Over the weekend, I received a PDF of my novel, Pandora’s Box, as it will appear once it is printed. I will be reading it to make sure the layout is good and every possible error has been caught. Once this is done, it goes to the printing press.
I hope to post the book’s prologue soon. I just need to see if the plug-in I downloaded will allow me to embed PDF files without the risk of someone downloading it. I’ll also be posting the cover art once I see it and get a JPEG of it.
It’s a bit late (I had a busy weekend), but I’ve posted a new short story, as promised. It’s entitled “All Our Passions.” It’s a satirical flash fiction I wrote a few weeks ago for a short story contest my writer friend Nick Hayden had on his website’s Facebook page. The condition for the contest was to write a 600-word story where all the descriptions of the characters appearances and feelings were told entirely in the dialogue. I hope you enjoy it.
Long time, no update, huh? Not much has been going on. The publisher is still working on the layout and cover for Pandora’s Box. I do realize that I should probably post some stories or poems, which I will do at the end of the week. That should give you all something to look forward to.
In the meantime, subscribe to my site’s RSS feed and tell your friends about this site!
And the winner is…
::drum roll::
Natasha Hayden with, “A Man from Another Time Exploring Another Universe.”
Her tagline will be added to my site, and she will receive a free autographed copy of my first novel, “Pandora’s Box,” when it is published.
But since many of the entries were so good, I have decided to list the “Honorable Mentions,” all of which I will use on the pages of my website, so be sure to go back and explore the site to find them.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Nick Hayden: “Down the wormhole…”
Keith Osmun: “Author, world-builder, and available bachelor.”
Amanda Luedeke: “Let there be legends.” (This sounds so awesome, I may use it as a title for a story).
Jeremy Sheer: “Where every entrance is a new destination.”
Sean Smuts: “Here there be stories.”
Now I will give out some Stan Lee-style “No-Prize” awards for the remaining entries.
MOST LIKELY TO APPEAR ON MY BUSINESS CARD
Bridgette Oakes: “Author, world-builder, pioneer.” (And I promise it will be on my business cards).
THE “WHAT-THE-HECK?!” AWARD
Christopher Michael Carson: ” The world is better without war and destruction in our lives.” (Seriously, dude, what does that have to do with my website?)
NERDIEST TAGLINE
A tie between…
Van Tilburg: “Bazinga!” (a line from CBS’s “Big Bang Theory”)
Sean Smuts: “Never tell me the odds…I already beat them.” (Funny, though you apparently missed the rule that said there was limit one entry per person. Were you submitting one for your wife, Becky?)
THE “COULD-HAVE-BEEN-HONORABLE-MENTIONS-IF-I-HAD-MORE-ROOM” AWARD (These may be used on my website, too)
A tie between…
Zach VanHuisen: “A plethora of galaxies beyond mere imagining.”
Laura Brooks: “Dive into the unexplainable, indescribable, world of Nate.”
Sarah Marchand: “A man with a pen and the heart to back it up.”
Thank you all so much for your participation! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
I just received an e-mail from Absolute XPress, the publishing house putting out my book. They told me my first novel, Pandora’s Box, is slated to be released October 31!
That’s right–I’ll be published on Halloween. Maybe I should have a book signing while wearing a costume. That’d be hilarious. At least I won’t forget the day I published my first book.
The issues I was having with the site have been corrected, and I have Wes Dekoninick to thank for it. If you ever need a website built or a guy who knows WordPress inside and out, give this guy a hollar. Tell him Nathan Marchand sent you!
You can check out his online portfolio here: http://www.gradientgraphics.net/.
So now you can enjoy the promised short story I wanted to post last week. It’s called “Baptized in Fire.” I wrote when I took the fiction writing class my junior year at Taylor University Fort Wayne. It was written for Writers’ Digest‘s monthly short story contest (sadly, I didn’t enter it). It was one of two stories I wrote to experiment with different elements of a science fiction universe I was conceiving at the time. Someday I hope to revisit it and make a series of books out of it.
For now, enjoy the story!
I have someone working to fix the problem I’m having with splitting posts on this site. He has to run tests with a smaple post, so if you see a random book review appear and disappear, don’t be alarmed (or as they used to say in The Outer Limits, “Do not adjust your dial.”
Once that is taken care of, I should be posting a short story by this weekend.
Due to WordPress being a bit obnoxious, I have decided to hold off on posting a new short story for the time being. But fret not, readers! I will not leave you without new material. Below this entry you will see a new poem by yours truly: “A Man Out of Time.” I hope you enjoy it! (And please be patient on the short story).
The promised short story I was going to post has been delayed. Why, you ask? Technical difficulties. I wanted to be able to split posts into multiple pages for easier reading, but after inserting the proper codex, it merely cut off my entry after what was supposed to be page one. After doing some research, I discovered that my WordPress theme doesn’t support pagination. I tried to add a code that would make it possible, but it still doesn’t work.
So as they used to say on TV, “Please stand by.”
Here are the rules: 1) Check out the site to see what it is like. 2) Submit a one-line tagline on this status. 3) Submissions must be made between now and Sunday night at midnight. 4) Only one entry per person. 5) I will read them all and select a winner Monday.
The winner will have his tagline used on my website and receive a free autographed copy of my first novel, Pandora’s Box, when it is published in the next few months. (Send me your mailing address in case I don’t know you).
Have fun!
EDIT: THE CONTEST HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL FRIDAY, JULY 16, AT MIDNIGHT!