Six Words of Fleeting Fame

Fleeting magazine (Now Fleeting Books, see note below), publisher of made-ya-think fiction, poetry, and "X Questions for ____" interviews with Interesting People, ran a Hemingway-inspired six-word short story contest this summer.

Almost 5,000 entries poured in. On a whim, I sent in what is essentially the six-word pitch for a short story I was thinking of tinkering with but didn't have the time to really flesh out because client work kept calling my name while stamping its feet. I hate when it does that.

Well -- cool beans! -- my entry is one of eight that got shortlisted. (Which makes me think maybe I shouldn't expand the piece into a short story at all. Sometimes less is more...

Conversely, perhaps this means I should delve into the idea deeper and see how rich the story ore is.

Odd, how I never do this kind of vascillating with client projects. Maybe it's that dratted foot stamping that keeps my focus sure.)

The shortlist entries are worth a read. They're all quite individual. Some rely on witty banter. Some on nuance. Some on subtext. Active verbs do their thang. Linking, passive verbs are nowhere to be seen. (Huh. Irony. ::wink, wink; nudge, nudge::) It's fascinating how, when offered unlimited words from which to choose, with a mandate only to reduce word count, each author's unique voice shines through in just six strokes.

I wonder if there is a tipping point where voice would be lost. Five words? Three words? Two? I suspect if one had to tell a "story" in just one word, the word chosen would speak volumes -- if only about the one who chose it.

Congratulations to my fellow finalists. It is an honor to be in your company.

Have a six-word story? Share it below!

*** Update: Imagine my surprise after writing & posting this to receive a note from the lovely contest Grand Poobahs informing me that I had won! I was sitting in Panera, sipping an overly-acidic cup of coffee & chowing down on a chocolate babka when I read the e-mail. "Holy Cow!" I said aloud, though I was alone. Other patrons immediately gave me a wider berth. Anyway, it's always nice to hear one has won something. Here's the official version of the story from Fleeting.  A.H.  

****Update, October, 2013: Fleeting Magazine is officially now "Fleeting Books," a literary consultancy. See Editorial Assistant Charlotte Seymour's comment below. Here's wishing them all the best!

Words of Writerly Wisdom: The Search for Inspiration Continues

I love reading blogs about writing.

(Reading food blogs is also a favorite activity. Which explains the crumbs on my kkkeyboard that occasionally cause the "kk" kkkkey to stickkkk. But I digress.)

I enjoy the blogs that offer tips and suggestions for writing better. Or cleaner. Or clearer. Or faster. They help me add to my writer's toolbox and improve my craft.

I adore blogs that cheerlead and encourage other writers. They form a vital, global support system that shines through our laptops and illuminates the recesses of our solitary writing dens. These blogs celebrate successes. They applaud milestones. They w00t and hoot-n-holler over things like achieving word count, solving plot problems, and landing publishing contracts. They reach out to other writers. They enable us to realize that we are not alone.

Photo by Lisa Solonynko.

I am grateful for the blogs of agents, editors, and publishers. These act as spotlights and spyglasses into the weird, wonderful world of publishing. Because of them, I can readily discover my agent of choice's query letter preferences. I can stay up-to-date on the vagaries of Penguin, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and British tabloid law. I can sympathize with the overqualified, underpaid intern wading through the slush pile. I can (and do) lurkk, listen, and learn.

Photo by Mark Miller.

Finally, I appreciate the blogs that use humor to illustrate the strange subculture we writers inhabit. Because, really, who in their right mind chooses a career that is so difficult to wriggle one's way into and that carries so little clout?

Q: How does a manuscript get published?
A: Someone forgets to say "No."

Writing blogs inspire me. They provide hours of entertainment, allowing me to rationalize that I'm not really procrastinating. Honest! I'm... uh... doing research. Yeah. 

Write to Done is currently hosting their 6th Annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest. Do you have a favorite writing blog -- one that consistently enriches your writing life? Mention it below. Linkkkk to it, if you wish. I'd love to checkkk it out. Then, once you've finished your practice run, go to Write to Done's contest and make your nomination. (Only 1 nomination per person counts at Write to Done. I, however, don't care how many writing blogs you wish to name.) It's easy:

1.) Go to Write to Done's Writer's Blog Contest and tell them your favorite writer's blog in the comments.

2.) Include the web address of the blog you nominate. (http://museinks.blogspot.com for example. Just sayin'.)

