99 cent shorts!

Got an ereader? Maybe an ereader app on your computer or mobile? If you do, have I got a deal for you! Individual short stories just 99 cents!

Why? Because back in the dark reaches of time, when I first joined the Southern Indiana Writers’ Group, I was confronted with a challenge: write a short story for their annual anthology. A few years prior to my joining, the group initiated an anthology project to familiarize members with the submission and publication process. This was the Indian Creek Anthology Series. I’d come in just as they were putting their latest volume together and they wanted me to submit a piece.

Ooookay . . . short story. Hmmmmm. Over the years, there’d been essays, comic book scripts, articles, graphic novel scripts and a few poems but very few actual factual short stories.

Truth to tell, the whole reason I joined SIW was because a graphic novel script had taken on a life of its own and become a full-length novel. It took me five years to finish, but during that time, I discovered how much I enjoyed writing in general and writing in the novel form in particular. I joined the group hoping to figure out what came next. Now, here they were asking me to write a SHORT story. A short story about CHRISTMAS, no less. Oy. The background I come from is/was a real mixed bag. Sure, I had some holiday stories, but they more resembled

Jean Shepherd with a dash of Edgar Allen Poe than Norman Rockwell. What to do. . . .

When in doubt punt. I fell back on what I knew and looked to the black and white television programs I grew up on, the ones that so strongly influenced me. I wound up writing a Playhouse 90 type of thing about a family of escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad crossing from Kentucky into Indiana on Christmas night.

The story became Away in a Manger and it was included in volume 3 of the Indian Creek Anthology Series, Christmas Bizarre. That was a lot of years ago. SIW is about to publish volume 17 in the anthology series, Holiday Bizarre — which not so coincidentally contains much of the original Christmas Bizarre at the core.
hope will bring big enjoyment.The upshot of all that? Between the SIW anthologies, contests, challenges, other anthologies I have contributed to, other anthologies I have TRIED to contribute to and stuff that just popped into my head, I have a slew of short stories lying around. Used to be that, unless it fitted into an anthology or was needed as a sample of an author’s work, a short story by itself wasn’t worth much. The advent of electronic publishing and the proliferation of electronic reading devices has changed that. Now a short story is just the right length to pull up between flights, before meetings, on breaks or just before settling down to sleep. That’s why I decided to put my work out there as singles for just 99 cents each. A little story for a little price that I

Listings of my titles — in about any flavor desired — can be found:

My Smashwords Author Page

My Amazon Author Central Page

 My list at Barnes and Noble

At Untreed Reads

Oh, and that graphic novel that ran off with itself? It’s currently under submission at a small press. Fingers crossed!

Virtual Magazine for a Virtual World With Real Writers

Last week, a truly amazing amalgam launched and I’m still bouncing up and down about being included in it. I’m always impressed with watching how the creative community embraces and finds ways to work with new stuff and Cassy Lark’s new magazine, Wordmonger is a prime example — the fact my short story, Twenty-Seven Cents of Luck is in the premier issue is beside the point, of course. <grin>

Wordmonger Magazine features writers who frequent the virtual world of Book Island on Second Life. For those who are scratching their heads muttering “Hunh? What’s a Second Life?”, Second Life is a virtual world that is accessed via the internet. It’s a place where the user (That’s you and me) can be almost anything and do almost anything from the relative comfort of the computer keyboard. They bill themselves as the internet’s largest user-created 3D virtual world community. An overview of the world and a brief history is here on Wikipedia. As Bill Cosby said, “I told you THAT so I could tell you THIS.”

Second Life is a place where people set up virtual communities populated by their avatars on islands in the vast seas of the SL world. Some of these communities are based on real world places (i.e. Paris, London, New York) others are based on interests. One of these places is called Book Island, a community created by writers predominantly for writers. It’s a wonderful place filled with virtual bookstores, where writers, who might be separated by thousands of miles geographically, can gather together and discuss everything from the writing process to world peace. It’s no surprise that such a vibrant, creative community as Book Island would spark the creation of a showcase for the wide range of work generated by its residents. Wordmonger Magazine is an excellent showcase and many, MANY kudos to Cassy Lark for putting it together.

That said, surf on over to Wordmonger Magazine and check it out. Read. Comment. But most of all– enjoy!

FandomFest Report

Okay, it was hot in the literary vendor’s room. Let’s get that out of the way first thing — still it was a very enjoyable show in spite of all the bumps, hiccups and Dagger of the Sun moments. The convention crew was really on top of things and the literary track, in particular, was aces!

