Hello! Ive Finally Posted The Next Chapter Of My Story.

Hello! I’ve finally posted the next chapter of my story.

Here’s a preview of one of the segments.

Friday morning, as the girls were loading themselves into the car to go to camp, Tim rolled the garbage cans out to the curb just like Angela had instructed him to do. However, as he turned to go back into the garage, he noticed something unexpected and strange.

There was a large camper van parked on the street in front of Angela’s house that he had never noticed there before. The door opened right as he turned to go back. Tim took a double take as he saw a man he easily recognized step out of the van with two bags of trash in his hands.

“Smitty?” he asked, his voice much higher than normal. “What in the world are you doing here?’

“Bradford,” he said, not at all surprised to see him there. “I sneak my trash into Lopez’ garbage cans on her garbage day. She always has extra room because that husband of hers loooooves recycling,” he said with a Cheshire grin. “I’ll just save the planet by cleaning up every once in a while,” he said with nod that reiterated to Tim that he should never, ever step foot in that van.

After depositing the trash bags, he winked at Tim. “Hashtag van life, baby,” he said as he crossed two fingers on each hand to make a hashtag symbol.

Tim shook his head. Some things never change, he thought to himself. But there was room for his trash in Angela’s bin, so he decided not to fight it.

As Smitty walked back to his van, he turned to Tim. “Hey, good luck tonight, Bradford. I hope everything works out between the two of you. I lost a lot of money when you two didn’t get together. Well, the whole station did, really. Everyone except for that prick Primm. I don’t know who stuck a stick up his ass, but that guy was the biggest jerk. At least that’s one good thing about finally retiring. I don’t have to see him ever again.”

Smitty shook his head and looked over at Tim who was glaring at him like he was speaking a foreign language. Smitty smiled and waved as he got back into his van. Then he leaned out the window and said, “Don’t stress out too much, sarge. She loves you. She has for years. Just lean into it and go with the flow.” With that he put on his sunglasses and made a motion with his hand that looked like waves on the ocean. “Peace out!” he called. Then his honked his horn three times and drove off.

Tim stood frozen in the driveway. He had had some odd conversations with Smitty over the years, but this one might take the cake. He had no idea what he was talking about or who he was talking about. Good luck tonight? Lost a lot of money on a bet? What bet? Was he really talking about Lucy and him? Or was that just his mind playing tricks on him again? She loves me? Nah…. Smitty was losing it. It was only when he heard his girls hollering at him that he was broken out of his trance.

“Yeah. Coming,” he called back to them. Then he turned and jogged up the driveway to take the girls to camp.

Read more here:

It’s definitely a long chapter, but I hope you enjoy it.

As I’ve been writing my long-awaited Chenford reunion this week, it occurred to me that some readers who prefer the fluffy Chenford stories might enjoy jumping into Act 3 of my story and bypassing the angst of Act 1 and Act 2.

So, I wrote a quick synopsis of Acts 1 and 2 for those that prefer soft and sweet Chenford reunification stories without the angst.

You can find it here with links for when to join the main story.

This part of the story (Act 3) is inspired in part by Parent Trap with plenty of good Dad! Tim and Mom! Lucy moments.

This is the response I got about what exactly this Author Recognition is.

I don’t know a lot of details right now, but if you’re a Rookie writer you may want to sign up. I saw this on Twitter/X.

Tagging some people to get the word out. @makeitastrength @arch78 @centralperkchenford @chenfordspiral @fuzzywuzzywuzzawriter @imperiumwifestrikesagain @intelligentfan @jennahbennah @my-shields-are-down @mostowa @poppypickle @queseraone @randomlittleimp @rookieoneil @silverskull @thesassywitchofthenortheast @wanna-be-bold @westwingwolf

Google Docs

Author Recognition

We want to celebrate our Chenford authors! If you would like to be recognized or would like to nominate someone else, please fill out the fo

20 Low effort meaningful comments to leave on fics when you can’t think of anything to say that most authors love and appreciate (and you will too).

1.) Thank you for writing this!

2.) This really helped distract me from the horrors of reality, thank you for writing it!

3.) I really really really loved this.

4.) <3

5.) Literal keyboard mash q3kjt2uh0erjiurjfnejkrgnkejoiiueirnf!!!!

6.) My favorite part was when they ____.

7.) I laughed at ____.

8.) How dare you! /affectionate.

9.) I am very excited to read this story in its entirety!

10.) I really enjoyed the first __ chapters, I cannot wait for more!

11.) This gave me everything I was hoping for!

12.) 10/10 fic, thanks for writing!

13.) I am going to be thinking about this fic for a long time, thank you for writing!

