Graeme

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Jeff Burton as GA's newest Promising Author! @Jeff Burton has been a member here at GA for almost 20 years, but he's only been posting stories over the last few years. Despite his relative newness to writing, he has shown great skill in storytelling, and we look forward to reading more. He writes stories in a variety of genres, so I'm sure you'll find something that appeals. Encrypted, in particular, is strongly recommended. Congratulation, Jeff!

Just for the record, Winter started two weeks ago here in Australia. We start our seasons on the first of the month, so 1st June was the start of Winter... And, unlike Mother's Day which seems to be on the same date through most of the world (2nd Sunday in May), Australia celebrate's Father's Day in September...

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating Mark Ponyboy Peters as GA's newest Signature Author! @Mark Ponyboy Peters has only been a member for 13 months, but he's been posting stories on the Internet for over 20 years. I don't mind admitting he was one of the early authors whose stories I fell in love with when I first started exploring Nifty. I especially loved his Seachange series. He's still in the process of slowly posting his extensive backlog of stories, so there's plenty more to come! For now, feel free to explore what he's currently published and, like me, wait eagerly for more! Congratulation, Mark!

I generally tried to ensure I knew how a story will end before I started writing. So, if I were to continue this story, I'd have to work out the overall plot and how to complete the extension. Unfortunately, not only am I not writing at the moment (though still hopeful I'll restart at some point in time), but I don't have a clear picture of how an extension would continue and, more importantly, end. Sorry. 😞

While this statement is true, he wouldn't be unemployed. The tuffs of hair around the hooves of Clydesdales are called feathers...

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating kbois as GA's newest Signature Author! @kbois has been a member for 7 years and in that time she's developed from a relatively new author through to one that's reached the level of Signature Author. Her recent short stories Hide and Seek and Depth Perception are of particular note and we hope you enjoy them as much as we did. Congratulation, kbois!

There have been times when I would like to continue/expand a short story, but unless I can work out a clear plot and ending for the continuation, I won't start. One of the things I hate about a lot of movie sequels is that it's often either stupid or "just more of the same". There have been very few movie sequels that have impressed me as being up to the same standard as the original (the movie "Short Circuit" and it's sequel are a notable exception). That's influenced me when it comes to sequels and extending short stories. One approach, inspired by the sequel to the movie "Short Circuit", is to use a different character as the protagonist in a sequel. It allows a different point of view and a fresh approach. It can be a completely new character or a minor character from the original story. That helps the author out as they're not as trapped as they would be if they continued to use the original protagonist.

I just stumbled across this article about the history of chapters and I thought I should share it. Enjoy! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-26/the-history-of-chapters-childrens-books-netflix-bible-gospels/103801690

Not one of mine, but I think @DynoReads is correct -- it's by Maxieplus. Check Nifty as I think amost of their stories are posted there.

Please join myself and the Author Promotion Team in congratulating @WolfM in becoming GA's newest Promising Author. They have been a member at GA for almost nine years, and in that time they have posted over 600,000 words across ten stories. Writing mainly shifter paranormal stories, they are the author of the popular Running with the Pack series. You can find all of they stories (and poetry) on their author page so please jump in and take a look. Congratulations, WolfM!

Don't confuse correlation and causation. One of the key criteria for Promising Author and Signature Author is quality, but it's difficult to judge quality on a small sample, so naturally there's a certain minimum amount of writing required to allow the quality to be assessed. So there's a correlation with word count but there's not a causal link.

Thank you, that's a great summarisation! Small communities can be tight-knit, which is a great advantage, but sometimes it's also a disadvantage. This is an example of where it's a disadvantage, but you can also see how the community holds together and support's each other...up until a point. Scott's heart was torn in two by the situation, but the community is being torn in two, too. Scott, with Gramps help, has resolved his conflict. It remains to be seen if the community will resolve theirs, and what that resolution will be...

Thank you! I've always loved Grandpa -- a crotchety old man with a heart of gold.

We've lost someone great... Rest in Peace, Carlos

Late to the party, but congratulations!