3.) Tell them why your chosen blog is so fabulous. (Hint: "She promised me Heath Bars if she wins" is probably *not* going to help your favorite place well in the polls...)

4.) Do it now. Or at least before December 10, 2011. That's when contest entries close.

A poem to commemorate the occasion (ahem):

Go spread the wisdom 
And the holiday cheer. 
What's your favorite writing blog? 
Tell the world here.

Discover a New Author & Everyone Wins!

Regular readers know that I do not shill for stuff on my blog. I'm not into hard sales and I don't shout "BUY THIS!" - even for my own books. However, I am all about encouraging writers. And I know how difficult it can be for new writers to find readers. So when I heard about the blog tour & contest Shannon Mayer was organizing for four newly published authors, I signed on. Here's a great opportunity to get acquainted with the work of some new writers. And you never know: you might win big!

(NOTE: I'm not receiving any remuneration for being part of the blog tour. However, the blog with the most comments on it receives a little sumpthin'-sumpthin. So... you know... Chime in below. Tell me your thoughts on such blog tour / book launches. Or better yet: tell me what book you want Santa to stuff in your Christmas stocking!)

Support Four Debut Authors and Snag $125!
Four books
Two Days
Great Prizes

With this contest, there is something for everyone and it’s SO simple to be in on the winning!


On November 28 and/or 29, purchase 1 or all 4 of the debut author’s books listed here. Then forward proof of purchase (the receipt Amazon sends you will do just fine) to : motionsrider @ yahoo . ca and get up to 4 entries into a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card!

It’s that easy, no reviews, no hoops to jump through. Just a great .99 book or two. Or three or four. AND, if the person who wins the $100 Amazon Gift Card has purchased all 4 books, an additional $25 Amazon Gift Card will be awarded to the winner!

On top of that, 2 random commenters picked from 2 of our participating blogs will receive $5 gift Amazon gift cards . So, be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think of the promo, the books, or the authors.

Winners will be chosen randomly, one entry per person, per book.
All winners will be announced on December 7th on Wringing Out Words (http://shannonmayer.blogspot.com)

“Between” by Cyndi Tefft (@cynditefft)

It just figures that the love of Lindsey Water's life isn't alive at all, but the grim reaper, complete with a dimpled smile, and Scottish accent. 

After transporting souls to heaven for the last 300 years, Aiden MacRae has all but given up on finding the one whose love will redeem him and allow him entry through the pearly gates. 

Torn between her growing attraction to Aiden and heaven's siren song, Lindsey must learn the hard way whether love really can transcend all boundaries.

“Until Dawn: Last Light” by Jennifer Simas

When darkness falls, whose side will you be on?



For the past six years, Zoë has been anything but “normal.” Struggling to accept her immortality and thrown into a war that’s been waging in the shadows for over a thousand years, Zoë must now become who she was meant to be, joining the other Chosen to save what’s left of humanity. When the endless night falls over the Earth, will she be able to save the one man who reminds her of what it is to be human, or will it be too late?



Until Dawn: Last Light is a story of death and despair, love and longing, hope and hopelessness, and the ability to survive and keep going even when it seems impossible – when you want nothing more than to give up.


“The Kayson Cycle” by Jonathan D. Allen (@crimnos)


A stranger enters a dying town and makes a desperate plea…



The Kayson Cycle introduces the Kayson Brothers, a pair of faith healers who once wowed crowds in a traveling show but went their separate ways after a night in which a healing took a dark turn. Jeffrey Kayson disappeared into the wilderness and William Kayson, wracked by guilt, moved to the failing mining town of Calico Hills to build a nice, quiet life – one that has lasted for over ten years. 

His quiet, predictable life crumbles when a mysterious stranger walks into his tavern bearing a proposal to find his long-lost brother and do the one thing that William has sworn to never do again - have his brother heal a woman. William soon learns that he can’t escape his family – or his destiny.

Includes an exclusive sample chapter of The Corridors of the Dead. Please note that this is a Kindle Single, and around 6,000 words in length.


“Sundered” by Shannon Mayer (@queryaddict)

A miracle drug, Nevermore, spreads like wildfire throughout the world allowing people to eat what they want, and still lose weight. It is everything the human population has ever dreamed of and Mara is no different. Only a simple twist of fate stops her from taking Nevermore.

As the weeks roll by, it becomes apparent that Nevermore is not the miracle it claimed. A true to life nightmare, the drug steals the very essence that makes up humanity and unleashes a new and deadly species on the world that is bent on filling its belly. Locked down within their small farm home, Mara and her husband Sebastian struggle against increasingly bad odds, fighting off marauders and monsters alike.

