The Big 30-0! and the Great Chocolate Contest!

So... something happened yesterday that I wasn't paying attention to. The problem with this is that I was paying attention to paying attention to it, because I wanted to do something special for it. BUT I thought had more drafts in my draft folder than I actually did, so I didn't realize until after the fact that I had posted my 300th post! In less than two years, which is much better than I thought I would be doing. But there it is! 300 published posts (301 with this one) and a handful of drafts of things in progress (not to mention my handwritten notes for post ideas that got packed away when we moved that I still haven't located). I'm not really sure why 300 seems to be a significant number to me, but it does. I'm think I won't do another one of these until I get to 501, and if anyone gets the reference, please let me know. The 501 is significant.
[Yes, I know that's not much to go on, but it will separate the men from the boys, metaphorically speaking.]

Stepping to the side for a moment, I mentioned recently that I had discovered the best chocolate ever. And I have! This stuff is the BEST chocolate in the world! At least, it's the best chocolate that I've ever tasted, and that's saying something. No, I don't know what it's saying, but I'm sure it is. Look, I like to taste things (be nice!)... I like to try new foods (is that better?), so, when I get the chance, chocolate is one of the things I like to sample. I've tried lots of different types of chocolates over the years, and this stuff is by far the best ever. It's all hand made right here in a store not all that far from my house. The stuff is divine.

Back when I mentioned that I'd discovered this chocolate, I also said that I would try to think of a contest for which the chocolate could be the prize, well, I've done that. Yep, in honor of 300 posts, and in honor of my birthday, which is coming up, and in honor of the birthday of the first edition of The House on the Corner,

which, quite by accident, turns two on my birthday (the one pictured is the 2nd edition, but that's the one that's available), I have a contest!

To some extent, this contest is a little not fair, but it's my contest, and I AM going to be giving away the best chocolate in the ENTIRE world, so, oh, well, you will just have to deal with it.

So here's the deal:
I have been thinking for a while that it would be fun to do a collection of short stories based on The House on the Corner and the Imagination Room. Those of you that have read the book will understand how that can work. I actually have two already: one that I wrote that is included at the end of the book called "Let Down Your Hair" and one that my son wrote called "Into the Trench" that is included in Charter Shorts. There's so much room for more stories there, though, and I just don't have time, right now, to write any, so, hey, why not get some other people to do that work for me, right? It will be kind of like Tom Sawyer convincing his friends to pay him to do his chores.

And here's how it works:
Write a short story based on a trip in the Imagination Room from The House on the Corner. Submit it to me by February 6, 2013. I'll pick the best one based almost completely on, just, which one I like the best, although I may have my kids help with the choosing if I can't decide. The author of the story I pick as "the best" will win a box of the GREATEST CHOCOLATE in the world. And, maybe, another special prize as well, but I'm not completely certain about the second one yet (but I'll let you know as soon as I am). There may even be more than one prize if there are multiple entries that I think are just awesome. It would be really nice if I had your permission to include your story in a special collection of House short stories as well. Oh, and just to be clear, I want short stories, so that would make your cutoff point 7500 words (though I'm not gonna quibble too much if it goes longer than that (although it would be nice if they were under 10,000 words)).

Yes, I do realize that you have to have read The House on the Corner to be able to enter this, so, if you haven't, you ought to get on that, don't you think? And, no, this is not really a sneaky way to get more sales or reviews or anything like that, although both would be nice. I just think, since quite a few of you (at least 3 or 4), have read it, that this will be a lot of fun. Assuming people actually submit stories. You can even post the stories on your blogs once you write them, and I'll link over to them.
One other note, because so many of my students at school have read the book, I'm gonna open the contest to my creative writing class, too, so you better bring your best, because some of those kids can really write!

Well, there you have it. I hope some of you decide to take part and that this is a fun idea for more than just me. If I'm wrong about that, please let me know. Otherwise, get to writing!

The Great Review (Contest)

Here we are on another Shadow Spinner release day. Today is "Part Seven: The Moth and the Shadow."

