What Are You Waiting For? Blogfest!

This blogfest is being hosted by Fairbetty because she recently reached 100 followers! So please head over to her blog to congratulate her!

Here is her prompt:

I really love flash fiction, so in 300 words or less, tell me about a character you are writing (or make one up) who faces a choice... and have him/her flip a coin to make a decision.

And here's my entry at exactly 296 words:

The air was cold against his skin.

Almost painful.

It didn’t bother him, though. He was used to pain. Used to yearning only for what he knew he could never regain.

She was gone. Rasha was gone, and he knew why. Azad knew all too well who was responsible for her death. All that mattered now was how to deal with him.

Darkness surrounded Azad, the only light was that of the moon shining through his window. The gun in his hand was heavy. He’d considered trying it on himself now and then. It would be so easy, lifting the barrel to his head and pulling the trigger, but something always stopped him. His paranoid servant would knock on the door to tell him she thought someone broke into the house, or the gun simply didn’t work...

Always something.

If the universe wanted him to live, to suffer with his grief, so be it. He’d live as long as the universe needed him to. As long as he had something worth fighting for.

Right now, that happened to be Rasha.

Azad was going to make the man who killed her pay.

All that was left was to decide how to do that.

He took out the coin in his pocket and examined both sides. The less time the man was alive, the better. Azad’s problem would be solved much faster that way. But shouldn’t he suffer? The man should be made to feel all the pain in the world.

“Heads, I’ll kill you,” he said to himself. “Tails, I make you suffer.”

Azad flipped the coin.

It spun in the air for a second or two, yet Azad knew what he wanted now.

The coin landed.

Tails.

Azad smiled. “Looks like I’m in luck. You’ll suffer.”

***

Hope you enjoyed it! And you can still participate! Just head over to Fairbetty's Blog and sign up!

Have a great day :)

-Jess

The Hunger Games + Announcements

I saw it!

Yes, I finally did! I saw it on Monday with my best friend, and oh my gosh, I loved it. It was amazing. Now, I'm not going to go into much detail, because I'm sure you guys already know. But it was almost exactly like the book, and was pretty much how I imagined it while I was reading it.

Definitely a new favorite!

Okay, and for my Micro-Fiction buddies, I have an announcement. Since next month is April and is the epic A to Z Challenge, I'm afraid it will be difficult writing a flash fic on the last Monday of the month.

So!

Kathy and I decided that we'll hold our Micro-Fiction bloghop for the first three months of every year. That way, people don't have to commit to it all year long, lol.

The Micro-Fiction winner of this week is Stephanie, over at Word by Word! Great job, Stephanie! Kathy is choosing the other winner sometime today, so keep an eye out if you participated.

Now, being the last Monday of March, that means this is the last Micro-Fiction of this year. If you want to sign up for next year, the linky-list is still up on the Micro-Fiction page, and we'd love to have you join us!

And, I'd like to thank Fairbetty, over at Fairbetty's World for being the first person to sign up and for participating in every event! Thanks so much for all of your support!

Alrighty, I think that's all for today! So, have a great Wednesday!

--Jess

No, I Usually Don't Post Twice In One Day, But...

Today is an exception. Mostly because I've got a ton of stuff going on this week. I'll talk more about that later, though :)

Anyway, I accidentally (well, not quite accidentally) signed up for the Get Fired Up Blogfest hosted by Melissa Sugar. And the deadline for that blogfest is Wednesday. I hadn't quite thought about how busy I already am this week but I really wanted to do this. Well, at least try.

So, that's why I'm posting twice today.

The point of the Get Fired Up Blogfest is to help other awesome writers who don't have as many followers get more followers.

Anyway, for the first part of this blogfest, I'd just like to say that the following people are awesome. So please check out their blogs and follow them!

Fairbetty at Fairbetty's World
       Rena at Dr. Faerie Godmother
          T.Z. Wallace at One Year to Book Launch
                  Alyssa at Life is Good
                       Aldera Alien at Thardrandian Thoughts

These guys are super cool and I think you'd love them! I'll do more with this on Wednesday, but for now just go give them some support! Thanks :)

--Jess

(P.S.) Still trying to win the popular vote for the First Challenge of the Campaign so if you'd like to read my entry you can go HERE. And then go HERE to vote (if you like it. I'm entry #19)

KOMF Winner Interview

Happy Friday, everybody!

