Friday, March 29, 2013

Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading, Norwescon, March 30th at 10am


Camille Alexa made us this fantastic flyer

Will you be at Norwescon this weekend? I'll be reading some flash fiction tomorrow as part of the Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading, Saturday, March 30th from 10am to noon in Evergreen Rooms 1&2. I'll have about 10 minutes to read alongside Cat Rambo, Camille Alexa, Carol Berg, S.A. Bolich, Brenda Carr, and Mae Empson. I love the Rapid-Fire Readings because you get to sample a lot of different spec fic writers in one session, plus there's a rumor about chocolate.

It'd be great to see you there.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

New podcast at Beneath Ceaseless Skies

In honor of its 100th podcast, Beneath Ceaseless Skies has created something special for Tori Truslow's "Boat in Shadows, Crossing" by using multiple voice actors. I had the fantastic opportunity, and pleasure, to read the part of Bue, alongside Rajan Khanna, Tina Connolly, and Michael J. DeLuca. The whole podcast runs a little over an hour, and is a prime example of the type of high quality, literary adventure fantasy synonymous with BCS.

Listen to "Boat in Shadows, Crossing"

And to celebrate this milestone, Beneath Ceaseless Skies is also giving away two audio books of Saladin Ahmed's novel Throne of the Crescent Moon. (More info here)

I hope you'll check out this podcast. I'm really pleased with how it all came together. Thanks!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Four lines, all truth

Somehow I managed to get myself sick
Hello, tea
Hello, soup
Being sick is dumb

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Teaching an online podcasting class with Cat Rambo

On Wednesday, April 3, 4-6pm PST, I'll be teaching a class online with the fabulous Cat Rambo. We'll be going over the basics of podcasting. I've recorded over 40 stories for markets such as Every Day Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Wily Writers, and This Mutant Life anthology. I'm excited to share what I've learned about creating the best podcast possible, along with some tips that will help anyone get started--equipment, software, promotion, and performance considerations.

Details about the podcasting class

Sign-up information for Cat's classes

The other news is that I've written a new literary short (250 words) called "Scattered" for the Lascaux Flash Fiction Contest.

Read "Scattered" at Lascaux Flash...

If you get a chance to read my piece, your comments would be appreciated.

Monday, March 04, 2013

Big News

My big news this morning is that out of over 200 entries, my story, "Before the Fireworks," placed third in the annual String-of-10 contest at Flash Fiction Chronicles. My story will be published at the Flash Fiction Chronicles website in April! This is a huge deal to me and I am honored to have placed.

The way this annual contest works is that participants are given ten words and about a week (Feb 3-9) to write a story up to 250 words. In this case: EVENING-QUARRY-ACCENT-ROSE-TEAR-MINUTE-GRAVE-CLOSE-ENTRANCE-BOW. Each submission must incorporate at least four of those words. I used evening, accent, rose, close, and bow. There is also an optional quote you can use as your theme, but I didn't use it. This year's quote was Steve Jobs' "I want to put a ding in the universe." Contest entries are judged blind.

Last year I submitted for the first time and received Honorable Mention for my short, "Pompeii is for Lovers," so I am especially honored to have placed this time.

About my third-place story, the Guest Judge, Kathy Fish, writes: "What I admired about Folly Blaine’s 'Before the Fireworks' was how simply she allowed the scene to unfold. The prose is clear and uncluttered. Blaine gives us a gentle exchange between two characters, co-workers and friends, and the small kindnesses they show each other, in a quiet moment on the cusp of big change for one of them. This story could so easily have been overplayed but it wasn't."

Read the full announcement here

Congratulations to the first and second place winners, Linda Simoni-Wastila and Robert Vaughan, and to all of the honorable mentions and finalists! Thank you, Kathy Fish, for your kind words about my story, and Flash Fiction Chronicles for sponsoring the contest.

I'll post the link to my published story sometime in April.