Window View

            I actually had some difficulty deciding what to blog about this morning. However, since I am holding a writing prompt contest I decided that what could be better than for me to participate in someone else’s creative jump start exercise.

            This one is being held by Nicole Pyles and the rules are simply to write a story based on the picture below and include the following five words: File, Chest, Pirate, Nest, and Winner. It also needs to be under 500 words. I call this one . . .

WINDOW VIEW

 

            The view hasn’t changed. It hasn’t changed at all in the last thirty minutes I’ve spent staring out it; except for the shortening of the shadows. It hasn’t changed much in the three months I’ve been working on my “break-out” novel. In fact, other than seasonal changes it hasn’t changed that much since I moved here.

            So then why do I continue focusing my attention through it rather than on my writing?

            I tear myself away from the window under the pretense that I need to pull a file from the cabinet across the room. The micro-break from the view outside opens a crack in my creativity and the ideas begin to flow once again. Pirates. That’s what every good book needs is a crew of scurvy pirates.

            By the time I sit back down the ship of ill-mannered brutes has sailed away. My eyes creep towards the window view. I adjust my chair so that my back is directed toward the window as much as I can manage and still hope to write.

            My fingers linger lightly on the keyboard. Then not so lightly. Within five minutes my arms are crossed over my chest and the faint sounds from outside beckon me. So I close my eyes.

            The tree is there, on the back side of my eyelids; complete with last year’s bird nest and the initials carved into its trunk. Just as I curse my decision to select a writing spot with a view the image changes. The tree takes on a ghostly aura. Shadows morph into menacing shapes that dance upon the ground contrary to the stillness of their owners. Through the window of my mind a story takes shape.

            A broad smile spreads across my face. I have a winner.  

Writing Prod Contest

    

            Since this is Memorial Day, I would like to start out by expressing my thanks to the brave men and women who have made sacrifices so that we might be free. Thank you one and all.

            Today I am going to give away a copy of City of the Gods: Mythic Tales, Volume One. Okay, I’m not actually giving it away today, but I’m going to tell you about the contest that will allow you to win it. This will be my first attempt at a give-away.

            Mythic Tales includes my short story A Coyote’s Tale in the collection. The book is beautifully illustrated and, so far, the reaction to it has been good. A quick run-down on the premise of City of the Gods is that all of the gods left the earth and now live together in and around the Eternal City. Mortals and immortals alike walk the city’s streets and represent every mythos from Earth.

            For the contest, I am going to offer up my usual Monday Writing Prod and then ask anyone who wants to compete to submit a short story, poem, or synopsis based on the prompt. Please, keep it under 300 words. Post a comment below and include a link to the entry. Or you can just post the entry in the comments section. The deadline is next Monday. I will review all of the entries (at least, I hope there will be some entries) and announce a winner on my Wednesday post.

            Tell your friends about the contest. The more the merrier. And I am requesting that the winner review the book and either post it on their blog or allow me to post it on mine.

            Now for the prod. I call this one the Extreme Holiday. The idea here is to take a holiday and push the celebrations surrounding it to the extreme. Once you have the holiday-gone-wild worked out think of how it got that way and challenge your hero to change it.

            Here is my example:

            The Family Bowl

One day a year determined a family’s fate until the next Thanksgiving. Life was great if you family won the annual Family Bowl. The rest of the people on your block were at your beck and call until next year. But Josh was twelve and had only Mom and his sister Stacy with which to put together a grid-iron monster that would beat the other families. He needed a “Hail Mary” plan or his family would be on the bottom of the loser’s column . . . again.

This Week In The Blogverse

            The blog I'm covering today just recently hit my radar. And by recent I mean within the last month or so. Hopefully, that points out that I do try to keep my eye out for quality blogs that have something to offer aspiring authors.

            Let me introduce everyone to Sher A Hart who runs a fabulous blog. So far, my weekly spotlights have focused on a feature that the blog of the week offers. That isn’t always the case. Some blogs have an enormous amount of valuable posts that just don’t fall into the weekly column format. Sher happens to run a blog that falls into that category. The link above will take you to the landing page of Sher’s blog, but I am going to cover a couple of the specific posts she has put out there that has made this a must read for me every week. I’ll include links to those specific posts as well.

            On Social Media: Marketing Your Writing Sher had a veritable cornucopia of links to sites that can help you market yourself better on the internet. I spent several hours checking them out and found them to be pretty useful. This is the post that originally caught my attention. (Among the links is one for Nathan Bransford that I highly recommend.)

            My eyes really perked up when I read Turn Your Book Into a Script and Get $200,000. Kevin J. Anderson may be fortunate enough to be getting calls left and right to work on writing project, but I’m not. At this stage of the publishing game I have to make opportunities happen. This post brought an opportunity to my attention. I took second place in this year’s First Chapter contest at LDStoryMakers12 and plan to finish that as a script and submit it for consideration. Kudos to Sher for posting this opportunity.

            Dan Wells Free Video Seminar is another example of how the blog shares information helpful to writers. Dan covered a lot of this material in the class he taught at LDStoryMakers12. It’s good stuff. If you couldn’t attend the conference here is your chance to experience it yourself. (Alright, you won’t be experiencing the actual conference yourself, but you will get to see what it was like to sit in a class taught by Dan Wells and learn about the seven point plotting system he advocates.)

            I’ll stop at three examples, but Sher provides a constant stream of writing links, helpful advice, and notices about contests and giveaways. How great is all of that?

            Trust me, it’s awesome.