Of course, it's FREE! today, Thursday, October 18 and tomorrow, Friday, October 19. Make sure you pick it up! Also, "Part Six: The Man with No Eyes" is also FREE! today only.

Here's something interesting:
I like the idea of switching covers every so often. I mean, when you're doing a serial book, why have the same cover all the way through, right? Why not offer the consumer some variety? Especially when you have someone as talented as Rusty Webb doing your covers! It seemed like a cool idea to me.

Evidently, it wasn't such a good idea. On Monday when I had parts 1-5 available for FREE! there were an undisclosed amount of downloads on parts 1-4 (because I think I'm not supposed to post my actual numbers or Amazon will get upset), but there were only about 25% as many downloads on part 5 as any of the other parts individually. I can think of no other reason for this than that the cover changes at part 5, and the visual recognition just wasn't there. I find it really kind of odd. I had another cover change in mind that would happen around chapter 12 or 13, but, now, I think, maybe, I shouldn't do that. The whole thing is a little disappointing, but it's a good thing to know.

This is the part where I would normally start begging for reviews. I'm growing tired of it, and, if I am, I'm pretty sure you guys are too. But, see, "The Man with No Eyes" is sitting at just one review and "The Cop" at three. I'm starting to feel like little Oliver, "Please, sir, I want some more." Because I do. It's enough to make the idea of purchasing reviews tempting, but, you know, only not, because that still steams my ears. The difficulty of getting people to leave a 20 word review makes me understand the temptation, though. Especially since begging doesn't seem to work. So here is what I'm going to do:

The Great Review Contest!

Between today and, oh, say Sunday, for every review you leave for one of my works, I will put your name in a drawing for a FREE! book. Yes, that's right, a FREE! book, and it doesn't even have to be one of mine. However, there are some qualifications:

1. It must be an independently or self-published work (this includes small publishers). No big, traditional publishers here.
2. It must be an e-book, and
3. It must be for the Kindle or Kindle app.

So go and leave some reviews on any of the Shadow Spinner parts or on The House on the Corner or even for "The Evil That Men Do" or Charter Shorts (which doesn't have a single review!). After you've done that, leave me a comment here to let me know where you've left reviews (and under what name you left them), and I'll mark you down for an entry for each and every review you leave! It's that simple! And, really, 20 words is not that many. I mean, a lot of you are writers, so 20 words should, you know, come out when you sneeze.

I'll announce the winner in Monday's post (which also has a super, secret announcement!). If you win, just let me know what book you want, and I will buy it for you and send it to you. It's as easy as that! ANY BOOK! Well, not any book, but you know what I mean. I hope you do, anyway. It can be one of my books, or it can be any of these great up and coming authors that we all want to support. And, hey, I just did a review on a great book that you could choose!

And just to be clear, I want a real review, meaning an honest review. I'm not offering to buy 5-star reviews here; I just want to get some activity going, so, you know, I'm not gonna secretly mark you off the list if you give me a bad review.

However, if offering incentives to get people to actually stop and leave a review (and click the "like" button) doesn't work, I may have to resort to coming to people's houses. And none of us want that!

A Blog in 3 Parts

Part One


The big news today is Shadow Spinner! Shadow Spinner is my next planned release. I'm hoping it will be completely finished before the end of the year, but, until then, I'm going to be releasing it serially. I experimented with this a while back here on the blog, if any of you remember, which is what prompted this experiment. Of course, I'd meant to start doing  this months and months ago, but I had to wait for art. It was worth the wait!

"The Tunnel" is now available for the Kindle. I'd really like to make it free, but Amazon is being... problematic and telling me that they have no "option" for that. Duh, I knew that. I also know that they can go in and make something free, so I'm working on it. However, even though it's $0.99 as its set price, I'm making it FREE for the next many days, as many as Amazon will allow me for this selling period. Since it is free, I'd really appreciate it if you'd (yes, you, the person reading this post) go over and download it. I mean, you can't beat the price, and, even if you don't have a Kindle, there are plenty of free Kindle apps for whatever platform you have. After you read it, please click the "like" button, because I'm just gonna assume you're going to like it. What's not to like? If you could see your way around to leaving a short review and a rating, that would be great, too. This is just the first chapter of Shadow Spinner, and it's quite short, so it won't take up much time. Look, here's the link! Go get it now while it's FREE!!!