Today I'm interviewing one of the winners of the bloghop Knights of MicroFiction, co-hosted by Kathy and me! (It's a monthly thing, so if you want to join, details are HERE). Julie, over at  Rosewood Pencil Box  will be interviewed on Kathy's blog.

Anyway, I'd like to congratulate.........

Fairbetty, over at Fairbetty's World for winning the interview on my blog!
Alrighty, here we go!

*curtain opens*

Good morning fairbetty! It's so nice to have you here! Looks like a nice big audience today. You think you can handle it? Okay, good. Me too. My first question is: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?


I started making up stories at a young age and began my first novel in high school (I mostly finished it last year... finally... it's horrible so don't expect to read it anytime soon :) )

Aww, I'm sure it's not bad! That's just your inner editor talking ;) What's your current WiP?


My current WiP is called (for now) Lilith's Sea . It's a YA fantasy based on folklore from the Orkney Islands of Northern Scotland.

That's really cool! Sounds like a book I'd read! What are your goals for this year?


I hope to complete the re-write of Lilith's Sea and maybe, hopefully, show it to some people. I move slowly, though, so we'll see.

That's great! If you ever need someone to show it to, I'm right here! Anyway, how long have you been blogging and how has it improved your writing?


I have been blogging since 2008... although the past year and a half most consistently. I would say that the act of blogging has not improved my writing so much as the amazing network of writers that I have come in contact with blogging have. Seriously. You are all amazing and encouraging and helpful! Thanks!

We think you're awesome, too :) Is there anything else we should know about you?


I am currently obsessed with the Orkney Islands. I visited them last year (see posts in my blog from April photos) because I wanted to set my novel there.

Lucky! I'd love to go there someday! Unfortunately, that's all the time we have today! Thank you so much for joining us today and I hope you have a great weekend!


*applause & curtain closes*

--Jess

Last Day of November

Well, today is the final day of November. No, I didn't meet my goal for NaNoWriMo of 50,000 words. But hey, who can say I didn't try? I'm at thirty three thousand something words, so there's no way I can turn back now.


Anyway, I'd like to let you know that my editing has suddenly taken a HUGE leap forward! I'm hoping to be done with my second and third drafts by December 10th, and will be hopefully be asking for beta readers soon after! I'm really excited!! That also means I'll have less time do other stuff, but I'm really close to being ready to query, so I've got a ton of work to do!


Also, I've got some fun news! I'm interviewing Author S.R. Johannes (aka Shelli) on Friday! I've never done an interview before, so this is pretty exciting! Her book Untraceable just came out yesterday so go give her a big 'Congratulations' at her blog! Here's a summary of her book:

16 year old Grace was reared in the wilderness. Her first pet was a bear named Simon. Her first potty, an oak tree. And, her first swing, a forest vine. Grace has lived in the Smokies her whole life, patrolling with her forest ranger father who taught her everything he knew about wildlife, tracking, and wilderness survival. But when Grace's dad goes missing on a routine patrol, unlike everyone in her sleepy mountain town, she refuses to believe he’s dead. When a Cheetos bag and stolen government file materialize, Grace is convinced she’s one step closer to proving all the non-believers wrong.

Then one day while out tracking clues, Grace is rescued from imminent danger by Mo, a hot guy with an intoxicating accent, that’s definitely not from her neck of the woods, and a secret. Grace has never felt a connection like this before, certainly not with her ex-boyfriend, the adoring, but decidedly unrugged Wyn. 

Now with renewed confidence, Grace travels deeper into the wilderness that has always been her refuge only to learn that her father's disappearance is not a mere coincidence. Soon she’s enmeshed in a web of conspiracy, deception, and murder. And it’s going to take a lot more than a compass and a motorcycle (named Lucifer) for this kickass heroine to emerge from an epidemic that’s spreading like wild fire, threatening everything and everyone she’s ever loved.

I'd also like to thank Fairbetty for her awesome support throughout all of NaNoWriMo! She visited my blog and commented every day I posted in November, so thanks Fairbetty! You can visit her blog here at Fairbetty's World.


Finally, today is my official inauguration back into the blogging world! Despite my huge amount of editing I have ahead of me, I am back and looking forward to reading everyone's posts! November has been an awesome month! I just can't believe it's almost December. This year has gone by so fast!


Any new exciting news? Plans for December? (Hope to see you on Friday :) )


--Jess