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I Slept With My Friend’s Ex
By: The Despicable Hippie
Tags: Love, Love Letters, Lovestory, Romance, Novel

Photo by Noah Smith on Unsplash

It is my fault?

Before you answer, let me explain.

My friend had broken up with his girlfriend, also from our group of friends, from what he told me, two weeks ago. She and I, she had made the invitation, had agreed to go see the stars, from the top of the mountain, here in our area, using my telescope (not a euphemism).

The assembly of the telescope, because it is elaborated and complete, takes about fifteen minutes, and after having finished assembling it, my friend’s ex begins to kiss me. I don’t have the habit of looking at my watch, but we found ourselves in my car, kissing, closer to the next stages, while my valuable and very expensive telescope was outside.

I know, I should have interrupted the kiss out of respect for my friend, and I also know that until now, 50% of the fault is mine, but also, due to Covid-19, it has been difficult to be single, you understand, right?

Let’s move on…

As for sex, it was the best I’ve ever had, neither of both of us felt pressured to anything, everything went so smoothly, like a river running its course, without interruption, that we both came to the conclusion that, what we had done, had been the best of our life.

But, we had to talk later, (I know, so many things to do with the mouth, we have to waste on talking), taking into account the number of laws that we were breaking, from the Bro Code to the national law, we were lucky, nobody had driven up the mountain, considering that it is a very desirable place for that act, and we came to the conclusion that it was only wrong if one of us had been forced to do, and from the moment, that we were both in tune, it is not wrong, so, on our part, everything was quiet, also, we had discovered sex from another world, and it wouldn’t be the last time we were going to do it.

As for my friend, well, if neither of us tells him, it only happened for both of us, there is no need to add more people.

Based on real events.
Top 3 Best LGBTQ novels
Tags: LGBTQ, LGBT, Books, Reading, Novel

We’ve all been there. Heterosexual novels getting a bit boring. Samantha falls in love with Jake they date; Jake cheats and Samantha realizes that her best friend is the right one for her after all. Where is the flavor? Recently as a member of the LGBTQ community, I’ve been going through a few novels that have made my reading far more enjoyable: here are the top 3 best LGBTQ novels that I have read.

We are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

This book was absolutely fantastic. Truly. I have not read anything better and it remains at the top of my list. This book follows the character, Henry Denton. Henry’s boyfriend committed suicide last year, his brother is a college dropout her grandmother has Alzheimer's, and her mom is struggling to keep the family sane. As for the father-he's gone. Henry gets abducted by aliens every now and then but one fateful day they show him a huge red button. He has to choose in 144 days either to simply click it and save the world, or ignore it and let the world explode. In these 144 days, Henry learns so much more about the world and changes his views on many things. What do you think? will he click the button?

2. At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

Shaun David Hutchinson-props to you man. This book was another slapper that had me staying up until literally, 3 am. This novel follows Ozzie, a teenager whose’s best friend/boyfriend goes missing. And by missing I don't mean he ran away. He simply ceased to exist in everyone's minds. Except for Ozzie. The book follows Ozzie and his ideologies and theories of how his boyfriend disappeared. Throughout the novel, there are so many shocking moments, and I would give anything to just read this book again for the first time.

3. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

This one is a classic. Whether you wanted to or not, you have heard of this book. This book is about a man named Dorian Gray who seems to be visually perfect. He lives in a society where worth is based on your youth, or how young one looks. Major plot twist at the end though, prepare yourself.
The Fires of Vengeance : By — Evan Winter — GoBookMart
By: Gobookmart Review
Tags: Book Review, Book Recommendations, Books And Authors, Books, Novel

The Fires of Vengeance : By — Evan Winter

By — Evan Winter

The Fires of Vengeance is the 2nd Novel in the series, an African / Xhosa inspired epic fantasy. First novel “Rage of dragons” was one of my favourite ever debuts and this one is a strong, confident continuation.

First novel was a tribute to Rage, and suffering, 2nd novel also brings pain to life. Through both novels, there is a basic topic of love. It’s said that incredible writers best work is possibly accomplished when in connect with their feelings, fueling their best work. If so then something in Evan winters life controls his narrative, the novel is a symphony to his knowledge of emotional turmoil.

The power all through the books is rooted in their feeling. The novel is not uncommon, the emotion is. Rage and anger, filled the plot and gave the novel life. passion came from its feelings, from the writers life experience and bleeds through in each page.

Toward the beginning of The Fires of Vengeance, it soon become certain that agony becomes a motivator for Tau and his companions. Anger and love take a backseat to the new driving feeling. Tau, Jabaris and the others battle through the story. Showing now and again, different central feelings as the story powers on. The content is eloquent and practically hypnotic now and again. I forgot about time regularly as I became enchanted by the worldbuilding once again..

It’s difficult to portray the book. The story covers just a brief period. Their is nothing major happened, a couple of chase and battles, a little fight, a couple of others later but then nothing truly occurs. Simultaneously, everything changes.

