Reminder about the #IWSG Short Story Contest

Have you written your story for the IWSG contest yet?

Eligibility: Any member of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group is encouraged to enter – blogging or Facebook member. The story must be previously unpublished. Entry is free.

Word count: 3500-6000

Genre: Mystery/Crime/Thriller

Theme: Tick Tock. The story revolves around a clock, is time sensitive, or has something about a specific time. This theme has plenty of scope and we’re open to pretty much anything along these lines. No erotica, R-rated language, or graphic violence.

Story deadline: November 1st, 2017

How to enter: Send your polished, previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please format double-spaced, size 12 font, and no headers or footers. Include your contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging or Facebook IWSG group.

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IWSG Show Your Writer Insecurity Contest Winners

This contest was so much fun! Thank you to everyone who participated. We loved seeing your pictures. It was hard to pick only three. Everyone deserves a round of applause.

Third place: J Lenni Dorner

Second place: Mary Aalgaard

And the grand prize winner who also finally told all his Facebook friends he’s a writer: Ken Rahmoeller

Happy Halloween and Friday Five for October 31, 2014

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

1. What sort of scary good fun are you having today? My son is really excited. He'll have a party at school and then go trick-or-treating with his best buddy this evening. (If it isn't raining!)

2. Another good writing week. I'm one-sixth of the way done my third and final D&D novella. This one is from the guy's POV, so I've been pestering my husband with a ton of questions!

3. I did some critiquing and wrote up two short skits about bullying for a friend of mine. It's a bit strange for me to write for an eight-year-old audience. I tend to fall into quirky Harry Potter-like prose when I do. But since this was a serious subject, I had to keep it realistic. A good writing exercise.

4. I'll be absent from the cyberworld next week as my mom is visiting. We'll get our Christmas shopping done early. I still have my IWSG post ready to go for Wednesday along with a fantastic guest post by Carol Kilgore on Monday, and the second week of November is Realms Faire. Huzzah!

5. Thank you to everyone who entered my Creepy Freebies giveaway and to all who helped promote it. Thanks to the participating authors for all the awesome free reads. My Kindle is packed with scary stories. A final big thank you to Milo who organized it. I can't wait to do it again next year!

The winners of my Creepy Freebies giveaway are:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners of the 500 Followers SpecFic Giveaway

Thank you to all my wonderful followers and to everyone who helped promote this giveaway. This has been the biggest Rafflecopter giveaway I've ever hosted. I wish you could all win!

Congratulations to the winners!
I'll be contacting you shortly.

Have a great weekend, folks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners for the More Than Just A Kiss Blogfest and The 13th Floor Collection cover reveal giveaway

Thank you to everyone who participated in the MORE THAN JUST A KISS Blogfest. It was awesome. So many great entries. Even more so, each kiss was so very different. Some made me laugh, others had me sighing or fanning myself, and a few made my eyes watery. These were more than just kisses.

My most marvelous fellow judges - Cecilia Robert, Kyra Lennon, Laurelin Paige - and I had a tough time picking the winners. We all have different tastes, but there are three that stood out.

Here are our top three:

Our first place winner of a critique (not exceeding ten pages) from Cecilia, Kyra, and I is

L.G. KELTNER!

Our second place winner of a critique (not exceeding five pages) from Laurelin and I is

MICHELLE WALLACE!

Our third place winner of a one page critique from Cecilia and I is

ADRIANNE RUSSELL!

Congratulations, ladies! An email has been sent your way.

But wait! We have some bonus prizes to give out. Each of us judges have picked one entry to win our bonus prizes. Here they are!

Laurelin's pick to win FIXED ON YOU:

ROE!

Cecilia's pick to win TRULY MADLY DEEPLY YOU and REAPER'S NOVICE.:
ALEX TANNER!

Kyra's pick to win IF I LET YOU GO:

SUMMER ROSS!

My pick to win all six volumes of The 13th Floor series:

SHAH WHARTON!

Congratulations to you all!

And thank you again to every participant. Every single scene was great.

Now on to the winners of my cover reveal giveaway!

A huge thank you to everyone that helped introduce The 13th Floor Complete Collection to the world.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations to the winners!

Emails have been sent your way.

Taking the World by Storm - Alex J. Cavanaugh's Cassa Trilogy

CassaStorm

By Alex J. Cavanaugh

From the Amazon Best Selling Series!

A storm gathers across the galaxy…

Commanding the Cassan base on Tgren, Byron thought he’d put the days of battle behind him. As a galaxy-wide war encroaches upon the desert planet, Byron’s ideal life is threatened and he’s caught between the Tgrens and the Cassans.

After enemy ships attack the desert planet, Byron discovers another battle within his own family. The declaration of war between all ten races triggers nightmares in his son, threatening to destroy the boy’s mind.

