Sorry people! I know the delay has been problematic, but at last I'm ready to reveal the results of our Double Dip Story Contest!

Firstly I should apologise for another whiney post - I'm not in a good place in my head this week.

I guess it's largely my own fault, decisions i've made that have maybe not been the best choices. Every time I think i've got my head and life together another spanner falls into the works and i'm not even back to where I started. Effectively i'm bankrupt - no regular income and bills that need paying has become a repeating cycle of worry.

I wanted to talk a bit more about this idea floating around in my head, the one I mentioned yesterday in regards to swamp legends.

You guys may or may not be familiar with a character called Silver John, who was featured in a number of stories by Manly Wade Wellman. I found him in a collection of short stories called "Who fears the Devil". Silver John is a travelling musician, who goes around the southern United States, often encountering legendary monsters, and he carries a guitar with silver strings - which comes in handy occasionally.

I have the beginnings of an idea about a story connected to my M.Y.T.H. universe, but I am going to need help. Does anybody know about creatures of the Louisiana swamps? Specifically, I'm thinking any thinking monsters or were-creatures ? If you do, or know any resources related to that mythos, please let me know.

Just posted a little pre-Halloween treat for you all. hope you enjoy!

https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/76180/hells-belle

Sorcerer's Marks and Morpheus' "The Academy" which I am reading again thanks to Carpe Diem's blog entry 'Looking for a story'

While reading "The Academy" the MC is discovered to have a Sorcerer's Mark

This reminded me of a similar story of a magic academy, but this one was more of a Summer School\Camp, one of the MC's friends is a goth and her 'SYMBOL' (for want of a better term as I can't remember what the story called them) was a "Jack O Lantern"

Well, here I am, back in the land of my birth and a few of my forefathers. After a week of predominantly warm sunshine, no sooner had we landed did the rain start to fall, the temperature definitely 10c cooler than when we left Germany! If you go here there are a few pictures which give a flavour of the trip.

My weekend was crazy, and I don't think I got more than 2 contiguous hours of sleep in the last 3 days, so yeah; contest results will be up in a couple of days. Sorry peeps.

Melanie E.

A good friend sent me this link via Skype. I got such a good chuckle out of it I thought I would share it.

Alien Repellant up for auction

Make sure to read the write up below the pictures

I am in a weird place at the moment. Its kinda like this: (part of my brain): "Any moment now, my facade of happiness will crack, and I'll tumble into a depression ..... any moment now .... I'm braced, I'm ready, bring on the sad .... any time now ... (taps a foot ) ... yeah, it will sure will be awful .... when that big downer hits .... any time now ..."

and on and on like that ...

Hi everyone

Im looking for a magical story where in the end the Main character hides Excalibur in a lake on school Grounds

Thanks a lot

Carpe Diem

I think it may have been part of a recent contest!

Family of Mechanics\Engineers in rural US, youngest child of one branch of family becones introverted after beating from father and self imposed mute

Group of bullies (middleschool i think) drag the child into the restroom intending to give a beating. BIG MISTKE

Can't remember more

Actually, two stories.

One is similar to the Maddy Bell 'Nena' stories. A young man who looks a lot like his feckless sister gets sucked into substituting for her as a guide in a package ski tour in Europe. She is successful in the job but does confess to her manager./ All works out well, including her sister who manages to marry a rich American from LA or Los Vegas.

As usual, my latest posting has led to a few readings of my older stories.

I thought that "Discovery" was a pretty good story when I wrote it; however, the response has been very satisfying. I noticed this morning that one of the early chapters had passed the 200 'Likes' mark. Thank you everyone for reading and commenting.

To all who kindly read my stories and might wonder why they haven't seen a chapter about Harriet's adventures in a while - I fell over (sober I must add) and broke my arm - my first ever fracture. I can still type but the arm aches if I do too much. It's my prefered (left) arm. I've found that showering is especially difficult and I'm a very bad car passenger - there's a dent in the floor where I keep pressing an imaginary brake! If my marriage survives this it will survive anything.
Bron

Just a general call for anyone who wishes, I will proofread items that are being submitted to the Hatbox!
PM me to work out details.

Doppler press where?

Okay folks

So i've just finished writing chapter 23.29, the second of an 8 hour writing session!

