The Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest

The New Quarterly is now their submissions for our 2012 contests, which will be published in their fall issue.

The Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest is open to Canadian authors only, and offers a $1,000 prize for the winning essay.

There is an entry fee of $40 per submission.  The deadline is March 28, 2012.

For more information, please visit their website.

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Indies Unlimited is pleased to provide this contest information for the convenience of our readers.  We do not, however, endorse this or any contest/competition.  Entrants should always research a competition prior to entering. [subscribe2]

Is One Genre Enough? by Melissa Pearl

Author Melissa Pearl
Author Melissa Pearl

Ever since I was a child, my head has been buzzing with stories. I couldn’t help it. No matter where I was, no matter what I was doing, I always had characters jumping around the back of my mind, getting in to trouble, falling in love, fighting their way to freedom. It was fun and to be honest, got me through some tough times. The imagination is a magical thing. I don’t know where I’d be without mine.

Now that we’ve all established I’m just a little crazy 🙂 I’ll get to my point.

With new stories arriving in my brain on a constant basis, it is really hard to narrow myself to one genre. I know they say you should build your platform so as not to confuse your readers, but are we underestimating our readers by doing this? Continue reading “Is One Genre Enough? by Melissa Pearl”

Sneak Peek: The Stone Dragon

Today, readers are treated to a special sneak-peek at Tom Kepler’s fantasy-adventure book, The Stone Dragon.

“Dream magic is the most dangerous of magics because it is so difficult to control.”

The Stone Dragon by Tom Kepler

An awful knowingness entwined Glimmer. Like the tightening coils of a constricting serpent, an intuitive knowingness encircled him until all doubt left, like breath crushed within muscled coils.

“Ye both’ll have much t’ talk about,” Cabbage-pants had said; “. . . ’tween you and the hearthstone,” he had said.

Placing his mug carefully upon the flagstones, Glimmer slowly stood, strode with heavy deliberateness to that legacy of when the tower had stood alone, strode to the ancient, reinforced door that connected the kitchen with the house’s communal room. Opening the door, he stepped into the large room, empty and dusty from disuse, his footsteps echoing.

He turned and faced the room’s hearth, his eyes without surprise taking in the sight of a lively fire crackling in the firepit, a fire of dancing and glowing light vibrant with energy, and all this manifesting from a meager collection of sticks and branches bunched upon the firestones. Light rippling upon the mantelpiece, light drawing arabesques upon Glimmer’s arms, light reflecting off stone—and then one stone high upon the stonework above the firepit—a single, oval obsidian stone captured light . . . and blinked.

                                                      

Find out more about Tom’s writing at his blogThe Stone Dragon is available in both paper and e-book formats: Amazon US and Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, SmashwordsSony, and Kobo.

Stargazing

The star rating system is the most widely used of the rating systems applied to evaluating books. The ratings typically range from one star (this book sucked) to five (I want to marry this book and have its babies). In such a system the prospective readers’ eyes are drawn immediately to the stars, and some rough equivalency is likely made between this system and the letter-grade system in public schools of A – B – C – D – F. Continue reading “Stargazing”