Month: May 2015

Which “Blue Sprite’s Warning” Flash Fiction Story Gets Your Vote?

Vote5It’s that time again…time to choose your favorite flash fiction story of the week! The judges have whittled down the entries to a select few, and now it’s your turn: time for the public to have the final say. It’s super easy – choose your favorite and cast your vote below for this week’s Flash Fiction champion.

Remember, the winning entries will all be included in the next edition of the IU Flash Fiction Anthology.

Check out this week’s entries here – we’ve even labeled the finalists to make them easier to spot. 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.

Which "Blue Sprite's Warning" Story Gets Your Vote?

  • Leland Dirks (34%, 17 Votes)
  • PJ LaRue (32%, 16 Votes)
  • Ed Drury (16%, 8 Votes)
  • Jon Jefferson (12%, 6 Votes)
  • John Schade (6%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 52

Loading ... Loading ...

NOTE: Entrants whose submissions are not relevant to the prompts and/or exceed the 250 word limit are eliminated from the poll. ONE VOTE PER PERSON, please. Duplicate votes will be deleted. The results displayed above are unofficial until verified by administration.

Size Matters in Social Media: A Breakdown of Optimal Length

20-social-media-iconsHave you ever wondered what the optimal length of your various social media platform posts and headlines should be? Social media has been around for a long time now. As with anything that has some history, you can find data! Here’s a rundown of the suggested optimal content and headline lengths for the most popular sites. Continue reading “Size Matters in Social Media: A Breakdown of Optimal Length”

Kindle Unlimited Hump Day – Free May eBooks

Kindle Unlimited Hump Day 1Do you have a Kindle Unlimited membership? Well, if you’re do, you can get all these books for FREE. Not sure what Kindle Unlimited is? Our Lynne Cantwell tells you right here. So…

Readers: look in the comment section below. If you see a book that interests you, click over and reserve your copy. How easy is that? (If you don’t see the book covers, adjust your browser’s adblock settings.)

Authors: if you have a book available through the Amazon.com Kindle Unlimited Program, post it FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW. Authors who do not follow instructions will have their comments deleted.

We will convert your link to a clickable book cover. Do not attempt to insert an image in comments on your own. Just put the following information in the comment section:

1. Book title
2. Author name
3. A one sentence blurb (tweetable in length – longer descriptions will be deleted)
4. The Amazon link to download the book
5. The normal price so readers can see what they’re saving!

Then let your friends and fans know your book is being featured here today. Use the share buttons below, or copy the link in the address bar above and share the news on your favorite social media platforms. The more, the merrier, right?

So let’s give it a try, shall we? Please make sure to follow the RULES above. Now, go ahead and tell the world about your free read. IU is a safe-for-work site. PLEASE do not post links to erotica, religious, or political titles.

[Note: if the book cover images below do not display properly, please check your AdBlock settings.]

Creating a Fictional Newspaper Blog

Blacktip Times logoMany of us have seen instances where authors take their fictional characters beyond the books that spawned them: interviews with a character, blog postings by them, Facebook pages, Q&A sessions with readers. Recently, however, I came across something that was new to me. Tim Jackson, author of Mangrove Underground, has created a newspaper blog for Blacktip Island, the location where his book is set. Tim describes the site like this:

South of Imagination and east of Flor de Caña lies Blacktip Island, the setting for Tim W. Jackson’s forthcoming second novel, Blacktip Island, and for his many short stories. The Blacktip Times is a weekly record of news and events in the island’s small community of dreamers, reprobates and ne’er-do-wells.

Seeing this as a rather unique spin-off of a book, I decided to interview Tim and find out the behind-the-scenes story. Continue reading “Creating a Fictional Newspaper Blog”