Oh, and I didn't forget: The incredible art has been done by the artist who may or may not be Rusty Webb. He's kind of undecided at the moment, but it's incredible despite his identity crisis. Somewhere around chapter 4 or 5, there will be an alternate cover, and it's even more cool than this one!

Part Two


I ran a contest last week. It may have been a bad week to run a contest as traffic was down and comments were way down. Oh, well. It is what it is. You can go back and look at the contest post if you missed it. At any rate, Donna, over at Mainely Write, has walked off with the prize. At least, she will have once I hear back from her so that I know which option she wants. By the way, if you haven't visited Donna before, you should. She posts lots of great poems. I find most modern poetry less than satisfying, but Donna's stuff tends to the great, so go check her out.

Part Three


Remember back in April when everyone was A-to-Zing? Back during that whole thing, I discovered a bunch of books and stories I wanted to read about things that were fictional at the time but are now, if not real, on their way to being real. My "V" entry was about virtual reality, and I mentioned a short story by Stanley Weinbaum, "Pygmalion's Spectacles." It was an appropriate follow up to my recent read of the After, as they both deal with themes of reality and what, exactly, reality is.

However, Weinbaum's story was written in the 1930s and has an incredibly accurate look at what virtual reality might be like. How real does "real" need to be. How much will our own brains supply to fill in the gaps? Is virtual reality as real as real reality? It's pretty short and well worth reading. And it's FREE for the Kindle, so you should follow the link and go check it out.

It's Time for a Bicentennial Celebration!

Okay, so that's not precisely true. I have not been blogging for 200 years, although it would be very impressive if I had. I just wanted to say it, because in hitting my 200th post, I started thinking about the bicentennial when I was a kid. The Bicentennial. I was six. I was a very patriotic lad. I still have souvenir type things from 1976. Which includes my brother, since he was born only a few days later. It makes me wonder how we'll celebrate the 250th birthday of the nation; I'll be surprised if I'm still around for the 300th.

Anyway... This is, indeed, my 200th post. When I started blogging, I don't think I ever thought about getting this far. 200 posts is a lot, especially when you tend to the longer side of posting. I mean, my posts tend to be in the 1000 word range, so that means that I'm hovering in the 200,000 word range in my posts. That's a lot. Hopefully, they've mostly been "good" words.

Since this is post #200, I'm gonna make it about me. I figure I can do that every once in a while. BUT! There will also be a contest, so keep reading!

First, here are some recent things that have been said about my book, The House on the Corner:

"When you read a book and get so into it that when you reach the end you feel lost and alone because you miss the characters and want to know what comes next. Thank you Andrew, for introducing me to the Howard's. I cannot wait to read more!"

"That was a great book I cant wait for the next one :)"

"Omg how could you end it like that?!?!?!?!?! You need to hurry up with the next book!!! "

"Clearly I loved it, since it's 5am and I stayed up to finish it."

"Loved it, loved it, loved it Andrew! Loved the viewpoint of children. You could always tell who the voice was because you wrote the characters so clearly. The story was "real" and down to earth, even though the subject veers off into the realm of fantasy - but the family itself is rooted in the familiarity of the real world and I loved that. Great book! Really enjoyed it! Well done!!!!!!!"

I think those are some great quotes. Of course, I also think you should read my book. Just to note, I am debating about the idea of raising the price on it. A lot of the newer research/reports suggest that people view books at the $2.99 price point as indie authors just trying to grab the 70% royalty rate and that's where the "crap" sits. The view is that if the book is not priced at at least $3.99, it's not worth buying. So, yeah, buy it now while it's still $2.99!

