A rare Tuesday post

My pals and I at Story Empire have been nominated for an award as a Favorite Writing Blog. If you like our blog, please visit the Positive Writer post and leave our name (Story Empire) and URL (https://storyempire.com) in the comments along with a brief statement of why you like our site. You don’t have to fill out any forms or click on a series of links. There’s no poll or checklist, and you definitely don’t need to subscribe to anything. Voting is as easy as putting our name, address, and a short sentence or two in the comments. (And if you want to ask your friends to do so as well, we’d be doubly grateful.) Voting ends December 1, so the clock is ticking.

This would bring recognition to our efforts, and help us gain a bigger footprint. If we’ve helped you in some way, or even entertained you, we would appreciate you leaving a comment in our favor.

I’m up at Story Empire tomorrow, and the topic is an odd bit of world building for us fictioners. I look forward to seeing you there.

Shameless Begging

I am surprised to find myself as a nominee at the Rave Awards, held by the Rave Reviews Book Club. This is the club where authors share the burden of promotion by helping each other. I'm going to include a voting link, and while you're there take a minute to surf around. They have helped me tremendously, and they can help you too. So the point is that I'm shamelessly asking for your votes.

First up, and possibly my best opportunity is this very blog. Entertaining Stories was nominated as Best Blog Site. I put most of my effort into this site, and it looks like the hard work is starting to get noticed. I'm up against some tough competition, including a couple of regulars here.

Secondly, and possibly the biggest surprise to me, The Playground was nominated as Book of the Year. Someone out there enjoyed it. What the heck, might as well include a purchase link too. It is also up against some tough competition. I've read some of these books and they're good.

Here is the voting link. While you're there, please take the time to look around. This is an active club and the mutual effort that everyone puts in helps all of us. Everyone is allowed to vote, including non-members, readers, fans, your dog, etc. I'll probably need all of those to win one of these categories.

I'd appreciate any sharing you might like to do with the social media buttons too.

Thanks for considering me, supporting me, and for checking out the Rave Reviews Book Club.

My 2015 Planetary Awards Nominations

What an incredible honor. Check out this post to find some other speculative reading.

Planetary Defense Command

The 2015 Planetary Awards have three categories open for nominations: shorter story (including novelettes and novellas), traditionally published novel, and self-published / small press novel.

It wasn’t too hard for me to find a short story nominee. I’ve read a dozen 2015 science fiction magazines as part of my magazine quest, and I’ve also read multi-author anthologies, single-author collections, and a few random stories from the kindle store.

My nominee for 2015’s best short story is … [drumroll] … “Something in the Water” by CS Boyack. The story can be found in The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack, which is only 99 cents at Amazon.

I had to think about why this was my favorite story. It has a few references to the early days of aviation, which is a topic of interest to me, but that alone wouldn’t be enough to make it my favorite. What…

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Workhorse kind of day

I wrote yesterday about how my day was kind of blah. I decided today would not be a repeat of that.

I managed it by taking the reins myself. I didn't count on Hollywood or any actors to entertain me. We made turkey soup instead of counting on a restaurant to please us.

Here's a bit of what I accomplished today.

I finished my first editing pass on The Playground. I have other passes to go, but they each get a specific focus. Still, I get to check something off my list.

I sent out a requested review copy of Will O' the Wisp. This might not seem like much, but dealing with multiple formats and large attachments can be tricky. A confirmation email proved it all worked.

A writer friend encouraged me to enter a micro-fiction contest. It has to be unpublished, including blogs, and it has to be under 500 words. I write what I write, and don't usually worry about the word count. The Muse was with me, and I sent off my submission today. Part of the prize is a case of beer. I can get behind a contest like that. I've no idea how tough the competition will be, but I did it anyway.

I spent some time prepping for a fun guest post. Watch this space tomorrow for news about a wonderful new book. I peppered my own comments into the post, and had to create a few links. It seems like there's always one when someone sends over materials. I'm not complaining, it's a fact of life. The links work in the submitted material, but some of them break during copy and paste.

I got an email that Zite Magazine is going dark, and I have to convert to Flipboard. Zite was the source for much of my Idea Mill material. I converted a month ago, and haven't been overly impressed. I learned today that I can have my own magazine under this format. I started one, and pasted a few of my blog posts there. I included some reviews, and the debate with Charles Yallowitz too. I have no idea if this has value to me, but copy and paste doesn't take too much effort.

Speaking of my Idea Mill posts, this next one took a round about path to the internet. Victo Dolore and I joked about her creepy facial cream some time ago. Our conversation came back to life during my last Idea Mill post. Today she posted this delightfully creepy bit of micro-fiction, and credited me with the inspiration. I may have provided a fleck or two, but she built it into a story and executed it beautifully. Go read about facial cream at her site. While you're there consider following her, and sharing her story across social media.

I shared the voting portal at Rosie's Book Review Team across social media today. In case you missed my last post, Will O' the Wisp is nominated. It's up against some tough competitors, and I would appreciate your support. You can vote here.

On the topic of awards, I was hoping to see one of my covers get nominated for a Rave Award. I think Will O' the Wisp and The Experimental Notebook have phenomenal covers. The nominations were revealed, and I didn't make the cut. This does not mean I wasn't nominated in other categories, but there are no nominations in the public categories. Bummer.

I see today that some wonderful person started reading my Experimental Notebook via Kindle Unlimited. It amounts to about a half cent per page, but I need fans, and that's my positive point here.

I posted a couple of book reviews this week, but they didn't work out too well. I always use the mechanism at the end of every book. One only posted to Goodreads, and the other one didn't post to Goodreads or Amazon. I don't know if I need to try a different way to post, or if Amazon has teamed up with NSA and has me on a watchlist of some kind.

I got a notification that said Amazon would tell me when they went live. They must be aware of my attempt. I wrote a new review for the one that never made it to Goodreads. I'll hold off on Amazon for a few more days. If they still don't come through, I'll copy and paste from Goodreads and try again.

All in all, it was a productive day. Back to the paycheck job tomorrow.

I’m Going to Hell

Chris Musgrave nominated me for a Liebster Award. I am eternally grateful, but am going to decline. I know this could raise my readership, and I encourage you all to check out his blog.

The truth of the matter is that I’m too lazy to research eleven other bloggers to identify those with 200 subscribers or less. I like all the blogs I follow, those with small and large readership.

This blog is officially an award free blog.

This picture is another reason I’m going to hell. It was flour from one of the Tituba posts.

Because she’s weird like that.

My coworker saw it and is teasing me about it. She thinks she’s teasing, but I’m probably hell bound for a lot of other reasons.