First thing on Saturday morning, I was on a panel discussing what it takes to write a good short story. Lee Martindale moderated this panel, and I have to say that it was one of the best I’ve been a part of. It was pretty well attended, too and I think the audience got a lot out of it — I know I did.

Later in the evening, I was on a panel discussing e-publishing. This is a topic that is in major flux. I’ve been on several panels on this same subject and each new panel, there’s some new development in the field. Many thanks to Steven Saus for doing a bang-up job at moderating this one — also for some great tips on epub conversion in his book So You Want to Make an E-Book. We didn’t discuss his book directly in the panel, but I looked it over very well when I was working to get a few the Southern Indiana Writers’ anthologies on disk prior to the convention.

All-in-all, it was a great convention and a lot of fun. One of the best things was all the new folks I met. Reconnecting with other friends was just as enjoyable.

This was the first year for the literary track and I have to say it launched beautifully. Yeah, there were snags, but when aren’t there? Any time that many people gather in one place, there will be snafus, but there were remarkably few with FandomFest’s first literary outing. My hat is off to Stephen Zimmer and Nathan Day for keeping things running smoothly all weekend. I’m looking forward to next year, too!

FandomFest is Fast Approaching!

FandomFest, Louisville, KY’s six-year-old media/literary convention will be coming up this weekend, July 22-24, 2011! I’m especially excited about this year’s event because I’m going to be on a couple panels as well as being in the Dealers Room (Many thanks to Stephen Zimmer and Frank Hall for making it happen!).

The panels I’ll be participating in are both in Panel Room B on Saturday, July 23:

Techniques for Good Short Fiction at 9 a.m.

Everything You Wanted to Know About E-Books at 5 p.m.

The rest of the time, I’ll be at the table Southern Indiana Writers is sharing with Hydra Publications in the Dealers Room with lots of great books. Come on down and visit with us — and if you want to buy a book, we’ll be happy to help with that!

Read an E-book Week March 6-12

Hi all! This came through from Jay Hartman over at Untreed Reads a short time ago and I thought I’d share it. March 6-12 has been declared Read an E-book Week! This annual celebration of the electronic format began in 2004. The background for the event can be found over at the official site ebookweek.com.

The folks at Untreed defintately know how to celebrate and event like this right! They’re having another of their kick-ass sales. Unfortunately, Josh Katzen isn’t part of this year’s event, but who knows what the future holds, right? Still, there are some wonderful books there from some excellent authors — and who doesn’t love a great sale?

Here’s what Jay says:

March is a big celebration month with Read An Ebook Week happening March 6th – March 12th. As you know, we don’t do anything small around here, so we’re going to celebrate the entire month!

Until March 30th, readers can buy the newest story by an author and get all other titles by that author at 40% off.

Here’s the lineup of who is part of this sale and which story is the full price one:

Andy Frankham-Allen: Serere
Anne Brooke: A Woman Like the Sea
Beth Mathison: A Mobster’s Toast to St. Patrick’s Day
Bryl R. Tyne: The Zagzagel Diaries: Broken
Denise Dietz: Footprints in the Butter
George Seaton: The Cow and Other Colorado Tales
Herschel Cozine: The Birds
Jesse S. Greever: The Annex
Joshua Calkins-Treworgy: Faith in Amelia
Neil Plakcy: The Outhouse Gang
Pete Peterson: Black Clouds and Epitaphs
Ruth Sims: Song on the Sand
S. Furlong-Bolliger: Paddy Whacked
Victor J. Banis: Illusions
Wade J. McMahan: Witches Witch?

Thoughts on the Cradle of Civilization, Then and Now

Ma'at, the Ancient Egyptian Goddess of Truth.

I hate politics. I refuse to talk politics. One of the quickest ways to get me to stop listening or to make me get up and just plain leave the room is to initiate a political debate with me. Still, as witnessed by the settings and subject matter of the stories I write, I love archaeology and history so the recent happenings in the middle east have held my attention. No fear. This is not one of those laments for the wonderfulness of the bygone eras. Those eras, while very interesting as viewed from the present day, were hardscrabble times for the average person. Even in ancient times, there was a marked divide between classes and most of the ancient societies were ruled as something of a theocracy. (I said I hate politics, not that I don’t know about them.)

Nonetheless, the very areas where people are fighting to overthrow dictators and Rulers-for-Life are the same places the ideas that form the basis of what we think of as modern civilization came into being. Ancient Egypt gave us the Forty-Two Principles of Ma’at, a group of precepts that codified ethical behavior. Some two thousand years after their codification, these rules, also called the Forty-Two Negative Confessions, were distilled into what we know today as the Ten Commandments. Yeah, really. Check out the Wikipedia page for the goddess Ma’at.

