Jaune Chat's Life, the Universe, and Everything

So, there's a new community that recently opened up, one that makes you wonder: Why the hell hasn't anyone done this before? It's the International Language and Culture Exchange, ilc_exchange. Ever wonder how exactly the British education system works? Scroll through the posts and find someone from England to ask. Don't know which roads you'd take to get from Phoenix to Denver? Talk to the person who's lived in both states! Wonder what's the favorite snack of Syndey, Australia? Ask the native down under!

The mod is still working on getting all the tags rounded up, but if you're interested, go over there an make an introductory post and list the places you've been and are willing to talk about. What restuarants would your characters go to in Chicago? Need a tourist's perspective on London for your protagonist's visit? Ever wonder how exactly how long it takes to go from Des Moines to Omaha and what you'd see on the way? (The answer is about five or six hours, and a lot of corn, soybeans, and cows.)

Use it to add versilmitude to your stories and your character's reactions. Provide color for original characters, or breathe life into your backgrounds. Make friends and influence people!

Go take a look at Straw Men. (Mind the warnings for violence and sexual situations, if that's not your bag.) It's a gritty, sci-fi set story about friendship between two rentboys. This was written by the lovely and talented ewinbee, who is the original fiction alter-ego of the lovely and talented ewinfic.

I love many different kinds of fiction, but fantasy and sci-fi have always been high on my list. Straw Men is an engaging piece of sci-fi with a lot of emotion and a well-written friendship between the two main characters. It reminds me of the book Shade by Emily Devenport, or the Matador series by Steve Perry. The former is set in the future, with frank discussions of prostitution, and the later is also futuristic with the author just dropping you into the world in a full-immersion experience. No, you might not know what this or that term means, but the author isn't going to stop to explain. You pick most of it up by context, and you're too busy enjoying the story to do anything but go along with the flow. There's no need to slow down for heavy exposition, there's a world to be involved with! I love the style of the story and how the world is just built up around the characters in my mind with every new paragraph. By the end, I felt I could see their gritty world, with the lights shining down from above, but barely illuminating them.

ewinbee set up the journal to make some money from her original work, as she is currently unemployed and needing to pay bills. She had PayPal set up on every story, so if you liked what she wrote, just drop a couple bucks for a tip. Every little bit helps!

I was CEO for a day over at heroes_exchange, and my faithful minions turned in their reports on time, filed and stamped in all the appropriate slots. Truly it was a great day for me. I have the most awesome minions!

Allow me to gloat over my shinies:

( Shinies Below! )