Tuesday, June 26, 2007
CONTEST REVERTED
I regret to say that the contest is no longer valid. My stories have been reverted and are no longer "published". I was hoping the contest would be a way to pick up sales numbers but alas, no story to read, no reason to hold a contest - sorry to all you wonderful followers out there. E :)
Monday, June 25, 2007
GOOD NEWS AND SEMI-GOOD NEWS
Butterfly Halves was at the #5 spot last week on http://www.fictionwise.com/, Echelon Press's page (on the left side, scan down towards the bottom, where it says browse and a list of ways to browse, go under publishers), find Echelon Press and then you can see where stories are sitting on that board), and this week with the new additions and updates, it is still at #5. This may mean no sales but the books behind me didn't sell anything either or maybe one sale, enough to keep me in that postion, even with everyone above me selling - hope it means the latter - sales are good. But since this is the last week of the accounting period, I would like to see more sales, especially since I'm running a contest - see previous post.
The Tulip Kiss had been at #18 and today, it's up to #15 - so woohooo - means maybe one copy sold, enough to bring it up six slots.
I'm trying to come up with an idea for a contest for The Tulip Kiss, something I can do as a giveaway but am not coming up with anything right off the top of my head. If anyone has any ideas of what I can do as giveaways for the contest, I'm open to suggestions - Bring it on - E :)
The Tulip Kiss had been at #18 and today, it's up to #15 - so woohooo - means maybe one copy sold, enough to bring it up six slots.
I'm trying to come up with an idea for a contest for The Tulip Kiss, something I can do as a giveaway but am not coming up with anything right off the top of my head. If anyone has any ideas of what I can do as giveaways for the contest, I'm open to suggestions - Bring it on - E :)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sample butterflies for Butterfly Halves contest
ENTER BUTTERFLY HALVES CONTEST AND WIN YOUR CHOICE
How to enter the contest:
1. Purchase your copy of "Butterfly Halves" from www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ElysabethElderingeBooks.htm.
2. Read through (shouldn't take more than half an hour of your time to read).
3. Email me at eeldering@gmail.com and tell me the names of the two girls and what their occupational choices were at the end of the story.
4. Indicate your choice of two colors for your butterfly from the below list.
5. Include a mailing address for your butterfly to be sent to you.
How to enter the contest:
1. Purchase your copy of "Butterfly Halves" from www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ElysabethElderingeBooks.htm.
2. Read through (shouldn't take more than half an hour of your time to read).
3. Email me at eeldering@gmail.com and tell me the names of the two girls and what their occupational choices were at the end of the story.
4. Indicate your choice of two colors for your butterfly from the below list.
5. Include a mailing address for your butterfly to be sent to you.
It's that easy. So come on girls, read a good short story and win your butterfly today.
The color choices right now are from the Fashion group and include: Sunset Orange, Forest Green, Playful Purple, Rambunctious Red, Deep Sea Blue, Yellow Blaze, Key Lime, Blue Skies Blue. (Two colors are missing but should be found soon - they are Hot Aqua and Fundango Pink)
For the next run of the contest, I will change to the Earthly Expressions colors. The colors in that group are: Prairie Berry, Desert Rose, Harvest Orange, Adobe Orange, Honey Brown, Moonstone Yellow, Meadow Green, For-Ever Green, Misty Blue, Midnight Navy, Plumtastic Purple, and Stone Grey (not necessarily a butterfly color but it might work in combination with some of the other colors).
For the next run of the contest, I will change to the Earthly Expressions colors. The colors in that group are: Prairie Berry, Desert Rose, Harvest Orange, Adobe Orange, Honey Brown, Moonstone Yellow, Meadow Green, For-Ever Green, Misty Blue, Midnight Navy, Plumtastic Purple, and Stone Grey (not necessarily a butterfly color but it might work in combination with some of the other colors).
The third run of the contest will be choice of Paradise Pastels. The colors here are: Petal Pink, Pink Flamingo, Peach Parfait (almost sounds like a dessert), Summer Melon, Lemon Bliss, Tiki Hut Tan, Margarita Green, Lime Sorbet, Tranquil Teal, Oceanview Blue, Polynesian Purple, and Cloud Nine Grey (hum, I never knew Cloud-9 had a color - the place where dreams are made of - lol)
I've colored a few butterflies and scanned them into the computer so you can see what they look like - Let me know what you think.
Enter today and win your own butterfly - hand colored for you - E :)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Butterflies
I was sitting here thinking - I'm running this contest on http://www.myspace.com/elysabetheldering for butterfly halves and I have this metallic tempera paint, why not see if the paint sticks to the rubber butterflies and I did three of them - a gold one
, a bronze one
and a copper one
. I also had some acrylic paint from a small stencil kit I purchased this weekend, you know those little cups of paint for like paint-by-number kits or things like that? Well, I thought wonder if this metallic will work. So i did three of them. Then I did the acrylic paint on a butterfly. I think they look pretty cool here but you be the judge - tell me what you think of my butterflies. I'm probably going to color them with permanent markers as that seems to do the best or the small acrylic paint things, because they look so much better. If anyone enters the contest and wins, they will receive their choice of colors for the butterflies (which I will give to them when I give the winners their notice) or a temporary butterfly tattoo. So purchase your copy of Butterfly Halves from http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ElysabethElderingeBooks.htm and then come over to myspace and answer my contest questions.