Meanwhile the ancient alien ship is transmitting a code that might signal the end of all life in the galaxy. And the mysterious probe that almost destroyed Tgren twenty years ago could return. As his world begins to crumble, Byron suspects a connection. The storm is about to break, and Byron is caught in the middle…

“Cavanaugh has created wonderfully moving moments of great poignancy… CassaStorm could have been a dark story full of hardship and angst, but instead it's a cleverly balanced story about hope and triumph.”
- Lynda R. Young, author of Make Believe

"Cavanaugh makes world building on the galactic scale look easy. The stakes affect the entire known universe and yet Cavanaugh makes it intensely personal for our hero. The final installment of this series will break your heart and put it back together."
- Charity Bradford, science fantasy author of The Magic Wakes

Find CassaStorm:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

Goodreads

Book trailer

$16.95 USA, 6x9 Trade paperback, 268 pages, Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C.

Science fiction/adventure and science fiction/space opera

Print ISBN 9781939844002 eBook ISBN 9781939844019

$4.99 EBook available in all formats

Alex J. Cavanaugh has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and works in web design and graphics. He is experienced in technical editing and worked with an adult literacy program for several years. A fan of all things science fiction, his interests range from books and movies to music and games. Online he is the Ninja Captain and founder of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. The author of the Amazon bestsellers, CassaStar and CassaFire, he lives in the Carolinas with his wife.

Stalk Alex here: Website * Twitter * Goodreads

My question to Alex: What does literary science fiction do best compared to other media forms of science fiction?

Alex's response: In books, it’s all open to our imagination and we can put ourselves into the story. That’s not so easy with movies or television. 
  

Congratulations to Alex! His books are phenomenal. Check out my reviews for CassaStar HERE and CassaFire HERE. I can't wait to read the final book in his series.

Join me tomorrow when I announce the winners of The 13th Floor Complete Collection cover reveal giveaway AND the winners of the MORE THAN JUST A KISS blogfest!

Also, make sure you pop on over to visit Heather Musk to read her thoughts on 1305 & 1306 - THE ORACLE & THE VAMPIRE.

Winners of The Dragonslayer blog tour giveaway

Thank you to everyone who entered The Dragonslayer blog tour giveaway!

The tour was a big success because of your support.

Here are the lucky winners!

Congratulations! Emails have already been sent out.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Anyone who would like to be part of The Harbinger blog tour March 13th - 17th, please leave a comment with your email address or send me an email.

The Winners of The Marquis Giveaway

Thank you to everyone who entered the big Marquis giveaway. I wish everyone could win. Here are the three winners:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As the first place winner, Lynda as won a digital copy of The Marquis,

an ARC of The Alpha, and a signed copy of Fearless.

As the second place winner, Rosemary has won a digital copy of The Marquis

and an ARC of The Alpha.

Finally, as the third place winner, Trisha as won a digital copy of The Marquis.

Emails have been sent to the winners.

Another big thank you to Shannon Lawrence for hosting the giveaway for me.

The wicked neighbors post was so much fun!

Learn Your Craft Giveaway Winners

Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway. If only I could afford to give you all prizes. Every one of you is deserving.

Here are the winners chosen by Random.org:

 1. Laura Josephsen

2. Pk Hrezo

3. Jessica G.

Congratulations! I will be in contact with you all shortly.

Speaking of Laura Josephsen, her new ebook

Rising Book 1: Resistance

is now available on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords.

Don't forget that Cherie Reich's new sci-fi novelette

Defying Gravity

is available on Amazon.

Goodreads is giving away a free copy of Aubrie Dionne's Tundra 37.

Enter here!

Aubrie will be stopping by my blog this Saturday for a chat.

Please mark it on your calendars and join us.

On Tuesday, it's the Catch Fire! Blog Party celebrating the

release of Alex J. Cavanaugh's newest book

CassaFire.

Winners of the David Salnave Giveaway

WINNERS! WINNERS! WINNERS!

Thank you to everyone who commented and entered in the giveaway.

And thank you, David, for doing the interview and giveaway. You were great!

David is excited to give away some holiday prizes.

Random.org, please give us the lucky numbers!

 

The winner of the signed copy of To Kids From One to Ninety Two is:

 Amy at The Ramblings of Amy

The winner of an e-copy of To Kids From One to Ninety Two is:

Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse

The winners of the video Christmas cards are:

Farawayeyes

C D Meetens

Tania Walsh

Congratulations to all the winners!

David will be in contact with you shortly.

Winners of the Cherie Reich Giveaway

WINNERS! WINNERS! WINNERS!

Once again, I'd like to thank Cherie Reich for letting me interview her and having this great Halloween treat giveaway. She's a wonderfully talented writer and she'll scare your socks off with this story.

The winner of a copy of Once Upon A December Nightmare is:

M PAX

The three winners of signed postcards are:

Sheri L. Swift

Josh Hoyt

Alex J. Cavanaugh

Congratulations! Cherie will be in contact with you shortly.

Journal Giveaway Winners

WINNERS! WINNERS! WINNERS!

Thank you to everyone who participated. I wish I could give you all a prize.

And welcome to my new followers.

Now here's what you've been waiting for! The three numbers chosen by the widget at Random.org are:

17, 2 and 14

Winner #1 is Heather at My Demon Spirits

Winner #2 is Tara Tyler at Tara Tyler Talks

Winner #3 is Trish at Tales from Trish

Yay! Congratulations!

I'll be in contact shortly.

Have a great weekend!