Blog Miscellany - Contest, Award, & More

I've been given a free copy of the eBook of Emily Casey's novel The Fairy Tale Trap to give away to one of my readers. If you're interested in possibly receiving this eBook then, in honor of the season, please leave a comment below with a favorite winter memory. I'll pick one of the winter-memory commenters to receive the code for downloading the free eBook.

[Edited to add: Deadline for this contest is 11:59 PM Eastern US Time on 12/27. I'll announce the winner in my 12/28 post.]

In other bloggish news, I'd like to thank one of the other #writemotivation people, jaggedwriter, who has bestowed upon me the Versatile Blogger Award. This award calls for the following:

1. In a post on your, blog, nominate 15 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.
2. In the same post, Add the Versatile Blogger Award.
3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
4. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
5. In the same post, include this set of rules.
6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

I've been fortunate enough to have people present me with this award in the past as well. You can see my random facts and bloggers who I thought were worth passing the award along to in my September 11, 2011 Sunday Links post and my September 28th post which touched on several topics. Between those two pages you can find 17 random facts about me to thrill and amaze. (Or, well, something like that...)

You can also find links to a total of eight bloggers to whom I passed along one or more awards. Today I'm going to add four more bloggers to the rolls. Linking to 15 at once seems a bit overwhelming, so I'll just say I'm doing this part of the award requirements on the installment plan.

• Natalie Whipple at Between Fact and Fiction
• J. E. Fritz at Still Writing...
• Wah-Wah Writer
• Yelena Casele

One more bloggy bit -- I received (and deleted) my first spam comment today. Umm.... Yay?

Finally, just a reminder that I'm taking a Christmas hiatus from blogging. I'll be back a week from today with a new post. I hope that all of my readers who are traveling this time of year have safe journeys.

Call & Response Flash Fiction Request for Prompts (Iteration 3)

Yesterday I posted the flash fiction which ended Iteration 2 of the "Call & Response" series on my blog, "Abandoned Items."

Every other Friday (when I'm not posting a "Dissecting the Short Story" post) I'll publish a new short story, definitely under 1000 words, often under 500 words. The twist that gives the series its name is that each story will be based on a writing prompt supplied by one of my readers.

Every other Saturday I'll post a new request for prompts. The prompt can be anything at all. It can be a photo, a concept, a few words. Whatever. People will have until Noon Eastern Time on Thursday to submit their prompts. Thursday night/Friday morning I'll announce the winning prompt from among those posted. The following Friday I'll post the story inspired by the prompt.

So, start submitting your prompts right now. They're due by Noon on Thursday November 24th (Thanksgiving for my US readers) and I'll announce the winner that night or Friday the 25th. Finally, I'll publish the resulting story right here on my blog on Friday December 2nd.

As a reminder the person who submitted the prompt which I select will receive a $5 Amazon gift card as a prize for having a great prompt.

The fine print: All rights to the story created based on the prompt will be held by the author of the story. The $5 prize is only available to people with an Amazon account to which I can send the prize electronically. I reserve the right to add more fine print to future versions of this activity if I feel the need to do so. (Though I sorely hope I don't need to.) There are no guarantees that I will continue to run this activity beyond the currently-posted Request for Prompts. (Though I sorely hope that it will be fun for us all and that I will want to do so.)

Call & Response Flash Fiction (Iteration 2)

Having published my first "Call & Response" flash fiction ("The Morandini Genie") yesterday, it's now time for the second iteration.

Every other Friday (when I'm not posting a "Dissecting the Short Story" post) I'll publish a new short story, definitely under 1000 words, often under 500 words. Now here's the twist that gives the series its name... Each story will be based on a writing prompt supplied by one of my readers.

Here's how it will work. Every other Saturday I'll post a new request for prompts. The prompt can be anything at all. It can be a photo, a concept, a few words. Whatever. People will have until Noon Eastern Time on Thursday to submit their prompts. Thursday night/Friday morning I'll announce the winning prompt from among those posted. The following Friday I'll post the story inspired by the prompt.

