Day: February 13, 2013

Timothy Hurley Announces New Title

Author Timothy Hurley is pleased to announce the release of his new humorous short story, Hanzel and Gretyl: A Boomer Fairy Tale.

In this fractured fairy tale Boomers Hanzel and Gretyl survived their childhood adventures with the wicked witch and terrible forest only to find themselves grown old as Social Security check-cashing pensioners in suburbia, and facing evil family and frightening shopping malls. But now Hanzel is armed with more than breadcrumbs. Now he has Apple Store Online. And Gretyl is fearless no matter what hole they are put in.

Hanzel and Gretyl: A Boomer Fairy Tale was released on December 17, 2012 and is currently available from Amazon.com and Amazon UK.

Getting It Right: Ticks

Not, not the comic book hero or the nervous twitch kind of tic – I’m talking about those gross, disgusting, horrendous little bugs that should be eradicated from this planet. The pictures of swollen ticks were just way too disturbing to post here, so I went with the 20th anniversary edition of the comic book. It is, in fact more attractive than a swollen tick. Google it if you don’t believe me.

What in the world could anyone get wrong about ticks? Why don’t you ask the producers of a TV show that will remain nameless that’s supposed to be set in The Hamptons in Long Island, New York and stars a handsome young man as a concierge doctor? The network it’s on is three letters and the initials of the show are R.P. Now, I know you’re wondering “Kat, what in the world were you doing watching a dumbed-down version of the medical drama House?” It wasn’t my fault. I saw the Saab convertible and I couldn’t move away. Continue reading “Getting It Right: Ticks”

The IU Weekly Flash Fiction Poll

When last we left our flash fiction challenge, only part of the story was told. A handful of brave indies have stepped forward to finish the job.

The time has come once again for IU readers to choose the winner of the week in our  Flash Fiction Challenge.

You can check out this week’s entries here. Vote for your fave and then use those share buttons at the bottom of the post to spread the word that the vote is on.

 

Which author do you think submitted the best entry for the flash fiction challenge this week?

  • Tui Allen (38%, 29 Votes)
  • Ben Steele (21%, 16 Votes)
  • Laurie Boris (12%, 9 Votes)
  • S P Mount (7%, 5 Votes)
  • Aron Joice (5%, 4 Votes)
  • AV Carden (5%, 4 Votes)
  • Yvonne Hertzberger (5%, 4 Votes)
  • Sarah Mallery (S.R.Mallery) (4%, 3 Votes)
  • Jon Vaitl (1%, 1 Votes)
  • AL Kaplan (1%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 76

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Find Your Voice

I went on a course a couple of years ago called ‘Find Your Voice’. It was for people wanting to get into commercial voiceovers…all about using microphones and marking up scripts to emphasise the right words and creating memorable characters with vocal tricks. The others on the course were real actors, hoping to get into the voiceover game, and they were pityingly tolerant of the non-vocally-talented writer who just wanted to make competent podcasts of her book.

We all went through that thing where you hear your voice and squirm because it’s not how you sound in your head but, unlike when you hear yourself on a tinny outgoing phone message, we had it booming at us in a pukka sound studio with boards full of things that blokes with ponytails know how to tweak. As if that wasn’t bad enough, then the room full of people who’d had voice training dahling discussed how you sounded. They’d make suggestions for changes; try this pace, try that tone, pretend you’re shouting at a class of toddlers or addressing a meeting of the Hitler Youth, remember when your cat died. You’d try again and listen again and sound different but this time it was less about not hearing what echoed in your head and more about hearing the things the others heard and wanted more of. Continue reading “Find Your Voice”