 But Sebastian carries a dark secret, one that more than threatens to tear them apart, it threatens to destroy them both and the love they have for each other. 

Now Mara must make the ultimate choice. Will she live for love, or will she live to survive?

Judging Flashes

It is with extreme humility that I announce how honored I am to be chosen by Stevie McCoy (aka @TheGlitterLady) to judge her #TuesdayTales flash fiction contest today.

I love flash fiction: super-short complete stories that pack a punch are the literary equivalent of a triple espresso. Or a hit of 5-Hour Energy. Or stepping over an electric fence and discovering that it's still on. They hit you with a jolt that sticks with you long after you're finished.

According to Wikipedia, "flash fiction" is all about length. 6 words. 55 words. 78 words (Like the current Esquire Short Short Fiction Contest. It's free to enter and open till October 7. Check it out!). 100 words -- like Glitter Lady's #TuesdayTales.

But thanks to Twitter, "flash fiction" has also evolved to include a time limit. Many flash fiction contests last 24 hours... or less. And to make things fair, they often include a theme, word prompt, word (or words) that must be incorporated into the finished piece.

Some of my favorite Twitter Flash Fiction contests are Stevie's #TuesdayTales (on Tuesdays) and Tracey M. Hansen's, aka @THansenWrites, #HumpDayChallenge (on Wednesdays. Full disclosure: I'm a previous winner, so of course I'm gonna like Tracey's contest.) I'm sure there are others. If you know of any, feel free to mention them in the comments.

Really, what was Stevie thinking?
Perhaps someone dumped a 5-Hour Energy
into her espresso and then sat her
on an electric fence? That would explain it.

Today, I am the Grand Poobah She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed of Stevie's #TuesdayTales. As I said, I'm honored to be chosen.  So, today -- and today only -- I'm going to ask you to stop reading MY blog and go read someone else's.

Go to Stevie's Glitter Word blog, follow her instructions, discover the Secret Word, and hit me with your best 100. Winner gets bragging rights and a way-cool blog button. Plus, I'm offering a special prize to the winner AND to the writer receiving honorable mention.

Oh -- and to thank you for reading all the way to the end (instead of cutting out early and skipping over to Stevie's place) -- here's a hint as to what I'm looking for in a knock-my-socks-off entry.

Labor Day is over. So is summer. School is in session. It's time for kids to buckle down and learn something. Well, we're all students at heart, right? So I'm going to give special preference to entries that make me think. I'm not talking the "Great! I finally get to use trigonometry after all these years" kind of thinking. I'm talking about the "WHOA! I didn't see that coming. But... of course. It's perfect... Hmmm..." kind.

You know what I mean. I can't wait to read what you come up with.

Seize the Day: Surprise a Writer

A writer's life is full of endless surprises. Main characters refuse to do the very things for which they were created. Villains become too compelling to destroy. Minor characters endear themselves and merit their own story lines. And then there's Real Life...

Wednesday started out like any other day. Horses, dogs, cats, & assorted flocks of fowls to feed... A beta read to continue for a Twitter friend... A request for a quick foreword edit from a blog visitor...

While perusing my Twitter feed, I saw blogger Tracey Hansen's Week 3 #HumpDayChallenge: Write a short story of no more than 100 words that featured the following 5 words:

Jelly. Memory. Greed. Stench. And legerdemain.

Entries had to be posted by 8 p.m., for judging by novelist Al Boudreau.

So after editing the foreword, I started working on a little something... 

In the evening, while my daughter was in karate class I sat in the YMCA, finished up my entry and posted it -- 15 minutes before the deadline.

And then life hit me with the surprise:

I came home to discover that my wonderful husband, who has been doing really well lately, had stopped making sense. Which is not normal for the WunderGuy. Fearing that he was gearing up for a seizure, I packed him off to bed.

(I learned later that the "not making sense" was actually a sort of seizure in itself. I should have taken him to the ER immediately. If only he'd come with an operator's manual. Now I know...)

At quarter to 1 a.m., the fun started. Multiple tonic-clonic seizures, coupled with major ick-sickness, can totally ruin an evening. After the third seizure in 2 hours, I knew it was time to take him to the hospital. His right side wasn't working very well, but somehow (thank God) we got him down the stairs. He was exhausted, so I sat him on the chair to catch his breath while I called a friend to come and watch our daughter. WunderGuy began seizing again.