So, start submitting your prompts right now. I'll announce the winning prompt on Thursday November 10th and publish the resulting story on Friday November 18th.

As a reminder the person who submitted the prompt which I select will receive a $5 Amazon gift card as a prize for having a great prompt.

The fine print: All rights to the story created based on the prompt will be held by the author of the story. The $5 prize is only available to people with an Amazon account to which I can send the prize electronically. I reserve the right to add more fine print to future versions of this activity if I feel the need to do so. (Though I sorely hope I don't need to.) There are no guarantees that I will continue to run this activity beyond the currently-posted Request for Prompts. (Though I sorely hope that it will be fun for us all and that I will want to do so.)

Winning Prompt and Upcoming Publication

Two quick news items. First, congratulations to David Powers King, whose prompt I've selected. If you didn't see the prompt, it is:

"A child finds a candlestick in the gutter on her way home from school."

Thanks, also, to scribblingpencil who also suggested a prompt. I liked the photo, but it didn't stir any immediate story ideas in me.

The story based on David's prompt will be published on Friday November 4th. I'll then be issuing a new call for prompts on Saturday November 5th, so if you want to participate in that round, start thinking about what you might want to prompt me with!

The second news item (also relating to prompted flash fictions, come to think of it) is that I've been informed that I am one of the winners of the October Kazka Press flash fiction contest. I'm very excited about this. It's my first publication in over a year and also the first of my "new" stories which has been accepted.

The Kazka Press story should be posted November 1st, I'll make sure to point everyone towards it when it's live.

The timing of this couldn't be better. As I mentioned to a friend on Twitter earlier today, I'd been getting to the point recently where I was really having to work hard at taking my own advice to "reject rejection" and not let writing frustrate me. Having this piece of good news (along with a small, but nice, personal comment on a rejection from a market I really hope to sell something to one day) has helped my mood immeasurably. A great boost going into this last pre-NaNoWriMo weekend.

One final note, I will be posting the Dissecting the Short Story article for this week tomorrow, but it may be on the late side.

I hope all of my readers are having good writing weeks. See you tomorrow at the Dissection!

Call and Response Flash Fiction: Request for Prompts

If you saw my "Suggestions, Please?" post you know that I'm interested in adding some new features to this blog. There was no great consensus (except around NOT having more frequent links posts) but the most popular item was Flash Fiction. I wanted to try to do something a bit different with this. Here's what I'm proposing:

"Call and Response" Flash Fiction. 

Every other Friday (when I'm not posting a "Dissecting the Short Story" post) I'll publish a new short story, definitely under 1000 words, probably under 500 words. Now here's the twist that gives the series its name... Each story will be based on a writing prompt supplied by one of my readers.

Here's how it will work. Every other Saturday I'll post a new request for prompts. The prompt can be anything at all. It can be a photo, a concept, a few words. Whatever. People will have until Noon Eastern Time on Thursday to submit their prompts. Thursday night/Friday morning I'll announce the winning prompt from among those posted. The following Friday I'll post the story inspired by the prompt.

I know that's a lot of days to keep track of. Here's a concrete example. This is the first request for prompts. I'll pick the winning prompt on Thursday October 28th 27th (edit: Bad at math, sorry...) and publish the resulting story on Friday November 5th.

Oh, yes... I've used the word "winning" a couple of times. That's not just a "hey, feel good about yourself, I picked your prompt" type of winning, either. The person who submitted the prompt which I select will receive a $5 Amazon gift card as a prize for having a great prompt. (See, I'm sneaking in the "contests" that 25% of the people voted for in the poll...)

So, readers, think up some killer prompts and you could win a few dollars and see your prompt turned into a honest-to-gosh flash fiction. The first round is open NOW! I'm looking forward to seeing the creative prompts my readers come up with.