, a bronze one
and a copper one
. I also had some acrylic paint from a small stencil kit I purchased this weekend, you know those little cups of paint for like paint-by-number kits or things like that? Well, I thought wonder if this metallic will work. So i did three of them. Then I did the acrylic paint on a butterfly. I think they look pretty cool here but you be the judge - tell me what you think of my butterflies. I'm probably going to color them with permanent markers as that seems to do the best or the small acrylic paint things, because they look so much better. If anyone enters the contest and wins, they will receive their choice of colors for the butterflies (which I will give to them when I give the winners their notice) or a temporary butterfly tattoo. So purchase your copy of Butterfly Halves from http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ElysabethElderingeBooks.htm and then come over to myspace and answer my contest questions.Monday, June 18, 2007
FEEL THE POWER OF THE BUTTERFLY - contest
I'm running a contest on myspace for Butterfly Halves. Please see my link to enter the contest. - E :)
http://www.myspace.com/elysabetheldering
http://www.myspace.com/elysabetheldering
Butterfly Halves hits #4 best seller on Echelon Press's list
Now if that isn't good news, I don't know what it is. Check out the fictionwise listing --- http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/EchelonPresseBooks.htm. This is the listing for the third week of Butterfly Halves being up. I hadn't even checked the listings today but someone informed me on the Echelon Author's forum this evening that I was #4 - so I'm doing the happy dance -
Yay - so glad you all have been by to purchase my story - thank you all my friends and readers - E :)
What movie is your love like
I agree with this to a point. There is a typo or something missing in one of the lines and I'm not really sure what it is supposed to say - but most of this rings true for me - E :)
| Your Love Life is Like Titanic |
 "Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless." You think that you only really have one true love in your life. And that you better to anything and everything to be with that person. You tend to be very nostalgic about past loves that didn't work out. There are many secret feelings that you keep to yourself. Your love style: Deep and emotional Your Hollywood Ending Will Be: Bittersweet |
Tagged meme
LindaBudz from Just Like the Nut (http://www.justlikethenut.blogspot.com/) has tagged me for my blog’s first ever meme!
The ground rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
I read her meme and one of them spurred something that I hadn't thought of in a long time, so here goes my meme:
1. When I was in 8th grade, living on the base at West Point, my father was a "medic" in the hospital. I would miss the school bus on purpose (even missed the late bus (the second bus) that ran) every once in a while, couldn't get away with it every day and take the public bus to the hospital and sit there and observe people coming into the emergency room (usually when my father was working and I knew when the last bus ran up the mountain to our house or my father could take a dinner break and take me home). One time, a young guy had come in; he had been in a fight and there were knives and probably other weaponry involved. Of course since he had been stabbed in the chest, they needed x-rays. There was a big commotion about the x-rays being reversed, the x-ray techs being incompetent, et cetera. After three sets of x-rays, it was determined that the man's insides were reversed, literally - his heart was on the right side and his lungs were turned around - it was like someone had flipped his innards. He was lucky this was the case because if he had been "normal", the knive would have probably punctured his heart or done more damage than it did. He walked out of the hospital, alive and patched up. (See Linda's embalming comment - don't know why her witnessing two embalmings triggered this -maybe it was Weird Occurrence in my lifetime thing).
2. The year my father was supposed to go to Vietnam, he received orders to stay in Germany (changing planes, handed new orders so a good thing - happened Thanksgiving day). When we first arrived in Germany, we had snow but that isn't the amazing thing (obviously in December there would be snow -lol). My grandmother from South Carolina came to visit us the following April (she loved to travel and would visit the families at some time during their stint at whatever base they were assigned). It snowed the night after she arrived, and the next morning we were doing the castle tour thing (must have been during spring break because I don't remember us missing school for her visit) and the temperatures had risen enough to melt most of the snow - although some places were out of the sun's reach. What we witnessed were women in bikinis on rooftops or other places that still had snow sunbathing (my grandmother wanted us to carry our heavy winter coats with us - which was yuck - 70+ degree weather and we had to tote the winter coats while women were out sunbathing).
3. I fell asleep at the wheel of my Taurus wagon once on a major highway and hit the guard rail and bounced back into traffic and pulled over to the side without much damage. I was more shaken than anything
4. I triggered an asthma attack by eating a half gallon of Mayfield's Moose Tracks ice cream - over a period of about 4-6 hours. Because I had been tested for food allergies a few years before this and had shown a positive to peanuts, the peanut butter cups triggered a similar reaction but not as severe as the allergic reaction to something I ate that prompted the testing.
5. My allergin testing for possible food triggers showed positive to almost every food I enjoyed and ate at the time. I still eat the foods I like except the nuts (almonds make my forehead and face itch - and that happened long before I got tested for allergies) and haven't had an attack quite like the first one.
