Month: August 2019

Which “Pronghorn” 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 come back to THIS page and click the gray circle next to the person’s name. Scroll down to the vote button which will turn blue, and then click it. Please 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 "Pronghorn" Flash Fiction Story Gets Your Vote?

  • Theodore Jerome Cohen (54%, 27 Votes)
  • Mary Kay Bonfante (20%, 10 Votes)
  • Pat Mills (8%, 4 Votes)
  • Anthony Mays (6%, 3 Votes)
  • Judith Garcia (4%, 2 Votes)
  • Ann Zimmerman (4%, 2 Votes)
  • E J Cooke (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Ken Talley (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Jim Welsh (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Nik Olsen (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Paula Evans (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Virginia Gayl Salazar (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 50

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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.

When You Split with Your Publisher: Book Covers

newspaper-502778_960_720 smMany of us, in our writing odysseys, have had intervals working with traditional publishers, some more reputable than others, and many of us have seen those arrangements come to an end for one reason or another. Our IU mailbag often includes letters from writers who have been taken in by predatory publishers and who want to cut their ties, but also from writers published by small presses that have come on hard times and shuttered their doors. While the larger issue of what to do to get out of a bad contract or when your publisher goes belly-up would take more time to detail, let’s concentrate on one part of that equation: the book cover design.

If this issue resonates for you, the first thing we would suggest Continue reading “When You Split with Your Publisher: Book Covers”

Drop Caps and Quotation Marks: A Workaround

Fancy letter from PixabayFour years ago, I wrote a post titled “Drop Caps, Indents, and Other Formatting Tricks in Word.” Regarding drop caps, I mentioned that Word drops and enlarges the first character, which, if you’re writing dialogue, means it’s your quotation mark that gets dropped and enlarged instead of the first letter. Some authors and editors get around this issue by simply leaving off the opening quotation mark.

At the end of that discussion, I said: “There are those who believe leaving off the first quote mark is confusing to readers. Luckily, there’s a workaround in Word for those who want the quote mark, but it’s time consuming. More on that in a future post.”

I’m a little late with that future post (sorry, Anthony!). Truthfully, my workaround stopped working momentarily after a Word update, but it’s back now. It’s a wonky sort of workaround, but it does work. Continue reading “Drop Caps and Quotation Marks: A Workaround”

E. J. Zshornack Wins Flash Fiction Challenge

E. J. Zshornack is the Readers’ Choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. The winning entry is decided by the popular vote and rewarded with a special feature here today. (In the case of a tie, the writer who submitted an entry first is the winner per our rules.) Without further ado, here’s the winning story:

Continue reading “E. J. Zshornack Wins Flash Fiction Challenge”