Writing Prompt: Week 6. #specfic

Congrats, Angela!!!

Author Kyle Perkins

WRITING PROMPT – Week 6

The door to the massive spaceship slides open to reveal a T-Rex in a silver jumper and sunglasses. As stunned people look on in silence, the massive creature lowers his shades and bellows, “Yo, where’d everybody go?”

WINNER!!! By Angela Lovelace

Jerry stared at his tv in disbelief. He wanted to be there! “There” was hours away, so the only way to see what was happening was to stay put and watch the live news feed.

The real-honest-to-goodness spaceship had landed in a field in the suburbs. He leaned forward, anxious to see what would come out of the slowly opening doors. He felt his cat head butt him and he absently petted the black and white tom.

“Holy crap, Narbles! There’s a T-Rex coming out of that ship!”

Jerry felt claws dig through his jeans, and scratch his leg.

“Hey! Cut it out–” he…

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Writer Wednesday

Barbara G.Tarn - writer

And it’s official that the Sci-Fi May Day bundle is on all retailersand The Path of Fire (Quests Book 2) is out! 🙂

Sci-fi May Day bundle blurb:

From the far reaches of the unknown come these stories with space ships, aliens, new planets—and more! Take a voyage of imagination with these science fiction tales. Stories to thrill with and ponder about.

Stock up now for your spring and summer reading! 10 sci-fi novels at 7.99$

The Path of Fire blurb:

Raykim is bored. His strange looks mean nobody wants him. Sila fear him, Humans think he’s a demon, Fajrulo don’t care.
A young half-blood with blue hair and bat-like wings, pointed ears and yellow eyes, he has the power of Air and Fire. When he makes rain pour over a gladiator ring, something unexpected happens.
It’s the beginning of a new life, finding friends, moving away from his…

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When Did it Become Socially Acceptable to be a Dishonest Artist?

Welcome to the Underground Lair of the Paranormal Princess

Recently, this article by an author caused a huge wave in the indie community. For the most part, this author pretty much spoke out against shit that has been happening for years around the indie community. There was a lot of support, but there has also been a lot of people, both authors and readers alike, who I personally feel totally missed the entire point of the article (and NO, it’s not about pen names, it is about people pretending to be something they are not in an effort to defraud readers into buying books based on false facts about the author and his/her life and/or events).

Let me start off by saying I did not wake up two years ago, three years ago, or even five years ago and decide I wanted to start writing. I’ve been doing this for DECADES, long before Amazon hopped on board the self-pubbing train. I…

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The Neverending Ending

I thought I might post an update, but I know these things tend to be sort of boring. I’ll categorize this thing so you can skip right to the stuff you give a shit about. 😉

My group – As anyone following this blog (hey, hey there! *eyebrow waggle*) has probably noticed, I’ve been collaborating with Kyle to make our Speculative Fiction Fb Group a happening place! Those writing prompt winners that I share are weekly, and the contest is open to everyone (don’t have to be an author to play!) so def come by and check it out, if you might be into that sort of thing!

Reviews – I’ve also done a ton of reading and reviewing for fellow indie authors, which has definitely introduced me to a ton of books I probably wouldn’t have known to pick up, otherwise. I’ve seen some brilliant worlds and characters, come across a few tropes that I didn’t realize were tropes until I read the same thing in several books within a short period of time, and of course I enjoyed the hell out of those heavenly doses of escapism. Unfortunately, I have bitten off more than I can chew, so I had to put a pause on that for a bit while I wrap up…

The Book That Seems Like It Will Never End But Is Actually Pretty Close to Ending – I’m back in the swing of things! I actually had a bit of a lull while I was working on some side projects. I’ve been back on it for a while, and while my word counter has me at 95% done, I think I may actually exceed that for this first draft. I sent the doc to my kindle to re-read it all so I can hopefully avoid continuity errors (Great method for those of you who are like me and have a hard time speed reading your stuff because you get caught up in revising as you go.) I’m in a good groove with it, so hopefully it will be done and out to beta readers within a month. That’s the plan, at least.

Wish me luck and keep it real!

SJ

 

SpecFic Week 5 winner!

Dream big! I like that message!

Author Kyle Perkins

Week 5 Writing Prompt – When you were little, you could swear there was a monster under your bed, but no one believed you. On the eve of your 30th birthday, you hear noises coming from under your bed once again. The monster is back and has an important message to deliver to you.