6. I have worked in the same type of job for the past 20 years; and have worked at home for the past 7 of those.
7. I sprained my wrist on my first ever work study job. I worked in the cafeteria (at Montreat-Anderson College, now Montreat University I think) and my specific job was scooping ice cream. It was four days before I even knew my wrist was sprained - I had worked Friday dinner, Saturday lunch and dinner, Sunday lunch and dinner and Monday dinner and then started classes on Tuesday. My first class didn't have to write anything but my second class, Bible, we had to take notes and when I was attempting to write, I broke down in tears because the pain was too much. I looked at my wrist and it was very swollen.
8. I've had two anaphylactic reactions to aspirin (unrelated incidents) and one milder reaction. The wrist sprain led me to the first anaphylactic reaction to aspirin. I went to the school nurse and she wrapped my wrist and gave me some aspirin (had never had because my mother didn't keep it in the house, always telling us that if she ever got any aspirin in her system she'd have to have her stomach pumped - that's how severe her reactions are) because of the anti-inflammatory properties. I walked from the nurse's office down to the post office (all downhill), then back up the hill and up a flight of stairs to my French class. By the time I finished class, I couldn't breathe; it felt like my lungs were full of water and I was probably in a panic state. (I attributed my shortness of breath to the walking down the hill, up the hill and running up a flight of stairs to get to class before being late until the end of class when I was vaguely aware of what the instructor was asking me. It was a scary thing). Went straight to the nurse and she gave me some Benadryl and I slept the whole afternoon, sleeping off the aspirin reaction. Ended up having my wrist splinted for over three weeks, with a thumb spica (only half way up my thumb) the first time and then a full spica the second time - never was said it was a fracture (had tons of x-rays to check for it but I know I couldn't make a fist and it hurt like crazy).
The second incident happened about a week after the sprain and the reaction to the aspirin when I had my monthly and took some Midol for my cramps (apparently back then aspirin was a main ingredient in Midol; but the reaction wasn't nearly as bad as the first one - but similar - took some benadryl and slept it off)
The third incident happened when I was at a friend's house and her father was tuning my car or working on it and he had said something about feeling the radiator or something and I popped my finger in the fan (yes, dumb me - sticking my fingers on anything engine related while the car is running). It was the sensation that my finger had been cut off super quick but it only blood blistered in the end. They took me to military base emergency room and I must have been in shock because when they asked me if I was allergic to any medications, I told them no at first but then remembered before leaving telling them I was allergic to aspirin and had had two reactions to them. Whatever pain killer they prescribed to me, we think, must have had some aspirin in it. By the time we got back to my friend's house, I had watery eyes, was sneezing and going through the usual "hayfever allergy" symptoms. We all thought it was because of the cat but since it was happening outside and the cat was nowhere near me, we called the pharmacy back and they looked it up and sure enough there was such a minute trace of aspirin or a derivative of aspirin, that it triggered a simple allergy reaction. I was told to stop taking the medication immediately; I did and the symptoms resolved within a few hours.
And as you all can see from most of my items - I'm prolific at times. Guess that's what being a writer means, although there are times when the words don't flow as easily as these.
Now to tag 8 people --- hmmmm - who will be my victims, um friends to tag - lol - (the rules say I am supposed to say who I am tagging and then go to their blogs and let them know they've been tagged so my taggees will be Janelle, Chai, Kimberli, Writing Angel, Heather, Susan M., (that's six - maybe that will work) -
Enjoy - see you all in the postings - E :)
The ground rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
I read her meme and one of them spurred something that I hadn't thought of in a long time, so here goes my meme:
1. When I was in 8th grade, living on the base at West Point, my father was a "medic" in the hospital. I would miss the school bus on purpose (even missed the late bus (the second bus) that ran) every once in a while, couldn't get away with it every day and take the public bus to the hospital and sit there and observe people coming into the emergency room (usually when my father was working and I knew when the last bus ran up the mountain to our house or my father could take a dinner break and take me home). One time, a young guy had come in; he had been in a fight and there were knives and probably other weaponry involved. Of course since he had been stabbed in the chest, they needed x-rays. There was a big commotion about the x-rays being reversed, the x-ray techs being incompetent, et cetera. After three sets of x-rays, it was determined that the man's insides were reversed, literally - his heart was on the right side and his lungs were turned around - it was like someone had flipped his innards. He was lucky this was the case because if he had been "normal", the knive would have probably punctured his heart or done more damage than it did. He walked out of the hospital, alive and patched up. (See Linda's embalming comment - don't know why her witnessing two embalmings triggered this -maybe it was Weird Occurrence in my lifetime thing).