This book changes, in part from the tale of the person’s legend’s excursion, to the advancement of a group’s hero’s excursion. Fortunately it keeps on focusing on the hero, Tau.

It’s difficult to explain the novel without spoilers, so I won’t. The feeling, it’s still as crude and merciless and painful as in book one. It’s the reason people will cherish this.
Hesper #1
By: Miaw Hooman
Tags: Teens, Romance, Storytelling, Novel

okay, i'm just a cat who love writing. It's clear?
How You Can Use 7 Simple Literary Techniques To Make Your Commercial Fiction Shine
By: Emily Sinclair Montague
Tags: Fiction, Literature, Writing, Books, Novel

The Unreliable Narrator

Using an unreliable narrator is a delightfully devious device, perhaps most famously exemplified in the controversial novel Lolita, by author Vladimir Nabokov.

Other examples of unreliable narrators would be Holden Caufield in Catcher in the Rye and the unnamed narrator in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Tell-Tale Heart. What is the common theme in all of these classics? The narration is suspect.

By that, I mean that the narrator cannot be trusted — their character is biased to the point that everything they say and every view they hold is also biased.

The reader is only given the narrator’s dubious perspective, and any conclusions made outside of that perspective have to be reached through the events of the plot or through interactions with other characters.

In Lolita, the narrator is a pedophile named Humbert Humbert who kidnaps his stepdaughter and takes her across the country to abuse her — all this after he basically causes the death of her mother (and his wife).

But in the view of Humbert himself, his sick desires and evil motivations aren’t sick or evil at all. Take this assertion, for example:

“All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other’s soul and flesh.”

In Humbert’s view — and therefore the reader’s assumed view — a 12-year-old girl is madly in love with him, just as he is in love with her. In reality, he is a sociopathic, obsessive pedophile who has been grooming and abusing her since they first met.

Lolita, whose name is really Dolores, manages to give the readers clues as to the reality of her situation despite — and at times even through — Humbert’s unreliable narration. For example, you catch a glimpse of reality through Humbert’s reflections in this scene:

“I catch myself thinking today that our long journey had only defiled with a sinuous trail of slime the lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country that by then, in retrospect, was no more to us than a collection of dog-eared maps, ruined tour books, old tires, and her sobs in the night — every night, every night — the moment I feigned sleep.”

These clues are given by another character and mark the unreliable narrator as unreliable for readers, which consequently allows for a slower unfurling of the truths and twists that otherwise could be glaring.

Using this device in genre fiction means that you can keep the language simple, but still add an element of uncertainty that will keep readers on their toes.

This is especially powerful in commercial genres such as suspense, thrillers, and crime fiction. It also works well in mystery novels.

Ways you can use an Unreliable Narrator (UN) in your genre fiction:
Bøkene til Ø. H. Solheim til salgs i Heim Bokhandel
By: Øivind H. Solheim
Tags: Books, Poetry, Novel

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Hesper #2
By: Miaw Hooman
Tags: Teens, Romance, Novel

okay, i'm just a cat who love writing. It's clear?
Crossing the Chasm — Part 1 (Complete With 7 Parts)
By: Lynda Coker
Tags: Fiction, Jessica, Books, Romance, Novel

Excerpt

Like a vice, he penned her tight against his body with one hand and pressed the other hand against her mouth. He turned her slightly to the left, just enough to give her a view of the truck at the bottom of the hill and the two men beside it.

She understood the need for quiet. But, did he really need to forcefully muzzle her? Using tactics, which in the past had afforded her small victories against her older brothers, she bit down on the fingers pressed across her teeth.

This time, he was the one struggling to stifle a groan. He jerked his hands from her and she lost no time stepping out of his reach.

He glared at her with the promise of retribution in his molten eyes and the pout of an injured boy on his lips. He took a step toward her. She retreated. If not for the shout coming from the truck, the tactical dance might have lasted until dawn. ~

How I imagine Jessica — Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Prologue:

Jessica trailed behind a large family group as she made her way toward the boarding area for her flight home. Her thoughts swirled with delightful memories of the past three weeks spent with her dearest friend, Victoria, and her five adorable children. Meeting the newest addition, six-week-old baby Aziz, was the catalyst for her extended vacation in Ahalamin.

She paused as the group in front of her stopped suddenly. A little girl darted from the center of the throng to chase a purple ball that was now rolling in Jessica’s direction. The child was soon swept up into a man’s arms and consoled as she broke into great sobs.

Jessica stooped to pick up the ball and hurried to return it.

Screams shattered the domestic scene as gunfire terrorized and scattered people in all directions. Men in black robes and covered faces swooped out of nowhere to force the family group into a tight huddle.

Jessica felt the push from behind and staggered forward with the others. The next five minutes passed in a blur of shouting, pushing, and more gunfire. Before the shock wore off enough for her to take evasive action, she was shoved into the back of a truck along with several other adults.

