A Call to EA Authors: It's time for new stories.

[Cainanite]

Those of us behind the scenes agree that it is time to start posting some new stories.

Now, there are some problems to overcome, but in the meantime, we are going to try a workaround.

At the moment we do not have a standard submission page, or the mechanism to take anonymous stories. What we can do right now, is take a few stories via e-mail, and manually post them.

We are going to try this with only a few stories to start, and hopefully work out a better system for the future. We are going to attempt to post a few new stories every week.

This is where you come in.

Send me your stories and I'll make sure they are formatted and submitted.

You can send me your stories in .doc (Word format) or .odt (OpenOffice format). I'll edit them, and Talula will submit them to the Fiction Archive.

REMEMBER; Send the story as an attachment to your email. Do not put the story into the text of the email. It is very difficult for me to take stories from an email text format.

Send your submissions to eafictionarchive @ gmail (dot) com and put only EA story in the subject line. (or else it can end up in my spam folder.)

I have no idea how many stories I am going to receive by doing this. If I get overloaded, then it may be a while before you see your story show up. Be patient, and we will see how this works.

Please keep the stories in 12pt type, and single spaced. DO NOT double space your entries. Do not put spaces above or below your paragraphs.

DO use paragraphs. DO use spell-check.

Include your username, so we know who to attribute the story to.

Include a brief description of your story and what it is about. Also, try to include what tags we should add to identify it. Your options are:

Gay:
Bi:
Testicles:
Straight:
TG:
Nullification:
General Warning:
Penectomy:
Minor:
Custom Tag 1:
Custom Tag 2:
Custom Tag 3:
Custom Tag 4:
(The "Custom Tag" allows you to write up to 4 tags that are not already offered as options. example: Clitoridectomy )

I reserve the right to reject any story that isn't up to standards. If you include an email address I can respond to, I will try to tell you why I reject it if I do. (Depending on how many submissions I receive.)

I look forward to getting some new stories back on the site.

PM me if these instructions are not clear.

Cheers,

Cainanite

[Losethem]

I'm glad to see you're working on a mechanism to post new materials. I think this will satisfy many of the folks that have been asking where the new material is for the past few months.

I hope it trickles in and you're able to work it into rotation with the older materials. Thanks for all your work on the fiction archive.

Good luck.

--LT

[cheetaking243]

Thank you very much!

I've been writing a lot since I shared my very first submission two days before the site went down last July, and the ratings have really encouraged me, so I have a whole lot of material revved up and rearing to go!

[Cainanite]

There was a question about how to format paragraphs. We are used to hitting return twice at the end of paragraphs, or hitting tab at the beginning of paragraphs.

Don't do either of those things.

Here is the response I gave;

The software we are using on the back end, automatically adds a space at the beginning and end of each paragraph. If you are hitting return between paragraphs to insert a blank line, the software creates One space at the end of your paragraph, one space at the hard return for the blank line, and one space at the beginning of the next paragraph, resulting in 3 spaces where you only wanted one.

If you do not do a hard return between paragraphs, the software recognizes that, and only adds one space, as it should be.

Hitting the tab key at the beginning of a new paragraph also adds some weird data, that the software does not recognize.

Part of the editing job I have had to do for the old submissions is to remove all those extra lines created by hitting a hard return between paragraphs, and hitting tab at the beginning of new paragraphs. Sometimes the only way I can remove this, is to do it line by line. It takes a very long time.

Do not hit return to create a blank line between paragraphs. Do not hit tab at the beginning of new paragraphs.

Write your paragraph as normal.[Hit ENTER or RETURN once] Write your next paragraph as normal.

doing this;

This is my first paragraph. See how I write it?
This is my second paragraph.

Will result in;

This is my first paragraph. See how I write it?

This is my second paragraph.

If you hit a hard return between them, you'll end up with;

This is my first paragraph. See how I write it?



This is my second paragraph.