2. The year my father was supposed to go to Vietnam, he received orders to stay in Germany (changing planes, handed new orders so a good thing - happened Thanksgiving day). When we first arrived in Germany, we had snow but that isn't the amazing thing (obviously in December there would be snow -lol). My grandmother from South Carolina came to visit us the following April (she loved to travel and would visit the families at some time during their stint at whatever base they were assigned). It snowed the night after she arrived, and the next morning we were doing the castle tour thing (must have been during spring break because I don't remember us missing school for her visit) and the temperatures had risen enough to melt most of the snow - although some places were out of the sun's reach. What we witnessed were women in bikinis on rooftops or other places that still had snow sunbathing (my grandmother wanted us to carry our heavy winter coats with us - which was yuck - 70+ degree weather and we had to tote the winter coats while women were out sunbathing).
3. I fell asleep at the wheel of my Taurus wagon once on a major highway and hit the guard rail and bounced back into traffic and pulled over to the side without much damage. I was more shaken than anything
4. I triggered an asthma attack by eating a half gallon of Mayfield's Moose Tracks ice cream - over a period of about 4-6 hours. Because I had been tested for food allergies a few years before this and had shown a positive to peanuts, the peanut butter cups triggered a similar reaction but not as severe as the allergic reaction to something I ate that prompted the testing.
5. My allergin testing for possible food triggers showed positive to almost every food I enjoyed and ate at the time. I still eat the foods I like except the nuts (almonds make my forehead and face itch - and that happened long before I got tested for allergies) and haven't had an attack quite like the first one.
6. I have worked in the same type of job for the past 20 years; and have worked at home for the past 7 of those.
7. I sprained my wrist on my first ever work study job. I worked in the cafeteria (at Montreat-Anderson College, now Montreat University I think) and my specific job was scooping ice cream. It was four days before I even knew my wrist was sprained - I had worked Friday dinner, Saturday lunch and dinner, Sunday lunch and dinner and Monday dinner and then started classes on Tuesday. My first class didn't have to write anything but my second class, Bible, we had to take notes and when I was attempting to write, I broke down in tears because the pain was too much. I looked at my wrist and it was very swollen.
8. I've had two anaphylactic reactions to aspirin (unrelated incidents) and one milder reaction. The wrist sprain led me to the first anaphylactic reaction to aspirin. I went to the school nurse and she wrapped my wrist and gave me some aspirin (had never had because my mother didn't keep it in the house, always telling us that if she ever got any aspirin in her system she'd have to have her stomach pumped - that's how severe her reactions are) because of the anti-inflammatory properties. I walked from the nurse's office down to the post office (all downhill), then back up the hill and up a flight of stairs to my French class. By the time I finished class, I couldn't breathe; it felt like my lungs were full of water and I was probably in a panic state. (I attributed my shortness of breath to the walking down the hill, up the hill and running up a flight of stairs to get to class before being late until the end of class when I was vaguely aware of what the instructor was asking me. It was a scary thing). Went straight to the nurse and she gave me some Benadryl and I slept the whole afternoon, sleeping off the aspirin reaction. Ended up having my wrist splinted for over three weeks, with a thumb spica (only half way up my thumb) the first time and then a full spica the second time - never was said it was a fracture (had tons of x-rays to check for it but I know I couldn't make a fist and it hurt like crazy).
The second incident happened about a week after the sprain and the reaction to the aspirin when I had my monthly and took some Midol for my cramps (apparently back then aspirin was a main ingredient in Midol; but the reaction wasn't nearly as bad as the first one - but similar - took some benadryl and slept it off)
The third incident happened when I was at a friend's house and her father was tuning my car or working on it and he had said something about feeling the radiator or something and I popped my finger in the fan (yes, dumb me - sticking my fingers on anything engine related while the car is running). It was the sensation that my finger had been cut off super quick but it only blood blistered in the end. They took me to military base emergency room and I must have been in shock because when they asked me if I was allergic to any medications, I told them no at first but then remembered before leaving telling them I was allergic to aspirin and had had two reactions to them. Whatever pain killer they prescribed to me, we think, must have had some aspirin in it. By the time we got back to my friend's house, I had watery eyes, was sneezing and going through the usual "hayfever allergy" symptoms. We all thought it was because of the cat but since it was happening outside and the cat was nowhere near me, we called the pharmacy back and they looked it up and sure enough there was such a minute trace of aspirin or a derivative of aspirin, that it triggered a simple allergy reaction. I was told to stop taking the medication immediately; I did and the symptoms resolved within a few hours.
And as you all can see from most of my items - I'm prolific at times. Guess that's what being a writer means, although there are times when the words don't flow as easily as these.
