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Hello CYS!

With the publishing of this issue, the CYS Monthly Gazette has now produced news for the whole year of 2025. In fact, out first anniversary is coming up in just two days! Thank you to everyone who has supported this newsletter by reading, commenting and contributing! It's a joy to do this all for you guys, and we hope to do it continuing into the far future.

Thank you to all the staff members who continue to show their support with their amazing work: RKrallonor, Suranna, Yummyfood, Anthraxus, Benholman44, Mystic_Warrior and Will11. I'll never feel that I say enough how wonderful you all are and how privileged I am to share a creative space with you guys. Also, thank you to our guest writer for gracing our newsletter with their work! It was an unexpected pleasure to have you contribute to the Gazette!

The pictures here are clickable! If you want the slideshow of this article, here's a link.

Well done Milton and everyone, this is another great issue :D It's impressive that the newsletter has been continually sustained for a whole year: this has been a lot of great work by a lot of people and the contributions have always been interesting. Well done everyone :D

One year down, and hopefully many years to come!

Cool! :D

May I ask how voting works?

This is exactly like the Thunderdome. (Because they STOLE my idea, just like they slink around stealing pies off of windowsills and babies from cribs to sell on the black market, according to my alternate news sources.)

So, what is your vote? Just confirming.

Well I just posted an hour ago that I might be able to read them tonight and that hasn't changed, since I'm still continuing to not do this on my phone.

B.

Congrats on another issue! Another 5 years of these Milton and you'll be among the top 10 Wardens!

And new stories, awesome, I was just thinking how I needed new material to hate the Gayzetteers over. Looking forward to reading these at some point when I can make them appear on a large enough screen.

I love you too, Mizal.

Esteemed editors, congratulations on your anniversary, keeping the newsletter going (and on such a high level) is an outstanding achievement. I am looking forward to many more issues :)

Regarding the stories, you aren't making it easy for us, as the three pieces are quite similar. Clearly all authors knew what they were doing. (I was hoping for someone to screw up, to make this easier, but nope.) All the stories did a fantastic job conveying the chaos and mayhem of the situation. All started in medias res, a good choice, and all delivered fast-paced action. Also all had too many characters going for the few words in the format.

In my eyes the story A has a slight edge in terms of language. On the negative side it is the most humorous one. It instantly reminded me of writers such as Ian Rankin, but because I never smile the humor was totally lost on me. Perhaps as a result it also fits the prompt less well than the others as it felt like a comedy rather than proper historical fiction or sci-fi. On the positive side this story has a clearer arc than the other with notable escalation and surprising twists. Also the ending worked best of the three.

Story B is a proper neo-noir chrome-drenched cyberpunk tale that reminded me of the early works of William Gibson, so I was instantly in love with it. The use of "Bolivia" is great worldbuilding and switching between the different viewpoints was a good choice, as it conveys the urgency of the situation well. The author must have felt this urgency as well, or they would have edited some of the sentences more carefully. For example straight away in the first paragraph "The syndicate building he was parked just outside of remained as stoic as ever." is an unpleasant use of passive voice. Also the characters felt a bit uniform. The ending veered a little bit into the melodramatic, a bit "show-don't-tell" might have helped here. It's still a good ending but a bit too YA-ish for my taste. Overall this is a nice cyberpunk tale with a bit of mystery ("Why is this going all wrong") that made it a very enjoyable read.

Story C went full-on fantasy, and didn't spare us the DnD tropes, which make it feel a bit too much like fan fiction for my taste. On the positive side the over-the-top fantasy characters and well-established tropes meant that it was easier to tell characters apart than in the other two stories. Also this story felt warmer and more organic than the others as we saw a little bit more of the characters and their interactions. On the negative side the ending was a bit anti-climactic. The dung-collector joke was a clever attempt but didn't quite work for me, and it became a bit shallow with the our-friends-die-all-time dialogue. Or perhaps it's just that I am getting too old for this stuff, who knows.