I dialed 9-1-1.

When the paramedics pulled into our drive a few moments later, he seized a 5th time. He spiked a fever (common after multiple seizures), was sick-sick-sick, and was completely comatose.

We got to the ER shortly after 3. They stabilized him and ran a bunch of tests: EEG, CAT scan, chest x-ray, blood tests. Nothing conclusive, except they're worried that he aspirated fluid into his lungs, so they gave him an antibiotic as a preventative for pneumonia.

These seizures, and the 4 hours or so leading up to them are very different than others he's had. Just this past week, his meds have switched from name brand to generic made-in-India because insurance won't pay for the "real" ones. I'm leaning toward a theory that says that's to blame. But what do I know?

We stayed overnight in the ER; got discharged shortly after 10 a.m. Dragged my butt home, put exhausted WunderGuy to bed, then muddled through the day trying to stay awake & be a mom to 8 y.o. (True confession, I did park her in front of a movie so I could catnap for an hour.)

So it was a wonderfully pleasant surprise to check in on Twitter and learn that I'd won the short story contest. (Want to read it? Here: NIGHTFALL.)

Aw, Gee. You made my day.

What did I win? Well, I'll tell ya, it was a virtual swag bag.

I won the right to display this bitchen, way cool badge of honor. I received a ton of goodwill congratulations from other contestants & Twitter followers. I got the satisfaction of seeing my fiction in print on a site other than my own. And I got a much-needed boost to my emotionally drained spirit that will propel me to fight (and write) yet another day.

In other words, the prizes were a gladly welcomed surprise.

Later (apres catnap and after ascertaining that WunderGuy was still breathing and cogent), I received another surprise.  The person I'd helped with foreword editing sent me a Starbucks gift card in thanks. How nice. How thoughtful. And, given my insatiable penchant for coffee, how totally appropriate.

Now, neither winning the contest nor receiving free coffee has lessened my concern over my husband's well-being. They haven't helped me sign with my Dream Agent or contributed toward this month's mortgage payment. But both went a long way toward making a difficult day... bearable.

Want to make a writer's day? Surprise 'em! Some ideas:

*  Tweet 'em up. If you're both on Twitter, post a less-than-140-character note telling the world how great your Exceptional Writer Friend is.

"You are SO cool!" photo by Mary R. Vogt / MorgueFile.com

*  Blog 'em big. If you have a blog, write a post about something your friend does that you admire. Especially if the thing you admire is writing-related. Most writers get way more rejections than kudos thrown their way. Having someone specify how they don't suck can do more than you know to bolster a writer's flagging spirits.

*  Leave a comment. If your writer friend has a blog, say something in the comments section. Drop a note saying how much you appreciate the friendship, the insight, the craftsmanship, or the humor. Go public with your recognition. It can make someone's day.

It's the little surprises that make life worth living.

* Send a snail mail.  Eschew technology and go old school. Get tangible. Break out the pen and paper or pick up a card, write a note of encouragement and approval, and send that puppy.

*  Send 'em something special. Thanks to the twin miracles of PayPal and online gift certificates, it doesn't take much time or money to send a certain special sumpthin'. Even a $5 gift eCard for their favorite bookseller, coffee shop, movie theatre, or other vice goes a long way. It's a great way to say, "I believe you're going to make it." 

So go ahead, make someone's day. You might find it brings a smile to your face as well:  Surprise!

Contest Considerations

I am engrossed in my NaNoWriMo project (7,000+ words and going strong), and had decided to blog a big less during the month of November.

But then the incomparable Jim Mercurio, screenwriting consultant to the stars (and a really nice guy who loves The Boss) posted some pithy and cogent musings on contests and their obsessive entrants, and I had to share.

If (contests) can help you enjoy this sometimes lonely and always rejection-filled process of writing screenplays by giving you something to look forward to, then figure out your, as they call it in poker, bankroll: What you are willing to risk on contests? Even losing poker players can have an appropriate bankroll: The amount of money they are willing to lose in spending X hours of their life doing something they enjoy.

If you're a contest aficianado, I strongly suggest you read the entire post on evaluating writing contests and deciding whether or not they are for you. Then continue your education and read other posts in Jim's "A-List Screenwriting" blog. (Grab a cup of coffee when you visit -- he's quite prolific. He'd probably scoff at the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words in 30 days... I, on the other hand, find it no laughing matter. Happy writing -- I've got to go see a Muse about a novel...)