Now to tag 8 people --- hmmmm - who will be my victims, um friends to tag - lol - (the rules say I am supposed to say who I am tagging and then go to their blogs and let them know they've been tagged so my taggees will be Janelle, Chai, Kimberli, Writing Angel, Heather, Susan M., (that's six - maybe that will work) -
Enjoy - see you all in the postings - E :)
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Free workshop this weekend - Editors and authors working together
I'm one of the contributors to the workshop - so if you are interested in working with editors for different things - stop on over and see us - E :)
T.E.L.L. Open Workshop Discussion.We are pleased to invite all writers and editors to participate in theupcoming discusssion on our yahoo grouphttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/literature-league.EDITING: EDITORS AND WRITERS WORKING TOGETHER.The discussion takes place on Sat 9th and Sun 10th June, from 10am - 10pmEST (3pm - 3am UK) each day. You can pop in and out anytime during thediscussion and take part in any of the threads/topics that have started,or pose a question to us our our guests.During the discussion we will explore:Copy Editing,Self Editing,Proofreading,Acquisitions Editing,Magazine and Newspaper Editing,Editor and Writer Etiquette,and more.We aim to provide writers with valuable information that could help themform better working relationships with the editors they work with in thefuture.To assist in this we have the pleasure of the company of the followinghighly experienced guests during the the 2 days:Brenna Lyons, who is multi-published in indie/e; at the height of her timewith one publisher, she had more than 4 dozen titles out and selling.She's the current president of EPIC, and has worked with many editorsduring her time as a writer. Brenna will be available on and offthroughout the discussion.Elizabeth Burton, who is currently Executive Editor for ZumayaPublications LLC, and has been an editor for almost 20 years. She is alsoan author of three published novels with a fourth, The Everdark Gate, dueout this fall, she has written three erotic romance novellas for eXtasyBooks and was a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest forspeculative fiction. Elizabeth will be available throughout the first dayand up till 1pm EST on Sunday.Jolie du Pre, who is a writer of lesbian erotica and lesbian eroticromance. Her stories have appeared on numerous websites, in e-book and inprint in Best Lesbian Erotica 2007 and more. Jolie is also the editor ofIridescence: Sensuous Shades of Lesbian Erotica, published by AlysonBooks. She is the founder of GLBT Promo, a promotional group for GLBTerotica and erotic romance. She is the moderator for the Erotic AuthorsAssociation's blog and she is also a weekly contributor to The BlushingLadies Journal. Jolie will be available from 1pm EST on Sunday.Elysabeth Eldering, who has an article on editing and self publishing toher credit. She is also the editor of the paranormal mystery storyline forthe Magazine of Unbelievable Stories published by Quill-Pen Press. To hercredit, she has also been asked to edit novels for the same publisher inthe upcoming year. She has edited four novels and is in the process ofstarting her own editing service. Elysabeth also does book reviews forArmchair Interviews, Curled Up With a Good Book, and New Mystery Readersezine. In 2007, Elysabeth volunteered to judge mid length storiessubmitted for the Derringers Awards. She will be available from 1pm EST onSat.Between them, our four guests are very experienced in all aspects ofediting, and also in working with editors. Why not join us this weekendand either share your own experience and hints/tips, or find out how tobetter your working relationships with a writer or editor?Our yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/literature-league will hostthis discussion. Simply go to the group and join in order to participate.If you don't currently have a yahoo ID, follow the instructions at thispoint to get one. You can follow/participate through your email inbox, orfrom the group directly via the 'Messages' link on the left column of thegroup page (this is the quickest and easiest method).Some discussion rules:1) Stay on topic at all times. Diverse if you are trying to make a validpoint, but do not stray off into non-topic discussions.2) NO SPAM, and NO SOLICITING! There will be no warnings to anyone onthis. Do it once, and you're off the discussion and banned from the group.See you all on Saturday!Jim Brown
T.E.L.L. Open Workshop Discussion.We are pleased to invite all writers and editors to participate in theupcoming discusssion on our yahoo grouphttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/literature-league.EDITING: EDITORS AND WRITERS WORKING TOGETHER.The discussion takes place on Sat 9th and Sun 10th June, from 10am - 10pmEST (3pm - 3am UK) each day. You can pop in and out anytime during thediscussion and take part in any of the threads/topics that have started,or pose a question to us our our guests.During the discussion we will explore:Copy Editing,Self Editing,Proofreading,Acquisitions Editing,Magazine and Newspaper Editing,Editor and Writer Etiquette,and more.We aim to provide writers with valuable information that could help themform better working relationships with the editors they work with in thefuture.To assist in this we have the pleasure of the company of the followinghighly experienced guests during the the 2 days:Brenna Lyons, who is multi-published in indie/e; at the height of her timewith one publisher, she had more than 4 dozen titles out and selling.She's the current president of EPIC, and has worked with many editorsduring her time as a writer. Brenna will be available on and offthroughout the discussion.Elizabeth Burton, who is currently Executive Editor for ZumayaPublications LLC, and has been an editor for almost 20 years. She is alsoan author of three published novels with a fourth, The Everdark Gate, dueout this fall, she has written three erotic romance novellas for eXtasyBooks and was a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest forspeculative fiction. Elizabeth will be available throughout the first dayand up till 1pm EST on Sunday.Jolie du Pre, who is a writer of lesbian erotica and lesbian eroticromance. Her