It was then she realized that these abductors had mistaken her for part of the family group because of her near proximity. That was the last coherent thought she had as a hard object jabbed into the back of her head…

To be continued…
The Thursday Murder Club : By — Richard Osman — GoBookMart
By: Gobookmart Review
Tags: Book Review, Book Recommendations, Books And Authors, Books, Novel

The Thursday Murder Club : By — Richard Osman

By — Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club is a shrewd secret about a gathering of senior residents who end up in the focal point of a homicide investigation.

Living in a retirement town isn’t typically the best approach to go to the notification of the neighbourhood police office or become some portion of a selective club examining a real life killing! however This is what befalls Joyce, as she turns into the newest member of the eponymous Thursday Murder Club.

Each Thursday, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Joyce, and Ron, occupants of Coopers Chase Retirement Village, meet to audit cold case murder documents. Their previous careers give them the mastery to solve crimes, yet it isn’t until a current homicide happens that they genuinely put their skills to the test. Utilizing their age and foundations for their potential benefit, these characters play against stereotypes to address the crime.

Richard Osman, the notable presenter of House of Games and Pointless on the BBC, consistently appears to be an altogether decent person. As a writer, his knowledge and creative mind have been given free rein and the subsequent work is excellent. Individuals in his fictional world, no doubt are generally fair, however all have past they would far rather stayed hidden. He utilizes this facts to make reasonable, sympathetic, and balanced characters which, added to an astounding plotline and comprehension of human nature, delivers a novel which is both comfortable and crafty in equivalent measure.

I altogether enjoyed this Novel, it flowed and moved along at a decent pace. I had no issue working out whodunnit — just to discover I was totally wrong! Before the end I had one section figured out yet the rest no way off the mark. That doesn’t mean it didn’t work, it did, splendidly, particularly for a first novel, and the ending was satisfyingly right, proposing an unmistakable chance of more incredible books later on.
5 Writing Tips from J.D. Salinger Every Writer Should Pay Attention To
By: Sude Hammal
Tags: Fiction, Writers On Writing, Writing, Books, Novel

Do things because you want to

“But don’t get the idea that I don’t like it, and I’m just writing for the glory or money in it. I’m not, and if I had to write that way, I’d rather be a bum. I write because I want to, and the way I want to and because I like it. And I like the life I lead because I am an author. I tried a regular job once, stuck to it for a year, and then I was sure I wanted to write. I hate routine.”

I can’t imagine a successful writer who doesn’t love to write. You need to have that passion in you to write day and night, to create marvelous characters everyone can resonate with, to come up with witty dialogues and smooth transitions. You have to love writing to turn up and write every day and not only see it as a boring chore to make money.

But most of the time writing regularly requires more than love and passion. You have to find your inner motivation, except for external rewards like money and praise. Ask yourself why you write at all. What do you enjoy writing about the most and what do you think this world needs, is there a problem you want to solve and shed light on.

Don’t write about something only because it’s trendy and what you think will bring the most money and praise. Or if you want to write about such topics, bring your own wit and way to the issue so it stands out and contributes in an extraordinary way.

Lastly, here is the advice he gave to Joyce Maynard on this matter:

“What I want for you, kid, is to write about what you truly love, and nothing, but nothing, less than that. Not beauty pageants and high school proms, or television personalities or movie stars, or interviews with daughters of Republican presidents or Democratic presidents or even the presidents themselves. Or, if you do those things, what I want is for you to find a way to do them with nothing less than originality and tenderness and love.”
On being in a foreign country
By: Paulo Henrique Lemos
Tags: Literature, Foreign Language, Books, Quotes, Novel

Being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground without the net afforded a person by the country where he has his family, colleagues, and friends, and where he can easily say what he has to say in a language he has known from childhood.
Welcome to The Writers’ Room
By: Stella Samuel
Tags: Screenwriting, Copywriting, Content Marketing, Writing, Novel

Welcome to The Writers’ Room, where writers come together and share tips, tricks, and special powers.



Writers, no matter the writing realm, can often be found in a writing cave (office, coffee shop, wherever there is peace, quiet, or even world-drowning noise) alone with open craft books surrounding balled up pieces of paper, sticky notes, and writing utensils abound. Maybe we don’t all write in such clutter, but no matter how it looks from the outside, the truth is, no matter how or where we write, words typically fly from our fingertips without pause for editing — or sometimes, thinking.

Welcome to The Writers’ Room, where we will share the knowledge, uplift, and hopefully, inspire writers everywhere.



Writing doesn’t have to be — it shouldn’t be — a lonely world. When we build a tribe around us, we get the support we need to grow and develop our craft.

Please join us in The Writers’ Room.
The First Date (Sort of)
By: Rebeca Ansar
Tags: Fiction, Storytelling, Short Story, Short Fiction, Novel

“So, several bad relationships in the last few years?” Samar asked, grabbing a piece of bread from the generously stocked basket between them.

Afra nodded. “I had a policy of only dating men I hated.”

She took a big gulp of her Merlot and cleared her throat. “How about you?”

Samar held up his right index finger.

“I’ll wait,” Afra assumed it was a gesture.

Samar swallowed quickly. “No, I mean- I’ve only had one.”

“One what?”