So what do we make of this narrative Mexican standoff? The stories are similar enough that I am tempted to call it a three-way draw. All the stories are very good, and I am sure that for each one of the stories there are some people on the site that like it best, and with good reason. In my eyes, A wins in the category "arc, twists and pacing"; B wins in the category "worldbuilding and gritty action"; and C wins in the category "characters and interactions". But if I need to make a choice, and casting my preferences for certain aside I would say A, then B, then C.

A. Story A.

EDIT: Avo says B.

Happy anniversary, Gazetteers! The stories in this issue were pretty good. Story B was the one that I personally liked the most. The shifting POVs really gave it an ocean's eleven type of feel which lent really well to the genre of the story. The shifts were also timed well enough that I was left worrying about whether it would all go sideways.

Only 2 more days till voting closes! All 3 of these stories are super cool and awesome, please vote! We need more votes!

Which story did you write, maybe I'll just vote for that one.

I didn't write any of them this time, but Yummy, Milton, and a special guest wrote them!

Everyone, I vote for the one RK wrote.

I messaged Enter to see if he'd vote, and he said he absolutely would not, "simply because RK asked and I refuse to do anything to give him even the most fleeting moment of happiness."

Sorry to have to inform you :(

I'll vote for story B.

Given how good these stories are, I would have thought they'd get a bit more attention. Maybe somebody still wants to use their final chance to vote?

Spread the word and be obnoxious about it.

If he's obnoxious will he not discourage voting?

Story C

Story B.

Can you solve the Mystery of Eilean Mor?

On 7 December 1900 three men were left in a lighthouse on an isolated island in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean: James Ducat, Thomas Marshal and Douglas McArthur. Evidence of their existence vanished after 15 December. By the time a rescue ship arrived on 26 December they had disappeared. The clues were few: an overturned chair in the kitchen, two missing coats in the hall. A journal that mysteriously stopped after describing a terrible storm.

So, what do you think happened? The options are:

A: Violence. McArthur was extremely dissatisfied at the time of the disappearance and may have killed the other two, thrown their bodies from the cliffs and jumped after them.

B: A freak wave swept the three men to their deaths. There was massive storm damage to the West Landing and evidence indicates one man rushed from the lighthouse to help or warn the other two about something.

C: Strong winds blew all three men over the nearby north cliff. One man could have rushed out to help the other two and also been carried away.

D: The men made an arrangement for a ship to take them from the island so they could live new lives elsewhere which didn’t involve the tedium of having to keep a lighthouse in working order.

E: A sea monster attacked the men and bore them down into the depths.

F: German spies kidnapped them.

G: Spirits of drowned sailors got them.

H: Aliens with a strong interest in the routines followed by employees of the Northern Lighthouse Board abducted them for detailed interrogation.

What do you think?

My guess is A, because being cooped up on an island so long does things to people. But at the same time, H sounds really cool lol.

Probably B or C.

I'm guessing B, it seems to have the most evidence and the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

Occam's Razor mentioned!

Knowing Flannan a bit, my bet would be on C.

I'd probably guess B. The overturned chair bothers me though.

We know that McArthur was not satisfied with his posting and wanted to be relieved. The violent storm could have driven him to a hysterical state where he feared for his life. Perhaps the other two keepers accidentally murdered him when things got heated and then tried to throw the body to the waves to get rid of the evidence, but then they themselves were swept away in the process. It would explain why one coat was left behind. A corpse would not need protection from the storm.

Huh, reading it back, I guess I'm actually saying it's a mix of A and B.

Hm, a mix of answers here :D Clay's idea is pretty original - this was not McArthur's first posting and being in a lighthouse on an island in a storm he would have been perfectly safe, but it might have pushed an already dark mood over the edge. It does offer a good explanation for the fallen chair and missing coat though.

Btw, I forgot to mention, this mystery directly inspired The Vanishing (a 2018 film with Gerard Butler) and influenced The Lighthouse (a 2019 film with Willem Defoe and Shovel Face / Robert Pattinson), both pretty good and atmospheric horrors for people into the genre (The Lighthouse is definitely the darker of the two).

