This chapter does have a cliffhanger in it.

i loved the part about cliffs....

I did not say that I do not use them. I only said that mine are not evil. The goat still reigns supreme.

Thanks for another superb chapter, Tim. I laughed myself silly at your use of cliffhangers. Also, I think the last paragraph marginally qualifies as an evil cliffhanger. After all, two major characters appear to be in some sort of imminent danger. If that's not evil, at least in terms of doing that to your readers, then I don't know what is.

Hehe. I'm waiting for a certain someone to weigh in with his comments.

Evil, I don't know about that. Fun, yes.

Jan

The cliffhanger was my way of showing due respect to the master himself.

I'm sure he'll show up sooner than later. But there's apparently more to it than just showing up.

As for the allegedly evil cliffhanger. What else would you call it when two major characters appear to be in trouble? Still, most cliffhangers tend to be both evil and fun!

My only regret is that more readers are not marking this story and Tim as Favorites. We need to unite to help Tim become a Hosted Author!

BTW, Jan, I tend to be modest and not blab. But I have to state that I love working with you to help Tim shine.

ADDED: I posted this before seeing Tim's latest comments.

Indeed, it is a cliffhanger. It was a lot of fun to create. I, unlike others, will not say that I do not use them at all. I just don't think they're "evil". As for becoming a hosted author, I would like to finish more of my stories before that. It does say there needs to be a certain volume of finished works.

Fair enough. How about suspenseful?


I know. But it can't hurt to have lots of readers as favorites once you achieve the other requirements. If nothing else it shows a certain level of respect for your well crafted stories that is absolutely deserved. And it's not like it takes much effort to include you as a favorite.

A good author knows to create suspense. The ultimate stories for suspense are those which are purposely crafted with more than one part. I am still fairly new to GA. That is why I do not have a large fanbase yet. Word of mouth is the best way to promote it.

Without being obnoxious about it, is there anything I can do to encourage a larger fan base?

Well, you can simply encourage other members to read it. As I said before, word of mouth is the best way.

I have a team of graphic designers I work with when developing websites. I asked them to submit a small and tasteful banner that simply states, "Recommended Authors" and "Favorite Authors." I'll pick the one I like best. Initially I will include CJ, Jack and you. Once I get a chance to read other authors I'll consider adding them too. I'm not much for fancy signatures so I want to keep this as simple and low-key as possible.

that's a wonderful idea...

As far as adding Tim to fav is concerned, I already did that a long time back...

Tim, I agree. Cliffhangers need a lot of planning and are what makes the story a fun to read. Personally, I love them. That is why if you've read Alpha and Omega, you'll notice that I use them a lot.

But subtle cliffhangers works well for a story while a once-in-a-while MAJOR cliffhanger does it wonders. I'm sure we'll see both in the following chapters of DE...

BeaStKid

Thanks! My team works quickly and at all sorts of odd hours since they're scattered around the globe. This graphic was done by Kane who lives in Sydney, Australia, where it's early in the evening. I think they all do a good job and most of them have been with me for at least a decade. This graphic was a no-brainer for Kane. After all, what's better on GA than a background of books on a shelf? I hope you all think so too.

Before I became a beta-reader for Tim I started reading, Alpha and Omega. I liked it a lot. Once I have time I will finish reading it. In fact I liked it enough to add you to my list of Suggested Reading!

Awww... thanks...

Even I make banners for my stories... They can be found here... I have even made banners for my upcoming work. For details on that, refer to my blog. The link is in my sig...

You're quite welcome.


Yeah, I'd say you've made a lot of banners. I'd go broke if I had my team make all those banners for me.

So far I've only read Tim's blog and I always post a comment. I will read yours before I go to bed tonight if it's not too long. I had planned on going to bed early tonight cause it's been a busy weekend and I have a lot of work tomorrow (actually later on today) to do including several conference calls on Skype and hopefully a chat on MSN with Joe about GA. But it's now 4:30 AM and I still have two podcasts to listen to; one of which is an hour and thirty minutes. That means I'll need lots of caffeine to get me through the day.

All the best... I can imagine how worked up (pun intended ) you'd be...

Yeah, I like to make banners for my stories. The reason for that is the fact that I am a hosted author at another site. There, my homepage needs to have banners next to the stories. The banners for Alpha and Omega, A Kiss Will Set You Free, Possessed,\ an Man's Best Friend were designed by that site's admin. But now, I design my own banners.

BeaStKid

You make awesome banners, BK. I have been thinking about making one for Dark Earth and another for Second Chances. I have not gotten around to it yet.

Word of mouth is a good way to spread the word.

Posting at other sites is helpful as well. Most sites have something similiar to the Story Cafe here. I even post a few at my site.

Jan

At this point, I am somewhat limited. I do not like posting my stories on Nifty, and from what I have been told, there is a period of time in which Nifty is the only other place I can post stories.

As much as I despise Nifty I would never have found GA had it not been for Jack's stories there. Sometimes you have to wade through lots of garbage to find the gems. Perhaps Tim can post on Nifty but don't post the most recent chapters there. Keep them here on GA. That's what Jack does. Make sure to post a link to GA. That seems as good a way as any to help Tim grow his fan base.

I'm supposed to be working so please don't anyone rat me out!

I agree. I actually came across Nifty, because one of hosted author's stories was on there. I linked to the site and found more chapters on GA. Then again, my stories are not necessarily what you would call erotica. They are meant for a mature audience, but they are not like most of the stories on Nifty.

Thanks Tim...all the best with that. If you are unable to do it, I will volunteer. But only after my exams (after 12th, i.e.)



Yep, Nifty hosts a lot of junk, but it hosts some gems as well. It is a good way to generate a base for new authors. I like the suggestion Gary made. I always link to GA in my stories whenever I post. Jan's idea of posting on other sites is also good...

