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Online short stories

Posted by Raymond Murray on August 3, 2009 at 1:00pm
I spent the past couple of days debating "with myself mostly' whether or not to post my stories online. I mean why the hell not right?...So needless to say tomorrow I will post the first in a series of short stories online. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I need to write them.
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The Story of Eve pt 5/ A War From Within

Posted by Valjeanne Jeffers on August 1, 2009 at 2:00pm
DreamlandI'm very fond of movies from the 1940s the acting and directing was superb and filmmakers really knew how to tell a story. Also, they could tell a tale without blowing somebody up or sexually degrading women. In fact 21th century dream weavers could learn a lot from the old masters.The downside, of course, was that Hollywood was still saturated with racism and sexism. It is fascinating to watch America's changing roles (remember that we are now in the 1940s, at war and the labor force is full of women) and dream weavers struggle to portray these changes on screen.The 1940s -1950s is called the "New Negro" era. The filmic face of peoples of color had begun to change. This was no accident. America had just journeyed through the Depression and she was at war. Certainly America didn't want peoples of color to feel that WWII was a "White folks war" and of thus of no concern to us. Which was exactly how some Black folks felt.As Horace Clayton joking described it, a black sharecropper greeted a white man at his gin with the news: "By the way, Captain, I hear the [Japanese] done declared war on you white folks" (Cripps, 1993; p. 30).Yet many African Americans felt it wise to link their cause with winning WWII -- after all we wanted equality.And so began the oh so slow change in the portrait of Black America.Valjeanne Jeffers-Thompson, 1997; 2009
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World of Erede--Reverse Phonetics

Posted by Raymond Murray on July 31, 2009 at 4:27pm
When I set out to create the World Of Erede I knew only a language suitable to the main idea of my story would be mentally acceptable by me. I wanted something different than the Elfish languages used by Mr. Tolkien. Also wanted something that my nieces can easy play around with.So I thought why not take the phonetic spelling of a word and write it backward since Earth parallels my world of Erede so much.So why not give it a try.Life(lif) would be: filDeath(deth) would be: htedBlack(blak) would be :kalbWhite(hwit) would be: tiwh-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yes I also thought out word like Awe ,Ewe, Eye, owe, you...So more to come
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Theyre all mine!

Posted by Open World Comics LLC on July 31, 2009 at 3:32pm
Just finished the script on the third installment of my new webcomic titled they're all mine. My kids make my job so easy...they just keep coming up with material. We put aside a few of our other projects to finish this because its been so fun to write but I think we will be releasing out next straight to mobile comic sometime in September so stay tuned for some behind the scene looks at the creation process on that one.
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Novel update Pt2

Posted by Raymond Murray on July 30, 2009 at 3:30pm
I would be lying if I said this was easy for me. I spent and will be spending the majority of my day building a strong foundation for my story. I feel like if I didnt take these extra steps my story to ME would be incomplete. Right now the story is a rather choatic blend of Christianity, Egyptian(Nubian), and Norse Mythology. I know crazy right but I nor my mind would not have it any other way. :-)...............
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Published: blurred edges

Posted by Malon Edwards on July 27, 2009 at 9:09pm
Expanded Horizons recently published my short story "blurred edges" here in their July 2009 issue. It's a reprint of a story that was originally published by the webzine Underground Voices back in 2005."blurred edges" was an easy story to write because so much of me went into it. I know writers say things like that all the time, but a few of the story's elements are based on my personal experiences. That being said, I must stress that the story is entirely a work of fiction--I did not know a girl whose father murdered her in a drunken rage because he mistook her for a cheap prostitute.Some of you who know me personally will recognize the Cherry Lane Motel and Transformers references. There is an actual Cherry Lane Motel, and my godbrother and me loved to watch Transformers (and Go Bots!) when we were growing up. Sadly, he died in a motorcycle accident last fall. I'm not sure there was a bigger ten-year-old Transformers fan than him.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY "PAPER DRAGON INK!!" INTERVIEW WITH PUBLISHER DOUGLAS LENTES TONIGHT on IN LIKE FLYNN - 9PM CST. COME JOIN THE DISCUSSION!

Posted by Penelope on July 25, 2009 at 10:53am
Listen to In Like Flynn on internet talk radio

Penelope and Otto discuss current events including the HLGates v. Cambridge Police debacle and why President Obama should have stayed out of it; Should parents be charged as criminals when their children are obese? We remember Walter Kronkite and discuss The resurgence of the U.S. Space program - Where should we go from here? SD Comic Con 2009 in Review.

