Cities and suburbs, real and imaginary.

Monday, May 12, 2014

I have a lot of difficulty with scrivener.

Again, I am having a lot of difficulty with scrivener.

What I want: A text editor that lets me run long without having to right click and create folders and all that jibber-jabber. I just want to hit enter four times to communicate to the text editor that a new chapter has started, and have it auto-format it for me complete with a location tag.

I don't want to have to figure out an elaborate database to write a book. I just want to write a book.

Lacking better options, I return to scrivener.

Friday, May 9, 2014

MAY MADNESS WINNER: Natania Barron

It was a rough battle. First, she struck down two burly, crusty SFWA men in one blow, turning them into fish. Then, she battled a very challenging strategist and master wit and though it was a close-fought duel, Natania edged out Libby just barely in the final moments of the fight. In the final round, another fingernail-biter, Natania Barron stripped the golden sheen from Minerva, in a battle that will be legendary on the internet (because it is now GONE! Read the last round here while you still can: http://jaymgates.com/clients/flash-fiction-challenge-final-bracket/)

Natania Barron is the reigning queen of May Madness. Her words have devoured all other words. Your votes tallied, and decided, and it is done.

Did you read the flash stories? No? Too bad. Other rounds have already faded from the aether.

The stories are going to be put together into an eBook and sold where fine eBooks are sold, and all proceeds shall go to one of my own personal, favorite charities: the SFWA Emergency Medical Fund. I have never needed to partake of it, but I know folks who've had. I've known too many of our people holding fundraisers for serious medical conditions.

Thanks go out to everyone who grabbed a pen and took writing prompts to war. Thanks, especially, goes out to Jaym Gates who did most of the heavy lifting on the logistics, and really stepped up when I was suddenly without internet access for a week in Grenada.

Our literary thunderdome will return next year, bigger and bolder than before. Perhaps, by then, it will be bigger than the "sport" version involving baskets with holes cut in the bottom and round objects that don't quite bounce as good as flubber.

To grab a piece of history, for just a moment, await the eBook that is forthcoming, of which all proceeds go to charity.