“Relationship.”

Afra couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. “You have only been in one relationship since we graduated? Samar that’s,” she quickly checked her math, “seven years.”

He nodded. “Yep.”

“Okay,” she said slowly. “How long did it last?”

The server approached their dimly lit table. Afra suddenly felt self-conscious about her dwindling glass of wine. Samar’s was still half-full.

“Can I get either of you a refill?” she beamed.

“Am I the only one who’s drinking?” Afra asked with a tinge of nervousness in her voice.

“That’s kind of the thing about losing so much weight. Alcohol hits you differently. Harder.” he responded. “You can top me off,” he said to the server. “But,” he turned his gaze to Afra, “I’m going to drink this slowly.”

“I’ll take a refill,” Afra smiled. Her eyes assessed the restaurant as her drink was poured. It was aesthetically pleasing. Dim lighting, lush greenery, and solid mahogany tables surrounded them.

Once they were alone again, he said, “We lasted a year.”

“I have many questions,” Afra responded.

“Actually, me too.”

She bit her lip. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to pollute this conversation with talk of exes.”

Samar sat back in his chair and smiled. “I’m okay with that.”

“This is a very nice restaurant.” It felt like an expensive place. Afra wondered if they were on a date.
The Beauty in Our Days
By: Øivind H. Solheim
Tags: Relationships, Love, Communication, Creative Writing, Novel

“We must take care of the beauty of the days.”

In the kitchen drawer, she has a secret notebook, a kind of journal where she writes about some of the small events in the everyday life.

She writes a few words if during the day if she has talked to her mother on the phone, or if she has been out in the morning and had a coffee with a friend.

She also uses to write short notes about the weather, whether it is sun, wind or snow:

“Called mom. She was fine.” … “Good weather today, a little sun.” Or: “Cloudy, is it raining?” Or: “Snow today.” … “Wind in pine wood.” … “The snow melted. Rain.”

She almost always writes only a few words, telegram style. She does not quite know with herself exactly why she is doing this. When she thinks about it once in a while, after she has written a few words, she mostly thinks that it is good that it has been done. An everyday ritual, to keep the weekdays in place.
After All I’ve Done : By — Mina Hardy — GoBookMart
By: Gobookmart Review
Tags: Book Review, Book Recommendations, Books And Authors, Books, Novel

After All I’ve Done : By — Mina Hardy

By — Mina Hardy

After All I’ve Done by Mina Hardy is filled with suspense. Diana Sparrow is recovering from an accident that left her with two broken collarbones and a few months void in her memories. Fortunately her mother-in-law Harriett Richmond is close by to think about her. but, what truly makes Diana happy is that her husband Jonathan is spending time away from home. Their marriage has been stressed for a long while and she also found he is having affair with her childhood best friend Valerie “Val” Delagatti. However, Diana can’t leave him since her wounds are taking long time to heal and a pre-nup agreement. At last recapturing a portion of her freedom, she is starting to feel smothered by Harriett. Diana is unexpectedly started feeling outrageous sluggishness alongside a couple of other baffling symptoms.

Diana’s lost memories may stay away forever and she is haunted by bad dreams. Resolved to invest energy all alone, she starts going to a most loved coffeehouse and she pursues an art class. She additionally make friendship with Cole who is likewise taking the class. But who is this puzzling outsider? By all appearances, Cole is compassionate and caring, but is his pleasant persona simply an act? or is it safe to say that he is trying to help Diana? Or then again is there a more vile purpose behind his association with her?

Val is the only individual Diana would trust. The two ladies are long lasting companions who reinforced over their broken and injurious childhoods. Their fellowship has always been close, however Val has a plan as she keeps carrying on her on going affair with Jonathan. Does Val know more about what occurred during Diana’s lost memory time than she is letting on? Furthermore, exactly how far would she go to take Diana’s husband for herself?

Shifting back and forth between three unmistakable perspectives, After All I’ve Done is a fast pace and exciting mystery. Diana’s character is justified very well and her battles to recover her health and missing memories are practically depicted. Harriett is the caring mother Diana never had. Jonathan and Val are hard to like as they stay self-absorbed while the individual they purport to love battles in the result of her accident. With an eye-popping unexpected development, Mina Hardy carries this entrancing suspenseful thrill ride to a totally jaw, dropping end. I altogether delighted in and HIGHLY recommend this domestic mystery.
Girls In a Dark Well: Short Fiction
By: Literary English
Tags: Prostitute House, Girls In A Dark Well, Short Fiction, Novella, Novel

Girls in a Dark Well is novella based short fiction written by an Asian young writer Sajid Iqbal Khan. The story of the novella is much interesting and based on some real and bitter facts of the current society. Initially the name of novella was “Holy Prostitute” but later on, suggested by some friends, the name was changed to “Girls in a Dark Well”.

In the story, A man encourages his friend, who is a poor teenager, to make a girlfriend to sell her to a prostitute house to grab handsome money to bring himself out of mercy of society. The poor boy was surprised to hear the amount of huge money offered by the man. Initially he hesitates to do so but the man motivates him and encourages him that he can do such easy and profitable business.

