EE Nalley has posted the latest chapter of Belle of the Ball on StarDust. What can I say? I like Belle!
grover

So, I finally got around to posting chapter seven of Being Christina Chase, though a few days late. Even though this chapter has essentially been in the bag for probably a year or so, I made some last minute changes due to Holly Logan's invaluable feedback. It would have been on time had I not recently fallen irrationally and hopelessly in love and that I'd been traveling all weekend.

Tonight on ABC's Home Makeover show there was a cute scene that I couldn't resist passing on. It was the usual needy family in a fix and the design team was interviewing family members on the type of themed bedroom they would like. Well there was this cute set of 4 year old twin boys and one said he wanted to be a fireman. The other with a big smile said he wanted to be a policewoman. The double takes from Paul and Preston as they digested this was priceless, but Paul playing along said he wanted to be a policewoman too. Preston then asked "How about a policeMan?" and the kid nodded happily.

well its less than 24 hours before i see the the gender clinic and get to play with them (giggles)

emotionally i am at a peak being this close to the road and still bubbling over and feeling fairly happy and getting there and and thank you all for all your support.

Being the sort who tries to be precise about such things, I was looking for information about just when a full moon occurred on Halloween to set the date for "Turning the Tables."

Needless to say, our friends at NASA come through in spades.

NASA's listing of dates for phases of the moon from 2000BCE to 4000CE. The times are UTC (Greenwich Mean Time), so you may need to convert to local time.

well about time i started blogging somewhere i suppose (giggle), i am just taking a break from fighting with heaven can wait as its turning out to be a hard story to write. Not because I am trying to please people but like most of my stories it contains pieces from my past and how some things I wish I could of changed or avoided.

I suppose I write to examine myself and how I interact with others so it does make it harder to write fiction as always trying to dig away the harsh parts so it doesn't offend people and make it too dark too read.

Just had to ban some addresses in Slovakia and Seattle for trying to access the admin functions of this site and running up a metric assload of "no access" and "page not found" errors.

This article from The Independent (UK) reports on research that indicates the future possibility of using stem cells from women to create sperm that would only produce daughters.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/artic...

I'll bet Aardvark would like to have had this when writing Sappho. What kind of new sci-fi stories can be based on this?

Amelia

Just a note here on a rainy Sunday to say how much I am thankful for Bob Arnold's help in keeping the technical details of running multiple servers and websites straight. If I'm stumped or confused, I can always ask Bob and if he doesn't know, he knows where to find out. Yay, Bob!

Check out his website at http://StarDustR.us

And thanks again,
Erin

I'm sure most eveyone has seen this before, perhaps many times. I was searching through my home directory at work and found the file (timestamped 1998) with the rules. It still gives chuckles. Enjoy!

The title of Janet's blog post reminds me of another occasional role that editors/proofreaders may enjoy -- touting their authors' forthcoming stories. ;-)

Hello Big Closet:

Very happy to be here. I am not any way near the caliber of writer of anyone here so my meager dribbles will hardly be noticed. So no threat ;-)

Hi y'all, just wanted to let you know I am still "in-progess" on Nothing Stranger than Life. Life continues to intrude on my endeavors, but I will continue to persevere. (I hope!)

Much thanks now go to aardvark for his thoughtful remarks.

Thanks for the well wishes you sent Janet; she appreciated them.

Now another on-line friend, Itinerant/Nichole Harrison has had a hard time of it recently. Things finally got back to reasonably close to normal then another RL crissis hits.

Today, I went off to help at a bike-jumble held by my cycling club. Not something especially exciting to blog about, spending most of the morning with the other women in the kitchen, toasting tea cakes and washing plates. The men of course, were dribbling over assorted bike bits, brakes and derailleurs, cranks and handlebars; they were also eating most of the teacakes I was toasting - if ever I get fed up with healthcare, I could have found my vocation!

It's strange, I've posted over a hundred episodes of stories elsewhere, all fiction of course, but this is neither fiction nor a story, it's about me.

I have been conflicted for a long time about the appropriateness of commenting on authors' works for whom I don't 'work'. There is no question that I have a particular style and set of standards and it may not be compatible with every author.

