiled and said “Well Mum and I might have talked a little more that I let on. I don’t think I will ever know how hard it must have been for you not to say anything all these years and just be there as a friend. You were a real friend to Mum, honouring the deal to be anonymous, but I am much happier to have you as a Dad.” I barely heard that last part as I pulled Carly into my arms.

Rndmrunner - sorry I didn't see your question until now. There is a writing prompt forum and it's used to post responses to the writing prompts. The forum is at this link

Just a caveat - the first two books of Rich Boy are done. The third has not been written yet...

Give it a couple of days and things will get resolved - sorry for the confusion...

Give it a couple of days and things will be answered - sorry for the confusion...

Yay - he's back! :-) And ... um ... I'm more on the side of your boyfriend - I am a clutter/packrat person...