stories have appeared on numerous websites, in e-book and inprint in Best Lesbian Erotica 2007 and more. Jolie is also the editor ofIridescence: Sensuous Shades of Lesbian Erotica, published by AlysonBooks. She is the founder of GLBT Promo, a promotional group for GLBTerotica and erotic romance. She is the moderator for the Erotic AuthorsAssociation's blog and she is also a weekly contributor to The BlushingLadies Journal. Jolie will be available from 1pm EST on Sunday.Elysabeth Eldering, who has an article on editing and self publishing toher credit. She is also the editor of the paranormal mystery storyline forthe Magazine of Unbelievable Stories published by Quill-Pen Press. To hercredit, she has also been asked to edit novels for the same publisher inthe upcoming year. She has edited four novels and is in the process ofstarting her own editing service. Elysabeth also does book reviews forArmchair Interviews, Curled Up With a Good Book, and New Mystery Readersezine. In 2007, Elysabeth volunteered to judge mid length storiessubmitted for the Derringers Awards. She will be available from 1pm EST onSat.Between them, our four guests are very experienced in all aspects ofediting, and also in working with editors. Why not join us this weekendand either share your own experience and hints/tips, or find out how tobetter your working relationships with a writer or editor?Our yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/literature-league will hostthis discussion. Simply go to the group and join in order to participate.If you don't currently have a yahoo ID, follow the instructions at thispoint to get one. You can follow/participate through your email inbox, orfrom the group directly via the 'Messages' link on the left column of thegroup page (this is the quickest and easiest method).Some discussion rules:1) Stay on topic at all times. Diverse if you are trying to make a validpoint, but do not stray off into non-topic discussions.2) NO SPAM, and NO SOLICITING! There will be no warnings to anyone onthis. Do it once, and you're off the discussion and banned from the group.See you all on Saturday!Jim Brown
Monday, June 04, 2007
June - what a month - Birthdays galore
I told you before that there were tons of birthdays and remember dates in June so here they are -
1st - one of my cousin's b-day (we aren't in close contact so I couldn't tell you if it was Brian's, Sherrie's or Christopher's - so when I say one of the cousin's you'll know it's one of those three)
2nd - my brother's anniversary and I believe it is his 17th? - hum I guess I should call and find out what they just celebrated - again not very close so don't keep in contact
5th - MINE - A milestone for me - I'll be 45 which is probably half my life expectancy - woohoooooo -
6th - Brandon's, my nephew who my son was with during spring break and they got picked up by the cops which Benjamin thought was the coolest thing
9th - another one of the cousin's (see note above on the 1st)
15th - one of my friend's from high school
19th - the other cousin's (the only reason I remember the dates is that it was the 1st plus the 9th - to make 19 - lol)
There are more I'm sure and I'm too addled-brained to think of them all - we have a slew of them between the middle of May and the end of June - then things are quiet for a bit and pick back up in the fall - so more then when I can get everything together.
See you all in the postings - E :)
1st - one of my cousin's b-day (we aren't in close contact so I couldn't tell you if it was Brian's, Sherrie's or Christopher's - so when I say one of the cousin's you'll know it's one of those three)
2nd - my brother's anniversary and I believe it is his 17th? - hum I guess I should call and find out what they just celebrated - again not very close so don't keep in contact
5th - MINE - A milestone for me - I'll be 45 which is probably half my life expectancy - woohoooooo -
6th - Brandon's, my nephew who my son was with during spring break and they got picked up by the cops which Benjamin thought was the coolest thing
9th - another one of the cousin's (see note above on the 1st)
15th - one of my friend's from high school
19th - the other cousin's (the only reason I remember the dates is that it was the 1st plus the 9th - to make 19 - lol)
There are more I'm sure and I'm too addled-brained to think of them all - we have a slew of them between the middle of May and the end of June - then things are quiet for a bit and pick back up in the fall - so more then when I can get everything together.
See you all in the postings - E :)
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Mystery Readers/reviewers needed
Below is the information from today's posting under "Masterclass" - This is a relatively new blog and the postings have been really great so far. I would like to encourage all you mystery fans out there to post reviews on the site. Reviewers are wonderful to us authors.
you can see all the postings by going to www.criminalbrief.com - hope to see you all in the postings - E :)
Below, Doug Allyn makes a casual reference to his fifth Edgar nomination. He neglects to mention that he has actually been nominated seven times, more than any other mystery writer in any category, and once walked home with the little porcelain bust of Poe. He arrived on the mystery scene with a bang in 1986, winning the Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story, which despite its name, is an Edgar equivalent. He has also won the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’s Readers Choice Award more times than any other writer.
THE NOT-SO-SHORT STORY
by Doug Allyn
What a fun site this is going to be. In the premier essay, Ed Hoch posed the question, ‘why do I write short stories?’ and while I agree 100% with Ed’s answers, (the precision of the plot, the intensity of the experience), my own reply would be quite different.
As Samuel L. Jackson says in “Pulp Fiction,” (just after he shoots the kid on the couch) “allow me to retort.”
Here’s a dirty little secret short story writers guard like aces in a game of Texas hold ’em. As an art form, short stories offer more creative freedom than the novel.
Whoa, aren’t there limits? Poe himself said “The short story must involve a single incident which is resolved at a single point in time.” Or words to that effect.