Concurrent with the Forty-Two Principles came the Code of Hammurabi. These laws come down to us via a seven-foot tall diorite stele carved in Babylon (Present day Iraq) around 1760 BCE. Because this was so important to the people of the time, we also have many cuneform clay tablets containing all or parts of the code. This collection of laws is based on even earlier ones, all from the same areas of the middle east. Reading the laws, many will sound familiar to modern day people for much the same reason as the Forty-Two Principles. It became the basis for traditional Old Testament law.

Art, literature and mathmatics all took root and flourished in these areas. As noted in a previous entry on this blog, the first known example of animation was found in the Burnt City, an archeological site located in present day Iran. Functional prothetic body parts and fine surgical implements from ancient times have been found, most notably, in Egypt and Iran. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages and lost the knowledge of mathmatics, medicine and a host of other subjects, scholars in the middle eastern cultures preserved them.

The list goes on and on, but I won’t. What it boils dow to is that today, the area that was called the Cradle of Civilization when I was in school is on fire — figuratively and literally. One has to wonder what will rise from the ashes. Until then, the only thing the lovers of history and archaeology can do is nervously watch the conflagrations and hold hope and prayers for the people of today as well as the relics of history

Happy Anniversary, Untreed Reads!

Today marks the one year anniversary for Untreed Reads. Big congratulations to Jay Hartman and all the other folks who have been working hard to make this new publishing house a success. Here’s wishing you folks many, many more celebrations to come!

By way of celebrating, the folks at Untreed are also taking 25% off of all their titles (Including my story, Hanukkah Gelt) at the following venues:

The Untreed Reads Store
OmniLit.com
The Sony Reader Store
CoffeeTimeRomance
Amazon.com/AmazonUK
1PlaceForRomance.com
BarnesAndNoble.com
AllRomanceEbooks.com
RainbowEbooks.com

Hanukkah Gelt — Not Just For the Holidays

The glittery little cats that start all the trouble in Hanukkah Gelt.

Recently, UntreedReads.com published my short story, Hanukkah Gelt, as part of their Fingerprints line. In the story, former military intelligence operative turned artist and photographer, Joshua Katzen and his sometimes girlfriend, Roz Eliahu’s plans for a cozy holiday together get sidelined by a fake antiquities scheme gone horribly wrong.

Whenever I write about an ancient artifact, I usually have a specific piece in mind. It’s a little bit of a writer’s cheat. Having a real object to work from helps me bypass one part of the creation process: deciding what the McGuffin is and what it looks like. Okay, that’s more like two things, but who’s counting?

This is helpful to me especially with the Josh Katzen stories since he’s an archaeological artist and photographer. When I start planning a story for Josh, first thing I do is spend some time on the Internet looking for an object or objects that spark a plot idea. In the case of Hanukkah Gelt, I knew I was looking for something gold — yes, yes, I know gelt means money not gold. Do I sound like I care? Good. Now, as I was saying . . . when I saw this little dingus in an auction catalog, I knew I’d found what I was looking for. It has it all, gold, pre-Columbian origins and a pair of cats, to boot. Can’t get much better than that.

Jump, Goat, Jump!

One thing that has fascinated me in recent years has been the flow of discoveries coming from the excavations in the Burnt City in what is now Iran. As if the city, itself, wasn’t interesting enough, there have been some truly amazing finds: the oldest known backgammon set complete with six-sided dice, a prosthetic eye made of light-weight resin and covered with gold, and what might be the oldest example of animation ever found, a ceramic goblet with painted images of a goat.

Painted goblet found in Iran

This beautiful piece has five images of a goat with a leafy tree (Some peg it as a representation of the Tree of Life.). The thing is, these images aren’t static images, each one shows the goat in a different pose.

Rolled-out image of the goblet

When this goblet is spun around, the images act like a flip-book animation and the goat seems to launch itself into the air to snag a leaf off the tree. There is an animated GIF of the goat jumping, too. I also found this GIF on Iran’s Cultural Heritage News Agency (CHN). So I’m assuming it was assembled by someone on the CHN staff. Whoever compiled it, it’s a nice one! Click here to see it.

One Lovely Blog Award

I can haz award?? YAY!

I received this award from Marian Allen at marianallen.com. Thank you, Marian!

The idea behind this award is to accept your award and post it on your blog along with a link to the person who has sent it to you. Then, pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have newly discovered. You must contact the person to let them know that you have chosen them to receive the award.

Hmmmmmmm. Fifteen blogs. Considering how sporadic I am on my own blogging, this might take me a while.

One Lovely Blog Award