WINNER!!! By Richard A. Hernandez

The echoes of his birthday celebration died down. Facebook posts that he individually answered, texts, calls. A busy time for someone with many friends. Now he just wanted to sleep. His belly having been filled with his favorite foods only added to the urgency of his drowsiness.
He turned off the lights and walked to his bed. Pulling back his covers he pulled out his phone and tossed it on the bed before kicking his clothes off and sliding into a comfortable pair of shorts.
He laid down, unlocked his phone…

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The human mind, torrenting, hard drives, and why I need a life.

Author Kyle Perkins

By Kyle Perkins.

Okay, well, where to begin?

To understand what I am about to say, you’ll need to understand torrenting. I will explain this in the most basic way possible so that anyone can understand.Alright, all set? Good.

Just kidding. Okay, so say you have a movie, and you want to share that movie with your friends, and let’s say your friends happen to be everyone on the planet, torrenting may be for you. When you torrent, you send out tiny bits of information around the world to millions of people, and when all those bits reach their computer, it makes a book, movie, song or what have you. You also get books, movies and tv shows the same way. Except, you never get it really from one person. When you torrent, you takes bits of information from hundreds of people at once, and once all of that…

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Reality, what is it?

Author Kyle Perkins

By Kyle Perkins.

I was thinking to myself today, “why do we need sleep?” Which led me down a rabbit hole. Think about this. You go a day without sleep, you feel groggy, worn out, but what happens after that? Day two, you lines become blurry, the universe around you almost vibrates. When you go a few days or more without sleep, you start having auditory hallucinations. After several days, you start to have daylight hallucinations, seeing things that absolutely should not be there. Now, you go a couple days without good sleep and you have crazy vivid dreams, and anyone that has ever went on a drinking bender can tell you that, mainly due to the lack of good sleep you get when you’ve declared war on your liver. What’s weird to me is, if you don’t get good sleep for several days in a row, you hallucinate, but…

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SpecFic week 4 winner!

Author Kyle Perkins

So, we are a month in and the stories just keep getting better.

Shout out to Nick Oefinger for the awesome prompt!

Week 4 Writing Prompt – Day 2 of the first manned mission to Mars, and one of the 7-man crew is found brutally murdered. Two more are found dead on day 3. By Day 5, it’s just you and one other crew member. Given the obvious, you barricade yourself inside the living quarters that night. You wake up on day 6 to find your last remaining fellow astronaut brutally slain, just like the rest.

WINNER!!! By Melissa Robitille

Journal of Captain Michael Montoya
August 31, 2043 – “One small step?” Chad’s behavior was extremely unprofessional and turned a historic moment into a mockery of Armstrong’s accomplishment. We set up the habitat. It took two hours longer than expected. The sandstorm activity was considerably worse than we were told…

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Speculative Fiction Emporium just got a shout out!

Speculative Fiction Emporium just got an awesome shout out from the talented Amy Engle!

I just finished reading her new release, Reps and Royals, and if you follow my reviews you already know that I loved it!

I’m so glad she’s enjoying the writing prompts. I know they’ve helped keep my mind in a creative place for the past few weeks. Plus we have some really talented writers in the group (even those who don’t publish and just do the prompts as a hobby) and it is always fun reading the different directions they go with their responses.

Here’s Spec Fic on Facebook if it sound like your kind of place!

Writing Prompt – Week 3 Winner! #SpecFic

Woo hoo!!! I had fun writing this one, glad it was well received! Be sure to stop by the group and play along! This prompt shook some ideas loose, well worth the time to write it! -S.J.

Author Kyle Perkins

This week’s SpecFic writing prompt winner is S.J. Wolford!!!

The prompt this week was: A world famous magician randomly selects someone from the audience to assist in an illusion. Little does the magician know, the volunteer is capable of real magic.

This was her entry:

“They say he’s the best of the best,” Omalia beamed as they neared the back of the crowd. “And all on account of those potions he brews.”

“Is that so?” Lettie raised a skeptical brow. The girl always was the most gullible of the bunch.

If there was any truth to this Master of Sorcery’s boastful claims, the potion he peddled might give their little crew a nifty advantage.

Unfortunately – if the condition of his stage was any indication – he was a regular old snake oil salesman and their evening would be a wasted one. Still, there had to be some way to…

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