Month: June 2018

Solving Pronoun Problems Can Benefit Your Writing in General

PRONOUNS (002)One of the most effective ways to obfuscate, distract and otherwise confuse your readers is to misuse pronouns. Here are some writing tips that will straighten out your pronoun use and add punch to your writing at the same time.

Overuse of Pronouns

I’m sure you’ve seen it:

He screamed and flailed at him, while his father desperately tried to pull him away.

Without some context, all we know is that there are three characters in this scene, all are male, and one of the younger pair is upset with the other. What is actually going on, and who is doing it, is quite opaque. And all because of a few little pronouns. Continue reading “Solving Pronoun Problems Can Benefit Your Writing in General”

eBook Deals June 21 – 27

ereading an awesome ebook deal book-2135769_960_720Here you go – a bunch of hot new free and bargain eBooks to read, just for you! You’re going to need these while you’re sitting at the beach, or on vacation, or just hanging at home. You can fill up that Kindle now with the free and 99 cent eBook deals right here on Thrifty Thursday!

Readers: look in the comment section below. If you see one you like, click over and buy it. How easy is that? (If you don’t see the book covers, adjust your browser’s adblock settings.) Continue reading “eBook Deals June 21 – 27”

Which “The Falls” 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 "The Falls" Flash Fiction Story Gets Your Vote?

  • Josiah Stone (33%, 9 Votes)
  • Dale E. Lehman (19%, 5 Votes)
  • Lou Silvestri (11%, 3 Votes)
  • Judith Garcia (11%, 3 Votes)
  • Ann Zimmerman (7%, 2 Votes)
  • Trayle Kulshan (7%, 2 Votes)
  • Morgan Winters (7%, 2 Votes)
  • Mary Kay Bonfante (4%, 1 Votes)
  • Ken Talley (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Marc Twine (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Virginia Gayl Salazar (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Sunjiata (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 27

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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.

New Amazon Rules on eBook Bonus Content

kindle stuffing
Oh, come on – don’t tell us you don’t get this!

Poor Chance Carter. Poor, poor Chance Carter. Here he is, just a guy trying to make a living at this indie author thing, and he gets caught in Amazon’s bookstuffing dragnet.

Bookstuffing works like this (don’t try this at home!): In an effort to get the largest possible payout on Kindle Unlimited borrows, certain authors have been shoveling several books into a single book file and marketing it as a single book. Sometimes they reuse the same bonus books multiple times; David Gaughran recently shared a chart that shows how an author named Cassandra Dee does it (again, please don’t try this at home!). These authors will put a come-on at the front of the file to entice readers to click to the last page of the book in order to enter a contest or get a free short story; the bots at KU then count the whole book as read. Continue reading “New Amazon Rules on eBook Bonus Content”