Talo Segura

I don't generally like epilogues, certainly they serve to wrap up a story, but they also define that story and the history of the characters and in so doing take away how the reader might have imagined the future. I believe stories are usually better left open and in this tale it was enough to know Perry was saved and he wasn't the gay idol everyone imagined. This was an excellent book up to the finish which left Ross with Brian and Nicky somewhat unexplained. Perry was talked down dramatically from the brink, all the relationships were tied up neatly, Dante, who knows? I enjoyed the story right up to the incident, the summary ending was disappointing because it was just that, a summary with no understanding or detail. The story transitioned from the detailed introspection and self-discovery to... this is how nearly everybody ended up. So, I loved the story, but would skip the epilogue.

A different world, what happened next?

Now we know how things changed for Perry, but not why the other kids hate him. It can't be just because he's pretty?

This I completely understand, you don't want to give the keys to the safe without knowing to whom you are entrusting the treasure. Arch Hunter, certainly a pseudonym, I talked to four years ago in August 2020 when I edited his first story. I disappeared for a few years and haven't talked to him since, nor have I kept emails from four years ago. What I can tell you, which you can see for yourself, is he's written a lot since then. His writing is young and contemporary. Who he is, that is as much a mystery as who anybody is here. What is true is he is Polish and lives in Poland, English is not his first language. If you want my impressions, I agree with @Altimexis he's a promising author, I wouldn't count not being promoted on GA as meaning anything, because promotion there carries constraints, like publishing first, which prevents a lot of authors. Anyhow, more important is that you get a feeling for a person, even when contact is online, and my feeling is he's a good guy. I'm not sure he would want to take on the job and as for publishing here, the big negative is feedback, which relies on the forum and occasional emails. That is just not enough, but that is another topic for another discussion. Final point, if you really think someone is going to step up to the job without being head hunted, then, I'm sorry, but I think you might have a long wait. In my humble opinion, you got to push things and take what's available, after all you can still keep control. It's like appointing a director of operations, they can always get voted out! I would start by putting together the Board of directors from the guys you trust here and getting more recommendations for candidates.

If we're making suggestions, check out Arch Hunter: https://twitter.com/archhunter0/ https://gayauthors.org/profile/36687-arch-hunter/ https://www.patreon.com/archhunter About Me: I'm a gay dude, musician, gamer, and as of recently, author writing gay romance stories involving young teens. I was born and continue to live in Poland. If you like I'll contact him, seems like the kind of ideal candidate, although who knows if he would even want to do it. But he has the right profile.

This hardly counts too much as research. However, there are some sites out there where younger teens can read stories for free. Free is the word to keep in mind. Young teens looking for gay themed stories they can identify with probably aren't looking to buy books. So those free sites, the competition: https://www.wattpad.com/list/40391579-bl-teens Probably the biggest site, commercial, with lots of content, but no quality control, anybody can post anything, but authors can get feedback, there is interaction. https://raysstories.com/novels.php#Jeremys_Swimming_Lessons Link to a novel (chosen at random), the site has stories, needs further investigation. https://www.alexsanchez.com/gay-teen-books Same as above, a site with stories. https://blog.reedsy.com/short-stories/gay/ Big commercial site, but one I find friendly. It has a free section and some gay stories. Feedback, interaction? https://www.quotev.com/stories/Gay+Short+Story A source of free stories, need to look closer. https://lgbtqreads.com/access/free-lgbtqreads/ Nice site, free reads. That then is the competition which appears on a Google search for free young teen gay themed stories. Apart from these story sites there is huge competition from the short gay films on YouTube. Question number one is: is there a place for Codey's World? If there is, then what should it look like to be pertinent and attractive, and what are the rules? My opinion reflects Cole's and what has always been fundamental to the site, no porn, no blatant over the top sex, some quality control, and most important some feedback, even if it is only vague site numbers. Next up the site, home page needs a revamp. Cut down and focused. One or two promoted stories. Yes it needs authors and new material, but not any old crap! I'm not sure how you get a site named Codey's World to appear in the search engines, not from the title. Obviously you want to keep that name, I would underline it with a sub-title on the home page. Something like: Gay themed stories for teens. You asked if the site should concentrate only on stories and my answer is yes. Don't get into giving advice or solving problems, you can't be a Jack of all trades! I kind of like the idea of story artwork, so the stories have an attractive cover. The site needs to be appealing to the audience. I'd also see developing a small group from the readership to select, comment, vote on stories. The participation is important. I'd seek authors, artwork, and the judges/commentators. And those judges/commentators would be young adults. My thoughts. The site has a place and that place can be summed up by: quality gay themed stories for teens.

I understand your anger and the author did a great job in bringing the story to this point, a cliffhanger. But, hold on a minute with the police and US justice system, these are kids and kids sometimes make bad choices and do stupid things. There's a collective direction that they all got swept up in. Put them in court and they might all get sentenced to 100 years detention with no hope of parole. I don't like too much criticising another country's police and justice system when I don't know the country except from what I read, but the system of justice in the US comes across as warped and vindictive. I hope Ross finds Perry and the trauma gets worked through, I don't want even the bad guys marked for life!

