A Winner is Me

Woo hoo! Barely managed to cram in the last few thousand words before the deadline, but I did it. Congrats to everyone else who participated, whether or not you won. I think it’s important to remember that simply trying means you’ve already accomplished more than the people who said: “Yeah, NaNoWriMo might be fun, but I’m too lazy.”

(This is not intended to be a slight on people who chose not to participate for other reasons)

I’ll be continuing to work on the novel, tentatively titled The End (you can read the synopsis here), over the next few months. Hopefully I will have a draft before too long and (maybe) some of you might even be asked to read it and offer criticism.

(I’m sure you’re all thrilled with the prospect of another pile of slush to slog through)

In other news, I will start posting pieces in my IF series The Chain before too long. Hopefully you will like it! It will be a “weird fiction” set in present-day Chicago with paranormal/supernatural elements. As of now I have no idea how long it will run, as the whole idea of the narrative is that it can extend indefinitely.

(Take that for what you will)

In other, other news, I will also be getting back to meta-stuff on imaginative fiction in the next post. Specifically, I’ll talk about how IF storytelling is currently flourishing in nontraditional formats such as webcomics and video games.

This one’s for you

I’m actually not certain what relevance the title has to what I’m about to say, but you know, sometimes a title hits you and you just go with it.

(WARNING: Do not actually attempt this. It is a terrible way to write blog posts)

Anyway, I just wanted to say that there are many spots left for the Read Me Free Contest, if you’re interested in participating. I mean, heck, right now there’s only two entries, so if you even have a rough synopsis and excerpt, you’ve got a pretty good chance of winning even if I randomly drew numbers out of a hat.

That being said, I’ve decided to sweeten the deal, so to speak. The first ten entries will receive feedback from me on both their synopsis and their excerpt.

(In this case, the sweetener is no-cal)

If you’re not interested, but still think the contest is a cool idea, I would be thrilled if you could mention it on your blog/facebook/twitter/random billboard on the freeway.

Good luck to all the contestants!

Who wants a narrator?

It’s almost time for the contest, but there’s still one thing I’m missing. A name. Something snazzy, something catchy. Something like . . .

. . . “Read Me Free!” Yes, I think that will do.

(For now, at least.)

I may or may not be able to come up with some kind of a snazzy-looking image at some point. Probably not.

Here are the rules!

1. Your entry must include:

a) a brief synopsis of your novel (250 words maximum) AND

b) an excerpt (750 words maximum)

Send them to me at the following email address: storymultiverse(at)gmail(dot)com. Both synopsis and excerpt must be in the BODY of the email. NO ATTACHMENTS. Failure to follow these instructions means that your entry doesn’t count.

2. Submissions will begin November 25th at 10 AM Central Standard Time and end at midnight on December 5th (again, Central Standard Time). Winners will be announced on the blog sometime later. The amount of time it will take to determine the winners will be heavily dependent on how many entries there are, and since this is the first time I’ve done this, it’s impossible for me to guess.

3. Each contestant will only be allowed to submit one entry.

4. Entries can be any unpublished novel-length manuscript (finished or unfinished) of any genre.

5. In order to keep things within reason, this contest will only be open to the first 35 contestants to enter.

(Don’t worry if you miss out this time around; if this goes well, I will probably do it again)

Here’s what you can win:

1. One winner will receive a voicing of up to 5000 words of their manuscript by me. I will send them the audio file, which is theirs to use however they like.

2. Two runners up will receive a voicing of their 750-word excerpt. Again, I will send them the audio file, which is theirs to use however they like.

3. Because the entries will be in various stages of revision and editing, you are welcome to collect your prize at any time (within reason)– so you don’t have to worry if your project isn’t done right now or even won’t be for a few months.

4. All rights to the reproduction, use, and distribution of the audio files to the winning entries are transferred to the respective winners.

Now, to give you an idea what my voice sounds like, I’m posting a few links of recordings I have made. For the record, everything I’m reading is my own original content. Here they are:

-Sample #1

-Sample #2

-Sample #3

Good luck everyone! I look forward to seeing what you’ve written!

(I’m)partial

(Back again with butchering language, eh?)

Anyway, I’m back from my travels, everyone! I’ll be posting the contest rules in a few days, but right now I’m a little busy. I have a lot of catching up to do on NaNo to hit 50,000 in time, and I also have some exciting news !

Just today I received a request from an agent for the first 100 pages of CANDLELIGHT!

(General cheering ensues)

I am going to be frantically re-working those pages tonight, and hopefully have more time to NaNo over the next few days.

(Cheering continues unabated)

(OK, that’s enough)

(Seriously, no more cheering)

(Fine, a little cheering)

(Yay)

Updates! Updates, updates, updates!

This post will deal with updates. (Big surprise.) There are a few worthy of note.

First, as you may have noticed, I’m continuing to plug away at my NaNoWriMo manuscript, and I know that many of you are doing so as well. Good luck! I know that I, for one, would like to do something with my project when NaNo is done, so if anyone is interested in either helping me revise and edit or looking for a reader for their own manuscript, let me know!

Second, I’ll be traveling for a few days, so it is unlikely I will get around to adding much new content to the site until the 20th. However, it is on that date that I will reveal the rules and details of the contest I mentioned in the last post. Just a heads-up: the contest will start on November 25th!

Third, I’ve made some changes to the site by adding a new page for my original work. This will give you a rough idea of some of my major projects!