Oh, and for those wondering, I am working on the sequel. I promise! 
One other thing, if you've read House (and liked it), it would be a great help to me if you could pop by Amazon and click the "like" button on the page (both Kindle and physical would be great). The links are off to the right over there. Thanks!

An update on "The Evil That Men Do":

Well, this is not precisely an update about that story, but it is an update about Tib. I have some preliminary cover art for Shadow Spinner, and I'm working hard on finishing it. Theoretically, I should have the first few parts coming soon for the Kindle. Remember, "The Evil That Men Do" sets up the events in Tib's life. I only don't include it with the rest of the Tiberius stuff because it's more of an adult story while Shadow Spinner is appropriate for kids, too. Be on the lookout for more great artwork from the inestimable Rusty Webb! I mean, I've seen it, and it's great! Especially the one he's done of the Man with No Eyes! Oh, man! It's almost enough to make me want to show you, now, anyway, even though it's not finished!

At any rate, I think "The Evil That Men Do" has been under appreciated, meaning that almost no one has bothered to pick it up, but it's only $0.99, and it has a perfect 5-star rating! At the moment.

The Contest!

Oh, yeah, I mentioned a contest, didn't I? Yeah, I think I did. But it's not going to be an easy one. It will require some work on your part, too. 

As a writer, one of the things I hope is that I am not writing in a bubble. That includes blogging. I mean, I don't want to be like that Dragon Tattoo guy who never got read until after he was dead. That would suck. Which means, I don't blog strictly for my own entertainment. I could do that without putting it online. That means this stuff I throw out here into the void of the Internet is, hopefully, stuff that is of worth to you people that read what I'm throwing out. As such, it's time for some feedback from you guys!

Here's what you need to do:

1. Go back and read all the other 199 posts. I'll give you a few minutes to do this.

2. Okay, no, you don't really have to read all of them.

3. Okay, seriously, now, of the posts that I've written and you've read, decide which one was your favorite and/or the most helpful to you.

4. Have one picked out? Now, tell me about it. Why is that particular post your favorite? Why was it helpful to you.

5. And, you know, if you want to skim back through my early posts, the ones I wrote before I had any followers, feel free to do that. Some of those are quite good, too. Well, I think they are anyway.

6. Just to be clear, in the comments section, leave me a comment telling me which post is particularly meaningful to you in whatever way it is, and you will have entered the contest.

7. You have until midnight (PST), Friday, July 27 to get your comment in.

The Prize!

The prize is going to be a little self serving, too. Deal with it.

Back at the end of May, I released a collection of short stories from the kids in the creative writing class I taught last school year. That release was met with a lot of support and a lot of people posting about it and, yet, there were almost no sales. It was a bit disappointing, because the kids did a great job, and some of the stories are really good. They're all good, but a few of them are great. You can see the link to Chart Shorts over there on the right side of the blog. Since I should be teaching this class again this coming year and since I'll be putting together another collection of short fiction from the kids, I really want people to see what was done this past year when I went into the class without any intention of putting together a book.

So that will be the prize. A signed copy of Charter Shorts to the person that has the "best" comment about which post they liked best. Of course, the book won't be signed by all the authors, but I'm pretty sure I can get three different signatures in there. As an added bonus, I won't necessarily stop at just one copy! I'll give away up to three copies of the book depending on the worthiness of the responses. Basically, if you guys make me unable to choose a "best," I will give out more than one prize. I'm  not like those Pulitzer people that just decide that no award shall be given at all.

The fine print of that does mean that you will have to be willing to give me your snail mail address if you want the book. However, if you don't want to do that, you can choose an e-copy instead. As long as you are Kindle friendly, that is.

Well... There you go. My very first contest. 200 posts. A great prize. And speaking of the prize, because we were, I'll announce the winner(s) on Monday, July 30. Probably. I mean, I don't see why I wouldn't. But, you know, don't tie me down.


And if I have time, I'll try to put together a top 5 or so of my favorite posts just because I think that might be interesting. Next week will be pretty busy, though, so it might be a few weeks before I have a chance to sit down and figure out my top 5.