Yet, I also want to help others grow in the craft and that can not happen without constructive criticism.

It seems, though, that some may have misunderstood my goals and intentions. I truly regret that.

Bob's Stardust First Anniversary Sci-Fi Story Contest is over, the votes have been tabulated by the esteemed accounting firm, Dewey, Fleecem and Howe and the awards ceremony is being prepared even as we type. I don't know who the guest presenters are going to be but I understand that the MC is going to be WFS, old Mr. Sincerity himself. :)

Thanks for all of the good wishes during my absence. I needed some 'revision' surgery after my SRS. All worked well and I am home, albeit a bit sore.

Today I added chapters 3 and 4. They are both rather small, so there will still be a chapter 5 following at a later date, probably tomorrow.

Big step for me, small step for mankind: my first two chapters of my first story ever are now - hopefully - published right here on TopShelf. I ended chapter 2 with a cliffhanger so I can find out how many readers actually care about the story from the complaints about it. *evil grin*

I intend to keep this series very small, probably only one or two more chapters. Right now, it's more a matter of wetting my feet, but I plan to keep the option open to perhaps add some more chapters later.

I've been busy around the house. Though the bug to write something is nipping at my heels. I have late evenings and next weekend available to write, I do need to finish sewing up some more tops, trousers, tent sides and Rope standards for Palm Springs Ren Faire which is 23rd, 24th, and 25th of March (less than 2 weeks). Sew soing is going to come first over writing until I get back from faire and visiting my folks which will be around April fools day.

On a morning on which I have almost no time, I'm faced with one of the heavy questions.

How much responsibility does the author have for the interpretation a reader gives a story?

Hello Everyone! I'm blogging here because I was concerned that the Comments for my Deal or No Deal Story was getting a little off tropic but I decided that I did have more to say.

WOW!

Is this site Great or what!!!

I don't want anyone to get the idea that I don't want to see lots of comments after the recent blowups. We go along for months with lots of good comments then one of these brushfires breaks out and fo a while it seems people are afraid to comment.

Hello everyone! I have finally posted my entry for StarDust's contest. You can find it of course at StarDust! Strange Happenings in Ragnorak County was my third try at a entry since the first two started going way way over 10K words. Many thanks to Holly Logan, H.E.R, Paula, and special thanks to Angel for their help. Enjoy!
Hugs!
grover

You may have to login again and any posts or new logins since midnight 07/02/21 are probably lost. Other than that, it may be okay. Hope, hope, hope.

- Erin

Probably no one much under fifty is going to get this one but I think it's funny and that's what's important, isn't it? :)

\- Erin

Just because things have been a bit depressing lately...

I took the site down today for a cool down. Things had suddenly gone from a few posts trading mostly civil comments to five or more hot flames in half an hour then five in five minutes. I had to leave for a bit and didn't feel it would be wise to leave the site open to comments that might stay up for hours and inflame more passions, so I shut things down. I'm back, but later tonight I'll be going to sleep and tomorrow I will be occupied with taking my mother to see the cancer doctor. Let's all try to be nice to one another.

Hugs,
Erin

More and more stories are appearing now. Some have just blown me away and that is for sure!

I have managed to paint myself into a virtual corner, and I am unsure how to proceed. In addition to my novel for publication, I have a slew of stories currently in production for BigCloset. If I'm going to get anything posted, I need to focus on one of them at a time. The question I want to throw out there is for the folks who read my stuff -- what do you want to see first?

Here's what's I'm currently working on (not including my Stardust story contest entry):

I haven't finished Part 2 yet; it currently stands at just over 30,000 words with a fair bit of action to go. However, I'm going to start releasing it.

I've posted some additional information. For Ma'at - A pointer to some pictures of the Temple of Ma'at that is located in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, and a link to an article about the mummy of Hatshepsut being found.

For Amazon, there are pictures of Nicole's "Journey" earrings and pendant, a layout of the apartment she shares with Angela Ogle, and pictures of the Tanner's house.

All this, and a kitten going postal, at http://itinerant.fictioneer.org