Putting a tab in front of a new paragraph adds a weird bit of html code...  . Though I can remove that gibberish globally with my editing software, it's a real pain.

So please, at the end of a paragraph, just hit enter (or return) once, and simply begin your new paragraph. If you want to, you can add an automatic spacing after paragraphs in your word processing software. In OpenOffice, you click on FORMATTING then PARAGRAPH, and increase the spacing between paragraphs. I usually choose .3 cm below paragraphs.

Doing that lets me read my work normally on the screen, or when I print it out, but won't affect anything when I transfer the story into the EA publishing software.

[Awkward42]

Putting a tab in front of a new paragraph adds a weird bit of html code...  . Though I can remove that gibberish globally with my editing software, it's a real pain.

  means "non-breaking space", which is an instruction to the web browser not to split the line at that point. For example take the sentence:
"Although there was no legislation enforcing the method by which the teens' castrations had to happen, the Alexandria Population Control Shears had become the de facto standard accross Europe."

On my screen, the line break happens in the middle of "de facto". If you instead put (in the html source) "de facto" then "de facto" will be treated as if it was one word and the line break will be between "the" and "de facto", even though there is space for the "de".

In theory, it shouldn't display in any html document and should have no effect when it isn't in the vicinity of a line break. However I don't know what your system does or how it does it, so the practice might be different to the theory.

The same syntax of an ampersand, a string of letters or numbers, and then a semi-colon can be used to display any character. For example, &gt; produces the ">" character and &lt; gives "<", which is useful when you want something like <p> to be displayed rather than interpreted as the html paragraph tag.

On the main subject of this thread however, I'd like to say a big thank you!

[cheetaking243]

Oh, shoot, I just realized that I've been putting tabs into my paragraphs manually... I hope my new submission didn't give you guys too much trouble... I didn't know.

[gellyfregy]

&nbsp; means "non-breaking space", which is an instruction to the web browser not to split the line at that point.

Since web browsers collapse multiple space characters into a single space, people noticed that web browsers will let you stack up non-breaking spaces to force the browser not to collapse them into one, and started using it for simple formatting, when they should have been using a style sheet. It's one way to finesse an indent onto the beginning of each paragraph. It looks good if you are printing a document onto paper, but it breaks all the rules of text on the web. So we try to avoid using non-breaking spaces that way.

I think the editors and programmers are aware of the HTML character entities. The new editor (that will be used for new stories, and is currently used for fixing up old ones) does pretty well. But I have my doubts about trying to include instructions about HTML character entities, or other technical matters, for new submissions. It's much better to try to keep it as simple as possible for now. (It's hard enough to get people to use spellcheck!)

I know some people like the look of paragraphs with the first line indented, and/or a blank line between paragraphs. In fact, if you don't have a blank line or an indent, it makes it quite hard to spot paragraph breaks. It's possible to compose in an editor that is comfortable for you, then convert it to the format Cainanite described. FocusWriter and MarkdownPad are a couple of possibilities; Notepad++ can do a bunch of things to a document, like remove every blank line or the non-breaking spaces at the beginnings of paragraphs. Better if you can do it so Cainanite doesn't have to.

The key is probably to remember that you are not designing a document to be printed onto paper (or at least it is not the only thing). It's simpler than that. Sentences. Return at the end of paragraphs. No indent at the beginning. Spellcheck. No fonts, colors, and very little of other kinds of formatting. Maybe italics or bold used sparingly. Format as Cainanite mentioned.

Maybe in the future we can work on a few minor tweaks ... but in this case, simpler will still probably be better.

On the other hand, if you do spot a place in a story where a non-breaking space would make things better, let us know and we might fix it as time allows.

[baldwin92]

Great news, but i have a question. how are you coming on entering old stories? I still don't see all the stories I have written and were previously posted?

[Cainanite]

Great news, but i have a question. how are you coming on entering old stories? I still don't see all the stories I have written and were previously posted?

We're still working on the old stories, but it is taking longer than expected.

