Okay, so some exciting news here...I've got scantily clad cheerleaders and William Howard Taft, so read the whole post.

First off:

I won an award! Heather Arundel, who blogs at My Demon Spirits, awarded me the "Cheerleader of the Year" award:



For my efforts in drumming up competitors for her Christmas Story Contest. The winners are up on her blog, so when you get done staring at the picture of that cheerleader, you can go to her blog and stare at that picture of the cheerleader there.

Second up: let's not lose track of the important thing here, which is that my story,

"Santa, Godzilla & Jesus Walk Into A Bar..."

has been called "The Greatest Xmas Story Ever Written," and that's true, and you can buy it for just $0.99 on your Kindle, or get a high-quality paperback version of it for $7.78.

Thirdly: There's a new blogfest coming up and I'm going to take part in it solely for the purpose of proving Michael Offutt, Retired Stormtrooper, wrong.

The blogfest is "I'm Hearing Voices,"



And it's co-hosted by "Live To Write... Edit When Necessary," and "Reading, Writing, and Lovin' It!". Beginning February 6, you have to do three posts:

February 6th - Monday: Characters on the couch: Have one of your characters answer the following questions (to make this work to your benefit, choose a character who is the hardest for you to write :) Max 250 words (Not including the questions—only the answers).

What is your biggest vulnerability? Do others know this or is it a secret?
What do people believe about you that is false?
What would your best friend say is your fatal flaw? Why?
What would the same friend say is your one redeeming quality? Why?
What do you want most? What will you do to get it?

February 8th - Wednesday - Dialogue Introduction: Have two characters introduce each other using only dialogue—no backstory, no internalization, just dialogue between the two. Max 250 words.

February 10th - Friday - Emotion Flash Fiction: Emotion is the engine of a story. Pick an emotion and in a flash fiction piece of 250 words MAKE us feel it! We want to connect with your character. This will be a challenge in 250 words.

That's all, and there are great prizes but, as I said, my motivation is to show Michael Offutt, Riboflavin Compounds, that I can write with less than 250 words; I've already proven to him that leftover pizza and I can exist in the same universe, so this'll be a piece of cake.


AND, FINALLY, The Big News...

I'll save for another post. But it involves William Howard Taft, and the afterlife, so you'll want to check back soon. You can tell your wife that you're trying to find out what the big news is, when we all know that really, you'll be looking at this: