Month: April 2014

Bark the Vote!

pish head for farm sign clear
Mr. Pish wants YOU – to vote!

Woof! It’s humpdaaaay! That can only mean it’s time once again to make your choice for the flash fiction challenge.

Who’s gonna be the flash fiction star of the week? You decide! No pressure or anything, but the winning entries will all be included in the next edition of the IU Flash Fiction Anthology.

Check out this week’s entries here. Make your decision, then use those share buttons at the bottom of the post to spread the word.

Voting polls close Thursday at 5 PM Pacific time.

Whose tail-wagging story was the dog-gone best?

  • Chris James (57%, 20 Votes)
  • Melissa Bowersock (14%, 5 Votes)
  • Jon Jefferson (11%, 4 Votes)
  • MathoSka Chikala (Little White Bear) (6%, 2 Votes)
  • Jacqueline Hopkins (6%, 2 Votes)
  • AL Kaplan (6%, 2 Votes)
  • Venkatesh Iyer (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 35

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NOTE: Entrants whose submissions exceed the 250 word limit are eliminated from the poll.

Book Brief: The Séance

The SeanceThe Séance
by Tricia Drammeh
Genre: YA paranormal
Word count: 81,694

Ninth grade can be a nightmare when you don’t fit in at school, your crush chooses someone else, and your parents tell you they’re having a new baby. Abby was prepared for normal high school problems. She wasn’t prepared for a demon.

Abby has always been fascinated by the paranormal, but after an ill-fated séance, she discovers not all Spirits are benign. A dark entity unleashed during the summoning sets out to destroy Abby, and within days, she loses her best friend, incurs the wrath of her parents, and becomes a prisoner in her own home. With time quickly running out, she assembles an unlikely group of helpers: the most hated guy in school, a retired psychic, and the cute clerk from her favorite bookstore. Unless the demon is defeated, Abby and her new baby brother won’t stand a chance.

This book is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Continue reading “Book Brief: The Séance”

Family Stories: Leaving a Legacy of Words

e-Grandma4girlsEvery family has them: stories of Great-Uncle Harold’s time in the trenches of WWI, Grampa’s side trip into bootlegging during Prohibition, Aunt Helen’s wanderlust that took her around the globe twice, Grandma’s ground-breaking work as the first female at Lockheed Aeronautics during WWII. These are the stories that may only get trotted out once a year or so, maybe at Christmas or the infrequent family reunion, but otherwise stay hidden away in shoeboxes at the back of closets or in the dimly-lit corners of an oldster’s mind.

And very often, the story and its teller are, eventually, lost for all time. Why? Because the stories don’t get written down.

There’s a Mandinka proverb that says every time an old person dies, it’s as if a library has burnt down. Continue reading “Family Stories: Leaving a Legacy of Words”

Book Brief: Counter Currents

Counter Currents - historical fiction by Shaun McLaughlinCounter Currents
by Shaun J. McLaughlin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Word count: 104,000

Counter Currents, the 2013 silver medal winner for Historical Literature Fiction – Modern (set 1500-1940 AD) from by Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Awards, is set in the Patriot War, an almost forgotten border conflict, where rebels attacked Canada 13 times from the USA. Among the raiders was Bill Johnston, the St. Lawrence River historical legend.

Ryan, 19, arrives in colonial Canada at the outbreak of the 1838 Patriot War. He is drawn into Bill Johnston’s world of smuggling and secret societies set in the beauty and grandeur of the Thousand Islands. Ryan falls for Johnston’s daughter, Kate, and is coached by her older cousin Ada on how to capture Kate’s heart. Ada develops feelings for Ryan and he in turn grapples with his attraction to Ada.

Circumstances drive Ryan into a web of piracy and rebellion. Each step Ryan takes closer to a peaceful life as Kate’s husband is matched by deeper entanglement in a glorious but lost cause. Tugged by the opposing currents of romance and war, Ryan struggles to reconcile his family history, his duty and his heart. The story builds on real events surrounding the Patriot War and stays close to historic facts. It is history illuminated by fiction.

This book is available from Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble. Continue reading “Book Brief: Counter Currents”