Then come Celebrate the birthday of Fantasy, Art and Music mag online publlisher Paper Dragon Ink and its magazine Pandora's Gate!

We'll be interviewing Paper Dragon Ink writer/publisher Douglas Lentes. We'll also be joined later in the show by inspirational author, Errett R. Thomas, Jr. who'll be focusing on "positive self-talk." Join us in the Chat room or call in at 718/506-9683!! Don't be shy. Drop on by to ask your questions and to give us your take on these and other issues on the July 25th segment of the In Like Flynn Show!
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McKenzie Files E-Book.

Posted by Barry K. Nelson on July 22, 2009 at 10:00pm
Here's a bit of news. McKenzie Files is now available in E-book format directly from Leucrota Press. And for the low price of $3.95. Now that's a steal that would make John Dillenger proud. But don't worry, If you don't want to go the high tech route then the book is still available in the ink and paper version. $11.95 if ordered directly from the publisher.
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Call for Black Christian Fiction Authors (Not SF, alas, but some folks might be interested

Posted by Carole McDonnell on July 20, 2009 at 12:02pm
Got this from Karen Waddles. Perhaps you can use this or pass it on to writers who may be interested.We are a Christian publisher and very interested in receiving publishing proposals from Christian writers – specifically fiction proposals. Lift Every Voice Books is the imprint of Moody Publishers that targets African American readers. Please feel free to provide my contact information to any writers you know that may be interested in submitting a proposal.Blessings,Karen L. WaddlesAssistant to the PublisherMoody Publishers820 N. LaSallehttp://www.moodypublishers.com/Publishers/default.asp?SectionID=7DBC91EEDCDB487DBBD484EFB3F40D86The query should summarize the contents of your book and indicate the manuscript length. Please also send a detailed outline or plot synopsis and three sample chapters with your query. In the query you should briefly introduce yourself—including an explanation of your spiritual walk and background—and list your qualifications to write on the subject. Tell us the audience for your book, how your book stands out from others on the same subject, why it is right for Moody, and how readers may be changed for the better by reading your book.That information can be sent electronically to me at this emailing address: Karen.Waddles@moody.edu
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Quotes

Posted by Raymond Murray on July 18, 2009 at 12:10pm
The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. stone crumbles. wood rots. people, well, they die. but things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.”
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Thought Pt 1

Posted by Raymond Murray on July 18, 2009 at 12:00pm
Well I admit I'm not a big Harry Potter fan. In fact I had made a reference on how much I despised the character in my book. Something recently has made me change my mind. I dont know how the special a year in the life of J.K. Rowlings has been out, but seriously it made me a new fan. I didnt realize how similar our writing styles an life experinces were until that special. So it made me re evalute certain plot outines in my book. So neither the less something must be change in my book. Because frankly my conscience is kicking my ass.
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Novel Update

Posted by Raymond Murray on July 18, 2009 at 12:00pm
I feel like this story is really going to set the tone for me. Right now I'm working on a back story for my character..well actually more like a creation story. It's crazy I know no sane person should write as much as I do, but i felt like my rabbit hole wasn't deep enough.
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DEADLY ARTIFACT REVIEWS AND E-MAILS

Posted by Eugene Allen Wilson on July 17, 2009 at 8:21am
Mr. Wilson has created an intense SCI-FI suspense novel of such dramatic proportions that you will be very sad when you finish. Why? This is because his characters are so engaging that you will miss them when you are not reading about their exploits. Victor, Vernon, Ronald, Eunice, Sibekk, Suris, and the aliens on the planet Dabenar will become fast friends in your imagination. I now miss Victor’s temper and the teenager’s strong vernacular as they deal with each other’s personalities as they unravel the details of a mystery that changes how they deal with life.This novel is set in the 1970’s in Northern California among a group of African-American teenagers who embark on an unbelievable adventure of galactic intensity. Mr. Wilson shows us his erudition in electronics, American history, and astrophysics, black culture, and all things Motown. His novel is truly a delight to read and very enjoyable. The science portion of the novel is believable and intense.I may be one of the reviewers who will not be too objective, because I personally know Mr. Wilson. The basis of this novel is an intense family love that spans all time and culture, human or alien. A daughter’s love for the father she never knew and how a group of young African-American young men interact and attempt to love in the growing years of teenage angst makes this novel one of the best I have read. I am a fan of Star Trek and all things SCI-FI and I must admit I look forward to Mr. Wilson’s next sequel, or should I say, prequel as maybe Ra’as and Sulbrin embark of explaining just whose skeleton lays in the cave on Shumen Mountain.Thanks,Tim StinnetteYorktown VirginiaYou can read more on this Hampton Virginia project at the following web site---http://www.eugeneallenwilson.com

