News & Views - August 12, 2007

[dude]

Hi gang…

We have recently instituted an AwesomeDude Editorial Board which is now helping me to select new authors and stories for AwesomeDude. It is made up of folks whose names you probably know, a cross section of the talented authors and editors who toil daily to produce the stories you like to read. If you are a new author submitting your story to AwesomeDude it will be screened by the Board. More details on this process in subsequent News & Views columns.

Earlier this year we instituted the Feedback Forms system for stories newly posted at AwesomeDude. As I get caught up with the current stories, I’m working backwards until all Novels and Short Stories on the site will have the form. Here’s how it works. At the end of the current chapter of a serialized novel, there’s a form where you can easily send your comments to the author. You can even do it anonymously if you like. Just fill in the form and it goes automatically by email to the author with the title of the story in the subject line. In the case of completed novels… the Feedback Form will be at the end of the final chapter. Remember, authors receive no compensation other than your appreciation, for their hours of writing. And now –with the Feedback Form- we’ve made it even easier for you to tell your favorite author just how much you appreciate his or her stories.

Each month, we feature a novel and a short story that have been on the front page of AwesomeDude in the past but may have been out of the spotlight so long that many have never read them. We call this section Dude’s Story Picks. For the month of August, we’re featuring Tim Comes Home by Brighton, England-based author Nick Turner. It’s a story I never tire of… by one of the best authors here at AwesomeDude. If you like the story… please let Nick know so he’ll write more for us. This month’s pick short story is actually two by Graeme A Letter to My Son and Another Letter to My Son. Both are very entertaining and have the added feature of Graeme himself reading them aloud. Just follow the link to the story page and click on the arrow button to hear the story read in Graeme's own voice.

If you’ve already read our Picks this month… why not surf down the Author pages of the folks listed on the left margin of the AD Home Page.

In addition to the AD main site and the AD Forums we also feature Blogs by many of our authors and other site members. If you are a registered member of our Forums… you’re welcome to start your own blog with us. Some of the blots… especially by some of our popular authors… are as entertaining as their stories. Don’t believe me? well as an example… check out (Ele)Civil Disobedience which keeps me in stitches. For those fans who can’t just get enough of EC… don’t miss his blog!

OK.. here ‘s a touchy subject. Forum spammers who post commercial or pornographic messages on sites like ours. They are attempting to register as legitimate members of the AD Forums at the rate of about 200 a week. I spend considerable time going through and deleting the obvious ones… but unfortunately, we often throw out the baby with the bathwater… that is delete requests of legitimate people who want to join the AD Forums. As there is no announcement when registering for the Forums to tell you this.. I’ll try to do it regularly here. Once you register at the AD Forums… please send me an email at dude@awesomedude.com and tell me you want to be approved. SpamBots can’t read this and won’t do so… but you can. Just tell me the username you have registered and I’ll go in and manually approve it. Until we can solve this problem which plagues every site I know with a message board… that’s the best I can do.

Let’s take a look at new chapters posted this week.

Sequoyah’s Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels , which is about gay teens in North Carolina, moves right along. Chapters are forthcoming regularly now that the bottle neck has been resolved at the editor’s desk in Australia. Chapter 26 hs been posted.

Thanks to Douglas for his really enjoyable Gang Of Five novel which wraps up this week with Chapter 16 – The Epilog. Want to read more of Douglas? A link to his short story Please Come With Me can be found on his Author Page.

Graeme’s novel Heart Of The Tree about teens in a small Australian town concludes Part 3 (The Heart Revealed) with Chapter 25 this week on a sad but hopeful note. The final Part 4 will be starting soon.

My Jump Off by Nickolas James is up to Chapter 7 and will soon be followed by its sequel Staking My Claim, posted both Wednesdays and Saturdays at AwesomeDude. These are earlier novels by Nick and we’ll also be adding his very first one, What’s The Difference Between Me and You? to his Author Page in the coming week and noticing you about it in this space next Sunday.

Jeet by Josh is truly an unusual story and has me spellbound… as we mentioned last week. Chapter six has been posted.

Sky’s The Limit by Captain Rick is another story that has become a must read for many AwesomeDude visitors. Read it and you’ll know why. Book II Chapter 7 is available now.

A note… Jamie and editor AJ both inform me the next chapter of The Scrolls of Icaria isn’t far off. Jamie has been swamped lately as he teaches and acquires degrees… hand over fist. We’ll post it as soon as it arrives here at AwesomeDude.

Time to wrap things up. Again… tell your authors how much you appreciate them.. by filling out the Feedback Forms on their story pages… or emailing them with the addresses listed on the Author Pages.

Til next week this time… have a great week of reading!