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Friday, October 17, 2014

A FINAL! Need your vote...!

Yes, thanks to you I got into the TIW Autumn Open Final! :-)
It's a semi-serious piece, seeing as I was reading 'The Fault in Our Stars' when I wrote it.
Please come and read and vote for it here!
http://theironwriter.com/challenge-85-autumn-equinox-final-round/

AND, as a SPECIAL BONUS, my collaboration (the FIRST EVER on TIW) with Jordan Bell, Grudge 11, is up on the site! Come and read it and applaud!
http://theironwriter.com/grudge-match-11-monday-september-22-2014

Next week is TIW Challenge 86..I'm in that, with a FANTASTICALLY FUNNY story...wait and see :-)

Had 10 free downloads of DS3 in one day...something is happening...maybe...:-)

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

'Circuits & Steam' available for 1 week!

Yes, finally, but for only 1 week, 'Circuits & Steam' is available to buy....(so, Mom, quick! Get the card out!)
This anthology has a super cool Steampunk short story of mine. If you really really wanna have a read of mine and the other cool stories, it's here...
http://www.amazon.com/Circuits-Steam-3-Fates-Press/dp/1940938333


FREE ebook 'Tales from Darker Places'

'Tales from Darker Places' is now FREE on Lulu.com.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/the-indie-collaboration/the-indie-collaboration-presents-tales-from-darker-places-a-chilling-horror-anthology/ebook/product-21850137.html



Let's see if that helps with the 'exposure'. Read a few of the other stories now...my 2 stories are at the back, go read them :-)
Yes, voting time is coming...

Monday, October 13, 2014

Pitman and the 'Books by the Banks' workshop

 Busy week. 'Tales from Darker Places' came out, and I have 2 short stories in the back :-)
On Thursday starts the TIW Autumn Open Final and I'll need some votes.
Next week both TIW Challenge 86 and Grudge 12 start and I'm in both of them. Challenge 86 needs votes, so I guess it's 2 weeks of toting for votes :-)
To pass the time 'til Thursday, here's a little 200 word 'Quickie'...
A wonderful TIW member, Michael D. Pitman, did a TIW workshop at 'Books By The Banks'...please, don't ask me where it was...in the USA, somewhere. He organised and ran 2 'Quickies' for the writers there, and this is my take for the first one.

Elements: jealousy, a chair and baseball game.

Obscenities, fruit and even a foldaway chair were thrown onto the playing field from the grandstand. This was not Dooger’s greatest performance.
"Come on, man! Wake up! That’s three in a row ya let walk, not to mention the other eight in the last innings!” shouted Wade, the catcher. The Rascals were 10 down with only 2 more innings to play.
"Sorry, Wade, but it’s Cheryl!”
"Oh Christ, man! Forget her! Move on! We’ve got a game to play here!”
The umpire beckoned them both over.
"You tell this guy to start playing better or I’ll eject him from the field! It’s getting dangerous out here!”
The crowd continued to whistle and shout.
"What? You can’t do that!”
"Watch me!”
"But ump, it’s his girl!”
"Oh hell, girl trouble? Get over it!” The umpire shook his head. „What happened?”
"She caught me with Flossy.”
"She caught you with another girl? Then what do you expect? Play the game!”
"No, no, Flossy is a goat from next door.”
"A goat!? What? Beastiality ain’t popular in these parts!”
"What? Who’s talking about beastiality? I was painting her hooves! Cheryl got jealous, said I never did anything like that for her!”
"You’re gone!”

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Tales from Darker Places

I finally got a few short stories in another anthology, this time with The Indie Collaboration :-)
This group of writers get together and create stories every 3 months to show the world that there is some great writing outside the main publishing houses! Well, yes, of course! :-)
My two stories, seated at the end of the book, are...
A Day in the life of a Zombie...rather like Walking Dead but told from the zombie's point of view.
Payback...an 'almost' true story
Find it here on Amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/Indie-Collaboration-Presents-Chilling-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00ODS3HQY
or here on Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ODS3HQY
or here as a Paperback :-)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/150272913X

Nice to see my name there on the cover...I'll be doing more of these, hopefully :-)




Monday, October 6, 2014

When TIWs get together...revisited

Yep. I won Grudge #11 by default and decided to take it out on Mathew W Weaver, seeing as he was the one who challenged me.
Here is a little 'one guy' relay I wrote on one of his Facebook posts. Hope you like it.

The Duel of Procrastination

Mathew shuffled to the sound of leaves falling from the resting trees as he hid behind a particularly thorny bramble bush, away from the searching eyes of those present. His seemingly constant flow of procrastination had finally placed him in a particularly prickly situation and his suit of slightly rusting armour was no match for the persistant spikey bush which had the ability to seek out the joining hinges.
"Where is that Weaver?!" shouted an irate Dani. "He was meant to be here three days ago! We're running out of peanut butter and jello sandwiches!"
Jordan stood firm, clenching the case which held the two dueling pistols.
"He's not coming, can't you see that?" Jordan dropped the pistols' case and opened one of the six pack he'd brought along. "Fancy a beer?"
"Nah, you never know, he might appear. I've gotta keep my wits about me," said Dani, waving off the can once, twice, three times. Jordan swung it his way once more and he took it and had a swig.
Mathew spotted his chance and ran out of the hedge, away from the two drinking their beers. For armour, it was surprisingly light and flexible and he sprinted across to the playground, towards safety and a chance for a chip butty.
"Look! There he goes!" screamed Jordan, losing half his beer as he pointed. Dani dropped his and grabbed the pistols' case.
"Give me that! Ahh!" The harder he tried to open the case, the less chance it would.
"You've bent the hinges now! It'll never open!" Jordan caught the case as Dani threw it away in disgust.
"No matter. I have one of these!" Dani took out a large can opener and chased after Mathew. "I'll get that bugger if it's the last thing...!" He tripped over a mole hill.
THE END.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Need your vote! (Plus a Grudge win! Yeah!)

Hey! Manna-X Kindle reached #239,210 Paid in Kindle Store...then dropped like a stone! OK, not so good but better than usual...a few have left for devices across the USA...somewhere...someone is reading it!

This week 2 wonderful things areup.
The first is TIW Grudge 11, a collaboration work between myself and Jordan Bell against Mathew W Weaver and Mamie Pound. The other team was late, 2 days were added to the deadline and the story didn't appear, so Brian announced that WE WON! Yeah! Still not up on the site, though

BUT...more importantly, the TIW Autumn Open Prelims are on! I'll need your vote here! And anyone else who has an IP address!
"Inside the Womb"...
The biggest of the 4 elements for myself was the last, the interview, and so my story is a futuristic TV programme which goes into a famous person's mother's womb and interviews them just before birth...it's the mother of...can ya guess?....Agatha Christie!!! :-)
http://theironwriter.com/2014-autumn-equinox-open-agatha-christie-bracket/