Hi Eugene,I'm pleased to see that there are others of African descent in North America who are committed to promoting strong values and showing our communities in a postive and progressive light. I am an African-Canadian woman born and raised in Montreal where we have even fewer opportunities to create cultural products that reflect the realities of our communities, especially when those products stray from mainstream ideas of what sells. I congratulate you on the publishing of your book and wish you all the best in your future endeavours, both personal and professional.Kindest regards,Sharon S.ssprin1@hotmail.com

Hi Eugene,Thanks so much for the kind words:) I checked out your website, looks very interesting. Good luck with your book!Tanyaauthor of ALEXANDERwww.TanyaYvonne.com

Hello Eugene,The book is very, very exciting! I am almost to the end of it and I fine myself right in the middle of the conflicts. You have done a wonderful job and I hope the book soars.Yvonne and Thomas Jowersthomas152@cox.net
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Free novel download or go to blog www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot.com

Posted by Lyn LeJeune on July 11, 2009 at 8:30am
RE: THE WHITE ARMYOut of New Orleans before the catastrophe that was made by a hurricane and, as Dante wrote, “of false gods who lied,” comes The Parable of the Beatitudes, part one in the New Orleans Trilogy. The Parable of the Beatitudes portrays New Orleans as Dante’s purgatory, a place where the sins of men are exposed for all to see, where redemption is close at hand but most often lost, where the mind, body, and soul are tested.This world is revealed by the lives of two social workers, Hannah Dubois (white and nicknamed Scrimp) and Earlene Washington (African-American and nicknamed Pinch), who start their own business, Social Investigations, in order to solve the murders of ten foster children in New Orleans, Louisiana. The NOPD, the Catholic Church, and politicians have sidestepped clues that point to those who hold great power. As Hannah and Earlene find more and more evidence, they also know that they are dealing with a force that crosses into the realm of the spiritual. Earlene is murdered with a sword from the famous Cabildo but returns to join her ghostly friends in the Heavenly City. A ghost can certainly help investigations and The Parables of the Beatitudes gives us the world the ghost private detective. The murderers are part of a secret organization called the White Army (le Armee Blanc), centered in New Orleans, but rooted in Medieval Europe and the Children’s Crusades. Each clue leads to a beatitude and each chapter defines the novel: The Pure of Heart, The Persecuted, The Merciful, The Sorrowful, The Peacemakers, The Meek, The Poor in Spirit, and Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Justice. The Parable of the Beatitudes is thus a study of good and evil, and that act, the murder of innocent children, which encompasses all of the seven deadly sins. Who then can better perform acts of goodness and compassion than those who have suffered? Pinch and Scrimp- a ghost and a voodoo princess?The work was critiqued by Mary Gordon and Kathryn Davis at the Skidmore Summer Writers Institute and was hailed as a work of fine writing, crossing from genre fiction to literature. Also, The Parable of the Beatitudes was a finalist in the 2001 William Faulkner Novel-in-Progress Competition (then titled The Foster Child Murders).Book II in The New Orleans Trilogy, The Book Burners (shortly after the deluge) is almost completed, and book III, Almost Paradise (years after the deluge), is in outline form.My short stories have been published in literary journals such as Big Muddy: AJournal of The Mississippi River Valley (East Missouri University), The Bishop’s HouseReview (Duke), The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Nantahala, Milestone,Identity Theory, Southern Hum, Stone Table Review and Our Stories. I have also published articles in such journals as Mystery Readers International. I am recipient of the Paris Writers’ Institute Scholarship for study in Paris, France and a Fellowship for study with the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia. I studied writing at Skidmore (where I worked with Mary Gordon and Marilynne Robinson), Duke, and the Bread Loaf Writers ConferenceI was born and raised in South Louisiana and lived the greater part of my life in New Orleans.Email me at lynlejeune@cox.net for a FREE ATTACHMENT OF WHITE ARMY AND FEEL FREE TO FORWARD IT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES.Lyn
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