The story progresses and boy becomes successful in making a girlfriend and soon he wins her heart. He tells the man about the progress and man guides him further. The day was fixed to entrap the girl while she was on a date on farmhouse of that man.

What happened there? The boy was inspired by her true love and also falls in love with her. The boy postpones his intentions to sell her to prostitute house but the man, in a tricky way, call the boy outside the farm house to make him agree but when boy returns there is no girl.

The innocent, poor boy, first time in love with a girl, promises himself to bring back that girl into his life. The story progresses slowly towards climax. The boy , pretends to have another girlfriend, ask man to sell another girl but the man was trapped by the boy. The climax reaches when he explore prostitute network, the way they are in work in central Asia, and how girls were being entrapped into prostitute house. He make a trap successfully and brings her girlfriend back but reader startle how she spends few nights in prostitute house and how the boy became so brave that he killed four person throughout the story.

Although story has a happy ending, but with tincture of grief, woes, and miseries of the girls living in Central Asia.

The complete novella Girls in a Dark Well is available at

https://literaryenglish.com/girls-in-a-dark-well-short-fiction/
Mnes
By: Enzo Seven
Tags: Write, Enzo Seven, Short Story, Story, Novel

Mnes

Empty.

I grab the cup to drink yet there’s no liquid to kill my thirst, I grab the spoon to eat yet there’s no food to fill my hunger, I lay down and reach for the blanket but I had nothing there but space nothing to warm me at night, I call my phone to talk to you but no one on the other side, I go outside at night, the street lights are all off, no lights to brighten my way, I feel alone in this dark, I’m walking and walking yet I find nothing, the space I’m in is becoming louder and louder but yet I’m all alone, I come to my destination and finally everything becomes quiet, peaceful at last, but now I want to go back to where I came from, the peacefulness is where the noise is, I’m here now, I’m sorounded but no one to talk to, the isolation makes me feel more alive than here, what is it that I want I’m now sieng the light but it becomes too bright for me to see, I walk back the road becomes longer,

I’m struggling to get back at a point I decide to had back to the light but it was too hard to see, so I kept going to the dark, walking and walking till I reach my destination, I’m here now I open the door, I’m walking in, no one is here, but the space became loud again, I don’t feel alone in this dark I feel good in my own presents in this dark, my own company never felt this good.

….

…..

…….

……….

……………..

I grab a cup to drink, it kills my thirst, I grab the spoon to eat my food, it fills me up, I lay down and reach for the blanket, it warms me up, I feel warm now at night, I call my phone to talk to you and you were on the other side, I go outside at night, the street lights are all on, they brighten my way, I feel comfortable in my own presents, I’m walking and walking, I find someone, the space I’m in is now filled.

I am now at peace.

Maybe this is what I want?…

The End.

Enzo Seven.
“Just Try A Little”
By: Rebeca Ansar
Tags: Fiction, Storytelling, Short Story, Short Fiction, Novel

Afra lingered outside for a moment, taking a few more solitary breaths before entering the party whose muffled noise now reached her through the patio door. Finally, she wrapped her hand around the doorknob and turned right.

Some woman whose name she probably never attached to a face came up to her with a knowing smile. “There’s a surprise for you!”

A bit of Afra’s buzz floated away at that ominous statement.

She heard her mother’s rambunctious voice echoing through the living room. “Where’s my daughter!” It was sung as a statement.

Quickly, the woman’s eyes became fixed upon Afra, whose reactions were still slow from the voluntary anesthetizing.

She scuttled over and grabbed her daughter’s wrist, pulling her in. “There’s a very handsome six-foot-tall boy who is coming to the party to drop off his mother.”

Several thoughts raced through Afra’s mind. Why did her mother love this performance of closeness so much? Wouldn’t the real thing be better. It took all of Afra’s restraint to feed her mother’s delusion that she was capable of actually being her daughter’s confidant.

Afra thought about fighting with her mother about this strange man who was obviously being invited so that he could assess her. He had probably already seen photos. Afra wondered which ones. Certainly not those taken of her in a short dress, preparing to take yet another shot of tequila.

No, there was probably some tame photo of her being passed around for the network of aunties to redistribute even further.

She had never seen it, and she was certain that if she asked her mother, all she would receive was a gasp of indirect denial. How could you even think that? and the likes.

Afra nodded.

Her mother stepped back and looked at Afra’s face, mistaking (as she always did) her daughter’s lack of emotion with innocence. Kitna naik chehra meri bachi ka, she smiled.

Afra smiled too, mirroring her mother’s emotions. That was another trick she would never share with the backstabbing simpletons she grew up around.

Either look doe-eyed or mirror a submissive emotion.

Two furrowed lines appeared in front of Afra. “I think you should use some of my lipstick.”

“Mom.”

“You didn’t like it when I took the makeup away 10 years ago and now you don’t like it when I’m offering it back?

Afra sighed. She might have underestimated the necessary level of inebriation.