Horse hockey. Here’s the truth: The short story must be…short. If you can’t make your point in fifteen thousand words, you’re either writing a novel or you belong in politics. Aside from the lone limit of length, shorts offer all the splendid possibilities of the novel, plus a few perks.
For example: Jeffery Deaver sometimes employs literary slight of hand in his excellent short fiction. He’ll describe a character with complete accuracy, relying on the reader’s own preconceptions to provide the mystery. His stories supply a double kick when we realize Jeff hasn’t misled us, we’ve tricked ourselves. It’s a gutsy gambit, and while Jeff plays it to perfection, the technique won’t work at novel length, where further descriptions would necessarily destroy the illusion.
Shira Rozan’s exquisite, Edgar-nominated tale, ‘Building,’ illustrates another bonus of the short form; the hero needn’t be likeable. Her brutish narrator tells his tale in savage interior monologues. As a short, the story works brilliantly, but a novel set inside this guy’s head would read like a bad month at Buchenwald.
What about time? Unlike the novel, a short can actually play out in real time, in a single, intense moment, a la Poe. Nor are greater lengths a problem. My personal fave, and a big influence on my own work, is John O’Hara. Best known for epic, socially conscious, (i.e soapy) novels, O’Hara also wrote short stories that trashed every time limit profs tried to drum into my skull in Creative Writing 101.
Some O’Hara tales resolve in minutes, others can take decades to play out, but the payoff is always worth the wait.
In short fiction, style is like a smorgasbord, and in my own work, I’ve pretty much tasted everything on the table. The late, great, Cathleen Jordan (longtime editor of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine) once remarked that there was no such thing as a Doug Allyn story. When you open the envelope, you never know what you’re going to get. Which ain’t necessarily a good thing.
After my fifth Edgar nomination, (and fifth loss) my agent griped that the weirdoes who populate my tales couldn’t win. (My hero that year was an alcoholic undertaker) “Try somebody more mainstream, a cop or a private eye, even a lawyer.”
Perhaps he was right. Or not. When I did win, my hero was a medieval minstrel obsessed with a blind bear. Not exactly mainstream novel material.
I truly believe the most egregious limitations of the short form are those we impose on ourselves. Writers are human. We want people to like our stuff, (with the exception of Joyce Carol Oates, who doesn’t give a damn, and rightly so), but our eagerness to please sometimes tugs us toward safer, oft-traveled pathways.
There’s nothing wrong with using a classic form when it suits the story, but when we restrict ourselves to the familiar, in an attempt to ‘give the readers what they want,’ we risk becoming the equivalent of Golden Oldies radio.
Time and again, our readers have proved their ears are wide open. This year’s Ellery Queen Readers Award winner, was a first time writer with an off-the-wall tale of a college professor driven to outlawry in the Everglades.
Why write short fiction? Because when we trust the readers, our creative options are unlimited. Write it right, and they will come.
-->
Posted in Mystery Masterclass on June 2nd, 2007RSS 2.0 Trackback.
2 comments
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:18 pm, Tom Walsh Says:
Doug Allyn: “What a fun site this is going to be.”
Doug, it’s already fun, but it would be a lot more fun with greater reader participation!
The bloggers, published writers all, are doing their part with great enthusiasm and success. But where is the input from folks who are merely readers?Comments encouraging the bloggers are fine, they’re just not enough. So far, we have only four Instant Reviews, three by published writers and the other by an elderly gent with no authorial ambitions. Why haven’t more, non-writer fans of short form crime fiction been willing to contribute a review?
Wouldn’t it be great if mystery fans were like sports fans who can’t wait to share their strongly held views (positive and negative) about yesterday’s game? The goal of this site is to promote the short mystery story. What better way than to review a story just read? Well, all right, bloggers’ stories should be off limits (for reasons of civility). That still leaves a heck of a lot of stories to discuss. Fans, start typing!
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:49 pm, Elysabeth Eldering Says:
I agree - where are the readers? It seems the same few of us are commenting (not that it is a bad thing) but still we need to promote this blog and need to get more readers in here to do reviews - I would but since I have so many reviews going on right now, it is hard to get more going (unless I can post a review that I’ve posted on other websites here?) - I know that the more we get ourselves out there, the more readers we will attract. Like I’m part of this blog -I’ve just adopted it as one of my own - lol.
I will post on my blog - looking for readers to do book and short mystery story reviews - and I’ll get others to post too - I’ve got several places to post - hopefully that will bring in the readers - E
you can see all the postings by going to www.criminalbrief.com - hope to see you all in the postings - E :)
Below, Doug Allyn makes a casual reference to his fifth Edgar nomination. He neglects to mention that he has actually been nominated seven times, more than any other mystery writer in any category, and once walked home with the little porcelain bust of Poe. He arrived on the mystery scene with a bang in 1986, winning the Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story, which despite its name, is an Edgar equivalent. He has also won the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’s Readers Choice Award more times than any other writer.