Someone getting up suddenly and running outside could knock over a chair and not have time to grab a coat.

Yeah, that's another logical explanation. The fact that both the lighthouse doors and wooden compound gate were closed never really bothered me either because the wind could have easily blown / slammed both shut (I expect the gate had a simple metal latch).

Does it really take a lot of time to wear a coat? I guess if the coats weren't placed by the exit, that would make sense.

The coats were on a kind of rack opposite the main entrance about ten feet away with doors to the kitchen and living room to the left and right. It might have taken perhaps 20-30 seconds to put on an oilskin coat and both boots. I think someone would have only rushed outside without one in a true life or death situation (the boots were left behind too). To my mind this is more likely if someone sees a giant wave coming than if you are just told that someone is stuck halfway down a cliff.

Maybe Ducat and Marshal found the wedged crate of supplies and called out to McArthur to help them retrieve it, and it was so important that McArthur didn't have time to put on his coat and boots, and all 3 were swept into the sea by a rogue wave.

That's another maybe. :) To increase the panic in that scenario I could imagine one of the men climbing to reach it, part of the cliff breaking or him getting stuck and urgently needing help and his companion shouting for the third man to come quick.

I'm a bit busy later in the week so I'll give my thoughts on this now.

I think B is the most likely.

I agree with Mizal (and, as Liminal points out, the Occam's Razor Principle) that the simplest solution is the most likely. The damage caused by a rogue wave to Eilean Mor was such that Muirhead claimed he had never seen anything like it in forty years. Whatever caused the disappearance without a trace of three men must have been something exceptional and if that wave was bearing down on two men at the West Landing they would not have had time to get out of the way in time (if they were focused on their work or recovering a crate on the cliff-face they might not have even seen it).

The indications in the lighthouse indicate that one person left it in a hurry (as I mentioned this might have most likely been McArthur). The person would have run to the cliff-edge to shout down at their companions. Ordinarily they would have been safe up there but signs indicate the wave swept over the top of the cliff and would have carried away a person standing there. All three would have met a tragic end in a whirl of blue sea. The Isle would have absorbed much of the rogue wave's impact which was why it was not felt elsewhere and in those days an earthquake happening far out in an isolate patch of sea (to cause the rogue wave) may well have not been recorded.

The only other possibility to my mind is violence. Clayfinger gives a very creative and original opinion of how the evidence in the lighthouse could point to this possibility (instead of one murdering the other two, two killing one). It seems weaker to me though as it doesn't connect to the evidence at the West Landing as neatly as the Rogue Wave feeling does, to my mind. After all this time we will never know what truly happened on Eilean Mor, just that three men lost their lives to a terrible and entirely remarkably unique way.

Story B

Feeling a little indecisive, but I'll put in a vote for Story B for now just because I'm not sure what time I'm getting home, or if there will be time for more involved feedback.

It's Milton's birthday today!!

I am feeling really bad I didn't know that lol. Thanks for letting us know, BelladonnaTook! Happy birthday Milton!

Milton, what are your birthday plans? are you doing anything fun for your birthday?

Really? Happy birthday, Milton!

What?! Oh shoot- happy birthday Milton! :D

Happy Birthday Milton :D Have a great day!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes :)

I'm gonna vote for C.

Man has survived Christmas and finally managed to find a big screen to handle canvas (it really reads worse for short stories like these than just copy pasting them onto the site). I heard there were short stories and thus I must critique, nevermind that apparently the votes have already been called. Some might say it is quite the ego to state your vote is the only one that matters, and give it long past any consequence, but newsflash (!), I got one of those and so this rant will be made. As an aside I am debating waiting until past 12 to post it, but meh, I am kinda the site's Grinch anyway so the Christmas Spirit will just have to make do.

I just finished reading the prompt itself. It should be about a bank heist, prison escape or similar situation in whatever kinda setting you want. Now this I do not like. It is too broad, much like many of the previous gazetteer prompts. It is said through restrictions creativity shines and inspiration strikes, yet this does not restrict at all. What do you mean 'or similar situation', what do you mean 'in whatever kinda setting' make up your damn mind and stick to it.