A bit of fine print: All rights to the story created based on the prompt will be held by the author of the story. The $5 prize is only available to people with an Amazon account to which I can send the prize electronically. I reserve the right to add more fine print to future versions of this activity if I feel the need to do so. (Though I sorely hope I don't need to.) There are no guarantees that I will continue to run this activity beyond the currently-posted Request for Prompts. (Though I sorely hope that it will be fun for us all and that I will want to do so.)

Sunday Links: October 16th, 2011 Edition

Hmmm... Didn't October just start? The post title claims that we're more than halfway through the month, but I'm finding that hard to believe. *double-checks calendar* Nope, that's right. Well, how about that. They do say that time flies.

Speaking of time... There are still a few days left to enter the first Kazka Press monthly flash fiction contest. One of the things mentioned in my poll was an interest in knowing about new contests and markets. Since I like flash fiction, this one definitely was of interest to me. The people running it were also very responsive when I asked for some details about rights, etc. while they were still in their "pre-announcement" mode last month. This is going to be a monthly contest, so keep an eye on their site if you like writing flash fiction.

Among everything else this week I've been doing tech support work for my wife who got to be one of the first Sprint customers with an iPhone. I must say it's a pretty slick device. I should be able to get a new phone once November rolls around, and I'll likely get one for myself. So it's not really "tech support" it's just "reading ahead" for my own iPhone usage.  :)

But enough about my technophilia. It's just a bit over two weeks until NaNoWriMo time (and I'm not, I repeat, not panicking despite being a bit behind where I'd like to be with planning). One thing I am pleased about is having coming up with my one-sentence description for my planned novel: "A young woman who has just lost her parents to a car accident would give anything to be able to change that aspect of her past, but finds herself in a position where she must protect a different element of the past to save what remains of her family."

Now for this week's links!

"My Name is Imago Montoya..." (2nd WriteCampaign Challenge)

Rachel Harrie's Writer's Platform-Building Campaign is now onto its second challenge. This one was a doozy! In 200 words or fewer, include four -- shall we say, uncommon? -- words. Oh, and if you can throw in a reference to a mirror all the better.

If you like this, please consider going to the Linky List and voting for me. To my great delight, I am #42 in the list.

Without further ado...

"My Name is Imago Montoya"

The twins shriek through, chasing each other with plastic swords, dollhouse mirrors as shields, misquoting The Princess Bride.

No one’s killed me. I’m sitting right here, trying to write. You couldn’t tell from my progress. A miasma of doubt and frustration fills my brain.

Cindy comes in, fresh from the shower. An oversized Lacuna Coil tee hangs to her knees. Was there really a time we got to go to concerts? Her fingers flutter over my shoulders. “Getting anywhere?”

My sigh answers her. I’m getting nowhere on this sequel to my first novel, Synchronicity Blues.

“Prepare to die!” one girl shouts from another room. Cindy leaves to settle them.

I review my last few paragraphs. My heroine yawns three times in them. Thesaurus time! Gape, gawp, … oscitate? No. Maybe just better to rewrite, so I delete the troublesome text. Keep those eyes off the wordcount!

The girls dart in, Cindy following with an “I tried” shrug.

“Tell us a story, Daddy!”

I spin a tale of heroic princesses and treacherous dragons. Their rapt attention reminds me why I love storytelling.

My excitement must show. Cindy herds them off to bed. “Looks like dad’s ready to get back to work!”

The Chamber - First WriteCampaign Challenge

The first challenge of Rachael Harrie's Platform-Building Campaign has been issued. The challenge is to write a story of 200 words or fewer, starting with the words "The door swung open." Extra degrees of difficulty can be added by ending the story with the words "the door swung shut" and/or hitting exactly 200 words. Naturally, I couldn't make it easy on myself...

I hope you enjoy this little story, where a number of people step into, but don't step out of...

The Chamber

The door swung open. The next person in line entered the empty chamber. Dr. Ziegler fiddled with the control panel and the chamber door closed. A buzz filled the room. A light on the panel switched from steady green to flashing amber. A minute later the door re-opened on a barren chamber.