The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[Duleigh]

Sometimes writing rhymes for me is easy
Although my poems may make you queezy
My holiday story mentions Hannukah
Because he gets a new Harmonica.

The name of my story is A Harmonica for Hannukah and I'm sticking to it.

 

[dreams_in_words]

The name of my story is A Harmonica for Hannukah and I'm sticking to it.

A Harmonica for Hannukah, you don't say?
Sounds like it could make your day!
Whenever you pull it out to play,
Crowds of people will shout, "No Way!"
It's not bad at all, nay!
The tune it makes is so jolly and gay!

 

[Duleigh]

It's not bad at all, nay!
The tune it makes is so jolly and gay!

I received a treasure, a musical treat,
A harmonica shiny, compact and neat!
It gleamed in the candlelight, silver and bright,
I knew I would play it all eight days and nights.

I puffed and I huffed, I blew with a grin,
Out came a melody—thin as a pin!
Then louder and prouder, it started to sing,
Like dreidels a-dancing or bells on a string.

 

[BryanRichardson]

I’ve submitted Dear Santa for Letters and Transcripts, but since it is a series of kids letters to Santa there isn’t any sex in it. (It’s listed as published on 11/11/25.)

I’m mostly done with Snow White Drifted (working title that I am certain to have to change) for Taboo and Incest.

I’m about halfway done with Miracle on 69th street for Humor and Satire. There isn’t any sex yet, but that is the scene I’m working on next. I’ll bet you can guess what kind of sex it will be…

 

[GemmaGemmaGemma]

My story is also uploaded and listed as being published on the 11th. No pending jail this time

 

[RoyalAuthor]

Got mine submitted, set to release the 11th as well. The Velvet Ribbon, about a recently divorced guy who finds his unlikely soulmate with a little bit of Christmas magic. Really happy with how it turned out.

 

[Duleigh]

Still working on my Harmonica for Hannukah

I played for the latkes, I played for the gelt,
I played till my fingers forgot how they felt!
I played for the candles, each flickering flame,
And gave every note a Hanukkah name.

 

[Voboy]

Huh. I should probably get around to rereading my story...

I'm doin' it!!!!

 

[NaughteeDragon]

I need to get back to my holiday story. It’s about 1/4 done, and I just discovered it’s going to get a lot deeper than I thought. I picked up Angela Chen’s “ACE” as background reading and discovered that I way oversimplified my understanding of asexual.
Fortunately I’m on vacation next week, so I should have plenty of time to write.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Just saw that mine has officially been updated for release on 11/11. Excited. I like this story. I hope my readers do as well. It's in Erotic Couplings, so it will be a different audience than usual.

 

[Voboy]

Submitted. It's LONG.

That's what she said.

 

[Duleigh]

I'm up to 4300 words in a Harmonica for Hanukkah and the MMC and MFC are still 14 years old. I got a lot of writing to do before they can get it on... Why do I do this to myself?

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

Just submitted mine we shall see

Update … Published 11/11/25

 

[Duleigh]

Arrgh - Ever have one of those stories that have a good working plot but the time line is impossible for something less than novel length? My plan was to go from first kiss to first something else, but the first something else is so far out of reach that I have to restructure the entire story.

How much longer do I have?

 

[TheRedLantern]

Arrgh - Ever have one of those stories that have a good working plot but the time line is impossible for something less than novel length?

My good friend, I have an entire set of folders with sub-folders and sub-sub-folders full of things that stemmed from a few of those.

 

[Aoife_from_Ulster]

Arrgh - Ever have one of those stories that have a good working plot but the time line is impossible for something less than novel length? My plan was to go from first kiss to first something else, but the first something else is so far out of reach that I have to restructure the entire story.

How much longer do I have?

Yep, I have one that was meant for the upcoming 750 Word Challenge ... ummm its somewhere around 4,000 words now

Liken to THe Red Lantern, I have a folder of Ideas and Drafts, then one of Hmm What Could Be

 

[Voboy]

Arrgh - Ever have one of those stories that have a good working plot but the time line is impossible for something less than novel length? My plan was to go from first kiss to first something else, but the first something else is so far out of reach that I have to restructure the entire story.

How much longer do I have?

I was reluctant to start my Holiday story because I knew that to even try to do it justice, it would have to be on the longer side.

I finished it up in about 37k words, which was longer than I liked.

 

[iwatchus]

Mine's going to come in at around 30K. Longer than I intended, but the words were there and editing is not shrinking it.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I am 2K in the story and the MMC JUST met the FMC.
Still no clue how they will get sexy. hoping that writing what I know will happen will help.
Max I ever written is 20k+ so I doubt that I will get there.

 

[Duleigh]

I was reluctant to start my Holiday story because I knew that to even try to do it justice, it would have to be on the longer side.

I finished it up in about 37k words, which was longer than I liked.

I sat down with my meme last night and we had a talk. The first story she sent me was disjointed and confusing but I liked the characters. I told her I'm going to tell it from a different point of view and that's what I did. Instead of trying to force it into one flowing story, I am telling the disjointed story as recollections of the main characters over the years. It's going to be longer, but I'm not writing to win the contest, I'm writing to get this damn story out of my head.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I just submitted my story. It is 32.9K words so I doubt enough people will read and vote on it to have a chance at winning, but the important thing is I can start on my next story now.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

It only took two hours to be approved for publication. So it will be published on the 11th.

 

[TheRedLantern]

My story's going live on the 11th. It's called "Blue Balls: An erotic snowball fighting tale at the North Pole".

Just kidding. It's called "Language Exchange" and it's a 9,000 word story set in Seoul about a guy and a girl meeting to practice each other's language. They lose track of time, the Christmas Eve snowstorm hits, and transportation shuts down across the city.

 

[BryanRichardson]

My story's going live on the 11th. It's called "Blue Balls: An erotic snowball fighting tale at the North Pole".

I would read that…

 

[iwatchus]

My story's going live on the 11th. It's called "Blue Balls: An erotic snowball fighting tale at the North Pole".

Just kidding. It's called "Language Exchange" and it's a 9,000 word story set in Seoul about a guy and a girl meeting to practice each other's language. They lose track of time, the Christmas Eve snowstorm hits, and transportation shuts down across the city.

I have read it. It'e REALLY good.