Month: December 2016

Which “Stripes” Flash Fiction Story Gets Your Vote?

Vote5It’s that time again…time to choose your favorite flash fiction story of the week! It’s all up to you now – only one can win Flash Fiction Readers’ Choice Champion honors. It’s super easy – choose your favorite and cast your vote below.

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. Attention Authors: It is okay if you ask people to vote for you!

Voting polls close Thursday at 5 PM Pacific time. If the poll doesn’t close on time, any votes received after 5 pm will be removed.

REMINDER – entries over the 250 limit are disqualified.

Which "Stripes" Flash Fiction Story Should Win the Readers' Choice Award This Week?

  • Tony Roswell (45%, 13 Votes)
  • John D. Ottini (34%, 10 Votes)
  • Judith Garcia (7%, 2 Votes)
  • JB Wocoski (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Bill Engleson (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Chris Abbott (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Biswajit Mukhopadhyay (3%, 1 Votes)
  • Luigi Silvestri (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 29

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NOTE: Entrants whose submissions exceed the 250 word limit will be disqualified even if they win. ONE VOTE PER PERSON, please. Duplicate votes will be deleted. The results displayed above are unofficial until verified by administration.

Moving Print Book Files from CreateSpace to IngramSpark

ingramspark-logoA couple of years ago Lynne Cantwell gave a great overview of three of the most popular choices for paperback distribution:  CreateSpace, Lulu, and IngramSpark. As Lynne explained, while all three have benefits, IngramSpark, owned by Ingram Content Group, “has the most robust distribution chain of any of the three POD services, as its parent company is the largest book wholesaler in the world.” In fact, when you choose Expanded Distribution for your paperbacks through CreateSpace, the business of printing and distribution actually goes through Ingram.

“Wait,” you’re thinking, “if Expanded Distribution is sourced out to Ingram, why don’t I just go directly through Ingram?” Or you might not be thinking that, but I was, because going directly through Ingram – in this case, their subsidiary, IngramSpark – offers some benefits you just can’t get with CreateSpace. Continue reading “Moving Print Book Files from CreateSpace to IngramSpark”

Rediscovering the Joy of Reading

rediscovering books woman-309201_960_720In my most recent post, I wrote about my frustration with promotion and marketing and how it had taken a big bite out of the joy of writing. I gave myself permission to ignore that aspect of my life for the time being.

While that decision gave me a sense of relief, it did not, as I expected, allow me to plunge myself blissfully into those activities I had given up. Routines are difficult to break and I found myself staring at my keyboard, playing solitaire, and generally wasting time or frittering it away with activities that gave me none of the pleasure I had looked forward to. Continue reading “Rediscovering the Joy of Reading”

6 Overused Phrases and What They Reveal About Your Writing

mark-twain-never-saidOne of the most difficult things for authors to do is improve the tone or style of our writing. Tone especially is a nebulous, hard-to-define quality that is essential to the reader’s enjoyment of our work, but we rarely get specific feedback about it, or find any way we can fix it if something is wrong. And feedback is essential, because these qualities are so intuitive that it is difficult to self-analyze. It’s easy to figure out that you use more commas than most writers. It’s much more difficult to realize that you sound “preachy,” and even harder to fix the problem.

However, there is one way of getting into the depths of your own writing: analyze your overused words. Continue reading “6 Overused Phrases and What They Reveal About Your Writing”