A busy Friday ahead

I won't bore you with my to-do list, but I have a busy day ahead.

I have the cover finished for the October issue of Fictitious Magazine. Yah! One step closer. I'll start archiving the last issue's stories this afternoon, so you can a still read them and any other stories that have appeared in the magazine.
Brace yourself for some fabulously scary stories.










I will moving "Operation Onion" from a single story on Kindle and Smashwords to an upcoming collection of short fiction stories. But...if you are looking for a scary little story for all ages, check out "Ally Ally Oxen Free" on Smashwords and Kindle. 

Tom is fascinated with bones, human bones. He wants to study them and gets his chance when Mr. Dukes allows home dig in the vacant lot behind his store. What Tom unearths makes the neighborhood kids tremble with fear. "Ally ally oxen free!" These four little words can bring anyone out of hiding. 


If you'd like to read a review of the short story click here.







Also, if you haven't had a chance yet, click here check out my interview at The Fictional World of Jennifer Steen.

Happy Reading!

One of my firsts...

I was going through some old stories I've written. I do that from time to time. You never know when something you wrote or started to write can be expanded or given new life. I'd like to share this one with you everyone. I wrote it for a flash fiction contest of 300 words or less  on Writing.com many years ago. Enjoy!

The Day I Lost My Best Friend 

Every time I stroll over the old wooden bridge to cross Clover Creek it brings back memories of the summer I lost my best friend. I was a bit younger then, and he had been there all my life, hunting, fishing and messing around in the woods. At first I blamed myself; if only I we had watched him closely, he wouldn’t have wandered away. 

           

He was killed by a hit and run driver who came barreling down the old country road, and I guess didn’t have control of his car as it careened across the gravel. The driver’s horn blared right before the accident. I called out a warning to my friend, but he didn’t attempt to move. He turned to look at me, his floppy ears swinging as his head swung my direction. Duke had a sparkle in his brown eyes and a dead possum clutched in his teeth. 

“NO! Duke!” I screamed as his body flew through the air and into the cornfield next to the road. The car made no effort to stop and continued on, quickly disappearing in a thick could of dust. I raced to him, tears streaming down my face, but it was too late.

           

Old Duke enjoyed sniffing out the occasional dead animal, and he never passed up the chance to chew on a dead possum or squirrel, especially one easy to catch - dead. He was the best friend a man could ever have.  I’ll never forget our adventures and the way he sloppily licked my face while we lay together in the grass, resting after a long day. It has been around 10 years ago now, but that surreal memory will stay with me forever.

Happy Reading!

Working on October issue of Fictitious Mag

I'm getting a late start on the October issue of Fictitious Mag. I still have a few submissions to read and respond to before putting it all together. I may have to schedule it to go live on Oct. 5th, so that I have time to get responses out and back. I am still working on the cover art as well.

I plan to make it though the rest of the submissions this weekend, so if you've submitted and not heard from me by Monday, feel free to send me a query.

I've had a lot of freelance work lately and this has put me behind schedule a bit. I am also working on putting together Attack of the Dust Bunnies, so I can release it sometime next month.

Publishing news! Kids'Magination Magazine has accepted my children's story, "Sofa Monster" for publication. I will know more when I receive the contract later this week.

Happy Reading!

Finally Kindle!

The Peanut Buttor Tweatment is now availabe on Kindle. Yah! click here

I am super excited!










Happy Reading!

Yes...Success

I found where I made my mistake with the children's picture book formatting. I followed the instructions on a blog by Curtis Taylor- click here  to read his instructions. They help you through the process by telling you how to format pictures and how to put the book together.
The mistake I made was not putting my picture folder that contained my HTML into a compressed zip file, so I could upload it to Kindle. If you don't do this, there are no pictures.
I did not  use Adobe Dreamweaver. I used Microsoft office 2007 to make the webpage and drag the pictures over. It worked fine. It can be a time consuming process. Reformatting pictures and embedding the  text take a while, but the results are worth it.
My advice:
First format all your picture to 900 x 1100 pixels and work with larger pictures. Kindle reduces the size during the conversion. Embed the text with the picture, so you words stay with the picture. Remember to zip your file containing your pictures and your the webpage you create before uploading.
The Peanut Buttor Tweatment is in review on Kindle now and hopefully ready to be released soon.

Happy Reading!

Still working...

I have been working on formatting The Peanut Buttor Tweatment for Kindle today.  I think I know where I went wrong. I have all the pictures the right size and have embedded the words with the pictures. The next step is making the HTML document with the pictures. This is where I messed up last time, so wish me luck...I'll probably need it. I have downloaded a 30 day trial of Adobe Dreamweaver because that is what the person giving the instructions used to format his picture book for Kindle. So, hope it goes well. I have never used that program before.