BeaStKid

In response to a pm that I got, I probably should clarify my reply and I'll use CJ as my example. When CJ has a new chapter posted, I post at my site that a new chapter has been posted. I also include a link to the chapter or story.

I wasn't suggesting posting the story elsewhere.

Jan

That would be a good idea. I do not actually know what sites to post such links upon. Feel free to send me a pm with details.

Thanks,

Tim

and to me too...

Chapter 11 has been sent away for editing.

And its been sent back. And a bit of a spoiler, it will make you laugh a bit.

Jan

It's off to beta reading now. If all goes well, it will be posted Saturday night.

Saturday? Sheesh, I work faster than that Tim! You'll have it back by the end of the day on Wednesday. But that's only because I you so much.

It might take him that long before he gets it posted.

Jan

True. It seems he does a little last minute polishing even after a chapter has been edited and beta-read. And from what I understand authors also have to rely on GA staff to actually post stories, so some part of the publishing process is beyond the author's control.

Plus there's a certain marketing advantage in making the readers wait a little while before getting their next fix. I'm sorry if that seems a little rude, or even too commercial, but I stand by it. I'm heavily into listening to podcasts and in a way they are stories too, even the techie ones like, Security Now, that help listeners better understand everything related to computer security both from an end-user and programmer perspective. I know I always look forward to my favorite podcasts that are released on a set schedule. Especially when they can be ready for me to listen to via downloading through an RSS feed or something like iTunes.

Also, ever since you pointed out to me that some authors almost always release on the same day each week, or at least on a stable timetable, I wish Tim could get far enough ahead to do the same thing without compromising quality.

Maybe the fact he's going to concentrate on his other works for awhile will also give him time to build up a reserve of chapters for DE so he can start releasing chapters on a regular basis.

Either way it seems we both have an author we really love, and, at least for me, that makes my small contribution a lot of fun regardless of when each chapter actually gets published.

Is this a normal time for you to be awake? I sure wish I were asleep instead of posting here. Hopefully I've made a wee bit of sense.

As a matter of fact Gary, that is what I intend to do with Alpha and Omega... I will try to come out with chapters every week. I just need to decide on a day... I was thinking, maybe Thursday...Friday is booked with Dan Kirk's, Tuesday is CJ and Monday is Jack....

I'm really looking forward to finding the time to start reading A&O again. I don't think there's anything wrong with having multiple authors posting on the same day. To me the important thing is to know when to expect a new chapter. Then it's up to me to decide when I have time to read it.

There are so many I need to read. I think after volume I is done, I'm going to take some time to read some stories. As for Saturday, it simply seems like a good day. Anyway, I have a long day ahead of me. I was going to try to wrap up my anthology story soon. Today does not look good for moving towards that goal

I hope it's just classes that are going to make for a long day today.

I'm afraid not. I have to go to Kansas today. I have to take some people to the doctor.

Monday thru Friday, I'm up this early.


I believe that since Tim is currently posting in eFiction, he can post it himself. It's the Hosted/Shared Hosted that have someone post the story for them.

You can add Nick to the list as his stories usually appear sometime Sunday.

I have to catch up on IBC. <blush>

We'll have to discuss this on MSN later. Around here Kansas and going to doctors can have many meanings.

Chapter 11 is available here.

I'll continue to whine about Promising Authors not having their own forum for readers to post in. It's just not fair!

Tim, Chapter 11 was a mix of emotions on so many levels.

Learning who [perhaps at least] some of the traitors were resolved a lot of suspense and perhaps paves the way for ultimate victory for the good guys. We've still got a long ways to go though and I'm looking forward to it while at the same time wishing I could see the ending right now. You really know how to capture and hold the attention of the reader.

Getting to see into the mind of Julian and what he went through as a child was the kind of character development that I live for. Same thing goes for the revelation of what happened at Lucifer's Bar during Julian's escape to the underground. Thank you so much for that.

I'm afraid about what the destruction at Centropolis will ultimately mean. At least there's been some resolution by way of another thrilling battle scene. And for now Empire City will have to serve as the main base of operations. The fact that Adriana has gained some much deserved respect was nice to see. Sometimes I still want to slap her silly though. But I do understand why it needs to be that way.

The death of two major characters was a shocker. I feel so bad for Calista right now.

Sometimes along with praise there has to be some criticism. In this case it's one of your new characters. As I've mentioned before I think subtle homages to authors you respect are great. Many of the best authors on GA do this. I mean no offense to Jan as he's done and will continue to do a great job of editing your stories. And yet such an obvious reference to a well-known Member and Editor just doesn't seem right to me. You could have accomplished the same well-deserved homage while still being subtle about it. I'm sure we would all know who you were referring to and at least to me it would have meant so much more.

I posted a review of this chapter. It would sure be nice if more of your readers did that. We need to prove to the powers that be that you have what it takes to eventually be a Hosted Author. Come on fellow readers. Help give Tim the break he so richly deserves by posting reviews for each chapter and commenting in the forums. Thanks.

~gary.

Well, once Tim has some more threads, I'm sure he'll get his own forum...

*Runs off to read the latest chapter*

I'm sure you'll like it BK. As I mentioned in my blog, the wait for 12 will be a little longer. I feel inspired to write a some chapters for Second Chances. I'm also looking forward the release of my first short-story next month.

Speaking of short stories here's a little teaser. It's not really a spoiler cause I don't reveal anything. But it will give you a clue about how you'll feel when you read it.

This short story will touch raw angry places in your brain that you probably didn't know existed but they do.

That is an intriguing examination. I must say that I am looking forward to reading some anthology stories next month.

Same here...

I feel as though we have too long to wait for it.

We do. But it will be worth the wait.