“How do you know his height?”

With a sly smile on her face, Afra’s mother shuffled her daughter into the bathroom that held trays of fancy perfumes and makeup.

“Just try a little,” she sang.
Covid-19 Vaccine. http://www.ins3.com/JR/video-br-k-v-b-jp…
By: Dit Raj
Tags: Google, Lifestyle, Goodbye, Novel

Google’s 3-Word Plan to Help Employees Avoid Burnout Is So Simple You Should Steal It
Movies on Novels
By: Anshul Angira
Tags: Film, Movies, Writing, Books, Novel

“Some people read War and Peace and think that its a simple novel, others uncover the secrets of the Universe by reading ingredients of a Chewing gum”

This sort-of-ish version of the quote from Superman by Lex Luthor really does sums it all up.

People have different perspectives. I mean there’s a reason that Professor John Keating made all his students stand up on the desk.(Dead Poets Society if you are wondering)

We all love it when studios announce their plans to make movies proclaimed books.

As a movie geek and a book nut I can confidently put this forward that movies have always been underwhelming, a low key version of the books they are built upon.

Now, bear with me.

Yes! the insane graphical clarity does puts the movie on a bigger podium than the book, but for those who have read these books, to them it just seems off.

This story is definitely not focused on Marvel or DC studios.

But instead lets talk about Warner Bros.,

I was honestly taken aback when Ronald Weasley was portrayed as a comic relief. For someone who has read the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling knows that Ron was much more than that.

He was portrayed as a fierce and loyal.

In the movies however, he was shown as a scared, dumb, weak person and all the bold lines he quoted in the books were all given to Hermoine Granger.

For instance,

The Prisoner of Azkaban

Book:

“No, Harry!” Hermione gasped in a petrified whisper; Ron, however spoke to Black. “If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us, too!” he said fiercely, though the effort of standing up had drained him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke. Something flickered in Black’s shadowed eyes. “Lie down,” he said quietly to Ron. “You will damage that leg even more.” “Did you hear me?” Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully to Harry to stay upright. “You’ll have to kill all three of us!”

This is so brave of Ron Weasley, he is standing up for his friend even when he has a broken leg.

But in the movie however,

Its Hermoine, standing in front of Harry threatening Sirius while Ron sits somewhere in the background.

There are several instances in the whole Harry Potter series when Ron has been sidelined.

It may not seem like a big deal as Ron Weasley is not even a real person but for those who have developed an affinity towards Ron it was.

In Ready Player One(2018), Ernest Cline obviously wanted to make the novel filmmable so its totally understandable that he altered a great deal of the story to make it possible.

But in the Movie, Wade Watts is shown as the ultimate fanboy of Halliday who is aware of all pop culture facts and references. He is portrayed as the person everyone approaches to get information useful for the competition.

In the Book however, Its Art3mis who knows more about pop culture and Halliday and even helps Parzival win the competition.

I am not complaining, I enjoyed all the movies, I really did.

It was afterall,

It was just a thought.

AA.
Cyre the son of Heavens.
By: Fils Des Cieux
Tags: Nigerian Writing, Fiction, Crime, Art, Novel

Cyre the son of Heavens.

We were just two days to my twenty-first birthday, i was about getting my fourth joint when he came into my room and started with his habitual sermon…i was still stucked in Limbo(that’s my how i refer to my mind) so I didn’t grab they first wave of words he uttered to me, i think he really got my attention when he said he was worried about how much I smoked now and his fears about me when I get into streets and fully become a member of the CLAN.

An underground criminal organization which had made it’s fortune from the sales of military gear and money laundering, for the broken mind that i was who was eager for revenge, the Clan seemed the perfect Alli to lift me at the heights of my ambition.
Reunions
By: John Porter
Tags: Spirituality, Novel

Reunions

In early December 2018 I felt a nudge to write a spiritual novel. Many of the words would not be mine. I would fly around the fascinating and puzzling world of spirituality and weave it into a story.

Every fortnight in 2019 I published a chapter in a blog. I wrote because I loved inventing, researching and expressing emotion. I knew that experiences from my life would leak into the chapters as the book evolved. About 100 people followed the story. It was finished in early December 2019. I have no plans to publish it for money.

Reunions follows seven people who meet at Castlethorpe, a multi-faith, multi-dimensional college near the ancient city of St Albans. They make a pact to meet up now and then yet these reunions quickly evolve into a completely different form as they discover themselves, each other and the beautiful cosmic laboratory of life.
FormosaSpa
By: Fog Chen
Tags: 中文, 創作, Story, 小說, Novel

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Poppies -Chapter 29-
By: Deena Thomson
Tags: Fiction Series, Fiction, Writing, Fiction Writing, Novel

Fiction Series

Poppies -Chapter 29-

Photo owned by Author

-Chapter 29-

Married life still did not sit right on Chad’s shoulders, but what was he about to do? He knew he desired Mara-Joy, but he was not sure that was enough to last him through a lifetime.