A bit of good news. My short stories have been selling well on Kindle. Thank you to those who have bought them and I hope you're enjoying the read. I have several more projects in the works for Kindle and print.

I just finished reading James: The Magi by Joaquin Santiago. I really liked it and I think it is a great book for the YA readers out  there. Click here to visit Joaquin's website for the book.

Happy Reading!

No Breakthrough!

The breakthrough I that I had in formatting my picture book for Kindle bombed. I followed the instructions, but  I ended up with no pictures when the book was converted to Kindle format. I must have messed up when creating the HTML document. I will go back and try again. I know these steps must work because the person that posted them has several picture books on Kindle,so he knows what he is doing...I don't. :)

So, its back to the drawing board. I am determined to accomplish this task and do it correctly.

Wish me luck.

Kindle, Smashwords, Contests and more...

New giveaway! for those of you without a Goodreads account and still want to enter to win a copy of The Peanut Buttor Tweatment I am having a giveaway here on my blog and my Facebook. You can leave me a message here that you'd like to enter or Click here to go to my Facebook author's page and leave me a message there. Either way you will be entered in the contest. The giveaway will start today and run though October 15th.

I am still working on formatting The Peanut Buttor Tweatment for Kindle. I think I made a breakthrough. :) *Fingers crossed* My main issue has been getting the pictures and words to stay on the same page when converted to Kindle format. But, I have done some research and hopefully it will be available for Kindle soon.

Now, both "Operation Onion" and "Ally Ally Oxen Free" are available on and Kindle and Smashwords. Smashwords offers the short stories in several formats including Kindle, Epub,  PDF,  and other formats for online reading.

I am still working on two projects.

 Attach of the Dust Bunnies - if all goes well- will be released by the end of October.

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Remain Calm is a novelette Ebook. It is a comedy based on the idea that the insane never question their sanity. If everything stays on track, it will be available in print, on Kindle and Smashwords by mid November.


I've added a small excerpt below.

Solitary confinement—a padded room with a little window at the top of a three-inch thick door. Nothing to do but write on this paper with a crayon, because they can’t trust a crazy person like me with a pencil. Who knows what I might write if I had a real pencil. My genius intimidates them all. I don’t belong here, and I’m not just talking about this room; I shouldn’t be in here with all these loonies.

You wouldn’t believe the people I  tolerate in this place.  The most annoying is Mumbles. It’s not his real name. I assigned it to him after spending each and every night trying to make out what he was saying. He ‘s always talking, his lips always moving, but the sounds are incomprehensible. I can’t stand not knowing what someone is saying. What if he’s talking about me and everyone else can understand him. Then, they all laugh at me behind my back. I know how secret languages work.

The other person I have deal with is Mothman. Another name assigned by myself. You should see this guy running toward light, burning his face when it touches the hot bulbs, and letting out that horrible screeching sound. Moths don’t screech, I know, but they do tend to migrate toward light. Hence, the name. 

Both of these men are pawns in the institution’s game of chess with me. And now, they’ve succeeded—check mate. I have no moves left. I will never get out of here.

How did they use their pawns to make such a clever move?

Happy Reading!  

Cover for Attack of the Dust Bunnies

I have completed the cover for the second book in the Hairington's series, Attack of the Dust Bunnies. In this second book, Dad decides to finally clean the attic--a task he has put off or a while--and discovers the attic is overrun with dust  bunnies.  These dust bunnies are harmless, but they do attach themselves to hair. So, chaos ensues as the family calls in Dr. Follicle to rid Dad of the dust bunnies and the exterminator to rid the attack of dust bunnies. But don't worry...no harm comes to the little dusty creatures. They are set free in Dust  Bunny Fields.

The Goodreads giveaway continues to win a copy of The Peanut Buttor Tweatment. I am planning a giveaway for those not on Goodreads and it will start October 1st. I'll  post more details on this later in the week.

If you haven't checked it out yet, stop by Unwritten, a blog by author Mysti Parker, and enter her contest "All Creatures Great and Small." You have a chance to win one of several books either in print or Ebook form. Click here visit Mysti's blog.

Happy Reading!

My Interview today...

You can read my latest interview today at The Joys of Writing -  a blog by author Teresa Jones. click here to read

The Goodreads giveaway continues to win a free copy of The Peanut Buttor Tweatment. It runs through mid October, so there is plenty of time to enter. The second book in the series, Attack of the Dust Bunnies, will be available soon. I will have more information posted in the coming week.

"Ally Ally Oxen Free" is now available for Kindle from Amazon .com. for .99 cents! click here.