I'd known it was coming for a while. At least two years, in fact, ever since we had to do the graft after the last failure, but it was still a terrible moment when it happened.
That's right, folks: the PSU in my desktop finally died.
We had family visiting the last two days so sorry for missing my Friday posting schedule on these!
This next week's 3 words are:
Hand
Needless
Route
A quick breakdown for 'em:
Hand. An extremity used for grasping and moving things. To pass something to another. A selection of usable options. Helping hand, hand of cards, the hand we're dealt, idle hands, hand of fate.
Needless. Pointless. Inane. Meaningless. Or, alternatively, "needless" could apply as in someone or something without any needs, something complete.
Rotten. Spoiled, wasted, or otherwise worthless. Could be in reference to a terrible person, or more lightheartedly toward a character who is doted upon (spoiled rotten.) Other options could include simply having the character in a "rotten" situation, or perhaps dealing with outdated or worthless materials or foodstuffs. Alternatively, the story could be about the Sex Pistols.
Since I'm unemployed for the moment I figured I'd put some hard work into getting a few books done for Amazon. Rather than plugging away at my edit jobs for the two BCTS conversions I'm working on, though, I have a number of never-before-seen stories in the works I'm focusing on first, including the one I've chosen to focus on right now, a silly little short(ish) romance novel.
Despite not getting ANYTHING posted for the first set of prompts I'm gonna give this another shot.
As a reminder to people: this is about using the 3 words to INSPIRE a story, NOT "using the three words supplied IN a story." While the former might potentially mean the latter, they are not by any means the same thing. This week's words:
View
Miss
Loving
A few ways to consider how to use these words as inspiration:
Tomorrow I SHOULD be posting the second set of challenge words for my "random inspirations challenge," but as of yet I haven't seen any stories posted for the first part (unless I missed them?)
If nobody has any interest in this challenge then that's okay, though I hope it's not because of the lack of a prize.
At least assuming we're not gonna see any entries from Japan/China.
As a reminder, everyone has until the end of February to do their reading and voting (these were a bit longer than your average contest entry story after all!) I'll announce contest winners at the end of the first week or so of March!
Thanks again to everyone who entered the contest. It's been really special to me seeing how enthusiastic everyone, both readers and authors, have been about this one, and I'm really glad we all did this together.
Just a reminder to people that the last day to publish valid entries in the Reader Retention Contest is next Thursday at midnight (your local time.) If you have a story going you have one more week to finish it up: if you haven't started one yet, well, there's still time to pop out some 4-5k words and split 'em up and get 'em out there!
Just a reminder/update on how voting's gonna work this time around:
Thank you SO much everyone who's already chipped into the new contest! Wow! I've already got a ton of stuff to read, and I still haven't finished all the entries from the LAST contest (sorry Angie!)
Y'all're all awesome :)
Melanie E.
PS: Call it a bit of ego, but I was thinking of running a Henry Harrelson's Custom Fit Boots contest for March if there was enough interest: otherwise I'd come up with something else. Opinions?
Another weekend, another teaser of some of the books you can find in the Doppler Press bundle being offered as a prize in the Reader Retention contest!
For those of you who may have missed it here are the rules. For everyone else, here's the next two books to be revealed from the curated list!
Details are somewhat settled on the prize front, and this time we've got something super special for all of you avid readers out there: book bundles!
Yep! Miss Erin's putting in some overtime to help with this 'un, and we're going to offer two bundles of (platform free) ebooks for our top two prizes!
First place: 15 Doppler Press eBooks, 12 curated by me and Erin and the other 3 winner's choice
Second place: 10 Doppler Press eBooks, 8 curated by me and Erin and the other 2 winner's choice
Okay, I know I said I'd wait 'til the end of the month, but dangit I just can't!
It may be a while in the brewin', but that time is gonna be needed if you're gonna make a solid effort at this 'un! That's right, this time around we're goin' fer SERIALS!
My weekend was crazy, and I don't think I got more than 2 contiguous hours of sleep in the last 3 days, so yeah; contest results will be up in a couple of days. Sorry peeps.
It's time to announce the winners of the July story contest!
We had a lot of great entries this time around. I want to make sure every last author who wrote for the contest knows just how much I appreciate their hard work. It's the stories that keep a site like BCTS alive, and without your dedication and effort none of us would have this wonderful place to call home.
The contest for July is over! Entries closed! No admittance!
SCRAM!
That said, now that entries are closed, you all still have juuuuuust under a week to get your voting done. I'll be opening all the stories at midnight CST this coming Saturday, and the number of votes the stories have at that time is the value they will be ranked on. You'll get the announcement concerning winners early Sunday, along with the announcement for the September story contest!
Just a reminder to people that the Staycation story contest closes entries on Tuesday, July 31st at Midnight whatever-the-heck-your-local-time-zone-is, so if you've got an entry waiting to be written then hop to it, and if you've got one waiting to get posted, then what's the hold up huh?
All the stories in the contest did quite well, but two in particular managed to grab the most thumbs-up from our readership, and those two were:
Cursed, by Nuuan
The Fairy, by Bru
Congrats, young authoresses! I get paid this coming Thursday, upon which each of you will be given your prize, a three month subscription to the BCTS Hatbox!
The contest has officially closed (and been so for several hours too!)
We've had ten excellent entries, and now it's time for you readers to really make your mark! Just click on the tag for the contest above to go to a list with all the stories. Read them, and vote for your favorite ones!
Just a reminder to anyone with plans to enter still, today is the final day of my Fairy Kiss-and-Tale contest! I'm working on the honor system here, so as long as you have your entry in by midnight your time (May 31 2018) we'll call it gravy.
We've had a lot of great entries, and I've already got plans for another contest here in July! Sadly I actually haven't finished my OWN entry for this one yet, though since I'm ineligible for the prize anyway it doesn't matter much :)
I'm running a bit behind on reading/commenting on entries (what can I say, I'm terrible at time management,) but if the number of other comments and kudos is anything to judge by then the contest will be fierce.
If you're not sure on the details, just click that story tag over this blog here, and it will take you to a list of all the entries so far, as well as the rules for new stories.
Bonus: if we can get at least 20 entries in total, I'll donate a dollar to the hatbox for every entry written.
Just a reminder, there's still three weeks before the end of the contest deadline! We have two entries so far, and I can't wait to see what else people come up with!
If you're interested but missed the original announcement, contest details can be found by clicking the contest tag in this blog's description. The only thing that's changed since the original post is that we have moved from unofficial to being officially sanctioned.
I've said it before here, and I'll say it again: I'm a huge game geek.
I've been looking to re-obtain a 360 for a while now, since I have a stack of games for it and the original Xbox I've acquired over the last couple of years via yard sales and thrift stores because they were too good of deals to pass up, even if I didn't have the console at the moment.
That all changed last night, when I traded a friend of mine at work a spare NES I had lying around plus a few carts for his old 360 he doesn't play any more. Now I can play all those games, horray!
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
