Month: December 2013

Flash Fiction Challenge: The Long Sleep

Photo by K.S. Brooks

The herd had moved on and left the old bull buffalo behind. He had seen many seasons and fought many battles.

He was tired. The cold made his bones ache. His breath came raw and hard. The food had been scarce and he was weak from hunger long before the killing snow came.

From the edge of the woods, he could hear the familiar footfall of a predator. He turned his head, only half-caring. He would not fight again. It was time for the long sleep.

In the distance stood an old wolf, left behind by her pack. She was limping badly and near her end as well.

In 250 words or less, tell us a story incorporating the elements in the picture. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.

Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level.

Use the comment section below to submit your entry. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. Continue reading “Flash Fiction Challenge: The Long Sleep”

Congrats to Dick Waters

Dick Waters is the readers’ choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge.

The winning entry is rewarded with a special feature here today and a place in our collection of winners which will be published as an e-book at year end.

Without further ado, here’s the winning entry:

Continue reading “Congrats to Dick Waters”

Facebook Limiting Your Organic Post Reach

This past weekend, I fell into a somewhat troubling conversation with a friend on Facebook. First, I guess, a little background would be helpful: Like a lot of authors, I have an author page, to which I tend to confine posts about my writing. For one thing, I don’t want my friends and family to feel like I’m spamming them with stuff about the writing gig. For another, I have been known to post political items on my timeline, and I don’t want to take a chance on alienating readers needlessly.

Makes sense, right? But then I had this conversation on my personal timeline. “Is Crosswind out?” my friend asked. I told her it was, and in fact, it had been out since November 20th – a good two-and-a-half weeks. And then she said that she had missed the news, which surprised her, given that we’re Facebook friends, she’s a fan of my page, and she knows me from Message Board X where nothing was posted about the book.

Okay, Message Board X is my fault. But I’ve had numerous posts on my fan page about the new book. I’ve posted links to my blog – where I ran a post about the new series every week last month – on both my fan page and my personal timeline. And yet, she hadn’t seen any of them. And this is a person who is online a lot. So what the heck, Facebook? Continue reading “Facebook Limiting Your Organic Post Reach”

Formatting: What an Author Should Do and Know

Um, it’s not supposed to look like that.

In today’s ever-changing publishing landscape, new ways of doing things are popping up constantly. But doing a good job should never change.

You can choose to format your own books, or, you can pay to have it done professionally. Either way, you should do a little research and understand what needs to be done.

John Low, the founder of EBook Launch (the company most recommended by Smashwords for formatting) provides some insight to authors in his article What Do Formatting Companies Require from Authors and Why.

Melissa Bowersock talks about eBook formatting consistency in her article entitled Book Formatting Checklist.

Watch this space for updated articles on how to work with formatters and how to do it yourself. Meanwhile, visit I’ve Written a Book, How Do I Publish It for other informative articles in the formatting section.