Desiderius Price

Apostrophe… it’s ASCII number is 39.

44444 perfection!

44445 Missed it by that much!

It’s very frustrating.

Without getting too much into the details I’ve had 3 separate platforms all give me grief in one way or another for something that wasn’t a big deal. But in one case, I decided not to be explicit in saying something and people took issue with me holding back.

This is getting annoying.

Hmm, maybe we ought to make AI-generated-reviews a FEATURE?  Author wants such a review, press the button, ask ChatGPT for its opinion on your story?  (Secretly, we’ve hot wired it to troll/flame mode.)

50/50 chance mine’s ready by 2026 Halloween.

It’s a collection of oneshots, right?  You’re allowed a table of contents, so use that, flag the relevant stories as M/F vs F/F vs M/M vs M/Squid.

For Halloween/Holidays, we do the “one-shot” anthologies.  And for some of my back story… they’re so tightly coupled that I consider them “episodic” and thus, keep it as a single title.

Guessing that’s what caused the issues in the first place! 

44245
I always miss those.

What?  That’s limiting…   
More seriously, I learned by doing it wrong in my first original story (now deleted).  I crammed it with so much backstory/flashback that I confused my readers and myself.  On reflection, I realized I basically had multiple stories in one.  So, I spun one backstory off as a regular chaptered story (complete), and the other off as an episodic serial (still WIP).  And working on a second episodic to explain where the main protagonist’s swimming instructor came from, so yeah, gotta cut backstory off at a point or it’ll explode with plot bunnies and you’ll never get back around to writing the story you intended to write in the first place.

Magic does have consequences I suppose.

Did someone invoke gremlins? Did someone feed them after midnight? Or get them wet?

Guessing that’s what caused the issues in the first place! 

44054 … I generally only “notice” it being down when others comment on it, lol.

And, St. Elsewhere has been down for the past two days.

Guessing that’s what caused the issues in the first place! 

Don’t we have a whole bunch of writers who are obsessed with gremlins and other magical creatures that cause chaos? Maybe they have some kind of magic spell?

That’s certainly a possibility, although I don’t think my story is going to be funny enough to go there.
 

“Mommy, mommy, why are they asking her to take her clothes off?” the boy asked as the volume on the downstairs PA was set a little too loud. 
Could have other things, like police response to the upstairs restaurant being a bit too fast… (because they were hanging out downstairs).  Still, lots of ways to have fun with your premise.

Actually, your “upstairs/downstairs bookstore” option is a pretty good example. Basically, the family friendly to Hooters style restaurant is above ground and it has a more adult oriented space underground from a bygone era. They’re treated as separate businesses, but part of the story is that they are brought under a single owner.

“Welcome to Deadman’s Wings, enjoy some breasts with your chicken!” 
Employees (especially new hires) might get confused if they’re working both sides.  Do the two places share bathrooms—you’d have mixup opportunities there?  All sorts of options for sub-plots/issues

hahahaha oops sorry about that @Desiderius Price!
 
44031

Well I hadn’t necessarily considered it from that perspective, like having kids involved. I was thinking more in the sense of imagine if the owner of a more adult oriented bar acquired a family friendly restaurant and decided to turn it more into a Hooters. Not to mention have the employees of one working at the other. Keeping up the appearance of the family oriented place but not really catering to the family vibe.

It’s not that the fandom itself is family friendly, but it’s just where the story is going in my head. Both locations are canon. Yes, technically you can bring your family to a Hooters, but that’s not why most people go to the place. Especially given the scenario I’m setting up.

So my initial story revolved around the adult oriented bar. But there is fun to be had in the idea of the Hooters style restaurant. Possibly with some crossover in terms of “things on the menu”.
 

Aw, well, more opportunities to get the wares/inventory mixed up   Maybe it starts with a kid finding something they shouldn’t have found?
“Mommy!  Mommy!  What’s this?” followed by shrieks?
If I were writing, I’d more likely start on the kid friendly side TBH.  Unless it’s horror, and start with an employee getting an anonymous threatening letter “I know where you work, you defiler.”
If you’re still undecided -- create two files, write one from the kid-friendly side to start, the other from the adult-orientated side to start.  See which one you like better as an opener.  (And you’ll have some seed material for the second chapter too.)