Critique on the prompter aside, I must have something to off on, and so I interpret the similar situation as requiring thought as to what binds a bank heist to a prison escape. Both require meticulous planning as the individual or individuals use crafty solutions to overcome the big system. Then there is the flash, the moment the plan has been prepared and is set in motion. There I want to see action, edge of your seat type off shit. Then either it succeeds or everybody dies, so there must be stakes involved as well. Those three, meticulous planning, thrilling action, and high stakes. You miss one, you fail. You miss two you, shame on you. You miss all three pieces, then I sincerely question your mental faculties as to what the fuck you are even doing on here.

------------------------

Story A:

I'm going to start with the opening line. It's as dry as the Arizona desert, man. 'The brothers were X, Y, Z.' You're telling me a lot of abstract information, yet it does not pull you in to the story. I'm missing the context to care. Reading on, I realize the writing isn't bad per sé, the order of information is just wrong.

So your first step in a proper opening of a story should be either introducing the context or introducing a scene that makes the reader care on it's own. Now I realize this is a nice and broad, theoretical advice not saying anything, really.

So let's work that out to this case specifically. I think it would be much more natural, if you want to stick with the all-knowing narrator's voice, to start with describing the time and setting first. So work from broader claims inwards to your specific characterrs.

In this case I would rearange your first paragraph as so, minimally rewording within brackets to make the stitching fit.

2. The war had stirred up the entire country, even as far as Picacho Pass in Arizona.

4. A man had to make a living, and none of them had the patience for farming.

3. Destitute and wth no immediate relatives to mooch off of,(there were four) brothers (who) decided to strike out from Iowa and test their fortune out in the American Wild West.

1. (These were) the Brothers Caldwell, a fearsome foursome of muscle, decently-distributed brains, four wicked weapons of warfare and required lack of moral discernment.

Now you got a nice backstory, flowing naturally from broad strokes to delicate details that now have a framework to settle in the mind's eye. As an aside, it now also flows like a folk tale, which is a damn fine accomplishment which I'd laud for good writing.

This also flows more naturally in your follow up paragraphs, detailing every individual brother's character. I do enjoy the details that went into this, makes the whole more authentic. I don't like the 'implying a large amount of cash in the Vault'. Feels pendantic. Of course, a wagon arriving at a national bank got cash. What's next, you're gonna imply guns shoot bullets or imply jumping in the water gets you wet? There's no implication here, just fact. There's also some SPAG, tense specific issues but I'm no nerd and don't want to point every misplaced d out when I can instead focus on broader, more interesting things like narrative flow.

Now I thought the planning phase was overly short and the bridge between background information and the action was shabbier than those Chinese plankbridges you see online. I do not know what Colorado being a new frontier implied, but perhaps you could steer the background info to just how prior plans prove(d) futile and what Colorado being a new frontier implies for our brothers.

That aside the action was well written and comical. And I was ready to give this one a proper review. But then this whole thing turned Avo and we're dealing with Indians, dwarves and deus ex aliens. Man if you don't respect your own short story, how do you expect others to?

There's this lost art of telling a proper story start to finish in a well thought out structure taking the readers along for the ride. Not everything needs its twists and turns, nevermind this dopamine highway of the impossible degrading your whole piece.

Enter's whim -10
Yeah not bothering with the rest.

-----------------------------------------

Story B.

Now this piece opens up with the other option, instead of opening with the context in a strong narration, this one opens up with the small scene that stands upon its own. I do not need a background context to empathize with a dude taking a drag thinking about future gains, allowing me to care. It immediately characterizes our protagonist and this allow for room introducing worldly details naturally (synthetic implying scifi, a wife, some shit apparently be going down). This I like.

I also quite like the scene shifts and how you wrote them. The pace is fast after our first quiet introduction and I can't but compliment on the structure of this piece. Or at least, the scene shift from Grant to Jesse, then to Trev. I am missing the same seemlessly flowing link between Trev and Ramsey and onwards. Damn, that's the first actual critique I got. When you introduce a creative and good idea like that, letting it go because (I think) it got too hard makes for a bad showing. Can't even come up with a snarky joke. I'm just miffed.

