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Showing posts from June, 2012

Extra! Extra!

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The Omnific Publishing Freedom Sale has just started and will run through July 31. Kindle editions of select adult titles are now only $2.99 (normally $6.99). I'm of course thrilled to have Three Daves included in the sale, and the "Freedom" theme is fitting.  As I've said in various guest posts, the reason I chose a college setting for the story was because of the freedom it allows---freedom from daily scrutiny by the Ps and freedom from having to be a completely responsible adult. I spent the freedom of my college years at Eastern Illinois University and so it was only natural for many of the campus buildings and bars to find their way into the story. You can find a full list of sale titles on my sidebar along with links to purchase. I've talked about some of the titles here on my blog, including Indivisible , Seers of Light , The Guardian's Wildchild , and With Good Behavior .  All great reads, and now's the perfect time to check them out

Jake Ryan, Eat Your Heart Out...and Have a Cupcake While You're at It.

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We lit exactly Sixteen Candles at my house on Friday, count 'em.  SIXTEEN!  So that got me thinking about the year I turned sixteen (cue the wavy lines) ~ ~ 1983 ~ ~  turns out we had some pretty good ideas that year, ideas with staying power: Motorola introduced the first commercially available cell phone (for the low, low price of $3,995) and Microsoft had a pivotal year, including the introduction of Microsoft Word and the mouse. Sixteen Candles wasn't released until 1984, but we had plenty of other future classics in theaters to keep us busy while we waited for it: 1983 Releases Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi  War Games The Outsiders Vacation Trading Places Risky Business Terms of Endearment The Big Chill Cujo Mr. Mom Valley Girl Scarface A Christmas Story The Right Stuff My baby girl turning 16 has me thinking about driving too *gulp* so I leave you with this quote from one of my all time favorite deep thinkers: As

International Short Story Day

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Did you know it's International Short Story Day today? It's a day for authors worldwide to extoll the virtues of short story telling and share their short stories, and I'm so grateful to Irish author, Carol Oates for bringing it to my attention.  I'm quite fond of short stories. For one, they're short.  And in these busy, busy times it's nice to get the satisfaction of bringing a story full circle in a matter of days/weeks rather than months/years. But more than that, I enjoy the challenge of scraping away an excess of words to tell a complete story and convey rich, interesting characters.  Short stories are crisp and clean and leave more room for the reader's imagination. I've also noticed that my short story characters tend to be much quirkier than those in my novels...I'm not sure exactly why that is; care to put forth a theory? In honor of International Short Story day, I share with you links to two of my favorite shorts. If you like, you

Breakthrough Breakout Book Giveaway

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Exiting News! Today and tomorrow, June 18 & 19, Stephen Tremp's Breakthrough: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan   is absolutely FREE to download from Amazon.com.  A scientific breakthrough of such magnitude it could radically alter the future of humanity—for better or worse—is in the wrong hands Teaser : The Information Age is moving at breakneck speed. Breakthroughs in areas of science that were once fodder for science fiction are now becoming part of our everyday life. A group of graduate students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology has stolen a breakthrough in opening and stabilizing Einstein-Rosen Bridges, commonly known as wormholes, that allows them to instantly transport people from one location to another. Their goal is to assassinate any powerful politician and executive controlling the world’s banking system that would use this technology for their own greedy gain rather than the advancement of mankind. Intriguing, huh?  R

80s Sighting...on top of Buckingham Palace!

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At Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee on June 2, one of my most favorite bands from the 80s honored their queen with a live concert on the roof of Buckingham Palace. I speak of Madness, which unfairly tends to get written off in America as a one hit wonder when they're anything but.  And the band is back together, man. :) My Londonite sister, the awesome Fallen Monkey sent me the link to the very cool video below.  I shall shut up now because I really, really want you to at least watch a minute or so of it.  Even if you don't like the music (come on, who couldn't love this music?) it's worth it to see the graphics projected onto the palace. So did any of you happen to catch this or any of the other Jubilee madness live? Oh!  Because of your awesomeness, Three Daves cracked the top 50 on the College Romance list. Thank you, Thank you! I think if I rename it Three Shades of Dave it just might make the top 10!

IWSG: When Mean People Have Too Much Time on Their Hands

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Y'know, I love the internet.  It has opened up so many opportunities for me in all aspects of my life, most particularly writing.  And it's just terrific that people now have an easy vehicle by which to publicly express their opinions. The downside of that, of course, is that people now have an easy vehicle by which to publicly express their opinions---and cyber bullying isn't just for kids. I've made it a practice to give drama queens a wide berth, but sometimes they hunt me down anyway. For example, I've recently discovered that on Goodreads, my book has been placed on reader shelves titled things like: " Authors behaving badly " " Authors I don't trust " "refuse to read" "I don't think so" "no way in hell" " Cheap ploys to make a buck " " not if I were dying " " this is not a real book ." And can anyone tell me what " unethical slore " means?? I appreciate the