14.) This made me feel a lot of emotions and I cannot describe them, so thank you for that. I really enjoyed this.

15.) This was the best ride I haven taken in a long time, wow! Thank you for writing this.

16.) If I had the ability to bind this as a real book I would, I loved it so much.

17.) I'm not good with words but I just loved this so much.

18.) This is complete perfection.

19.) I am in awe of how you described ____.

20.) This means so much to me that you wrote this. Thank you.

The more you comment, the better you will get at it and the more enjoyment and fulfillment you will received out of saying thank you.

This is a favorite of mine. It’s so well done. I hope @cleromanticon finds time and inspiration to finish it some day. Sooooo good. And a bit scary at the same time.

Tim sat drumming his fingers on his truck’s steering wheel, parked beside his sister’s van in the hospice parking lot, wondering why he was dreading this moment so much. He regretted not telling Lucy where he was going. She would have come with him. This would be easier if she was with him. “Get it together, Bradford,” he said aloud to himself. “Sign a piece of paper, get rid of that damned house, and you never have to come here again. You don’t have to see him. You don’t have to go past the lobby. Win-win-win, so go do it.” He didn’t move. He tried to picture Lucy beside him.The sooner you get this over with, the sooner you get to go back and tell her you just made a million dollars, and you’re taking her out to celebrate. This time Tim opened the truck door, climbed out, and headed towards the front entrance of the hospice. He imagined the actual conversation with Lucy, trying out different ways of asking her. He wondered if he should ask her out on a date. If he should ask her to go out to celebrate with him as friends. He imagined making the invitation ambiguous and Lucy asking him, “Is this a date?” And he’d know by the hope in her eyes that she wanted it to be, so he’d tell her, “You decide.”

- Omne Malum ab Homine by @cleromanticon (submitted by @come-rain-come-shine)

Fandom Etiquette

Over the last several months, bad behavior has been on the rise. I’m going to mostly chalk it up to an influx of younger fans, or people that are new to fandom in general, but as a creator it can be incredibly frustrating when these types of behaviors persist. So as a general reminder:

Posting to Ao3

Ao3 is an archive. It was essentially created as an immense library of people’s fanworks. It is not a social media site. There is also no algorithm that curates which posts are shown to people. Any post created on Ao3 that is not a fanwork (or original work) that is posted is actually in direct violation of AO3’s terms of service. Your post will get reported and eventually your account may be suspended or terminated. These posts include:

Lists of prompts that you’d like to see written

A post asking for people to send you prompts or to tell you which prompt to write next

Posts asking for help looking for a specific fic or fic recommendations.

All of these posts belong on social media sites like tumblr or twitter. Both sites have strong fandom presences and you’re more likely to be helped. You can also try a dedicated discord.

Why does it matter? As mentioned, there’s no algorithm on Ao3. It’s equal opportunity in that the most recent posts appear at the top of the page. Inappropriate posts bury actual creator content and this frustrates writers. You may think it’s not a big deal because ‘it’s just one post’, but think about what would happen if everyone did it. There are more readers than there are writers on Ao3. If everyone made posts like this, the actual works that people devoted hours into creating would get lost, driving down engagement which also drives down motivation. Your flaunting the rules encourages others to do the same. And no, it doesn’t matter if you intend to ‘delete it later’.

Commenting on works

As creators, we all love receiving comments. For most people it’s the single biggest motivator to create more. But please think about the way your comments can come across before you post them.

The main type of comment that I’m talking about is the demand for more

Update please

This needs another chapter

I need an update

Etc.

You may think these comments come across as complimentary but unless you’ve added something else substantial (like an explanation of what you’ve enjoyed so far, or even just a real indication of your enjoyment), they don’t. Most people I know would much rather receive a single emoji (send me a heart! That’s great! I appreciate it!) than one of these comments.

What I think a lot of people tend to forget is that no one is getting paid to write these fics. A lot of your favorite creators are adults with careers and families that write as their hobby. These comments make everything feel transactional. They suck the joy out of creating. They make working on a fic feel like a chore. For a lot of people, receiving an ‘Update’ comment will actually have the opposite effect, causing them to avoid working on that fic for a period of time.

We are not your favorite TikToker or YouTuber. We do not owe you anything, Please act like it.

Getting called out on your behavior

Please. If someone calls you out, telling you that your behavior is inappropriate or upsetting, learn from it. Don’t get defensive. Don’t double down. You can absolutely curate your space— mute or block the person that you’re having a disagreement with. It won’t hurt anyone and honestly everyone will probably come out with a more comfortable experience for it.

But at the end of the day, fandom is an adult space. Younger people are still welcome, but a certain level of maturity is expected. When spaces become hostile, creators leave, and we’re all left poorer for it