This is also where I think 'yeah, I get it. Everybody thinks this job was easy and is not having a good time'. It's like this piece had a whole banger of a Daft Punk soundtrack going beneath that writing that just got paused at what should be the most banging part, you have a damn ex military merc shooting the shit man. That's no time to start pondering. But I like to think I'm giving out feedback as much as I'm ranting. So I think Ramsey's should have started with a firing barrel close up of his laser pistol and his part should just have been proper action to stay on that high energy pace, imo. Would have kept the idea and energy going.

Yeah there's no link between Ramsey's part and Grant's part either. Sadly I must conclude the author has thrown in the towel, so for inspiration's sake, I will give this one last suggestion: an explosion so loud it transforms all sound into a high tone, into a high tone radio static.

All in all it was quite the good story. The action was proper. The preparation was implied sufficiently and the stakes felt high. I do like this is part of a larger narrative, a little highlight in a game of bigger players.

When my biggest critique is a lack of follow-through on a creative idea and some slight pacing issues in the middle before picking up steam again, you know this one's gonna be hard to beat.

Prompt 5/5
Writing 3/5
Enter's Whim +2
Total: 10

-------------------------------

Story C:

I think I'll keep my rant mainy on the topics of openings this time. You see, you had the contextual narrator in story A. The smallscale relatable scene in story B and now you have... dialogue.

Now I am often a fan of dialogue. Good dialogue can elevate any scene and be just about the easiest hack to elevate bad writing into an acceptable scene, but for the opening itself? Yeah not a fan.

Compare the first sentences of each piece (and I'm gonna use my own revised version for A because my ego doesn't allow otherwise).

A. The war had stirred up the entire country, even as far as Picacho Pass in Arizona.
B. Grant took a drag from his synthetic cig.
C. "How's it going, Hildie?" I asked.

Now B's approach does feel more modern, while A's narration is found more in the very old fashioned books old fashioned people tell you to read. Despite that though, each has a strong tone, setting up the story. Introducing it.

C, on the other hand, feels like an introduction to that annoying friend that keeps texting you. If B is modern, C is zoomerism at its peak. There's no weight behind it at all, and that problem isn't helped by the casual conversation that follows. It's missing the hook. And I must admit the quirky DnD crew banter isn't winning me over, either.

Alright I had to reread the first page just to get a feel of why I was so thrown off. It's not fair to shit on something without explaining why.

O think it's because that banter's the only noteworthy thing that's introduced. Like yeah, we apparently got the whole fantasy archetype shebang present, but they all speak, think and act like the exact same stereotypical DnD player, making their individual races completely empty descriptors, with no thought given to each race's culture. It's literally idle banter for banter's sake. Yeah we get the Incubus is horny. Thanks, let's move on.

We got a quick dry description of us being a mage and wearing handcuffs, but there is no stakes, no weight, no sense of foreboding nevermind sense of urgency. I got no idea whether we're in a dark and grimy dungeon, or a cozy room arrest. It's just more and more idle banter.

Writing specific it's a lot of "....." he said/snapped/responded over and over again. The more you write inbetween lines of dialogue, the more you can skip the 'said' verb or its synonyms. A dialogue followed by a description of or an action performed by the speaker attributes the words to the character as much as the formulaic narration you're using. As another rule of thumb, the more you write inbetween the lines of dialogue, the more depth and weight the actually spoken words have.

Yeah that's about most of this piece. These problems persist throughout and I didn't get into it because of them.

Prompt: 3/5
Writing: 2/5
Enter's Whim -2
Total 3/10

Yeah, B stood head and shoulders above the rest and was actually a proper good story. Congrats for whoever wrote it.

I hate to break this to you, but there's another, more recent Gazette thread you probably should've voted in instead.

Well, enjoy your comm anyway.

Everything for that comm!