Tomorrow then will see the arc completed, a full day it will be, a longish ride in the morning/afternoon then into writing mode in the evening - I already have a fair idea of what's going to be included in the chapter so it will hopefully go quickly! Then it's into assembly and editing so that I can release to you lot on Sunday.

Okay so this is getting ridiculous.

Last night I again dreamed of being an actress, this time with a guest role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a mystic healer who also worked as a nurse at Sunnydale hospital and helped Buffy and the gang, and then had to treat Spike who had been hurt during a battle.

Help!

The Day My Dad Kicked Me Out For Being Gay Changed My Life Forever

I'm not sure if anyone saw this article on Huffington Post when it appeared in June, but here is the link to the article:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dad-kicked-me-out-gay_u...

Remember how the other day I talked about dreaming I was an actress on TV shows? Well, last night, I dreamed I was in a B movie, playing a scientist who was stuck in a groundhog day style time loop by a nuclear explosion, trying to use what they learned every "day" to get closer to stopping it. But to make things weirder, I also played the coo coo for coco-puffs head of the military base who set off the explosion, which gave me an opportunity to ham it up, especially at the end when the scientist found a way to stop the explosion, leaving the head of the base babbling about "But I won!

okay for someone who doesnt actually watch that much TV anymore, other than sports and Dr. Who. (and Agents of Shield), my subconscious seems to have been infected by TV shows.

Twice in the last week or so I have had dreams of being an actress on TV shows. The first time I played a young woman who had been a pioneer in getting an education in the early 1900's, and returned home to her small town in Eastern Canada, faced people who dismissed her because of her youth and gender, and helped solve a mystery.

Okay - well I had to get online for another issue that was unforeseen so I've taken the opportunity to fix the Gaby chapter stuff before I go home to write more. Seems that I posted the wrong chapter for 13, 23 is correct so if you go to Commitment you can read the real chapter 13 which might make 14 etc more sense! Sorry everyone, back to the grindstone!

tschussie
Mads

Yup, after an unexpected visit to see my cousin in Nottingham I have made it onto the interweb and I have put together some holiday snaps for you!

Ok, it is time for some major explanations.

Let me commence by saying that I have a new birthday - 18th September.

For about the billionth time this year, I drove (this time accompanied by my beloved) from the UK to Switzerland. As we left the house in England I thought; "That's funny. The left side of my mouth is all tingly." We drove on and then I got a tingly sensation in my left hand, outside fingers.

*From The Diaries of Calamity Catt (Cuz my crazy middle aged human is having hot flashes atm): Catnip date 21.9.18.20* - Returned to human's domcile amid a rather humbling array of piles of future scratching posts and wood chips dotting those wide, black sidewalks that they drive those funny metal potential litter boxes on. Saw many of my favorite tall climbing apparatus that give me access to my afternoon tweety snacks looking more like snapped toothpicks. Even saw one taking a break leaning on the human dwelling next to my human's. Hmmmm. Might have to check out that one later.

Hi everyone..I am currently testing the arrangement of items in my main author page. Please bear with me as I attempt to reorganise my author page in the mess ;)

one of our own writers and friends has been fired unjustly from his job. I won't mention his name here, but he is needing badly to find more work. He is very skilled regarding the internet and customer relations as well as diesel engines and their applications.

Sort of about writing, nails had grown so long that tapping one key at a time was becoming difficult to say the least. It was a rainy morning when I passed my favourite nail bar.
I will
I won’t
I will
I won’t...and so on

After so many good weeks together my unbroken (natural) nails finally faced file. Temptation was to snatch back hand and run for it. Is it just me that loves even unpractically long no matter how much grief they cause?

Long story short...can even type on phone now -Yea!!

There are some series' that I haven't seen any new work in for some time. For some of them I haven't seen the authors being active here either... One of my favorite series is the SPA universe. Yet I haven't seen any activity in the universe or from any of the authors who wrote in it for quite some time. There are a couple of other universes that are on hiatus here as well but right now I'm quite tired and can't think of the names...
Anyway, maybe other readers here could post the stories they're missing too.
Have a nice day!

We had some fun discussing a few favourite epic fantasy genre stories and I discovered some great suggestions I hadn't come across before. As a result I thought it might be interesting to try the same for Science Fiction genre stories. In my definition of Sci Fi I am excluding 'superhero' powers.