THE NOT-SO-SHORT STORY
by Doug Allyn
What a fun site this is going to be. In the premier essay, Ed Hoch posed the question, ‘why do I write short stories?’ and while I agree 100% with Ed’s answers, (the precision of the plot, the intensity of the experience), my own reply would be quite different.
As Samuel L. Jackson says in “Pulp Fiction,” (just after he shoots the kid on the couch) “allow me to retort.”
Here’s a dirty little secret short story writers guard like aces in a game of Texas hold ’em. As an art form, short stories offer more creative freedom than the novel.
Whoa, aren’t there limits? Poe himself said “The short story must involve a single incident which is resolved at a single point in time.” Or words to that effect.
Horse hockey. Here’s the truth: The short story must be…short. If you can’t make your point in fifteen thousand words, you’re either writing a novel or you belong in politics. Aside from the lone limit of length, shorts offer all the splendid possibilities of the novel, plus a few perks.
For example: Jeffery Deaver sometimes employs literary slight of hand in his excellent short fiction. He’ll describe a character with complete accuracy, relying on the reader’s own preconceptions to provide the mystery. His stories supply a double kick when we realize Jeff hasn’t misled us, we’ve tricked ourselves. It’s a gutsy gambit, and while Jeff plays it to perfection, the technique won’t work at novel length, where further descriptions would necessarily destroy the illusion.
Shira Rozan’s exquisite, Edgar-nominated tale, ‘Building,’ illustrates another bonus of the short form; the hero needn’t be likeable. Her brutish narrator tells his tale in savage interior monologues. As a short, the story works brilliantly, but a novel set inside this guy’s head would read like a bad month at Buchenwald.
What about time? Unlike the novel, a short can actually play out in real time, in a single, intense moment, a la Poe. Nor are greater lengths a problem. My personal fave, and a big influence on my own work, is John O’Hara. Best known for epic, socially conscious, (i.e soapy) novels, O’Hara also wrote short stories that trashed every time limit profs tried to drum into my skull in Creative Writing 101.
Some O’Hara tales resolve in minutes, others can take decades to play out, but the payoff is always worth the wait.
In short fiction, style is like a smorgasbord, and in my own work, I’ve pretty much tasted everything on the table. The late, great, Cathleen Jordan (longtime editor of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine) once remarked that there was no such thing as a Doug Allyn story. When you open the envelope, you never know what you’re going to get. Which ain’t necessarily a good thing.
After my fifth Edgar nomination, (and fifth loss) my agent griped that the weirdoes who populate my tales couldn’t win. (My hero that year was an alcoholic undertaker) “Try somebody more mainstream, a cop or a private eye, even a lawyer.”
Perhaps he was right. Or not. When I did win, my hero was a medieval minstrel obsessed with a blind bear. Not exactly mainstream novel material.
I truly believe the most egregious limitations of the short form are those we impose on ourselves. Writers are human. We want people to like our stuff, (with the exception of Joyce Carol Oates, who doesn’t give a damn, and rightly so), but our eagerness to please sometimes tugs us toward safer, oft-traveled pathways.
There’s nothing wrong with using a classic form when it suits the story, but when we restrict ourselves to the familiar, in an attempt to ‘give the readers what they want,’ we risk becoming the equivalent of Golden Oldies radio.
Time and again, our readers have proved their ears are wide open. This year’s Ellery Queen Readers Award winner, was a first time writer with an off-the-wall tale of a college professor driven to outlawry in the Everglades.
Why write short fiction? Because when we trust the readers, our creative options are unlimited. Write it right, and they will come.
-->
Posted in Mystery Masterclass on June 2nd, 2007RSS 2.0 Trackback.
2 comments
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:18 pm, Tom Walsh Says:
Doug Allyn: “What a fun site this is going to be.”
Doug, it’s already fun, but it would be a lot more fun with greater reader participation!
The bloggers, published writers all, are doing their part with great enthusiasm and success. But where is the input from folks who are merely readers?Comments encouraging the bloggers are fine, they’re just not enough. So far, we have only four Instant Reviews, three by published writers and the other by an elderly gent with no authorial ambitions. Why haven’t more, non-writer fans of short form crime fiction been willing to contribute a review?
Wouldn’t it be great if mystery fans were like sports fans who can’t wait to share their strongly held views (positive and negative) about yesterday’s game? The goal of this site is to promote the short mystery story. What better way than to review a story just read? Well, all right, bloggers’ stories should be off limits (for reasons of civility). That still leaves a heck of a lot of stories to discuss. Fans, start typing!
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:49 pm, Elysabeth Eldering Says:
I agree - where are the readers? It seems the same few of us are commenting (not that it is a bad thing) but still we need to promote this blog and need to get more readers in here to do reviews - I would but since I have so many reviews going on right now, it is hard to get more going (unless I can post a review that I’ve posted on other websites here?) - I know that the more we get ourselves out there, the more readers we will attract. Like I’m part of this blog -I’ve just adopted it as one of my own - lol.
I will post on my blog - looking for readers to do book and short mystery story reviews - and I’ll get others to post too - I’ve got several places to post - hopefully that will bring in the readers - E
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