When his friends went out to parties and picked up girls, he longed to be with them. Instead, he endured the responsibilities of marriage and the baby that was coming.

Mara-Joy had not lied about being pregnant. No one could tell when they saw the slim girl. Always dressed in the latest fashions, her tiny bulge hid beneath the flowing fabric.

As much as Chad wanted to get excited about the baby, he couldn’t. The more Mara-Joy pregnant looked, the more trapped he felt.

— — —

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining forth new life, which springtime always seemed to bring. Chad was at his father’s grocery store where he now worked full time. With time, he would run the store for his father alongside his older brother, Neil junior. This made Neil senior, very happy. He always dreamed of his sons running the family business since the boys were little. Shattered, he thought the dream wouldn’t happen. The boys seemed to show no interest in the grocery business he worked so hard to make a success.

Neil wanted to become a soldier but rejection halted that dream in its tracks. His bad eyesight always failing him, did so again with his dreams of being a soldier. And Chad, well, Chad was a different story. Who knew what Chad wanted to do with his life? What Neil Senior did know was Chad marrying Mara-Joy, forced the boy to support a family. Chad had no skills to speak of so he had no choice but to work at the family grocery store.

It was a good living, an honest living.

Chad hated every moment of it.

He watched his old friends drive-by as he stacked canned goods and longed to be with them, carefree. The guys came in once in a while to visit their old friend, but the visits were becoming less frequent.

Chad was a married man. They were still single, wanting to do things like partying and courting girls. Chad wasn’t fun anymore. His friends’ abandonment hurt, but how could he blame them? If one of them were in his situation, he’d probably do the same thing. Everything was different now and it always would be. At only seventeen years old, Chad was already a defeated man.
Oru Nadigai Nadagam Parkiral Review
By: Thirumagal Dhivya
Tags: Reading, Jayakanthan, Tamil, Novel

This is the novel by Jayakanthan. This story revolves around how a drama actress leads her life and what is her visualisation about life and about relationship.

Come let us see the storyline!

Kalyani , a 33 year old lady is Devadasi by birth and drama actress by profession. Ranga, a widower works in media and writes review about her drama. Kalyani was previously inspired by his stories which he wrote 10 years back.Both came to know about each other by Annasaamy who helped Kalyani’s family a lot.

Kalyani had an attraction towards Ranga and wrote a letter without her name and asked him to contact if he found who wrote that. Ranga asked for an interview with Kalyani and he interviewed her.He was inspired by her intelligence.

Both started to love each other and thought of getting married.But there came a misunderstanding regarding love. Ranga asked to leave her drama company but Kalyani refused.He found that Kalyani saw the life as a drama and she was a character in that and that is why she loved persons without having any expectations from them.They applied for divorce and started to live without seeing each other. After 3 months, Ranga found that it was wrong on his side and tried to change him.At that time, he came to know that Kalyani had some disease by which she can’t able to walk.

Ranga realised that even if Kalyani doesn’t love him he loves her and why should I expect the same from her.He decided to apply for divorce and thought of living with Kalyani .For the first time , Kalyani refused for divorce and he was happy on that.They started living without expectations.Just live !Don’t complicate things much!!! This is the ultimate thing that the author suggests!
MultiCarRacing: A Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Gym Environment
By: Ryan Sander
Tags: Racing, Deep Learning, Openai Gym, Artificial Intelligence, Reinforcement Learning

Background and Motivation

OpenAI Gym¹ environments allow for powerful performance benchmarking of reinforcement learning agents. In this article, we introduce a novel multi-agent Gym environment, MultiCarRacing-v0 , that augments the original Gym CarRacing-v0 environment. This augmented environment can be used for evaluating any deep multi-agent reinforcement learning agent that learns from pixels.

Our implementation of this MultiCarRacing-v0 environment can be found here, and is used for evaluation in our recent paper “Deep Latent Competition: Learning to Race Using Visual Control Policies in Latent Space” (see BibTex citation below).

Race segments from trained agents in our MultiCarRacing-v0 environment.

This environment augments the original Gym CarRacing-v0 environment through the following features:

Multi-car races: Our environment supports races with any N ≥ 1 cars. Randomized starting locations and car colors for all cars on the track. A novel reward mechanism, in which the reward is computed as (K-k)/K * 1000/N , where k is the number of cars that have crossed a tile before the current car, and K is the total number of cars in the race. This reward incentivizes agents to reach tiles before their opponents. Randomization of track direction: this can be set to CW (clockwise), CCW (counterclockwise), or RANDOM (each time the track is regenerated, there is a 50% chance of each direction). Ego car color: If desired, each car can view themselves as the same color, and all opponent cars as the same (different) color. The GIF below illustrates this. Backwards flag: In practice, we noticed that after a spin-out, cars tend to drive in the reverse direction. If desired, the use_backwards_flag option penalizes agents for driving on the track in the reverse direction. Custom Viewing Height: Both our MultiCarRacing-v0 and the original CarRacing-v0 environments have a bird’s eye view of a car (see above). Adjusting our environment’s h_ratio parameter (default is 0.25 ) allows the agent to see pixels further ahead or behind the car.