So everything is Ironed Out this time, normal service will be resumed!

Sorry its a bit short - been a busy day with the chiropodist and then visiting the GC up in Leeds - more chat on Sunday I guess.

Tschussie
Mads

This Saturday, Sunday Japan time, one of the biggest idols in JPop retired. In JPop there are a few big female idols in Japan that it has their career path and a very successful one at that. I speak of Mika Nakashima, Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro. Amuro-san is the one retiring. She threw one last concert in Okinawa(her home province) apparently, along with local artists it sounded like from the news. Her more notable songs are "Can You Celebrate?" and "Sweet 18 Blues" along with many others. I own both songs and definitely enjoy each of them.

I was hoping to have "Synchronicity" finished and up by now, but the last while PTSD issues and depression have taken my writing spoons. Not sure when I'll have it finished, or when I'll have serious work done on my other unfinished stuff.

Sorry.

You may have noticed that Erin has recently published my very first novel here, 'The Frozen Balance', on Kindle.
This is a part of my efforts to help keep this wonderful site going. If you read it please do comment, post a review or PM me. All feedback to help my writing develop is a kind and welcome gift.

Look I know its not really that bad, I've had my hols and everything is pretty much hunky dory in my world but I hate coming home after a trip!

So yes, i'm home in GOC and have proper interweb for at least a couple of hours which means you get to read Periodic Table today.

Hi to all.

Really enjoyed a few hours reading some wonderful stories which inspired me to register and begin to post.

I mainly enjoy writing ‘leader’ stories with an open end. This allows me and hopefully readers as well to imagine how things may work out.

Best wishes A.

If you haven't noticed "Tommy - The Trials and Tribulations of a Girl?" is back. I won't guarantee the chapters will come as close as they did in the past. I'm doing everything around the house right now, so the writing time is a little limited right now. But I'll try.

Teddie

Many years ago I started to write a series of stories based on the SRU Wizard. In reading about The Wizard from other points of view, the lack of consistency among stories bothered me. The Wizard seemed to lack genuine purpose. He did what he did because he could. There were times he seemed mean and vindictive. There were times he showed some heart. I particularly remember a tale where he turned a biker into an elementary school teacher, much to her pleasure.

Just an update to let everyone know that my SO's surgery went great! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, wishes, and prayers. Now, all we have to do is get her home.

Teddie

Hi everyone

Another one finished -- Broken Promises.
A coming of age tale with a unique historical twist.

Broken Promises

Don't forget to buy through BCTS once the link is in.

Tanya

The last blog I wrote, I was in a pretty depressed state. I'm still not doing great but life is getting better. I'm finally out of my great aunt's house. A place of hell for me for the past five years. This last year the worst of it after her shocking passing. My older brother and I are finally 95% moved out of there. We're in a new place, its a big room, lots of natural light---3 nice windows. I have a lot of space here too. My old room was so cramped and I felt like the walls were closing in on me.

just letting everybody know, I'm going to be rather busy the next couple of days. so if you try and contact me, and I'm not on, it means i'm either a) running around like a chicken with its head cut off, or b) sleeping or possibly c) both.

While watching CNN's 'History of Comedy' documentary I heard this great quote and I wanted to share the quote & concept.

" I'm just a person trapped inside a woman's body". - Elayne Boosler, Comedian

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/elayne_boosler_141691

I’d like to chat with a few folks who have a sense/knowledge/expertise in creating gaming environments. I’m not creating one, just writing a story.

I need help with the technical stuff, terms, jargon, etc for a new SciFi story I’m working on called NeverWorld.

I’m also looking for someone who can help me with the Japanese anime, manga, hentai world, too.

Just a quick update on me and me asking you guys to help me find new stories to read that I can get into. My health is improving although I’m still in the hospital, I was in the midst of a very severe Anorexia episode and now I’m improving although it hasn’t come easy. As for the stories I like, it varies. I love Tiffany Shar’s stories, Sue Brown,Torrey,Zoe Taylor, Paula Dillon, Jennifer Sue, Jennifer Brock. I could list at least 20 but I think you guys get the point.

I'm working on a quasi-dark humor story that deals guns and robberies and a father at the near breaking point.

I only have a few lines...is it something I should work on?

Wayward Spiraling