[nutme248]

I am happy to hear that the fiction section will be re-starting. I have really missed some of the stories. I have had a story rattling around in my head too. I just might write it one day.

Dave in Cleveland

[C van D]

Dear Cainanite,
This is really a reply to a private message you sent me, oh, a long time ago. I don't seem to have the facility for replying to private messages - don't know why.

Anyway, I'm still in the land of the living, tho' nearly 80, and would be delighted for you to make whatever use you wish, of characters/events/locations in the "Simon" series. I see you've already borrowed Melanie and the Lemon Tree cafe. Shall enjoy reading your version.
C van D

[Cainanite]

Dear Cainanite,
This is really a reply to a private message you sent me, oh, a long time ago. I don't seem to have the facility for replying to private messages - don't know why.

Anyway, I'm still in the land of the living, tho' nearly 80, and would be delighted for you to make whatever use you wish, of characters/events/locations in the "Simon" series. I see you've already borrowed Melanie and the Lemon Tree cafe. Shall enjoy reading your version.
C van D

Hey C van D,

That's terrific to know.

Yes, I stole Melanie, the Lemon Tree Cafe, and the name of a certain baseball team (I mention the ball team in passing in a middle chapter.). Melanie, and the Cafe show up in the epilogue of my novel. From the moment I started writing, I knew that she had to be there. Her ability to spot a boy-eunuch from a mile off was indispensable. If it wasn't Melanie, it would have had to be someone exactly like her.

I'd have loved to be able to communicate with you before I wrote it. I had wondered what Melanie's last name was. It took a lot of digging through your writing to come up with it. It came down to either Melanie Scott-Swanson, or just Melanie Swanson. I chose the latter, because it was easier to write.

I hope I was true to your character. I sort-of like to think my stories and yours exist in a similar universe.

When I first started writing, I had the idea to use old Doctor Gellar again, but you and Paolo had already completed her story, better than I ever could. Instead, I split Gellar into two characters, and resolved them separately. It was a bit of inspiration I couldn't have had without you.

Thank-you for that.

Incidentally, I love your latest contribution. "Ricky Takes Charge". You never fail to impress.

Cheers,

Cainanite

[C van D]

Dear Cainanite
So pleased you liked "Ricky takes charge".
Have just mailed you "First Boy- Conclusion" with a synopsis that may not be totally self explanatory. You may have to wade through the 2001 original for the background.
Melanie's surname is Scott-Hamilton. How does she recognise boy-eunuchs - assuming they are fully clothed of course?
C van D

[Cainanite]

Dear Cainanite
So pleased you liked "Ricky takes charge".
Have just mailed you "First Boy- Conclusion" with a synopsis that may not be totally self explanatory. You may have to wade through the 2001 original for the background.
Melanie's surname is Scott-Hamilton. How does she recognise boy-eunuchs - assuming they are fully clothed of course?
C van D

Scott-Hamilton! Okay. I'm going to change that right away. I was sure Melanie introduced herself as Melanie Swanson at one point. I even wrote it down when I found it. I did know her mother was a Scott relation, so I figured a Scott hyphen name was a possibility. My mistake. Scott-Hamilton it is. Thank you.

I won't spoil my story by telling you the little secret I worked out for Melanie to detect boy-eunuchs. My character Jason, asks her that exact thing when they have their meet-cute. I assure you though, her answer remains true to her nature.

I'll send you the complete story if you'd like to read it.

I'll head on over to check out "First Boy - Conclusion" right away. I'm excited to read it.

Thanks again,

Cainanite

[curious_guy]

Please keep the stories in 12pt type, and single spaced. DO NOT double space your entries. Do not put spaces above or below your paragraphs.

I realized that I could not write my stories without spaces between paragraphs. I write them in my regular way. When they are finished, I use the Replace function in NoteTab Standard to replace "^P^P" with "^P". I use "Replace All" and NoteTab Standard removes all the blank lines between paragraphs in one or two seconds. NotePad Light which is Freeware will do the same thing.