Video of trained agents racing against one another in our augmented MultiCarRacing environment can be found below:
Positive Reinforcement in Mindset
By: Jacqueline Yeung
Tags: Mindset Rebuild, Mindset, Psychology, Reinforcement Learning, Personal Growth

“Reinforcing to believe in our self, then dreams will just come true!”

Before I learned the word “Reinforce”; I always thought I was “chasing” something that I want. I chased to make my name to be significant in the industry; I chased to make more money. However, one day I realized that, what I chased was not a dream; it was just a kind of aimless chasing!

There’re differences between chasing and reinforcing; chasing something only because we think we want; we may end up couldn’t see the long-term, or say the bigger picture of our life; at some point of life, we lost our aim and purpose; that makes us feel the emptiness!

Reinforcement sounds positive; but if we reinforce our self with negative energy, it could be negative in outcome!

Avoidance sounds negative; but if the avoidance formed for a positive outcome, then it could be positive!

Positive or negative, all are practice of our mindset!

For example, because we want to avoid any accident; so we reinforce our self to pay attention when we drive; so that we can have a safe ride as a positive outcome.

Or an opposite example, someone experiences anxiety attack; who designed to reinforce himself/herself to stay home to avoid anxiety; more they avoid, more anxious they become. The outcome end up only getting worst.

Reinforcing our self for positive thinking makes progress, reinforce in negative thinking only stop us for growing.

If we reinforce our self that We Can; then we can! If we reinforce our self that We Can’t; then we can’t!

Reinforce our self is one thing we do everyday in most moments; notice that with our conscious mind; so that we can take control of it!

It is a mindset practice that helps us to recognize unnecessary negative energy; it can be a morning brain and mind exercise; or it can be help during the day when we feel doubt.

We are close to the end of the year, some of us may have been planning for new growth and making a dream list for the coming new year; check into the dream list, make time to take a positive approach in reinforcements; and those dreams will just come true!

Life is a story that we write a new page everyday, hold onto the pen, keep giving more colors and leafs to the tree that we are paining!

“Keep it positive and progress to possible!”

Thank you for reading! Please share your thoughts with me!

If you want to read more of positive energy article, please feel free to join me on LinkedIn.

And here is my website: www.jacqjr.com

See you around!
RL World
By: Abhishek Dabas
Tags: Data Science, OpenAI, Artificial Intelligence, Reinforcement Learning, Unity

RL World

Reinforcement Learning is a very vast list of algorithms. Let's look at this structure of the Reinforcement world and try to understand it.

MDP World:

This is the first division, Markov Decision Process(MDP). These are the algorithms that try to solve the problem, where we have an underlined vision of the world. There are states and rewards (which we get when we move from one state to another).

MDP provides a mathematical framework for modeling decision making in situations where outcomes are partly random and partly under the control of a decision maker.

Bandit World

This is the 2nd type of division for the Reinforcement learning world. In this type of problem, there is no concept of States. There is essentially no such idea about moving from one state to another sequentially and gaining rewards. Here we are more concerned about learning the best decision to take when we are put in a certain type of condition. “Bandit” in “multi-armed bandits” comes from “one-armed bandit” machines used in a casino. In multi-armed bandit problems, the more you play the more you learn about the world, the more accurate we get about the decisions.

Real-world implementations could be a smarter AB Test: Instead of testing one thing on all populations, you will be making decisions based on a particular condition. You can show cat images to people who like cats, dog images to people who like dogs. Contextual Bandits can be used to optimize which algorithms to show on the website, for a higher click-through rate.

Bandits are divided into 2 types:
Artificial curiosity - Intrinsic motivation in machines
By: Women
Tags: Webinar, AI, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Reinforcement Learning

Artificial Curiosity | a women++ webinar in collaboration with Visium

Humans have been able to achieve incredible feats, such as landing on the moon, exploring the depth of the seas, more than doubling their life expectancy, harnessing the power of wind, etc… The main drivers of such advances have usually been the questions “Why?” and “What if?”. Curiosity has allowed humans to learn more about their surroundings, sometimes doing things that are counterproductive in the short term or for the individual but greatly beneficial in the long run.

The field of Reinforcement Learning explores how a reward can teach an artificial agent to behave in a certain way. During this workshop, we are going to build our own agent that will be able to learn to play different games, but with a twist: we are going to make it curious!

Our agent will not only try to find the short term benefits but will learn new strategies that can give bigger delayed rewards.

What will you learn

Build an AI agent able to play various games such as Super Mario

Learn about Reinforcement Learning

Learn about curiosity and intrinsic motivation

Recommended experience in

Python (Intermediate level recommended)

Jupiter notebooks (Know how to use)

Common ML jargon (To be familiar with it)

Follow along
Yeni Başlayanlar İçin Reinforcement Learning -1
Tags: Pekiştirmeli Öğrenme, Takviyeli Öğrenme, Gazi Üniversitesi, Reinforcement Learning, Makine Öğrenmesi

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore