2019: Total novice. Bare with me.
****
Update 2021 (spoiler alert):
Well, I guess I’m slightly less of a novice now, but my prose still suffers from a profession that requires a technical, efficient writing style, so my pacing, dialogue and word choices need help. Also, you may notice I have trouble staying serious with this genre, and most of my stories seem to devolve into fantasy romances just barely credible enough to keep you from launching your iPad across the room. You’ve been warned.
Nevertheless, a few kind souls have been nice enough to send compliments and suggestions. I deeply appreciate it! I spend a lot of time polishing these stories.
A quick note on ratings: Apparently there’s a reason so many of these stories settle at 4.8 or just below. Popular stories are frequently down-voted with '1-bombs,' perhaps for Hall of Fame competition-related reasons. I've seen Productive Conversation rated at 4.88, Thanksgiving Break at 4.86, and Club Caribe at 4.89, after hundreds of votes. Bonding Party was at 4.85, but the day it accrued enough votes to be in the Hall (as #3 All-Time, probably due to other bombing), two “1” votes reduced it to 4.77. Book Club was at 4.84 when it first qualified for the Hall. At this level it takes around 25 votes of ‘5’ to offset a ‘1’, so please upvote to offset the trolls!
****
2023:
Maybe I’m getting the hang of this. According to my rough tracking of its first 50 scores, “Stormy Weather” would rate 4.94, absent three much lower scores. Like the others, it will end up at 4.79, of course.
