Sesame Street used to have a segment where they would say the the episode was brought to you by a letter of the alphabet, and would do all sorts of goofy things involving that letter (See, for example, the Beatles take-off, “Letter B.” Words of wisdom, sure enough).

So, today’s blog post is brought to you by the word “mattress.” There are lots of things that can be said about mattresses, and probably no small number have actually been said, in stories posted on this very site. Why, mattresses figure in lots of plot lines. Some, quite prominently.

I know this probably comes as no surprise to anyone, but at this point I have to make it official:

There's not gonna be a contest or challenge for June.

I have a really cool idea for one, but I'll hold on to it for next year (since I really want it to be special.) Things are just a bit too up in the air right now on a lot of things, and I've been kinda out of it because of that.

Yep, the ten day forecast suggests we are keeping the bright weather for a bit, we might even reach 25c! The downside is an almost constant stiff breeze, not exactly a Mistral but annoying nevertheless.

I apologize that I have not worked on these two as much as I should…it has been slow due to having to deal with the insurance company on why we’re still in a hotel.

for days - i'm sure we are just hours from announcing a drought!

Assignments to remote farm planets are supposed to be boring--until they're not!

Hi everyone! For anyone who is following my current series, Always and Forever, I'm changing my posting schedule to twice weekly until the series is complete. My plan is to post Monday evenings (GMT-5) and Friday mornings.

And for those of you who aren't following it . . . I hope I can entice you! :-)

Hugs,

Emma

Okay, so strictly speaking its still spring but with blue skies and long days it feels like summer.

Yep, the weather continues to stay quite warm and sunny and the forecast is for more of the same for the next week as we head to the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

At least a little bit.

Just a reminder, there's still 10 days on the May 2023 "Free Comic Book Day" Story Challenge.

I know I still haven't gotten the list of stories completed for last month's challenge posted as a blog. I'm REALLY sorry about that. I'll get that, as well as the information for the June challenge/contest, up either tomorrow or Monday, depending on how things are going.

The trip to get my stuff, and the resulting issues due to losing the car, have kinda had us in a bit of a fuzzle around here, and I just completely blanked on it until just now.

At the moment, in addition to writing scenes for my own future works (alas, each time the impulse takes me, it's a different story concept. I'm not sure this is the way to make progress on a story.)

So I'm feeding the printer-friendly versions of stories into a text to speech engine on my iPhone. (I can recommend Voice Dream, on the app store. It's seems to take the most file formats.)

This approach has terrible problems of cadence, intonation, and basic pronunciation (some of which could be solved by building a phonetic dictionary file.)

we've had 3 dry days on the trot!

Doppler Press has recently published my 20th book on Amazon "Heroes of Romance" - link below
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C37KVDGD
I always invite fans to write the forewords but in the case of "Heroes" I did invite Joyce Melton herself (my publisher and sometime collaborator) to write it, because the whole concept was her idea. Her touching note reveals that she too, is a fan.

My new short story, "Carpet-Bound," is available from itch.io in epub and pdf formats. But you can get more stories for your money by buying it as part of the Secret Trans Writing Lair Mermay Bundle, with eight mermaid and summer-themed stories by trans authors for $8.

Years ago, there were members here who said they were genetic women, and I had no reason to question that. There may still be those who write in a very feminine way but I have no idea if they are XX females?
Not to pry, are there?

Gwen

"When Paths Cross 2" is up!

https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/98140/when-paths-cross-2

I apologize for wasting everyone's time.

For over twenty years I've brought a passionate level of involvement to this site.

Lately, that passion has resulted in less than satisfactory results.

Recently, I was characterized as "cold, unprofessional" and accused of driving writers away from this site.

Recently, I was told that my involvement in a thread had caused a meaningless fight which had wasted everyone's time.

Well everything seems like its out of step this week.

I have finished a sequel to my story "when paths cross" but I really could use someone to give it a once over.

Just message me if you're interested.

I made the decision to place the entire story on Amazon.
And I have learned that my title is in no way original and that page formatting issues have creeped in.

Sorry, no bike tonight, I wrote an episode but am not happy with it, I shall try and post it tomorrow if I can sort it out.

Thanks for your patience.

Angharad

I just posted the first two chapters of a new series I’ve been working on. Currently I think it will be around 40-50 thousand words when finished, though I have been known to underestimate. From time to time.

I’m still traveling for a bit, so I’m likely to be a bit erratic in both my posting dates (I was going to post Friday mornings US East Coast time, but I had a bit of time today and don’t know what tomorrow will bring) and in my responses to comments. Rest assured, however, that I absolutely will respond to comments, even if I’m a bit slower than usual.

Okay, i know its tomorrow but i thought i'd get in early (and i don't post Thursdays)

During my business career, I was mainly in marketing. Selling involves a lot of rejection. In order to make a sale you have to take a risk. The process involves a lot of very necessary motivational support. One of the ways I pushed myself was by keeping a myriad of statistics.

This habit has carried over into my writing. I have a massive spreadsheet that records statistics for my stories and books.

During the last three months, the over twenty books Doppler Press has published for me have received more total reviews than they received for the last over ten years.