That's how my story which is posting now started out, an intriguing image that posed an awful lot of questions. Then the story developed around the characters, their relationships, and their conflicts. But it wasn't simply character led, because the storyline contained a crime which the protagonist's father was accused of. This added an important other element I wanted in the story, how it gets resolved. In fact the whole story was a question of how things get resolved. What I loved about the crime element was the twist to that resolution. An outcome that joined the two different parts together, the crime and the characters personal conflicts. I liked constructing a plot with the idea that you can be faced with a dilemma, a difficult choice, although maybe, no choice at all? So, yes, the way you wrote your story is very normal, how you developed it, the layers you added and how it's resolved, well that's what you ended up with through developing characters and plot.

I feel as nervous as Ross that something bad is going to happen to Perry and it was not very reassuring when he said: "I like it here. It’s my favorite place. I hope one day that this is the last sight I ever see."

The stats are very interesting and I agree very reasonable in respect of the site, encouraging even! You are doing a great job and I appreciate the open communication. It is complex and not very easy to analyse all the numbers and you have to work within the software constraints you have. I am full of admiration for the job you are doing. Thank you very much.

You both, Cole and Merkin make a fair point, if it's not broken don't fix it. If the site can run on donations for finance then other revenue sources are not needed. Serilised stories are a historic format, but times do change. Today's tendency, looking at television series, is to watch them when you like and as many episodes as you like, even binging a whole season of episodes. One installment a week, like one chapter a week can be a little frustrating, although you can argue just wait until the whole thing's published. I don't know how many page hits stories get, how many site visitors, or the sites long term viability. I do think it lacks dynamism. In a world of likes and comments, there is no way to like stories and chapters, comments are shifted off site to the forum. On the forum you seldom see the authors, what interaction exists is between a tiny group of supporters who've been here forever! Still, it's your baby, you nurture it as is your predisposition, I only hope it's still around for the next twenty years. That's my reason for the suggestion, to keep the place alive.

There are two significant points raised: the amount of work involved and keeping people coming back to the site. The amount of work involved in compiling an ebook using reedsy is not much, I've done it and would volunteer. Keeping people coming back to the site, nothing would change, the present periodic chapter posting would continue. The unknowns: how much work, cost, is involved to load and store the ebooks? Certainly setting up the system and payment involves significant work, but that is a one off, with some maintenance ongoing. Would the revenue generated justify the work? Another unknown, but there is huge potential. Any decision rests with the site admin and I have only a vague idea as to who and how deeply those persons are involved. I understand it is a sort of hobby, leisure activity, and not a paid job running the site, which is probably the biggest argument against any changes. I would just add, I set up a site for downloading ebooks using a free commercial hosting system and it didn't take too much work. The books are free to download, so no payment system involved, and the download process is messy because I didn't want paid for hosting, but it works. This is not a plug, but an example: https://the-gay-fiction-library.site123.me/

I didn't find it hard to believe, but I do wonder why? Making a stand against such a group unanimity on Ross' part is at once courageous and at the same time suicidal. He is risking everything and he doesn't know the full story, one might presume he is madly, blindly, head over heels, in love?

Music for me is an intricately woven thread that runs through life. In the summer of '67 I was on vacation walking across the Dorset countryside with a rucksack on my shoulders and sturdy leather boots on my feet, the youngest boy in a small band of boys. The sunshine washed the landscape and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was playing on a tinny transistor radio. Sure I'd heard music before, but this was different, an adventure away from parents accompanied by our own soundtrack. Seven years later and seven years older it was the Moody Blues that were the soundtrack accompanying us on another adventure. This one more esoteric and spiritual. No longer a boy, not quite an adult, on the brink of fleeing the parental nest. If I think right back to when I was a very young boy, it was the melodic strains of Morning Has Broken which accompanied us into morning assembly. Not the version sung by Cat Steven's, that came later, but the children's hymn written by Eleanor Farjeon, in an epoch when every British school was Christian and morning assemblies were held each day, with prayers and hymns. "If music be the food of love, play on." Shakespeare's play explores love and being in love, starting with a naive, adolescent love, and into other areas, such as falling in love at first sight, deluding oneself about someone being in love with one, falling in love with someone of the same sex. Music accompanies our lives, it is the food of love, and defines our memories, whatever the music, often we don't even choose it!

I have always preferred to read a book as a whole, pick up and put down the story whenever I want, where ever I want, as opposed to reading piecemeal online. The argument for keeping people on the site to attract advertising doesn't hold true, because there is no advertising. Storage space and running the site cost money and this is covered by donations, but how about an alternative or complimentary business model. One which is unique and not done anywhere else! When a story, of a minimum length (20k words, novella) is complete, convert it to an ebook (reedsy.com), could be done by volunteers (not too time consuming), store the ebook somewhere online for download. When a new story starts publishing (one or two chapters online) offer the ebook for download at a small and reasonable price. The revenue raised supports the site and author, for example five dollars (4.60 Euros, 3.97 pounds sterling) per book, a dollar or two to the author, the rest to run the site. Preferably an anonymous payment system? It doesn't go against free gay themed stories, because you can still wait to read the story. Why would anyone buy a free story? Why does anyone donate? To support the site, to support the author, to get something, an ebook to keep, it's kind of nice to have your own library. The remuneration of the author just gives a little bonus and maybe attracts new authors. The site still has complete editorial control.